PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes — Volume 4
Richard Sibbes · 362,113 words · 363 reading sections
Section 61
* 'To help . . . rule' not in B, C— G. I 'Estate' in B, C— G. t ' As" inserted in B, C— G. it ' That' added in B, C— G. X ' And' omitted in B, C— G. ** ' Unto ' in B, C— G. g ' And judj^ment' not in B, C— G. ft ' Of his favour ' in B, C. — G. ^ ' The flesh and the spirit' not in C. — G. 90 ■ judgment's reason. be …
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Obj. Now some will object, Here is a troublesome course ! what a deal of do is here. What kind of life would you have the life of a Christian to be, to be thus discussing and censuring ? Sol. I answer, it is the trouble of jJnjsic that jverents the trouble of sickness. Is it not better to be troubled with physic, than…
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Quest. What is the reason there is no more rejoicing and thankfulness for Christ ? Sol. We keep not the wound, I mean corruption, open ; we see that which is unmortified, but we dry it up ; and therefore we do not relish Christ. Sweet is Christ to the soul that is exercised in a search of his own heart and ways. , Que…
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* ' Unto him ' in B. C— G. f ' Specially ' in B, C— G. X ' I say ' not in B, C ; and ' much more ' added after labour. Neat ^ pure. — G. § ' And ought not we ' in B, C. — G. II ' Him ' in B, 0 ; and ' which is here intended ' omitted. — G. % ' But because ' in B, C. — G. ** ' The more ... is the special time ' omi…
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judgjvient's reason. 95 Lord, 0 my soul, that forgives all thy sins, and heals all thine infirmities.' So these must go together, judging and censuring of ourselves ; then plead- ing for mercy, and renewing of our covenants, with rcforaiation thereupon. A Christian looks as well to the time to come as to the time past…
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* ' Ou ' inserted in B, C, and ' to ' omitted. — G. JUDGMENT'S EEASON. SERMON II. For this came many are weak and sick amonrf you, and many sleeji. For if we would judye ourselves, ive should not be judyed. But when we are , judyed, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not he condemned with the world.— 1 Co…
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[2.] A second reason why the world must be condemned is this, because they serve a damned prince, and it is pity that the state of the subject and the state of the prince should be severed. Satan they serve ; Satan rules in them according to his own lust ; Satan bathes himself in their humour as it were, in their anger…
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II ' They' not in B, C— G. §§ ' Of in B, 0.— G. ^ ' Then' added in B, C— G. 100 judgment's reason. things ; there is the outward^ duty, tlic shell, and the life and soul of the duty. A carnal •worldly man may do the outward thing ; he may be bap- tized and receive the communion ; he may come to hear the word of God,…
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(2.) Again, pass* 7iot for the censures of ivorldli/ jn-oiid j^eop'le, that think that theij are joWj Christians, when they are but in truth damned persons. God may recover them, but yet they are in damnable ways. Who caresf for the sentence of a damned person, till he have gotten his pardon ? Such are all profane pers…
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What is condemnation ? To be condemned is to be adjudged from the presence of God, and to be adjudged ft to eternal torment with the devil and his angels. It were somewhat unseasonable to enlarge this point ; but I beseech 3-0U consider what is wrapped in this word ' condemned, '^j ' condemned with the world ;' * ' L…
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101 judgment's keason. state of grace,' he" is safe ; he shall not be condemned with the world ; he is in heaven already ; he is sure of it, as if he were there. I beseech you, let this make us in love with the sincerity of religion, and let us never cease labouring till we have gotten out of this cursed slate into th…
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2. It is said here in the second place, that as they are corrections, so they are from God. We are chastened of the Lord. I will but touch it in a word, and that to help our forgetfulness in a main point. In the governing of a Christian life we are carried naturally to second causes. Now all second causes are but rods …
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Obj. 3. But how can death itself be a correction, when it takes away life, that we have no time to be better ? Ans. I answer, God, to his children, before he takes them out of the world, he 1 1 gives them his Spirit, that they sharply repent, and put much to a little time ; and God requires rather truth of heart than …
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Uses of all. Use 1. Now to make some general use of all that hath been spoken, and so to end all.|| Is this so ? Here we might stand upon a point to instruct our judgment, to shew that all the corrections of God's children, they come not from vindictive justice, bnt from a fatherly affection, * ' Or ' in B, C— G. t ' …
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Use 5. And then here again, you haveaf/round of iinprer/riahle comfort in all temptations whatsoever ; a wondrous comfort, that God will take a course with his to bring them to heaven. What a blessed course is this, thatf the time to come we may take in trust of God, as well as the time past '? That now in the state of…
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First, Against the rock of ijresumption. The soul may say, shall I be bold to sin ? Surely I shall buy the pleasures of sin at a dear rate ;f God will correct me sharply. And shall I forcej God for such a pleasure, and for such a profit ? No ! I will not buy sin at that rate. So it fenceth the soul from presumption. A…
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XX ' Exceeding' not in B, C— G. i§ ' All his ways to his' in B, C. — G. II II ' To remember it' not in B, C. — G. 122 judgment's eeason. to be a father ; his dealings to us, that they are fatherly corrections. Let not Satan wrin^ these comforts out of our souls But let us honour God by trusting hini in life and dea…
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Jesus Christ who was preached among you by me, and Silvanus, and Timothcus, was not yea and nay. Obs. Here observe, that the consent of preachers in the mysteries of salva- tion, is an excellent means to strengthen faith in their hearers ; not in regard of the truth itself, but in regard of men. So it plcaseth God to …
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I speak this the rather to cross their base practices, who, when God calls them to stand for his cause and truth, they will bend and bow the sacred truth (which is always ' yea and amen ' ) to their own by-ends and base respects. As if the opinion of any man in the world were the rule of their faith and obedience. This…
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But what is a promise ? A promise is nothing but a manifestation of love ; an intendment of be- * Cf. notes hh, a, Vol. III., p. 532.— G. t That is, ' foolish.'— G. PRKCIOUS PROMISES. 119 stowing some good, and removing some evil from us. A declaring of a man's free engagement in this kind is a promise. It always co…
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This should direct us in our dealing with God, not to go directly to him, but by a promise. And when we have a promise, look to Christ, in whom it is performed. If we ask anything of God in Christ's name, he will give it us, John xiv. 13. If we thank God for anything, thank him in Christ, that we have it in him. What a…
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What is hope but the expectation of those things that the word saith ? And what is faith, but a building on the promise of God ? Faith looks to the word of the thing ; hope to the thing in the word. Faith looks to the thing promised ; hope to the possession and performance of it. ' Faith is the evidence of good not see…
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PRECIOUS PROMISES. 123 revenues and comings in to maintain his bravery,* is yet an accursed creature in the midst of all. For what are we made for, think you ? To live hero only ? Oh no. ' Then we were of all others the most miserable,' 1 Cor. XV. 19. There is an eternity of time a-coming, wherein, after a few days sp…
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Another man hath present payment, and that is all he cares for ; he hath something in hand, and swells with a conceit of happiness thereby. Alas ! what are we the better to have a great deal of nothing ? Solomon, that had tried all the world, resolves it to ' vanity and vexation of spirit,' Eccles. i. 14. All things be…
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The promises are our inheritance, yea, our best inheritance in this life. Though the Lord should strip us naked, and take away all things else, yet if the promises remain ours, we are rich men, and may say with the psalmist, ' My lot is fallen into a good ground ; thy testimonies are better unto me than thousands of go…
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PRECIOUS PROMISES. 127 return to his mere glory. ' Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to thy name be given the praise,' Ps. cxv. 1. It is the song of the church mihtant on earth, and it is the song of the church triumphant in heaven, that all glory is to God in the whole carriage of our salvation. The promises are in him…
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Ans. They have no faith in the promise. The righteous is as mount Sinai, that shall not be moved. He builds on a foundation that can never bo shaken, for the heart is never drawn to any sinful vanity, or frighted with any terror of trouble, till faith lets go its hold. Out of God there is nothing for the soul safely to…
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Grace is little in quantity, but it is mighty in operation. It carries the soul through difficulties ; nothing can stand in the way of a gracious man, no, not the gates of hell. The spirit of grace that is in a Christian is stronger than he that is in the world. * A grain of mustard seed,' the very least measure of tru…
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Likewise this anointing hath relation to the persons anointed : kingSj priests, and prophets. Christ is primarily anointed, and all our grace is derived from him. He teacheth us divine things by a divine light. The poorest Christian in the world, whose heart is right with God, sees good things with such convincing love…
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Ajis. (1.) Sealing we know hath divers uses. First of all, it doth im- print a likeness of him that doth seal. AVhen the king's image is stamped upon the wax, everything in the wax answers to that in the seal, face to face, eye to eye, body to body. So we are said to be sealed when we carry in our souls the image of th…
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Quest. What is the stamp that the Spirit seals us withal ? Ans. 1, The Spirit works in this order for the most part. First of all, the Spirit doth, together with the word (which is the instrument, and the chariot wherein it is carried) convince us of the ill that is in us, and the misery attending on us for the same. …
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Ans. (4.) The fourtJt, way is by the joy of the Sinrit ; which is the begin- ning of heaven as it were, and a possessing of glory before our time. There are few of God's children, but in the course of their pilgrimage, first or last, have this divine impression wrought in them, enlarging and ravishing their souls to jo…
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Quest. How shall a man know whether God hath a part in him ? Ans. I answer. If he can run against the stream ; if he find his soul resisting Satan's temptations, and raising him above afflictions, standing out and combating with corruptions to the uttermost. When he can check his carnal heart that draws him downwards,…
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Use 2. And labour to grow in faith and obedience, tliat we may read our evidence clearly ; that it he not oren/rown witJi the dust of the xmrld, so as tee cannot see it. Sometimes God's children have the graces of the Spirit in them, yet they yield so much to fears and doubtings, that they can read nothing but their co…
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Quest. What is the reason that unlettered men many times stand out in their profession to blood, whereas those that are more able and learned yield to anything ? Ans. The reason is, the knowledge of the one is set fast upon the soul ; the Spirit brings his seal and this man's knowledge close together ; whereas the lea…
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PKECIOUS PROMISES. 141 except we apprehend his love to us, wc can never love him again, nor dehght in him as we ought to do. Now the Spirit is an ' earnest' of our inheritance in heaven. We are sons here indeed ; but we are not heirs invested into the blessed estate we have title to. God doth not keep all our happine…
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Yet we must know that Christians have not at all times alike assurance of their interest ; for there is an infancy of grace, where we are ignorant of our own condition. And there is a time of desertion, whenas God, to make us look better to our footing, leaves us a little, as if he would forsake us quite ; when indeed …
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In a natural man, all is dark. He sees nothing, because his heart is in a dungeon. ' His eye being dark, the whole man must needs be in blind- ness,' Mat. vi. 22, seq. All is alike to him ; he sees no difference between flesh and spirit, and therefore holds on in a doubting hope, in a confused disposition and temper of…
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Ans. 2. Secondly, All spiritual graces are rcith conflict ; for that which is true is with a great deal of resistance of that which is counterfeit. ' The flesh still lusts against the Spirit,' Gal. v. 17, and Satan cannot endure to Bee any man walk comfortably to heaven. What, thinks he, such a base creature as this is…
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Indeed, 'waiting' is a diflicult duty, both in regard of the long day which God usually takes before he performs his promise, as also by rea- son of the untowardness of our natures, being ready to be put off by the least frown, did not God by a Spirit of constancy preserve the soul im- moveable in all conditions, wheth…
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* Tliat is, ' sadden,' as elsewhere,' dead,' for ' deaden.' — G. 1 IB YEA AND AMEN ; OU, What makes a man difl'nr from himself and from other men but this ? Take a Christiiin that hath the ' earnest of the Spirit,' you shall have him defy death, Satan, the world, and all. Take another that is careless to increase his…
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NOTES. (a) P. 117. — 'Thejf have seven sacraments to our two,' viz., (1) The Supper, (2) Baptism, (3) Marriage, (4) Peuance, (5) Confession, (6) Extreme Unction, (7) Orders. (b) P. 117. — 'There are divers readings of the words,' Instead of 'all the pro- mises,' the Greek is ' as many promises.' Cf. Dr Hodge in loc. …
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154 TO THE READER. future things present, so it makes reuaote things near, and things * pre- pared ' to affect as if they were enjoyed. But what hath God prepared ? If I could answer this, it might not only satisf}^ hut inebriate. ' Such as eye hath not seen,' &c. It seems to bo a proverbial form of speech, whereby th…
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And whereas St Paul saith, ' for them that love him,' it is for them that * expect him,' as in Isaiah. The sense is all one. AVhosoever love God, they expect and wait for him. Where there is no expectation, there is no love. This is the apostle's drift. If God did do such great matters for his church, as ' eye hath no…
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A feast is a comfortable thing. They are called a feast. A kingdom is a glorious thing. They are called a kingdom. Marriage is a sweet thing. They are set forth by that ; by an inheritance ; and adoption of children, and such like. So that all these things are taken to be shadows of those things. And indeed they are bu…
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A GL.\^•CE OF HEAVEN. 159 see, nor hear, nor understand, more than the child in the womb of the mother can conceive the excellencies in this civil* life. Thus we see these truths a little more unfolded. I will now add somewhat to make use of what hath been spoken. Use 1. First of all, therefore, for matter of instruc…
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We see men of excellent parts are enemies to that they teach themselves, opposing the power of the gospel. Whence is all this ? Because they think only the opening of these things makes them divines, whereas without the Holy Ghost sanctifying and altering the heart in some measure to taste and relish these things, that…
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And therefore when you read and hear these things, content not your- selves with the first degree of revelation. No ; that is not enough. When you have done that, desire of God to join his Spirit, to give you spiritual eyes and hearts, that you may close with divine truths, and be divine as the truths are ; that there …
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A GLANCE OF HEAVEN. 1G3 pleasure indeed, but the sting comes after. They delight in those ill things that they can hear, and hear all that can be spoken of them, and never think of the excellent things that the eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, &c. Let this make us in love with divine truths in the Scripture, with th…
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I wonder at the stupidity and hellish pride and malice of men's hearts, that think any man can be too exact in the main duties of Christianity, in the expression of their love to God, in the obedience of their lives ; in abstinence from the filthiness of the world, and the like. Can a man that looks for these excellent…
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166 A GLANCE OF UEAVEN. common illumination to understand and discover things, and a doctrinal gift to unfold things for others, and not for themselves. For themselves they scorn them in their hearts, and in their lives and conversations, and they will speak as much when it comes to self-denial in preferment, in pleas…
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The fourth way is by anthoritij and discorery. St Paul was rapt up in[to] the third heaven ; he saith, they were such things that he saw, that could not be spoken of, strange things, 2 Cor. xii. 4. And Christ tells us of a kingdom. Christ knew what they were. And the word tells us what they are. Our faith looks to the …
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[Second.) God xvill have a difference between tlie ivarring church and the triuwjihinff church. This life is a fife of faith, and not of sight. "We walk and live by faith. "Why '? Partly to try the truth of our faith, and partly for the glory of God, that he hath such servants in the world here that will depend upon h…
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Use 1, AVell, to leave this and go on. If this be so, then let us oft think of these thinrfs. The life of a Christian is wondrously ruled in this world by the con- sideration and meditation of the life of another world. Nothing more steers the life of a Christian here than the consideration of the life here- after ; n…
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So it is with Christians at the first ; when they are weak they are troubled with this temptation and with that, with this loss and with that cross ; but when a Christian grows to a full stature in Christ, every petty cross doth not cast him down. He thinks. What! shall I be dejected with this loss, that have heaven re…
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* That is, ' sentient,' = sense-derived.— G. f Cf. note h, Vol. II. p. 518.— G. A GLANCE OF HEAVEN. 173 if not lose the joys of heaven and happiness that ' eye hath not seen,' &c., yet surely I shall lose the comfort and assurance of them. A man cannot enjoy the comfort of heaven upon earth without self-denial and mo…
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The affection and bent and frame of soul due to these things is admira- tion, and not only simple hearing. If these things in their beginnings here be set out by words of admiration, ' peace that passeth understand- ing,' and ' joy unspeakable and glorious,' what afJ'ection and frame of spirit is suitable to the hearin…
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But who be the parties that God hath prepared these things for ? ' For them that love him.' This is the fourth part, the disposition of the parties for whom, * for them that love him.' Quest. 1. Wluj not for those that God hath elected? Why doth he not go to the root of all ? The great things that God hath prepared …
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A GLANCE OF HEAVEN. 177 Use 1. If tliis be so, let 21s not feed ourselves with vain hopes. There are none of us but we desire, at least we pretend that we desire, heaven; but most men conceive it only as a place free from trouble and annoyance ; and they are goodly things they hear of, kingdoms, crowns, and the like. …
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Firat, The doctrine of the gospel, the publishing of it. And then, secondly, Grace by that doctrine. And thirdly, Glory upon grace, the consummation of all. So the mysteries of salvation is, first, the doctrine itself. That is the first degree of the kingdom. The doctrine itself is a mystery to all those that never …
976 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.