Gospel Encouragement from Richard Sibbes

Status
Not open for further replies.

Thomas_Goodwin

Puritan Board Freshman
"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... 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." -Richard Sibbes (excerpt from The Bruised Reed)


If by chance Naphtali Press is reading this, I hope I served you proud with the citations :cheers:
 
Sibbes is one of my favourite Puritans. A few years ago I made this comment:
I love Sibbes too and his pastoral emphasis.

In his book Preachers and Preaching, Martyn Lloyd-Jones noted, "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."

For those interested in this wonderful work, here is Dr McMahon's video promoting the Puritan Publications edition of Sibbes 'The Soul's Conflict.'
 
In Chapter 6 of the Soul's Conflict Sibbes says "we see that a godly man can cast a restraint upon himself .... there is a principle of grace, that stops the heart, and pulls in the reigns again when the affections are loose. ... a godly man can make a good use of privacy. When he is forced to be alone he can talk with his God and himself; one reason whereof is, that his heart is a treasury and storehouse of divine truths, whence he can speak to himself, by way of check or encouragement of himself: he hath a spirit over his own spirit to teach him to make use of that store he hath laid up in his heart"

i also recall from a previous reading of Sibbes he says that just as Christ calmed the storm, ask Him to calm the storms arising in our hearts. He also says that just as Joseph stored up grain to help people in the lean years, we must store up spiritual truths in our hearts so that we have them available in the difficult times in our lives.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top