Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A52415
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Christian blessedness, or, Discourses upon the beatitudes of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ written by John Norris ... ; to which is added, reflections upon a late essay concerning human understanding, by the same author.
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Norris, John, 1657-1711.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing N1246; ESTC R16064
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112,867
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310
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John not to love the World neither the things that are in the World And lest we should take this only as a matter of Advice and Counsel not express Command he further adds If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him But that 't is a Christian Duty to be thus poor in Spirit will be further evident from the very Nature and Design of the Christian Institution The Grand thing intended in the Christian Religion was to reduce straying Man to his true Good and Happiness to sublimate refine and spiritualize his Nature to loose him from the Cords of Vanity and from his fast adhesions to created Good to purge him from all earthly Concretions and Alloys to disingage and separate him not only from the World about him but even from one part of himself in one word to raise him from Earth to Heaven not only by a Local but by a moral and mental Elevation Indeed 't was much otherwise under the Jewish Dispensation There was then great Indulgence afforded to the Animal Inclinations and worldly Affections of Men and their very Religion was indeared to them by Temporal Promises and Blessings Not that God intended hereby to express any liking or approbation of Covetousness and Earthly-mindedness but only to comply with the infirmity of that gross stupid People which rendred them uncapable of being won upon by more noble Proposals And besides it being a received Notion among the Idolatrous Inhabitants of the Land as is observ'd by a late Learned Author that the Worship of their Idols and False Gods did procure them fruitful Seasons and increase of all manner of store 't was in proportion requisite that God also should promise his Votaries the like worldly Affluence to keep them from running over to the Gentile Superstitions Upon these and the like Accounts much was indulg'd to the Jewish State and People They were never expresly required to abstract their desires from the things of the World Nor unless they proceeded to covet unjustly that is what belonged to another were they ever taxable for a too earthly and downward disposition of Soul Not but that earthly-mindedness was as much an Imperfection in it self as 't is now and was really forbidden according to the more retired and involute sense of the Law but the Letter did not reach it because then was the time and state of Imperfection and 't was the only Handle which that People could be took hold of by whose Hardness of Heart was the occasion of this as well as of some other Indulgencies But now they that shall think themselves obliged to no higher measures of Perfection under the Christian State know not what manner of Spirit they are of Christ as he has introduced a Better Hope so has he annexed to it more excellent and more exalted Precepts and as his Kingdom was not so neither is his Religion of this World The Christian Law is Lex Ignea a Law of Fire a Law that purifies and refines that warms actuates and enlightens that separates also and dissolves those strong Ties whereby the Soul sticks glued to the Earth And therefore the Apostle calls the Christian Institution the Law of the Spirit of Life and in another place the ministration of the Spirit And what our Saviour said of some words of his may truly be applied to all The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life This therefore being the Design of the Christian Dispensation to perfect Holiness to advance the Interest of the Divine Life to elevate us to the utmost degree of moral Perfection our Nature is here capable of and as far as is possible to make us Partakers of the Divine 't is utterly inconsistent with the End of such a Law as this to suffer us to lie groveling with our Faces on the Earth to seek Rest and Happiness in things more ignoble than our selves and to grow one as it were with the dirty Planet upon which we live We ought rather as the Philosopher speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aspire to the measures of Immortality shake off the Clogs of Earth that weigh us down and make hast to be Angels as fast as we can We are obliged by the Design as well as by the Rule of our Religion to be as loose from the Creature as may be not to love the World nor the things of the World whether the Lust of the Flesh or the Lust of the Eye or the Pride of Life but to be poor in Spirit and empty of the Creature that we may be rich towards God and filled with the fulness of him that fills all in all And now that to be thus poor in Spirit is a reasonable Duty as well as a Necessary one will sufficiently appear upon these two grounds I. Because these Worldly Enjoyments are not our True Good II. Because they hinder and divert us from that which really is so That they are not our True Good is certain for if they were we should then find Rest and Satisfaction in them But this we are so far from doing that we are as dissatisfied under our Enjoyments as without them For though by Fruition our Appetite be abated as to that particular Object which we prosecuted yet still we desire on further and our general Thirst after Happiness is as unsatisfied as ever Which plainly argues that our true good is not to be found in these things but that they are altogether Vanity and Vexation To place therefore our Happiness in such Objects is utterly absurd and against Reason and argues us to be grosly ignorant of one of the two things either of our selves or of the things of the World We are either ignorant of the Dignity and Excellence of our Natures of the Designs and Ends of our Creation and of the Strengths and Capacities of our Appetites which can be satisfied with nothing less than infinite Or if we do know and consider all this then we are so much the more grosly ignorant of the World about us to think there is any thing to be had in this Circle of Vanity that may satisfie the importunity of such craving and capacious Appetites Poverty of Spirit therefore is reasonable because the things of the World are not our True Good But this is the least part of their Charge They are not only insufficient to be our true good themselves but they also Secondly hinder and divert us from that which really is so For not to mention the many Snares and Temptations of a great Fortune and what a dangerous thing it is to be always furnished with all the Possibilities and Opportunities of Sin and Folly I only observe that the very Desire of these Earthly things diverts us and takes us off from the Love of God When our Love is divided even among Created Objects the force of it will be much abated in respect of each But much more will the Love
of the Creature diminish from the Love of God For there is so vast a disproportion between the Kinds as well as the Degrees of the two Goods that he that once comes to relish one will find but little tast in the other And therefore says St. Austin Monemus ne mundum ametis nt eum qui fecit mundum liberè ametis Our advice is that you love not the World that so you may love its Maker freely The truth is to love God freely we should love him intirely for every advance we make towards the Creature so much we recede from God For these are two contrary Terms of Motion and there is so great a Contrariety between the Love of God and the Love of the World that they do not only abase each other but are in some degrees utterly inconsistent For so St. John If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him And if this be the consequence of loving the World I think the less we have to do with it the better and that there is a great deal of reason to be Poor in Spirit Thus far have we consider'd the Duty and Reasonablenes of Poverty of Spirit as it signifies an Indifferency of Desire to the things of the World I come now to consider it as it denotes Humility and Lowliness of Mind whereof I am also to shew I. The Duty II. The Reasonableness The Duty of Humility is plain in all the Scripture but more frequently and earnestly inculcated in the New Testament insomuch that it may be reckoned among the distinguishing Doctrins of the Christian Religion The Heathen Morals almost overlook'd it and in the Old Testament Writings 't is but sparingly recommended but in the Christian Institution we every where meet with it in Capital Characters as a Precept of the first Magnitude God resisteth the proud saith St. James and be ye cloathed with humility says St. Peter And our Lord himself who was a perfect Example of all Moral and Divine Perfection and in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily seems yet to commend himself to our imitation chiefly upon the Account of his Humility Learn of me says he for I am meek and lowly in heart But there needs no multiplication of Scripture for the proof of this I shall therefore only further observe that the greatest Personages that ever were in the World were always most eminent and conspicuous for this Excellency Out of many I shall select three Instances which may well deserve our Consideration The first shall be the great Fore-runner of our Blessed Saviour the Holy Baptist. This Great and Holy Person when the Jews sent Priests and Levites from Jerusalem to demand of him who he was not only disclaim'd the Titles of Christ of Elias and of that Prophet this his Humble Spirit was not content with but went further and gave this strange and mortified account of himself I am says he the voice of one crying in the wilderness The Prophet David indeed had said before of himself that he was a Worm and no Man And this one would think was a sufficient stretch of Humility But the Baptist speaks in a strain below him allowing himself to be no more than a Voice The same Holy Person thought himself unworthy to Baptize his Saviour nay what makes that less admirable not worthy so much as to unloose the very Latchet of his Shoes The next Instance I shall mention is the ever-blessed Mother of our Lord. She if ever any Creature had cause to be Proud 'T is impossible even to imagin a stronger Temptation She was saluted by an Arch-Angel said to be a Person highly favoured with God and Blessed among Women And in particular That she should be Mother to the Son of the Highest and that too by the Power of the most High Was not here enough to betray a poor innocent Virgin into Pride and Vanity Had the Angels half so much reason for their Pride and Haughtiness when they fell from the Heights of Glory Well how did she behave her self under the dangerous Salutation Why she seem'd to make it rather matter of Obedience and Resignation than of Triumph and Boasting Behold says she the handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word But the most stupendous Instance of Humility that ever was or can be was in the Person of our Blessed Lord whether we consider him in the Mystery of his Incarnation or in the mean Circumstances of his Birth or in the humble method of his Life whether we consider him as emptying himself of his Eternal Glories and drawing a Cloud over his Brightness or as forbidding the Devils to publish his Divinity and Men to declare his Miracles and his Disciples to tell of his Transfiguration or as washing his Disciples Feet or as riding upon an Ass or as conversing among Sinners and lastly choosing to die between Thieves These and many such other Instances of Condescension argue the most profound Humility that can be imagin'd and withal how concern'd our Lord was to commend and endear this most excellent Duty to the Practice of Men. Of all the Vertues and Excellencies in the World one would have thought this of Humility least capable of being practis'd and exemplify'd by the Son of God Commend it indeed he might by Precept as well as any other but sure one would think not by Example But see what rare Arts and Mysteries God has found out to teach us this Lesson And therefore we may well conclude that there is Excellency and Necessity in it as well as Difficulty and how much it concerns us to learn what God has been so peculiarly solicitous to teach It is then a Christian Duty to be thus Poor in Spirit And the Reasonableness of it is as great as the Obligation This I might shew from the Good Consequences and Happy Effects of this Disposition of Spirit but this falling in more properly under the Third Partition of my Discourse I shall for the present content my self with some other Considerations taken from the Condition of Man whom I shall consider I. As a Creature II. As a Sinner First then Man is a Creature and this is a very reasonable Ground for Humility and Poverty of Spirit We usually think it a very Humbling Consideration to remind a Person of the meanness of his Original But now what Original can be so mean as to be from Nothing It is enough to take down the Spirit of the brightest Intelligence to consider that nothing was his Original a state more vile and dishonourable than the Chaos it self Now this is the Condition of Man He had his Rise from Nothing and derives his Pedigree by his Mother's side from Darkness and Emptiness And though now by the Omnipotency of his Creator he is something yet still he holds his Being as precariously as he first received it and depends as much for his Existence upon the Will