The Storms and Calms of Life

Here is the life of a Christian in this world. (1) He is in great danger if he be not troubled at all. (2) When he is troubled, he is in danger to be over-troubled. (3) When he has brought his soul in tune again, he is subject to new troubles.
Between this ebbing and flowing there is very little quiet. Now because this cannot be done without a great measure of God's Spirit, our help is to make use of that promise of giving ‘the Holy Spirit to them that ask it' (Luke 11:13). It is the Spirit who will teach the heart how long, and how much to grieve; and when, and how long, and how much to rejoice. As the Spirit moved upon the waters before the creation, so he must move upon the waters of our souls. For we do not have command of our own hearts. Every man without the Spirit is carried away with his flesh and passions, upon which the devil rides, and carries him wherever the devil wishes. But a godly man is not a slave to his carnal affections. The soul bred from heaven desires to be, like heaven, above all storms, uniform, constant; not as things under the sun, which are always in change, constant only in being inconstant. Affections are the wind of the soul. The soul is carried as it should be, when it is neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should, nor yet tossed with tempests to move disorderly. Our affections must not rise to become unruly passions, for then as a river that overflows its banks, they carry much slime and soil with them. Though affections be the wind of the soul, yet unruly passions are the storms of the soul, and will overturn all if they be not suppressed. Even the best, if they do not steer their hearts aright, are in danger of sudden gusts. A Christian must neither be a dead sea, nor a raging sea. Instead, he does as David did and labours to bring into captivity the first motions of sin in his heart (Psa. 51:1, 2).

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Soul's Conflict with Itself, Works, vol. 1, pp. 159-60
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