========================================================================
  SERMONS OF RICHARD SIBBES
  by Richard Sibbes
========================================================================

Sibbes' sermons exploring the difficulty of salvation and assurance, examining
what it means to be saved and discussing the challenges and grace involved in
the Christian journey toward God.

  Chapters: 14

------------------------------------------------------------------------
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    1. Christ, Our Surety
    2. Barely Saved?
    3. Believe Christ, Not Satan
    4. Duties and Discouragement
    5. Grace Shall Reign
    6. Puritan Sweetness Extracts from "A Descripti
    7. Means to Make Grace Victorius
    8. Richard Sibbes on Entertaining the Holy Spirit
    9. Christ's Public Triumph
   10. Offending Against
   11. Help for the Weak
   12. Spiritual Jubilee, the
   13. A Description of Christ
   14. Through Conflict to Victory

========================================================================
  CHAPTER 1: CHRIST, OUR SURETY
========================================================================

Christ, Our Surety (Surety: "One who acts in the place of another") Extracted
from the sermon "Christ's Sufferings for Man's Sin" from the Works of Richard
Sibbes, Banner of Truth Trust. Dr. Sibbes was a great Puritan preacher of
Cambridge from 1626 to his death. But how could Christ be forsaken of God,
especially so forsaken as to suffer the anger of his father, being an innocent
person? I answer, first, the Paschal lamb was an innocent creature, yet if the
Paschal lamb be once made a sacrifice, it must be killed. Though Christ were
never so unblameable, yet, if he will stoop to the office of a surety, he must
pay our debt, and do that which we should have done. If a prince's son become a
surety, though his father love him and pity him never so much, yet he will say,
Now you have taken this upon you, you must discharge it. Secondly, as in natural
things the head is punished for the fault of the body, so Christ, by
communicating his blessed nature with ours, made up one mystical body, and
suffered for us. But upon what ground should Christ become our surety? Because
he was able to discharge our debt to the uttermost. He was more eminent than all
mankind, having two natures in one, the manhood knit to the Godhead. Christ most
willing gave himself a sacrifice for us. He was designed and predestined to this
office, yea, he was anointed, set out, and sealed for this business by God
himself; and is not this sufficient ground why he should become our surety?
especially if we consider, That Christ took the communion of our nature upon him
for this very end, that he might be a full surety, that his righteousness being
derived to us, and our guilt to him, God's wrath might be satisfied in the
self-same nature that offended. You see in societies and cities, if some people
offend, the whole city is oftentimes punished. Though perhaps many are guiltless
in it, yet by reason of the communion, all are punished. So likewise a traitor's
son, that never had any hand in his father's sin, but behaved himself as an
honest subject should do, yet, having communion with the person of his father,
being indeed a piece of him, is thereupon justly disinherited by all law. But
how could Christ take our sins upon him and not be defiled therewith? He took
not the stain of our sins, but the guilt of them. Now in guilt there is two
things. A worthiness and desert of punishment. An obligation and binding over
thereunto. Christ took not the desert of punishment upon him, from any fault in
himself; he took whatsoever was penal upon him, but not culpable. As he was our
surety, so he everyway discharged our debt, being bound over to all judgments
and punishments for us. Now we owe unto God a double debt. A debt of obedience;
and if that fail, A debt of punishment. And both of these hath Christ freed us
from; first, by obeying the will of his Father in everything; and, secondly, by
suffering whatsoever was due to us for our transgressions. Some heretics that
would shake the foundation of our faith, will grant Christ to be a Mediator to
intercede for us, and a Redeemer to set us at liberty from slavery, etc., but
not to be a surety to pay our debt, by way of satisfaction to God for us. Let us
remember, that God's pleasure to redeem lost mankind, is not so much by way of
power and strength, as by way of justice, and therefore it is said, Hebrews
7:22, "Christ is become our surety;" and Paul, when he became a mediator to
Philemon for Onesimus, a fugitive servant, did it by way of surety, "If he owe
thee anything I will discharge it," Philemon 1:18; and Christ Jesus our Mediator
blessed for ever, so intercedeth unto God for us, as that he fully satisfies his
justice for our offences. But why was Christ thus forsaken of his Father? To
satisfy God for our forsaking of him. Christ's forsaking was satisfactory for
all our forsakings of God. Beloved, we all forsook God in Adam, and indeed what
do we else in every sin we commit, but forsake the Lord, and turn to the
creature? What are all our sins of pleasure, profit, ambition, and the like, but
a leaving of the fountain of living waters, to fetch contentment from "broken
cisterns," Jeremiah 2:13. But Christ was chiefly forsaken, that he might bring
us home again to God, that there might be no more a separation betwixt his
blessed Majesty and us. Some shallow heretics there are, that would have Christ
to be an example of patience and holiness in his life and death, and do us good
that way only. Oh no, beloved, the main comfort we receive from Christ is by way
of satisfaction. There must be first grace, and then peace in our agreement with
God. Sweetly, saith Bernard, I desire indeed to follow Christ as an example of
humility, patience, self-denial, etc., and to love him with the same affection
that he hath loved me; but I must eat of the Passover-Lamb, that is, I must
chiefly feed on Christ dying for my sins. So every true Christian soul desires
to follow Christ's obedience, humility, patience, etc., and to be transformed
into the likeness of his blessed Saviour. Whom should I desire to be like more
than him, that hath done so much for me? But yet the main comfort I receive from
Christ, is by eating his body and drinking his blood; my soul feeds and feasts
itself most of all upon the death of Christ, as satisfying for my sins. And what
a comfort is it that Christ being our surety, hath made full satisfaction for
all our sins. Surely we shall never be finally and wholly forsaken, because
Christ was forsaken for us. Now we may think of God without discomfort, and of
sin without despair. Now we may think of the law of death, the curse and all,
and never be terrified -- why? Christ our surety hath given full content of
divine justice for wrath and law, sin and curse, etc. They are all links of one
chain, and Christ hath dissolved them all. Now sin ceaseth, wrath ceaseth, the
law hath nothing to lay to our charge; death's sting is pulled out. How
comfortably, therefore, may we appear before God's tribunal! Oh, beloved, when
the soul is brought as low as hell almost, then this consideration will be
sweet, that Christ was forsaken as a surety for me; Christ overcame sin, death,
God's wrath, and all for me; in him I triumph over all these. What welcome news
is this to a distressed sinner! Whenever thy soul is truly humbled in the sense
of sin, look not at sin in thy conscience (thy conscience is a bed for another
to lodge in), but at Christ. If thou be a broken-hearted sinner, see thy sins in
Christ thy Saviour taken away; see what he hath endured and suffered for them;
see not the law in thy conscience, but see it discharged by Christ; see death
disarmed through him, and made an entrance into a better life for thee.
Whatsover is ill, see it in Christ before thou seest it in thyself; and when
thou beholdest it there, see not only the hurt thereof taken away, but all good
made over to thee; for "all things work together for the best to them that love
God," Romans 8:28. The devil himself, death, sin, and wrath, all help the main;
the poison and mischief of all is taken away by Christ, and all good conveyed to
us in him. We have grace answerable to his grace. He is the first seat of God's
love, and it sweetens whatever mercy we enjoy, that it comes from the fountain,
God the father, through Christ unto us. I beseech you embrace the comfort that
the Holy Ghost affords us from these sweet considerations.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 2: BARELY SAVED?
========================================================================

Barely Saved? We often heard 1 Peter 4:18, "If the righteous scarcely be saved,
where shall the wicked and ungodly appear?" to mean that some Christians may be
barely saved, "saved by the skin of their teeth". Read what Richard Sibbes has
to say about this in excerpts from his sermon, "The Difficulty of Salvation",
published in The Works of Richard Sibbes, Banner of Truth Trust. Dr. Sibbes was
a great Puritan preacher of Cambridge from 1626 to his death.

What is meant here by righteousness, to wit, a man endued with evangelical
righteousness? By "righteous" here, is meant that evangelical righteousness
which we have in the state of the gospel, namely, the righteousness of Christ
imputed to us; for Christ himself being ours, his obedience and all that he hath
becomes ours also; and whosoever partaketh of this righteousness which is by
faith, hath also a righteousness of sanctification accompanying the same,
wrought in his soul by the Spirit of God, whereby his sinful nature is changed
and made holy; for "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature," 2
Corinthians 5:17. The same Spirit that assures us of our interest in Christ,
purifies and cleanseth our hearts, and worketh a new life in us, opposite to our
life in the first Adam; from whence flows new works of holiness and obedience
throughout our whole conversation. There must be an inward inherent
righteousness, before there can be any works of righteousness. An instrument
must be set in tune before it will make music; so the Spirit of God must first
work a holy frame and disposition of heart in us, before we can bring forth any
fruits of holiness in our lives. For we commend not the works of grace as we do
the works of art, but refer them to the worker. All that flows from the Spirit
of righteousness are works of righteousness. When the soul submits itself to the
spirit, and the body to the soul, then things come off kindly. Take a man that
is righteous by the Spirit of God: he is righteous in all relations; he gives
every one his due; he gives God his due; spiritual worship is set up in his
heart above all; he gives Christ his due by affiance in him; he gives the holy
angels their due, by considering he is always in their presence, that their eye
is upon him in every action he doth, and every duty he performs; the poor have
their due from him; those that are in authority have their due. If he be under
any, he gives them reverence and obedience, etc; "he will owe nothing to any man
but love," Romans 13:8; he is righteous in all his conversation; he is a vessel
prepared for every good work. I deny not but he may err in some particular; that
is nothing to the purpose. I speak of a man as he is in the disposition and bent
of his heart to God and goodness, and so there is a thread of a righteous
course, that runs along through his whole conversation. The constant tenure of
his life is righteous. He hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and labours
to be more and more righteous still, every way, both in justification, that he
may have a clearer evidence of that, as also in sanctification, that he may have
more of the "new creature" formed in him, that so he may serve God better and
better all his days. Now, if this man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the
sinner and ungodly appear? Where you have two branches. The righteous shall
scarcely be saved. The terrible end of sinners and ungodly, where shall they
appear? Now in that the righteous man thus described by me shall scarcely be
saved, consider two things. That the righteous shall be saved. That they shall
scarcely be saved. The righteous are saved. What do I say? The righteous shall
be saved? He is saved already. "This day is salvation come to thine house,"
saith Christ to Zaccheus, Luke 19:9. "We are saved by faith, and are now set in
heavenly places together with him," Ephesians 2:6. We have a title and interest
to happiness already. There remains only a passage to the crown by good works.
We do not, as the papists do, work to merit that we have not, but we do that we
do in thankfulness for what we have. Because we know we are in the state of
salvation; therefore we will shew our thankfulness to God in the course of our
lives. How can we miss of salvation when we are saved already? Christ our head
being in heaven, will draw his body after him. What should hinder us? The world?
Alas! we have that faith in us, "which overcometh the world," 1 John 5:4. As for
the flesh, you know what the apostle saith, "We are not under the law, but under
grace," Romans 6:14. The spirit in us always lusteth against the flesh, and
subdues it by little and little; neither can Satan or the gates of hell prevail
against us; for the grace we have is stronger than all enemies against us. God
the Father is our Father in Christ, and his love and gifts are without
repentance, Romans 11:29. When once we are in the state of salvation, "He will
preserve us by faith to salvation," 1 Peter 1:5; and we are knit to God the Son,
who will lose none of his members. The marriage with Christ is an everlasting
union; whom he loves, "He loves to the end," John 13:1. As for God the Holy
Ghost, saith Christ, "I will send the Comforter, and he shall be with you to the
end," John 6:14, John 6:16. The blessed Spirit of God never departs where he
once takes up his lodging. There is no question, therefore, of the salvation of
the righteous; they are, as it were, saved already. Let this teach us thus much,
that in all the changes and alterations which the faith of man is subject unto,
he is sure of one thing: all the troubles, and all the enemies of the world
shall not hinder his salvation. "If it be possible the elect should be
deceived," Matthew 24:24; but it is not possible. O what a comfort is this, that
in the midst of all the oppositions and plottings of men and devils, yet
notwithstanding, somewhat we have, that is not in the power of any enemy to take
from us, nor in our own power to lose, namely, our salvation. Set this against
any evil whatsoever, and it swallows up all. Put case a man were subject to an
hundred deaths, one after another, what are all these to salvation? Put case a
man were in such grief, that he wept tears of blood; alas! in the day of
salvation all tears shall be wiped from his eyes. Set this, I shall be saved,
against any misery you can imagine, and it will unspeakably comfort and revive
the soul beyond all. But it is here said, he shall scarcely be saved. This is
not a word of doubt, but of difficulty. It is not a word of doubt of the event,
whether he shall be saved or no -- there is no doubt at all of that -- but it is
a word of difficulty in regard of the way and passage thither. So it is here
taken, which leads me to a second point, that The way to come to salvation is
full of difficulties 1. Because there is much ado to get Lot out of Sodom, to
get Israel out of Egypt. It is no easy matter to get a man out of the state of
corruption. O the sweetness of sin to an unregenerate man! O how it cuts his
very heart to think what pleasures and what profits, and what friends, and what
esteem amongst men he must part withal! What ado is there to pull him out of the
kingdom of Satan, wherein the strong man, Luke 11:21, held him before! 2. Again,
it is hard in regard of the sin that continually cleaves to them in this world,
which doth, as it were, shackle them, and compass them about in all their
performances. "They would do well, but sin is at hand," Romans 7:21, ready to
hinder and stop them in good courses; so that they cannot serve God with such
cheerfulness and readiness as they desire to do. Every good work they do, it is,
as it were, pulled out of the fire; they cannot pray, but the flesh resists;
they cannot suffer, but the flesh draws back. In all their doing and suffering
they carry an enemy in their own bosoms that hinders them. Behold, this is no
small affliction to God's people. How did this humble Paul, when no other
affliction lay upon him! "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this body of death?" Romans 7:24. It was more troublesome to him than all his
irons and pressures whatsoever. 3. Besides, it is hard in regard of Satan; for
he is a great enemy to the peace of God's children. When they are once pulled
out of his kingdom, he sends floods of reproaches and persecutions after them,
and presently sends hue and cry, as Pharaoh after the Israelites. Oh, how it
spites him! What! shall a piece of dust and clay be so near God, when I am
tumbled out of heaven myself! Though I cannot hinder him from salvation, I will
hinder his peace and joy; he shall not have heaven upon earth. I will make him
walk as uncomfortably as I can. Thus the devil, as he is a malignant creature,
full of envy against God's poor saints, so he is a bitter enemy of the peace and
comfort which they enjoy; and therefore troubles them with many temptations from
himself and his instruments, to interrupt their peace, and make the hearts of
God's people sad all he can. 4. Then, by reason of great discouragements and
ill-usage which they find in the world from wicked men, who are the devil's
pipes, led with his spirit to vex and trouble the meek of the earth; for, though
they think not of it, Satan is in their devilish natures; he joins and goes
along with their spirits in hating and opposing the saints of God; for, indeed,
what hurt could they do but by his instigation? How are good men despised in the
world! How are they made the only butt to shoot at! Alas! beloved, we should
rather encourage men in the ways of holiness. We see the number of such as truly
fear God is but small, soon reckoned up. They are but as grapes after the
vintage, or a few berries after the shaking; one of a city, two of a tribe,
Micah 7:1, Jeremiah 3:14. They have little encouragements from any, but
discouragements on all sides. 5. Besides this, scandal makes it a hard matter to
be saved; to see evil courses and evil persons flourish and countenanced in the
world. Oh, it goes to the heart of God's people, and makes them stagger at God's
providence. It is a bitter temptation, and shakes the faith of holy men, as we
see, Psalms 73:1-28, Jeremiah 12:1-2. Again, it makes the heart of a good
Christian bleed within him, to see scandals arise from professors of the gospel,
when they are not so watchful as they should be, but bring a reproach upon
religion by their licentious lives. Yea, God's children suffer much for their
friends, whose wicked courses are laid to their charge, and sometimes even by
their friends; for whilst they live here, the best of all are subject to some
weakness or other, which causeth even those that are our encouragers, through
jealousy or corruption, one way or another, to dishearten and trouble us in the
way to heaven. 6. This, likewise, makes the way difficult; we are too apt to
offend God daily, giving him just cause to withdraw his Spirit of comfort from
us, which makes us go mourning all the day long; wanting those sweet
refreshments of spiritual joy and peace we had before. the more comfort God's
child hath in communion with God, the more he is grieved when he wants it. When
Christ wanted the sweet solace of his Father upon the cross, how did it trouble
him! "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46. How did he
sweat water and blood in the garden, Luke 22:44, when he felt but a little while
his Father's displeasure for sin! Thus is it with all God's children; they are
of Christ's mind in their spiritual desertions. And when they have gotten a
little grace, how difficult is it to keep it! to keep ourselves in the sense of
God's love! to manage our Christian state aright! to walk worthy of the gospel,
that God may still do us good, and delight to be present with us! What a great
difficulty is it to be always stringing against the stream, and when we are cast
back to get forward still, and not be discouraged till we come to the haven!
None comes to heaven but they know how they come there. Why God will have the
righteous with such difficulty saved Now, God will have it thus to sweeten
heaven unto us. After a conflicting life peace is welcome; heaven is heaven
indeed after trouble. We can relish it then. Because God will discard hypocrites
in this life, who take up so much of religion as stands with their ease and
credit in the world, avoiding every difficulty which accompanies godliness, but,
so they may swim two ways at once, go on in their lusts still and be religious
withal. This they approve of. Therefore God will have it a hard matter to be
saved, to frustrate the vain hopes of such wretches. Alas! it is an easy matter
to be an hypocrite, but not to live godly. Where shall the sinner and ungodly
appear? What he means by sinner? By sinner he means him that makes a trade of
sin. As we say, a man is of such a trade, because he is daily at work of it, and
lives by it, so a man is a trader in sin, that lives in corrupt courses. For it
is not one act that denominates a sinner, but the constant practice of his life.
Now this question, Where shall the ungodly appear? implies a strong denial. He
shall be able to appear nowhere; especially in these three times. 1. In the day
of public calamity, when God's judgments are abroad in the world. The wicked are
as chaff before the wind, as wax before the sun, as stubble before the fire...
2. But where shall they stand in the hour of death? when the world can hold them
no longer; when friends shall forsake them; when God will not receive them; when
hell is ready to devour them, etc. 3. And lastly, where shall the sinner appear
at the day of judgment, that great and terrible day of account, when they shall
see all the world in a combustion round about them, and the Lord Jesus coming in
flaming fire, "with his might angels, to take vengeance on such as obey not the
gospel?" 2 Thessalonians 1:8. How will they then call for "the mountains to
cover them, and the hills to fall upon them to hide them from the face of him
that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb," Revelation 6:16.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 3: BELIEVE CHRIST, NOT SATAN
========================================================================

Believe Christ, Not Satan by Richard Sibbes Since Christ is thus comfortably set
out to us, let us not believe Satan's representations of him. When we are
troubled in conscience for our sins, Satan's manner is then to present Christ to
the afflicted soul as a most severe judge armed with justice against us. But
then let us present him to our souls as offered to our view by God himself,
holding out a scepter of mercy, and spreading his arms to receive us. HOW WE
SHOULD THINK OF CHRIST When we think of Joseph, Daniel, John the Evangelist, we
frame conceptions of them with delight, as of mild and sweet persons. Much more
when we think of Christ, we should conceive of him as a mirror of all meekness.
If the sweetness of all flowers were in one, how sweet must that flower be? In
Christ all perfections of mercy and love meet. How great then must that mercy be
that lodges in so gracious a heart? Whatever tenderness is scattered in husband,
father, brother, head, all is but a beam from him; it is in him in the most
eminent manner. We are weak, but we are his; we are deformed, but yet carry his
image upon us. A father looks not so much at the blemishes of his child as at
his own nature in him; so Christ finds matter of love from that which is his own
in us. He sees his own nature in us: we are diseased, but yet his members. Who
ever neglected his own members because they were sick or weak? None ever hated
his own flesh. Can the head forget the members? Can Christ forget himself? We
are his fullness, as he is ours. He was love itself clothed with man's nature,
which he united so near to himself, that he might communicate his goodness the
more freely to us. And he took not our nature when it was at its best, but when
it was abased, with all the natural and common infirmities it was subject to.
Let us therefore abhor all suspicious thoughts, as either cast in or cherished
by that damned spirit who, as he labored to divide between the Father and the
Son by jealousies, by saying, 'If thou be the Son of God' (Matthew 4:6), so his
daily study is to divide between the Son and us by breeding false opinions in us
of Christ, as if there were not such tender love in him to such as we are. It
was Satan's art from the beginning to discredit God with man, by calling God's
love into question with our first father Adam. His success then makes him ready
at that weapon still. WHEN CHRIST SEEMS TO BE AN ENEMY 'But for all this, I feel
not Christ so to me,' says the smoking flax, 'but rather the clean contrary. He
seems to be an enemy to me. I see and feel evidences of his just displeasure.'
Christ may act the part of an enemy a little while, as Joseph did, but it is to
make way for acting his own part of mercy in a more seasonable time. He cannot
restrain his bowels of mercy long. He seems to wrestle with us, as with Jacob,
but he supplies us with hidden strength to prevail at length. Faith pulls off
the mask from his face and sees a loving heart under contrary appearances. Fides
Christo larvam detrahit (Faith pulls away the mask from Christ). At first he
answered the woman of Canaan, who was crying after him, not a word. Then he gave
her a denial. After that he gave an answer tending to her reproach, calling her
a dog, as being outside the covenant. Yet she would not be so beaten off, for
she considered the end of his coming. As his Father was never nearer him in
strength to support him than when he was furthest off in sense of favor to
comfort him, so Christ is never nearer us in power to uphold us than when he
seems most to hide his presence from us. The influence of the Sun of
righteousness pierces deeper than his light. In such cases, whatever Christ's
present bearing is towards us, let us oppose his nature and office against it.
He cannot deny himself, he cannot but discharge the office his Father has laid
upon him. We see here the Father has undertaken that he shall not 'quench the
smoking flax', and Christ has also undertaken to represent us to the Father,
appearing before him for us until he presents us blameless before him (John
17:6, John 17:11). The Father has given us to Christ, and Christ gives us back
again to the Father. WHEN DOUBT ASSAILS US 'This would be good comfort,' says
one, 'if I were but as smoking flax.' It is well that this objection pinches on
yourself, and not on Christ. It is well that you give him the honor of his mercy
towards others, though not to yourself. Yet do not wrong the work of his Spirit
in your heart. Satan, as he slanders Christ to us, so he slanders us to
ourselves. If you are not so much as smoking flax, then why do you not renounce
your interest in Christ, and disclaim the covenant of grace? This you dare not
do. Why do you not give yourself up wholly to other pleasures? This your spirit
will not allow you to do. Where do these restless groanings and complaints come
from? Lay your present state alongside the office of Christ to such, and do not
despise the consolation of the Almighty nor refuse your own mercy. Cast yourself
into the arms of Christ, and if you perish, perish there. If you do not, you are
sure to perish. If mercy is to be found anywhere, it is there. In this appears
Christ's care to you, that he has given you a heart in some degree sensitive. He
might have given you up to hardness, security and profaneness of heart, of all
spiritual judgments the greatest. He who died for his enemies, will he refuse
those, the desire of whose soul is towards him? He who, by his messengers,
desires us to be reconciled, will he put us off when we earnestly seek it at his
hand? No, doubtless, when he goes before us by kindling holy desires in us, he
is ready to meet us in his own ways. When the prodigal set himself to return to
his father, his father did not wait for him, but met him in the way. When he
prepares the heart to seek, he causes his ear to hear (Psalms 10:17). He cannot
find in his heart to hide himself long from us. If God should bring us into such
a dark condition as that we should see no light from himself or the creature,
then let us remember what he says by the prophet Isaiah, 'Who is among
you...that walketh in darkness, and hath no light?'—no light of comfort, no
light of God's countenance—'let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon
his God' (Isaiah 50:10). We can never be in such a condition that there will be
just cause of utter despair. Therefore let us do as mariners do, cast anchor in
the dark. Christ knows how to pity us in this case. Look what comfort he felt
from his Father when he was broken (Isaiah 53:5). This is what we shall feel
from himself in our bruising. The sighs of a bruised heart carry in them a
report, both of our affection to Christ, and of his care to us. The eyes of our
souls cannot be towards him unless he has cast a gracious look upon us first.
The least love we have to him is but a reflection of his love first shining upon
us. As Christ did, in his example to us, whatever he charges us to do, so he
suffered in his own person whatever he calls us to suffer, so that he might the
better learn to relieve and pity us in our sufferings. In his desertion in the
garden and on the cross he was content to be without that unspeakable solace
which the presence of his Father gave, both to bear the wrath of the Lord for a
time for us, and likewise to know the better how to comfort us in our greatest
extremities. God sees fit: that we should taste of that cup of which his Son
drank so deep, that we might feel a little what sin is, and what his Son's love
was. But our comfort is that Christ drank the dregs of the cup for us, and will
succor us, so that our spirits may not utterly fail under that little taste of
his displeasure which we may feel. He became not only a man but a curse, a man
of sorrows, for us. He was broken that we should not be broken; he was troubled,
that we should not be desperately troubled; he became a curse, that we should
not be accursed. Whatever may be wished for in an all-sufficient comforter is
all to be found in Christ: 1. Authority from the Father. All power was given to
him (Matthew 28:18). 2. Strength in himself. His name is 'The mighty God'
(Isaiah 9:6). 3. Wisdom) and that from his own experience, how and when to help
(Hebrews 2:18). 4. Willingness, as being bone of our bones and flesh of our
flesh (Genesis 2:23; Ephesians 5:30).

Taken from The Bruised Reed. Updated.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 4: DUTIES AND DISCOURAGEMENT
========================================================================

Duties and Discouragement

[It will not be difficult] to resolve that question which some require help in,
namely, whether we ought to perform duties when our hearts are altogether averse
to them. To be satisfied on this point, we must take account of certain things.
WE SHOULD PERSIST IN DUTIES Our hearts of themselves are reluctant to give up
their liberty, and are only with difficulty brought under the yoke of duty. The
more spiritual the duty is, the more reluctance there is. Corruption gains
ground, for the most part, in every neglect. It is as in rowing against the
tide, one stroke neglected will not be gained in three; and therefore it is good
to keep our hearts close to duty, and not to listen to the excuses they are
ready to frame. As we set about duty, God strengthens the influence that he has
in us. We find a warmness of heart and increase of strength, the Spirit going
along with us and raising us up by degrees, until he leaves us as it were in
heaven. God often delights to take advantage of our averseness, that he may
manifest his work the more clearly, and that all the glory of the work may be
his, as all the strength is his. Obedience is most direct when there is nothing
else to sweeten the action. Although the sacrifice is imperfect, yet the
obedience with which it is offered is accepted. What is won as a spoil from our
corruptions will have as great a degree of comfort afterwards as it has of
obstruction for the present. Feeling and freeness of spirit are often reserved
until duty is discharged. Reward follows work. In and after duty we find that
experience of God’s presence which, without obedience, we may long wait for, and
yet go without. This does not hinder the Spirit’s freedom in blowing upon our
souls when he pleases (John 3:8), for we speak only of such a state of soul as
is becalmed and must row, as it were, against the stream. As in sailing the hand
must be to the helm and the eye to the star, so here we must put forth that
little strength we have to duty and look up for assistance, which the Spirit, as
freely as seasonably, will afford. Yet in these duties that require the body as
well as the soul there may be a cessation till strength is restored. Whetting a
tool does not hinder, but prepares. In sudden passions, also, there should be a
time to compose and calm the soul, and to put the strings in tune. The prophet
asked for a minstrel to bring his soul into frame (2 Kings 3:15). OVERCOMING
DISCOURAGEMENTS Suffering brings discouragements, because of our impatience.
“Alas!,” we lament, “I shall never get through such a trial” But if God brings
us into the trial he will be with us in the trial, and at length bring us out,
more refined. We shall lose nothing but dross (Zechariah 13:9). From our own
strength we cannot bear the least trouble, but by the Spirit’s assistance we can
bear the greatest. The Spirit will add his shoulders to help us to bear our
infirmities. The Lord will give his hand to heave us up (Psalms 37:24). “Ye have
heard of the patience of Job,” says James (James 5:11). We have heard of his
impatience too, but it pleased God mercifully to overlook that. It yields us
comfort also in desolate conditions, such as contagious sicknesses and the like,
in which we are more immediately under God’s hand, that then Christ has a throne
of mercy at our bedside and numbers our tears and our groans. And, to come to
the matter we are now about, the Sacrament (A marginal note in early editions
reads, “This was preached at the Sacrament”), it was ordained not for angels,
but for men; and not for perfect men, but for weak men; and not for Christ, who
is truth itself, to bind him, but because we are ready, by reason of our guilty
and unbelieving hearts, to call truth itself into question. Therefore it was not
enough for his goodness to leave us many precious promises, but he gives us
confirming tokens to strengthen us. And even if we are not so prepared as we
should be, yet let us pray as Hezekiah did: “The good LORD pardon everyone that
prepareth his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he be not
cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary” (2 Chronicles
30:18-19). Then we come comfortably to this holy sacrament, and with much fruit.
This should carry us through all duties with much cheerfulness, that, if we hate
our corruptions and strive against them, they shall not be counted ours. “It is
no more I that do it,” says Paul, “but sin that dwelleth in me” (Romans 7:17).
For what displeases us shall never hurt us, and we shall be esteemed by God to
be what we love and desire and labor to be. What we desire to be we shall be,
and what we desire truly to conquer we shall conquer, for God will fulfill the
desire of them that fear him (Psalms 145:19). The desire is an earnest of the
thing desired. How little encouragement will carry us to the affairs of this
life! And yet all the helps God offers will hardly prevail with our backward
natures. THE SOURCE OF DISCOURAGEMENTS Where, then, do these discouragements
come from? Not from the Father, for he has bound himself in covenant to pity us
as a father pities his children (Psalms 103:13) and to accept as a father our
weak endeavors. And what is wanting in the strength of duty, he gives us leave
to take up in his gracious indulgence. In this way we shall honor that grace in
which he delights as much as in more perfect performances. Possibilitas tua
mensura tua (What is possible to you is what you will be measured by). Not from
Christ, for he by office will not quench the smoking flax. We see how Christ
bestows the best fruits of his love on persons who are mean in condition, weak
in abilities, and offensive for infirmities, nay, for grosser falls. And this he
does, first, because thus it pleases him to confound the pride of the flesh,
which usually measures God’s love by some outward excellency; and secondly, in
this way he delights to show the freedom of his grace and confirm his royal
prerogative that “he that glorieth” must “glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians
1:31). In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, among that cloud of witnesses, we see
Rahab, Gideon and Samson ranked with Abraham, the father of the faithful
(Hebrews 11:31-32). Our blessed Savior, as he was the image of his Father, so in
this he was of the same mind, glorifying his Father for revealing the mystery of
the gospel to simple men, neglecting those that carried the chief reputation of
wisdom in the world (Matthew 11:25-26). It is not unworthy of being recorded,
what Augustine speaks of a simple man in his time, destitute almost altogether
of the use of reason, who, although he was most patient of all injuries done to
himself, yet from a reverence of religion he would not endure any injury done to
the name of Christ, so much so that he would cast stones at those that
blasphemed, not even sparing his own governors. This shows that none have
abilities so meagre as to be beneath the gracious regard of Christ. Where it
pleases him to make his choice and to exalt his mercy he passes by no degree of
understanding, though never so simple. Neither do discouragements come from the
Spirit. He helps our infirmities, and by office is a comforter (Romans 8:26;
John 14:16). If he convinces of sin, and so humbles us, it is that he may make
way for his office of comforting us. Discouragements, then, must come from
ourselves and from Satan, who labors to fasten on us a loathing of duty. SOME
SCRUPLES REMOVED Among other causes of discouragement, some are much vexed with
scruples, even against the best duties; partly by disease of body, helped by
Satan’s malice in casting dust in their eyes in their way to heaven; and partly
from some remainder of ignorance, which, like darkness, breeds fears—ignorance
especially of this merciful disposition in Christ, the persuasion of which would
easily banish false fears. They conceive of him as one on watch for all
advantages against them, in which they may see how they wrong not only
themselves but his goodness. This scrupulosity, for the most part, is a sign of
a godly soul, as some weeds are of a good soil. Therefore they are the more to
be pitied, for it is a heavy affliction, and the ground of it in most is not so
much from trouble of conscience as from a disordered imagination. The end of
Christ’s coming was to free us from all such groundless fears. There is still in
some such ignorance of that comfortable condition we are in under the covenant
of grace as to discourage them greatly. Therefore we must understand that:
Weaknesses do not break covenant with God. They do not break the covenant
between husband and wife, and shall we make ourselves more pitiful than Christ
who makes himself a pattern of love to all other husbands? Weaknesses do not
debar us from mercy; rather they incline God to us the more (Psalms 78:39).
Mercy is a part of the church’s marriage inheritance. Christ betroths her to him
“in mercy,” (Hosea 2:19). The husband is bound to bear with the wife, as being
the “weaker vessel,” (1 Peter 3:7), and shall we think Christ will exempt
himself from his own rule, and not bear with his weak spouse? If Christ should
not be merciful co our weaknesses, he should not have a people to serve him.
Suppose therefore we are very weak, yet so long as we are not found amongst
malicious opposers and underminers of God’s truth, let us not give way to
despairing thoughts; we have a merciful Savior. But lest we flatter ourselves
without good grounds, we must know that weaknesses are to be reckoned either
imperfections cleaving to our best actions, or actions proceeding from
immaturity in Christ, whilst we are babes, or the effects of want of strength,
where ability is small, or sudden unintended breakings out, contrary to our
general bent and purpose, whilst our judgment is overcast with the cloud of a
sudden temptation, after which we feel our infirmity, grieve for it and from
grief, complain, and, with complaining, strive and labor to reform; finally, in
laboring, we make some progress against our corruption. Weaknesses so
considered, although a matter of humiliation and the object of our daily
mortification, yet may be consistent with boldness with God, nor is a good work
either extinguished by them or tainted so far as to lose all acceptance with
God. But to plead for an infirmity is more than an infirmity; to allow ourselves
in weaknesses is more than a weakness. The justification of evil shuts our
mouths, so that the soul cannot call God Father with childlike liberty, or enjoy
sweet communion with him, until peace be made by shaming ourselves, and renewing
our faith. Those that have ever been bruised for sin, if they fall, are soon
recovered. Peter was recovered with a gracious look of Christ, David by
Abigail’s words. If you tell a thief or a vagrant that he is out of the way, he
pays no heed, because his aim is not to walk in any particular way, except as it
suits his purpose. WHAT ARE SINS OF INFIRMITY? To clarify this further, we must
understand that: Wherever sins of infirmity are in a person, there must be the
life of grace begun. There can be no weakness where there is no life. There must
be a sincere and general bent to the best things. Though a godly man may
suddenly be drawn or driven aside in some particulars, yet, by reason of that
interest the Spirit of Christ has in him, and because his aims are right in the
main, he will either recover of himself, or yield to the counsel of others.
There must be a right judgment, allowing of the best ways, or else the heart is
rotten. Then it will infuse corruption into the whole conversation, so that all
men’s actions become infected at the spring-head. They then justify looseness
and condemn God’s ways as too much strictness. Their principles whereby they
work are not good. There must be a conjugal love to Christ, so that there are no
terms on which they will change their Lord and husband, and yield themselves
absolutely over to be ruled by their own lusts, or the lusts of others. A
Christian’s behavior towards Christ may in many things be very offensive, and
cause some strangeness; yet he will own Christ, and Christ him; he will not
resolve upon any way wherein he knows he must break with Christ. Where the heart
is thus in these respects qualified, there we must know this, that Christ counts
it his honor to pass by many infirmities, nay, in infirmities he perfects his
strength. There are some almost invincible infirmities, such as forgetfulness,
heaviness of spirit, sudden passions and fears which, though natural, yet are
for the most part tainted with sin. Of these, if the life of Christ be in us, we
are weary, and would fain shake them off, as a sick man his fever; otherwise it
is not to be esteemed weakness so much as willfulness, and the more will, the
more sin. And little sins, when God shall awaken the conscience and ‘set them in
order” before us (Psalms 50:21) will prove great burdens, and not only bruise a
reed, but shake a cedar. Yet God’s children never sin with full will, because
there is a contrary law in their minds by which the dominion of sin is broken
and which always has some secret working against the law of sin. Nevertheless
there may be so much will in a sinful action as may destroy our comfort to a
remarkable degree afterwards and keep us long on the rack of a disquieted
conscience, God in his fatherly dispensation suspending the sense of his love.
To the extent that we give way to our will in sinning, to that extent we set
ourselves at a distance from comfort. Sin against conscience is as a thief (A
flaw in a candlewick which causes guttering) in the candle, which spoils our
joy, and thereby weakens our strength. We must know, therefore, that willful
breaches in sanctification will much hinder the sense of our justification. What
course shall such take to recover their peace? They must condemn themselves
sharply, and yet cast themselves upon God’s mercy in Christ, as at their first
conversion. And now they must embrace Christ the more firmly, as they see more
need in themselves; and let them remember the mildness of Christ here, that he
will not quench the smoking flax. Often we see that, after a deep humiliation,
Christ speaks more peace than before, to witness the truth of this
reconciliation, because he knows Satan’s enterprises in casting such down lower,
because they are most abased in themselves and are ashamed to look Christ in the
face, because of their ingratitude. We see that God did not only pardon David
but, after much bruising, gave him wise Solomon to succeed him in the kingdom.
We see in Son_6:4 that, after the church has been humbled for her slighting of
Christ, he sweetly entertains her again, and begins to commend her beauty. We
must know for our comfort that Christ was not anointed to this great work of
Mediator for lesser sins only, but for the greatest, if we have but a spark of
true faith to lay hold on him. Therefore, if there be any bruised reed, let him
not make an exception of himself, when Christ does not make an exception of him.
“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,” (Matthew 11:28). Why
should we not make use of so gracious a disposition? We are only poor for this
reason, that we do not know our riches in Christ. In time of temptation, believe
Christ rather than the devil. Believe truth from truth itself. Hearken not to a
liar, an enemy and a murderer. pbministries.org


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 5: GRACE SHALL REIGN
========================================================================

Grace Shall Reign by Richard Sibbes

WHY CHRIST'S KINGDOM MUST PREVAIL 1. Christ has conquered all in his own person
first, and he is 'over all, God blessed for ever' (Romans 9:5), and therefore
over sin, death, hell, Satan and the world. And, as he has overcome them in
himself, so he overcomes them in our hearts and consciences. We commonly say
that conscience makes a man kingly or contemptible, because it is planted in us
to judge for God, either with us or against us. Now if natural conscience be so
forcible, what will it be when, besides its own light, it has the light of
divine truth put into it? It will undoubtedly prevail, either to make us hold up
our heads with boldness, or abase us beneath ourselves. If it subjects itself,
by grace, to Christ's truth, then it boldly faces death, hell, judgment and all
spiritual enemies, because then Christ sets up his kingdom in the conscience and
makes it a kind of paradise. The sharpest conflict which the soul has is between
the conscience and God's justice. Now if the conscience, sprinkled with the
blood of Christ, has prevailed over assaults fetched from the justice of God,
now satisfied by Christ, it will prevail over all other opposition whatsoever.
2. We are to encounter accursed and damned enemies; therefore, if they begin to
fall before the Spirit in us, they shall fall. If they rise up again, it is to
have the greater fall. 3. The Spirit of truth, to whose tuition Christ has
committed his church, and the truth of the Spirit, which is the scepter of
Christ, abide forever; therefore the soul begotten by the immortal seed of the
Spirit (1 Peter 1:23), and this truth, must not only live for ever, but also
prevail over all that oppose it, for both the Word and the Spirit are mighty in
operation (Hebrews 4:12). And, if the wicked spirit is never idle in those whom
God has delivered up to him, we cannot think that the Holy Spirit will be idle
in those whose leading and government is committed to him. No, as he dwells in
them, so he will drive out all that rise up against him, until he is all in all.
What is spiritual is eternal. Truth is a beam of Christ's Spirit, both in itself
and as it is engrafted into the soul. Therefore it, and the grace wrought by it,
though little, will prevail. A little thing in the hand of a giant will do great
things. A little faith strengthened by Christ will work wonders. 4. 'Unto
everyone that hath shall be given' (Matthew 25:29). The victory over corruption
or temptation is a pledge of final victory. As Joshua said when he set his foot
upon the five kings whom he conquered, 'Thus shall the LORD do to all your
enemies' (Joshua 10:25). Heaven is ours already, only we strive till we have
full possession. 5. Christ as king brings in a commanding light into the soul
and bows the neck, and softens the iron sinew of the inner man; and where he
begins to rule, he rules for ever, 'of his kingdom there shall be no end' (Luke
1:33). 6. The purpose of Christ's coming was to destroy the works of the devil,
both for us and in us; and the purpose of the resurrection was, as well as
sealing to us the assurance of his victory, so also (1) to quicken our souls
from death in sin; (2) to free our souls from such snares and sorrows of
spiritual death as accompany the guilt of sin; (3) to raise them up more
comfortable, as the sun breaks forth more gloriously out of a thick cloud; (4)
to raise us out of particular slips and failings stronger; (5) to raise us out
of all troublesome and dark conditions of this life; and (6) at length to raise
our bodies out of the dust. For the same power that the Spirit showed in raising
Christ, our Head, from the sorrows of death and the lowest degree of his
abasement, that power, obtained by the death of Christ from God, now appeased by
that sacrifice, the Spirit will show in the church, which is his body, and in
every particular member thereof. And this power is conveyed by faith, by which,
after union with Christ in his estates both of humiliation and of exaltation, we
see ourselves, not only dead with Christ, but risen and sitting together with
him in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). Now we, apprehending ourselves to be
dead and risen, and therefore victorious over all our enemies in our Head, and
apprehending that his scope in all this is to conform us to himself, we are by
this faith changed into his likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18), and so become
conquerors over all our spiritual enemies, as he is, by that power which we
derive from him who is the storehouse of all spiritual strength for all his
people. Christ at length will fulfil his purpose in us, and faith rests assured
of it, and this assurance is very operative, stirring us up to join with Christ
in his purposes. And so, as to the church in general, by Christ it will have its
victory. Christ is that little 'stone cut out without hands' which broke in
pieces the goodly image (Daniel 2:34), that is, all opposite government, until
it became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth' (Daniel 2:35). So that
the stone that was cut out of the mountain becomes a mountain itself at length.
Who art thou, then, oh, mountain, that thinks to stand up against this mountain?
All shall lie flat and level before it. He will bring down all mountainous,
high, exalted thoughts, and lay the pride of all flesh low. When chaff strives
against the wind, or stubble against the fire, when the heel kicks against the
pricks, when the potsherd strives with the potter, when man strives against God,
it is easy to know on which side the victory will be. The winds may toss the
ship wherein Christ is, but not overturn it. The waves may dash against the
rock, but they only break themselves against it. WHY THE ENEMY SEEMS VICTORIOUS
Objection: If this is so, why is it thus with the church of God, and with many a
gracious Christian? The victory seems to be with the enemy. To understand this,
we should remember, firstly, that God's children usually, in their troubles,
overcome by suffering. Here lambs overcome lions, and doves, eagles, by
suffering, that herein they may be conformable to Christ, who conquered most
when he suffered most. Together with Christ's kingdom of patience there was a
kingdom of power. Secondly, this victory is by degrees, and therefore they are
too hasty-spirited that would conquer as soon as they strike the first stroke,
and be at the end of their race at the first setting forth. The Israelites were
sure of their victory in their journey to Canaan, yet they must fight it out.
God would not have us quickly forget what cruel enemies Christ has overcome for
us. 'Slay them not, lest my people forget,' says the Psalmist (Psalms 59:11), so
that, by the experience of that annoyance we have by them, we might be kept in
fear to come under their power. Thirdly, God often works by contraries: when he
means to give victory, he will allow us to be foiled at first; when he means to
comfort, he will terrify first; when he means to justify, he will condemn us
first; when he means to make us glorious, he will abase us first. A Christian
conquers, even when he is conquered. When he is conquered by some sins, he gets
victory over others more dangerous, such as spiritual pride and security.
Fourthly, Christ's work, both in the church and in the hearts of Christians,
often goes backward so that it may go forward better. As seed rots in the ground
in the winter time, but after comes up better, and the harder the winter the
more flourishing the spring, so we learn to stand by falls, and get strength by
weakness discovered—virtutis custos infirmitas (weakness is the keeper of
virtue). We take deeper root by shaking. And, as torches flame brighter by
moving, thus it pleases Christ, out of his freedom, in this manner to maintain
his government in us. Let us herein labor to exercise our faith, so that it may
answer Christ's way of dealing with us. When we are foiled, let us believe we
shall overcome; when we have fallen, let us believe we shall rise again. Jacob,
after he received a blow which made him lame, yet would not give over wrestling
(Genesis 32:25) till he had obtained the blessing. So let us never give up, but,
in our thoughts knit the beginning, progress and end together, and then we shall
see ourselves in heaven out of the reach of all enemies. Let us assure ourselves
that God's grace, even in this imperfect state, is stronger than man's free will
in the state of original perfection. It is founded now in Christ, who, as he is
the author, so will he be the finisher, of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). We are
under a more gracious covenant. What some say of rooted faith, fides radicata,
that it continues, while weak faith may come to nothing, seems to be
contradicted by this Scripture; for, as the strongest faith may be shaken, so
the weakest, where truth is, is so far rooted that it will prevail. Weakness
with watchfulness will stand, when strength with too much confidence fails.
Weakness, with acknowledgement of it, is the fittest seat and subject for God to
perfect his strength in; for consciousness of our infirmities drives us out of
ourselves to him in whom our strength lies. From this it follows that weakness
may be consistent with the assurance of salvation. The disciples,
notwithstanding all their weaknesses, are bidden to rejoice that their names are
written in heaven (Luke 10:20). Failings, with conflict, in sanctification
should not weaken the peace of our justification and assurance of salvation. It
matters not so much what ill is in us, as what good; not what corruptions, but
how we regard them; not what our particular failings are so much as what the
thread and tenor of our lives are, for Christ's dislike of that which is amiss
in us turns not to the hatred of our persons but to the victorious subduing of
all our infirmities. Some have, after conflict, wondered at the goodness of God
that so little and such trembling faith should have upheld them in so great
combats, when Satan had almost caught them. And, indeed, it is to be wondered
at, how much a little grace will prevail with God for acceptance, and over our
enemies for victory, if the heart is upright. Such is the goodness of our sweet
Savior that he delights to show his strength in our weakness. CONSOLATION FOR
WEAK CHRISTIANS The first use of this is for the great consolation of poor and
weak Christians. Let them know that a spark from heaven, though kindled under
green wood that sobs and smokes, yet it will consume all at last. Love once
kindled is strong as death. Many waters cannot quench it, and therefore it is
called a vehement flame, or flame of God (Son_8:6), kindled in the heart by the
Holy Ghost. That little that is in us is fed with an everlasting spring. As the
fire that came down from heaven in Elijah's time (1 Kings 18:38) licked up all
the water, to show that it came from God, so will this fire consume all our
corruption. No affliction without or corruption within shall quench it. In the
morning, we often see clouds gather about the sun, as if they would hide it, but
the sun overcomes them little by little, till it comes to its full strength. At
first, fears and doubts hinder the breaking out of this fire, until at length it
gets above them all, and Christ prevails. And then he upholds his own graces in
us. Grace conquers us first, and we, by it, conquer all else; whether
corruptions within us, or temptations from outside us. The church of Christ,
begotten by the Word of truth, has the doctrine of the apostles for her crown,
and tramples the moon, that is, the world and all worldly things, 'under her
feet' (Revelation 12:1). Every one that is 'born of God overcometh the world' (1
John 5:4). Faith, whereby especially Christ rules, sets the soul so high that it
looks down on all other things as far below, as having represented to it, by the
Spirit of Christ, riches, honor, beauty and pleasures of a higher nature.
EVIDENCES OF CHRIST'S RULE IN US Now, that we may not come short of the comfort
intended, there are two things especially to be taken notice of by us: firstly,
whether there is such a judgment or government set up in us to which this
promise of victory is made, and secondly, how we are to conduct ourselves so
that the judgment of Christ in us may indeed be victorious. The evidences
whereby we may come to know that Christ's judgment in us is such as will be
victorious, are: 1. Being able from experience to justify all Christ's ways, let
flesh and blood say what they can to the contrary, and willingly subscribing to
that course which God has taken in Christ to bring us to heaven, still approving
a further measure of grace than we have attained to, and projecting and planning
for it. No other men can justify their courses, when their conscience is
awakened. 2. Having reasons of religion the strongest reasons with us,
prevailing more than reasons fetched from worldly policy. 3. Being so true to
our ends and steadfast to our rule that no hopes or fears can sway us another
way, but still we are inquiring what agrees with or differs from our rule. 4.
Being able to 'do nothing against the truth, but for the truth' (2 Corinthians
13:8), the truth being dearer to us than our lives. Truth does not have this
sovereignty in the heart of any carnal man. 5. If we had liberty to choose under
whose government we would live, out of a delight in the inner man to Christ's
government, making choice of him only to rule us before any other. This argues
that we are like-minded to Christ, a free and a willing people, and not
compelled to Christ's service otherwise than by the sweet constraint of love.
When we are so far satisfied with the government of Christ's Spirit that we are
willing to resign up ourselves to him in all things, then his kingdom is come to
us, and our wills are brought to his will. It is the bent of our wills that
makes us good or ill. 6. Having a well-ordered, uniform life, not consisting of
fits and starts, shows a well-ordered heart; as in a clock, when the hammer
strikes well, and the hand of the dial points well, it is a sign that the wheels
are rightly set. 7. When Christ's will comes into competition with any earthly
loss or gain, yet then, in that particular case, having the heart willing to
stoop to Christ is a true sign; for the truest trial of the power of grace is in
particular cases which touch us most closely, for there our corruption makes the
greatest head. When Christ came nearest to home with the young man in the
gospel, he lost a disciple of him (Matthew 19:22). 8. Being able to practice
duties pleasing to Christ, though contrary to flesh and the course of the world,
and being able to overcome ourselves in that evil to which our nature is prone
and stands so much inclined, and which agrees to the ruling passion of the
times, which others lie enthralled under, such as desire of revenge, hatred of
enemies, private ends, etc., this shows that grace in us is above nature, heaven
above earth, and will have the victory. To make this clearer, and help us in our
trial, we must know that there are three degrees of victory: first, when we
resist though we are foiled; second, when grace gets the better, though with
conflict; and third, when all corruption is perfectly subdued. When we have
strength only to resist, we may know Christ's government in us will be
victorious, because what is said of the devil is true of all our spiritual
enemies, 'Resist the devil, and he will flee from you' (James 4:7); because
'Greater is he that is in you', who takes the part of his own grace, 'than he
that is in the world' (1 John 4:4). And if we may hope for victory from bare
resistance, what may we not hope for when the Spirit has gained the upper hand?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 6: PURITAN SWEETNESS EXTRACTS FROM "A DESCRIPTI
========================================================================

Puritan Sweetness Extracts from "A Description of Christ" by Richard Sibbes

Coming to God in Him And what a comfort is it now, in our daily approach to God,
to minister boldness to us in all our perplexities, that we go to God in the
name of one that he loves, 'in whom his soul delights,' that we have a friend in
court, a friend in heaven for us, that is at the right hand of God, and
interposeth himself there for us in all our suits, that makes us acceptable,
that perfumes our prayers and makes them acceptable. He intercedes by virtue of
his redemption. If God loves him for the work of redemption, he loves him for
his intercession, therefore God is required to regard the prayers made by him,
by virtue of his dying for us, when he loves him for dying for us. Be sure
therefore, whenever we bring our needs to God, to take along our elder brother,
to take our beloved brother, take Benjamin with us, and offer all to God in him,
our persons to be accepted in him, our prayers, our hearing, our works, and all
that we do, and we shall be sure to speed; for he is one in whom the soul of God
delights. There must be this passage and repassage, as God looks upon us lovely
in him, and delights in us as we are members of him. All God's love and the
fruits of it come to us as we are in Christ, and are one with him. Then in our
passage to God again we must return all, and do all, to God in Christ. Be sure
not to go to a naked God; for so he is 'a consuming fire,' but go to him in the
mediation of him whom he loves, 'and in whom his soul delighteth.' Transformed
by the Beholding of Christ The very beholding of Christ is a transforming sight.
The Spirit that makes us new creatures, and stirs us up to behold this Saviour,
causes it to be a transforming beholding. If we look upon him with the eye of
faith, it will make us like Christ; for the gospel is a mirror, and such a
mirror, that when we a look into it, and see ourselves interested in it, we are
changed from glory to glory, 2 Cor. iii. 18. A man cannot look upon the love of
God and of Christ in the gospel, but it will change him to be like God and
Christ For how can we see Christ, and God in Christ, but we shall see how God
hates sin, and this will transform us to hate it as God cloth, who hated it so
that it could not be expiated but with the blood of Christ, God man. So, seeing
the holiness of God in it, it will transform us to be holy. When we see the love
of God in the gospel, and the love of Christ giving himself for us, this will
transform us to love God. When we see the humility and obedience of Christ, when
we look on Christ as God's chosen servant in all this, and as our surety and
head, it transforms us to the like humility and obedience. Those that find not
their dispositions in some comfortable measure wrought to this blessed
transformation, they have not yet those eyes that the Holy Ghost requireth here.
'Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul delighteth.'
Concerning our own Reputations And let us commit the fame and credit of what we
are or do to God. He will take care of that. Let us take care to be and to do as
we should, and then for noise and report, let it be good or ill as God will send
it. We know oftentimes it falls out that that which is precious in man's eye is
abominable in God's. If we seek to be in the mouths of men, to dwell in the talk
and speech of men, God will abhor us, and at the hour of death it will not
comfort us what men speak or know of us, but sound comfort must be from our own
conscience and the judgement of God. Therefore, let us labour to be good in
secret. Christians should be as minerals, rich in the depth of the earth. That
which is least seen is his riches. We should have our treasure deep. For the
discovery of it we should be ready when we are called to it, and for all other
non-essential things, let them fall out as God in his wisdom sees good. So let
us look through good report and bad report to heaven; let us do the duties that
are pleasing to God and our own conscience, and God will be careful enough to
get us applause. Was it not sufficient for Abel, that though there was no great
notice taken what faith he had, and how good a man he was, yet that God knew it
and discovered it? God sees our sincerity and the truth of our hearts, and the
graces of our inward man, he sees all these, and he values us by these, as he
did Abel. As for outward things there may be a great deal of deceit in them, and
the more a man grows in grace, the less ho cares for them. As much reputation as
is fit for a man will follow him in being and doing what he should. God will
look to that. Therefore we should not set up sails to our own imaginations, that
unless we be carried with the wind of applause, to be becalmed and not go a whit
forward, but we should be carried with the Spirit of God and with a holy desire
to serve God and our brethren, and to do all the good we can, and never care for
the speeches of the world, as St Paul saith of himself: 'I care not what ye
judge of me, I care not what the world judgeth, I care not for man's judgement,'
1 Cor. iv. 3. This is man's day. We should, from the example of Christ, labour
to subdue this infirmity which we are sick of naturally. Christ concealed
himself till he saw a fitter time. We shall have glory enough, and be known
enough to devils, to angels, and men ere long. Therefore, as Christ lived a
hidden life, that is, he was not known what he was, that so he might work our
salvation, so let us be content to be hidden men. A true Christian is hidden to
the world till the time of manifestation comes. When the time came, Christ then
gloriously discovered what he was; so we shall be discovered what we are. In the
mean time, let us be careful to do our duty that may please the Spirit of God,
and satisfy our own conscience, and leave all the rest to God. Let us meditate,
in the fear of God, upon these directions for the guidance of our lives in this
particular.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 7: MEANS TO MAKE GRACE VICTORIUS
========================================================================

Means to Make Grace Victorious by Richard Sibbes As to directions on how we are
to conduct ourselves so that the judgment of Christ in us may indeed be
victorious, we must know that, though Christ has undertaken this victory, yet he
accomplishes it by training us up to fight his battles. He overcomes in us by
making us wise unto salvation' (2 Timothy 3:15); and, in the measure that we
believe Christ will conquer, in that measure we will endeavor by his grace that
we may conquer, for faith is an obedient and a wise grace. Christ makes us wise
to ponder and weigh things, and to rank and order them accordingly, so that we
may make the fitter choice of what is best. Some rules to help us in judging are
these: RULES FOR RIGHT JUDGMENT 1. We should judge of things as to whether they
help or hinder our main purpose; whether they further or hinder our judgment;
whether they make us more or less spiritual, and so bring us nearer to the
fountain of goodness, God himself; whether they will bring us peace or sorrow at
the last; whether they commend us more or less to God, and whether they are the
thing in which we shall of sin for the greatest ill of punishment. 'In vain the
net is spread in the sight of any bird' (Proverbs 1:17). While the soul is kept
aloft, there is little danger of snares below. We must lose our high estimation
of things before we can be drawn to any sin. 2. And because knowledge and
affection mutually help one another, it is good to keep up our affections of
love and delight by all sweet inducements and divine encouragements; for what
the heart likes best, the mind studies most. Those that can bring their hearts
to delight in Christ know most of his ways. Wisdom loves him that loves her.
Love is the best entertainer of truth; and when it is not entertained in the
love of it (2 Thessalonians 2:10), lovely as it is, it leaves the heart, and
will stay no longer. It has been a successful way of corrupting the judgment, to
begin by withdrawing love, because, as we love, so we tend to judge. And
therefore it is hard to be affectionate and wise in earthly things. But in
heavenly things, where there has been a right informing of the judgment before,
the more our affections grow, the better and clearer our judgments will be,
because our affections, though strong, can never rise high enough to reach the
excellency of the things. We see in the martyrs, when the sweet doctrine of
Christ had once gained their hearts, it could not be removed again by all the
torments the wit of cruelty could devise. If Christ has once possessed the
affections, there is no dispossessing of him again. A fire in the heart
overcomes all fires without. 3. Wisdom also teaches us where our weakness lies,
and our enemy's strength. By this means a jealous fear is stirred up in us,
whereby we are preserved; for out of this godly jealousy we keep those
provocations, which are active and working, from that which is passive and
approve ourselves to him most. We should also judge of things now as we shall do
hereafter when the soul shall be best able to judge, as when we are under any
public calamity, or at the hour of death, when the soul gathers itself from all
other things to itself. We should look back to former experience and see what is
most agreeable to it, and what was best in our worst times. If grace is or was
best then, it is best now. We should also labor to judge of things as he does
who must judge us, and as holy men judge, who are led by the Spirit. More
particularly, we should judge according to what those judge that have no
interest in any benefit that may come by the thing which is in question; for
outward things blind the eyes even of the wise. We see that papists are most
corrupt in those things where their honor, ease, or profit is engaged; but in
the doctrine of the Trinity, which does not touch on these things, they are
sound. But it is not sufficient that judgment is right. It must also be ready
and strong. KEEPING OUR JUDGMENT CLEAR 1. Where Christ establishes his
government, he inspires care to keep the judgment clear and fresh, for while the
judgment stands straight and firm, the whole frame of the soul continues strong
and impregnable. True judgment in us advances Christ, and Christ will advance
it. All sin is either from false principles, or ignorance, or thoughtlessness,
or unbelief of what is true. By lack of consideration and weakness of assent,
Eve lost her hold at first (Genesis 3:6). It is good, therefore, to store up
true principles in our hearts, and to refresh them often, that, in virtue of
them, our affections and actions may be more vigorous. When judgment is
fortified, evil finds no entrance, but good things have a side within us to
entertain them. While true convincing light continues, we will not do the least
ill of sin for the greatest ill of punishment. 'In vain the net is spread in the
sight of any bird' (Proverbs 1:17). While the soul is kept aloft, there is
little danger of snares below. We must lose our high estimation of things before
we can be drawn to any sin. 2. And because knowledge and affection mutually help
one another, it is good to keep up our affections of love and delight by all
sweet inducements and divine encouragements; for what the heart likes best, the
mind studies most. Those that can bring their hearts to delight in Christ know
most of his ways. Wisdom loves him that loves her. Love is the best entertainer
of truth; and when it is not entertained in the love of it (2 Thessalonians
2:10), lovely as it is, it leaves the heart, and will stay no longer. It has
been a successful way of corrupting the judgment, to begin by withdrawing love,
because, as we love, so we tend to judge. And therefore it is hard to be
affectionate and wise in earthly things. But in heavenly things, where there has
been a right informing of the judgment before, the more our affections grow, the
better and clearer our judgments will be, because our affections, though strong,
can never rise high enough to reach the excellency of the things. We see in the
martyrs, when the sweet doctrine of Christ had once gained their hearts, it
could not be removed again by all the torments the wit of cruelty could devise.
If Christ has once possessed the affections, there is no dispossessing of him
again. A fire in the heart overcomes all fires without. 3. Wisdom also teaches
us where our weakness lies, and our enemy's strength. By this means a jealous
fear is stirred up in us, whereby we are preserved; for out of this godly
jealousy we keep those provocations, which are active and working, from that
which is passive and catching in us, as we keep fire from powder. Those who wish
to hinder the generation of noisome creatures will hinder the conception first,
by keeping male and female apart. This jealous care will be much furthered by
observing strictly what has helped or hindered a gracious temper in us, and it
will make us take heed that we consult not with flesh and blood in ourselves or
others. Otherwise, how can we think that Christ will lead us out to victory,
when we take counsel with his and our enemies? 4. Christ also makes us careful
to use all means by which fresh thoughts and affections may be stirred up and
preserved in us. Christ so honors the use of means, and the care he bestows on
us, that he ascribes both preservation and victory to our care in keeping
ourselves. 'He that is begotten of God keepeth himself' (1 John 5:18), though
not by himself, but by the Lord, in dependence on him, in the use of means. We
are only safe when we wisely make use of all good advantages that we have access
to. By going out of God's ways we go out of his government, and so lose our good
frame of mind, and find ourselves overspread quickly with a contrary
disposition. When we draw near to Christ (James 4:8), in his ordinances, he
draws near to us. 5. We must keep grace in exercise. It is not sleepy habits,
but grace in exercise, that preserves us. While the soul is in some civil or
sacred employment, corruptions within us are much suppressed, and Satan's ways
of approach to us stopped. The Spirit then has a way open to enlarge his
influence in us, and likewise the protection of angels is then closest to us.
This course often prevails more against our spiritual enemies than direct
opposition. Christ is in honor bound to maintain those that are in his work. 6.
In following all these directions, we must look up to Christ, the quickening
Spirit, and make our resolutions in his strength. Though we are exhorted to
cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart (Acts 11:23), yet we must pray
with David, 'Keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart
of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee' (1 Chronicles 29:18). Our
hearts are of themselves very loose and unsettled. 'Unite my heart to fear thy
name' (Psalms 86:11), or else, without him, our best purposes will fall to the
ground. It is a pleasing request, out of love to God, to beg such a frame of
soul from him, that he may take delight in it; and therefore, in the use of all
the means, we must send up our desires and complaints to him for strength and
help, and then we may be sure that he will 'send forth judgment unto victory. 7.
Lastly, it furthers the state of the soul to know what frame it should be in,
that so we may order our souls accordingly. We should always be fit for
communion with God, and be heavenly-minded in earthly business, and be willing
to be taken off from it to redeem time for better things. We should be ready at
all times to depart hence, and to live in such a condition as we would be
content to die in. We should have hearts prepared for every good duty, open to
all good opportunities, and shut to all temptations, keeping our watch, and
being always ready armed. So far as we come short of these things, so far we
have just cause to be humbled, and yet we should press forward, so that we may
gain more upon ourselves, and make these things more familiar and lovely to us.
And when we find our souls at all declining, it is best to raise them up
presently by some awakening meditations, such as of the presence of God, of the
strict reckoning we are to make, of the infinite love of God in Christ and the
fruits of it, of the excellency of a Christian's calling, of the short and
uncertain time of this life, of how little good all those things that steal away
our hearts will do us before long, and of how it shall be for ever with us
hereafter, as we spend this short time well or ill. The more we make way for
such considerations to sink into our hearts, the more we shall rise nearer to
that state of soul which we shall enjoy in heaven. When we grow careless of
keeping our souls, then God recovers our taste of good things again by sharp
crosses. Thus David, Solomon and Samson were recovered. This taste of good
things is much easier kept than recovered. REASONS FOR SEEMING LACK OF PROGRESS
Objection: But, notwithstanding my striving, I seem to remain at a standstill.
1. Grace, as the seed in the parable, grows, we know not how. Yet at length,
when God sees fittest, we shall see that all our endeavor has not been in vain.
The tree falls upon the last stroke, yet all the strokes help the work forward.
2. Sometimes victory is suspended because some Achan is not found out, or
because we are not humble enough, as Israel had the worst against the Benjamites
till they fasted and prayed (Judges 20:26); or because we betray our helps, and
do not stand on our guard, and do not soon yield to the motions of the Spirit,
who puts us in mind always of the best things, if we would regard his prompting.
Our own consciences will tell us, if we give them leave to speak, that some
sinful favoring of ourselves is the cause. The way in this case to prevail is,
first, to get the victory over the pride of our own nature by taking shame to
ourselves, in humble confession to God; and then, secondly, to overcome the
unbelief of our hearts by yielding to the promise of pardon; and then, thirdly,
in confidence of Christ's assistance, to set ourselves against those sins which
have prevailed over us. So prevailing over ourselves, we shall easily prevail
over all our enemies, and conquer all conditions we shall be brought into. ALL
SHOULD SIDE WITH CHRIST The second use of the truth that Christ will have the
victory is to establish the fact that the best course for nations and states is
to 'kiss the Son' (Psalms 2:12), and to embrace Christ and his religion; to side
with Christ, and to own his cause in the world. His side will prove the stronger
side at last. Happy are we if Christ honors us so much as to use our help to
fight his battle 'against the mighty' (Judges 5:23). True religion in a state is
as the main pillar of a house and the post of a tent that upholds all. So also
for families, let Christ be the chief governor of the family. And let every one
be as a house of Christ, to dwell familiarly in, and to rule. Where Christ is,
all happiness must follow. If Christ goes, all will go. Where Christ's
government, in his ordinances and his Spirit, is, there all subordinate
government will prosper. Religion inspires life and grace into all other things.
All other virtues without it are but as a fair picture without a head. Where
Christ's laws are written in the heart, there all other good laws are best
obeyed. None despise man's law but those that despise Christ's first. Nemo
humanam auctoritatem cotitemnit, nisi qui divinam prius contempsit (No one
despises human authority unless he first despises divine authority). Of all
persons, a man guided by Christ is the best; and of all creatures in the world,
a man guided merely by will and affection, next to the devil, is the worst. The
happiness of weaker things stands in being ruled by stronger. It is best for a
blind man to be guided by him that has sight. It is best for sheep, and other
feckless creatures, to be guided by man. And it is happiest for man to be guided
by Christ, because his government is so victorious that it frees us from the
fear and danger of our greatest enemies, and tends to bring us to the greatest
happiness that our nature is capable of. This should make us rejoice when Christ
reigns in us. When Solomon was crowned, the people rejoiced so that the city
rang (1 Kings 1:45). Much more should we rejoice in Christ our king. And
likewise for those whose souls are dear to us, our endeavor should be that
Christ may reign in them also, that they may be baptized by Christ with this
fire (Matthew 3:11), that these sparks may be kindled in them. Men labor to
cherish the spirit and mettle, as they term it, of those they train up, because
they think they will have use of it in the manifold affairs and troubles of this
life. Oh, but let us cherish the sparks of grace in them; for a natural spirit
in great troubles will fail, but these sparks will make them conquerors over the
greatest evils. The third use of the truth of Christ's victory is to observe
that if Christ's judgment shall be victorious, then popery, being an opposite
frame, set up by the wit of man to maintain stately idleness, must fall. And it
is fallen already in the hearts of those on whom the light of Christ has shone.
It is a lie, and founded on a lie, on the infallible judgment of a man subject
to sin and error. When that which is taken for a principle of truth becomes a
principle of error, the more reliance on it, the more danger there is.

Taken from The Bruised Reed. Updated.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 8: RICHARD SIBBES ON ENTERTAINING THE HOLY SPIRIT
========================================================================

Richard Sibbes on Entertaining the Holy Spirit by Rev. Joel R. Beeke [Reprinted
by permission from The Banner of Sovereign Grace
Truth("http://www.heritagebooks.org/"), vol. 6 issues 7-9 Sept.-Nov. 1998.] Word
format PDF format("../pdf/beeke01.pdf") In his book Preaching and Preachers,
Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote: "I shall never cease to be grateful to Richard Sibbes,
who was balm to my soul at a period in my life when I was overworked and badly
overtired, and therefore subject in an unusual manner to the onslaughts of the
devil.... I found at that time that Richard Sibbes... was an unfailing remedy.
His books The Bruised Reed and The Soul's Conflict quietened, soothed,
comforted, encouraged, and healed me." Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) was one of the
greatest Puritans of his age. He greatly influenced the direction and content of
Puritan preaching, theology, and writing in England and America. Sibbes's
theology of the Holy Spirit is especially important because of its emphasis on
how the Spirit operates in the daily life of the Christian. Sibbes winsomely
referred to that process as "entertaining the Spirit" in the soul. For Sibbes,
that entertaining meant to nurture the friendship and hospitality of an
indwelling Spirit. "There is no one in the world so great and sweet a friend who
will do us so much good as the Spirit, if we give him entertainment," Sibbes
wrote. Sibbes's teaching on entertaining the Holy Spirit can be divided into the
following four categories: (1) the indwelling of the Spirit, (2) the sealing of
the Spirit, (3) the comfort of the Spirit, and (4) grieving the Spirit. Before
exploring Sibbes's work on the Holy Spirit, let's take a brief look at who
Richard Sibbes was. Synopsis of Richard Sibbes's Life Richard Sibbes was a
native of Suffolk, the Puritan county of old England that furnished numerous
illustrious emigrants to New England. He was born a few miles from Bury St.
Edmonds, in 1577, the year the Lutherans drafted their Formula of Concord. He
was baptized in the parish church in Thurston, where he grew up and went to
school. He was the oldest of six children. As a young child, Sibbes loved books.
His father, Paul Sibbes, who was a hardworking wheelwright and (according to
Zachary Catlin, a contemporary biographer of Sibbes) "a good, sound-hearted
Christian," became irritated with his son's book expenses. The father tried to
cure his son of book-buying by offering him wheelwright tools. But the boy was
not dissuaded. With the support of others, Sibbes was admitted to St. John's
College in Cambridge at the age of eighteen. He earned a bachelor of arts degree
in 1599, a fellowship in 1601, and a master of arts degree in 1602. In 1603 he
was converted under the preaching of Paul Baynes, whom Sibbes called his "father
in the gospel." Baynes, who is remembered most for his commentary on Ephesians,
succeeded William Perkins (1558-1602) at the Church of St. Andrews in Cambridge.
Sibbes was ordained to the ministry of the Church of England in Norwich in 1607,
was chosen as one of the college preachers in 1609, and received a bachelor of
divinity degree in 1610. From 1611 to 1616 he served as lecturer at Holy Trinity
Church, Cambridge. His preaching awakened Cambridge from the spiritual
indifference into which it fell after the death of Perkins. A gallery had to be
built to accommodate the visitors. John Cotton and Hugh Peters were converted
under Sibbes's preaching. During his years at Holy Trinity, Sibbes also helped
turn Thomas Goodwin from Arminianism, and moved John Preston from witty
preaching to plain, spiritual preaching. Sibbes came to London in 1617 as a
lecturer for Gray's Inn, the largest of the four great Inns of Court, which
still remains one of the most important centers in England for the study and
practice of law. In 1626, Sibbes complemented this lectureship by becoming
Master of Catharine Hall (now St. Catharine's College) at Cambridge. Under his
leadership, the college returned to its former prestige. It graduated several
men who would serve prominently at the Westminster Assembly, including John
Arrowsmith, William Spurstowe, and William Strong. Soon after his appointment,
Sibbes earned the doctor of divinity degree at Cambridge. He soon became known
as "the heavenly Doctor," due to his godly preaching and heavenly conversation.
Izaac Walton wrote of Sibbes: Of this blest man, let this just praise be given,
Heaven was in him, before he was in heaven. In 1633 King Charles I offered
Sibbes the vicarage of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, which was the very church he had
been forced to relinquish eighteen years earlier! Sibbes continued to serve as
preacher at Gray's Inn, Master of St. Catharine's Hall, and Vicar of Holy
Trinity until his death in 1635. Sibbes never married, but he established an
astonishing network of friendships that included a variety of godly ministers,
illustrious lawyers, and parliamentary leaders of the early Stuart era. "Godly
friends are walking sermons," he said. On thirteen occasions he wrote
introductions to the writings of his Puritan colleagues. Sibbes was a gentle and
warm man who avoided the controversies of his day as much as possible. "Factions
breed fractions," he insisted. His battles with Archbishop Laud, Roman
Catholics, and Arminians were exceptions rather than the rule for him. He
remained close friends with many pastors and leaders who espoused more radical
reform than he did for the Church of England. Sibbes was an inspiration to many
of his brethren. He influenced Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, and Independency,
the three dominant parties of the church in England at that time. He was a
pastor of pastors, who lived a life of moderation. "Where most holiness is,
there is most moderation, where it may be without prejudice of piety to God and
the good of others," he wrote. The historian Daniel Neal described Sibbes as a
celebrated preacher, an educated divine, and a charitable and humble man, who
repeatedly underestimated his gifts. Yet Puritans everywhere recognized Sibbes
as a great Christ-centered, experiential preacher. Both learned and unlearned in
upper and lower classes profited greatly from Sibbes, who was an alluring
preacher. Sibbes meant to woo. He wrote, "To preach is to woo.... The main scope
of all [preaching] is, to allure us to the entertainment of Christ's mild, safe,
wise, victorious government." Sibbes brought truth home, as Robert Burns would
say, "to men's business and bosoms." Catlin wrote of Sibbes, "No man that ever I
was acquainted with got so far into my heart or lay so close therein." Maurice
Roberts adds, "His theology is thoroughly orthodox, of course, but it is like
the fuel of some great combustion engine, always passing into flame and so being
converted into energy thereby to serve God and, even more, to enjoy and relish
God with the soul." David Masson, known for his biography of John Milton wrote,
"No writings in practical theology seem to have been so much read in the
mid-seventeenth century among the pious English middle classes as those of
Sibbes. "The twentieth-century historian William Haller judged Sibbes's sermons
to be "the most brilliant and popular of all the utterances of the Puritan
church militant." Sibbes's last sermons, preached one week before his death,
were expositions of John 14:2, "In my Father's house are many mansions.... I go
to prepare a place for you." When asked in his final days how his soul was
faring, Sibbes replied, "I should do God much wrong if I should not say, very
well. "Sibbes's will and testament, dictated on July 4,1635, the day before his
death, commences: "I commend and bequeath my soul into the hands of my gracious
Savior, who hath redeemed it with his most precious blood, and appears now in
heaven to receive it." The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, meticulously edited
in seven volumes with a 110-page memoir by Alexander Grosart, was published by
James Nichol of Edinburgh in the 1860s and reprinted by the Banner of Truth
Trust in the 1970s. Unfortunately, several of those volumes are out of print.
Sibbes's most famous work, The Bruised Reed, which has done so much good in
healing troubled souls, is now available in paperback from Banner of Truth
Trust. Let's turn now to Sibbes's teaching on the entertainment of the Spirit.
The Indwelling Spirit The Spirit's indwelling is requisite to entertaining Him,
Sibbes said. Sibbes taught that when the Spirit of God enters the heart of a
sinner, regenerating him and persuading him of the truth of the gospel, the
Spirit immediately begins to live within that person. The Spirit does not draw
attention to Himself, however. Rather, the Spirit works to knit our hearts to
God and to Jesus Christ. Sibbes wrote: "He, the Spirit, sanctifieth and
purifieth, and doth all from the Father and the Son, and knits us to the Father
and the Son — to the Son first, and then to the Father, because all the
communion we have with God is by the Holy Ghost; all the communion that Christ
as man had with God was by the Holy Ghost; and all the communion that God hath
with us, and we with God is by the Holy Ghost. For the Spirit is the bond of
union between Christ and us, and between God and us." While the Father and Son
perform no work without the Spirit, the Spirit also does no work apart from the
Father and the Son. Sibbes explained, 'As the Spirit comes from God — the Father
and the Son — so he carries us back again to the Father and the Son. As he comes
from heaven, so he carries us back to heaven again. The role of the Spirit is to
introduce and intimately acquaint us with the Father and the Son." Thus, if we
are believers, the Spirit establishes communion between us and the other two
Persons of the Trinity. It is as if He captures us and lifts us up. to know the
Father and the Son's love for us. The Holy Spirit lifts us to see by faith the
crucified and resurrected Jesus seated in glory. That is why the Spirit comes,
and that is how He functions in our lives. Therefore we may say that while, in
one sense, fellowship between ourselves and God is reestablished once and for
all, yet in another sense the Spirit maintains and increases that fellowship
during our entire lives. Sibbes said that as the Spirit draws us to the Father
and the Son, He confirms His government in our hearts. This government is not at
odds with the Spirit's purpose of revealing the things of Christ to us; rather,
His internal governing reveals Jesus Christ seated on the throne of grace.
indeed, the Spirit helps us conform to the character and behavior of Christ. The
Spirit lives in us to restore and transform our souls, and ripens us for glory.
Submitting to the Spirit is thus critical, Sibbes said. In A Fountain Sealed, he
wrote: "Let us give up the government of our souls to the Spirit. It is for our
safety so to do, as being wiser than ourselves who are unable to direct our own
way; it is our liberty to be under a wisdom and goodness larger than our own.
Let the Spirit think in us, desire in us, pray in us, live in us, do all in us;
labor ever to be in such a frame as we may be fit for the Spirit to work upon."
The believer is like a musical instrument, tuned and played by the Spirit.
Sibbes wrote, "Let us lay ourselves open to the Spirit's touch. When the Spirit
has ruling sway in our lives he fine-tunes our souls much like a musical
instrument, and then he plays our lives as a piano concerto before God." Sibbes
went on to describe this process of tuning and the touch of the Holy Spirit:
"The Holy Spirit must rule; he will have the keys delivered to him. We must
submit to his government, and when he is in the heart he will subdue by little
and little all high thoughts, rebellious risings, and despairing fears." How may
we know that we have this blessed, indwelling, governing Spirit? Sibbes said,
"By living and moving, by actions vital, even so may a man know he hath the
Spirit of God by its blessed effects in operations; it is not idle in us; but as
the soul quickens the body, so doth the Spirit the soul. Every saving grace is a
sign that the Spirit is within us." Wherever the indwelling Spirit is, He
gradually transforms the soul to be holy and gracious like Himself. The
government of the Spirit is not realized immediately. Sibbes wrote, "The
revolution and overthrow of our old nature comes upon conversion, while the
government of the Spirit is established only in a process as we may learn more
of and abide more to the constitution of our new life in Jesus Christ." Restored
communion with God the Father and the Son by means of the government of the
Spirit cannot but produce spiritual warfare. The transformation that the Holy
Spirit effects in the believer is accompanied by external and internal struggle.
Externally, we face the powers of darkness, even the prince of darkness himself,
Sibbes warned, because the devil is profoundly envious of the man that walks in
the Spirit. Satan will do all within his power to destroy that comfort. Indeed,
all spiritual graces meet with conflict, Sibbes said, "for that which is true is
so with a great deal of resistance from that which is counterfeit." What is of
the Spirit is always in conflict with what is not of the Spirit. Internally, our
fleshly desires are continually at war with the Spirit, for when the Spirit
comes to a person, He pulls down all strongholds. He carves out a path for
Himself in the thick of battle. Our soul is the battlefield upon which the
Spirit marches and He will have the final victory, Sibbes said. For wherever the
Spirit dwells, He also rules, for He will not be an underling to lusts. He
repairs the breaches of the soul. in this battle we must submit to the Spirit in
all things, however, for only then will we experience the victorious life that
is the inheritance of believers in Jesus Christ. To be sure, the greatest
battles were won on Calvary and in our hearts when we were brought to new birth,
but we must also fight daily battles in our life of sanctification. Our ever
present foes — our flesh, the world, and the devil — will unceasingly strive to
tear up the foundation upon which we stand as children of the Most High. Sibbes
said that we must show that we treasure the indwelling power of the Spirit. We
cannot value God's love and holiness granted to us in the Spirit without
exercising self-denial. Life in the Spirit, while beginning at conversion, must
continue to bear fruit. As Sibbes wrote, "We may know who dwells in a house by
observing who goes in and when they come out; so we may know that the Spirit
dwells in us by observing what sanctified speeches he sends forth and what
delight he hath wrought in us to things that are special and what price we set
upon them." The believer's greatest encouragement in spiritual warfare is the
abiding presence of the Spirit. "The Spirit is the leader and enabler of our
soul," Sibbes wrote. It is through what Sibbes termed "the motions, or holy
stirrings of the Spirit" that the Spirit enables us to overcome the sin that
attacks us internally and the forces of darkness set against us externally. The
Spirit of Christ is powerful and strong. Through His indwelling, we are able "to
perform duties above nature, to overcome ourselves and injuries," Sibbes said.
He added, "He makes us to be able to live and die, to do what others cannot do,
just as he enabled Christ to do things that another man could not do." Sibbes's
conclusion was inevitable: "Where there is no conflict, there is no Spirit of
Christ at all." In this he echoed the apostle Paul's teaching that if you
mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, you are led by the Spirit (Romans
8:13). You then, by grace, entertain the Spirit. You befriend and show
hospitality to that Spirit who gives you the victory over all enemies by faith
(1 John 5:4). But the Spirit does more than indwell the believer and give
victory in spiritual warfare. He is also the sealer of our souls. The Sealer of
Our Souls Sibbes often preached on the Spirit's sealing. A series of his sermons
transcribed by a noblewoman, Lady Elizabeth Brooke, was published in 1637 as A
Fountain Sealed. His sermons on 2 Corinthians 1:22-23, published in 1655 in
Exposition of Second Corinthians Chapter One, were about the Spirit's sealing.
So was a sermon on Romans 8:15-16, The Witness of the Spirit, which was
published in 1692. According to Sibbes and many other Puritans, looking at the
role of the Spirit in sealing the soul of believers is very much like examining
His work in personal assurance of faith and salvation. Sibbes did view sealing
in the Spirit as two distinct matters, however. Sibbes distinguished between the
office or function of the Spirit as a seal given in regeneration to a sinner and
the work of the Spirit in applying that seal to the believer's consciousness.
John Owen would later call this distinction unbiblical, for he said we are
sealed when we are born again, and the Bible gives no justification for a second
kind of sealing. Owen, following the early Reformers, taught a one-to-one
correlation between those regenerated by the Spirit and those sealed by the
Spirit. Calvin, for example, said that it was impossible to believe without
being sealed by the Spirit. For Calvin, sealing represented the presence rather
than the activity of the Spirit. Thus, the sealing work of the Spirit belongs to
the essence of faith. by the time of William Perkins, who was often called the
father of Puritanism, more attention was devoted to the Spirit's activity in
sealing the promises of the gospel to the believer. The focus was no longer on
the Spirit Himself as the indwelling seal but on His activity in sealing or
attesting the promises. Perkins's successor, Paul Baynes, attempted to reconcile
the thoughts of Calvin and Perkins on the sealing of the Spirit. Baynes taught
that sealing could be applied both to the Spirit as indweller and to the
evidences of that sealing in the regenerate life. Baynes wrote, "The Holy Spirit
and the graces of the Spirit are the seal assuring our redemption." Thus, Baynes
distinguished between being sealed by the Spirit (which all believers possess)
and being made conscious of such sealing (which only those who are conscious of
the graces of the Spirit possess). Sibbes agreed with his predecessor Baynes,
though he emphasized the sealing of the Spirit as a "superadded work and
confirmation" of the believer's faith. In so doing, Sibbes turned the doctrine
of the sealing of the Spirit in a direction that would gain prominence among the
Puritans for several decades. As was already implied, Sibbes thought of the
Spirit's sealing in two ways: (1) a one-time sealing, and (2) a sealing that
came later as one matured in the Christian life. The once-and-for-all sealing of
salvation is granted when a person first believes in Christ and God's promises.
Sibbes taught that as a king's image is stamped upon wax, so the Spirit stamps
the believer's soul with the image of Christ from the very moment of believing.
Such sealing produces in every believer a lifelong desire to be transformed
fully into the image of Christ. This seal, which every believer possesses,
whether he is conscious of it or not, serves as a mark of authenticity. It
distinguishes the believer from the world. As merchants mark their wares and
herdsman brand their sheep, so God seals His people to declare that they are His
rightful property and that He has authority over them, Sibbes said. The second
aspect of Sibbes's doctrine of sealing is more elusive. Owen argued that Sibbes
said sealing had to occur twice in the life of the believer. But Sibbes was not
arguing for a second measure of positional assurance, as if to imply that God
was not altogether sure of our stance with Him or His stance towards us upon
regeneration. Sibbes plainly stated: "Sealing of us by the Spirit is not in
regard to God, but ourselves. God knoweth who are His, but we know not that we
are His but by sealing. The sealing then is for our benefit exclusively, and not
for God." So the second kind of sealing Sibbes wrote about was a process. It was
the kind of assurance that could increase gradually throughout our lives by
means of singular experiences and by daily, spiritual growth. This sealing had
degrees; it could grow with spiritual maturity. Sibbes wrote: "The Spirit
sealeth by degrees. As our care of pleasing the Spirit increaseth so our comfort
increaseth. Our light will increase as the morning light unto the perfect day.
Yielding to the Spirit in one holy motion will cause him to lead us to another,
and so on forwards, until we be more deeply acquainted with the whole counsel of
God concerning our salvation." Sibbes learned through pastoral experience that
many believers are content with the measure of faith and assurance they receive
upon their conversion and do not labor for further growth. That prompted Sibbes
to suggest that there are three kinds of Christians: First, those who have
saving faith, but live under a spirit of bondage. They are filled with doubts
and fears. They lack the reflex act of faith which ascertains marks and
evidences of the Spirit's saving work in their lives. Sibbes said that they
ought to pray for more faith and light to discern the Spirit's work within them.
Second, some Christians are under the Spirit of adoption but still have fears.
They are sealed with evidences of faith, but are often still beset with
perplexity and doubt. Their degree of assurance is usually highest when their
trials are greatest. Sibbes wrote, "For those who have been sealed by the Spirit
and yet not so fully as to silence all doubts about their estate, those should,
out of that beginning of comfort which they feel, study to be pliable to the
Spirit for further increase." Third, Sibbes said that some believers are
"carried with large spirits to obey their Father" as the fruit of the
superadded, direct seal of the Spirit that persuades them of their sonship to
God. Those who experience the freedom of a "large spirit" receive a private
seal-an unmistakable witness of the Spirit to their soul. The Spirit's private
seal is a "stablishing, confirming grace," Sibbes said. He identified this
sealing with the immediate testimony of the Holy Spirit, by which the Father's
love is pronounced upon the believer in particular, usually through the
application of such texts as "I am thy salvation" or "thy sins are pardoned."
According to Sibbes, this establishing seal grants believers freedom to
appropriate full assurance through the work of each Person in the Trinity,
though the emphasis is on the Spirit in His saving activity. Sibbes wrote:
"Every person in the blessed Trinity hath their several work. The Father
chooseth us and passeth a decree upon the whole groundwork of our salvation. The
Son executeth it to the full. The Spirit applieth it, and witnesseth our
interest in it by leading our souls to lay hold upon him, and by raising up our
souls in the assurance of it, and by breeding and cherishing sweet communion
with Father and Son, who both of them seal us likewise by the Spirit. This joy
and comfort is so appropriated to the Spirit, as it carrieth the very name of
the Spirit." Sibbes sounds mystical at times in describing this special sealing,
particularly in statements such as "the Holy Ghost slides and insinuates and
infuseth himself into our souls." But Sibbes warded off mysticism in two ways.
First, he maintained that this special sealing must never be divorced from the
Word of God. By speaking of sealing in degrees, Sibbes linked all advancement in
grace to the Spirit and Word, for any consciousness of sealing by the Spirit is
always through the applied Word. Second, Sibbes said that the genuineness of
such sealing may be readily examined. One may know the voice of the Spirit of
God by inquiring what followed "this ravishing joy" of experimental sealing,
Sibbes wrote. Fruits of sanctification, such as peace of conscience, the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, "Abba, Father," prayers of fervent supplication,
conformity with the heavenly image of Christ, and applying ourselves to holy
duties rather than old lusts inevitably result from such "a secret whispering
and intimation to the soul." Sibbes thus emphasized both the intuitive testimony
of the Spirit and the sanctifying fruits of the Spirit. The Spirit's sealing is
inward in its essence and outward in its fruit. Sibbes taught that this special
sealing was granted by the Spirit to saints particularly in times of great
trial. He said that the Spirit gave such seals, even as parents [who) smile upon
their children when they need it most." Such sealing was "a sweet kiss
vouchsafed to the soul." Paul in the dungeon, Daniel in the lion's den, and his
three friends in the fiery furnace all experienced that encouragement. In
summary, Sibbes's interest in sealing was more pastoral than academic. He knew
that true assurance results in an increased desire for holiness and for more
intimate communion with God. Sibbes's argument was clear: when the Holy Spirit
puts His holy seal on a believer, that person will bear the fruits of holiness.
Sealing prompts assurance, and the more assurance we have, the more love we will
feel for God and the more we will obey Him. Consequently, all Christians ought
to pray for "a spirit of revelation that we may be more sealed," Sibbes said.
Owen understood why Sibbes and other Puritans in his era proposed the notion of
a sealing subsequent to regeneration. He recognized that Sibbes and others were
attempting to call believers to a life of assuredness. Owen affirmed the call
for this kind of assurance, yet he argued against equating full assurance with
the sealing of the Spirit. He felt that the exegesis of Ephesians 1:13 didn't
support such a view. Though some of us may also fear that Sibbes went beyond
Scripture at times in his doctrine of sealing, yet we should recognize that
Sibbes was discussing a different sort of event than what Owen suggested. Sibbes
had a dynamic view of sealing. Sealing is a continuous and progressive activity,
Sibbes said. Owen held a more static view of sealing. He viewed the seal "as
sealed," whereas Sibbes viewed the seal primarily as "a sealing." Sibbes was
talking about an experiential, behavioral, and character-modifying realization
of the depth of the love of God. Sibbes was saying that this kind of sealing is
a great boost to our sanctification. The Comforter Sibbes taught that
sanctification is not only promoted by the Spirit's indwelling and sealing, but
also by the Spirit's activity as comforter. He wrote, "Is it not the greatest
comfort to a Christian soul when God, in want of means, comes immediately
Himself unto us and comforts us by His Spirit?" If you are a Christian, you know
that life and its difficulties can be discouraging. Especially when God's
promises and providence seem to contradict each other, we are prone to lose our
quiet confidence in God, and become, like David, cast down and disquieted
within. We yield to the discouragements of the flesh. Sibbes said such disquiet
and grief is "like lead to the soul, heavy and cold." At those times especially
we need the Holy Spirit to draw close to our souls. In his book Yea and Amen,
Sibbes wrote, "It must needs be so because no less than the Spirit of God can
quiet our perplexed spirits in times of temptation." He went on to say,
"Spiritual comforts flow immediately from the Spirit of comfort who hath His
office designed for that purpose." Sibbes excelled in showing why the Spirit
alone can comfort our battered souls. He wrote, "When the soul is distempered,
it is like a distempered lock that no key can open. So when the conscience is
troubled, what creature can settle the troubled conscience, can open the winding
passages of a troubled conscience in such perplexity and confusion? And
therefore to settle the troubled conscience aright, it must be somewhat above
conscience; and that which must quiet the spirit must be such a Spirit as is
above our spirits." Sibbes appreciated the complexity of individuals and
understood how that complexity remains even after we become believers. Hardships
are part of being a Christian, for a Christian is engaged in the pursuit of
holiness. Yet the Spirit is able to give grace to the believer to rise above
discouragements, no matter how great they are. Sibbes wrote: "Oh, therefore get
this blessed Spirit to enlighten thee, to quicken thee, to support thee; and it
will carry thy soul courageously along above all oppositions and discouragements
whatsoever in the way to happiness. As surely as the difficulties of life are
genuine, so too the comfort of the Spirit is genuine and able." The Spirit is
more than just a spiritual bandage. He is the Comforter, the healing balm for
our hearts. We wholeheartedly agree with Sibbes that "the Holy Spirit is a
Comforter, bringing to mind useful things at such times when we most need them.
What are these useful things if not the profound love of the Lord for us in
spite of our wretched state — a love which ushers us through suffering and gives
purpose to all our life." Sibbes also taught that the role of the Holy Spirit as
comforter is tied to the Word of God. "If it be God's comfort, assure thyself
God would have his word to make way unto it," Sibbes wrote. He said that in
times of discouragement the believer must question his own soul about the causes
of discontent. He must charge himself to trust God and His Word, recognizing
that with the Spirit as his indwelling comforter, there is no good reason to be
discouraged. He must "meditate on the promises of God, and wedge them home upon
the heart," Sibbes said. By using the promises, he must labor for a calmed
spirit by insisting that until the Spirit "meekens" the soul, it is not quiet
enough to receive the seed of the Word. As Sibbes wrote, "It is ill sowing in a
storm; so a stormy spirit will not suffer the word to take [its] place." Sibbes
taught that in applying the Word to the believer's troubled soul, the Spirit
calls forth answering motions in the believer, leading him to find quiet and
rest in God. Indeed, the believer must continue to examine his soul by faith
until he finds rest in God. Perfect rest in God will only be found in heaven,
Sibbes said. Here on earth, however, the believer can find rest by means of
sanctifying and quieting graces." Quieting the soul helps a believer recover
some of the communion with God that was destroyed by the fall. Prior to the fall
we were like "instruments in tune, fit to be moved to any duty; as a neat, clean
glass, the soul represented God's image and likeness," Sibbes wrote. After the
fall, the only way to find such harmony of a soul "fitted as a clean glass to
receive light from above," is to depend on the Spirit and aim for peace and
harmony with God who is "the God of peace, the God of order." Sibbes called
believers to "the beauty of a well-ordered soul" that is in tune with the Spirit
of God. Such a soul is comforted even in great trials, Sibbes said. It receives
with meekness the engrafted Word and, by keeping its affections in due
proportion, responds to the Holy Spirit's internal motions which lead the soul
to find rest and peace in God. All such motions "tend to rest and end in God,
the center and resting-place of the soul," Sibbes wrote. "Then whatsoever times
come, we are sure of a hiding-place and sanctuary." Would you be comforted and
quieted in your soul? Labor to entertain the Spirit. Give room to His motions in
your soul, remembering as Sibbes concluded, "The soul without the Spirit is
darkness and confusion, full of self-accusing and self-tormenting thoughts. If
we let the Spirit come in, [he] will scatter all and settle the soul in a sweet
quiet. Grieving the Spirit If the Spirit helps us commune with the Father and
the Son, governs our spirit, defends us in spiritual conflict, leads us in
faith, seals our souls, and comforts us until death, then what happens when we
fail Him and succumb to our own sin and folly? At such times we grieve the
Spirit, Sibbes said in A Fountain Sealed. Sibbes cried, "What greater indignity
can we offer to the Holy Spirit than to prefer base dust before his motions
leading us to holiness and happiness. What greater unkindness, yea, treachery to
leave directions of a friend to follow the counsel of an enemy; such as when we
know God's will, yet will consent with flesh and blood in leaving a true guide
and following a pirate." Like his fellow Puritans, Sibbes was most critical of
people in the established church who didn't exhibit the fruits of saving faith.
He challenged those who claimed to have walked with God for many years but whose
lives showed little effect of their relationship with the Almighty. He warned,
"Of all the sins, the sins of professors [of religion] grieve the Spirit most.
And of all professors, those that have most means of knowledge, because their
obligations are deeper and their engagements greater. The offense of friends
grieves more than the injuries of enemies." Sibbes did not stop there. He went
on to say that as the Holy Ghost is a Spirit, so spiritual sins like pride and
envy and an evil spirit grieve Him most. Carnal sins grieve the Spirit, too, for
they drown the soul in physical delights and defile the Spirit's temple. We need
to be changed from the inside out by the Spirit of God. As long as we do not aim
for a life of devotion and conformity to Jesus Christ, we grieve the Spirit.
Sibbes offered still more ways in which we grieve the Spirit. He wrote, "We
commonly grieve the Spirit of God when the mind is troubled with a multitude of
busyness; when the soul is like a mill where one cannot hear another; the noise
is such as takes away all intercourse." That is to say, when we fill our lives
with things other than spiritual concerns, we bring grief to the blessed Spirit.
Activity is not synonymous with spirituality, as popular Christian culture would
have us believe. Rather, we are called to humble dependence and meditation upon
the Spirit. As Sibbes said, "This grieves the Holy Spirit also when men take the
office of the Spirit from him," that is, when we will do things in our own
strength and by our own light. We all too willingly, go about our Christian
tasks in our own strength, never realizing that in doing so, we become our own
end, and with a theft of God's honor our activities become meaningless.
Conclusion According to Sibbes, the Spirit must be an integral part of our
lives, our churches, and our world. The Spirit must be entertained in every
facet of Christian life and experience. We must relish His indwelling, His
sealing, and His comforting work, while striving not to grieve Him. Sibbes
labored to make biblical theology relevant to the person in the pew. His books
challenge us to pursue a biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit and to
faithfully communicate that understanding to others in the body of Christ.
Today, the relationship between believers and the Holy Spirit is too often like
a bad marriage in which a husband takes advantage of his wife's contributions
but fails to appreciate and celebrate his relationship with her. To reverse this
situation, Sibbes advised that we should make a daily effort to appreciate the
Holy Spirit, and to share our thoughts and plans with Him in prayer as we gaze
by faith into the face of God. We should walk in daily communication with the
Spirit, through the Word, relying upon every office the Holy Spirit provides, as
described in Scripture. In this way, the blessed Spirit, who speaks not of
Himself, but of Christ and the Father, also reveals Himself to the believer,
through display of His attributes, as true God, the third Person of the Holy
Trinity. As Sibbes wrote: "The Holy Spirit being in us, after he that prepared
us for a house for himself to dwell in and to take up his rest and delight in,
he doth also become unto us a counselor in all our doubts, a comforter in all
our distresses, a solicitor to all duty, a guide in the whole course of life,
until we dwell with him forever in heaven, unto which his dwelling here in us
doth tend." Lord, ever more grant us to entertain Thy Holy Spirit. Sanctify us
by Thy Spirit. Indwell us, seal our souls, comfort us, keep us from grieving Thy
Spirit. Prepare us for eternal communion with Thee. Dr. J.R. Beeke is pastor of
the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation("http://www.heritagebooks.org/")
of Grand Rapids, Michigan.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 9: CHRIST'S PUBLIC TRIUMPH
========================================================================

Christ's Public Triumph by Richard Sibbes It is not only said that judgment
shall be victorious, but that Christ will bring it forth openly to victory. From
this we observe that grace will become glory, and come forth into the sight of
all. Now Christ conquers, and achieves his own ends, but he does so to some
extent invisibly. His enemies in us and outside us seem to prevail. But he will
bring forth judgment unto victory, in full view of all. The wicked that now shut
their eyes to this shall see it to their torment. It shall not be in the power
of subtle men to see or not see what they wish. Christ will have power over
their hearts; and as his wrath shall immediately seize upon their souls against
their wills, so will he have power over the eyes of their souls, that they may
see and know what will increase their misery. Grief shall be fastened to all
their senses, and their senses to grief. Then all the false glosses which they
put upon things shall be wiped off. Men are desirous to have the reputation of
good, and yet the sweetness of ill; nothing is so cordially opposed by them as
that truth which lays them open to themselves and to the eyes of others, their
chief care being how to deceive the world and their own consciences. But the
time will come when they shall be driven out of this fools' paradise, and the
more subtle their manipulation of things has been, the more shall be their
shame. THE OPEN GLORY OF CHRIST IN HIS MEMBERS Christ, whom God has chosen to
set forth the chief glory of his excellencies, is now veiled in relation to his
body the church, but he will come before long to be glorious in his saints (2
Thessalonians 1:10), and not lose the clear manifestation of any of his
attributes. He will declare to all the world what he is, and then there shall be
no glory but that of Christ and his spouse. Those that are as smoking flax now
shall then shine as the sun in the firmament (Matthew 13:43), and their judgment
shall be brought forth as the noonday (Psalms 37:6). The image of God in Adam
had a commanding majesty in it, so that all creatures reverenced him. Much more
shall the image of God in its perfection command respect from all. Even now
there is a secret awe put into the hearts of the greatest towards those in whom
they see any grace to shine. So it was that Herod feared John the Baptist; but
what will this be in the day of their bringing forth, which is called 'the
manifestation of the sons of God' (Romans 8:19)? There will be more glorious
times when the kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of our Lord and of
his Christ (Rev. I 1: 1 5), and he shall reign forever. Then shall judgment and
truth have their victory. Then Christ will plead his own cause. Truth shall no
longer be called heresy and schism, nor heresy catholic doctrine. Wickedness
shall no longer go masked and disguised. Goodness shall appear in its own
luster, and shine in its own beams. Things shall be what they are, 'for there is
nothing covered, that shall not be revealed' (Matthew 10:26). Iniquity shall not
be carried on in a mystery any longer. Deep dissemblers that think to hide their
counsels from the Lord shall walk no longer invisible as in the clouds. As
Christ will not quench the least spark kindled by himself, so will he damp the
fairest blaze of goodly appearances which are not from above. FOLLOW SINCERITY
AND TRUTH If this were believed, men would make more account of sincerity, which
alone will give us boldness, and not seek for covers for their shame, confidence
in which, as it makes men now more presumptuous, so it will expose them
hereafter to the greater shame. If judgment shall be brought forth to victory,
then those that have been ruled by their own deceitful hearts and a spirit of
error shall be brought forth to disgrace. The God that has joined grace and
truth with honor has joined sin and shame together at last. All the wit and
power of man will never be able to sever what God has coupled together. Truth
and piety may be trampled upon for a time, but as the two witnesses (Revelation
11:11), after they were slain, rose again, and stood upon their feet, so
whatever is of God shall at length stand upon its own foundation. There shall be
a resurrection, not only of bodies but of reputations. Can we think that he that
threw the angels out of heaven will suffer dust and worms' meat to run a
contrary course, and to continue always so? No, as truly as Christ is 'King of
kings and Lord of lords' (Revelation 19:16), so will he dash all those pieces of
earth which rise up against him, 'as a potter's vessel' (Psalms 2:9). Was there
ever anyone fierce against God and prospered (Job 9:4)? No, doubtless the wrath
of man shall turn to Christ's praise (Psalms 76:10).What was said of Pharaoh
shall be said of all heady enemies, who would rather lose their souls than their
wills, that they are but raised up for Christ to get himself glory in their
confusion. Let us, then, take heed that we follow not the ways of those men
whose ends we shall tremble at. There is not a more fearful judgment which can
befall the nature of man than to be given up to a reprobate judgment of persons
and things, because it comes under a woe: 'Woe unto them that call evil good,
and good evil' (Isaiah 5:20). How will those be laden with curses another day
who abuse the judgment of others by sophistry and flattery, 'deceiving and being
deceived' (2 Timothy 3:13)? Then the complaint of our first mother Eve will be
taken up, but fruitlessly: 'The serpent beguiled me' (Genesis 3:13); Satan has
deceived me in such and such; sin has deceived me; a foolish heart has deceived
me. It is one of the highest points of wisdom to consider on what grounds we
venture our souls. Happy men will they be who have, by Christ's light, a right
judgment of things, and suffer that judgment to prevail over their hearts. The
souls of most men are drowned in their senses, and carried away with weak
opinions, raised from vulgar mistakes and shadows of things. And Satan is ready
to enlarge the imagination of outward good and outward ill, and make it greater
than it is, and spiritual things less, presenting them through false glasses.
And so men, trusting in vanity, vanquish themselves in their own apprehensions.
A woeful condition, when both we and that which we highly esteem shall vanish
together. And this will be, as truly as Christ's judgement will come to victory
and in the measure that the vain heart of man has been enlarged to conceive a
greater good in the things of this world than there is, by so much the soul
shall be enlarged to be more aware of misery when it sees its error. This is the
difference between a godly, wise man and a deluded worldling: that which the one
now judges to be vain the other shall hereafter feel to be so when it is too
late. But this is the vanity of our natures, that though we shun above all
things to be deceived and mistaken in present things, yet in the greatest
matters of all we are willingly ignorant and misled. CHRIST ALONE ADVANCES THIS
GOVERNMENT A further conclusion is this: that this government is set up and
advanced by Christ alone. He brings judgment to victory. We both fight and
prevail 'in the power of his might' (Ephesians 6:10). We overcome by the Spirit,
obtained by 'the blood of the Lamb' (Revelation 12:11). It is he alone who
teaches our hands to war and our fingers to fight (Psalms 144:1). Nature, as
corrupted, favors its own being, and will maintain itself against Christ's
government. Nature, simply considered, cannot raise itself above itself to
actions which are spiritual and of a higher order and nature. Therefore the
divine power of Christ is necessary to carry us above all our own strength,
especially in duties in which we meet with greater opposition; for there, not
only nature will fail us, but ordinary grace, unless there is a stronger and a
new supply. In taking up a burden that is weightier than ordinary, if there is
not a greater proportion of strength than weight, the one who undertakes it will
lie under the burden; so for every strong encounter there must be a new supply
of strength, as in the case of Peter, who, when He was assaulted with a stronger
temptation, being not upheld and shored up with a mightier hand, notwithstanding
former strength, foully fell (Matthew 26:69-74). And being fallen, in our rising
up again, it is Christ that must do the work, by (1) removing, or (2) weakening,
or (3) suspending opposite hindrances; and (4) by advancing the power of his
grace in us, to a further degree than we had before we fell. Therefore when we
have fallen, and by falls have been bruised, let us go to Christ immediately to
bind us up again. WE MUST NOT LOOK TO OURSELVES Let us know, therefore, that it
is dangerous to look for that from ourselves which we must have from Christ.
Since the fall, all our strength lies in him, as Samson's in his hair (Judges
16:17). We are but subordinate agents, moving as we are moved, and working as we
are first wrought upon, free in so far as we are freed, no wiser nor stronger
than he makes us to be for the present in anything we undertake. It is his
Spirit who actuates and enlivens, and applies that knowledge and strength we
have, or else it fails and lies useless in us. We work when we work from a
present strength; therefore dependent spirits are the wisest and the ablest.
Nothing is stronger than humility, which goes out of itself, or weaker than 'de,
which rests on its own foundation. Frustra nititir qui non innititur (He strives
in vain who is not dependent). And this should be particularly observed because
naturally we aspire to a kind of divinity, in setting about actions in the
strength of our own abilities; whereas Christ says, 'Without me ye', the
apostles, who were in a state of grace, 'can do nothing' (John 15:5). He does
not say, you can do a little, but nothing. Of ourselves, how easily are we
overcome! How weak we are to resist! We are as reeds shaken with every wind. We
shake at the very noise and thought of poverty, disgrace or losses. We give in
immediately. We have no power over our eyes, tongues, thoughts or affections,
but let sin pass in and out. How soon we are overcome by evil, whereas we should
overcome evil with good. How many good purposes stick in the birth, and have no
strength to come forth—all which shows that we are nothing without the Spirit of
Christ. We see how weak the apostles themselves were, till they were endued with
strength from above. Peter was blasted with the speech of a damsel (Matt.
20:69), but after the Spirit of Christ fell upon them, the more they suffered,
the more they were encouraged to suffer. Their comforts grew with their
troubles. Therefore in all, especially difficult encounters, let us lift up our
hearts to Christ, who has Spirit enough for us all, in all our exigencies, and
say with good Jehoshaphat, 'We have no might...neither know we what to do: but
our eyes are upon thee' (2 Chronicles 20:12); the battle we fight is thine, and
the strength whereby we fight must be thine. If thou goest not out with us, we
are sure to be foiled. Satan knows that nothing can prevail against Christ, or
those that rely upon his power. Therefore his study is how to keep us in
ourselves, and in the creature. But we must carry this always in our minds, that
that which is begun in self-confidence ends in shame. CHRIST MAKES US FEEL OUR
DEPENDENCE The manner of Christ's bringing forth judgment to victory is by
letting us see a necessity of dependence on him. Hence proceed those spiritual
desertions in which he often leaves us to ourselves, in regard to both grace and
comfort, that we may know the spring-head of these to be outside ourselves.
Hence it is that in the mount, that is, in extremities, God is most seen
(Genesis 22:14). Hence it is that we are saved by the grace of faith which
carries us out of ourselves to rely upon another; and faith works best alone,
when it has least outward support. Hence it is that we often fail in lesser
conflicts and stand firm in greater, because in the lesser we rest more in
ourselves, in the greater we fly to the rock of our salvation, which is higher
than we (Psalms 61:2). Hence also it is that we are stronger after defeats,
because hidden corruption, undiscerned before, is now discovered, and thence we
are brought to make use of mercy pardoning and power supporting. One main reason
for this dispensation is that we should know it is Christ that gives both the
will and the deed, and that as a voluntary work according to his own good
pleasure. And therefore we should work out our salvation in a jealous fear and
trembling (Php_2:12), lest by irreverent and presumptuous conduct we give him
cause to suspend his gracious influence and leave us to the darkness of our own
hearts. THE TRIUMPH OF GRACE Those that are under Christ's government have the
spirit of revelation, whereby they see and feel a divine power sweetly and
strongly enabling them to preserve faith when they feel the contrary, and hope
in a state which is hopeless, and love to God under signs of his displeasure,
and heavenly-mindedness in the midst of worldly affairs and allurements which
draw a contrary way. They feel a power preserving patience, nay joy, in the
midst of causes of mourning, inward peace in the midst of assaults. Whence is it
that, when assaulted with temptation and compassed with troubles, we have stood
firm, but from a secret strength upholding us? To make so little grace so
victorious over so great a mass of corruption, this requires a spirit more than
human. This is like preserving fire in the sea, and a part of heaven even, as it
were, in hell. Here we know where to obtain this power, and to whom to return
the praise of it. And it is our happiness that it is so safely hid in Christ for
us, in one so near to God and us. Since the fall, God will not trust us with our
own salvation, but it is both purchased and kept by Christ for us, and we for it
through faith, wrought by the power of God, which we lay hold of. This power is
gloriously set forth by Paul: it is (1) a great power; (2) an exceeding power;
(3) a working and a mighty power; (4) such a power as was wrought in raising
Christ from the dead (Ephesians 1:19-20). That grace which is but a persuasive
offer and in our power to receive or refuse is not the grace which brings us to
heaven. But God's people feel a powerful work of the Spirit, not only revealing
to us our misery and deliverance through Christ, but emptying us of ourselves,
as being redeemed from ourselves, and infusing new life into us, and afterwards
strengthening us and quickening us when we droop and hang the wing, never
leaving us till the conquest is perfect.

Taken from The Bruised Reed. Updated.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 10: OFFENDING AGAINST
========================================================================

Offending Against Christ's Mercy by Richard Sibbes We are now to take notice of
various sorts of men that offend deeply against this merciful disposition of
Christ. FALSE DESPAIR OF CHRIST'S MERCY There are those who go on in all ill
courses of life on this pretence, that it would be useless to go to Christ,
because their lives have been so bad; whereas, as soon as we look to heaven, all
encouragements are ready to meet us and draw us forward. Among others, this is
one allurement, that Christ is ready to welcome us and lead us further. None are
damned in the church but those that are determined to be, including those who
persist in having hard thoughts of Christ, that they may have some show of
reason to fetch contentment from other things, as that unprofitable servant
(Matthew 25:30) who would needs take up the opinion that his master was a hard
man, thereby to flatter himself in his unfruitful ways, in not improving the
talent which he had. FALSE HOPE OF CHRIST'S MERCY There are those who take up a
hope of their own, that Christ will suffer them to walk in the ways to hell, and
yet bring them to heaven; whereas all comfort should draw us nearer to Christ.
Otherwise it is a lying comfort, either in itself or in our application of it.
RESISTING CHRIST'S MERCY There are those who take it on themselves to cast water
on those sparks which Christ labors to kindle in them, because they will not be
troubled with the light of them. Such must know that the Lamb can be angry, and
that they who will not come under his scepter of mercy shall be crushed in
pieces by his scepter of power (Psalms 2:9). Though he will graciously tend and
maintain the least spark of true grace, yet where he finds not the spark of
grace but opposition to his Spirit striving with them, his wrath, once kindled,
shall burn to hell. There is no more just provocation than when kindness is
churlishly refused. When God would have cured Babylon, and she would not be
cured, then she was given up to destruction (Jeremiah 51:9). When Jerusalem
would not be gathered under the wing of Christ, then their habitation is left
desolate (Matthew 23:37-38). When wisdom stretches out her hand and men refuse,
then wisdom will laugh at men's destruction (Proverbs 1:26). Salvation itself
will not save those that spill the medicine and cast away the plaster. It is a
pitiful case, when this merciful Savior shall delight in destruction; when he
that made men shall have no mercy on them (Is. 27:11). Oh, say the rebels of the
time, God has not made us to damn us. Yes, if you will not meet Christ in the
ways of his mercy, it is fitting that you should 'eat of the fruit of your own
way, and be filled with your own devices' (Proverbs 1:31). This will be the hell
of hell, when men shall think that they have loved their sins more than their
souls; when they shall think what love and mercy has been almost enforced upon
them, and yet they would perish. The more accessory we are in pulling a judgment
upon ourselves, the more the conscience will be confounded in itself. Then they
shall acknowledge Christ to be without any blame, themselves without any excuse.
If men appeal to their own consciences, they will tell them that the Holy Spirit
has often knocked at their hearts, as willing to have kindled some holy desires
in them. How else can they be said to resist the Holy Ghost, but that the Spirit
was readier to draw them to a further degree of goodness than was consistent
with their own wills? Therefore those in the church that are damned are
self-condemned before. So that here we need not rise to higher causes, when men
carry sufficient cause in their own bosoms. PRESUMING ON CHRIST'S MERCY And the
best of us all may offend against this merciful disposition if we are not
watchful against that liberty which our carnal disposition will be ready to take
from it. Thus we reason, if Christ will not quench the smoking flax, what need
we fear that any neglect on our part can bring us into a comfortless condition?
If Christ will not do it, what can? You know the apostle's prohibition,
notwithstanding, 'Quench not the Spirit' (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Such cautions
of not quenching are sanctified by the Spirit as a means of not quenching.
Christ performs his office in not quenching by stirring up suitable endeavors in
us; and there are none more solicitous in the use of the means than those that
are most certain of their good success. The reason is this: the means that God
has set apart for the effecting of any thing are included in the purpose that he
has to bring that thing to pass. And this is a principle taken for granted, even
in civil matters; for who, if he knew before that it would be a fruitful year,
would therefore hang up his plough and neglect tillage? Hence the apostle stirs
us up from the certain expectation of a blessing (1 Corinthians 15:57-58), and
this encouragement from the good issue of victory is intended to stir us up, and
not to put us off. If we are negligent in the exercise of grace received and the
use of the means prescribed, suffering our spirits to be oppressed with many and
various cares of this life, and take not heed of the discouragements of the
times, for this kind of neglect God in his wise care suffers us often to fall
into a worse condition in our feelings than those that were never so much
enlightened. Yet in mercy he will not suffer us to be so far enemies to
ourselves as wholly to neglect these sparks once kindled. Were it possible that
we should be given up to abandon all endeavor wholly, then we could look for no
other issue but quenching; but Christ will tend this spark and cherish this
small seed, so that he will always preserve in the soul some degree of care. If
we would make a comfortable use of this, we must consider all those means
whereby Christ preserves grace begun; such as, first, holy communion, by which
one Christian warms another. 'Two are better than one' (Ecclesiastes 4:9). 'Did
not our heart burn within us?', said the disciples (Luke 24:32). Secondly, much
more communion with God in holy duties, such as meditation and prayer, which not
only kindles but adds a luster to the soul. Thirdly, we feel by experience the
breath of the Spirit to go along with the breath of his ministers. For this
reason the apostle knits these two together: 'Quench not the Spirit. Despise not
prophesyings' (1 Thessalonians 5:19-20). Nathan, by a few words, blew up the
decaying sparks in David. Rather than that God will suffer his fire in us to
die, he will send some Nathan or other, and something always is left in us to
join with the Word, as of the same nature with it; as a coal that has fire in it
will quickly gather more fire to it. Smoking flax will easily take fire.
Fourthly, grace is strengthened by the exercise of it: 'Arise therefore, and be
doing, and the LORD be with thee' (1 Chronicles 22:16), said David to his son
Solomon. Stir up the grace that is in you, for in this way holy motions turn to
resolutions, resolutions to practice, and practice to a prepared readiness to
every good work. However, let us remember that grace is increased, in the
exercise of it, not by virtue of the exercise itself, but as Christ by his
Spirit flows into the soul and brings us nearer to himself, the fountain, so
instilling such comfort that the heart is further enlarged. The heart of a
Christian is Christ's garden, and his graces are as so many sweet spices and
flowers which, when his Spirit blows upon them, send forth a sweet savor.
Therefore keep the soul open to entertain the Holy Ghost, for he will bring in
continually fresh forces to subdue corruption, and this most of all on the
Lord's day. John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, even in Patmos, the place
of his banishment (Revelation 1:10). Then the gales of the Spirit blow more
strongly and sweetly. As we look, therefore, for the comfort of this doctrine,
let us not favor our natural sloth but exercise ourselves rather to godliness (1
Timothy 4:7), and labor to keep this fire always burning upon the altar of our
hearts. Let us dress our lamps daily, and put in fresh oil, and wind up our
souls higher and higher still. Resting in a good condition is contrary to grace,
which cannot but promote itself to a further measure. Let none turn this grace
'into lasciviousness' (Jude 1:4). Infirmities are a ground of humility, not a
plea for negligence, nor an encouragement to presumption. We should be so far
from being evil because Christ is good that those coals of love should melt us.
Therefore those may well suspect themselves in whom the consideration of this
mildness of Christ does not work that way. Surely where grace is, corruption is
'as vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes' (Proverbs 10:26). And
therefore they will labor, with respect to their own comfort, as likewise for
the credit of religion and the glory of God, that their light may break forth.
If a spark of faith and love is so precious, what an honor will it be to be rich
in faith! Who would not rather walk in the light, and in the comforts of the
Holy Ghost, than live in a dark, perplexed state? And not rather be carried with
full sail to heaven than be tossed always with fears and doubts? The present
trouble in conflict against a sin is not so much as that disquiet which any
corruption favored will bring upon us afterward. True peace is in conquering,
not in yielding. The comfort intended in this text is for those that would fain
do better, but find their corruptions clog them; that are in such a mist, that
often they cannot tell what to think of themselves; that fain would believe, and
yet often fear that they do not believe; and that think that it cannot be that
God should be so good to such sinful wretches as they are, and yet they do not
permit these fears and doubts in themselves. SEEKING ANOTHER SOURCE OF MERCY And
among others, how do they wrong themselves and him that will have other
mediators to God for them than he! Are any more pitiful than he who became man
to that end, that he might be pitiful to his own flesh? Let all, at all times,
repair to this meek Savior, and put up all our petitions in his prevailing name.
What need do we have to knock at any other door? Can any be more tender over us
than Christ? What encouragement we have to commend the state of the church in
general, or of any broken-hearted Christian, to him by our prayers, of whom we
may speak to Christ, as they did of Lazarus, 'Lord, the church which thou
lovest, and gavest thyself for, is in distress'; 'Lord, this poor Christian, for
whom thou wast bruised (Isaiah 53:5) is bruised and brought very low.' It cannot
but touch his heart when the misery of those so dear to him is spread before
him. MISTREATING THE HEIRS OF MERCY Again, considering this gracious nature in
Christ, let us think with ourselves thus: when he is so kind to us, shall we be
cruel against him in his name, in his truth, in his children? How shall those
that delight to be so terrible to 'the meek of the earth' (Zephaniah 2:3) hope
to look so gracious a Savior in the face? They that are so boisterous towards
his spouse shall know one day that they had to deal with himself in his church.
So it cannot but cut the heart of those that have felt this love of Christ to
hear him wounded who is the life of their lives and the soul of their souls.
This makes those that have felt mercy weep over Christ whom they have pierced
with their sins. There cannot but be a mutual and quick sympathy between the
head and the members. When we are tempted to any sin, if we will not pity
ourselves, yet we should spare Christ, in not putting him to new torments. The
apostle could not find out a more heart-breaking argument to enforce a sacrifice
of ourselves to God than to appeal to us 'by the mercies of God' in Christ
(Romans 12:1). STRIFE AMONG THE HEIRS OF MERCY This mercy of Christ should also
move us to commiserate the state of the poor church, torn by enemies without,
and rending itself by divisions at home. It cannot but affect any soul that ever
felt comfort from Christ to consider what an affectionate entreaty the apostle
makes to mutual agreement in judgment and affection. 'If there be therefore any
consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded' (Php_2:1),
as if he should say, 'Unless you will disclaim all consolation in Christ, labour
to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' What a joyful
spectacle is this to Satan and his faction, to see those that are separated from
the world fall in pieces among themselves! Our discord is our enemy's melody.
The more to blame are those that for private aims affect differences from
others, and will not suffer the wounds of the church to close and meet together.
This must not be understood as if men should dissemble their judgment in any
truth where there is just cause of expressing themselves; for the least truth is
Christ's and not ours, and therefore we are not to take liberty to affirm or
deny at our pleasure. There is something due on a penny as well as on a pound,
therefore we must be faithful in the least truth, when the season calls for it.
Then our words are 'like apples of gold in pictures of silver' (Proverbs 25:11).
One word spoken in season will do more good than a thousand out of season. But
in some cases peace, through having our faith to ourselves before God (Romans
14:22), is of more consequence than the open discovery of some things we take to
be true, considering that the weakness of man's nature is such that there can
hardly be a discovery of any difference in opinion without some estrangement of
affection. So far as men are not of one mind, they will hardly be of one heart,
except where grace and the peace of God bear great rule in the heart (Colossians
3:15). Therefore open show of difference is only good when it is necessary,
although some, from a desire to be somebody, turn into by-ways and yield to a
spirit of contradiction in themselves. Yet, if Paul may be judge, they 'are yet
carnal' (1 Corinthians 3:3). If it be wisdom, it is wisdom from beneath: for the
wisdom from above, as it is pure, so it is peaceable (James 3:17). Our blessed
Savior, when he was to leave the world, what did he press upon his disciples
more than peace and love? And in his last prayer, with what earnestness did he
beg of his Father that 'they all may be one', as he and the Father were one
(John 17:21). But what he prayed for on earth, we shall only enjoy perfectly in
heaven. Let this make the meditation of that time the more sweet unto us. TAKING
ADVANTAGE OF THE BRUISED And further, to expose offenders of this kind, what
spirit shall we think -them to be of that take advantage of the bruisedness and
infirmities of men's spirits to relieve them with false peace for their own
worldly ends? A wounded spirit will part with anything. Most of the gainful
points of popery, such as confession, satisfaction, merit and purgatory, spring
from hence, but they are physicians of no value, or tormentors and not
physicians at all. It is a greater blessing to be delivered from the sting of
these scorpions (Revelation 9:5) than we are thankful for. Spiritual tyranny is
the greatest tyranny, and then especially when it is where most mercy should be
shown; yet even there some, like cruel surgeons, delight in making long cures,
to serve themselves through the misery of others. It brings men under a terrible
curse that they 'remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy
man', that they might 'even slay the broken in heart' (Psalms 109:16). In the
same way, to such as raise temporal advantage to themselves our of the spiritual
misery of others we must add such as raise estates by betraying the church, and
are unfaithful in the trust committed unto them, when the children cry for the
bread of life, and there is none to give them, bringing thus upon the people of
God that heavy judgment of a spiritual famine, starving Christ in his members.
Shall we so requite so good a Savior who counts the love and mercy shown in
feeding his lambs (John 21:15) as shown to himself? DESPISING THE SIMPLE MEANS
OF MERCY Lastly, they carry themselves very unkindly towards Christ who stumble
at his low stooping to us in his government and ordinances, that are ashamed of
the simplicity of the gospel, that count preaching foolishness. They, out of the
pride of their heart, think that they may do well enough without the help of the
Word and sacraments, and think Christ did not take enough dignity upon him; and
therefore they will mend the matter with their own devices so that they may give
better satisfaction to flesh and blood, as in popery. What greater
unthankfulness can there be than to despise any help that Christ in mercy has
provided for us? In the days of his flesh the proud Pharisees took offence at
his familiar conversing with sinful men, though he only did so as a physician to
heal their souls. What defenses was Paul driven to make for himself, for his
plainness in unfolding the gospel? The more Christ, in himself and in his
servants, shall descend to exalt us, the more we should, with all humility and
readiness, entertain that love and magnify the goodness of God, that has put the
great work of our salvation, and laid the government, upon so gentle a Savior as
will carry himself so mildly in all things wherein he is to deal between God and
us, and us and God. The lower Christ comes down to us, the higher let us lift
him up in our hearts. So will all those do that have ever found the experience
of Christ's work in their hearts.

Taken from The Bruised Reed. Updated.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 11: HELP FOR THE WEAK
========================================================================

Help for the Weak by Richard Sibbes By meditation on these rules and signs, much
comfort may be brought to the souls of the weakest. That it may be in greater
abundance, let me add something to help them over some few ordinary objections
and secret thoughts against themselves which, getting within the heart,
oftentimes keep them low. TEMPTATIONS WHICH HINDER COMFORT 1. Some think they
have no faith at all because they have no full assurance, whereas the fairest
fire that can be will have some smoke. The best actions will smell of the smoke.
The mortar wherein garlic has been stamped will always smell of it; so all our
actions will savor something of the old man. 2. In weakness of body some think
grace dies, because their performances are feeble, their spirits, which are the
instruments of their souls' actions, being weakened. But they do not consider
that God regards the hidden sighs of those that lack abilities to express them
outwardly. He that pronounces those blessed that consider the poor will have a
merciful consideration of such himself. 3. Some again are haunted with hideous
representations to their imaginations, and with vile and unworthy thoughts of
God, of Christ, of the Word, which, as busy flies, disquiet and molest their
peace. These are cast in like wildfire by Satan, as may be discerned by the
strangeness, the strength and violence, and the horribleness of them even to
corrupt nature. A pious soul is no more guilty of them than Benjamin was when
Joseph's cup was put into his sack. Among other helps recommended by godly
writers, such as detestation of them and diversion from them to other things,
let this be one, to complain to Christ against them, and to fly under the wings
of his protection, and to desire him to take our part against his and our enemy.
Shall every sin and blasphemy of man be forgiven, and not these blasphemous
thoughts, which have the devil for their father, when Christ himself was
molested in this way so that he might succor all poor souls in this condition?
But there is a difference between Christ and us in this case. Because Satan had
nothing of his own in Christ his suggestions left no impression at all in his
holy nature, but, as sparks falling into the sea, were presently quenched.
Satan's temptations of Christ were only suggestions on Satan's part, and
apprehensions of the vileness of them on Christ's part. To apprehend ill
suggested by another is not ill. It was Christ's grievance, but Satan's sin. But
thus he yielded himself to be tempted, that he might both pity us in our
conflicts, and train us up to manage our spiritual weapons as he did. Christ
could have overcome him by power, but he did it by argument. But when Satan
comes to us, he finds something of his own in us, which holds correspondence and
has intelligence with him. There is the same enmity in our nature to God and
goodness, in some degree, that is in Satan himself. Therefore his temptations
fasten, for the most part, some taint upon us. And if there were no devil to
suggest, yet sinful thoughts would arise from within us, though none were cast
in from without. We have a mint of them within. These thoughts, if the soul
dwell on them so long as to suck or draw from and by them any sinful delight,
then they leave a more heavy guilt upon the soul, hinder our sweet communion
with God, interrupt our peace, and put a contrary relish into the soul,
disposing it to greater sins. All scandalous actions are only thoughts at the
first. Ill thoughts are as little thieves, which, creeping in at the window,
open the door to greater. Thoughts are seeds of actions. These, especially when
they are helped forward by Satan, make the life of many good Christians almost a
martyrdom. In this case it is an unsound comfort that some minister, that ill
thoughts arise from nature, and what is natural is excusable. We must know that
nature, as it came out of God's hands in the beginning, had no such risings out
of it. The soul, as inspired of God, had no such unsavoury breathings. But since
it betrayed itself by sin it is, in some sort, natural to it to forge sinful
imaginations, and to be a furnace of such sparks. And this is an aggravation of
the sinfulness of natural corruption, that it is so deeply rooted and so
generally spread in our nature. It promotes humiliation to know the whole
breadth and depth of sin. But the fact that our nature now, so far as it is
unrenewed, is so unhappily fruitful in ill thoughts, ministers this comfort,
that it is not our case alone, as if our condition in this were different from
others, as some have been tempted to think, even almost to despair. None, say
they, have such a loathsome nature as I have. This springs from ignorance of the
spreading of original sin, for what can come from an unclean thing but that
which is unclean? 'As in water face answereth to face, so the [polluted] heart
of man to man' (Proverbs 27:19), where grace has not made some difference. As in
annoyances from Satan, so here, the best way is to lay open our complaints to
Christ, and cry with Paul, '0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from
the body of this death?' (Romans 7:24). On giving vent to his distress, he
presently found comfort, for he breaks into thanksgiving, 'I thank God.' And it
is good to profit from this, to hate this offensive body of death more, and to
draw nearer to God, as that holy man did after his 'foolish' and 'beastly'
thoughts (Psalms 73:22; Psalms 73:28), and so to keep our hearts closer to God,
seasoning them with heavenly meditations in the morning, storing up good matter,
so that our heart may be a good treasury, while we beg of Christ his Holy Spirit
to stop that cursed issue and to be a living spring of better thoughts in us.
Nothing more abases the spirits of holy men that desire to delight in God after
they have escaped the common defilements of the world than these unclean issues
of spirit, as being most contrary to God, who is a pure Spirit. But the very
irksomeness of them yields matter of comfort against them. They force the soul
to all spiritual exercises, to watchfulness and a more near walking with God,
and to raise itself to thoughts of a higher nature, such as those which the
truth of God, the works of God, the communion of saints, the mystery of
godliness, the terror of the Lord, and the excellency of the state of a
Christian and a conversation suitable to it, do abundantly minister. They
discover to us a necessity of daily purging and pardoning grace, and of seeking
to be found in Christ, and so bring the best often upon their knees. Our chief
comfort is that our blessed Savior, as he bade Satan depart from him, after he
had given way awhile to his insolence (Mart. 4:10), so he will command him to be
gone from us, when it shall be good for us. He must be gone at a word. And
Christ can and will likewise, in his own time, rebuke the rebellious and
extravagant stirrings of our hearts and bring all the thoughts of the inner man
into subjection to himself. 4. Some think, when they become more troubled with
the smoke of corruption than they were before, therefore they are worse than
they were. It is true that corruptions appear now more than before, but they are
less. For, first, the more sin is seen, the more it is hated, and therefore it
is less. Dust particles are in a room before the sun shines, but they only
appear then. Secondly, the nearer contraries are one to another, the sharper is
the conflict between them. Now, of all enemies the spirit and the flesh are
nearest one to another, being both in the soul of a regenerate man, in the
faculties of the soul, and in every action that springs from those faculties,
and therefore it is no marvel that the soul, the seat of this battle, thus
divided within itself, is as smoking flax. Thirdly, the more grace, the more
spiritual life, and the more spiritual life, the more antipathy to the contrary.
Therefore none are so aware of corruption as those whose souls arc most alive.
Fourthly, when men give themselves up to self-indulgence, their corruptions do
not trouble them, as not being bound and tied up; but when once grace suppresses
their extravagant and licentious excesses, then the flesh boils, as disdaining
to be confined. Yet they are better now than they were before. That matter which
yields smoke was in the torch before it was lighted, but it is not offensive
till the torch begins to burn. Let such know that if the smoke be once offensive
to them, it is a sign that there is light. It is better to enjoy the benefit of
light, though with smoke, than to be altogether in the dark. Nor is smoke so
offensive to us as light is pleasant to us, since it yields an evidence of the
truth of grace in the heart. Therefore, though it is cumbersome in the conflict,
yet it is comfortable as evidence. It is better that corruption should offend us
now than, by giving way to it to gain a little peace, to lose comfort
afterwards. Let such therefore as are at variance and odds with their
corruptions look on this text as their portion of comfort. WEAKNESS SHOULD NOT
KEEP US FROM DUTY It should encourage us to duty that Christ will not quench the
smoking flax, but blow on it till it flames. Some are loath to do good because
they feel their hearts rebelling, and duties turn out badly. We should not avoid
good actions because of the infirmities attending them. Christ looks more at the
good in them which he means to cherish than the ill in them which he means to
abolish. Though eating increases a disease, a sick man will still eat, so that
nature may gain strength against the disease. So, though sin cleaves to what we
do, yet let us do it, since we have to deal with so good a Lord, and the more
strife we meet with, the more acceptance we shall have. Christ loves to taste of
the good fruits that come from us, even though they will always savor of our old
nature. A Christian complains he cannot pray. 'Oh, I am troubled with so many
distracting thoughts, and never more than now!' But has he put into your heart a
desire to pray? Then he will hear the desires of his own Spirit in you. 'We know
not what we should pray for as we ought' (nor how to do anything else as we
ought), but the Spirit helps our infirmities with 'groanings which cannot be
uttered' (Romans 8:26), which are not hid from God. 'My groaning is not hid from
thee' (Psalms 38:9). God can pick sense out of a confused prayer. These desires
cry louder in his ears than your sins. Sometimes a Christian has such confused
thoughts that he can say nothing but, as a child, cries, '0 Father', not able to
express what he needs, like Moses at the Red Sea. These stirrings of spirit
touch the heart of God and melt him into compassion towards us, when they come
from the Spirit of adoption, and from a striving to be better. 'Oh, but is it
possible', thinks the misgiving heart, 'that so holy a God should accept such a
prayer?' Yes, he will accept that which is his own, and pardon that which is
ours. Jonah prayed in the fish's belly (Jonah 2:1), being burdened with the
guilt of sin, yet God heard him. Let not, therefore, infirmities discourage us.
James takes away this objection (James 5:17). Some might object, 'If I were as
holy as Elijah, then my prayers might be regarded.' 'But,' says he, 'Elijah was
a man subject to like passions as we are.' He had his passions as well as we, or
do we think that God heard him because he was without fault? Surely not. But
look at the promises: 'Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee'
(Psalms 50:15). 'Ask, and it shall be given you' (Matthew 7:7) and others like
these. God accepts our prayers, though weak, because we are his own children,
and they come from his own Spirit; because they are according to his own will;
and because they are offered in Christ's mediation, and he takes them, and
mingles them with his own incense (Revelation 8:3). There is never a holy sigh,
never a tear we shed, which is lost. And as every grace increases by exercise of
itself, so does the grace of prayer. By prayer we learn to pray. So, likewise,
we should take heed of a spirit of discouragement in all other holy duties,
since we have so gracious a Savior. Pray as we are able, hear as we are able,
strive as we are able, do as we are able, according to the measure of grace
received. God in Christ will cast a gracious eye upon that which is his own.
Would Paul do nothing because he could not do the good that he would? No, he
'pressed toward the mark'. Let us not be cruel to ourselves when Christ is thus
gracious. There is a certain meekness of spirit whereby we yield thanks to God
for any ability at all, and rest quiet with the measure of grace received,
seeing it is God's good pleasure it should be so, who gives the will and the
deed, yet not so as to rest from further endeavors. But when, with faithful
endeavor, we come short of what we would be, and short of what others are, then
know for our comfort, Christ will not quench the smoking flax, and that
sincerity and truth, as we said before, with endeavor of growth, is our
perfection. What God says of Jeroboam's son is comforting, 'He only shall come
to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God
of Israel' (1 Kings 14:13), though only 'some good thing'. 'Lord, I believe'
(Mark 9:24), with a weak faith, yet with faith; love thee with a faint love, yet
with love; endeavor in a feeble manner, yet endeavor. A little fire is fire,
though it smokes. Since thou hast taken me into thy covenant to be thine from
being an enemy, wilt thou cast me off for these infirmities, which, as they
displease thee, so are they the grief of my own heart?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 12: SPIRITUAL JUBILEE, THE
========================================================================

The Spiritual Jubilee by Richard Sibbes For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and of death.—Romans 8:2.
There are four things especially that trouble the peace of a Christian, and
indeed of any man, in this world. The first is, sin, with the guilt of it,
binding them over to the wrath of God, and the expectation of misery, which is a
heavy bondage. The second is, besides the guilt of sin, the remainders of
corruption, with the conflict that accompanies them while we live in this world;
and that conflict must needs be tedious. The third is, the miseries of this life
that accompany always both the guilt and remainders of sin in this world. We are
condemned to a great deal of trouble here, and this doth much exercise and
perplex God's children. And then the finishing up of all, death and damnation.
The thought of these things doth much disquiet and disturb the peace of a
Christian's soul. Now, in this Epistle we have comfort against all these. First,
for the guilt of sin, that binds us over to eternal judgment and the wrath of
God; we are freed by the obedience of Christ, the second Adam, as is excellently
shewed in the fifth chapter. And for the remainders of corruption that we
struggle with in this world, we are assisted against that by the Spirit of
Christ. For as by the obedience of Christ we are freed from the guilt, so by the
Spirit of Christ we are helped and assisted against the remainders of our
corruptions. For the third, the miseries of this life, we have victory in
Christ: 'In him we are more than conquerors,' as you have it in this chapter,
Romans 8:37. They can do us no harm. Nothing can separate us from the love of
God in Christ Jesus.' We have many singular comforts in this chapter against all
the troubles that can befall us, and this is one that triumphs over all: 'All
things shall work for the best to them that love God.' What should I speak of
hurt from anything that befalls us, when all shall work for the best, by the
over-ruling of him that commands all? ver. 28. And for death itself: 'Neither
life nor death shall be able to separate us from the love of God.' And for
damnation which accompanies death: 'It is God that justifieth, who shall
condemn?' There are contrasting comforts in God's book, nay, in this epistle and
in this chapter, to set against all that may any way trouble our peace. 'There
is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,' saith the apostle; and
then he goes on after to shew how, by the help of the Spirit, 'all things work
for the best,' &c. In this very verse likewise, you have this comfort set down,
of our freedom by Christ from any thing that may hurt us. 'For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and of
death.' The words are not absolute, as we see in the particle 'for;' for the law
of the Spirit of life,' &c. They depend upon the first verse thus; as a reason
why, however there be sin in God's children, yet there is no damnation to them.
'There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.' He proves it thus.
Those that are free from the law of sin and of death, which brings in
condemnation, those undoubtedly are free from damnation. But those that are in
Christ Jesus, they are freed from the law of sin and of death; therefore there
is no condemnation to such. But how shall we know that we are in Christ Jesus?
Those that have the Spirit, and are led by the Spirit of Christ, they are in
Christ. 'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the
law of sin and of death.' So I say, the words are especially a reason of the
former, 'There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus;' because by
the 'Spirit of Christ they are freed from the law of sin, and of death;' and
consequently, they are freed from damnation; for what brings in damnation but
sin? In the words, then, there is an opposition. There is law against law. 'The
law of the Spirit of life in Christ,' and 'the law of sin and of death.' Now,
where there are contrary laws, if there be contrary lords, as there must be, new
lords will have new laws; especially if they be lords by conquest, they will
alter the very fundamental laws that were before; as you know the old conquerors
have done in this kingdom. Here is law against law, and lord against lord;
Christ against sin and death. Here is a Lord by conquest over all other lords
and laws. Therefore, here must needs be an alteration of laws upon it; the very
fundamental laws must be altered. But to come more particularly to the words,
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the law of
sin and of death.' The words are much vexed by expositors. I will rather speak
my own judgment of them, and reconcile them, than dash one man's judgment
against another; for that tends not to edification. 'The law of the Spirit of
life,' &c. The meaning of the words is plain, if we compare it with other
Scriptures. 'The law.' It is nothing but a commanding power; for so the word
written the law, in the apostle's meaning, is but a power forcing and
commanding. So the 'law of the Spirit of life' is the commanding and forcing
power of the 'Spirit of life in Christ Jesus;' and so the 'law of sin,' it is
either the tyrannical command and forcing power of sin, or else the condemning
for sin afterwards, as we shall see hereafter. For we shall unfold the words
better in the particulars. First, then, here we have set down what estate we are
in by nature: 'We are under the law of sin and of death.' And then, here is our
freedom and deliverance from that: 'We are made free from the law of sin and of
death.' And then the author of it, Christ Jesus: 'The law of the Spirit of life
ire Christ Jesus hath freed me from the law of sin and of death.' In the words,
and those that go a little before, there are these three main fundamental points
of religion: The misery and bondage of man. The deliverance of man. And his
duty. Here you have his misery. He is under 'sin and death.' Here is his
deliverance. He is 'free from this by Christ.' And for his duty; you have it in
the last verse of the former chapter, speaking of his deliverance. 'Oh wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' Then it
follows, 'Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Thankfulness is due,
not verbal thankfulness only. Indeed, the whole life of a Christian, after his
deliverance, is a real thanksgiving. But that is not in my text. To speak,
therefore, of our estate by nature, and of our deliverance; our estate is, that
we are under the law of sin and death. 'We are under the law of sin.' Obs. We
are under sin. What sin? We are under a threefold sin. 1. We are under the fast
sin of our first father; for as Levi paid tithes in Abraham to Melchisedec, so
we all sinned in the loins of Adam our first parent; and the guilt of that first
sin lies upon us. 2. Secondly, There is another sin that is derived and springs
from that first sin; which is the marring of the image of God, the privation of
our nature. We call it original sin, whereby we are stripped of that good we had
in our first creation, and have the contrary image, the image of Satan stamped
upon us. So we are under the first sin, the guilt of it; and we are under the
sin of nature, which we call original sin, because it is derived to us even from
our birth and first original we had in Adam. 3. And then we are under actual
sins, which are so many bonds to tie us fast under sin. We are dead by nature;
but we are dead and rotten by actual sins. We superadd to the guilt of our sin
by our daily activities. We are blind by nature; but we are blinded indeed much
more by our custom of life. Every sin doth, as it were, tie us faster to
damnation, and keeps us more tightly under the bondage of sin. Every new sin
takes away some part of the light of the understanding, and takes away some
freedom of the will. It darkens the judgment more and more, and enthralls the
will and affections; and binds a man more and more to the just sentence of God,
that, as it is Proverbs 5:22, 'the sinner is tied with the bonds of his own
sins.' He is under the chains of an habituated wicked course of life, as well as
of the sin of nature, which is the spring of all. This is the miserable state of
man; and these chains of his sins hold him over him to further chains. Even as
the devil is reserved in chains; that is, in terrors of his conscience, which as
chains bind him till he be in hell, the place he is destined to; so we being in
the chains and bondage, vexed with our sins, we are at the same time in the
chains of terrors of conscience, the beginnings of hell, and reserved to chains
of damnation and death world without end. It is another manner of matter, our
estate by nature, than it is usually taken for. If men had but a little
supernatural light, to see what condition they are in, till they get out into
Christ Jesus, they would not continue a minute in that cursed estate. And we
have deserved to be cast into this estate by reason that we left our
subordination and dependence upon God, which, being creatures, we should have
had. Therefore we turning from God to the creature, God punisheth our rebellion
to him with rebellion in ourselves; because we withdrew our subjection from him,
that therefore there should be in us a withdrawing of the subjection of sin and
of the whole soul to God. So this captivity to and giving up to sin in us, it is
penal and sinful; but as it comes from God, it is altogether judicial. Therefore
we have it oft in the New Testament, in Romans 1:21 and 2 Thessalonians 2:10.
The Gentiles, because they would not receive the truth that they might have had
by the light of nature, 'God gave them up to their sins.' And then the
Christians after the apostles' times, they set slight by the good word of God,
the gospel. Therefore 'God gave them up to believe lies.' It was sin in them;
but as God gave them up, it was justice. So this captivity and giving men up to
their own lusts, it is justice; as it comes from God, it is a horrible judgment.
It is worse than to be given up to the devil himself; for by being given up to
our lusts we increase our damnation. To be given up to be tormented of the
devil, it is not such a mischief as this spiritual captivity under sin. We are
guilty ourselves of our own thraldom. And this will increase both the shame and
the punishment. The shame, that a man shall say in hell afterward, 'I have
brought myself hither, I had means enough, prohibitions enough; I had sometimes
chastisements of God, sometimes motions of his Spirit, sometimes one help from
God, sometimes another; yet notwithstanding I thrust through all oppositions
that God set between me and the execution of my lusts, and to hell-ward I would,
and hither I have brought myself.' So that indeed the greatest part of
hell-torments, the shame of them especially, it will be that men have brought
themselves by their own wits and carnal lusts thither. And indeed all the wit a
carnal man hath, that is not sanctified by God's Spirit, it is to work himself
to misery, to be a drudge to his lusts; that sets all the parts he hath on work,
not how he may serve God and be happy in another world, but how he may prowl and
provide for his own carnal lusts. This is the estate of all men by nature. They
are under sin, under the power of sin. The blind judgment leads the blind
affections, and both 'fall into the ditch,' into hell, Luke 6:89. 1. The
fearfulness and odiousness of this condition, to be in prison and thraldom and
bondage to all kind of sin, natural and actual, it will appear further by this,
that being in subjection to our base lusts, by consequence we are under the
bondage of Satan; for he hath power over death by sin, because he draws us to
sin, and then accuseth us and torments us for sin. By sin we come to be under
his bondage. So that we are under the fearful captivity of the devil while we
are under the captivity of sin; for all the power that he hath over us it is by
sin. He is but God's executioner for sin. First, God gives him power to draw us
to sin, to punish one sin with another; and then he suffers him to accuse and to
torment us afterward: What a fearful bondage is this, that being under sin we
are under Satan! We are servants to our enemy, as God threatened his people that
they should serve their enemies. But this is a greater judgment, to be slaves to
this enemy. This is the condition of every sinner. To be a slave to a man's
enemy, it is a judgment of judgments; yet notwithstanding this is the case of
every man by nature; he is a servant to his enemy, to Satan and his own lusts.
He is a right Ham, a 'servant of servants;' for Satan useth him as the
Philistines did Samson: he puts out his eyes; he puts out his judgment, his
wits; he besots him; and so he goes blind in Satan's blind work and business: he
is in a maze all his life long, till at length he sink into hell. So this is the
aggravation of a man's estate by nature, he is a slave to his enemy. You know
blessed Zacharias saith, Luke 1:74-75, 'That, being delivered out of the hands
of our enemies, we might serve him without fear, in righteousness and holiness,
all the days of our life.' There is no wicked man, but he is manipulated by the
devil. Oh that we would consider of it! We think we are led only by our own
lusts and sins, as men; but until a man be in Christ, 'he is ruled by the
command of the prince of the air,' Ephesians 2:2, and in 2 Timothy 2:26, 'he is
ruled by Satan, according to his will.' Even as a bird in a snare, it may move
up and down, but it is still in the snare, and he that hath it there cares not:
he knows he hath it safe, and he goes about to catch other birds; so when we are
in our lusts and follow them, the devil hath us in his snare: he is secure of
us, and goes about getting more and more still. The devil acts, and moves, and
leads all carnal men. But how chanceth it that they do not know and perceive it?
It is because he goeth with the stream of their own corruptions. Indeed, we must
make some limitation of this. In some cases the devil doth not move carnal men.
They are better than the devil would have them be for the good of the
commonwealth and state; but yet take them as they stand in relation to religion,
they may be devilish, secret, bitter, dark enemies to that. Though they may have
strong heads for the good of the state, yet it is not from any intrinsic good in
themselves; but God useth them and makes them do that. For the devil would have
all wicked; he is an enemy to the very swine; therefore much more to the good of
a state. Therefore there are many civil moral virtues, as we see in Ahithophel
and Judas, which no question is more than the devil would have. He would not
have civil men so good; he would not have them do that they do for the common
good ofttimes. Yet the devil will be sure to be at one end of the good they do,
to taint them, that their aim shall not be good. It shall not be to the glory of
God; it shall not be in reference to salvation. And so, as the good is temporal,
they have a reward suitable to their desire; they care for no more. For they
believe not heaven but in a general notion. It may be there is such things, it
may be not. Therefore the good they do is some little petty obedience. And what
do they desire? To be well esteemed and respected; to be venerable, and to have
honourable opinions in the hearts of men, that men may stoop in their conceits
to them as men of respect. This they deserve indeed, and this they have; God
gives them that they would have. But as Christ tells the Pharisees, who did
excellent good things, but it was to be 'seen of men,' he tells them 'they had
their reward,' Matthew 6:2. They had all they looked for, for they were
atheists; they looked not for heaven. So a man may say of all that are out of
the state of grace: though they do more than the devil would have them, and for
divers degrees of what they do they are not subject to the devil, yet he taints
their actions one way or other in the end; he joins himself in the action first
or last; he hath a hand in all their actions. So that, notwithstanding there be
many good things, yet this hinders not a whit but that they may be under the
power of the devil; for it is but in reference to civil government and state,
which is but for a time. 'The fashion of this world passeth away,' 1 Corinthians
7:31. Here will be no magistrates to govern, nor no people to be governed ere
long. I speak it, because many men are ready to propound such and such, to
imitate them in their courses; and to say, I will be no more religious than he;
when, perhaps, all may be but formality and common graces for this world. God
will honour some so much, to be instruments for common good here; but what is
that to eternal salvation? He may be a slave to his lusts, and an enemy to the
power of grace, for all that. Therefore, unless we see men wrought upon
thoroughly, to be of the mind of Christ, to have the Spirit of Christ, to judge
of things as Christ judgeth, to judge the service of God and doing his will to
be the best things, and to 'go about doing good, Acts 10:38, and that with
reference and obedience to God, all is nothing else. A man may be under the
bondage of his corruptions, and so by them to Satan. Again, When we are under
our lusts and sins, it is about earthly things; we are in slavery to that which
is worse than ourselves. Sin is the vilest thing in the world, and the things
whereabout sin is occupied are the profits and pleasures and trifles of this
world—mean petty things. It is a base slavery to consider whom we serve. 3. And
to consider what it is that is in bondage, the immortal soul of man, that had
the image of God stamped upon it; and in the soul of man, the most excellent
part, the will, that is most free, yet being under sin, it is most bound. Our
will was given us to cleave to God and the best things; to make choice of the
best things, and to cleave to them undivided in life and death, and for ever;
and so by cleaving to things better than ourselves, to advance ourselves to a
higher condition. For when the soul of man that is under better things, that is
under God and Christ, and doth cleave to God and Christ in his affections, and
to the things of a better life, these be things bettering a man's condition,
even raising the soul from its own present estate to a glorious condition; for
we are as we love. Our wills and our affections do transform us. Therefore
wicked men are called the world, because they love it; and holy men are called
heavenly, because they are carried in their affections and wills to heavenly
things. Our affections and wills do denominate us, they give us the name; nay,
that is too little, they do give us the reality, the state. When God so alters
and changes our dispositions, that out of a sanctified judgment we make a right
choice of things, and then cleave to them in our wills and affections
constantly, this raiseth our nature to be higher than itself: 'He that cleaveth
to the Lord is one spirit,' as the apostle saith, Acts 10:38. Indeed, our
affections transform us anew. As it is with the fire, it transforms cold and
gross bodies to be all fiery; so God and heavenly things work upon our hearts,
they transform us to be like themselves. Now, for this inward soul of man, which
is so excellent a thing, fitted by God to cleave to better things, for communion
with himself and everlasting happiness, for this to be a drudge to base
pleasures and profits, to the windy empty things of this world, to vain titles
and such like empty things, and to place its happiness in these things, it is a
pitiful degeneration that so excellent a thing as the immortal soul of man, that
shall never die, should join with those things that shall make him miserable,
that it shall be better for a man that he had never been; as it is said of
Judas, 'It had been better for that man that he had never been born,' Matthew
26:24. 4: In the next place, consider that that follows this thraldom and
baseness to our lusts. There is a double fruit of it. (1.) The one is uncertain.
I mean, for our yielding to our base affections, what do we profit? 'The
pleasures of sin for a season,' Hebrews 11:25; a little pleasure or profit,
perhaps not that neither; but if we have it, it is a fading commodity, that goes
away quickly. When they are gotten, what are they? Vanity. They promise more
before we get them than they perform when we have them. But then (2.) There is
another wages, that God injustice hath appointed for it, that is, damnation:
'The wages of sin is death,' Rom. 6:28. It cries for wages. When we are under
sin we can look for nothing but death, and therefore he joins them together
here: 'the law of sin and of death,' an expectation of eternal misery. This a
man hath that is wedded to himself, that hath not learned the first lesson in
the gospel, to deny himself. He is a wretched slave to the devil in his best
part and power; his lusts imprison his will and affections; his wit, that should
devise how he should be happy for eternity, it is only a drudge to his base
lusts. There are a company of men that are the shame and blemish of the gospel,
that get their wits a-work only how to devise to satisfy their base lusts; and
then the issue and conclusion of all this is eternal misery; and in the
meantime, the expectation of misery in terrors of conscience. This is the estate
of every man till he be translated by the Spirit of God to a better condition in
Christ, that he spends out his time in a base and miserable thraldom, worse than
the thraldom of the Israelites in Egypt or in Babylon. 5. And it is so much the
more fearful, because men are insensible of it, like inmates in an insane
asylum, that make nothing of their chains, that laugh in their chains. A frantic
man, when he is bound in chains, he laughs, when they that are about him weep at
his misery. So you have men frolicking in sin. They will swear at liberty, and
besot themselves at liberty, and corrupt their consciences, even for base
trifles. They think they are in no bondage, and they do all wondrous cheerfully
and well; whenas indeed the more cheerfully and readily any man performs the
base service of sin, the more he is in bondage. Freedom is opposite to bondage.
Notwithstanding, such is the nature of sin, that the more freely we do it the
more we are bound; because the more freedom we have, the more we are entangled.
We ran into guilt upon guilt, till after guilt comes execution, an eternal
separation from the presence of God, and an adjudging to eternal torments for
ever. So that it is a false judgment that the world hath. They think great men
happy men. Why? They do as they desire. Ay, they may do so, and ofttimes they
take the liberty to do so. They will be under no laws. They are so far from
obeying the law of God, that they are loath to be hampered with the laws of the
state, or with any laws, but they will be above all. A miserable condition! Why?
The more will a man hath in evil, the more miserable; for the more freely and
with less opposition he tangleth himself. Let his place be never so great, the
deeper he sinks in rebellion, and the deeper he sinks into guilt upon guilt;
which will all come to a reckoning at the hour of death and day of judgment. So
the men that we admire and envy most—out of credulity and lack of judgment—they
are the most miserable creatures in the world, if they be out of Christ and have
not grace. For they have nature let loose in them without restraint; and nature
being under the captivity of sin, becomes out of measure sinful in such. The
less a man is curbed either from laws above him or the law within him to check
him, the more wretched man he is. For the deeper he goes in rebellion and sin,
the deeper his torment shall be afterward. Great persons have a great privilege.
What privilege is that? They shall be greatly tormented. That is all the
privilege that I know if they be wicked. Those that shake off all bonds, any
earthly privilege and prerogative is so far from exempting them from misery,
that it makes them more miserable; for unless they have grace to use those
things that might be an advantage to better things, they sink deeper and deeper
into sin, and so into terrors of conscience first or last; and, by consequence,
to damnation. Oh it is a fearful condition to be the greatest monarch in the
world and not to be in Christ, and under the law of 'the Spirit of life in
Christ'! They are the objects of pity more than any other kind of men to truly
judicious souls, that know from God's truth, and by the light of the Spirit,
what is to be judged of the state of men. You see then what kind of misery it is
that natural men are under, being under the law of sin. 6. To declare it a
little further, for men will hardly think it is such a bondage to be under sin.
Therefore, I beseech you, do but consider how sin tyranniseth where it gets
strength. See it in some instances. The covetous worldly man that is under the
law of that lust, he hath the law of other lusts, but that is predominant—see
how it tyranniseth. It takes away his rest; the use of God's blessings; the good
things he bath given him to enjoy. It makes him a slave to the creature. We see
it in carnal pleasure. Amnon, when he lusted after his sister Tamar, it took
away his rest, 2 Samuel 13:2, seq. And how doth this degrading affection
tyrannise in some men? It makes them forget their bodies so, that they overthrow
their health and hasten death temporal. It hurts the natural man. It makes them
forget their reputation; it makes them forget their souls; it makes them stink,
by living in that carnal noisome sin. The judicious heathen were sensible of it,
by the strength of natural judgment; yet sin where it is in any strength
uncurbed, it so tyranniseth, that it makes men forget both health and life and
reputation and estate in this world, that they come to nothing. What should I
speak of forgetting life eternal and damnation? They have no faith to believe
that. But such is the tyranny of sin, that it makes them forget things sensible;
that by experience, after they see how dearly they have bought their base
pleasures, with the loss of reputation, and health, and comfort; with the loss
of the estate that God hath trusted them withal in this world. Take a man that
is under the degrading law of ambition, a proud person. See how it tyranniseth
over him. It makes him forget blood and kindred, all the bonds of nature. He
will kill his brethren to make his way; as you know in our own stories such
tyrants. If there were not stories enough in this kind, daily experience shews
it. Where the law of ambition and pride reigns, it makes the heart wherein this
tyrant sets up his throne, to forget all bonds whatsoever, of nature and
justice. You know whose speech it was, 'If the law must be violated, it must be
for a kingdom' [Shakespeare]. But men will do it for far less. We see what men
will do for a despicable place to command others in this world, when they are
conscious of their own evil courses, and commanding corruptions; and all to give
way to the base affection of ambition. A touch is enough of these things, for
experience witnesseth and goes along with me. All men that are not in Christ,
they have some predominant sin; either some degrading sin, or some more refined
sin and lust, that keeps them from Christ and salvation; and this tyranniseth
over them. And this is the nature of this tyrant sin. It hath such possession of
a man till he be got out of it and be in Christ, that it takes away the
perception of itself. It hinders the knowledge of itself; it puts out a man's
eyes. For that whereby a man should judge of corruption, it is corrupt itself.
'The wisdom of a man is death, it is enmity to God,' Romans 8:7. The wit that he
hath that should discern of his degrading courses, it tangles him more and more
to his own lusts; so that wit and wisdom, the highest part of the soul, it is
imprisoned by base affections; and that power that should discern corruption, it
is set on work to satisfy corruption. What is the wit of a man that is not in
Christ occupied about all his lifetime? It is nothing but a drudge and a slave,
to devise means to satisfy his degrading lusts. Take a worldly man: he is
exceeding witty to contrive worldly plots and business, though he be a dunce and
a sot in matters that are spiritual. In his own tract and course, he hath a
shrewd wit. Why? Because his lusts to the world, they whet his wit. So we see
the best thing in man now is enthralled to sin, his very wisdom itself;
therefore it is enmity to God. Every man hath some Herodias (Matthew 14:3), some
sin or other that he is in bondage to, till he be in Christ. He cannot in a like
measure be given and enthralled to all sins. It is unnecessary; because one sin
serves another. Many sins serve one great one. Corruption doth not run in all
streams in one equality: but it runs violently in one way unchecked and
uncontrolled and unhindered, in all men that are not in Christ, and subdues the
soul to itself, that it can devise and plot for nothing, but to satisfy that
base lust. This is the state of man by nature. Obj. But some will say, it is not
our state and condition. We are baptized, and receive the sacrament, and hear
sermons, and read good books; and therefore we are not under sin. Ans. But saith
the apostle, 'His servants ye are to whom ye obey,' Romans 6:16. You may know
the state of your service and subjection, by the course of your life. And as
Christ saith to the Jews, John 8:83, they bragged that they were free. Alas!
proud people! They were neither free for soul nor state; for they were under the
Romans. They thought they were free because they were 'Abraham's children.' Were
they not in captivity to the Egyptians, and under the Babylonians, and in
present captivity under the Romans? Yet they forget themselves out of pride. 'If
the Son make you free, ye are free indeed,' John 8:86; but because they were in
a sinful course, they were slaves of sin. So it is no matter what privileges men
are under, that they receive the sacrament, and are baptized, and live in the
church, &c. 'His servants ye are, whom ye obey.' If there be prevailing lusts
that set up their throne and tyrannise in our hearts, and set our wits on work,
to devise how to satisfy them more than to please God, it is no matter what
privileges we have. It is no matter whose uniform we wear, but whom we serve. We
may wear God's uniform, that shall be pulled over our heads afterward and we be
left unclothed; that it shall appear that we are the devil's servants under the
profession of Christ. There is no man that is not in Christ, that denies his
corrupt nature anything. If revenge bid him take revenge, he will if he can; if
he do not, it is no thanks to him, but to the laws. If any sin rise in the
heart, all the parts of the body, and powers of the soul, are ready weapons to
this tyrant to keep a man in slavery. As if anger and wrath keep a man in
bondage, you shall have it in his countenance; his hand will be ready to execute
it; his feet will be ready to carry him to revenge. If it be a proud heart that
a man is kept under, you shall have it in his looks and expressions outward. If
it be the base affection of lust, you shall have adultery in the eye; an
unchaste and uncircumcised ear and filthy rotten language. Men you see upon all
occasions are ready to execute the commands of these tyrannical lusts, in some
kind or other. Therefore never talk of thy freedom, when lusts are raised up
within thee, either ascending from thine own corruption, or cast in by Satan,
and so joining with thy heart. Presently thy tongue will speak wickedly, and
thine eyes, and looks, and countenance, shew that there is a wicked heart
within; and the whole man is ready to execute it, further than a man is curbed
bylaw, or respect to his reputation or the like, which is no thanks to him. Yet
a man cannot act the part of a civil man so well, but the corruption of his vile
heart will betray itself in his looks or language. One time or other this tyrant
will break forth. Therefore let us look to our hearts and courses; for if we be
not in Christ, we are under the 'law of sin.' 'And of death.' We are not only
under the law of sin, but also 'of death.' Now, 1, there is a death in this
world, the separation of the soul from the body. But that is not so much meant
here. For when we are in Christ we are not free from this death. But there is,
2, a worse death, which is a separation of the soul from the favour and love of
God, and from the sanctifying and comforting Spirit of God. When the Spirit of
God doth not comfort and sanctify the soul, it is a death. For as the soul is
the life of the body, the body hath but a communicated life from the union it
hath with the soul. The soul hath a life of its own, when it is out of the body,
but the body hath its life from the soul. So it is with the soul in this world.
1. When there is an estrangement of the soul from the Spirit of God and Christ,
sanctifying, and comforting and cheering it, then there is a death of the soul.
The soul can no more act anything that is savingly and holily good, than the
body can be without the soul. And as the body without the soul is a noxious,
stinking carcass, offensive in the eyes of its dearest friends, so the soul
without the Spirit of Christ quickening and renewing it, and putting a
comeliness and beauty upon it, it is odious. All the clothes and flowers you put
upon a dead body cannot make it but a stinking carcass; so all the moral
virtues, and all the honours in this world put upon a man out of Christ, it
makes him not a spiritual living soul; he is but a loathsome corpse, a dead
carcass, in the sight of God, and of all that have the Spirit of God. For he is
under death. He is stark and stiff, unable to stir or move to any duty
whatsoever. He hath no sense nor motion. Though such men live a common natural
civil life, and walk up and down, yet they are dead men to God and to a better
life. The world is full of dead men, that are dead while they are alive, as St
Paul speaks of the 'widow that lives in pleasures,' 1 Timothy 5:6. A fearful
estate, if we had spiritual eyes to see it and think of it. 2. But then after
the death of the soul in this world, there is another degree of spiritual death;
which is, when the soul leaves the body. Then the soul dies. For then it goes to
hell. It is severed for ever from the comfortable and gracious presence of God,
and likewise it lacks the comforts it had in this world. 3. And the third degree
of it is, when body and soul shall be joined together; then there is an eternal
separation of both from the presence of God, and an adjudging of them to eternal
torments in hell. This is the state of all men that are not in Christ. They are
dead in soul while they live; dead after the separation of the soul and body,
and after to be adjudged to eternal damnation, world without end. Life is a
sweet thing, and we know death is terrible. When we would set out our
hatefulness to anything, we often say, 'I hate it as death.' Do we love life,
and do we hate death? We should labour then to be out of that condition that we
are all in by nature, wherein we are under sin and death, in regard of spiritual
life, I mean; for, for civil life, and government, and policy, men may have life
and vigour enough, that are hypocrites. But I speak of a better life, an eternal
life, that is not subject to death. Now, mark the joining of both these
together. We are under sin and death by nature. Where a man is under sin he is
under death; for as the apostle saith, Romans 5:12, 'Sin entered into the world,
and by sin death.' They were neither of both God's creatures, neither sin nor
death. But sin entered into the world by Satan, and death by sin. 'Oh, ye shall
not die,' saith Satan. He was a liar alway from the beginning. So now he saith
to men, you shall not die; you may do this and do well enough. But he is a liar
and a murderer. When he solicits to sin he is a murderer. Let us take heed of
solicitations to sin, from our own nature or from Satan. Mark how God hath
linked sin and death, 'The wages of sin is death,' Rom. 6:28. When we are
tempted to sin, we think, I shall have this honour, or profit, or contentment,
or preferment, and advancement in the world. Ay, but that that you get by sin,
it is not so great as you look for, when you have it, if you get it at all. But
afterwards comes death, the beginnings of eternal death, terrors of conscience,
universally follow, if a man be himself, if he be not stupified. The more a man
is a man, and enjoys the liberty of his judgment to judge of things, the more he
sees the misery that is due after sin, with a fearful expectation of worse
things to come. Sin and death are an adamantine chain and link that none can
sever. Who shall separate that which God in his justice hath put together? If
sin go before, death will follow. If the conception go before, the birth will
follow after; if the smoke go before, the fire will follow. There is not a more
constant order in nature than this in God's appointment: first sin, and then
death and damnation after. Use. Therefore when we are tempted to sin let us
reason with ourselves, 'There is death in the pot,' 2 Kings 4:40. Let us discern
death in it. It will follow. And if a man after repent of it, it will be more
sharp repentance and grievous than the sin was pleasant; that a man shall have
little joy of his sin, if he do repent. If he do not repent, what a fearful
estate is a man in, after he hath sinned! Sin and death go together. No human
power can sever them; for take the greatest monarch in the world, when he hath
sinned, conscience is above him as great as he is, for conscience is next under
God. It awes and terrifies him, and keeps his sleep from him; as we see of late
in our bloody neighbour country, after that great massacre, he could not sleep
without music and the like. All that they have and enjoy in the world, all their
greatness, it will not satisfy and stop the mouth of conscience; but when they
sin, they feel the wrath of God arresting, and they are as it were shut up in
prison, under the terrors of an accusing conscience, till they come to eternal
imprisonment in the chains of hell and damnation. This is the estate of the
greatest man in the world that is not in Christ. They are not so happy as we
think they are. They are imprisoned in their own hearts, though they walk at
never so much liberty abroad, and do what they wish; for sin and death goes
together, and before eternal death comes, the expectation and terrors of it
seize on them for the present. So that whatsoever our first birth be, though it
be noble and great, yet by it we are bond-slaves under sin and death, unless our
second birth, our new birth, make amends for sin, for the baseness of our first
birth. This prerogative, our spiritual nobleness, is such an estate wherein we
are not born, but are born again to it, 'to an inheritance immortal,' &c., 1
Peter 1:4. But by nature we are all bondmen, though we be born never so nobly.
Therefore let us never brag of our birth, as the Jews did, that they were the
children of Abraham. No, saith Christ, you are of your father the devil, John
8:44. Let none stand upon the gentry and nobility of their birth, unless they be
taken out of the condition they are in by nature, to be in a better condition in
Christ; for we see all men naturally are under the law of sin and death. These
things are slighted, because we enjoy 'the pleasures of sin for a season,'
Hebrews 11:25. Men think to be enthralled to sin, it is pleasant thraldom, they
are golden fetters; for I shall have the pleasures of sin all my lifetime, &c.;
and for death, I will set a Roman spirit against death. Saith a Roman, What! is
it such a matter to die? It is nothing to die: They set a good face on the
matter. And this is the conceit of many men till they come to it. But, alas! To
be in bondage to death, it is another matter, for behind death there is a gulf.
A man may break the hedge well enough with a strong resolution to die; it is
nothing to die if there were an end. But there is a gulf, there is damnation and
destruction behind; there is eternal torment behind; to be adjudged from the
presence of God for ever: to be separated from all good and all comfort, and to
have society with the devil and his angels in hell, and that for ever and for
ever. Thou mayest, perhaps, make slight of the service of sin, because thou hast
the present allurements to delight thee, but thou shouldst regard death. Thou
mayest neglect death, but then regard eternal death. This word 'eternal' it is a
heavy word, 'eternal' separation from all good; and eternal communion with the
devil and his angels; and for the wrath of God to seize on thy soul eternally,
world without end. Methinks men should not set light by that. Therefore
considering that this is our estate by nature,—we are all slaves to sin and
death,—let us labour to get out of this cursed estate by all means, which is by:
'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.' Now, I come to speak of our
freedom: 'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the
law of sin and death.' This is good news indeed, to hear of freedom: good news
to the Israelites to hear of freedom out of Egypt, and for the Jews to hear of
Cyrus's proclamation for their freedom out of Babylon. Freedom out of bondage is
a sweet message. Here we have such a message of spiritual freedom, from other
manner of enemies than those were. The year of jubilee, it was a year of
consolation to servants that were kept in and were much vexed with their
bondage. When the year of jubilee came they were all freed. Therefore there was
great expectation of the year of jubilee. Here we have a spiritual jubilee: a
manumission and freedom from the bondage we are in by nature. 'The Spirit of
life in Christ makes us free from the law of sin and death.' There is life in
Christ, opposite to death in us. There is a Spirit of life in Christ and a law
of the Spirit of life in Christ, opposite to the law of sin and of death in us.
So that this is our happiness while we live here (Oh, it is the blessedness of
men to make use of it while they have time and space and grace to repent, and to
cleave to Christ), that whatsoever ill we are under by nature, we may have full
supply in Christ for all the breaches that came by the first Adam. There came
the wrath of God, the corruption of our nature, terrors of conscience, death and
damnation. All these followed the sin and breach of the first Adam. All these
are made up in the second. He hath freed us from all the ill we received from
the first Adam, and that we have added ourselves; for we make ourselves worse
than we come from Adam by our voluntary and daily transgressions. But we are
freed from all by the 'law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.' How comes
this freedom? 1. There can no freedom be without satisfaction to divine justice.
For why are we under sin? God gives us up to sin. Why are we under death? God
gives us up to death. Why are we under Satan's government? He is God's
executioner, God's serjeant. He gives us up to him here because we offend him.
Why are we under damnation and wrath? Because God is offended. All our slavery
comes originally from God. However it be sinful in regard of Satan that keeps
us, yet the power whereby he keeps us is good, for he doth it from God. His will
is always naught, but his power is always lawful. Therefore the power whereby
the devil keeps us, if we look up to God under whom the power is, it is a lawful
power; for God hath a hand in giving us up to sin: it is a judicial giving up,
and then by lusts and sin, to Satan and death and damnation. So if we speak of
freedom, we must not begin with the executioner: the wrath of God must be
satisfied. God must be one with us, so as his justice must have contentment.
Satisfaction must be with the glory of his justice, as well as of his mercy. His
attributes must have full recompense. One must not be destroyed to satisfy
another. He must so be merciful in freeing us as that content must be given to
his justice, that it complain not of any loss. Now, reconciliation always
supposeth recompense. It is founded upon it. 2. And satisfaction for sin, it
must be in that nature that hath sinned. Now man of himself could not satisfy
divine justice, being a finite person; therefore God the second person became
man, that in our nature he might satisfy God's wrath for us, and so free us by
giving payment to his divine justice. The death of Christ, God-man, is the price
of our liberty and freedom. But why doth the apostle speak here of 'a law of the
Spirit of life in Christ' which frees us? But here is no mention of satisfaction
by death. Oh, but death is the foundation of all, as we shall see afterwards. To
unfold the point, therefore, because it is a special point, and the words need
unfolding. Here it is said there is life in Christ. 'A Spirit of life,' and a
law of the Spirit of life in Christ. 1. There is life in Christ, not only as
God, for so indeed he is life. God his life is himself; for life is the being of
a thing, and the actions and moving and vigour and operations of a thing
answerable to that being. So the life of God is his being: 'As I live, saith the
Lord;' that is, 'As I am God, I will not the death of a sinner,' Ezek. 18:82.
Now, Christ hath life in him as God, as the Father hath. But that is not
especially here meant. 2. There is life in Christ as God-man, as mediator. Now,
this life is that life which is originally from the Godhead. Indeed, it is but
the Godhead's quickening and giving life to the manhood in Christ; the Spirit
quickening and sanctifying the manhood. And we have no comfort by the life of
God, as it is in God's life alone severed; for, alas! What communion have we
with God without a mediator? But our comfort is this, that God, who is the
fountain of life, he became man, and having satisfied God's justice, he conveys
life to us. He is our head; he hath life in himself as God, to impart spiritual
life to all his members; so there is life in Christ as mediator. And there is a
Spirit of life. That life it is a working life, for spirit is an emphatical
word. Spirit added to a thing increased the thing. Again, he saith, 'The law of
the Spirit of life.' Law is a commanding thing. To shew that the life in Christ
is a commanding life, it countermands all opposing laws whatsoever, of sin and
death; and this law is a countermand to all other laws. 'The law of the Spirit
of life 'frees us from all other laws. So here is life, the Spirit of life, and
the law of the Spirit of life—all words of strong signification. But for the
clear understanding of this sweet and consoling point, first, consider how the
law of the Spirit of life is in Christ, what it doth in him, and then how it is
derivatively in us. First of all, We must know this for a foundation, whatsoever
is done to us is done to Christ first; and whatsoever we have, Christ hath it
first. Therefore life is first in Christ, and then in us; resurrection first in
Christ, and, then in us; sonship first in Christ, and then in us; justification
from our sins first in Christ—he is freed from our sins—and then in us;
ascension first in Christ, and then in us; glory in heaven first in Christ, and
then in us. We have nothing in us, but it is derived from Christ. Therefore,
this being laid as a ground, we must consider how the Spirit of life works in
Christ, what it doth in Christ, and then what it doth as it is in us; for
whatsoever Christ hath, it is not only for himself, but for us. What doth it in
Christ? 1. The Spirit of life in Christ, first of all, it did quicken and
sanctify his human nature. That nature that Christ pleased to take upon him it
stopped sin, it made a stop of original sin, in sanctifying that blessed
substance out of which his body was made. For the foundation of his obedience
actual, that it was so holy, it was hence that his nature was purified by the
Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin. The foundation that his death and
sufferings was satisfactory and acceptable, it was that his holy nature was
sanctified by the Spirit of God. So the first work of the Spirit of life in the
Son of God, it was to sanctify and quicken that blessed human body that he took
upon him. 2. And the Spirit of life that quickened and sanctified our nature in
Christ did likewise ennoble our nature; for even as a common woman is ennobled
when she is taken in marriage with a great man,—she hath his dignity accounted
hers—so our nature, by the Spirit being sanctified, is knit into the union of
person with Christ, that our nature and the second person make one Christ. So
our nature by the Spirit is ennobled by this union. And: 8. Also enriched it
with all grace that our nature is capable of; for the nature of Christ had this
double prerogative above ours: first of all, that blessed mass of flesh, it was
knit to be one person with God; and then, that nature was enriched and ennobled
with all graces above ours. And this the Spirit of life did to Christ himself,
to his human nature that he took upon him, that he might be a public person. For
God, the second person, took not upon him any man's particular person, of Peter,
or Paul; or John, for then there should have been distinct persons, one person
should have died, and another rise; but he took our nature into his person. So
that the same person that did die was God, though he died in our nature, that he
might be a public person. So we must consider Christ sanctifying our nature,
that he might fit and sanctify all our persons. But did the Spirit of life do
nothing else but sanctify and enrich the human nature of Christ with grace? 4.
Yes. For the Spirit of life in Christ did sanctify him for his sacrifice, as he
saith, John 17:19, in that blessed prayer, 'I sanctify myself for them.' It
prepared him for his death, and made him a fit sacrifice. When he entered upon
his calling, he had more of the Spirit: the Spirit of life, as it were, was
increased. For it is no heresy to think, that the gifts of Christ, for the
manifestation of them, were increased. For in every state he was in, he was
perfect; and when he set upon his office; and was baptized, he was made more
full of the Holy Ghost: as it were, there was a fuller manifestation than
before, when he did not set upon his office openly. 5. In his death, what did
the Spirit of life then? It supported him in his very death; for there was an
union of the Spirit. When there was a separation of his soul and body, there was
not a separation of the union. That which gave dignity, and strength, and value,
and worth to his death, it was the Spirit. Though there was a suspending of the
comfort a while, yet there was no separation of the union. But I speak no more
of that, being not especially meant here. 6. But especially in his resurrection
(which we are now to think of by reason of the day, and it is not amiss to take
all occasions), especially then, the Spirit of life that had sanctified Christ,
and quickened him, and enriched his nature, and supported him, and done all,
that Spirit of life quickened the dead body of Christ. 'And he was mightily
declared to be the Son of God by the Spirit of sanctification, by his
resurrection from the dead,' Romans 1:4. The Spirit of life raised him from the
dead, and put an end to all that misery that he had undergone before for our
sakes. For until his resurrection, there was, as it were, some conflict with
some enemies of Christ, either with Satan, or the world, or with death itself.
He lay under death three days. Until Christ's body was raised, our enemies were
not overcome. God's wrath was not fully satisfied. It was not declared to be
satisfied at least. For he being our surety, till he came out of the grave, we
could not know that our sins were satisfied for. But now, when the Spirit of
life in Christ comes, and quickens that body of his in the grave, and so doth
justify us, as it is, Romans 4:25, 'He died for our sins, and rose again for our
justification:' that is, by the Spirit of life in Christ quickening his dead
body, he declared that we are fully discharged from our sins, because he was
fully discharged from our sins; being our surety, he shewed by his resurrection
that he was fully discharged from all that he took upon him. When a man comes
out of prison that is a surety, his very coming out of prison shews that he hath
a full discharge of all the debt he undertook to pay. So the Spirit of life,
raising Christ's body the third day, manifestly declared that the debt he took
on him was fully discharged. And so as he died for sin, to satisfy God's justice
for them, so he rose again for our justification, to shew that he had a full
discharge for all. Now, since the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath quickened
his body, the soul may make a bold demand to God, as it is in 1 Peter 3:16. It
may make that demand, Rom. 8:83, 'Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? It is Christ that died, nay rather, that is risen again,' and ascended
into heaven, and makes intercession for us. 'Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's people? It is God that justifieth, who shall condemn?' Our sins?
Christ hath taken our sins upon him, and satisfied divine justice for them; and
by the Spirit of life hath quickened that dead body of his, that was surety for
us himself. We may well say, 'Who shall lay anything to our charge?' He that is
our surety is dead. Dead? Nay, risen again; nay, ascended, and sits at the right
hand of God. Therefore now the conscience of any Christian may make that
interrogation and bold demand there. It may stand out any that dares to oppose
the peace of his conscience, now that he may say, Who is it? It is God-man that
died. It is Christ that died in our nature, and hath raised that nature of ours
again, and is at the right hand of God. Who shall lay anything to our charge?
The Spirit of life in Christ, quickening him, hath quickened us together with
him; so that now we may boldly demand we are freed from our sins, because our
Surety is freed from all. All this was for our good. What Christ did, it was not
for himself, but for us. And in his birth, and life, and death, and
resurrection, we must consider him as a public person, and so go along with all
that he did as a public person. Whatsoever may be terrible to us, we must look
upon it first in Christ. If we look upon the corruption and defilement in our
nature, look upon the pure nature of Christ. His nature was sanctified in his
birth, and he is a public person: therefore this is for me; and though I be
defiled in my own nature, and carry the remainders of corruption about me, yet
the Spirit of life in Christ sanctified his nature, and there is more sanctity
in him than there can be sin in me. When we look upon our sins, let us not so
much look upon them in our consciences, as in our surety, Christ. When we look
upon death, look not upon it in ourselves, in its own visage, but as it is in
Christ, undergone and conquered: for the power of the Spirit of life in Christ
overcame death, in himself first, and for us, and will overcome in us in time.
When the wrath of God is on our consciences, look not upon it as it is in
ourselves, but as undergone by Christ, and as Christ, by the Spirit of life now
in him, is raised up, not from death alone, but from all terrors. 'My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?' See Christ, by the Spirit of life, quickened
from all; not only bare natural death, but from all enemies thou needest to
fear. From the law: it is nailed to his cross; he now triumphs over it; and from
sin: he was a sacrifice for it; and from the wrath of God: he hath satisfied it,
or else he had not come out of his grave. So whatsoever is terrible, look on it
in Christ first, and see a full discharge of all that may affright thy
conscience, and trouble thy peace any way. See him in his death, dying for every
man that will believe. Consider him in his resurrection as a public person, not
rising himself alone, but for all us. Therefore in 1 Peter 1:8, there is an
excellent place, 'Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an
inheritance immortal, undefiled,' &c.; and so go along with him to his
ascension, and see ourselves 'sitting with him in heavenly places,' as St Paul
speaks, Ephesians 2:6. Oh this is a sweet meditation of Christ! To see ourselves
in him, in all the passages of his birth, and life, and death, and resurrection,
and ascension to glory in heaven; for all that he did was as a public person, as
the second Adam. But now, before the Spirit of life in Christ come to free me, I
and Christ must be one; there must be a union between me and Christ; I must be a
member of Christ mystical. For as Christ quickened his own body, every joint
when it was dead, because it was his body, so he quickens his mystical body,
every member of it. But I must be a member first; I must not be myself severed
from Christ. Christ by his death obtained all good, and by his resurrection he
declared it; but there must be an application to me. Now this Spirit of life
which is in Christ, which quickened him and raised him up, and all for my good,
must apply this to me. The grace of application it is faith. Therefore this must
be wrought in the next place. How doth the law of the Spirit of life free me?
Because first it freed Christ, therefore me. But that is not enough, except
there be application. Therefore the law of the Spirit of life works faith in me,
to knit me to Christ, to make me believe, that all that he hath done is mine;
and the same power that raised Christ from the dead, works the power of faith
and application. For we must not think that it is an easy thing for a carnal man
to believe, to go out of himself, that it is salvation enough to have salvation,
by the obedience of another man. No. Both in the Ephesians and Colossians, in
divers places, it is St Paul's phrase, that the same power 'that raised Christ
from the dead;' must raise our hearts, and work faith in them. For as the good
things that faith lays hold on are wondrous good things, even above admiration
almost; that poor flesh and blood, a piece of earth, should be an heir of
heaven, a member of Christ; that it should be above angels in dignity. And just
as these things are super-excellent things, even above admiration in a manner,
so the grace that believes these things, is also astonishing and excellent, and
admirable grace, that is faith. Therefore faith must be wrought by the law of
the Spirit of Christ by the ministry of the gospel. This is the grace of
application, when a man goes out of himself; when he sees himself first in
bondage to his corruptions, to Satan, and to death; and then sees the excellent
way that God hath wrought in Christ to bring him out of that cursed estate; then
he hath faith wrought in him by the Spirit. And indeed the same power and Spirit
that quickened Christ from the dead, must quicken our hearts to believe in
Christ. It is a miracle to bring the heart of man to believe. We think it an
easy matter to believe. Indeed, it is an easy matter to presume, to have a
conceit, but for the soul in the time of temptation, and in the hour of death,
for the guilty soul to go out of itself, and cast itself upon the mercy of God,
who is justly offended, and to believe that the obedience of Christ is mine, as
verily as if I had obeyed myself, here must be a strong sanctified judgment and
a mighty power to raise the soul, to cast itself so upon God's mercy in Christ.
So that besides the obtaining salvation by Christ, there must be a grace to
apply it; and this is what faith accomplishes. Faith is said to do that that
Christ doth, because faith lays hold upon Christ. What faith doth, Christ doth;
and what Christ doth, faith doth. Therefore it hath the same actions applied and
given to it that Christ hath. Faith is said to save us. You know it is Christ
that saves us. But faith lays hold on Christ that saves us. Faith purgeth the
heart, and overcomes the world. Christ by his Spirit doth all this. Because
faith wrought by the Spirit is such a grace as lays hold on the power of Christ,
it goes out of itself to Christ, therefore what Christ doth, faith is said to
do. So then the law of the Spirit of life in Christ not only freed Christ
himself by his resurrection, but likewise by the same power whereby he raised
himself, he raiseth our hearts to believe what he hath done, both in his state
of humiliation and exaltation, and makes all that Christ did ours. The Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus, working faith in us, and by faith other graces, work
together to free us from the law of sin and death. Christ doth it, and faith
doth it, and grace, which issues from faith, doth it subordinately. Christ doth
it by way of merit; and by his Spirit working faith in us, to lay hold upon
whatsoever Christ hath done or suffered, as if we had done it ourselves. So it
frees us from the law of sin and death, because it lays hold of the freedom
wrought by Christ for us. But besides, and next to faith, there is a Spirit of
sanctification, by which we are free from the commanding law of sin and death.
But to clear all this, consider there is a freedom in this life, and in the life
to come from sin and from death. I. A freedom in this life, in calling, in
justification, in sanctification; and in the life to come a freedom of glory. 1.
There is a freedom in effectual calling, by the ministry of the gospel. The
gospel being preached and unfolded, faith is wrought, whereby we know what
Christ hath done for us; and we see a better condition in Christ than we are in
by nature. Seeing by the Spirit of God the cursed estate we are in, we are
convinced of sin in ourselves, and of the good that is in Christ; and hereupon
we are called out of the thraldom we are in by nature, by the Spirit of Christ
and the word of God, unfolding what our condition is; for man by nature having
self-love in him, and that self-love being turned the right way, he begins to
think, Ay, doth the word of God say I am a slave to sin and damnation? The word
of God can judge better than myself; and then the Spirit of God sets it on with
conviction, that undoubtedly this is true. And together with the cursed kingdom
and slavery that I am under, there is revealed a better estate in Christ; for
the gospel tells us what we are in Christ; freed from hell and death, and heirs
of heaven. Oh the happy estate of a Christian to be in Christ! The gospel, with
the Spirit reavealing this, a man is called out of the cursed estate he is in by
nature to the fellowship of Christ by faith, which is wrought in this calling.
So that now he comes to be a member of Christ by faith. So that whatsoever
Christ hath, or is, or hath done or suffered, it is mine by reason of this union
with him by faith, which is the grace of union that knits us to Christ, and the
first grace of application. So there is the first degree of liberty and freedom
wrought by the Spirit of God, together with the gospel in effectual calling. 2.
The second is in justification. That faith and belief in Christ that was wrought
in effectual calling, it frees me from the guilt of my sins. For when the
gospel, in effectual calling, reveals that Christ is such a one, and that there
is such an estate in Christ, and there is faith wrought in me, then that faith
lays hold upon the obedience of Christ to be mine. For Christ in the gospel
offers his obedience to be mine, as if I had done it in mine own person.
Whatsoever Christ did or suffered is mine; for he is made of God to be 'wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,' 1 Corinthians 1:30, to be all in
all. The gospel sets him forth to be so. Now faith laying hold of Christ, to be
made of God all in all, obedience, righteousness, &c., whatsoever is needful,
hereupon this faith justifies me; hereupon I come to be free from the guilt of
my sins, because my sins were laid upon Christ. Christ's death was the death of
a surety. It was as if I had died myself, and more firm. Thus I come to be free
in justification; for what my surety hath done I have done. 3. Again, There is a
freedom in sanctification; that is, when a man believes that Christ is his, and
that his sufferings are his, then the same Spirit that reveals this to be mine,
it works a change and alteration in my nature, and frees me from the dominion of
sin. The obedience of Christ frees me from the condemnation of sin, and the
Spirit of sanctification frees me from the dominion of sin. This is the freedom
of sanctification, which faith lays hold on. 'Whosoever hath not the Spirit of
Christ is none of his,' Romans 8:9. Christ as a head communicates to me the Holy
Spirit to sanctify my nature; and 'of his fulness we receive grace for grace,'
John 1:16. So the Spirit of sanctification in Christ frees me from the dominion
of sin and death. It is said here, that by Christ we have spiritual liberty and
freedom, not from sin and death, but from the law of sin and of death. It is one
thing to be freed from sin and death, and another thing to be freed from the law
of them; for we are not indeed freed from sin and death, but from the law of sin
and death, that is, from the condemning power of sin; that though sin be in us
yet it doth not condemn us; and though we die, yet the sting is pulled out.
Death is but a passage to a better life. So I say in justification, we are freed
from the condemning power of sin; and in sanctification, from the commanding
power of sin. When we are knit once to Christ, we have the obedience of Christ,
ours in justification; and the holiness of Christ is derived to us, as from the
head to the members in sanctification; and so we are freed from the law of sin.
To understand this a little better, the same Spirit that sanctified the natural
body, the human nature of Christ, whereby he 'became bone of our bone, and flesh
of our flesh,' Ephesians 5:30: the same Spirit doth sanctify the mystical body
of Christ, that it may be 'bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.' For before
we come to heaven, Christ must not only 'be bone of our bone,' &c., that is, in
his incarnation, but we must be 'bone of his bone,' &c.; that is, we must have
natures like Christ, not only flesh and blood—for so a reprobate hath flesh and
blood, as Christ hath—but we must have his Spirit altering and changing our
nature: that instead of a proud, disobedient, rebellious nature, now it must be
a holy and humble and meek nature, together with human frailty, for that we
carry about with us. Then the Spirit of life derived from Christ makes us 'bone
of his bone.' For indeed, in his human nature being 'bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh,' he made us 'bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.' He became
man that we might partake of the divine nature, being partakers of the divine
Spirit. So that now the Spirit of life in Christ, when we are knit to him, is a
Spirit of sanctification, altering our natures and working in our hearts a
disposition like Christ's: that we judge as Christ judgeth, and choose as Christ
chooseth, and aim at God's glory as Christ did; for there is 'the same mind in
us that was in Christ,' Philip. 2:5—in our proportion, growing still more and
more to conformity with Christ, till we be in heaven, till 'Christ be all in
all,' 1 Corinthians 15:28, when he will change our nature to be holy as his own.
II. Besides this liberty from sin and death in this life, there is a glorious
liberty and freedom that we have by the Spirit of Christ when we are dead; for
then the Spirit of life that raised Christ's dead body will raise our bodies;
and that Spirit of Christ that raiseth his body and raiseth our souls in this
world from sin to believe in him, will raise our dead bodies. The same virtue
and power that works in Christ works in his members. This is called 'the
glorious liberty of the sons of God.' Then we shall be freed indeed, not only
from the law of sin, but from sin itself; and not only from the law of death,
but death itself; and we 'shall live for ever with the Lord,' 1 Thessalonians
4:17. Christ then 'shall be all in all by his Spirit.' Christ will never leave
us till he have brought us to that glorious freedom. We are freed already from
sin and death. He hath 'set us in heavenly places together with himself' now,
Ephesians 1:3. In faith we are there already: but then we shall be indeed. Thus
you see how we come to have the law of the Spirit of life in Christ, to free us
from the law of sin and death, and all the passages of it. Use. You see here
that there is law against law—the law of the Spirit of life in Christ against
the law of sin and death. I beseech you, consider that God hath appointed law to
countermand law; the Spirit of Christ to overcome sin in us, not only in
justification but in sanctification. Oh let us therefore to our comfort think
there is a law above this law. I have now cold, dead, base affections; but if I
have the Spirit of Christ, he can quicken and enliven me. He will not only
pardon my sin, but by the law of his Spirit direct, guide, and command me a
contrary way to my lusts. And this is an art of spiritual prudence in heavenly
things, whensoever we are beset with dangers, to set greater than that against
it. The devil is an angel; but we have a guard of angels about us. The devil is
a serpent; but we have a brazen serpent that cures all the stings of that
serpent. We have principalities and powers against, but we have greater
principalities and powers for us: the law of life against the law of sin and
death. We have a law of our lusts tyrannizing over us and enthralling us. It is
true. But then there is a law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, to overcome
and subdue that law of our lusts, if so be that we use the prerogatives we have,
if we use faith and go to God and Christ, in whom are all the treasures of
grace. He is the treasury of the church: 'Of his fulness we receive grace for
grace,' John 1:16. Are we troubled with any corruptions? Go to the Spirit of
liberty in Christ, and desire him to set us at liberty from the bondage and
thraldom of our corruptions. And remember what Christ hath done for us, and
where he is now, in heaven. Let us raise our thoughts that we may see ourselves
in heaven already; that we maybe ashamed to defile our bodies and souls with the
base drudgery of sin and Satan, that are sanctified in part in this world, and
shall be glorified in heaven. Certainly faith would raise our souls so. We
betray ourselves, when, being once in the state of grace, we are enthralled
basely to any sin. 'For sin shall not have dominion over you, because you tare
under grace,' saith the apostle, Romans 6:14. Being under grace, if we do but
use our reasoning and use faith and exercise the grace we have given us, we
cannot be in thrall to corruptions. We shall have remainders to trouble us, but
not to rule, and reign, and domineer. For sin never bears sway, but when we
betray ourselves, and either believe not what Christ hath done for us, or else
exercise not our faith. A Christian is never overtaken basely, but when he
neglects his privileges and prerogatives, and doth not stir up the grace of God
in him. Learn this then, when we are troubled with anything, set law against
law: set the law of the Spirit of life in Christ against all oppositions
whatsoever; and let the temptation lie where it will. 1. Let it lie in
justification, as when we are tempted by Satan to despair for sins, for great
sins. Oh, but then consider, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath 'freed
me from the law of sin and of death.' Christ was made sin, to free me from sin.
Consider that Christ was God-man. He satisfied divine justice. 'The blood of
Christ cleanseth us from all sin,' 1 John 1:7, 'though they be as red as
crimson,' Isaiah 1:18. Thus set Christ against our sins in justification, when
the guilt of them troubles our souls. 2. And so likewise, when we are set on by
base lusts, set against them the power of Christ in sanctification. What am I
now? A member of Christ; one that professeth myself to be an heir of heaven.
There is a Spirit of life in Christ my head. There is a law of the Spirit of
life in Christ; that is, there is a commanding power in his Spirit; and that
Spirit of his is not only in the head, but in the members. If I go to him for
grace, I may have grace, answerable to the grace that is in him, grace that will
strengthen me with his power. 'Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his
might,' Ephesians 6:10, and in 'Christ I can do all things,' Philip. 4:18, by
his Spirit, though in myself I can do nothing. 8. And so in deadness and
desolation of spirit, when the soul is cast down with discomfort, let us think
with ourselves, the Spirit of life in Christ is a quickening Spirit. If I can
believe in Christ, he hath freed me from the guilt of sin; and he hath by his
Spirit given me some little enlargement from the dominion of my corruptions: why
should I be cast down? I am an heir of heaven. Ere long Satan shall 'be trodden
under my feet,' Luke 10:19. Ere long I shall be free from the spiritual combat
and conflict with sin, that I am now engaged with. Therefore I will comfort
myself; I will not be cast down overmuch. 4. In the hour of death, let us make
use of this freedom of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus from the law of sin
and death. When the time comes that there must be a separation of soul and body,
Oh let us think with our ourselves: Now I must die, yet Christ hath died; and I
must die in conformity to my head; and here is my comfort—'The law of the Spirit
of life hath freed me from the law of death.' It hath freed me from spiritual
and eternal death. So that now through Christ death is become friendly to me.
Death now is not the death of me, but death will be the death of my misery, the
death of my sins; it will be the death of my corruptions. Death now will be the
death of all that before troubled me. But death will be my birthday in regard of
happiness. 'Better is the day of death than the day of birth,' Ecclesiastes 7:1.
When a man comes into this life he comes into misery; but when he dies, he goes
out of misery and comes to happiness. So that, indeed, we never live till we
die; we never live eternally and happily till then. For then we are freed from
all misery and sin. 'Blessed are they that die in the Lord; they rest from their
labours,' Revelation 14:18. They rest from their labours of toil and misery;
they rest from the labours of sin, from all labours whatsoever. 'Blessed are
they that die in the Lord,' and of all times then blessed, more blessed than
before. They rest from their labours, and then begins their happiness that shall
never end. So you see what comfort a Christian's soul sprinkled with the blood
of Christ may have, if it go to God in Christ, and beg of Christ to be set at
liberty from all enemies, to serve God in holiness and righteousness. I speak
too poorly when I say, the law of the Spirit of life hath freed us from sin and
death. This is not all. The Spirit of life not only frees us from ill, but
advanceth us to the contrary good in every thing wherein this freedom is. For we
are not only called out of misery, but to a kingdom. We are not only freed from
sin, but entitled to heaven in justification; and in sanctification we are not
only freed from corruption, but enabled by the Holy Spirit of liberty to run the
ways of God's commandments, and make them voluntary; to serve God cheerfully,
'zealous of good works,' Titus 2:14. We are not only freed from the command and
condemnation of sin, and the rigour of the law, but we have contrary
dispositions, ready and willing, and voluntary dispositions, wrought by the
Spirit of Christ, to every thing that is good. And so we are not only free from
death and misery (for so things without life are, they suffer no misery), but we
are partakers of everlasting life and glory, the liberty of glory. God's
benefits are complete; that is, not only privative, freeing us from ill, but
positive, implying all good; because God will show himself a God: he will do
good things as a God, fully. For the law of the Spirit of life not only frees us
from the law of sin and of death, but 'writes the law of God in our hearts.' He
not only frees us from the law of death, but advanceth us to everlasting life,
to the glorious life we have in heaven, 'to live for ever with the Lord,' 1
Thessalonians 4:17. Oh happy condition of a Christian, if we could know our
happiness! Let us often meditate deeply of Christ, and of ourselves in him; let
us see all our ill in him, and all our good in him: see death overcome, and sin
overcome by his death, he being I made a curse for us,' Galatians 3:13: see the
law overcome, he being 'made under the law for us,' Galatians 4:4-5. When the
wrath of God vexeth and terrifieth us, see it upon him. 'He sweat water and
blood in the garden,' Luke 22:44. It made him cry out, 'My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?' Mark 15:34. See all that may trouble us in him, as our
surety. And all the good we hope for, see it in Christ first. Whatsoever he hath
in his natural body, it is for his mystical body; for he gave his natural body
for his mystical. God in the world, to humble us, exerciseth us with troubles
and calamities, as he did Christ. We must be conformable to our head. But
consider, the poison and sting of all ills we need to fear is swallowed up and
taken away by Christ. And, as I said, let us see all our good in him. We are
sons in him, raised in him, blessed in him, 'set in heavenly places with him,'
Ephesians 1:3, and shall be fellow-heirs and kings with him; for we are his
members, his spouse. The wife shall enjoy the same condition as the husband;
whatsoever he hath she shall have. What a comfortable estate is this We can fear
no ill, nor lack any good. Whatsoever he hath, it is for us. He was born for us.
He died for us. He is gone to heaven for us; for us and our good. He did and
suffered all these things. We cannot exercise our thoughts too much in these
meditations. The Lord's supper is a sacrament of union and communion. Hence it
hath its name; and by receiving the sacrament, our communion and union with
Christ is strengthened. What a comfort then is it to think, if I have fellowship
with Christ it is sealed by the sacrament! When I take the bread and wine, at
the same time I have communion with the body and blood of Christ shed for my
sins; and as Christ himself was freed from my sins imputed to him, and by his
resurrection declared that he was freed, so surely shall I be freed from my
sins. So that this communion, taking the bread and wine, it seals to us our
communion and fellowship with Christ, and thereupon our freedom from sin and
from the law, and sets us in a blessed and happy estate. We should labour
therefore by all means to strengthen our union and communion with Christ; and
amongst the rest, reverently and carefully attend upon this blessed ordinance of
God, for the body of Christ broken doth quicken us, because it is the body of
the Son of God. 'My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed,' John
6:55. And he calls his body broken the bread of life.' Why? Because it was the
body of the Son of God, 'who is life,' John 6:35. All life comes from God. Now,
Christ taking our nature upon him, his death is a quickening death, and by
reason of the union with the divine nature, now it is the body of God broken and
the blood of God shed for us. There is our comfort; and he was declared to be so
by his resurrection, that declared that he was God, and that he was freed from
our sins. Powerful must that Saviour needs be that was so strong in his very
death, when his very body was broken and his blood let out. Then he did work the
foundation of all comfort, for then he satisfied the wrath of God. Christ was
strongest when he was weakest. The resurrection was but a declaration of the
worth of that he had done. Now, in the sacrament we have communion with Christ
dying, especially as his body is broken and his blood shed, for that is the
foundation of all comfort by his resurrection. And because the Spirit of life
was in Christ, and did quicken his body while he was alive, and was a Spirit of
life even when he died, and gave worth and excellency to his death, therefore,
when we take the communion, we ought not to meditate merely of the death of
Christ, as his blood was shed and his body broken, but of the death of such a
person as had the Spirit of life in him, as was God and man. And so set the
excellency of his person against all temptations whatsoever. Set the excellency
of Christ so abased, his body broken and his blood shed, against all
temptations. If it be the greatest, the wrath of God upon the conscience, yet
when conscience thinks this, God, the party offended, gave his own Son to be
incarnate, and the Spirit of life in him did quicken man's nature, and in that
nature did die for satisfaction, now God will be satisfied by the death of such
a surety as his own Son. So that the excellency of the person having the seal of
God upon him, 'For him hath God the Father sealed,' John 6:27, doth wondrously
satisfy conscience in all temptations whatsoever: What need a man fear death,
and damnation, and the miseries of this life, and Satan? What are all? If God be
appeased and reconciled in Christ, then a man hath comfort, and may think of all
other enemies as conquered enemies. Now, we cannot think of the death of Christ,
who was a 'quickening Spirit,' but we must think of the death of an excellent
person, that gave worth to his death, to be a satisfactory death for us.
Therefore let us receive the communion with comfort, that as verily as Christ is
mine, so his quickening Spirit is communicated to me, and whatsoever he hath is
mine. If I have the field, I have the pearl in it; his obedience, his victory
over death, his sonship, is mine; his sitting in heaven is for me; he sits there
to rule me while I am on earth, and to take me up to himself when I am dead. All
is for me. When we have communion with Christ we have communion with all.
Therefore 'the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,' when I am one with him, it
quickens me, and 'frees me from the law of sin and death.'


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 13: A DESCRIPTION OF CHRIST
========================================================================

A Description of Christ by Richard Sibbes "Behold my servant, whom I have
chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit upon
him, and he shall shew judgement to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry;
neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets," &c.—Matthew 12:18. The
words are the accomplishment of a prophecy, taken out of Isaiah 52:1-2, as we
may see by the former verse, 'that it might be fulfilled.' Now the occasion of
bringing them in here in this verse, it is a charge that Christ gives, verse 16,
that they should not reveal and make him known because of the miracles he did.
He withdraws himself; he was desirous to be concealed, he would not allow
himself to be seen over much, for he knew the rebellious disposition of the
Jews, who were eager to change their government, and to make him king.
Therefore, he laboured to conceal himself in various ways. Now, upon this
injunction, that they should tell nobody, he brings in the prophet Isaiah
prophesying of him, 'Behold my servant, &c.; he shall not strive nor cry,
neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.' Other kings labour that
their pomp and magnificence may be seen; but he does not desire ostentation, he
shall not be contentious nor clamorous. For these three things are meant when he
says, 'he shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall his voice be heard in the
streets;' he shall not yield himself to any ostentation, for he came in an
abased state to work our salvation; he shall not be contentious, nor yet
clamorous in matter of wrong; there shall be no boasting any kind of way, as we
shall see when we come to the words. You see, then, the inference here. The
purpose of the prophet Isaiah is to comfort the people, and to direct them how
to come to worship the true God, after he had preached against their idolatry,
as we see in the former chapter, 'Behold my servant,' &c. Great princes have
their ambassadors, and the great God of heaven has his Son, his servant in whom
he delights, through whom, and by whom, all dealings between God and man are. As
is usual in the prophecies, especially of Isaiah, that evangelical prophet, when
he foretells anything to comfort the people in the promise of temporal things,
he rises to establish their faith in better things. He does this by adding to
them a prophecy, a promise of Christ the Messiah, to assert thus much: I will
send you the Messiah, and that is a greater gift than this that I have promised
you; therefore you may be sure of the lesser one. As the apostle reasons
excellently, 'If he spared not his own son, but delivered him to death for us
all, how shall he not with him give us all things?' Romans 8:32. So here, I have
promised you deliverance out of Babylon, and this and that; do you doubt of the
performance? Alas! what is that in comparison to a greater favour I intend for
you in Christ, that shall deliver you out of another type of Babylon? 'Behold my
servant whom I have chosen;' and in Isaiah 7:14, 'Behold a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son,' &c. I will send you the Messiah; God shall become
man; therefore, I will not stand for any outward favour or deliverance
whatsoever. So he goes on to the grand promise, that they might reason from the
greater to the less. There is another purpose, why in other promises there is
mention of the promise of the Messiah: to uphold their faith. Alas! we are
unworthy of these promises, we are so laden with sin and iniquity. It is no
matter, I will send you the Messiah. 'Behold my servant in whom my soul
delighteth,' and for his sake I will delight in you. I am well pleased with you,
because I am well pleased in him; therefore, be not discouraged. All the
promises are yea and amen in Jesus Christ,' 2 Corinthians 1:20; for all the
promises that be, though they be for the things of this life, they are made for
Christ, they are yea in him, and they are performed for his sake, they are amen
in him. So much for the occasion of the quotation in the evangelist St Matthew,
and likewise in the prophet Isaiah. To come more directly to the words, 'Behold
my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased,' &c.
In the words you have a description of Christ, and his nearness to God: Behold
my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased.' And
then his calling and attainments: 'I will put my Spirit upon him.' And the
execution of that calling: 'He shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.' Then the
quiet and peaceable manner of the execution of his calling: 'He shall not strive
nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets,' &c. Behold!—This
word is as it were a lighted beacon. In all the evangelists you have this word
often repeated, and the prophets likewise when they speak of Christ; there is no
almost prophecy but there is this word, 'Behold.' Why? The use of it in the
prophet, especially out of which these words are taken, was to present Christ to
the hearts of the people of God at that time; therefore he says, 'Behold,' for
Christ was present to the believers then. Christ did profit them before he was,
he did good before he was exhibited, because he was 'the Lamb of God slain from
the beginning of the world,' Revelation 13:8; he was yesterday as well as
to-day, and tomorrow as well as to-day, 'yesterday, to-day, and the same for
over,' Hebrews 13:8. He was present to their faith, present to them in types and
sacrifices, and present in God's acceptation of him for them. Therefore, the
prophets mount up with the wing of prophecy, and seeing the certainty of the
things to come, they speak as if they were present, as if they had looked on
Christ before them, 'Behold my servant,' and 'Behold a virgin,' &c. But that is
not all. Another purpose of this word 'behold,' was to call the people's minds
from their miseries, and from other abasing objects that dejected them, which
might force them to despair. Why do you dwell upon your unworthiness and sin?
Raise up your mind, 'Behold my servant whom I have chosen,' &c. This is an
object worth beholding and admiring, especially by a distressed soul that may
see in Christ whatsoever may comfort it. A third purpose of it is to raise the
mind from any vulgar, common, base contentments. You look on these things, and
are carried away with common trivial objects, as the poor disciples when they
came to the temple; they stood wondering at the stones. What wondrous stones!
What a great building is here! (Mark 13:1) So shallow-minded men, when they see
any earthly excellency, they stand gazing. Alas, says Christ, do you wonder at
these things? In the same way the prophet here raises up the minds of men to
look on an object fit to be looked on, 'Behold my servant,' &c. He intends that
the Holy Ghost would have them from this saving object, Christ, to receive
satisfaction to their souls in every way. Are you dejected? Here is comfort. Are
you sinful? Here is righteousness. Are you led away with present contentments?
Here you have honours, and pleasures, and all in Christ Jesus. You have a right
to common pleasures that others have, and besides them you have claim to others
that are everlasting pleasures that shall never fail, so that there is nothing
that is dejecting and abasing in man, but there is comfort for it in Christ
Jesus; he is a salve for every sore, a remedy for every malady; therefore,
'Behold my servant.' My servant.—Christ is called a servant, first, in respect
of his creation, because being a man, as a creature he was a servant. But that
is not all. He was a servant in respect of his condition. Servant implies a base
and low condition, Php_2:7. Christ took upon him the form of a servant; he
emptied himself; he was the lowest of all servants in condition: for none was
ever so abased as our glorious Saviour. And then, it is a name of office, as
well as of base condition. There are ordinary servants and extraordinary, as
great kings have their servants of state. Despite his abasement, Christ was a
servant of state, he was an ambassador sent from the great God; a prophet, a
priest, and a king, as we shall see afterwards; an extraordinary servant, to do
a work of service that all the angels in heaven, and all the men on the earth
joined together, could not perform. This great masterpiece of service was to
bring God and man together again, that were at variance, as it is, 1 Peter 3:18,
'to bring us to God.' We were severed and scattered from God. His office was to
gather us together again, to bring us all to one head again, to bring us to
himself, and so to God, to reconcile us, as the Scripture phrase is, Colossians
1:20. Now, it being the greatest work and service that over was, it required the
greatest servant; for no creature in the world could perform it. All the angels
of heaven would have sunk under this service. They could never have given
satisfaction to divine justice; for the angels themselves, when they sinned,
could not recover themselves, but sunk under their own sin eternally. Thus we
see how Christ is God's servant, who set him apart, and chose him to this
service. And then he was a servant to us; for the Son of man came to minister,
not to be ministered unto, Matthew 20:28. He washed his disciples' feet. He was
a servant to us, because he did our work and suffered our punishment; we made
him serve by our sins, as the prophet says, Isa. 53:24. He is a servant that
bears another man's burden. There was a double burden— of obedience active, and
obedience passive. He bore them both. He came under the law for us, both doing
what we should have done, and indeed far more acceptably, and suffering that we
should have suffered, and far more acceptably. He being our surety, being a more
excellent person, he did bear our burden, and did our work, therefore he was
God's servant, and our servant; and God's servant, because he was our servant,
because he came to do a work on our behalf. Herein appears the admirable love
and care of God to us wretched creatures, here is matter of wonderment. Whence
comes it that Christ is a servant? It is from the wondrous love of God, and the
wondrous love of Christ. To be so abased, it was wondrous love in God to give
him to us to be so abased, and the wondrous misery we were in, that we could not
otherwise be freed from; for such was the pride of man, that he, being man,
would exalt himself to be like God. God became man, he became a servant to
expiate our pride in Adam, so that it is wondrous in the spring of it. There was
no such love as Christ's to become a servant, there was no such misery as we
were in, out of which we were delivered by this abasement of Christ becoming a
servant; so it is wondrous in that regard, springing from the infinite love and
mercy of God, which is greater in the work of redemption and reconciliation than
in the creation of the world, for the distance between nothing and something was
less than the distance between sin and happiness. For nothing adds no
opposition; but to be in a sinful state there is opposition. Therefore it was
greater love and mercy for God, when we were sinful, and so obnoxious to eternal
destruction, to make us of sinners, not only men, but to make us happy, to make
us heirs of heaven out of a sinful and cursed estate, than to make us of nothing
something, to make us men in Adam, for there God prevailed over nothing, but
here his mercy triumphed over that which is opposite to God, over sinfulness and
cursedness. To show that the creature cannot be so low but there is somewhat in
God above the misery of the creature, his mercy shall triumph over the basest
estate where he will show mercy. Therefore there is mercy above all mercy and
love above all love, in that Christ was a servant. Is the Lord Christ a servant?
This should teach us not to stand upon any terms. If Christ had stood upon
terms, if he had refused to take upon him the shape of a servant, alas! Where
had we and our salvation been? And yet wretched creatures, we think ourselves
too good to do God and our brethren any service. Christ stood not upon his
greatness, but, being equal with God, he became a servant. Oh! we should
dismount from the tower of our conceited excellency. The heart of man is a proud
creature, a proud piece of flesh. Men stand upon their distance. What! Shall I
stoop to him? I am thus and thus. We should descend from the heaven of our
conceit, and take upon us the form of servants, and abase ourselves to do good
to others, even to any, and account it an honour to do any good to others in the
places we are in. Christ did not think himself too good to leave heaven, to
conceal and veil his majesty under the veil of our flesh, to work our
redemption, to bring us out of the cursed estate we were in. Shall we think
ourselves too good for any service? Who for shame can be proud when he thinks of
this, that God was abased? Shall God be abased, and man proud? Shall God become
a servant, and shall we that are servants think much to serve our
fellow-servants? Let us learn this lesson, to abase ourselves; we cannot have a
better pattern to look unto than our blessed Saviour. A Christian is the
greatest freeman in the world; he is free from the wrath of God, free from hell
and damnation, from the curse of the law; but then, though he be free in these
respects, yet, in regard of love, he is the greatest servant. Love abases him to
do all the good he can; and the more the Spirit of Christ is in us, the more it
will abase us to anything wherein we can be serviceable. Then, again, here is
comfort for us, that Christ, in whatsoever he did in our redemption, is God's
servant. He is appointed by God to the work; so, both God and Christ meet
together in the work. Christ is a voluntary in it, for he emptied himself, he
took upon him the form of a servant, Php_2:6, he came from heaven voluntarily.
And then withal the Father joins with him, the Father appointed him and sent
him, the Father laid him as the corner-stone, the Father sealed him, as it is,
John 6:27, the Father set him out, as it is, Romans 3:25. 'He has set him out as
the propitiatory.' Therefore, when we think of reconciliation and redemption,
and salvation wrought by Christ, let us comfort ourselves in the solidity of the
work, that it is a service perfectly done. It was done by Christ, God-man. It is
a service accepted of God, therefore God cannot refuse the service of our
salvation wrought by Christ. Christ was his servant in the working of it. We may
present it to God, it is the obedience of thy servant, it is the satisfaction of
thy servant. Here is that will give full content and satisfaction to conscience,
in this, that whatsoever Christ did, he was God's servant in it. But we shall
better understand the intent of the Holy Ghost when we have gone over the rest
of the words, 'Behold my servant whom I have chosen.' Christ was chosen before
all worlds to be the head of the elect. He was predestinated and ordained by
God. As we are ordained to salvation, so Christ is ordained to be the head of
all that shall be saved. He was chosen eternally, and chosen in time. He was
singled out to the work by God; and all others that are chosen are chosen in
him. There had been no choosing of men but in him; for God saw us so defiled,
lying in our filth, that he could not look upon us but in his Son. He chose him,
and us in him. Here is meant, not only choosing by eternal election to
happiness, but a choosing to office. There is a choosing to grace and glory, and
a choosing to office. Here, it is as well meant, a choosing to office, as to
grace and glory. God, as he chose Christ to grace and glory, so he chose him to
the office of Mediatorship. Christ did not choose himself; he was, no usurper.
No man calls himself to the office, as it is in Hebrews 5:4; but Christ was
called and appointed of God. He was willing, indeed, to the work, he took it
voluntary upon him; but as Mediator, God chose him, God the Father. If we
respect eternal salvation, or grace, or office, Christ was chosen in respect of
his manhood; for, as it is well observed by divines, Christ is the head of all
that are predestinated; and the human nature of Christ could not merit its
choice, it could not merit its incarnation, it could not merit union with the
Godhead, it was merely from grace. How could Christ's manhood deserve anything
of God before it was? Things must have a subsistence before they can work: our
blessed Saviour is the pattern of all election, and his manhood could not merit
to be knit to the second person; as how could it, being a creature? Therefore
the knitting of the human nature of Christ to his divine, it is called the grace
of union. The choosing of the human nature of Christ to be so gracious and
glorious, it was of grace. This adds to our comfort, that whatsoever Christ did
for us, he did it as chosen; he is a chosen stone, as St Peter says, 1 Peter
2:6, 'a precious corner-stone;' though refused of the builders, yet precious in
God's sight. Was Christ a chosen servant of God, and shall not we take God's
choice? Is not God's choice the best and the wisest? Has God chosen Christ to
work our salvation, and shall we choose any other? Shall we run to saints'
mediation, to the virgin Mary, and others, for intercession, which is a part of
Christ's office? Who chose Mary, and Peter, and Paul to this work? There is no
mention in Scripture of them for this purpose, but behold my servant, whom I
have chosen. God in paradise did choose a wife for Adam, so God has chosen a
husband for his church; he has chosen Christ for us: therefore it is intolerable
sacrilegious rebellion and impudency to refuse a Saviour and Mediator of God's
choosing, and to set up others of our own, as if we were wiser to choose for
ourselves than God is. We may content ourselves well enough with God's choice,
because he is the party offended. And this directs us also, in our devotions to
God, how to carry ourselves in our prayers and services, to offer Christ to God.
Behold, Lord, thy chosen servant, that thou hast chosen to be my Mediator, my
Saviour, my all in all to me, he is a mediator and a Saviour of thine own
choosing, thou canst not refuse thy own choice; if thou look upon me, there is
nothing but matter of unworthiness, but look upon him whom thou hast chosen, my
head and my Saviour! Again, if Christ be a chosen servant, O let us take heed
how we neglect Christ. When God has chosen him for us, shall not we think him
worthy to be embraced and regarded; shall we not kiss the Son with the kiss of
love, and faith, and subjection? He is a Saviour of God's own choosing, refuse
him not. What is the reason that men refuse this chosen stone? They will not be
laid low enough to build upon this corner stone, this hidden stone. The
excellency of Christ is hidden, it appears not to men, men will not be squared
to be built upon him. Stones for a building must be framed, and made even, and
flat. Men stick with this and that lust, they will not be pared and cut and
fitted for Christ. If they may have their lusts and wicked lives, they will
admit of Christ. But we must make choice of him as a stone to build upon him;
and to be built on him, we must be made like him. We like not this laying low
and abasing, therefore we refuse this corner stone, though God has made him the
corner of building to all those that have the life of grace here, or shall have
glory hereafter. The papists admit him to be a stone, but not the only stone to
build on, but they build upon him and saints, upon him and works, upon him and
traditions. But he is the only corner stone. God has chosen him only, and we
must choose him only, that we may be framed and laid upon him to make up one
building. So much for that, 'Behold my servant whom I have chosen.' My Beloved,
in whom my soul is well pleased.— How do we know that these words in the prophet
Isaiah are fitly appliable to Christ? By the greatest authority that ever was
from the beginning of the world, by the immediate voice of God the Father from
heaven, who applies these words in Isaiah to Christ, Matthew 3:17, in his
inauguration when he was baptized, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased,' this is that my Son, that beloved, agaphtoV, the beloved Son, so
beloved that my soul delights in him, he is capable of my whole love, I may pour
out my whole love upon him. 'In whom I am well pleased,' it is the same with
that here,'in whom my soul delighteth,' the one expresses the other. How, and in
what respect is Christ thus beloved of God? First as he is God, the Son of God,
the engraven image of his Father, so he is primum amabile, the first lovely
thing that ever was. When the Father loves him, he loves himself in him, so he
loves him as God, as the second person, as his own image and character. And as
man he loves him, for as man he was the most excellent creature in the world, he
was conceived, fashioned, and framed in his mother's womb by the Holy Ghost. It
is said, Hebrews 10:5, God gave him a body. God the Father by the Holy Ghost
fashioned and framed and fitted him with a body, therefore God must needs love
his own workmanship. Again, there was nothing in him displeasing to God, there
was no sin found in his life any way, therefore as man he was well pleasing to
God. He took the manhood and ingrafted it into the second person, and enriched
it there; therefore he must needs love the manhood of Christ, being taken into
so near a union with the Godhead. As God and man mediator especially, he loves
and delights in him. In regard of his office, he must needs delight in his own
ordinance and decree. Now lie decreed and sealed him to that office, therefore
he loves and delights in him as a mediator of his own appointing and ordaining,
to be our king, and priest, and prophet. Again, he loved and delighted in him,
in regard of the execution of his office both in doing and suffering. In doing,
the evangelist says, 'He did all things well,' Mark 7:37. When he healed the
sick, and raised the dead, and cured all diseases, whatsoever he did was well
done. And for his suffering, God delighted in him for that, as it is in John
10:17, 'My Father loves me, because I lay down my life;' and so in Isaiah 53:12,
'He shall divide him a portion with the great, because he poured out his soul
unto death;' and in Php_2:9, 'Because he abased himself to the death of the
cross, God gave him a name above all names:' therefore God loves and delights in
him for his suffering and abasement. Now, that Christ's sacrifice was so
acceptable to God, there is a direct place for it in Ephesians 5:2, 'Walk in
love, as Christ has loved us, and has given himself an offering and a sacrifice
to God of a sweet smell.' And indeed how many sweet savours were there in the
sacrifice of Christ offered on the cross! Was there not the sweet savour of
obedience? He was 'obedient to the death of the cross,' Php_2:8. There was the
sweet savour of patience, and of love to mankind. Therefore God delighted in
him, as God, as man, as mediator God-man, in his doings, in his sufferings,
every way. Does God delight thus in Christ, in his person, or considered
mystically? I answer; both. God loves and delights in Christ mystical, that is,
in Christ and his members, in whole Christ. 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased,' not only with whom alone by himself, but 'in whom,' in him as
God, in him in body and soul, in him as head of the church, in him mystically,
in all that are under him any kind of way. God delights in him, and all his. Is
it possible that he should delight in the head, and refuse the members? that he
should love the husband, and mislike the spouse? O no; with the same love that
God loves Christ, he loves all his. He delights in Christ and all his, with the
same delight. There is some difference in the degree, 'that Christ in all things
may have the pre-eminence,' Colossians 1:18, but it is the same love; therefore
our Saviour sets it down excellently in his own prayer, he desires 'that the
same love wherewith his Father loved him may be in them that are his,' John
17:20, that they may feel the love wherewith his Father loves him, for he loved
him and his members, him and his spouse, with all one love. This is our comfort
and our confidence, that God accepts us, because he accepts his beloved; and
when he shall cease to love Christ, he shall cease to love the members of
Christ. They and Christ make one mystical Christ. This is our comfort in
dejection for sin. We are so and so indeed, but Christ is the chosen servant of
God, 'in whom he delighteth,' and delights in us in him. It is no matter what we
are in ourselves, but what we are in Christ when we are once in him and continue
in him. God loves us with that inseparable love wherewith he loves his own Son.
Therefore St Paul triumphs, Romans 8:35, 'What shall separate us from the love
of God in Christ Jesus?' This love, it is founded in Christ, 'therefore neither
things present, nor things to come (as he goes on there gloriously), shall be
able to separate us.' You see what a wondrous confidence and comfort we have
hence, if we labour to be in Christ, that then God loves and delights in us,
because he loves and delights in Christ Jesus. And here is a wondrous comfort,
that God must needs love our salvation and redemption when he loves Christ,
because 'he poured out his soul to death to save us.' Does not God delight that
we should be saved, and our sins should be forgiven, when he loves Christ
because he abased himself for that purpose? What a prop and foundation of
comfort is this, when the devil shall present God to us in a terrible hideous
manner, as an avenging God, 'and consuming fire,' &c., Hebrews 12:29; indeed out
of Christ he is so. Let us present to ourselves thoughts of God as the Scripture
sets forth God to us; and as God sets forth himself, not only in that sweet
relation Ps a Father to Christ, but our father, 'I go to my Father and your
Father, to my God and your God,' John 20:17, having both one God, and love and
care. There is none of us all but the devil will have a saying to us, either in
the time of our life, in some terrible temptation, especially when any outward
abasement comes, or at the hour of death; and all the cordials we have gathered
out of the word will then be little enough to support the drooping soul,
especially in the hour of temptation. O beloved, what a wondrous anchor and
satisfaction to a distressed conscience does this yield, that Christ in all that
he has wrought for us is God's chosen servant, 'whom he loves and delights in,'
and delights in him for this very work, that he abased himself and gave himself
for us, that he wrought God's work, because he wrought reconciliation for us! If
we can believe in Christ, we see here what ground of comfort we have, that God
loves and delights in us, as he does in his own Son. And what a comfort is it
now, in our daily approach to God, to minister boldness to us in all our suits,
that we go to God in the name of one that he loves, 'in whom his soul delights,'
that we have a friend in court, a friend in heaven for us, that is at the right
hand of God, and interposes himself there for us in all our suits, that makes us
acceptable, that perfumes our prayers and makes them acceptable. His
intercession is still by virtue of his service, dying for us. He intercedes by
virtue of his redemption. If God love him for the work of redemption, he loves
him for his intercession, therefore God must needs regard the prayers made by
him, by virtue of his dying for us, when he loves him for dying for us. Be sure
therefore, in all our suits to God, to take along our older brother, to take our
beloved brother, take Benjamin with us, offer all to God in him, our persons to
be accepted in him, our prayers our hearing, our works, and all that we do, and
we shall be sure to speed; for he is one in whom the soul of God delights. There
must be this passage and repassage, as God looks upon us lovely in him, and
delights in us as we are members of him. All God's love and the fruits of it
come to us as we are in Christ, and are one with him. Then in our passage to God
again we must return all, and do all, to God in Christ. Be sure not to go to a
naked God; for so he is 'a consuming fire,' but go to him in the mediation of
him whom he loves, 'and in whom his soul delighteth.' And shall God love him and
delight in him, and shall not our soul delight in Christ? This therefore should
stir up our affections to Christ, to be faithful in our conjugal affection as
the spouse of Christ, to say, 'My beloved is mine and I am my beloved's,'
Son_2:16. Christ calls his church, 'My love and my dove,' Son_6:9. Does Christ
delight in us, and God delight in Christ, and shall not we delight in Christ
that delights in us, and in whom God delights? In 1 Corinthians 16:22, the
apostle is bold to pronounce a bitter curse, 'Anathema Maranatha,' upon him that
loves not the Lord Christ Jesus, a most bitter curse. When Christ shall become a
servant to do our work for us, to suffer for us, to bear the burden of our sins
upon the tree, to become our husband, to bestow his riches upon us, to raise us
to the same condition with himself, and withal to be such, a one as God has
chosen out to love and delight in as the best object of his love, and most
capable of it, and for us not to solace and delight ourselves in him that God
delights in, when God delights in him for our sake. God loves and delights in
him for the work of salvation and redemption by his blood, and shall not we love
and embrace him for his love which is for our good? What good has God by it but
only the glory of his mercy, in saving our souls through Christ? Therefore if
God love him for the good he does to us, much more should we love him for the
fruit of it that we receive ourselves. It should shame us therefore when we find
dulness and coldness upon us, that we can hear of anything better than of
Christ; and arguments concerning Christ are cold to us. Alas! Where is our love,
and joy, and delight; and when we can make no better but a carnal use of the
incarnation and other benefits by Christ? We should therefore desire God to shed
the love of Christ into our hearts more and more, that we may feel in our souls
the love that he bears to us, and may love God and Christ again, for that that
he has done for us. Hence we have also a ground of estimation of Christians to
be excellent persons. Does God value poor sinful souls so much as to give Christ
for them to become a Saviour? Does he delight in Christ for giving himself for
them? And shall not we love one another whom God and Christ so loves? But if God
love and delight in those that are in Christ, with the same love and delight
that he has in him, how shall I know that I am in Christ, and that God thus
delights in me? Briefly, a man may know that he is in Christ, if he find the
Spirit of Christ in him; for the same Spirit when Christ took our nature, that
sanctified that blessed mass whereof he was made, when there was a union between
him and the second person, the same Spirit sanctifies our souls and bodies.
There is one Spirit in the head and in the members. Therefore if we find the
Spirit of Christ in us, we are in Christ and he in us. Now this Spirit is
renewing, 'Whosoever is in Christ is a new creature,' 2 Corinthians 5:17; all is
new, 'old things are done away,' the old manner of language, the old
disposition, old affections, old company, all old things are past, all is new;
and if a man be a new creature, he has right and title to 'the new heaven and
new earth,' 2 Peter 3:13. Let us examine the work of grace in us. If there be no
change in us we have no present interest in Christ. We have to do with him
because he is still wooing us to be in him, but as yet we have no title to him.
The very beholding of Christ is a transforming sight. The Spirit that makes us
new creatures, and stirs us up to behold this servant, it is a transforming
beholding. If we look upon him with the eye of faith, it will make us like
Christ; for the gospel is a mirror, and such a mirror, that when we look into
it, and see ourselves interested in it, we are changed from glory to glory, 2
Corinthians 3:18. A man cannot look upon the love of God and of Christ in the
gospel, but it will change him to be like God and Christ. For how can we see
Christ, and God in Christ, but we shall see how God hates sin, and this will
transform us to hate it as God does, who hated it so that it could not be
expiated but with the blood of Christ, God-man. So, seeing the holiness of God
in it, it will transform us to be holy. When we see the love of God in the
gospel, and the love of Christ giving himself for us, this will transform us to
love God. When we see the humility and obedience of Christ, when we look on
Christ as God's chosen servant in all this, and as our surety and head, it
transforms us to the like humility and obedience. Those that find not their
dispositions in some comfortable measure wrought to this blessed transformation,
they have not yet those eyes that the Holy Ghost requires here. 'Behold my
servant whom I have chosen. my beloved in whom my soul delighteth.' I will put
my Spirit upon him. —Now we come to the qualification of Christ for his calling,
in these words, I will put my Spirit upon him—that is, I will clothe him with my
Spirit, I will put it, as it were, upon him as a garment. Now there were divers
degrees of Christ's receiving the Spirit at several times. For he was conceived
by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost did sanctify that blessed mass whereof his
body was framed in the womb of the virgin, he was quickened in the womb in his
conception by the Holy Ghost, and he was graced by the Holy Ghost, and led by
the Spirit in all things before his baptism. But afterward, when he came to set
upon his office, to be the prophet and priest and king of his church, that great
office of saving mankind, which he did not solmnly set upon till he was thirty
years old, then God poured upon him a special portion of the Spirit, answerable
to that great calling, then the Spirit lighted upon him, Matthew 3:16. Christ
was ordained to his office by the greatest authority that ever any was ordained
from the beginning of the world. For at his baptism, when he was ordained and
set apart to his office, there was the Father from heaven uttered an audible
voice, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,' Matthew 3:17; and
there was Christ, the party baptized and installed into that great office; then
there was the Holy Ghost, in the form and shape of a dove. It being a matter of
the greatest consequence that ever was in the world, greater than the creation,
it was fit it should be done with the greatest authority; and so it was, the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost being present at the admission of Christ into his
office. This is especially here intended, though the other be included, I will
put my Spirit upon him that is, I will anoint him, as it is in Isaiah 61:1, 'The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me,' says Christ, 'because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captives, to open the prison for them that are bound, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord'—that is, the year of jubilee, for that was a
type of Christ, to preach the gospel deliverance to all that are in captivity,
servitude, and thraldom under Satan and sin. This was accomplished when Christ,
at his baptism, entered upon his office. God put his Spirit upon him, to set him
apart, to ordain him, and to equip him with abundance of grace for the work; for
there are these three things especially meant by putting the Spirit upon him,
separation or setting apart, and ordaining, and enriching with the gifts of the
Spirit. When any one is called to a great place, there is a setting apart from
others, and an ordaining to that particular, and an equipping. If it be a
calling of God, he equips where he ordains always. It may be objected, Christ
was God himself; he had the Spirit, and gives the Spirit; therefore, how could
the Spirit be put upon him? I answer, Christ is both God and man. Christ, as
God, gives the Spirit to his human nature; so he communicates his Spirit. The
Spirit is his Spirit as well as the Father's. The Spirit proceeds from them
both. Christ, as man, receives the Spirit. God the Father and the Son put the
Spirit upon the manhood of Christ; so Christ both gives and receives the Spirit
in diverse respects. As God, he gives and sends the Spirit. The spiration and
breathing of the Spirit is from him as well as from the Father, but as man he
received the Spirit. And this is the reason of it: next under the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, Christ the Mediator, was to be the spring and original of all
comfort and good. Therefore, Christ's nature must not only be sanctified and
ordained by the Spirit; but he must receive the Spirit to enrich it, for
whatsoever is wrought in the creature is by the Spirit. Whatsoever Christ did as
man, he did by the Spirit. Christ's human nature, therefore, must be sanctified,
and have the Spirit put upon it. God the Father, the first person in Trinity,
and God the Son, the second, they work not immediately, but by the Holy Ghost,
the third person. Therefore, whatsoever is wrought upon the creature, it comes
from the Holy Ghost immediately. So Christ received the Holy Ghost as sent from
the Father and the Son. Now as the Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son,
so he works from the Father and the Son. He sanctifies and purifieth, and does
all from the Father and the Son, and knits us to the Father and the Son; to the
Son first, and then to the Father. Therefore it is said, 'The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Ghost,'
2 Corinthians 13:14; because all the communion we have with God is by the Holy
Ghost. All the communion that Christ as man had with God was by the Holy Ghost;
and all the communion that God has with us, and we with God, is by the Holy
Ghost: for the Spirit is the bond of union between Christ and us, and between
God and us. God communicates himself to us by his Spirit, and we communicate
with God by his Spirit. God does all in us by his Spirit, and we do all back
again to God by the Spirit. Because Christ, as a head, as the second Adam, was
to be the root of all that are saved, as the first Adam was the root of all that
are damned, he was therefore to receive the Spirit, and to have it put upon him
in a more excellent and rich manner: for we must know that all things are first
in Christ, and then in us. God chose him first, and then he chose us. God
singled him out to be the Saviour, the second Adam, and he calls us in Christ.
God justified Christ from our sins, being our surety, taking our sins upon him.
We are justified, because he by his resurrection quit himself from the guilt of
our sins, as having paid the debt. Christ is the first fruits of them that rise
again, 1 Corinthians 15:20. We rise again because he is risen. Christ first
ascended; we ascend in Christ. Christ is first loved; we are loved in the
Beloved. Christ is first blessed; we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in
Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1:8. So, whatsoever is in us, we have it at the second
hand. We have the Spirit in us, but he is first in Christ; God has put the
Spirit in Christ, as the spring, as the second Adam, as a public person, that
should receive the Spirit for us all. He is first in all things; Christ must
have the pre-eminence. He has the pre-eminence in all, both before time, in
time, and after time, in election, in whatsoever is done here in this world, and
in glorification. All is first in Christ, and then in us. He is the elder
brother. We must understand this, to give Christ his due honour and respect, and
to know whence we have all we have. Therefore the Spirit is said here, first, to
be 'put upon Christ.' We have not the Holy Ghost immediately from God, but we
have him as sanctifying Christ first, and then us; and whatsoever the Holy Ghost
does in us, he does the same in Christ first, and he does it in us because in
Christ. Therefore, in John 16:14-15, Christ says, He shall take of mine.
Whatsoever the Holy Ghost works in us, he takes of Christ first. How is that?
Thus: the Holy Ghost comforts us with reasons from Christ. He died, and has
reconciled us to God; therefore, now God is at peace with thee. Here the Holy
Ghost takes a ground of comfort from the death of Christ. When the Holy Ghost
would raise a man up to holiness of life, he tells him, Christ thy Saviour and
head is quickened, and is now in heaven, therefore we ought to rise to holiness
of life. If the Holy Ghost be to work either comfort or grace, or anything, he
not only does the same thing that he did first in Christ, but he does it in us
by reasons from Christ, by grounds fetched from Christ. The Holy Ghost tells our
souls that God loves Christ first, and he loves us in Christ, and that we are
those that God gave Christ for, that we are those that Christ makes intercession
for in heaven. The Holy Ghost witnesses to us the love of the Father and the
Son, and so he fetches from Christ whatsoever he works. And hence the work of
the Holy Ghost is distinguished from illusions and delusions, that are nothing
but frantic conceits of comfort that are groundless. The Holy Ghost fetches all
from Christ in his working and comfort, and he makes Christ the pattern of all;
for whatsoever is in Christ, the Holy Ghost, which is the Spirit of Christ,
works in us as it is in Christ. Therefore, in John 1:13, it is said, 'of his
fulness we receive grace for grace'—that is, grace answerable to his grace.
There are three things that we receive answerable to Christ by the Spirit. We
receive grace—that is, the favour of God answerable to the favour God shows his
Son. He loves his Son, he is graciously disposed to him, and he loves us. So
grace habitual. We have grace in us answerable to the grace in Christ. We have
love answerable to his love, patience answerable to his patience, obedience and
humility answerable to that in Christ. The Spirit works a conformity to Christ
in all things. Likewise, in the third place, the Spirit assures us of the same
privileges that issue from grace. Christ is a Son; the Spirit tells us we are
sons. Christ is an heir; the Spirit tells us we are heirs with Christ. Christ is
the king of heaven and earth; the Spirit tells us that we are kings, that his
riches are ours. Thus we have 'grace for grace,' both favour and grace in us,
and privileges issuing from grace, we have all as they are in Christ. Even as in
the first Adam we receive of his emptiness, curse for curse, ill for ill; for
his blindness and rebellion we are answerable; we are born as he was after his
fall: so in the second Adam, by his Spirit, we receive grace for grace. Hence
issues this, that our state now in Christ is far more excellent than our state
in Adam was. How does it spring hence? Thus, Christ is God-man. His nature was
sanctified by the Spirit; he was a more excellent person, he gives and sends the
Spirit. Adam was only a mere man, and therefore his goodness could not be so
derived to his posterity; for, however the Holy Ghost was in Adam, yet the Holy
Ghost did not so fill him, he was not so in him as in Christ. The Holy Ghost is
in Christ in a more excellent manner; for Christ being equal with God, he gave
the Holy Ghost; the Holy Ghost comes from Christ as God. Now the second Adam
being a more excellent person, we being in Christ the second Adam, we are in a
more excellent, and in a more safe estate; we have a better keeper of our
happiness than Adam. He being a mere man, he could not keep his own happiness,
but lost himself and all his posterity. Though he were created after the image
of God, yet being but a were man, he showed himself to be a man—that is, a
changeable creature; but Christ being God and man, having his nature sanctified
by the Spirit, now our happiness is in a better keeping, for our grace has a
better spring. The grace and sanctification we have, it is not in our own
keeping, it distils into us answerable to our necessities; but the spring is
inexhaustable, it never fails, the spring is in Christ. So the favour that God
bears us, it is not first in us, but it is first in Christ; God loves him, and
then he loves us; he gives him the Spirit, and us in him. Now, Christ is the
keeper both of the love of God towards us and the grace of God; and whatsoever
is good he keeps all for us, he receives all for himself and for us; he receives
not only the Spirit for himself, but he receives it as Mediator, as head: for
'we all of his fulness receive grace for grace.' He receives it as a fountain to
diffuse it, I say. This shows us our happy and blessed condition in Jesus
Christ, that now the grace and love of God and our happiness, and the grace
whereby we are sanctified and fitted for it, it is not in our own keeping
originally, but in our head Christ Jesus. These be comfortable considerations,
and, indeed, the life and soul of a Christian's life and comfort. If we conceive
them aright, they will quicken us to obedience, and we shall know what the
gospel is. To come to make some use of it. I might observe this, that none
should take that office upon them to which they are not called of God, nor
qualified by his Spirit, especially ministers, because Christ did not set upon
his office, till the Spirit was put upon him. The Spirit must enable us and fit
us for everything. But I leave that, and come to that which concerns us all.
First, then, has God put the Spirit upon Christ, as the evangelist says in John
3:34, 'He whom God has sent'­that is Christ— he speaks the word of God: for God
gives him not the Spirit by measure.' God does not stand measuring grace out to
Christ, but he pours it out upon him, full measure, running over, because he
receives it not for himself alone, but for us. We receive the Spirit by measure,
Ephesians 4:7, 'according to the measure of the gift of Christ.' Christ gives us
all a measure of sanctifying knowledge and of every grace, till we 'grow to be a
perfect man in Christ,' Ephesians 4:13. Therefore it is called the 'first fruits
of the Spirit,' Romans 8:23, as much as shall fit us for heaven, and grace
sufficient, though it be not that measure we shall have hereafter, or that we
would have here. Christ had a full measure, the fulness of a fountain,
diffusive, not only abundance for himself, but redundance, and overflowing for
the good of others; he being the head of the church, not only a head of
eminence, but of influence to bestow and convey all grace in him to all his
members, proportionable to the service of every member. Therefore he received
not the Spirit according to measure—that is, sparingly—but it was showered upon
him; he was filled and clothed with the Holy Ghost. Is it so? Let us labour,
then, to see where to have supply in all our wants. We have a full treasury to
go to. All treasure is hid in Christ for us. What a comfort is this in anything
we lack! If we lack the favour of God, go to his beloved Christ, desire God to
love us in his beloved, and to accept us in his gracious Son, in him whom he has
made his servant, and anointed with his Spirit for that purpose. If we lack
particular graces, go to the well-head Christ, consider of Christ now filled for
us, as it was in Aaron. The oil that was poured on Aaron's head ran down to his
beard, and to the skirts of his clothing, Psalms 133:2, the meanest parts of his
garment were bedewed with that oil: so the graces of God's Spirit poured upon
our head Christ, our Aaron, our High Priest, run down upon us, upon all ranks of
Christians, even upon the skirts, the weakest and lowest Christians. Every one
has grace for grace; we all partake of the oil and anointing of our spiritual
Aaron, our High Priest. If we lack anything, therefore, let us go to him. I can
do all, says St Paul, in Christ that strengthens me, Philip. 4:13. Go to him for
patience, for comfort, for everything, because God has put his Spirit upon him,
to supply all our deficiencies; he has the oil of gladness above his fellows,
Psalms 45:7; but for his fellows he has the oil of grace more than any, but it
is not only for him, but for us all. Therefore, let us have comfortable
meditations of the fulness of Christ, and make use of it, all this is for me. In
Colossians 2:9, St Paul sets it out, 'in him the fulness of the Godhead dwells
personally;' for that is meant by somatikwV, and it follows after, 'in him we
are complete.' Wherefore is all the fulness that is in him? to show that in him
we are complete. So, in 1 John 5:20-21, to show how the spirits of the apostles
agree, 'we know that the Son of God is come in the flesh, and has given us an
understanding to know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in
his Son Jesus Christ. This is true God and eternal life.' Christ is true God and
eternal life for us all; for our comfort, 'we know that the Son of God is come,
and has given us an understanding, &c. Little children, keep yourselves from
idols.' How does this depend upon the other? Thus; Will you go to idols, stocks
and stones, devices of men's brain, for supply of grace and comfort? Christ,
whom God has sent, he is come into the world; he is God and eternal life. 'God
has given eternal life, and this life is in his Son,' 1 John 5:11; therefore why
should you go to idols? What is the ground of popish idolatries and
abominations? They conceive not aright of the fulness of Christ, wherefore he
was ordained, and sent of God; for if they did, they would not go to idols and
saints, and leave Christ. Therefore let us make this use of it, go out of Christ
for nothing. If we want favour, go not to saints, if we want instruction, go;
not to traditions of men. He is a prophet wise enough, and a priest full enough
to make us accepted of God. If we lack any grace, he is a king able enough, rich
enough, and strong enough to subdue all our rebellions in us, and he will in
time by his Spirit overcome all, 'Stronger is he that is in us than he that is
in the world,' 1 John 4:4. The spirit in the world, the devil and
devilish-minded men, they are not so strong as the Spirit of Christ; for by
little and little the Spirit of Christ will subdue all. Christ is a king, go not
out of him therefore for anything. 'Babes, keep yourselves from idols,' 1 John
5:21. You may well enough, you know whom to go to. Therefore let us shame
ourselves. Is there such a store-house of comfort and grace every way in Christ?
Why are we so weak and comfortless? Why are we so dejected as if we had not such
a rich husband? All out husband's riches are ours for our good, we receive of it
in our measure, why do we not go to the fountain and make use of it? Why, in the
midst of abundance, are we poor and beggarly? Here we may see the misery of the
world. Christ is a prophet to teach us the way to heaven, but how few be there
that will be directed by him 'Christ is a king to subdue all our spiritual and
worst enemies, to subdue those enemies that kings tremble at, to subdue death,
to subdue the fear of judgment and the wrath of God, and yet how few will come
under his government! 'Christ is the light of the world,' John 9:5, yet how few
follow him! Christ is the way, yet how few tread in his steps! Christ is our
wisdom and our riches, yet how few go to him to fetch any riches, but content
themselves with the transitory things of this life! Men live as if Christ were
nothing, or did nothing concern them, as if he were a person abstracted from
them, as if he were not a head or husband, as if he had received the Spirit only
for himself and not for them, whereas all that is in Christ is for us. I beseech
you therefore let us learn to know Christ better, and to make use of him. Again,
if Christ has 'the Spirit put upon him for us all,' then in our daily slips and
errors make this use, to offer Christ to God with this argument. Take an
argument from God himself to bind him. God will be bound with his own arguments.
We cannot bind him with ours, but let us go to him and say, Lord, though I be
thus and thus sinful, yet for Christ Jesus' sake thy servant, whom thou lovest
and hast put thy Spirit upon him to be a priest, and to make intercession for
me, for his sake pardon, for his sake accept. Make use of God's consecration of
Christ by the Spirit to God himself, and bind him with his own mediator, and
with his own priest of his own ordaining. Thou canst not, Lord, refuse a Saviour
and mediator of thine own, sanctified by thine own Spirit, whom thou hast set
apart, and ordained and qualified every way for this purpose. Let us go to God
in the name of this mediator Jesus Christ every day, and this is to make a good
use of this, that God has 'put his Spirit upon him.' But to make a use of trial,
how shall we know that this comfort belongs to us, that Christ has the Spirit
put upon him for us or no, whether he be ordained a king, priest, and prophet
for us? That which I said before will give light to this. We must partake of the
same Spirit that Christ has, or else we are none of his members. As we partake
of his name, so we must also of his anointing. Thereupon we are called
Christians, because we partake of the anointing and Spirit of Christ, and if we
have the Spirit of Christ, it will work the same in us as it did in Christ, it
will convince us of our own ill, of our rebellions, and cursed estate, and it
will convince us likewise of the good we have in him. And then, he is a Spirit
of union, to knit us to Christ, and make us one with him, and thereupon to
quicken us, to lead us, and guide us, and to dwell in us continually, to stir up
prayers and supplications in us, to make us cry familiarly to God as to a
Father, to comfort and support us in all our wants and miseries, as he did
Christ, 'to help our infirmities,' as the apostle at large, in Romans 8:20, sets
down the excellent office of the Holy Ghost, what he does in those that are
Christ's. Let us therefore examine ourselves, what the Spirit does in us, if
Christ be set apart to redeem us as a priest. Surely all his offices go
together. He does by the same Spirit rule us, Revelation 1:5, 'He has washed us
in his blood, and made us kings and priests.' Whosoever he washes in his blood
he makes him a king and a priest, he makes him by the power of his Spirit able
to rule over his base corruptions. We may know then, whether we have benefit by
Christ by his Spirit, not only by the Spirit witnessing that we are the sons of
God, but by some arguments whereby the Spirit may witness without delusion. For
though the Spirit of Christ tells us that we are Christ's, yet the proof must be
from guiding and leading, and comforting and conforming us to Jesus Christ, in
making us kings and prophets, enlightening our understandings to know his will,
and conforming us to be like him. The Spirit of Christ is a Spirit of power and
strength. It will enable us to perform duties above nature, to overcome
ourselves and injuries, it will make us to lack and to abound, it will make us
able to live and to die, as it enabled Christ to do things that another man
could not do. So a Christian can do that, and suffer that that another man
cannot do and suffer, because he has the Spirit of Christ. At the least,
whosoever has the Spirit of Christ, he shall find that Spirit in him striving
against that which is contrary, and by little and little getting ground. Where
there is no conflict, there is no Spirit of Christ at all. I will not be large
in the point, only I speak this by way of trial, to know whether we have the
Spirit of Christ in us or no. If not, we have nothing to do with Christ; for
Christ saves us not as he is out of us only. Christ was to do something of
himself that we have no share in, only the good of it is ours. He was to redeem
us by his blood, to be a sacrifice. The title to heaven and salvation was
wrought by Christ out of us. But there is somewhat that he does not only for us,
but he works in us by his Spirit, that is, the fitting of us for that he has
given us title to, and the applying Of that that he has done for us. Whosoever
therefore has any benefit by Christ, he has the Spirit to apply that to himself
and to fit and qualify him to be a member of such a head, and an heir of such a
kingdom. Whosoever Christ works anything for, he does also work in them. There
is a Spirit of application, and that Spirit of application, if it be true, it is
a Spirit of sanctification and renovation fitting us every way for our,
condition. Let us not abuse ourselves, as the world commonly does, concerning
Christ. They think God is merciful, and Christ is a Saviour. It is true, but
what has he wrought in thee by his Spirit? Hast thou the Spirit of Christ? Or
'else thou art none of his,' Romans 8:9. Wherever Christ is, he goes with his
Spirit to teach us to apply what Christ has done for us, and to fit us to be
like him. Therefore, let those that live in any sins against conscience, think
it a diabolical illusion to think God and Christ is merciful. Aye, but where is
the work of the Spirit? All the hope thou hast is only that thou art not in hell
as yet, [only] for the time to come; but for the present I dare not say thou
hast anything to do with Christ, when there is nothing of the Spirit in thee.
The Spirit of Christ conforms the spouse to be like the husband, and the members
to be like the head. Therefore, beg of Christ that he would anoint himself king
in our hearts, and prophet and priest in our hearts, to do that that he did, to
know his will as a prophet, to rule in us as a king, and to stir up prayers in
us as a priest, to do in some proportion that that he does, though it be in
never so little a measure, for we receive it in measure, but Christ beyond
measure. We must labour for so much as may manifest to us the truth of our
estate in Christ, that we are not dead but living branches. But how or by what
means does Christ give his Spirit to us? This Spirit that is so necessary for
us, it is given by the ministry of the gospel, which is the ministry of the
Spirit. 'Received ye the Holy Ghost by the works of the law, or by the hearing
of faith preached?' Galatians 3:2. When the love of God in Christ, and the
benefits by Christ, are laid open in the preaching of the gospel to us, God
gives his holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. Now God in Christ would save us by
a triumphant and abundant love and mercy, and the Spirit of God never goes but
where there is a magnifying of the love and mercy of God in Christ; therefore
the ministry of the gospel, which only discovers the amity and love of God to
mankind, being now reconciled in Christ, it is accompanied with the Spirit, to
assure us of our part and portion in those benefits, for the Spirit is the fruit
of God's love as well as Christ. Christ is the first gift, and the Spirit is the
second, therefore that part of the word that reveals God's exceeding love to
mankind, leaving angels when they were fallen, in their cursed estate, and yet
giving his Son to become man, and 'a curse for us:' the revealing of this love
and mercy of God, and of his Son Christ to us, is joined with the Spirit. For by
the Spirit we see our cursed estate without the love and mercy of God in Christ,
and likewise we are convinced of the love of God in Christ, and thereupon we
love God in return, and trust to his mercy, and out of love to him perform all
cheerful obedience. Whatsoever we do else, if it be not stirred by the Spirit,
apprehending the love of God in Christ, it is but morality. A man shall never go
to heaven except by such a disposition and frame and temper of soul as is
wrought by the Holy Ghost, persuading the soul first of the love and favour of
God in Christ. What are all our performances if they be not out of love to God?
And how shall we love God except we be persuaded that he loves us first?
Therefore the gospel breeds love in us to God, and has the Spirit together with
it, working a blessed frame of sanctification, whereby we are disposed to every
good duty. Therefore if we would have the Spirit of God, let us attend upon the
sweet promises of salvation, upon the doctrine of Christ; for together with the
knowledge of these things, the Holy Ghost slides and insinuates and infuses
himself into our souls. Therefore the ministers of the gospel should be much in
laying open the riches of God in Christ. In unfolding Christ, all other things
will follow, as St Paul in Titus 2:11-12) 'The grace of God has shined, has
appeared gloriously, teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and
to live holily and soberly in this present world.' Where the grace and love of
God is persuaded and shed into the soul, all will follow. What is the reason
that former times were called dark times (and so they were), the times of popery
a dark age? Christ was veiled, the gospel was veiled, there was no preaching of
salvation by Christ alone, people were sent to stocks and stones, and to saints,
and instead of the word, they were sent to legends and such things. Christ was
obscured, thereupon they were dark ages. Those ages wherein the Spirit of God is
most, is where Christ is most preached, and people are best always where there
is most Spirit; and they are most joyful and comfortable and holy, where Christ
is truly laid open to the hearts of people. The preaching of mere morality, if
men be not careful to open Christ, to know how salvation is wrought by Christ,
and how all good comes by Christ, it will never make a man perfectly good and
fit him for heaven. It may make a man reform many abuses, like a philosopher,
which has its reward and respect amongst men, but nothing to give comfort at the
hour of death and the day of judgment. Only that whereby the Spirit is conveyed,
is the knowledge and preaching of Christ in his state and offices. And he shall
shew judgment to the Gentiles.—After Christ was fully prepared, as he was
prepared with the Spirit of God, and with a commission from heaven, from Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, having this high commission, and gifts for it by the
Spirit, he falls upon his office presently. We are never fit for anything till
we have the Spirit, and when we have the Spirit it is active and vigorous and
working. 'He shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.' He shall not strive nor cry,
neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.—These words set down the
mild and sweet and amiable manner of Christ's carriage upon earth. Here, in his
first coming to work the great work of our redemption, he did not carry the
matter in an outward glorious manner, in pomp; but he would have his miracles
concealed ofttimes and himself hidden. His Godhead was hid under the veil of his
manhood. He could not have wrought our salvation otherwise. If the devil and the
world had known Christ to be as he was, they would never have made those
attempts against him. Therefore, considering he had such a dispensation to work
our salvation as a king, priest, and prophet, he would not cry and contend and
strive, he would not come with any great noise. Now, here is an opposition to
the giving of the law, and likewise to the coming and carriage of civil princes.
You know when the law was given all the mount was on fire, and the earth
thereabout quaked and trembled, and the people fled. They could not endure to
hear the voice of God speaking in the mount; there was such a terrible smoke and
fire, they were all afraid. Thus came Moses. Now, did Christ come as Moses? Was
the gospel delivered by Christ as the law was, in terrors and fears? Oh, no.
Christ came not in such a terrible manner, in thunder and lightning; but the
gospel, it came sweetly. A dove, a mild creature, lit upon the head of Christ
when he was baptized, to show his mild manner of carriage; and he came with
blessing in his mouth in his first sermon of all: Blessed are the poor in
spirit, blessed are they that mourn, blessed are they that hunger and thirst
after righteousness,' Matthew 5:8; Matthew 5:4; Matthew 5:6. The law came with
curses: 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the
law to do them ' Galatians 3:10. Christ came in another manner; the gospel was
delivered in a mild, sweet manner. Christ, as an ambassador, came sweetly to
entreat and beseech. There is a crying, indeed, but it is a crying out of love
and entreaty, not a shouting in a terrible manner as was at the giving of the
law, no, nor as at the coming of other civil princes into a city, with shouting
and noise of trumpets, with pomp, and state, and great attendants. Christ came
not into the world to execute his kingdom and office in such pomp and noise as
it is said of Agrippa, Acts 25:23, 'He came with great pomp.' So worldly princes
carry things thus, and it is needful in some sort. People must have shows and
pomp; the outward man must have outward things to astonish it withal. It is a
policy in state so to do. But Christ came in another manner. He came not to make
men quake and tremble that came to speak and deal with him. He came not with
clamour and fierceness; for who would have come to Christ then? But he came in a
mild, and sweet, and amiable manner. We see a little before the text (ver. 16),
upon occasion of the inference of these words, he commands and charges them that
they should not reveal him and make him known. When he had done a good work he
would not have it known. Now, there are three things especially insinuated in
this description, He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his
voice in the street.' That Christ should not be outwardly glorious to publish
his own excellency, nor contentious; he should not cry nor quarrel, nor he
should not be clamorous, if he had any wrong, to be all on fire presently, but
he should be as a meek lamb, he should make no noise, he should not come in
vainglory or clamour, &c. But here we must know that Christ was a wise discerner
of the fitness of times; for sometimes he would have things published, sometimes
he would not; sometimes he would be known, sometimes he would not. Christ, in
his second coming, shall come all in majesty and glory with his angels, and all
the earth shall appear before him; but now his wisdom told him, now he came to
save the world as a prophet, priest, and king, to work man's salvation, that he
must hide and conceal himself; and so he ordered all his courses by discretion.
Every sacrifice must be salted with salt, everything should be seasoned with the
salt of discretion. This is the steward of all our actions, to know what is fit.
Christ knew it was fittest to conceal himself now at this time. Now, by Christ's
example we should learn this, not to be vainglorious, not to make a great noise.
You have some, if they do anything that is good, presently all the world must
know it. This was not Christ's disposition. It is a disposition that is hardly
wrought out of man's heart without an exceeding great measure of the Spirit of
God; for we see good men have been given this way. David would number the
people, that it might be known what a great monarch he was, what a great number
of people he had, 2 Samuel 24:1-25. He was a good man, yet vainglorious. He
smarted for it. So good Hezekiah. Ambassadors were sent to him from the king of
Babylon, and that they should know that Hezekiah was no beggarly prince, out
must come the vessels of the temple and all his treasures, to show what a rich
king the king of Judah was, 2 Kings 20:13, et seq. His vainglory cost him all
his riches, as the prophet told him. So the disciples. Before they received a
great measure of the Spirit, how vainglorious were they! They contended for the
higher place; therefore they advise Christ to go up to Jerusalem, that he might
be known. As Jehu said to Jonadab, 'Come up and see my zeal for the Lord of
hosts,' 2 Kings 10:16, he accounts it nothing unless it be seen. So flesh and
blood. If there be anything done that is good, all the world must know it
presently. Christ charged them that no noise should be made, but that they
should conceal him. What should we learn hence? To be of Christ's disposition,
that is, to have no more care of the knowledge of things than the light of the
things themselves will discover, to do works of light, and if the things
themselves will break forth to men's eyes and they must see our light shine,
then let them, and imitate our good works; but for us to blazon them abroad
ourselves, it is not the spirit of Christ. Let us labour to have humility of
spirit, that that may grow up with us in all our performances, that all things
that we speak and do may savour of a spirit of humility, that we may seek the
glory of God in all things more than our own. And let us commit the fame and
credit of what we are or do to God. He will take care of that. Let us take care
to be and to do as we should, and then for noise and report, let it be good or
ill as God will send it. We know ofttimes it falls out that that which is
precious in man's eye is abominable in God's. If we seek to be in the mouths of
men, to dwell in the talk and speech of men, God will abhor us, and at the hour
of death it will not comfort us what men speak or know of us, but sound comfort
must be from our own conscience and the judgment of God. Therefore, let us
labour to be good in secret. Christians should be as minerals, rich in the depth
of the earth. That which is least seen is his riches. We should have our
treasure deep. For the disclosure of it we should be ready when we are called to
it, and for all other accidental things, let them fall out as God in his wisdom
sees good. So let us look through good report and bad report to heaven; let us
do the duties that are pleasing to God and our own conscience, and God will be
careful enough to get us applause. Was it not sufficient for Abel, that though
there was no great notice taken what faith he had, and how good a man he was,
yet that God knew it and revealed it? God sees our sincerity and the truth of
our hearts, and the graces of our inward man, he sees all these, and he values
us by these, as he did Abel. As for outward things there may be a great deal of
deceit in them, and the more a man grows in grace, the less he cares for them.
As much reputation as is fit for a man will follow him in being and doing what
he should. God will look to that. Therefore we should not set up sails to our
own meditations, that unless we be carried with the wind of applause, to be
becalmed and not go a whit forward; but we should be carried with the Spirit of
God and with a holy desire to serve God, and our brethren, and to do all the
good we can, and never care for the speeches of the world, as St Paul says of
himself: 'I care not what ye judge of me, I care not what the world judgeth, I
care not for man's judgment,' 1 Corinthians 4:3. This is man's day. We should,
from the example of Christ, labour to subdue this infirmity which we are sick of
naturally. Christ concealed himself till he saw a fitter time. We shall have
glory enough, and be known enough to devils, to angels, and men ere long.
Therefore, as Christ lived a hidden life, that is, he was not known what he was,
that so he might work our salvation, so let us be content to be hidden men. A
true Christian is hidden to the world till the time of manifestation comes. When
the time came, Christ then gloriously revealed what he was; so it shall be
revealed what we are. In the mean time, let us be careful to do our duty that
may please the Spirit of God, and satisfy our own conscience, and leave all the
rest to God. Let us meditate, in the fear of God, upon these directions for the
guidance of our lives in this particular.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 14: THROUGH CONFLICT TO VICTORY
========================================================================

Through Conflict to Victory by Richard Sibbes The text also implies that the
prevailing of Christ's government will not be without fighting. There can be no
victory where there is no combat. In Isaiah it is said, 'He shall bring forth
judgment unto truth' (Isaiah 42:3). In Matthew it is said that he shall 'send
forth judgment unto victory' (Matthew 12:20). The word 'send forth' has a
stronger sense in the original: to send forth with force; showing that, where
his government is in truth, it will be opposed, until he gets the upper hand.
Nothing is so opposed as Christ and his government are, both within us and
outside us; and within us most in our conversion. Though corruption does not
prevail so far as to make void the powerful work of grace, yet there is not only
a possibility of opposing, but a proneness to oppose, and not only a proneness,
but an actual withstanding of the working of Christ's Spirit, and that in every
action. Yet there is no prevailing resistance so far as to make void the work of
grace, but corruption in the issue yields to grace. It takes much trouble to
bring Christ into the heart, and to set up a tribunal for him to judge there.
There is an army of lusts in mutiny against him. The utmost strength of most
men's endeavors and abilities is directed to keeping Christ from ruling in the
soul. The flesh still labors to maintain its own government, and therefore it
cries down the credit of whatever crosses it, such as God's blessed ordinances,
and highly prizes anything, though never so dead and empty, if it allows the
liberty of the flesh. WHY CHRIST'S GOVERNMENT IS OPPOSED And no marvel if the
spiritual government of Christ is so opposed: First, because it is government,
and that limits the course of the, will and casts a bridle on its wanderings.
Everything natural resists what opposes it; so the corrupt will labor to bear
down all laws, and counts it a noble thing not to be awed, and an argument of a
low spirit to fear any, even God himself, until unavoidable danger seizes on
men. Then those that feared least when out of danger fear most in danger, as we
see in the case of Belshazzar (Daniel 5:6). Secondly, it is spiritual
government, and therefore the flesh will endure it even less. Christ's
government brings the very thoughts and desires, which are the most immediate
and free issue of the soul, into obedience. Though a man were of such controlled
behavior that his whole life were free from outward offences, yet in Christ's
eyes to be carnally or worldly-minded is death (Romans 8:6). He looks on a
worldly mind with a greater detestation than any one particular offence. One may
say, 'But Christ's Spirit is in those who are in some degree earthly-minded.’
True, but not as an allower and maintainer, but as an opposer, subduer, and in
the end as a conqueror. Carnal men would like to bring Christ and the flesh
together, and could be content, with some reservation, to submit to Christ. But
Christ will be no underling to any base affection, and therefore, where there is
allowance of ourselves in any sinful lust, it is a sign the keys were never
given up to Christ to rule us. Thirdly, this judgment is opposed, because it is
judgment, and men do not like to be judged and censured. Now Christ, in his
truth, arraigns them, gives sentence against them, and binds them over to the
latter judgment of the great day, and therefore they take upon them to judge
that truth which must judge them. But truth will be too strong for them. Man has
a day now, which Paul calls 'man's day' (1 Corinthians 4:3 [margin]), in which
he gets on his bench and usurps a judgment over Christ and his ways; but God has
a day in which he will set everything straight, and his judgment shall stand.
And the saints shall have their time, when they shall sit in judgment on those
that judge them now (1 Corinthians 6:2). In the meantime, Christ will rule in
the midst of his enemies (Psalms 110:2), even in the midst of our hearts. WE
MUST EXPECT OPPOSITION It is therefore no sign of a good condition to find all
quiet, with no opposition; for can we think that corruption, which is the older
element in us, and Satan, the strong man who has many holds over us, will yield
possession quietly? No, there is not so much as a thought of goodness discovered
by him, but he joins with corruption to kill it in the birth. And as Pharaoh's
cruelty was especially against the male children, so Satan's malice is
especially against the most religious and manly resolutions. This, then, we are
always to expect, that wherever Christ comes there will be opposition. When
Christ was born, all Jerusalem was troubled; so when Christ is born in any man,
the soul is in an uproar, and all because the heart is unwilling to yield up
itself to Christ to rule it. Wherever Christ comes he brings division, not only
between man and himself, but between man and man, and between church and church;
of which disturbance Christ is no more the cause than medicine is of trouble in
a diseased body. Harmful agents are the real cause, for the purpose of medicine
is to bring health. But Christ thinks it fit that the thoughts of men's hearts
should be revealed, and he is set for the fall as well as the rising of many in
Israel (Luke 2:34). Thus, the desperate madness of men is laid open, that they
would rather be under the guidance of their own lusts, and in consequence of
Satan himself, to their endless destruction, than put their feet into Christ's
fetters and their necks under his yoke; though, indeed, Christ's service is the
only true liberty. His yoke is an easy yoke, his burden but as the burden of
wings to a bird which make her fly the higher. Satan's government is rather a
bondage than a government, to which Christ gives up those that shake off his
own, for then he gives Satan and his agents power over them. Since they will not
‘receive the love of the truth' (2 Thessalonians 2:10), take him, Jesuit, take
him, Satan, blind him and bind him and lead him to perdition. Those that take
the most liberty to sin are the greatest slaves., because the most voluntary
slaves. The will is either the best or the worst part in anything. The further
men go on in a willful course, the deeper they sink in rebellion; and the more
they oppose Christ, doing what they will, the more they shall one day suffer
what they would not. In the meantime, they are prisoners in their own souls,
bound over in their consciences to the judgment after death of him whose
judgment they would not accept in their lives. And is it not just that they
should find him a severe judge to condemn them when they would not have him as a
mild judge to rule them? OUR VICTORY IN CHRIST IS CERTAIN In conclusion and as a
general application to ourselves of all that has been said, we see the
conflicting, but yet sure and hopeful, state of God's people. The victory lies
not with us, but with Christ, who has taken on him both to conquer for us and to
conquer in us. The victory lies neither in our own strength to get it, nor in
our enemies' strength to defeat it. If it lay with us, we might justly fear. But
Christ will maintain his own government in us and take our part against our
corruptions. They are his enemies as well as ours. Let us therefore be 'strong
in the Lord, and in the power of his might' (Ephesians 6:10). Let us not look so
much at who our enemies are as at who our judge and captain is, nor at what they
threaten, but at what he promises. We have more for us than against us. What
coward would not fight when he is sure of victory? None is here overcome but he
that will not fight. Therefore, when any base fainting seizes on us, let us lay
the blame where it ought to be laid. Discouragement rising from unbelief and the
ill report brought upon the good land by the spies moved God to swear in his
wrath that they should not enter into his rest. Let us take heed that a spirit
of faintheartedness, rising from the seeming difficulty and disgrace involved in
God's good ways, does not provoke God to keep us out of heaven. We see here what
we may look for from heaven. 0h beloved, it is a comfortable thing to conceive
of Christ aright, to know what love, mercy and strength we have laid up for us
in the breast of Christ. A good opinion of the physician, we say, is half the
cure. Let us make use of this mercy and power of his every day in our daily
combats: 'Lord Jesus, thou hast promised not to quench the smoking flax, nor to
break the bruised reed. Cherish thy grace in me; leave me not to myself; the
glory shall be thine.' Let us not allow Satan to transform Christ to us, to make
him other than he is to those that are his. Christ will not leave us till he has
made us like himself, all glorious within and without, and presented us
blameless before his Father (Jude 1:24). What a comfort this is in our conflicts
with our unruly hearts, that it shall not always be thus! Let us strive a little
while, and we shall be happy for ever. Let us think when we are troubled with
our sins that Christ has this in charge from his Father, that he shall not
'quench the smoking flax' until he has subdued all. This puts a shield into our
hands to beat back 'all the fiery darts of the wicked' (Ephesians 6:16). Satan
will object, 'You are a great sinner. We may answer, 'Christ is a strong
Savior.' But he will object, 'You have no faith, no love.' 'Yes, a spark of
faith and love.' 'But Christ will not regard that.' 'Yes, he will not quench the
smoking flax.’ ‘But this is so little and weak that it will vanish and come to
naught.’ ‘Nay, but Christ will cherish it, until he has brought judgment to
victory.' And this much we have already for our comfort, that, even when we
first believed, we overcame God himself, as it were, by believing the pardon of
all our sins, notwithstanding the guilt of our own consciences and his absolute
justice. Now, having been prevailers with God, what shall stand against us if we
can learn to make use of our faith? Oh, what a confusion is this to Satan, that
he should labor to blow out a poor spark and yet should not be able to quench
it; that a grain of mustard seed should be stronger than the gates of hell; that
it should be able to remove mountains of oppositions and temptations cast up by
Satan and our rebellious hearts between God and us. Abimelech could not endure
that it should be said, 'A woman slew him' (Judges 9:54); and it must needs be a
torment to Satan that a weak child, a woman, a decrepit old man should, by a
spirit of faith, put him to flight. TREASURE THE LEAST DEGREE OF GRACE Since
there is such comfort where there is a little truth of grace, that it will be so
victorious, let us often try what God has wrought in us, search our good as well
as our ill, and be thankful to God for the least measure of grace, more than for
any outward thing. It will be of more use and comfort than all this world which
passes away and comes to nothing. Yea, let us be thankful for that promised and
assured victory which we may rely on without presumption, as Paul does: 'But
thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' (1
Corinthians 15:57). See a flame in a spark, a tree in a seed. See great things
in little beginnings. Look not so much to the beginning as to the perfection,
and so we shall be, in some degree, joyful in ourselves, and thankful to Christ.
Neither must we reason from a denial of a great measure of grace to a denial of
any at all in us, for faith and grace do not consist in an indivisible amount,
so that he who has not such and such a measure has none at all. But, as there is
a great difference between a spark and a flame, so there is a great difference
between the least measure of grace and the greatest; and he who has the least
measure is within the compass of God's eternal favor. Though he is not a shining
light, yet he is a smoking wick, which Christ's tender care will not allow him
to quench. ENCOURAGEMENT TO COME TO CHRIST And let all that has been spoken
allure those that are not yet in a state of grace to come under Christ's sweet
and victorious government, for, though we shall have much opposition, yet, if we
strive, he will help us. If we fail, he will cherish us. If we are guided by
him, we shall overcome. If we overcome, we are sure to be crowned. As for the
present state of the church, we see now how forlorn it is, yet let us comfort
ourselves that Christ's cause shall prevail. Christ will rule, till his enemies
become his footstool (Psalms 110:1), not only to trample upon, but to help him
up to mount higher in glory. Babylon shall fall, 'for strong is the Lord God who
judgeth her' (Revelation 18:8). Christ's judgment, not only in his children, but
also against his enemies, shall be victorious, for he is 'King of kings and Lord
of lords' (Revelation 19:16). God will not always suffer antichrist and his
supporters to revel and swagger in the church as they do. CHRIST IS THE HOPE OF
THE CHURCH If we look to the present state of the church of Christ, it is as
Daniel in the midst of lions, as a Illy amongst thorns, as a ship not only
tossed but almost covered with waves. It is so low that the enemies think they
have buried Christ, with respect to his gospel, in the grave, and there they
think to keep him from rising. But as Christ rose in his person, so he will roll
away all stones and rise again in his church. How little support has the church
and cause of Christ at this day! How strong a conspiracy is against it. The
spirit of antichrist is now lifted up and marches furiously. Things seem to hang
on a small and invisible thread. But our comfort is that Christ lives and
reigns, and stands on Mount Zion in defense of those who stand for him
(Revelation 14:1); and when states and kingdoms shall dash one against another
Christ will have care of his own children and cause, seeing there is nothing
else in the world that he much esteems. At this very time the delivery of his
church and the ruin of his enemies are in progress. We see nothing in motion
till Christ has done his work, and then we shall see that the Lord reigns.
Christ and his church, when they are at the lowest, are nearest rising. His
enemies, at the highest, are nearest their downfall. The Jews are not yet come
in under Christ's banner; but God who has persuaded Japheth to come into the
tents of Shem (Genesis 9:27) will persuade Shem to come into the tents of
Japheth. The 'fullness of the Gentiles' has not yet come in (Romans 11:25), but
Christ, who has the uttermost parts of the earth given to him for his possession
(Psalms 2:8) will gather all the sheep his Father has given him into one fold,
that there may be one sheepfold and one shepherd (John 10:16). The faithful Jews
rejoiced to think of the calling of the Gentiles and why should we not rejoice
to think of the calling of the Jews? The gospel's course has hitherto been as
that of the sun, from east to west, and so in God's time it may proceed yet
further west. No creature can hinder the course of the sun, nor stop the
influence of heaven, nor hinder the blowing of the wind, much less hinder the
prevailing power of divine truth, until Christ has brought all under one head,
and then he will present all to his Father: 'These are those thou hast given to
me; these are those that have taken me for their Lord and King, that have
suffered with me. My will is that they may be where I am and reign with me. And
then he will deliver up the kingdom, even to his Father, and put down all other
rule, and authority, and power (1 Corinthians 15:24). FAITH WILL PREVAIL Let us
then bring our hearts to holy resolutions, and set ourselves upon that which is
good, and against that which is ill, in ourselves or others, according to our
callings, with this encouragement, that Christ's grace and power will go along
with us. What would have become of that great work of reformation of religion in
the latter-spring of the gospel if men had not been armed with invincible
courage to overcome all hindrances, with this faith, that the cause was
Christ's, and that he would not fail to help his own cause? Luther ingenuously
confessed that he often acted inconsiderately and moved by, various passions.
But when he acknowledged this: God did not condemn him for his errors, but, the
cause being God's, and his aims being holy, to promote the truth, and being a
mighty man in prayer, and strong in faith, God by him kindled that fire which
all the world shall never be able to quench. According to our faith, so is our
encouragement to all duties, therefore let us strengthen faith, so that it may
strengthen all other graces. The very belief that faith shall be victorious is a
means to make it so indeed. Believe it, therefore, that, though it is often as
smoking flax, yet it shall prevail. If it prevails with God himself in trials,
shall it not prevail over all other opposition? Let us wait a while, 'stand
still, and see the salvation of the LORD' (Exodus 14:13). The Lord reveal
himself more and more to us in the face of his Son Jesus Christ and magnify the
power of his grace in cherishing those beginnings of grace in the midst of our
corruptions, and sanctify the consideration of our own infirmities to humble us,
and of his tender mercy to encourage us. And may he persuade us that, since he
has taken us into the covenant of grace, he will not cast us off for those
corruptions which, as they grieve his Spirit, so they make us vile in our own
eyes. And because Satan labors to obscure the glory of his mercy and hinder our
comfort by discouragements, the Lord add this to the rest of his mercies, that,
since he is so gracious to those that yield to his government, we may make the
right use of this grace, and not lose any portion of comfort that is laid up for
us in Christ. And, may he grant that the prevailing power of his Spirit in us
should be an evidence of the truth of grace begun, and a pledge of final
victory, at that time when he will be all in all, in all his, for all eternity.
Amen.

Taken from The Bruised Reed. Updated.


========================================================================
Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/sermons-of-richard-sibbes/
========================================================================