The beatitudes

IF blessedness doth not consist in Externals, then let us Use 1 not place our blessedness here; this is to seek the living among the dead; as the Angel told Mary concerning Christ, He is not here, he is risen, Mat. 28.6. So I may say of blessedness, it is not here, it is risen, it is in an higher Region: How do men thirst after the World, as if the pearl of blessedness did hang upon an earthly Crown? O saith one, if I had but such an Estate, then I should be happy! had I but such a comfort, then I should sit down satisfied? Well, God gives him that comfort, and lets him suck out the very juice and spirits of it; but alas, it falls short of his expectation, it cannot fill the hiatus, and longing of his soul, which still cries Give, give, Prov. 30.15. Just like a sick man, if saith he, I had but such a meat, I could eat it; and when he hath it, his stomach is bad, and he can hardly endure to taste it; God hath put not only an emptiness, but bitterness into the creature, and it is good for us that there is no perfection here, that we may raise our ⟨p. 24⟩thoughts higher, to more noble and generous delights. Could we distil, and draw out the quintessence of the creature, we should say as once the Emperor Severus, who grew from a mean estate to be head of the greatest Empire in the World, Omnia fui & nihil expedit; I have saith he, run through all conditions, yet could never find full contentment.

IF blessedness doth not consist in Externals, then let us Use 1 not place our blessedness here; this is to seek the living among the dead; as the Angel told Mary concerning Christ, He is not here, he is risen,