' When the quick darting lightning's flash Is the clear glitter of His golden spear.' f
• ' Sonl's Conflict.' f Cecil and Mary, by Jackson, p. 19 (1858.)
Is " MEMOIR OF RICHARD SIBBES, D.D.
CHAPTER VIII.
SIBBES AND LAUD AGAIN — ' THE IMPKOPRIATION FEOFEES.'
Tlie Preacher of Gray's Inn under surveillance — Controversy not sought by Sibbea — Loyal to Church and State — The Puritans no ' Schismatics ' — Witness-bearing — Wonder and yet no Wonder — Laud's ' Beauty of Holiness ' — ' Solemnity ' — Persecution — ' Silencing' — William Prynne — Puritan Literature — Laudian- Bishop's Literature — Sibbes against Popery — Lord Keeper Finch — The ' Im- propriation ' Scheme — Sibbes a ' Feoffee ' — Checks upon Laud — ' Overthrow ' of ' Feoffees ' — Confiscation — Banishment — Verdict upon Laud.
The Star Chamber citation, because of The Palatinate, with its result — a severe reprimand, and treatment as of ' notorious delin- quents,'— was only a slighter issue of that unsleeping and venge- ful resolution to suppress all Puritanism, which through upwards of a quarter of a century, Laud had planned. Accordingly, though defeated in the matter of the Palatinate, in so far as 'silencing' Sibbes and his compeers was concerned, they, in common with all the ' good men and true ' of the period — for really it appears that every man of note in his day, who was not his creature, was the object of his annoyance — were watched* Nor is it at all diffi- cult to understand, that such preaching as was being heard from Sunday to Sunday at ' Gray's Inn,' and down in Cambridge, and by crowds in St Mary's, when reported to him, as everything was reported — must have been superlatively offensive. We do not find Sibbes mixed up with the controversies of the day. There is in his works a noteworthy absence of those fires of intolerant passion that burn so fiercely in many of the writings and actings of his contempo- raries. Never once do we meet with him in the ante-chamber of ' the Court,' or mingling with the venal crowds that in unholy rivalry bade high and higher, or more properly low and lower, for place, seeking to cover their ' multitude of sins,' not with charity, but lawn sieves. He lived serenely apart from the miserable squabbling and personal resentments, and exacerbations of the semi-political, semi-theological polemics that agitated state and church. He was loyal, even tenderly charitable to tliose in authority ; and true to the church, if only the church would be true to him, by being true to its Head. Let us hear what he was saying about both in those days. Of the State he thus speaks : — ' Sometimes it falleth out that those that are under the government of others are most
* ' Watched.* Scattered up and down Sibbes's writings are various indications of his knowledge of this espionage, e. g., ' So in coming to hear the word of God, some come to observe the elegancy of words and phrases, some to catch advantage, perhaj^s, against the speaker, men of a devilish temper.' — (' Bowels Ojjened,' pp. 130-31.)
MEMOIR OF RICHARD SIBBES, D.D. ki
injurious, by waywardness and harsh censures, herein disparaging and discouraging the endeavours of superiors for public good. In so great weakness of man's nature, and especially in this crazy age of the world, we ought to take in good ijart any moderate liap- piness we enjoy by government ; and not be altogether as a nail in the wound, exasperating things by misconstruction. ZTere love should have a mantle to cast upon the lesser errors of those above us. Oftentimes the poor man is the oppressor by unjust clamours. We should labour to give the best interpretation to the actions of governor's that the nature of the actions will possibly bear.' * Simi- lar sentiments abound. Of the Church we have many wise and considerate words. He had no wish for separation : none of the Puritans had, until they were driven to it. So far from seeking to divide 'the church' and injure it — the refrain of many an accusation — Sibbes has sarcasms that perhaps might have been spared, against those who even then felt they could not remain within her pale. ' Fractions,' he says, with an approach to un- kindness very unusual with him, ' always breed factions.' He could not mean it ; but this was capable of being turned by Laud to his own account. He was quick as a sleuth-hound to discern taint of treason. But we have more full and explicit state- ments. Thus with more than ordinary vehemence he expostulates, accuses : — ' What a joyful spectacle is this to Satan and his faction, to see those that are separated from the world fall in pieces among themselves ! Our discord is our enemy's melody. The more to blame those that for private aims affect differences from others, and will not suffer the wounds of the church to close and meet together.'f
Was this man, so truly a man of peace, one to track and keep under surveillance, as though he had been at once traitor and fanatic ? Whence came it ? The answer is too easy. Though ' slow to speak,' and sweet-natured to a fault, he was fearless when the occasion demanded it.+ Even immediately on saying the above,