'Blessed operation': seeing what the Tractarians had to deny

Below, another example offered by Richard Warner - from a sermon in the third volume of his Old Church of England Principles Opposed to "New Light" (published in 1818) - of the vitality of sacramental and liturgical life in the pre-1833 Church of England:

The blessings and benefits, also, which we receive from the Holy Ghost the Comforter, are alike numerous and inestimable; and, in the same manner, ought to excite our thankfulness, and lead us to holiness and virtue. His blessed operation is experienced by the faithful, in all the offices of their religion, and in all the situations, and circumstances, and accidents, of their lives. Her regenerates us in baptism; enlightens us at our confirmation; and comforts our souls, and strengthens our inner man, at the blessed sacrament.

With such warm and vital expressions of the sacramental and liturgical life, Warner's sermons stand as an indictment of the Tractarian historiography which portrayed Georgian Anglicanism as supposedly defined by a dismal moralism, Hoadlian memorialism, and bland Erastianism. Warner, in other words, tells us of what the Tractarians could not admit (for if they did, what need was there for the Movement of 1833?): the spiritual vitality of the sober liturgy, doctrinal modesty, and quiet piety of Georgian Anglicanism.

(After a late Summer break, laudable Practice will return on 30th August.)

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