'So simple and plain a religion as ours': a Burnet sermon for the First Sunday in Lent

From a sermon preached by Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, on the First Sunday in Lent, 1695:

It is certain, That the main design and chief effect of Religion, is to Purify our Hearts, to Reform our Natures, to Restrain our Inclinations, our Appetites and Passions, and to spread such an influence through our whole Lives, through all our Powers, and in all our Actions, that the world may from thence, as from the evidentest as well as the powerfullest Argument, be convinc'd both of the beauty and force of this Religion. The Christian Religion in its true Purity, and as it is received among us, is so stript of all those outward appearances of Pompous and Costly, of severe or cruel Performances, that unless it reforms our Natures and our Lives, it has not enough in it to feed and support that false quiet that Superstition may give ...

But as to us and our Religion, What can we expect from it, if it has not a real influence upon our Hearts and Lives? Can we think that for our going sometimes (seldome God knows) to Prayers; our Assisting, that is being present, rather than joining with any Devotion at them; that our giving the Hearing, often a very wandering one, to a few Discourses; and our coming to Sacrament upon some great occasions, in compliance with Law or Custom, rather than out of true Devotion; Can, I say, any man have such high thoughts of such Nothings, such mean and dead Performances, or can he have such low thoughts of God and Religion, as to imagine that any value can be set on them?

It is certain, that so simple and plain a Religion as ours is, which lays so little cost or trouble on us, can be of no value in the sight of God; it has not so much as an outward appearance considerable enough to give a false quiet: so that man who know that his Religion has not its real effects on him, has no reason to flatter himself upon that account. Indeed such a half Religion, as it lets in upon a man the belief of the Principles of it, so it lays him open to all the Checks and Terrors which arise out of these. It is strong enough to teach him his Duty, to make him know his Sins, and to apprehend the terrible Consequences of them; but it does not compleat its Work; it gives him only the Terrors, but lets him not in to the Joys of true Religion.

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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...

'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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