% This account has been printed in Brook's 'Lives of the Puritans,' vol. iL pp. 428, 429.— M.
Cxl APPENDIX TO MEMOIK.
foot in England, nor any Ciuil wars, amongst ourselves, do now forsee euil daies a comming. But I shal go to the grave in Peace. Blessed be that God, whom I have served, who hath accepted my weake service, and wil be mine exceeding great reward. And within a few houres, he departed this Life, and lies Buried in the Chauncell of the Parish Church at Bar- ham, Doctour Young of Stow Market,* preaching at his Funeral : and as he Blessed God (with D"- Sibs) yt he had lived in the best Times of the Gospel, so there was no great difference in the Time of their death. And shortly after the death of these men were those sparkles of discontent kindled between the Scots and us, w'^'' were the sad Prasludia, or beginnings of this late Universal Conflagration. The Iving went against aga/ns^ ^^ye the Scots, as far as York, in March 1638 : and the Scots were Scots. March proclaimed Traitours in the Churches of England, in April following, and though this Proclamation were revoked, yet who knows not, what Tragical events have follow'd in al the 3 Kingdoms, to this very day,f to the astonishment of Heaven and Earth. This is ye very observation of Reverend Beza in his 70th Epistle : That as often as God kindleth and setteth vp these Lights (men of singular graces and special use in ye church) so often he testifies his good wil to y°'^ Times and Places in a certen special and peculiar manner. But when he extinguishes these Lights and puts them out, it must be accounted as an evident testimony of his sore Displeasure. For (saith he) it is apparant in al Histories that when greivous Tempests are comming upon a People, The Lord is wont to withdraw his especial servants into the Haven beforehand, w'''' agrees with y* of ye Prophet Isay 2. 2, 3, 5. Behold ye Lord wil take away out of Judah and Jerusalem ye Judges and ye Prophets ; the Wise man and ye Councellour and ye Honourable : and the People shal bee oppressed one of another etc. And no marvel, for such men are the TO xan^oc . . . meanes as a shield to keep off the wi-ath of God from
Gen. 7. 16. the Places where they live. The Lord with held the Flood
11- 13- of Avaters from ye old world, til Noah was safely shut up in the
Ark, and the very selfe same day (saith the Text) were the Fountaines of
the Deep broken up and the windowes of Heaven opened. The
Gen. 13. 22. Angel told Lot he could do nothing against wicked Sodom, till
2Ciiion.34. he was got out of that place. The Lord held off the king of
, an o . ]3,.i|)iion from beseiging Jerusalem til good Josia was at rest.
Josephus. And ere the Roman Army sate down before it, the Lord by a Miracle warned the Chiistian Jewes to remove from thence to
Augustine. Pella. Again, no sooner was that worthy Bishop of Hippo St Augustin deceased, but the Citty was taken and sacked by the Goths
M Luther. ^^^^ Vaudals. No sooner was Martin Luther translated to a
better Life, but the Smalcaldick warre brake out w*'' wasted
almost al the Protestants in Germany. No sooner was that
. areus. -wrorthy man, aged Pareus taken from Heydelberg, but presently
Marques Spinola with his Ai-my entered the Town. And no sooner had
the Lord taken awaj' these worthy Divines, but presently the Fire of war
Pal 11 3 ^^^^ confusion (a iust punishment for our great and ciying
sins) brake out upon these 3 nations. For if the Foundations
(of Religion and Government) be cast down and destroy'd, what can the
Righteous do. The voice of wise men is not heard in the cry of Fooles :
The counsel of moderate and unbiased men is not regarded in such a
* Tlio celebrated Scottish tutor and friend of John Milton.
t From 'very day,' ou to 'The Lord in Mercy,' not in M.-B. — G.
APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. CxK
Tempest of clamour, violence, and confusion. Sucli men would liave been slighted and lay'd aside in such Times as these. The Lord therefore hath put them into then- safe harbour and Haven of Rest, while wee that sm-vive are tossed to and fro upon the turbulent Eurypus of Anabaptistical, An- archical, Fanatical, and Atheistical ban-etings and Vittlitigations.*
The Lord in Mercy vouchsafe to stil the Raging of the waters, pa. 65. 7. and the madnes of (that many headded monster*) the People, isay. 39. 8. that once more his faithful Servants in these 3 Nations, may Matt: 8. 25. enjoy a blessed calm. That there may yet once again, be Peace and Truth in our Dales. Lord save us, or we perish.
Compiled and attested, by Zachary Catlin, Minister of Thurston, Nov. 1. 1652 : Anno fetatis 69 : currente.
(I have presented Catlin's MS. to ' University Library,' Cambridge).
B, pages xxix and cxxxi.— SIBBES'S FAMILY AND NAME.
The Will of Sibbes {ante p. cxxviii, seq.), enumerates various relatives deceased and alive. His father had died before 1608, and his mother, Catlin informs us, also predeceased him. Dr Sibbes himself never married, perhaps through the ' order ' of Gray's Inn, that forbad its ' preacher ' to marry. The name seems to have utterly died out, not in Sufiblk merely, but everywhere. While all the other Puritans of this Series are living names, I have failed to trace any Sibbes beyond 1737. No doubt the blood has been transmitted in the issue of the several sisters named in the ' Will.'