Sibbs, Richard

, a learned puritan divine, whose works are still in reputation, was born at Sudbury in Suffolk, in 1577, and educated at St. John’s college, Cambridge, where he took his degrees with great applause, and obtained a fellowship. The foundation of that character for humility and piety which he enjoyed throughout life, appears to have been laid while at college. After taking orders he was chosen lecturer of Trinity church, Cambridge, and held the living of that church during the last two years of his life. The reputation he acquired here procured him an invitation from the learned society of Gray’s-inn, and in 1618 he became their preacher, and had for his audience not only the gentlemen of the robe, but many noblemen and persons of rank. In 1625, he was chosen master of Katherine-hall, Cambridge, which, although a puritan, he was permitted to retain till his death, with very little molestation. He found that society, says Granger, in a very declining state, but it soon began to flourish under his care, and he was a great benefactor to it. He died July 5, 1635, aged fifty-seven. His works, which are numerous, have lately been reprinted in a new edition, 3 vols. 8vo. They are chiefly sermons and pious treatises. One of the most popular, entitled “The bruised reed,” of which there have been many editions, was that to which Baxter tells us he in a great measure owed his conversion. This circumstance alone, says Granger, would have rendered Sibbs’s name memorable. As a commentator, his principal work is his “Commentary on the first chapter of the second epistle to the Corinthians,”" 1655, fol. ²

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