Tag Archives: Richard Sibbes

Richard Sibbes, The Backsliding Sinner, 2.6

26 Wednesday May 2021

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D. Praise to God

Sibbes quotes the passage:

‘So will we render the calves of our lips.’

1. Friendship With God

He explains the basis of our praise as “friendship”. God has given to us. We return praise to him. De Silva speaks about in terms of the patronage relationship and the concept of “grace.” Sibbes, without reference to the ancient custom bases his argument upon an even more ancient and cross-cultural concept: friendship. 

Here is the re-stipulation or promise. They return back again to God, for there is no friendship maintained without rendering. 

This is really quite beautiful:

When God hath entered into covenant with us, then there is a kind of friendship knit up betwixt him and us, he becoming our friend. 

It is set forth in the hymn, Praise to the Lord the Almighty:

Praise to the Lord, who will prosper your work and defend you;

surely his goodness and mercy shall daily attend you.

Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,

if with his love he befriends you.

Friendship is a matter of exchange: we have received good from God, we return to him. The image of the “grave” is quite striking here

We must not, therefore, be like graves, to swallow up all, and return nothing, for then the intercourse betwixt God and us is cut off. 

He supports this point by argument from Scripture, that the Spirit teaches this; and then by analogy to nature:

Therefore the same Spirit which teacheth them to pray, and to ‘take to them words,’ teacheth them likewise to take unto them words of praise, that there may be a rendering according to receiving, without which we are worse than the poorest creature that is, which rendereth according to its receipt. 

The earth, when it is ploughed and sowed, it yields us fruit. Trees being set, yield increase. Beasts being fed, render in their kind. Yea, the fiercest, untamed beasts, as we read of the lion, have been thankful in their kind. 

One might think he is overstating the analogy that nature praises God. Therefore, he proves the point by a quotation from Psalm 19:

The heavens, saith the psalmist, declare the glory of God, and the firmament shews forth his praise, Ps. 19:1.

He then makes the work one of honor: surely you will not do less than the animals:

So there must be a return, if we be not worse than beasts. Therefore the church here promiseth a return by the same Spirit which stirred her up to pray. ‘So will we render the calves of our lips.’

Richard Sibbes, The Returning Backslider 2.1

08 Thursday Apr 2021

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Take with you words, and turn to the Lord; say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.—Hos. 14:2.

I.         Introduction

Sibbes begins with a general statement concerning the character of God. This general proposition will be explained in the particular development of this sermon. The sermon itself will end with the assurance that this particular proposition is true:

As we lost ourselves in the first Adam, so the mercy of God, in the covenant of grace, found out a way to restore us again by the ‘second Adam,’ 1 Cor. 15:47, Jesus Christ, in whom all the promises are ‘yea and amen; yesterday and to-day, and the same for ever,’ Heb. 13:8.

And as the wisdom of God did freely find out this way at first, comforting our first parents with it in paradise; so this bowels of incomprehensible love of his hath so gone on from time [to time, repeatedly] in all ages of the church, comforting and raising up the dejected spirits of his church, from time to time, and awakening them out of their drowsiness and sleepy condition. 

The argument runs as follows: When Adam sinned, God makes the promise of the one who will crush the Serpent’s head, the first gospel, in Genesis 3:15. And as God came and gave hope to humanity at this first act of sin, so has God in various other times come to those who were seemingly furthest away grace only to encourage their repentance:

And many times, the greater sinners he dealt with, the greater mercies and tender bowels of compassion were opened unto them, in many sweet and gracious promises tendering forgiveness, and inviting to repentance; as here in this chapter, and whole prophecy, is shewed.

This brings us to the particular instance quoted in Hosea. The prophet was calling upon the wicked Ephraim to come to repentance:

What tribe so wicked, so full of idolatry and rebellion, as Ephraim? and yet here Ephraim and Israel are taught a lesson of repentance. As the tender nurse feeds her child, and puts meat in its mouth, so here the Lord puts words in the mouth of this rebellious people.

II.       The Elements of the Command

‘Take with you words, and turn unto the Lord.’

A.        Objection:

Having set forth the commandment of God, Sibbes addresses an objection. This objection is a common objection to prayer at all: Certainly we cannot be giving God information by means of prayer. Why then pray? The answer, in the very least, is we need the act of prayer for our own good. Prayer is then a means of grace for us – not a means of imparting information to God. 

Obj. What need God words, he knows our hearts before we speak unto him?

Ans. It is true: God needs no words, but we do, to stir up our hearts and affections; and because he will have us take shame unto ourselves, having given us our tongues as an instrument of glorifying him, he will have our ‘glory,’ Ps. 16:9;57:8, used in our petitions and thanksgivings. 

And therefore, in regard of ourselves, he will, as was said, have us take words unto ourselves, for exciting of the graces of God in us by words, blowing up of the affections, and for manifestation of the hidden man of the heart. God will be glorified by the outward, as well as by the inward man.

There is an interesting point in this last sentence, “manifestation of the hidden man of the heart.” Here is authenticity: but it is different than our post-Rousseau authenticity. Rather than starting with whatever is my current emotional state and then confirming that emotional state as my “authentic” self; Sibbes turns it around. The authenticate self, is the inner man of 2 Cor. 4:16: the self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Col. 3:10. The “old self” of Romans 6, Colossians 3, and Ephesians 4 is the “us” without the renewing work of the Spirit. We are in the process of being renewed (Rom. 12:1-2). Our authenticate self is not the manner of living according to this age: and yet that is often the nature of our immediate response: our renewal being always incomplete in this world. Our authenticity is not the “former manner of life … corrupt through deceitful desires” (Eph. 4:22). What I am saying is that Rousseau “authenticate self” is the precise opposite of the manifestation of the inner man called for by Sibbes. And so, rather than our immediate response being an indication of our authenticity, it is our formed/reformed self made by prayer that is our true authentic self.

It will teach a man wisdom

28 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Puritan, Richard Sibbes

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It will teach a man wisdom, whence and why it comes, and that struggling with God is in vain, and that in so doing we shall have the worse. The greatest hurt of our crosses comes from passion and distemper;  for if we put no more in crosses than God puts in, all should be well; but  we put in other things, our own impatience, false fears, fretting, and carnal reason, which makes this good purge of our heavenly father’s providing, be so bitter and heavy unto us. This we should by all means strive against, and make a good use of affliction, such as God would have and intends.

Richard Sibbes,

The Discreet Ploughman

We are travelers

27 Thursday Sep 2012

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We are travelers through our enemies’ country. This is Satan’s place where he reigns, being “God of this world”; therefore, we had need to have our wits and senses about us. And then again, the worst enemy is within u, our own hearts; which joins with Satan to bretry us to the world, he being the god of this world.

Now carrying an enemy in our bosom, therefore we need to watch for that is the condition of travelers through their enemies country. We also carry a jewel, a precious jewel in a brittle glass.  If once the vessel break, all is lost.

Richard Sibbes, “The Christian’s Watch”.

Page 300, vol. 7,

Meditation Canticles 2.1: The Lilly of the Vallies (Edward Taylor).2

13 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by in Church History, David Clarkson, Edward Taylor, Puritan, Richard Sibbes, Thomas Watson

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Taylor’s poem can be found here:

https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/meditation-canticles-2-1-the-lilly-of-the-vallies-edward-taylor/

Taylor’s poem takes its primary imagery from Song 2:1, “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”  Lily imagery generally was of common use among the Puritans. However, it was most often (though not always) tied to Biblical usage; albeit at times in a creative manner.

A common use of “lily” derived from Song 2:2, “As a lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters [ESV, young women].” Thus,  Thomas Brooks uses “lily” to refer to the life of a Christian being removed from this world and transplanted in the New Creation, “Death transplants a believer from earth to heaven, from misery to glory, Job 14:14. Death to a saint is nothing but the taking of a sweet flower out of this wilderness, and planting of it in the garden of paradise; it is nothing but a taking of a lily from among thorns, and planting of it among those sweet roses of heaven which God delights to wear always in his bosom” (Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, “The Best Things Reserved Till Last”, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 458).[1] Edward Polhill uses the image of a lily among thorns in an interesting manner:

God orders the sufferings of the church for his own glory, and his people’s good. He orders them for his own glory; providence is admirable in preserving a suffering church. The ark floats upon the waters, and drowns not: the bush burns, and is not consumed the lily is among thorns, and withers not; the saints are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill, “A Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day” (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 332. Yet to see the creativity with which the images were employed, considered this usage of the same verse by Polhill:

He comes into the world weeping, and very fitly, because, by his sin he hath set the whole creation a groaning until now: and as a believer, he lives as a lily among thorns; so is his person in the world among wicked ones, which are as pricking briars on every side; and so is the grace in his heart among the relics of corruption, which are as thorns in the flesh: and whilst sin is within, it is congruous that trouble should be without; nay, more than congruous; it is necessary upon many accounts. Affliction is purgative of sin; it may be, the believer’s heart may wax proud, and the tumor must be lanced, or light, and the vanity must be fanned away; it may be hard, and the furnace must melt it; or drowsy, and the rod must awaken it.

 

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill, “Precious Faith Considered” (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 289. In the first instance, the thorn cannot hurt the lily; in the second, the lily is afflicted by the thorns.

The imagery of lily from Hosea 14:5 (“I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon” (AV)) may actually be the most common use of lily imagery. Thomas Watson relies upon Hosea 14:5:

Though the ship hath a compass to sail by, and store of tackling, yet without a gale of wind it cannot sail. Though we have the word written as our compass to sail by, and make use of our endeavours as the tackling, yet, unless the Spirit of God blow upon us, we cannot sail with profit. When the Almighty is as “dew” unto us, then we “grow as the lily,” and our “beauty is as the olive-tree.” (Hosea 14:5, 6.)[2] Beg the anointing of the Holy Ghost. (1 John 2:20.)

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Thomas Watson, “How We May Read the Scriptures With Most Profit”, Volume 2 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 69.  Edward Polhill in his work, “A Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees”, uses this image:

Where is the truth of these propositions, if God’s calling and drawing do not infer man’s running? Again, David prays, “Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end; give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law,” (Psalm 119:33, 34.) Where is the consequence of David’s obedience upon God’s teaching, if grace be superable? Moreover, God says, “I will be as dew to Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon; his branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree,” (Hos. 14:5, 6). Here is Israel very florid, but that which secures all is insuperable grace; nothing could hinder their spiritual prosperity, who had God for their dew; I say, nothing, not lusts; for Ephraim shall say, “What have I to do with idols,” (v. 8)? not backslidings, for God says, “I will heal their backslidings,” (v. 4); not barrenness, for God tells them, “From me is thy fruit found,” (v. 8); not deadness, for “They shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine,” (v. 7). But if the work of grace may be frustrated, then there is no certain root for all this holy fruit to stand upon.

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 207.

Goodwin uses the same image but for a rather different end. In “The Trial of a Christian’s Growth” (collected works, volume 3, page 458), Goodwin writes:

As, first, to shew the sudden springing up of the new creature, as it falls out upon some men’s conversions, or upon the saints’ recovery again after falls, he compares them to the lily, Hos. xiv. 5, whose stalk, though long hid in the earth, when once it begins to feel the dew, grows up oftentimes in a night. But yet a lily is but a flower, and soon decays.

Another common use of “lily” imagery was in the quotation from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says,

27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6:27–29 (ESV)

Although most instances of the passage are for the purpose of enjoining faith in God’s care and providence, John Howe makes an interesting inversion of the image in his work, “The Blessedness of Righteousness”:

Having voided thy mind of what is earthly and carnal, apply and turn it to this blessed theme. The most excellent and the vilest objects are alike to thee, while thou mindest them not. Thy thoughts possibly bring thee in nothing but vexation and trouble, which would bring in as soon joy and pleasure, didst thou turn them to proper objects. A thought of the heavenly glory is as soon thought as of an earthly cross. We complain the world troubles us; then what do we there? Why get we not up, in our spirits, into the quieter region? What trouble would the thoughts of future glory be to us? How are thoughts and wits set on work for this flesh! But we would have our souls flourish as the lilies, without anything of their own care. Yea, we make them toil for torture, and not for joy, revolve an affliction a thousand times before and after it comes, and have never done with it; when eternal blessedness gains not a thought.

John Howe, The Works of the Reverend John Howe, Volume 2 (London: William Tegg and Co., 1848), 230. In short, we seek by a spiritual laziness to become perfect and content, without the effort to come to a spiritual frame of mind.

Richard Sibbes uses “lily” for something particularly beautiful or treasured without an apparent precise Biblical quotation to support the image:

Among the beasts, the Christian is as a lamb, innocent, …. Contrarily the wicked are termed lions and bears, and the like. Among the plants wicked men are as briars : a man must be fenced that deals with them, 2 Sam. 23:7 ; the godly as lilies, sweet, not fenced with pricks.

Richard Sibbes, “The Christian Work”, vol. 5, page 24. Thomas Brooks, likewise uses the image without a particular quotation, “The redness of the rose, the whiteness of the lily, and all the beauties of sun, moon, and stars, are but deformities to that beauty that holiness puts upon us” (Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, “The Crown and Glory of Christianity”, Volume 4, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1867), 171. And Brooks in “An Ark for All God’s Noahs”

A man that hath God for his portion is a non-such; he is the rarest and the happiest man in the world; he is like the morning star in the midst of the clouds; he is like the moon when it is at full; he is like the flower of the roses in the spring of the year; he is like the lilies by the springs of waters; he is like the branches of frankincense in the time of summer; he is like a vessel of massy gold that is set about with all manner of precious stones

 

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 2, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 7.

One interesting use of the image “lily of the valley” is in the sermon, “There is No Transubstantiation in the Lord’s Supper” wherein  Edward Lawrence argues against transubstantiation on (one of several) the ground that use of an image to reference Christ does not mean Christ is the literal object (thus, when Christ says this is my body, referring to the bread, it does not mean that the bread is his body):

Observe yet further, that whereas there is no example in all the scripture of a sign being turned into the thing signified, yet it is very ordinary in scripture-similitudes to give a thing the name of that whereunto it is likened: “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.” (Canticles 2:1.) “I am the living bread.” (John 6:51.) “I am the door.” (John 10:7.) “I am the true vine.” (John 15:1.) All these saith Christ of himself; but is he therefore turned into a rose, or lily, or bread, or door, or vine? No: the words taken literally and properly are blasphemy; but the meaning is, He is like these, as to the particular cases whereof he speaks.

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Volume 6 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 469.

The other category of usage was the passage from Song of Solomon (Canticles) to refer to Jesus, which will be seen in the next post.

[1] Brooks evidently liked this image, using it in other places, such as in the Epistle Dedicatory to “London’s Lamentations” (vol. 6, collected works, p. 4), “Sincere Christians are as lambs amongst lions, as sheep amongst wolves, as lilies amongst thorns.”

[2] Hosea 14:5 (AV): “I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.”

Christopher Love: Second Consolation of the Mortified Christian

07 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Matthew, Puritan, Richard Sibbes

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Take this for your comfort: if you use all conscionable means to bridge your lusts, you may be confident that sooner or later grace will get the victory over sin. Sin may be a combatant, but it shall never be a conqueror.

Does this not contradict the first consolation? No. Our is set firmly upon the knowledge that grace will gain the victory:

15 Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all 16 and ordered them not to make him known. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: 18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; 20 a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; 21 and in his name the Gentiles will hope.” Matthew 12:15–21 (ESV)

The work of Christ will not end “until he brings justice to victory.”   This presumes conflict, which Christ will win – thus, we must not become discouraged:

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 faint heartedness, 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. O 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 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’ (Eph. 6:16). Satan will object, `You are a great sinner.’ We may answer, `Christ is a strong Saviour.’ 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 labour 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’ (Judg. 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 (The Bruised Reed).

Edward Taylor, Meditation on Canticles 2:1a (Background: Use of the image of the Rose of Sharon in Puritan literature)

17 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by in Church History, Edward Taylor, John Owen, Puritan, Richard Sibbes, Song of Solomon

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Edward Taylor, Meditation Canticles 2.1

This poem by Taylor is based upon a passage in Canticles (Song of Solomon) in which the beloved is compared to “the rose of Sharon”:

I am the rose of Sharon,

            And the lily of the valleys.

Song of Solomon 2:1

To understand the poem, it will be first necessary to understand the manner in which this verse was used in Puritan preaching and teaching.  First, the image of Sharon was used generally of that of surpassing beauty and sweetness:

Ah, Christians! believing, believing is the ready way, the safest way, the sweetest way, the shortest way, the only way to a well-grounded assurance, and to that unspeakable joy and peace that flows from it, as the effect from the cause, the fruit from the root, the stream from the fountain. There is such assurance, and such joy that springs from the fresh and frequent actings of faith, that cannot be expressed, that cannot be painted. No man can paint the sweetness of the honeycomb, the sweetness of a cluster of Canaan, the sweetness of paradise, the fragrancy of the rose of Sharon. As the being of things cannot be painted, and as the sweetness of things cannot be painted, no more can that assurance and joy that flows from believing be painted or expressed; it is too great and too glorious for weak man to paint or set forth.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 2, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 359. The image was mixed with the contemplation of Jesus as the most beautiful and excellent of all:

Such an object is our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore the joy of the saints should still be exercised upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Shall the worldling rejoice in his barns, the rich man in his bags, the ambitious man in his honours, the voluptuous man in his pleasures, and the wanton in his Delilahs; and shall not a Christian rejoice in Christ Jesus, and in that robe of righteousness, and in those garments of salvation, with which Christ hath covered him? Isa. 61:10. The joy of that Christian that keeps a fixed eye upon Christ and his righteousness cannot be expressed, it cannot be painted. No man can paint the sweetness of the honeycomb, nor the sweetness of a cluster of Canaan, nor the fragrancy of the rose of Sharon. As the being of things cannot be painted, so the sweetness of things cannot be painted. The joy of the Holy Ghost cannot be painted, nor that joy that arises in a Christian’s heart, who keeps up a daily converse with Christ and his righteousness, cannot be painted, it cannot be expressed. Who can look upon the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and seriously consider, that even every vein of that blessed body did bleed to bring him to heaven, and not rejoice in Christ Jesus? who can look upon the glorious righteousness of Christ, imputed to him, and not be filled with an exuberancy of spiritual joy in God his Saviour? There is not the pardon of the least sin, nor the least degree of grace, nor the least drop of mercy, but cost Christ dear, for he must die, and he must be made a sacrifice, and he must be accursed, that pardon may be thine, and grace thine, and mercy thine: and oh, how should this draw out thy heart to rejoice and triumph in Christ Jesus!

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 5, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1867), 246-47. Or as David Clarkson wrote:

If Christ feast you, your souls will grow, thrive, and be well liking. This will be the fruit of these spiritual refreshments; they will make you more lively, strong, active, fruitful, in the ways and acts of holiness. You will grow in grace, &c.; go from strength to strength. Your souls will be as watered gardens, the fruits of the Spirit will flourish there. Your hearts, sometimes like a desert, will now be as Sharon; and that which was a wilderness, nothing but weeds, briars, and thorns—worldly, unclean lusts—will now be as the garden of God. The spices thereof will flow out: love, and zeal, and self-denial, and heavenly-mindedness, and contempt of the world. These will be on the growing hand, you will be outgrowing your distempers, prevailing more and more against corruption, and increasing with the increase of God. Oh, but where there is no spiritual life manifested in holy duties, no strength, no opposition, no effectual resolutions against prevailing and endeared sins, there is no sign that Christ is come in. Your souls would be in a better plight if Christ did feast them.

David Clarkson, The Works of David Clarkson, Volume II (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1864), 100 (“Christ’s Gracious Invitation to Sinners”). The image was applied directly to Jesus:

Observe yet further, that whereas there is no example in all the scripture of a sign being turned into the thing signified, yet it is very ordinary in scripture-similitudes to give a thing the name of that whereunto it is likened: “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.” (Canticles 2:1.) “I am the living bread.” (John 6:51.) “I am the door.” (John 10:7.) “I am the true vine.” (John 15:1.) All these saith Christ of himself; but is he therefore turned into a rose, or lily, or bread, or door, or vine? No: the words taken literally and properly are blasphemy; but the meaning is, He is like these, as to the particular cases whereof he speaks.

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Volume 6 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 469; “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN THE EUCHARIST”, Rev. Edward Lawrence.  In Of Communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, John Owen uses the image of the Rose of Sharon to speak of Jesus:

In the two first verses you have the description that Christ gives, first of himself, then of his church. Of himself, verse l; that is, what he is to his spouse: “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.” The Lord Christ is, in the Scripture, compared to all things of eminency in the whole creation. He is in the heavens the sun, and the bright morning star: as the lion among the beasts, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Among the flowers of the field, here he is the rose and the lily. The two eminencies of flowers,  sweetness of savor and beauty of color, are divided between these. The rose for sweetness, and the lily for beauty (“Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these”), have the pre-eminence. Farther, he is “the rose of Sharon,” a fruitful plain, where the choicest herds were fed, 1 Chronicles 27:29; so eminent, that it is promised to the church that there shall be given unto her the (Isaiah 33:9, 65:10) excellency of Sharon, Isaiah 35:2. This fruitful place, doubtless, brought forth the most precious roses. Christ, in the savor of his love, and in his righteousness (which is as the garment wherein Jacob received his blessing, giving forth a smell as the smell of a pleasant field, Genesis 27:27), is as this excellent rose, to draw and allure the hearts of his saints unto him. As God smelled a sweet savor from the blood of his atonement, Ephesians 5:2; so from the graces wherewith for them he is anointed, his saints receive a refreshing, cherishing savor, Song of Solomon 1:3. A sweet savor expresses that which is acceptable and delightful, Genesis 8:21. He is also “the lily of the valleys;” that of all flowers is the most eminent in beauty, Matthew 6:29. Most desirable is he, for the comeliness and perfection of his person; incomparably fairer than the children of men: of which afterward. He, then, being thus unto them (abundantly satiating all their spiritual senses) their refreshment, their ornament, their delight, their glory; in the next verse he tells us what they are to him: “As the lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters.” That Christ and his church are likened unto and termed the same thing (as here the lily), is, as from their union by the indwelling of the same Spirit, so from that (Romans 8:29)  conformity and likeness that is between them, and whereunto the saints are appointed. Now she is a lily, very beautiful unto Christ; “as the lily among thorns:”

And a quotation from Richard Sibbes:

With an invitation to a great and wonderful feast, the marriage feast of  the Lamb. An admirable feast indeed ; wherein Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is the bridegroom, where every believer that hath ‘ put on’ the ‘Lord Jesus, Rom. xiii. 14, ‘the wedding garment,’ Mat. xxii. 11, is not only the guest, but the spouse of Christ, and the bride at this wedding supper. Here Jesus Christ is the master of the feast, and the cheer and provision too. He is the  “Lamb of God,” John i. 29, the “ram caught in the thicket,” Gen. xxii. 13. He is the “fatted calf,” Luke. xv. 23. When he was sacrificed,  “wisdom killed her beasts,” Prov. ix. 2. At his death, “the oxen and fatlings were killed,” Mat. xxii. 4. His “flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed,” John vi. 55. And that thou mayest be fully delighted at this feast, Christ is the rose of Sharon, “the lily of the valley,” Cant. ii. 1. He is a “bundle of myrrh,” Cant. i. 13, a “cluster of camphor,” Cant. i. 14 ; his name is “anointment  poured out,” Cant. i. 3, and “his love is better than wine,” Cant. i. 2. In Christ are ‘ all things ready,’ Mat. xxii. 4, for ‘ Christ is all in all,’ Col. iii. 11….

The Glorious Feast of the Gospel, 2 Sibbes 440. A final example comes from James Durham’s commentary on the Song of Solomon. His entry for 2:1 reads as follows:

This second chapter contains the same scope, and runs in the same strain with the former. It hath two principal parts: in the first, Christ speaks in the first two verses. In the second, the Bride continues, to the end.

Again, in these two verses, Christ doth first commend himself, verses 1,2. He describes his Bride, verse 2. That it is he who speaks, appears thus; 1. It is clear, at first looking upon the words, that he speaks in the second verse, and who else can be thought to speak in the first? He is the ‘I’ in the first verse, who claims the Bride by this possessive particle ‘my’ in the second. 2. The words, ‘I am the rose of Sharon,’ &c. are stately, becoming him alone to speak them: like these, ‘I am the true vine,’ ‘I am the bread of life,’ &c. And so majestic is the commendation, that it can agree to none other, but to him. 3. The Bride’s work is to commend him, and not herself, especially with a commendation, beyond what he giveth her, verse 2, and therefore the first verse must be Christ’s words, not hers.

The scope is, (for her instruction and comfort now in affliction,) that he may make her know himself:, the very knowing of Christ is comfortable, and it is one of the most excellent, rare, and ravishing things he can show his Bride, to show her himself, or to make her know him: neither can he choose a subject more profitable in itself, or more welcome to her, to insist on, than to display his own beauty, whereby she may see her blessedness in such a match.

In the first verse then, Christ comes in commending himself, ‘I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.’ The rose is a sweet savouring flower, and so is the lily: Sharon and the valleys are added, because the roses and lilies that grew there, were the best that were to be found. He is said to be that ‘rose,’ or ‘the rose’ and ‘the lily,’ as if there were no other, to distinguish him, as excellent and singular from all others. He thus sets forth himself to show, 1. That Christ Jesus hath a most lovely savour, and a most delightful and refreshful smell, to them that have spiritual senses to discern what is in him. 2. That there is nothing refreshful in creatures, but is more eminently and infinitely in him; therefore he is called the rose and the lily. 3. That whatever excellency is in Christ, is singularly and incomparably in him; there is no other rose, or lily but he; and what excellency is to be found in others, doth not deserve the name, being compared with him. 4. That he is never suitably commended, till he be lifted up above all. 5. That none can commend Christ to purpose but himself; he takes it therefore on him, ‘I am,’ &c. He can indeed commend himself effectually and none but he can do it. 6. That he manifests more of his loveliness to those who have gotten a begun sight and esteem of it: for, she had been commending it formerly, and now he discovers more of it to her. 7. That it is one of Christ’s greatest favours to his Bride, and one of the special effects of his love, to set out himself as lovely to her, and to bear in his loveliness upon her heart; and this is the scope here.

In the second verse, he describes his Bride. Here we have these things to consider, 1. What she is; a ‘lily.’ 2. What others of the world beside are called here; the ‘daughters’ (so men without the church are to the church, and corrupt men in the church are to believers) that is, daughters of their mother the world; no kindly daughters to her, they are thorns. 3. The posture of Christ’s Spouse, she is ‘as a lily among thorns,’ a strange posture and soil, for our Lord’s love and lily to grow in.

 

The lily is pleasant, savoury, and harmless; thorns are worthless, unpleasant and hurtful. The lily’s being compared with them, and placed amongst them, sets out both her excellency above them, and her sufferings from them. In general, Observe. 1. Christ draws his own beauty and the Bride’s together, thereby to show their kindred and sibness (so to speak) she is not rightly taken up, but when she is looked upon as standing by him; and he not fully set forth, nor known without her. 2. He took two titles to himself, and he gives one of them to the Bride, the ‘lily;’ but with this difference, that he is ‘the lily,’ she ‘as’ or ‘like the lily:’ setting forth, 1. Wherein her beauty consists, it is in likeness to him. 2. From whom it comes, it is from him, her being his love, makes her like the lily. 3. The nearness of the mystical union, that is between Christ and his Bride; it is such, that thereby they some way share names, Jer. 23:6, and chap. 33:16. 4. He intermixes her beauty and crosses together, drawing them on one table, to give her a view of both; and that for her humbling, and also for her comfort; it is not good for believers, to look only to the one without the other.

More particularly, Observe. 1. Christ’s Bride is very lovely and beautiful. 2. The children of the world are natively hurtful to her. 3. In Christ’s account the believer is exceedingly preferable to all others, of whatsoever place, or qualifications in the world. 4. Christ’s relation and affection, doth not always keep off outward afflictions from his own Bride. 5. It is native to believers to have a crossed life in the world, their plantation here among thorns speaks it. 6. That the crosses are of more kinds than one, which believers are environed with, thorns grow on all hands beside Christ’s lily. 7. Holiness and innocency will not always prevent wrongs and injuries from others, thorns will wrong even the lily. 8. Christ observes here, how she looks in her sufferings, and so he takes special notice, how his people carry in a suffering lot. 9. It is commendable to keep clean under sufferings, and to be lily-like, even amongst thorns.

Thus, in fixing upon this imagery, Taylor worked with an instantly understandable image of Christ as the Rose of Sharon.  That image was mixed with the idea of surpassing beauty and good.

Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day: Love Christ.2

21 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Edward Polhill, Puritan, Richard Sibbes

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Polhill further explains that a heart enflamed with love for Christ can bear any trial that it may lead to Christ. We see this in lesser loves: A man who loves glory and honor will sacrifice his life in training to obtain a large coin with the word “Olympiad” written on it. How much more should the love of Christ help us to overcome the world and every trial:

Love to Christ stands in holy desires after him, it causes a man to long and faint for him, and, as one in extremity, to cry out, Give me Christ, or else I die: without the laver of his blood, I die in my sins; without the supplies of his grace, I die in my wants: Oh! that I may have him! The spouse in the Canticles was sick of love, languishing and ready to fall into a spiritual swoon with her passionate desires after him and his gracious presence; nothing in all the world could cure or satisfy her, but his all-desirable self. … The martyr Gordius had such an ardent love to Christ, that he was ready to suffer, mille mortes, a thousand deaths for the name of Jesus Christ. Oh, let us labour to have our hearts kindled and inflamed with holy desires after him, that we may be able to stand and endure the fiery trial.

Edward Polhill, 345. Sibbes makes the same point in somewhat different language:

These may help us much in getting a further assurance of Christ’s love.  Be stirred up, then, to desire to be where Christ is, and to have the kisses  of his love in his ordinances, as further testimonies of his favour, and  never rest from having a desire to increase in grace and communion with  Christ. So shall you never want assurance of a good estate, nor comfort  in any good estate. Cast such a man into a dungeon, he hath paradise  there. Why ? Because Christ comes to him. And if we have this communion with Christ, then though we are compassed about with death, yet it cannot afiright us, because the great God is with us, Ps. xxiii. 4. Do with such a one what you will ; cast him into hell, if it were possible ; he having a sweet communion with Christ, will be joyful still ; and the more sense we have of the love of Christ, the less we shall regard the pleasures or riches of the world. For what joy can be compared with this, that the soul hath communion with Christ ? All the world is nothing in comparison.

Now, then, seeing you cannot requite this love of Christ again, yet shew your love to Christ in manifesting love to his members, to the poor, to such poor especially as have the church of God in their families. As the woman poured oil on the head of Christ, so shall we do well to pour some oil upon the feet of Christ. That which we would do to him, if he were here, let us do to his members, that thereby we may have further communion with Christ.

Richard Sibbes, “The Spouse, Her Earnest Desire After Christ”, 2 Sibbes 200, 207-208.

Edward Taylor, The Returnal.2

13 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by in Edward Taylor, Richard Sibbes

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In the second stanza, Taylor writes that glances of the incarnation of the Son

Yields Glances that enflame my Soul

This is far more than just adore for physical beauty – to think such would be to miss Taylor’s spirituality at its most profound.  Yes, Taylor uses the language of physical beauty:

Thy Humane Frame, with Beauty Dapled

However, such language was conventional among the Puritans and was based upon The Song of Songs  or The Song of Solomon or Canticles (as they often called it).  Here is a bit from Richard Sibbes on the point:

The Holy Ghost is pleased here to condescend to our infirmities ; and, that we might help ourselves in our spiritual estate by our bodies, he speaketh here of heavenly things after an earthly manner, and with a comfortable mystery. As in other places the Holy Ghost sets out the joys of heaven by a sweet banquet, so here he sets out the union that we have with Christ by the union of the husband with the wife ; and that we might the better understand what this union is, he condescends to our weakness, that we might see that in a glass which we through our corruptions cannot otherwise discern. This book is nothing else but a plain demonstration and setting forth of the love of Christ to his church, and of the love of the church to Christ ; so familiarly and plainly, that the Jews take great scandal at it, and would not have any to read this book till they are come to the age of thirty years, lest they thereby should be tempted to incontinency ; wherein they would seem wiser than God himself. But the Holy Ghost is pleased thus by corporeal to set out these spiritual things, which are of a higher nature, that by thinking and tasting of the one they might be stirred up to translate their affections (which in youthful age are most strong) from the heat of natural love to spiritual things, to the things of God ; and all those who are spiritually minded (for whom chiefly the Scriptures were written) will take special comfort and instruction thereby, though others take offence and scandal at it. So here, the union between Christ and his spouse is so familiarly and livelily set forth by that union which is between the husband and the wife, that, though ungodly men might take offence at it, yet the godly may be bettered by it.

The Spouse, Her Earnest Desire After Christ. T.F. Torrance in Incarnation expresses the theological understanding which lies behind the picturesque language used by Taylor:

In sheer perfection of his humanity, in all its absolute purity and sinless, he offered the amen of truth from within our humanity to the word and the will of God’s eternal truth. In that perfection of his human life, he was the last Adam undoing the sin of the first Adam. Standing in the place of Adam and all mankind, he stood in the gap created by man’s rebellion and reconciled men and women to God by living the very life he lived in perfect of obedience.

To understand as merely expresses an erotic understanding of beauty would be to grossly misconstrue his point.  Consider the second line of stanza two (line 8):

In Beds of Graces pald with golden layes, 

The bed filled with “graces” or made of “graces” cannot possibly refer to any physical place or tangible substance.  Taylor is caught in the rapture of the beauty of the incarnation – not the bare physical existence of some human being. Indeed, the prophet Isaiah referred thus to Jesus:

For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. Isaiah 53:2 (ESV)

A final note about the meter of line 7

Thy Humane Frame, with Beauty Dapled, and

Again the first two feet are iambs. Following the comma there is amphibrach[1] followed by an antibacchius[2] (alternatively, the end line ends with a spondee and an unaccented single syllable foot).

 

Richard Sibbes: The Danger of Backsliding.2

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in 1 John, 2 Corinthians, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, James, Preaching, Puritan, Richard Sibbes, Service

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Now lets us consider the observations of Sibbes upon the text, with a particular eye to the lessons that can be learned for practical ministry:

BLESSED St Paul, being now an old man, and ready to sacrifice his dearest blood for the sealing of that truth which he had carefully taught, sets down in this chapter what diverse entertainment he found both from God and man in the preaching of the gospel. As for men, he found they dealt most unfaithfully with him, when he stood most in need of comfort from them.

First, God’s people must comfort and minister to God’s people:

As for men, he found they dealt most unfaithfully with him, when he stood most in need of comfort from them

God ministers comfort in two ways: First, God ministers comfort immediately: That is, God provides his Spirit directly and without means as a comfort.  Paul references this in verse 17:

But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me

Paul has mentioned this elsewhere. In 2 Corinthians 1:3-4:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction,. 2 Corinthians 1:3–4 (ESV)

When I say that the comfort of God is immediate, I do not mean that it is without means.  The typical manner of comfort is through the Holy Spirit making the Word of God living and active in our heart so as to bring comfort. Thus, one person may read Psalm 46 and experience no comfort and another may reads the words and find themselves resolute and at peace:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1 (ESV)

God becomes an effective refuge in the act of reading, meditating, praying, believing.

Second, God’s comfort is meditated through the actions of other believers.  The concluding portion of 2 Corinthians 1:4 reads:

[God comforts us] so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

God comforts us immediately, so that we may comfort those who need comfort. We receive comfort to give comfort.

The obligation to provide aid, the command to love is a command to do – which no believer may safely ignore:

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:16–18 (ESV)

John’s command is no warning. James makes this plain by appending the most severe consequence to the one who will not love in word and deed:

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:14–17 (ESV)

While Paul was sustained by the Lord, the Lord’s body, the people of God, owed comfort and help to Paul. The failure to provide such comfort was a failure of faith, hope and love.