There is no better introduction to the Puritans than the writings of Richard Sibbes, who is, in many ways, a typical Puritan. `Sibbes never wastes the student's time,' `he scatters pearls and diamonds with both hands.' (C. H. Spurgeon) Richard Sibbes was known in London in the early 17th century as "the Heavenly Doctor Sibbes." He is known as a Biblical exegete, and as a representative, with William Perkins and John Preston, of what has been called "main-line" Puritanism. He was the author of several devotional works expressing intense religious feeling — The Saint's Cordial (1629), The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax (1631, exegesis of Isaiah 42:3), The Soules Conflict (1635), etc.