A96093:112
The beatitudes
The beatitudes: or A discourse upon part of Christs famous Sermon on the Mount. Whereunto is added Christs various fullness. The preciousness of the soul. The souls malady and cure. The beauty of grace. The spiritual watch. The heavenly race. The sacred anchor. The trees of righteousness. The perfume of love. The good practitioner. By Thomas Watson, minister of the word at Stephens Walbrook in the city of London.The beatitudes: or A discourse upon part of Christs famous Sermon on the Mount. Wherunto is added Christs various fulnesse. The preciousnesse of the soul. The souls malady and cure. The beauty of grace. The spiritual watch. The heavenly race. The sacred anchor. The trees of righteousnesse. The perfume of love. The good practitioner. By Thomas Watson, minister of the word at Stephens Walbrook in the city of London.
London: printed for Ralph Smith, 1660
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
4. The Saints are already blessed, because they have a Reversion of heaven; as on the contrary, he who hath hell in Reversion, is said to be already condemned. John 3.18. He that believeth not is condemned already. He is as sure to be condemned, as if he were condemned already. So he who hath heaven in Reversion, may be said to be already blessed; a man that hath the Reversion of an house, after a short Lease is run out, he looks upon it as his already; this house (saith he) is mine: So a believer hath a Reversion of heaven after the Lease of life is run out, and he can say at present, Christ is mine, and glory is mine; he hath jus ad rem, a title to heaven, and he is a blessed man that hath a title to show; nay, faith turns the Reversion into a Possession.
4. The Saints are already blessed, because they have a Reversion of heaven; as on the contrary, he who hath hell in Reversion, is said to be already condemned. John 3.18. He that believeth not is condemned already. He is as sure to be condemned, as if he were condemned already. So he who hath heaven in Reversion, may be said to be already blessed; a man that hath the Reversion of an house, after a short Lease is run out, he looks upon it as his already; this house (saith he) is mine: So a believer hath a Reversion of heaven after the Lease of life is run out, and he can say at present, Christ is mine, and glory is mine; he hath jus ad rem, a title to heaven, and he is a blessed man that hath a title to shew; nay, faith turns the Reversion into a Possession.
5. The Saints are already blessed, because they have Primitias, the first fruits of blessedness here: We read of the earnest of the Spirit, and the seal, 2 Cor. 1.22. and the first fruits, Rom. 8.23. Heaven is already begun in a believer.