'We of the Church of England have a peculiar interest in the subject': an 1826 episcopal visitation charge, unity and accord, and Old Dissent

The two books that have most shaped my views of the Church of England during 'the long 18th century' have been Nockles' The Oxford Movement in Context: Anglican High Churchmanship 1760-1857 (1994) and Gibson's The Church of England 1688-1832: Unity and Accord (2001).  Both works point to the experience of 18th century Anglicanism differing significantly from the partisanship that came to define Anglicanism after 1833. As Nockles stated, "a much greater degree of consensus pertained prior to 1833 than afterwards". Gibson ended his book by quoting from a 1698 sermon exemplifying the "power and importance to Anglicans" of the call "to live peaceably with all men" and a 1747 episcopal visitation charge demonstrating how clergy were "more cohesive and united". 

The August 1826 primary visitation charge of Bishop Thomas Burgess to the clergy of the Diocese of Salisbury could have been used by Nockles to preface his study and by Gibson to conclude his. Close to the beginning of his charge, Burgess invoked our Lord's words in John 17.21:

"That they all may be one, one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me," is the language of our Saviour in his prayer for the union of his disciples, interesting and awful to all Christians individually and collectively, but above all to the Ministers of religion, who, as well as their flocks, are thus taught, that want of union among those who profess the Gospel, is an obstruction to the Gospel. 

Crucially, Burgess is here not implying divisions within the Church of England - indeed, he is evidently not at all thinking that there are any such significant divisions within the Church of England. Rather, he is addressing the relationship between the Church of England and Dissent. This is made evident when he goes on to quote the Congregationalist divine Philip Doddridge (d.1751):

A learned and candid Dissenter from our Church has made the following observation on the passage of St. John, which I have just quoted. "This plainly intimates, that dissensions among Christians would not only be uncomfortable to themselves, but would be a means of bringing the truth and excellence of the Christian Religion in question. And he must be a stranger to what has passed and is daily passing in the world, who does not see what fatal advantage they have given to Infidels to misrepresent Christianity as a calamity, rather than to regard it as a blessing to mankind."

Doddridge had been well regarded within the Church of England during his lifetime, and had a cordial correspondence with a significant number of bishops. In quoting a leading divine of Old Dissent, Burgess was declaring that this desire for unity and accord continued, even as the intense debates around the Test and Corporation Acts - the repeal of which Burgess opposed - reached their culmination, with repeal occurring in 1828. He continued by declaring of such unity and accord:

we of the Church of England have a peculiar interest in the subject ...

This "peculiar interest", Burgess implies, flows from the particular duties of the Church of England as the national Church, not least in the face of criticisms from "the Roman Church". He then calls on his clergy to promote the spirit of unity and accord with their Dissenting colleagues:

Whatever then can be done to promote that unity of spirit in the bond of peace, which is an evidence and test of the Christian Character, whether by individual exertions, or mutual cooperation, it is our duty to promote. Much may be effected individually, but more by mutual co-operation. And I shall rejoice to give my aid in any way, within my power, for the accomplishment of such practicable measures, as may be the subject of future consideration.

As Gibson notes in the conclusion of his work:

the main body of churchmen ... often co-operated with Dissenters in parishes and in the episcopal hierarchy ... The wider unity of society was a function of Church participation in culture and in the development of national identity.

This is also seen in local studies. In his study of the Church of England in 18th century Devon, Arthur Warne points to how "a complete absence of partisanship" defined the relationship between the Church of England and Old Dissent in the county. Methodism, as Warne shows, was a different matter - and here it is important to note that Burgess' charge quoted from a leading light of Old Dissent, who shared the concern of Churchmen about Enthusiasm. Indeed, Doddridge's memorial is suggestive of how the piety of Old Dissent could be very similar to that of Georgian Anglicanism: "To make men Wise Good and Happy ... amiable and Christian virtues". 

Burgess' 1826 charge, in the final years of the Georgian era, gave expression to this 18th century tradition, even as 1833 approached, heralding a much more divisive, hostile relationship with Dissenting churches. It is another example of how Georgian Anglicanism provided a wiser and spiritually richer vision than that which succeeded it.