PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes — Volume 5
Richard Sibbes · 354,580 words · 358 reading sections
Section 301
' A mystery.' What is a mystery ? The word signifies a hidden thing. It comes of muein,l which is, to shut * That is, ' mutter,' from the formal ' muttering ' of their Latin prayers by the papists, eff., the paiernosteT. — G. t That is, 'loves.'— G. I The verb is /J-uiuj — G. 4C2 THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. or Btop the …
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3. Again, When Christ came, and was discovered to the Gentiles, yet it is a mystery even in the church, to carnal men, that hear the gospel, and yet do not understand it, that have the veil over their hearts. It is ' hid to them that perish,' 2 Cor. iv. 3, though it be never so open of itself to those that believe. 4.…
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Use 1. Is it so that religion is a mystery ? Then, first of all, do not tvonder that it is not known i)i the tvorld : and that it is not only not known, but persecuted and hated. Alas ! it is a hidden thing. Men know not the excellency of it. As great men's sons in a foreign country, they find not entertainment answera…
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There is a lawful use of feasting* and comely recreations ; but to come with unjustifiable vanities, that are not fit at any time, when we should honour God for the gi-eatest gift that ever was, for the incarnation of his Son ; to be more profanely disposed then, and to give ourselves to more * In margin here, ' Ap…
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It is a mystery. Now therefore it must have a double veil took off : a veil from the thing, and the veil from our eyes. It is a mystery in regard of the things themselves, and in regard of us. It is not sufficient that the things be lightsome that are now revealed by the gospel, but there must be that taken from our he…
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Ans. We must desire God to open our eyes, that as the light hath shined, as the apostle saith, Titus ii. 11, ' the grace of God hath shined ;' as there is a lightsomeness in the mysteries, so there may be in our eye. There is a double light required to all things in nature, — the lightsomeness in the medium, and in the…
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In Rev. V. 4, St John wept when the book with ' seven seals ' could not be opened. He wept that the pi'ophecy was so obscure, that it could not be understood ; but then Christ takes the book and opens it. So when we cannot understand divine mysteries, let us groan and sigh to Christ. He can open the book with seven sea…
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* That is, ' uuderstandiug.' — G. t That is, 'wicked.' — G. THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. 471 plain in themselves. As we are strong in any passion, so we judge ; and the heart, when it is given up to passion, it transforms the truth to its own self, as it were. Even as where there is a suifusion of the eye, as in the jaundice…
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* Great mystery.' 1. That is the adjunct. It is a ' great mystery.' And here I might be endless ; for it is not only great as a mystery — that is, there is much of it concealed — but it is a great and excellent mystery, if we regard whence it came, from the bosom of God, from the wisdom of God. If we regard all that h…
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47t THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. 8. Again, It is a great mystery, // compared to all other viysteries. Creation was a groat mystery, for all things to bo made out of nothing, order out of contusion ; for God to make man a glorious creature of the dust of the earlli, it was a great matter. But what is this in comparison for Go…
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Use 2. Let us bring great endeavours to learn it, and great respect towards it, and great love to God for it. Let every thing in us be answer- able to this ' great mystery,' which is a ' great mystery.' ' Without controversy.' ( It is so under the broad seal of public confession, as the word o/ioXoyou- fisvui in the g…
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Use 1. I will only make that use of it that a great scholar in his time once did upon the point, a noble earl of Mirandula (fj. If there be no calling these things into question, if they have been confirmed by so many miracles, as they have been in a strict sense, why then. How is it that men live as if they made no qu…
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The aiiections are planted for this end upon the report of that which is good to them, to embrace it, to join with it. Therefore let us never think our state good, till we find our hearts warmed with the goodness of divine supernatural truths. ' Oh ! how do I love thy law ! ' saith David, Ps. cxix. 97. He wonders at hi…
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* That is, ' doiug honour.' — G. 480 THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. Quest. You will say, How can he be pitiful ? There are many infirmities that he took not upon him ; he took not upon him all infirmities. Alts. I answer, by proportion to those that he took, he knew how to be pitiful to those ho took not. He is inhnitely wise…
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5. Hence comes also the tmioii between Christ and ns. Whence is it that we are ' sons of God ?' Because he was the ' Son of man,' ' God in our flesh.' There are three unions : the union of natures, God to become man ; the union of grace, that we are one with Christ ; and the union of glory. The first is for the second,…
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We may turn over things now, in the time of peace, with ease ; but in time of temptation, when the soul is touched with guilt, and Satan plies us with temptations, the soul will have no rest but in an infinite ground of comfort. The soul is prone naturally to misgive, and to forecast the worst, and to conceive hardly o…
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Therefore, let not Satan abuse our imaginations, if we have a mind to turn to God ; for, as I said, there is no comfort to them that go on in their sins. God w'ill wound the ' hairy scalp of them that go on in iniquity,' Ps. Ixviii. 21; and, ' they treasure up wrath against the day of wrath,' Rom. ii. 5. There is nothi…
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Take heed of pride. God himself emptied himself, and wilt thou be full of pride ? He became of ' no reputation,' Philip, ii. 7, and wilt thou stand upon terms of credit? He 'took upon him the form of a servant,' and wilt thou be altogether a lord and king in thy afi'ections, and not serve thy brethren ? Did Christ do t…
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THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. 487 ing mystery to all that follows, I have been somewhat the longer in un- folding these words, 'God manifest in the flesh.' ' Justified in the Spirit.' These words are added, to answer an objection that may rise from the former. He was ' God manifest in the flesh.' He veiled himself. He could …
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And this was in the time of his abasement. In the greatest extremity of abasement, there was somewhat that came from Christ, to 'justify' him that he was the Son of God, the true Messiah. There is no part of his abasement but some beams of his Godhead did break forth in it. He was made flesh, but he took upon him the …
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Obj. But you will say, it seems he was not ' justified in the Spirit.' There are many heretics that think not Christ to be God ; that take not Christ to be so glorious as he is. Ans. I answer : When we speak of the justifying of Christ, it is meant to those that have eyes to see him, to those that shut not their eyes.…
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Therefore in our eclipses and disgraces let us all comfort ourselves in this. Let the world esteem us for the present as the refuse of the world, as persons not worthy to be acquainted with, not worthy to be regarded ; we shall be ' justified ' and cleared and glorified, especially at that day ' when Christ shall come …
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Use 2. And as he will overcome for his church, so he will overcome in his church ; * stronger is he that is' in the church, ' in you, than he that is in the world,' 1 John iv. 4 ; and God's children will be triumphant. Though they may be discouraged in respect of the present carriage of things, yet the Spirit that is i…
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In particular, we justify him, that ' he rose from the dead,' when we believe that we are freed from our sins, our surety being out of prison. We justify him as ' ascended into heaven,' when we have heavenly affections, and when we consider him as a public person gone to heaven in our name. We justify him as ' sitting …
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Mere civil* persons, the apostle saith of them, 2 Tim, iii. 5, they ai'e such as ' have a form of godliness, but deny the power of it.' All that rabble- ment that he names there, they have ' a form.' A form is easy, but the power of it is not so easy. Therefore, let us justify our religion by our conversation. Let us j…
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(3.) They saw him so as they were witnesses of him to men. They gave testimony and witness of him. So that it is a full word, in the intention of the Holy Ghost. Indeed, not only the angels, but all gave witness of him, from the highest heavens to hell itself; all witnessed Christ to be the true Messiah. In his baptis…
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VOL. V, I i 498 THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. graceless grace of slighting aud scorn. Tlicy account it a disparagement to 1)0 sei-ious in these things. They make no mysteries of that Avhich the glorious creatures the angels themselves look upon and pry into, even with admiration, liut it is not to he conceived of, the profane…
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And hence ice have the r/round of the ■pcrpetuitij of it, that they will for ever be attendants to us ; because their love and respect to us is founded upon their love and respect to Christ. When fiivour to another is grounded upon a sound foundation ; when the favour that a king or a great person bears to one is found…
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Ohj. But you will say, God's children fall into inconveniences ; how then are they attended by angels ? Ans. I answer : First of all, God's angels preserve those that are his, from many inconveniences that they know not of. And certainly we have devils about us continually, and there is a conflict betwixt good angels …
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602 THE FOUNTAIN OPKNED. of strength in himself. IIo could do all by himself. He could have been contont ^vith his own happiness, and never have made a world ; but he made the world to shew his goodness and love and respect to mankind. So he will have angels attend us, though he watch over us by his own providence. Th…
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The angels are described with wings to fly, in Isa. vi. 2, seq, to shew their delight in their attendance ; and wings to cover their faces and their feet, to shew their adoration and reverence of God. The nearer they come to God, the more reverence. So there is no Christian, but like the angels, the nearer he comes to …
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that physic be provided ; but there must be an appHcation of it. It is not sufficient that there is a treasure ; but there must be a digging of it out. It is not sufficient that there be a candle or Hght ; but there must be a holding out of the light for the good and use of others. It was not sufficient that there was …
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And because people are in a contrary state to Christ, ' to preach Christ,' is oven to begin with the law, to discover to people their estate by nature. A man can never preach the gospel that makes not way for the gospel, by shewing and convincing people what they are out of Christ. Who will marry with Christ, but those…
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(4.) And it is more 2^>'oportionable to our weakness to have men that speak out of experience from themselves that preach the gospel, that they have felt the comfort of themselves. It works the more upon us. Therefore, those that first preached the gospel, they were such as had felt the sweet- ness of it themselves fii…
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Let us therefore set a price upon God's ordinance. There must be this dispensation. Christ must be ' preached.' Preaching is the chariot that carries Christ up and down the world. Christ doth not profit but as he is preached. For supernatural benefits, if they be not discovered, they are lost ; as we say of jewels, if …
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Christ must be preached ; but to whom ? ' To the Gentiles.' Here lies the mystery, that Christ, who was ' manifest in the flesh, justi- fied in the Spirit,' &c., should be ' preached to the Gentiles.' What were the Gentiles ? Before Christ's time they were ' dogs,' in our Saviour Christ's censure. ' Shall I give the c…
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And you see in the genealogy of Christ, he came both of Jews and Gen- tiles, as we see in Kuth, Divers of our Saviour's ancestors, they were Gentiles as well as Jews, to shew that he that came of both, he came to be the Saviour of both. But it is the safest, as I said before, in these queries, to rest in the wise, unse…
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1. Take heed of joining superstition and popish trash uith it, or the like, that will eat out the very heart of the gospel, and sets up man in the place of Christ. ♦ Cf. note i. Vol. I. p. 101.— G. t That is, ' purity.'— G. THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. 513 2. Again, Take heed of decaying in our first love. We see God tlirea…
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Therefore the gospel unfolded is called ' the word of faith,' because it begets faith. God by it works faith ; and it is called the ' ministry of reconciliation,' 2 Cor. v. 18, because God by it publisheth reconciliation. As preaching goes before believing, so it is the blessed instrument, by reason of the Spirit accom…
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We see what manner of faith is in most men, that snatch out of Christ * That is, = resents, dislikes. — G. 616 TUE FOUNTAIN OPENED. what they list, to serve their own turn. As he died for their sins, so they nro glad of him ; but as ho is a lord and king to rule and govern them, so they will have none of hiru, but ' …
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Let no man therefore despair ; nor, as I said before, let us not despair of the conversion of those that are savages in other parts. How bad soever they be, they are of the world, and if the gospel be preached to them, Christ will be ' believed on in the world.' Christ's almighty power goeth with his own ordinance to m…
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4. Again, If we consider another circumstance, it adds to the mystery ; that is, tJie suddenness of the conquest. The world was conquered to the faith and obedience of Christ. In a short time after Christ, one man, St Paul, spread the gospel almost all the world over; he conquered almost all the world ; he spread the s…
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520 Tnn fountain opened. continued in a good condition. But in the work of redemption God doth good to evil men. God transcends in his love, because the glory of his morcy roigns in the work of redemption ; so that the power, and wisdom, uud mercy being greater in the work of redemption, it requires a more supernatura…
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2. Again, as I said, faith being a mystery in regard of such a world of opposition between the heart of man and Christ, Satan helping the unbe- lieving heart, here must needs be a strife and conflict irith J'aitli. There- fore those men that never had conflict with their own unbelieving heart, tliat never had conflict …
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(4.) Again, AVhere this faith is, it is a triumphing, a conquering grace, a prevailing grace. It overcomes the world and whatsoever is opposite, for it sets before the soul greater things than the world can. The world pre- sents terrors. What are these ' to the glory that shall be revealed ? ' The world sets out pleasu…
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And to this end, let us labour to increase in knowledge. ' I know whom I have believed,' saith the apostle, 2 Tim. i. 12, for all grace comes into the soul by the light of knowledge. Whatsoever is good is conveyed by light into the heart. Faith especially is the bent of the will to Christ, receiving him ; but this come…
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THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. 525 There is no difBculty in the words. He ' ascended up' as well as he was * received up,' positively as well as passively. In his death, he was not only crucified by others, and delivered by his Father, but he gave himself to death ; so he was not only ' received up in glory,' but he ' ascended …
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1. Whence was he taken ? Ho was taken * up to glory,' from mount Olivet, where he used to pray, and where he sweat water and blood, where he was humbled. From the place of humiliation was his ascension to glory, shewing unto us that the place ofttimes where we pray, where we are aiflicted, our sick-beds, nay, the place…
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In this glorious condition that Christ is received into, he fulfils all his offices in a most comfortable manner. He is a glorious prophet, to send his Spirit now to teach and open the heart. He is a glorious priest, to appear before God in the holy of holies, in heaven for us, for ever ; and he is a king there for eve…
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THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. 529 eartli ? Must Christ come down in his body to us, or else he can do us no good ? Must there be a corporeal descent, or else we can receive no influence from him ? There may be a derivation of virtue from Christ though his person be in heaven ; where he shall remain till the last day, when he s…
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In the law, the high priest, after he had offered a sacrifice of blood, he was to go into the ' holy of holies ;' so Christ, after he had offered himself for a sacrifice, he went into the ' holy of holies,' into heaven, to appear before God. And as the high priest, when he went into the holy of holies, he had the names…
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Again, This administereth comfort in regard of the. affllctinns of the church. When the church is under any abasement, at the lowest, it hath a glorious 582 THK FOT-NTAIN OPENED. Lend in heaven ; nnd what ! doth he sit there and do nothing ? No. Ho sits 'at the rij^ht hand of God,' and rules his church, even in the m…
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Consider the wonderful love of Christ, that would suspend his glory so long. The glory of heaven was due to him upon his incarnation, by virtue of the union of his human nature with the divine ; for that nature that was united to the Godhead, it must needs have right to glory by that very union. What should hinder, whe…
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And let it stir us up likewise not to be ashamed of religion, and to stand out in (100(1 causes for Christ and the church. ' He is not ashamed to be called our brother,' Heb. ii. 11. No ; not after his resurrection. ' Go tell my brethren, I ascend to my Father and your Father,' John xx. 17. He was not ashamed of it whe…
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5SG TlIK FOUNTAIN OPENED. position to the etato ho helioves, it is an empty hope ; ho deludes himself. Whosoever shull he j^lorious with Christ in heaven, is also glorious now. There is a Spirit ol" j^'lory resting upon them, that is, grace ; grace makes them glorious. Those that have not a Spirit of glory, that is, a…
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It is an argument of a great deal of atheism and infidelity in our hearts, as indeed our base nature is prone to sink down, and to be carried away with present things, that professing to believe that Christ is risen and ascended into heaven, and that he is there for us, yet that we should be plodding and plotting altog…
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These points are very useful, being the main grounds of religion ; having an influence into our lives and conversation above all others. Other points have their life and vigour and quickening from these grand mysteries, which are the food of the soul. Therefore let us oft feed our thoughts with these things, of Christ'…
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(p) P. 518. — ' St Austin saith, "The world was not overcome by fighting, but by suffering." ' One of many of Augustine's plaints in his ' worry ' under his numer- ous controversies with the Donatists. 5-10 THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. (q) P. 518. ' St Austin observes, " It was the wonder of the world." ' A common say ill}?…
228 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.