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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96361	Pantheologia or the summe of practical divinity practiz'd in the wilderness, and delivered by our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount. Being observations upon the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of St Matthew. To which is prefixed a prolegomena or preface by way of dialogue, wherein the perfection and perspicuity of the Scripture is vindicated from the calumnies of Anabaptists and Papists. By Tho. White B.L. minister of Gods word at Anne Aldersgate, London.	White, Thomas, minister of St. Anne's, Aldersgate.	1653 (1653)	Wing W1806; Thomason E1466_1; ESTC R208673	167,277	207

and it stands thus If so be that thy most religious and holiest performances which in respect of the matter of the duty are good it they become carnal because you do them for a carnal end what are your other actions which in respect of matter manner end and all are carnal And how great must thy darknesse needs be if thy light be darknesse For if the prayers and sacrifices of the wicked be an abomination what are their blasphemies Vers 24. No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon No man can serve two masters c. Our Saviour puts this to answer a tacit Objection of such as will say That the laying up treasures on earth hinders not the laying up treasures in heaven and that they can serve both God and Mammon which our Saviour utterly denies in this verse and it is impossible for one to have two last ends at once and there be many truths and reasons included in this verse 1. That whatsoever is our last end is our master for both we and all our actions are subservient to that which we make our summum bonum and a covetous man is not so properly said to have his riches as his riches him as one that has a violent feaver though he be said to have a feaver yet properly the feaver has him 2. That we may love other things subordinately and relatively to God for it is not having but serving riches that undoeth us 3. That one cannot both love and hate God and so of despising and cleaving and by consequence whosoever loves not God and trust not in God hates God and despises God 4. Let us do never so many actions which God has commanded if we do them not out of love it is no obedience Vers 25. Therefore I say unto you Take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on Is not the life more then meat and the body then raiment Take no thought for your 1. Now our Saviour shews many reasons why we should not be over-carefull for things necessary as before concerning superfluities Those things that are necessary to keep body and soul together and so reduceth the necessaries of this life to food and raiment 2. All care is not here forbid but distracting care as the word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We may have a diligent care of providing for our families but we must not have a care of diffidence while we provide we must not deny or doubt of Gods providence 3. The words are not to be taken as if we should not take thought as gluttons do what curious dish they may eat of but it is the want of a poor man that knows not what to do not as if out of abundance of choice knew not what to take but out of extream want knew not how to get any thing to eat or drink 4. The word Mirimua does include a reason to dehort us from this care for as we should take care that our bodies be not torn in pieces so should we take care that our minde be not distracted for a sedated and quiet minde is a greater comfort then all those things that our care can procure us aequè miser qui omnia concupiscit ac qui nihil possidet The first reason why we should not be solicitous about such things but rely upon Gods goodnesse stand thus He that will give a jewel will not deny a farthing he gave you life without your caring or desiring of it and framed your body without your care will he not much more give you that which is lesse Or thus Since your life is such a jewel and your body such a stately structure sure he will not let the one fall to the ground nor the other fall to decay for want of repairs and lose a thing of so great value for want of that which is of lesse value as food and raiment are in comparison of life This shews the folly of gluttons who live that they may eat as if food were better then life as also the pride of some others who use fashions that are hurtfull for their health as if the raiment were better then the body The consideration of former mercies is a strong argument to trust God for the future 1 Sam. 17. Vers 26. Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly Father feedeth them Are ye not much better then they Behold the fowls of the air c. Arg. 2. Which will appear when we have explained the terms 1. Birds are named because of all creatures they seem to take the lesse care for their food many of them spend their whole life as it were in singing you might be as cheerfull as they and be fed Or 2. Fowls are named because of the multitude of them there being vast flocks of them 3. Because most of them do eat more proportionable to their bulk then beasts do and that is the reason as some say that Luke particularizes in the Raven and Psal 147.9 and as others because the old Ravens leave their young in their nest before they are able to provide for themselves but a worm breeding out of their dung creeps to their mouth and feeds them Or as others that they thrust their young out of their nest before they are able to flie up and down and so disinabled to provide for themselves and yet God feeds them 4. Why that no particular is here named and named in Luke to shew that God does not provide for particular fowls but for all in general 5. It is not said for fowls but for fowls of the air to shew that for divers fowls that are domestick we provide for them but who provides for the fowls of the air 6. They use no means to provide for themselves as you do for they neither sow c. 7. He is not their father but your father 8. He is a heavenly father and if he that is heavenly will provide for fowls much more for you that are heavenly in respect of your souls 9. Here is another argument viz. that Gods people are better if we feed our dogs will we let our children starve that in the former if we take care of our earthen vessels will we not take care of our jewels Every one of you are better then all they as one jewel is more worth then the common vessels of our house They have a double excellency over them they are better and they are much better then carrion brought to the nest 10. Your Father feeds them that with them he may feed you so that terminatively you are the object of his providence to them so that when you see them fed you may see God providing them for you

ΠΑΝΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΑ Or the Summe of PRACTICAL DIVINITY Practiz'd in the Wilderness and delivered by our Saviour in his Sermon on the MOUNT BEING OBSERVATIONS Upon the Fourth Fifth Sixth and Seventh Chapters of St MATTHEW To which is Prefixed A PROLEGOMENA or Preface by way of DIALOGUE Wherein the Perfection and Perspicuity of the Scripture is vindicated from the Calumnies of ANABAPTISTS and PAPISTS By THO. WHITE B. L. Minister of Gods Word at Anne Aldersgate London LONDON Printed by A. M. for Jos Cranford and are to be sold at the Sign of the Phoenix in St Pauls Church-yard MDCLIV WHITES OBSERVATIONS Upon the 4. 5. 6. and 7. Chapters of St MATTHEW The Authours TO THE READER AUTHOUR THe Times wherein we live are so full of Errors Heresies and Blasphemies that except our Antidotes and Preparatives are very strong and we continually taking of them 't is impossible to be kept from being infected Christian Reader But what are those Antidotes and Preparatives which may keep one from infection 1. Take heed of Doctrines that rob God of his Honour and give it unto man Such are the Doctrine of Merits Free-will Election out of foresight of Faith and Perseverance 2. Be established upon the plain Texts of Scripture in the Truths you professe and take them not upon trust custome or education for such sandy Foundations will never be able to bear up what you build upon them in times of Persecution or Temptation 3. Love the Truths that you know else God may justly send you strong Delusions to beleeve lies though you receive the Truth if you receive it not in the love theroof 2 Thes 2.10 11. Love and rejoyce in them not upon carnall ground for if thou lovest spirituall truths upon carnal grounds when those grounds cease as all carnal grounds will thy love of the Truth will cease and though thy evidence be never so great if there be no adherence if thy soul cleaves not to the Truths thou knowest they will be like the dust that lies loose upon the ground every winde of Doctrine will scatter them Eph. 4.11 12 13 14. 2 Tim. 3.15 5. Turn the Truths of God into nourishment We must desire the sincere milk of the Word of God that we may grow thereby while meat is in thy hand it may be taken from thee if it be in thy stomack thou maist cast it up again but if once it be turned into nourishment into thy substance then thou canst never loose it 5. Desire to know the Truths of God that thou maist do them Do what thou knowest thou shalt know more Joh. 7.17 We use to take away the Candle from those Servants that have no work or will do none by it 6. If Persecution arises for the Truth suffer it with joy for if once thou hast suffered for the Truth thou wilt never part with it the way not to sell Truth is to buy it and the mother loves the childe most because she hath suffered most for it If once we have paid for Land if the Title of it be questioned we shall endeavour to vindicate it but if we only be in bargain if the title be questioned we leave of our bargaining and leave it to others take little care our selves to vindicate it but it may be thou dost not live in such times of persecution that thou must loose thy estate life or liberty for the Truth but alwaies thou livest in such times that thou must leave thy lusts or corruption for it what corruption what sin what lust hath thou left for such a truth if thou hast not parted with thy lusts and corruptions for the truth thou wilt part with the truth for thy lusts c. 7. Pray for 't is God only that teacheth wisedom secretly thou canst not come unto the Son unlesse thou come and learn of the Father Joh. 6.44 thou canst not know the Father except the Son reveal him Mat. 11.27 Thou canst not say that Jesus is the Christ but by the holy Ghost thou canst not know the deep things of God except the holy Ghost seacheth them out and reveal them unto you thou shalt learn more of God upon thy knees then by all thy reading or studying without prayer If any man lack wisedom let him ask it of God The Schoolmasters that Luther learnt most of was Prayer Temptation and Meditation 8. Be constant in hearing and reading the Word of God for those are two speciall means that God hath sanctified for the keeping of us from errour Be sure you keep close to that Heb. 4.11 12 13 14. 2 Tim. 3.13 take heed of making Traditions Revelations or Providences as thy Rule to walk by for the Scripture is plain and sufficient to teach you all things which are necessary either to be beleeved or practised and the clearing of this Point I conceive to be the most prope● Preface to Annotations upon the Scriptures more proper to that part of Scriptures here spoke to then to many others because that our Saviour evidently shews by his practise that the Scriptures nay one Book nay very few Chapters of that Book is able to answer all Satans temptations and as for the times wherein we live I wish that Discourses of the perfection perspicuity c. of the Scriptures were less pertinent Anabaptists You speak much of the Ministery and of the Written Word but these are needless in our daies or at least the written Word is not the only Rule whereby we should walk Is it not plainly prophesied of the time of the Gospel Jer. 31.34 They shall teach no more every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord and Isa 54.13 and thy children shall be taught of the Lord and if so what need Scriptures or Mi●istry Authour We will first take the words in your sense viz. that all shall be taught immediatly of God without the Scriptures or Ministry of the Word so that from the greatest to the least every one shall know the Lord that is so much of God as is needfull to salvation Then thus I argue That as far as can be proved by these words the Scriptures and Ministery of the Word is needfull until this Prophesie be fulfilled in this sense for there are abundance of ignorant persons amongst us who are not taught of God and that do not know the Lord Many there are that do not beleeve in Christ which they should certainly do if God did inwardly teach them Joh. 6.45 Now 't is so evident that few there are that beleeve and by consequence are taught of God that it ought rather to be bewailed then proved 2. Can any one imagine that none of Gods People before in Christs time or in the Apostles time were taught of God and yet what is more evident then that the Ministery of the Word and reading of Scriptures was in use and commanded in those

and that those things that are extant under his Name were of that nature that it were impossible for any one else to write I should be sure that these were his works without the Authority of Tradition and as for us in England we received neither our Bible nor our Religion from the Church of Rome no more then they did from us we had the Gospel preached amongst us within three or four years after our Saviours Death and established by Civil anthority almost a hundred and fifty years before they at Rome had indeed the corruptions in doctrine that we had in Luthers time we justly ascribe to them and Luther and others did but endeavour to purge us from those defilements that they polluted us withall and we enjoyed the purity of the Gospel till you came and muddied our streams and now again endeavour as much as in you lies to bring us back again to that Egyptian darknesse Besides 't is as clear as if it were writ with the Beams of the Sun that Tradition is wholly for us as to the a Aug. i● Psa 8. idem de doctrina Christiana cap. 6. Idem lib. de Vtilit Cred●ndi cap. 6. Chrysost Homil. 3. in 2 The. cap. 3. Clemens Alexand in exhort ad Ethnicos Epiphanius haeres 76. Hieronym in Isaiae cap. 19. perspicuity of Scripture as also for the b Irenaeus lib. 3. cap. 1. Idem cap. 47. Tertul. lib. contra Hermog Theod. in 2. Dialogo contra haereticos Damasc lib. 1. de Orthodoxa fide cap. 1. Chrys Homil. 58. in cap. 10. John Idem Homil. 9. in Epist ad Coloss Cyrillus lib. de Fide Basilius magnus lib. de Confessione Fide● Athanas lib. contra gentes The of Alexandria in 2. Paschal Aug. lib. 2. de Doct. Christ cap. 9. Idem lib. 3. contra Max. Arian cap. 14. Idem lib. De Natura Gratia cap. 61. perfection of Scripture Therefore Wounto you Papists Jesuites Hypocrites for you have taken away the Key of Knowledge ye entred not in your selves and them that were entring in you hindred for the Scripture which is able to make a man wise to salvation is called the Word of Truth ye would not suffer the people to reade but in stead of them give them images and call them Lay-mens Books which are Lies Isa 44.20 and teacheth them nothing but Lies Hab. 2.18 the Scripture which God commands all to reade and commends all for reading The Scripture in which if there be but a word in an unknown Language it translates it Mat. 1.23 Mark 15.34 John 1.38 Act. 4.36 c. but you who are of your Father the devil for his works do you do in keeping up the Scriptures in an unknown language making it a crime to be punished with Inquisition which is worse then death to have but a Bible in his House Wo unto you Jesuites Papists Hypocrites for you teach those Doctriues which the Apostle calls Doctrines of devils as forbidding of Marriages and to abstain from meats which which God hath created to be received with thanks-giving and though the Apostle saies that Marriages are Honourable amongst all men and though all the Apostles were or might lawfully be married as the Apostle himself said 1 Cor. 9.5 yet you forbid all all your Clergy as you call them to marry yet they your Cardinals and Popes commit all manner of Vncleanness with greedinesse committing those things that are not fit to be named amongst Christians Wo unto you Jesuites Papists Hypocrites for you deny the Cup of the Lords Supper to the people and though our Saviour said Drink ye all of this yet you will not suffer any but the Priest to drink of it If when our Saviour instituted his Supper he intended he should be received by none but by Ministers why do you give the People the bread if he did intend it to be received by all why do you deny them the Cup Wo unto you Jesuites Papists Hypocrites for you worship the Images and adore the reliques of the Saints who were slain in the Primitive Church and say that had we lived in those daies we would not have been partakers with him in the bloud of the Saints the Martyrs of Jesus and yet you that call your Pope his Holiness and the Head of the Church who is a rotten member of the Synagogue of Satan you that call your selves the only true Catholiques I say he and you though you Pretend so much to honour the dead It 's yet you have been and are the greatest Persecutors living upon the face of the Earth so that all the bloud that ever was shed by Rome Heathen is but a small thing compared to that Christian bloud which you have shed for you have made your self drunk with the bloud of Saints and Martyrs of Jesus therefore you Serpents you generation of Vipers how will you escape the Damnation of Hell Rev. 18.24 Christian Reader I desire a little satisfaction concerning this which though it stumbles not me yet it stumbles many others viz. That the Papists are very charitable strict-lived people much given to fasting Prayer c. are very liberall in maintaining of their Ministers adorning of their Churches Authour Suppose 't were so that they give all their goods to feed the poor yet might they do all that out of hypocrisie Christ Read But why should you judge their intentions and ends and grounds upon which they give their alms since that is becoming a Judge of evil thoughts which the Apostle condemns Authour Though I should not judge them that they give their alms out of hypocrisie yet I have much lesse warrant to venture my soul for that if they be hypocrites they must be damned which I do if I take up my Religion upon the account of their charity But 2. Are they charitable so are we for set aside your Monasteries Nunneries and such Superstitions we can shew as great and as many works of charity as they can 3. But shall we account the Papists such charitable good people when they are the cruellest bloudiest wretches that live upon the earth witnesse the Gunne-Powder Treason the Massacre of Paris Besides all the bloud that is shed in Germany Italy and wheresoever they go and those late Massacres in Ireland where they were generally betraied and murthered by those Papists which were their most intimate and bosome Friends 4. And surely we have but little hold of their Love and good Natures who are bound by their Religion to imbrue their hands in our bloud again as the Pope Commissions them so to do and that will be as soon as ever he gets but power to do it As in all places where he hath power he either damns their souls if they turn Papists or slaies their bodies if they refuse Christian Reader But what may be said as to their strict lives Fasting Praying Priest not marrying Authour 1. Though some of their lives are in some measure unblameable in respect of the Duties of the

Second Table yet in Italy Spain c. where the whole Countrey are Papists their Lives are abominable their Popes Cardinals Bishops and Priests being generally and notoriously known to be guilty of such Predigies of Lust such as were scarce ever heard of as Sir Edwin Sands in his Speculum Europae hath both judiciously and faithfully set down A Book very worthy to be read for he that shall reade that Book and beleeve that Revelation to be true cannot but he satisfied of the subtleties and abominations of Popery and 't is almost impossible for any one which is not exceedingly prejudiced not to beleeve it to be true It is written with so much candor impartiality gravity and judgement 2. The things wherein their strictnesse do most consist are of that nature That the more strict they are the more abominable for those things wherein they do place so much devotion the Apostle calls Doctrines of Devils 1 Timothy 4.1 2. and if they are liberall to their Priests and adorning of their Images c. 'T is no marvell then Fellow-Idolaters that have gone before them have been as liberall as they We reade of those that pulled their Ear-rings Exod. 22. and of those that lavished Gold out the Bagges Isa 46. 't is not enough to releeve one in the Name of a Prophet Paul was of a stricter life and conversation then any of the Papists at that very time when he was Persecutour and amongst the Philosophers the Gymnosophists even amongst the Turks there are Hermites that live with as much outward austerity as any amongst the Papists But lastly Suppose that you should know one that were very charitable to the Poor and liberall to the Ministers but was a common known Strumpet would you account such an one a Religious Woman much lesse should you account Papists to be Religious though they be never so Charitable to the Poor since they live in continuall spirituall Whoredome viz. Idolatry which is farre worse then bodily Whoredome but the most sure Preservative against Popery and all Heresies is that which I began and shall conclude withall viz. Reade Study Meditate and keep close to the Word of God and do not satisfie your selves only with Reading so many Chapters a day but understand digest and practise them nay nor be content onely with the understanding of those Truths that lie plain and open within the surface of the Chapter you reade but digge deep and see what lies within the Bowels of the Text for in the Scripture to that the words may relate are hid all the Treasures of Wisedome and Knowledge That God is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob lies open and plain in the very words when they are read but this Truth That the Body shall rise again is as truly contain'd though not as manifestly expressed in the words and our Saviour saith that they understood not that Scripture upon that very ground because they understood not this Truth included in it viz. that the Resurrection was proved by that Text and so I commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an Inheritance among all them which are sanctified OBSERVATIONS Upon the fourth Chapter of MATTHEW MATTHEW IV. I Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil THen Immediately there were no disseminata vacua in the performances of our Saviour Christ did sometimes rest but was never idle if you referre it to the former verse the last of the third Chapter the point is this After great spiritual consolations or visions we should do well to expect great trials and temptations which are laid upon us lest by such revelations or comforts we should be exalted above measure so 2 Cor. 12.7 If we consider this with that which followeth the observation is 1. In respect of us that God useth to fit us for great imployments with great temptations 2. In respect of Christ that from the beginning of our Saviours undertaking the work of our redemption all was full of trouble and misery the devil opposeth the beginning of good works and we should learn from him to resist the beginnings of sin Jesus was led 1. To shew that he did not resist he was not drawn but led We may learn willingly to follow the leadings of the Spirit not to refuse to follow God into affliction temptation c. 2. It shews that he did not go himself into temptation We should not run into temptation we must resist the devil and he will slee but neither may we call him forth to battel nor pursue him when he flies By the Spirit The Spirit that is the holy Ghost for if by the Spirit should be meant the devil it should runne thus He was led by the Spirit to be tempted of him and that our transtatours take it so is plain it is written with a great S for thorowout the whole Bible when Spirit is printed with a great S the holy Ghost is meant as the Translators imagine one may be led by God into temptations for else it were needlesse and improper to pray God not to lead us into temptation for we never deprecate things that are impossible Into the wilderness This was not the wildernesse of Judea where John preached for there were locusts and wilde honey so that Christ need not have fasted for want of food 2. When it is meant of that wildernesse it is alwayes added of Judea but when it is spoken without any addition it is meant of the wildernesse where the children of Israel were fourty years But why thither to be tempted 1. Because that was the fittest place for that temptation which he first was to be tried withall viz. hunger for there was no food Matth. 15.33 2. Because there he was alone 1. Because the devil might have full opportunity and liberty to tempt him 2. To shew the excellency of that victory none other had any hand in it for he was alone and without any assistance he overcame the devil that which we may learn from this is That by being alone one gives the devil opportunity to tempt one take heed therefore of being alone but if you shall say Doth not our Saviour advise us to be alone to enter into our closet and shut the door Mat. 6.6 all meditation private prayer and reading would be taken away by this advice I answer with our Saviour John 16.32 So if thou hast the company of God and art in his presence by meditation and prayer or any holy duty thou art not alone therefore the advice still stands in force be not alone but be sure that when thou art corporally alone thou be not spiritually alone but by holy thoughts have God in thy company 2. Learn from hence the way to overcome divers temptations Art thou alone and doth Satan set upon thee by melancholy thoughts or lustful thoughts humbly fervently and shortly desire almighty God to

mercy shews us for to promise mercy when one does not need it does no way affect one and so cannot be a motive to any duty 3. This promise as it is a sutable motive to the duty to which it is annexed so it is a sutable motive to the condition wherein we are for we being full of misery and sin have the adequate objects of mercy misery to be relieved and sin to be pardoned 4. It is not said who shall shew us mercy whether God or man but it is true of both for generally mercifull men do receive mercy of men but universally and infallibly from God of whose mercy it is chiefly if not onely meant for none but his mercy can make them blessed Vers 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Blessed are the pure in heart That is pure which is not mixed with any thing worse then it self we are therefore then said to be pure in heart when our love and desires are not set on things beneath us our having of them makes us not impure so long as our hearts are free from loving of them 2. Though our actions be sometimes impure when we fall into sin yet as long as our hearts are upright and clean we may be notwithstanding pure in heart David had many failings besides that of Vriah but because his heart was right in all the rest they are not imputed to him for failings 1 Kings 15.5 3. It is not sufficient to do that that is good except the intentions and end for which we do it be pure we must not onely be pure in hands but pure in heart for God requires truth in the inward parts For they shall see God It is not learning nor a clear understanding but holinesse and purity of heart that fits and inables one to see God for the secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him and natural men though divers of them be very learned yet perceive they not the things that be of God 2. As the eye that hath dust in it without or thick vapours stopping the inward nerves within cannot see except it be cleansed from the one and purged from the other and as the glasse on which there is a mist does not represent ones face clearly before that be wiped off so neither can we see God as long as there is any impurity cleaves to us 3. They that are pure in heart see God 1. In his Creatures 2. In his Word 3. In those secret inward and sweet manifestations of comfort and joy wherby God often reveals himself even in this life to them that love him 4. They shall see him in the Beatisical Vision which is unspeakable and glorious Vers 9. Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God Blessed are the Peace-makers This word here used in Greek for peace-makers is hardly found in any profane Authour and the meaning of the word is so plain that it needs no Exposition They are to be accounted peace-makers who make those that are enemies or adversaries friends and so restore friendship that is lost or take up dissentions and differences betwixt friends and so preserve that amity which is likely to be lost 1. Peace-makers and meek men differ thus he is meek that keeps his anger from arising or speedily appeases it so he is meek that moderates his own anger but he is a peace-maker that moderates others 2. Meeknesse is a grace within us but peace-making is an action without us 3. A man may be a meek man though he lives alone sequestred from the whole world and hath no commerce with any one but he cannot make peace except he have some commerce with the parties whom he reconciles 4. It is not alwaies necessary that he should make those friends whom he indeavours to reconcile but whatsoever the event be his desires and indeavours be so to do he is in the sight of God accounted a peace-maker 1. Those are exceedingly to be condemned who sow dissention among neighbours and surely if the one be accounted the Sons of God the other must be accounted the children of the Devil 2. Those who nourish dissentions 3. That stand neutrals in case they have opportunity and it lies in their power to make peace For they shall be called the Sons of God 1. That is they shall be the Sons of God so Isa 9.6 Rom. 9.25 Luk. 1.33 in all which places calling is taken for being for God does not use to call any thing or person what it is not 2. Or if you take it otherwise then it stands thus God hath but one natural Son yet all that are holy are his adopted Sons though his Essence be not wholly communicated to them as unto Christ yet his likenesse by regeneration is they are regenerated to his likenesse and adopted to his Kingdome 3. Men shall call them the Sons of God and we should account that childe to be his son to whom he was very like so peace-makers may be accounted his Sons who is the God of peace Vers 10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the kingdome of heaven Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousnesse sake 1. Lest we should think that one ought to buy grace at any rate though by the omission of good or commission of evil here it is added Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousnesse sake as if he should say that though men be so far from being at peace with you that they would persecute you if you would not leave your righteousnesse that in that case you should suffer persecution so the Apostle Heb. 12.14 commands us to preserve both if it may be yet tacitely intimates that if we must leave one we had better have men our enemies then God by leaving of our holinesse for he saith not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning both but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which that is without which holinesse none shall see God Necessary it is to follow peace with all men but no further then usque ad aras 2. This is the last and greatest trial of a Christian S. Paul puts it as the last and highest act of Religion to give ones body to be burned 1 Cor. 13.3 and the ground that received the seed with joy when persecution arose withered and fell away so the house that was built upon the sands stood no longer then while the winds and storms and waves beat upon it 3. The question is Whether all that are blessed must be persecuted for righteousnesse sake for every one that is blessed must be poor in spirit meek mourn Answ That is not necessary that every one that shall be blessed shall be actually persecuted that is suffer imprisonment death or some corporal punishment for righteousnesse sake yet whosoever shall not be willing to suffer all these for righteousnesse sake can never be blessed Willing I say for a man may fear that if persecution