A96093:45
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.
3. Christs Ministers must ansam arripere, catch at all occasions of doing good to others, in regard of the work which they are about, and that is saving of souls; what a precious thing is a soul*? Christ takes as it were a pair of scales in his hands, and he puts the world in one scale, and the soul in the other, and the soul out-weighs: Matth. 16.26. The soul is of a noble original, of a quick operation; 'tis a flower of eternity; here in the bud; in heaven, fully ripe and blown. The soul is one of the richest pieces of Embroidery that ever God made; the understanding bespangled with light; the will invested with liberty; the affections like Musical Instruments tuned with the finger of the Holy Ghost. The soul is Christs Partner, the Angels Familiar; now if the souls of men are of so noble an extract, and made capable of glory, oh how zealously industrious should Christs Ministers be to save these souls! if Christ did spend his blood for souls, well may we spend our sweat: It was Austins prayer that Christ might find him at his coming, aut Precantem, aut Praedicantem; either Praying, or Preaching: What a sad sight is it to see precious souls as so many Pearls and Diamonds cast into the dead Sea of Hell?
- *[Greek or Hebrew]. Macar.〈non-Latin alphabet〉. Macar.
4. The Ministers of Christ seeing the multitude, must ascend the Mount, because there are so many Emissaries of Satan who lie at the catch to subvert souls: How doth the Old Serpent cast out of his mouth floods of water after the woman to drown her? Revel. 12.15. What floods of Heresy have been poured out in City and Country, which have over-flown the banks, not only of Religion, but Civility. Ignatius calls Error, the invention of the Devil; and Bernard calls it, dulce venenum, a sweet poison: Mens ears like Sponges have sucked in this poison: Never were the Devils