Josiah's Reformation: Cultivating and Maintaining a Tender Heart
In four sermons on 2 Chronicles 34:26-28, Richard Sibbes takes King Josiah's tender, humble, and mourning heart as a pattern for true reformation, arguing that genuine repentance must begin inwardly rather than in outward behavior alone. Sibbes warns against the hypocrisy of busy religious activity that masks an unchanged heart, and calls readers instead to the softening, humbling work of God's grace. It remains a searching, pastoral corrective for any age tempted to confuse reform of conduct with reform of the heart.
Based on Josiah's Reformation, four sermons on 2 Chronicles 34:26-28 (1629)
Puritan quotes
Quotes by Richard Sibbes
“A tender heart is always a sensible heart. It hath life and therefore sense.”
“A melting and tender heart is sensible, yielding, and fit for any service both to God and man.”
“It is a supernatural disposition of a true child of God to have a tender, soft, and a melting heart.”
“A hammer will do no good to a stone. It may break it in pieces, but not draw it to any form.”
“In pursuing his calling, Christ will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, in which more is meant than spoken, for he will not only not break nor quench, but he will cherish those with whom he so deals.”
“The purest actions of the purest men need Christ to perfume them; and this is his office. When we pray, we need to pray again for Christ to pardon the defects of our prayers.”
“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”
“The depths of our misery can never fall below the depths of mercy.”
“There can be no victory where there is no combat.”
“The winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory.”
