LETTER FROM RICHARD
SIBBES
An interesting piece of history
came to light when perusing the Memoir of Richard Sibbes, and encountering a
letter from him to "An Afflicted Conscience", supposed by the editor, Rev.
Alexander Balloch Grosart, to be to Goodwin, on very good evidence. It sheds a
fascinating light on the reasoning behind the thinking of the "stayers" when
confronted by the "separaters" from the Church of England at a time when Popish
ceremonies were being introduced by Bishops and King, and ministers ordered to
administer them, or face banishment, loss of goods, loss of livelihood, and
even death. Goodwin cannot have relished listening and acting upon his
conscience called a "heinous sin" but nothing of this appears in Goodwin's
memoirs, which is much to his credit. Read the letter - and Grosart's comments
on it.
One of the minor writings of Sibbes, which illustrates how
he would discharge the office assigned to him is entitled :
A CONSOLATORY
LETTER To an Afflicted Conscience: full of pious admonitions and Divine
Instructions.
Written by that famous Divine, Doctor SIBBS: and now
published for the common good and edification of the Church. Ecelesiastes vi.
18, "Be not thou just overmuch, neither make thy selfe overwise; wherefore
shouldest thou be desolate."
(For a copy of this
excessively rare ‘Letter,’ published in a thin 4to, pp. 6, I am
indebted to the kindness of Joshua Wilson, Esq., Nevill Park, Tunbridge Wells,
who has devoted much time to good purpose in investigating the history, and
biography and bibliography of Puritanism. His ‘Historical Inquiry
concerning the Principles, &c., of English Presbyterians’ (1835) has
not gathered all its renown yet.)
From MEMOIR OP RICHARD SIBBES,
D.D.
I introduce this ‘Letter’ here, retaining its
ortnography
Deare Sir,
I understand by your Letter, that you have many
and grevious tryals; some externall and bodily, some internall and spirituall:
as the deprivall of inward comfort, the buffetings (and that in more then
ordinary manner), of your soule, with Satan's temptations: and (which makes,
all those inward and outward, the more heavy and insupportable) that you have
wanted Christian society with the Saints of God, to whom you might make knowne
your griefes, and by whom you might receive comfort from the Lord, and
incouragement in your Christian course.
Now that which I earnestly desire
in your behalfe, and hope likewise you doe in your owne, is that you may draw
nearer to God, and be more conformable to his command by these afflictions; for
if our afflictions be not sanctified, that is, if we make not an holy use of
them by purging out old leaven of our ingenerate corruptions, they are but
judgments to us, and makes way for greater plagues: Ioh v. 14. And therefore
the chiefe ende and ayme of God in all the afflictions which he sends to his
children in love is, that they may be partakers of his holinesse, and so their
afflictions may conduce to their spiritual! advantage and profit, Heb. xii. 10.
The Lord aymes not at himselfe in any calamities he layes on us, (for God is so
infinitely all-sufficient, that we can adde nothing to him by all our doings or
sufferings) but his maine ayme is at our Melioration and Sanctification in and
by them. And therefore our duty in every affliction and pressure, is thus to
thinke with our selves: How shall we carry and behave our selves under this
crosse, that our soules may reap profit by it? This (in one word) is done by
our returning and drawing nearer to the Lord, as his holy Apostle exhorts us,
Iames iv. 8. This in all calamities the Lord hath speciall eye unto, and is
exceeding wroth if he finde it not.
The Prophet declares That his anger
was not turned from Israel, because they turned not to him that smote them,
Isa. i. 4, 5. Now it is impossible that a man should draw nigh to God, and
turne to him, if he turne not from his evil wayes: for in every conversion
there is Terminus a quo, something to be turned from, as well as
Terminus ad quod, something to be turned to.
Now, that we must turn
to, is God; and that we must turne from, is sinne; as being diametrally
opposite to God, and that which separated betweene God and us.
To this
purpose we must search and try our hearts and wayes, and see what sinnes there
be that keepe us from God, and separate us from his gracious favour: and
chiefly we must weed out our special bosom-sine. This the ancient Church of God
counsels each other to doe in the time of their anguish and affliction, Lam.
iii. 89, 40, Let us search and try our wayes, and turne againe to the
Lord: for though sinne make not a final divorce betwixt God and his chosen
people, yet it may make a dangerous rupture by taking away sense of comfort,
and suspending the sweet inference of his favour, and the effectual operation
of his grace.
And therefore (deare Sir) my earnest suit and desire is, that
you would diligently peruse the booke of your conscience, enter into a thorow
search and examination of your heart and life; and every day before you go to
bed, take a time of recollection and meditation, (as holy Isaac did have
private walkes, Gen. xxiv. 68), holding a privy Session in your soule, and
indicting your selfe for all the sins, in thought, word, or act committed, and
all the good duties you have omitted. This self-examination, if it be strict
and rigid as it ought to be, will soone shew you the sins whereto you are most
inclinable (the chiefe cause of all your sorrowes), and consequently, it will
(by God’s assistance) effectually instruct you to fly from those venomous
and fiery serpents, which have so stung you.
And though you have (as you
say) committed many grievous sinnes, as abusing God’s gracious ordinances,
and neglecting the golden opportunities of grace: the originall, as you
conceive of all your troubles; yet I must tell you, there is another
Coloquintida in the pot, another grand enormity (though you perceive it
not) and that is you separation from God's Saints and Servants in the Acts of
his publike Service and worship. This you may clearly discern by the affliction
it selfe, for God is methodical in his corrections, and doth (many times) so
suite the crosse to the sinne, that you may reade the sin in the crosse. You
confesse that your maine affliction, and that which made the other more bitter,
is, that God tooke away those to whom you might make your complaint; and from
whom you might receive comfort in your distresse. And is not this just with
God, that when you wilfully separate your selfe from others, he should separate
others from you? Certainly, when we undervalue mercy, especially so great a one
as the communion of Saints is, commonly the Lord takes it away from us, till we
learne to prize it to the full value. Consider well therefore the haynousnesse
of this sin, which that you may the better conceive, First, consider it is
against God's expresse Precept, charging us not to forsake the assemblies of
the Saints, Heb. x. 20, 25. Again, it is against our own greatest good and
spirituall solace, for by discommunicating & excommunicating our selves
from that blessed society, we deprive our selves of the benefit of their holy
conference, their godly instructions, their divine consolations, brotherly
admonitions, and charitable reprehensions; and what an inestimable boon is
this? Neither can we partake such profit by their prayers as otherwise we
might: for as the some in the naturall body conveyes life and strength to every
member, as they are compacted and joyned together, and not as dis-severed; so
Christ conveyes spiritual life and rigour to Christians, not as they are
disjoyned from, but as they are united to the mysticall body, the Church.
But you will say England is not a true Church, and therefore you separate ;
adhere to the true Church.
I answer, our Church is easily proved to be a
true Church of Christ: First, because it hath all the essentialls, necessary to
the constitution of a true Church; as sound preaching of the Gospel, right
dispensation of the Sacraments, Prayer religiously performed, and evil! persons
justly punisht (though not in that measure as some criminals and malefaetors
deserve:) and therefore a true Church.
2. Because it hath begot many
spiritual children to the Lord, which for soundnesse of judgemcnt, and
holinesse of life, are not inferiour to any in other Reformed Churches. Yea,
many of the Separation, if ever they were converted, it was here with us:
(which a false and adulterous Church communicated.)
But I heare you reply,
our Church is corrupted with Ceremonies, and pestered with prophane persons.
What then? must we therefore separate for Ceremonies, which many think may be
lawfully used. But admit they be evils, must we make a rent in the Church for
Ceremonious Rites, for circumstantial evils? That were a remedy worse than the
disease. Besides, had not all the true Churches of Christ their blemishes and
deformities, as you may see in seven Asian Churches? Rev. ii. and iii. And
though you may finde some Churches beyond Sea free from Ceremonies, yet
notwithstanding they are more corrupt in Preachers, (which is the maine) as in
prophanation of the Lord’s day, &c.
As for wicked and prophane
Persons amongst us, though we are to labour by all good meanes to purge them
out, yet are we not to separate because of this residence with us : for, there
will bee a miscellany and mixture in the visible Church, as long as the world
endures, as our Saviour shewes by many parables: Matth. xiii. If therefore we
should be so overjust as to abandon all Churches for the intermixture of wicked
Persons, we must salle to the Antipodes, or rather goe out of the world, as the
Apostle speaks: so it is agreed by all that Noah's Arke was a type and embleme
of the Church. Now as it had been no lesse then selfe-murder for Noah, Sem, or
Iaphet to have leapt out of the Arke, because of that ungracious Gains company;
so it is no better then soule-murder for a man to cast himself out of the
Church, either for reall or imaginall corruptions. To conclude, as the Angell
injoyned Hagar to returne, and submit to her Mistris Sarah, so let me admonish
you to returne your selfe from these extravagant courses, and submissively to
render your self to the sacred communion of this truly Evangelicall Church of
England.
I beseech you therefore, as you respect Gods glory and your owne
eternall salvation, as There is but one body and one spirit, one Lord, one
Baptisme, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in
us all; so endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, Eph.
iv., as the Apostle sweetly invites you. So shall the peace of God ever
establish you, and the God of peace ever preserve you; which is the prayer
of
Your rernembrancer at the Throne of Grace
R. SIBS.
The
preceding ‘Letter,’ the more valuable because of the paucity of such
memorials of Sibbes, was in all likelihood ad.. dressed to Thomas Goodwin,
D.D., who has been designated the Atlas and patriarch of Independency.
Francis White, Bishop of Ely, within whose jurisdiction the Church of Trinity,
Cambridge, lay, being one of the ultra-zealous adherents of Laud, had put every
obstacle possible in the way of Goodwin’s acceptance, and subsequently of
his installation; but he was ultimately installed as vicar, having passed from
the curacy of St Andrew’s, Cambridge, thereto. On the succession of Laud
to the primacy, his special charge to his bishops was to watch over the
lecturers, and ‘watch over’ had a terrible significance. White
harassed all within his diocese who sought to preach evangelically. He renewed
his attacks upon Goodwin. The result was, that, dissatisfied with the
restrictions imposed upon preaching that truth which, from the time of
Sibbes’s barbed words to him, he had found to be the very life of his own
soul, he resigned at once his vicarage, lectureship of Trinity, and fellowship
of Catharine Hall, and removed, as would appear, to London, where he began to
propagate his new views and conclusions in regard to church government. He
shrank not from the name, then of evil omen, of ‘Separatist.’ The
whole circumstances of the case, their previous friendship, their mutual
sentiments, warrant, I apprehend, the supposition that this grave, loving,
skilful, and admirable letter was addressed to Thomas Goodwin. If so, it was
unsuccessfu] in winning him back to ‘the church.’ Methinks Sibbes
would have acted more faithfully as well as more consistently, had he followed
the example of his friends, Goodwin, John Cotton, John Davenport, Thomas
Hooker, Samuel Stone, and their compeers. The spirit that pervades his letter
is worthier than his arguments. It seems difficult to see how Goodwin could
have remained within the pale of the church, gagged and hindered as he was in
what was to him momentous beyond all earthly estimate; and it was equally
impossible to give ‘assent and consent’ to what those in authority
pronounced to be the ‘beauty of holiness,’ and teaching of the Book
of Common Prayer.
Sibbes allowed of neither. By the powerful influence of
his many friends, while certainly, as we have seen, summoned before Star
Chamber and High Commission, he held on in his way of preaching the same gospel
everywhere. That explains his remaining within the church. Who doubts for a
moment, that, if his mouth had been shut, as was Goodwin’s, on the
‘one thing,’ Sibbes would have placed himself beside his friend?
Perhaps there would have been more of lingering effort to get above the
difficulties, more pain in sundering of the ties that bound him to the church,
more sway given to heart than head. Still the final decision, beyond all
debate, would have been that of the ‘two thousand’ of 1662. The more
shame to those who compelled such loyal lovers of ‘the church’ to
leave her.
From "Works of Richard Sibbes" Volume One.
Pub. James Nichol, Edinburgh 1862