they lay an Obligation upon us who are the Dispensers of the Mysteries of God to shew That there is no true happiness to be found in the World which is my First Point unless it be in a firm Belief Division 1 and serious Practice of Christian Religion which is admirably compris'd in the Gospel of the Day This is my Second Point and the only way that leads to a final Beatitude in Heaven my last Consideration where it is bestow'd as a reward of our Faith and good Life which shall make my Conclusion I. THE Holy Ghost instructing King Solomon how to delineate the folly of Man and his progress in it who calculates his Happiness from worldly Enjoyments reduces the multitude of our Errors and Mistakes touching that Point to Three principal Heads as our Blessed Master and Doctor of Justice seated on a Mountain to express the sublimeness of his Doctrine comprehends all the Methods leading to a true Felicity in Eight Beatitudes For every Man that yields to the bent of Nature seeks his Enjoyment either 1. In corporal Pleasures the Delights of the Senses 2. Or in Honor and Greatness the Delights of the Passions 3. Or in Wisdom and Knowledge the Delights of the Mind A Gradation taken notice of by S. John tho' express'd in other terms 1 John 2.16 Concupiscence of the flesh concupiscence of the eyes and pride of life 1 st When a Man is arriv'd to the opening and bloom of his Reason that part of Life we call Youth he becomes more heady then to be govern'd intirely by the Reason of another yet remains more weak and unsteddy then to be guided by his own Wherefore Sense takes the Chair the heat of Blood and corruption of Nature put in for his bosom Counsellors and by their advice he abandons himself to Libertinism and Disorder His Language and Behaviour is admirably personated in the Book of Wisdom Let us go says he Sap. 2.6 c. and enjoy the things that are before us Et utamur creatura tanquam in juventute celeriter Let us live apace and use the creature before that and our youth pass away Let us bathe our temples in rich wines and shed sweet oyntments on our heads let no flower of the field escape our hand we will crown our selves with roses before they wither we will leave marks of our luxury and riot where-ever we go Quoniam haec est pars nostra haec est sors This is our portion and this is our end 1 Cor. 15.32 Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die But when by access of years that irregular Heat evaporates and the Spirits grow more cool and temperate he soon grows weary of such Pleasures as he finds by a woful Experience to ruine the Health and Constitution of his Body and sadly to deface the Beauty of his Soul Then he upbraids his charming Deceivers and expostulates with the Objects of his folly Risum reputavi errorem Eccl. 2.2 gaudio dixi cur frustra deciperis Laughter and merriment I thought a cheat and I said to joy Why hast thou vainly deceiv'd me For he plainly sees that can never be the Happiness of a Reasonable Creature which is a torment to the Reason and a remorse to the Conscience where the Delight passes and the Sting remains 2 ly With such Reflections the Prodigal returning into himself takes leave of his former Courses and enters upon another more refin'd and elevated changing indeed his Passion but not his Slavery He quits the concupiscence of the flesh for concupiscence of the eyes and pride of life the proud and curious Person being only the sensual Man reform'd He aspires to Honor and Preferment courts Fame and Esteem entertains the largest Retinue he can make and worships the Populace that they may return his Adoration with Interest and in a word labours to hide and varnish over the Stains of a corrupt and infamous Life with the formalities and lustre of Greatness But no sooner is he well acquainted with his new Choice then he discovers the vanity and emptiness of that too the thing for which he is so valu'd by others sits uneasie upon his Shoulders Use and Custom take off the sense of Pleasure and his Happiness corrupts into Affliction of spirit He experiences that Honors too have their weight that Dignities are Burthens and Servitude under a finer Name Fulgidi compedes clara miseria Golden Fetters and a dazling Misery Riches but the occasion of Disquiet Pomp the object of Envy Fame but the opinion of Men and of no longer duration then their other Fancies Psal 75.6 Dormierunt somnum suum says a Prince as Great and Powerful as he was Learn'd and Holy nihil invenerunt omnes viri divitiarum in manibus suis Thus the Rich and the Great sleep out their golden dreams and when they awake find nothing in their hands 3 ly But perhaps the Contemplation of Wisdom may afford a more solid fruition To distinguish Verity from Vanity Truth from Falshood seem to raise a Man above the level of Mankind distinguishes him from the unthinking Multitude and cuts off many Branches of our Misery which spring from Ignorance and want of Reflexion But alass the Crop do's not answer the Tillage Eccles 1.18 Qui addit scientam addit laborem He that increases knowledge adds to his labour but not to his satisfaction In many things our Principles are meerly supposed our Maxims prove but Opinions the causes and natures of the lowest and most obvious things are so far above our reach and our Understanding so clouded and circumscrib'd within so narrow limits that again with the wifest of Men he deserts all his labour and discovers even This to be the greatest vanity of all while the fruit he reaps from so much pains 1 Cor. 8.1 amounts only to a puffing up of the mind as the Apostle speaks and as S. Augustine ingeniously Comments from his own experience Superbae dejectioni inquietae lassitudini To a haughty dejection of Spirit and restless weariness of Heart There is no Man that gives way to the Inclinations of corrupt Nature but has follow'd one or more of these Courses and I appeal to his own experience if he has not fail'd of his expectation if his eye has been satisfi'd with seeing or his ear with hearing or his heart with desiring I allow him to have found a Beatitude where no wise Man wou'd have fought it But while I see him like the Dove flying from the Ark and not finding where he can rest his foot while I contemplate every Sinner in the state of a weary and weather-beaten Traveller that sits down on the barren Sands in an untrac'd Desert uneasie in himself and uncertain whether he be nearer his Journeys end then when he first set out I am ready to pronounce with the Royal Prophet Psal 11.9 In circuitu impii ambulant The wicked walk in a
unblemished innocent made higher then the Heavens which is only the Place of their Beatitude the Beatitude it self consisting in this Blessed are the clean of heart because they shall see God I reserved this to the last it being the very top of the mystical Ladder where our Lord appears leaning for upon such his Spirit rests and by such Purity they rest eternally in him And now before I was aware I have clear'd the last Point that I design'd to Discourse to you the essential Glory of the Saints Clear'd it did I say 't was an improper word Had I the Tongue of Men and Angels I cou'd never express what the heart of man cannot conceive 1 Cor. 2.9 and you know the Heart can conceive infinitely beyond what the Tongue can express The great Apostle in his Rapture to the Third Heaven I am apt to think among those arcana verba 2 Cor. 12.4 those unspeakable words he heard had some account of this blessed State but he gives us no other Prospect then thro' a Glass and in a Riddle 1 Cor. 13.12 that we know now only in part the rest is wrapt up in the obscurity of Faith is left to the expectations of Hope and an impossibility of Expression Non licet homini loqui But while my Gospel acquaints you that you shall see God what need you more to raise your Imaginations to inflame your Hearts to quicken and inspirit your Desires or if the word seeing cannot put into you a lively Idea of that Glory add to it the Explication in another Text John 17.3 This is eternal life to KNOW thee the true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ To have our Understandings fill'd with a clear knowledge of the most perfect Being of the sovereign Truth of the original Cause of things and in that of all other Causes Effects and Productions as well natural as supernatural makes the Man of Reason the Lover of Truth to sally out of himself to strive to break his Chains and languish to be with Christ and wish with the Royal Prophet Psal 55.6 that He had the wings of a Dove that he might flie and be at rest in Contemplation of that self-evident Truth supream Reason VERITY as I say the chief Attribute of God But you are not to imagine that the Beatitude of the Saints is plac'd in a perpetual gazing upon the Divine Beauties or in a sterial Speculation of Truth from the Mind it flows into the Heart from the Understanding into the Will penetrating all the interior of the Soul transforming her in a certain manner into God begetting Ecstasies without emotion Languishings without defect Enjoyments without satiety Love without measure and Fruition without end O you Joys of Heaven how do you swallow up our thoughts and fill us at once with Pleasure and Amazement and yet we must cry out as the Queen of Sheba did when she beheld a faint Representation of you in the Court of King Solomon that Half your Delights have not been told us Blessed are they that stand in thy Courts and minister to thy King Day and Night Day without Night I shou'd have said where every Moment is an Age Psal 89.4 Et mille Anni tanquam Dies and a thousand Years cannot fill up a Day Love is the measure of this Duration and the Eternity of God the measure of Love Blessed God! thy Nature is Goodness and therefore thy Work must be Mercy that thou art so free of thy Creatures I do not wonder thou bestowest them on Man thy better Creation but why art thou so liberal of thy Self Why hast thou prepar'd such a Happiness in Heaven for those that are seeking a Paradice upon Earth that are contented to barter their Eternal weight of Glory for a gaudy Trifle for a shining piece of Earth for the gratifying a Lust or an Ambition for a mean or a sordid or at the best but a momentary Pleasure Cur posuisti pretium in manu stulti Why hast thou laid such an inestimable Treasure in the hands of ungrateful and insensible Men that neither know the value nor value the use No Christians we have no reason to expostulate with our God for tho' by condescending to our infirmity he has underset the Joys of his Kingdom yet there are Conditions propos'd and without the performance of which there is no Heaven for us Apoc. 21.7 Qui vicerit possidebit haec He that overcomes says he shall possess these things And do we fondly promise our selves the Triumph before the Victory or a Victory before we have struck a Stroke Indeed Christ bids us be confident John 16.33 for he has overcome the world but do's not he give us warning that whosoever observes not the same Discipline takes not up his cross Matth. 10.38 and follows him is not worthy of him But is not Jesus Christ the author of eternal salvation Hebr. 4.9 Yes replies the Apostle to them that obey him Rom. 1.17 Gal. 5.6 But do's not the just man live by Faith Yes if it work by Charity For he that trusts to the strength of his Faith without the support of a good Life is as blameable as the Apostles when they rejoyced at their power of ejecting Devils Tho' our Faith be of such prevalency as to remove mountains still by Good-works we are to make our calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 still we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 and only rejoyce that our reward is great in Heaven a Reward not bestow'd on those who stand all day idle in the market-place but to those that labour in the vineyard a Reward that shall be distributed in number weight and measure in proportion and beyond all proportion to our smallest Performances but shall be more plentifully bestow'd on those who like your Sacred Majesties bear the burthen of the heat and of the day which we wish for the good of your People you may long support and hear not till after a long and prosperous Reign that comfortable Invitation of your Original Luc. 22.28 Ye are they which have continu'd with me in my temptations and I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom and sit on Thrones judging the Tribes of your own Israel In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printed for Henry Hills Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty for his Houshold and Chappel 1686. REflections upon the Answer to the Papist Mis-represented c. Directed to the Answerer Quarto Kalendarium Catholicum for the Year 1686. Octavo Papists Protesting against Protestant-Popery In Answer to a Discourse Entituled A Papist not Mis-represented by Protestants Being a Vindication of the Papist Mis-represented and Represented and the Reflections upon the Answer Quart Copies of Two Papers Written by the late King Charles II. Together with a Paper Written by the late Dutchess of York Published by his Majesty's Command Folio The Spirit of Christianity Published by his Majesty's Command Twelves The first Sermon Preach'd before their Majesties in English at Windsor on the first Sunday of October 1685. Published by his Majesty's Command Quarto
set fire and water good and evil before us that we may stretch out our Hand to which we please giving us sufficient strength to pursue the one and to avoid the other In the right use of which liberty and compliance with Divine Grace consists true wisdom Eccles 12.13 for to fear God which chiefly regards the avoiding of evil and to keep his Commandments which regards the election of good is the whole duty of man Deum time c. Now this avoiding of evil is chiefly placed in restraining our Affections and weaning them from the love of temporal things and because as S. Paul observes those that will be rich fall into temptation 1 Tim. 6.9 and the snare of the devil Therefore Beati pauperes Blessed are the poor Yet because a Man may turn his Poverty into a Subject of Vanity and as Plato smartly reply'd to the Cynique may trample upon Riches and Greatness with greater Pride then another retains them Therefore Beati pauperes spiritu Blessed are the poor not simply but such as are poor in spirit For when God has bestow'd upon you a plentiful Fortune the Law of Christ do's not oblige you to renounce that as evil which is the Gift of God and a Blessing but to limit your Desires and to consider your self as his Steward thro' whose Hands he conveys his Blessings unto your indigent Neighbour This you must do if you would avoid evil But the election of good stops not here Charitas Christi urget nos The love of Christ carries us on to be earnest and zealous for the performance of every Duty earnest in our own Practice and zealous to encourage others in the Ways of Heaven Therefore Beati qui esuriunt Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice and when they arrive to the term of their labours they shall be satisfi'd But the mean time they must not lose courage if they meet with any opposition in the way 2 Tim. 2.5 for he shall not be crown'd that do's not fight lawfully The Law of Arms to the Soldiers of Christ is chiefly passive Valour Prayers and Tears are the only Weapons of a Christian say the Fathers and those that otherwise resist Rom. 13.2 cries the Apostle shall receive to themselves damnation Therefore Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice sake And that no one may think this a hard Lesson the Encouragement is so bright that any wise Man as well as St. James would count it all joy to fall into divers temptations for the reward is so great in Heaven that nothing less then the Kingdom of Heaven it self shall be the Reward for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Such is a Christian in the Field but he is also the Member of Civil Society and the best Constituted Government in the World which teaches him such Calmness in his Motion such Modesty in his Behaviour such Sincerity in his Dealings such a Command of his Passions as set a Beauty on our Religion which never any other so much as pretended to as Canonize Civility and make good Breeding a Christian Vertue worthy a Beatitude for Blessed are the meek deserving a Reward for they shall inherit the land no question that which the Psalmist mentions Psal 26.13 the land of the living But if you sit down contented with your own Performances you will fall short of the Reward Eccl. 17.12 Because Mandavit unicuique de proximo suo God has commanded every one to be concern'd for his Neighour And it is not sufficient to take notice of his corporal Wants if you pass by his spiritual unregarded Therefore Beati qui lugent Blessed are those that mourn that lay to heart and take home to themselves the Excesses and Corruptions of their Fellow-Members For if the King and Prophet had reason to lay claim to a share in the Merits of all good Men Psal 118.63 I am a partaker with all those that fear thee and keep thy commandments have not we as much reason to apprehend we shall be accountable for all the Sins of Mankind that we can obviate or for not bewailing them if we cannot and tho' the Effect correspond not to our Endeavours yet our reward shall be great in Heaven Ipsi consolabuntur Such shall be comforted But some Offences are directed against our selves which we must be as ready to pardon as to correct those which are committed against others This being the Heroick and as I may say the Specifick Vertue of a Christian inspiring a Generosity not only to pass by an Injury not only to scorn a Revenge a thing so sweet to Nature and so honorable to false Reputation but even to bear above the Resentment and if I may apply the Apostle's Phrase To insert the olive-branch into the wild olive and graft Kindnesses upon the Stock of Injuries and Ingratitude for Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy And tho' the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies those that give Alms St. Augustine teaches us there is no Alms-deed like that of forgiving an Injury Yet this Charity limited to our private Concerns is not easily distinguish'd from Self-love and to forgive that we may be forgiven carries so much of Interest along with it that a Man who is not tender and compassionate to his Brother is at the same time barbarous and inhumane to himself Love therefore is of a more diffusive quality and must extend to all those Feuds and Differences which are daily breaking out between such as have no other relation to our selves then the common Bands of Humane Society And upon this account Blessed are the peace-makers Beati pacifici a Benediction that reaches from the Cottager to the Monarch that sits upon the Throne takes in all Mankind that lends a Hand towards establishing the Empire of Peace but sheds it self more plentifully on the Head that sacred Head by whose most wise Conduct and unwearied Industry we rest this day in the beauty of Peace while he sits above a living Representation of the only God we worship Psal 75.3 whose Place is made in peace And if such as contribute the most to the welfare of Mankind deserve a higher Reward we that are in a lower Station cannot envy them a more elevated Benediction Quoniam Filii Dei vocabuntur They shall be stil'd the Sons of God because they carry on the great Work which the Son of God began in the World reaching from end to end powerfully and disposing all things sweetly Sap. 8.1 as the Wise-man predicted and by propagating a Blessed Vnion in this nether Hierusalem antidate the Joys of that which is above which is our Mother and where all her Children have but one heart and one soul neither divided by Interest nor disquieted by Passion nor stain'd by Imperfection but perfectly resembling that of their Blessed Master describ'd by the Apostle Hebr. 7.26 Holy