A96093:1639
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. Sickness doth debilitate and weaken the body; a sick man is unfit to walk; So this sickness of sin weakens the soul, Rom. 5.6. When we were without strength Christ died. In innocency Adam was in some sense like the Angels, he could serve God with a winged swiftness, and filial cheerfulness; but sin brought sickness into the ⟨p. 473⟩soul, and this sickness hath cut the lock where his strength lay; he is now disarmed of all ability for service; and where grace is wrought, though a Christian be not so heart-sick as before, yet he is very faint. The Saints prayers do but whisper in Gods ears, and if Christ did not pray them over again, God could not hear them; we sin fervently, but pray faintly; as David said, 2 Sam. 3.39. I am this day weak, though anointed King; so Christians, though they have the oil of grace poured upon them, and they are anointed spiritual Kings, yet they are weak; sin hath enfeebled them; they take their breath short, and cannot put forth such strong desires after God as they ought. When we find our selves dead in duty, our holy affections languishing, think thus, This is my sickness, sin hath made me weak; as Jephthah said to his daughter, Judges 11.35. Alas my daughter, thou hast brought me very low; so may the soul say, Alas my sin, thou hast brought me very low, thou hast brought me almost to the gates of death.
2. Sicknesse doth debilitate and weaken the body; a sick man is unfit to walk; So this sicknesse ofsin weakens the soul, Rom. 5.6. When we were without strength Christ died. In innocency Adam was in some sence like the Angels, he could serve God with a winged swiftnesse, and filial chearfulnesse; but sin brought sicknesse into the ⟨p. 473⟩soul, and this sickness hath cut the lock where his strength lay; he is now disarmed of all ability for service; and where grace is wrought, though a Christian be not so heart-sick as before, yet he is very faint. The Saints prayers do but whisper in Gods eares, and if Christ did not pray them over again, God could not hear them; we sin fervently, but pray faintly; as David said,