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of all Saints: not that he then was fo, SER M. but that he had been a Perfecutor of the XI. Church of God. That Humility is the only means to entitle us to the Divine Affiftance and continual Direction, and the best Help to a right Understanding in matters of Religion; (meaning always by Humility, not a blind and careless Submiffion to the Notions of Men, but an entire giving up ourselves to the Will of God;) Truft in the Lord with all thine Heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding; In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he Shall direct thy Paths; Be not wife in thine own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from

evil; This is the Advice of Solomon, Prov. iii. 5. And the Pfalmift declares, Pf. xxv. 9. Them that are meek will God guide in judgment; and fuch as are gentle, them will be learn his way; And St Paul directs, 2 Cor. x. 5. to caft down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the Knowledge of God, and to bring into Captivity every Thought to the Obedience of Chrift; Not our UnderStandings to the Opinions of Men; but our Wills, the Thoughts and Defigns of VOL. III.

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Our

SER M.Our Hearts to the Obedience of Chrift. XI. And the wife Son of Sirach advifes, Eccluf. iii. 17. My Son, go on with thy business in Meekness, fo fhalt thou be beloved of him that is approved; The greater thou art, the more humble thyself, and thou shalt find Favour before the Lord; Many are' in high places, and of renown, but myfteries are revealed unto the Meek; And our Saviour himself profeffes, St Matt. xi. 25. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because thou haft bid these things from the wife and prudent, and haft revealed them unto Babes; Even fo, Father, for fo it feemed good in thy fight. Thefe are the Arguments the Scripture makes use of, to perfwade us to the Practice of Humility; And they are all briefly fummed up in the Words of the Text, Whosoever exalteth himself shall be cbafed; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

A

SERMON

SERMON XII.

Of Poverty of Spirit.

MATT. V. 3.

Bleed are the Poor in Spirit ; for Theirs is the Kingdom of

God.

T

HE Beatitudes, or Declarati-S ER M: ons of Bleffedness, with which XII. our Saviour begins his Ser

mon upon the Mount; tho'

they seem each of them to be

a recommendation of fome fingular Virtue, and to contain each of them fingly a Promife that fuch a particular Virtue

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shall

SER M. fhall have its diftinct, proper, and peculiar XII. Reward; yet This is not fo to be under

ftood, as if any of these Virtues fingly fpecified, were to be taken feparately, exclufive of Other Virtues; or as if any of the Rewards here, diftinctly mentioned, were to be looked upon as conferred feparately, and divided from the Other Constituents of the Happiness of Heaven : But by a very usual and well-known manner of speaking, wherein a Part is figuratively put for the Whole; as, in Other places of Scripture, Faith or Hope or Charity, or Repentance, or the Love or Fear of God, do frequently ftand for the Whole Duty of a Chriftian; and the fingle particulars of feeing God, or being with God, or of living for ever, are intended to include in general All the Bleffings and Happiness, All the Glories and Injoyments, of the Heavenly State, fo Here likewise our Saviour, in each Beatitude, must be understood in general to annex the promise of the Happiness of Heaven, to the univerfal Practice of our whole Christian Duty. And 'tis with fingular Beauty and Elegancy, as well as with

great

great Variety and Inftructiveness of ex-SER M. preffion, that, in the former part of each XII. Beatitude, he defcribes our Chriftian Duty under the character of fome particular eminent Virtue; and, in the latter, he fets forth to us, under the like number of different diftinct Views, the Glories of his heavenly Kingdom: Representing, in the latter part of each Beatitude, the Happiness of That eternal State, under fuch a particular Figure, and in fuch a particular Light, as is moft agreeably correfpondent to that particular Notion of Virtue, under which he had in the former part represented our Chriftian Duty. Thus, when the Life of a Christian is expreffed under the character of being poor in Spirit, then his Reward is the Riches of the Kingdom of Heaven: Blef fed are the poor in Spirt, for Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. When his prefent State is reprefented as a temporary Mourning, then his future State is the Comforts and the Joys of Eternity: Blef fed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. When his Virtue is described under the Notion of Meeknefs, in oppo$ 3 fition

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