* PubUshed 1622, and entitled ' A Guide to Godliness ; or, a Treatise of a Chria- tian Life.' The author was John Downame or Downham, B.D., brother of George, Bishop of Derry. He died 1644.
t See references in loc. at p. cxxxvii, Appendix A
X Sibbes dedicates Culverwell's ' Time Well-spent ' to her, ante p. xciii, seq.
g See reference in loc. p. cxxxvii, Appendix A,
II Ibid. % Ibid. ** Drs Goodwin and Arrowsmith.
tt See Mr Mayor's note in loc. Appendix A,
CXXX MEMOIR OF RICHARD SIBBES, D.D.
Esquire, I doe hereby ordajiie, constitute, and appoynt to be the executors of this my last will and testament, giving unto the said Mr Godbould a peece of my owne plate, such as himself shall choose out of that plate of myne, which is now in the custody of the said James Joyner ; and I doe entreate my worthy and very loveing frends, S"" Nathaniel Rich, Sir Natha- niell Barnardiston,-'- and S" William Spring, Knighte,t to be overseers of this my will, desireing my executors, in aU things of difficulty, to be advised by them in the execution of the same ; and as a remembrance of my love to every of the said overseers of my will, I give unto each of them a ring of twentie shillings. — In wittnes whereof I have hereunto set my hand and scale, this fourth daye of July, in the eleaventh yeare of the raigne of our sov'aigne Lord Charles, by the grace of God, Idnge of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c., and in the yeare of om* Lord God 1635. Signed, sealed, and published to be the last wiU and testament of the said Richard Sibbs in the presence of us.
Probatum fuit testamentum sup''scriptum apud London coram ven^ viro magistro Willimo Merricke legum doctore : Surrogato ven^'^ viri Domini Henrici Marten militis, legum etiam doctoris, curiiB prerogativae Cantuar. magistri, custodis sive com"" legitime constituti; undecimo die mensis Julii anno Domini millesimo sexcentesimo tricesimo quinto, Juramentis Thomse Sibbs et Johannis Sibbs duorum executorum in senior J testamento nomi- iatorum : Quibus commissa fuit admiuistracio omnium et singulorum bonorum piriu (?) et creditorum dicti defuncti de bene et fideliter adminis- trando eadem ad sancta dei evangelia juratis : Reservata potestate similem commissionem faciendi Johanni Godbould Ar : alteri executor! etiam in senior | testamento nominato cum ven'it eand™ petitum.'
His will was drawn up on Saturday the 4th, and then he quietly waited his ' change.' ' Paulisper 0 senex, oculos claude, nam statim lumen Dei videbis ' (' Shut thine eyes a little, old man, and immediately thou shalt see the light of God '§).
Thus remembering his kinsmen and friends left behind, even the humblest, and looking upward, he ' walked through the valley of the shadow of death,' and went, from the Sabbath below (it was a Sabbath morning) to the Sabbath above, to ' be with the Lord.' ' Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. . . . Yea, saith THE Spirit, for they rest from their labours, and their tvorks do follow theon,' Rev. xiv. 13. He died 5th July 1035, in the 58th year of his age. An entry in the ' Register ' of St Andrew's Church, Holborn (within which parish Gray's Inn is situate), tells us he was buried there on the next day : —
* Sir Niitliauiel Barnardiston. Tlie ' Rich ' and ' Barnardiston ' families are historic in tlieir warm support of the Puritans. It were superfluous to annotate names that are found in every Puritan 'History.'
t Sir William Sprint;;, Knt. Ho was of Pakenham, near Bury St Edmunds, of the ancient family of Lavenham. See Burke's 'Extinct' Baronetcies; also ante page xxvi.
J Qu. ' superscripts ?' — Ed,
§ Sozomen, lib. ii. cap. ii. Stanford's AUeine, p. 21.
MEMOIR OF RICHARD SIBBES, D.D. CXXXI
1635. July 6. Kichard Sibbes, D.D., sometime preacher in Gray's Iim, died in his chambers at Gray's Inn, 5th.' *
1. 2.
' Servant of God ! well done ; Tranquil amid alarms,
Eest from thy loved employ ; It found him in the field,
The battle fought, the victory won, A veteran slumbering on his arms,
Enter thy Master's joy.' Beneath his red-cross shield :
— The voice at midnight came ; His sword was in his hand.
He started up to hear : Still warm with recent fight,
A mortal arrow pierced his frame. Keady that moment at command,
He fell, — but felt no fear. Through rock and steel to smite.
The pains of death are past. Labour and sorrow cease, And life's long warfare closed at last, His soul is found in peace. Soldier of Christ ! well done ; Praise be thy new employ ; And while eternal ages run Eest in thy Saviour's joy. f
I would have my readers turn to the perhaps over-garrulous, yet interesting ' reflections ' upon the death of Sibbes,J and add only a few words by Ashe, Church, and Nalton : —
* This bright star, who sometimes with his li^^ht refreshed the souls of many of God's people while he shone on the horizon of our church, set, as we say, between the evening of many shadows and the TYiorning of a bright ho^ped-for i^eforviation, which, though for the present (1654) overcast, yet being so agreeable to the mind of Jesus Christ, and ushered in with the groans and prayers of so many of his saints, we doubt not but will in God's own time break forth gloriously, to the dissipating of those clouds and fogs which at the present do eclipse and darken it.' § Even so : —