THE SOUL’S CONFLICT WITH ITSELF Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) an outstanding preacher of God’s Word at the beginning of the Puritan movement; educated at Cambridge.
Contents TO THE CHRISTIAN READER. .......................................................................................................................... 3 ON THE WORK OF MY LEARNED FRIEND DOCTOR SIBBES. ................................................................... 7 THE SOUL’S CONFLICT WITH ITSELF............................................................................................................ 9 CHAPTER 1 —General Observations upon the Text. ......................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2 — Of Discouragements from without. ........................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 3 — Of Discouragements from within. ............................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER 4 — Of casting down ourselves, and specially by sorrow—evils thereof......................................... 19 CHAPTER 5 — Remedies of casting down: to cite the soul, and press it to give an account. ............................ 22 CHAPTER 6 — Other observations of the same nature....................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER 7 — Difference between good men and others in conflicts with sin................................................. 30 CHAPTER 8 — Of unfitting dejection, and when it is excessive. And what is the right temper of the soul herein..................................................................................................................................................................... 32 CHAPTER 9 — Of the soul’s disquiets, God’s dealings, and power to contain ourselves in order. ................... 36 CHAPTER 10 — Means not to be overcharged with sorrow............................................................................... 38 CHAPTER 11 — Signs of victory over ourselves, and of a subdued spirit. ........................................................ 44 CHAPTER 12 — Of original righteousness, natural corruption, Satan’s joining with it, and our duty thereupon. ............................................................................................................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER 13 — Of imagination, sin of it, and remedies for it........................................................................... 52 CHAPTER 14 — Of help by others. Of true comforters and their graces. Method. Ill success. ......................... 64 CHAPTER 15 — Of flying to God in disquiets of souls; eight observations out of the text. .............................. 69 CHAPTER 16 — Of trust in God; grounds of it; especially his providence. ....................................................... 74 CHAPTER 17 — Of graces to be exercised in respect of Divine Providence. .................................................... 78 CHAPTER 18 — Other grounds of trusting in God, namely, the Promises, and twelve directions about the same. ..................................................................................................................................................................... 82 CHAPTER 19 — Faith to be prized, and other things undervalued, at least not to be trusted to as the chief. .... 88 1