Tag Archives: Song of Solomon

Richard Sibbes, Sermons on Canticles 7.3

17 Thursday Oct 2019

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Knowing that we are beloved, Sibbes draws three “uses” of this doctrine:

First, to be “persuaded of his love”. The result of such persuasion is that it will draw us to him: love creates a reciprocal love in the beloved:

Now this should stir us up to be fully persuaded of his love, that loves us so much. Christ’s love in us, is as the loadstone to the iron. Our hearts are heavy and downwards of themselves. We may especially know his love by this, that it draws us upwards, and makes us heavenly minded. It makes us desire further and further communion with him. Still there is a magnetical attractive force in Christ’s love. Wheresoever it is, it draws the heart and affections after it.

This “use” forms the basis for sanctification. One aspect of sanctification is a fear of sin; a loathing of sin. As Thomas Brooks writes:

‘Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.’ When we meet with anything extremely evil and contrary to us, nature abhors it, and retires as far as it can from it. The Greek word that is there rendered ‘abhor,’ is very significant; it signifies to hate it as hell itself, to hate it with horror.

Anselm used to say, ‘That if he should see the shame of sin on the one hand, and the pains of hell on the other, and must of necessity choose one, he would rather be thrust into hell without sin, than to go into heaven with sin,’ so great was his hatred and detestation of sin. It is our wisest and our safest course to stand at the farthest distance from sin; not to go near the house of the harlot, but to fly from all appearance of evil, Prov. 5:8, 1 Thes. 5:22.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 1 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 13. However, abhorrence is only one step. We must move away; but we also must move toward. Romans 12:9 is to abhor on one hand and cling on the other. The love of Christ toward us impels our love toward him.

Second, it is an argument for the perseveration of the Church. Since the ground of the Church lies in the love of Christ, and since Christ’s is not shaken by the Church’s fluctuations, the Church is secure:

Use 2. And we may know from hence one argument to prove the stability of the saints, and the immortality of the soul, because Christ calls the church his love.

Sibbes does something interesting here. He does not merely assert that Christ has unchangeable love; he grounds that stability in the nature of law:

The want of love again, where it is entire, and in any great measure, is a misery. Christ therefore should suffer, if those he hath planted his love upon, whom he loves truly, either should fall away for ever, or should not be immortal for ever. Christ will not lose his love.

Because Christ loves the Church, Christ will not lose his church. He then draws that argument out further: Christ will not only not lose his Church in time; he will not lose his Church in eternity:

And as it is an argument of persevering in grace, so is it of an everlasting being, that this soul of ours hath; because it is capable of the love of Christ, seeing there is a sweet union and communion between Christ and the soul. It should make Christ miserable, as it were, in heaven, the place of happiness, if there should not be a meeting of him and his spouse. There must therefore be a meeting; which marriage is for ever, that both may be for ever happy one in another.

Here he cites to Hosea 2:20,  “I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.”

Finally, when we consider the Incarnation, it should cause of “warm our hearts” with love toward him:

Use 3. Let us often warm our hearts with the consideration hereof, because all our love is from this love of his.

Sibbes lays out a series of elements in this love. First, it is a mixgure of love and majesty together:

Oh the wonderful love of God, that both such transcendent majesty, and such an infinite love should dwell together. We say majesty and love never dwell together, because love is an abasing of the soul to all services. But herein it is false, for here majesty and love dwell together in the heart of one Christ, which majesty hath stooped as low as his almighty power could give leave. Nay, it was an almighty power that he could stoop so low and yet be God, keeping his majesty still. For God to become man, to hide his majesty for a while, not to be known to be God, and to hide so far in this nature as to die for us: what an almighty power was this, that could go so low and yet preserve himself God still!

Christ is the great combination of opposites; the greatest and most abased, because he descended from such a height:

Yet this we see in this our blessed Saviour, the greatest majesty met with the greatest abasement that ever was, and all out of love to our poor souls. There was no stooping, no abasement that was ever so low as Christ was abased unto us, to want for a time even the comfort of the presence of his Father. There was an union of grace; but the union of solace and comfort that he had from him was suspended for a time, out of love to us. For he had a right in his own person to be in heaven presently.

This was driven by love:

Now for him to live so long out of heaven, and ofttimes, especially towards his suffering, to be without that solace (that he might be a sacrifice for our sins), to have it suspended for a time, what a condescending was this? It is said, Ps. 113:6, that God stoops ‘to behold the things done here below.’ It is indeed a wondrous condescending, that God will look upon things below; but that he would become man, and out of love to save us, suffer as he did here, this is wondrous humility to astonishment! We think humility is not a proper grace becoming the majesty of God. So it is not indeed, but there is some resemblance of that grace in God, especially in Christ, that he should, to reveal himself, veil himself with flesh, and all out of love to us.

And our response:

The consideration of these things are wondrous effectual, as to strengthen faith, so to kindle love. Let these be for a taste to direct our meditations herein.

 

 

Richard Sibbes, Sermons on Canticles, 7.2

11 Friday Oct 2019

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In the next section of the sermon, Sibbes notes the nature of the Savior’s love to his people. He takes this doctrine from the clause which contains the words “my love”, “Open my unto me, my love.” The appellation “my love” demonstrates the fact of love. Sibbes makes two observations about this love. First,

his love was settled upon her. It was in his own breast, but it rested not there, but seated itself upon, and in the heart of his spouse, so that she became Christ’s love.

Her status as being the beloved comes about because of the action of the lover. It is Christ’s love which makes the Church is beloved. This may seem obvious in human relationships: you are loved because you are loved. But when this comes to God, it demonstrates that the Church’s position is solely a matter of grace. It is one thing for a man to love a woman; it is quite another thing for the Creator to love the rebellious creature.

And since there is love, there is a “going out”:

We know the heart of a lover is more where it loves than where it lives, as we use to speak; and indeed, there is a kind of a going out, as it were, to the thing beloved, with a heedlessness of all other things. Where the affection is in any excess, it carries the whole soul with it.

The next observation of Sibbes concern manner in which this love finds expression in act. First this love is uniquely upon the Church

But, besides this, when Christ saith my love, he shews, that as his love goes, and plants, and seats itself in the church, so it is united to that, and is not scattered to other objects. There are beams of God’s general love scattered in the whole world; but this love, this exceeding love, is only fastened upon the church.

Next, this love is a quality which exceeds all other loves:

And, indeed, there is no love comparable to this love of Christ, which is above the love of women, of father, or mother, if we consider what course he takes to shew it.

The most that any lover could give would be himself. And thus God gives the greatest gift of all, by giving God:

For there could be nothing in the world so great to discover his love, as this gift, and gift of himself. And therefore he gave himself, the best thing in heaven or in earth withal, to shew his love. The Father gave him, when he was God equal with his Father. He loved his church, and gave himself for it.

This act of self giving is manifested in the Incarnation:

How could he discover his love better, than to take our nature to shew how he loved us? How could he come nearer to us, than by being incarnate, so to be bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; and took our nature to shew how he loved it, Eph. 5:30.

Sibbes then details the chain of love in the Incarnation:

Love draws things nearer wheresoever it is.

It drew him out of heaven to the womb of the virgin, there to be incarnate;

and, after that, when he was born not only to be a man,

but a miserable man,

because we could not be his spouse unless he purchased us by his death.

We must be his spouse by a satisfaction made to divine justice.

God would not give us to him, but with salving [preserving] his justice.

Unlike other doctors, this doctor suffers the treatment and we are healed:

What sweet love is it to heal us not by searing, or lancing, but by making a plaster of his own blood, which he shed for those that shed his, in malice and hatred.

William Gurnall used a very similar image in The Christian in Complete Armor:

He lived and died for you; he will live and die with you; for mercy and tenderness to his soldiers, none like him. Trajan, it is said, rent his clothes to bind up his soldiers’ wounds; Christ poured out his blood as balm to heal his saints’ wounds; tears off his flesh to bind them up.

William Gurnall The Christian in Complete Armour

And this love ties the Church to Christ now with the promise of an eternity with him.

Richard Sibbes, Sermons on Canticle, Sermon 7.1

10 Thursday Oct 2019

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My love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; and how shall I defile them?—Cant. 5:2, 3.

In this sermon, Sibbes addresses the marvel of the Christian life: the believer is inconstant. Even after coming to true faith, the believer is inconstant. If our place before God were dependent upon us, we would never stand. A touchstone of Sibbes’ preaching is the candor with which he addresses this issue. This is a point which needs to be underscored. There is a strain of preaching which hoping to encourage holiness strikes only the note of condemning sin. Without question sin is a horror. It is a shame when we believers do sin. And yet, by speaking only of the horror and shame of sin, such preachers fail to bring about holiness. By striking on the note of warning they become the voice of guilt and discouragement.

Sibbes candidly raises the weakness of the creature. He does not wink at sin. Rather, Sibbes uses the weakness of the creature to exalt the grace of the Saving Creator. In this sermon, Sibbes lays out the manner in which Christ sustains the church on the basis of love. And by demonstrating such love in Christ, draws out the love in the believer. That love draws us onto holiness.

He first begins the sermon, with looking at the quandary of this verse: the lover has come to the door and yet the beloved will not come:

That the life of a Christian is a perpetual conflicting, appears evidently in this book, the passages whereof, joined with our own experiences, sufficiently declare what combats, trials, and temptations the saints are subject unto, after their new birth and change of life; now up, now down, now full of good resolutions, now again sluggish and slow, not to be waked, nor brought forward by the voice of Christ, as it was with the church here. She will not out of her sleep to open unto Christ, though he call, and knock, and stand waiting for entrance.

The fault in believer lies with the flesh:

The flesh of itself is prone enough to draw back, and make excuses, to hinder the power of grace from its due operation in us. She is laid along, as it were, to rest her; yet is not she so asleep, but she discerns the voice of Christ. But up and rise she will not.

Thus we may see the truth of that speech of our Saviour verified, ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,’ John 3:6. The flesh pulls her back: the Spirit would raise her up to open to Christ.

Yet, in the wisdom of God, the weakness of the flesh does not thwart the design of the Savior: sin will be exposed, the creature will redeemed and the Savior will be glorified in his love toward the beloved:

He in the meanwhile makes her inexcusable, and prepares her by his knocking, waiting, and departing; as for a state of further humiliation, so for an estate of further exaltation. But how lovingly doth he speak to her!

 

Richard Sibbes, Sermon on Canticles 5:2 (e)

18 Wednesday Sep 2019

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Sibbes ends the sermon with the observation that to be “awake” is a “blessed state”. It is to be in a state of holy communion with God in Jesus Christ and thus is a “happy” condition.

Since a “waking” state is blessed state, that provokes the question, How am I be in waking state. As he puts it:

Quest.How shall we do to keep and preserve our souls in this waking condition, especially in these drowsy times?

If 17thCentury England was a “drowsy time”, what would Sibbes say about the current world?

He provides a series six answers:

Consider the importance of being awake

Stir up the exercise of faith

Pray for the presence of the Spirit

Stir up a godly fear

Keep company with other Christians

You will see that these answers concern both private and public actions. His application concerns our thoughts, our affections, our behavior. We must be considered with both our physical and our spiritual environment. In short, he prescribes a general way of life:

First, must consider the importance of staying awake:

Ans. 1. Propound unto them waking considerations.

He develops this answer in three parts. The first consideration is our need for remaining awake. He begins with the observation that we fall asleep because is not sufficient reason to stay awake (in these drowsy times).  What then will give us good reason to stay awake:

To see, and know, and think of what a state we are now advanced unto in Christ; what we shall be ere long, yet the fearful estate we should be in, if God leave us to ourselves! a state of astonishment, miserable and wretched, beyond speech, nay, beyond conceit! [conceit means conception, idea]

We fall asleep because we lose sight of the blessing of being awake. Only when we become drowsy do the things of this world increase in their appeal:

We never fall to sleep in earthly and carnal delights, till the soul let its hold go of the best things, and ceaseth to think of, and to wonder at them.

To sharpen this consideration, Sibbes asks us to consider the shortness of life:

Make the heart think of the shortness and vanity of this life, with the uncertainty of the time of our death; and of what wondrous consequent†it is to be in the state of grace before we die.

This consideration has special consideration for us today since it was written by a man 400 years dead. When we hear this from one who is alive, death seems distant. But when the speaker has already died.

Finally, a judgment is coming and when that judgment comes we will be wholly dependent upon the grace of God:

The necessity of grace, and then the free dispensing of it in God’s good time, and withal the terror of the Lord’s-day, ‘Remembering,’ saith St Paul, ‘the terror of the Lord, I labour to stir up all men,’ &c., 2 Cor. 5:11.

Indeed it should make us stir up our hearts when we consider the terror of the Lord; to think that ere long we shall be all drawn to an exact account, before a strict, precise judge. And shall our eyes then be sleeping and careless? These and such like considerations out of spiritual wisdom we should propound to ourselves, that so we might have waking souls, and preserve them in a right temper.

Second, he counsels us to stir up faith. He makes a couple of related points here. First, faith is a grace which keeps the spiritual life awake. Without faith, there will be no other life. Second, the heart of man, our identity, our soul is conformed to that which it perceives. That is the nature of human beings being in the image of God, we are reflective creatures:

The soul is as the object is that is presented to it, and as the certainty of the apprehension is of that object.

When the soul perceives God by grace, the greatness of the object conforms and enlivens the soul and keeps it awake.

He then counsels how to stir up the soul in faith. Consider the end of all things:

When a man believes, that all these things shall be on fire ere long; that heaven and earth shall fall in pieces; that we shall be called to give an account, [and that] before that time we may be taken away—is it not a wonder we stand so long, when cities, stone walls fall, and kingdoms come to sudden periods? When faith apprehends, and sets this to the eye of the soul, it affects the same marvellously. Therefore let faith set before the soul some present thoughts according to its temper. Sometimes terrible things to awaken it out of its dulness; sometimes glorious things, promises and mercies, to waken it out of its sadness, &c.

When we are in ease, consider the dangers which reside that estate:

When we are in a prosperous estate let faith make present all the sins and temptations that usually accompany such an estate, as pride, security, self-applause, and the like. If in adversity, think also of what sins may beset us there. This will awaken up such graces in us, as are suitable to such an estate, for the preventing of such sins and temptations, and so keep our hearts in ‘exercise to godliness,’ 1 Tim. 4:7; than which, nothing will more prevent sleeping.

Third, he counsels that we,

Pray for the Spirit above all things. It is the life of our life, the soul of our soul. What is the body without the soul, or the soul without the Spirit of God? Even a dead lump. And let us keep ourselves in such good ways, as we may expect the presence of the Spirit to be about us, which will keep us awake.

Fourth, keep our mind and affections filled with “light” that we may be awake. This is similar to Paul’s counsel:

Philippians 4:8–9 (ESV)

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

The principle here articulated is that we will avoid dissonance and conflict in the matters upon which we dwell and the life we lead. We will want there to be a consistency with our thoughts, our attentions and our behavior.

What makes men in their corruptions to avoid the ministry of the word, or anything that may awake their consciences? It is the desire they have to sleep. They know, the more they know, the more they must practise, or else they must have a galled conscience. They see religion will not stand with their ends. Rich they must be, and great they will be; but if they suffer the light to grow upon them, that will tell them they must not rise, and be great, by these and such courses.

Conversely, a mind filled with light will desire light, “A gracious heart will be desirous of spiritual knowledge especially, and not care how near the word comes.”

In short, we will continue on the direction in which we have begun by sheer heart-inertia. “Sleep is a work of darkness. Men therefore of dark and drowsy hearts desire darkness, for that very end that their consciences may sleep.”

Fifth, he counsels to stir up the fear of God.

Ans. 5. Labour to preserve the soul in the fear of God: because fear is a waking affection, yea, one of the wakefullest. For, naturally we are more moved with dangers, than stirred with hopes. Therefore, that affection, that is most conversant about danger, is the most rousing and waking affection. Preserve therefore the fear of God by all means. It is one character of a Christian, who, when he hath lost almost all grace, to his feeling, yet the fear of God is always left with him. He fears sin, and the reward of it, and therefore God makes that awe the bond of the new covenant.

He makes this a distinguishing feature of Christian maturity, “One Christian is better than another, by how much more he wakes, and fears more than another. Of all Christians, mark those are most gracious, spiritual, and heavenly, that are the most awful and careful of their speeches, courses, and demeanours; tender even of offending God in little things.”

But it is not merely fear of correction; it is a fear of loss:

 He is afraid to lose that sweet communion any way, or to grieve the Spirit of God. Therefore, always as a man grows in grace, he grows in awfulness, and in jealousy of his own corruptions.

We must exercise steady consideration of our dangers so that we maintain a godly fear. In particular, we should fear those sins which are most likely to affect us personally:

Those that will keep waking souls, must consider the danger of the place where they live, and the times; what sins reign, what sins such a company as they converse with, are subject unto, and their own weakness to be led away with such temptations. This jealousy is a branch of that fear that we spake of before, arising from the searching of our own hearts, and dispositions. It is a notable means to keep us awake, when we keep our hearts in fear of such sins as either by calling, custom, company, or the time we live in, or by our own disposition, we are most prone to.

Here is a true observation: we are each fit for particular sins. We may be fit by disposition, situation, habit, experience. Any number of social and psychological factors may dispose us to some particular sin, but we do have particular sins:

There is no Christian, but he hath some special sin, to which he is more prone than to another, one way or other, either by course of life, or complexion. Here now is the care and watchfulness of a Christian spirit, that knowing by examination, and trial of his own heart, his weakness, he doth especially fence against that, which he is most inclined to; and is able to speak most against that sin of all others, and to bring the strongest arguments to dishearten others from practice of it.

Sixth and finally, we must be careful of our company:

Ans. 6. In the last place it is a thing of no small consequence, that we keep company with waking and faithful Christians, such as neither sleep themselves or do willingly suffer any to sleep that are near them.

We will be encouraged either to wake or sleep by the company we keep. We are greatly influenced by our company, therefore, we must keep the right company. He provides a list tailored to his immediate audience. It is interesting to consider how different and how similar he exhortation sounds:

Certainly a drowsy temper is the most ordinary temper in the world. For would men suffer idle words, yea, filthy and rotten talk to come from their mouths if they were awake? Would a waking man run into a pit? or upon a sword’s point? A man that is asleep may do anything. What do men mean when they fear not to lie, dissemble, and rush upon the pikes of God’s displeasure? When they say one thing and do another, are they not dead? or take them at the best, are they not asleep? Were they awake, would they ever do thus? Will not a fowl that hath wings, avoid the snare? or will a beast run into a pit when it sees it? There is a snare laid in your playhouses, gaming houses, common houses, that gentlemen frequent that generally profess religion, and take the communion. If the eye of their souls were awake, would they run into these snares, that their own conscience tells them are so? If there be any goodness in their souls, it is wondrous sleepy. There is no man, even the best, but may complain something, that they are overtaken in the contagion of these infectious times. They catch drowsy tempers, as our Saviour saith, of those latter times. ‘For the abundance of iniquity, the love of many shall wax cold,’ Mat. 24:12. A chill temper grows ever from the coldness of the times that we live in, wherein the best may complain of coldness; but there is a great difference. The life of many, we see, is a continual sleep.

He then cautions against leisure:

Let us especially watch over ourselves, in the use of liberty and such things as are in themselves lawful. It is a blessed state, when a Christian carries himself so in his liberty, that his heart condemns him not for the abuse of that which it alloweth, and justly in a moderate use. Recreations are lawful; who denies it? To refresh a man’s self, is not only lawful, but necessary. God know it well enough, therefore hath allotted time for sleep, and the like. But we must not turn recreation into a calling, to spend too much time in it.

The trouble with permissible things is that we easily become careless, not seeing the danger:

Where there is least fear, there is most danger always. Now because in lawful things there is least fear, we are there in most danger. It is true for the most part, licitis perimus omnes, more men perish in the church of God by the abuse of lawful things, than by unlawful; more by meat, than by poison. Because every man takes heed of poison, seeing he knows the venom of it, but how many men surfeit, and die by meat! So, many men die by lawful things. They eternally perish in the abuse of their liberties, more than in gross sins.

Sibbes concludes with excellency of being awake:

We will conclude this point with the meditation of the excellency of a waking Christian. When he is in his right temper, he is an excellent person, fit for all attempts. He is then impregnable. Satan hath nothing to do with him, for he, as it is said, is then a wise man, and ‘hath his eyes in his head,’ Eccles. 3:4. He knows himself, his state, his enemies, and adversaries, the snares of prosperity and adversity, and of all conditions, &c. Therefore, he being awake, is not overcome of the evil of any condition, and is ready for the good of any estate. He that hath a waking soul, he sees all the advantages of good, and all the snares that might draw him to ill. Mark 13:37. What a blessed estate is this! In all things therefore watch; in all estates, in all times, and in all actions. There is a danger in everything without watchfulness. There is a scorpion under every stone, as the proverb is, a snare under every blessing of God, and in every condition, which Satan useth as a weapon to hurt us; adversity to discourage us, prosperity to puff us up: when, if a Christian hath not a waking soul, Satan hath him in his snare, in prosperity to be proud and secure; in adversity to murmur, repine, be dejected, and call God’s providence into question. When a Christian hath a heart and grace to awake, then his love, his patience, his faith is awake, as it should be. He is fit for all conditions, to do good in them, and to take good by them.

And his conclusion:

Let us therefore labour to preserve watchful and waking hearts continually, that so we may be fit to live, to die, and to appear before the judgment seat of God; to do what we should do, and suffer what we should suffer, being squared for all estates whatsoever.

 

 

Richard Sibbes, Sermons on Canticles 5.2 (d)

15 Sunday Sep 2019

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Sibbes next considers the distinguishing marks of a true Christian and a hypocrite. He locates the fundamental difference as a difference in the heart – not a difference in the displayed behavior. He raises this issue here from the text. There is sleep – the displayed behavior; but the heart wakes.

Obs.3. A Christian is what his heart and inward man is.

It is a true speech of divines, God and nature begin there. Art begins with the face and outward lineaments, as hypocrisy, outward painting and expressions; but grace at the centre, and from thence goes to the circumference. And therefore the church values herself here by the disposition and temper of her heart. Thus I am for my outward carriage, &c. ‘I sleep, but my heart, that waketh.’

If this is true, then it is a ground for testing. So we should begin with testing our own conscience:

Therefore, let us enter into our consciences and souls, for the trial of our estates, how it is with our judgments. Do we allow of the ways of God and of the law of the inward man?

Notice the nature of the trial: do we submit to the law and ways of God in our heart, where no other can see the outcome?

He then gives some detail to the question of whether “we allow the ways of God”. How do our affections (desires, will, emotions) respond to this law:

How is it with our affections and bent to good things? how with our hatred, our zeal? Is it not more for outward things than for inward?

He then draws an illustration of one man speaking to another: are you with me in this warfare?

We know what Jehu said to Jonadab, when he would have him into his chariot, ‘Is thine heart as mine? Then come to me,’ 2 Kings 10:15.

It is the same question of Christ to us: he seeks our heart and then he seeks our conduct, our hand:

So saith Christ, Is thine heart as mine? then give me thy hand. But first God must have our hearts, and then our hands.

A man who acts in a certain way without the matching heart, is a man who is like a ghost: a show without substance:

A man otherwise is but a ghost in religion, which goes up and down, without a spirit of its own; but a picture that hath an outside, and is nothing within. Therefore, especially, let us look to our hearts. ‘Oh, that there were such an heart in this people,’ saith God to Moses, ‘to fear me always, for their good,’ Deut. 5:29. This is it that God’s children desire, that their hearts may be aright set. ‘Wash thy heart, O Jerusalem,’ saith the prophet, ‘from thy wickedness,’ &c., Jer. 4:14.

If Satan can get the heart (for from it flow the springs of life, Prov. 4:23, he has success):

Indeed, all the outward man depends upon this. Therefore, Satan, if he can get this fort, he is safe, and so Satan’s vicar, Prov. 4:23.

The Devil is content with a heart which does not honor God. The Devil has done his work when he has the heart; he will tolerate all sorts of good works as long as the heart does not go with the work (for even a seemingly good work cannot truly be good in giving glory to God, if the heart is not in it).

God seeks the heart, but does not rest with the heart:

God is not content with the heart alone. The devil knows if he have the heart he hath all; but God, as he made all, both soul and body, he will have all. But yet in times of temptation the chief trial is in the heart.

Here he comes to the distinguishing mark of a human being:

And from hence we may have a main difference between one Christian and another. A sound Christian doth what he doth from the heart; he begins the work there. What good he doth he loves in his heart first, judgeth it to be good, and then he doeth it.

He then applies the principle to the hypocrite:

An hypocrite doth what he doth outwardly, and allows not inwardly of that good he doth. He would do ill, and not good, if it were in his choice. The good that he doth is for by-ends, for correspondence, or dependence upon others, or conformity with the times, to cover his designs under formality of religion, that he may not be known outwardly, as he is inwardly, an atheist and an hypocrite. So he hath false aims; his heart is not directed to a right mark.

Mr. By-ends was a character in Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan draws out the picture of this man:

CHR. Pray, who are your kindred there, if a man may be so bold?

By-ends. Almost the whole town; and in particular my Lord Turn-about, my Lord Time-server, my Lord Fair-speech, from whose ancestors that town first took its name; also, Mr. Smooth-man, Mr. Facing-both-ways, Mr. Any-thing; and the parson of our parish, Mr. Two-tongues, was my mother’s own brother, by father’s side; and, to tell you the truth, I am become a gentleman of good quality; yet my great-grandfather was but a waterman, looking one way and rowing another, and I got most of my estate by the same occupation.

CHR. Are you a married man?

By-ends. Yes, and my wife is a very virtuous woman, the daughter of a virtuous woman; she was my Lady Feigning’s daughter; therefore she came of a very honorable family, and is arrived to such a pitch of breeding, that she knows how to carry it to all, even to prince and peasant. ’Tis true, we somewhat differ in religion from those of the stricter sort, yet but in two small points: First, we never strive against wind and tide. Secondly, we are always most zealous when religion goes in his silver slippers; we love much to walk with him in the street, if the sun shines and the people applaud him.

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995).

Sibbes then draws the contrast with the believer:

But it is otherwise with God’s child. Whatsoever good he doth, it is in his heart first; whatsoever ill he abstains from, he doth it from his heart, judging it to be naught; therefore he hates it, and will not do it. Here is a main difference of the church from all others. It wakes in the heart, though the outward man sleeps.

The hypocrite may do any-thing, however good, but without the appropriate heart:

But other men’s hearts sleep when they wake, as you know some men will walk and do many things in their sleep. An hypocrite is such a kind of man. He walks and goes up and down, but his heart is asleep. He knows not what he doth, nor doth he the thing out of judgment or love, but as one asleep, as it were. He hath no inward affection unto the things he doth. A Christian is the contrary; his heart is awake when he is asleep.

Sibbes then draws out a second distinction between the hypocrite and the believer; the conflict in the heart. First, the Christian is aware of the conflict which runs in his heart:

Another difference from the words you may have thus. A Christian, by the power of God’s Spirit in him, is sensible of the contrarieties in him, complains, and is ashamed for the same.

The hypocrite has no appreciation for being waking or sleep, because he is asleep:

But an hypocrite is not so; he is not sensible of his sleepiness. ‘I sleep,’ saith the church. So much as the church saith she slept, so much she did not sleep; for a man that is asleep cannot say he is asleep, nor a dead man that he is dead. So far as he saith he is asleep, he is awake.

And so, the believer confesses that he is in a conflict of wake and sleep:

Now, the church confesseth that she was asleep by that part that was awake in her. Other men do not complain, are not sensible of their sleepiness and slumbering, but compose themselves to slumber, and seek darkness, which is a friend of sleep. They would willingly be ignorant, to keep their conscience dull and dumb as much as they can, that it may not upbraid them. This is the disposition of a carnal man; he is not sensible of his estate as here the church is.

Richard Sibbes, Sermon on Canticle 5.2(c)

12 Thursday Sep 2019

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The next two observations on the text by Sibbes considers the persistence of the Christian life being grounded in the love of God. The first observation, which derives from the imagery of waking and sleeping, is that while the Christian may stumble, the Christian will never completely fall:

 Obs.1. ‘My heart waketh.’ God’s children never totally fall from grace.

First, he looks to an image in Isaiah 6:13:

Though they sleep, yet their heart is awake. The prophet Isaiah, speaking of the church and children of God, Isa. 6:13, saith, ‘It shall be as a tree, as an oak whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves.’ Though you see neither fruit nor leaves, yet there is life in the root, ‘the seed remains in them.’

The imagery of Isaiah applies most directly to Israel as a whole. Sibbes notes the context, “speaking of the church and children of God” (here, “church” is being used to refer to the people of God prior to the New Covenant). Thus, he is not misusing the text exegetically but rather using the image as illustrative.

Sibbes next  applies the principle to an individual, Peter. (In making a reference the book of First Peter, I am surprised that Sibbes did not also reference 1 Peter. 1:23). Peter denied Jesus on the night of his arrest and trial, and Peter did not utterly fall away (as did Judas, who would not born of a “living hope”):

There is alway a seed remaining. It is an immortal seed that we are begotten by. Peter, when he denied his Master, was like an oak that was weather-beaten; yet there was life still in the root, 1 Pet. 1:3,Mat. 26:32, seq.For, questionless, Peter loved Christ from his heart. Sometimes a Christian may be in such a poor case, as the spiritual life runneth all to the heart, and the outward man is left destitute;

Sibbes then draws an analogy to a city ravaged in war:

as in wars, when the enemy hath conquered the field, the people run into the city, and if they be beaten out of the city, they run into the castle. The grace of God sometimes fails in the outward action, in the field, when yet it retireth to the heart, in which fort it is impregnable. ‘My heart waketh.’

Sibbes then applies the principle more directly to the issue, the outward failure and inward perseverance

When the outward man sleeps, and there are weak, dull performances, and perhaps actions amiss, too, yet notwithstanding ‘the heart waketh.’ As we see in a swoon or great scars, the blood, spirits, and life, though they leave the face and hands, &c., yet they are in the heart.

We have been wounded and appear dead, but our life has not yet left:

It is said in the Scripture of Eutychus, ‘His life is in him still,’ though he seemed to be dead, Acts 20:9. As Christ said of Lazarus, John 11:4, so a man may say of a Christian in his worst state, His life is in him still; he is not dead, but sleeps; ‘his heart waketh.’

This doctrine is contested. There are some who would say that one who falls has “lost his salvation”. There have been questions throughout the church among those who spoke of losing one’s salvation as to whether salvation could ever be regained; or even whether the regained salvation could merit heaven or only a purgatory. Sibbes anticipates that objection and contends this doctrine is consistent with Scripture:

 Obs.2. This is a sound doctrine and comfortable, agreeable to Scripture and the experience of God’s people. We must not lose it, therefore, but make use of it against the time of temptation. There are some pulses that discover life in the sickest man, so are there some breathings and spiritual motions of heart that will comfort in such times.

Those who speak of a lost salvation, put the continuance of salvation in human effort. Sibbes rightly places the provision and maintenance of salvation not in the human recipient but in the God who gives salvation:

These two never fail on God’s part, his love, which is unchangeable, and his grace, a fruit of his love; and two on our part, the impression of that love, and the gracious work of the new creature. ‘Christ never dies,’ saith the apostle, Heb. 7:25. As he never dies in himself, after his resurrection, so he never dies in his children. There is always spiritual life.

Sibbes then goes to the “use” of the doctrine. By the way, this insistent reference to the “use” of a doctrine was a hallmark of Puritan preaching. It demonstrates that the purpose of doctrine is not for some hypothetical future theology exam, but rather for living. This particular doctrine brings “comfort”. The doctrine provides a comfort because the our unfailing relationship with God is not based upon us but upon God: God engenders this love which provokes love in us; and love never fails:

This is a secret of God’s sanctuary, only belonging to God’s people. Others have nothing to do with it. They shall ever love God, and God will ever love them. The apostle, 1 Cor. 13:8, saith, ‘Love never fails.’ Gifts, you know, shall be abolished, because the manner of knowing we now use shall cease. ‘We see through a glass,’ &c., ‘but love abideth,’ 1 Cor. 13:12. Doth our love to God abide for ever, and doth not his love to us, whence it cometh? Ours is but a reflection of God’s love.

Richard Sibbes, Sermon on Canticles 5.2(b)

11 Wednesday Sep 2019

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Based upon those observations, Sibbes then turns to the application of that idea: If it true that Christians will live with two contrary principles, with desires in conflict; and yet Christians will not ultimately be overcome and lose that gracious principle which flows from the work of the Spirit of God in our lives; how then should we live? Sibbes counsels (1) thankfulness, that God will continually show mercy to us; and (2) let us use the knowledge of our frailty and persistence of temptation, to keep a close eye upon our lives.

First, thankfulness:

 Whence, for use, let us magnify the goodness of God, that will remain by his Spirit, and let it stay to preserve life in such hearts as ours are, so prone to security and sleepiness.

That is an interesting observation about human psychology: use our thankfulness, extoling the goodness of God, because that will cause us to persevere. The knowledge that God will continue to show goodness to us, will cause us to continue to persevere in the goodness of God. It is an interesting that our worship of God will cause us to continue in the experience of the goodness of God.

He then comes to specific instances of God’s goodness. First, to think of how God was willing to do us good when there was no gracious principle in us, at the time of our salvation:

Let it put us in mind of other like merciful and gracious doings of our God for us, that he gave his Spirit to us when we had nothing good in us, when it met with nothing but enmity, rebellion, and indisposedness.

And also to consider the goodness of God in the Incarnation:

Nay, consider how he debased himself and became man, in being united to our frail flesh, after an admirablenearness, and all out of mercy to save us.

Second, when we look to ourselves, let us take care and look to the Devil’s persistence in seeking to exploit our fraility:

Use. 2. If so be that Satan shall tempt us in such occasions, let us enter into our own souls, and search the truth of grace, our judgment, our wills, our constant course of obedience, and the inward principle whence it comes, that we may be able to stand in the time of temptation.

Sibbes then gives examples of this self-servicing (he calls it a “reflect act”):

What upheld the church but this reflect act, by the help of the Spirit, that she was able to judge of the good as well as of the ill? Thus David, ‘The desires of our souls are towards thee,’Ps. 38:9; and though all this have befallen us, yet have we not forgotten thy name, Ps. 44:20. This will enable us to appeal to God, as Peter, ‘Lord, thou knowest I love thee,’ John 21:15. It is an evidence of a good estate.

 

Richard Sibbes Sermons on Canticles, Sermon 2.5 Encouragement to Rejoice

20 Thursday Jun 2019

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The previous post on this sermon may be found here

He then concludes with the use of this doctrine that the graces, the worship of the Church is accepted (“Christ’s acceptation”). 

First, as it common in Sibbes he notes the comfort and encouragement this brings:

Use 1. If so be that God accepts the performances and graces, especially the prayers of his children, let it be an argument to encourage us to be much in all holy duties. 

Sibbes then makes an interesting observation about human psychology and motivation:

It would dead the heart of any man to perform service where it should not be accepted, and the eye turned aside, not vouchsafing a gracious look upon it. This would be a killing of all comfortable endeavours. 

As I consider this observation, it may be that a tacit belief that our prayer has been valueless weakens our resolve to pray. And that, perhaps, stems from a defective theology and understanding of prayer:

James 4:3 (AV)

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

Sibbes makes a related observation about why our prayers misfire:

But when all that is good is accepted, and what is amiss is pardoned, when a broken desire, a cup of cold water shall not go unrespected, nay, unrewarded, Mat. 10:42, what can we desire more? It is infidelity which is dishonourable to God and uncomfortable to ourselves, that makes us so barren and cold in duties.

Sibbes then comes to the second observation — which is related to his questioning of why our worship may “fail.” If we do hope to have our worship acceptable, then our lives must be kept clear of sin:

Use 2. Only let our care be to approve our hearts unto Christ. When our hearts are right, we cannot but think comfortably of Christ. Those that have offended some great persons are afraid, when they hear from them, because they think they are in a state displeasing to them. So a soul that is under the guilt of any sin is so far from thinking that God accepts of it, that it looks to hear nothing from him but some message of anger and displeasure. But one that preserves acquaintance, due distance, and respect to a great person, hears from him with comfort. Before he breaks open a letter, or sees anything, he supposes it comes from a friend, one that loves him. So, as we would desire to hear nothing but good news from heaven, and acceptation of all that we do, let us be careful to preserve ourselves in a good estate, or else our souls will tremble upon any discovery of God’s wrath. The guilty conscience argues, what can God shew to me, being such a wretch? The heart of such an one cannot but misgive, as, where peace is made, it will speak comfort. It is said of Daniel that he was a man of God’s desires, Dan. 9:23; 10:11, 19; and of St John, that Christ so loved him that he leaned on his breast, John 21:20. Every one cannot be a Daniel, nor one that leans on Christ’s bosom. There are degrees of favour and love; but there is no child of God but he is beloved and accepted of him in some degree. 

In the worship of the temple, there were various rules which dealt with “uncleanness”, those things which kept one from being able to come worship. When one was unclean, there were rituals prescribed which permitted the worship to be cleaned and thus come into the fellowship of worship. 

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul writes about coming to the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner: 

1 Corinthians 11:27–34 (AV)

27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. 33 Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. 34 And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.

But with Christ there is always the offer of pardon and being made clean to enter into his presence:

1 John 1:5–10 (AV)

5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

At this point, Sibbes but cannot help offer more encouragement to come to Christ.  He does this by referring to something from the previous chapter:

But something of this before in the former chapter.

‘I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey,’ &c.

God not only accepts us, but delights in us:

That is, I have taken contentment in thy graces, together with acceptation. There is a delight, and God not only accepts, but he delights in the graces of his children. ‘All my delight,’ saith David, ‘is in those that are excellent,’ Ps. 16:3. But this is not all, Christ comes with an enlargement of what he finds.

He explains that Christ is the means by which the believer receives the blessing of God. All spiritual blessing is in Christ. The Spirit then communicates that blessing to those in union with Christ. And as that communion takes place, the capacity for the communion increases:

Those that have communion with Christ, therefore, have a comfortable communion, being sure to have it enlarged, for ‘to him that hath shall be given,’ Mat. 25:29. 

And then there is the promise of future good when Christ comes at last:

It is not only true of his last coming, when he shall come to judge the quick and the dead, ‘I come, and my reward is with me,’ Rev. 22:12, but also of all his intermediate comings that are between. 

Here is the real wonder: Christ accepts us and then lavishes good upon us. If we were permitted to visit the president or a king or queen or some other “important” person, we would think the honor of being accepted into their company honor enough. But when we come to Christ, he gives us his company and showers good upon us — and increases our capacity to receive the good:

When he comes to the soul, he comes not only to accept what is there, but still with his reward with him, the increase of grace, to recompense all that is good with the increase thereof. This made his presence so desired in the gospel with those that had gracious hearts. They knew all was the better for Christ, the company the better, for he never left any house or table where he was, but there was an increase of comfort, and of grace. And as it was in his personal, so it is in his spiritual presence. He never comes, but he increases grace and comfort.

What do we do with such information? We use it as encouragement to come to Christ:

Therefore, let us be stirred up to have communion with Christ, by this motive, that thus we shall have an increase of a further measure of grace. Let us labour to be such as Christ may delight in, for our graces are honey and spices to him, and where he tastes sweetness he will bring more with him. 

Our present communion then fits us for future communion with him:

For, except there be a mutual joy in one another, there is not communion. Therefore Christ furnisheth his church with so much grace as is necessary for a state of absence here, that may fit her for communion with him for ever in heaven.

If we are receiving such good and comfort from Christ, how then should we respond? Joy. Paul says that we are to rejoice always. In what, that our name is written in the book of Life:

We ought to rejoice in the comforts and graces of others, and of ourselves.

He makes a subtle observation here: There are benefits we receive from the Spirit: (1) the grace he gives; and (2) the understanding, the realization of the grace he gives. It would be very disappointing to receive a great treasure and then never know that it was present. We become like Little-Faith of Pilgrim’s Progress who possessed a great jewel and yet lived in poverty, unless the Spirit give us knowledge of what we have:

He had need to stir her up to enjoy the comfort of her own grace; for they are two distinct benefits, to have grace, and to know that we have it, though one Spirit work both, 1 Cor. 2:12. The Spirit works grace, and shews us the things that God hath given us, yet sometimes it doth the one, and not the other. In the time of desertion and of temptation, we have grace, but we know it not; right to comfort, but we feel it not. There is no comfort of a secret, unknown treasure; but so it is with the church, she doth not always take notice of her own graces, and the right she hath to comfort.

We have need to have Christ’s Spirit to help us to know what good is in us. 

At this point, Sibbes gives instruction which saves us from morbid introspection. We must examine ourselves. Some fail in this duty altogether. Others inspect, but only to find sorrow and sores, infection and failing. Sibbes gives different counsel:

And indeed a Christian should not only examine his heart for the evil that is in him, to be humbled; but what good there is, that he may joy and be thankful. And since Christ accepts the very first fruits, the earnest, and delights in them, we should know what he delights in, that we may go boldly to him; considering that it is not of ourselves, but of Christ, whatsoever is graciously good. Therefore we ought to know our own graces; for Christ, when he will have us comfortable indeed, will discover to us what cause we have to rejoice, and shew us what is the work of his own Spirit, and our right to all comfort.

An introspection which can both see the need of repentance and the good grace of the Spirit’s work will improve rather than become discouraged.

And then we should look around and rejoice in the good work of God in other people, in other circumstances. We should look in Creation and rejoice and praise God for his good work. We should look to providence and give God glory for his provision and protection, There is a wealth of good lying about us in which we could rejoice, if we were to only look.

Look then at those around you. Give God glory for the repentance of our own sins and the sins of others; of the growing in grace in our heart and in others. Look to the sky and the sea and ground and rejoice at all that God has done. It is the Devil’s work to be discontented. It is the work of children to rejoice in their Father’s World.

 

Richard Sibbes, Sermons on Canticles, Sermon 2.2 (How to use scriptural analogies)

06 Thursday Jun 2019

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The prior post in this series may be found here.

At this point, Sibbes moves onto the image of the Church as the bride, the spouse. He begins this with a consideration of the Church’s nobility. As the Bride of Christ, the Church is a queen to Christ’s King; the Church is nobility.

At this point, Sibbes makes an important observation when it comes to analogy of heavenly and earthly things. The Scripture everywhere provides us with analogies between our world and heavenly realities. Without analogies, there would be no means for us to understand anything concerning God.

Take the proposition: God is love. If there were no love in human existence, if we lived as animals, reproduction without commitment and affection; then the statement that God loves would utterly incomprehensible. God created a mechanism of human love so that we would have an analogy to understand God’s love.

The problem with analogy, is that we can run the analogy in the wrong direction. A great many errors take place, because we begin with the metaphor — the creation — and then try to force the original to conform and be limited by the metaphor. Thus, Sibbes writes:

Riches, beauty, marriage, nobility, &c., are scarce worthy of their names. These are but titles and empty things. Though our base nature make great matters of them, yet the reality and substance of all these are in heavenly things.

There is some similarity to the Platonic concepts of forms, where an original in the higher realm becomes the basis for what we experience in this realm. While not any sort of Platonic expert, I see a fundamental difference between the Christian understanding of analogy and Plato’s forms. There are aspects of this world which have been created for the purpose of functioning as analogies; however, not everything in this world must be considered an analogy. Moreover, the things in the creation do not pre-exist in some fashion prior to our creation: the relational categories, how God relates to his creation did not exist in practice prior to the creation. Love does pre-exist creation, but love of spouse does not.

Back to the concept of analogy. When considering an analogy between creation and God we must be careful in how we handle the analogy:

True riches are the heavenly graces; true nobility is to be born of God, to be the sister and spouse of Christ; true pleasures are those of the Spirit, which endure for ever, and will stand by us when all outward comforts will vanish.

That mystical union and sweet communion is set down with such variety of expressions, to shew that whatsoever is scattered in the creature severally is in him entirely. He is both a friend and a brother, a head and a husband, to us; therefore he takes the names of all. Whence we may observe further,

How then do we go about understanding the nature of the analogy of marriage. To properly read the analogy, Sibbes takes his cue not directly from his observation of human marriage in 17th century England, but from how the Scripture develops the analogy. He is the matter of the first marriage: a sort of birth of Eve (a sister and a spouse in a fashion:

That the church is the spouse of Christ. It springs out of him; even as Eve taken out of Adam’s rib, so the spouse of Christ was taken out of his side. When it was pierced, the church rose out of his blood and death; for he redeemed it, by satisfying divine justice; we being in such a condition that Christ must redeem us before he would wed us. First, he must be incarnate in our nature before he could be a fit husband; and then, because we were in bondage and captivity, we must be redeemed before he could marry us: ‘he purchased his church with his own blood,’ Acts 20:28. Christ hath right to us, he bought us dearly.

Next, he considers the matter of consent in marriage: this is what I will do. This is important aspect of Augustinian theology where faith is preceded by the work of the Spirit. Faith is true faith, but it is wrought faith. Our consent to the marriage is true consent, but it is Spirit-wrought consent:

Again, another foundation of this marriage between Christ and us, is consent. He works us by his Spirit to yield to him. There must be consent on our part, which is not in us by nature, but wrought by his Spirit, &c. We yield to take him upon his own terms; that is, that we shall leave our father’s house, all our former carnal acquaintance, when he hath wrought our consent. Then the marriage between him and us is struck up.

Sibbes then notes some additional elements of comparison: the wife takes the husband name — the Church is called by the name of Christ. The Church comes with her debt, which is paid by the husband. Moreover, the husband conveys to the spouse all of his wealth and honor. Third, there are friends of the bride who extol the beauty and desirability of the husband (Christ).

Sibbes makes an interesting observation from a provision in the Law: Deuteronomy 21:12 (AV), “Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails”. A woman who was brought in as a wife from a foreign nature conquered by Israel would be married, but before she comes in there is a cutting off of her former life:

Before she should be taken into the church, there must be an alteration; so before the church, which is not heathenish, but indeed hellish by nature, and led by the spirit of the world, be fit to be the spouse of Christ, there must be an alteration and a change of nature, Is. 11:6–8; John 3:3. Christ must alter, renew, purge, and fit us for himself. The apostle saith, Eph. 5:24, it was the end of his death, not only to take us to heaven, but to sanctify us on earth, and prepare us that we might be fit spouses for himself.

Richard Sibbes, Sermons on Canticles, Sermon 1.9 (On God hearing our prayers)

15 Wednesday May 2019

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The question of why does God hear our prayers? There is obviously no obligation in God to hear prayer: God is under no duty to the creature. The creature cannot compel God to hear prayer. The prayers of human beings in the course of history have raised in number of absurd, wicked, hurtful prayers. 

In Psalm 68:18, the Psalmist writes, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the lord will not hear me.” In Proverbs 1, Wisdom warns that the one who will not regard wisdom will not be heard when he prays having suffered the result of refusing wisdom:

Proverbs 1:24–33 (AV)

24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: 30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. 31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. 32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

So we see that the matter of being heard is not automatic. Why then does God hear prayer?

Sibbes gives two reasons: (1) the good in our prayer has been brought about by the action of the Spirit; and (2) God receives as he has chosen us in election. It is God’s good grace toward us, to choose us and to transform us that is the basis for God hearing us.

First: the operation of God

Now God hears our prayers, First, Because the materials of these holy desires are good in themselves, and from the person from whence they come, his beloved spouse, as it is in Cant. 2:14, where Christ, desiring to hear the voice of his church, saith, ‘Let me see thy countenance, and let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.’ Thus the voice of the Spouse is sweet, because it is stirred up by his own Spirit, which burns the incense, and whence all comes which is savingly good. This offering up of our prayers in the name of Christ, is that which with his sweet odours perfumes all our sacrifices and prayers; because, being in the covenant of grace, God respects whatsoever comes from us, as we do the desires of our near friends, Rev. 8:3.

Second, God receives us in the relationship which He has chosen for us:

And then, again, God hears our prayers, because he looks upon us as we are in election, and choice of God the Father, who hath given us to him. Not only as in the near bond of marriage, husband and wife, but also as he hath given us to Christ; which is his plea unto the Father, John 17:6, ‘Thine they were, thou gavest them me,’ &c. The desires of the church please him, because they are stirred up by his Spirit, and proceed from her that is his; whose voice he delights to hear, and the prayers of others for his church are accepted, because they are for her that is his beloved.

And further:

To confirm this further, see Isa. 58:9. ‘Thou then shalt cry, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt call, and presently he shall say, Here I am,’ &c. So as soon as Daniel had ended that excellent prayer, the angel telleth him, ‘At the beginning of thy supplications the decree came forth,’ &c., Dan. 9:23. So because he knows what to put into our hearts, he knows our desires and thoughts, and therefore accepts of our prayers and hears us, because he loves the voice of his own Spirit in us. So it is said, ‘He fulfils the desires of them that fear him; and he is near to all that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth,’ Ps. 145:18. And our Saviour, he saith, ‘Ask and ye shall receive,’ &c., Mat. 7:7. So we have it, 1 John 5:14, ‘And we know if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.’

First: 

Use 1. Let it therefore be a singular comfort to us, that in all wants, so in that of friends, when we have none to go to, yet we have God, to whom we may freely pour out our hearts. There being no place in the world that can restrain us from his presence, or his Spirit from us, he can hear us and help us in all places. What a blessed estate is this! None can hinder us from driving this trade with Christ in heaven.

I was told by a woman that when she was a child, she was told by an adult, I do not love you. The little girl thought to herself, that is okay. Jesus loves me.

Second, when stop realize what a privilege it is to go to God in prayer, it should stir up our hearts to make use of the privilege:

Use 2. And let us make another use of it likewise, to be a means to stir up our hearts to make use of our privileges. What a prerogative is it for a favourite to have the fare* of his prince! him we account happy. Surely he is much more happy that hath God’s care, him to be his father in the covenant of grace; him reconciled, upon all occasions, to pour out his heart before him, who is merciful and faithful, wise and most able to help us. ‘Why are we discouraged, therefore; and why are we cast down,’ Ps. 42:11, when we have such a powerful and such a gracious God to go to in all our extremities? He that can pray can never be much uncomfortable.

And three: 

Use 3. So likewise, it should stir us up to keep our peace with God, that so we may always have access unto him, and communion with him. 

But this is a privilege which can be lost:

What a pitiful case is it to lose other comforts, and therewith also to be in such a state, that we cannot go to God with any boldness! It is the greatest loss of all when we have lost the spirit of prayer; for, if we lose other things, we may recover them by prayer. But when we have lost this boldness to go to God, and are afraid to look him in the face, as malefactors the judge, this is a woful state.

Sibbes then considers two things which will break the fellowship with God which makes prayer possible. First, there is unrepentant sin:

Now there are diverse cases wherein the soul is not in a state fit for prayer. As that first, Ps. 66:18, ‘If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not regard my prayer.’ If a man hath a naughty heart, that purposeth to live in any sin against God, he takes him for an enemy, and therefore will not regard his prayer. Therefore we must come with a resolute purpose to break off all sinful courses, and to give up ourselves to the guidance of God’s Spirit. And this will be a forcible reason to move us thereunto, because so long as we live in any known sin unrepented of, God neither regards us nor our prayers. What a fearful estate is this, that when we have such need of God’s favour in all estates; in sickness, the hour of death, and in spiritual temptation, to be in such a condition as that we dare not go to God! Though our lives be civil,* yet if we have false hearts that feed themselves with evil imaginations, and with a purpose of sinning, though we act it not, the Lord will not regard the prayers of such a one; they are abominable. The very ‘sacrifice of the wicked is abominable,’ Prov. 15:8.

The second is a refusal to forgive:

Another case is, when we will not forgive others. We know it is directly set down in the Lord’s prayer, ‘Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us,’ Mat. 6:14; and there is further added, ver. 15, ‘If you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you.’ If our hearts tell us we have no disposition to pardon, be at peace and agreement, then we do but take God’s name in vain when we ask him to forgive our sins, and we continue in envy and malice. In this case God will not regard our prayers, as it is said, ‘I care not for your prayers, or for any service you perform to me,’ Isa. 1:15. Why? ‘For your hands are full of blood,’ Isa. 66:1. You are unmerciful, of a cruel, fierce disposition, which cannot appear before God rightly, nor humble itself in prayer. If it doth, its own bloody and cruel disposition will be objected against the prayers, which are not mingled with faith and love, but with wrath and bitterness. Shall I look for mercy, that have no merciful heart myself? Can I hope to find that of God, that others cannot find from me? An unbroken disposition, which counts ‘pride an ornament,’ Ps. 73:6, that is cruel and fierce, it cannot go to God in prayer. For, whosoever would prevail with God in prayer must be humble; for our supplications must come from a loving, peaceable disposition, where there is a resolution against all sin, Ps. 73:1. Neither is it sufficient to avoid grudging and malice against these, but we must look that others have not cause to grudge against us, as it is commanded: ‘If thou bring thy gifts to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift,’ Mat. 5:23. So that if we do not seek reconciliation with men unto whom we have done wrong, God will not be reconciled to us, nor accept any service from us.

There is another reference to the result of a failure to forgive spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 18. In the parable of the unforgiving servant, Jesus tells of a servant who was forgiven much but he himself would not forgive another slave who owed him just a little:

21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. 23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. 24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. 25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. 28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. 29 And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 30 And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. 31 So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. 

What then was the result for the one who refused to forgive:

32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: 33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? 34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

Matthew 18:21–35 (AV). The man was delivered to tormentors until he would forgive. The lord would not hear the prayer of the servant who would not forgive. This is the most dreadful of states.

Sibbes then finishes with an interesting question: How do I know if God hears my prayer?

Quest. How shall I know whether God regard my prayers or not?

Ans. 1. First, When he grants the thing prayed for, or enlargeth our hearts to pray still. It is a greater gift than the thing itself we beg, to have a spirit of prayer with a heart enlarged; for, as long as the heart is enlarged to prayer, it is a sign that God hath a special regard of us, and will grant our petition in the best and fittest time.

2. When he answers us in a better and higher kind, as Paul when he prayed for the taking away of the prick of the flesh, had promises of sufficient grace, 2 Cor. 12:7–9.

3. When, again, he gives us inward peace, though he gives not the thing, as Phil. 4:6, ‘In nothing be careful, but in all things let your requests be made to God with prayer and thanksgiving.’

Obj. But sometimes he doth not answer our requests.

Ans. It is true he doth not, but ‘the peace of God which passeth all understanding guards our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God,’ Philip. 4:7. So though he answers not our prayers in particular, yet he vouchsafes inward peace unto us, assuring us that it shall go well with us, though not in that particular we beg. And thus in not hearing their prayers, yet they have their hearts’ desire when God’s will is made known. Is not this sufficient for a Christian, either to have the thing, or to have inward peace, with assurance that it shall go better with them than if they had it; with a spirit enlarged to pray, till they have the thing prayed for. If any of these be, God respects our prayers.