THE ROYAL AND HAPPY Poverty OR A Meditation on the Felicities of an Innocent and Happy Poverty Grounded on the Fifth of Matthew the third Verse And addressed to the late and present Sufferers of the Times Contabit Vacuus Coram latrone viator Nec habeo nec Careo nec Curo LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black-spread Eagle at the West End of Pauls 1660. TO THE READER WHat to others skilful at fishing in troubled waters hath bin an opertunity of inriching and aggrundizing themselves Was to the Author of this discourse the occasion of his Meditation Who though he cannot boast the improvement of his Fortunes yet thinks he hath gain'd som̄thing by the Disasters of the Times in that acquaintance they have brought his thoughts with Poverty And if he have herein walkt Antipodie to the humor of his Age and in a time when the thoughts of others were most studious and intent upon their gain and interest and floting on the golden sands of Pactolus he hath imployed his another way he hopes it is without offence And that in an Age fuller of VVolves than Men more fruitful in the production of Monsters than Animals and Prodigies than Births in which not only Government but every thing else both Civil and Divine hath been exposed to violence and the violent taken it by force In which men live more by spoyl and rapine than according to the Rules of Law or Dictates of Reason a Meditation of this Nature will not seem impertinent or unseasonable especially to such who either through Conscience or modesty are ill adapted to jostle in a turbulent and tumultuous World that had rather sequester themselves than others and entertain their thoughts with the felicities of an innocent and Happy Poverty than Projects of waxing rich by wrongs and injuries That the Author came too late into the World to obtain a Part in the late Tragedies or was too young to Espouse a faction in the late unhappy Quarrels he is thankful unto Providence But that the date of his Nativity was so timed as to render him a Spectator though not a Gamester to give him an opportunity of improving his Reason though not Estate and gathering Experience though not Riches from the bitter root of our Publick Evils he numbers not amongst his Misfortunes not that he took delight in beholding the Tragedies of his Country or was pleased to see the place of his Birth become a Cock-pit of strife a Scene of Blood or Shambles of Slaughters and Villanies But for that as Solomon hath said its better going to the house of mourning than rejoycing He supposes it may in a like sense be more advantagious to be born in a time of affliction than prosperity And if something either of Ingenuity or Honesty excluded him from dividing the spoil and sharing the Prey with the Nimrods and mighty Hunters of the Age he hopes he shall not be envyed the improvement of his Poverty by those who without his Envy possess the good things of the Earth it being the only and best advantage he was able to make of the worst of times And if any be offended at either the Luxuriancy of Stile or Loosnesse of Method in this Discourse as judging them unsutable to the gravity of its Subject they are desired to take notice that it is not a Sermon but Meditation and therefore speak not the Dialect of the Pulpit but Vniversity as being pen'd not by an antient Theologue but young Disciple who though he made use of a Text of Scripture as a Clue to guide his thoughts through the Labyrinth of his Discourse the better to avoid confusion yet intended not to betray himself to the bondage of any Laws that should abridg the liberty of using such stile and method as should best correspond to the humor of his Fancy and sute with the Nature of an Essay or loose Discourse If therefore maturer Judgments shall discover any Lapses or Errata's as may not be difficult in a work that pretends as little to perfection as its Author to Infallibility he hopes they may be look'd upon as the more veneal by reason immaturity of years may be some Apology for the same in judgment The Heavens are not altogether free from Corruption and Modern Curiosity hath discovered spots in the Sun and therefore it were the highest arrogance Worms are capable to be guilty of to undertake the projection of any thing should vye perfection with those Coelestial bodies or pretend exemption from all manner of Deficiency it being the sole Prerogative of the inerring Councils of a Deity to put forth Editions without Errata's or become the Author of what can boast an absolute perfection and immunity from all flaws and wrinkles that may stain the beauty and symmetry of its proportions I shall not longer detain you in the Threshold only give me leave to tell you That Poverty is a better Guest to a Mans thoughts than House and is more comfortably entertain'd in a Meditation than Family and am perswaded were it oftner so treated we should seldomer be necessitated to receive it in the quality of a Domestick But the unhappiness of most is to have no other acquaintance therewith than what 's acquired by an unfortunate Experience and never to spend thought thereon till it comes upon them liks an armed man till it comes to quarter and take up its abode with them to be their Inmate and familier Companion Which is but just on those that would never know it as the Object of their Charity towards others while the day of their prosperity lasted Now to such who through the injury either of past or future times must expect the coming of this unwelcom Guest to lodg and quarter with them is this Discourse more especially addressed that they may know how to entertain how to welcom how to improve and make good use of the worst of Evils that they may be able to deceive their misery to supplant their misfortune to thrive by their losses and turn their Crosses into Crowns All which is to be obtain'd by that Poverty of spirit this Discourse recommends that will fully compensate and make amends for the injuries of Fortune together with all other Afflictions that may befal them while Providence continues their Pilgrimage in this Vale of Tears THE Royal and Happy POVERTY Being a Meditation on the fifth of Matthew verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven WE need not travel far for the coherence of these words being lodg'd in the two next preceding verses And seeing the multitudes he went up into a mountain and when he was sate his Disciples came unto him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying c. Where we may take notice of 1 The Preacher and that is Christ 2 The occasion and that was his seeing the multitude 3 The Auditory and that was mixt consisting of the multitude and his Disciples 4 The place and that
condition of the Gospel this is not a Law that hath any force or obligation in foro conscientiae in the court of conscience for our right as I said to the things of this world is rather commenc'd than extinguish'd by our adoption and new-birth for whose is the earth and the fulness thereof but the Lords and who then have better right unto it then the Sons of God Or who may more truly be call'd the Lords and Princes of the Creation then they for whom the world was made and yet is not worthy of them though I must confess it is most commonly seen here that servants ride on horseback and the Princes go on foot c. Thirdly This poverty is not any low and base abjectness of spirit no sordidness or despondency of mind to be poor in spirit is not to have little poor narrow and contracted souls to have creeping and degenerate spirits that are alwayes grovelling in the dust that according to the curse of the Serpent creep on their bellies and lick the dust of the earth that are meer muck or dung-hill worms that have their heads and hearts bow'd down to the earth Os homini sublime dedit saith the Poet This therefore is unworthy and below the generosity of a man much more a Christian Religion doth not make men fools sheepish but admirably blends the innocency of the Dove together with the wisdom and prudence of the Serpent Religion is not that that clouds the mind with black melancholick and sad apprehensions if any think thus they seem guilty of the same absurdity with those Heathen that Deified their diseases and erected Altars unto Feavours or admit the like abuse that Mahomets Disciples did when they believ'd their Prophets Convulsions to be Extasies and Divine Raptures this is to intitle our melancholy to Religion and guild ore the distempers and infirmities of Nature with the title of Grace which is something like the humour of the Negroes who paint their gods black and the Devil white whereas Religion is so far from being any morose sower or tettrick thing that what the Philosopher said of virtue may with advantage be affirm'd of Religion viz. that could it assume Corporeity or render it self visible it would appear so lovely so amiable that it would at once both enamour and ravish the Whole world into the admiration of her Features and by the sole attractives of her transcendent Beauty and the powerful Charms of its comely Graces attract and captivate the hearts of all men and command both homage and affection from all that should behold her she would then need no other Eloquence than the silent Oratory of her own beauty to recommend her and invite the whole world unto her imbraces For is good nature a lovely thing there 's nothing more improves and meliorates mens natures than the ingrafting Religion therein there 's nothing more inlarges the spirit and gives it a more just and Noble Elevation then that there 's nothing fills the mind with a more Noble with a more generous scorn and contempt of low base and abject things than that that 's it that raises a mans thoughts from the earth on which they are naturally so apt to grovel and be bowed down unto that 's it that spirits and enobles a Soul that emancipates it from base slavish and pusillanimous fears and fills it with a high and Princely ambition and ambition more Noble and generous then that of Alexanders that so inlarges the heart that not only one earth but the whole world is too little for it is not able to fill or satisfie it this is that refines the affections and causes them to fly a higher pitch than to be decoy'd by any thing here below than to stoop to any thing on this side immortality and life that causes the Soul to soare aloft and mount up as with Eagles wings till it makes its nest in the very bosom of God They therefore disparage Religion and cast a blot and scandal on the Profession of the Gospel who go all the day drooping and holding down their Heads like a bulrush there being none who have so much reason to be cheerful to have a merry heart and a cheerful countenance as Christians There is no reason why any ones face should shine so much as theirs who like Moses have seen God in the Mount 4 We are therefore by this poverty of spirit to understand something beyond anything that hath been yet mentioned And without doubt it s to be taken in a like sense as that place where Christ saith its harder for a Camel or Cable rope as some interpret it for the same word in the Original signifies both to passe thorow the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Now we shall be best able to understand what is meant by these Riches that bar our entrance into blessednesse and this Poverty on which it is intail'd by comparing these with other places one Scripture being the best Key to unlock the sence of another Our Saviour saith Matt. 9. 13. That he came not to call the Righteous but sinners to Repentance and in another place the whole need not the Physitian but those that are sick So likewise where he saith He came to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel So likewise that Parable of the Pharisee that made so nigh and familiar approach to the Altar and blessed God he was not as the Publicane that stood aloof afar off and cried Lord be merciful to me a sinner and yet according to the virdict of Truth it self went away more justified than the Pharisee that was so pure and righteous in his own eyes I say this Parable may lend some light to the understanding of it Also when our Saviour took a little Child and setting him in the midst of his Disciples said unlesse ye be as little children ye cannot enter into the Kingdom Heaven he seems to have given a clear Comment on this Text Also when he said Suffer little children to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven he seems to Paraphrase on the same Doctrine From all which put together I think we may safely collect and spell out this or the like sence from the words viz. That poverty of spirit is a being little mean vile and contemptible in our own eyes to become as little children without strength and without courage helplesse and shiftlesse without counsel and without advice having neither wisdom prudence discretion nor understanding in our selves they therefore are the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the poor in spirit that are arrived at this resigned state or condition that have parted with their own strength their own wisdom their own Councils and their own Righteousnesse too and are become sensible of their own baseness their own unworthinesse their own nothingness that see and acknowledge the sinfulnesse of their natures the miserablenesse of their
much hunger and cold with the losse of how many nights rest and sleep do men hunt after learning and purchase to themselves a few flight notions of things How will men rack and serue their thoughts torture and distresse their apprehentions with a problem or theorem in Phylosophy How will many macerate and consume their bodies spend and wast the taper of their lives in watchings abstinencies and a thousand other austerities to gain a superficial inspection into the secrets of Nature into the nature of things How will many rob and defraud nature of its due and pine away their bodies to satiate their thirst after knowledge to feed and gratifie the inquisitive searching humor of their mindes How hath the eagernesse of some mens thirst after learning drunk up their strength and the very marrow of their souls How hath the fiery spirit and activity of their mindes fretted consum'd and eaten up the flesh of their bodies reduc'd them to Anotomies and living Skellitons looking more like spectres Ghosts or walking shaddows than men Some mens souls being like a sword too sharp and keen for the scabbard of their bodies in which they are sheath'd Or like Mercury or Quicksilver so penetrating and acture that nothing can contain them And all this upon the sole account of knowledge to which their affections are kindled with such ardent desires and have conceiv'd such sprightly flames as commonly soon reduces their bodies to ashes and rendes them the victims of their desires causing them to expire like the Phenix in their own flames It s reported of as I take it Cleanthes a poor Phylosopher that he pawned his nights rest to purchase his dayes studies that he drew water by night to earn a small pension to maintain himself in the muses service by day to maintain himself in the study of Phylosophy And of another it is reported that having quitted and forsaken his house and possessions to take a pilgrimage for the better improvement of his stock of knowledge and finding at his return all things thorow the injury of time gone to decay and his house almost buried under its own ruins brake forth into these expressions sihaec non paeriissent ego paeriissem had not these perish'd I had perish'd had I not made Ship-wrack of my estate I had shipwrack'd and lost my self Now shall the sons of humane wisdom the candidates of a little naturall knowledge that but puffeth up and profiteth not except sanctifi'd by grace which will be but as a torch to light men to Hell I say shall men for the love of what the Apostle calleth vain Phylosophy be content to welcome poverty and entertaine penury without any assurance of better estate in revertion or future happinesse to compensate and reward their former miseries And shall we grudge to do that for the wisdom wch is from above for a Crown of Glory which they do for the shaddow of wisdom for a wreath of withering and fading palms to obtain a name among the learned Shall not we do that to be made partakers of those Eternal fountains of wisdom and knowledge that the Heathen did for the adorning their understandings with a little dark fading counterfeit knowledge To conclude the lower the foundation is laid the higher the superstructure may be raised We have received on the credit of naturalists and those that are best read in the observations of nature that your tallest trees shoot their roots deepest into the Earth and commonly as far downwards towards the Center as their tops reach upwards towards Heaven As if nature would teach us that the foundation of the best and surest fortune is laid low is laid in the dust and the Scripture teaches us that poverty is the way to a Crown beggery to a Kingdom So that we see here the harmony and consent that 's between the Book of God and that of nature between the Scriptures and the greater volumn of the World And both of them giving in their evidence to this Truth bearing testimony to this Doctrine commending and reading lectures to us of this poverty of Spirit Shall we now be so childish as not part with our counters for gold With the menstruous rags of our own righteousnesse for the glorious princely robes of Christs Shall we prefer our coats of fig leaves before the righteousnesse of God And that this way and method of salvation may not seem strange to us Christ the Lord and Captain of our Salvation hath trod it before us For was not he humbled before he was exalted Was not he poor not having where to lay his head before he receiv'd the Kingdom of his Father Was not he crownd with thorns before he was crownd with Glory Finally was not he crucifi'd before he was Glorified Shall we now refuse to drink of the same cup that he hath drunk before us Do we who are but the children of Adoption expect a Kingdom a Crown a Scepter a Throne of Glory on easier terms than the Heire the son by nature and the first begotten than Chrrist our Elder brother receiv'd them on should we not rather rejoyce and glory in our poverty for that we are poor in Spirit because to such is given the Kingdom of Heaven FINIS Books Printed and are to be sold by Giles Calvert at the black-spread Eagle at the VVestend of Pauls THe Scripture Directory for Church Offices and People Or a Practical Commentary upon the whole Third Chapter of the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians To which is annexed The Godly and the Natural Mans Choyce upon Psal. 4. ver. 6 7 8. By Anthony Burgesse Pastor of the Church of Sutton Coldfield in Warwick-shire {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Temple of Solomon Pourtrayed by Scripture Light wherein all its famous Buildings the Pompous Worship of the Jews with its Attending Rites and Ceremonies the several Officers imploied in that Work with their Ample Revenues And the Spiritual Mysteries of the Gospel vailed under all are treated of at large by Samuel Lee The History of Diodorus Siculus containing all that which is most memorable and of greatest Antiquity in the first Ages of the World until the War of Troy in Folio Renodaeus his Dispensatory containing the whole body of Physick discovering the Natures and Properties and Vertues of Vegetals Minerals and Animals in folio Gadburies Doctrine of Nativities Doctor Pordages Innocency appearing through the Dark Mists of pretended guilt in folio Cornelius Agrippa his Occult Philosophy in 3 Books in quarto Henry Laurence Lord President his Book Entituled Our Communion and War with Angels in quarto Christopher Goad his Sermons Entituled Refreshing Drops and Scorching Vials in quarto Samuel Gorton his Exposition on the fifth chapter of Iames in quarto Samuel Hartlib of Bees and Silk-worms in quarto Williams his Book called the Bloody Tenet of Persecution for cause of conscience in quarto Doctor Gells Sermon Entituled Noahs Flood returning in quarto Several Pieces of
thing to be imploy'd as a Labourer in Gods Vineyard to be a builder of the Church of God which honor if any one refuse or despise let him know that God who at first open'd can as easily shut and bar again the door of his utterance and give him a stammering tongue in stead of the lips of knowledge So if God hath given to any man the illumination of his Spirit and hath caused his Face to shine upon him hath given him any taste and experience of his love let him not think scorn to communicate of what he hath received and help build up the walls of Sion least God rob and plunder him of his enjoyments and eclipse the light of his countenance from him Will God require of us an account of our Stewardship in the outward things of this life Will God require of us his Flax and his Wine and his Oyl if we waste and abuse them And will he not require a more exact and severer account of all the gifts and Intellectual Endowments his Mercy hath bestowed upon us Will he not much more require them at our hands if we honor him not with them Hath God promised the encrease of his blessing and the blessing of encrease on our outward mundane enjoyments if we lay them out for his Glory Hath he been pleased to acknowledge himself our Debtor for our charity to the poor and said He that gives unto the poor lends unto the Lord Hath he been pleased to become our Surety to enter into Bonds and Covenants to pawn his Word and ingage his Promise that if we cast our bread upon the Waters after many dayes we shall find it And will he not become much more our Debtor for our Spiritual Alms for our Spiritual Charity if we cast as I may so say the Bread of Life upon the waters if we deal to the poor of our Spiritual Food of our Spiritual Manna if we relieve the hunger of poor starved souls Shall not he loose his Reward that gives a cup of cold water to a Disciple and shall he think you be without reward that refreshes the poor dry and parched soul with the Waters of Life that draws waters out of the Wells of Salvation for poor souls Is our liberality of the things of this life so acceptable to God and will not our Spiritual Charity be much more Moreover Is our Charity to the poor and lending to the Lord of these outward things the best and greatest Usury the best and greatest way and means of improvement God having promised to return an hundred fold And is it not as good husbandry as good a way of improving the treasures of the mind the talents of Wisdome and Knowledge If any have rob'd the Egyptians have stoln from the Heathen any Earings or Jewels of Humane Learning any Pearls of Knowledge or Science can he better imploy them than to adorn the Truths of the Gospel with them than to have them sanctified by the Altar Is there any better way to encrease the stock of our Learning to inrich the treasures of our understanding But if this consideration seem slight or will not prevail with us however let the fear of loosing them the fear that God may blow upon them and cause them to blast and wither for as was observed before how justly may God strip rob and spoil us of them if we refuse to glorifie him with them How justly may he eclipse all the light of our Knowledge by infatuating our understandings and confounding our memories How justly may he turn our Sun into Darkness and our Moon into Blood How justly may he benight all our faculties with ignorance or cause them to set in a cloud of dotage and folly before the evening nay in the very morning of our age How justly may he turn our wisdome into folly and our prudence into madness Oh! how many great Wits have on this account been blasted that might otherwayes have been bright Stars Stars of the first Magnitude in the Firmament of Knowledge and glorious Luminaries in the Orbs of Learning who through the just Curse of God upon their parts have either prov'd blazing Meteors or flaming Comets to fill the World with wonder and amazement and then extinguish'd in smoak and ashes or gone out like the snuff of a Candle leaving nothing but the memory of their wickedness to stink in the Nostrils both of God and man Let this consideration at least prevail with us to write after this Copy Christ hath set us of arresting all opportunities of doing good and to honor God with all the faculties of our Souls with all the gifts and endowments of our minds least he plunder and strip us of them least he dethrone our Reasons and turn us a grazing with the Beasts of the Forrest as he sometime did Nebuchadnezzar and make us to eat thistles with the Ass. I confess I have dwelt something too long on this particular viz. The occasion but it yeelded so fruitful an Harvest to my thoughts that I knew not how to crowd them into less room or gather them into fewer periods The third particular is the Auditory and that was mixt consisting of the multitude and Christs Disciples During the time of Moses's Administration under the Law God had a peculiar people the Nation of the Iews whom his Favour was pleas'd to pick and cull as a precious Jewel from the dross and rubbish of the rest of mankind to whom alone of all the Families of the earth the Oracles of God were committed to whom alone the Law and the Prophets were given They only of the Sons of Adam had the priviledge to wear the Livery of Gods Name to be called the people of the Lord they alone were permitted to tread the Courts of Gods House to have access to his Sanctuary to approach his Altars when as all the rest of the World were prohibited under the dreadful penalty of an Anathema with a procul ite hinc procul ite profani time was when they only were accounted the Children of the Kingdome and all the rest of the World as Aliens and Out-casts as dogs unworthy of the very crums that fell from their table as Swine to whom the precious Pearls of the Gospel might not be cast time was when they only were accounted within the pale of the Church the only place wherein God was pleas'd to plant the Vineyard of his Church the only spot of ground his love had taken in and inclos'd from the Wilderness of the World wherein to plant his fear and the knowledge of his Name while the rest of the Earth lay neglected as a rude Barren and uncultivated Desert ore-grown with Atheisme and Barbarisme They were the Eden the Garden the Paradise of God the Land flowing with milk and honey the place where God was pleas'd to make known the greatness of his Name when as all the rest of the miserable Off spring and Posterity of Adam liv'd as without God in