A96093:871
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.
7. It will be a beneficial sight, it will tend to the bettering and advantaging of the soul; some colours while they delight the eyes, they hurt them; but this intuition and vision of God shall better the soul, and tend to its infinite happiness. Eves looking upon the Tree of knowledge did prejudice her sight; she afterwards grew blind upon it; but the Saints can receive no detriment from the inspection of glory, this sight will be beatifical: The soul will never be in its perfection till it comes to see God, this will be the crowning blessing.
8. This sight of God shall be perpetuated; here we see objects awhile, and then our eyes grow dim, and we need Spectacles; but the Saints shall always behold God; as there shall be no cloud upon Gods face, so the Saints shall have no Mote in their eye; their sight shall never grow dim, but they shall be to all Eternity looking on God, that beautiful and beatifical object. O what a soul-ravishing sight will this be! God must make us able to bear it; we can no more endure a sight of glory, than a sight of wrath*; but the Saints after this life shall have their capacities enlarged, and they shall be qualified, and made fit to receive the penetrating beams of glory.
- *Sensibile forte destruit sensum.
9. It will be a speedy sight. There are some who deny that the soul is immediately after death admitted to the sight of God; but I shall make good this Assertion, that the Saints shall have an immediate transition and passage from death to glory; as soon as death hath closed their eyes, they shall see God; if the soul be not presently after death translated to the beatifical Vision, then what becomes of the soul in that juncture of time till the Resurrection?