SER M. tain That Good Temper and Difpofition XII. of Mind. But now this excellent Temper, this Virtue of being difingaged from the Covetous and Ambitious Defires of the World, is what the Poor are naturally led to by their very Circumstances; being under the Advantage of efcaping Many Temptations, which Others are continually fubject to; and being perpetually called upon by the Afflictions of This life, to turn their Thoughts to the expectation of a Better. It ought therefore to be matter of Juft Comfort and Support, nay even of Thankfulness too, under many kinds of temporal Wants and Afflictions; to confider how great an Advantage fuch circumftances give men, of obtaining this virtue of being poor in Spirit: Which our Saviour looked upon as so natural and eafy, and fo likely to be practised by perfons in That State, that, in places parallel to the Text, he fometimes uses that general and feemingly unlimited exprefLuke vi. fion; Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God; and, Bleffed are they Mat. v. 4 that mourn, for they shall be comforted. For the fame reafon, on the other fide, to

20.

those

those who abound in Riches and Power SER MY and the Good things of this prefent Life, XII. the Text plainly fuggefts particular matter of Caution; in annexing the heavenly Reward to That Temper and Difpofition of Mind, which They in particular are furrounded with so many Temptations to depart from, that our Saviour fometimes pronounces in words feemingly abfolute, Wo unto you that are rich, for ye bave Luk. vi. received your confolation. 'Tis evident, 24his Meaning cannot be, to reprefent Riches as a Crime; For he elsewhere expreffly explains himself to his Difciples, that he meant not to blame those who have, but those who (to the neglect of God and Virtue) truft in Riches: But his Defign clearly was, to admonish and put us in mind, how dangerous a ftate, Great Profperity generally is; how full of Temptation, how ready to puff men up; how apt to make them covetous, infolent and ambitious; and to destroy in them that meek, that equitable, that moderate difpofition of mind, which in the Text is ftiled being poor in Spirit. St Paul gives us a

remarkable inftance of an ill effect in this VOL. III.

T

kind,

XII.

ww

8.

SER M.kind, even of a little Profperity; when the Corinthians falling into Divifions among themfelves, began to be puffed up for 1 Cor. iv. one against another: New, fays he, ye are full, now ye are Rich, ye have reigned as Kings without us. And our Saviour, in his Admonition to the Church of Laodiced, hints at a like cafe, Rev. iii. 17, Thou fayeft, I am rich, and increafed with goods, and have need of Nothing; and knoweft not that thou art wretched and miferable and poor and blind and naked.

3dly, A Third obfervation which may be made upon the words of the Text, is; that from the Reafon our Saviour here gives, why he pronounces the Poor in Spirit to be Bleffed: (Bleffed are the Poor in Spirit, for Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven:) From this Reafon, I fay, here annexed by our Saviour, it evidently ap pears, that however excellent Virtue really is in itself, and truly defirable even for its own fake; yet neither are the highest Improvements in Religion, any way inconfiftent with having refpect to the recompenfe of Reward; nor is the Practice of Virtue (as fome have abfurdly argued

with

XII.

with a moft Vain Affectation) at all mer-SER M. cenary, when founded upon a View to the Happiness of Heaven. Mercenarinefs fuppofes always that Something Wrong is done, for the fake of fuch Lucre as a virtuous man can never purchase upon Such Terms. But the Happiness of Heaven, confifts itself in, and is effentially conjoined with, the perfection of Virtue; And the expectation and view of This Reward, is itself an immediate Act, of the Virtue of depending upon God. Were Temporal Profperity, the certain and conftant and at all times the immediate Reward of Virtue; it might indeed be alleged, not that the Practice of it was mercenary; because That always fuppofes the doing of fomething which is in itself blameworthy; but it might indeed be alleged, in diminution of the Excellency of it, as we find it was in the cafe of Job in the time of his Profperity, Does Job Serve God for nought? But as the Practice of Virtue is in reality far from being secure of any temporal Recompence, and the Reward it principally relies upon is fpiritual and beavenly; the expectation of Such Re

T 2

ward,

SER M. Ward, far from being any diminution, in XII. itself (as I now observed) a proper Act of Virtue, and of Dependence upon God. In the Antient Heathen World, the Virtue of the Best and Braveft men, under the Light of Nature and Reason, confifted in their Trusting in God; in their Trusting, without any exprefs revealed Promise, that the Judge of the whole Earth would finally do what was Right, and would not fuffer Virtue to perish equally with Vice. Under the Old Teftament, Mofes, being eminently what our Saviour in the Text calls Poor in Spirit, preferred the Poverty and Affliction of the People of God, before the Riches and Honours of Pharach's Court; and 'tis recorded of him, not in a way of diminishing, but of extolling his Virtue, that he esteemed this Reproach to be greater Riches than the Treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompence of the Reward. And when Job, in the time of his greatest Distress, persisted in his Reliance upon God; (though he flay me, yet will I trust in him;) 'twas not a lower, but a higher pitch of the fame virtue in him, (becaufe 'twas fixing it upon

a ra