The Bruised Reed: With An Introductory Essay

by Richard Sibbes

it is natural for a child of God to love Christ so far as he is renewed, not only from inducement of reason so to do, but likewise from an inward principle and work of grace, whence those reasons have their chief forces; first, we are made partakers of the divine nature, and then we are easily induced and led by Christ’s Spirit to spiritual duties.

judgment is the life and soul of wisdom.

God hath put an eternal difference between light and darkness, good and ill, which no creature’s conceit can alter; and therefore no man’s judgment is the measure of things further than it agrees to truth stamped upon things themselves by God.

Let truth have full scope without check or restraint, and let Satan and his instruments do their worst, they shall not prevail;

The whole conversation of a Christian is nothing else but knowledge digested into will, affection, and practice.

God will have “no blind sacrifices, no unreasonable services” (Mal. 1:13), but will have us to “love him with all our mind” (Rom. 12:1), that is, with our understanding part as well as “with all our hearts” (Luke 10:27), that is, the affecting part of the soul.

God indeed useth carnal men to very good service, but without a thorough altering and conviction of their judgment. He worketh by them, but not in them, therefore they do neither approve the good they do, nor hate the evil they abstain from.

Where Christ by his Spirit as a prophet teaches, he likewise as a king by his Spirit subdueth the heart to obedience of what is taught. This is that teaching which is promised of God, when not only the brain, but the heart itself, is taught: when men do not only know what they should do, but are taught the very doing of it; they are not only taught that they should love, fear, and obey, but they are taught love itself, and fear and obedience itself.

This is Christ’s prerogative, he infuseth into his subjects his own Spirit, “Upon him there doth not only rest the spirit of wisdom and understanding, but likewise the Spirit of the fear of the Lord” (Isa. 11:2). The knowledge which we have of him from himself, is a transforming knowledge (2 Cor. 3:18).

As a gracious man judgeth as he should, so he affecteth and doth as he judgeth, his life is a commentary of his inward man; there is a sweet harmony between God’s truth, his judgment, and his whole conversation.

Judgment should have a throne in the heart of every Christian. Not that judgment alone will work a change, there must be grace to alter the bent and sway of the will, before it will yield to be wrought upon by the understanding. But God hath so joined these together, as that whensoever he doth savingly shine upon the understanding, he giveth a soft and pliable heart; for without a work upon the heart by the Spirit of God, it will follow its own inclination to that which it affecteth, whatsoever the judgment shall say to the contrary: there is no connatural proportion between an unsanctified heart and a sanctified judgment. For the heart unaltered will not give leave to the judgment coldly and soberly to conclude what is best: as the sick man whilst his aguish distemper corrupteth his taste, is rather desirous to please that, than to hearken what the physician shall speak.

it is for the most part in the power of the heart, what the understanding shall judge and determine in particular things.

that our “knowledge may be with all judgment” (Phil 1:9); that is, with experience and feeling.

Christ at length will have his end in us, and faith resteth assured of it, and this assurance is very operative, stirring us up to join with Christ in his ends.

God would not have us presently forget what cruel enemies Christ hath overcome for us; “Destroy them not, lest the people forget it,” saith the Psalmist (Ps. 59:11). That so by the experience of that annoyance we have by them, we might be kept in fear to come under the power of them.

God often worketh by contraries: when he means to give victory, he will suffer us to be foiled at first; when he means to comfort, he will terrify first; when he means to justify, he will condemn us first; whom he means to make glorious, he will abase first. A Christian conquers, even when he is conquered; when he is conquered by some sins, he gets victory over others more dangerous, as spiritual pride, security, etc.

Jacob, after he had a “blow upon which he halted, yet would not give over wrestling” (Gen. 32:24), till he had gotten the blessing; so let us never give over, but in our thoughts knit the beginning, progress, and end together, and then we shall see ourselves in heaven out of the reach of all enemies. Let us assure ourselves that God’s grace, even in this imperfect state, is stronger than man’s free will in the state of first perfection, being founded now in Christ, who, as he is the author, so will be “the finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2); we are under a more gracious covenant.

the strongest faith may be shaken, so the weakest where truth is, is so far rooted, that it will prevail.

Failings, with conflict, in sanctification should not weaken the peace of our justification, and assurance of salvation. It mattereth not so much what ill is in us, as what good; not what corruptions, but how we stand affected to them; not what our particular failings be, so much as what is the thread and tenor of our lives; for Christ’s mislike of that which is amiss in us, redounds not to the hatred of our persons, but to the victorious subduing of all our infirmities.

a spark from heaven, though kindled under greenwood that sobs and smokes, yet it will consume all at last. Love once kindled is strong as death, much water cannot quench it, and therefore it is called a vehement flame, or flame of God (Cant. 8:6), kindled in the heart by the Holy Ghost; that little that is in us is fed with an everlasting spring. As the fire that came down from heaven in Elias’ time (1 Kgs. 18:38), licked up all the water, to show that it came from God, so will this fire spend all our corruption; no affliction without, or corruption within, shall quench it. In the morning we see oft clouds gather about the sun, as if they would hide it, but the sun wasteth them by little and little, till it come to its full strength.