PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes — Volume 4
Richard Sibbes · 362,113 words · 363 reading sections
Section 241
(5.) The ministry is ' the salt of the world,' Mat. v. 13. Without salt, things putrif3\ So salt preserveth them, and eats out the corruption. It hath a cleansing, purifying power. What were the souls of God's people without it ? Kotten and stinking in God's nostrils, with pride and self- conceitedness. (6.) So we are…
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[2.] An earthen vessel is but a weak frame ; a httle dirt concocted with the fire. And we are a more exquisite frame, knit together by a more singular art, of God, being made in a wonderful manner ; and yet God compares his frame * of us to our frame * of earthen vessels, since the fall, Jer. xviii. 4. Beloved, it is …
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Use 3. A)id then it is no jn-rjudice to na that we^he earthen veasels, hut rather a comfort; for dcatli, whereby we shall be knocked in pieces, will be only a consummation of onr grief and trouble here, and a beginning of the happiness in another world. In the grave dust lieth a while, but we shall be made of another f…
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There may be many reasons given why this calling is subject to base usage in the world, and esteem from the dispositions of men contrary to it, but indeed not much to follow the point. It is not so much at all times, nor in all places. God doth at some time give more liberty, and raise up a more excellent esteem of the…
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2. And add this by the way, see the marveJJons pox-er of God. At first, all things were nothing at all, then they were a chaos, a confused mass ; out of a confused mass comes a heaven and earth, and all the creatures. Man himself falleth, and becomes worse than nothing, having sinned ; and to be delivered out of that m…
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Doct. For the former, we shall put them both together, that there is an excellent poicer in the ordinances of God, as it is disjtenscd inider the yospel. The Word itself, what power hath it ? Are not all things by the Word in creation ? Nay, is not the vigour and strength that every creature hath from the same Word ? I…
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3. We will shew the poiverful xvork of the word in some branches of it. (1.) That there is an excellency of jwwer that enables a man against his mvn corruptions, against temptations from Satan, from the trorld, sometimes from God himself in a icay of trial. But this ordinance having God's Spirit accompanying it, enabl…
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I beseech you, let us consider these things, and not be led away with a spirit of vanity and folly and error. So that there is a power, and an excellency of power, in the ministry ; and you that have open understand- ings in the history of the church, know how it hath powerfully wrought in all times. Quest. How do you…
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(3.) What power have yon, to help you against temptations ? What power have you against temptations from the word and divine truth ? What power have you to bear crosses, and afflictions, to comfort you in sickness, losses, and crosses in the world ? Can you fetch comfort from truths heard and read out of this book of G…
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* Qu. ' with his Spirit his own ordinance ' ? — Ed. 866 COirMENTARY ON And wliat is the end of this ? That God will have such an excellent treasure, as is in the dispensing of the mysteries of Christ, out of earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Wherein is considerable, first…
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(1.) As the word and ministry is called 'the salt,' Luke xiv. 34. Now the power of salt is to season, to make sweet, to relish, to consume the superfluous humours, to preserve, and keep long. So the word hath the power of salt to eat out the corruptions, and to preserve the soul to make it relish God. The souls of men,…
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I will shew you this in particular. 1. The power of the ordinance of God is first seen in that it discovers to men their natural conditions, sheweth what they are by nature ; for which end it useth the law, to shew that we be dead men, carnal men, under a fearful bondage, and the Spirit going along with it, convinceth…
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VOL. IV. A a S70 COMMENTARY ON service to my flosh. And he hath a principle in him, whereby he suLduetl what before was wonderfully powerful in him, which setteth hiui abov( himself. (4.) There is a power, and excellency of power, in the word, io cnwfort m to raise the soul i)i all d('jcclio)is, in all discovi farts…
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2 Chron. xxviii. 22. The more God humbled him, the worse he was ; and Pharaoh, after ten plagues, was ten times worse than before. Nothing will humble, neither word nor work, but by the power of the Spirit. There- fore as there is power and excellency of God in God's ordinance, so it is all from God, for all operation …
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Use 3. If this power hath not virtue one tcaij, it ivill have virtue another ; if it draws not and quickens, it will have virtue to confound. The threaten- ings of God against sins, that they are willing to live in, w^as made good, as Zechariah, i. 6, saith, ' Where be your fathers and the prophets ? ' They are dead an…
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* That is, ' wisdom.' — G. 2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. IV, VER. 7. 875 to US, otherwise we bring reproach upon them, and bring discredit to them in the hearts of carnal men. The holy apostle, as we have heard, after he had out of the fulness of his apprehension of the divine mysteries of the gospel set it out gloriously, Co…
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Obj. Now, we will answer some cases and objections that may be made, and so proceed. WJuj is it not so poirerfnl in so)ne, say many, as in others f The apostle Paul telleth them, Heb. iv. 2. Ans. 1. They do not ' mimjle the vonl with faith.' You know physic must have nature to work with it. Physic will do no good to a…
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Ohj. 2. But you will say, How or by icJiat means doth God make this word effectual ? Ans. I answer, this excellency of power in the word and his truth worketh in the heart by the Spirit. (1.) By way of revelation. It revealeth to us excellent things above * Sic' The sentence unfinished. Cf. Vol. 1. p. 38.— G. 378 CO…
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I will name one reason out of the text. It is more than revealing, offer- ing, and persuading by reason, because that is not the excellent manner of work. God in the gospel works in the most excellent manner, but working by persuasion is not the most excellent manner of working ; but working powerfully and really and e…
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Then there is a power and excellency of power in the soul, when we have turned by a natural power the nourishment into our constitutions ; then we be strong, as Elias, that by strength of the nourishment sent from heaven walked forty daj-s, 1 Kings xix. 8. So when we have received the sacra- ments, and heard as we shou…
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I do but touch these things, to shew that out of the grounds of religion there is a power in them, if they be apprehended and believed ; and if they have not this power, we believe them not. We talk of them, but are not moulded to them ; as the apostle's phrase is, ' We are not fashioned to tbem,' 2 Cor. iii. 18. So th…
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Beloved, it concerneth us nearly and very much, for if we do find the power of divine truths in our hearts. Oh happy men ! If we find it hath wrought a change and alteration, it will make the weakest Christian stronger than all the gates of hell. Take a weak Christian that hath digested the word and mingled it with fai…
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And therefore it is a childish thing for them to infer that there is power in man, because God persuadeth and exhorts. God with these infuseth his power, he conveyeth power into the will and affection this way. Then he works powerfully when he seemeth to condescend thus far, and this exhortation is but to drive us out …
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Whei'e it doth not convert the heart and conscience of men, or tell them that God was willinger to convert them than they were willing to be con- verted, the fault is in themselves ; but I will always hope well of them that carefully and diligently come within God's reach. The ministry of the gos- pel is said to be the…
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* As before, sentence unfinishod, Cf. Vo], I, page 38. — G. 888 COMMENTARY ON devotion is like to come to that, that God never blessed to that end ? A bastardly devotion from a bastardly means. And usually people give to those kind of things higher measure of admiration than to good and saucti- lied means. I never k…
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No question, but the humihation of God's people bi'ought antichrist so much upon his knees, as he hath in Germany. God's people humbled themselves, and believed the threatenings against antichrist, and believed the promises of the church, and laboured to have faith suitable to God's pro- mises, suitable to God's threat…
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2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. IV, VER. 7. 391 glory was God's. What is the converting of so many souls by so mean fishermen, when ignorance overcame knowledge, folly overcame wisdom, weakness overcame strength ? Fishermen and their consorts made the crown of the Roman empire stoop to them. The poor preachers of the gospel broug…
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Reason 5. And what is the reason likewise — to add one more instance — that he helpeth most in extremity, that he deferreth help till that time, that in the mount he is seen, and not till he be in the mount, as the proverb is ? * An inference from tlie passage, or an interpretation, rather than a translation of it.-G.…
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And, therefore, if at any time you have a distrusting heart to look to the creature, he withdraweth his strength, and then we are at a loss, and fall, and die ; because we work not our own salvation. We are given to seLf- sufliciency and self-dependency, and therefore God oftentimes blasts our endeavours. ' Blessed is …
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Indeed, sv 'jravrl in the original signifieth ' in every place,' in every time, as here ' on every side,' for the children of God are on every side pressed. Sometimes from above, God seemeth to be their enemy ; and » Qu. ' regard ' ?— Ed. f That is, = defence.— G. 39G COMMENTARY ON sometimes from wiLliin, by the terr…
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The church seemed to be in a perishing condition, and David saith, * I am cast out of thy sight, yet thou heardest the voice of my prayer,' Ps. xxxi. 22 ; yea, a prayer joined with such expressions that I said, * God Lath forsaken me.' The spirit sighs and groans, and God regardeth such a prayer. And so, that howsoever…
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(2.) Again, though in regard of some particulars the church may seem to be destroyed, some boughs are cut, yet the body remains, so in regard of the whole body they are not destroyed. (3.) In regard of the ' inward man,' they are not destroyed. They take courage still, and comfort still, while they are in the world. …
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Reason 4. And if there were no more but the malice of Satan and his cursed seed, the seed of the serpent, it is not possible to avoid the cross. And God, that his children may not love the world, hath made the world hate them. And it is safe for God's people to have the hatred of the worst people. Their hatred will do …
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Use. Therefore learn a blessed skill from hence. When there is objected anything by Satan to disgrace the gospel or discourage it, reject* the objections of Satan with better. It is so, I confess ; but [while] God seemeth to be displeased, and I am afflicted, God is yet a gracious God, hath left many comforts, his word…
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2 COKINTHIANS CHAP. IV, VER. 7-9. 403 (4.) Labour at all times to maintain a good conceit of God and his r/ood- ness. If Satan suggest he will cast us off, and that there is no hopes for us in our God, answer again, It is not so. Labour to have a spirit of faith to beat back all such temptations. You shall see strange…
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The apostle, to avoid the objection of the scandal of the cross, by which they were the less accepted in the hearts of many, sets down the state of the people of God in this world, take them at the worst. He speaks here of himself not only as a man (since the fall of our weak nature is subject to many calamities), but …
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Again, ' We are cast down, but not destroyed.' We see here is a kind of eloquence of things as well as words. Here is a sweet harmony of things : * they are afflicted, but not in despair ; perplexed, but not distressed ; per- secuted, but not forsaken.' Every one of these are greater than the former. I shewed you God'…
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Ans. [1.] There be some troubles that Christ sufiered, which we can- not ; as the curse of the law, and the wrath of God due to our sins. These Christ sufiered alone. ' He trod the wine-press of God's wrath alone,' Isa. Isiii. 3. In these there is no partaking. Ans. [2.] There is another dying, a dying in his mystical…
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Now if you ask me, who are the happy men in the world ? Truly those that are most active in good, and suticr most for good, for they are the flesh of Christ. What did the flesh and nature of Christ ? He did all the good he could, and sufiered all the evil that the pride and malice of man's nature could possibly lay upo…
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And therefore in particular, what is the virtue of Christ's resurrection, whereby Christ doth raise himself? The virtue of it in us is, first of all, the same Spirit that raised his body out of the grave doth raise us out of any afiiiction, or quickens and strengthens us in it. The ai'gument is from the greater to th…
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Therefore, I beseech you, let us be willing to undergo anything God shall call us to ; for, (1.) We shall find a divine energn of God's Spirit, which we never perhaps had before, nor ever shall have hereafter. Therefore fear nothing God shall call us to. The comforts of God's" Spirit, from the life of Christ manifeste…
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men might make from the trouble that usually accompanieth both the preaching and profession of the blessed truths of God. And he setteth it * Qu. ' have ' ? — Ed. t That is, ' anticipating.' — G. 2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. IV, VER. 10. 413 down by waj- of opposition and contrariety. He grants all that the adversary can sa…
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And then again, the mortification of Jesus is such a mortification whereby we are content our bodies should be like the body of Christ on earth, which is in all hardship, labour, afiliction, weariness ; and all God's people have such a spirit, all that come to heaven have such a spirit. They are not so dainty that thei…
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Not to speak of the life of justification, which is a life of sentence, and not here principally intended, though it be the spring of all the rest, for we are dead in law, and we must be quickened by sentence. We are dead in our sins. Guilt is upon us, and the guilt must be removed in justification. We must live in law…
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but the life of the body through its union with the soul, that is the figure of the life of Jesus spoken of in the text. — Ed. 2 COniNTHIANS CHAP. IV, TER. 10. 417 of this world, as plants and the like [grow], yet let the snn withdraw his vigour and efficacy, and they seem to die presently. The light of the air cease…
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Beason 1. The reason is, things are best knoivn hy opposition. The decay of the outward man is a foil as it were to grace, to make it appear more clear and glorious, and the weakness of the outward man is a means to dis- cover more the power of God's Spirit, and the power of the life of Christ in such a weak body ; for…
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I will not press the point any further. Use of trial. To make use of what is spoken. If it is true that there is a spiritual life, another life, and this is most manifested in affliction ; how then shall we know whether we have this life of Christ or no ? for Christ conveyeth a spiritual life to all his. We will spea…
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* Cf. for a very full and ingenious exLibition of these and kindred ' analogies,' Thomas Adams' Soul's Sickness, Practical "Works, Vol. I. page 471, seq. — G. t Misprinted ' stamped.' — G. 2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. IV, VER. 10. 421 Creatures have their instincts. There is a natural instinct in every creature to run to that…
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Seco)idly, Men may do the same things, come to church, receive the sacra- went. The one may have base, low ends, the other higher ends ; nay, higher ends in civil actions than another in spiritual actions. For he doth holy actions with a carnal end ; and the other having spiritual life, by virtue of that life carrieth …
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Use 2. Of exhortation. Beloved, let us labour by all means therefore to have this spiritual life ; to have a frame, to have the divine nature stamped upon our nature, the frame of grace ; and let us not rest on that, but labour for a perpetual and continual stream of life from Christ, the fountain and the spring. I sp…
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2 COIUNTUIANS CHAP. IV, VEIi. 10. 425 Security deadeth the life of Jesus. Sins of plenty, and sins of long peace, stick upon us, that there is not that vigour, that liveliness of Jesus in us that ought to be. Now our endeavour should be to labour after an increase of this inward frame, and together with increase of g…
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It is an unworthy thing that we should pass over this life, which is alto- gether to get into Christ, and to die before we begin to live. How many live a natural rational life, and live in an outward condition perhaps great in the world, and then all cndeth in death ; and they be out of the world before they come in. H…
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God is ready to permit them to die when they may honour him. God is not prodigal of our lives. A\Tien our lives may save his truth, he will permit our lives into the mercy of merciless men, and they have bloody minds. Their malice is more than their power ; their cruelty is more than their ability oftentimes, but their…
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' They eat up my people, as they eat bread,' Ps. xiv. 4, and ' they think they do God good service,' John xvi. 2. This is the state of all countries 2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. IV, VER. 11. 429 beyond the seas, except ours ; and shall not we have actions of sympafhy ? That member that sympathiseth not with the body is a dead…
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They that be enemies to God's people for religion, either in the profes- sion or practice of it, as upbraiding them with their loose practice, and their false opinion, they are not so much enemies of men as of Christ. And if Christ were on the earth, they that persecute anything for Christ's sake will persecute him mor…
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But to leave these things, though they help our understanding in the mystery I speak of: the thing I would have you specially to discern in the spiritual life of Jesus is, that it leadeth a man higher than all other lives. It sets a man in a higher rank of creatures. It makes a man a 432 COMMENTARY ON Spiritual man, …
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Therefore, if we labour not for the life of Jesus to be begun here, which is called the life of grace, the beginning and infant of glory, we miss of our end. This life is for that life ; we are not for this life. God ordained us not for this life. Therefore he will take this life away to advance it to a spiritual life.…
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As that it is a gracious use of afflictions to supply the want of them by mortification, you shall see the life of Jesus in afflictions. A great deal of patience in a body tormented with sickness, a great deal of heavenly mind- edness, when he is ready to go out of the world ; a great deal of comfort in the midst of di…
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* He died, and is risen again ; who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's people ?' Rom. viii. 3B. Therefore come to the sacrament, that we may grow in assurance of the life of sentence, in removing the guilt of sin. because Christ died for us. And we shall likewise have great increase of * That is, ' communicate…
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And therefore we must labour not to value ourselves by the body, nor by any worth we have in the outward man neither. If we have diseased bodies, or weak bodies, more mortal than others, not to be cast down, even the best are but mortal flesh ; let us value ourselves by that which is to eternity, by the life of Jesus. …
987 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.