Quotes from Richard Sibbes

Ministers by their calling are friends of the Bride, and to bring Christ and his Spouse together, and therefore ought, upon all good occasions, to lay open all the excellencies of Christ

He died that he might heal our souls with a plaster of his own blood, and by that death save us, which we were the procurers of ourselves, by our own sins.

To show that the creature cannot be so low but there is somewhat in God above the misery of the creature, his mercy shall triumph over the basest estate where he will show mercy. Therefore there is mercy above all mercy and love above all love, in that Christ was a servant.

Sometimes a Christian has such confused thoughts that he can say nothing but, as a child, cries, `O Father', not able to express what he needs, like Moses at the Red Sea. These stirrings of spirit touch the heart of God and melt him into compassion towards us, when they come from the Spirit of adoption, and from a striving to be better.

Oh, but is it possible', thinks the misgiving heart, `that so holy a God should accept such a prayer?' Yes, he will accept that which is his own, and pardon that which is ours.

It yields us comfort also in desolate conditions, such as contagious sicknesses and the like, in which we are more immediately under God's hand, that then Christ has a throne of mercy at our bedside and numbers our tears and our groans.

Discouragements, then, must come from ourselves and from Satan, who labors to fasten on us a loathing of duty.

It does not matter as much what bad is in us as what is good; not what corruptions remain but how we regard them; not what our particular failings are so much as what the thread and tenor of our lives are, for Christ's displeasure of that which is wrong in us does not turn to his hatred of us but to his victory over all of our weaknesses.

We are only poor for this reason, that we do not know our riches in Christ.

Where Christ's laws are written in the heart, there all other good laws are best obeyed. None despise man's law but those that despise Christ's first.

A man knows no more in religion than he loves and embraceth with the affections of his soul.

The life of a Christian is wondrously ruled in this world, by the consideration and meditation of the life of another world.

There is not a minute of time in all of our life but we must either be near to God or we will be undone.

Self-emptiness prepares us for spiritual fullness.

When we go to God by prayer, the devil knows we go to fetch strength against him, and therefore he opposes us all he can.

The life of a Christian should be a meditation how to unloose his affection from inferior things. He will easily die that is dead before in affection.

When we grow careless of keeping our souls, then God recovers our taste of good things again by sharp crosses.

God takes a safe course with His children, that they may not be condemned with the world, He permits the world to condemn them, that they may not love the world, the world hates them.

See a flame in a spark, a tree in a seed. See great things in little beginnings.

This is a life of faith, for God will try the truth of our faith, so that the world may see that God has such servants as will depend upon His bare word.

It would be a good contest amongst Christians, one to labour to give no offence, and the other to labour to take none. The best men are severe to themselves, tender over others.

In the godly, holy truths are conveyed by way of a taste; gracious men have a spiritual palate as well as a spiritual eye. Grace alters the spiritual taste.

Death is only a grim porter to let us into a stately palace.

Measure not God's love and favour by your own feeling. The sun shines as clearly in the darkest day as it does in the brightest. The difference is not in the sun, but in some clouds which hinder the manifestation of the light thereof.