Beautiful spirit ! fallen, alas, On times when little beauty was ; Still seeking peace amid the strife, Still working, weary of thy life. Toiling in holy love. Panting for heaven above :
I mark thee, in an evil day. Alone upon a lonely way ; More sad-companionless thy fate, Thy heart more truly desolate.
Til an even the misty glen
Of persecuted men.
For none so lone on earth as he Whose way of thought is high and free Beyond the mist, beyond the cloud. Beyond the clamour of the crowd. Moving, where Jesus trod, In the lone walk with God.
We have here the very man before us, and the very books he loved, and the very age he ' fell on,' and from which he was ' taken away.' Looking at the portrait, over and over engraved for the early quartos and duodecimos, and his one folio, Richard Sibbes must have been a man of larger mould, of more massive head, ampler brain-chamber, keener vision than Robert Leighton.* As
* Russell, in his 'Memorials of Fuller' (1844), and Mr Mayor, in his prefatory remarks to Catlin's MS., from the Baker MSS., have anticipated the comparison of Sibbes with Leighton. Tlio former says — ' Dr Richard Sibbes ... a writer sur- passed by none in that purity and depth of true spirituality, which also characterised
MEMOIR OF RICHARD SIBBES, D.D. CXXVll
one studies the ruff-girted ' Master '-capped face, a more robust soul looks out from the benignant eyes. The seamed and lined forehead tells of deeper thinking, not without storms of doubt and wrestling (that always so leave their mark, like the waves on the sea-shore sands, as though the soul's mystic sea beat there). But the ' inner men,' in their spiritual-mindedness, unworldliness, meek- ness, humility, peacefulness, surely very closely resemble one an- other.
But now the stage darkens for ' the end,'
* Like a cave's shadow enter'd at mid-day.' *
He has to preach but other two ' sermons,' and then go forth on the last great journey. With strange fitness he chooses for his texts, John xiv. 1, 2, ' Let not your heart be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told you.' These two sermons will appear in an early volume.
CHAPTER XII.
* THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH.'
Last Illness — Finishes ' The Soul's Conflict ' — Draws up his ' Will ' — 'Falls on Sleep.'
Having preached the last of these two ' sermons,' he ' fell sick that very night, June 28,' with some un-named illness. Feeling that he was indeed dying, he, on ' July 1,' put the finishing touches to his ' Address to the Christian Reader,' for the * Soul's Conflict,' which had been passing through the press during his absence at Cambridge. Glancing over the proof-sheets, he detected certain passages which he found misunderstood, and noticed them ; but apparently was too weak to do more. On the 4th, he ' set his house in order,' by revising and altering his ' last will and testament.' He had many friends, gentle and simple, and it is with no com- mon satisfaction that it is in our power to present this closing me- morial : — t
Leighton in a succeeding ago,' p. 8L The latter — 'When we consider the beauty of Sibbes' language, and the gentleness of his temper, in both which respects ho almost deserves the name of the Puritan Leighton, we cannot but wonder at the general neglect which has obscured his memory,' p. 253.
* 'Aden :' Poems. By Mrs Clive. 1856. P. 39.
t Extracted from the Principal Registry of Her Majesty's Court of Probate, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
CXXVIU TiTEMOIR OF BICHAED SIBBES, D.D.
' In the name of God, amen, I, Richard Sibbs, Doctor of Divinity, weake in body, but of p'fect memory, doe make and ordaine this my last will and testament, in manner and forme foUoweing : First, I comend and be- queath my soule into the hands of my gratious Saviour, whoa hath redeemed it w*'' his most pretious blood, and appeares now in heaven to receave it, with humble thankes that he hath vouchsafed I should be home and live in the best tymes of the gospell, and have my interest in the comforte of it ; as alsoe, that he hath vouchsafed me the honour of being a publisher thereof w**" some measure of faythfuUnes. My body I would have to be buried at the discretion of my executors. And as for that outward estate that God, in his rich goodnes, hath blessed me w*^all, my minde and will is as foUoweth : First, I give and bequeath unto my brother Thomas Sibbs of Thurston, in the countie of Suffolk,* all my messuages, lands, and tene- ments, with the appurtenances, lyeing and being in Thurston aforesaid, or elsewhere, for and dureing the terme of his naturall life ; and after my said brother's decease, to John Sibbs, sonne of my late brother John Sibbs, and now a student at Katherine Hall, in Cambridge, f and to his heires for ever : Item, I give unto my sister, Margaret Mason, foui'tie pounds ; and unto the children of my late sister, Susann Lopham, deceased, the some of thirty pounds, to be equally devided amongst them ; as likewise, I give unto the children of my late sister, Elizabeth King, deceased, the some of fourtie pounds, to be equally decided amongst them ; the said threescore and ten pounds, soe given to the children of my said sisters, I would have payed to the said children, severally and proporconably, at the dayes of their marriage, or when they shall accomplish their severall ages of one-and- twenty yeares, or otherwise sooner, at the discretion of my executors : Item, I give unto my uncle Sibbs, yf he be liveing, fourtie shillings ; and unto the