A96093:135
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.
1. Why doth Christ here begin with poverty of spirit? Quest. 1 why is this put in the fore-front? I answer, Answ. Christ doth it, to show that poverty of spirit is the very basis and foundation of all the other graces that follow*: You may as well expect fruit to grow without a root, as the other graces without this; till a man be Poor in spirit, he cannot mourn: Poverty of spirit is like the fire under the Still, which makes the water drop from the eyes; when a man sees his own defects and deformities, and looks upon himself as undone, then he mourns after Christ; the ⟨p. 42⟩springs run in the valleys, Psal. 104.10. When the heart becomes a valley, and lies low by poverty of spirit, now the springs of holy mourning run there. Till a man be Poor in spirit, he cannot hunger and thirst after righteousness; he must first be sensible of want, before he can hunger; therefore Christ begins with poverty of spirit, because this ushers in all the rest.
1. Why doth Christ here begin with poverty of spirit? Quest. 1 why is this put in the fore-front? I answer, Answ. Christ doth it, to shew that poverty of spirit is the very basis and foundation of all the other graces that follow*: You may as well expect fruit to grow without a root, as the other graces without this; till a man be Poor in spirit, he cannot mourn: Poverty of spirit is like the fire under the Still, which makes the water drop from the eyes; when a man sees his own defects and deformities, and looks upon himself as undone, then he mourns after Christ; the ⟨p. 42⟩springs run in the vallies, Psal. 104.10. When the heart becomes a valley, and lies low by poverty of spirit, now the springs of holy mourning run there. Till a man be Poor in spirit, he cannot hunger and thirst after righteousness; he must first be sensible of want, before he can hunger; therefore Christ begins with poverty of spirit, because this ushers in all the rest.