A12167:329
Bowels Opened
Bowels opened, or, A discovery of the near and deer love, union and communion betwixt Christ and the Church, and consequently betwixt Him and every believing soul Delivered in divers sermons on the fourth fifth and sixth chapters of the Canticles. By that reverend and faithful minister of the Word, Doctor Sibs, late preacher unto the honourable society of Gray's Inn, and Master of Katharine Hall in Cambridge. Being in part finished by his own pen in his life time, and the rest of them perused and corrected by those whom he entrusted with the publishing of his works.Bovvels opened, or, A discovery of the neere and deere love, union and communion betwixt Christ and the Church, and consequently betwixt Him and every beleeving soule Delivered in divers sermons on the fourth fifth and sixt chapters of the Canticles. By that reverend and faithfull minister of the Word, Doctor Sibs, late preacher unto the honourable societie of Grayes Inne, and Master of Katharine Hall in Cambridge. Being in part finished by his owne pen in his life time, and the rest of them perused and corrected by those whom he intrusted with the publishing of his works.
London: printed by George for George Edwards, 1639
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Labour to preserve the soul in the fear of God; because fear is a waking affection,1 yea one of the wakefullest; For, Naturally we are more moved with dangers, then 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 aweth Bond of the New Covenant. I will put my fear into their hearts, that they shall never depart from me▪ One Christian is better then another, by how much more he wakes,2 and fears more then another. Of all Christians,3 mark those are most gracious, spiritual and heavenly, that are the most awful, and careful of their speeches, courses, and demeanours: tender, even ⟨p. 121⟩of offending God in little things. You shall not have light, & common oaths come from them, nor unsavoury speeches. Sometimes a good Christian may in a state of sleepiness be faulty some way. But he grows in the knowledge of the greatness of God, and the experience of his own infirmities, as he grows in the sense of the love of God. He is afraid to loose that sweet Communion any way, or to grieve the Spirit of God: Therefore, always as a •an grows in grace, he grows in awfulness, and in jealousy of his own corruptions. Therefore let us preserve by all means this awful affection, the fear of God; Let us then often search the state of our own souls, our going backward or forward, how it is between God and our souls; how fit we are to die, and to suffer; how fit for the times that may befall us? Let us examine the state of our own souls which will preserve us in a waking estate, especially examine our selves in regard of the sins of the place, and the times where we live, of the sins of our own inclination, how we stand affected and biased in all those respects, and see how jealous we are of dangers in this kind. Those that vvill 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.