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A65308
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A plea for the Godly wherein is shown the excellency of a righteous person / by Thomas Watson ...
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Watson, Thomas, d. 1686.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing W1138; ESTC R10636
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40,142
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126
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unsanctified fancy is Satans work-House Mic. 2. 1. But The thoughts of the righteous are right Prov. 12. 5. A righteous mans thoughts have got wings and fled to heaven Psal. 139. 18. When I awake I am still with thee God is a Saints Treasure and where should his mind be but upon his Treasure a righteous man is got upon the top of Mount Tabor solacing himself in Jehovah he contemplates the beauty of Holiness the love of Christ the felicity of Saints glorified his Thoughts are among the Cherubims The Soul while it is musing on Christ is filled with holy and sweet raptures it is caught up into Paradise it is in Heaven before its time Psal. 104. 34. My mediation of Him shall be sweet 5. A righteous mans desires are more excellent He spreads the sails of his desire to receive the fresh breathings of Gods spirit Cant. 4. 16. I deny not but a bad man may have some faint Velleities after the best things Those deserters of Christ cried Lord evermore give us this bread Joh 6. 24. But a righteous mans Desires excell 1. He desires Christ for himself not only for his Jewels but his Beauty not only as he is a Saviour but as he is the Holy One Act. 3 14. 2. He is unsatisfied without Christ not the most rich Viands not golden Chalices fill'd with Saphires or Diamonds will content him without Christ. The two Maries were not satisfied with the Linnen Clothes lying in the Sepulcre unless they had seen the body of Jesus So it is not the linnen on the Communion-Table or the Elements of Bread and Wine will satisfie a Believer unless he may meet with Christ whom his soul loves 3. He desires still more of Christ and would be swallowed up in the sweet Ocean of his love Behold here a desire which God himself hath raised in the Soul and he will open the breast of mercy and satisfie it 6. A righteous mans Discourse is more excellent His tongue is tuned to the language of Heaven What is the Discourse of the wicked about their wares and drugs like the fish in the Gospel that had a piece of money in its mouth He that is of the earth speaketh of the earth Joh. 3. 31. And too often corrupt communication procceds from the wicked their mouth being like a Sink where all the filth of the house runs out These Lepers had need have their lips covered Sinners in their ordinary Discourse bring forth Scripture as the Philistines did Sampson to make sport as if the Bible were the best Minstrel to play with and a jest were worth nothing unless it were seasoned with the salt of the Sanctuary 'T is a saying of Luther Whom God hath a mind to destroy he lets them play with Scripture But in this sense the righteous is more excellent The tongue of the just is as choise silver Prov. 10. 20 Gracious words drop as silver from him to the enriching the Souls of others Eccl. 10. 12. The words of a wise mans mouth are gracious In the Hebrew they are Grace His words are not as Vinegar to fret but as Salt to season others Col. 4. 6. The roof of the mouth is called Coelum Heaven a godly mans mouth is full of Heaven he speaks as if he had been already in Heaven The holy conference of the two Disciples going to Emmaus brought Christ into their Company Luk. 24. 15. While they communed together Jesus himself drew near and went with them Such savoury speeches drop from holy lips that God hath a table-Table-Book to write them down Mal. 3. 16. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and God harkned and a book of remembrance was written 'T is reported of Tamerlain that he kept a Register of the Names and good Deeds of his Soldiers God registers the speeches of his People that they may not be lost 7. A righteous man is of a more excellent Spirit Dan. 5. 12. An excellent Spirit was found in Daniel Numb 14. 24. My servant Caleb because he had another spirit with him A wicked man hath the spirit of the world 2 Cor. 2. 12. He is of an atheistical spirit Lucian is his Old Testament Machiavel his New but a person invested with Grace hath choiceness of spirit in him He is of a 1. Sublime Spirit 2. Noble  3. Invincible  1. He is of a Sublime spirit He savours the things of God a person sublimated by grace sets his feet where others set their hearts he being clothed with Christ the Sun of righteousness and crowned with the Graces as glittering Stars hath the Moon under him the world may have his look but Christ hath his love he dwells below but trades in the Hierusalem above A true Saint is taken up about higher matters getting the love and favour of God he aspires after Glory and Immortality he looks no lower than a Crown he feeds as the Birds of Paradise on the dew of Heaven he is imployed about Angels-work lifting up Gods name in the world he is a living organ of Gods praise 2. He is of a Noble spirit he hath the spirit of an Heir he scorns any thing that is disingenuous and sordid he can deny himself but not disparage himself he can be humble but not base he knows not how to palliate the sins of any which were to wash the Devil's face He cannot prostitute himself to the lusts of men or flatter to get Preferment Job 32. 21. A righteous man abhors to be byassed from the truth for Secular advantage It was said of Luther he cared not for Gold his spirit was more noble than to be bribed with money A good man will not purchase the liberty of his person by the insnaring of his Conscience Heb. 11. 35. Not accepting deliverance 3. He is of an Invincible spirit he bears afflictions without fainting or fretting Though the Archers shoot at him his Bow abides in strength Such as want a Principle of Grace faint in the day of adversity they cannot bear a frown from a great man or digest a reproach If the bough of a Tree be rotten the least weight hung upon it breaks it But the righteous hath the heart of a Lion he is not startled at the discourtesies of the world he looks upon reproaches for Christ as Ensignes of Honour 1 Pet. 4. 11. When the Roman Catholicks taunted at Luther for his Apostacy from their Church I confess said Luther I am an Apostate from you but a blessed one I am such an Apostate as a Magician is when he renounceth his compact made with the Devil and betakes himself to Christ. Grace steels the heart with courage and fires it with zeal Nazianzen said of Athanasius he was both a Loadstone and an Adamant a Loadstone for the sweetness of his Disposition and an Adamant for the invincibleness of
of Heaven cannot be shaken Heb. 12. 28. it runs parallel with Eternity In that blessed Kingdom we shall have a transforming sight of God 1 Joh. 3. 2. We shall be like him As a Pearl by the beams of the Sun becomes bright and radiant like the Sun Gods terror shall be then laid aside Majesty in God shall appear but Majesty shining with Beauty and sweetned with Love This will be unspeakable and full of glory And this reward is near at hand Rom. 13. 11. Now is our Salvation nearer than when we believed When Columbus his men were weary of their Voyage he desired them to go on but three days longer they did so and discovered America While the righteous sail upon the waters of Affliction this may comfort them in their Voyage it is but going a little further and they will see Heaven there the Tree of Life grows and the crystal streams flow from Lebanon the Saints Salvation is now nearer than upon the birth-day of their faith Thus I have beaten out this Gold in the Text into the Leaf and shown you wherein the Righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour 2. The second thing is Why a righteous man is more excellent than another The Reason is in respect of that near relation he stands in to Christ. 1. There is Consanguinity he is brother to Christ Heb. 3. 11. Christ partakes of his flesh and he partakes of Christs Spirit 2. There is Unity a righteous man is one with Christ as the members are one with the head Ephes. 1. 22 23. Then surely the righteous must needs have a surpassing dignity If Christ be a precious corner-stone 1 Pet. 2. 6. those lively stones must needs be precious which are built upon him Use 1. See from hence what it is that raiseth the price of a person it is righteousness this puts a glory and excellency upon him He that is graceless is worthless Prov. 10. 20. The heart of the wicked is little worth But righteousness makes the heart like the Heaven bespangled with Stars The Graces are compared to Chains of Gold for their value Cant. 1. 10. and to myrrh and cassia for their fragrancy Cant. 4. 13. As the precious stones did shine upon Aaron's brest-plate so doth righteousness shine in the eyes of God and Angels What made Christ admire the Woman of Canaan but her Graces Great is thy faith Mat. 15. 28. Christ was more taken with that than with all the goodly buildings of the Temple God esteems not the better of any man because he is rich or noble or embellished with worldly Ornaments it is righteousness advanceth him Righteousness is to the Soul as the Diamond to the Ring as Light to the World which bespangles and adorns it 2 Br. Learn then that it is no disparagement to any person to be righteous seeing it casts a splendor and renown on him and makes him more excellent than others Some are loth to espouse Religion because they think it will be a stain to their reputation but you see how righteousness doth emblazon ones Scutcheon and give him a supereminency above others Novarinus relates of an ancient King who invited a company of poor Christians and set them above some of his Nobles and being ask'd why he showed so much respect to men of such mean birth and extract he replied I must needs honour these as the Children of the high God they will be Kings and Princes with me in another world Theodosius thought it a greater renown to be Membrum Christi than Caput Imperii a Member of Christ than the head of an Empire The righteous are highly in favour with God and he hath enrolled their names in the Book of Life Phil. 4. 3. It was a custom among the Romans to write down the names of their Senators in a Book therefore they were called Patres Conscripti this is the honour of the righteous their names are written among the Courtiers of Heaven Believers in regard of their mystical Union with Christ have a kind of excellency above the Angels the Angels are Morning Stars Job 38. 7. but these are Clothed with the Sun Can it be any shame to be listed among the Saints when God is not ashamed to be called their God Heb. 11. 16. 3 Br. See what high thoughts God hath of the righteous he looks upon them more excellent than others and his judgment is best worth prizing The Saints have low thoughts of themselves they overlook their own worth like Moses who wist not that his face shined Exod. 34. 29. The eye though beautiful doth not see it self yet as low thoughts as the righteous have of themselves God hath high thoughts of them Isa. 43. 4. Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable The Lord puts away the wicked like dross Psal. 119. 119. The greatest man in the world wanting holiness is res nihili like Naaman who was Captain of the Kings host and a mighty man of valour but he was a Leper 2 King 5. 1. A wicked man may be higher than others in Nobility and worldly Grandure a dunghil is higher than other ground but it is never the better it sends forth noisome vapours But God sets an high estimate upon the righteous and that appears by bestowing more excellent Titles upon them than upon any others 1. God calls them his Jewels Mal. 3. 17. he laid his best Jewel to pawn for them They are Jewels 1. For their sparkling quality they shine in Gods eye The Saints have animas Angelificatas a kind of angelical brightness as one of the Ancients expresseth it 2. They are Jewels for their Price Diamonds saith Pliny were not known a long time but among Kings and Emperors the price of a Saint is above others Prov. 28. 6. Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness than he that perverteth his ways though he be rich 2. God calls the righteous his hidden ones Psal. 83. 3. they are hidden first for their invisibility their excellency is not known to many the world can see their infirmity not their eminency a Saint hath that internal Glory as cannot be beheld by a carnal eye the fair face is hid under a vail 2. The righteous are hidden for their safety Diamonds are hid in the Rock so the Saints life is hid in Christ the rock of Ages Col. 3. 3. 3. God calls the righteous the excellent of the earth Psal. 16. 2. Or the magnificent as Junius renders it they are the spiritual Phoenixes they are the cream and flower of the Creation they are purior pars mundi the purer part of the world double-refined Zach. 13. 9. 4. God calls them vessels of Honour 2 Tim. 2. 21. though they are earthen vessels yet they have heavenly treasure in them they are fill'd with the wine of the Spirit Ephes. 5. 18. Though they are scowred with affliction yet it is to make