Welcome to a year of reading Richard Sibbes together! The reading plan for the entire year can be accessed here. I encourage you to stick with us, allow yourself time to read, and soak in the riches of this gifted and prolific Puritan preacher. You will be edified and encouraged!

If you have trouble with how Sibbes used words, check out the Lexicons of Early Modern English for definitions from the period.

Summary/Engagement

This month we’re reading Mark Dever’s exploration of Sibbes’ history and theology, a theological biography, if you will. Richard Sibbes was born in the middle of the reformation in 1577. He was the son of a wheelwright. His father built and repaired wooden wheels, and had a good income from his business and his land holdings. For a commoner to hold land and cultivate it was not overly common, and this relative wealth allowed Sibbes to attend college. His father preferred that he learn to be a wheelwright as he was, but Sibbes was disposed to books and learning. (13)

Throughout his schooling Richard received a classical education; rhetoric, logic, and philosophy as well as learning Greek and Latin. Upon entering St. John’s College, Cambridge in 1595, Sibbes entered a school in flux. The Church of England was created for political expediency roughly 60 years prior, yet the affects of Calvin and Luther were far reaching in Europe. The Puritan movement, largely marked by Calvinism, led to many debates, refutations (The Lambeth Articles), and movements for prominence in the college and in England.

Sibbes became a Bachelor of the Arts in 1599, four years after entering Cambridge. Three years later he became a Master of the Arts, in 1602. In 1610, a Bachelor of Divinity. Alongside his M.A. he also became a fellow of the college. Becoming a fellow meant that, at the time, he likely had no other prospects. His duties as fellow were to tutor the “scholars,” or undergraduates, of which he was likely assigned five.

Sibbes spent many years at St. John’s at Cambridge rising to ever increasing roles of influence and prominence. He was the Senior Dean, which meant he largely ran the operations of the College in 1615. He left for London in 1617 and was elected a Senior Fellow in 1619. The Senior Fellow position, along with the Master of the College, was where authority and influence over St. John’s College, Cambridge, was vested. Short of becoming the Master of a college, he had reached his peak of advancement at St. John’s.

Application/Further Discussion

In these years of academic advancement and learning a very important thing happened to Richard Sibbes. This event was central to his life. He was converted.

At some point, probably soon after the became a fellow of St. John’s, Sibbes was “changed.” Sometime during this period in Cambridge, “it pleased God to convert him by the Minister of Paul Baines, whilst he was Lecturer at Saint Andrews in Cambridge.” (34)

Sometime in his mid to late twenties, Sibbes was converted. Dever notes there is “no reason to think this conversion was dramatic.” (35) He notes that Sibbes repeatedly reference its gradual nature, and he may have described himself as “those who have kept themselves from the common pollutions and gross sins of the time. It pleaseth God that faith comes upon him, though they know not how for the time.”

In our present age of decisionism and dramatic testimonies it is comforting to read of the gradual experience of awakening faith in Sibbes that I can identify with. Knowing the day and the hour of your passing from death to life is well and good, but it is not necessary to know that you have passed from death to life. Not knowing a birthday doesn’t disprove the life of the one before you.

On February 21, 1608 Sibbes was ordained Deacon and Priest of the Church of England at the age of 30, six years after the minimum (and typical) age of 24. (35) Once ordained and licensed to preach, Sibbes apparently wasted no time in beginning to preach. He gained in reputation for his sermons soon after beginning to preach by the citizens of Cambridge. He likely preached in local chapels and country churches when he could in addition to preaching at the college. College sermons were private in the morning and restricted to the school, (and likely not in English), and a public sermon occured at 1PM, which meant that it was both open to the townsfolk and was in English. (37-38)

This exposure to the townsfolk resulted in the invitation to a regular lectureship, (essentially a regular public sermon) at Holy Trinity Church in late 1610. This lectureship would have far reaching implications, notably the conversion of John Cotton in 1612, who in turn influenced John Preston’s preaching, which was used by God to win another lecture attender and famous Puritan, Thomas Goodwin, to Christ.

Sibbes was a “reformer, but a cautious reformer,” and a “Puritan, but a moderate Puritan.” (48) He navigated the tumultuous waters of the late 16th and early 17th century religious turmoil with grace and perhaps a bit of subtlety. He was against certain practices of the Anglican church and yet sought to remain in some semblance of conformity with them, unlike many Puritan non-coformists.

Next week we’ll read about his friendships, and the growing conflicts that marked the years of his time in London.

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Last week, we covered The Bruised Reed, chapters thirteen through sixteen.

Next week, we’ll cover Mark Dever’s biography of Richard Sibbes, chapters three and four.