A96093:625
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.
SECT. 3.
Mercy in some cases to be extended to the Estates of others, and that Christians must not take the summum jus.
3. BE merciful to the Estates of others. If a man §3be thy debtor, and Providence hath frowned upon him, that he hath not wherewithal to pay, do not crush him when he is sinking, but remit something of the rigour of the Law; Blessed are the merciful*. The wicked are compared to Beasts of prey, that live upon rapine and spoil, they care not what mischief they do. Psal. 10.9. He lieth in wait secretly, as a Lyon in his Den, he doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net. Chrysostom saith, the drawing into the Net, is, when the Rich draw the Poor into Bonds, and in case of non-payment at the day, the Bond being forfeited, seize upon all they have; 'tis not justice, but cruelty, when others lie ⟨p. 194⟩at our mercy, to be like that hard-hearted Creditor in the Gospel, who took his Debtor by the throat, saying, Pay me what thou owest, Matth. 18.28. God made a Law, Deutr. 24.6. No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge, for he taketh a mans life to pledge: If a man had lent another money, he must not take both his millstones for a pawn; he must show mercy, and leave the man something to get a livelihood with; we should in this imitate God, who in midst of anger remembers mercy. God doth not take the extremity of the Law upon us; but when we have not to pay, if we confess the debt, he freely forgives: