The royal and happy poverty or, a meditation on the felicities of an innocent and happy poverty: grounded on the fifth of Matthew, the third verse. And addressed to the late and present sufferers of the times.

The royal and happy poverty or, a meditation on the felicities of an innocent and happy poverty: grounded on the fifth of Matthew, the third verse. And addressed to the late and present sufferers of the times.

Table of contents

Title page

TO THE READER.

THE Royal and Happy POVERTY. Being a Meditation on the fifth of Matthew verse 3.

Books Printed, and are to be sold by Giles Calvert, at the black-spread Eagle, at the VVestend of Pauls.

The Errata.

THE Royal and Happy POVERTY.
Being a Meditation on the fifth of Matthew verse 3.

[Page]

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

WE need not travel far for the coherence of these words, being lodg'd in the two next preceding verses.

And seeing the multitudes he went up into a mountain, and when he was sate his Disciples came unto him; and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, &c.

[Page] Where we may take notice of

1 The Preacher, and that is Christ.

2 The occasion, and that was his seeing the multitude.

3 The Auditory, and that was mixt, consisting of the multitude, and his Disciples.

4 The place, and that was a Mountain.

5 Lastly, the Doctrine, and that was the words of the Text: I shall discourse briefly on these several particulars, by way of Preface, for the better paving the way to what is design'd for the chief Subject of this Discourse.

1 The Preacher, and seeing the multitude, he went up into a Mountain, &c. that is Christ, Hebrews 1. God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers, by the Prophets, ver. 2. hath in these last daies spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed Heir of all things, and by whom also he hath made the World. Should God send us Heavenly Treasure in Earthly Vessels, we ought not to refuse it: Should God speak to us [Page] from the mouth of a Babe, or Suckling, we ought not to despise it, for out of the mouths of such he hath sometimes ordained praise: And therefore we are not so much to look at the Messenger, as the message; it matters not much through what pipes, or of what mettal the Waters of Life are conveyed to us, though through leaden pipes, the basest and most ignoble of all mettals. If God send us a message (as he sometime did Balaam) by the mouth of an Ass, we are bound to receive it, to lend a willing and obedient ear unto it; with how much more attention then ought we attend unto the preachings of the Son of God? It's said the Queen of Sheba came from far to hear the Wisdome of Solomon, to sit under the Ministry of the King of Israel, to sit under the droppings and teachings of that wise Kings lips.

Loe! here's one greater then Solomon, one greater then an Angel, not the wisest of Kings, but the King of Wisdome, the Wisdome of God, the Fountain of which, the wisdome of Solomon was but as a small drop, [Page] the Ocean of which, his was but a shallow stream, or small rivelet; the Sun of which, his was but as a little spark, or a faint and glimmering beam; the sum and substance of which, his was but a dark type, and gloomy shadow; the consideration whereof should quicken up our attention, for shall God bow the Heavens to speak unto us, and shall not we lift up our hearts unto him? Shall Christ take so long a journey, as to descend from heaven, and come of an Embassie from the Father to us, an Embassie of Grace and Peace, and shall we not give him audience? shall Wisdome it self charm us, and we like the deaf Adder stop our ears? Shall the Eternal Son of God turn Divine, and become a Preacher to the sons of men, and not obtain an Auditory? Shall Christ call unto us, and we not answer? Rather let us say with Samuel, Speak Lord, for thy servants hear: And as it is in the parable of the Vineyard, though we have buffeted the servants, and stoned those that were sent unto us, yet let us reverence the Son, least we be cast out [Page] into that place of torment we read those unworthy servants deservedly were.

Thus much concerning the Preacher; I thought not impertinent to premise, for the better quickning and awakening of attention to what follows.

2 The occasion, and that was Christs seeing the multitude. Christ sometime said he had meat the world knew not of, for it was his meat and his drink to do the will of him that sent him. He went up and down seeking occasion, and arresting all opportunities of doing good: He could not see poor souls wandring like sheep without a Shepherd, but the bowels of his compassion yerns towards them, but his soul melts and dissolves in pity to them.

And herein he hath set a Copy for our imitation; thus should we waylay (as I may so say) occasions, and even court opportunities of doing good: Thus should we endeavour after that hid Manna, making it our meat and drink to do the Will of God: Thus should the bowels of our [Page] love yern towards our Brethren, and whensoever we see poor souls wandring like lost sheep, straying after their own inventions, and wilderd in their own imaginations, endeavour to set them right, and bring them back to the Fold of Christ.

In cases of necessity every man is to be a Physitian, so may I say in some; yea, in any cases, every man is to be a Divine, not that I would lay waste the profession of the Ministery, by treading down any hedge, either Divine Right, or Humane Prudence, hath made to fence and inclose it: or incourage any one rashly, and without a Call from God, to intrude and break into that Divine and Sacred Function; no, I would not willingly prompt any to lay unhallowed hands upon the Ark of God; as if the Ark of Religion could not stand, unless prop'd up by irreligious presumption, or that the Heavens of Christianity were in danger to fall, unless some profane and presumptuous Herculesses put under their shoulders to bear them up, and become the Atlas, or Pillars, to support [Page] them: No, I know its a dangerous thing to offer strange fire to the Lord, all are not to meddle with the holy things of the Altar, least the fire of Gods Wrath break forth upon them, as we read it sometime did not those that too rashly and unadvisedly usurp'd the Priests Office, so dangerous a thing it is to be too busie and presumptuous: There is a Sanctum Sanctorum of some Ordinances, into which all must not enter, with which it may not be safe for every one to meddle: But thus far we may safely go and own, as the duty of every one that is called to be a Christian, to be continually exhorting and admonishing one another: I say, whosoever hath a gift, or talent from God, ought to improve it to the utmost he can for Gods Glory: Let no man therefore be asham'd to exhort his Brother, to preach unto his Neighbour, to instruct his Family, for every one ought to be a King, Priest, and Prophet to himself, and his own Family and with Iob, offer Sacrifice for his own house.

Solomon, who best knew how to put [Page] a right and true estimate on Honor, triumph'd more in the single Epethite of the Preacher, than all his swelling titles, as King of Israel, and therefore prefixes that before all others, to imbellish and inrich his Name. It was a good custome of the best Kings of Israel, to read the Law unto the people; and it is well known, that the Imperial Purple of Great Constantine never blush'd to see him preach unto his Subjects: Let no man therefore be asham'd of the Gospel, as he would not have Christ asham'd of him at the great Assizes of the world.

God under the Law required the first fruits, and the first-born to be dedicated to him, but its the custom of our Age to offer their youngest sons to the service of the Altar; and do we not herein, like blind Isaac, give the blessing to the youngest? And may we not say to our great Gentlemen, and Elder Brethren, that wholly sequester themselves to any imployment or profession, rather than the Ministery, that like Esau, they sell their birth-right for a mess of [Page] pottage; or as Christ said to Martha, Martha, Martha, thy Sister hath chosen the better part: So may we not say to these Gallants, Your younger Brethren have chosen, or rather gotten the better part; that Iacob hath supplanted Esau, and is gone away with the blessing.

In the Primitive and Virgin Age of the World, before it was deflowred and debauch'd by ill customes, and therefore celebrated by the wanton pens of Poets, under the name of the Golden Age; the Heads of Families both taught and govern'd the rest of their Brethren, which as it was the first & original Copy of Government, so may rationally be presum'd the fairest, and less blur'd with Tyranny, than those more imperfect modern Transcripts that latter Ages have drawn in lines of blood.

It was a custome among the Romans, if any Souldier had sav'd the life of a Citizen, to reward his val or with their Corona Civica, to bestow some special mark of Honor on him: Of how great honor then may he be thought worthy, that reprieves the [Page] life of a Citizen of the New Ierusalem, that saves a soul, not from a natural, a temporal, but an eternal death?

The gratitude of Alexander, acknowledged himself no less beholding to his Master Aristotle, than to his Father Philip, as having receiv'd from him nothing but his being, and simply to live, whereas from Aristotle he had receiv'd his well-being, and how to live well: I am sure we are more indebted to our Spiritual Parents that have begotten us unto the Lord, that have been the means and instruments of Regeneration, of forming the New-birth, and bringing forth Christ in us, than we are to our Natural Parents, that brought us into the world, into this vale of tears and misery.

Oh! its a glorious thing to save Souls, to snatch poor Souls like brands out of the fire of Hell, to rescue a soul from the jaws of Eternal Death, to be an Index Mercurius, to direct and shew men the way to Sion.

This is a holy ambition, and worthy [Page] of the bravest spirit, to save one soul, being more glorious than to conquer a thousand worlds.

The profane adulation of the Romans Deified their Emperours, and there being a new Star discovered about the time of Iulius his death, the credulity of their Superstition prompted them to believe it Caesars Soul: But we may without either flattery, or Superstition, safely believe, that such Souls shall shine as bright and resplendent Stars in the Firmament of Glory, the light of whose Life and Doctrine, while here on earth, lead many to Christ. For certain, were the Conversion of a Soul a slight business, there would not be such solemn Triumphs in Heaven, such shoutings and rejoycings among the Angels, at the Conversion of one sinner.

And that this may fall with more weight, and leave the greater impression on our spirits, it may be worth our while to consider, that whensoever we loose, or let slip an opportunity of doing good, whensoever we neglect reclaiming any poor [Page] wildred soul, that is lost and intangled in his own inventions, and straying after his own imaginations, if he die in his sins, and perish from the way of Life; how if God should require his Soul at our hands.

Its said in the Law, By whosoevers hands mans blood is shed, his blood shall be shed. Now if they that prevent not Murder, when its in their power, contract much of the guilt, and become accessary to the crime, shall not we be stain'd with the guilt, and become accessary to the Eternal death of our Brother, if we put not forth our endeavours to convert and reclaim him, especially of such as the hand of Providence hath deliver'd over to our care, and as it were, put under the wing of our protection? May not God thus require of Masters of Families the blood of many that have perish'd, that have miscarried under their charge; and of Magistrates, the blood of the People, and their Subjects? It will not excuse us to say, that we are no Divines, Divinity is none of our profession: Is it not enough that we pretend to be Christians, [Page] that we wear the Livery of Christs Name, that we make profession of the Gospel, ought not then Divinity to be every one of our Studies, every one of our professions?

Did God require under the Law, that if our enemies sheep fell into a pit, we should help it out? And will he not require, that if our Neighbour, our friend fall, we should be so unchristian, so unnatural, so inhumane, as not to put forth our hand to help him up? Can we do one another a more friendly office, a greater kindness, a more rich, a more Noble, a more obliging favour than (like the good Samaritan) to poure Wine and Oyl into one anothers wounds, than to wash, dress, and cleanse the spiritual soars of one anothers Souls? Can we any way do a more charitable and Christian Office?

Its reported of a good Heathen, that whensoever he had not gain'd a new friend, or by some Noble Office of Love or Friendship, oblig'd someone or other to him, so great was the generosity of his mind, he us'd to [Page] say at night, diem perdidi, alas I have lost a day, as counting that day unworthy to be numbered and reckon'd to the Calender of his life, in which he had done no good: And shall not we Christians sit down every evening, and take account of our selves, what good we have done each day, and with Iob, curse that day, and account it as altogether lost, and unworthy to be numbred, in which we have gain'd no opportunity of doing good.

Doth God require we should honor him with our substance, and will he not likewise expect we should honor him with our parts and faculties? Will he not expect that all our talents should be put forth to use, that our whole stock should be laid out and improved for bringing in some Revenue, some tribute of honor to the Exchequer of his Name and Glory? though it be as small as the Widdows mite, it will be accepted.

Let every one therefore take heed of hiding his Talent, of laying it up in a Napkin, of burying it under ground, least it be taken from him.

[Page] Doth God require the seventh part of our time, and the tenth part of our estates? and will he not likewise require some tythe of our gifts and faculties? Hath God opened to any one a door of utterance, given him the Tongue of the Learned, bestowed on him the gift of Eloquence, let him not think he may do therewith as he pleaseth, or that he can make a better use thereof, than by becoming an Orator for God, to court and woe men to come in unto the Lord Jesus, and accept of the offers and tenders of Love, Mercy, and Grace, that are made unto them in the Gospel, as God shall put opportunities into his hand; for is it not a Noble thing to be imploy'd as a Labourer in Gods Vineyard, to be a builder of the Church of God? which honor if any one refuse or despise, let him know that God who at first open'd, can as easily shut, and bar again the door of his utterance, and give him a stammering tongue, in stead of the lips of knowledge.

So if God hath given to any man the illumination of his Spirit, and [Page] hath caused his Face to shine upon him, hath given him any taste and experience of his love, let him not think scorn to communicate of what he hath received, and help build up the walls of Sion, least God rob and plunder him of his enjoyments, and eclipse the light of his countenance from him.

Will God require of us an account of our Stewardship in the outward things of this life? Will God require of us his Flax, and his Wine, and his Oyl, if we waste, and abuse them? And will he not require a more exact and severer account of all the gifts and Intellectual Endowments his Mercy hath bestowed upon us? Will he not much more require them at our hands, if we honor him not with them?

Hath God promised the encrease of his blessing, and the blessing of encrease on our outward mundane enjoyments, if we lay them out for his Glory? Hath he been pleased to acknowledge himself our Debtor, for our charity to the poor, and said, He that gives unto the poor, lends unto the [Page]Lord? Hath he been pleased to become our Surety, to enter into Bonds and Covenants, to pawn his Word, and ingage his Promise, that if we cast our bread upon the Waters, after many dayes we shall find it? And will he not become much more our Debtor for our Spiritual Alms, for our Spiritual Charity, if we cast (as I may so say) the Bread of Life upon the waters; if we deal to the poor of our Spiritual Food, of our Spiritual Manna, if we relieve the hunger of poor starved souls? Shall not he loose his Reward that gives a cup of cold water to a Disciple? and shall he think you be without reward, that refreshes the poor, dry, and parched soul with the Waters of Life, that draws waters out of the Wells of Salvation for poor souls? Is our liberality of the things of this life so acceptable to God? and will not our Spiritual Charity be much more?

Moreover, Is our Charity to the poor, and lending to the Lord of these outward things, the best and greatest Usury, the best and greatest way and means of improvement, God [Page] having promised to return an hundred fold? And is it not as good husbandry, as good a way of improving the treasures of the mind, the talents of Wisdome and Knowledge? If any have rob'd the Egyptians, have stoln from the Heathen any Earings or Jewels of Humane Learning, any Pearls of Knowledge or Science, can he better imploy them, than to adorn the Truths of the Gospel with them, than to have them sanctified by the Altar? Is there any better way to encrease the stock of our Learning, to inrich the treasures of our understanding?

But if this consideration seem slight, or will not prevail with us; however, let the fear of loosing them, the fear that God may blow upon them, and cause them to blast and wither; for, as was observed before, how justly may God strip, rob, and spoil us of them, if we refuse to glorifie him with them? How justly may he eclipse all the light of our Knowledge, by infatuating our understandings, and confounding our memories? How justly may he turn [Page] our Sun into Darkness, and our Moon into Blood? How justly may he benight all our faculties with ignorance, or cause them to set in a cloud of dotage and folly before the evening, nay, in the very morning of our age? How justly may he turn our wisdome into folly, and our prudence into madness? Oh! how many great Wits have on this account been blasted, that might otherwayes have been bright Stars, Stars of the first Magnitude in the Firmament of Knowledge, and glorious Luminaries in the Orbs of Learning, who through the just Curse of God upon their parts, have either prov'd blazing Meteors, or flaming Comets, to fill the World with wonder and amazement, and then extinguish'd in smoak and ashes, or gone out like the snuff of a Candle, leaving nothing but the memory of their wickedness to stink in the Nostrils both of God and man.

Let this consideration at least prevail with us, to write after this Copy, Christ hath set us, of arresting all opportunities of doing good, and to [Page] honor God with all the faculties of our Souls, with all the gifts and endowments of our minds, least he plunder and strip us of them, least he dethrone our Reasons, and turn us a grazing with the Beasts of the Forrest, as he sometime did Nebuchadnezzar, and make us to eat thistles with the Ass.

I confess I have dwelt something too long on this particular, viz. The occasion, but it yeelded so fruitful an Harvest to my thoughts, that I knew not how to crowd them into less room, or gather them into fewer periods.

The third particular is the Auditory, and that was mixt, consisting of the multitude, and Christs Disciples.

During the time of Moses's Administration under the Law, God had a peculiar people, the Nation of the Iews, whom his Favour was pleas'd to pick and cull, as a precious Jewel from the dross and rubbish of the rest of mankind, to whom alone, of all the Families of the earth, the Oracles of God were committed; to whom [Page] alone the Law and the Prophets were given: They only of the Sons of Adam had the priviledge to wear the Livery of Gods Name, to be called the people of the Lord; they alone were permitted to tread the Courts of Gods House, to have access to his Sanctuary, to approach his Altars, when as all the rest of the World were prohibited under the dreadful penalty of an Anathema, with a procul ite hinc, procul ite profani; time was, when they only were accounted the Children of the Kingdome, and all the rest of the World as Aliens, and Outcasts, as dogs unworthy of the very crums that fell from their table; as Swine, to whom the precious Pearls of the Gospel might not be cast; time was, when they only were accounted within the pale of the Church, the only place wherein God was pleas'd to plant the Vineyard of his Church, the only spot of ground his love had taken in and inclos'd from the Wilderness of the World, wherein to plant his fear, and the knowledge of his Name, while the rest of the Earth lay neglected, as a rude Barren, and [Page] uncultivated Desert, ore-grown with Atheisme and Barbarisme.

They were the Eden, the Garden, the Paradise of God, the Land flowing with milk and honey, the place where God was pleas'd to make known the greatness of his Name, when as all the rest of the miserable Off spring and Posterity of Adam, liv'd as without God in the world; time was, when they were the only Sons of Light, and when Palestine, or the Land of Canaan, was the only Goshan, on which God caus'd the light of his Countenance to shine, when as all the rest of the World, all the rest of the Nations of the Earth sate in darkness, in Egyptian darkness, and as in the vale and shadow of death, when as all the rest of mankind lay under an eclipse, and dark night of ignorance.

But now blessed be God, the Scene of things are changed, the Partition Wall of Separation is now broken down, the Vale of the Temple is now rent, and its door set open to all the Nations and Kindreds of the Earth: The borders of the Church are now [Page] inlarg'd, and God hath given to his Son the Heathen for his Inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession; the Bread of Life is now dealt to all: The King, as it is in the parable, hath now sent his servants into the midst of the streets, to invite all to the Marriage Feast: Time was, when Canaan was the Land flowing with milk and hone, but now every one is invited to buy Wine, and Milk, and Honey, without money, and without price: time was, when only the Iewes were admitted to the Table of Gods Ordinance, but now there is a Feast prepared of fat things, of Wine well refined from the Lees, and Proclamation made, That every one that hungreth after righteousness, may come eat, and be satisfied; and every one that thirsteth, is invited to drink of the Waters of Life freely; For God is pleas'd now, under the Gospel, to keep open House, as I may so say, and to give entertainment to all comers, to make welcome all that come unto him, and puts none by, refuses none that offer themselves by Faith unto him.

[Page] The time is now come, in which the Son of Righteousness is to arise with healing under his wings, and shine upon the whole earth, and enlighten all the dark corners thereof, that the whole world may become a Goshan, a Land of Light, in which the Saints are to be gathered from the four Corners, and the four Winds, in which the fear of the Lord is to fall on all hearts, and the knowledge of his Name to abound, and cover the face of the Earth, as the waters cover the Sea.

God hath now set open the door of his Mercy, and holds forth the Golden Scepter of his love to all: He doth now open wide, and stretch forth the Arms of his Love, that he may receive the whole World into his Imbraces: He hath now, as it were, pull'd up the Sluces, and open'd (as I may so say) the Flood-gates of his Mercy, that every one may drink thereof, and taste that the Lord is gracious, that he may bathe and refresh every dry and parched Soul: He doth now open the Treasures of his Grace, and bring forth the riches, [Page] the exceeding great riches of his Mercy. In brief, the Gospel is now tender'd to both Iew and Gentile, and the doors of the Sanctuary stand open unto all, so that they are inexcusable that neglect, despise, or contemn the means of so great Salvation, the offers and tenders of so great Love and Mercy. So much for the Auditory, I now come to

4 The place; and that was a Mountain, not Mount Sinai, on which God appear'd cloath'd with Thunder, and incompass'd with flames of fire, and Clouds of smoak, the Mountain on which God appear'd in the Majesty of a great Dictator, giving Laws to the Children of Israel; the Mountain which trembled with the presence of the Lord, and before which the hearts of the people of Israel quak'd, fearing they should be consum'd from before the presence of the great Iehovah: This was not the Mountain, on which God gave the Law in a voice of thunder, when the Sons of Iacob desir'd the Lord might not speak unto them, but by his servant Moses: No, this was Mount Sion, [Page] the Mount of Olives, the Mount of Peace: When Moses had been awhile with God in the Mount, his Face had so great a lustre, that the Israelites were not able to behold it, and therefore desir'd him to put a vail thereon: And when Paul was caught up into the third Heavens, he was transported beyond himself; Whether in the body, or out of the body, he could not tell: He then saw Visions, and had Revelations, which were unutterable. So likewise our Saviour, so soon as he came into the Mount, began to preach, and bless the people; his lips began then to melt, and drop sweetness, to let fall blessings on the people: Whence, by the way, we may observe, that they only are fit to preach, who have seen God in the Mount, who have had some rapture and extasie of spirit, who have had their hearts elevated, and lifted up to God, whose affections have taken flight beyond the Region of earthly enjoyments, and had some experience of the goodness of God upon their Spirits: then they will be able to speak feelingly, then they will speak experimentally, [Page] and say not the things we have heard, that we have received from the hand of Fame, but what we have seen & handled of the Word of Life, declare we unto you: Then they will be able with our Saviour to say, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven; and so we are at length arriv'd at the subject of our Discourse: & am sorry we have been so long detain'd in the Porch, viewing the coherence and structure of the context; but I hope we have not much wandered from the road of our Text, or at least kept within view thereof.

The text is the first words of our Saviours Sermon on the Mount, whose mouth was no sooner opened, but his lips drop'd like the honeycomb: This is not the language of the Law, Do this and live: This is not the Dialect spoken on Mount Sinai, but this is the Language of the Lamb, the sweet and still voice of the Gospel; The Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Iesus Christ. Oh! how beautiful should his feet be in our eyes, that hath brought these [Page] glad tydings of the Gospel.

Blessed are the poor in spirit: Oh! these are comfortable words, these are refreshing words, these speak Peace, these speak Life to a poor soul, these drop oyl and gladness into a wounded spirit, these are words able to rebuke an inraged Sea, and calm the billows of a troubled Conscience, to restore brightness and serenity to a clouded spirit, to a soul full of storms, clouds, and tempests.

Blessed are the poor: Oh! how much doth Christs Dialect differ from that of the World; we say, Blessed are the rich, blessed are the full, blessed are those who know no want, whose Barns are full of corn, whose houses are full of wealth, that can say with the rich glutton in the Gospel, Soul, eat and drink, and take thy case, for thou hast much goods laid up in store: We say, Blessed are those on whom a Sun of Prosperity shines, on whom the favour of the world smiles: But Oh how far, and how high, are Gods thoughts above ours! even as high as the heavens are above the earth, so far are his thoughts, and his wayes above ours. I know this [Page] is a great Paradox to the Learning, a dark riddle to the wisdome of the World: What, are the poor blessed? they that lye in the dust, on whom all men trample, that are contemn'd, despis'd, and made (as it were) the very off-scouring of the earth? But God sees not as the World sees, the byes of his Omnisciency see farther then the dark Opticks of our flesh are able to look: He sees thorow things, to the very pith and marrow of them, whereas we see only the husks, the shells of things; we are able to look no farther than outward appearances, than the Varnish Paint, and Gilt the World hath set on things; our eyes are detain'd on the superficies of things, being able to comment on nothing but light and colours; whereas the Eyes of the Almighty penetrate to the very heart and core of things, He looks to the farthest end of them, and discerns whats behind the Curtain; Exitus actum probat; its the End and Catastrophe of a thing that denominates it either good or evil, that's well, that ends well, that is crowned with a good event, or issue; [Page] as the Proverb saith, Ante abitum nemo suprema (que) funera faelix, Could the Heathenish Poet sing; it is our short-sightedness, the dulness of our understandings Opticks, that makes us often judge & envy those as happy, who are the most miserable, poor, contemptible creatures in the world, and such, as if we knew them aright, we should look on, rather as objects of our pity, than our envy. Our eyes being dazled by the outward pomp and splendor of this life, which is nothing but a meer Pageantry of gaudy shews, judge those often the Proprietors of the greatest felicity, who inherit nothing but misery.

But could we see those things (we so often make the objects of our admiration, the idols of our desires) to the core, and within the inmost r [...]nd, we should find they were but like the Apples of Sodom, beautiful to the eye, but such as being toucht, drop to ashes; or like the Fairies money, that turns to dust; or those beautiful Sepulchres, of which our Saviour speaks in the Gospel, that are full of nothing but rotteness, and dead mens [Page]bones. This is a truth so legible, that many of the Heathen Phylosophers, by the dark twi-light of their natural reason, were able to spell it out; viz. that mans happiness consists not in the enjoyment of these outward things, witness the Doctrine of the Stoicks, who plac'd the Spring of their Felicity in nothing without themselves, who though they built not their Felicity on Christ, of whom it was their happiness to be ignorant, yet were not so foolish, as to place it in riches, or any of the other fading, withering, perishing enjoyments of this Life, but on Virtue: And though Aristotle and the Peripateticks, whose weaker eyes were something more dazled with the pomp and splendor of Alexanders Court, and the Varnish of the World, were content to admit these outward enjoyments, as Handmaids to wait and attend on Virtue; yet did not like the bruitish Epicures, that Phylosophical Herd of Swine, place their Felicity in them, though they acknowledg'd they might confer some ornament and lustre, and it might receive some beauty and splendor from them.

[Page] But we are here taught another doctrine by Christ, another Lesson in the Gospel; Blessed are the poor in spirit. In the words, there is first a Proposition, or an Assertion laid down, Blessed are the poor in spirit, [...] of which a pregnant ground, or reason, follows in the next words; For theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven: [...] As if Christ by his Divine Logick had thus argued, for the words do carry in their womb this Syllogism of which without violence they may be deliver'd; they are blessed, whose is the Kingdom of heaven, that are the Heirs of Salvation, that are the Sons of God, the Seed of the most High, the Bloud-Royal of Heaven, on whom Heaven, Happiness, and Eternal Life is intail'd; but such are the poor in spirit, they are the Heirs of Life, of Heaven, of Happiness, which is the minor; therefore they are blessed.

I shall speak to the Proposition, and its Reason, severally: And first to the Proposition, or Assertion, blessed are the poor in spirit; in which we shall consider: First, the subject, Poor in [Page]spirit: Secondly, the predicate, Blessed. And first for the subject, Poor in spirit, in the Original, [...] saith Beza, Est proprie mendicus i. e. ad extreman inopiam redactus; qui nil habet nisi quod ostiatim acceperit, saith Stephanus; the word signifieth, one reduced to extreme Poverty, or one that hath nothing but what he begs from door to door. But for the better and more methodical assoiling this Question, what is here meant by poor in spirit, we shall first shew negatively who these poor in spirit are not, and then give the true Criterion, or Character, whereby to discover who they are; therefore by poor in spirit, we are not to understand,

1 They that are poor, in respect of the fortunes of this life; for in respect of this Poverty, it is said by the Prophet David in Psalm 37. 25. I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, or his Seed begging Bread. For these outward enjoyments are also the gifts and blessings of God, which he seldome denies his own people, in such a competency, [Page] as may relieve the necessities of nature, and render their lives comfortable: And though these outward blessings, these common favours, these mercies of the left hand, are no distinguishing Characteristical marks of Gods special grace and favour, though they are not the special pledges and Criteria of his Love, for that the Sun of these common favours his goodness causes to shine upon the unjust, as well as just, and the rain of these vulgar mercies to fall upon the wicked, as well as the good, and perhaps in a more plentiful manner, in more large and plentiful showres upon the wicked, then on the good, for their portion is not in the things of this life, God reserves more rich, more choice mercies for them, their happiness not consisting in having the Sun of an outward prosperity shine upon them, but in the shining forth of the light of Gods countenance: But however, he doth not usually altogether with-hold these outward enjoyments from them, though he commonly doth not see it good for them to riot in the like excess, as he [Page] often permits the wicked, least too rank a fortune might cause their hearts to wax fat, and forget God; yet he usually denies them not food and rayment, yea, he fills their hearts with food and gladness, by blessing their small estates unto them, and giving them a contented mind, which is a continual feast.

Therefore it is not the poverty of Fortune here meant, whether voluntary, or through the tyranny of necessity, and it is not that poverty of Fortunes that is upon compulsion and necessi [...]y, by reason such poverty is commonly the Judgement of God, and produc't of some enormous crimes.

1 As first, Poverty is usually the Daughter of Pride; its a common saying, that Pride goes before a fall, that Pride brings men to a morsel of bread, is the Usher and Beedle to beggery and misery. Thus God many times suffers mens tables to become their suares, when their hearts wax fat that they forget him, then he suffers their spirits to be elated above measure, to swell with Pride [Page] (like the Toad in the Fable) into a bigness or grandure disproportionable to the model of their Fortunes, till they burst the Nerves of their estate, and at length expire in beggery and misery.

2 But secondly, Poverty is sometimes the daughter of vanity, which betrays it self sometimes in costly apparel, sometimes in sumptuous buildings; some wear all their estates on their backs, and may say with the Phylosopher, though in a far worse sense, Omnia mea mecum porto; It is the Opinion of some, that the non-reviving the ancient wholesome Statutes of this Land, for moderating the excess of apparel, is a great cause of that poverty and penury that hath crept into many Gentlemens Families, and brought their posterity to want and beggery.

Others bury their Estates under the walls of stately Fabricks, under the foundations of sumptuous Palaces. The Italians count nothing a greater curse, then a profuse humor of building; and therefore imprecate it to their greatest enemies.

[Page] Now is it not just for God to stain the pride of such as are given to these vanities, that are more studious of erecting for themselves stately houses, and beautiful structures, then to do any thing for God; that more willingly lay out their estates on walls and buildings, than the living stones of Gods Church; Is it not just he should bring confusion on the estates of such, for the pride and vanity of their Babel structures? that he should humble them, and cause them to sit in the dust, that would build their nests in heaven; that the towring pride, and foolish imaginations of such as would hide their heads among the Clouds, and fix their names among the Stars, should bring ruine to their estates, and bury their Fortunes under dirt and rubbish. Thus through the just Judgement of God, doth pride and vanity not un-often trip up the heels (as I may so say) of many mens fortunes, and cast them into penury and misery, whose fond ambition flatter'd them they should make their nests on high, and not be moved.

[Page] 3 Poverty is sometimes the daughter of oppression, covetousness and idleness are said to be the root of all evil; when men wax covetous, and fall to grinding the face of the poor, and to prey upon their neighbour, when they shut up the bowels of their mercy from the necessities of their poor brother, and stop the ears of their charity to the clamorous cryes and importunities of those that are in want, then God often blows upon their estates, and blasts their Fortunes, sends the moth and canker into their wealth, causes the rust to prey upon their gold, and devoure their silver, causing their wealth to moulder, and their treasure turn to dust.

Its reported of the Eagles Feathers, that being put among those of other Fowls, whether by heat, or what other occult quality, they prey and devoure the rest, causing them to moulter and consume to dust. The same truly may be said of wealth gotten by oppression and extortion, by any unjust or indirect means; it is like the Eagles Feathers, or rather Pharoahs [Page] lean Kine, that will eat and devoure all their fat and plentiful Revenues, by drawing down the Curse of Heaven on their wealth and substance.

4 Poverty is often the Daughter of Luxury, some bury their Patrimonies in their bellies, drink down whole Farms, and Lordships, or perhaps the price of Kingdomes (like that voluptuous Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra) at one draught.

Some drown their estates, together with all their parts and faculties, in a deluge of Wine and strong liquor, and so swim down a torrent of filthy pleasure to the Infernal Lake.

Others sacrifice their estates in the fire and flames of lust, at the Altars of base and filthy concupiscence, till rottenness enters into their bones, and their bodies be fill'd with sores and putrified boils.

Others suffer themselves (as it is in the Fable) like Lycaon, to be devour'd by their dogs, that is, to become a miserable prey to their pleasures and inordinate desires, unravelling the whole clew of their estates in a pleasing maze, or labyrinth of [Page] pleasure and voluptuousness, until they have left themselves nothing but Poverty for an inheritance, and a stock of misery for their possession, till they have intail'd penury on their Families, and bequeath'd a name of obloquy and ignominy to their Posterity.

Lastly, Poverty is the Daughter of Ease and Idleness; its not enough to be born to great Revenues, to make out a good title, or give a just claim to what the love and providence of our Ancestors hath bequeath'd unto us, unless we make them ours by our industry and diligence, in some profession, or honest vocation, we are to eat our bread in the sweat of our brows, that's the sawce we ought mix with all our dishes: God is said to hate an idle person; for that, as I said before, idleness is the root and seeds of all evil.

Its a good custome of a wicked Nation, I mean the Turks, and worthy the imitation of Ghristians, for every man, to the Grand Seignior, to make profession of some trade or vocation, so that their very Palace, or [Page] Seruglio, is like a Shop, or Exchange.

It was a custome among the Romans, for all the Citizens, on some certain times, to wear the badg of their trade, or profession, and if any were found without his badge, or that could show the Livery of no trade, he was severely punish'd by the Censors. If the like custome were set a foot among us, I wonder what badge or mark our Trepans, ranting Hectors, Kinghts of the Post, with many other of that sort of Vermine, together with other Caterpillers, who may without a metaphor be term'd the very Pest and Plague of the Commonwealth; I wonder, I say, what badge they would assume, as the Livery of their Company and Profession. Its reported by Naturalists, that no creature can [...] upon the ayr; and therefore what the credulity of Antiquity hath delivered, as a Phylosophical truth, concerning the Camelion, is now exploded as a vulgar and fabulous error: But I am sure many of these live, if not on ayr, yet by a worse merchandise of Wind, then that of the Laplanders, that are [Page] reported to befriend Marriners with Gales tyed up in Napkins; for whereas these traffick with the Elements, they put to sale the wind of their oaths, as if they were no more then small puffs of ayr, yet such by which many are, in a trice, blown out of all their Estates and Fortunes, into a gulph of poverty and misery; and these are those Camelions that can cast themselves into all shapes and colours, and witness pro or con to any business.

But to balance this custome of Antiquity, our modern Ages delight rather to show their Coats of Arms, and Atchievements, taken out of the Heralds Office, than the base badges of Mechanick Trades, and beggarly Professions, as if nothing would so much taint the [...], and degrade a Gentleman, as an honest imployment.

But to proceed, there is the sweat of the mind, as well as the body; and to speak truth of all labours, that of the mind is far the greatest, and of all travel, that of the Soul is the sorest under the Sun; and therefore it is, that Solomon so often lets fall such [Page] expressions as these; Of writing books there is no end, and much reading or study is weariness to the flesh: Also where he sayes, He that encreases knowledge, encreaseth sorrow, and the like; but as it is the sorest travel, so it is the Noblest difficilia quae pulchra; the wayes that lead to Eminence are not strewd with Roses: Now its fit, that every one should have his share and portion of the one or the other, of the sweat of the body, or the travel of the mind, for man is born to labour, and travel, as the sparks fly upward, Iob 5. 7. And God hath forbidden him to eat, that will not labour; and therefore I wonder how such dare eat, the sweat of whose brows, in some lawful imployment, hath not given them a right and title to what their plentiful Fortunes hath furnished forth unto their tables. Its a laudible custome of some Countryes, to make their children by some exercise of either body or mind, to deserve, and as it were earn their meat before they give it them, whereby from their very Infancy and Cradles they are inur'd to labour, and made familiar with industry.

[Page] To conclude, no Patrimony, no Revenues, no Fortunes, are large enough; the riches of the Indies, the wealth of Kingdomes, nay, the price of Worlds, would fall short, and not be able to supply or recruit the Exchequer of such persons expences, as have no other imployment their devise how to spend: which renders industry no less our interest, than duty, business being no less the food and entertainment of the mind, than meat is of the body: And as idleness is said to be the Devils Pillow, and therefore none may expect Gods blessing that sleeps upon it, so I am confident it is as uneasie, as unsafe and dangerous.

Now when men refuse all labour, and become unprofitable burdens to the earth; when men live to eat, when as they should only eat to live; when men think they are born wholly for themselves, to eat, and drink, and rise up to play; is it not just with God to blast their Estates, and to send the Gout, the Dropsie, or the judgement of some more sore disease upon the bodies of these Pigri ventri, these slow [Page] bellies, that are good for nothing but to feed and pamper a rotten carkass, that must after a while be a banquet for worms, that are good for nothing, but like vermine, to devoure the fruits of the earth, that live, as if they had their Souls given them (as its commonly said of Swines) only as salt to keep the flesh of their bodies from putrifying and stinking.

To conclude this particular, I am perswaded if greater entertainment and incouragement were given to industry and diligence, it might prove the most effectual means to croud out that penury and poverty that hath so long dwelt amongst us, of which we need not look far for a President, so long as Holland is so nigh a Neighbour, whose small spot of earth, did it not lye so low, and in the midst of waters, I should liken to a Mole-Hill, the Inhabitants being those Pismires, from whom all the world might take lessons of industry and diligence.

Now upon the account of all these reasons, from whence this poverty of necessity usually springs, I am induc'd to believe this is not the poverty here [Page] meant but that this is rather a Judgement, than a Blessing of God; for were this the poverty that gave men title to the Kingdome of Heaven, none could make a better claim, or produce fairer evidence, then a Prodigal Son that hath wasted and spent his Estate on Whores and Parasites, or some Bankrupt person, that hath split his Fortunes, and ship-wrack'd his Estate by ill husbandry, gaming, or the like; no, Whoremongers, Adulterers, and dissolute persons, must not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven: We ought to be diligent and faithful Stewards, even of these talents, for of these also must we give an account; if therefore God hath trusted any one with a fair estate, a large and plentiful Fortune, let him not think to spend it upon his lusts, but so demean himself in his Stewardship, that he may give a good account in the day of his Audit, that so he may reap comfort, & not shame, when the Harvest of the World shall approach: Moreover, our English Proverb saith, That God never sends mouths, but he also sends meat; and that no man is so unfortunate, but at one time or other hath been courted [Page] by an opportunity of growing rich, at least in a competency: God feeds the very crows and Ravens, and cloaths the very grass and Lillies of the fields in so rich Liveries, that they may vye with Solomon in all his glory, and make the purple of our bravest Princes blush, to see their gallantry so much out-stript by the native beauty of so contemptible a creature; and shall we think that God, who is thus bountiful to the Lillies of the field, will deny his own people food and rayment? But I would not have this interpreted, to lock up the bowels of compassion, and bar the door of our charity against such poor wretches that daily cry in our streets; for though I think their poverty is commonly a Judgement of God upon them for some of the fore-cited sins, yet this excuses not our charity and compassion; for since we are all sinners, as Christ said of the woman taken in Adultery, who shall presume to fling the first stone at them? should we not rather imitate the goodness of God, that causes his Sun to shine, and his Rain fall upon the wicked, [Page] as well as the righteous. Our English Proverb saith, The Crows must live; shall not then our poor Brother? And the Scripture saith, A righteous man is merciful to his Beast, then much more to those that are flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone. I am perswaded, when the sins of this Nation shall come to be audited, and enquir'd into, our neglect of, and uncharitableness to the poor, will make a great part of the Indictment against us. We have been so long disputing about forms of Government in the State, and of Divine Worship in the Church, that the noyse of our janglings about these things hath quite drown'd the cryes of the poor, whose necessities should have been first reliev'd, had we commenc'd our Reformation a right: and till this error be rectified, I know little ground we have to expecta settlement, or that God will in the least own and bless our Government, whatever we may set up and establish.

But to proceed, though it be commonly thus, that mens poverty and misery is & proceeds from themselves, [Page] as being the Product of either pride, ease, or luxury, as hath been largely demonstrated; yet sometimes through the rapine and oppression of the wicked, the righteous are stript of all their enjoyments, turned out of their possessions, and exposed as Pentioners to the cold charity of the world: It is sometimes known, as in the Parable, that a poor and righteous Lazarus, whose Soul shall have a Legion of Angels, as his Convoy, or Life-guard, to carry him into Abrahams Bosom, begs an alms at Dives Gates, at the hands of a rich and wicked Miser, and hath his sores lick'd by dogs; and therefore, though we ought to do good to all, yet more especially to those of the boushold of F [...]ith, if any such objects of our charity are known unto us.

And although God can and often doth interrupt the course of Nature, and work Miracles for supplying the necessities of his Saints; though God sometime fed Eliah by the Ministry of Ravens, and can cloath his Prophets as he doth the Lillies of the Field, yet that is no excuse, no Apology, for [Page] our with-holding any thing from them they stand in need of, or that their necessities call for at our hands, though we have never so little, though our estate be but as the Widdows Cruse of Oyl, God requires our mite, if we can do no more, we must cast it in, if we expect to find that acceptance with God the Widdows did, or desire that blessing of encrease on our estates, as fell on the Cruse of Oyl, whereby the Prophet was fed in a time of famine.

2 But secondly, by poverty of spirit, is not here meant (as the Papists would have it) a voluntary poverty, or of vow, as when men for Religions sake, or Righteousness sake, as they are pleas'd to guild it, do renounce the world, and strip themselves of all their outward enjoyments, when men cast their whole estates into the treasury of the Church, and intail their Revenues on the Altar, when for the better disburthening themselves of the cares of this life, and of this world, and that they may the better sequester themselves unto the Lord, and devote [Page] themselves unto his service, they part with all for the Cross of Christ, and wholly cast themselves upon the Providence of God.

Truly the taking root of this Opinion hath brought forth much fruit, much profit to the Church of Rome, many of whose voluntary Votaries, that under a pretence of extraordinary devotion, and Holiness, sequester themselves from the world, do but renounce those smaller Fortunes Providence hath given them better title to, in expectation of, and on design to inherit far greater riches, and reap a more plentiful crop of gain from that blind charity, Superstition hath cheated the greater part of the World into an opinion of; and of these there are several Forms and Classes in the Man of Sins School, as your Hermites, Fryer Mendicants, with divers others, who instead of accounting (with the Apostle) godliness great gain, do reap great gains from a counterfeit and feigned godliness: These therefore are not the [...], on which the Kingdome of Heaven is intail'd, but rather swarms [Page] of Locusts and Caterpillers, that cover the face of too great a part of the earth.

But this Opinion of Poverty (as I said) hath been a rich Revenue to the Popish Church, and wonderfully improv'd the Patrimony of St. Peter, hath much encreas'd the Revenue of the Man of Sin, and intail'd much Land upon his Altars; this is a gallant devise to sell the Kingdome of Heaven to those will bid most for it; and the Pope and Cardinal may well confer notes, as sometime on another occasion, Quantum nobis Lucri peperit haec fabula de Christo: So, Quantum nobis Lucri peperit haec fabula seu Doctrina de paupertate: What gain hath this fable of poverty brought into us: This is that hath so much in riched the Coffers of the Pope, that hath fill'd the fat bellies of the Priests, and cloath'd the Whore in Scarlet: Truly, I cannot but commend the zeal and devotion of all such poor deluded souls, as out of a principle of Sincerity, strip themselves of these outward enjoyments, thinking thereby to render themselves more quick [Page] and less cumbersome in their journey towards Heaven; but I cannot but therewithal pity their ignorance, and great pity it is so great a heat of zeal should be without the light of Knowledge to direct it, that so great Devotion should be the Daughter of Ignorance and Superstition.

No, this is not the poverty of spirit recommended to us by our Saviour; and therefore to the Proselites of this Opinion, we may say what is commonly said of self-Murther, it is not lawful to quit our stations, for our souls to break the prison of the Body, to anticipate our deliverance from the captivity of our flesh, by a voluntary or violent dissolution: We may with the Apostle sue out our Habeas Corpus, by sending up our sighs and desires to be dissolved, but to break prison is Felony; we may say, Demittas [...], but we must expect till God sends the Serjeant Death to bring us our Writ of Ease, our bene decessit, and to knock off the Fetters of our body: for our life is a warfare, and we are here Militant in a Vale of Tears; and therefore may not [Page] desert our Colours, till we are rude donati, and Milites Emeriti, till we have finish'd our warfare, and are legally dismiss'd the Camp: Our Souls are plac'd as Centinels in the Body, and may not go off the guard till they are reliev'd, or the Captain of our Salvation calls them off.

So may I say in this case, our wealth is not our own, but the Lords, and therefore it is not lawful for us to quit, or resign our trusts, before the day of our Audit; for we are Gods Stewards, and he will require an account at our hands; our estates are the Lords, and we must be faithful in our office, and distribute of our bread to the poor.

Christianity does not forfeit our right to the creatures, but rather inlarge & strengthen it: It hath been the custom in some places, when any Iew turns Christian, to forfeit or s [...]ester his estate; but this is no condition of the Gospel, this is not a Law that hath any force or obligation in foro conscientiae, in the court of conscience for our right, as I said, to the things of this world, is rather commenc'd, than extinguish'd [Page] by our adoption and new-birth; for whose is the earth, and the fulness thereof, but the Lords? and who then have better right unto it then the Sons of God? Or who may more truly be call'd the Lords and Princes of the Creation, then they for whom the world was made, and yet is not worthy of them? though I must confess it is most commonly seen here, that servants ride on horseback, and the Princes go on foot, &c.

Thirdly, This poverty is not any low and base abjectness of spirit, no sordidness or despondency of mind; to be poor in spirit, is not to have little, poor, narrow, and contracted souls, to have creeping and degenerate spirits, that are alwayes grovelling in the dust, that according to the curse of the Serpent, creep on their bellies, and lick the dust of the earth, that are meer muck, or dung-hill worms, that have their heads and hearts bow'd down to the earth.

Os homini sublime dedit, saith the Poet. This therefore is unworthy, and below the generosity of a man, [Page] much more a Christian. Religion doth not make men fools & sheepish, but admirably blends the innocency of the Dove, together with the wisdom and prudence of the Serpent: Religion is not that that clouds the mind with black melancholick and sad apprehensions; if any think thus, they seem guilty of the same absurdity with those Heathen, that Deified their diseases, and erected Altars unto Feavours; or admit the like abuse that Mahomets Disciples did, when they believ'd their Prophets Convulsions to be Extasies, and Divine Raptures, this is to intitle our melancholy to Religion, and guild ore the distempers and infirmities of Nature with the title of Grace; which is something like the humour of the Negroes, who paint their gods black, and the Devil white; whereas Religion is so far from being any morose, sower, or tettrick thing, that what the Philosopher said of virtue, may with advantage be affirm'd of Religion, viz. that could it assume Corporeity, or render it self visible, it would appear so lovely, so amiable, [Page] that it would at once both enamour and ravish the Whole world into the admiration of her Features, and by the sole attractives of her transcendent Beauty, and the powerful Charms of its comely Graces, attract and captivate the hearts of all men, and command both homage and affection from all that should behold her; she would then need no other Eloquence than the silent Oratory of her own beauty to recommend her, and invite the whole world unto her imbraces. For is good nature a lovely thing? there's nothing more improves, and meliorates mens natures, than the ingrafting Religion therein: there's nothing more inlarges the spirit, and gives it a more just and Noble Elevation, then that: there's nothing fills the mind with a more Noble, with a more generous scorn and contempt of low, base, and abject things than that; that's it that raises a mans thoughts from the earth, on which they are naturally so apt to grovel and be bowed down unto, that's it that spirits and enobles a Soul, that [Page] emancipates it from base slavish, and pusillanimous fears, and fills it with a high and Princely ambition, and ambition more Noble and generous then that of Alexanders, that so inlarges the heart, that not only one earth, but the whole world is too little for it, is not able to fill or satisfie it; this is that refines the affections, and causes them to fly a higher pitch, than to be decoy'd by any thing here below, than to stoop to any thing on this side immortality and life, that causes the Soul to soare aloft and mount up, as with Eagles wings, till it makes its nest in the very bosom of God. They therefore disparage Religion, and cast a blot and scandal on the Profession of the Gospel, who go all the day drooping and holding down their Heads like a bulrush, there being none who have so much reason to be cheerful, to have a merry heart and a cheerful countenance as Christians▪ There is no reason why any ones face should shine so much as theirs who like Moses have seen God in the Mount.

4 We are therefore by this poverty [Page] of spirit to understand something beyond anything that hath been yet mentioned; And without doubt its to be taken in a like sense, as that place where Christ saith, its harder for a Camel, or Cable rope, as some interpret it, (for the same word in the Original signifies both) to passe thorow the eye of a needle, then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: Now we shall be best able to understand what is meant by these Riches that bar our entrance into blessednesse, and this Poverty on which it is intail'd, by comparing these with other places, one Scripture being the best Key to unlock the sence of another. Our Saviour saith, Matt. 9. 13. That he came not to call the Righteous but sinners to Repentance, and in another place, the whole need not the Physitian but those that are sick: So likewise where he saith He came to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel: So likewise that Parable of the Pharisee that made so nigh and familiar approach to the Altar, and blessed God he was not as the Publicane that stood aloof, afar off, and cried Lord be merciful to [Page]me a sinner, and yet according to the virdict of Truth it self, went away more justified than the Pharisee that was so pure and righteous in his own eyes. I say this Parable may lend some light to the understanding of it. Also when our Saviour took a little Child, and setting him in the midst of his Disciples, said unlesse ye be as little children ye cannot enter into the Kingdom Heaven: he seems to have given a clear Comment on this Text: Also when he said Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven; he seems to Paraphrase on the same Doctrine: From all which put together, I think we may safely collect and spell out this or the like sence from the words, viz.

That poverty of spirit is a being little, mean, vile and contemptible in our own eyes, to become as little children, without strength and without courage, helplesse and shiftlesse, without counsel and without advice, having neither wisdom, prudence, discretion, nor understanding in our selves; they therefore are the [...] the poor in spirit that [Page] are arrived at this resigned state or condition, that have parted with their own strength, their own wisdom, their own Councils, and their own Righteousnesse too, and are become sensible of their own baseness, their own unworthinesse, their own nothingness, that see and acknowledge the sinfulnesse of their natures, the miserablenesse of their conditions, how that they have no righteousnesse of their own, no holiness, no purity, no Sanctity of their own, these I take to be the poor in Spirit here meant.

Having thus discoursed on the subject of the Proposition, we are by the course of our method arrived at the predicate, viz. Blessed; The word in the Original is [...] quasi [...] non sorti non morti subjectus, a word in which the whole of felicity is summ'd up, a word that reaches the Cul [...]en top or fastigium of all happinesse, a felicity that is not subject to the stroke of death, to the sith of time; a felicity which neither time shall wither, nor the hour or approach of death be able to blast, and [Page] so we have finished the proposition, and shall now hasten to the ground or reason of it, and that is For theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Christ said sometime to his Dischples Luke the 10 20. verse, Rejoyce not so much that the Devils are made subject to you, but rather that your names are written in heaven, that your names are written by the blood of Christ, and finger of the spirit in the book of Life, that your names are enrolled and registred in the Archives of Heaven. Now from the words thus anatomized and unbowelled, there seem naturally to spring these propositions.

1 That Poverty of Spirit is a royal and blessed state or condition, or in the concrete, that the poor in spirit are blessed.

2 That the ground or reason of all true happinesse or blessednesse is founded in an interest in the Kingdom of heaven, or that they onely may be truly and without Ironie termed happy, or accounted the real proprietors of all felicity, whose is the Kingdom of heaven, on whom heaven and happinesse is intail'd.

[Page] 1 Poverty of spirit is a blessed state and happy condition. I should rather darken than illustrate the meridian brightnesse of this Truth, that is wrot as with a sun-beam; should I bring a cloud of witnesses for its confirmation, it needing no other proof than the Authority of him that spake it, having proceeded from the lips of him that is Truth it self, that cannot lye. But that no truth, though of never so great evidence, might be without witnesse, the whole scope and tenour of the Gospel seems to bear its testimony, and give in evidence to the confirmation hereof; How frequent is it said in Proverbs, besides other places, That pride is an abomination to the Lord; is not this the language and dialect of the scripture throughout that the Lord will dwel with an humble and contrite heart that trembleth at his Word, but that he hateth and resisteth the proud? Doth not almost every page and Chapter thorowout the whole Book of God speak in the same Key? Doth not God all along turn the edge of his threatnings against high things, and high thoughts, against proud and towring [Page] imaginations that exalt and lift up themselves, hath he not denounced enmity against proud and high things? hath he not threatened to level and bring down every high Hill, till he make it become a plain? Is not the quarrel of the Almighty with the great things of the Earth? And hath he not on the other side pawned his Word and ingaged his promise to exalt the humble, to give grace to the humble, to lift up every valley, &c.

Hath he not invited all those that hunger and thrust, all those that are weary and heavy leaden, promising that he will feed them, that he will satisfie them, that he will ease them, that they shall finde rest unto their souls? What are all these expressions but as so many proofs and confirmations of this Proposition; it were endlesse to quote and cite places, and therefore shall hasten to the Reasons, whereof.

1. The first is borrowed from a rule among Physitians, with whom it is received as a Maxim, that primus gradus sumitatis est nosse morbum, the first degree of health is to know the disease; [Page] for as our Proverb hath it, a disease that is known, is half cured. Now this poverty of Spirit, is a reflex act of the Soule, discovering to men their wants, that they may go to Christ to be supplied of his fulnesse, to receive of his fulnesse; Grace for Grace: It discovers to men their own nakednesse, that they may go to Christ to be clothed with the white robes of his Righteousnesse, till Adams eyes were opened, that he saw his nakednesse and his sin; He had no shame nor sence of his guilt, but so soon as his eyes were opened, he began to sow fig leaves together, to cover his sin and hide his shame. This is the usual Method and progresse of God in the work of conversion; first to alarm and awaken the Soul by a clap of Thunder, so to rouse him from the Lethergie and sleep of sin, to prick them to the quick, and make them cry out like the Jaylor in the Acts, men and brethren what shall we do to be saved; This causes the scales to fall from off their eyes, those scales of Ignorance with which their eyes were seal'd, and then they see [Page] their sin and their shame, and begin to loath and abhor themselves, to cloath themselves with sackcloth and ashes, and sit down in the dust: Now when a soul hath thus seen its nakednesse, it begins to think of a covering, of a mantle, or a cloak to hide its sin, and begins first to sow together the Fig leaves of its own Righteousnesse, of its own performances, and so long as it thinks they will serve its turn, it looks no further, till at length a flash of lightening comes and smutes all their righteousnesse, blacks all their beauty, scorches their leaves, and burns up all their Hay and Stuble, and discovers a new light unto them, that make they the borders of their own righteousnesse never so broad, and let them with the Pharisees inlarge their Phylacteries never so wide, yet they shall finde the skirts thereof too narrow, too shallow to cover them; then they begin to be out of conceit with themselves, to fall in disesteem and disreputation with themselves, then they begin to let fall those plumes and specious train that before they so much pleased and prided themselves [Page] in. And indeed men will never desire to put on the Lord jesus, till they have thus seen their own poverty, that their own righteousnesse is but as dirty and menstruous rags; till they are thus come acquainted with their own wants, how empty their own exchequer is, how low their own treasures run, they will never desire to be supplied out of those treasures of Grace, God hath laid up in Christ for poor sinners; till men look up and discern the sword of vengeance hanging by a small hair over their heads ready to drop upon them, they'l not be sencible of the desperate peril and danger of their naturall state and condition: till they see the filthinesse, pollution and corruption of their Natures, the Leprosie of sin that cleaves to them, they'l never desire the Angel may move the waters, or go unto the pool of Bethesda to the fountaine of Christs blood, to wash and bathe their souls in Iordan: till they finde and feel their souls stung by the fiery Serpents of sin, till they feel the sting of the guilt of sin stick in their souls and consciences, they'l never by the eye of Faith [Page] look up to the brazen Serpent, Christ Jesus that was lifted up upon the Crosse, that they may receive health and healing to their souls. Till they are sencible of those breaches and ruines, the fall of Adam hath made in their natures, till they are sencible of those wounds and bruises, those mortall wounds sin hath given them, they will never go to the Physitian of souls for cure, to have the balm of Gilead applyed to their wounds, to have oyl and wine poured into them. Till they are sencible of that issue of blood that is upon them, and have in vain spent all their substance on other Physitians and fruitless remedies, they will not presse after Christ to touch the hem of his Garment, to receive vertue and healing from Him. Till they are sencible of the misery into which they are fallen, and the irrecoverablenesse of their estate, they will never beg the putting forth of the hand of Gods mercy, and the arm of his Almighty Power for their rescue and deliverance.

Till men are sensible of their blood-guiltiness, they'l never fly to the City [Page] of Refuge, to avoid the pursuit of Gods Vengeance, the pursuit of the Avenger of Blood: Till they are sensible of their own vileness, they'l not fly to the Ark of the New Covenant, to be preserv'd from that deluge of wrath that is to come upon the workers of iniquity. Till men are sensible of their own barrenness, and unfruitfulness in all the works of holiness and righteousness, and that the Axe of Gods Judgements is laid to the root of every tree that bringeth not forth fruits worthy of repentance, and newness of life, and that it shall be hewn down, and cast into the flames of Gods Vengeance, and become the fuel of eternal fire, the fuel of his Eternal Wrath and displeasure; I say, till by the Eye of Faith they discern and believe this, they'l never desire to be grafted into the true Vine, Christ Jesus, that they may receive sap and influence from him, and so become fruitful, and abound in the works of righteousness: till we are sensible that we are dead in trespasses and sins, we shall never desire the quicknings and enlivenings of [Page] Gods Spirit: till we are sensible of, and groan under the burden and weight of the guilt of sin, we shall never desire ease of Christ: till we are sensible of that body of death we carry about with us, of that Law in our members, rebelling against the Law of our minds, of that power, dominion, rule and tyranny that sin hath obtained over us, captivating us into the obedience of the Law of sin and death, we shall never groan to be deliver'd into the liberty of the Sons of God, that we may serve him without fear, and be able to lead captivity captive.

For so long as men are of opinion with the Church of Laodicea, that they think they abound, are rich and full, they will never acknowledge, that they are poor, blind, and naked, and by consequence become Suitors at the Throne of Grace, that they may receive Crowns and Thrones of Glory.

To conclude this particular, so long as men have any reeds of their own righteousness to lean unto, though but broken reeds, and such as will [Page] rather wound and pierce their sides, than yeeld any strength or support unto them; they'l never build their Faith on the Rock of Ages, Christ Jesus. So long as they can fit and please themselves under the gourds of their own righteousness, under the shadows of their own performances, so long as they have any thing to skreen them from the heat, and scorchings of an inkindled conscience, I say, till the Sun of Righteousness be arisen, and hath scorched their Gourds, and burnt up all their pleasant Bowers, they will very hardly be perswaded to take shelter under the Cross of Jesus. And therefore upon this account, poverty of spirit is a blessed and happy condition, for that it is an awakened state, and gives men a true prospect and discovery of their estate and condition, for that it brings them acquainted with their wants, with what they stand in need of.

2 Poverty of spirit is a fruitful state, your low and humble valleys are crowned with the greatest plenty, are most rich and fruitful; the lowest [Page] trees, and meanest shrubs have their boughs laded with the greatest encrease, as appears in the Vine, and other trees; whereas high mountains, tall trees, and stately Cedars are commonly steril and barren, and their great bulk but a burden to the earth: No man plants a Vineyard on the top of an hill, they are the low and humble souls in which God delights, in whose hearts he plants his fear, and ingrafts the Graces of his Holy Spirit, on whom he causes the influences and Dews of Heaven to descend, and bestows the Watrings and Sanctifications of his Spirit: These are those blessed Souls that the Psalmist resembles to Trees planted in the Garden of God by the rivers of water, which bring forth their fruits in season, and whose leaves shall never wither, never fade, shall know no Autumn, no Winter, but alwayes thrive and prosper; God hath chosen the mean, the weak, and base things of this world, to confound the wise and mighty, that so no flesh might glory in his presence; that the wise man may not glory in his wisdome, [Page] least it be turned into folly, nor the strong man in his strength, least it be turned into weaknesse, nor the rich man in his riches, least they be turned into poverty and penury, but that who so glories may Glory in the Lord.

And this is that makes the Gospel such a Riddle, such a Mysterie to the World, that God raises a Worm, the Worm Iacob to thresh the Mountains, a little David, a small young Stripling to discomfit a great Goliah, Goliah the Champion of the Philistims; a small Rod to cleave in sunder a mighty Rock, as sometimes Moses did in the Wildernesse: to smite an Host of Philistims with the jaw bone of an Ass: to cause the proud and stately Walls of Iericho to tremble and shake for fear, and at length drop down to Rubbish at the blast of a few Ramshorns. Now if you ask the reason of this, why God hath chosen such weak contemptible means, such despicable and despised instruments to accomplish and bring about the great designs and purposes of his will, the grand Councils of his Mind? It is his jealousie of his honour, that none may rob him of his Glory, that all [Page] may acknowledge as sometimes the Magicians of Pharaoh, hic est digitus Dei, this was the finger, this was the Hand of God; For by how much less of the Wisdom, Power and Policy of man appears, by so much the more is God manifested.

3. A third Reason why poverty of spirit is so blessed a condition, may be this, For that it is a sure estate; for according to that of the Poet, cui jacet in terram non habet unde cadat, your highest Towers and tallest Cedars, are most often smote with lightning, are most exposed to the Injuries and Inclemencies of weather, to the rage and fury of Storms and Tempests; We have often known a great and mighty Oak torn in pieces by the violence of a storm, and made a trophy of the Winds fury, when as lessertrees and smaller shrubs have Surviv'd the Tempest and remained untouch'd.

Hills are precipices, and high places slippery and dangerous, on high places our heads are apt to wax giddy; When Satan tempted our Saviour, he took him, and set him on a Pinacle of the Temple.

High places are full of temptations, they command too far a prospect of [Page] this Worlds glory, of the glory of this Creation, thus when the spirit of a man is elated and raised, he is exposed to more danger, to more temptations, than the humble soul.

Many other Reasons might be added as that axiom in Philosophy, which holds true also in Divinity, that privation praeceeds habits, emptiness preceds fulnesse; Its a common saying, That the way to heaven lies by the Gates of Hell, and therefore this poverty is but as it were the taking of our Fees in order to preferment, to the end we may take the higher, the farther leap, we must be emptied of our selves, that is, of all vain and windie conceit of our selves, before we can be fil'd with the graces of Gods Spirit.

It is the Devils policy to blow, and puff us up like bladers with the Wind of pride and self-conceit, that we may not be capable of receiving the new wine of the spirit; Now these bladers of pride must be prick'd, this swelling wind of conceit, this ventosity must be let out: & therefore it is, Christ calls so often to us, to sell all, to part with all, if we will become wise Merceants, and traffique for eternal life; if we will purchase that Pearl of [Page] price, [...] that inestimable Pearl mentioued in the Gospel, Mat. 13. 6. We must part with all and follow Christ if we will have him, or render our selves worthy of him; This made the young man in the Gospel depart sorrowful, full of sorrow, he had a good mind to Christ, but was very rich, had much wealth, was full of substance, and had kept the commandements from his youth upwards. This is that makes it so difficult for a rich man to be saved: Oh how difficult a thing it is to stand still and see the Salvation of God, as the Israelites were commanded at the red Sea, and as all Christians are now, that will pass through the red Sea of Christs Blood; this is that makes it easier for Publicans and sinners to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, then the Scribes and Pharisees that are cumbred with a great deal of Righteousnesse of their own, with a multitude of Religious duties and performances; What must they part with all, cast all overboard, make shipwrack of their Righteousness too? This is a hard Chapter, durus sermo, a hard saying, who can bear it? but I would ask such souls whether [Page] they think it a fitting thing that they should enter into the Kings feast, to the Marriage of his Son, in the filthy menstruous raggs of their own Righteousnesse, and without the wedding Garment; Would it not be construed an affront, would they not be thought to disgrace, reproach and defile the Marriage, by so rude, so uncivil an Action? Would you sit down with Princes, being cloathed with nothing but durt and raggs, and yet be so morose as not to accept of a Robe out of the Kings Wardrope, since it is his Royal pleasure, to put so great an honour on you? Would you be Courtiers to the King of Heaven, and refuse to wear his Livery; Let's remember the end of him in the Parable, the Catastrophe of his presumption, that intruded into the Nuptials without a wedding Garment.

Moreover the way to Heaven is a narrow way, and the Gate that leads to Eternal Life is a strait passage; we must not thinktherefore to carry our Lumber with us, that will but clog and retard our speed, that will but cumber and trouble us, and render our passage more difficult and uneasie; [Page] It was a fond and ridiculous custom, ignorance and serperstition had introduced among some of the Heathens, That when any person of High rank or great quality amongst them dyed, to sacrifice many of his Servants, and great store of Cattel, to the end they might wait and attend on him in the other world; But I presume we who have the Light of Christianity are better inform'd, then to expect to carry a crowd with us, or togo in pomp & state with a train at our heels; and therefore what seoffing Lucian hath said merrily concerning Charons Boat, how the passengers were prohibited to bring any thing in with them, & commanded to strip themselves stark naked, and leave all on the other side the bank, whether their riches, Honours, Wisdom, Phylosophie or the like, may be seriously said to those that would enter into the ark of the new Covenant, they must carry nothing with them, if they would have a safe and a quick passage, a prosperous voyage to Heaven, if they would shoot the Gulph & arrive safe in the other World, or rather [Page] what Christ said to the Apostles, when he sent them forth to preach the Gospel throughout the whole World, when he made them Catholick and Universal Bishops of the Earth, to Preach and Teach all Nations, they were to take no money in their purses, they might take no wealth with them, not so much as to be cumbred with two Coats; So may we say to all those that would go unto Christ, that would Learn the way to Sion; we need not meet God as Iacob went to meet his iucensed Brother Esau, after he had supplanted and beguiled him of the blessing; with great heards and flocks of Cattel before us, to be our peace offerings, the price of our attonement, and to appease his wrath, for that is pacified already, he having found out himself a Sacrifice, we must not therefore go unto God with gifts, with Sumpter Horses of rich and costly presents, thinking to gratifie him for the redemption of our Captivity, for he wil say as sometime Abraham said to the Kings he had delivered when he rescued his Brother Lot, it shall not be said you have made Abraham rich; alack, [Page] what can we give unto God, are not the Cattel on a Thousand Hills the Lords? Is not the Earth and the fulnesse thereof his, what shall we then do? Shall we marshal up our performances and Duties, and set them in order to commend us to God, to procure admission & acceptance with God. Will he be any better pleased therewith, then he was with those Cattel Saul reserved for Sacrifice? Will he not say as Samuel did, What means the bleatings of these Cattel? God takes no Bribes, no, we may not carry so much as a Peter pence in our Mouths (as is the absurde practice of some Papists) for Heavens Porter, for Peter to open the door to us. No, there are none that take bribes in Heaven, there are no Courtiers that expect Fees, no Orators that have manus occulatas, or bovem in lingua as we say. And therefore hence it is, that we are invited to buy Wine, and Milk, and Honey without Money, and without price; they that would drink of the Waters of Life, must not think to purchase them, for they are no more to be sold then that gift of the Holy Ghost. We [Page] know what was replyed to Simon Magus, that would needs have bought it, that would needs be cheapning and bidding money for it, thy money perish with thee. This is the highest, the rankest, the grossest degree of Simony, to think of purchasing Salvation; for what shall we give the Lord, should we give our Bodies to be burned for the sin of our Souls, should we give our Bodies a Sacrifice, a burnt offering, it profits nothing, merits nothing, and God might cast back the dung thereof into the faces of our Souls. The gift is of Gods free grace, Did not Christ overturn the Table of the Money-changers, and whip the buyers and sellers out of the Temple? And shall we presume to introduce them again.

I have read that the Kingdom of Heaven is to suffer violence, is to be taken by force; but never that it was to be bought and sold. This was the stone of stumbling at which the faith of the Pharisees fell; the Rock of offence on which the Religious Jews split themselves, and ruined their Salvation; they would needs lean to the broken reeds of [Page] their own righteousnesse, and thereby wounded and pierc'd themselves: they thought to have purchas'd Heaven, by their Alms, by their fasts, by their long prayers, by the tythe of their Mint and Annis. And do not the Papists at this day run into the same Errour, dos not their Doctrine of Merits, of Pardons, of Indulgences, &c. set up the Tables of the moneychangers in the Temple of God? Have they not introduced a Mart or Fair into Religion, and turn'd the Temple into a Shop or Exchance, in which things spiritual are bartered for Temporal, and things incorruptible for silver and gold that is corruptible. Nonne fecerunt omnia venalia coelum, Christum, tot [...]m denique Religionem? Have they not done by Heaven, as Hanibal is reported to have sometime done by old Rome? viz. exposed it to sale; but we know he paid dear for his presumption, it cost him the losse of his Camp. And I would advise these to have a care, that make so bold with Heaven; that are so rich in works of supererogation, that have merits not onely for themselves, but others; that are so [Page] rich they can purchase Mansions and Crowns of Glory, not only for themselves, but others: That are able to purchase large Patrimonies, and whole Provinces in Heaven: Nay, that can sell Heaven, Reversions of Glory, to purchase vast Territories here upon earth. No, to entertain such thoughts as these, so high an esteem of our own works, our own merits is no lesse than madnesse and folly; Or to think that we shall not be welcom to God, unlesse we bring our own entertainment with us: no, they that are invited to the marriage Supper, to the kings feast must not bring their entertainment with them.

They that will be sav'd must suffer losse, the hay and the stubble of their own righteousnesse, of their own works must be destroy'd, consum'd and burnt up: We must not build our Faith and expectations of Heaven upon the old, rotten, crazy, tottering foundations of our own performances, for this is but sand: If we would have our foundation stand sure, if we desire the Pillars of our Salvation should stand fast and not be moved.

But the last Reason, and that [Page] which leads us to the other part of the verse, to the remaining words, and which are the Reason laid down in the Text, is this, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Their happiness doth not consist in their poverty, but in the Right and Title they have to the Kingdom, for that they are the heirs apparent to the Crown of Glory, for that they are of the blood Royal of Heaven, the most high born Seed of God.

Oh most blessed, most happy, most fortunate and Royal Poverty, on which is intayl'd a Kingdom, that hath the reversion of a Crown and Scepter. This life is the nonage of a Saint, we are here under pupillage and wardship, under Guardians and Tutors, the first Epistle of John 3. 2. Now are ye the Sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what ye shall be. A Saints portion is not in this life, his Kingdom is not of this world; his happinesse is in reversion. Oh▪ who would not part with all he hath for a Kingdom. Its reported that when Cesars ambition courted the Romans monarchy, and began to bid for the Empire of the whole Earth, that he left himself [Page] nothing but hope. Oh who would not part with all he hath for a Kingdom, so he may but retain not a bare uncertain hope, but the sure reversion of a Kingdom. What, shall Cesar bid more for the bare naked hopes of an earthly. Empire, than Christians for not the hopes, but certainty of a spiritual a Heavenly Kingdom? Shall Cesar venture more for a temporal Crown, than Christians for an eternal weight of Glory? Is he accounted unworthy of terrestrial empire, that will not venture his life for it, & is not he much more unworthy of a Caelestial Throne, that will not adventure and part with his all for it.

It is reported of a fortunate King, that he accounted it his sole misfortune, that he never had misfortune: and therefore being minded industriously to seek and court that which other men endeavour most to shun and avoid, he cast a Ring of great value into the Sea: and after a while found it in the belly of a fi [...]h, served up to his table. I am sure it is the greatest the sadest misfortune of the greater part of the World, that they have not [Page] this misfortune, to fall into this poverty of spirit. And they that have it may justly take up the words of him that said periissem nisi periissem, I had been eternally unfortunate and miserable, had it not been for this misfortune. I know this hath been an age too skilful and ingenious in supplanting one another, in raysing themselves by the falls of others, in building their fortunes on the ruins of other mens: But this is a far more ingenious thing to be able to supplant a mans own misfortune, to raise himself by his own fall, to find a crown in his own ruins; we know Saul found a Kingdom, as he was seeking his fathers asses, and this is to find a kingdom in seeking poverty and want, this is to convert by an excellent kind of Chymistry poysons into Cordials, losses into gaines, crosses into crowns, and the wounds and injuries of fortune into blessings and favours: it is a being (in truth what the Phylosophers so much talked of) beyond the reach of fortune, and above the Empire of Chance. I believe during the time of our late unhappy wars many that were skilfull at fishing in troubled [Page] waters, have with good success experimented the truth of this doctrine in the letter.

How many a poor broken trades man with others of ship-wrack't and ruin'd fortunes, who being quite bankrupt and reduced to the extremity of want and misery; Have by betaking themselves to the wars, thriven better, and rais'd themselves to far greater and fairer fortunes than ever they could have expected, with out a miracle in the way of their former vocations. I am sure its no lesse true, but more safe in the spirit. For there was never any poor broken spirit, that being ship-strack't and bankrupted in himself, that being lost and ruined in himself, that being undone and beggard, that being naked, humble & poor in spirit, betook himself to this spiritual warfare, & entered into the Camp of the Saints militant: that lifted his name under the Captaine of our Salvation Christ Jesus, and served under the banner of the Cross, but he was a gainer by it, but he thrive better, & rais'd his fortunes to a higher pitch, than if he had grasp'd the Scepters, and possest the Empires [Page] of the whole Earth, so thriving a thing is this poverty, so great the advantages that are to be reap'd by it, so great the honour and dignities to which it leads. For to speak truth they are our riches that ruin and undo us, what we account our riches is our poverty, and our cloathing is our shame, of which till we are strip'd its impossible for us to be either fortunate or truly happy.

But to proceed, how much have many done & suffered upon the single account of gratifying their ambition? with the expence of how much sweat and travail, at the losse of how many nights sleep and repose, at the cost of how many cares and sorrows, are men content to purchase a small Empire, a little province of rule and dominion? Whereas it were but a poor, low and groveling ambition, did they with Ceser grasp at the whole Earth, or with Alexander mourn, for that there is but one? For what is it that we should either with the one prize it so much, or with the other grieve there are no more? Is it any other than a mole hill, or any better than the dreges and sidency of the Creation, [Page] or is it not infinitely below the worth & dignity of the least celestial body of the least star that twinkles in the great vault of heaven? Is it not then to play at small game a meer childish push-pin sport to contend for it?

Or can the great conflicts and struglings managed with so much passion and animosity about it, amount to more or seem other in the eye of a truly soaring and rais'd ambition, than a cock-fight or contest of fowls for the Empire of a dunghill, or the bul rush encounter we meet with in the fable between the Frog and the Mouse, or rather the stivings of those little animals we sometimes observe in mole hills, so eagerly to contend for a grain of corn? For is not the ambiency and circumference of the whole earth (which is so noble a prize in the eyes of the sons of men, and so great a ball of contention among them) but as a punctum a small point or atomes, in comparison of the dementions of the first and lowest Heavens; And yet how much sweat, how much oyl is dispended in the quest and acquisition of a small particle thereof.

[Page] There are others that will suffer much upon the account of love and friendship, that can freely espouse poverty, and court misery for the love and company of a friend, that can sacrifice their lives, their honours their crowns at the Altar, and feet of friendship: Can bid defiance unto Death, the King of terrors, in honour of their friend. And to speak truth, since friendship in the highest and most heroik degree thereof, is so strict a League and Union of Souls that friends become a second self to each other: I know not whether he may be thought worthy the title, or not to profane the name by his pretensions thereto, that cannot pawn his life for the honour and safety of his friend. Shall now a rash and blinde passion, boast greater trophies, and be honoured with more victims than God? Shall the Martyrologies of love and friendship be fuller than those of Saints? Shall the votaries of Cupid be more numerous than those of Heaven? Shall men do more upon a principle of good nature, and on the account of a naturall passion of love and friendship to a [Page] creature, than those that pretend to be saints by a principle of Grace, and on the account of a Divine and Seraphick love to the Creator? Shall the flames of love kindled by concupiscence and lust, have more heat and burn brighter than those lighted by a beam of Heaven, and kindled at the Altar? Shall more boast the wounds they have received in the lists of friendship, than those of piety? for the love of a woman, than of God? for the sake of a friend, than of Jesus.

Others are very passionate in the quest of honour, and zealous of their reputations, being willinger to loose their lives than the least punctilio of credit. How many Gentlemen have sacrificed their lives on this score, and offer'd up themselves, as victims at the Altars of this chimerical and feigned Diety? How great a spur to valour is this notion of Honour; How great flames of courage will the least spark thereof kindle in a valiant breast? With how great resolution will it steel a souldiers heart, making him proof against the greatest perils? What dangers will he not confront? [Page] What hazards will he not attempt, if his honour, if his reputation be at stake? And how many of these candidates of fame, these sons of renown do watch with more jealousie ore their honour, than their souls? And are carefuller not to fully their reputations, then defile their consciences; Now shall any one be willinger to sell his life, to redeem his own honour, than Gods, to vindicate his own reputation, than the Gospels? In defence of his Princes standard, than the banner of the Crosse, or to purchase the name of a valiant man, than that of a couragious Christian.

Again many have suffered much for the love of wisdom in the quest and pursuit of knowledge. With how much hunger and cold, with the losse of how many nights rest and sleep do men hunt after learning, and purchase to themselves a few flight notions of things? How will men rack and serue their thoughts, torture, and distresse their apprehentions, with a problem or theorem in Phylosophy? How will many macerate and consume their bodies, spend and wast the taper of their lives in watchings, abstinencies, and a thousand [Page] other austerities to gain a superficial inspection into the secrets of Nature, into the nature of things? How will many rob and defraud nature of its due, and pine away their bodies to satiate their thirst after knowledge, to feed and gratifie the inquisitive searching humor of their mindes? How hath the eagernesse of some mens thirst after learning, drunk up their strength and the very marrow of their souls? How hath the fiery spirit and activity of their mindes, fretted, consum'd and eaten up the flesh of their bodies, reduc'd them to Anotomies, and living Skellitons, looking more like spectres Ghosts or walking shaddows, than men? Some mens souls being like a sword too sharp and keen for the scabbard of their bodies, in which they are sheath'd: Or like Mercury or Quicksilver, so penetrating and acture, that nothing can contain them: And all this upon the sole account of knowledge, to which their affections are kindled with such ardent desires, and have conceiv'd such sprightly flames as commonly soon reduces their bodies to ashes, and rendes them the victims of their desires, causing them to expire like the [Page] Phenix, in their own flames. Its reported of (as I take it) Cleanthes a poor Phylosopher, that he pawned his nights rest, to purchase his dayes studies, that he drew water by night to earn a small pension to maintain himself in the muses service by day, to maintain himself in the study of Phylosophy. And of another it is reported, that having quitted and forsaken his honse and possessions, to take a pilgrimage for the better improvement of his stock of knowledge; and finding at his return all things thorow the injury of time gone to decay, and his house almost buried under its own ruins, brake forth into these expressions, sihaec non paeriissent ego paeriissem, had not these perish'd I had perish'd, had I not made Ship-wrack of my estate, I had shipwrack'd and lost my self.

Now shall the sons of humane wisdom, the candidates of a little naturall knowledge, that but puffeth up, and profiteth not, except sanctifi'd by grace, which will be but as a torch to light men to Hell. I say, shall men for the love of what the Apostle calleth vain Phylosophy, be content to welcome poverty, and entertaine penury, without any assurance of [Page] better estate in revertion, or future happinesse to compensate and reward their former miseries: And shall we grudge to do that for the wisdom wch is from above, for a Crown of Glory, which they do for the shaddow of wisdom, for a wreath of withering and fading palms, to obtain a name among the learned; Shall not we do that to be made partakers of those Eternal fountains of wisdom and knowledge, that the Heathen did, for the adorning their understandings with a little dark fading counterfeit knowledge?

To conclude, the lower the foundation is laid, the higher the superstructure may be raised. We have received on the credit of naturalists and those that are best read in the observations of nature, that your tallest trees shoot their roots deepest into the Earth, and commonly as far downwards towards the Center, as their tops reach upwards towards Heaven: As if nature would teach us, that the foundation of the best and surest fortune is laid low, is laid in the dust, and the Scripture teaches us, that poverty is the way to a Crown, beggery to a Kingdom. So [Page] that we see here the harmony and consent thats between the Book of God, and that of nature, between the Scriptures and the greater volumn of the World: And both of them giving in their evidence to this Truth, bearing testimony to this Doctrine, commending and reading lectures to us of this poverty of Spirit. Shall we now be so childish, as not part with our counters for gold? With the menstruous rags of our own righteousnesse, for the glorious princely robes of Christs? Shall we prefer our coats of fig leaves, before the righteousnesse of God?

And that this way and method of salvation may not seem strange to us, Christ the Lord and Captain of our Salvation hath trod it before us. For was not he humbled, before he was exalted? Was not he poor not having where to lay his head, before he receiv'd the Kingdom of his Father? Was not he crownd with thorns, before he was crownd with Glory? Finally, was not he crucifi'd before he was Glorified? Shall we now refuse to drink of the same cup that he hath drunk before us? Do we who are but the children of Adoption expect a Kingdom, a Crown, a Scepter, a Throne of Glory, on easier terms than the Heire, the son by nature, and the first begotten, than Chrrist our Elder brother receiv'd them on, should we not rather rejoyce and glory in our poverty, for that we are poor in Spirit, because to such is given the Kingdom of Heaven.

FINIS.

§

[Page]

THE ROYAL AND HAPPY Poverty: OR, A Meditation on the Felicities of an Innocent and Happy Poverty: Grounded on the Fifth of Matthew, the third Verse. And addressed to the late and present Sufferers of the Times.

Contabit Vacuus Coram latrone viator.

Nec habeo, nec Careo, nec Curo.

LONDON: Printed for Giles Calvert, at the Black-spread Eagle, at the West End of Pauls, 1660.

TO THE READER.

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[Page]

WHat to others (skilful at fishing in troubled waters) hath bin an opertunity of inriching and aggrundizing themselves; Was to the Author of this discourse the occasion of his Meditation: Who though he cannot [Page] boast the improvement of his Fortunes, yet thinks he hath gain'd som̄thing by the Disasters of the Times, in that acquaintance they have brought his thoughts with Poverty, And if he have herein walkt Antipodie to the humor of his Age, and in a time when the thoughts of others were most studious and intent upon their gain and interest, and floting on the golden sands of Pactolus; he hath imployed his another way, he hopes it is without offence. And that (in an Age fuller of VVolves than Men, more fruitful in the production of Monsters than Animals, and Prodigies than Births: in which not only Government, but every thing else, both Civil and Divine, hath been exposed to violence, and the violent taken it by force: In which men live more by spoyl and rapine, than according to the Rules of Law, or Dictates of Reason) a Meditation of this Nature will not seem [Page] impertinent or unseasonable: especially to such, who either through Conscience or modesty are ill adapted to jostle in a turbulent and tumultuous World, that had rather sequester themselves than others, and entertain their thoughts with the felicities of an innocent and Happy Poverty, than Projects of waxing rich by wrongs and injuries.

That the Author came too late into the World to obtain a Part in the late Tragedies, or was too young to Espouse a faction in the late unhappy Quarrels, he is thankful unto Providence: But that the date of his Nativity was so timed, as to render him a Spectator, though not a Gamester, to give him an opportunity of improving his Reason, though not Estate; and gathering Experience though not Riches, from the bitter root of our Publick Evils, he numbers not amongst his Misfortunes: not that he took delight in beholding [Page] the Tragedies of his Country, or was pleased to see the place of his Birth become a Cock-pit of strife, a Scene of Blood, or Shambles of Slaughters and Villanies: But for that as Solomon hath said, its better going to the house of mourning than rejoycing. He supposes it may in a like sense, be more advantagious to be born in a time of affliction than prosperity. And if something either of Ingenuity or Honesty excluded him from dividing the spoil, and sharing the Prey with the Nimrods and mighty Hunters of the Age, he hopes he shall not be envyed the improvement of his Poverty, by those who without his Envy possess the good things of the Earth, it being the only and best advantage he was able to make of the worst of times.

And if any be offended at either the Luxuriancy of Stile, or Loosnesse of Method in this Discourse, as judging them unsutable to the gravity of [Page] its Subject; they are desired to take notice, that it is not a Sermon but Meditation, and therefore speak not the Dialect of the Pulpit, but Vniversity, as being pen'd not by an antient Theologue, but young Disciple; who though he made use of a Text of Scripture as a Clue to guide his thoughts, through the Labyrinth of his Discourse, the better to avoid confusion: yet intended not to betray himself to the bondage of any Laws that should abridg the liberty of using such stile and method as should best correspond to the humor of his Fancy, and sute with the Nature of an Essay or loose Discourse. If therefore maturer Judgments shall discover any Lapses or Errata's, as may not be difficult, in a work that pretends as little to perfection, as its Author to Infallibility, he hopes they may be look'd upon as the more veneal, by reason immaturity of years may be some Apology for the same in judgment: [Page] The Heavens are not altogether free from Corruption, and Modern Curiosity hath discovered spots in the Sun; and therefore it were the highest arrogance Worms are capable to be guilty of, to undertake the projection of any thing should vye perfection with those Coelestial bodies, or pretend exemption from all manner of Deficiency: it being the sole Prerogative of the inerring Councils of a Deity to put forth Editions without Errata's, or become the Author of what can boast an absolute perfection and immunity from all flaws and wrinkles that may stain the beauty and symmetry of its proportions. I shall not longer detain you in the Threshold, only give me leave to tell you, That Poverty is a better Guest to a Mans thoughts than House, and is more comfortably entertain'd in a Meditation than Family; and am perswaded were it oftner so treated, we should seldomer be necessitated to receive [Page] it in the quality of a Domestick: But the unhappiness of most is to have no other acquaintance therewith, than what's acquired by an unfortunate Experience: and never to spend thought thereon, till it comes upon them liks an armed man, till it comes to quarter and take up its abode with them, to be their Inmate, and familier Companion. Which is but just on those that would never know it as the Object of their Charity towards others, while the day of their prosperity lasted. Now to such who through the injury either of past or future times must expect the coming of this unwelcom Guest to lodg and quarter with them, is this Discourse more especially addressed; that they may know how to entertain, how to welcom, how to improve and make good use of the worst of Evils: that they may be able to deceive their misery, to supplant their misfortune, to thrive by their losses, and turn their [Page] Crosses into Crowns. All which is to be obtain'd by that Poverty of spirit, this Discourse recommends, that will fully compensate and make amends for the injuries of Fortune, together with all other Afflictions that may befal them while Providence continues their Pilgrimage in this Vale of Tears.

Books Printed, and are to be sold by Giles Calvert, at the black-spread Eagle, at the VVestend of Pauls.

[Page]

THe Scripture Directory for Church Offices and People: Or, a Practical Commentary upon the whole Third Chapter of the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. To which is annexed, The Godly and the Natural Mans Choyce upon Psal. 4. ver. 6, 7, 8. By Anthony Burgesse, Pastor of the Church of Sutton Coldfield in Warwick-shire.

[...]. The Temple of Solomon Pourtrayed by Scripture Light: wherein all its famous Buildings, [Page] the Pompous Worship of the Jews, with its Attending Rites and Ceremonies, the several Officers imploied in that Work, with their Ample Revenues: And the Spiritual Mysteries of the Gospel vailed under all, are treated of at large by Samuel Lee.

The History of Diodorus Siculus, containing all that which is most memorable and of greatest Antiquity in the first Ages of the World, until the War of Troy: in Folio.

Renodaeus his Dispensatory, containing the whole body of Physick; discovering the Natures, and Properties, and Vertues of Vegetals, Minerals, and Animals: in folio.

Gadburies Doctrine of Nativities.

Doctor Pordages Innocency appearing through the Dark Mists of pretended guilt: in folio.

[Page] Cornelius Agrippa, his Occult Philosophy in 3 Books in quarto.

Henry Laurence Lord President his Book Entituled, Our Communion and War with Angels: in quarto.

Christopher Goad his Sermons Entituled, Refreshing Drops, and Scorching Vials: in quarto.

Samuel Gorton his Exposition on the fifth chapter of Iames: in quarto.

Samuel Hartlib of Bees and Silkworms: in quarto.

Williams, his Book called the Bloody Tenet of Persecution for cause of conscience: in quarto.

Doctor Gells Sermon Entituled Noahs Flood returning: in quarto.

Several Pieces of Christopher Blackwood, now publick Teacher in Ireland: in quarto.

[Page] Jacob Behem his Signatura Rerum, or Signature of all things: in quarto.

His Epistles explaining many things written in his other Books: in quarto.

Of Election and Predestination: in quarto.

His Book Entituled Aurora, or the Day-spring, lately printed in quarto.

Several Pieces of Isaac Penington Junior: in quarto.

The Spiritual Journey of a yong man, a Piece translated out of Dutch.

Biggs of the vanity of the craft of Physick, or a new Dispensatory: in quarto.

Collier his Pulpit-guard routed: in quarto.

His Font-guard routed: in quarto.

Simon Hendon his Key of Scripture Prophesies: in quarto.

[Page] Mr. Parker his Answer to the Assembly, in large Octavo.

Several Pieces of Thomas Collier, in large octavo.

Tillom on the eleventh chapter of the Relations, in large octavo.

Henry Laurence Lord President his Book of Baptism in large octavo.

Reeves Sermons Entituled the Strait-gate: in large Octavo.

Several Pieces of H. N. in octavo, namely, Prophecy of the Spirit of Love. Revelatio Dei, or the Revelation of God.

Introduction to the Glass of Righteousness. Evangelium Regni, a joyful Message of the Kingdom, Spiritual Tabernacle. The first Exhortation. The Apology for the service of Love: all in octavo.

Samuel Hartlibs Chymical Addresses: in octavo.

[Page] Thomas Butler his little Bible of the Man, or the Book of God opened in Man: in Octavo.

Crooked Paths made strait, or the waies of God made known in lost sinners, by A. Yeomans: in Octavo.

Laurences Gospel separation separated from abuses.

Simmons Saints like Christ: in Octavo.

William Sedgwick his eleven Sermons, intituled, Some Flashes of Lightnings of the Son of Man: in Octavo.

A Word of Peace from the Prince of Peace, by J. Hatch: in Octavo.

Mysteries unvailed, wherein the Doctrine of Redemption by Christ is handled, by Robert Gardner: in Octavo.

Purnel his good tidings for sinners, great joy for Saints: in Octavo.

[Page] Biscos glorious Mysteries: in Octavo.

The Confession and Fame of the Rosie Cross, by English Philalethes: in Octavo.

Larkhams Sermons in Octavo.

Bacons Catechism in twelves.

Corporations vindicated in their Fundamental Liberties, by Charles Hotham: in twelves.

John Saltmarsh his Book of Free Grace: in twelves.

And his Book Intituled, Sparkles of Glory, or some Beams of the morning Star: in twelves.

Dawnings of Light, in twelves.

Paracelsus his Aurora, and Treasure of the Philosophers. As also the Water-stone of the Wise Men; describing the matter of, and manner how to attain the universal Tincture.

The Errata.

[Page]

[Page]

PAge 2. line 26, for world read worlds. p. 6. l. 10. f. any r. many. p. 13. l. 10. f. we should be r. should not be. p. 31. l. 12. f. happiness r. unhappiness. p. 35. l. 17. f. produc't r. product. p. 39. l. 24. f. Lycaon r. Actaeon. p. 64. l. penult. f. sumitatis r. sanitatis. p. 66. l. 13. f. smutes r. smuts: p. 74. l. 11. f. cui r. Qui jacet &c. p. 80 l. ult. f. that r. the. p. 82. l. 19 f. totum r. totam. p. 88. l. ult. f. sidency r. sedeney. p. 89. l. 26. f. atomes r. atome. p. 93. l. 23. f. acture r. active. l. penult. f. rendes r. renders.

Besides the Errata's, the Reader is desired to take notice that there are (through the negligence of the Printer) many mispointings, which rendering the sence of the Discourse both difficult and dubious in divers places, must therefore be submitted to his Care and Judgment to be corrected.

Information about this book

Title statement

The royal and happy poverty or, a meditation on the felicities of an innocent and happy poverty: grounded on the fifth of Matthew, the third verse. And addressed to the late and present sufferers of the times.

Sprigg, William, fl. 1657.

Edition statement

1660

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

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Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A61197

ID [STC]

Wing S5081

ID [STC]

ESTC R221805

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

99833062

ID [PROQUEST]

99833062

ID [VID]

37537

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(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A61197)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 37537)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2062:13)

Source

— The royal and happy poverty or, a meditation on the felicities of an innocent and happy poverty: grounded on the fifth of Matthew, the third verse. And addressed to the late and present sufferers of the times., Sprigg, William, fl. 1657..

Extent

[10], 96, [10] p.

printed for Giles Calvert, at the Black-spread Eagle, at the west end of Pauls,. London :: 1660.. (With advertisements and errata bound at end.) (Reproduction of the original in the Bodleian Library.)

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