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tuous contempt of God, and his supreme authority, or at least the unbelief and neglect of it.

3dly, It cannot be genuine upright goodness that hath its dependence upon the goodness of others that are about us. They say of the vain glorious man, his virtue lieth in the beholder's eye: And if thy meekness and charity be such as lieth in the good and mild carriage of others towards thee, in their hands and tongues, thou art not owner of it intrinsically Such quiet and calm, if none provoke thee, is but an accidental uncertain cessation of thy turbulent spirit unstirred; but move it, and it exerts itself according to its nature, it sends up that mud. that lay at the bottom: Whereas true grace doth then most manifest what it is, when those things that are most contrary surround and assault it. It cannot correspond and hold game with injuries and railings; it hath no faculty for that, for answering evil with evil. A tongue inured to graciousness, and mild speeches and blessings, and a heart stored so within, can vent no other, try it, and stir it as you will. A christian acts and speaks not according to what others are towards him, but according to what he is through the grace and Spirit of God in him. As they say, quicquid recipitur, recipitur ad modum recipientis; the same things are differently received and work differently as the nature and way is of that which receives them: A little spark blows up one of a sulphureous temper; and many coals, greater injuries and reproaches, are quenched and lose their force, being thrown at another of a cool spirit, as the original expression is*.

They that have malice, and bitterness, and cursings within, though those sleep, it may be, yet, awake them with the like, and the provision comes forth out of the abundance of the heart; give them an ill word and they have another, or two for one in readiness for you; where the soul is furnished with spiritual blessings, there blessings come forth, even in answer to reproaches and indignities, The mouth

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of the wise is a tree of life, says Solomon', it can bear no other fruit, but according to its kind, and the nature of the root. An honest spiritual heart, pluck at it who will, they can pull no other fruit but such fruit. Love and meekness lodge there; and therefore whosoever knocks, these make the an

swer.

Let the world account it a despicable simplicity, seek you still more of that dove-like spirit, the spirit of meekness and blessing. It is a poor glory to vie in railings, to contest in that faculty, or any kind of vindictive returns of evil; the most abject creatures have abundance of that great spirit, as foolish poor spirited persons account it; but it is the glory of man to pass by a transgression"; this is the noblest victory, and, to excite us to aspire after it, we have, as we mentioned, the highest example. God is our pattern in love and compassions; we are well warranted to endeavour to be like him in this. Men esteem much more of some other virtues that make more shew, and trample upon these, love, and compassion, and meekness: But though these violets grow low, and are of a dark colour, yet they are of a very sweet and diffusive smell; odoriferous graces, and the Lord propounds himself our example in them, To love them that hate you and bless them that curse you, it is to be truly the children of your Father, your Father which is in Heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, &c. it is a kind of perfection, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect. Be you like it, howsoever men behave themselves, keep you your course, and let your benign influence, as you can, do good to all. And Jesus Christ sets in himself these things before us, Learn of me, not to heal the sick, or raise the dead, but learn, for I am meek and lowly in heart. And if you be his followers, this is your way; as the Apostle here addeth, hereunto are you called, y Prov. x. 11. z Prov. xix. 11. a Matth. v. 44, 45. and v. 48.

b Matth. xi. 29.

and this is the end of it, agreeable to the way, that you may inherit a blessing.

[COSTES OT] Knowing that.] Understanding aright the nature of your holy calling, and then considering it wisely and conforming to it.

They that have nothing beyond an external calling and profession of christianity, are wholly blind in this point, and do not think what this imports, a christian. Could they be drawn to this, it were much, it were indeed all, to know to what they are called, and to answer to it, to walk like it: But as one calls a certain sort of lawyers, indoctum doctorum genus, we may call the most, an unchristian kind of christians.

Yea, even they that are real partakers of this spiritual and effectual call, yet are much to seek in this; whereas they should be often viewing their rule, and laying it to their life, their hearts, and words, and actions, and squaring all these by it; should be often asking themselves, suits this my calling? Is this like a christian? It is a main point in any civil station to have a suitable convenient carriage to a man's station and condition, that his actions become him: But how many incongruities and solecisms do we commit, forgetting ourselves, who we are, and what we are called to; to what, as our duty, and to what, as our portion and inheritance. And these indeed agree together, we are called to an undefiled, i. chap. of this epistle, ver. 4. a holy inheritance, and therefore likewise to be holy in our way to it, for that contains all. We are called to a better estate at home, and called to be fitted for it, while we are here; to an inheritance of light, and therefore to walk as children of light, and so here to blessing, as our inheritance, and to blessing as our duty; for this [es Taro Thereunto] relates to both, looks back to the one, and forward to the other, the way and the end, both blessing.

The fulness of this inheritance is reserved till we d Colos. i. 12.

Caput artis est decere quod facias.

e

Eph. v. 8.

come to that land where it lieth, there it abideth us: but the earnests of that fulness of blessing are bestowed on us here, spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ', they descend from those heavenly places upon the heart, that precious name of our Lord Jesus poured on our hearts. If we be indeed interested in him, (as we pretend) and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we are put in possession of that blessing of forgiveness of sin, and are in terms of love and amity with the Father; being reconciled by the blood of his Son, and then blessed with the anointing of the Spirit, the graces infused from Heaven. Now, all these do so cure the bitter accursed distempers of our natural heart, and so perfume it, that it cannot well breathe any thing but sweetness and blessing towards others; being itself thus blessed of the Lord, it echoes blessing both to God and men, echoes to his blessing of it, and its words and whole carriage are as the smell of a field that the Lord hath blessed, as old Isaac said of his son's garments. The Lord having spoke pardon to a soul, and instead of the curse due to sin, blessed it with a title to glory, it easily and readily speaks pardon, and not only pardon but blessing also, even to these that outrage it most, and deserve worst of it; reflecting still on that, "Oh! what de"served I at my Lord's hands! when so many ta"lents are forgiven me, shall I stick at forgiving a few pence?"

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And then called to inherit a blessing: so is every believer an heir of blessing; and not only are the spiritual blessings he hath received, but even his largeness of blessing others is a pledge to him, an evidence of that heirship. As those that are bent to cursing, though provoked, yet may look upon that as a sad mark, that they are heirs of a curse", As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him—into his bowels like water, aad like oil into his bones. And shall they not that delight in cursing, have then enough of it, when they shall hear that doleful

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h Psal. cix. 17, 18.

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word, Go ye cursed, &c.? And, on the other side, as for the sons of blessing, that spared it not to any, the blessing they are heirs to, is blessedness itself, and they are to be entered into it by that joyful speech, Come ye blessed of my Father, &c.

Men can but bless one another in good wishes, and the Lord in praises, and applauding to his blessedness; but the Lord's blessing is really making blessed; an operative word, which brings the thing with it.

Inherit a blessing.] Not called to be exempted from troubles and injuries here, and to be extolled and favoured by the world; but on the contrary, rather to suffer the utmost of their malice, and to be the mark of their arrows, of wrongs, and scoffs, and reproaches. But it matters not, this weighs down all, you are called to inherit a blessing, which all their cursings and hatred cannot deprive you of. For as this inheriting of blessing binds on the duty of blessing others upon a christian, so it encourages to go through the hardest contrary measure they receive from the world. If the world should bless you, and applaud you never so loudly, yet their blessings cannot be called an inheritance; they fly away, and die out in the air, have no substance at all, much less that endurance that may make them an inheritance. And more generally, is there any thing here that deserves so to be called? the surest inheritances are not more than for term of life to any one man; their abiding is for others that succeed, but he removes*; and when a man is to remove from all he hath possessed and rejoiced in here, then fool indeed, if nothing be provided for the longer (O! how much longer) abode he must make elsewhere. Will he not then bewail his madness; that he was hunting a shadow all his lifetime, and may be turned out of all his quiet possessions and easy dwelling before that? and in these times we may

i Qui thesaurum tuum alieno in ore constituis, ignoras quod arca ista non clauditur?

* Si hæc sunt vestra, tollite ea vobiscum. S. BERN.

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