"Richard Sibbes: Puritianism and Calvinism in Late Elizabethan and Early Stuart England" by Mark Dever
Texas politician Jim Hightower famously dismissed moderates with the crack that "the only things in the middle of the road are yellow stripes and dead armadillos." Texas highways notwith-standing, the English Puritan Richard Sibbes was a moderate in every best sense of the word. Sibbes's moderation enabled him to pursue a fruitful gospel ministry amidst the tempests embroiling seventeenth-century England. "Moderation" should only be applied to Sibbes with caution, however. While he resisted entreaties from his more radical nonconformist friends to leave the declining Church of England, Sibbes's devotion to Christ, the Church, and reformed orthodoxy knew no tempering. Rather, his irenic spirit and wise perceptions shielded him from some of the violent ecclesial and political divisions of the day, and he preached to glorify God and edify his people both then and now.
If you have a current subscription or current on-line account please log-in here to read the rest of this article.
William Inboden is a special advisor in the Office of International Religious Freedom.
Issue: "Growing in Grace: A Defense of Piety" July/August 2002 Vol. 11 No. 4 Page number(s): 46-47
You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you do not make more than 500 physical copies. We do not allow reposting an article in its entirety on the Internet. We request that you link to this article from your website. Any exceptions to the above must be explicitly approved by Modern Reformation (webmaster@modernreformation.org).
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: This article originally appeared in the [insert current issue date] edition of Modern Reformation and is reprinted with permission. For more information about Modern Reformation, visit www.modernreformation.org or call (800) 890-7556. All rights reserved.