"Substantial duties": Secker against the Weird

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Thomas Secker (consecrated bishop in 1737, Archbishop of Canterbury 1758-68), in his sermon 'Confirmation of Divine Authority; And its Importance in Promoting Piety and Virtue', explains what it means to "take on ourselves the vow of our baptism". In doing so, he offers a critique that has relevance to the 'Weird Christian' movement, pointing instead to the Christian life lived out in and through "substantial duties":

I do sincerely believe, and will constantly profess, all the articles of the Christian faith. I do firmly resolve to keep all God's commandments all the days of my life: to love and honour him; to pray to Him and praise Him daily in private; to attend conscientiously on the public worship and instruction, which he hath appointed; to approach his holy table, as soon as I can qualify myself for doing it worthily ... I do resolve in the government of myself, to be modest, sober, temperate, mild, humble, contented; to restrain every passion and appetite within due bounds.

 Observe then, It is not gloominess and melancholy, that religion calls you to: it is not useless austerity, and abstinence from things lawful and safe; it is not extravagant flights and raptures: it is not unmeaning or unedifying forms and ceremonies: much less is it bitterness against those who differ from you. But the forementioned unquestionable substantial duties are the things to which you bind yourselves.

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