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USA250: Anglican civil religion and commemorating Fourth of July in early PECUSA

In its ' Alterations agreed on and confirmed in Convention, for rendering the Liturgy conformable to the principles of the American Revolution, and the constitutions of the several states ', the first General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, held in Philadelphia in 1785, set forth a ' Service for the 4th of July '. The thanksgiving appointed for the day included this reference to the events of 4th July 1776: O God, whose Name is excellent in all the earth, and thy glory above the heavens, who as on this day didst inspire and direct the hearts of our delegates in Congress, to lay the perpetual foundations of peace, liberty, and safety; we bless and adore thy glorious Majesty, for this thy loving kindness and providence ... The appointed Epistle opened with the words "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice"; the appointed Gospel concluded with "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed". There is littl...

USA250: the Anglicanism of Charles Inglis - Enlightenment, virtue, and Masonry

George Washington and Charles Inglis. They seem to be ideological opponents. Washington, the enlightened Virginian gentleman and commander of the Continental Army. Inglis, the Loyalist parson in New York and critic of Paine's Common Sense . While both were members of the Church of England, JCD Clark in The Language of Liberty 1660-1832 (1994) has portrayed the Revolutionary War as a 'war of religion', with contrasting Anglican visions taking opposing sides. Washington represented the low church, latitudinarian ethos of the Church of England in the southern colonies. Inglis, by contrast, represented the high church orthodoxy and Toryism of the clergy of the northern colonies. There is good reason, however, to suggest that Clark's contrast between two opposing Anglican visions is much too heavily drawn. As much recent scholarship has demonstrated, 18th century Anglicanism was defined much more by 'unity and accord' than by High v. Low conflict. William Gibson, f...

USA250: the Anglicanism of George Washington - Enlightenment, natural religion, and Virginian piety

With the approach of the Fourth of July and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Laudable Practice this week will have a series of posts considering aspects of 18th century Anglicanism in the context of the American Revolution. We begin today with a figure at the centre of that Revolution, the Virginian gentleman George Washington. Two rival portrayals of Washington are conventionally invoked. The first is that of Washington as the icon of the founding of Christian nation. To quote a Southern Baptist publication : America’s greatest hero and first President was no deist, but a devout, Bible-believing Christian. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth echoed this in a recent statement invoking the iconography of Washington praying at Valley Forge: Amid all the bleak nights, the loss and despair, the lack of proper support, George Washington performed a profound act — he prayed. And on this day of Rededicate 250, let us follow George Washington's example. Let us...

'The whole body of orthodox religion': Jeremy Taylor and the influence of the Remonstrant tradition

... and one thing more I shall remark, that at his leaving those parts upon the King's return; some of the Remonstrant Ministers of the Low Countries coming to take their leaves of this great Man, and desiring that by his means the Church of England would be kind to them, he had reason to grant it, because they were Learned Men, and in many things of a most excellent belief, yet he reprov'd them, and gave them caution against it, that they approached too near and gave too much countenance to the great and dangerous errors of the Socinians. This was Jeremy Taylor, preaching at the funeral of Archbishop John Bramhall in 1663. I have previously pointed to this reference as evidence of Taylor's willingness to critique Remonstrant theology. Recent reading, however, has made me look afresh at this extract. That there is a critique of the Remonstrants here is, of course, obvious: they have been willing to draw too close to the Socinians. Alongside this, however, is high praise f...

'The general absolution': a 1796 Prayer Book Commentary and the Sacrament of Communion as absolution

Continuing with his account of the doctrine of Absolution in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I (1796), John Shepherd turns to the Holy Communion: The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was likewise an absolution, and was called το τελειον, the perfection of a Christian. To all who had never fallen into the greater sins, which required public penance, it was a general absolution. It was likewise an absolution from the penalties of excommunication. To faithfully partake of the Lord's Supper is "a general absolution". This, Shepherd notes, was a patristic understanding: To penitents at the point of death, it was, what the Latin fathers call viaticum, or provision for the passage from this life to the future. In case the sick penitent recovered, he was obliged to perform the rest of the prescribed penance: at least he was to receive the imposition of hands at the altar, which was accompanied with prayers for his absolution. But if he...

'The primary and secondary meaning of regeneration': an 1826 visitation charge and the Gorham Controversy

In a recent post , I highlighted how Charles Inglis, in a 1768 work, referred to how the Sacrament of Baptism bestows a regeneration which brings us into the covenant of Jesus Christ, but not that grace which renovates, or regenerates, the heart. He described the former as "relative and federal" regeneration, the latter "internal and moral". This is the understanding that Inglis sees in the Restoration divine William Falker (d.1682), in his Libertas Ecclesiastica (1674). In the very closing years of the 'long 18th century', in his 1826 primary visitation charge , Thomas Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury, we see this understanding of Holy Baptism again set forth. Burgess states that he desires "to remove some of the difficulties, in which the important subject of regeneration is involved by its opposite disputants": one party being charged with making baptism alone sufficient for our salvation, the other, with reducing it to a formal and almost unnecess...