To conclude all with this one motive, the lovlmj -kindness of God ; when we have it once, it is no barren, complimental kindness. It is a loving- kindness that reacheth from everlasting to everlasting, from God's love in choosing to his love in glorifying us. It is a love that reacheth to the filUng of nature with all the happiness it is capable of. In this world, in all misery, one beam of God's loving-kindness will scatter all clouds what- soever. What raised the spirit of Daniel in the lions' den ? of the * three young men ' in the midst of the furnace ? of St Paul in the dungeon ? The beams of God's love in Christ brake into the prison, into the dun-
35G angels' acclamations.
geon. A few beams of that will enlarge the heart more than an}' affliction in the world can cast it down. It is excellent that Moses saith, Deut. xxxiii. 16, ' The good pleasure of him that dwelt in the bush,' &c. Yon know that God appeared in the bush, when it was flaming. The flaming bush shewed the state of Israel, in the midst of the furnace of persecution ; yet notwithstanding the bush was not consumed. Why ? Because the good will of God was in the bush. So let us be in any persecution ; put case we be like Moses's bush, all on fire ; yet the fire shall not consume nor hurt us. Why ? The good pleasure of him that dwelt in the bush is ■with us. In Isa. xliii. 2, ' I will be with thee in the fire, and in the water ;' not to keep thee out, but I will be with thee in it. So that in the greatest persecutions that can be, in the fiery trial, as St Peter calls it, ' the good will of him that dwelt in the bush will be with us.' So that we shall not be consumed, though we be in the fire ; ' aftiicted, but not de- spair,' 2 Cor. iv. 8. Why ? The good pleasure of God dwells in the bush, in the church. In the midst of afflictions and persecutions he is with us. Who can be miserable that hath the presence of God, the favour and good ■will of God ? But this shall be sufficient for this time and text.
NOTES.
(a) P. 319. — ' What that order is, I confess with St Austin, is undetermined in Scripture ; we must not rashly presume to look into these things.' There are well- nigh innumerable allusions to the angels, scattered through the writings of this Father, all distinguished by that reverence and modesty of speculation, so charao- teristic of him in treating of the ' secret things ' of God. Cf. Indices of Benedictine edition, sub voce.
(6) P. 322. — ' There is some diiference in the readings.' The Vulgate reads ihbo- x'lag, its version being ' hominibusbonse voluntatis.' The reading is found in some of the Fathers. The Syriac version renders ' good tidings to the sons of men.' Sibbes refers probably to both the Vulgate and Syriac. Dean Alford has a pungent note on the the popish adoption of ildoxlag.
(c) P. 328. — ' As Tertullian said in his time : " What ! shall wo celebrate that which is a public matter of joy to all the church, for a public shame, in a disgraceful way " V ' There are many such remonstrances and ' rebukes ' in this Father. Cf. ' Apology,' c. xxxix.
(d) P. 329. — ' As the phrase of some cf the ancients is, repentance is a board to escape to the shore, after we have made shipwreck, and done things amiss.' The allusion is to Acts xxvii. 44, a very frequent accommodation with the Puritans,
(c) P. 339. — ' The heathen could say, Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia.'' Wo have not fallen in with this expression. Similar ones occur in Seneca, Cicero, and other heathen ■writers,
(/) P. 345. — ' For we see how comfortably they speak sometimes upon some no- table performance for their country.' Cicero, and Seneca, and later, the ' Thoughts' of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, which have been admirably rendered and interpreted by George Long, M.A. (1 vol. fc, 8vo, Bell and Daldy), furnish examples.
{g) P. 347. — ' As we see Dives.' It is singular how the un-named ' rich man ' of the parable has gone down to posterity as Dives, the Anglicised form of the Vulgate rendering of ':r}.ou(!iog.
THE FRUITFUL LABOUR FOR ETERNAL FOOD.
THE FRUITFUL LABOUR FOR ETERNAL FOOD.
NOTE.
' The Fruitful Labour ' appeared originally in ' The Beams of Divine Light. (4to, 1639). Its separate title-page will be found below.* For general title-page, see Vol. V. page 220. G.
* THE
FKVITFULL LABOVR
FOR
Eternall Foode.
In two Sermons,
By the late Reverend and Learned
Divine Rich AR D Sibs,
Doctor in Divinity, Master of Katherine Hall in
Cambridge, and sometimes Preacher at
Grayes-Inne.
EsAY. 55. 2. Why doe you spend money for that ivhich is not Bread? and your labour for that which satisjieth not? Hearken di- liyently unto mee, and eate yee that which is good, and let your soule delight it selfe in falnesse.
John 6. 55. For my flesh is meate indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.