“You will find, I think, in general that the Puritans are almost invariably helpful… I shall never cease to be grateful to one of them called Richard Sibbes who was balm to my soul at a period in my life when I was overworked and badly overtired, and therefore subject in an unusual manner to the onsalughts of the devil. In that state and condition…what you need is some gentle, tender treatment for your soul. I found at that time that Richard Sibbes, who was known in London in the early seventeenth century as ‘the heavenly Doctor Sibbes’, was an unfailing remedy. His books The Bruised Reed and The Soul’s Conflict quietened, soothed, comforted, encouraged and healed me.”

(Dr Martin Lloyd Jones, quoted in the introduction to Richard Sibbe’s The Bruised Reed, x. I’ll be posting my mini-review of The Bruised Reed next week.)