'Especially contrary to the spirit of the Gospel': a Hackney Phalanx sermon and the bogeyman of High Church 'moralism'

Recent posts in the series of extracts from an 1814 collection of sermons by Christopher Wordsworth (senior, d.1846), associated with the Hackney Phalanx, have demonstrated how a lively call to vibrant faith was present in Hackney and Old High preaching. Today we return to another - and no less significant - aspect of such preaching: its vision of the moral life in Christ.

The sermon was what Wordsworth described as "a Christian discourse and exposition of the sixth commandment", in light of the exhortation in the Sermon on the Mount "That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment":

Anger implies displeasure against our brother, along with some degree of desire to inflict pain upon him, for an injury, real or supposed, which he has done to ourselves; or to others, whose honour and interests are dear to us. Anger is wrong, according to our Saviour, where it is " without" a due "cause;" that is, where we are displeased, through our own mistake, with one who indeed has done us no injury; nay, it may be, has done us great services.

It is wrong again, where we mistake the person who has injured us. It is wrong, thirdly, when it is excessive, of undue magnitude, and disproportioned to the cause of provocation. And, why is it thus wrong in all these cases?

Doubtless, for reasons, in kind at least, the very same that murder is so. It is wrong, because it is injurious to ourselves; injurious to our brother; injurious to the common peace and happiness of the world, and so displeasing to our heavenly Father. It is wrong, too, because it is unseemly and indecorous; an angry man is a painful and disgraceful object: because it is especially contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, for that is meekness; and to the example of Jesus, for that is love: it is wrong, in fine, because it is the fruitful parent, the source and spring from which many other offences in word and deed, bitter revilings, mutual dissensions, and quarrels, and often even blood-shedding and murder, do arise.

What should be obvious, of course, is that to describe such Old High preaching as 'moralism' is nothing less than nonsense. The moral vision of the Christian life is inherent to the Scriptures of the New Testament, inherent to the Gospel. A failure by the Church's teaching ministry to set forth this moral vision, rather than being a supposedly commendable 'Gospel-centred', 'evangelical ministry, is an abject failure to proclaim the whole counsel of God, and to adhere to the Dominical and Apostolic call to be those who "hearth these sayings of mine, and doeth them".

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laudable Practice

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