'As too much to slight their duties': a Hackney Phalanx sermon critiques populist evangelicalism

Today begins a series of extracts from an 1814 collection of sermons by Christopher Wordsworth (senior, d.1846). In 1814, Wordsworth was Dean of Bocking; he would be Master of Trinity, Cambridge from 1820-41. He was associated with the Hackney Phalanx and was a chaplain to Archbishop of Canterbury Charles Manners-Sutton. Indeed, this volume was warmly dedicated to the Archbishop's son (to whom he had been tutor), then Judge Advocate General in the administration of Lord Liverpool.

As a recent excellent study of Liverpool has demonstrated, he was guided by and supportive of the Hackney Phalanx in his ecclesiastical policies. It was on the Archbishop's recommendation that Liverpool appointed Wordsworth Master of Trinity. In other words, we can regard this collection of sermons as expressive of the teaching and piety of the Hackney Phalanx.

In this extract, Wordsworth offers a critique of populist evangelicalism and revivalism, reflecting characteristic Old High concerns:

some, considering what great things God has done for mankind, are so occupied in the contemplation of these, as too much to slight their duties. In their reliance on the love of the Father, the merits of the Redeemer, the free gifts of the Sanctifier, they are too prone to forget that it is the will of the united Godhead, that without obedience and holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Some, building upon the awful truth of the eternal election of God, in the contemplation of this purpose of love exerted upon them, even before the world was, neglect too much to give diligence to make their calling and election sure, through those things, which if they do they shall never fall. Another description, being, as they trust, once purged by the blood of Christ, dream that they can be no more unclean; and being brought under grace, hold themselves on that account free from the bondage of the law. And others gain, rejoicing in the freedom of the promises of the Gospel, are too prone to undervalue the instituted means and ordinances of grace, the reading or preaching of the word, the ministry of exhortation, prayer, and the Sacraments.

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Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

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'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

laudable Practice

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