A96093:1232
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.
SECT. 4.
Showing that the keenest edge of persecution is turned against the Ministers.
Shewing that the keenest edge of persecution is turned against the Ministers.
4. THE fourth particular is, That the chief persecutions are raised against the Ministers; our Lord Christ turns himself directly to the Apostles, whom he was ready to commissionate, and send abroad to preach; Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you, Ver. 11. So persecuted they the Prophets before you, Ver. 12. Take my Brethren the Prophets for an example of suffering affliction, Jam. 5.10. No sooner is any man a Minister, but he is a piece of a Martyr. The Ministers of Christ are his chosen Vessels; now as the best Vessel of gold and silver passeth through the fire, so Gods chosen Vessels pass often through the fire of persecution: All times are not like the silver Age wherein Constantine lived; he was an honourer of the Ministry; he would not sit down in the Council of Nice, till the Bishops who were convened there, did come and beseech him; he would say, if he saw an infirmity in the Clergy, suâ Purpurâ velaret, he would cover it with his own Purple Robe. Ministers must not always look for such shines of the Princes favour, they must expect an Alarm. Peter a famous Preacher, who knew how to cast the Net on the right side of the ship; at one Sermon he converted three thousand souls, yet neither the Divinity of his Doctrine, nor the Sanctity of his life could exempt him from persecution.