nuine upright goodness that hath its dependence upon the goodness of others who are about us. 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, sending up that mud which lay at the bottom. Whereas true grace doth then most manifest what it is, when those things which 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, "The same things are differently received, and work differently, according to the nature and way of that which receives them." A little spark blows up one of a sulphureous temper, and many coals, great injuries and reproaches, are quenched and lose their force, being thrown at another of a cool spirit, as the original expression is, Prov. xvii, 27.

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 in 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; it is the noblest victory. And the highest example, God, is our pattern in love and compassion: we are well warranted to endeavour to be like him in this. Men esteem much more highly some other virtues which make more show, and trample upon these, love, and compassion, and meekness; but though these violets grow low and are of a dark color, yet they are of a very sweet and diffusive smell, odoriferous graces; and the Lord propounds himself our example in them; Learn of

me, not to heal the sick or raise the dead, but learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart. And if you be his followers, this is your way, as the apostle here adds, Hereunto are you called; and this is the end of it, agreeably to the way, that you may inherit a blessing.

Knowing that. Understanding aright the nature of your holy calling, and then considering it wisely and conforming to it. It is a main point in any civil station, for a man to have a carriage suitable and convenient to his 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, a holy inheritance, and therefore called 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; called to an inheritance of light, and therefore called to walk as children of light: and so here, called to blessing as our inheritance, and to blessing as our duty; for this 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 come to that land where it lieth; there it awaiteth 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, and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we are put in possession of that blessing of forgiveness of sin, and are on 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 the 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. The Lord having spoken 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 those that outrage it most, and deserve worst of it; reflecting still on that, O what deserved I at my Lord's hands! When so many talents are forgiven me, shall I stick at forgiving a few pence?

But it

Inherit a blessing; not called to be exempted from troubles and injuries here, and to be extolled and favored 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. 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 enforces the duty of blessing others upon a Christian, so it encourages him to go through the hardest contrary measure he receives 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. You who trust your treasure to another man's keeping, are you aware that you are leaving it in an open chest? But is there any thing here that deserves so to be called? The surest inheritances are not more than for the term of life to any one man: their abiding is for others who 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 life-time? And may be, he is turned out of all his quiet possessions and easy dwelling before that; but at the utmost at night, when he should have the most rest, when that sad night comes after this day of fairest prosperity, the unbelieving, unrepenting sinner lies down in sorrow, in a woful bed. Then must be, whether he will or no, enter on the possession of this inheritance of everlasting burnings. He hath an inheritance indeed, but Div. No. VI.

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he had better want it, and himself too be turned to nothing. Do you believe there are treasures which neither thief breaks into, nor any inward moth corrupts? an inheritance which, though the whole world be turned upside down, is in no hazard of a touch of damage, a kingdom that not only cannot fall, but cannot be shaken? O be wise, and consider your latter end, and whatsoever you do, look after this blessed inheritance. Seek to have the right to it in Jesus Christ, and the evidences and seals of it from his Spirit; and if it be so with you, your hearts will be upon it, and your lives will be conformed to it.

Ver. 10. For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.

THE rich bounty of God diffuses itself throughout the world upon all; yet there is a select number who have peculiar blessings of his right hand, which the rest of the world share not in; and even as to common blessings, they are distinguished by a peculiar title to them and sweetness in them. Their blessings are blessings indeed, and more so within than they appear without. The Lord himself is their portion, and they are his. Others are sent away with gifts, (as some apply that passage, Gen. xxv. 5, 6,) but the inheritance is Isaac's. They are called to be the sons of God, and are like him, as his children, in goodness and blessings. The inheritance of blessing is theirs alone; Called to inherit a blessing. And all the promises in the great charter of both testaments run in that appropriating style, entailed to them, as the only heirs. Thus this is fitly translated from the one testament to the other, by the apostle, for his present purpose; He that will love, Psal. xxxiv, 12, 14.

In the ten precepts of the law which God delivered in so singular a manner both by word and writ from his own mouth and hand, there be two, which if not wholly, yet most especially and most expressly concern the tongue, as a very considerable, though a small part of man; and of the four precepts here and in the following verse, two are bestowed on it.

The apostle St. James is large in this, teaching the

great concernment of this point. It is a little member, says he, but boasteth great things, needs a strong bridle; and the bridling of it makes much for ruling the whole course of a man's life, as the apostle there applies the resemblance; yea, he mentions skill in this as the very character of perfection. And if we consider it, it must indeed be of very great consequence how we use the tongue, it being the main outlet of the thoughts of the heart, and the means of society amongst men in all affairs civil and spiritual; by which men give birth to the conceptions of their own minds, and seek to beget the like in the minds of others.

From evil. This is a large field, the evil of the tongue; but I give it too narrow a name: we have good warrant to give it a much larger—a whole universe, a world of iniquity; a vast bulk of evils, and great variety of them, as of countries on the earth or creatures in the world.

There be in the daily discourses of the greatest part of men, many things that belong to this world of evil, and yet pass unsuspected, so that we do not think them to be within its compass; not using due diligence and exactness in our discoveries of the several parts of it, although it is all within ourselves, yea, within a small part of ourselves, our tongues.

It were too quick a fancy to think to travel over this world of iniquity, the whole circuit of it, in an hour, yea, or so much as to aim exactly at all the parts that can be taken of it in the smallest map: but some of the chief we would particularly take notice of, in the several four parts of it; for it will without constraint hold resemblance in that division with the other, the habitable world.

1. Profane speech, that which is grossly and manifestly wicked; and in this part lie-impious speeches, which directly reflect upon the glory and name of God; blasphemies, and oaths, and cursings, of which there is so great, so lamentable abundance amongst us; and to these join scoffs and mocking at religion, the power and strictness of it, not only by the grosser sort, but by pretenders to some kind of goodness; for they who have attained to a self-pleasing pitch of civility or formal religi