Category: Heroes

For how wondrously doth this stablish our faith when we believe in a Saviour that is God; the Son of God, Jesus Christ by eternal generation. In a word, here are these prerogatives of Christ’s generation from all other sons whatsoever. Other fathers are before their sons, this Son of God was eternal with his Father. Other fathers have a distinct essence from their sons, the father is one, and the son another; they have distinct existences; but here there is one common essence to the Father and the Son. Other fathers beget a son without them, but this Father begets his Son within him. It was an inward work. So it is a mystical divine generation, which indeed is a subject of admiration rather than of explication, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Son of man.  – Richard Sibbes, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 1

For the devil ploughs with our heifer. The most mischief that he hath done in the world, it is by the correspondency that he hath with our flesh, our enemy within.   – Richard Sibbes, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 1

If we be less than the least, then we must be thankful for the least. Humility is always thankful. A humble man thinks himself unworthy of anything, and therefore he is thankful for anything.  – Richard Sibbes, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 1

Prayer is a prevailing course with God.

It prevails for the removing of ill, or for the preventing of ill, or for the obtaining of good, ‘I shall be delivered,’ I shall be continued in the state of deliverance; but yet you must pray. Your prayers will obtain and beg this of God.

Reason 1. Prayer is a prevailing course, because, as I said, it is obedience to God’s order. He bids us call upon him, and he will hear us. Prayer binds him with his own promise. Lord, thou canst not deny thyself, thou canst not deny thy promise, thou hast promised to be near all those that call upon thee in truth; and though with much weakness, yet we call upon thee in truth; therefore we cannot but be persuaded of thy goodness that thou wilt be near us. So it is a prevailing course, because it is obedience to God’s order.

Reason 2. And it is a prevailing course, because likewise it sets God on work. Faith, that is in the heart, and that sets prayer on work, for prayer is nothing but the voice of faith, the flame of faith. The fire is in the heart and spirit, but the voice, the flame, the expression of faith, is prayer. Faith in the heart sets prayer on work. What doth prayer? That goes into heaven, it pierceth heaven, and that sets God on work; because it brings him his promise, it brings him his nature. Thy nature is to be Jehovah, good and gracious, and merciful to thine! thy promise is answerable to thy nature, and thou hast made rich and precious promises. As faith sets prayer on work, so prayer sets God on work; and when God is set on work by prayer (as prayer must needs bind him, bringing himself to himself, bringing his word to him; every man is as his word, and his word is as himself), God being set on work, he sets all on work. He sets heaven and earth on work, when he is set on work by prayer. Therefore it is a prevailing course. He sets all his attributes on work for the deliverance and rescue of his church from danger, and for the doing of any good. He sets his mercy and goodness on work, and his love, and whatsoever is in him.  – Richard Sibbes, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 1

God will have it thus in his wise dispensation, because he will have every man esteemed, and because he will have no man to be proud. He will humble his own to let them know that they stand in need of the prayers of the weakest. Every man in the church of God hath some gifts, that none should be despised; and none have all gifts, that none should presume over-much and be proud. In the church of God, in the body of Christ, there is no idle member. In the communion of saints there is none unprofitable. Every one can do good in his kind.  – Richard Sibbes, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 1

This should teach us then, this holy practice, to lay up observations of God’s dealing, and to take them as so many pawns and pledges to move God for the time to come to regard us. It is wondrous pleasing to him. It is no argument to prevail if we come to men, to say, you have done this for me, therefore you will ; because man hath a finite power which is soon drawn dry. But God is infinite. He is a spring. He can create new. What he hath done he can do, and more too. He is where he was at the first, and will be to the end of the world. He is never at a loss. Therefore it is a strong argument to go to God, and say, ‘Lord, thou art my God from the womb,’ thou hast delivered me from such a danger, and such an exigence. When I knew not what to do, thou madest open a way. I see by evident signs it was thy goodness, thou art alway like thyself, to be the same God now. Therefore we should treasure up observations of God’s dealing with us. 

It should be the wisdom of every Christian to be well read in the story of his own life, and to return back in his thoughts what God hath done for him, how God hath dealt with him for the time past, what he hath wrought in him by his Holy Spirit.  – Richard Sibbes, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 1

There is a partial deliverance, and a total deliverance. There is a deliverance from this and that trouble, and there is a deliverance from all troubles. God delivers us most when we think he delivers least; for we think how doth he deliver his children when we see them taken away by death, and ofttimes are massacred? That is one way of delivering them. God by death takes them from all miseries. They are out of the reach of their enemies. Death delivers them from all miseries of this life, both inward of sin, and outward of trouble. All are determined in death. Therefore, God when he doth not deliver them from death, he delivers them by death, and takes them to his heavenly kingdom.  – Richard Sibbes, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 1

What doth a man lose when he trusts in God, though he lose all the world? Hath he not him that made the world at the first, and can make another if he please? If a man lose all, and have God, as he hath that trusts in him, and in his word; for God will not deny his word and truth. He that trusts in God hath him, and if he have him, what if he be stripped of all? He can make another world with a word of his mouth. Other things are but a beam to him; what need a man care for a beam, that hath the sun?  – Richard Sibbes, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 1

And the comforts of the Holy Ghost are fetched from Christ, from the death of Christ, or the ascension of Christ, from some argument from Christ. Whatsoever comforteth the soul, the Holy Ghost doth it by fetching some argument from Christ, from his satisfaction, from his worth, from his intercession in heaven. Something in Christ it is. So Christ by his Spirit doth comfort, and the reasons fetched by the Spirit are from Christ. Therefore it is by Christ.

What is the reason that a Christian soul doth not fear God as ‘ a consuming fire,’ Heb. xii. 29, but can look upon him with comfort? It is because God hath received satisfaction by Christ. What is the reason that a Christian soul fears not hell, but thinks of it with comfort? Christ hath conquered hell and Satan. What is the reason that a Christian fears not death? Christ by death hath overcome death, and him that had the power of death, the devil. Christ is mine, saith the Christian soul. Therefore I do not fear it, but think of it with comfort, because a Christian is more than a conqueror over all these. What is the reason that a Christian is not afraid of his corruptions and sins? He knows that God, for Christ’s sake, will pardon them, and that the remainder of his corruptions will work to his humiliation, and to his good.’ All shall work for the best to them that love God,’ Rom. viii. 28. What is the reason that there is not anything in the world but it is comfortable to a Christian? When he thinks of God, he thinks of him as a Father of comfort; when he thinks of the Holy Ghost, he thinks of him as a Spirit of comfort; when he thinks of angels, he thinks of them as his attendants; when he thinks of heaven, he thinks of it as of his inheritance ; he thinks of saints as a communion whereof he is partaker. Whence is all this? By Christ, who hath made God our Father, the Holy Ghost our comforter, who hath made angels ours, saints ours, heaven ours, earth ours, devils ours, death ours, all ours, in issue.  – Richard Sibbes, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 1

The very sufferings of Christ are better than the most glorious day of the greatest monarch in the world that is not a Christian. It is better to suffer with Christ, than to joy with the world. The very abasement of St Paul was better than the triumph of Nero. Let Moses be judge. He judged it the best end of the balance, Heb. xi. 26. The very sufferings and reproach of Christ, and of religion, is better than the best thing in the world. The worst thing in Christianity, is better than the best thing out of Christ. The best thing out of Christ is the honour of a king, the honour of a prince, to be a king’s son, &c. But the reproach of Christ for a good cause is better than the best thing in the world. I say, let Moses be judge, if we will not believe it ourselves till we feel it. The worst day of a Christian is better than the best day of a carnal man; for he hath the presence of God’s Spirit to support him in some measure.  – Richard Sibbes, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 1