PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Select Works of Thomas Watson — Body of Divinity and Sermons
Thomas Watson, d. 1686 · 632,849 words · 737 reading sections
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Branch 1. The times are full of heresy This is indeed sad ; when the dcA^il cannot by violence destroy the church, he endea- vours to poison it ; when he cannot with Samson's fox-tails set the corn on fire, then he sows tares ; as he labours to destroy the peace of the church by division, so the truth of it by error ; …
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Branch 2. The second branch of the apo- logy that discontent makes, is, the impiety of the times. I live and converse among the profane. " O that I liad wings like a dove, for the nwould I fly away and be at rest," Ps. Iv. 6. It is indeed sad, to be mixed with the wicked. David beheld " transgressors and was grieved," …
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lleply 1. God sits at the stern of liis church, Ps. xlvi. 5. Sometimes it is a ship tossed upon the waves, " O thou afflicted and tossed !" Isa. liA'. 11. But cannot God bring this ship to haven, though it meet with a storm upon the sea? This ship in the gospel was tossed because sin was in it ; but it was not overwhel…
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And thus I hope I have answered tlie most material objections and apologies which this sin of discontent doth make for itself. I see no reason why a Christian should be discontented, unless for his dis- content. Let me, in the next place, pro- pound sometliing which may be both as a loadstone and a whet-stone to conten…
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Ans. A Christian finds contentment dis- tilled out of the breasts of the promises. He is poor in purse, but rich in promise. There is one promise brings much sweet contentment into tlie soul : " They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing," Ps. xxxiv. 10. If the thing we de- sire be good for us, we shall have…
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contentment keeps the heart from fainting. In the autumn, when the fruit and leaves are blown off, still there is sap in the root : when there is an autumn upon our external felicity, the leaves of our estate drop off, still there is the sap of contentment in the heart ; and a Christian hath life inwardly, when his out…
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tented Christian belicvingtliat God doth all in love, is patient, and hath not one word to say, unless to justify God, Ps. li. 4. That is the sin that contentation prevents. (2.) It prevents murmuring, a sin which is a degree higher than the otlier ; mur- muring is quarrelling with God, and en- veighing against him, " …
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Job by bis discontented Avife ; only bis grace, as a golden shield, did ward off the blow from his heart : " Thou speakest as one of the foolish women." " What profit is it," saitb the discontented person, " to serve the Almighty ? Those that never trouble themselves about religion, are the prosperous men, and I in the…
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2. Thy soul is exercised and enamelled with the ffi'aces of the Spirit, and is not here enough to give contentment ? Grace is of a divine birth, — it is the new planta- tion,— it is the flower of the heavenly pa- radise,— it is the embroidery of the Spirit. It is the seed of God, 1 John iii. 9. It is the sacred unctio…
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Sect. V. The fifth argument is, By contentment a Christian gains a vic- tory over himself. For a man to be able to rule his own spirit, this of all others is the most noble conquest. Passion denotes weakness ; to be discontented is suitable to flesh and blood ; but to be in every state content, — reproached, yet conten…
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and the gall ; my soul liatli them still in re- membrance, and is Innnbled in me," Lam. iii. 19, 20. When men are grown high, God hath no better way with them, than to brew them up a cup of wormwood. Afflic- tions are compared to thorns, Hos. ii. 6. God's thorns are to prick the bladder of pride : Suppose a man run at …
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puts forth its purest and most noble acts in times of affliction : God makes the fall of the leaf the spring of our graces. What if we are more passive, if graces be more active. 2d, Afflictions do increase grace ; as the wind serves to increase and blow up the flame, so dotli the windy blasts of affliction augment and…
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consider tlie evil of discontent. Mal-con- tent hath a mixture of grief and anger in it, and both these must needs raise a storm in the soul. Have you not seen the posture of a sick man? Sometimes he will sit up on his bed, by and by he will lie down, and when he is down he is not quiet ; first he turns on the one side…
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3. The third cause is covetousness. This is a radical sin. Whence are vexing law- suits, but from discontent ? and whence is discontent, but from covetousness ? Covet- ousness and contentedness cannot dwell in the same heart. Avarice is an heluo, that is never satisfied. The covetous man is like Behemoth, " behold he d…
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1. It makes a man very unlike the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is a meek Spi- rit. The Holy Ghost descended in the like- ness of a dove. Mat. iii. 16. A dove is the emblem of meekness ; a discontented spirit is not a meek spirit. 2. It makes a man like the devil. The devil being swelled with the poison of envy and…
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3. Discontent does not ejise us of our burden, but it makes the cross heavier, A contented spirit goes cheerfully under its affliction. Discontent makes our grief as unsupportable as it is unreasonable. If the leg be well, it can endure a fetter and not complain : but if the leg be sore, then the fetters trouble. Disco…
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Sect. 10. Tlie tenth argument to contenta- tion. The tenth argument or motive to con- tentment is, consider seriously the nature of a prosperous condition. There are in a prosperous estate three things. 1. Plus molesticB, — more trouble. Many who have abundance of all things to enjoy, yet have not so much content and…
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tite to good things, he grows weak, and a thousand to one if all his religion doth not die ; but bring a Christian from the south to the north, — from a rich flourisliing e- state into a jejune low condition, — let him come into a more cold and hungry air, — • and then his stomach mends, he hath a bet- ter ajipetite af…
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In this time of his sojourning he buried his wife : and as for his dwellings, he had no sumptuous buildings, but led his life in poor cottages : all this was enough to have broken any man's heart. Abra- ham might think thus with liimself : " Is this the land I must possess ? here is no probability of ,iny good ; all th…
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man's hell. Think with thyself, what if I endure this ? It is but a temporary hell : indeed if all our hell be here, it is but an easy hell. What is the cup of affliction to the cup of damnation ? Lazarus could not get a crumb : he was so diseased tliat the dogs took j)ity on him, and, as if they had been his physician…
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saith, " WTiy art thou cast down, O my soul ?" Ps. xliii. 5. But a sinner should say to himself, why art thou not disquited, O my soul ? Why is it that thou layest af- flictions so to heart, and canst not lay sin to heart ? It is a mercy when we arc dis- quieted about sin. A man had better be at the trouble of setting …
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Caution Sd. The third caution is, though in every condition we must be content, yet we are not to content ourselves with a little grace. Grace is the best blessing. Thoiiffh we should be contented with a com- petency of estate, yet not with a competency of grace. It was the end of Christ's ascen sion to heaven, to give…
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refacilitate grace. The church of Christ, whoso heart was a gsirdcn, and her graces as precious spices, ])rays for the heavenly breathings of the Spirit, that her sacred spices might flow out, Cant. vi. 16. A true Christian grows incremento, both in the kind and in the degree of grace. To his sj)iri- tual living he get…
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he doth not o ly say, * Just is the Lord in all that hath befallen me,' but ' Good is the Lord.' This is to be contented. A sullen melancholy is hateful. It is said, " God loveth a cheerful giver," 2 Cor. ix. 7., aye, and God loves a cheerful liver. We are bid in scripture, " not to be careful," but we are not bid not …
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Character 5f./i. lie that is contented with his condition, to rid himself out of trouble, will not turn himself into sin. I deny not but a Christian may lawfully seek to change his condition : so far as God's providence doth go before, he may follow. But when men will not follow providence but run before it, as he that…
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promise is the flower out of which faith distils the spirits and quintessence of divine contentment. In a word, faith carries up the soul, and makes it aspire after more generous and noble delights than the earth affords, and to live in the world above the world. Would ye live contented lives ? Live up to the height of…
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science every bitter thing is sweet ; it can pick contentment out of the cross. A good conscience turns the waters of Marah into wine. Would you have a quiet heart ? Get a smiling conscience. I wonder not to hear Paul say he was in every state content, when he could make that triumph, " I have lived in all good conscie…
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God doth chequer his providences, white and black, as the pillar of cloud had its light side and dark : look on tlie light side of thy estate; who looks on the back side of aland- scape? Suppose thou art cast in a law-suit, — there is the dark side ; yet thou hast some land left, — there is the light side. Thou hast si…
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signifies self-sufficiency. A Christian hath that from within that is able to support him ; that strength of faith, and good hope through grace, as bears up his heart in the deficiency of outward comforts. The philosophers of old, when their estates were gone, yet could take contentment in the goods of the mind, learni…
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First, Let us compare our spiritual estate with what it was once. What were we when we lay in our blood ? We were heirs apparent to hell, having no right to pluck one leaf from the tree of promise ; it was a Christless and hopeless condition, Eph. ii. 12. But now God hath cut off the en- tail of hell and damnation ; he…
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It is the fancy which raiseth the price of things above their real worth. What is the reason one tulip is worth five pounds, ano- ther perhaps not worth one shilling? Fan- cy raiseth the j)rice ; the diff'erence is ra- ther imaginary than real ; so, why it should be better to have thousands than hundreds, is, because m…
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2. When we have suffered a while, 1 Pet. V. 10., we shall be perfected in glory; the cross shall be our ladder by which we shall climb up to heaven. Be then content, and then the scene will alter ; God will ere long turn our water into wine ; the hope of this is enough to drive away all distempers from the heart. Bless…
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Mat. xvi. 26. " JFbr what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" JUiVERY man doth carry a treasure about wath liim, a Divine Soul; and that this jewel should not be undervalued, our Saviour here sets a price upon it, he lays the sou…
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wonderfully made, I was curiously \vTought in the lowest parts of the earth." If the cabinet be so curioxisly ^\Tought, what is the jewel? how richly and gloriously is the soul embroidered! it is divinely inlaid and enam- elled. The body is but the sheath, Dan. vii. 15. "I wiis grieved in the midst of my body;" in the …
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believers are with Clirist atter deatli, Pliil. i. 23. Qi^colampadias said to his friend, who came to visit liim on his death bed, Good news, I shall be shortly with Christ my Lord. And the devout soul shall be ever with the Lord, 1 Thess. iv. ult. The heathens had some glimmerings of the sovd's immortality. Cicero sai…
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is a glass vLerein some rays of divine glory shine, much of God is to be seen in it; tiiongh this glass be cracked by the fall, yet it shall one day be perfect ; we read of spirits of just men made })erfect, Heb. xii. 23. The soul since the fall of Adam, may be compared to the moon in its conjunction, very much obscure…
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Use 2. Exhort. Branch 1. If the soul be 80 precious, take heed of abusing your souls. Socrates exhorted young men that they should look their faces in a glass, and if they saw they were fair, they should do nothing unworthy of their beauty. Christians, God hath given you souls that sparkle with divine beauty ; O do not…
845 wordsSECTION 698THE SOUL'S MALADY AND CURE.
(2.) It is a foolish loss, because we lose the soul for things of no value ; worldly things are infinitely below the soul, they are nonen- tities. Prov. xxiii. 5, " Wilt thou set thine eyes on tliat which is not?" The world is but a bewitchery, these things glister in our eyes ; but at death we shall say, we have set o…
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J. HE occasion of the words is set down in the context ; Levi was called from the receipt of custom (he was a custom-house man), but Christ called him, and there went out power wdth the word, " he left all, rose up, and fol- lowed him," ver. 28. Levi did not consult with flesh and blood, he did not say, " What shall I …
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Secondly, Sickness is caught sometimes through superfluity and intemperance. Ex- cess produceth sickness. When our first pa- rents lost the golden bridle of temperance, and did eat of the forbidden tree, they, and all their posterity surfeited on it, and took a sickness. The tree of knowledge had sick- ness and death u…
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2. Sickness doth debilitate and weaken the body ; a sick man is unfit to walk ; so this sickness of sin weakens the soul, Ro- mans V. 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 cheerful- ness ; but sin br…
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(1.) The body may be diseased, and the conscience quiet. Isa. xxxiii. 24. "The inhabitant of the land shall not say I am sick." He should scarce teel his sickness, because sin was pardoned; but when the soul is sick of any reigning lust, the con- science is troubled. Isa. Ivii. ult. "There is no peace to the wicked, sa…
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blessing, Deut. xxxiii. 8, 11. "And of LeW he said, let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one; bless. Lord, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not arain." The Lord will wither that arm which is stretch…
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(2.) Sin pos^sseth men with a lunacy, Luke XV. 7. People are mad in sin, Jer. I. 38. " THEY ARE MAD ON THEIR IDOLS." When sickness grows so violent that men lie raving, and are mad, they then quarrel with their physician, and say he comes to kill them. So when sin is grown to a head, the disease turned to a phrenzy, th…
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(1.) They enjoy glorious privileges; they;, were born within the sound of Aaron's bells, they were baptized with holy water, they have been fed with manna from heaven, therefore they hope they are in a good con- dition. Judges xvii. 13. " Then Micah said, Now I know the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to m…
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Doct. 2. That Jesus Christ Is a soul-phy- sician. Ministers (as was said before) are physicians, whom Christ doth in his name delegate, and send abroad into the world. He saith to the apostles, and in them to all his ministers, " Lo I am witii you to the end of the world," ISlatt. xxviii. 20. That is, I am with you to …
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3. The third particular is, that Christ is the only physician. Acts iv. 12. " Neither is there salvation in any other," &c. There is no other physician besides. The papists would have other healers besides Christ, tliey would make angels their physicians; all the angels in heaven cannot heal one sick soul ; indeed they…
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2. All are not healed, because they love their sickness, Psal. lii. 3. "Thou lovest evil;" many men hug their disease. Augus- tine saith, before his conversion, he prayed against sin, but his heart whispered, Not yet 748 THE SOUL'S MALADY AND CURE. Lord; he was loath to leave his sin too soon; how many love their di…
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had wniicd this sin, we were to shut tliem out of our prayers: "There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall pray for it," 1 John V. l(j. Tliere is no healing of this disea<ie; not but that Christ could cure this, but the sinner will not be cured. The king could j)ardon a traitor, but if he will have no pardon…
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7. Christ is the most tender-hearted physician. He hath ended his passion, yet not his compassion. How doth he pity sick souls ! he is not more full of skill than sym- pathy, Hos. xi. 8. " My heart is turned within me." Christ shows his compassion in that he doth proportion his physic to the strength of the patient. Ph…
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12. And lastly, Christ is the most bounti- ful physician. Other patients do enrich their physicians, but here the physician doth en- rich the patient. Christ prefers all his pa- tients ; lie doth not only cure them, but crowTi them. Rev. ii. 10. Christ doth not only raise from the bed, but to the throne ; he gives the …
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2. Thou that sayest thou art not within Christ's commission, read over Christ's com- mission, see who he comes to heal, l^vike iv. 18. " He hath sent me to heal the broken- hearted." Hath God touched thy heart with remorse ? dost thou lay to heart thy gospel imkindnesses ? dost thou weep more out of iove to Christ, tha…
781 wordsSECTION 713TPIE SOUL'S MALADY AND CUTIE.
Ans. Every grieving the Spirit of God is not that fatal sin. We grieve the Spirit when we sin against the illumination of it; the Spirit being grieved, may depart for a time, and carry away all its honey out of the hive, leaving the soul in darkness, Isa. 1. 10. But every grieving the Spirit is not the sin against the …
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(2.) Now is properly the time of healing, now is the day of grace, now Christ pours out his balsams, now he sends abroad his ministers and Spirit, 2 Cor. vi. 2. " Now is the accepted time." There were certain healing days, wherein the king healed them that had the evil. The day of grace is a healing day : if we neglect…
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This sin-sickness in the land hath pro- duced many direful effects; division, oppres- sion, bloodshed, the very bowels and arteries of the nation are almost torn asunder, so that now God hath fulfilled that threatening upon us, Mic. vi. 13. "I will make thee sick with smiting thee." We had made ourselves sick with sinn…
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another. The Pelagians hold that the be- ginning of grace is from God ; but the pro- gress of grace is from ourselves ; so God shall be the author of our faith, and we the finishers. God shall lay the first stone, and we the superstructure ; but alas, there needs the continual influence of the Spirit to the carrying on…
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1. Grace hath a soul-quickening excellen- cy in it, Heb. x. 38. " The just shall live by faith." Men void of grace are dead ; they have breath, yet want life ; they are walking ghosts, Eph. ii. 1. The life of sin in the death of the soul: a sinner hath all the signs of one that is dead ; he hath no pulse ; the affectio…
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4. Excellency. Grace hath a soul-cleansing excellency. By nature we are defiled ; sin is an impure issue, it is a befilthying thing, 2 Cor. vii. 1. A sinner's heart is so black, that nothing but hell can pattern it ; but grace is a spiritual laver; therefore it is called " the washing of regeneration," Tit. iii. 5. The…
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8. Excellency. Grace hath a soul-ennobling excellency, it doth ennoble a man: grace makes xis vessels of honour, it sets us above princes and nobles. Theodosius thought it more dignity to be Christ's servant, and wear his livery laced with the silver graces of the Spirit, than to be great and renowned in the world, Isa…
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11. Excellency. Grace hath a preparatory excellency in it; it prepares and fits for glory. Glory is the highest peg of our fe- licity, it transcends all our thoughts ; glory can have no hyperbole. Now grace tunes and fits the soul for glory, 2 Pet. i. 3. " Who hath called us to glory and virtue." Virtue leads to glory.…
893 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical work by Thomas Watson, d. 1686. OCR from an original historical scan hosted by Internet Archive; OCR may contain recognition errors.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.