the Motto of the Plague written over it Lord have mercy upon him The Scripture generally makes him who is dead to Righteousness a very miserable man gives so dismal an account of him that nothing can be supposed more wretched You know the Parable of the Prodigal till he got a hunger and thirst after Righteousness the holy Ghost represents him as a very contemptible person as one sent into the field to keep swine and that would have fill'd his belly with the husks the swine did feed on but none gave unto him Luke XV. 14 15. nay v. 32. he is pronounced a dead man dead to the favour of God and the influences of God's Spirit and to any right to the precious promises of the Gospel so is the man that hath no hunger at all after Righteousness and if his appetite to it be weak and feeble still it s an argument of sickness and neither the one nor the other is a sign of bliss and happiness 2. He that doth not hunger or thirst after Righteousness is a Fool so Solomon tells us Prov. I. 7. For the wisdom he speaks of there is this Righteousness and he that despises it hates his own soul and loves death Prov. VIII 36. than which there cannot be a greater argument of madness and surely this is no sign of blessedness Wisdom indeed such a man hath who is a stranger to this hunger and thirst but it is earthy sensual devilish Jam. III. I5 Earthy i. e. he minds nothing but earth his contrivances are altogether how to compass the contents and pleasures of this life the world is his highest and chiefest good the fashions of this world are the rules of his life he governs himself by the punctilio's of State and Honour and worldly Policy he doth as the world doth and what worldly men say or do he imitates and in endeavouring after temporal advantages he stands not upon the stricter rules of Conscience It is sensual too all his caterings are for the flesh and how to live easie and delicately is all his care He suffers himself to be discourag'd from things truly good by carnal reasons and if his flesh and carnal desires be but gratified he is pleased and more than pleased than with all the comforts of the Holy Ghost His flesh is his sovereign and the Lord that rules in him and its Dictates are the Law he lives by It is devilish too for having no hunger no thirst after Righteousness the Devil is his friend his companion though he sees him not but he may feel him by the suggestions which he yields to and whereby his mind is rendred vain and averse from real Goodness That Aversion comes by the Devils Instigation and in rellishing nothing but what pleads in favour of the brutish part about him he suffers himself to be made a Prisoner to that Conqueror becomes his Slave and Captive and surely such a man cannot possibly be happy and consequently without this hunger and thirst after Righteousness the only thing that can make a man truly wise a man is a stranger to real Bliss to be sure he is not capable of being enrich'd by the Consolations of God nor is God concern'd to fill him in order to this bliss which leads me to the III. Proposition viz. That the happiness of those who truly hunger and thirst after Righteousness consists in being filled Filled How 1. Their very hunger and thirst after Righteousness shall be and is a satisfaction to them For it is a sign of Grace a sign that God loves them a sign that he visits them with the favour he bears to his own people and that they are born again that there is a signal alteration wrought in their natures and that their deceitfull lusts and unruly desires of the flesh are abated in order to a total destruction This hunger and thirst after Righteousness being predominant in them is an item that God's Spirit hath got the better of corrupted nature and from hence flows a calmness and serenity into their Souls and when the enemy beats them out of all their strong holds and they can fasten on nothing to give themselves comfort this hunger and thirst after Righteousness upholds their hope and supports their confidence when they are so weakned that they dare not pretend to St. Paul's having labour'd more than all to the Apostle's invincible patience under injuries to Zacharias and Elizabeth's walking in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless to Anna's serving the Lord with fasting and prayer Night and Day to the faith of the Thessalonians which grew exceedingly to the Galatians readiness to pluck out their own eyes and give them to their Teachers or to the Charity of the Macedonians who did to their Power nay beyond their Power though I say the hungry Soul from an humble sense of her frailty dares not pretend to these Accomplishments yet this Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness in the midst of all assaults of the Devil is the sacred Anchor which she can make use of and thereby preserve her Vessel from sinking so that this very Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness is filling 2. They shall be filled with Righteousness that goodness they did thirst after they shall have great store of all their faculties shall be filled with it and like the rich ointment poured out on Aaron's Head and running down upon his Beard and from thence into the very Skirts of his cloathing it shall perfume their outward and inward Man and fill both their Hearts and Lives what they ask for they shall have what they seek they shall find and the Door they knock at shall be open'd to them They shall find goodness growing in them as the Lilies and spreading its Roots as the Cedars in Libanon Their desire is that God may totally subdue their hearts and accordingly their Souls shall become Temples of the Holy Ghost they earnestly with that every imagination which exalted it self against the obedience of Christ Jesus may become subject to him and they shall have their Heart's desire and the request of their Lips shall be granted them They shall be filled with the spirit by degrees so filled that in time they shall be abounding in the Work of the Lord flourish in the Courts of the Lord's House bringing forth fruit in old Age till they become full of good Works and Alms-deeds as Dorcas was Acts IX 36. and old Disciples as Mnason was Acts XXI 16. The duties they perform but weakly now they shall perform with greater vigour and with their vertues their comfort shall encrease and the consolations of Christ shall abound in them 2 Cor. I. 5. Thus they shall be filled in this Life But is this promise ever fulfilled to any will some say all I shall say is go and ask those who hunger and thirst after Righteousness and they will tell you by Experience in the Psalmist's Language Psal. LXXXIV 11. The Lord is a Sun and Shield he will give
Purity of Heart is to be obtain'd But then To prevent Discouragements and to obviate the Mistakes and Objections of some pious serious Christians and to keep them from sorrow and dejectedness in their serious Prosecution of this Purity I must add here by way of Advertisement 1. That from an imperfect purity of heart a Christian must not therefore presently conclude he is a total stranger to it 2. That neither contemplation of sin nor unallow'd of blasphemous Thoughts defile the Heart 1. That from an imperfect purity of heart a Christian must not presently conclude he is a total stranger to it VVe do not think that Rome was built in a day no more do we imagine that this Purity of Heart is perfected in one Week Indeed when the seed of God is sown in the Heart there is an earnest desire and endeavour after perfection which discovers it self in a chearfull progress but it is not actually perfected but by degrees Ye that labour to remove sinfull Lusts and Desires and Designs and Passions from your hearts and to possess them with humble and meek and kind and charitable and religious Thoughts and to make God the darling and joy of your Souls be not dismay'd nor frighted if this Purity of Heart in you be not come up yet to that degree to which it is advanc'd in others Those other Christians in which that Diamond glisters and that Star doth shine have been many years to pollish it When you have labour'd so long as they and as hard as they your happiness will be the same with theirs Purity of Heart is that which will find us work will imploy us through the whole course of our Lives for it meets with many rubs with many clogs and impediments which to remove will find us work at all times Stop not stand not still the measure of Purity you are arrived to seek still to enlarge it to extend it make frequent journeys to Heaven with your Prayers and you will find it will spread forth as the Valleys as Gardens by the river side as the trees of Lignaloes which the Lord hath planted and as Cedar trees beside the waters Numb XXIV 6. II. That neither Contemplation of sin nor unallow'd of blasphemous Thoughts defile the Heart 1. Contemplation of sin doth not defile it But here we must distinguish for there is a Contemplation of sin that doth defile the Heart i. e. when a man acts his sin over again in his mind and having been in a vicious extravagant company the day before represents the scene of that folly meeting to his mind with delight thereby to whet his appetite into a desire of having such another opportunity and to confirm his love to that Sensuality Or when a man having committed Lewdness or been guilty of acts of Uncleanness by lively Thoughts of that sin makes the impure Pleasure skip and dance afresh in his memory thereby to prompt himself to new enterprizes in that Villainy Then indeed the Soul is stain'd with a witness and a Man becomes a Devil delighting in his own ruin But when the sins of our former life are thought on with sorrow and Contrition and the particular Circumstances of it rehearsed and represented with due Aggravations in order to work our selves into a detestation of that and all other sins here the Contemplation becomes wholsom and instead of defiling helps to purifie the Heart serves to keep it clean and to arm it against fresh assaults Such Contemplations are purgatives restore the soul to health give it new strength and courage to fight against the World and the Flesh and if this way were followed we should have purer Christians and the World would soon be better and men would learn to present their souls and bodies living sacrifices unto God which is their reasonable service I do not deny but this Contemplation may be driven too far into Terror and Consternation and into a belief that the sins are unpardonable but that is not the fault of Contemplation but weakness and infirmity of the Considerer 2. Vnallow'd of blasphemous or other wicked thoughts in the heart do not defile it This Doctrine must be often inculcated because of the great number of pious Souls who look upon themselves as the vilest Wretches in the World and are ready to run into Desperation because so many blasphemous thoughts and filthy suggestions present themselves to their minds and disturb them in their Devotions and other religious Exercises But not being allow'd of nor encourag'd nor consented to as dreadfull as heinous as they seem to be they do not defile the heart no more than boistrous Winds and the Commotion of the Water do fully the Pearl that lies at the bottom of the River That they are not their own Thoughts is evident because their Will is contrary to them their Understanding is convinc'd they are injurious to God and their hearts desire to be rid of them The Soul in this case is like the young Men in the fiery Furnace while a thousand Sparks fly about them not a hair of their head is singed Those blasphemous Suggestions as they are purely Satanical and thrown in by the Devil so when the Soul continues declaring War and Hatred and Resistance to them not all the Legions of the burning Lake not all the Whirlwinds they rouse not all the Dust they make can defile the Spirit which is secured by opposing its forces to those Hellish Troops and preserves its Purity by Contradictions 3. It may not be amiss to take notice here of the reason why the Soul is rewarded or punished before the body When men die the Body is laid in the Grave and returns to Dust and there it lies till the Arch-Angel's Trumpet rouzes it from its Slumber The Soul in the mean while is in a state of Bliss or Misery and the reason lies in the Text because of the Purity or Impurity of the Soul or Spirit The Soul was able to sin without the Body i. e. without the help and assistance of the Body could be lewd and proud and vain and envious and malicious without discovering it by bodily Actions This is the Impurity of the heart Therefore as the Soul did sin without the assistance of the Body so its fit it should be punished in the absence of the Body Again in sinfull actions when Soul and Body are concern'd the Mind sins first before the Body participates of the Poyson for the Will must consent before the outward Man can act As therefore the Soul is the first Actor in the sin so it 's fit it should be first in suffering the penalty of the Law And so it is in the future Reward or Recompence The Soul performs many excellent services in which the Body is not concern'd such as holy Thoughts and pious Meditations And the good which both Soul and Body are partners in begins in the Heart or Mind and from thence it runs down into the Actions as the precious Oyl
from Aaron's head ran down to his Beard and the skirts of his Cloathing Therefore as it was devout and serious without the help of the body and in the good works in which the Body was concern'd was the first mover of the fact so it shall see the Glory of God before the Body and separated from the Body and while the Body participates of the common Fate But 4. Let me end all with David's excellent Motto Psal. LXXIII 1. Truly God is good to Israel even to them who are of a clean Heart Good indeed good to them in a time of Peace good in Adversity good to them in publick Commotions good to them in his Promises good to them in their life time good to them at their Death and good to them after Death The pure in heart they tast they see they feel his Goodness this supports them this comforts them this strengthens them All the World see his Goodness but O how great is that Goodness that God hath laid up for the pure in heart The pure in heart they shall see God Ay! that 's the Goodness God hath laid up for them And O what a happiness do they enjoy the purblind World sees not the Beauty the Order the Harmony of Providence the pure in Heart behold it and are thankfull Good God! To see thee what ravishments must that cause To see the fountain of Goodness what delights must flow from that sight To enter into a Prince's Cabinet and to see the Pearls the Diamonds the Rubies the precious Stones the Curiosities the Rarities the Riches the Plenty the costly Things the great Variety that is there this is something But what is all this to the seeing of God in whom are concenter'd all the Beauties and Rarities of Heaven and Earth To see but one Attribute of his clearly and distinctly suppose his Wisdom is enough to charm a Soul into eternal Admiration Behold how men run to see an Indian or African Ambassador or a Craesus a Darius an Alexander any thing that is attended with Pomp and Greatness Rejoyce ye that are pure in heart you run to see a greater thing than the greatest Emperour in the World Could you see all the Riches and Glories of the world at one view all that is above and within the Earth all that is within and above the sea and all the Men and Women that have been since the Creation of the World it would not be so stately a sight as a clear sight of God blessed for evermore This is your shield your exceeding great reward this most glorious Object you shall see at last see him and admire him see him and desire to be with him see him and love him see him and rejoyce in him see him and be united to him see him and cling to him for ever You shall see all the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets all the holy Apostles all the Martyrs that have suffered for the Testimony of Jesus You shall see the great Jesus that died at Jerusalem was crucified on Mount Calvary sweated drops of Blood in the Garden of Gethsemane was crucified and rose again and is set down on the right hand of Majesty on high The Believers St. Peter speaks of saw him not yet rejoyced in him with joy unspeakable and full of Glory What then will your joy be when you shall see him face to face For this we want expressions and therefore I shall draw a veil over it and leave you to live in joyfull Thoughts and expectations of it that when his Glory shall appear you also may appear with him in Glory SERMON IX St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 9. Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God AS in this divine Sermon of our Saviour Men and Women are pronounced blessed and happy with respect to things which the dull sensual World spies no felicity in or as here those are counted happy whom the World counts miserable and those miserable whom the World counts happy so it fares with the persons mentioned in the words before you and the Blessedness which attends them the world you know magnifies great Generals and Soldiers and Martial Men who can fight well and are very skilfull in besieging Towns and in scaling Walls in bombarding Castles and surprizing Forts and defeating Armies and slaying Men and he that with Saul hath kill'd his thousands and with David his ten thousands is cry'd up and the Bells ring at his entrance into a conquer'd Town all sing his Praises Flowers of Rhetorick and Applause are strow'd in his way publick Intelligences are fill'd with his Commendations and who so much talk'd of as the man who is very expert in making maintaining and managing a War Our blessed Master over-looks all these partial verdicts of the World and knowing that Nature and Vice and Profit and Honour Ambition and Lust are enough to inspire a man with courage and Wisdom to fight and to cause Disorders and Disturbances among Men instead of commending men who are skilfull in making War set a peculiar mark of favour on those who are skilfull in making Peace in the words I have read to you Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Blessed are the Peace-makers what All Peace-makers Then Turks and Infidels Heathens and Pagans and the most licentious of Christian Princes do all come into the number of the blessed and all must be Children of God For there is no Prince though never so great a Tyrant though he hath spilt Blood like Water in his Conquests though he hath made no more of destroying mens Lives than Tarquinius did of taking off the heads of Poppies or Domitian of killing Flies yet makes Peace sometimes and tired with the Toyl and Fatigue of the War concludes a Truce at last with his Enemy and what Do all these come into the society of the blessed To give you light into this affair I shall enquire I. Who these Peace-makers are that are pronounced blessed here II. I shall examine the reasons of the supposition or the thing supposed and implied here that those who have an aversion from this Peace-making are and cannot be blessed III. I shall take the blessedness of these Peace makers into consideration and shew how and upon what account they are and shall be call'd the Children of God I. Who these Peace-makers are that are said to be blessed here The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as Interpreters observe in Greek Authors signifies and denotes strictly those who make or procure Peace among Persons who disagree and unite those who are at variance but in Scripture the expression is of a larger extent and includes a great deal more than a bare reconciling of Enemies and the persons here aimed at are as follows 1. Such as do make Peace with God and with their Consciences To this purpose is the exhortation Job XXI 22. Acquaint now thy self