“Whatsoever is good for God's children they shall have it; for all is theirs to help them towards heaven; therefore if poverty be good they shall have it; if disgrace or crosses be good they shall have them; for all is ours to promote our greatest prosperity.”
Richard Sibbes was born in 1577 at Tostock, Suffolk, in the Puritan county of old England. He was baptized in the parish church in Thurston, and went to school there. As a child, he loved books. His father, Paul Sibbes, a hardworking wheelwright and, according to Zachary Catlin, a contemporary biographer of Sibbes, was “a good, sound-hearted Christian,” but became irritated with his son’s interest in books. He tried to cure his son of book-buying by offering him wheelwright tools, but the boy was not dissuaded. With the support of others, Sibbes was admitted to St. John’s College in Cambridge at the age of eighteen. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1599, a fellowship in 1601, and a Master of Arts degree in 1602. In 1603, he was converted under the preaching of Paul Baynes, whom Sibbes called his “father in the gospel.” Baynes, remembered most for his commentary on Ephesians, succeeded William Perkins at the Church of St. Andrews in Cambridge.
Sibbes was ordained to the ministry in the Church of England in Norwich in 1608. He was chosen as one of the college preachers in 1609 and earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1610. From 1611 to 1616, he served as lecturer at Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge. His preaching awakened Cambridge from the spiritual indifference into which it had fallen after the death of Perkins. A gallery had to be built to accommodate visitors in the church. John Cotton and Hugh Peters were converted under Sibbes’s preaching. During his years at Holy Trinity, Sibbes helped turn Thomas Goodwin away from Arminianism and moved John Preston from “witty preaching” to plain, spiritual preaching. He commenced B.D. in 1610, and was appointed lecturer at Holy Trinity, Cambridge. In consequence of his puritanism he was deprived in 1615 of both professorship and lectureship by the high commission in 1817, through the influence of Sir Henry Yelverton, he was chosen preacher at Gray's Inn, where he had a remarkable auditory. William Gouge, D.D., who often heard him, told Samuel Clarke that 'he sometimes had a little stammering in the time of his preaching, but then his judicious hearers alwaies expected some rare and excellent notion from him.' In 1626, on the death of John Hills, D.D., he was elected master of St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge, still retaining his post at Gray's Inn. 'The wheel of St.. Katharine,' says Fuller, 'having stood still (not to say gone backward) for some years, he left it replenished with scholars, beautified with buildings, better endowed with revenues.' He was one of the twelve feoffees under the short-lived schema (1626-33) for fostering a puritan ministry by buying up impropriations. As early as 1620 he had become a correspondent of James Usher or Ussher who by letter made him the offer of the provostship of Trinity College, Dublin.
Sibbes declined the prospect. The overture was renewed by Archbishop Abbot, but nothing came of it, though there is ground for Grosart's inference that Sibbes visited Dublin. In 1627 he proceeded D.D. He joined in the petition promoted by John Davenport on behalf of the distressed protestants in the palatinate, and incurred the reprimand of the high commission. That he was not anxious to provoke a conflict with the authorities is shown by his promoting, on the ground that 'Lambeth House would be obey'd,' the election to a fellowship at St. Catharine's Hall of John Ellis, whom Calamy calls a 'bell ringer’ to Laud. On 1 Nov. 1633 he was presented by the crown to the perpetual curacy of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, on the resignation of Thomas Goodwin, D.D., whom he is said to have weaned from Arminianism. Sibbes died unmarried at Gray's Inn on 5 July 1635.
Sibbes was ordained to the ministry in the Church of England in Norwich in 1608. He was chosen as one of the college preachers in 1609 and earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1610. From 1611 to 1616, he served as lecturer at Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge. His preaching awakened Cambridge from the spiritual indifference into which it had fallen after the death of Perkins. A gallery had to be built to accommodate visitors in the church. John Cotton and Hugh Peters were converted under Sibbes’s preaching. During his years at Holy Trinity, Sibbes helped turn Thomas Goodwin away from Arminianism and moved John Preston from “witty preaching” to plain, spiritual preaching. He commenced B.D. in 1610, and was appointed lecturer at Holy Trinity, Cambridge. In consequence of his puritanism he was deprived in 1615 of both professorship and lectureship by the high commission in 1817, through the influence of Sir Henry Yelverton, he was chosen preacher at Gray's Inn, where he had a remarkable auditory. William Gouge, D.D., who often heard him, told Samuel Clarke that 'he sometimes had a little stammering in the time of his preaching, but then his judicious hearers alwaies expected some rare and excellent notion from him.' In 1626, on the death of John Hills, D.D., he was elected master of St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge, still retaining his post at Gray's Inn. 'The wheel of St.. Katharine,' says Fuller, 'having stood still (not to say gone backward) for some years, he left it replenished with scholars, beautified with buildings, better endowed with revenues.' He was one of the twelve feoffees under the short-lived schema (1626-33) for fostering a puritan ministry by buying up impropriations. As early as 1620 he had become a correspondent of James Usher or Ussher who by letter made him the offer of the provostship of Trinity College, Dublin.
Sibbes declined the prospect. The overture was renewed by Archbishop Abbot, but nothing came of it, though there is ground for Grosart's inference that Sibbes visited Dublin. In 1627 he proceeded D.D. He joined in the petition promoted by John Davenport on behalf of the distressed protestants in the palatinate, and incurred the reprimand of the high commission. That he was not anxious to provoke a conflict with the authorities is shown by his promoting, on the ground that 'Lambeth House would be obey'd,' the election to a fellowship at St. Catharine's Hall of John Ellis, whom Calamy calls a 'bell ringer’ to Laud. On 1 Nov. 1633 he was presented by the crown to the perpetual curacy of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, on the resignation of Thomas Goodwin, D.D., whom he is said to have weaned from Arminianism. Sibbes died unmarried at Gray's Inn on 5 July 1635.