PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes — Volume 1
Richard Sibbes · 358,611 words · 362 reading sections
Section 241
David comforts himself in this, that he should praise God, which shews he had inm'ed himself well before to this holy exercise, in which he found such comfort, that he could not but joy in the forethoughts of that time, wherein he should have fresh occasion of his former acquaintance with God. Thoughts of this nature e…
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But not to insist upon particular promises and revelations, the perform- ance whereof we enjoy here in this present life, we have rich and precious promises of final and full deliverance from all evil, and perfect enjoying of * ' Induce,' in C. THE soul's conflict. 251 all good in that life'which is to come ; yet no…
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He mentioneth here praising God, instead of deliverance, because a heart enlarged to praise God is indeed the greatest part of the deliverance ; for by it the soul is delivered out of its own straits and discontent. Chapter XXVIII. — Divers qualities of the praise due to God, with helps therein ; and notes of God's he…
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When we consider that, if we answer not kindness and favour shewed unto us by men, we are esteemed unworthy of respect, as hasdng sinned against the bond of human society and love, we camiot but much more take shame to ourselves, when we consider the disproportion of our carriage, and unkind behaviour towards God, when…
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We ought not only to give thanks, but to be thankful, to meditate and study the praises of God. Om' whole life should be nothing else but a continual blessing of his holy name, endeavouring to bring in all we have, and to lay it out for God and his people, to see where he hath any receivers. Our goodness is nothing to …
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3. We may know God hath accepted our prayer, when he makes the way easy and plain after prayer, by a gracious providence ; when the course of things begin to change, and we meet with comforts instead of former crosses, and find our hearts quieted and encouraged against what we most feared. 4. Likewise earnestness in p…
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Quest. But how shall we be enabled to this great duty ? Ans. 1. Enter into a deep consideration of God's favours, past, present, and to come ; think of the greatness and suitableness of them to our condition, the seasonableness and necessity of them every way unto us. Consider how miserable om- Ufe were \\ithout them,…
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He is the salvation of my countenance ; that is, he will so save as I shall see, and my enemies shall see it ; and upon seeing, my countenance shall be cheered and lifted up ; God's saving kindness shall be read in my countenance, so that all who look on me shall say, God hath spoken peace to my soul, as well as brough…
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Quest. But how comes God to be the salvation of our countenance ? Ans. I answer, God only graciously slimes in the face of Jesus Christ, which ive with the eye of faith beholding, receive those beams of his grace, mid reflect them back again. God shineth upon us first, and we shine in that light of his countenance upo…
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262 THE soul's conflict. generations to come shall be witness of, ' we should see Zion in her perfect beauty,' Ps. 1. 2. The generations of those that came out of Egypt saw and enjoyed the pleasant land which their progenitors were shut out of ; who by reason of their munnuring and looking back to Egypt, and forget- f…
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Use. Well may we wonder that the great God should stoop so low, to enter into such a covenant of grace and peace, founded upon such a mediator, with such utter enemies, base creatures, sinful dust and ashes as we are. This is the wonderment of angels, a torment of devils, and glory of our nature and persons ; and will …
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6. Without particular application, we can neither entertain the love of God, nor return love again, by which means we lose all the comfort God intends us in his word, which of purpose was written for our solace and refreshment. Take away pai'ticular faith, and we let out aU the spirits of cheerful and thankful obedienc…
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Ohj. If God hath not chosen me in Christ to be his, what ground have I to trust in him ? I may cast away myself upon a vain confidence. Ans. We have no ground at first to trouble ourselves about God's election. Secret things belong to God, Deut. xxix. 29. God's revealed will is, ' that all that believe in Christ shall…
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It was the poUcy of the servants of Benhadad to watch if any word of comfort fell from the king of Israel, and when he named Benhadad his brother, they catched presently at that, and cheered themselves, 1 Kings XX. 33. Faith hath a catching quality at whatsoever is near to lay hold on. Like the branches of the vine, it…
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When the soul can without hypocrisy say. My God, it engageth us to universal and unlimited obedience. We shall be ambitious of doing that * Dicat anima, secura dicat, Deiis meus es tu, qui dicit animro nostras : Salus tua ego sum. — Auffljustiiie] in Ps. cxxxii. THE soul's conflict. 269 which may be acceptable and w…
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7. Then we make it appear that God is our God, when we side with him, and are for him and his cause in ill times. When God seems to ciy out tmto us, * "VVho is on my side, who ? ' 2 Kings ix. 32 ; then if we can say as those in Isaiah, whereof onej says, ' I am the Lord's, and another calls himself by the name of Jacob…
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In time of desertion put Christ betwixt God and thy soul, and learn to appeal, from God out of Christ, to God in Christ. Lord, look upon my Saviour, that is near unto thee as thy son, near to me as my brother, and now intercedes at thy right hand for me. Though I have siuned, yet he hath sufiered, and shed his precious…
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THE soul's conflict. 273 yet we live for ever in Mm. When Moses saw the people drop away so fast in the wilderness, and wither like grass, ' Thou art our foundation,' saith he, ' from one generation to another ; thou art God from everlasting to everlastiag,' Ps. xc. 2. When we leave the world, and are no more seen her…
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Is God our God, and will he suffer anything to befaU us for om- hmi ? Will he lay any more upon us than he gives us strength to bear ? Will he suffer any wind to blow upon us but for good ? Doth he not set us before his face ? Will a father or mother sufler a child to be wronged in their presence if they can help it ? …
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276 THE soul's conflict. The price of the pearl is not known till all else be sold, and we see the necessary use of it. So the worth of God in Christ is never discerned till we see our lost and undone condition without him, till conscience flies in our faces, and drags us to the brink of hell ; then, if ever we taste …
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We ought to trust God upon other grounds, though we had never tried him ; but when he helps our faith by fonner experience, this should strengthen our confidence, and shore up f our spirits, and put us on to go more cheerfully to God, as to a tried friend. If we were well read in the story of our own lives, we might ha…
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* Cum omnium incertus sit evenlus, ad ea accedimus de quibus bone sperandum esse credimus. — Senleca]. THE soul's conflict. 279 God is so ready to mercy, that he delighteth in it, and delight eth in Christ, through whom he may shew mercy, notwithstanding his justice, as being fully satisfied in Christ. Mercy is his n…
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5. So, likewise, contentedness vcith our estate is needful for a waiting condi- tion, and this we have in our God, being able to give the soul full satisfac- tion. For outward things God knows how to diet us. If our condition be not to our mind, he will bring our mind to our condition. If the spirit be too big for the …
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7. Besides a spirit of courage, for estabhshing the soul, is required a spirit of constancy, whereby the soul is steeled and preserved immoveable in all conditions, whether present or to come, and is not changed in changes. And why ? but because the spirit knows that God, on whom it rests, is unchangeable. We oiu-selve…
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THE soul's conflict. 283 now, my soul, into thy rest,' Ps. cxvi. 7. This is the ' rest which remaineth for God's people,' Heb. iv. 9, that is worth the waiting for, when we shall rest from all labour of sin and sorrow, and lay our heads in the bosom of Christ for ever. It stands us therefore upon to get this great ch…
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Since God hath ' avouched us to be his peculiar people,' Deut. xxvi. 18, let us avouch him, and since he hath passed his word for us, let us pass om* words for him that we will be his, and stand for him, and to our power advance his cause. Thus David out of an enlarged spirit saith, ' Thou art my God, and I will praise…
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The persuasion of this will free us from all pusillanimity, lowliness, and narrowness of spirit, when we shall think that nothing can hurt us, but it must break through God first. If God give quietness, who shall ' make trouble ? ' Job xxxiv. 29. If God be with us, who can be against us ? This is that which puts comfor…
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Thereafter as we maintain this communion further with him, we out of love study to please him, by exact walking according to his commands ; then we shall feel increase of peace as our care increaseth ; then he wiU ' come and sup with us,' Rev. iii. 20, and be free in his refreshing of us ; then he will shew himself mor…
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Without this assurance there is little comfort in soliloquies ; unless, when we speak to ourselves, we can speak to God as ours. For in des- perate cases our soul can say nothing to itself to still itself, unless it be suggested by God. Discouragements will appear greater to the soul than any comfort, unless God comes …
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(d) Caracciolus. The following aje the title-pages of the translations referred to in foot-note, page 184 : — 1. ' Newes from Italy of a second Moses, or the Life of Galeacius Caracciolus tho noble Marquesse of Vico.' 4to. London. 1608. 2. ' A President to the Nobilitie of Court and Countrey, in the Life of Galeacius…
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(g) P. 209. — Bishop Patrick and the ' Soul's Conflict.' The paragraph commenc- ing ' The laws under which we live,' as stated in the foot-note (page 209), forms the basis of an extraordinary charge against the Puritans by Bishop Patrick, only less extraordinary than his mode of putting it. It occurs in his, it must be…
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iV. C. By his own appointment, it is like. C. Why did they not tell us so '? iV. C. I know not. 0. I wiU teU you then. They were loth to tell a plain lie ; for the Doctor died ■within three days after he had writ his preface to the first impression, and therefore, it is most likely, made no alterations. That preface…
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[c] As if to guard against the abuse of the ' general rule ' laid down in the mis- taken sentences, in absence of the after-limitations inserted in B, he adds — ' Some men will be ready to deprave the labours of other men's, but, so good may be done, let all such ill-disposed persons be what they are, and what they wil…
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* ' Revised.' See address to ' Christian Reader ' prefixed to ' Bruised Reed ' and ' Soul's Conflict,' and the various prefaces to the posthumously published volumes. The H. R. and S. C. seem to liave been more fully written out by Sibbes himself ; but as Mr Ryle observes of Ward, even they, and much more the others, h…
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THE SAINT'S SAFETY IN EVIL TIMES. Note. The ' Saint's Safety ' forms a moiety of the only remaining volume published by Sibbes himself. The full title-page is given below.* These two masterly discourses form Nos. 8 and 9 of the folio, entitled ' The Saint's Cordials.' (2d edition, 1637 ; 8d edition, 1658). Our text f…
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4. And as it was a spiritual sin, so it was artificial. There was a great deal of art and cunning in it ; and in evil things, the more art, the worse. Art commends other things, but it makes sin the more sinful. Doll non sunt doll, ni astu colas. When men are witty to work mischief, and wise to do evil, then they are e…
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But against whom was this plot directed ? Even against David, a pro- phet and a king, a kingly prophet, a man after God's own heart, 1 Sam. xiii. 14 ; Acts xiii. 22, though not according to theirs ; a sacred person, and therefore inviolable. ' Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm,' Ps. cv. 15, was a proh…
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THE SMNT's safety IN EVIL TIMES. 301 to do miscliief. (4.) It shews tliey are of the devil's trade, whose only work is to hurt and mischief all he can, those that are broken loose from him. Certainly such people as these are the children of the devil in an higher degree than ordinary. It is said, when Judas began to b…
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Now I come to their miscarriage. They brought forth a lie ; a lie in regard of their expectation, their hopes deceiving them, but a just defeating in regard of God. It was contrary to their desire, but agreeable to God's justice. Neither were they disappointed only so as to miss of what they intended, but they met with…
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(2.) Besides, even when they do prevail, it is but over part only, not over the whole. They prevail over persons, it may be, not over the cause : that stands impregnable. They prevail over men's lives, perhaps, but not over their spirits, which is that they chiefly aim at. A true Christian conquers when he is conquered…
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* Cicero, ante. — G. THE saint's safety IN EVIL TIMES. 305 •woman? They are like the grass on the house-top, which perks above the corn in the field, but yet no man prays for a blessing upon it. When men come by a goodly corn-field, every one is ready to say, God bless this field, &c. Beloved, it is a heavier thing t…
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This may be enlarged to all sinful courses. Every sinner worketh a deceitful work, and bringeth forth a lie. Augustine saith well, every sin is a lie (a). Men would be happy, yet they will not live so as they may be happy ; what more deceitful than this ? It will be the complaint of every sinner at length, that was Eve…
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308 THE saint's safety in evil times. of this life, flieth in our faces. Pleasure and profit, for whicli wicked men project and contrive so much, comes all to nothing ; but sin itself, and the punishment of it, abides for ever. Men, like popes, will dispense with themselves, and conceit a latitude and breadth in their…
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Beloved, it is om- duty to observe special occurrences, not out of any Athenian curiosity, but to begin our emplo}Tnent in heaven now, whilst we are upon earth ; to take occasion from thence to bless God. We should compare the rule and the event together, and observe what truth or attri- bute God makes good by that whi…
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Neither did they only conceive this hellish wickedness, but were big of it, and kept it close many months, and pleased themselves in the same, as monstrous and misshapen as it was. There wanted neither wit, nor counsel, nor combination, nor secret encouragement to effect it. Nay, it was an holy villany, sealed with oa…
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For ourselves, we cannot better shew our thankfulness for this deliver- ance, by means whereof we enjoy our lives and our religion, than to pre- serve that truth, that is grounded upon the foundation of truth, which hath been derived unto us from those that -vfent before, who held out the same truth ; that hath been se…
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(f) P. 311.—' The present pope .... Urban VIII.' Consult Ranke (History of the Popes, ii. 104, seq.) for the extraordinary career of this very remarkable pope. His bearing toward England at the time of Sibbes's sermon explains the half- favourable opinion expressed. lie was raised to the tiara in 1623, and died in 1644…
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And then for the third. After his experience, confidence, and hope well built, as his fashion is, when his heart was once warmed, he breaks out into thanksgiving, in the consideration of God's favours past, and to come. His tongue is large thereupon, and God hath the fruit of it. ' To whom be gloiy for ever ; ' and las…
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THE saint's safety IN EYIL TIJIES. 317 arm of flesh, tliat unless God driveth us from these holds, by casting us into a perplexed estate, we shall never know what it is to live by faith in God alone, when all other props are pulled away, and when the stream of things seems cross unto us. That God therefore may train u…
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7. Again, God maketh them friends without changing their disposition, by putting into their hearts some conceit for the time, which inclineth them to favour : as in Nehemiah, God put it into the king's heart to favour his people, Neh. ii. 8. Esau, Gen. xxxiii. 4, was not changed, only God for the time changed his affec…
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Of our support in spiritual losses. Yet there be divers degrees of uphold- ing us when we are at a spiritual loss. For usually, in what measm-e we, in the times of om* peace and liberty, inordinately let loose our aflec- tions, in that measure are we cast down, or more deeply in discomfort. "VNHien om* adulterous heart…
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Quest. But how doth God deliver ? Am. By keeping us from occasions, or by ministering strength if occa- sions be offered. By giving occasions of good, and by giving a heart to entertain those occasions. He preserves us from evil works, (1) bij plant- ing the graces of faith and of fear in tis, whereby we are preserved…
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But mark the extent from evenj evil work. St Paxil' scare is not for one or two, but that God would keep him from every e\i\ work. "Why so ? Why St Paul says from every evil tcork. Because he that truly hates one sin, will hate all the kinds of it. Both come from the same love of God. He that loves God as he should, w…
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But from the whole, take it as it comes from God altogether, the truth is thus much, that a Christian, who is fiivy to his own soul of good intentions 824 THE saint's safety in evil times. to abstain from all ill for the present, may presume that God will assist him, against all ill works for the time to come. I say …
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Obj. But some poor soul may object, Alas ! I have been assaulted by such a corruption, a long time, in a grievous manner, and am not yet de- livered from it. Ans. God doth by little and little purge out corruption. As every stroke helps the fall of the oak, the first stroke helps forward ; so every opposing of corrupt…
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The excellency of the heavenly kingdom. Things, the nearer the heavens they are, the purer they are. 1, heaven is a most holy kingdom : no vm- cleanness can enter there ; 2, it is a large kingdom ; and 3, an everlasting kingdom. Other men's kingdoms detennine with their persons ; perhaps they may live to out-live then-…
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* ' We move, but God moves us.' A frequent sayiug in Lis ' Confessions.' Con- sult Book VII., iii. 4.— G. 328 THE saint's safety in evil tibies. kept himself undefiled of the world, and conversed with the best people ; every way he carried himself, as much as earth would suffer him, as they do in heaven. Certainly, '…
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I beseech you therefore, let us discern of our spirits what they are ; whether God hath established us with a free spirit or not. The kingdom of heaven is begun upon earth ; the door whereby we must enter m is here. Those graces must be begun here which must fit us for happiness hereafter. As the ' stones of the temple…
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4. Again, if you would be thankful, labour to have humble spirits, to see God in all things ; and then you will sacrifice to him alone ; not to thy parts and graces, friends, abilities, &c. The meek are fit to pray to God. ' Seek the Lord, ye meek of the earth,' Zeph. ii. 3; and an humbled, meek, soul, is the fittest t…
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2. One way is, to have a care that there he no breaches made upon the sound doctrine that is left unto us, and hath been sealed up by the blood of so many martyrs. We had it dearly. It hath been taught by our forefathers, and sealed with then- blood ; and shall we betray it ? No ; let us labour to deliver it to our pos…
928 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1862); OCR text from Internet Archive. OCR may contain scanning/transcription errors. Verify quotations against page images when precision matters.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.