THE SAINT'S SAFETY IN EVIL TIMES.
Note.
The ' Saint's Safety ' forms a moiety of the only remaining volume published by Sibbes himself. The full title-page is given below.* These two masterly discourses form Nos. 8 and 9 of the folio, entitled ' The Saint's Cordials.' (2d edition, 1637 ; 8d edition, 1658). Our text follows the edition of 1633. That of 1634 is the same book with a new title. — G
* Title-page—
THE
SAINTS Safetie in EviLL Times. Delivered at St Maries in Cam- bridge the fift of November upon occa- sion of the Powder-Plot. Whereunto is annexed a Passion-Sermon, Preached at Mercer's Chappel London upon Good-Friday. As also the Happinesse of enjoying Christ laid open at the Funerall of Mr Sherland
late Kecorder of Northampton.
Together with the most vertuous life and
Heavenly end of that Religious
Gentleman.
BY
R. Sibbes, D.D., Master of Katherine-Hall in Cambridge, and Preacher at Grayes-Inne London. John 3. 30. Let him increase, let me decrease. London, Printed by M. Flesh er for R. Dawlman at the Bra- zen Serpent in Pauls Church-yard. 1633.
THE SAINT'S SAFETY IN EVIL TIMES.
Behold, he travaileth mth iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth a lie.— Ps, VII. 14.
These be the words of David. The title shews the occasion, which was the mahcious slander and cruel practices of Ahithophel or Shimei, in the time of Absalom's rebellion. The words express the conception, birth, car- nage, and miscamage, of a plot against David. In which you may consider, 1. What his enemies did. 2. What God did. 3. What ive all should do : his enemies' intention, God's prevention, and our duty ; his enemies' inten- tion, he travaileth with iniquity, and conceineth mischief ; God's prevention, he brought forth a lie; our duty, Behold.
His enemy's intention or action is set out by proportion to a bodily con- ception. The Holy Ghost delights to present unto us the plots of wicked men under the resemblance of a bodily conception and bii'th, by reason of the analogy between both. The mind hath its conceptions as well as the body. The seed of this conception was some wicked thought either raised up by the heart itself, or cast in by Satan, that envious man. Not only wicked men, but their devices, are the seed of the sei-pent. The understand- ing was the womb to conceive, the will to consent. The conception was the hatching of a mischievous plot ; the quickening of it was the resolution and taking it in hand ; the impregnation, gro^ndng big, and travailing of it, was the carriage of it the due time ; the bii'th itself was the execution expected, but yet miscarried and stillborn. They intended the destruction of David, but brought forth their own ruin.
1. Quo minor necessitas peccandi, eo majus peccatum. For the conception, observe the aggravation of the sin, he conceiveth. (1.) He was not put upon it, or forced unto it ; it was voluntary. The more liberty we have not to sin, makes our sin the greater. He did not this in passion, but in cold blood. The less will, less sin. Involuntarium minuit de ratione peccati. Here could be no plea, because nothing is more volimtary than plotting. Where the will sets the wit a work to devise, and the body to execute mis- chief, it shews the spreading and largeness of sin in any man ; for the wiU being the desire of the whole man, carries the whole man with it.
Voluntas appetitus totius suppositi. Besides, when a man sins voluntarily, there is less hope of amendment, because his will is not counselable ; if the defect were in the understanding of a man, then sound dii'ection might
298 THE saint's safety in evil times.
set it right ; but where the will is set upon a thing, and is the only reason of itself (as when a man will, because he wills) there counsel wUl not be heard ; for, tell a roving person that he is out of the way, he knows it well enough already, and means not to take your direction ; but teU an honest traveller that ignorantly mistakes his way, and he wiU thank you. So tell a popish atheist that he is in an error, he heeds it not, because he is a papist for bye-ends, not in judgment, and resolves to be so, bring what reasons you can, his hope being to rise that way. Though the will follow some kind of understanding, yet it is in the power of the wiU what the understanding shall consult and determine of ; and, therefore, unless the malice of the will be first taken away by grace, it will always bias our judg- ments the wrong way.
2. Neither was this plot only voluntary, but with delight, because it was a conception ; births are with more pain. Dehght carries the whole strength and maiTow of the soul with it ; much of the soul is where delight is.
3. Again, it was a spiritual sin. The spirit of a man is the chief seat of God's good Spirit, wherein he frames all holy devices and good desires. The spu'it is either the best or the worst part in a man. Here Satan builds his nest and forges all his designs, his masterpieces, his powder-plots. The chief curse or blessing of God is upon the spirits of men. If men be raised never so high in the world, yet if they are given to a mahcious and devilish spirit, they are under a most heavy judgment, carrying Satan's stamp upon them. Diseases that seize upon the spirits of men, as pestilential diseases, &c., are more deadly than those that seize upon the humours. Spiritual wickednesses are the most desperate wickednesses. Sins are more judged by the mind than by the fact.