Richard Sibbes (or Sibbs) (1577–1635) was an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...
theologian. He is known as a Biblical exegete, and as a representative, with
William Perkins and
John Preston, of what has been called "main-line"
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
ism because he always remained in the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
and worshiped according to the
Book of Common Prayer
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...
.
Life
He was born in
Tostock
Tostock is a small village around eight miles east of Bury St. Edmunds in the county of Suffolk. It is a very traditional Suffolk village, with a good example of a fourteenth-century church.
As of 2011, the village is host to 198 houses with 4 ...
, Suffolk, where his father was a
wheelwright
A wheelwright is a craftsman who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the word "wright", (which comes from the Old English word "''wryhta''", meaning a worker or shaper of wood) as in shipwright and arkwr ...
; other sources say
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to:
Places Australia
* Sudbury Reef, Queensland
Canada
* Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes)
** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal el ...
. After attending
Bury St Edmunds Grammar School
King Edward VI School is a co-educational Comprehensive school, comprehensive secondary school in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The school in its present form was created in 1972 by the merging of King Edward VI Grammar School, with the Silv ...
, he attended
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...
from 1595. He was lecturer at
Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, from 1610 or 1611 to 1615 or 1616. It was erroneously held by 18th and 19th century scholars that Sibbes was deprived of his various academic posts on account of his
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
ism. In fact he was never deprived of any of his posts, due to his ingenuity of the system.
He was then preacher at
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...
, London, from 1617, returning to Cambridge as Master of
Catherine Hall
Catherine Hall (born 1946) is a British academic. She is Emerita Professor of Modern British Social and Cultural History at University College London and chair of its digital scholarship project, the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of Briti ...
in 1626, without giving up the London position.
Also in 1626, the support group known as the
Feoffees for Impropriations was set up, and Sibbes was a founding member. (It built on an informal grouping dating back to 1613). It was closely linked to
St Antholin, Budge Row, for its seven years of existence: it was shut down in 1633. With others, he worked to fund and provide platforms for preachers. He was one of four ministers in the original feoffees, the other members being chosen as four lawyers and four laymen.
Works
He was the author of several devotional works expressing intense religious feeling – ''The Saint's Cordial'' (1629), ''The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax'' (1631, exegesis of Isaiah 42:3), ''The Soules Conflict'' (1635), etc.
A volume of sermons appeared in 1630, dedicated to
Horace Vere, 1st Baron Vere of Tilbury and his wife Lady Mare. Most of the other works were first published by
Thomas Goodwin and
Philip Nye, after Sibbes died. The content belied the mainly moderate and conforming attitudes for which Sibbes was known in his lifetime. ''Beames of Divine Light'', ''A Description of Christ in Three Sermons'' and ''Bowels Opened'' appeared in 1639, as did ''The Returning Backslider'', sermons on the ''
Book of Hosea''.
A complete edition was published 1862–1864 in Edinburgh, in seven volumes, by James Nichol, with a biographical memoir by
Alexander Grosart.
Views
The clerical leaders of the Feoffees, Davenport, Gouge and Sibbes, all adhered to Calvinist
covenant theology
Covenant theology (also known as covenantalism, federal theology, or federalism) is a conceptual overview and interpretive framework for understanding the overall structure of the Bible. It uses the theological concept of a covenant as an org ...
, as shaped by the English theologians Perkins, Preston,
William Ames
William Ames (; Latin: ''Guilielmus Amesius''; 157614 November 1633) was an English Puritan minister, philosopher, and controversialist. He spent much time in the Netherlands, and is noted for his involvement in the controversy between the Cal ...
, and
Thomas Taylor. There was a
tacit assumption
A tacit assumption or implicit assumption is an assumption that underlies a logical argument, course of action, decision, or judgment that is not explicitly voiced nor necessarily understood by the decision maker or judge. These assumptions may b ...
of a
state church
A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...
. Sibbes believed the
Second Coming
The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messia ...
was necessary to complete the work that Christ had begun.
Efforts to define further the Puritanism of Sibbes – which is a term much debated – place him in various groups. Under pious "
non-separatists", he is with Preston,
Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter (12 November 1615 – 8 December 1691) was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymnodist, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, ...
,
Robert Bolton
Robert Bolton (1572 – 16 December 1631) was an English clergyman and academic, noted as a preacher.
Life
He was born on Whit Sunday in Blackburn, Lancashire, the sixth son of Adam Bolton of Backhouse. He attended what is now Queen Elizabeth's ...
, and
John Dod. Under those who would conform to set forms of worship, he is with Dod,
Nicholas Byfield
Nicholas Byfield (1579–1622) was an English clergyman, a leading preacher of the reign of James I.Louis B. Wright, Henry Steele Commager, Richard Brandon Morris, ''The Cultural Life of the American Colonies'' (2002), p. 138.
Life
He was a nat ...
,
Richard Capel,
John Downame,
Arthur Hildersham, and Richard Stock (another Feoffee). He is also a fully
conforming Puritan
Historians have produced and worked with a number of definitions of Puritanism, in an unresolved debate on the nature of the Puritan movement of the 16th and 17th century. There are some historians who are prepared to reject the term for historical ...
, with Preston,
Samuel Ward, and
Robert Hill. With
Richard Bernard, he was a moderate Calvinist who promoted
religious tolerance. With Perkins, Preston, Baxter and
Henry Newcome
Henry Newcome (November 1627 – 17 September 1695) was an English nonconformist preacher and activist.
Life
Henry Newcome was born at Caldecote, Huntingdonshire, the fourth son of Stephen Newcome, rector of Caldicote. He was baptised on 27 ...
, he was a moderate and non-
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...
Puritan. However one classifies him, it is undeniable that he was a faithful member of the Elizabethan church.
His perspective was European, or even wider, and he saw
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in terms of a repressive conspiracy. With Davenport, Gouge, Taylor,
Thomas Gataker,
John Stoughton
John Stoughton (18 November 1807 – 24 October 1897) was an English Nonconformist minister and historian.
Life
He was born at Norwich. His father was an Episcopalian, his mother a member of the Religious Society of Friends. Stoughton was ...
, and
Josias Shute, he helped raise money for Protestants of the
Electorate of the Palatinate
The Electoral Palatinate (german: Kurpfalz) or the Palatinate (), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate (), was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine o ...
affected by the opening of the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of batt ...
; and later for
John Dury's missions. Laud brought up Sibbes, Davenport, Gouge and Taylor in front of the Court of High Commission for this. ''The Fountain Opened'' (1638) advocated mission work.
Quotes
* “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”
Influence
His works were much read in
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
.
Thomas Hooker
Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 – July 7, 1647) was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding spea ...
, prominent there from 1633, was directly influenced by Sibbes, and his "espousal theology", using marriage as a religious metaphor, draws on ''The Bruised Reed'' and ''Bowels Opened''.
The poet
George Herbert was a contemporary, and there are suggestions on parallels. Where Herbert speaks in ''The Church Militant'' about the westward movement of the propagation of the gospel,
Christopher Hill comments that this may have come from ''The Bruised Reed''. Other examples have been proposed by Doerksen.
Sibbes was cited by the
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
John Wesley
John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who was a leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form of the independent Meth ...
. The
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul c ...
preacher
Charles Spurgeon studied his craft in Sibbes, Perkins and
Thomas Manton. The evangelical
Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote in the highest terms of his own encounter with the work of Sibbes.
References
Sources
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sibbes, Richard
1577 births
1635 deaths
People from Sudbury, Suffolk
English conforming Puritans
English evangelicals
Masters of St Catharine's College, Cambridge
16th-century English theologians
17th-century English theologians
16th-century English writers
16th-century male writers
17th-century English writers
17th-century English male writers
Critics of the Catholic Church
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
16th-century Anglican theologians
17th-century Anglican theologians