A96093:1123
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.
3. I answer, God may forsake his children in regard Answ. 3 of Vision, but not in regard of Union. Thus it was with Jesus Christ when he cried out, my God, my God. There was not a separation of the Union between him and his Father, only a suspension of the Vision*. Gods love through the interposition of our sins may be darkened and ⟨p. 326⟩eclipsed, but still he is a Father. The Sun may be hid in a cloud, but it is not out of the firmament. The Promises in time of desertion may be as it were sequestered, we have not that comfort from them as formerly, but still the believers title holds good in Law.
3. I answer, God may forsake his children in regard Answ. 3 of Vision, but not in regard of Union. Thus it was with Jesus Christ when he cryed out, my God, my God. There was not a separation of the Union between him and his Father, only a suspension of the Vision*. Gods love through the interposition of our sins may be darkned and ⟨p. 326⟩eclipsed, but still he is a Father. The Sun may be hid in a cloud, but it is not out of the firmament. The Promises in time of desertion may be as it were sequestred, we have not that comfort from them as formerly, but still the believers title holds good in Law.
- *Non suit divulsio unionis, sed tantum suspensio visionis,
Answ. 4 4. I answer, when God hides his face from his child, his heart may be towards him; as Joseph when he spake roughly to his brethren, and made them believe he would take them for Spies, still his heart was towards them, and he was as full of love as ever he could hold; he was fain to go aside and weep: So, God is full of love to his children, even when he seems to look strange. And as Moses his Mother when she put her child into the ark of bulrushes, and went away a little from it, yet still her eye was toward it, the babe wept; I, and the mother wept too; So God, when he goes aside as if he had forsaken his children, yet he is full of sympathy and love towards them. God may change his countenance, but not break his covenant. It is one thing for God to desert, another thing to disinherit.