"The natural fruit of moderation": Christopher Bethell and the Old High Church vision

In his 1825 Primary Charge to the clergy of the Diocese of Gloucester, Christopher Bethell gave us a sense of the vision of the High Church tradition of which he was a stalwart.  In the extracts below we see how he defines this tradition as embodying an Anglicanism defined by the Reformed Catholicism of Articles and Prayer Book.  It is worth reflecting how the stormy partisanship of the Tractarians, and the reaction which they and their successors provoked, undermined the "moderation" (a term used by Bethell quite a few times in his Charge) of this vision.  

The Articles, especially, were agreed upon, as their title declares, “for avoiding of diversities of opinion, and for establishing of consent touching true religion.” But their real meaning is not to be ascertained by studying them in connection with systems and opinions which had no influence on their construction, but with reference to the history of the times in which they were written, the controversies in which their framers were engaged, and the errors which they were intended to confute. Such an investigation of their scope and meaning, will terminate many unprofitable and irrelevant disputes, and will further, it is to be presumed, that unity of views and opinions, which is the natural fruit of moderation, sobriety of mind, temperate discussion, and well-conducted enquiries ...

Nor need I caution you against any departure from a strict conformity to our admirable Liturgy; for you are well acquainted with its value, and have engaged yourselves to conform to it by solemn subscriptions and declarations. But you must avoid diversities of customs, and attempts at novelty or singularity, in the administration of the Sacraments and the performance of Divine Service and you must be careful to speak the same language, and to teach the same doctrines, in the pulpit, which the Church prescribes to you in the reading desk, at the font, and at the Communion table.