Proportionable The Solitary good Man saves himself but he that is Religious in Society is in a way of saving both himself and those that see him In so wicked an Age as this is good Men had need shew themselves to the World to do something toward the Amendment and Reformation of it And without doubt some good they do and though it is to be wisht that the World were better yet that it is not worse they are beholding to such Examples which shews that some good is done by their Living and Conversing in Babylon III. Were I to speak to Princes to the Nobles to the Gentry of the Nation to Magistrates Ministers and to men in Authority this should be my Text. All such Persons who make some Figure in the World are like a City set upon a Hill to such the nether World the Plebeians the Commonalty and the Ordinary sort of People look up Their Example they take Notice of and these Examples they Ordinarily follow I would tell them that as God hath raised them above the Common level so God expects they should be eminent in Goodness and be as much above all Vice as they are above the common Rank I would tell them that their Sins are spreading and like the Plague destroy whole Cities and Towns I would tell them that in this Case they are more Barbarous than the Tyrants Mankind cries out upon for they lay several mens Consciences waste by their ill Practices which is more than sacking Towns and burning Cities All ye that are advanced to some Government and surely Parents and Masters of Families are so Behold your selves in this Glass according as your Examples are so will your Inferiours be I do not say it is so always but this is ordinarily the Effect of your Behaviour As you are so will your Children and Servants be at least there is Reason to think that so they will be for your Example strangely influences those that are under your Charge and Protection If you sanctify the Lords day both in Publick and Private by letting the Word of God dwell richly among you in all Wisdom Teaching and Admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace in your Hearts unto the Lord your Inferiours in time its possible would do so too If you are enemies to Pride to Intemperance to Drunkenness to Swearing there is hopes that your Inferiours will learn of you If you are Grave and Modest and curb your Passions and deny your selves for Heaven and Gods Service it is not improbable that your Inferiours will be wrought upon to make you their Patterns We see they do so in evil Things why should we despair of their following you in that which is good At least you have this Satisfaction that by your Example you shew'd them the Way to the Land which flows with Milk and Honey You will have this Comfort that your Example did not lead them into the Chambers of Death nor make them fling their immortal Souls away All ye that are Professours of Religion that pretend to be holier than ordinary the Eyes of the World will be upon you The least false step you make will be taken notice of See then that you walk Circumspectly as wise Men redeeming the Time because the days are Evil. IV. Such of you whom the Spirit of God hath made free from the Law of Sin you are not only a City set upon a Hill but behold you are come into mount Sion to the heavenly Jerusalem unto the City of the living God and to the innumerable company of Angels as the Apostle saith Heb. XII 18. Behold God hath called you to be Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem called you to be Companions of Angels called you to dwell on the Hill of God on the everlasting Hill How high is your Calling How excellent your Vocation How great the dignity God intends you Your conversation is to be in Heaven and will you mind the Trifles of the Flesh and so mind them as to set your Affections upon them Will you who are Born new Born I mean to an everlasting Kingdom will you be fond of this pitiful transitory World you that are intended for the highest Imployment will you do as the Children of the World do They are from Beneath you are from Above Do Eagles catch Flies and you that are intended to soar above the Clouds will you disgrace your Pedigree and and set your Affections on things Below God intends you as Conquerours and will you suffer your selves to fall a Prey to filthy Temptation and expose your selves to the Contempt and Scorn of the Fowler who Flatters you till he draws you into the Net and then Punishes you for being taken Behold the glorious City the City of our God the City set upon a Hill indeed the City which hath Foundations whose builder and maker is God! Do you hope to be Members of that Community and will you disparage your selves by Actions that will certainly exclude you from that Republick At the Gates of it no unclean Thing shall enter A clean Heart and a clean Life must give you jus Givitatis make you free Denisons of that City and will not you prepare your selves for the Honour of that Naturalization Except you imitate the Manners of the Citizens above you can never hope to be Partners with them in their Glory and what are their Manners Why They love Love is their Trade their Employment their Business their Pleasure their Delight their Satisfaction They love nothing but God or if they love any Thing besides him they love it for his Sake and love God in it Love is their Principle their End their Mark and their Entertainment Love is their Meat and Drink and their Recreation They love Dearly they love Constantly they love Eternally God is love and he dwells in them and they in God To be like them see that ye love him that hath begotten you again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead See that ye love one another with a pure Heart fervently See that your love be without dissimulation See that ye love not in Word nor in Tongue but indeed and in truth and when the Thred of your Life shall break that Love which dwelt in you will exalt you to the Regions of perfect Love where the Inhabitants speak of Love and think of Love and sing of Love and tell one another how Christ hath loved them and wash'd them from their Sins with his own Blood To him be Glory forever Amen FINIS * Anno 1641. †So call'ed as some think from Bacchi ara Vid. Misson's Trav. Tom. 1. Lett. 6 * An. 1665. †The Rectory of Doulton in Devonshire ‖ An 1669. * Charles Lodowick Elector Palatine †An 1671. * Plin. l. 1. ep 12. * Varen descript Japon †The learned W. Sclater us'd to call this Distemper to which he himself was much subject Studiosorum flagellum * Before this last Illness of which he died he fell in the year 1678 into along and languishing Sickness occasioned through his indefatigable Application to the Duties and Functions of his Ministry It brought him well nigh to his Grave The good Man ascribed his Recovery under God to the tender Care of his vertuous Wife with whom he always liv'd in great Concord and Union and to the Prayers of pious People put up to Heaven on his behalf as appears from some devout Meditations which he compos'd on that Subject and which have been found since his Decease among his Papers In Thanksgiving to God for his Preservation at that time which he himself look'd on as next to miraculous he kept a Day Monthly in his Family ever after and preach'd yearly a Commemoration Sermon to his beloved Congregation at the Savoy wherein he rehearsed God's Mereies to him and excited others to hope and trust in him in the like Extremities He also distributed largely to the Poor upon that Day This was his constant Method to treasure up God's Providences to him and to sanctifie and improve them not only to his own Use but to the Use and Benefit of others * Hieron vit Hilarion * Platon Axiochus * Vulg. lat in locum †Theophylact on Matth. 24. Crucific Jesus p. 557. †Socrat. Apolog. * Jul. Celsus de vit J. Caesaris * He commenc'd Doctor at Cambridge in the Year 1681. This is mention'd here it having thro'inadvertency been omitted in its proper place Vid. Grot in Loc. Vid. Cornel à Lap. in Luc. G. Leti Vid. Cornel. à Lap. in Jacobi 1. v. ult Pliny
or Aims or Intentions especially in religious Actions This must needs be the intent of our great Master here since we see he finds fault so often with Men that aimed to be seen of Men to have Glory of Men to gain the Applause and Commendations of Men and designed their Profit and Gain in Actions relating to Devotion The Christian that 's free from such sinister Aims in praying praising fasting giving of Alms preaching speaking to others of his Experiences and hath nothing before his Eyes but the Glory of God the good of his Neighbour the peace of his own Conscience and the Salvation of his own Soul may justly be said to be pure in Heart and this is agreeable to that simplicity which we hear so often press'd and which the Apostles did so much rejoyce in 2 Cor. I. 12. Without this our services want that Sincerity which must make them amiable to the searcher of hearts and the Apostle insists upon it Rom. XII 9. when he saith Let love be without dissimulation and since love to God is expressed by our religious exercises it must necessarily follow these must be free from sinister ends which if they be not they fall under the brand and character of Dissimulation 3. A pure heart delights in holy Thoughts These are Meat and Drink to it and such a person delights in thinking of the works of God and the operations of his hands of his will and of his commands of his promises and of his threatnings of his various providences and dispensations of Heaven and eternal happiness These Thoughts wonderfully purifie the heart and keep it clean these keep up the Spirit of Religion and make the soul a fit temple for the Deity to lodge in it 's true there is no man so holy and who lives in the world or hath a lawfull calling but must think of his concerns in the world how to manage them to the good of his family and relations and others such thoughts are very necessary in order to a prudent ordering of our affairs and without doubt are allowable and lawfull for which of you intending to build a tower sits not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it saith our Saviour Luk. XIV 28. But all this may be done and yet the heart delight in holy thoughts in these more than in the other in these for pleasure in the other for necessity to this purpose Solomon The thoughts of the righteous are right Prov. XII 5. but St. Paul more emphatically 2 Cor. IV. 18. We look not so much at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen Looking here is thinking and there is no beholding things invisible but by contemplation of the Heart and Mind Contemplation represents things eternal in lively colours and in seeing these the primitive Believers rejoyced more than in gazing on the riches and glories of this visible world temporal things they thought on by the by but the strength of their thoughts was reserved for the other A pure heart is a heart enamour'd with God a heart that loves nothing like him a soul whose secret desires are after him and whose desires are strong and vehement and though it hath obligations to love the creature yet it is in subordination to him and for him who is altogether lovely a heart which discovers its love not only by external obedience but by inward breathings and sighs and groans which cannot be uttered and loves any thing that belongs to him his word his laws his sacraments his faithfull ministers and those that truly fear him what this inward love is the admirable David describes at large Psal. CXIX and when in this Psalm you read such expressions as these With my whole heart have I sought thee v. 10. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times v. 20. Horror hath taken hold of me because of the wicked that forsake thy law v. 53. The law of thy mouth is dearer unto me than thousands of gold and silver v. 72. my soul fainteth for thy salvation v. 81. O how I love thy law it is my meditation all the day v. 97. How sweet are thy words unto my mouth yea sweeter than honey unto my taste v. 103. I say when you read such expressions as these you may guess at the nature of this love which purifies the heart Cassianus hath an observation which I cannot pass by without making some remarks upon it and it is this That the greatest sign of a pure heart is when that inward purity influences our very dreams and that a man instead of dreaming of trifles and impertinencies dreams of God and spiritual objects The observation seems a little odd because in dreams the fancy plays her Mistress reason because the bodily organs the tools whereby she works are asleep suspending her operations and dreams we know depend much upon the constitution and complexion of the body and yet there is some truth in it for if as Solomon notes Eccles. V. 3. A dream comes through multitude of business Men have been engaged in in the day time or from things they have heard or seen or discours'd of it may very well be that a person who hath got a habit of contemplating things divine and heavenly whose thoughts are taken up all day with spiritual objects may find a tincture of all this in his very dreams and the things he most delighted in and was most conversant with may present themselves to his fancy and there appear in lively shapes and dresses in the night and I do not doubt where a man could arrive to that felicity as to dream for the most part of Heaven and a future Happiness and pray and praise God in his dreams whenever his Imagination wakes in his sleep as it would argue that the person makes religion his business so it would be a very good sign of Purity of heart and that his heart and affections are truly set upon God but I will lay no stress upon this observation because it hath not the Scripture for its guide the characters I have given of the pure in heart are warranted by the word of God and in these we cannot be mistaken and those who are so are certainly blessed But then II. If the pure in heart are blessed those that are not so or will not be so cannot be happy which is the second point I am to speak to and I shall evince it by these following familiar arguments 1. Such persons cannot converse with God in this converse mans happiness consists and the reason why they cannot is because their hearts are impure Can two walk together except they be agreed saith God Amos III. 3. Purity and Impurity are incapable of communion When God converses with man he takes possession of the heart there he dwells there is his seat but if that be impure and full of darkness God avoids the infected place In this
Passage another before it which is suitable enough to their Design which was to give us an Account of the Treasure no matter in what order the Jewels lie And accordingly St. Luke sets down the Delivery of this Sermon or the Substance of it after the miraculous Cure wrought upon the Man who had the wither'd Hand Luke VI. 12. but St. Matthew chuses to speak of it before he mentions the Miracle not that one saith it was done before and the other after that would be a contradiction Only one thinks fit to take notice of it before he records the Miracle the other thinks it convenient to record the Miracle first and then the Sermon 2. The Agreement of the Evangelists appears chiefly in this that none denies what the other saith One mentions a Circumstance which another leaves out but though all do not mention the same yet none denies the thing To apply this to the Sermon before us St. Luke ch VI. 12. saith Christ went up into the Mountain to pray which St. Matthew takes no notice of yet his silence is no denial of that Circumstance St. Luke adds That going up into the Mountain he chose Twelve Disciples which might very well be though St. Matthew says nothing of it in this Chapter Both these Evangelists agree That Christ went up into a Mountain one indeed seems to affirm that he deliver'd this Sermon on the Mount the other after he came down from the Mount Both are in the right especially if we say that he deliver'd this Sermon on the Mount at large and when he came down by way of Summary or Epitome for the easier remembrance of his Hearers for indeed St. Luke's relation is nothing but a Summary of this Sermon And we know it 's customary with the Evangelists not only for one to set down the very Words of Christ for the other the Sense but also for one to repeat such a Discourse in its full Scope and Latitude and for another to give us only the Heads of it But II. What were the Multitudes that appear'd here and why did they come St Matthew ch IV. 25. tells us They were great Multitudes of People from Galilee and Decapolis from Jerusalem and from Judaea and from beyond Jordan and so saith St. Luke ch VI. 17. who adds That some came from the Coasts of Tyre and Sidon 1. It was a mixt Multitude some good some bad some well inclin'd others averse from Seriousness some whom meer Curiosity brought hither others whom a Sense of another World encourag'd to come and this is what we may say of all Multitudes that press into our Churches at this Day some are of Gallio's Mind and care for none of these things only come for fashion's sake others of Lydia's Temper whose Hearts God opens to attend to the things spoken by his Messengers Some with Festus make themselves merry with the Preacher's Discourse and Expressions others like Agrippa are almost perswaded to be Christians but very few prove true Converts 2. The end for which they came was partly to hear and partly to be healed as we find Luke VI. 17. Though in hearing it was with them as with the Seed in the Parable Some fell by the Way-side some in stony ground some among thorns some in a good natur'd soil as it is Matth. XIII yet hearing was their end and I wonder not to find them ambitious to hear this wonderfull Person who to his Doctrine join'd the Testimony of Heaven which is Miracles Had all Judaea believ'd him to be the Messiah where one ran after him Thousands and Millions would have come to hear him however the greater part took him for a Prophet mighty in Word and Deed and inspired and one that had more than ordinary converse with God and this was Temptation enough to hear him They had for many Years heard the insipid Discourses of the Scribes and Pharisees and were even tired with their superstitious Niceties and Traditions and Ceremonies and pressing the cleansing of the out-side of the Cup and Platter But here was a Person that spoke to the Heart and with Authority and things solid and great and weighty without design or interest or affectation of applause and there appear'd in his Discourses something more than humane even a Divine Light and Power which made them leave their Work and Employments to hear him Another reason of their coming was to be cured of their Diseases and Infirmities Though Christ's curing Gratis without Fee or Money might be a Temptation to many of the poorer sort to make use of him yet to others his miraculous Way of chasing away Distempers with a Word and By-way of Command and healing Diseases which mock'd all the Attempts of Surgeons and Physicians might be the greater Motive Christ's curing Distempers of the Body was in order to heal their distemper'd Souls To set up for a Physician only had been too mean an Employ and therefore we must suppose that his Charity to their outward was in order to conferr a greater Charity on their inward Man and their acknowledgment of his Power and Goodness was to lead them to a holy Obedience to his Precepts and particularly to Repentance and Reformation of Life and though it 's probable few came with that intent I mean to have their Souls freed from the Corruptions they had no Sense of yet being come many found by blessed Experience strange Cures wrought upon their Consciences and went away not only sound in Body but with a lively Sense of their Duty The outward Cure astonish'd them into consideration of their ways and they thought they could do no less in Gratitude than become Subjects to his Will who had conquer'd their Diseases Christ's Touch went farther than their Bodies and their Souls felt the Power of it as much as their Flesh and he that felt his Distemper departing found at the same time that his love to sin stole away and a new love succeeded a fervent love to God and his Holy Precepts But III. The next thing that occurs in this Historical Part is Christ's going up into the Mount St. Jerom takes notice that some weak Brethren of his time took this Mount to be the Mount of Olives others believe it to have been a Mountain distant about three Miles from Capernaum But the Scripture gives the Mount no Name and therefore they only speak their Guesses that are not content with these general Notices There is a Mountain at this Day in Judaea they say which is call'd Christ's Mount and the Fryars that get Mony by shewing Ancient Monuments will needs have it to be the Mountain spoken of in the Text and for Confirmation of their Story pretend to shew the very Stone on which Christ sat when he deliver'd the ensuing Precepts but there is no Credit to be given to such Reports nor indeed is it material to know what Mountain it was The reasons why he ascended into a Mountain will be more to the purpose and
What poverty in Spirit is And here negatively it is not 1. A bare outward Poverty or being destitute of the Necessaries and Conveniencies of this Life not a Poverty in Purse not a worldly Poverty not a State of Beggery We do not deny but Poverty hath great advantages with respect to being good and the poor Man is more expedite in his Journey to Heaven for he hath none of those Clogs none of those Briars and Thorns which too often hinder the Richer sort of Men from discerning or prosecuting their everlasting Happiness This divers of the Heathen Philosophers saw who therefore spoke a Thousand pretty things concerning Poverty what a help it was to Virtue what a means to become truly wise what an Advantage to arrive to solid goodness Nay some went so far as to abandon their Riches and throw their Gold and Silver into the Sea that they might be more at leisure to improve their Minds and to enrich their better Part. And indeed Our Saviour seems very much to favour this Condition and there are so many things spoken against Riches and rich Men in the Gospel as are enough to make Men that enjoy any Plenty or Prosperity afraid for fear their Reward should be with Men who have their Portion in this Life and it is to be noted that Christ says a very great thing concerning this state of Poverty To the Poor the Gospel is preach'd and this he reckons among the Miracles he wrought to prove himself the promis'd Messiah or Redeemet of the World It is Matth. XI 5. The blind receive their sight the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead are rais'd up and the poor have the Gospel preach'd unto them The poor It must be confess'd our Saviour did not go to Court nor did he associate himself much with Rich men except they were of a better Temper than ordinary and he seem'd to be the poor Men's Preacher as if he thought the Rich were not capable of receiving his stricter Discipline and as if the Poor were the most likely Persons to espouse his severer Doctrines Carnal reason would have thought that when Christ appear'd first on the Stage of the World he should have made his first Addresses to the Grandees of Judaea and Men of Estate and Fortune But no his Converse was chiefly with poor Fisher-men and the needy Multitude and here lay the Miracle and the Reason of it we may guess at viz. to shew that the Poor are in a greater Capacity of listening to his Oracles than the Rich who have so many things to divert them from the way to Eternal Bliss so much Business and Pleasure to mind here on Earth that they are not at leisure to think of Heaven And yet notwithstanding all this a bare outward Poverty doth not entitle a Man to the Kingdom of Heaven It 's a great help to Seriousness if sanctified and improved and the want of Comforts here on Earth be made a motive to seek them in Heaven but the bare outward want doth not make Men happy for we see too often that the poorer Men are the wickeder they are and their outward want makes them more daring in Impiety and surely this can be no qualification for Eternal Bliss The Punctilio's of State which the Richer sort of Men think themselves obliged to observe the Luxury they are apt to run into the pampering of their Bodies their pride in Cloaths and external Habits their sinfull compliances with Persons of their Rank and Quality their Care to encrease their Riches to get an Estate suitable to the figure they make in the World their ambition oppressions and domineering over the meaner sort and their study to keep up their Credit with the Great and Potent all which too often are very powerfull imediments in the Richer sort to be truly wise to Salvation These the poor Man is freed from nor hath he so great an Account to give there being but little given him and consequently is in a greater Capacity and possibility of being wise and good and happy but his bare outward Poverty will not do the Work and therefore is not intended here Nor 2. A vowed voluntary Poverty This some Champions of the Church of Rome contend for as if their Monastick vows were commended here Even a Poverty whereby Men and Women do voluntarily renounce their Estates and Riches and bestow them either upon their Relations or the Poor or the Church and thereupon entring into a Monastery or Nunnery Vow perpetual Poverty Chastity and blind Obedience and this they make a piece of Evangelical perfection which all Men are not obliged to but such as some Persons do voluntarily undertake to encrease their own Merits and sometime to merit for others too But certainly this cannot be the sense here for the Poverty here mention'd is represented as a Duty incumbent upon all Men and without which a Christian will certainly miss of a future Bliss for thus saith Christ in the Conclusion of this Sermon Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not him will I liken to a foolish Man that built his House upon the Sand and when the Rain descended c. We make do doubt of it but that God is pleased with Self-denials in our Estates and Fortunes if well-grounded and proceeding upon very good Principles and we believe that such free Will-offerings are very acceptable to him and by his special Grace and Favour may encrease a Man's glory and felicity in another World A Man that hath a thousand Pound a Year and resolves to live upon two or three Hundred and to consecrate the rest to pious Uses or whatever a man's Income is greater or lesser if he religiously confines himself to a small Pittance that he may be in a greater capacity of doing good We are so far from discouraging such a Person that we commend and applaud him and believe the Love of God is strong and vigorous in his Soul and do no doubt but he will be recompens'd accordingly in the Resurrection of the dead provided this self-denial be not intended as a way to satisfie God or to make him compensation and amends for some sins men are loath to part with But we cannot be so foolish as to think that by such self-denials a Man merits any thing of God or may challenge a higher degree of Glory as his due for that savours of monstrous Pride and instead of exalting to will certainly exclude the Soul from the Kingdom of Heaven And what need Men talk of Merit when they have a most bountifull Master to deal with who rewards those that diligently seek him beyond what they are able to think or to express Nor can we be so sottish as to think that a Man who thus denies himself can spare some of his good Works or that the Vertue of them may be applied to others who are either defective in goodness or suffer in Purgatory and consequently such a Poverty
there is comfort in it for Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Three things will deserve our consideration I. Whether all mourners are blessed and if not who they be that are so II. Wherein their Blessedness consists III. How and when they shall be comforted I. Whether all mourners are blessed and if not who they be that are so 1. There is a natural Sorrow or mourning for the Loss of Parents or Children or other Relatives or Friends or Goods or Necessaries or outward Accommodations This Sorrow even the best of Men are subject to and if it be moderate not long not violent not excessive not bordering upon despair as if all our happiness were gone not join'd with mistrust of God's Providence but sweetened and qualified with thoughts of the Will of God and our own Demerits and God's holy and wise Designs it is allowable and there is no hurt in it but still this cannot make a Man blessed for at the best it is but a natural Infirmity and that 's no ingredient of Blessedness Excessive mourning for outward Losses or an impatient Sorrow is a downright Sin and I need not tell you that this is incapable of making a Man blessed And of this Nature is sorrow or mourning because we cannot accomplish our wicked Design or because we cannot revenge our selves upon an Adversary as we would or because we cannot have that Plenty and Estate and Fortune and Prosperity which other voluptuous Men enjoy All such mourning is offensive to God and makes Men miserable and therefore cannot make them blessed There is besides all this a sorrow proceeding from melancholy which makes People lament and mourn and take on and sigh and look sad and they cannot tell why This must needs be the effect of a Distemper and therefore can be no part of Blessedness or true Happiness And therefore 2. The mourners who are pronounced blessed here must be mourners of another sort And they are 1. Such as mourn for their sins Such a mourner was David whom Sin and a due Sense of it made even roar by reason of the disquietness of his heart Psal. XXXVIII 8. Such a mourner was Peter who after the denial of his Master went out and wept bitterly Matth. XXVI 75. Such a mourner was Mary Magdalen or whoever the Woman was that wash'd our Saviour's Feet with her Tears Luke VII 38. The mourners that are said to be blessed here are Persons that deny themselves mourn not for such things as the World mourns for but such as sensual Men take no notice of There is no self denial in mourning for outward Losses even Children can do that but in mourning for his sins a Man must go contrary to the stream of natural inclination and offer a kind of violence to himself and that makes it a pleasing Sacrifice and he mourns happily that takes on because he is sensible how evil a thing and how bitter it is to forsake the LORD and that his fear hath not been in him as it is said Jer. II. 19. Repentance cannot but make a Man happy and the Nature of it is said to consist in this in looking at that Jesus that Saviour that Redeemer whom we have pierc'd by our Sins and whose Love and Blood we have affronted and to mourn as one that mourns for his only Son Zachar. XII 10. 2. Such as mourn for other Men's sins whether publick or private such a mourner was the Royal Prophet Rivers of Tears ran down his Eyes because other Men did not keep God's Laws Psal. CXIX 136. Such a mourner was Jeremiah whom we hear wishing Jer. IX 1 2. O that my head were Water and mine eyes a fountain of Tears that I might weep day and night because my People are Adulterers an assembly of treacherous Men. Such mourners were those pious Men we read of Ezek. IX 4. Who cried for the abominations of the House of Israel and lastly such were the faithfull Corinthians who sorrow'd after a Godly sort for having given the incestuous Person too much incouragement to come into their Congregations a sorrow upon which St. Paul makes this remark 2 Cor. VII II. What carefulness hath it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge Such mourners are Persons of true Christian compassion their sorrow is noble and generous and like the sorrow of God Ezek. VI. 9. I am broken with their whorish heart which hath departed from me 3. Such as mourn for the loss or absence of God's spiritual Blessings I say Spiritual because there is a favour of God which relates to the gay and great things of the World such as Riches Plenty and outward Prosperity a favour bestow'd even upon the worst of Men and to mourn for the loss or absence of this favour makes no Man happy that which makes us so is mourning for the loss or absence of God's spiritual Blessings such as being deprived of the use of God's publick Ordinances a remarkable instance where of we have in David when forced during Saul's persecution to wander in Deserts and Wildernesses among Heathens and Infidels where he had no opportunity of visiting the House of God and participating of the Prayers and Praises of God's People a lively Description of which mourning he gives us Psal. XLII 3 4. My tears have been my meat day and night while they say daily unto me where is thy God When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me for I had gone with the multitude I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise with the multitude which keeps holy-day How this afflicted him he expresses more fully Vers. 5. where he talks of his Soul being cast down and disquieted within him And of this nature is the mourning of many pious Christians who have sometime felt great peace great joy great satisfaction in the practice of Religion but find the light of God's countenance withdrawn terrour dwells in their minds and horrour fills their Souls they find not that chearfulness that fervour that alacrity in God's service which once they felt and for this they mourn blessed are these mourners 4. Such as mourn because they cannot as yet perfectly overcome the corruptions which do so easily beset them Indeed the Reign the Tyrannizing Power the Dominion of sin is broken in them but as it was with the seven Nations after that their Empire was destroyed some of the Enemies here and there remain'd to exercise the Courage of the Israelites so in good Men after they have shaken off the Yoak of the Devil some reliques of their old sins remain against which they fight they strive they labour they watch they pray that their Pride their desire of vain-glory their passion their hastiness of Spirit their pusillanimity and cowardice in speaking for God their timorousness in reproving their Neighbours their mistrust of God's mercy their
love and affection to the World c. may be gone that God would arise and that these Enemies may be scatter'd they use means they enquire what they must do to mortify these unruly desires they deny themselves they fast they are angry with these Corruptions yet ever and anon before they are aware they fall and imprudently yield to Temptations of this nature they would feign be Masters of those vertues accomplishments and perfections which did shine so bright in the primitive Saints but cannot as yet arrive to that excellent Temper for this they mourn and are dejected and sorrow seizes upon their hearts and minds yet still blessed are these mourners 5. Such as mourn because their stay in this World is long because they are kept out of Heaven and from the perfect enjoyment of God because they are obliged to continue in this barren Wilderness of the World where they must see their God dishonoured his Name profaned his Creatures abused his Ordinances derided his Providences disregarded his Precepts slighted his Promises undervalued his Threatnings scorned and Charity grow cold and Iniquity abound This draws from them David's complaint Wo is me that I must dwell in Mesech and have my habitation in the Tents of Kedar Ps. CXX 5. Indeed such mourners are but few most Men being desirous to enjoy the World as long as they can yet some there are that have made their Calling and Election sure and long to be gone long to be dissolved and to be with Christ and to be cloath'd upon with their House from Heaven long to join the Quire of Angels long to be freed from this Earthly Tabernacle and all this upon the excellent Principle of the love of God not from impatience under their pain and sickness or frowns of the World or their mean condition here but because the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts and because they are kept from enjoying their desire because the amorous Needle is with-held from clinging to the beloved Magnet they mourn blessed mourning But what You 'll say do no mourners under Temporal losses and crosses come into the Number of these blessed Men I answer yes 1. If the cause for which and in which they suffer losses of their Goods or Friends be great and noble if they sulfer for the Gospel's sake upon the Account of Righteousness and a good Conscience in this case their mourning under their Temporal losses may intitle them to blessedness provided that their mourning be mingled with faith and hope and a holy self-resignation and that they mourn more for the wickedness of the Person who are the instruments of their Persecution than for the want of their Corn and Wine and Oil and the Garlicks and Onions of Egypt 2. If under their Temporal losses they mourn chiefly for their sins which have both caused and deserved these sufferings Sorrow barely for Temporal losses and for being deprived of the satisfactions of the flesh cannot be reconciled to that Spiritual life the Gospel presses something there must be to sweeten that sour Sop as it stands alone it comes under the notion of sorrow of the World and that we are told works death 2 Cor. VII 10. And consequently happiness cannot be the fruit or effect of it The Soul therefore that mourns under such outward Calamities must look off from the Calamity to the cause of it or Sin which hath procured it and that sanctifies the sorrow and makes the mourner blessed Yet to prevent mistakes I must necessarily add these following cautions 1. We are not to think that in order to arrive to this Blessedness a Man or Woman must do nothing but mourn There is a time for every thing and there are other things to be done besides mourning even the particular Duties and Vertues and Self-denials required and commanded in this Chapter so that when it is said here blessed are they that mourn the meaning is blessed are they that do so as they have occasion to reflect either upon the Spiritual Evils which are present or upon the Spiritual Blessings that are absent from them It 's enough that there be a disposition or aptitude to mourn which exerts it self whenever any opportunity offers it self to consider and to think of such Objects as deserve and require our mourning else Spiritual Joy would be no Duty and if our lives were to be fill'd with mourning the Apostle's Exhortation had been useless Phil. IV. 1. Rejoyce in the Lord always i. e. upon all occasions and again I say Rejoyce Neither 2. Must the stress be laid upon the bare mourning as if the mourning and weeping and sadness alone were pleasing to God and groans were the only livery of Heaven but this mourning must be in order to a greater end even to establish our Souls in the love of God to strengthen our graces to corroborate our repentance and aversion from sin and to purifie our outward and inward Man more and more and therefore it is emphatically call'd sorrowing to Repentance 2 Cor. VII 9. Nor 3. Are we to think that a certain degree of mourning is always necessary even mourning expressed in so much weeping and sorrowing as we find in other Christians of our Acquaintance All men's conditions are not alike a Person that hath been profane and lewd hath reason to mourn more than he whose Sins have been of a lesser size not but that it was commendable to weep bitterly even for infirmities but the obligation of mourning is greater certainly upon a rapacious Publican than upon the pious Couple Zacharias and Elizabeth Besides all men's Constitutions are not alike some being of that tender Complexion that the least touch or sense of things makes them weep others of a hardier make who may be astonish'd and concern'd at great things but cannot make that outward shew of mourning that others can It 's enough therefore that the sorrow be rational and that the mind be so affected with the object that causes or deserves mourning as to work in us a willingness to mourn more if we could and an indignation against the Spiritual Evils which are present and an earnest longing and endeavour after the Spiritual Blessings which are absent and we stand in need of Having set down these cautions I proceed to the second Part to acquaint you II. Wherein the Blessedness of such mourners consists 1. This mourning is the Character of Saints Ezek. IX 4. 2 Cor. XII 21. Why what Blessedness is there in this will some say How no Blessedness in being a Saint what 's the reason then that Kings and Princes wish they were so what 's the reason that most wicked Men when they come to die would fain be of that Number Nay what 's the reason that in your Creed you believe a Communion of Saints Is it not in this Creed that you profess the greatest Blessings that were ever bestow'd upon the Children of Men And if the Communion of Saints be one must it
abused undervalued dishonoured called ill Names when things are said and done which are against your interest opinion judgement and when you are crost by your Neighbours in your designs then to be meek then to be silent then to say nothing or to answer with Moderation and Discretion then to return nothing that may favour of revenge in word or deed that 's Meekness that 's the Tryal that 's the Vertue we speak of then to curb your Passions then to refrain then to hush and quiet your unruly Affections not out of Policy but out of Love to God and Charity of your Neighbour that 's great that 's to prepare for inheriting the land where Angels live Some are such cunning Artists that they can conceal their Passion when it is their interest not to shew it but whenever they have a fair opportunity to shew their Spleen they will not fail to let the Offender know that they have not forgot the injury offer'd them But this is Hypocrisie not Meekness Malice and Artifice not Calmness in a word a perfect Cheat. It 's a sense of God a sense of our duty a sense of the necessity of it a sense of the love of Christ a sense of the weight and importance of the Precepts of the Gospel that must plant this Meekness in our Souls and this is it that must check and over-awe our unruly Appetites Sinister ends and designs spoil all vertue whatsoever It 's not suppressing a Sin but destroying it not hiding it from men for the present but laying the Axe to the root of the Tree that makes men Favourites of Heaven Besides this Meekness must be universal exercis'd not only when Persons great and powerfull whom we fear or from whom we expect some advantages give the Provocation but when our Equals or Inferiours or Persons whom we have some command over say and do things which are apt to stir up Passions within us How far we may lawfully be angry with such Persons I have shewn in the beginning of this Discourse but for the most part in the affairs of meum and tuum in things where our Honour Profit Ease and Pleasure and Interest are touch'd that 's the Theatre on which this Meekness must be shewn II. Since such a Blessedness attends this admirable Vertue no less than inheriting the Regions of Eternal Bliss need I give you any other Arguments to make you enamour'd with it when the present and the future favour of that God in whose Power it is to make us happy or miserable for ever is promis'd and entail'd upon this qualification What strange Hearts must you have if such Motives cannot prevail with you to resolve upon the serious Study and Practice of it But I am naturally fretfull a. small thing discomposes me and I cannot help it How sinner Naturally fretfull Hath grace then done thee no Service Hath the Gospel done no good upon thee Art thou yet in a State of Nature and art not thou afraid What in the Flesh yet and a stranger to the Spirit of Christ and unconcern'd at the solemn Protestations of God that they that are in the Flesh cannot please God and that he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Is that thy excuse which ought to be thy sorrow or shall that serve as an Apology which deserves thy deep Repentance Ay But I have such provocations given me that Flesh and Blood is not able to endure them the meekest Man alive could not forbear being in a passion if he had to deal with such Men as I have Ah Christian Christian did I say thou art none till thou studiest Meekness yet I know thou art proud of that Name and be it so Christian how willing art thou to believe that none is truly meek because thou art not How willing to believe that none hath such provocations as thou hast and that none is able to bear them because thou art loath to endure them Doubt not vain Man there have been and are thousands in the World that with an admirable calmness of mind have born and do bear far more than ever thou hadst occasion to bear What Doest thou think thy God commands thee impossibilities Dost thou take him to be so hard a Master that he bids thee remove Mountains and gives thee no strength to touch them with one of thy Fingers There are means which being conscientiously used will curb thy raging Passions and turn thy Wrath and Anger into the Meekness of a Lamb and they are these following 1. Next to fervent and importunate Prayer which must ever be used in all Attainments of Vertue great Consideration must be used Consideration I mean of the Dignity and Excellency of this Vertue and the Deformity and unseemliness of its opposite Anger and Wrath and inordinate Passion What harmony what sweetness what excellent Musick doth this Meekness cause in the Soul what disorder what confusion doth anger stir up in that noble part How amiable is the one how detestable the other Behold an angry Man what a disfigured Creature is he The Picture is loathsome and the Shape abominable 2. When you find the passion of anger stirring in you be silent say nothing do nothing till that inward heat be over and then speak and do what Reason and Religion and Conscience shall dictate It was very good advice of Athenodorus to Augustus the Emperour whenever he was angry with a Man to repeat the four and twenty Letters of the Alphabet before he proceeded to the Execution of the sentence for he thought by that time his thoughts would be cooler and he would judge better 3. Think of the many peremptory Commands that press this Meekness upon you Eph. IV. 2. Col. III. 12. Matth. XI 28 29. 1 Pet. II. 21 22. 1 Pet. III. 4. Surely these Commands were not given in vain and did you reflect what the Name Christian imports not to go to Church not to profess the Gospel not to call your selves Protestants but to live up to the Commands of Christ Jesus your Lord and your God and how he protests that he will own none for his Disciple or Follower that is unwilling to do what he Commands Such serious reflections would work upon you make you venture all to arrive to this grace the rather because while you live in neglect of this Vertue you live in sin and to live in sin is a state of Enmity against God and is this the Coat of God's Children 4. The Example of Christ hath moved and perswaded others to this Vertue and can it not move you Behold that Lamb of God who endured greater reproaches injuries calumnies yet like a Sheep before his Shearers he was dumb It 's true he calls the Pharisees sometimes Fools and blind Guides and Serpents and a Generation of Vipers but these are only just Descriptions of the Nature of those Beasts not the results of a disorderly Passion In affronts offered to his Person how calm how gentle was
case the castle is already in possession of Gods enemy and therefore there is no entertainment for him whose purity is infinite for the law of this converse is with the mercifull thou wilt shew they self mercifull and with the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure Psal. XVIII 25. 2. As the impure cannot converse with God so they cannot appropriate him to themselves and therefore cannot be blessed for mans blessedness arises from being able to say That God is his God his Friend and peculiar Treasure It 's true the man whose heart is impure professes an interest in God as well as the purest souls but words and sayings and boastings do not make the title good God will not be his God that will not have him reign over him his indeed to judge him but not his to save him his to send him to Hell but not his to give him a right to the tree of Life He whose heart is impure le ts Sin and World reign over him offers the Throne of God i. e. his heart to an usurper puts the Scepter into a Traitors hand and sets open the Gates for Thieves and Robbers to come in and surely this cannot be the way to appropriate God to our selves or to take comfort in his love and therefore no right to blessedness 3. Such are not blessed because they cannot see God The sinfull worldly Lusts and Thoughts and Desires which like Vermin crawl in their hearts darken their sight There is a thick veil over their hearts that they cannot see and tast how sweet and gracious the Lord is Their Souls are oppressed there lies much earth upon them a very great weight of earthly carnal disorderly Thoughts and Desires that like Swine they cannot look up to things above them Their Souls indeed are in the nature of Glass but the Glass is greazy and sullied with the Smoak of vain Imaginations which hinders them from beholding his goings in the Sanctuary or at the best they look upon God as men do upon objects through the wrong end of a perspective which represents things great and near as little and afar off He that lacketh these things saith St. Peter is blind and cannot see afar off He that wants a pure heart is that person and wants that which must give him right apprehensions of God the impure Lusts he cherishes in his heart shut the eyes of his heart and understanding that he hath nothing but confused Notions and Ideas of God and his ways an estate very different from theirs who are pure in heart for they shall see God which calls me to the III. Third and last particular How the pure in heart shall see God and since this Vision relates both to this present Life and that to come we must take a distinct view of both And 1. How they see and shall see God in this present Life And here it must be taken for granted that God cannot be seen with the Organs of the body for he is a Spirit infinite immaterial uncompounded and though he fills Heaven and Earth with his presence and is not far from every one of us yet no man ever saw him and indeed none can see him 1 Tim. VI. 16. but this is still to be understood of the Eyes of the Flesh with the Eye of the Understanding without all peradventure he may be seen and that 's the seeing Christ aims at here for it 's evident he speaks of the purity of Heart and Mind and therefore what he says of seeing God must be meant of the Eyes of that pure Mind Even Heathen Philosophers required Purification of the heart from all gross lustfull covetous and worldly desires without which they said a man could never arrive to the brighter knowledge of Philosophy Christ leads his followers to a higher object and promises not so much a clear insight into the mysteries of Nature as a sight of the best of Beings God blessed for evermore And that no man may think that this blessedness reaches only Divines and other learned men whose Studies carry them to contemplate God his Nature Attributes and Providences I must tell you that this Blessing is pronounced with respect even to the meanest capacity and a poor man that follows his trade or gets his livelihood in the sweat of his Brows may see God as well as the learnedest Men alive nay many times better having none of the preferments of this World to blind his Eyes For this seeing God is an affectionate seeing him and such a seeing as assimilates the Soul to him This seeing is not a bare Speculation or being able to talk or write much concerning God but such a seeing as charms and ravishes and unites the Soul to God and as this seeing God relates to this present World such as are pure in heart shall see him more clearly more distinctly more to their satisfaction and edification than other men All men that say they believe in God and talk of his divine Attributes and have occasion to take notice and are sensible of his works pretend a share in the seeing God but none sees him so well as the pure in heart Their inward purity helps them to see him they see him in his Word in his Ordinances in his Providences in his Mercies and Afflictions They see him in his Word how equitable how just how reasonable all his precepts are how agreeable to the divine Nature how suitable to the Soul how glorious how sweet how precious all his promises are how just his threatnings They see him in his Ordinances what Profit what Advantage he intends by them how he designs them as Channels or Pipes whereby to convey his Grace and Spirit and Influences to their Souls They see him in his Providences how righteous how holy how potent how orderly he is in the management of the great affairs of the World They see him in his Mercies how he condescends how tender he is to them how like a Father how like a Shepherd he deals with them They see him in their Afflictions how wise how kind how good he is in sending them what Favour what Love what edification he designs by them They see him in all his Works how admirable how wonderfull how powerfull he is and all this they see with joy and delight and so see him as to love him more fervently and this is called Seeing him in the Sanctuary Psal. LXIII 2. Thus the pure in heart see God here But 2. There is a vision of God in the next life which surpasses all understanding Though they see him here to their comfort and edification yet at the best they see him but as it were through a glass darkly but then face to face 1 Cor. XIII 12. There that Sun will shine directly in their faces and their sight shall be made so strong that they shall be able to look upon that astonishing light without being weakned by its lustre Here they see but his back parts there his
face That seeing him in the everlasting kingdom imports a comprehension They comprehend in some small degree here what is the depth the height the length and breadth of the love of God but then they will understand perfectly all the mysteries of his nature providence attributes and love to them in Christ Jesus And from this sight must necessarily arise joy inexpressible Such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor is the heart of man able to conceive The Sun beams are amiable and pleasing here but how would a man be surprized if he were at the spring of that universal fire and saw how it rises and how it is managed So God is very lovely to the pure in heart when they see him here but when they shall come near that inaccessible Light and be perfectly united to him who can express the satisfaction indeed it cannot be express'd for it is immense and infinite Inferences 1. Here we see what a jewel that man enjoys that is possess'd of this inward purity This purity of heart is a treasure which no man knows save he who receives it Comfort your selves Christians with it comfort your selves having this Purity you are rich in the midst of your Poverty and enjoy more than those who boast of Lands and Houses I know the world laughs at this but let them laugh on the time will come when this Purity will stand you in better stead than your carnal Friends and Relations Men may think they shall be able to deal with God as they do with men here on Earth whose mouths they can stop with fair words or with a Bribe But this is vain and foolish to a Prodigy Is God a Man Is he to be imposed upon Can Gold blind his Eyes or if it could where would you have it when you are depriv'd and dispoil'd of all Is not he the searcher of hearts Can you deceive him who sees through all your hypocrisie Purity of heart is that which he requires and not only requires it but is willing to assist you in the getting of it and without this inward Purity he will know none of you but if this be the dress of your minds and souls the doors of his banqueting house will fly open to you and all the enemies you have on earth or in Hell shall not be able to keep you out 2. Here is the spring of true Religion a pure heart If that be pure the outward man will be so too If that be unclean the outward whiteness will never pass for currant in Heaven The Pharisees exceeded all the men of the age they lived in in outward sanctity notwithstanding all this the son of God who saw their hearts and the impurity of their souls calls them serpents and a generation of vipers Matth. XXIII 33. There are some sins so purely the sins of the heart that the heart can consummate and finish them without the help of the body such are Pride Lust Covetousness and Discontent because Providence crosses our designs and bitter Envy and black malice and rejoycing at our Neighbours misfortune c. These lying at the heart and being cherished there shed a poisonous influence upon the outward devotion and consequently render the external worship though never so specious ineffectual and a sacrifice of Fools To pray like a Saint and to breath revenge like a Turk outward Love to good men and secret fondness to sinfull Lusts and Pleasures of the world outward strictness and inward loosness complying with God without and with the Devil within a punctual observance of outward duties and neglect of mortifying our secret Lusts such as Ambition Self-conceitedness Self-admiration lascivious Thoughts and Desires c. is the true complexion of Hypocrisie Therefore To be a Saint the heart must be purified for sins like fatal diseases invade the Vitals first before they appear outwardly And as in such dangerous distempers of the body which first seize the Heart and the Garrison of Life and then discover themselves in little blisters and boyles in the skin he that should lay a Plaister to those boyles and use repercussives to strike them in cannot be said to cure the distemper So he that is diseased with sin which creeps inwardly and infects the soul and becomes manifest at last in the outward man he that doth only restrain the outward acts and uses means of grace only to cut off the outward excrescences but takes nothing inwardly to eradicate the distemper out of his heart and mind makes but an imperfect cure and for all the outward applications will still be in danger of Death even Death eternal It 's true the wise man crys out Prov. XX. 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin which seems to imply an impossibility of making the heart pure But this he speaks with respect to the rigour of the law not with regard to the equity of the Gospel Go to the strictness of the thing no man can say he hath so purified his heart that he is perfectly free from all vain and evil thoughts or that he is never surprized into an impertinent and foolish imagination This the holiest man alive cannot say But then in a Gospel sense it is not only possible to purifie the heart but a duty i. e. so to purifie it as to arrive to an habitual delight in holy serious and heavenly thoughts and to an habitual aversion of the Mind and Heart and inward Man from any thing that is directly contrary to the Will of God And this habitual Purity is consistent with surprizes of evil Thoughts and Desires when a bright gilded Temptation strikes the Heart and dazzles the Mind and inclines the Will to consent But then in Persons where the Grace of God works within a very little while the Spirit doth recover out of the Surprize puts by the thrusts of Fancy and the stabbs of Temptation and reasons its self into Health and Resolution and Resistance again He that is regardless of this Purity hates his own Soul knows not what Religion means and his outward performances will never make him blessed or happy Christians Do you believe this and will not you labour after it I mean after this Purity of Heart Look into the Gospel examine the Places where the Mind the inward Man the inside of the Cup and Platter are commanded to be purified Consider how frequently this is press'd Do not you see what a stress the Holy Ghost lays upon it Why should you deceive why should you delude your selves Why should you think it needless Is it not Wisdom to believe him who is the Fountain of Truth and Wisdom Does not Reason nay doth not Sense tell you that if the Waters in the Spring be muddy the Streams and Rivulets cannot be clear What would you have the Fruit good when the Tree is nought How can your Actions be pleasing to God when your Minds are full of weariness and unwillingness and backwardness
in his Service Can the outward Man be good when the inward is rotten and putrefied Are you wise Builders do you think do you hope to make a good piece of work of it to build the Top of the House when you have not laid the Foundation This purity of heart produces a great sense of God and another World a great sense of the Love of God which constrains the Soul to live in conformity to his Will and this is the Foundation of all true Religion If this sense be setled in the Heart if this Ground be well manured the whole Garden of your Lives will abound with Flowers and Fruits of all Sorts Ay! but how is this Purity to be attain'd I answer not with Laziness not with crying There is a Bear there is a Lion in the way Not by being over curious about the Purity and Ornaments of the Body When People spend more time at the Glass than at their Prayers take more than ordinary satisfaction in dressing and adorning the Body seek more to please Men than God do all they can to pamper the Flesh the Mind will run out into a thousand Vanities But 1. By studying the Word of God For the Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes Psal. XIX 7 8. What made David wiser than his Enemies What made him understand more than the Antients What made him know more than his Teachers He tells you Psal. CXIX 97. Oh how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day Vers. 104. Through thy Precepts I get Vnderstanding Vers. 140. Thy word is very pure And it is so pure that if digested and ponder'd on it will purifie the Heart too 2. By taking notice of God in every thing While other Men talk of chance and take notice of the Shell and Outside and of the little Wheels whereby their own and other Men's affairs are turned about do you look still upon that God that hides himself behind the Curtain and turns all according to his good Pleasure Take notice of him in every Blessing whether you eat or drink or whatever Conveniency Mercy Providence comes upon you have an Eye to him and you will find your hearts will become very pure They looked upon him and were enlightened and their faces were not ashamed Psal. XXXIV 5. 3. By calling in the aid and assistance of his Holy Spirit For it is the proper Province of that Spirit to enlighten the Mind and Understanding and to purifie it from gross terrestrial and brutish Idea's and Imaginations and to replenish and fill it with a sense of spiritual things And this Spirit is ready to come ready to enter ready to lend his helping hand when he finds the Soul willing to be purified willing without Tricks without Reserves without Proviso's without Conditions Such as Lord suffer me first to go and bury my Father or suffer me first to go and take leave of those at my house In a word this Spirit loves to deal with down-right honest Men that mean what they say and think what they speak in their Addresses to God 4. By acquainting your selves with the true Nature of Sin For a principal part of this Purity of Heart consisting in an Aversion from sinfull Thoughts and Desires it is not possible a Person should arrive to that Aversion that sees not that Evil in Sin which is really in it What Shall I hate a thing I see no harm in Shall I dread the Appearance of a thing which I spy some Beauty and Satisfaction in The best the plainest and easiest way to acquaint our selves with the Nature of Sin is by reflecting on the Wages of Sin which is Death even everlasting Death and Misery It may be my Understanding is dull and weak and I cannot dive into all the Tendencies of Sin nor find out all the Indignities it offers to God's Attributes but this I know Eternal Misery is threatned to it This seems indeed to be unproportionable to its short duration But still God having certainly threatned it there must be something in it very nauseous very grievous very odious very dreadfull very injurious to God and to his infinite Purity the very shadow of it must be poysonous and infectious and by this the Heart will take fire and hate the very thoughts of it even every false way 5. By representing to your minds the infinite Purity of God with whom your Souls are to converse and who offers to make your Heart his Temple and the Place of his Residence If you are to receive a King a Sovereign Prince or a Person of extraordinary Quality into your House do not you make all clean and handsome and take care there may be nothing wanting that may give him content and satisfaction every Chamber every Room in the House is set out and garnish'd and adorn'd as far as your ability reaches and Neatness is a thing that at such a time you glory in But what is a great Man to Almighty God What is a Prince or a King to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords This Sovereign Majesty is willing to lodge nay to dwell in your Souls A God purer than Angels purer than the Sun and Stars and dwelling in Light inaccessible to whom ten thousand times ten thousand minister and by whose Order and Direction the whole Creation stands and falls And then how holy how pious how clean how pure ought your thoughts to be to give so great so rich so magnificent a Guest suitable Entertainment 6. By representing to your selves the vast advantages that come by this inward Purity I shall name some of them by and by In the mean while I will mention but this one It will make you pray without wandring worldly and base troublesome thoughts Many People complain that they are mightily troubled with wandering thoughts in Prayer Purity of Heart is a remedy against that distemper for that consists in a great measure in an habitual delight in holy serious thoughts And when you go to Prayer your thoughts will delight to fix upon that lovely and amiable object And the secret love to God which is another ingredient of this Purity will force your desires upward and keep your thoughts together and they 'll willingly quit all other hold and with cheerfulness gather about that All-sufficient Being to whom you pray and offer your Devotions For indeed wandring thoughts in Prayer come for the most part from want of fervent Love to God what we love we think of Therefore as this Purity of Heart teaches and inclines you to be enamour'd with that excellent Being so it will procure steddiness of thoughts and affections in Prayer will keep your thoughts in a great measure from roving and wandering up and down among Briars and Thorns meaner and baser Objects Thus
Purity of Heart is to be obtain'd But then To prevent Discouragements and to obviate the Mistakes and Objections of some pious serious Christians and to keep them from sorrow and dejectedness in their serious Prosecution of this Purity I must add here by way of Advertisement 1. That from an imperfect purity of heart a Christian must not therefore presently conclude he is a total stranger to it 2. That neither contemplation of sin nor unallow'd of blasphemous Thoughts defile the Heart 1. That from an imperfect purity of heart a Christian must not presently conclude he is a total stranger to it VVe do not think that Rome was built in a day no more do we imagine that this Purity of Heart is perfected in one Week Indeed when the seed of God is sown in the Heart there is an earnest desire and endeavour after perfection which discovers it self in a chearfull progress but it is not actually perfected but by degrees Ye that labour to remove sinfull Lusts and Desires and Designs and Passions from your hearts and to possess them with humble and meek and kind and charitable and religious Thoughts and to make God the darling and joy of your Souls be not dismay'd nor frighted if this Purity of Heart in you be not come up yet to that degree to which it is advanc'd in others Those other Christians in which that Diamond glisters and that Star doth shine have been many years to pollish it When you have labour'd so long as they and as hard as they your happiness will be the same with theirs Purity of Heart is that which will find us work will imploy us through the whole course of our Lives for it meets with many rubs with many clogs and impediments which to remove will find us work at all times Stop not stand not still the measure of Purity you are arrived to seek still to enlarge it to extend it make frequent journeys to Heaven with your Prayers and you will find it will spread forth as the Valleys as Gardens by the river side as the trees of Lignaloes which the Lord hath planted and as Cedar trees beside the waters Numb XXIV 6. II. That neither Contemplation of sin nor unallow'd of blasphemous Thoughts defile the Heart 1. Contemplation of sin doth not defile it But here we must distinguish for there is a Contemplation of sin that doth defile the Heart i. e. when a man acts his sin over again in his mind and having been in a vicious extravagant company the day before represents the scene of that folly meeting to his mind with delight thereby to whet his appetite into a desire of having such another opportunity and to confirm his love to that Sensuality Or when a man having committed Lewdness or been guilty of acts of Uncleanness by lively Thoughts of that sin makes the impure Pleasure skip and dance afresh in his memory thereby to prompt himself to new enterprizes in that Villainy Then indeed the Soul is stain'd with a witness and a Man becomes a Devil delighting in his own ruin But when the sins of our former life are thought on with sorrow and Contrition and the particular Circumstances of it rehearsed and represented with due Aggravations in order to work our selves into a detestation of that and all other sins here the Contemplation becomes wholsom and instead of defiling helps to purifie the Heart serves to keep it clean and to arm it against fresh assaults Such Contemplations are purgatives restore the soul to health give it new strength and courage to fight against the World and the Flesh and if this way were followed we should have purer Christians and the World would soon be better and men would learn to present their souls and bodies living sacrifices unto God which is their reasonable service I do not deny but this Contemplation may be driven too far into Terror and Consternation and into a belief that the sins are unpardonable but that is not the fault of Contemplation but weakness and infirmity of the Considerer 2. Vnallow'd of blasphemous or other wicked thoughts in the heart do not defile it This Doctrine must be often inculcated because of the great number of pious Souls who look upon themselves as the vilest Wretches in the World and are ready to run into Desperation because so many blasphemous thoughts and filthy suggestions present themselves to their minds and disturb them in their Devotions and other religious Exercises But not being allow'd of nor encourag'd nor consented to as dreadfull as heinous as they seem to be they do not defile the heart no more than boistrous Winds and the Commotion of the Water do fully the Pearl that lies at the bottom of the River That they are not their own Thoughts is evident because their Will is contrary to them their Understanding is convinc'd they are injurious to God and their hearts desire to be rid of them The Soul in this case is like the young Men in the fiery Furnace while a thousand Sparks fly about them not a hair of their head is singed Those blasphemous Suggestions as they are purely Satanical and thrown in by the Devil so when the Soul continues declaring War and Hatred and Resistance to them not all the Legions of the burning Lake not all the Whirlwinds they rouse not all the Dust they make can defile the Spirit which is secured by opposing its forces to those Hellish Troops and preserves its Purity by Contradictions 3. It may not be amiss to take notice here of the reason why the Soul is rewarded or punished before the body When men die the Body is laid in the Grave and returns to Dust and there it lies till the Arch-Angel's Trumpet rouzes it from its Slumber The Soul in the mean while is in a state of Bliss or Misery and the reason lies in the Text because of the Purity or Impurity of the Soul or Spirit The Soul was able to sin without the Body i. e. without the help and assistance of the Body could be lewd and proud and vain and envious and malicious without discovering it by bodily Actions This is the Impurity of the heart Therefore as the Soul did sin without the assistance of the Body so its fit it should be punished in the absence of the Body Again in sinfull actions when Soul and Body are concern'd the Mind sins first before the Body participates of the Poyson for the Will must consent before the outward Man can act As therefore the Soul is the first Actor in the sin so it 's fit it should be first in suffering the penalty of the Law And so it is in the future Reward or Recompence The Soul performs many excellent services in which the Body is not concern'd such as holy Thoughts and pious Meditations And the good which both Soul and Body are partners in begins in the Heart or Mind and from thence it runs down into the Actions as the precious Oyl
the Fortune of Religion depended upon it or as if those different Points were so many different Religions 2. That the differing Parties do not damn one another for those differences there being nothing that hath done Religion more hurt than Men's damning one another for things which Christ and his Apostles have affixed no Damnation to 3. That notwithstanding the little differences that are among them they make one Church and endeavour after the Welfare and Prosperity of it and join together in publick Prayer and in the Sacrament of the Eucharist which is the Badge and Symbol of Fraternity and Amity 4. That one Party be not presently jealous and suspicious of the other as if the opinion which one Party espouses were embraced or maintain'd in a Humour or for worldly Ends but that they charitably believe it 's Conscience that puts them upon it at least till either the Party espousing that opinion confesses that conscience is not at the bottom of it or that it appear by undeniable Evidences that a worldly or sinister design is the foundation of it 5. That the differing Parties do not multiply the controversies which are amongst them make them neither more numerous nor greater than really they are and that they do not interpret an accidental unwary expression that may drop from the Pen or mouth of one party as a new controversie 6. That one party do not charge the other with consequences which they do not own nor with Doctrines and Positions which they detest from their hearts 7. That each party defending or proving their opinion do it with great modesty without provoking or exasperating or approbrious Language and revilings or bitter reflections on the other 8. That of these differing parties none do vye with the other except it be in living up to the Precepts of the Gospel particularly those of patience long-suffering and charity These rules I apprehend to be the foundation of Peace and Concord of Protestant Churches that differ in points of no great concernment and were these Maxims once put in practice the particular controversies might soon be compromised To this purpose is that saying of the Apostle Nevertheless where to we have already attained let 's walk by the same rule let 's mind the same things and if any be otherwise minded God will even reveal that unto you Phil. III. 15 16. But however II. If we cannot mend the publick let 's endeavour to reform particular Persons It is a sad sight to see Christians divided among themselves but it is as dismal a spectacle to see so many of us at war with God This I know will hardly be believed by the guilty and because they do not blaspheme God or do not trouble their heads much about God or Religion they know nothing to the contrary but that they are at peace with God and that they and God are very good Friends This is true stupidity and were the stupidity invincible as it is in Beasts such Men would be safe safe as the wild Ass or the Dromedary in the Wilderness safe I say from the Danger of God's Wrath. But this cannot be the case of any of you that live in a Country where the Gospel is preach'd where you are told that not to love God is to hate him and that not to delight in his ways is to incurr his displeasure that to live in those sins which exclude from the Kingdom of Heaven is to bid defiance to him that to be neglectfull of his Will is to wage war with him that to slight the admonitions and entreaties of his Messengers is to be at enmity with him and that to mind the World more than his Service or to seek to please Men more than him is to provoke him to anger And hath not this been the temper and is not this the complexion of many of you How many years have some of you born Arms against God Your wilfull sins are the Weapons whereby you fight against him and though like the Giants in the Fable you do not heap Mountain upon Mountain to pull him out of his Throne yet by espousing that life which is odious to him you affront his Sovereignty and by living contrary to the Gospel you despise and dishonour him who hath the greatest right to command you And is it not high time to make peace with him If God be not at peace with you here he will never be at peace with you hereafter What peace while the Whoredoms of thy Mother Jezabel and her Witchcrafts are so many said Jehu 2 Kings IX 22. So here what peace can there be betwixt God and you while you continue in that pride and vanity and intemperance and other sins against which the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven Do you think you are at peace with God because you thrive and prosper in the World Do not the wickedest of Men do so and is that an Argument that God is their Friend Will you make his patience a sign of his being reconciled to you when it is only a motive to a reconciliation There is no peace saith my God unto the wicked Isa. LVII 20. Let them be never so potent never so rich never so wealthy their impiety takes away all peace betwixt God and them He hath declared so much and will not you believe him Will you give no credit to his word till with Dives you lift up your Eyes in Hell and see that God is not your friend If you do thrive and prosper in the World cannot those Blessings move you to be at peace with him Do you believe he is kind to you and shall his kindness provoke you to be his Enemies Nothing can settle a peace betwixt God and you till you change your lives and make conscience of your ways and abhorr that which is evil and cleave to that which is good Then indeed were your sins as crimson they shall be as wool were they of a scarlet Dye they shall be as white as snow but till then your sin like that of Judah is written with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond as it is said Jer. XVII 1. and you do as good as say to God with those Desperadoes in Job Chap. XXI 14. Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Till then you can never be at peace with your own consciences carnal security you may have but peace of conscience is another thing for this can never be at rest while it hath reason to believe God frowns upon it but being sure of the light of his loving kindness a Man walks in Paradise and dwells in the Garden of God But III. When Christ in the Text professes and declares how pleasing and acceptable a peaceable and peace-making Temper is to God would not one think that every one that believes the Gospel should be ambitious of those qualifications which God not only approves of but promises to reward with the highest Honour and Dignity
Sufferers being able to disburden their Grief into one anothers Bosom it gives such Satisfaction as People who are ready to burst with Grief do find when a shower of Tears does give their Sorrow vent This Ease is chiefly in the Mind and if the Mind be easie the whole Man receives Comfort if that be easie it is as much as if a Man did not suffer at all It 's our Minds and Thoughts that make us either happy or miserable If a Man thinks himself happy in Misery he is so and if he thinks himself miserable in his Sufferings he is so It 's our Thoughts certainly that make us uneasie in Adversity and musing at such times upon wrong Topicks and Arguments puts all into disorder whereas calling to mind such Reasonings as are proper and suitable alleviates our Grief and makes our Minds easie And of this nature is the good Society we suffer with For 2. This gives us opportunity to make use of the same Motives to Patience that those other good Men have used to bear up under their Crosses and in all likelihood they will have the same Effect upon us and end in the same Consolation The Primitive Believers look'd upon their Afflictions as Tryals of their Faith and that gave them Ease so must I They had a regard to the End for which God did correct them viz. to produce in them the peaceable fruits of Righteousness and that taught them Contentedness so must I They encouraged themselves to Patience with the Example of Christ and that quieted them and so must I They relied upon the Promises of God without wavering and that revived them so must I They look'd upon their Troubles as short momentary things and that made them lightsome so must I They thought their Afflictions necessary to make them breath after their heavenly Country and that made them cheerful so must I. So that if their way be follow'd and our Fellow-sufferers be consider'd under these Notions their Company in suffering will certainly afford more than ordinary Consolations Inferences 1. Having explain'd the several Beatitudes mention'd in this excellent Sermon of our Saviour give me leave to observe to you in the Close of all That though every single Virtue and Qualification in the preceding Beatitudes hath a glorious Reward annexed to it no less than the beatifick Vision of an All-sufficient God yet you must not think that he who should apply himself to the Practice of one single Virtue and neglect the rest would upon that account be rewarded with Heaven This is impossible as the Case stands for Christ expresly requires Vniversal Obedience but if I mind only one of these Qualifications and disregard the rest how is my Obedience universal It 's true Christ affixes a spiritual and eternal Reward to every particular Grace partly for our greater Encouragement partly because every one of the aforementioned Graces tends to that Center and like Lines meet in that one Point and partly because the future Reward shall be suited to the several Virtues and in some measure answer and resemble the Nature of the respective Accomplishments yet still there is such a Connexion among them that they are inseparable and he that sincerely according to the Intent of the Law-giver practises one cannot forbear practising the rest and consequently he that pretends to observe one and doth despise the rest doth not observe that one as he ought The serious and conscientious Observance of one will make us enamoured with all the Links of the whole Chain the Beauty and Reasonableness of one will invite and charm us into a cheerful Compliance with all the rest The several Qualifications mention'd in the preceding Verses are so many Steps to Heaven Humility is the first Mourning for our Sins the second Meekness and composing our turbulent Passions the third Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness the fourth Mercifulness the fifth Purity of Heart the sixth Peaceableness and a Peace-making Temper the seventh and a patient enduring Persecutions Calumnies and Afflictions in a good Cause the last So that you see how you are to rise and by what Ladder you are to ascend to Glory He that advances but a step or two will never reach the everlasting Hills One Grace is the Foundation of the other Humility or an humble Sense of your selves and of your own Worth will dispose you for mourning because you have offended and do offend a very great holy and gracious God and this Sense which makes you concern'd for the Injuries and Affronts you have offer'd to the best of Beings and which makes you mourn will dispose you to Meekness towards your Neighbours who do offend and have offended you and move you to curb and moderate and mortify your Anger and Pettishness at Faults you see in others subduing your inordinate Passion you will be more at leisure to consider the Beauty and Excellency of Righteousness and that will make you hunger and thirst after it This Hunger and Thirst will dispose you to Mercifulness for he that desires to grow in Grace must apply himself to Works of Mercy for by these Holiness is signally increased This merciful Temper will dispose you for Purity of Heart not only because Almsgiving cleanses the Soul and quenches Sin as Fire doth Water but enlarges your Love to God This Purity of the inward Man will dispose you for Peaceableness and a Peace-making Temper for as Strife and Contention rises from an impure Heart from Lusts warring within us so a peaceable Disposition rises from inward Purity This peaceable and Peace-making Temper will procure you may be the Hatred and Ill-will of Men from hence will come Persecutions Slanders Reproaches Calumnies c. which if you bear with a patient and generous Mind you secure your Reward in Heaven and then rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven II. I must here take notice that nothing deserves our rejoycing so much as these future Rewards What is there in this World that should make us so fond of rejoycing in it The three great Idols of the World are Riches Honour and Sensual Pleasure but look ye how inconstant how uncertain how uneven and how short are all these He that is rich this Year may be a Beggar the next Valerianus and Andronicus who are Emperors to day to morrow shall be despicable to all their Subjects He that wallows in Pleasure this hour some grievous Pain or Disease may arrest him the next and fill him with Vexation Do not we see how these outward Enjoyments crack in the very handling and make themselves wings and flee away He that is a Minister of State to day may be a Prisoner to morrow he that sits at the Helm to day to morrow may groan in a Dungeon he that gives Law to others to day may be exposed to the fury of the Rabble to morrow and he that dwells in a stately House to day may see it laid in Ashes before the next Morning
the Natural Body of Christ are every whit as great as the other would be if we should believe that every true Disciple of Christ is Transubstantiated into natural Salt There is nothing more common in Scripture than by the Verb is and am and art and are to express a likeness or representation or resemblance or a memorial and that must necessarily be the meaning here viz. If you be my Disciples indeed you do and will resemble the Salt of the Earth and in what things this resemblance consists the following Particulars will inform you 1. Salt is a very useful thing one of the most beneficial things in the World It is as it were the Balsom of Nature which preserves all things Than Salt and the Sun nothing is more profitable said the Philosopher so a true Christian is a very useful Creature When Men of this Profession first appeared in the World the rude Pagans a great many of them were loath to believe that they were of any use to Mankind and though they usually called them Christians which is as much as useful yet this was by way of Contempt and in saying so they meant the contrary Hence it was that when a Land-Flood came or an Inundation rose or a Plague broke forth or the Corn was blasted or any publick Calamity befell them the fault was presently laid upon the Christians Notwithstanding all this they were and all true Christians at this Day are very useful Persons for their Nature and Temper to teach to instruct to comfort and to edifie their Neighbours and as heretofore God did so still he doth very often for the good Christians sake who are Inhabitants there spare a Place Town City Nation and Country an Emblem whereof God gave in the Case of Sodom when he professed his readiness to spare the City if but ten righteous Men could be found in it Gen. xviii 32. And to this purpose he told St. Paul in the Ship wherein he sailed God hath given thee all them that Sail with thee i. e. For thy sake they shall be saved from Drowning And if Men observ'd Providence more they would see and admire some very strange Instances of this nature the safety that is vouchsafed to wicked Men being clearly upon the account of the Pious Christians that live near them or about them 2. Salt is the Symbol of Wisdom So we read Colos. iv 6. Let your Speech be always with Grace season'd with Salt i. e. with Wisdom To this purpose is the Saying of the Old Comick Si quis haberet salem c. If a Man had that Salt which yon have i e. that Wisdom and that of Catullus Nulla in tam magno corpore mica saliâ— There is not a Grain of Salt in that vast Body i. e. of Wisdom And Livy for this reason calls Greece where the wisest Men then lived The Salt of the Gentiles or of the Heathen World A true Christian is a truly Wise Man a Fool indeed in the Eyes of the World but Wise toward God and unto Salvation so Wise as to walk circumspectly and redeem the time Ephes. V. 15. He walks in Wisdom toward them that are without Col. IV. 5. and he orders his affairs with discretion Psal. CXIV 5. And for this reason he is said to be a wise and faithful Servant who keeps himself ready and doth the work his Master hath set him that when the Master of the House returns he may commend and reward him Matth. XXIV 45. 3. In Salt there is a mixture of Fire and Water It 's hot like Fire and yet cools like Water These two different qualities you 'll find in a true Christian not that he is inconstant and unstable in his ways sometimes hot then cold again sometime all Fire and then all Ice again sometime very serious then vain and foolish again but by his Zeal he warms others and by his meek and peaceable Temper he lays and cools the Feverish Heats of others Of the former St. Paul speaks 2 Cor. IX 2. Of the other we have an instance in the Apostles who when Contentions arose among the Grecians about the relief of Widows by their moderation composed them Acts VI. 1 2 3. and when a Fire of Dispute was kindled about Circumcision by their Prudence and peaceable Disposition quieted the Tumults that rose about that Controversy Acts XV. 23 24. 4. Salt renders Things savoury and creates an Appetite In this also we see the Temper of a true Christian who by his pious Discourses and gracious Speeches creates many times an Appetite after Things Spiritual and Divine in those who hear him and whose Hearts God touches that they attend to the things which are spoken as we read of Lydia Acts XVI 14. Nor is this all but by his Pious and self-denying Behaviour he renders many of those Severities he practiseth Amiable and Charming in the Eyes that observe and take notice of them as is evident from the Constancy and Fortitude which appeared in the Primitive Believers in their Sufferings Virtues which look'd so lovely that Thousands were enamour'd with them and follow'd their example And what are the Acts of the Holy Apostles but Comments upon this Truth The Courage and Heroick Patience of those excellent Men were transcribed into the Lives of those who beheld them 5. Salt raises Thirst so a Pious Christian by his delight in God and the satisfaction he takes and finds in the ways of Religion raises in others a hunger and thirst after Righteousness Paul and Silas sing Praises to God at Midnight and in a Dungeon too The Jaylor awaken'd with that as well as with the Earthquake feels a strange Commotion in his Soul and cries out Sirs what must I do to be saved Acts XVI 30. 6. The thing chiefly intended by this similitude is this Salt preserves from putrefaction for it consumes the sanguineous Humours of Meat or extracts them whereby it is preserv'd from stinking So a true Christian partly by his blameless Life partly by Entreaties partly by fraternal Correption and partly by friendly Admonitions preserves and is to preserve others from running into Sin and Errour All that I have said before concenters in this and this is it which is expected from us if Christianity be more than a Name even as much as in us lies to prevent the corruption of others whether Relatives or Strangers we converse with whether Friends or Foes As no Religion in the World presses Love and Charity to our Neighbours more than that we profess so thit hearty endeavour to preserve others from sin and offending God is the natural result of this Charity There is no Man but grants that to preserve a Neighbour from Drowning or doing himself a Mischief is a Duty incumbent on all that have any thing of Humane Compassion in them and if the concerns of the Soul are greatest as we ordinarily confess they are it will follow that to preserve Men from wounding and undoing their
let us II. Enquire whether this addition in the Text of the World Ye are the Light of the World makes the Command more Emphatical and the Duty of being Beneficial to others in spiritual Concerns more Extensive And to this I must answer in the Affirmative for as the Light of the World is the Sun so we know 1. That the Sun Shines at all Seasons Spring and Fall Winter and Summer So a Christians good Works and Virtues are to Shine not only in Adversity but Prosperity too not only in the Winter of Affliction but also in the Summer of Ease and Plenty both in the Spring of his Years and in the Fall of his Age. His doing Good must not be confined to a certain Time or to a certain Stage of his Life such as Sickness or a Death-bed but discover it self in the various Conditions God hath placed him in His Goodness must not Shine by fits Being inconstant it betrays its weak Foundation and when either a ruffling Wind can blow it away or the Sun melt it as Wax it s a sign it did not fall from Heaven 2. The Sun shines in all Places in all Parts of the Hemisphere so a Christians Goodness must shine and display its Glory in all Companies and Places too He must not with Peter Eat with the Gentiles and withdraw himself when those of the Circumcision come in must not only maintain his strict Obedience to the Gospel when he is in Company with mean little and inconsiderable People but even in Caesar's Family not only when it is safe to do it but also when he is in danger of losing by it either his Credit or Place or Estate not only in private but in publick too not only in Gethsemane but in the High Priests Palace too 3. The Sun the Light of the World shines upon all sorts of Men and Things good and bad Dunghills as well as Gardens and Vineyards participate of his Shine and Splendour So a Christian is to bestow his pains in illuminating and warming others not only on the tractable and such as are easily wrought upon but even on the stubborn and obstinate and not only on those who have already made some progress in goodness but on such too who are very bad and wholly destitute of the Life of God and Plough the barren Rock as well as the kinder Soil This makes his Goodness truly Catholick and Universal and in that resembles the Light of the World or the Sun exactly which gives Life to the Wormwood as well as to the Rose to the Thorn as well as to the Lilly and influences both the Thistle and the Lavender Inferences 1. Ye are the Light of the World Though this is spoken to all Christians yet it concerns the Ministers of the Gospel in a special manner Light How pure is it And how pure ought their Lives to be that are to Light others to Heaven If those Lights be Darkness how great must be that Darkness If their Lives be spotted with any scandalous Sin or Immorality what deformed Creatures must they be If they Preach one thing and Practise another how uncertain must the Sound of those Trumpets be and who shall prepare himself to Battel If they that are the Guides go astray how shall the Blind find their way to Paradise If the Sin against which they Thunder be found in their Skirts what hope is there that their Hearers and Disciples should become Wise unto Salvation If by their Holy Lives and Doctrine they Convert many unto Righteousness they shall shine as the Stars in the Firmament But if by their ill Example they Light others into the Chambers of Hell they shall Shine too but in the Flames of the burning Lake and there learn that the Servant who knew his Masters Will and did it not shall be beaten with many Stripes To be a Minister of the Gospel is something more than to be in Orders something more than to have a Living or Preferment in the Church something more than to perform the Offices prescribed by the Canons and Law of the Land Doing good must not only be their Work but Delight and Pleasure too Their Splendour lies not in shining Dignities but in fleeing youthful Lusts becoming Patterns of Virtue to those under their Charge and following Righteousness Faith Charity and Peace with all them that call on the Lord with a pure heart 2 Tim. II. 22. II. Ye are the Light of the World Then surely those who are in love with works of Darkness are no Christians What the works of Darkness are you will find 2 Tim. III. 1 2 3 4. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of themselves covetous proud boasters blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy traitors heady high-minded lovers of Pleasure more than lovers of God and having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof They that are in love with any of these Works can be no Christians for the fundamental Law of our Religion is to depart from iniquity 2 Tim. II. 19. There is scarce any similitude which is more frequently made use of to express a Life of Holiness or a new Nature by than Light and Sin or love to it is as frequently represented by Darkness for in this love to a sinful course the mind is darken'd and hath no right apprehensions of God or of the Life to come or of the dreadful Consequences of neglecting so great Salvation no right Apprehensions of the Love of God or of the Sufferings of Christ or the Apprehensions are not bright not brisk not lively not convincing not operative as Light is and ought to be The Flesh and the World oppress the Mind or fill it with confused Notions of Religion which is a sign the Spirit of God that Spirit of Life and Light finds no entertainment there and therefore here can be no Christianity for true Christianity and God's enlightening and sanctifying Spirit go together Christianity makes us the Sons of God and whoever are the Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God Rom. viii 14. As many of you as are enamoured with any of the aforesaid sins or any other and surely you are enamour'd with them when all the Charms of the Love of God cannot oblige you to depart from them mince it and qualifie it as you will you walk in darkness at noon-day and the God of this World blinds your Eyes which hinders you from effectual believing and keeps out the glorious Light of the Gospel of Christ from shining into and warming your Hearts And what these Works of Darkness if cherish'd tend to and will end in you may easily know if you will but consider what you have so often heard that there is such a place as outward darkness where shall be howling and gnashing of teeth Matth. XXV 30. III. Ye are the Light of the World Light is not defiled by shining upon Dunghills No more must
every Christian who believes God more then Men is bound to abhor and since it is impossible at once to abhor them and to continue in Communion with that Church it must necessarily follow that Separating from it is a Duty and a Duty as much as our life is worth But 6. Though with respect to the Fundamental Principles of Christianity we grant the Church of Rome hath been visible for many Ages as well as other Churches yet in regard of those additional Articles I mention'd just now if the Doctrin makes a Church visible we must with very great Assurance affirm that the Church of Rome hath not been visible in all Ages for it will appear to any impartial Considerer that the present Doctrins which they have added to the old Foundation were neither taught in the primitive Church for the first three Hundred years after Christ nor even in the Church of Rome her self a Thousand years ago Not in the primitive Church for in all the genuine Writers of the first three Hundred years we find not a Word of Invocation of Saints of Transubstantiation of Worshiping of Images of religious Veneration of Relicks or of the Supremacy of the Church of Rome much less of her Infallibility Nay for a Thousand years after Christ the Church of Rome never had the Boldness to call her self Infallible not till Hildebrand's time or Pope Gregory VII by the Confession of some Romanists a Monster of Pride and Vice He was the first that gave himself and his Church that pompous and ridiculous Title And as I said the present Doctrins of the Church of Rome added to the Creed and made Articles of Faith were not believed much less look'd upon as necessary Articles even in the Church of Rome her self a Thousand years ago I mean in the time of Pope Gregory the First the Doctrins which are visible in that Church now were not visible then for in that Gregory's time the Sacrament was administred to the Laity in both kinds Worshiping of Images was counted abominable the Title of Vniversal Bishop was thought Antichristian private Masses where the Priest only receives and communicates were reputed unlawful the Books of the Maccabees were not taken into the Canon Purgatory was not yet lick'd into a perfect Shape much less into an Article of Faith No Masses were yet said for the Dead to deliver Souls from that Fire Auricular confession and extreme Vnction were not yet made Sacraments c. And therefore the Church of Rome could not possibly be visible in all Ages since her Doctrins she now Professes were not profess'd no not by her own Members in all Ages Inferences 1. A City set upon a Hill cannot be hid It follows therefore that a hidden Piety is no Piety I mean where a Person thinks it enough to Worship God in his Chamber or Closet and to pay him due respect in private and when he comes abroad into Company vain and sinful and wicked doth as they do dares not or will not own his pious Principles but conceals his better Inclinations and love of God and makes no expression of it either by disliking the Sins he sees or by dreading to imitate them or by vindicating the truth of the Gospel I say this Piety must needs be counterfeit and nought for it is against the Character Christ gives of his Disciples and Followers and in calling them a City set upon a Hill which cannot be hid and besides this is to be ashamed of him and of his Gospel before Men and how he resents that and will resent it in the last Day you may read Matth. X. 32 33. Mark VIII 38. I do not deny that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were Disciples of Christ but secretly for fear of the Jews Joh. XIX 38. But 1. Though they were no open Professours yet they consented not to the Impiety of the Jews in traducing and slandering the Lord Jesus Their Blood rose to hear him abused and in the midst of all their Fears we find very notable Effects of their Zeal for his Cause and Person Of Nicodemus we read Joh. VII 10 11. that when the whole Counsel was for condemning Christ to Death the brave Man stood up and argued with them Doth our Law judge a Man before it hear him and know what he doth And of Joseph St. Luke reports that he consented not to the Counsel and Deed of the barbarous Men who judged him Guilty of Death Luke XXIII 11. And St. Mark adds that he went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the Body of Jesus Mark XV. 43. But 2. Though these two Men were fearful and had no great courage to assert their Love and Devotion to Christ openly yet it was at a time when they were not throughly instructed in the Mystery of the Gospel The case alter'd when they came to have a more perfect knowledge of it and then not all the rage of Tyrants not all the Tumults the Jews could raise nor all the Terrours of Pilate could hinder them from owning their Love to his Doctrin and Commands We live in the broad Day-light of the Gospel and therefore must not take example by Men who were Novices in Christianity and while they were so For us to be one thing at home and another abroad Pious when alone Wicked when we do converse devout within the Walls of our Horses and profane and loose in Company which can bear no Strictness this is notoriously to dissemble with God and to be False and Treacherous to him What Caress a Friend and hug him in a Corner and revile or not to know him in Society Such baseness among Men is counted abominable and therefore cannot be supposed to be very pleasing when the same Affront is offered to God nor will your private Seriousness stand you in any stead in that Day when your Souls must give an account of their Behaviour before Men. A Christian must be a Man of Courage and when he is to do a known Duty not all the Threatnings and Comminations of cruel Men not all the hopes of Gain not all the baits of Profit not all the fears of losing his Honour Credit or Life must deter him from it for let come what will come of it the Life to come which is and must be his greatest Treasure will make infinite Recompence for all his Losses II. A City set on a Hill cannot be hid This shews that an active Life or a Life of Society and Converse is a much nobler Life than a Life solitary and retired from the World I will not deny that a solitary Life hath its Advantages and he that separates himself from Temptations is not very likely to be enticed by them Yet still it is a greater Act of Virtue and more Christian like to be good in the midst of all the enticing Pleasures of the World There is indeed greater Difficulty in it but then the Virtue is greater and the Fruit sweeter and the Reward will be