laudable Practice

In July 1705, George Bull - consecrated bishop in April - arrived in his new Diocese of St Davids.  In his visitation charges, as he addressed "the principal Parts and Branches of [the] Pastoral Office", Bull made clear his expectations for the preaching ministry of the clergy.  Nelson, in his 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull , notes the Bishop's advice to his younger clergy, advice which might be surprising to contemporary Anglicans: To qualifie them for Preaching, he pressed the Knowledge and Understanding of the holy Scriptures; and in order thereunto, some Skill in the learned Languages, with good Judgment and Discretion, and not without a tolerable Share of Elocution. He advised young Divines, not to trust at first to their own Compositions, but to furnish themselves with a Provision of the best Sermons, which the learned Divines of our Church have published; that by reading them often, and by endeavouring to imitate them, they may acquire a habit of good Preaching thems...

In the closing days of December 1660, as the Convention Parliament was about to be dissolved, the Earl of Clarendon - Charles II's Lord Chancellor - declared in the House of Lords that the Church of England was "the best and the best-reformed church in the Christian world". It was a phrase which captured what Eamon Duffy has described as "the new assurance" amongst Episcopalians at the Restoration that the restored Church of England was "primitive Christianity revived". This confidence and pride in the Church of England resounded across the decades. In 1684, William Beveridge - who had received episcopal orders in 1660 and would be made Bishop of Asaph in 1704 - preached his sermon ' Steadfastness to the Established Church Recommended '. He echoed Clarendon's words as he challenged critics of the Church of England: if such would but lay aside all prejudices, and impartially consider the constitution of our Church, as it is now reformed, th...

Something of a tradition has emerged on Laudable Practice of marking the early May Bank Holiday with a reflection related to Georgian church interiors. While this holiday has other connotations, I enjoy it as quiet celebration of Spring, before the louder, garish days of Summer arrive. There is something about late Spring - its gentle light, the modest warmth after Winter, the fresh greenery of these days - which, I think, is reflected in the interior of Georgian churches. This May Day, I am prompted to address the 'New Georgians' - yes, in the words of the well-known meme, 'There are dozens of us. Dozens!'. I have previously suggested that those of us who might be called New Georgians seek "to promote an appreciation of 18th century Anglicanism, Georgian churches, and the ordinary, stolid piety that characterised the Georgian Church of England". Actually, it might be that there are a few more than 'dozens of us'. Something I enjoy posting on 'X...

Sitting on my desk, alongside a somewhat battered Church of Ireland BCP 1926, is a hard-backed copy of a 1973 Alcuin Club study, by Timothy J. Fawcett - The Liturgy of Comprehension 1689: An abortive attempt to revise The Book of Common Prayer . It is, I think, the only published study of the Liturgy of Comprehension, the attempted revision of the Prayer Book in the immediate aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, in an attempt to reconcile Dissenters to the Church of England. It sits on my desk for two reason. Firstly, because it influenced the Church of Ireland post-disestablishment revision of the Prayer Book. Secondly, because of my affection for John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury 1693-97, a strong supporter of William and Mary, and a leading figure in the proposed revision of 1689. It is not that I welcome all the suggested revisions of 1689. Some, I think, would have been unwise and de-stabilising for the Church of England and 18th century Anglicanism. Some were unnecessary,...

In regard to the apostles; the Holy Ghost is promised to be a guide and teacher, to reveal to them, and instruct them in some truths which our Saviour, whilst he was with them, had not so fully acquainted them withal, because of their present in capacity and unfitness at that time to receive them. "I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." In his sermon 'Of the Coming of the Holy Ghost, as a Guide to the Apostles', on the text John 16:12-13, Tillotson points to the gift of Pentecost as fundamental to the nature of the Christian faith. Regarding "those truths [in] which the disciples were fully instructed in after the coming of the Holy Ghost", he understands these to be the divine illumination, by means of the Holy Spirit, which led the Apostles to discern how their mission was to embrace the Gentiles: That our Saviour did not design the setting up of an...

On this Whitsun Ember Day, we turn to Tillotson's sermon 'The Authority of Jesus Christ, with the Commission and Promise He Gave to the Apostles', on the text Matthew 28:18-20.  In rooting apostolic ministry - that is, the ministry of the Apostles and those whom Tillotson twice describes in this sermon as their "successors" - in the dominical command to baptise in the Triune Name, Tillotson first places the Trinitarian confession at the very heart of church's faith and life, and thus of the faith to be proclaimed by the ordained minister: As for the form of baptism, "in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," it plainly refers to that short creed, or profession of faith, which was required of those that were to be baptized, answerably to the reciting of the precepts of the law, at the baptizing of proselytes among the Jews: now the articles of this creed were reduced to these three heads, "of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,...

In this Whitsuntide we are considering sermons by Tillotson on the third Person of the Holy Trinity. Today we turn to his sermon 'Of the Coming of the Holy Ghost, as an Advocate for Christ', on the text John 17:7-8. At the opening of the sermon, Tillotson affirms that the doctrine of and creedal belief in the Personhood of the Holy Spirit is rooted in the teaching of Our Lord in the Farewell Discourse: The necessity of Christ's leaving the world, in order to the coming of the Holy Ghost: "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." That it is the Holy Ghost which is here spoken of, and that as a person, and not as a quality, or power, or virtue, is plain from our Saviour's discourse all along this sermon, in which he is spoken of under the notion of a person, and that in as plain and express terms as Christ himself is, As the ...

During this Whitsuntide, laudable Practice will be posting extracts from Whitsun sermons by Tillotson. Considering how his sermons were widely regarded by Anglicans throughout the 18th century, there is a sense in which they provide an insight into the spiritual vitality of Anglicanism during this era. His Whitsun sermons, of course, draw particular attention to how the Person and work of the Holy Spirit were considered. In reading them, we are struck not by what is often caricatured as an insipid 'latitudinarian rationalism' but, rather, by a lively, vital affirmation of the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life. We begin with a Whitsunday sermon on the opening of the Acts reading for the feast, Act 2:1-4: Luke's description of "cloven tongues, as of fire" and the disciples speaking in "other tongues". The sermon is entitled 'Of the Gift of Tongues Conferred on the Apostles' and Tillotson is explicit that this miraculous gift of Penteco...

As we celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord on this Holy Thursday, words from Tillotson's Ascension Day sermon, 'The Circumstances and Benefits of Our Saviour's Ascension': Let us heartily thank God for the whole dispensation of our salvation, by the incarnation and doctrine, by the holy life and meritorious death of our blessed Saviour, and by that demonstration of God’s mighty power and goodness, "which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities, and powers, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; having put all things under his feet, and given him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body". The consideration whereof is (as you have heard) a mighty consolation unto us under all the troubles and dangers to which the church of Christ is exposed in this world. He who hath ...

From Tillotson's sermon ' The Danger of Impenitence, Where the Gospel is Preached ', on the text Matthew 11:21-22, refuting the doctrine of irresistible grace. He does so on the grounds that sufficient grace always accompanies the "outward means of repentance", as opposed to the Calvinist notion that, without irresistible grace, the outwards means of repentance were not a means of grace unto repentance. In other words, each time the call to repentance is heard in the reading of the Scriptures, the praying of the liturgy, or preaching from the pulpit, grace truly accompanies such call, sufficient for authentic repentance. What Repentance is here spoken of; whether a meer external and Hypocritical Repentance in shew and appearance only, or an inward and real and sincere Repentance ... The Reason of this doubt depends upon the different Theories of Divines, about the sufficiency of Grace accompanying the outward Means of Repentance, and whether an irresistible degree...

From Tillotson's sermon ' The Danger of Impenitence, Where the Gospel is Preach'd ', on the text Matthew 11:21-22: Sin will yet farther appear shameful, in that it is so great a Reproach to our Understandings and Reasons, and so foul a Blot upon our Prudence and Discretion. Omnis peccans aut ignorans est, aut incogitans , is a Saying, I think, of one of the School-men; (as one would guess by the Latin of it) Every Sinner is either an ignorant, or inconsiderate Person. Either Men do not understand what they do, when they commit Sin; or if they do know, they do not actually attend to, and consider what they know: Either they are habitually or actually ignorant of what they do: for Sin and Consideration cannot dwell together; 'tis so very unreasonable and absurd a thing, that it requires either gross Ignorance, or stupid Inadvertency, to make a Man capable of committing it. Whenever a Man sins, he must either be destitute of Reason, or must lay it aside or asleep for ...

From a sermon preached by John Tillotson, then Dean of Canterbury, on Ash Wednesday 1689, on ' The unprofitableness of Sin in this Life, an Argument for Repentance ': there is another great Miscarriage in this matter, and that is the delay of Repentance; men are loth to set about it, and therefore they put it upon the last hazard, and resolve then to huddle it up as well as they can: but this certainly is great folly, to be still making more work for Repentance, because it is to create so much needless trouble and vexation to our selves; 'tis to go on still in playing a foolish part, in hopes to retrieve all by an after-game; this is extreamly dangerous, because we may certainly sin, but it is not certain we shall repent, our Repentance may be prevented, and we may be cut off in our sins; but if we should have space for it, Repentance may in process of time grow an hundred times more difficult than it is at present. But if it were much more certain, and more easie than it i...