laudable Practice

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...

In his sermon at the funeral of Patrick Forbes, Bishop of Aberdeen 1618-35, Robert Baron - one of the Aberdeen Doctors, that school of eirenic divines encouraged by Forbes - addressed the issue of whether the faithful departed, before the resurrection of the body, shared in the fulness of glory: it is certayne, that the glorie and happinesse, which the dead, who haue died in the Lord, shal haue after the generall judgement, shall be greater extensive, in extention, nor it is now; and that because it shall be extended, or communicated, to their bodies also. But whether or not it shall be intensive greater, after the generall judgement; that is, whether anie farther degree of glorie shall be then given to their soules, it is not so certayne. For manie of the Ancients, and some judicious and orthodoxe Divines, doe thinke, that although they are now with Christ, in the companie or fellowship of the blessed Angels, and in an estate of vnspeakable joye; yet they haue not attayned, as yet, v...

As John Shepherd, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I (1796), reviewed various liturgies and the words of administration they used for the holy sacrament - in his discussion of the precatory nature of words administration - he turned to a perhaps surprising liturgical text: Samuel Clarke's private revision of the BCP , only published 45 years after his death in 1774. (It was also the revision of the Prayer Book adopted by King's Chapel, Boston .) Shepherd noted Clark's shorter form of administration: In the Unitarian, or what is called a Book of Common Prayer, reformed, when the priest delivers the bread, he says, "Take and eat this in remembrance of Christ," and when he delivers the cup, "Take, and drink this in remembrance of Christ."  We know that is to Clarke's revision to which Shepherd is referring not only because this is how Clarke shortened the words of administration. Shepherd uses the word ...

Beginning last week this series exploring the sermons of William Paley, I pointed to the significance of Paley's role as an exemplar of Georgian Anglicanism. In that first extract we saw in Paley, entirely contrary to Newman's lazy prejudice, the serious, austere piety of Georgian Anglicanism. Now in Sermon II from Volume V of Paley's Works - ' Why Men Resist and Put Aside the Thoughts of Religion ' - we see the same austere seriousness: And to every argument and every plea which may be offered, or which may pass in our minds in favour of putting aside the thoughts of religion, this single string of conclusions is an answer: 1. That it is by religion alone that a sinner can be saved. 2. That religion can have no effect where it has no influence. 3. That until we come to think, to ponder, to ruminate upon religion, it is impossible that we should acquire its instruction; and still more impossible, that we should feel its power, its authority, its rule and direction...

As I mentioned last week , a recent visit to The Middle Church this view of a simple, plain pew caught my attention. It somehow embodies the simplicity of Prayer Book worship that would have been known in The Middle Church, through the late 17th century, across the 18th, and into the 19th.  Part of such simple Prayer Book worship would have been metrical psalmody. A metrical version of the Psalter was usually bound with the Prayer Book and was a characteristic of Anglican worship across the 'long 18th century'. Bishops Bull and Beveridge extolled the practice of singing metrical psalms. John Shepherd in his Prayer Book commentary at the end of the 18th century described the singing of metrical psalms as "a pleasing and affecting part of divine worship". Into the mid-19th century , bishops urged the singing of metrical psalms, contrasting their sober character with the enthusiasm of the new hymns. It is almost certainly metrical psalmody to which Jeremy Taylor refer...

Over the past year or so, I have been revisiting the figure of Thomas Hobbes. Partly this is due to the late Sir Roger Scruton's  affection for Hobbes and recognition of his place in the conservative philosophical tradition. Close to the heart of Scruton's affection for Hobbes is a view I heartily endorse: Like Hobbes I remain attached to the idea of civil government and believe it to be in every way superior to the role of priests. In early 2025 I read Thomas Holden's Hobbes's Philosophy of Religion (2023), an excellent and convincing exploration of how the philosopher from Malmesbury understood theology and - much more importantly for Hobbes - piety. Holden defines Hobbes' understanding of the language and practice of piety as "fit and proper, a laudable and rational expression of reverence before the awe-inspiring power of the great cause": Hobbes holds that reason and proper piety require all seventeenth-century English subjects to participate publicl...