PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes — Volume 7
Richard Sibbes · 412,687 words · 416 reading sections
Section 241
SAINT Paul's challenge. 387 chapter ; and when he hath set down all, he comes and concludes in a triumphant manner, ' What shall we say to these things ?' He propounds the qncere to himself, he catechiseth his own heart and others. If these things be so, what can be said against them ? Surely the unbelieving, doubting…
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Therefore God, in the Scriptures, borrows names from everything that is comfortable. He is with them as a rock, to build on; as a shield, to defend them ; in the time of heat and persecution, he is a shadow, to keep them from the heat ; he is with them as a light. Christ is our life in death, our light in darkness, our…
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It is true. But in what sense are they against us, and how far are they against us? They are thus far against us in their wit,* in their plots and policies ; in their wills they would devour all if they could. They are against us in * That is, 'wisdom.' — G. 390 SAINT pacl's challenge. their endeavours. They do what…
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Use. First of all you see then, that the state of a Christian in this world is an [impregnable state, and a glorious condition. Here is glory upon glory, from this clause to the end of the chapter : * If God be with us, who shall be against us ? If God gave his Son for us, shall he not with him give us all things else …
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If this principle be well laid, it is a ground of a Christian's courage in all conditions whatsoever. It is no matter how many enemies he hath ; for as Cyprian saith, K on potest secuhnn, dx.: the world cannot hurt him that in the world hath God for his protector. For the devil, he is crushed already. Though he keep ad…
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394 SAINT Paul's challenge. the waters; and the greater the waters, the more safe he, and the nearer to heaven. Let God be with us, and we may be content with any condi- tion whatsoever. Again, let i;s not be over-much discouraged with our infirmities and corruptions : ' If God be with us, who can be against us ? ' O…
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If God be with us, we will be of his side ; and his enemies shall be our enemies, and his friends our friends. He that claims this, that God is with him, he v/ill say, I will be with God and for God. God hath two things in the world that we must have a care of, his church and his cause. Take them out of the world, the …
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A word of the occasion* for which I made choice of this portion of Scrip- ture. Here is a double fitness to the occasion, both at home and abroad, ' If God be with us, who can be against us !' God was at home in '88. f He was with us in the powder treason : he was with us in the great sickness to preserve us, + and to…
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THE DEAD MAN.* And you hath he quickened, v)ho were dead in trespasses and sins. — Eph. IL 1. The matter of this excellent epistle is partly doctrinal and partly exhor- tatory, as it was St Paul's course in all his epistles to lay the foundation of practice in doctrine. The heart must he moved, hut the brain must be …
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Now, besides the consideration of it for this end — to magnify the grace of God, and to understand what our former estate was the better — ^there are many other ends ; as to stir up our thankfulness, when we consider from what we are delivered, to glorify God the more. There is no soul so enlarged to glorify God as tha…
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THE DEAD MAN. 401 not afraid of the first death, we should be afraid of the second death that follows. ' We are all dead in trespasses and sins.' Now what is the reason of it why we are dead ? First of all, The ground of it is : by sin we are separated from the fountain of life ; therefore we are all dead. Secondly…
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God,' Prov. xxviii. 9 ; he turns away his face from them, he cannot endure them. And for his ears, ' He will not hear the prayers of the wicked.' And for feeling, he is wearied with their sins, ' as a cart is with sheaves,' Amos ii. 13. Nay, he is wearied with their very good actions, as it is Isa. i. 8, scq. Whats…
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If this be so, I beseech you let us learn to Jcnoiv what ice are Inj nature, not to make ourselves in our own conceits better than indeed we are. We judge of ourselves as we are to civil things. A man that hath natural parts, that can discourse and understand the mysteries of law and of the state, we value men by these…
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THE DEAD MAN. 405 I a clothing of the ministerial word with an almighty power. It is a working word ; as when Christ spake to Lazarus when he stank in his grave, he said, ' Lazarus, come forth,' it was an operative working word. There went an almighty power to raise Lazarus. Therefore, though we find our- selves dea…
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to death, and quickened him again ; therefore we may know that he hath paid the price for us. And he quickens us with Christ and in Christ. Whatsoever we have that is good, it is in Christ first : ♦ That Christ in all things might have the pre-eminence,' Col. i. 18. Christ first rose and ascended and sits in heaven, an…
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THE DANGER OF BACKSLIDING." For Demos hath forsaken me, and embraced this present world. — 2 Tim. IV. lOt Blessed St Paul, being now an old man, and ready to sacrifice his dearest blood for the sealing of that truth which he had carefully taught, sets down in this chapter what diverse entertainment he found jjoth fro…
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God hath therefore planted the grace of faith in us, that our souls thereby might be carried to himself, and not rely upon vain things, which only are so far good as we do not trust in them. Who would trust to that for comfort, which by very trusting proves uncomfortable to him ? If we trust in friends, or estate, more…
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Am. 2. Again, if we would hold out, get a strong resolution against all oppositions, for, know this, scandals will come, difficulties will arise, but firm resolution will carry us through all. Those that go forth to walk for pleasure, if a storm comes, they return in again presently ; whereas he that is to go a journey…
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Use. This discovereth the yross hypocrisy of such men as labour to bring God and the icorld together, which cannot be. Where the world hath got possession in the heart, it makes us false to God and false to man. It makes us unfaithful in our callings, and false to religion itself. Labour therefoi-e to have the world in…
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Labour, then, for faith, that you may overcome the world. It was an excellent speech of Christ when he sent forth his disciples, * Did you lack anything ?' and they said, ' Nothing at all,' Luke xxii. 35. Labour there- fore for faith to rely on the promise; for provision, protection, and all things needful. If God be o…
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' All these died in faith.' They continued in faith to death, and then they ended their days in faith. When death closed up the eyes of their bodies, then with the eye of faith they looked upon Christ, upon God in Christ reconciled to them. The point is clear, that Doct. The grace of faith, it is such a grace that it…
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For when the soul by faith considers the horror of the grave as the chambers of death, faith considers they be but resting places for the body, that it sleeps there awhile till the day of the resurrection, and then they meet again. And it considers that the flesh rests there in hope of a glori- ous resurrection ; and f…
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* Cf. note c, Vol. L p. 350.~G. VOL. vn. D d 418 FAITH TRIUMPHANT. Use. This should stir us up, if this be so, to get this grace of faith; above all (paces, to get assurance that ice are in Christ Jesus, that so we may live with comfort,' and end our days with comfort, and live for ever happy in the Lord. It is only …
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It is the desire of God's children that they may die in faith and die in Christ, as they have lived in faith and lived in Christ. Faith is a blessed grace. By it we live, by it we stand, by it we conquer and resist, by it we endure, by it we die, by it we do all those worthy matters we do, in spite of the devil and his…
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' They received not the promises.' He speaks in the plural number, though he mean but one main promise, that is, the Messiah, for all other were types of him. Believers are called ' children of the promise,' Gal. iv. 28. Here they are called promises, for the repeating of them. The promise of the same thing it was mad…
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' They saw them afar off.' ' They saw them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them,' &c. This is the order of God's Spirit ; first to open the eye to see, and by sight to persuade, and upon persuasion to stir up the heart and affections to embrace ; for good things are brought into the soul through the …
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424 FAITH TRIUMPHANT. a being to things. It is a strange power that faith hath. Faith is the eye of the sanctified soul'; it is the light of the soul. In the dark, though things have a colour and a' lustre in them, yet till light come to make them clear, they are all as if they were not, they are not seen ; but when …
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Use. Our duty then is to labour to have our faith clear, to have this eye of faith, to have a strong faith, a strong sight. QiLest. "When is the sight of faith strong ? Arts. When it is as the faith of these patriarchs was. There are three things that makes a strong sight, that makes us conceive that the sight of fa…
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So it is with Christians sometimes ; when there is a great strength of faith, yet it may be there is not so much light. A weak Christian may have more light, but ho hath a weaker eye, and he in that respect sees better than a stronger. To a stronger, God doth not discover to him so much outwardly sometimes, suitable to…
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' They saw them afar off.' 428 FAITH TRIUMPHANT. * They were persuaded of them.' It was such a sight of the things as was with convincing, with persua- sion. And indeed this follows well upon sight, for sight of all other senses persuades hest. Hearing is not so persuasive as sight (c). Supernatural sight brings for…
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For God reserves not all for heaven. God gives his children some taste and feeling, some little joy and comfort, the 'first-fruits of the Spirit' here, Eom. viii. 23. So they were persuaded from the authority of the speaker, and some sense and feeling of the thing in some measure. Now, this persuasion hath its degrees…
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1. Sometimes, among the rest for this one, to humble us, to keep us from security, to make us careful and diligent ; to make us know that he hath the keeping of our feeling and persuasion in his own hands. As he hath the keeping of all our grace, so he hath the keeping of the knowledge FAITH TKIUMPHANT. 431 that we h…
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Quest. How do we prove that ? Ans. To make it a little clearer, because it is a point of some conse- quence, even as I shewed of what consequence the sight of faith is, so I may say of this persuasion. We must labour therefore to know how we come by this persuasion, and whether it be such as we can hold out in ; wheth…
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3. And so for unfruitfulness in conversation. Notwithstanding all those motives we have in the word of God, a man that is not convinced spiritually of those excellent things, he goes on deadly, as if there were no motives, because the Spirit of God hath not sealed them to his spirit. He hath not given him an apprehensi…
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I have shewed you, then, the kinds of persuasion, general and particular, and how it is wrought by the Spirit ; that unless this persuasion be wrought by the Spirit, we shall never hold out in it. Though we have all the arguments in the world, we shall be disobedient. Disobedience comes when things are not discovered b…
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It is sacrilegious presumption to come to holy places, and to set upon holy duties, to hear or read the word of God, without lifting up our hearts to God for his Holy Spirit. We cannot plough without his heifer. Can we know the mind of God without the Spirit of God ? What arrogancy is this to think I shall be saved ; a…
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438 FAITH TRIUMPHANT. upon the means. We go on in a course of sin : we are not divinely per- suadecl. God hath not persuaded our hearts. He hath not enlightened us ; for if the covetous wan were persuaded, ' that neither covetous, nor extortioners, should enter into the kingdom of heaven,' 1 Cor. vi. 10, would he not …
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We may know whether the Spirit of God have wrought anything in us by our embracing of good things ; for, as I said, God hath made our souls thus, when the soiil is convinced of the truth and goodness of a thing, and is persuaded, the aflections will always follow that that is shewed to be the best. Now when the Spirit …
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The soul cannot do otherwise when it is convinced supernaturally. The same Spirit that discovers better things opens the soul to follow them. It is so with every soul that hath the true work and stamp of the Spirit in it. It is set upon heavenly things. It saith with St Paul, 'I account all dung and dross in comparison…
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We abuse our souls. They are not made to close and grasp with the world ; they are not made for those things that are baser than ourselves. We abase our souls. A covetous man makes himself worse than he is ; 442 FAITH TRIUMPHANT. therefore he is called the world,* because ho hath nothing in him better than the world.…
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Let us shame ourselves therefore : Lord, do I profess I see things above nature ? that I see Christ in heaven and see myself there ? and do I pro- fess that I am persuaded that the word of God is true, and am I no more affected ? Where is my love ? Where is my joy ? Where is my comfort ? Doth my heart run after other t…
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And there is nothing more effectual to commend knowledge to us than this, that it is a means to work a holy and heavenly disposition and temper in us, especially if it be spiritual. And let us meditate upon what we seem to know and are persuaded of; let us dwell upon things still, to work them upon the will and aftecti…
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446 FAITH TRIUMPHANT. Therefore let us attend upon the means, upon private reading of the word and upon the ministry ; for what are the ministers but to contract Christ and the soul together ? They are ' friends of the Bridegroom,' to discover. Christ's love to us, and his loveliness, — his loveliness in himself, his …
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Besides the seal of the sacrament, the end of which is to cherish hope- fulness of Christ, and of all the good we have by him, his oath is added to his promise, that all things might be immutable and unchangeable of the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting, &c. Now especially when we find our hearts to sink downwar…
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Then again, there may be some present grief upon them, that God, to humble a man, may take up his affections, so that at that time he shall not be so affected with good things, though ordinarily he comfort himself with the best things ; and so he doth afterward, when he hath given his grief and his present affections s…
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The ppints considerable are, first, this, that God's children upon earth here are strangers and pilgrims; They are not at home, but are travelling toward their country. The second is this, that Theij profess themselves to be so. They know they are so, and they confess that they are so. They are not ashamed of it. Fo…
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And it must needs be so, for the head of Christians was a stranger. His love made him a stranger; for he left his Father's bosom. His love drew him from heaven to earth, and here he conversed as a stranger. He dwelt in his body here as a tabernacle, which he laid aside for a while, to work the work of our redemption, a…
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4. So they are strangers iii regard of their place. Heaven is their hope. They are ' begotten to an inheritance immortal, undefiled,' &c., 1 Pet. i. 4 ; they live in a place where they are strangers ; they are every way strangers. Obj. But you will say. Wicked men are strangers, and pilgrims too ? Ans. I answer. They…
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Thus faith in Christ makes him that is a stranger here, content and patient. He whose soul hath embraced Christ is contented with anything : anything is sufficient to his soul that is filled with better things. Nothing will content a covetous earthly man, a man of earth. Such men think themselves at home ; they make a …
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7. And hence it is that there is another property of a stranger that is going to a place, perhaps he may step out of the way, yet n-otivithstandiny , by virtue of his first intention, he yathcrs himself homeward again. If he take other matters in hand, he gathers home still, though he go out of his way, in he comes; he…
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There are two callings, our general and particular calling, and we shew religion, that is our general calling, in our particular calling, as we are placed in this or that calling ; and what we do in either of these callings is the way to heaven. Now the care of a Christian is, that he be well advised what to do, and on…
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In all confusions in the world, faith teacheth a man to stand as a man upon a rock immoveable, because he is a stranger. If anything fall out in the city or place where a stranger is, he carries his own jewels and things about him, and so goes away, his goods are not of that place; so FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 459 in all co…
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Thus it was with God's people. When they were nearer their end, then they sung sweetly the swan's song, and then they were enlarged in their spirits ;' as Jacob, when he was dying we see what a will he made, what legacies to his children. And Joseph, when he was dying, and Moses the man of God ; the song of Moses, and …
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THE RPIN OF MYSTICAL JERICHO.* By faith the walls of Jericho fell doun, after they had been compassed about seven days. — Heb. XI. 30. This verse suits somewhat to the occasion : f therefore I have made choice of it at this time. This chapter contains the triumph of faith in the hearts and souls of those in whom this…
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4G4 THE RUIN OF MYSTICAL JERICHO. be brought to desperate conditions ; and rather than he will have nothing to trust to, he will trust to the broken reed of Egypt ; he will trust to that that will deceive him and hurt him, as the reed of Egypt did the Jews ; rather than they would trust God, and the word brought by th…
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Use. Therefore let us make that use that Jeremiah doth, Jer. ix. 23 : ' Therefore let not the wise man trust in his wisdom, or the strong man in his strength, or the rich man in his riches.' Let a man joy in none of these ; but if he will joy, let him joy in this, that he knows the Lord, that he is in covenant with God…
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The last point is this — ^ Obs. 4. It ivas by faith in the use of means that the walls of Jericho fell doivn. If they had not depended upon God in their going about seven days, the walls had stood still. It was by faith they did it ; and it was a great faith that, using such a ridiculous stratagem as this, to go about…
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this life ; to bring him through Jordan, those waves of death ; to put him into heaven, to bring him at length to his own country, to Canaan ; because there is spiritual wickedness stands in the way, both in regard of Satan him- self, and in regard of the instruments he useth. But Christ came 'to destroy the works of …
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Well, but what hath God done ? God hath infatuate and overthrown their walls, and by weak means. Luther, a poor monk, with a trumpet of rams' horns, with his preaching and with his writing, you see how he shook the walls of Rome, how much they have lost within the last hundred years. The last age, the last century of y…
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It is a world of hurt that comes to the church by impropriations, espe- cially in the north parts, as we hear too much by reports. In great and mighty parishes to set up poor and weak men, and others wholly to receive the revenues ; and that is the reason of the swarm of dangerous papists in those parts. _ Oh, that the…
1,265 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.