'Together with her we shall be indeed blessed': Bishop Bull echoing Augustine, Calvin, and Jewel

A final extract from a sermon by Bishop Bull (d.1710) entitled 'The Blessed Virgin's low and exalted condition', on the text Luke 1:48-49. In this extract Bull echoes Jewel (in debate with Harding) and Calvin in invoking Augustine's teaching on the Lord's words in response to the woman who declared "Blessed is the womb that bare thee". Here, in the closing words of his sermon, Bull again gives voice to a thoroughly Reformed understanding that the Blessed Virgin Mary, while reverenced as the Mother of the Lord, is not set apart from us in the economy of salvation but, rather, shares with us the "chiefest blessedness" of being in Christ:

The blessedness of the holy Virgin is not so altogether proper to her, or incommunicable to others, but that the meanest sincere Christian may share with her in the better part of it. Wonderful and full of comfort are the words of our Saviour, where, when a certain woman, hearing His excellent discourse, cried out, "Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which Thou hast sucked," our Saviour answers, "Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." Which is not a negation of the blessedness of His mother, (for that would be a plain contradiction to my text,) but a correction of the woman's mistake, who so admired the blessedness of the mother of such a son, that she scarce thought of any other blessedness. Our Saviour therefore tells her, "that blessed are they also, yea, and chiefly, that hear the word of God, and keep it" ...

Indeed, the Virgin herself was more blessed by conceiving Christ in her heart by faith, than by conceiving Him in her womb. And in this her chiefest blessedness, the meanest Christian, that is a sincere one, may be a sharer with her. Christ may be thus formed, nay, He must be so, in every one that shall be saved. And if we be true Christians, though all generations do not call us blessed, as the holy Virgin, yet together with her we shall be indeed blessed beyond all generations, even for ever and ever.

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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

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

Pride, progressive sectarianism, and TEC on Facebook

Let me begin this post with an assumption that will be rejected by some readers of laudable Practice , but affirmed by other readers. Observing Pride is an understandable aspect of the public ministry of TEC. On previous occasions , I have rather robustly called for TEC to be much more aware and respectful of the social conservatism of the Red states and regions in which it ministers. A failure to do so risks TEC declining yet further into the irrelevance of progressive sectarianism. At the same time, TEC also obviously ministers in deep Blue states and metropolitan areas - and is the only Mainline Protestant tradition in which a majority of its members vote Democrat .* With Pride now an established civic commemoration, particularly in such contexts, there is a case for TEC affirming those aspects of Pride - the dignity of gay men and lesbian women, their contribution to civic life, and their place in the church's life - which cohere with a Christian moral vision. (I will n...

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