laudable Practice

In his Considerations upon the Reputation, Loyalty, Manners, and Religion of Thomas Hobbes , published in 1662, Hobbes addressed his Nonconformists critics: But it  may be you will say, That the rest of the Clergy, Bishops, and Episcopal men, no Friends of yours, and against whose Office Mr. Hobbes never writ any thing, speak no better of his Religion than you do ... What is of significance here is not the well-known clerical attacks on Hobbes but, rather, his insistence that he has "never writ any thing" against episcopal order. This, of course, provided a crucial basis for his post-1660 conformity to the restored Church of England. We might, however, somewhat question the statement that Hobbes "never writ any thing" against episcopal order. It is the case that Considerations itself carries a significant critique of the jure divino episcopal claims that had become fashionable and prominent during the Personal Rule.  All Bishops are not in every point like one an...

In this series reflecting on the Aberdeen Doctors - the group of eirenic thinkers in the Church of Scotland centred around Patrick Forbes, Bishop of Aberdeen 1618-35 - we have considered the sermon given at Forbes' funeral by one of their number, Robert Baron. Today we turn to a  further sermon marking the funeral of Forbes , given by another of the Aberdeen Doctors, Alexander Scrogie, minister in the Cathedral Church in the city. Scrogie opened his sermon with a prophetic declaration, that Forbes' death had fatally weakened the Church and State of Scotland: This is a praecursorie judgement and punishment. So God maketh a way for his judgementes to come vpon a Church, or kingdome, when insensiblie and graduallie hee eateth out the heart and strength of a State; and so, by degrees, weakeneth, and praepareth it for a fatall blow; that so, without resistance, hee may ruine it; as pyking out, and taking away, nowe a prudent and experienced Counsellour, and then another out of the w...

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them that with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him; Have mercy upon you; pardon and deliver you from all your sins; confirm and strengthen you in all goodness; and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The quietly beautiful words of the absolution in the traditional Prayer Book Holy Communion hold together two of the forms of absolution discussed by John Shepherd, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I (1796): In this form, the declaratory and precatory absolutions are happily united ... Shepherd's description of these two forms captures their significance for Anglican communicants over the centuries: The former part consists of God's merciful promise of pardon to true penitent believers. In the latter part, the bishop or priest, in exact conformity to the sentiments and practice of the fathers, ...

From Sermon III from Volume V of Paley's Works - ' Fear a Religious Principle ', on the text Proverbs 14.16 - another example of how Paley's preaching contradicts notions of what Newman described as the "false cheerfulness" of Georgian Anglicanism. As this extract demonstrates, it is "seriousness", not a lazy cheerfulness, which we see in Paley. Note, too, how Paley is explicit about the call to be "disciples of Christianity" and entirely unembarrassed about Christ's words regarding riches. This, in other words, is serious Christianity. Ease, and prosperity, and wealth, and pleasure, and gaiety, and diversion, are sadly unfavourable to the impressions of religion; they are not inconsistent with these impressions; to say that, would be to say more than the truth; but they are adverse to them. "How hardly shall a rich man enter into the kingdom of heaven;" that is, one either intent upon acquiring riches, or addicted to the ple...

For some years now, it has been the custom on Laudable Practice to mark Thanksgiving in Canada by giving thanks for an aspect of Anglicanism in the True North. Today, as Canadian friends rejoice in the beauty of Fall, give thanks for the harvest, and enjoy family and home, my thoughts turn to a meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in June 1788. Gathered were the Church of England clergy of the Province of Nova Scotia, assembled by their newly-appointed Bishop, Charles Inglis, for his primary episcopal visitation.  At the outset of his visitation charge , Inglis referred to his appointment by the King as part of a wider ecclesiastical policy for post-1783 British North America: Our gracious Sovereign, in His Royal wisdom, and pious solicitude to promote the best interests of religion in His American Dominions, hath been pleased to erect this Province into a Bishop's See, or Diocese, thereby intending to compleat the Polity of the National Church in this country, and to Supply a defect ...

In last Friday's post on Thomas Hobbes post-1660 conformity to the Church of England, we considered how - in Considerations upon the Reputation, Loyalty, Manners, and Religion of Thomas Hobbes , published in 1662 - he reflected an influential current of Episcopalian criticism of the Interregnum church.  What, however, of Hobbes' return to England in 1651, and then his living peaceably under the Commonwealth and Protectorate? This, of course, was a key accusation against Hobbes, together with the supposed 'atheism' of Leviathan . Hobbes, however, could point to the example of a particular group of figures whose acted as he did under the Commonwealth and Protectorate. Addressing opponents of the Restoration, he said: Of the Bishops that then were, and for whose sakes (in part) you raised this War, there was not one that followed the King out of the Land, though they loved him, but lived quietly under the Protection, first of the Parliament, and then of Oliver (whole Titl...