MAN therefore, as a Creature, has fufficient Reason to be humble, and poor in Spirit. But if we confider him 2dly, as a Sinner, he has Caufe, not only to be humble, but to lie down flat upon his Face, and look upon himself to be more bafe and vile than the very Duft whereof he was form'd, and whereon he treads. To be a Sinner is much more vile than to be the meanest Creature; and the Non-Entity of Sin is more difhonourable than that of Nature. This latter, tho' it cannot actually conform, yet it is not difobedient to the Will of God: But the former Nothing contradicts and refifts his Will. This is, as I think one of the Fathers 'calls it, Nihil Rebelle, & in Deum armatum, an Armed Nothing. Indeed, to be a Creature, involves Weaknefs and Imperfection in it; but then it alfo involves Good, because nothing can be, but by partaking of the Perfection of God. But now, to be a Sinner involves nothing but pure and unmixt Evil; and is withal, a farther remove from Good than to be nothing, fince it is, not only negatively, but contrarily oppofed to it. 'Tis indeed the greatest Monftrofity and Deformity in the World, the greatest Contradiction to Order and Harmony, to Reafon and Proportion, to Well-being and Happiness in one Word, 'Tis the only thing which God hates. What great Reason then has Man to be humble, and poor in Spirit; poor even to Emptiness, and Self-Annihilation, who is not only a Creature, but a finful Creature!

HAVING NOW fhewn the Duty and Reasonableness of Poverty of Spirit, in the full latitude of the Word, I proceed to fhew, in the Third Place, the Happiness of thofe who are fo difpofed. Bleffed are the poor in fpirit, fays our Saviour, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's the only Blessedness which is here exprefly mentioned: But they are happy also in other regards: For, in the first place, What an happy Disposition of Soul must it be, always to carry about one fuch a ftrong and lively Conviction of the Vanity of all created Good, as not to run out into vehement Defires after it? For, Defire it felf, to go no farther, is always a great Torment: 'Tis the fame to the Soul, that Thirst is to the Body; and Hope deferr'd (as the Wife Man tells us) makes the heart fick, Prov. 13. But that is not all; for here will come in the Trouble of Disappointment, as well as of Defire: Not that which the World generally understands by Difappointment, the not compaffing what you defigned, (tho' that alfo will often happen) but the not enjoying what have compaffed, the Disappointment of Fru

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ition.

But now, to be poor in Spirit is the Way to avoid all this. Such a Perfon expects no Happinefs from the Creature; and confequently, not to find it there, will be to him no Difappointment. He does not lean upon any created Good with any Stress; and therefore, tho' it fhould fail under him, his Fall will be but flight and eafie. And, indeed, it is not to be imagined what a deal of Anxi

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Anxiety, Care, Reftlefnefs, Disappointment, Sorrow, fruitlefs Labour and Endeavour are faved by this Poverty of Spirit. And I think this is no fmall Degree of Happiness.

AGAIN, Is it not a great Happiness to be fo moderately and indifferently affected towards the World, as to be contented with any Condition in it? to be of a quiet, fedate, refigned and difintereffed Difpofition? He that is thus difpofed, is above, or rather below the reach of calamitous Accidents. The Storm flies over his Head, he has nothing for Fortune to take hold of: Nor will he be under the Hazard of parting with his Religion, to fecure his worldly Intereft. No; he can do his Duty, tho' at the Expence of Martyrdom; and tho' highly deferving of the best Times, may yet be trufted in the worst.

THEN as to the Happiness attending upon Poverty of Spirit, as it ftands for Humility, there is no one Vertue that is more her own Reward than this: Pride is the most uneafie thing in the World; and withal, the most odious; uneafie to the Patient, and odious to the Obferver. And, as it is uneafie in it felf, fo is it the Parent of many troublefom and uneafie Paffions; fuch as Anger, Contention, Revenge, Envy, Impatience, &c. So that it is hard to determin whether the proud Man be more ridiculous or miferable.

But now, to be humble, is to be wife, to understand the true Proportion and Measure of a Creature, to be ferene, to be contented, to be thankful, to be pleafant and chearful, to be calm

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and untroubled, to be difpaffionate and unconcerned. In fhort,No Man enjoys what he really is, fo much as he that does not fanfie himself what he is not. And befides, the humble Man is fure to get that very Honour which he declines, and because he declines it. I end this with the Obfervation of Plato, That a Man that does not rightly know himself can neither be prudent, good, nor happy; which is all that goes to the Perfection of Man: And he that does, is fure to be all this.

THUS far of the Happiness belonging to the two Kinds of Poverty of Spirit feverally. There remains yet one more belonging to them both in common; and that is, the Kingdom of Heaven, which I fuppofe to comprehend both Grace and Glory. As to Grace, we are told by the Apostle, that God has chofen the poor in this world to be rich in faith. And in the fame place where God is faid to refift the Proud, he is faid alfo to give Grace to the Humble, Jam. 4. 6. Indeed, Humility is the proper Foundation of Grace, and the Theatre of all Divine Operations. This State of Nothingness, and Self-emptiness, is as much a Preparation to the New, as the Void and Inform Space was to the Old Creation: 'Tis the true and proper firft Matter in the Spiritual World, into which the Form of the New Creature will be introduced: And if Man does but contain himself in this Nothing, God will not fail to work All, and to be All in him; having promifed his Special Prefence to the Man of an humble Spirit, Ifa. 57. 15. C 3

THEN,

THEN, as for Glory, 'tis highly equitable, that they who have humbled themselves here, fhould be exalted hereafter; and that they who have renounced this World, fhould have their Portion in the next. And to convince the flowhearted and diftrustful World, that thus it fhall be, God has already given a Specimen of it, in the Example of his Son, who was particularly eminent for this double Poverty of Spirit; for renouncing the World, and for debafing himfelf; whom therefore God has highly exalted, giving him a name above every name, Phil. 2. 9. and has alfo placed him on his own Righthand, Angels, and Authorities, and Powers being made fubject unto him, 1 Pet. 3. 22.

DISCOURSE the Second.

MATTH. V. Ver. iv.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be

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comforted.

HEY are the Words of him who was himself a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with Grief; and who was alfo acquainted with Happiness too, with the Joys of Religion, with the Refreshments of Angels, with the Antepafts of Glory,