laudable Practice

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...

After addressing the matter of the rite of Confirmation, Robert Nelson - in his 1713 Life of Bull - turns to Ordination: The September after the Bishop came into The Care his Diocese, he had a publick Ordination; and the same time every Year, was employed after the same manner. After the other Ember Seasons he Ordain'd but a small Number, more or less, as occasion required. September Embertide, then, was the usual Ordination season in the diocese of St Davids under Bishop Bull. His requirement was that candidates for holy orders presented themselves to him in "at least a Month before Ordination Sunday" (indicating that the rite of Ordination occurred on the Sunday of the Embertide): The first thing therefore that Bishop required of such Candidates, was, that they should make their personal Appearance before him, at least a Month before Ordination Sunday. At such their Appearance, they produced their Testimonials and Titles, and were examined by one of his Chaplains, and ...

In his  Instructions in Reading the Liturgy of the United Church of England and Ireland (1826), the Rev'd John Henry Howlett (1781–1867) described the most appropriate tone for the reading of Prayer Book divine service - "mild, tranquil, and dignified": What can be more so, than to hear the language of the meek and lowly Jesus, delivered with a stern, haughty, authoritative tone? "In our blessed Lord's discourses and instructions, (says Paley) all was calmness. No emotions, no violence, no agitation, when he delivered the most sublime and affecting doctrines, and most comfortable or most terrifying predictions. The prophets before him fainted and sunk under the communications which they received from above; so strong was their impression, so unequal their strength: but truths that overwhelmed the servants of God, were familiar to his Son" (Paley's Sermons, edited by E. Paley, Vol. ii. p. 34.) This striking peculiarity in our Lord's discourses and in...

Jeremy Taylor's 1647 The Liberty of Prophesying has often been interpreted as an aberration in his body of works. For those who present Taylor as a straightforward 'Laudian', The Liberty of Prophesying  is to be dismissed as the unfortunate influence of Chillingworth and Great Tew, quickly forgotten by its author, who returned to conventional 'Laudian' ways. For those who praise The Liberty of Prophesying as an anticipation of the Broad Church tradition, it is a matter of regret that Taylor abandoned this spirit for conventionally harsh High Church tendencies. What both approaches overlook, however, is how central themes of The Liberty of Prophesying echo throughout Taylor's work. The place it gives to the conscience and reason, and a scepticism about excessive claims for ecclesiastical tradition, are both prominent in  Ductor Dubitantium, or the Rule of Conscience , published in 1660. Likewise, the critique of Augustine, fundamental to Taylor's 1655  Unu...

As he reviews the doctrine of Absolution in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I (1796), John Shepherd notes that "the ancient church" saw Absolution embodied in four practices: The dispensation of Absolution, as practised in the ancient church, is reducible to these four heads: 1. The Absolution of Baptism, and of the Supper of the Lord, or sacramental Absolution. 2. The Absolution of reconciliation to the church, and re-admission into its communion. 3. The Absolution of word and doctrine, or declaratory Absolution. 4. The Absolution of prayer, or precatory Absolution. These four heads shape his review, as he addresses each in turn. We begin, then, with the Sacrament of Baptism: The sacrament of baptism was esteemed by the Fathers the most universal Absolution. To adopt the words of antiquity, it was the grand, the divine indulgence in the Christian church. It was the Absolution, or remission of all those sins, which the party baptized...

He told them that the house of theirs to which he alluded was this their church, in which he now addressed them for the first time; that their most welcome and proper manner of bidding him God-speed would be their patient obedience to his teaching of the gospel; but that he could put forward no claim to such conduct on their part unless he taught them the great Christian doctrine of works and faith combined. Thus did Mr. Arabin preach himself into the living of St. Ewold's in Barchester Towers . Trollope here echoes what was a significant critique of Solafidianism. That critique was the mainstream view of the 18th century Church of England and maintained by the 'Orthodox' into the 19th century. A fine representation of this critique is seen in the primary visitation charge of Thomas Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury (received holy orders in 1784, consecrated to the episcopate 1803), delivered to his clergy in August 1826. In the preface to the published version of the charge, B...