OR,

Practical Difcourfes

Upon the

BEATITUDES

Of our LORD and SAVIOUR

JESUS CHRIST.

WITH

Three other Volumes of
PRACTICAL DISCOURSES.

By JOHN NORRIS, M. A. Rector of
Bemerton-near Sarum.

The TENTH EDITION.

LONDON:
Printed for Edmund Parker, at the Bible and Crown
in Lombard-Street. 1724.

Thomamy much Honoured Gottes Friend and Patron

JOSEPH LẠNGTON, Efq;

SIR,

'T

IS a Maxim of Prudence given by fome of the Nicer Defcribers of the Bounds of Gratitude, That it ought to be temper'd between a total Neglect and a full and just Requital. To ftrike off all Scores. is, they fay, as uncivil as to discharge none, and every whit as difingenuous not to fuffer, as not to acknowledge an Obligation.

Now, Sir, 'tis one of the proper Happinef fes of my little Fortune to be neceffarily caft upon this Measure. I am got too far in your Accounts to be able to requite to the full; fome part of them I must ever leave uncroffed as a standing Hold upon me; and tho' my Gratitude it felf be never fo ftrong and pregnant, yet the most forward Instance of it can rise no higher than an Acknowledgment. AND

A 2

「

AND as this is the utmost I can do, so of doing this too I have fo few Capacities and Opportunities, that I am the lefs willing to let go any that offer themselves; which indeed has given a fpeedier Iffue to my Deliberation, whether I ought to Addrefs thefe Difcourfes to your Patronage or no, which perhaps without the Formality of a Dedication, would of Right belong to you, as falling within your Diftrict, and as being the Fruits of that Retirement which by your Free Bounty I enjoy.

As an Acknowledgment therefore of this and your other conftant Favours, I prefume to put thefe Difcourfes into your Hands, which I hope I will be able to do both You and Me that Juftice, as to convince the World, that as you proceeded by generous and uncorrupt Meafures in difpo

gether miftaken in your Choice, when you

thought fit to Oblige

I

the

HERE commend to thy ferious Perufal a Set of Select Difcourfes upon Beatitudes, which were at first undertaken, and are now publish'd for the Publick Benefit of all well-difpofed Chriftians. The Subjects themselves are as Great and Noble as any perhaps that occur in all Practical Divinity, being the Prime and Capital Aphorifms of our Saviour's excellent Sermon upon the Mount, and containing the Fundamental Principles of all Chrift's Practical In ftructions, and of a true Chriftian Temper and Life.

1

Here we may fee (what the Philofopher fo much defired) the true Living Idea of Vertue and Goodness; nay more, what 'tis to be a Chriftian, an Interiour Chriftian, a Chriftian indeed. And I heartily wish that thofe whofe Orthodoxy is chiefly employed in giving out Marks and Signs of Converfion and Saintship, wherein their End feems rather to be the diftinction of a Party, than any real Promotion of Godliness, would choose rather to dress their Interiour by this Glafs, and afterwards try it by this Mea

fure.