5. RICHARD SIBBES, D.D.
TIMES of persecution have in all ages been fruitful in producing men in the Church of God, who were a blessing, not only in their own day and generation, but through their writings conferred benefits on after generations, the value of which will only be revealed on the Great Day. The truth of this is evidenced nowhere more clearly than in what is known as the “Puritan period” in England. Richard Sibbes, the subject of this sketch was brought up in these troublous times. Born at Tostock in Suffolk in the year 1577, he would be about eleven years of age when the Spanish Armanda set sail for the coasts of England, blessed by the Pope, and with the avowed intention of exterminating Protestantism in these islands. Nothing seems to be known of his parents beyond the fact that they were truly God-fearing, and that his father, Paul Sibbes was a wheelwright to trade.
Young Richard was educated, first at the Grammar School of Thurston, and then at the Free School at Bury, founded by King Edward VI. After spending some time at this latter school, it is said that his father “grew weary of his expenses for books and learning,” took him from school, and sent him to work in his own workshop. Thus we see that but for the over-ruling providence of Him who “doeth all things well,” Richard Sibbes, the Puritan Divine would never have been heard of. The Most High, however, raised up kind friends who interested themselves in the wheelwright’s son, sent him to St. John’s College, Cambridge, and paid part of his expenses while there. This happened in his eighteenth year. Here he made great progress with his studies receiving his M.A. degree in 1602, and was shortly afterwards appointed to preach. By 1609 he gained such popularity as a preacher that he was elected as one of the College preachers, and the following year graduated B.D. It was during his College career that he underwent a saving change under the preaching of that eminent divine, Paul Bayne, who was at this time preacher at St. Andrew’s Church, Cambridge, and who is known to students of Puritan literature as the writer of a choice collection of religious letters, and the author of a valuable commentary on Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians.
In 1610 the congregation of Trinity Parish Church, Cambridge, addressed a “Memorial” to him to accept a lectureship in their church, which he did and very soon drew a large congregation around him, not only of the common people, but also many eminent scholars were among his regular hearers. This reveals that the preaching of a full-orbed Gospel was valued in Cambridge at that time. To many he was the messenger of heaven to reveal to them what they were in the sight of God, and to lead them to the finished work of Christ, as the God-provided remedy to meet with the lost and ruined condition of man, while those who were already in a state of grace were comforted and edified. Sibbes, though not alone in the preaching of a crucified, risen and exalted Redeemer, was in the minority among the preachers of Cambridge, for the majority preached another gospel than that of the Lord Jesus, for their preaching consisted of dry essays, garnished with ample quotations from the philosophers of Greece, and, like the masters which they followed, the preaching of the Cross was to them foolishness.
The God-honouring and God-owned ministry of Richard Sibbes could not long remain unmolested in a world that has as its god “the prince of the power of the air,” who has in it so many agents to do his bidding, and so we find that in 1615 Sibbes was deprived of his lectureship. Laud, the sworn foe of Gospel simplicity and orthodox preaching was now in power, and such a bright star among the Puritans as the subject of our sketch, could not shine long without drawing his attention and his enmity alike, with the result that the large and appreciative congregation which met in Trinity Parish Church were deprived of their justly renowned lecturer, and another great sin added to the account of a man who was fast filling the cup of his iniquity.
The work which God gave him to do, however, was not finished, and while that was so neither Laud nor any other emissary of the prince of darkness could silence him. His connection with the congregation of Trinity was severed but it was in order that he would be transferred to another sphere of labour. Sir Henry Yelverton, who was a great help at that time to many a godly minister, and who had great influence among the nobility, secured for him the “preachership” of the Chapel of Gray’s Inn, London. The members of the Society which met at Gray’s Inn were drawn from most of the families of note among the old nobility of England and among them may be found the names of men who took the foremost places in making the history of their own times. To them he preached the same gospel which he preached to the “common people” in Trinity Church, Cambridge, and many of them “heard him gladly,” with the result to them that they are now on Mount Sion above, singing the praises of redeeming love. Thus we see how God used the enmity of Laud to bring about what He purposed from all eternity concerning those of His elect who were in Gray’s Inn at that time.
In the year 1626 Sibbes was invited to become Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. He, however, declined the honour, but in the same year was elected to be Master of St. Katherine’s Hall, Cambridge. Thus we find that in a few years after he had to leave Cambridge, a great honour done to him in the very town which he previously had to leave, witnessing in the strongest possible way to his high attainments and to the place he occupied in the hearts of the people of that place. This appointment gives testimony to his great worth from another source also. One of the conditions upon which he was appointed to Gray’s Inn was, that he should resign his place there should he accept another appointment, but the fact that he continued preacher at Gray’s Inn to the end of his days reveals that that condition, in his case, must have been relaxed. Probably the Society which met there realised the value of the man they had and would have sacrificed anything short of principle in order to retain him.
Having entered on his duties in St. Katherine’s Hall, he soon raised that college to a very high standard. His piety, eloquence and learning soon drew around him a noble band of students. He, along with the Master of Emanuel College, Dr. John Preston, became the great centre of attraction in Cambridge, and from their influential positions were instrumental in advancing the Cause of Christ in England in a way that only eternity will reveal. During this time Sibbes was asked often to preach in St. Mary’s Church, which was the church of the whole University of Cambridge. Here, from time to time, there listened to him a congregation of men that, from the point of view of talents and learning, could not be surpassed anywhere else. Professors and students, who on account of their attainments in all branches of learning, will be remembered as long as time will last, were to be found listening to him spellbound with admiration and awe, for many of them, for the first time felt the authority of heaven behind his preaching. His gospel to such a galaxy of talent and learning was the same as that which he preached before in Trinity Parish Church, and in Gray’s Inn, having as its centre the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was preached with a consciousness of being under the All-seeing eye of God, and that caused the greatest of men to go out of the preacher’s sight. Like a true preacher of the Gospel he feared no frowns and he desired to court no favours. Well might he adopt the words of J. C. Philpot, spoken in a later generation, “I will stand before Him, Whose eyes are as flames of fire, to search out the secrets of my heart. And what is this poor vain world with all its gilded-clay, painted-touchwood honours and respectability, and soap-bubble charms? What is all the wealth of the Church piled up in one heap, compared to a smile of a loving Saviour’s countenance?”
Though a peaceable man, Dr. Sibbes suffered much annoyance through the attentions of Archbishop Laud, an instance of which has been noticed already in his being ejected from the Trinity lectureship. After being installed as Master of St. Katherine’s Hall, Sibbes, along with three other eminent and godly men, signed his name to a circular letter, asking for help for the persecuted and poverty-stricken Protestant ministers and their families on the continent of Europe who had suffered through the invasion of Bohemia and the Palatinate by the Romanists. For this he and his friends, the other three signatories to the circular letter, were summoned before the Court of the Star Chamber, severely reprimanded, and treated as “notorious delinquents.” This incident, together with being constantly watched by the Primate’s spies, and knowing how ready they were to misconstrue his words in order to curry favour with their master, was a source of much vexation, but it never caused him to keep back one word of that message which it was his duty, as a gospel preacher, and a true Protestant and patriot, to deliver. Though his plain speaking caused a good deal of offence in the camp of his enemies, yet we find that such was the influence which he possessed, and the respect in which he was held, that in the year 1633 he was appointed by King Charles I. to the vicarage of Trinity in Cambridge, and about the same time received his D.D. degree.
His many duties as Preacher at Gray’s Inn, Master of St. Katherine’s Hall, and Vicar of Trinity, together with many preaching engagements in various parts of the country wore out his body, and soon it became apparent to himself and others that the “earthly house of this tabernacle” was soon to be dissolved, yet he continued preaching to the last. His last two sermons were from John xiv., 1, 2; “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Having preached two sermons from these words he became seriously ill that very night, and feeling the cold hand of death upon him, he revised his last will and testament, and then calmly waited for the change, which took place the following day, Sabbath, 5th July, 1635, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. He was buried the following day in St. Andrew’s Church, Holborn. Richard Sibbes spent his whole ministerial life preaching Christ to perishing sinners, and had now heard his Master’s “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and entered into the joy of his Lord.
Two of his best known works are, “The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax,” and “The Soul’s Conflict with Itself.” In the former there is a beautiful presentation of Christ in His dealings with His people, and especially with such of them as are often bruised in conflicts with Satan, and discouraged by their own corruptions; in the latter he enters largely into the many discouragements which the Lord’s people meet with and the perplexing questions which these discouragements give rise to. He then points out many things which, under these conditions, may be taken by the soul as tokens for encouragement. In these two treatises, which, by the way, are the substance of sermons preached by him at various times, and afford us very good specimens of his preaching, he enters into the experiences of the Lord’s people in such a way that those who are cast down and “in heaviness through manifold temptations,” often find their own case described so clearly, together with encouragements suitable for them, that they are taken out of the Slough of Despond and sent on their way rejoicing. Almost invariably he is referred to by writers as “the heavenly Sibbes” which indicates not only the direction in which his affections were set while on earth, but also the heavenly unction which accompanied his sermons and writings.—J. C.