*

!

?

Now for all this, thou art afraid of thy imperfections, weaknesses, and manifold infirmities, that these shall stay good things from thee; and therefore thou criest out, Oh my prayers are lost, they are to no purpose! oh my sins, weaknesses, and infirmities, these stop the way to my prayers What, man! Hast thou a son, and perhaps he marries without thy permission, or doth some other shrewd turn, which grieves and vexeth thy spirit, and this child, perhaps, comes home wounded unto thee, with blood about his ears, and so falls down before thee, freely confessing his wandering and misdemeanours, and prays for thy favour and forgiveness; tell me, wouldst thou not embrace him, and cry out, 'Oh my son, my son!' all the rest should be forgotten and forgiven? What then, O man, thinkest thou of thy God, when thou sayest thou canst have no comfort in prayer Thou beast, what wilt thou make of thy God? What! is he a God of cruelty, anger, and revenge only? No, no; in this case thou feignest unto thyself false and abominable conceits of God, and thence the returns of thy comforts are answerable unto thy wretched fancies. But if ever he hath turned thy heart unto him, and dealt graciously with thee, or hath allured thee unto him by his graciousness and kind dealing with others; or if thou findest in thyself how much thou canst pass by in thy child, though there be many great faults and omissions, make thy advantage of this, and go unto thy God; whatsoever thy case be, thou shalt find him more exceeding merciful, as the church doth, Micah vii. 9, and therefore she comes to triumph: ver. 18, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgressions of the remnant of his inheritance? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again,' &c.

We are all much to blame in this, even those who have the greatest measures of grace, that we do not aright make use of the nature of God. Sometimes melancholy, temptation, and want of judgment are causes of our error, wherein our understanding, fancy, and other powers of the soul are disordered, until light come in to dispel these clouds. It is strange to think that when we were enemies to God, with our backs to him in our natural blindness, and in sin running from him, then to think he should receive us, and now to stab us with our faces towards him in the state of reconciliation.

and

To conclude, if it be such a hard thing to pray so as to obtain, if we have need of such and so many helps to lift and hold up our very hands, which are ready to fall down, the Lord teach us to know our faults, tell us what is yet further to be done, that we may learn to wrestle with God, and prevail in prayer! If we have been faulty in times past, let us mend; and among other things, now when the ark is like to be in danger, let us not prove injurious unto God in forsaking his cause. Hear me; hath God brought the church in divers places now into such dangers, yea, and some great ones also, environed with fears and crosses, and shall we now prove so injurious to God as to retire from them (at least not to have the benefit of our help and prayers)? Was it accounted such a foul offence to cause Uriah to be left in danger in the foremost rank, and then command that the troops should retire; and shall we not now be much more faulty to leave them in this danger? Let us aid them, then, with our prayers, until God, who is wonderful in working, and excellent in power, bring light from this darkness. We know not what the issue may be; but in

* Cf. our Glossary, sub voce.-G.

the mean time, if we pray, this remaineth always sure, that if we ask, we shall receive.' Our Lord hath said it; it is so, it must be so.

NOTES.

(a) P. 235.-' It was a rule in the ancient time, "Lay thy hand on the plough," &c. See note c to 'Divine Meditations,' page 229.

(b) P. 238.—'The king of Navarre the prince of Conde.' It is only necessary here to notice that Sibbes evidently sees the 'finger of God' in the murder of Henry by Ravaillac. The apostasy of the great Huguenot points many 'a moral' to the Puritans. The services of Conde it were superfluous to annotate. He too was assassinated, by Montesquieu.

(c) P. 242.—' Mr Perkins tells us of a man,' &c. Cf. our Memoir of Sibbes, Vol. I. pages xxxviii., xxxix. See the 'Cases of Conscience' of this fervid and searching old Divine for the above and many other similar quaint illustrations.

(d) P. 244.-'As in the East India adventures. India was the El Dorado of the age of Sibbes; and every year witnessed some scheme of romantic adventure and fabulous promise. Our speculation is not so modern a thing as many deem.

(e) P. 244.-' Deal with us as Scanderbeg is reported." This is the celebrated warrior-king of Albania, renowned in song and story. There are various early English books, contemporary with Sibbes, about him. Cf. Watt sub voce.

(f) P. 245.- Fencers make bravest flourishes when they play at blunt.' That is, in sport, or for practice, not in earnest. The weapons, or 'swords,' are then 'covered,' or 'blunted.' Hence the technical phraseology blunt,' being a pointless rapier or foil to fence with.

(g) P. 248. If one should see a picture of God before him.' Such 'pictures' are not at all uncommon; for it is a popular mistake that only God the Son, and, as the 'dove' or 'radiance,' God the Spirit, are represented. In Genoa there is at this day a painting very much corresponding with Sibbes's description. If I remember aright it is by Pietro Perugino.

(h) P. 249,-'Scot and lot.' These are the dues to the lord of the manor for ingress and egress.

(i) P. 250.— The son of Croesus.' "Oh, spare my father." This touching and remarkable incident, which was the means of saving the life of Croesus, took place at the siege of Sardis. The beautiful narrative of Herodotus has made it immortal.

G.

1

THE RICH PEARL.

And again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls, &c.-MAT. XIII. 45, 46.

ST PAUL expresseth in the Epistle to the Philippians what this parable. typifies. There he teaches all is 'dung in comparison of Christ,' Philip. iii. 8. Here the Spirit teaches that all must be parted with to gain this pearl spoken of in this place; and as St Paul, so Christ, his thoughts were all heavenly. He came from heaven; and while he was on earth, his thoughts and speeches shewed whence he was. All his discourse is of heaven, sometime in plain doctrine, other whiles in parables; as in this chapter is manifested, comparing the kingdom of heaven to a sower, ver. 24; to a grain of mustard seed, ver. 31; to leaven, ver. 33; to an hidden treasure, ver. 44; and in these two verses to a merchant of pearls, beginning the verse with the word 'again,' to shew that he insisted upon the former matter. His love to mankind admits of no weariness in repetitions, and often inculcating the same things, thereby to work a strong impression in our minds, as knowing that they are above our understanding, and that we are indisposed to them naturally. And it should teach us not to be weary of hearing the same things; as also St Paul admonisheth us, in telling us it is safe for us: Philip. iii. 1, Though in itself it be tedious to the minister.'* And indeed it is the unhappiness of ministers to be often pressing the same thing; and yet they must not neglect it, seeing Christ stooped so low to take up this duty, for the benefit of our souls.

In the next place observe, Christ teacheth by parables, helping the soul by the body, the understanding by the sense; teaching us, out of objects of our sense, to raise up our souls to divine meditations, so as the soul is beholden to the body as well as the body to the soul, though not in so eminent a measure. But it may be questioned, Are not parables hard to be understood? I answer, It is true, if they be not unfolded they are hard; but if they be once manifested, they are of excellent use; and like the cloud, lightsome towards the Israelites, to give to them light, but towards the Egyptians a cloud of darkness. And carnal men are earthly in heavenly matters; and, on the contrary, those that are spiritually-minded are heavenly disposed in earthly matters. And it teacheth us our duty, viz., to be of a holy disposition in the use of these outward things; for the * He says just the opposite, 'To me it is not grievous.'—ED.