Ficha Técnica

James Sibbald was a son of the laird of Keir in the Mearns of Angus,216born about 1590. The exact date of his birth is not known, but is ‘inferred from his being on ordination trials with the Presbytery of Deer, 28, Oct. 1613’.217He was educated at Marischal College, graduating in 1619, when he was made a regent and praelector in Philosophy, a post he held until he was admitted to his first charge as minister of St. Nicholas’ Church in Aberdeen in 1626. He received the degree of B.D. from

Marischal College in 1630, and the degree of D.D. from both King’s and Marischal Colleges by 1637. Sibbald remained at St. Nicholas until his deposition in 1640 for Arminianism; he was accused by Samuel Rutherford.218He journeyed to Dublin,

214

Forbes, Willaim, op. cit., pp. 557—559.

215_{Ibid., p. 150.}

216_{Gordon, James,History of Scots Affairs 1637-1641, vol. III, Aberdeen: The Spalding Club, 1851, p.}

230.

217

Dictionary of National Biography, ‘Sibbald, James’, p. 178.

218_{Spalding, John,Memorialls of the Trubles in England and Scotland, AD 1641—AD 1645, vol. I,}

where he held a post in the Church of Ireland until his death in about 1650 from the plague, as a result of ministering to stricken parishioners. His widow and children received a pension from the Scottish Parliament at the Restoration.219

James Gordon, the Parson of Rothiemay, in hisHistory of Scot’s Affairs, 1637-1641, a contemporary account of those turbulent times, makes a sympathetic comment on Sibbald’s character, ‘It will not be affirmed by his very enemyes, but that Dr. James Sibbald was ane eloquent and painefull preacher, a man godly, and grave, and modest, not tainted with any vice unbecoming a minister, to whom nothing could in reason be objected, if you call his antecovenanting a cryme’.220

Donald Allchin observes that, ‘[Sibbald] seems to have been particularly closely linked with William Forbes. It was one of the charges against him at the time of his ejection from office in 1639’.221William Forbes, was made Principal of Marischal College in 1618,222hence the two men worked together from 1619 to 1621, when William Forbes departed to be a minister in Edinburgh, and they ministered together at St. Nicholas’ from 1626, when both men were appointed to serve there, until 1633, when William Forbes was appointed to be the first Bishop of Edinburgh. Eight years of working together is substantial ground for their alleged theological closeness. At the time of the trials of the surviving Aberdeen Doctors, a search was made for copies of William Forbes’ writings; James Gordon says that manuscripts of Bishop Forbes’ works were in the possession of James Sibbald, both theConsiderationesand other writings, now lost.223

That Sibbald deeply admired William Forbes is evinced by the little eulogy which he gives Bishop William Forbes as an aside, in the context of the unstinting praise he gives to Bishop Patrick Forbes in his funeral sermon upon the death of the latter. The conclusion of the lengthy funeral sermon is the enumeration of ten virtues possessed by Patrick Forbes; at number eight, which considers the bishop’s ability to put good and learned pastors into the churches of his diocese, Sibbald says, ‘…The lyke care

219_{Dictionary of National Biography, ‘Sibbald, James’, p. 178.} 220_{Gordon, James, op. cit., p. 230.}

221

Allchin, A. M.,The Dynamic of Tradition, Darton, London: Longman and Todd, 1981, p. 66.

222_{Spalding, John, op. cit., vol. I, appendix III, pp. 417—418.} 223_{Gordon, James, op. cit., p. 230, footnote 2.}

had hee to plant good and worthie pastors for the present tyme, and such was the successe of his care that never anie of the worthie Prelates that went before him had such a learned clergie. Yea, whyle this Diocesse enjoyed him, and that other worthie Prelate of blessed memorie, for singular piety and excellent and incomparable (I mean the late Bishop of Edinburgh, not long since your worthie pastor), it needed not to have envied anie part of this kingdom’.224

Sibbald’s surviving works are few: his doctoral dissertation, a slim volume of sermons published posthumously in 1658, by those who heard them preached in Aberdeen in the 1620s and 30s, and his funeral sermon for Bishop Patrick Forbes (one of a number that was preached in Aberdeen in the days succeeding the Bishops’death) preached at St. Nicholas’ Church on the 16thof April, 1635, collected in the volume of funeral sermons, orations, and verses that was published in memory of the bishop. It is from these works that any of Sibbald’s thoughts on eucharistic doctrine are to be gleaned. Sibbald must have been an impressive and memorable preacher, indeed ‘eloquent and painefull’ as James Gordon described him, to have had what sermons could be

gathered, published eight years after his death, in fond memory by those who had sat as his hearers so many years before. John Forbes of Corse writes warmly of Sibbald’s preaching in his spiritual dairy, ‘Upon the 26thday of Aprile, 1640, Dr. Ja. Sibbald preached in New Aberdeen upon Esa 55, 1, 2.—Ho everyone that thirsteth, etc.— upon which text he discoursed very comfortably concerning the Holy

Communion…’.225

The passages in the three of Sibbald’s sermons which will be examined are those which refer to the Eucharist in order to expose what can be determined of his

eucharistic theology. These are not doctrinal treatises but parochial sermons, and they alone give what is recoverable from his extant works, but it will be seen that they situate his theology in the context of the Eucharist as the Representative and

Commemorative Sacrifice as held by his fellows William Forbes and John Forbes of Corse.

224_{Sibbald, James,The Funeral Sermons, Orations, Epitaphs, and other pieces on the death of the}

Right Reverend Patrick Forbes, Bishop of Aberdeen. From the original edition of 1635, Charles Farquhar Shand, Advocate, ed., Edinburgh: The Spottiswoode Society, 1845, p. 165.

Sermon I. ‘Holinesse to the Lord’.

Holinesse to the Lord, or A Sermon (Upon the 36thVerse of the 28thChapter of Exodus) in Commemoration of the most worthie and Reverend Praelate of Blessed Memorie, Patrick, Bishop of Aberdene. Preached by James Sibbald, Doctor of Divinitie, and Minister of Sainct Nicola’s Church of Aberdene, April, 16, 1635.)

The eucharistic references appear toward the end of this sermon. Sibbald, after an exhaustive exegesis of the text, enumerates ten virtues that characterised the bishop’s life and ministry in his diocese. The final point of his exegesis of Exodus 28: 36, of the nature of holiness, immediately before he begins his ten virtues of the bishop, is the holiness of Pastors. Sibbald writes, ‘Though all God’s people should “worship him in the beauty of holiness” yet more especially, they who serve him at the Lord’s Altar’.226Writing in such a manner implies much about the attitudes of the author toward the Eucharist and the to the ministry of the celebrant at the Eucharist, ‘Their office requyreth a particular sanctification inward, by the grace of God’s Spirit, working an ardent and fervent desire for the hallowing of the NAMEof God; giving power and skill to dispense the means of Holinesse, and moving them to goe before others in a life exemplarilie holie: outward by the authoritie of the Church, separating and consecrating them with prayers, supplications, and imposition of handes, to the sacred office, to be fellow workers with God, and His instrumentes, in sanctifying and saving men’.227The holy nature of the Eucharist, as an approach to God, requires a greater holiness in the person of the officiant than would be expected of the ordinary Christian.

Sibbald then turns to Chrysostom, to find authority for his comments on the exhalted state of the ordained ministry, for both Presbyter and Bishop, ‘Exceeding great

Holinesse is requyred of the High Priest, whether we consider him in reference to God or Man’.228“Priesthood, is performed on earth; but yet it is to be counted in the ranke of heavenlie thinges. And therefore a priest must bee so pure, as if in heaven itself hee were walking amongst heavenlie powers….Terrible were those thinges which

praeceeded the time of grace, as bells, pomegranates…&c. Yet, if we compare them with the things that are under the time of grace, we will finde them to be very light;

226

Sibbald, James, op. cit., p.158.

227_{Ibid., p. 158.} 228_{Ibid., p. 159.}

and that true which Saynct Paul sayeth, 2 Cor. iii.229For whyle thou beholdest the Lord sacrificed, the priest performing that sacrifice and the powring out of prayers, and the people dyed, as it were, and made red with that precious blood, thinkest thou that thou art yet among mortall men, and on the earth?…”. Sibbald continues, ‘And Lib. 6, [4.], “I demand, where shall wee ranke him? What integritie shall we require of him? What religion? How innocent shall those hands be that serve? How pure the tongue that uttereth those words? What thing should be so pure and cleane as the soul that receiveth so wothie a Spirit? At that tyme, the angels stand beside, and the whole order of heavenlie powers doo shout”.230

Sibbald continues the theme of the holiness required by pastors with a quotation from Nazianzen, Oration 1,231similar to the latter quotation from Chrysostom, ‘that is to stand with the angels and to praise with the archangels, and send sacrifice to the altar that is above, and to discharge Priesthood with Christ, and to restore the frame of mankynde, and to renew his image, and to be an architect for that superior worlde;

and to say more,Θεον εσόμενον και Θεοποιήσοντα, who becommeth himselfe God

and maketh others such?….A man sould greatly purge his mynde, and approach beyond others to God before hee take care of souls, and to mediate betwixt God and man, which is the duetie of a priest before hee presume to offer that great sacrifice’.232 If this passage quoted by Sibbald reflects his views, he would seem to have the not only an exalted view for the ordained ministry, but of the nature of the Eucharist as the action of the Church where the things of heaven and earth meet, and the things of earth are transformed. To participate in the Lord’s Supper is to be raised to the heavenly places, and that receiving Holy Communion is a true participation in Christ by the Holy Spirit, who is at work transforming the faithful communicant into the likeness of Christ.

Focusing on the necessity of personal holiness in the ordained ministry, and to demonstrate the holiness of the character of the late bishop, Sibbald says, ‘Exceeding

229_{Here in Sibbald’s text he uses the citation of Chrysostom’s reference to 2 Cor. 3:10, rather than}

quoting the passage in the text, as is seen in Chrysostom’sOn the Priesthood, Book III.,Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. X, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, / Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1989, p. 46.

230_{Sibbald, op. cit., p. 159.}

231_{The footnote to the citation in the text of Sibbald’s sermon reads, ‘ Nazianz. Orat. 1’. The quotation}

of Nazianzen in Sibbald’s text is not in Nazianzen’s Oration 1 in vol. VII of theNicene and Ante- Nicene Fathers.

great Holinesse is required of the High Priest… “Priesthood,” sayeth Chrysostome…, “is performed on earth; but yet it to be counted in the rank of heavenlie things.”’ However Sibbald quotes Chrysostom not only with respect to the personal holiness required of presbyters and bishops, but also regarding the officiant at the Eucharist, ‘thou beholdest the Lord sacrificed, the priest performing that sacrifice’. Sibbald mentions the term ‘sacrifice’ in relationship to the Eucharist with out any

modification. A comment on Chrysostom by William Forbes was that he frequently mentioned the eucharistic sacrifice, then always corrected himself, saying that it is the memorial of that sacrifice. Chrysostom, speaking of the Eucharist says, ‘This is the commemoration of that, and the very self of it. That we also now offer which was then offered, which is not be consumed. This is done in commemoration of that which was done then. For he said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Not another sacrifice after the manner of the High Priest of old, but the same we make always. Or rather we celebrate the commemoration of the sacrifice’.233Sibbald seems to have been

sufficiently well aware of this, and it seems to have been understood. It is also very telling of the theological atmosphere in Aberdeen, that Sibbald, preaching on one of a number of public occasions following Bishop Patrick Forbes’ death, felt no need to modify Chrysostom’s statement. As the passage stands it is reasonable to conclude that Chrysostom’s view reflects Sibbald’s own, that the Eucharist is the offering of bread and wine as the memorial in which Christ’s death is offered to the Father. Sibbald quotes two passages which speak of angelic presence at the Eucharist, the first from Chrysostom, ‘At that tyme, the angels stand beside, and the whole order of heavenlie powers doo shout’, and the second from Nazianzen, ‘that is to stand with the angels and to praise with the arch-angels, and send sacrifice to the altar that is above, and to discharge Priesthood with Christ…’ Sibbald uses these quotations not only to underscore the necessity for personal holiness in the ordained ministry, but also to state the idea that the Eucharist is an event that is not earth-bound, but has heavenly significance. These passages suggest an interchange between heaven and earth at the Eucharist. The angels and archangels attend our earthly celebration, and the priest ‘send[s] sacrifice’ that is our memorial of the death of Christ, ‘to the altar that is above’, indicate that there is a correspondence between the earthly altar and the

233_{Chrysostom, John,On the Epistle to the Hebrews,Sermon XVII, 6.,Nicene and Post Nicene}

heavenly altar, and the ministry of the presbyter who offers the memorial, and Christ who pleads his one propitiatory sacrifice for his people. It is the very dynamic of the Eucharist suggested by both John Forbes of Corse and William Forbes. The presbyter, on behalf of the Church makes the commemoration and representation of the cross in the offering of bread and wine; the offering is united with Christ’s perpetual

intercession for his Church that she receive the benefits of the Cross.

Sibbald’s quotation of Nazianzen on the ministry of the ordained continues, ‘…to restore the frame of mankynde, and to renew his image, and to be an architect for that superior worlde; and to say more…who becommeth himselfe God and maketh others such?’ This quotation suggests directly the theology oftheosis, the change in

redeemed humanity by which a true likeness to God is, by divine grace, attained; the means is the Eucharist. Both Presbyter and communicant are having their ‘frame restored’; the presbyter ‘becommeth himselfe God and maketh others such?’ Donald Allchin also sees the doctrine oftheosisin this sermon. In a passage that occurs earlier he quotes ‘This knowledge and love unite [men] onto Him by a vitall band; thereby “they are made partakers of His divine nature,” 2 Pet. I. 4. Yea thereby they are changed in Him whome they know and love, and become “one spirit with him” 1 Cor. vi. 17’.234Allchin comments, ‘Here is a cosmic view of God’s purposes in the

creation of man… The tendency to focus on the doctrine of redemption almost to the exclusion of the doctrine of creation is notably absent. We notice…the doctrine of

theosisof man’s becoming god by grace, which is thought to have quietly disappeared in the West, is quietly affirmed, and that the New Testament texts traditionally used to defend it are cited’.235This doctrine is also explicitly stated by John Forbes of Corse, also citing 2 Peter 1: 4, ‘Another union which we have with Christ according to the flesh, is necessarily added that through Christ we may be come partakers of the divine nature…it was necessary that we should have Christ incarnate abiding in us, and being joined to his flesh we should become partakers of the divine life dwelling in it, or of the Divine nature’.236

234

Ibid., pp. 153—154 . Quoted by Allchin, op. cit., pp. 70—71.

235_{Allchin, Donald, op. cit., p. 71.}