The Works of Richard Sibbes, vol. 2
Overview
Volume two contains Sibbes’ writings explorations of the relationship between Christ and the church, beginning with the life of Christ and the Holy Spirit’s ongoing role in the ministry of the Church. The church, Sibbes shows, rests on God’s faithfulness and Christ’s work but is also obligated to fulfill Christ’s commission. He writes extensively on the metaphor of the church as Christ’s bride.
Volume two also includes a lengthy treatise on those who leave the church and later return, whom Sibbes artfully labels “returning backsliders.” He reminds readers—then and now—of the twin commands of love and punishment, as well as the scope of God’s grace and the nature of both public and private repentance with regard to those who have returned to the church. Sibbes’ treatise on the church concludes with a rich account of the feast—biblical notions of the feast, the feast at the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and the feast of Christ’s Second Coming.
In the Logos edition, The Works of Richard Sibbes is completely searchable and more accessible than ever. Key theological terms link to dictionaries and encyclopedias, and Scripture references are linked to your Greek New Testament or your favorite English translations. The Works of Richard Sibbes will benefit pastors, theologians, laypeople, and anyone interested in Reformed theology in general and Puritan thought in particular.
Get all seven volumes of The Works of Richard Sibbes here!
- Memoir of Richard Sibbes written by Rev. Alexander Balloch Grosart
- Prefatory note at the beginning of each chapter
Top Highlights
“A deformed person, man or woman, of a homely complexion and constitution, yet, notwithstanding, when we discern them by their conversation to be very wise and of a lovely and sweet spirit, very able and withal wondrous willing to impart their abilities, being wondrous useful; what a world of love doth it breed, though we see in their outward man nothing lovely? The consideration of what sufficiency is in Christ, wisdom, power, goodness, and love, that made him come from heaven to earth, to take our nature upon him, to marry us, and join our nature to his (that he might join us to him in spiritual bonds): the consideration of his meekness and gentleness, how he never turned any back again that came to him, should make us highly prize him.” (Page 138)
“Now, from this union of persons comes a communion of all other things whatsoever. ‘I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.’ If Christ himself be mine, then all is mine (u). What he hath done, what be hath suffered, is mine; the benefit of all is mine. What he hath is mine. His prerogatives and privileges to be the Son of God, and heir of heaven, and the like, all is mine. Why? Himself is mine. Union is the foundation of communion. So it is here with the church, ‘I am my beloved’s.’ My person is his, my life is his, to glorify him, and to lay it down when he will. My goods are his, my reputation his. I am content to sacrifice all for him. I am his, all mine is his. So you see there is union and communion mutually, between Christ and his church.” (Pages 173–174)
Sibbes never wastes . . . time. He scatters pearls and diamonds with both hands.
I shall never cease to be grateful to Richard Sibbes, who was balm to my soul at a period in my life when I was overworked and badly overtired, and therefore subject in an unusual manner to the onslaughts of the devil. I found at that time that Richard Sibbes . . . was an unfailing remedy. His books The Bruised Reed and The Soul’s Conflict quieted, soothed, comforted, encouraged, and healed me.
The most brilliant and popular of all the utterances of the Puritan church.
—William Haller
A ‘soul of goodness’ informs every fiber and filament of his thinking . . . there is not a page without food for the spiritually hungry.
—Rev. Alexander Balloch Grosart
- Title: The Works of Richard Sibbes, vol. 2
- Author: Richard Sibbes
- Editor: Alexander Balloch Grosart
- Publisher: James Nichol
- Publication Date: 1862
- Pages: 518
Richard Sibbes (1577–1635) entered St. John’s College at Cambridge in 1595 and was ordained in the Church of England in 1607. He received his BD in 1610. Sibbes lectured at Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge beginning in 1611 and, in 1617, became a preacher at Gray’s Inn—then London’s most famous pulpit. He returned to Catherine Hall in 1626 and to Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge in 1623, though he never gave up his preaching at Gray’s Inn. Influence of Sibbes’ thought shows in the writings of John Cotton, Hugh Peters, Thomas Goodwin, John Preston, and countless others.
Among Sibbes%rsquo; last words: “I commend and bequeath my soul into the hands of my gracious Savior, who hath redeemed it with his most precious blood, and appears now in heaven to receive it.”
