A96093:138
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.
Doctr. That Christians must be poor in spirit; or thus, Doctr. Poverty of spirit is the jewel which Christians must wear. As the best creature was made out of nothing, namely, light; so when a man sees himself nothing, out of this nothing God makes a most beautiful creature; it is Gods usual method to make a man poor in spirit, and then fill him with the graces of the Spirit; as we deal with a Watch, we take it first in pieces, and then set all the wheels and pins in order: So the Lord doth first take a man all in pieces, shows him his undone condition, and then sets him in frame.
Doctr. That Christians must be poor in spirit; or thus, Doctr. Poverty of spirit is the jewel which Christians must wear. As the best creature was made out of nothing, namely, light; so when a man sees himself nothing, out of this nothing God makes a most beautiful creature; it is Gods usual method to make a man poor in spirit, and then fill him with the graces of the Spirit; as we deal with a Watch, we take it first in pieces, and then set all the wheels and pins in order: So the Lord doth first take a man all in pieces, shews him his undone condition, and then sets him in frame.
The Reasons are:
1. Till we are poor in spirit, we are not capable of receiving Reason 1 grace; he who is swelled with an opinion of self-excellency and self-sufficiency, is not fit for Christ; he is full already; intus existens prohibet extraneum; if the hand be full of pebbles, it cannot receive gold; the glass is first emptied before you pour in wine; God doth first empty a man of himself, before he pours in the precious wine of his grace; none but the poor in spirit are within Christs Commission. Isa. 61.1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted; that is, such as are broken in the sense of their unworthiness.