Why ‘The Sweet Dropper’?
We’ve affectionately named our blog after the Puritan preacher, Richard Sibbes. He served as lecturer at Trinity Church, Cambridge, from 1610-1615, preacher at Gray’s Inn, London, from 1616-1635, and Master of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, 1625-35. Sibbes’ contemporaries referred to him to as the “Heavenly” Dr. Sibbes and “the sweet dropper” because he had such a sweet way of presenting the confidence, richness, depth and encouragement of the gospel.
Izzak Walton said of this prince of Puritan preachers: “of this blest man, let this just praise be given: Heaven was in him before he was in heaven.” Another wrote “No man that ever I was acquainted withal got so far into my heart or lay so close therein.” Sibbes was a practical preacher, a true Doctor of Souls, and multitudes gathered to hear him open the Word of Life. His most familiar works, The Soul’s Conflict and The Bruised Reed, were instrumental in the salvation and sanctification of many, including Puritan leaders such as John Cotton and Richard Baxter.
It is our humble hope that some sense of that sweet gospel savor that emanated from Richard Sibbes would be found on these pages.
