The Tender Heart: Pocket Puritans Series (Richard Sibbes)

The Tender Heart

The Heart’s Affection and Desires

In the Pocket Puritans Series

Richard Sibbes always sought to get under the superficial layer of his listeners’ behavior and deal with their hearts, affections, and desires. In The Tender Heart, he explains that those who are tender-hearted do not simply desire salvation; they desire the Lord of salvation Himself. Only when a person is brought to love the Lord with heart-felt sincerity will they begin to hate their sin truly instead of merely dreading the thought of God’s punishment of it.

About the Author

Richard Sibbes was born at Tostock, Suffolk, in 1577 and went to school in Bury St Edmunds. His father, ‘a good sound-hearted Christian’, at first intended that Richard should follow his own trade as a wheelwright, but the boy’s ‘strong inclination to his books, and well-profiting therein’ led to his going up to St John’s College, Cambridge in 1595. He was converted around 1602-3 through the powerful ministry of Paul Bayne, the successor of William Perkins in the pulpit of Great St Andrew’s Church.

After earning his B.D. in 1610, Sibbes was appointed a lecturer at Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge. Later, through the influence of friends, he was chosen to be the preacher at Gray’s Inn, London, and he remained there until 1626. In that year he returned to Cambridge as Master of St Catherine’s Hall, and later returned to Holy Trinity, this time as its vicar. He was granted a Doctorate in Divinity in 1627, and was thereafter frequently referred to as ‘the heavenly Doctor Sibbes’. He continued his ministry at Gray’s Inn, London, and Holy Trinity, Cambridge, until his death in 1635 at the age of 58.

Other Works of Sibbes

The Works of Richard Sibbes can be found in seven volumes, and he has also written numerous volumes which have been published in the Puritan Paperbacks and Pocket Puritans series. Among these are A Bruised Reed, Glorious Freedom, Christ is Best, Josiah’s Reformation, The Love of Christ, A Heavenly Conference Between Christ and Mary, The Love of Christ, and more.