John not to love the World neither the things that are in the World And lest we should take this only as a matter of Advice and Counsel not express Command he further adds If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him But that 't is a Christian Duty to be thus poor in Spirit will be further evident from the very Nature and Design of the Christian Institution The Grand thing intended in the Christian Religion was to reduce straying Man to his true Good and Happiness to sublimate refine and spiritualize his Nature to loose him from the Cords of Vanity and from his fast adhesions to created Good to purge him from all earthly Concretions and Alloys to disingage and separate him not only from the World about him but even from one part of himself in one word to raise him from Earth to Heaven not only by a Local but by a moral and mental Elevation Indeed 't was much otherwise under the Jewish Dispensation There was then great Indulgence afforded to the Animal Inclinations and worldly Affections of Men and their very Religion was indeared to them by Temporal Promises and Blessings Not that God intended hereby to express any liking or approbation of Covetousness and Earthly-mindedness but only to comply with the infirmity of that gross stupid People which rendred them uncapable of being won upon by more noble Proposals And besides it being a received Notion among the Idolatrous Inhabitants of the Land as is observ'd by a late Learned Author that the Worship of their Idols and False Gods did procure them fruitful Seasons and increase of all manner of store 't was in proportion requisite that God also should promise his Votaries the like worldly Affluence to keep them from running over to the Gentile Superstitions Upon these and the like Accounts much was indulg'd to the Jewish State and People They were never expresly required to abstract their desires from the things of the World Nor unless they proceeded to covet unjustly that is what belonged to another were they ever taxable for a too earthly and downward disposition of Soul Not but that earthly-mindedness was as much an Imperfection in it self as 't is now and was really forbidden according to the more retired and involute sense of the Law but the Letter did not reach it because then was the time and state of Imperfection and 't was the only Handle which that People could be took hold of by whose Hardness of Heart was the occasion of this as well as of some other Indulgencies But now they that shall think themselves obliged to no higher measures of Perfection under the Christian State know not what manner of Spirit they are of Christ as he has introduced a Better Hope so has he annexed to it more excellent and more exalted Precepts and as his Kingdom was not so neither is his Religion of this World The Christian Law is Lex Ignea a Law of Fire a Law that purifies and refines that warms actuates and enlightens that separates also and dissolves those strong Ties whereby the Soul sticks glued to the Earth And therefore the Apostle calls the Christian Institution the Law of the Spirit of Life and in another place the ministration of the Spirit And what our Saviour said of some words of his may truly be applied to all The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life This therefore being the Design of the Christian Dispensation to perfect Holiness to advance the Interest of the Divine Life to elevate us to the utmost degree of moral Perfection our Nature is here capable of and as far as is possible to make us Partakers of the Divine 't is utterly inconsistent with the End of such a Law as this to suffer us to lie groveling with our Faces on the Earth to seek Rest and Happiness in things more ignoble than our selves and to grow one as it were with the dirty Planet upon which we live We ought rather as the Philosopher speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aspire to the measures of Immortality shake off the Clogs of Earth that weigh us down and make hast to be Angels as fast as we can We are obliged by the Design as well as by the Rule of our Religion to be as loose from the Creature as may be not to love the World nor the things of the World whether the Lust of the Flesh or the Lust of the Eye or the Pride of Life but to be poor in Spirit and empty of the Creature that we may be rich towards God and filled with the fulness of him that fills all in all And now that to be thus poor in Spirit is a reasonable Duty as well as a Necessary one will sufficiently appear upon these two grounds I. Because these Worldly Enjoyments are not our True Good II. Because they hinder and divert us from that which really is so That they are not our True Good is certain for if they were we should then find Rest and Satisfaction in them But this we are so far from doing that we are as dissatisfied under our Enjoyments as without them For though by Fruition our Appetite be abated as to that particular Object which we prosecuted yet still we desire on further and our general Thirst after Happiness is as unsatisfied as ever Which plainly argues that our true good is not to be found in these things but that they are altogether Vanity and Vexation To place therefore our Happiness in such Objects is utterly absurd and against Reason and argues us to be grosly ignorant of one of the two things either of our selves or of the things of the World We are either ignorant of the Dignity and Excellence of our Natures of the Designs and Ends of our Creation and of the Strengths and Capacities of our Appetites which can be satisfied with nothing less than infinite Or if we do know and consider all this then we are so much the more grosly ignorant of the World about us to think there is any thing to be had in this Circle of Vanity that may satisfie the importunity of such craving and capacious Appetites Poverty of Spirit therefore is reasonable because the things of the World are not our True Good But this is the least part of their Charge They are not only insufficient to be our true good themselves but they also Secondly hinder and divert us from that which really is so For not to mention the many Snares and Temptations of a great Fortune and what a dangerous thing it is to be always furnished with all the Possibilities and Opportunities of Sin and Folly I only observe that the very Desire of these Earthly things diverts us and takes us off from the Love of God When our Love is divided even among Created Objects the force of it will be much abated in respect of each But much more will the Love
of the Creature diminish from the Love of God For there is so vast a disproportion between the Kinds as well as the Degrees of the two Goods that he that once comes to relish one will find but little tast in the other And therefore says St. Austin Monemus ne mundum ametis nt eum qui fecit mundum liberè ametis Our advice is that you love not the World that so you may love its Maker freely The truth is to love God freely we should love him intirely for every advance we make towards the Creature so much we recede from God For these are two contrary Terms of Motion and there is so great a Contrariety between the Love of God and the Love of the World that they do not only abase each other but are in some degrees utterly inconsistent For so St. John If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him And if this be the consequence of loving the World I think the less we have to do with it the better and that there is a great deal of reason to be Poor in Spirit Thus far have we consider'd the Duty and Reasonablenes of Poverty of Spirit as it signifies an Indifferency of Desire to the things of the World I come now to consider it as it denotes Humility and Lowliness of Mind whereof I am also to shew I. The Duty II. The Reasonableness The Duty of Humility is plain in all the Scripture but more frequently and earnestly inculcated in the New Testament insomuch that it may be reckoned among the distinguishing Doctrins of the Christian Religion The Heathen Morals almost overlook'd it and in the Old Testament Writings 't is but sparingly recommended but in the Christian Institution we every where meet with it in Capital Characters as a Precept of the first Magnitude God resisteth the proud saith St. James and be ye cloathed with humility says St. Peter And our Lord himself who was a perfect Example of all Moral and Divine Perfection and in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily seems yet to commend himself to our imitation chiefly upon the Account of his Humility Learn of me says he for I am meek and lowly in heart But there needs no multiplication of Scripture for the proof of this I shall therefore only further observe that the greatest Personages that ever were in the World were always most eminent and conspicuous for this Excellency Out of many I shall select three Instances which may well deserve our Consideration The first shall be the great Fore-runner of our Blessed Saviour the Holy Baptist. This Great and Holy Person when the Jews sent Priests and Levites from Jerusalem to demand of him who he was not only disclaim'd the Titles of Christ of Elias and of that Prophet this his Humble Spirit was not content with but went further and gave this strange and mortified account of himself I am says he the voice of one crying in the wilderness The Prophet David indeed had said before of himself that he was a Worm and no Man And this one would think was a sufficient stretch of Humility But the Baptist speaks in a strain below him allowing himself to be no more than a Voice The same Holy Person thought himself unworthy to Baptize his Saviour nay what makes that less admirable not worthy so much as to unloose the very Latchet of his Shoes The next Instance I shall mention is the ever-blessed Mother of our Lord. She if ever any Creature had cause to be Proud 'T is impossible even to imagin a stronger Temptation She was saluted by an Arch-Angel said to be a Person highly favoured with God and Blessed among Women And in particular That she should be Mother to the Son of the Highest and that too by the Power of the most High Was not here enough to betray a poor innocent Virgin into Pride and Vanity Had the Angels half so much reason for their Pride and Haughtiness when they fell from the Heights of Glory Well how did she behave her self under the dangerous Salutation Why she seem'd to make it rather matter of Obedience and Resignation than of Triumph and Boasting Behold says she the handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word But the most stupendous Instance of Humility that ever was or can be was in the Person of our Blessed Lord whether we consider him in the Mystery of his Incarnation or in the mean Circumstances of his Birth or in the humble method of his Life whether we consider him as emptying himself of his Eternal Glories and drawing a Cloud over his Brightness or as forbidding the Devils to publish his Divinity and Men to declare his Miracles and his Disciples to tell of his Transfiguration or as washing his Disciples Feet or as riding upon an Ass or as conversing among Sinners and lastly choosing to die between Thieves These and many such other Instances of Condescension argue the most profound Humility that can be imagin'd and withal how concern'd our Lord was to commend and endear this most excellent Duty to the Practice of Men. Of all the Vertues and Excellencies in the World one would have thought this of Humility least capable of being practis'd and exemplify'd by the Son of God Commend it indeed he might by Precept as well as any other but sure one would think not by Example But see what rare Arts and Mysteries God has found out to teach us this Lesson And therefore we may well conclude that there is Excellency and Necessity in it as well as Difficulty and how much it concerns us to learn what God has been so peculiarly solicitous to teach It is then a Christian Duty to be thus Poor in Spirit And the Reasonableness of it is as great as the Obligation This I might shew from the Good Consequences and Happy Effects of this Disposition of Spirit but this falling in more properly under the Third Partition of my Discourse I shall for the present content my self with some other Considerations taken from the Condition of Man whom I shall consider I. As a Creature II. As a Sinner First then Man is a Creature and this is a very reasonable Ground for Humility and Poverty of Spirit We usually think it a very Humbling Consideration to remind a Person of the meanness of his Original But now what Original can be so mean as to be from Nothing It is enough to take down the Spirit of the brightest Intelligence to consider that nothing was his Original a state more vile and dishonourable than the Chaos it self Now this is the Condition of Man He had his Rise from Nothing and derives his Pedigree by his Mother's side from Darkness and Emptiness And though now by the Omnipotency of his Creator he is something yet still he holds his Being as precariously as he first received it and depends as much for his Existence upon the Will
the more it must needs love and delight in him Likeness is the greatest indearment of Love and the most natural Foundation of Delight and Complacency We see this in all the Orders of Being and in all the Degrees of Life In the Sympathetic Associations of Vegetables in the Voluntary Consortings of Animals and in the chosen Friendships of Men. But most of all may this be seen in God himself What is it but the most perfect Likeness and Conformity of Essences Understandings and Wills that renders the Sacred Persons of the mysterious and adorable Trinity so infinitely lovely and agreeable to each other This was that which made the Father say of the Son This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased because he saw there the Brightness of his glory and the express image of his person And upon this is founded that mutual Delight which the other Sacred Persons enjoy from each other That therefore which makes the Persons of the Holy Trinity delight in one another must needs make the pure Soul delight in the Holy Trinity A pure Soul cannot but delight in a pure God and the purer she is the more she will love and delight in him Purity of Heart does even here Anticipate much more then will it hereafter increase the Joys of Heaven It remains therefore that having this excellent Hope we study to purifie our selves even as God is pure and so endeavour to resemble and transcribe the Divine Perfections here that we may contemplate them with the greater Complacency and Delight hereafter To which purpose let us now and always Pray in the Words of our Holy and Devout Church O God make clean our hearts within us And take not thy Holy Spirit from us Amen Discourse the Seventh Matth. V. ver ix Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be call'd the Children of God THE Words very well become the Mouth of him that spake them who was himself the greatest Peace-maker in the World He made Peace in Heaven by the Blood of his Cross and endeavoured to promote it on Earth He first reconciled God to Man and then tried to reconcile Men to one another He chose to be born in the most quiet and peaceful state of the Roman Empire when Augustus in token of an Universal Peace had shut up the Mystical Gates of Janus his Temple And when he came into the World his Proclamation by the Angels was Peace and when he was to leave the World the same was his Legacy Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you The Order of his whole Life was a constant Compliance with the Peace of the State whereof he gave two signal Instances in paying Tribute when not obliged and in forbidding resistance of the Officer that seized him and his Last Prayer was for the Peace and Unity of the Church And now since by this great Love and Study of Peace he shew'd himself to be the Genuine Son of God who is styled the God of Peace he might with the better Decorum make the same Disposition of Mind the Measure and Argument of our filial relation to him as he does when he tells us Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God By Peace-Makers here I suppose is meant not only those that interpose as Moderators to compose Feuds and Quarrels tho' that be the more immediate Sense of the Word but more generally those that are peaceably affected and that shew this their Peaceable Disposition either by living quietly and inoffensively or by endeavouring to maintain Peace where it is or to restore it where it is interrupted The first of these Degrees of Peaceableness consists in a meer Negative the two last are of a positive Nature and consequently of a greater Excellence But the most excellent of all is the last it being for the most part not only a thankless but an odious difficult and hazardous Undertaking to bring them nearer together whom Anger has set at a distance 'T is like the business of a Fire-quencher who tho' he may with plying of Engins and great adoe rescue the Pile of Building from the devouring Flames yet his Eyes will be sure to smart with the Smoke Now this Peace in the not violating preserving or restoring of which this peaceable-mindedness is concern'd may be either private Peace between Man and Man or public Peace between Societies of Men. Again public Peace is distinguishable according to the general Distribution of Human Society into Civil and Ecclesiastic that of the State and that of the Church The former concerns Men not only as subjected to Government or as under this or that particular Form of Government but also as Men and consequently all Men. For even the state of Nature antecedently to all Human Conventions and Constitutions as has been abundantly proved against the Author of the Leviathan is not a state of War but of Peace The later respects only those who are Members of the Christian Church whereof Christ Jesus is the Head and subject to that Spiritual Government whereof he is the Author The former kind of publick Peace is opposed to War and seditious Practices the later to Schisms and Divisions The way being thus far clear'd by pointing out the general Degrees of Peaceableness and the general kinds of Peace we may now with the less intanglement proceed to fix the Subject and Order of the following Discourse And here I do not intend a Casuistical Tract by entring upon that long beaten Common-place concerning our Obligation to Peace and the Measures of observing it with reference either to Church or State For besides that this has been the constant Theme of almost every Casuist and that 't is impossible to say any thing more than All or better than Some have already said upon it I further think that the thing is of it self plain enough and that were it not for the perversness of some Men rather than for any obscurity in the Duty there needed not have been any other Measure given in this matter than that General one of the Apostle If it be possible as much as lies in you live peaceably with all men For when 't is inquired How far we are obliged to Peace in the State or Peace in the Church The Answer is plain and ready from hence That we are obliged to both as far as is Possible and as much as in us lies and that Nothing less than Absolute and Evident Necessity can justifie either War in the State or Separation in the Church Which one Rule if well heeded and practised the Condition of the World would be much more peaceable and quiet than it is or is like to be Instead therefore of treating of this Beatitude in a Casuistical way by describing the Measures of our Obligation to Peace I shall rather chuse this Order of Discourse First To set forth the general Excellency of a peaceable Disposition Secondly To consider that More particular
stand for is this that we ought not so to give our selves over to secular Mirth and Jollity but that we are still to remember that we are in the Vale of Tears that there is a time for Mourning as well as for Rejoycing and that this is that time now we are in our Exile and in the midst of Dangers and Fears and that therefore Sorrow must sometimes have its turn as well as Joy and that there is such a thing as Christian Mourning Nor need we be troubled that we have discover'd such an ungrateful Duty since there is a Beatitude annexed to it But because as was before remark'd all manner of mourning will not come within its Compass it will concern us in the second place to consider who these Christian Mourners are This I think cannot be resolv'd by any better measure than by considering what are the true and proper Causes why a Christian ought to mourn Now to this I shall answer I. In General II. In Particular In General I say that then a Christian mourns for a due and proper Cause when the Principle of his Sorrow is either Zeal for the Honour and Glory of God or a Concern for the Good of Mankind Nothing less than this can either deserve his Sorrow or derive any Vertue or Excellency upon it So that in short Piety and Charity will be the two Principles into which all true Christian Mourning must be at last resolv'd But because this may be exemplify'd in variety of Instances 't will not be amiss to consider some of the more remarkable of them I answer therefore more particularly That one very proper and reasonable Cause why a Christian should mourn is the Consideration of sin For a Man to consider seriously what a great and strange kind of Evil Sin is how contrary to God to his Nature to his Will to his Commands to his Goodness to his Justice to the wise Order of his Grace and Providence and especially to the great mystery of Godliness Then to consider how contrary 't is to Man to his Nature to his Reason to his rational Instincts and Inclinations to his inward Peace and Satisfaction and lastly to his Interest both Temporal and Spiritual Private and Publick Present and Future Then again to consider how prone we are to commit it and that we our selves are the Authors of this proneness And lastly how much of this great strange Evil there is in the World how Iniquity abounds and the Love of many waxes cold that the whole World as St. John says lies in wickedness that there are but few that pretend to any Strictness or Regularity of Living and yet fewer that discharge their Pretensions truly and sincerely I say for a Man to consider all this to consider it seriously and thoroughly must needs be a sad Scene of Contemplation and such as will justly call for his Sorrow and Mourning It was so to God himself who is brought in by Moses as griev'd at his very heart for the abundance of wickedness which he beheld in the Old World And I question not but that among the bitter Ingredients of our Lords Passion this was none of the least to foresee that there would be so many who by their final Impenitence and persevering in Wickedness would receive no Benefit from it And if we may judge by proportion the Angels in Heaven who rejoyce at the Conversion of one Sinner do also mourn and lament for the irreclaimable Wickedness of so many Millions as are in the World 'T is a thing worth our Considering and worth our Lamenting And therefore says the Psalmist Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law And again It grieveth me when I see the transgressours This is a vertuous and laudable Sorrow as proceeding from a good and noble Principle from Piety and Charity and he that mourns upon this consideration is a true Christian Mourner Again Seconly Another very proper and reasonable Cause why a Christian should mourn is the consideration of the Miseries of Human Life 'T is a most deplorable thing to consider what a deal and what variety of Misery there is in the World at once Many things must concur to make us tolerably Happy but One thing alone is oftentimes enough to make us very Miserable And how unhappy then must Humane Life be among such a multitude of Evils as are incident to it I shall not go about to recount or describe them They are too many to be numbred and too various to be reduced to any method This only I say That should a Man by some compendious Device have an united Prospect of the Miseries of the World as our Saviour by the Devils Artifice had of the Glories of it 't would be the most dismal Landfcape that ever was drawn or can be imagin'd 'T was for this that some of the Ancients reckon'd an early Death among the greatest Blessings of Heaven Quem Dii diligunt Adolescens moritur The Favourite of the Gods dies young says the Comedian But Solomon goes further and prefers an untimely Birth before a Man that has spent many years in this World To be short such is our Condition here that we see God has not thought fit to trust us with the least fore-knowledge of what is coming upon us lest like Men upon a deep Precipice we should be amazed confounded and fall down at the dreadful Prospect And if the private Circumstances of each single Man's Life be so black and disconsolate that 't is thought fit he should see no further than he goes what shall we think of the miseries of all Mankind put together If any thing be worth our Sorrow certainly this is Our compassionate Saviour wept over the approaching Ruin of perishing Jerusalem and shall not a Christian mourn for the miseries of the whole World We suspect the good Nature of him that can endure to sit out a deep Tragedy with dry Eyes and can we stand and look upon a miserable World without mourning There are some Men of Rocky Hearts and impassible Tempers that could stand by and see the whole World in Flames without any concern were but their own little selves secure from the Ruin And this some are pleas'd to call Philosophy But certainly Christian Charity that obliges us to sympathize with the miseries of each particular Man to weep with those that weep as the Apostle speaks does much more require us to lament the common Miseries of Human Life This therefore is a very proper Cause of Christian Mourning As is also in the Third place the Consideration of the Vanity and Emptiness of all Worldly and Created Good The general Cause of most of the Discontent and Melancholy that is in the World is because Men can't get so much of Worldly Good as they desire not at all questioning its Vanity but on the contrary supposing that if they could compass such and such things they should be Happy and their only
wept over Jerusalem relented as much for the Sins as for the Vengeance that was hanging over that unhappy City And that had those two great Tragic Scenes been at once presented before him the Slaughter of the Innocents and the Destruction of that Guilty People he would have found more to be pitied in the latter than in the former Tragedy I know that by the Roman and Jewish Laws 't was forbidden to shew any Signs of Compassion in the behalf of those that suffer'd as Criminals and in consequence to this they were not to Sit that being the Manner and Posture of the Hebrew and Roman Mourning but to Stand at their Execution Which was the Reason as a Learned Critic of our Church observes why the Blessed Virgin tho deeply affected for the severe Usages of her Son yet in compliance with the Law chose rather to Stand than to Sit near the Cross and tho' full of inward Grief refused to make any Solemn shew of Lamentation But I suppose that the signification of these Laws in forbidding open Compassion to convicted Malefactors was not that they were not Objects capable of it and that therefore to pity them would argue a sense of their Innocence but only to procure the greater Reverence to Judicial Sentences and to shew their great satisfaction and acquiescence in the administration of Justice This therefore will not exclude Criminals from the Sphere of our Compassion Of which I see nothing that should make them uncapable And I would fain know what would have become of all Mankind if Suffering Innocence had been the only Object of Commiseration These few things being premised concerning the Notion of Mercy and Compassion let us now consider the things that recommend it The first whereof is The Nobleness and Excellency of it This has suffer'd much under the misrepresentation of two sorts of Adversaries the Stoic and the Aristotelean In the Stoic Morality it is so far from having any Reputation for Excellence that it passes for a down-right Vice for an instance of weakness and littleness of Soul for such a piece of Softness and Effeminacy as does not comport with the Character of their Wise Man who indeed is allowed to Relieve but not to be Troubled for the Afflicted and to add if he can to the Tranquility of their Minds but not to lose any thing of his own Non miserebitur sed succurret says Seneca He may help the Miserable but he must not share in the Misery This the Gravity of Zeno's School will at no hand permit which indeed should make us the more beholden to them for granting what they do But 't is no wonder that they who will not allow a Man to be sensible of his own Evils should forbid all Pity to those of other Men. On the other side the Aristotelean tho he does not strike this Affection out of the List of the Vertues as does the other yet he very much cheapens and depreciates the worth and excellency of it by deriving it only from selfish Principles by making this the only ground of pitying others that we upon the account of common Nature and Chance are obnoxious to the same Evils our selves In opposition therefore to this Double Reproach I shall maintain and illustrate the Nobleness and Excellency of this Disposition upon this Double Ground I. Because 't is found always in the Best of Natures II. Because it proceeds from the best of Principles And First 'T is always found in the Best of Natures God as he is the Best so is he also the most Merciful and Compassionate of all Beings 'T was the very Name whereby he proclaim'd himself to Moses The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious c. And our Saviour commends this Attribute of God in particular to our Imitation Be ye merciful as your Father is merciful We read in Scripture of the Tender Mercies of God or as it may be more strictly render'd The Bowels of the Mercy of God There is a strange Emphasis and Strength in the Expression And indeed there is nothing in Scripture so pathetically expressed as the Tenderness and Mercy of God 'T would be endless to alledge Particulars but there is one place which may go for all 'T is that famous Expostulation of God with himself upon the disingenuous Behaviour of his People Israel How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim Mine heart is turned within me and my repentings are kindled together What moving melting strains are these What a lively breathing Image of Mercy and Pity And yet 't is but an Image still vastly short of the Original as will always be what-ever is said or thought of the infinite Mercy of God The Doctors of the Talmud speaking concerning the Employment of God before the making of the World say not as St. Austin that he was preparing an Hell for the Inquisitive but that he was contriving how to be merciful to Mankind And 't is true indeed God did from all Eternity contrive to shew Mercy to Man tho not by way of study or imployment of mind as they grosly fancy But the Hebrews further Note what indeed is more considerable that God to shew his great Honour and Love for this dear Attribute in all his kind and merciful Transactions with Men chose always to be call'd by that his great and incommunicable Name Jehovah as to Moses in the Clift of the Rock Jehovah Jehovah the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious c. But in any Process of Justice and Judgment he always styles himself Eloah or Elohim a Name importing Force and Power and that is not proper to God as the other but common to him with the Creatures being sometimes given to the Angels sometimes to Magistrates and sometimes even to False Gods The Name Jehovah was more Sacred and of higher import than that of Elohim and therefore God to shew his special regard to Mercy above his other Strange Work chose in his Milder Addresses to be call'd by the former and in his severer Proceedings by the latter Which was the reason as the forementioned Learned Critick remarks why our Saviour at the point of his Dereliction cried out not Jehovah Jehovah but Eli Eli my God my God as not presuming at that time and in that Capacity to call God by his Titles of Paternal Love and Indearment but as Naming the Judge of the World doing the extreamest right upon his own Son treading the Wine-press alone in the person of all mankind as that Learned Author expresses it But the greatest and most convincing Demonstration of the Mercy of God is seen in the mysterious and costly Redemption of Laps'd Man The greatest Exaltation of which is to say nothing of it but as the Angels are represented to do in Heaven to stoop down and look near into it with silence and wonder
Which things the Angels desire to look into An Allusion no doubt to the Propitiatory or Mercy-lid upon the Ark whereupon two Angels Cherubins who are the Angels of Knowledge did abide with their Faces one toward another and their Eyes bent down to the Ark. Which by the way is also a sufficient Argument of the Unfathomableness of this great Dispensation of Mercy which can still find further Employment for the Study and Curiosity even of Angels But perhaps 't will be said that Mercy in God is of another kind than what is call'd by that Name in Man that it comes nearer the Stoical Notion of Mercy importing only a bare Will to help the Miserable without any compassionate Resentment for his Misery It may be so I wont dispute that now tho I can hardly believe but that such strong and flaming Expressions of the Divine Mercy in Scripture must needs signifie something more than what such cold Interpreters affix to them But however to be more convincing I further instance in the Human Soul of our Saviour Jesus Christ. 'T is most certain that of all Human Spirits his was the most excellent Adam in his Innocence was not comparable to him He was excellent only by way of Nature but our Saviour's Human Spirit to the same or greater Excellence of Nature had also superadded the Excellency of Grace not common Grace but that great and transcendent Grace of the Hypostatick Union And 't is as certain that as he had the Best so he had the Best-natured and most tenderly compassionate Soul in the World I need not produce Instances his whole Life is but one Argument of it Only one Passage when he saw the multitude scattered abroad like Sheep that have no Shepherd 't is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was moved with compassion on them so we render it but indeed the Expression is too high and pregnant to be verbally translated 'T would require a long copious Paraphrase to drain the Sense of that one Word which signifies all that inward Feeling and Yerning of the Heart and Soul at a pitiful Object that melts and turns the very Bowels of the Good-natured Spectator And the same Tenderness of Spirit which he had on Earth he retains still in Heaven tho in all other respects Impassible and incircled with Divine Glories Whereupon he is call'd in Scripture our merciful High-Priest and to convince any Opposer that this is not meant of Mercy improperly so called a bare Will to help without any Compassionate resentment says the Author to the Hebrews We have not an High-Priest which cannot be touch'd with feeling of our Infirmities And these two Considerations by the way give a clear defeat to the Pretences of both the foremention'd Adversaries For whereas the Stoic traduces this noble Vertue for a piece of Weakness and Infirmity fit only for soft and effeminate Persons to him I oppose the instance of our Saviour's Human Soul while on Earth And whereas the Aristotelian makes the only ground of Pity to be a fear of falling into the like Calamity to him I oppose the same Instance of our Saviour but in another Capacity when he was altogether Impassible in his glorify'd State and above the possibility of partaking with us in our Miserie 's any other way than by Sympathy and Compassion To this I may add that among meer Men the most generous and braveSpirits those whom Paganism has Deifi'd and Christianity has Sainted those Heroes whom History has mark'd with Honour and whom Envy it self is asham'd to calumniate have all along been signal for their Mercy and Good Nature As on the contrary the most base timorous and low-spirited Breasts are always observ'd to be the Seats of Cruelty and Hard-heartedness But 't is no wonder that this Disposition is found in the Best of Natures since in the Second Place it proceeds from the Best of Principles For it proceeds from Charity with which the least thing a Man can think or do is excellent and without which the greatest even Martyrdom it self is nothing worth It has that for its Parent which is the Mother of all Vertues and which is of it self the fulfilling of the most perfect that is of the Christian Law And that it proceeds from Charity is plain For the more we desire the Happiness and well-being of Mankind the more we shall be troubled to see any of them in Misery and be the more willing to procure them Ease and Deliverance And this tho we do not apprehend our selves in danger of the like Calamity there being no necessity of making that the ground of Pity as appears from the instance of our Saviour's Human Soul in its Glorified State I deny not but that the generality of Men are moved to Pity upon the consideration of common Danger and that it may be their own turn next to suffer and stand in need of help but it is not necessary that they should and 't is their imperfection that they are I say their Imperfection not that of the Affection it self whose Idea involves no such selfish Principle and which may really be separated from it as by the fore-alledged Example is certain and evident And now if to be found in the Best of Natures and to proceed from the Best of Principles be any Argument of Excellence we may hence conclude what a Noble and Excellent Disposition of Mind this is and that when the Roman Orator told Caesar That of all his many Vertues none was either more acceptable or more wonderful than his Mercy and Clemency he might perhaps Complement the Emperour but said nothing extraordinary of the Vertue As will further appear by considering Secondly the great Reasonableness and Usefulness of it As to the Former besides that all that which may be said in the behalf of Charity and Universal Love may be alledged as well for this there are these two more proper and peculiar Grounds to prove and inforce it I. To consider what Man has Receiv'd II. To consider what he Expects And First If we consider what Man has already receiv'd this Vertue of Mercy will appear to be highly reasonable Man has receiv'd innumerable Mercies of God some of which are so great so surprizing and incredible that 't is made one of the greatest Trials and Commendations of his Faith to believe them Such as the Honour of the Hypostatick Union the Redemption from Sin and Misery by the Death of the Son of God the Grace of Repentance and the like All which are yet improv'd and heightned by this further Consideration that they are proper and peculiar to him no other Creatures not so much as the Angels themselves being Partakers with him The Angels indeed as all other Creatures partake of the Goodness of God but Man alone among all the Creatures has the Priviledge to be the Object of his Mercy Since therefore Man and Man only has receiv'd so much Mercy of God it appears very reasonable
Disposition The Positive I need but just name the Proof of them being virtually contain'd in the other They are therefore First Charity or universal Love that seeketh not her own but the Common Good Secondly Generosity and a noble inlargement of Soul that sets a Man above the little petty Occasions of Quarrel and Contention Thirdly Humility and Modesty that makes a Man possess himself and his station with Contentedness and Thankfulness Fourthly A candid sweet and benign Temper that thinks no evil but is well pleased in the Prosperity of every Man and every State or Community Fifthly A mild meek and forgiving Spirit that does not keep up the Circulation of Injuries but lets the Quarrel fall and dye Sixthly and Lastly a serene and well-composed Soul one that rules well her own inward Charge having her Passions in Subjection with all Gravity Peace and Tranquility of Mind All these excellent Qualifications are required to furnish out a peaceable Disposition which will not come into the Soul as the Soul will not into the Body till after it be duly tempered and prepared for it Whence the Proposition to be made out is sufficiently concluded that it argues a well-order'd Frame and good Habit of Mind Which is the first Ground of its Excellency The second is taken from the consideration of what it Causes The Effects of it are as great and noble as its Principles and Prerequisites It s great and general effect is Happiness upon which no one Virtue has so large an influence as this Some Happiness it causes immediately and directly and contributes to secure whatever Happiness it does not cause Some Blessings it originally procures and preserves the possession of all So that some way or other all our Blessings are Blessings of Peace since to this we owe either the Blessings themselves or at least the secure enjoyment of them And all this it does by giving Strength Beauty and Pleasure to Society First Strength Peace is as much the Sinew of Society as Mony is of War and without it Society is so far from obtaining any of its just and natural Ends that 't is a far less eligible State than that of perfect Solitude For in perfect Solitude Men only want the mutual assistance of one another but in a divided and inraged Society Every Man is in the condition of Cain in fear lest the next that meets him should do him a mischief 'T is Peace that makes Society a Defence and that distinguishes the Congresses of Men from the Herds of Beasts or which is worse from the Confusions of the Rabble And as it strengthens Society within so it strengthens it without too nor would War be any Security abroad without Peace at home Briefly 't is Union and Coherence that makes every thing strong and Peace is the Cement that holds all fast together And what Society is there that can subsist without it when even a Kingdom divided against it self tho it be that of the Devil himself cannot stand Secondly Beauty There is indeed a certain Beauty in Strength and every thing that is strong is so far beautiful But besides this Peace gives a more proper and peculiar Beauty to Society the Beauty of Order and Proportion of Decency and Agreeableness For a peaceable Disposition inclines every Man to mind his own proper Business and to contain himself within that place and station wherein God and his Superiours have fix'd him and not to aspire to what is above him or invade what does not belong to him For indeed Peace it self cannot subsist without this any more than Society can without Peace Where-ever therefore there is Peace there will also be this Order and Proportion The Hand will not affect the Office of the Eye nor the Foot the place of the Head but every Member will be contented with and intent upon his own Office and Place in the Body The result of which must needs be the greatest Beauty and Harmony Thirdly Pleasure This indeed is necessarily consequent to the two former since it cannot but be a great pleasure to every particular well-affected Member of Society to reflect upon the Strength and Beauty of the whole But besides this a peaceable Disposition derives a more immediate and direct Pleasure upon Society For who can express the Pleasure that is in Love and Joy Sweetness and Dearness in mutual Kindness and Confidences in Union of Minds and Universal Friendship They that have had the Happyness to tast of this Pleasure know they cannot express it which made the Psalmist break forth into that abrupt Extasie Behold how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in Unity Having thus far set forth the general Excellency of a peaceable Disposition from what it Argues and from what it Causes I now proceed in the second place to consider that more particular Prerogative of it in making those that have it Children of God To be Children of God is indeed common to all good Men who being begotten anew by the immortal Seed of the Word do bear Gods image in Holiness endeavouring in all things to do their Father's Will But there are some Dispositions that give a more peculiar Right to this Title than others as they are nearer Resemblances of the Divine Excellencies Among which is the Disposition now under our Consideration whereby a Man becomes in a special Degree and Manner like God and so evidences himself to be his Child and may upon the consideration of that likeness fitly be so called And this is the constant use of this Phrase in Scripture Ye are of your Father the Devil says our Lord to the unbelieving Jews and the Lusts of your Father ye will do And so again Love your enemies and do good c. and ye shall be the Children of the Highest for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil And says the Apostle Be ye followers of God as dear Children They are the Children of God who are Followers of God who purifie themselves as he is pure and who are perfect as he is perfect So that to be the Child of God or the Child of the Devil signifies as much as to carry a particular resemblance of either When therefore 't is said that the Peace-makers shall be call'd the Children of God it comes to as much as that they carry a particular Character of the Divine Likeness whereby it may be known to whose Family they retain and that they are the True Sons of God And so indeed they are For God is the God of Peace and the greatest Peace that which passes all Understanding is called the Peace of God For God is the greatest Lover of Peace the Author and Giver of Peace and the Rewarder of all such as live in Peace Indeed under the Jewish State which as in other things so in this was very peculiar that 't was a State of Theocracy God was known by the Name of the Lord of Hosts
the last state of things and the All-concluding Scene of the World Perhaps it might then be strong enough to conclude what some are now so weak as to wish and believe But certainly with the supposition of an After-state the Objection is so far from being Desperate that I can see nothing Difficult in it And I think 't is here sufficiently answer'd by that ample Compensation promis'd by our Saviour to all those whose faithful adherence to a good Cause shall at any time engage them in Sufferings and Afflictions For says he Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Which last Words as our Saviour afterwards explains them contain not only a Promise of Heavenly Happiness in general but of a greater Degree and Measure of it and intitle the Sufferers for Religion those who undergo Persecution for Righteousness sake to a more than ordinary weight of Glory So that hence arise two Propositions to be distinctly consider'd First That there are Degrees in that Glory which shall be the Reward of Saints in Heaven Secondly That one of the Highest Degrees of it shall be the Reward of those who suffer Persecution for the sake of Righteousness That there are Degrees of Glory tho by some a much contested is yet I think a most certain and unquestionable Truth The certainty of which I shall endeavour to establish upon these few evident Principles First I consider that this must needs be the natural and necessary result of things And here I desire only it may be granted me That there are some certain Dispositions of Soul necessary to relish and enjoy the Happiness of Heaven This I think is a Supposition that need not be disputed since even to the enjoyment of sensible good there is requisite a proportion of sense The Ear must be tunably set to relish the Charms of Music and the Palate must be rightly disposed to find any pleasure in the sweetest Delicacies And if these grosser Objects that have a more natural Affinity with the Organs of Sense and strike hard upon them will not yet affect them without some more particular inward Preparation there is greater reason to think that the Delights of Heaven that are so far above the Level of our Natures so pure and so refined cannot be tasted but by a suitable Disposition of Soul The necessity of which appears so great that I am apt to think as a late worthy Writer of our Church does that the whole Moral Excellency of some Vertues is their Qualification for the Happiness of another State they being of no great consequence to the present Order of this World Well then if certain Dispositions of Soul be required to fit us for the Happiness of Heaven then it follows that the more disposed any Soul is for the Glories of Heaven the more happy she must needs be in the enjoyment of them And if so then 't will be necessary to say either that all Souls are equally disposed which would be to contradict the Sense and Experience of the whole World or if one be better disposed than another then in proportion one will also be more happy than another The Consequence is plain and necessary If there must be a Moral Qualification of Soul to fit a Man for Happiness then certainly the more qualify'd the more happy Which has made me often wonder at the self-inconsistency of those who allowing a virtuous Frame and Temper of Mind to be a Natural Disposition for Happiness do yet deny greater Degrees of Glory to greater of Degrees Vertue Indeed if a Moral Disposition of Soul did not fit us for Happiness the case were otherwise but since t is allowed to do that I cannot conceive but that the Degrees of Happiness must follow the Degrees of Virtue And indeed how can he that thinks at all think otherwise but that a Soul well purged and purified that has undergon a long course of Mortification till she is throughly awakened into the Divine Lise and Likeness and is arrived to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ must find more Happiness in the Vision of God than a Soul just pregnant with the Divine Form and that carries away with her only the first Rudiments of Spiritual Life Certainly that Soul which is most like God will be most happy in the fruition of him This is no more than what may be concluded from the meer natural necessity of things without having recourse to any Positive Order of God about it But neither may that be supposed to be wanting For Secondly I consider that the same may be concluded from the Justice and Goodness of God as well as from the Nature of things And first from his Justice Not that there lies an Absolute and Antecedent Obligation upon God to bestow greater Rewards upon greater Saints for if Eternal Life it self be as the Apostle represents it the Gift of God no doubt but the Degrees of it are so too God cannot become a Debtor to Man or to any other Creature but by a free Act of his own He may indeed oblige himself to us by a voluntary ingagement but we cannot pass any strict Obligation upon him by any thing we can do and to talk of Meriting in this sense is no less than Blasphemy and I can hardly believe that any man that understood himself ever thus held it But tho Good be not absolutely obliged to his Creatures but only upon Supposition and consequently cannot be Absolutely bound to reward greater Saints with greater Happiness yet if we once suppose him to ingage himself by Promise to be a Rewarder of Virtue in general there will be all the reason in the World to think that by the same Promise he has also Virtually obliged himself to crown the greatest Virtues with the greatest Rewards For since the reason why he ingaged himself to be a Rewarder of good Men was not as is already precaution'd any Absolute Merit of theirs but only to shew his great Love of Virtue and Goodness t is reasonable to conclude that by the same Motives and in persuance of the same End he also ingaged himself to be a more liberal Rewarder of greater Saints Since this is as necessary a means to shew his Love to Virtue and Goodness as the other And therefore tho we should grant which yet in the sequel will appear otherwise that God had expresly promised only to be a Rewarder of Virtue in general yet since the End and Reason of this His ingagement was to shew His great Love to Virtue this would be warrant enough to conclude That he had implicitly and virtually ingaged Himself to have an equal regard to the several Degrees of Virtue and to reward them after their respective Proportions But to rise higher yet tho God cannot be in Strict Justice obliged to reward the best of our Services but by an ingagement of his own much less to reward them
the World Heaven has wrought an hundred Miracles to discover their Innocence wild Beasts have respected them the Flames have spared their Garments Tyrants have admired them and many times their Executioners have become their Disciples in so much that these renowned Champions had great reason to be afraid of Vain-glory at the same time that God deliver'd them from Sorrow The Description is handsom and elegant but what they Describe they have left to our Church to Practise But more particularly and distinctly to take the just Height of the Excellency of Martyrdom we must first lay down a Measure whereby the Excellency of any Vertue is to be estimated Now the Excellency of any Vertue may be measured either from the Goodness of the Object will'd or from the Degree of willing it And two Persons that are equally Vertuous with respect to the good that is will'd may yet be very unequally so with respect to the Degree of Willing because one may will the same Good and the same degree of Good more intensely and affectionately than the other Thus for instance Virginity may be said to be more excellent than a Conjugal Life and that tho you do suppose the States themselves to be equally Pure because 't is harder to preserve Virginal than Conjugal Chastity So that tho the Degrees of Purity be supposed the same in both States yet because they are more strongly will'd in the one than in the other the Virgin may be said to be more pure than the Conjugated Person not perhaps as a Lover of greater Purity but as a stronger and more pertinacious Lover of the same which he adheres to under more disadvantagious Circumstances And this I take to be the Case of Martyrdom whose general Excellency above other Virtues consists in the Degree of Inclination or Adhesion to good which in the Martyr is supposed to be so strong as to determin him rather to suffer death and the utmost Extremity of it than to transgress what he knows to be his Duty And indeed if we consider how sweet Life is and how naturally a verse we are to Death even in the most easy much more under the most terrifying Circumstances it must needs be a very strong and peremptory adhesion to Virtue that shall ingage a Man to quit his Life rather than his Innocence and Dy rather than Offend But to be more particular yet To recommend the Excellency of Martyrdom there is a Concurrence of the greatest Virtues The most eminent of which for 't were endless to reckon up all are the greatest Faith the greatest Love and the greatest Courage First The greatest Faith There is indeed no Faith like the Faith of a Martyr This is that Faith which overcomes the World and all that is terrible in it That Faith to which all things are possible and nothing difficult and that removes Fear which is more than to remove Mountains This is that Faith which is more especially the Substance of things hoped for and the Argument or Demonstration of things not seen This noble Definition of Faith is never so fully verify'd as in the Faith of a Martyr This is that Faith that turns the End of the Perspective and shortens the interval of Time and makes the future World present and represents Heaven open and the Son of Man standing on the Right Hand of God ready to defend and receive and reward those that will be content to indure the Cross and despise both the Shame and the Pain of it for his sake And all this with such certainty and fulness of Perswasion that t is ready to change its Nature through too much Evidence and to cease to be any longer Faith and commence Science or Revelation For indeed nothing less than this than such a full down-bearing Perswasion can well inable a Man to drink off this bitter Cup and to be Baptized at this Bloody Font. It must certainly be a strange Degree of Affiance and Confidence which that Man has in God who can resign up all that is good and pleasant and submit himself to all that is evil and terrible in this World and meet Death with all its Natural and Artificial Terrors and trust God for his Reward in another Life What a generous victorious Faith is this and what a noble Idea must such a person have of God! The Faith of Abraham is highly celebrated in Scripture for his readiness to offer up his Son at the Command of God And no doubt 't was a very rare and extraordinary Faith that could reconcile him to such an unnatural undertaking But certainly the Faith of a Martyr is very much beyond this as much as t is an higher act of Reliance to trust God with ones own Soul and for ones Eternal Happiness than for a Posterity to inherit a promised Land Secondly The greatest Love There is indeed no Love like the Love of a Martyr This is that Love which is properly stronger than Death and which is so perfect as to cast out or overcome all Fear This is a Degree of Love truly Seraphic and which comes the nearest of any to the Love of Angels and beatify'd Spirits If there be any such thing as Seraphic Love in the World this is it Not only because t is bright and flaming noble and generous but because t is a Love that gets above all the Bodily Passions silences all the motions of the lower Life and makes the Man act as if he were all Soul and Mind More particularly Martyrdom is the greatest Love of Virtue and the greatest Love of God First Martyrdom is the greatest Love of Virtue because that is valued at a higher rate than Life it self which the Martyr will rather lose than Sin Our Saviour makes it the greatest Instance and Argument of Friendship for a Man to lay down his Life for his Friend And so doubtless it is For t is then plain that the Man sets a greater value upon his Friend than he does upon Life And the like may be said of the Martyr that he sets a higher value upon Virtue then he does upon Life which yet is so dear that as one observes who for our safety too well understands the secret Springs and Inclinations of Human Nature all that a man has will he give for it And yet this very Life for which a Man will give all things is by the Martyr given as a Sacrifice to his Innocence Secondly Martyrdom is the greatest Love of God because the Martyr sets so high a Price upon him that he will chuse rather to dye than forfeit the enjoyment of his Favour and Blessedness and may truly say with the Psalmist Thy loving Kindness is better than Life T is an easie thing for a Man in a warm gusty fit of Devotion when the Evil day is far off and no probable danger of any competition between his Religion and his Life to say that he sets a greater Value upon the loving Kindness of God than
upon Life You know who did so Tho I should dy with thee yet I will not deny thee that is to reduce the words to a more Logical Order I would rather dy than deny thee This is easily said but not so easily done as the Event too sadly shew'd But he that says he values the loving Kindness of God more than Life and dies rather than forfeit it may be believ'd For what greater Love can there be than this or what higher Instance or Tryal of it The greatest Love of God was to dy for Man God could not signalize his Love to Man by any higher instance than by dying for him and the greatest Love of Man is to dy for God Thirdly The greatest Courage For there is also no Courage like the Courage of a Martyr He fears no Evil but only Sin and Damnation which are just and reasonable Objects of Fear and will undergo any other Evils to avoid these which is the truest and the greatest Courage For where is there any like it I would not have the Man of Honour or Duelist of all the Pretenders to Courage in the World offer at a Competition here For t is most certain that he abuses the notion of Courage as well as that of Honour His Courage is to dare to sin and be damn'd that he may avoid the Reproach of Cowardize that is not to fear and avoid what with all possible concern he should and to fear and avoid what he should not And if this be Courage I must then confess that I do not know what is Cowardise But neither may the Military Man be a Competitor here 'T is I confess great and brave for a Man in a just and laudable Cause for the Defence of his Prince and Country to fall a Sacrifice at the Head of an Army And the Herald's Office supposes as much But there are also some Allays that qualifie the Glory even of this Action For the Man is supposed to be engaged with multitudes and numbers which incourage as well as defend and to fight in a Heat when his Spirits are raised and his Blood runs high so as scarce to be able to feel a Shot or a Stab that shall be given him and to want Opportunity of Retreat and to be kept from reflecting upon his Danger by Noise Tumult and Confusion and to have the Spur of Emulation and the incentive of Anger sometimes of Hatred and Revenge and which is more than all the rest the Hopes of a safe come off at last Believe me this goes a great way and I question whether among those that venture themselves in War one of ten thousand would do so if he knew before-hand that he should certainly die in the Field But now to have a Man go alone and in cold Blood to the Stake or to the Scaffold When in every Period of his Advance 't is still in his Power by compliance to recede from his dreadful undertaking and there calmly and deliberately submit himself to certain Execution and feel himself die with all his Thoughts Reflections and Passions about him this is Courage indeed and such a Noble Spectacle as might well deseve to be a Theatre to Angels and Men yea even to God himself These are some of those great things that illustrate the excellency of Martyrdom and shew it to be one of the highest Degrees of Vertue and consequently that it is intitled to an higher Degree of Glory Which the Scripture also expresly makes to be the Portion of Martyrs who are said to indure tortures and not to accept of deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection A Better Resurrection that is a Resurrection to a Better State of Happiness that being the only Measure whereby one Resurrection may be said to be Better than another And says the Angel to St. John concerning those who are clothed with white Robes and had Palms in their Hands These are they which came out of great Tribulation and have wash'd their Robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple And he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them And now since there is a brighter Crown of Glory prepared for Martyrs and those that suffer Persecution for the sake of Righteousness all that further remains is to commend from the Premises these two Practical Inferences First That we entertain no hard Thoughts of the Justice or Goodness of God for suffering so many severe Persecutions in the Christian Church some whereof were violent as under the Roman Emperors some Fraudulent by Hereticks as Arius Nestorius c. And some of a mixt nature consisting both of Fraud and Violence when both Temporal and Spiritual Power did combine together as as now in the Papal See against the Lord and his Christ. I say we should learn from hence not to censure the ways of God for this nor to charge him foolishly since there is so plentiful a Reward laid up for those that suffer in the Cause of Righteousness Secondly That we so fortifie our selves with the Consideration of this Beatitude That if God should ever honour us so far as to call us to the Trial of the Cross we may be so true to God to Religion and to our own Souls as to suffer couragiously and thankfully ever looking up to that glorious Crown that white Robe and those Triumphant Palms which distinguish the Noble Army of Martyrs who eternally sing Hymns of Praise to God for the Blessing of those Crosses which now spring up into Crowns and in bearing of which they find so great Reward Glory be to God on High The Conclusion of the Whole in a Discourse concerning the Beatitudes in general HAving hitherto Discoursed upon every Beatitude particularly by it self I think it may not be improper for the further Accomplishment of this Work to conclude all with a Discourse concerning the Beatitudes in General Where there are three Material Enquiries that seem to demand Satisfaction The First is Concerning the Manner and Way of this Divine Sermon Why our Lord chose to deliver his Laws and Precepts by the way of Blessing The Second is Concerning the Number of the Beatitudes The Third is Concerning their Order and Method For Satisfaction to the first Enquiry I consider first That Christ who came into the World upon an Errand of Love the greatest Love that an infinitely good God could express to a Creature and who no doubt had also a Soul well tuned and a Body well temper'd and both set to the softest Key of Harmony and Sweetness was willing to deliver his Laws in the most indearing and charming manner that could possibly be that he might the better recommend both Himself and his Doctrin to the good Will of his Auditors and reconcile them thro the Love of the Former to the Obedience of the Latter Which is a very laudable affectation of Popularity
first to engage Men's Affections to our Persons that we may the better win them over to the Acceptance and Entertainment of our Doctrins This indeed ought to be the Care and Endeavour of all Preachers but there was this more particular reason for it in our Lord because the Love of his Person was not only an Indearment of Obedience but also a very considerable part and instance of it He therefore instead of using an Imperative Style by downright commanding such and such things chose rather in a more gentle and condescending way to insinuate what was his Will and our Duty by pronouncing them Blessed that do so and so Secondly I consider that our Lord Christ being to act the Counter-part to Moses and to relax the rigour of his Law by being the Author of a milder Dispensation thought fit to give an early and a solemn Specimen of his greater Mildness by varying the Style of his Legislation from that used by Moses And therefore whereas Moses deliver'd his Law after an Imperatorial way by saying Thou shalt not do this and Thou shalt not do that Our Good Lord chose rather to express his Law more tenderly and Humanly by declaring the Blessedness of those that should observe it And the rather because Moses had arm'd and immured his Law with Curses and Maledictions First in General Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Secondly more particularly by annexing a Curse to particular Transgressions as in that famous Commination in the 27 of Deuteronomy to every Clause of which the People were to say Amen And therefore to shew of what a different Spirit the Christian Institution was from that of Moses our Lord chose to administer his Law in a form of Blessing in Opposition to Moses his Cursings thereby verifying those farewel words of St. Peter's Sermon to the Jews in a larger sense than he intended them God having raised up his Son Jesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his Inquities Thirdly I consider that our Saviour was to deliver a Law of Love a Law that required Love both as the Matter and as the Principle of Obedience Love was both the thing to be done and the Motive of doing it The Son of God was to be the great Prophet of Love T was reserved for him as being the Express Image of him who is Love it self and therefore the only Master fit to teach it This was the Fire which he came to kindle upon Earth the most ardent and affectionate Love towards God and towards Men. This was to be the Substance and Accomplishment of his Law and the distinguishing Badge of those that profess'd Devotion to it By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples c. But now 't would not have been agreeable for a Law of Love to begin its recommendation from such Arguments as should work upon the more Servile part of Man Moses indeed deliver'd his Law with all the Circumstances and Arguments of Fear and the Nature of his Law required such an Address but 't was fit that a Law of Love should come recommended to the World by Motives of Love Fourthly and Lastly It may be further consisted that this solemn Instruction of our Lord upon the Mount consisted of Precepts So very sublime and elevated and withal so strange and unusual as having had not Credit if Reception in the World before that 't was but necessary for the Prevention of Prejudice to set a Beatitude in the Front of every Duty and to bribe the Passions of the Hearers with a forward Anticipation of Happiness lest Men should say of the Commands of Christ as the Prophet brings them in saying of his Person that there is no Form nor Comeliness nor Beauty in them that we should desire them For these and other like Reasons that may be added our Divine and gracious Lawgiver was pleased to deliver his Laws rather by asserting the Blessedness than the Obligation of them Which while I consider I cannot but enter into a profound Admiration of the strange Goodness and Condescension of our Lord that he should so far lay aside the Majesty of a God and a Lawgiver that he might the better act the part of a Friend and of a Redeemer And to seâ— this Consideration the more home upon our Minds let us by the aids of Fancy draw the Curtains of this Intellectual Scene and imagin to our selves that we saw our Saviour seated upon the Mount of Blessing with his Eyes devoutly sets towards Heaven and his Hands affectionately stretch'd forth over the adoring and attentive Multitude and with Looks full of concern for the good of Souls gravely and pathetically distilling down upon them the Dew of his Heavenly Doctrin and tempering his Authority with the Style of Goodness and Kindness as well as his Divinity with the veil of Flesh. Who can with sufficient Wonder contemplate so pleasing a Scene of Love and Sweetness And who that well contemplates it can find in his heart to transgress a Law delivered with so much Condescension or offend a Lawgiver so infinitely so amazingly good Now concerning the Number of the Beatitudes why our Lord should assign Eight and no more t is not easie to offer what shall satisfie all Minds Were I minded to amuse my Reader I could tell him that in the Mystic Philosophy 8 is the Number of Justice and Fulness because it is first of all divided into Numbers equally even namely into 2 Fours which Division again is by the same reason made into 2 times 2 that is 2 times 2 twice reckon'd And by reason of this Equality of Divisions it received the Name of Justice But I do not believe our Saviour intended any Rosie-Crucian Mystery in this matter tho a certain Gentleman of that Order would fain insinuate that he did reckoning this among other Observations upon the Number 8 that there are 8 kinds of Blessed Men in the lesser World The Poor in Spirit the Mourners the Meek they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness c. But I think all that can here be warrantably and safely said is that our Saviour intending as he signify'd by his Ascent into the Mount a Discourse of Perfection and Excellence consisting of such Divine Vertues as were most perfective of Human Nature and for the Practice of which he himself was most exemplary was by his Design concern'd to instance only in the most select and excellent Duties both to God and Man Whereupon premising Humility as being a Duty common to both and withal the Foundation of all the rest he found remaining three extraordinary Duties relating to Man Meekness Mercifulness and Peaceableness and four to God Mourning for Sin Hungring and thirsting after Righteousness Purity of Heart and Suffering of Persecution for Conscience Sake So that our Saviour seems rather to have been directed by a