PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes — Volume 3
Richard Sibbes · 388,516 words · 401 reading sections
Section 361
An oath should be true and weighty ; but that is not enough, it must be in matters indeterminable. For if a thing may be determined without an oath, we should never use it. The end of an oath is lo end controversies ; for if St Paul could have persuaded them of his gracious and loving heart, that he stood affected as h…
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An ordinaiy course of swearing, it argues a very vile heart wheresoever it is : bear it out as boisterously as they will. It argues this venom in the heart : Well ! I cannot offend against the second table, but the laws of the kingdom will hamper me ! I cannot steal, or murder, but somewhat I can do in despite of God h…
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VOL. III. I i 498 COMMENTARY ON mourn for it ; because wlicrc the magistrates cease to do their office, God will do his ofticc. "Where sin is punished, God will not punish. Where the magistrate spares, God will not spare. He will punish. There- fore this sin where it is not censured and punished, the land shall mourn…
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Then he sets down the true cause, ' We are helpers of yom- joy.' If I had come, and told you of your faults, if I had not spared you, it should have been to help your joy ; and now I come not to you, it is to help your joy : my scope in all is to be a furtherer of your joy. So these words are a reason of the former, wh…
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3. Again, it is not a ruling over faith, nor a base slavery, when men hear the word of God opened directly and clearly, when men shall persuade others according to their own judgment, that this is so, and when others shall yield. There is some faith that may be called in some degree im- plicit faith and obedience, that…
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For whereupon is all the abominations of popery justified ? They are justified by this, though they seem ridiculous, gross, and blasphemous, they came from the church, and the church is virtually in the pope. An absurd position, that the whole church should be virtually in one man ; yet that is the Jesuitical opinion ;…
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And in satisfaction, perhaps I have not made satisfaction enough by their injunction laid on me, and therefore I must satisfy in hell ; what a rack is this to conscience ? So, what a rack to conscience is that opinion, that the pope cannot err ; when I cannot tell, perhaps, whether he be the right pope or no. If he ca…
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And that they may help all the better forward, they have raised in the chm-ch a kind of faith which they call an implicit and"^ infolded faith, that people must believe what the church teacheth, though they know not in particular what the church teacheth, and so they lead people hoodwinked whither they please themselve…
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practice witnessing our nnthankfulness, by valuing no more the blessed estate of the gospel we enjoy. * Not that we have domimon over your faith.'' This disposition to domineer over the faith of others, from abominable grounds it ariscth : Partly from pride and tyranny, that they would set themselves in the temple of…
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Why should they labour to be in that state ? Heason 1. Among many reasons, one is, that God that gives them STich matter of joy, may have glory from them. For what should the life of a Christian be, that is freed from the greatest ill, and advanced to the greatest good ? His life should be a perpetual thanksgiving to …
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As the heathen man complained of those comforts he had, I know not how it is, but the physic I have to cure the grievance of my mind, it yields to the malice of the disease, the disease is above the cure. So it is true of all philosophical comforts, that are fetched out of the shop of nature, the physic yields to the d…
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Thus did St Peter, after he had bronght them to ' Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved ? ' Acts ii. 87, 38 ; then he points them out to Jesus Christ. Therefore the ministr}' is called ' the ministry of recon- ciHation,' 2 Cor. v. 18, and the ' ministry of peace,' Eph. ii. 17 ; they 'are called ' messengers of…
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But we may make an use hence, to judge of what spirit they are that judge and think so, they are not true believers ; for thei'e is no man that hath given his name to Christ, and makes it good by his life that he is a good Christian, but he accounts the ministers ' helpers of his joy.' Those that do not so, are in an i…
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Ans. It is true ; but all teaching, and all exhortation, and all reproof, tibey tend to comfort : even doctrine itself tends to comfort. For as it is with divers kinds of food, they have both a cherishing virtue in them to strengthen, and a healing virtue to cure. So it is with the word of God, • That is, ' Syrian.'— …
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Therefore, 3'ou have all attributed to the Spirit of God. In John xvi. 5, set]., ' I go hence, but I will send you the Comforter,' the Holy Ghost ; and what shall the Comforter do ? ' He shall convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and judgment.' Do not pretend, therefore, your own in- ability, that you arc imabl…
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Use. Therefore make this use of it, that in all our endeavours to procure peace to our consciences, and spiritual balm to the wounds of our souls, let us I/O to this hearenhj Physician : not depend overmuch upon the ministry, or reading, or any outward task ; but in the use of all things lift up our hearts to God, that…
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And ihis whole pedigree of joy, as it were, is excellently set down, * Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord,' Rom. v. 1, and have access to the throne of grace, by which gi-ace we stand, and not only so, but rejoice. So there is justification by the * That is, 'conscientiou…
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' For by faith ye stand.' This principally depends upon the first words, ' We have not dominion over your faith,' because faith is such a grace as you stand by in all conditions. Nov/, what you stand by must be fii'm, it must be on a good bottom ; and what is firm must not be human, but divine. Therefore, we have no do…
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To clear it a little further. There be fom- degrees of assent that the soul hath to anything. 1. The first is a slight assent, that we call opinion, that is, with some fear that it may be otherwise. That is a weak, a pendulous * assent. It is a wavering assent, it yields not a certain assent. Opinion is a weak thing :…
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2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 24. 521 word of God, it builds, and pitcheth, and bottoms itself upon divine truth, divine authority, divine revelation, which we call the first truth, the first verity. And not only so, but faith, that it may stand the better, hath, together with the word of God, the seals ; for God hath …
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First of all, observe hence, that, Ohs. The foundation of faith vinst be out of a man's self. That bottom that a man must lay his soul upon, must be out of himself : it must be divine, it must be God. For the soul rests not till it come to God.* And if the word were not God's word, it would not rest on that. God must…
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Our Saviour Christ himself founds what he teacheth upon the word. Shall not we therefore ground our faith upon the word, when he that was the head of the church brings all to the word in his teaching ? Therefore we have a better resolution for our faith than they have. For indeed to say the truth, as we may say of the…
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So, if we be forced to sufier the loss of any thing that is good in the world, or be cast into any ill condition, what saith St Paul ? ' The troubles and afliictions of the world are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed,' Rom. viii. 18. Let us set that glory before us, and that will prevail against all that t…
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Therefore let us often think. Is my faith good ? is it well built ? Let us oft put this query to our souls, I believe the religion I profess, but upon what grounds ? I believe the truths in the word of God, but upon what grounds ? Have I a clear understanding of them, because they are divine ? Doth the Spirit of God op…
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Therefore I beseech you, labom' to have arguments from the experience of the power of the word in j'our souls, and arguments from the Spirit of God to your spirits that it is the word of God. I will stand to divine truth, I find such a majesty, such a humbling, pacifying, satisfying power in it to all my perplexities a…
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(c) P. 11. — ' Corinth. . . . But Augustus Csesar afterwards repaired it.' For a very full and vivid description of ancient and more modern Corinth, I would refer readers to Conybeare and Howson's ' Life and Epistles of St Paul,' in any of its editions. Cf. also Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, Hodge and Stanley, in thei…
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(m) P. 97. — ' The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.' This familiar apophthegm originated with TertuUian ; but runs more literally, ' Blood is the seed of Christians.' ( Apologeticus adversus Gentes, c. 1.) The original is 'Plures effici- mur quoties metimur a vobis ; semen est sanguis Christianorum.' (n…
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(1.) ' Audeo dicere, superbis continentibus expedit cadere,' &c. — Be Divers. Scrm. cccliv. cap. ix, tom v. col. 1378. Bened. ed. fol. Par. 1679 sqq. (2.) ' Audeo dicere, superbis esse utile cadere in aliquod apertum manifestiimqne peccatum, unde sibi displiceant, qui jam sibi placendo ceciderunt.' — De Civ. Dei. xiv.…
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and ovviidriffic. (hh) P. 209. — ' Therefore the name for conscience in the Greek and Latin signifies a knowledge with another.' That is 6uvii67]Sig = a knowing with one's self, con- sciousness ; and conscientia (con-scio) = joint knowledge, Cf. Note gg above. {ii) P, 209. — ' It is a knowledge with a rule, with a ge…
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(utt) P. 274.— Therefore Luther was wont to say, ' Good works are good, but to trust in good works is damnable.' This is a frequent saying of the Colloquia Mensalia, which in the great folio of Captain Henrie Bell (1652), was a special favourite with the Puritans. Our copy bears the autograph of the famous ' Puritan' w…
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{hhh) P. 354. — ' Isidore saith, "An oath is to be ei-teemed as he,"' &c. Cf. note bbb. {Hi) P. 357. — ' " Our word, our preaching," as it is in the margin.' See note ddd. The word is o Xoyog. probably of purpose indefinite, so as to embrace both his per- sonal communications and his ' preaching.' (JJJ) P- 357. — ' "…
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{PPP) P- ^^7. — ' It is somewhat uncertain whether ever Peter were at Rome.' For a full and scholarly examination of this matter, consult ' The Que.stion, " Was St Peter ever at Rome?" Historically Considered, By Augustus Scheler.' (1 Vol. 12rao. 1849. Nisbet.) Scheler's conclusive treatise, which returns a negative to…
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(eeee) P. 475. — 'Like to the Samaritans, as Josophus, the historian of the Jews, writes of them. When the Jews prospered, oh ! then they would be Jews,' &c. The passage will be found in the ' Antiquities,' Book ix., c. xiv. g 3, ' When they [the Cutheans or Samaritans] see the Jews in prosperity, they pretend that the…
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Aim — Holy men work from holy aims and ends, 330. All — Christ is all in all to us, 371, 372. Alone — The devil set on Christ when he was alone, 76. (See Solitariness. ) Amen — Amen, what, and how taken, 382, 3S3 ; a double amen, 421; all promises in Clirist yea and amen, 382, aeq., 390, seq. Anointing — What kind …
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Conceit We should have a good couceit of others, 306, 307 ; it is good to have a good conceit of others, 327. (See Hope, Opinion.) Confidence Certain account of, and looking for death, is a notable means to draw us from self- confiiience, 127; God's children prone to self- confldence, 128. (See Trust.) Conformity A…
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JCnil. — Holy men work lor holy ends, 330. Ji(jiiifocation. — I'oplsh equivocation odious and abomlmible, 233, 354, 404. Error. — How prophets and apostles were .snlijcct to errors and mistakes, and how not, 350. (.Sco Infallible, Mistake ) Experience — I'ormcr experience a cronnd to ex- pect liltc mercies for tlie …
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hypocrite, 14, seq. ; a Christian no hypocrite, 14,301 ; profane professors are gross hypocrites, 12. Jealousy. — Men are wondrous prone to jealousy and suspicion, 339, 485 ; whence jealousy or suspicion ariseth. 340, 485, 486 ; jealousy, what, 485; mischief from jealousy, 485, 486 ; we should labour to avoid jealousy…
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Occasion. — A good man must take all occasions to do good, 336. Oil, Ointment. — The Spirit with its graces com- pared to oil, or ointment, 443, 446. Oil. — Our religion is the old relit;ion, 375, 376, seq. ; popery no old, but new religion, 377, 378. Oneness — -A Christian man is one man, he doth act one man's part…
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/Vo/)7ic/s.— How Christians are prophets, 447; pro- phets and apostles, how subject to error, how not. 355, 356. Providence Providence, what, 107. Pejoice—See Joy. Iieli[jio7i.—Kot to subordinate reliffion to State policy, 279. 280 ; religion tends to practice, 280 ; popish religion is a carnal relision, 296. .<ieq.…
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ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 543 We are pressed out of mcnsure above strength, 2 Cor. i. 8 ; ami, God is faithful, and will lay no more upon you than vou shall be able to bear, 1 Cor. X. 13, 116. 117." 5u/r<Tm5f.— The sufferings of Christ abound in us, or God's saints are subject to many suffer ngs, wliy, 78 ; all Christians…
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Will — Every one in his calling placed by the will ot God, 8, 9 ; the more will, advisednes.s and deliberation in sin, the greater the sin, 236. Wis'lom — Wisdom manifold, 260. 261; wisdom, what, 261 : carnal or fleshly wisdom described, 261, 262, 263; why called fleshly wisdom, 261, 202 ; all carnal men have not fles…
463 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.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.