time prisoner under Charles the fifth was demanded what upheld him all that time Who answered that hee felt the divine comforts of the Martyrs there be divine comforts which are felt under the Crosse and not at other times Besides personall troubles there are many much dejected with the present state of the Church seeing the blood of so many Saints to be shed and the enemies oft to prevaile but God hath stratagems as Joshua at Ay he seemes sometimes to retire that he may come upon his enemies with the greater advantage the end of all these troubles will no doubt be the ruine of the Antichristian faction and we shall see the Church in her more perfect beauty when the enmies shall be in that place which is fittest for them the lowest that is the footstoole of Christ the Church as it is highest in the favour of God so it shall be highest in it selfe The mountaine of the Lord shall bee exalted above all mountaines In the worst condition the Church hath two faces One towards heaven and Christ which is alwaies constant and glorious Another toward the world which is in appearance contemptible and changeable But God will in the end give her beauty for ashes and glory double to her shame and she shall in the end prevaile in the meane time the power of the enemies is in Gods hand The Church of God conquers when it is conquered even as our Head Christ did who overcame by patience as well as by power Christs victory was upon the Crosse. The Spirit of a Christian conquers when his person is conquered The way is in stead of discouragement to search al the promises made to the Church in these latter times and to turne them into prayers and presse God earnestly for the performance of them Then we shall soone find God both cursing his enemies and blessing his people out of Zion by the faithfull prayers that ascend up from thence In all the promises we should have speciall recourse to God in them In all storms there is Sea roome enough in the infinite goodness of God for faith to be carried with full saile And it must be remembred that in all places where God is mentioned we are to understand God in the promised Messiah typified out so many waies unto us And to put the more vigor into such places in the reading of them we in this latter age of the Church must thinke of God shining upon us in the face of Christ and our Father in him If they had so much confidence in so little light it is a shame for us not to be confident in good things when so strong a light shines round about us when we professe we beleeve a crowne of righteousnesse is laid up for all those that love his appearing Presenting these things to the soul by faith setteth the soule in such a pitch of resolution that no discouragements are able to seise upon it We faint not saith S. Paul wherefore doth he not faint because these light and short afflictions procure an exceeding weight of glory Luther when he saw Melancthon a godly learned man too much dejected for the state of the Church in those times fals a chiding of him as David doth here his own soule I strongly hate those miserable cares saith he whereby thou writest thou art even spent It is not the greatnesse of the cause but the greatnesse of the incredulity If the cause be false let us revoke it If true why doe wee make God in his rich promises a lyar Strive against thy selfe the greatest enemie why doe we feare the conquered world that have the conquerour himselfe on our side Now to speake something concerning the publishing of this Treatise I began to preach on the Text about twelue yeares since in the City and afterwards finished the same at Grayes-Inne After which some having gotten imperfect notes endeavoured to publish them without my privity Therefore to doe my selfe right I thought fit to reduce them to this forme There is a pious and studious gentleman of Grayes-Inne that hath of late published observations upon the whole psalme and another upon this very verse very well and many others by Treatises of faith and such like have furthered the spirituall peace of Christians much It were to be wished that we would all joyne to doe that which the Apostle gloried in to be helpers of the joy of Gods people By reason of my absence while the worke was in printing some sentences were mistaken Some will be ready to deprave the labours of other men but so good may be done let such ill disposed persons be what they are and what they will be unlesse God turne their hearts and so I commend thee and this poore Treatise to Gods blessing GRAYES INNE July 1. 1635. R. SIBBES THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOKE in the severall Chapters 1 GEnerall Observations upon the Text. pag. 5 2 Of discouragements from without 12 3 Of discouragements from within 21 4 Of casting downe our selves And specially by sorrow Evills thereof 41 5 Remedies of casting downe To cite theâ—… soule and press it to give an account 51 6 Other observations of the same nature 63 7 Difference betweene good men and others in conflicts with sinne 83 8 Of unfitting dejection and when it is excessive And what is the right temper of the soule herein 92 9 Of the soules disquiets Gods dealings and power to containe our selves in order 108 10 Meanes not to bee over-charged with forrâ—… 1â—… 11 Signes of victory over our selves and of a subdued spirit 142 12 Of originall righteousnesse naturall corruption Satans joyning with it and our duty thereupon 153 13 Of imagination sinne of it and remedies for it 176 14 Of help by others of true comforters and their graces Method Ill successe 222 15 Of flying to God in disquiets of soule Eight observations out of the text 242 16 Of trust in God grounds of it specially his providence 263 17 Of Graces to bee exercised in respect of divine providence 278 18 Other grâ—…nds of trusting in God namely the promises And twelve directions about the same 295 19 Faith to be prized and other things under valued at least not to be trusted to as the chiefe 317 20 Of the method of trusting in God and the try all of that trust 330 21 Of quieting the spirit in troubles for sinne And objections answered 348 22 Of sorow for sin and hatred of sin when right and sufficient Helps thereto 370 23 Other spirituall causes of the souls trouble discovered and removed and objections answered 386 24 Of outward troubles disquieting the spirit and comforts in them 393 25 Of the defects of gifts disquieting the soule As also the afflictions of the Church 405 26 Of divine reasons in a beleever of his minding to praise God more then to be delivered 414 27 In our worst condition we have cause to praise God Still ample cause in these dayes
is a subsisting of three persons every one so set out unto us as fitted for us to trust in the Father as a Creator the Sonne as a Redeemer the Holy Ghost as a Comforter and all this in reference to us God in the first person hath decreed the great work of our salvation and all things tending to the accomplishment of it God in the second person hath exactly and fully answered that decree and plot in the worke of our redemption God in the third person discovers and applyes all unto us and fits us for communion with the Father and the Sonne from whom he proceeds 3. GOD cannot be comfortably thought upon out of Christ our mediator in whom hee was reconciling the world to himselfe as being a friend both to God and us and therefore fit to bring God and the soule together being a middle person in the trinity In Christ Gods nature becomes lovely to us and ours to God otherwise there is an utter enmity betwixt his pure and our impure nature Christ hath made up the vaste gulfe betweene God and us there is nothing more terrible to thinke on then an absolute God out of Christ. 4. Therefore for the better drawing of us to trust in God we must conceive of him under the sweet relation of a Father Gods nature is Fatherly now unto us and therefore lovely 5. And for further strengthning our faith it is needfull to consider what excellencies the Scripture giveth unto God answerable to all our necessities what sweet Names God is pleased to be knowne unto us by sor our comfort as a mercifull gracious long suffering God c. When Moses desired to see the glory of God God thus manifested himself in the way of goodnesse I will mâ—… all my goodnesse passe before thee Whatsoever is good in the creature is first in God as in a fountaine and it is in God in a more emiâ—… manner and fuller measure All grace and holinesse all sweetnesse of affection all power and wisdome c. as it is in him so it is from him and we come to conceive these properties to bee in God 1. by feeling the comfort and power of them in our selves 2. by observing these things in their measure to be in the best of the creatures whence wee arise to take notice of what grace and what love what strength and wisdome c. is in God by the beames of these which we see in his creature with adding in our thoughts fulnesse peculiar to God and abstracting imperfections incident to the creature for that is in God in the highest degree the sparkles whereof is but in us 6. Therefore it is fit that unto all other eminencies in God wee should strengthen our faith by considering those glorious singularities which are altogether incommunicable to the creature and which gives strength to his other properties as that God is not onely gracious and loving powerfull wise c. but that he is infinitely 〈◊〉 and unchangeably so All which are comprised in and drawne from that one name Iehovah as being of himselfe and giving a being to all things else of nothing and able when it pleaseth him to turne all things to nothing againe As God is thus so he makes it good by answerable actions and dealing towards us by his continuall providence the consideration whereof is a great stay to our faith for by this providence God makes use of all his former excellencies for his peoples good for the more comfortable apprehension of which it is good to know that Gods providence is extended as farre as his creation Every creature in every element and place whatsoever receiveth a powerfull influence from God who doth what pleaseth him both in heaven and earth in the sea and all places But we must know God doth not put things into a frame and then leave them to their owne motion as wee doe clocks after wee have once set them right and ships after wee have once built them commit them to winde and waves but as hee made all things and knowes all things so by a continued kind of creation he preserves all things in their being and working and governes them to their ends Hee is the first mover that sets all the wheeles of the creature a working One wheele may move another but all are moved by the first If God moves not the clock of the creature stands If God should not uphold things they would presently fall to nothing from whence they came If God should not guide things Sathans malice and mans weaknesse would soone bring all to a confusion If God did not rule the great family of the world all would breake and fall to pieces whereas the wise providence of God keepeth every thing on its right hinges All things stand in obedience to this providence of God and nothing can withdraw it selfe from under it If the creature withdraw it selfe from one order of providence it falls into another If man the most unruly and disordered creature of all withdraw himselfe from Gods gracious government of him to happinesse hee will soone fall under Gods just government of him to deserved misery If hee shakes off Gods sweet yoake he puts himselfe under Sathans heavy yoake who as Gods executioner hardens him to destruction and so whiles hee rushes against Gods will he fulfils it And whilst he will not willingly doe Gods will Gods will is done upon him against his will The most casuall things fall under providence yea the most disordered thing in the world sinne and of sins the most horrible that ever the Sunne beheld the crucifying of the Lord of life was guided by a hand of providence to the greatest good For that which is ca suall in regard of a second cause is not so in regard of the first whose providence is most cleerely seene in casuall events that fall out by accident for in these the effect cannot be ascribed to the next cause God is said to kill him who was unwarily slaine by the falling of an axe or some instrument of death And though man hath a freedome in working and of all men the Hearts of Kings are most free yet even these are guided by an over ruling power as the rivers of water are carryed in their channels whither skilfull men list to derive them For setling of our faith the more God taketh liberty in using weake meanes to great purposes and setteth aside more likely and able meanes yea sometimes he altogether disableth the greatest meanes and worketh often by no meanes at all It is not from want of power in God but from abundance multiplying of his goodnesse that hee useth any means at all there is nothing that he doth by meanes but hee is able to doe without meanes Nay God often bringeth his will to passe by crossing the course and stream of meanes to shew his own soveraignty and to exercise our dependance and maketh
his very enemies the accomplishers of his owne will and so to bring about that which they oppose most Hence it is that we beleeve under hope against hope But wee must know Gods manner of guiding things is without prejudice of the proper working of the things themselves hee guideth them sweetly according to the instincts hee hath put into them for 1. He furnishes creatures with a vertue and power to worke and likewise with a manner of working sutable to their owne nature as it is proper for a man when he workes to worke with freedome and other creatures by naturall instinct c. 2. God maintaineth both the power and manner of working and perfecteth and accomplisheth the same by acting of it being neerer to us in all wee doe then we are to our selves 3. He applies and stirres up our abilities and actions to this or that particular as he seeth best 4. Hee suspends or removes the hinderances of all actions and so powerfully wisely and sweetly orders them to his owne ends When any evill is intended God either puts bars and letts to the execution of it or else limiteth and boundeth the same both in regard of time and measure so that our enemies either shall not doe the evill at all or else not so long a time or not in such a height of mischiefe as their malice would cary them to The rod of the wicked may light upon the backe of the righteous but it shall not rest there God knowes how to take our enemies off sometimes by changing or stopping their wills by offering considerations of some good or ill danger or profit to them sometimes by taking away and weakning all their strength or else by opposing an equall or greater strength against it All the strength our enemies have rests in God who if hee denies concourse and influence the arme of their power as Ieroboams when he stretcht it out against the Prophet shrinkes up presently God is not onely the cause of things and actions but the cause likewise of the cessation of them why they fall not out at all God is the cause why things are not as well as why they are The cause why men favour us not or when they doe favour us want present wisdome and ability to help us is from Gods withdrawing the concurrence of his light and strength from them If a skilfull Physitian doth us no good it is because it pleaseth God to hide the right way of curing at that time from him Which should move us to see God in all that befalls us who hath sufficient reason as to doe what he doth so not to doe what hee doth not to hinder as well as to give way The God of spirits hath an influence into the spirits of men into the principles and springs of all actions Otherwise he could not so certainely foretell things to come God had a worke in Absaloms heart in that he refused the best counsell there is nothing independant of him who is the mover of all things and himselfe unmoveable Nothing so high that is above his providence Nothing so low that is beneath it Nothing so large but is bounded by it Nothing so confused but God can order it Nothing so bad but he can draw good out of it Nothing so wisely plotted but God can disappoint it as Achitophells counsell Nothing so simply and unpolitiquely caried but hee can give a prevailing issue unto it Nothing so freely caried in regard of the next cause but God can make it necessary in regard of the event Nothing so naturall but he can suspend in regard of operation as heavy bodies from sinking fire from burning c. It cannot but bring strong security to the soule to know that in all variety of changes and intercourse of good and bad events God and Our God hath such a disposing hand Whatsoever befalls us all serves to bring Gods electing love and our glorification together Gods providence serveth his purpose to save us All sufferings all blessings all ordinanoes all graces all common gifts nay our very falls yea Sathan himselfe with all his instruments as over-mastered and ruled by God have this injunction upon them to further Gods good intendment to us and a prohibition to doe us no harme Augustus taxed the world for civill ends but Gods providence used this as a meanes for Christ to bee borne at Bethieem Ahashueresh could not sleepe and thereupon calls for the Chronicles the reading of which occasioned the Iewes delivery God oft disposeth little occasions to great purposes And by those very wayes whereby proud men have gone about to withstand Gods counsells they have fulfilled them as we see in the story of Ioseph and Moses in the thing wherein they dealt proudly He was above them CAP. XVII Of Graces to be exercised in respect of divine Providence VVEE are under a providence that is above our own which should bee a ground unto us of exercising those graces that tend to settle the soule in all events As 1. Hence to lay our hand upon our mouthes and command the soule an holy silence not daring to yeeld to the least rising of our hearts against God I was dumbe and opened not my mouth because thou didst it saith David Thus Aaron when hee had lost his two sonnes both at once and that by fire and by fire from heaven which caried an evidence of Gods great displeasure with it yet held his peace In this silence and hope is our strength Flesh and blood is proane to expostulate with God and to question his dealing as we see in Gedeon Ieremie Asaph Habacuck and others If the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us but after some strugling betweene the flesh and the spirit the conclusion will be yet howsoever matters goe God is good to Israel Where a fearefull spirit and a melancholy temper a weake judgement and a scrupulous and raw conscience meete in one there Sathan and his together with mens owne hearts which like Sophisters are continually cavilling against themselves breed much disquiet and makes the life uncomfortable Such therefore should have a speciall care as to grow in knowledge so to sticke close to sure and certaine grounds and bring their consciences to the rule Darknesse causeth feares The more light the more confidence When we yeeld up our selves to God we should resolve upon quietnesse and if the heart stirres presently use this check of David Why art thou disquieted Gods wayes seeme oft to us full of contradictions because his course is to bring things to passe by contrary meanes There is a mystery not onely in Gods decree concerning mans eternal estate but likewise in his providence as why he should deale unequally with men otherwise equall His judgements are a great depth which we cannot fadome but they will swallow up our thoughts and understandings God oft wraps himselfe in a cloude and