Thomas Secker and Anglican Enlightenment

One of the most intriguing books I have recently read has been William Bulman's Anglican Enlightenment: Orientalism, Religion and Politics in England and its Empire, 1648–1715 (2017).  The book convincingly demonstrates how the Enlightenment discourse of civic peace became influential in the post-1660 High Church tradition, displacing public appeals to confessional and sacerdotal claims.  Bulman argues that in the early 18th century, amidst the rage of party in Church and State, the use of civic peace discourse was lost by the High Church tradition.  A strong case can be made, however, that the discourse (if it did disappear) returned to the High Church tradition and was profoundly influential.  In his 1758 sermon for the 5th November commemoration, Thomas Secker exemplified how the mid-18th century High Church tradition continued to deploy Enlightenment civic peace discourse: 

For indeed the Spirit of Persecution is Rebellion against Christ, under Pretence of a Commission from him: it is the Man of Sin, sitting as God in the Temple of God. And where it is not designed Impiety, it is the grossest Ignorance, both of the Attributes of our Maker, and the Precepts of our Redeemer, as the Words of the Text expressly declare: 'These Things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor me'. And the Remedy for this Evil is, not casting off the Regard, which we owe to God, but establishing just and worthy Notions of his Service in the Minds of Men: which, in Proportion as they prevail, will banish Enthuiasm and Superstition from off the Earth: whereas, if true Religion be once lost, every absurd Opinion, as well as mischievous Practice, may spring up in its stead. If Atheism could take place, it must visibly be the Ruin of Society. But it cannot. There is an irresistible Bent in the human Mind to reverence an invisible Power: and if Men are not directed to do it in a right Manner, they will do it in a wrong.