Ch 5: The Spirit of Mercy Should Move Us
Conscience is a tender and delicate thing, and must be so treated.
Sibbes, Ch 5, closing sentence
It is like a lock: if its workings are faulty, it will be troublesome to open.
The above quote ends Sibbes’s Ch 5. It is the underlying theme of the entire chapter, closely tied to his recurring theme-word “moderation.” Sibbes’s metaphor of “conscience” being like a “lock” is a deep insight. It’s default position in to be locked. And (we think) only we hold our own key. Rarely do we open it, then likely only in private, briefly before securing it again, perhaps for a decade or two, perhaps unto some life-altering moment wherein we first need to find where we had did that key.
Review, and Reminder, of Our Human Condition
The human situation is this: we are fallen beyond self-redemption. Further, by nature and desire, we have suppressed, and continue to suppress–ultimately unable to ‘unsupress’–our self-realization of our true condition before God our Creator. And we press on, building our cities to reach into the heavens.
4 Then they [the cursed line of Cain] said, [speaking the declaration of self-creation]
Genesis 11:4 (ESV, highlights mine)
“Come [gather ourselves, united against / without God],
let us build ourselves a city [a centralize place of humanism / civilization]
and a tower with its top in the heavens, [our self-religious independence of God]
and let us make a name for ourselves, [and our focus will be on us, alone]
lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” [defying God’s Judgment]
Yet, there was not only the line of Cain, doubly fallen in and from Adam. There was the rebirth of the line Abel in Seth. In Seth’s line there was the little spark, from God, making the smoking flax.
In Sibbes Ch 4 we considered how Christ Himself was the Source of that little spark and, further, was the great preserver of it, the latter being known in Theology as “The Perseverance of the Saints,” the “P” of T-U-L-I-P. Here, in Ch 5, Sibbes brings us within the local community of believers, all still in some way smoking flax.
This Ch 5 in particular stands juxtaposed to John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Christian, the central character of the book, is primarily a solitary pilgrim. He encounters many elements of opposition including his own internal failings. But he has limited connections with fellow pilgrims. Christian’s pilgrimage is primarily a solitary one; even his wife and children, the most intimate of one’s relationships, were left behind and form no part of the story except as to their having rejected the call to accompany him.
The Christian life has important, necessary elements of that (primarily) solitary pilgrimage. Someone always hanging around, within the cacophony of endless gatherings, has abandoned their internal outpost. And ‘solitarity’–which is not an official word, but should be–is under-appreciated.
One exemplary life-example is Arthur W. Pink as unveiled in Iain Murray’s biography. AWP, as he self-identified, went from ‘pastoring’ small churches in the U.S. and Australia, with tent preaching to many thousands of people [early in the 20th C], to being functionally excluded from such roles / responsibilities. He then understood his calling to be a writing-expositor of God’s word, a work he did with extreme diligence, and well. And so he has blessed by his texts many more during his life and after his death than he would have otherwise.
But, Scripture makes clear–simply grasping the big picture of the 21 Epistles, and Acts, of the NT–that we are also huddled together as sheep within the common care of The True / Unique Shepherd, Christ.
Sibbes spent much of his life embedded in all the dimensions of a local church. In this Ch 5, he applies the metaphor of smoking flax to all the interactions in all its varied degrees of Christian maturity (relative sanctification).
Sibbes, Community, and the Law of Networks
Before turning to Sibbes, let us consider a little math of connected people. Essential in communications theory is a law of “networks.” (One can think of a network as an interconnection of “nodes” much like all the original landline telephones of a large city, each connected, literally, by a continuous copper wire). If there are “N” such nodes (landline telephones) in one given city, how many “connections” exist in forming a “network?” For large values of “N,” the formula is given by this: number of connection is equal to the square of the number of nodes.
Consider a small city of a 1000 landline telephones. The above network law tells us that there would be 1000 * 1000, or one million, connections. That is, there are a million different one-to-one connections that can be amongst such 1000 individual telephones.
To put this is in an everyday context of a family, consider a unit of seven people, perhaps a husband and wife with five children, or two children and closely located grandparents or other relations. For smaller sized networks, smaller N, the more-exact network equation is this:
the number of connections = N * (N-1) / 2.
So, for seven people, N = 7, the number of connections is 21. With a church community of believers of, say, 30 or so who are in relatively close contact or familiarity (regardless of the total size of the community), then the number of interconnections is more than 400. For N of 40, it is nearly double (780) in size, and so forth growing exponentially. This, by the way, is why organizational groups are functionally bound by groups of 20 to 40, or perhaps a little larger. For larger groups it is not possible to have meaningful connections knitting them together in any kind of cohesion. Such is the idea of a neighborhood, or a rural village. It is likely the same reason a military “platoon” is made up of 20 to 50 soldiers (and even further divided into three or four “squads”): if a group needs to pursue life-challenging missions in a condition of mutual trust, such as a squad, of say seven soldiers, might be called to do, there must be a cohesion that can only exist when there is a limited number of interconnections (here, again, 21).
It is those numerous connections that we all experience that can be a source of encouragement, and joy, and of angst (sadly) even reviling, that is the Christian experience. As quoted in Week 4, Paul David Tripp summarizes even in the context of the simplest marriage structure, where the number of connections is just one, between two “nodes,” it is a connection between two fallen sinners living in a fallen world. Those who have been there know this experience. If one add just a single child, that one connection becomes three connections, and so forth, so by even just five children it become 21, something like a “squad.”
The etymology of “squad” comes from Latin: “exquadra “to square,” from Latin ex “out” + quadrare “make square,” from quadrus “a square” ” (Etymology Online). The root idea that one needs a core number, N, to be able to fulfill the function of a defensive perimeter. In the context of “gifts” of the Holy Spirit, the NT gives us the picture of a functional human body, where no gift no matter how great (say, an “eye”) can make a whole operational body.
Outline of Sibbes Ch 5
And, so, we have the context of Sibbes Ch 5. His major and minor sections are as below:
- 5.1 Simplicity and Humility
- 5.2 Sound Judgment
- 5.3 How Those in Authority Should Act
- 5.4 We Are Debtors to the Weak
- 1. Let us be watchful in our liberty
- 2. Let us be careful as to slandering falsely
- 3. Let us be characteristically moderate
5.1 Simplicity and Humility
Sibbes begins with the observation that God chose as His primary messengers in the NT [true also in the OT] those who had experienced the most mercy from God, and needed so. Thus, rather than be heroic figures in their natural condition, they knew themselves to be deeply fallen, and washed clean, sanctified until a called purpose, solely by Grace.
Christ chose those to preach mercy who had felt most mercy, as Peter and Paul, that they might be examples of what they taught. Paul became all things to all men (1 Cor. 9:22), stooping unto them for their good. Christ came down from heaven and emptied himself of majesty in tender love to souls. Shall we not come down from our high conceits to do any poor soul good? Shall man be proud after God has been humble? We see the ministers of Satan turn themselves into all shapes to `make one proselyte’ (Matt. 23:15). We see ambitious men study accommodation of themselves to the humours [inclinations, areas by which they can be manipulated] of those by whom they hope to be raised, and shall not we study application of ourselves to Christ, by whom we hope to be advanced, nay, are already sitting with him in heavenly places? After we are gained to Christ ourselves, we should labour to gain others to Christ. Holy ambition and covetousness will move us to put upon ourselves the disposition of Christ. But we must put off ourselves first.
Sibbes, Ch 5.1. (Emphasis mine)
What then of “sound doctrine?” We seem to have puzzle (an “aporia”): if sound doctrine is to be the strong thing, then moderation, tolerance of the immature / wayward is inappropriate; if it’s moderation / tolerance that is the primary thing, then is seems that sound doctrine must give way. So, which is it? Or, how does one harmonize what seems to be poles apart?
Sibbes would answer by his heading: simplicity and humility. The Christian walk is from weak beginnings, and even in the most mature / sanctified there remains some of the poison from Adam. We all die as sinners, but by Grace the audience of Sibbes’s book dies in Grace.
The Fear of Exposure
Sibbes captures a heart condition of one experiencing the smoke of their own flax in a community of (seemingly) smokeless flames:
And likewise those are failing that, by overmuch austerity, drive back troubled souls from having comfort by them, for, as a result of this, many smother their temptations, and burn inwardly, because they have none into whose bosom they may vent their grief and ease their souls.
Ibid.
If one is surrounded by those who look fearless in confidence, and sinless or nearly so in behavior, one is intimidated into silence, which can easily slide into loss of hope.
The Keys
Roman Catholics make a big point about “the keys,” which they claim are retained uniquely by those who are the Apostolic successors of Peter Himself, namely the Pope, and his designees. The heraldry of the Pope makes such keys the evident claim of authority.
Protestants, likewise, have their own ruling symbology:
A crosier or crozier (also known as a paterissa, pastoral staff, or bishop’s staff)[1] is a stylized staff that is a symbol of the governing office of a bishop or abbot and is carried by high-ranking prelates of Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and some Anglican, Lutheran, United Methodist and Pentecostal churches. In Western Christianity the usual form has been a shepherd’s crook, curved at the top to enable animals to be hooked.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crosier
The crozier (shepherd’s crook) is a more subtle version of the keys, but it carries forward the same authoritative claim. As with the claim of holding the keys, holding the crozier moves the authority from uniquely and rightly Christ’s to some man, or religious system (or, as I would say, The Religious Industry, TRI).
And what is Sibbes’s perspective as to a community of believers all of whom are in some wise smoking flax?
We must neither bind where God looses, nor loose where God binds, neither open where God shuts, nor shut where God opens. The right use of the keys is always successful. In personal application, there must be great heed taken; for a man may be a false prophet, and yet speak the truth. If it be not a truth to the person to whom he speaks, if he grieve those whom God has not grieved by unseasonable truths, or by comforts in an ill way, the hearts of the wicked may be strengthened. One man’s meat may be another’s poison.
Ibid.
So, Sibbes would add the necessary discernment of the application of sound doctrine as we are not all in the same condition, life-challenges, or maturities. And all such keys / crooks derive from the Word of God (sound doctrine) under the singular authority of Christ, the Head of His Church.
If we look to the general temper of these times, rousing and waking Scriptures are fittest; yet there are many broken spirits who need soft and comforting words. Even in the worst time the prophets mingled sweet comfort for the hidden remnant of faithful people. God has comfort.
Ibid.
5.2 Sound Judgment
Sibbes here adds to moderation, simplicity, humility, the need for sound judgment (discernment).
Mercy does not rob us of our right judgment….. None will claim mercy more of others than those who deserve due severity. This example does not countenance lukewarmness, nor too much indulgence to those that need quickening. Cold diseases must have hot remedies… We should so bear with others as to manifest also a dislike of evil.
Sibbes, 5.2. (Emphasis mine)
But how does such force of “quickening” rightly be exercised? Sibbes’s emphasizes our mutual humility under the authority of Scripture:
It is hard to preserve just bounds of mercy and severity without a spirit above our own, by which we ought to desire to be led in all things. That wisdom which dwells with prudence (Prov. 8:12) will guide us in these particulars, without which virtue is not virtue, truth not truth. The rule and the case must be laid together…
… that wisdom which is from above, which makes men gentle, peaceable and ready to show that mercy which they themselves have felt. It is a way of prevailing agreeable both to Christ and to man’s nature to prevail by some forbearance and moderation.
Ibid.
5.3 How Those in Authority Should Act
Sibbes, ever the down-to-earth man, begins this section with the admonition regarding any mutual correction: “not to kill a fly on the forehead with a mallet, nor shut men out of heaven for a trifle.”
And on what basis? Sibbes says: “The power that is given to the church is given for edification, not destruction.”
Sibbes’s time was shortly after fearsome wars, even to death, with Roman Catholic authorities both ecclesiastical (the Papacy and its TRI) and civil (Queen ‘Bloody’ Mary, and TPI). And, so, Sibbes writes (where we again see his down-to-earth phraseology)
Authority is a beam of God’s majesty, and prevails most where there is least mixture of that which is man’s. It requires more than ordinary wisdom to manage it aright. This string must not be too tight, nor too loose. Justice is a harmonious thing. Herbs hot or cold beyond a certain degree, kill. We see even contrary elements preserved in one body by wisely tempering them together. Justice in rigor is often extreme injustice, where some considerable circumstances should incline to moderation; and the reckoning will be easier for bending rather to moderation than rigor.
…Misery should be a lodestone of mercy, not a footstool for pride to trample on.
…Here love should have a mantle to cast upon lesser errors of those above us. Oftentimes the poor man is the oppressor by unjust clamors.
Sibbes, 5.3. (Emphasis mine)
Sibbes also extends such reference to moderation and gentleness to our perspective and talk of those in civil authority over us.
…we ought to take in good part any moderate happiness we enjoy by government, and not be altogether as a nail in the wound, exasperating things by misconstruction. …. We should labour to give the best interpretation to the actions of governors that the nature of the actions will possibly bear.
Ibid.
We presently live in such poisonous political times that the above counsel should temper our Christian response to the incessant noise of hatred, and distortion, heaped on one side or another of a socio-political matter. We are strangers here; this world is not our home. Our citizenship, or true one, is in heaven; even now.
17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Philippians 3:20 (ESV, emphasis mine)
5.4 We Are Debtors to the Weak
5.4.1 Watchful of our Liberty
Looseness of life is cruelty to ourselves and to the souls of others.
Sibbes, Ch 5.4.1
5.4.2 Faithful in our characterizations
Let men take heed of taking up Satan’s office, in misrepresenting the good actions of others, as he did Job’s case, `Doth Job fear God for naught?’ (Job 1:9), or slandering their persons, judging of them according to the wickedness that is in their own hearts…. A Christian is a hallowed and a sacred thing, Christ’s temple; and he that destroys his temple, him will Christ destroy (1 Cor.3:17).
Sibbes 5.4.2
5.4.3 Slow to ‘smite’ others
Men must not be too curious in prying into the weaknesses of others. We should labour rather to see what they have that is for eternity, to incline our heart to love them, than into that weakness which the Spirit of God will in time consume, to estrange us. Some think it strength of grace to endure nothing in the weaker, whereas the strongest are readiest to bear with the infirmities of the weak….
Where most holiness is, there is most moderation, where it may be without prejudice of piety to God and the good of others. We see in Christ a marvelous temper of absolute holiness, with great moderation. What would have become of our salvation, if he had stood upon terms, and not stooped thus low unto us? …
The Holy Ghost is content to dwell in smoky, offensive souls. Oh, that that Spirit would breathe into our spirits the same merciful disposition! … why should we reject men of useful parts and graces, only for some harshness of disposition, which, as it is offensive to us, so it grieves themselves [that is, it should be expected that those most ‘smoky’ in their flax-condition, are themselves self-aware, and burdened]?
Sibbes, Ch 5.4 (bracketed addition, mine)
Concluding Thoughts
So that we may do this the better, let us put upon ourselves the Spirit of Christ. …The weapons of this warfare must not be carnal (2 Cor. 10:4)…. The Spirit will only work with his own tools. And we should think what affection Christ would carry to the party in this case. That great physician, as he had a quick eye and a healing tongue, so had he a gentle hand, and a tender heart.
And, further, let us take to ourselves the condition of him with whom we deal. We are, or have been, or may be in that condition ourselves. Let us make the case our own, and also consider in what near relation a Christian stands to us, even as a brother, a fellow member, heir of the same salvation. And therefore let us take upon ourselves a tender care of them in every way; and especially in cherishing the peace of their consciences. Conscience is a tender and delicate thing, and must be so treated. It is like a lock: if its workings are faulty, it will be troublesome to open.
Sibbes, Ch 5, selected from the closing paragraphs. (Emphasis mine)