A96093:356
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.
Quest. Why doth conviction go before consolation?
Answ Conviction fits for comfort; by conviction the Spirit doth sweetly dispose the heart to these two things. 1. To seek after Christ. When once the soul is convinced of sin, and the hell that follows it, now a Saviour is precious. When the Spirit hath shot in the arrow of conviction, now saith a poor soul, where may I meet with Christ? In what Ordinance may I come to enjoy Christ? saw ye him whom my soul loves? All the world for one glimpse of my Saviour. 2. The Spirit by conviction makes the heart willing to receive Christ upon his own terms: man, by nature, would article and indent with Christ; he would take half Christ; he would take him ⟨p. 113⟩for a Saviour, not a Prince; he would accept of Christ as he hath an head of gold, Cant. 5.11. but not as he hath the government upon his shoulders, Isa. 9.6. But when God lets loose the spirit of bondage, and convinceth a sinner of his lost, undone condition, now he is content to have Christ upon any terms. When Paul was struck down to the ground by a spirit of conviction, he cries out, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Acts 9.6. Let God propound what Articles he will, the soul will subscribe to them. Now when a man is brought to Christs terms, to believe and obey, then he is fit for mercy; when the Spirit of God hath been a Spirit of conviction, then it becomes a spirit of consolation; when the plough of the Law hath gone upon the heart, and broken up the fallow ground, now God sows the seed of comfort.
Answ Conviction fits for comfort; by conviction the Spirit doth sweetly dispose the heart to these two things. 1. To seek after Christ. When once the soul is convinced of sin, and the hell that follows it, now a Saviour is precious. When the Spirit hath shot in the arrow of conviction, now saith a poor soul, where may I meet with Christ? In what Ordinance may I come to enjoy Christ? saw ye him whom my soul loves? All the world for one glimpse of my Saviour. 2. The Spirit by conviction makes the heart willing to receive Christ upon his own termes: man, by nature, would article and indent with Christ; he would take half Christ; he would take him