A96093:1429
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.
2. In the Gospel a Surety is admitted in the Court. The Law would not admit of a Surety, it required personal obedience; but now, God doth so far indulge us, that what we cannot of our selves do, we may do by a Proxy. Christ is called the Surety of a better Testament, Heb. 7.22. We cannot walk so exactly; we tread awry, and fall short in every thing; but God looks upon us in our Surety; and Christ having fulfilled all righteousness*, it is all one as if we had fulfilled the Law in our own persons.
3. The Law did command and threaten, but gave no strength to perform; it did Egyptianize, requiring the full tale of Brick, but gave no Straw. But now God with his commands gives power; Gospel-precepts are sweetened with promises. God commands, Ezek. 18.31. Make you a new heart. Lord, may the soul say, I make a new heart? I can as well make a new world. But see Ezek. 36.26. A new heart also will I give you. God commands us to cleanse our selves, Isa. 1.16. Wash you, make you clean. Lord, where should I have power to cleanse my self? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Job. 14.4. See the Precept turned into a Promise, Ezek. 36.25. From all your filthiness, and from your Idols will I cleanse you. If when the child cannot go, the father takes it by the hand, and leads it, now it is not hard for the child to go; when we cannot go, God takes us by the hand,