'Remainders of ancient Discipline'? Thoughts on a 1696 Lenten sermon at public penance

There is a sense in which the desire expressed in the Commination service, that 'the said discipline may be restored again', was actually fulfilled.  The use of church courts and the imposition of public penance was a regular feature in the Elizabethan, Jacobean, Caroline, and Restoration Church.  As recent research has indicated, during the Restoration era 'the ecclesiastical courts had exerted a significant influence over England’s religious landscape', including imposing public penance in order to obtain absolution.  

This 1696 sermon certainly indicates that the disciplinary system of the church courts was under criticism in the era after the Revolution.  The preface to the published sermon admits, 'I am not insensible, what scandalous Imputations our Ecclesiastical Courts lie under'.  That said, it robustly affirmed the role of the courts and the ecclesiastical discipline they upheld:

If others of the Clergy would follow so good an Example, and do what in them lies to uphold the small Remainders of ancient Discipline among us; it would bring more Honour to our Church, and the Religion Established among us, than the warmest Disputes for our Constitution, without regard to the Practise of it.

The sermon itself offered a defence of ecclesiastical discipline and public penance, even as it lamented the 'indulgence of our laws' (which might be read as a criticism of the Toleration Act):

1.To reflect with holy Grief, upon the great Defects in point of Ecclesiastical Discipline; ordained by our Saviour, for so Great and Holy an End, which at this Day, all Christian Churches lie under, and the great Danger of so many Souls in them, for want of sufficient Remedies against the Distempers and Diseases they are exposed to, and too often over-run withal. There being hardly any Church in the World, that since the Cessation of Miracles, (which kept the World in Awe by the Attestation they gave of the divine Authority, backing the Censures of the Church, with! dreadful Executions of obstinate Offenders) ever attained to that intrinsic Power, as to be able to stand on its own Legs; but has been fain to call in the Civil Magistracy to its Assistance: (and in most places) has too unhappily purchased its Assistance, with the considerable lessening of its Orthodoxy, Unity, or Revenues; and Diminution of its original Authority, to accommodate the Interests of particular States and Kingdoms.

2. Earnestly to desire (as our Church Professeth to do) that the godly Discipline of the Primitive Church, of putting all who are Convicted of notorious Sin, to open Penance, were in its original Perfection restored again, in order to the great Ends there mentioned: that the Criminals being Punished in this World, their Souls may be saved in the Day of the Lord; and that others Admonished by their Example, may be the more afraid to offend. And such Desires, expressed in our earnest Prayers to God, it may be hoped, may induce him, in time, to make all the Kingdoms of the Earth (in this respect) the Kingdoms of the Lord, and his Christ, according to that prophetical Promise, the means of fulfilling whereof, and the Times and Seasons wherein it is to be Accomplished, have filled the Christian World with so many Disputes, from the Times of the first Chiliasts, down to our Days; and so many irregular Attempts of Indiscreet, and sometimes furious Zeal to Accomplish it. and we have another comfortable Promise, applicable to that purpose; that, when the Lords Time shall come to build up his Zion, he will appear in his Glory, and not despise, but regard the Prayer of his destitute Church.

3. And to the utmost of our Power, to preserve, and keep in exercise so much of it, in the meantime, as yet remains to us, in this general Decay; which though (through the Indulgence of our Laws, it reach not all Offenders; yet) is sufficiently assisted by them, to redress, if well followed, most notorious Immoralities; or at least, to render them so uneasy to those that are guilty of them; that 'tis much our Fault, that they dare appear so Open-faced in the sight of the Sun, as they daily do. So that, (in this Case, at least,) it must needs be highly unreasonable, for the quarrelsome Dissenters from our Church, to impute the abounding of such Crimes to the Church-constitution; and from thence to frame colourable Excuses for their Separations from it; when they themselves, would they join with us effectually, for the Prosecution of them, might soon remove that Scandal out of the way; which I am afraid, (whatever they pretend) too many of them are secretly willing should continue there, for the carrying on of those By-ends of their own, to which they find the Prejudices thence raised so Serviceable.

Noting that the penitents - as was normal during such acts of public penance and restoration - wore a white robe, the sermon concluded with explicit reference to the absolution which restored the penitents.

And now, (to conclude my Application to you;) remember what I told you, that the sincere Conformity in your Hearts, to your outward Garb, in the Confessions you are now to make according to your several Cases, can only render you capable of the benefit of that Absolution, or Ministerial Forgiveness which in the close of this Action, I am empowered by the Church to give you, (as the Apostle expresseth it, 2 Cor. 2. 10. in the Person of Christ: for without it, it will be bestowed only clave errnate (as the Schools speak) upon mistaken Subjects and so prove not only Ineffectual, for you good, but also greatly Prejudicial to you, before him that searcheth the Heart and trieth the Reins, by the Addition of high Presumption, and foul Hypocrisy to your other Crimes; which God of his Mercy give you Grace to prevent. 

While there could be popular support for the the moral responsibilities and communal well-being upheld by the ecclesiastical courts, it is clear from the sermon that after the Revolution there was growing scepticism about granting the courts too expansive a function. Even before the Revolution, ecclesiastical courts were increasingly at odds with the 'trend towards increased communal toleration and co-operation', resulting in the courts appearing arbitrary and divisive.  In addition to this, there was amongst clergy a 'deep-rooted dissatisfaction with their Church’s own courts', critical and suspicious of the bureaucracy which staffed the courts.  

This does raise some important questions about the desire expressed in the Commination for the restoration of the discipline of 'open penance'.  As Hooker and others had indicated in critiques of discipline by presbyteries, there were significant concerns about the jurisdiction claimed and its spiritual implications for the treatment of penitents. Such critiques came to be reflected in clerical unease over the role of church courts.  What is more, the increasing religious pluralism of Restoration England - enshrined by the Toleration Act at the Revolution - led to an expansive role for church courts being incompatible with communal harmony and obligations.  In other words, reading this 1696 sermon preached at an act of public penance should not lead us to be nostalgic for a lost discipline, but rather recognise it as an unsuitable and inappropriate expression of the Church's ministry of reconciliation.  

The process of judgement in an ecclesiastical court and public penance was also an intrinsically juridical affair.  This is evidenced in the language employed by the sermon: 'judicature', 'prosecution', 'crime', 'sentence', 'punishment'.  It is this which particularly highlights the unsuitability of the process.  Hooker had counselled against 'imposing upon the Church a burden to enter farther into men's hearts and to make a deeper search of their consciences than any Law of God or reason of man enforceth' (LEP V.68.9) and had emphasised that 'That which God doth chiefly respect in men's penitence, is their hearts' (VI.6.18).  Such concerns sit uneasily beside an expansive juridical process of discipline.  Likewise, Taylor - even while defending ecclesiastical censures - took care to state that the dominical commission, the foundation of ordained ministry, was not juridical:

This power and these commissions were wholly Ministerial without domination, without proper jurisdiction, that is, without coaction; it being wholly against the designe of the religion, that it should be forc'd; and it being far remov'd from persons, so dispos'd, so imployed, so instructed to doe it.

There was, therefore, within classical Anglican sources a rationale for critique of the system of discipline upheld by the ecclesiastical courts.  All of which points to the wisdom in the Church of Ireland's decision to revise the introduction to the Penitential Service, 'to be used on the First Day of Lent', removing the reference in the Commination to restoring 'open penance':

Brethren, there hath been, from ancient times, a godly custom in the Church, that, at the beginning of Lent, Christian people should be admonished, in an especial manner, of the great indignation of God against sin, and be moved thereby to earnest and true repentance, lest any be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Remembering, therefore that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, let us return unto our Lord God, with all contrition and meekness of heart; bewailing and lamenting our sinful life, acknowledging and confessing our offences, and seeking to bring forth worthy fruits of repentance.

As Hooker had said, quoting Tertullian:

For who is he that dare take upon him to be any man's accuser and judge?  Evil persons are not rashly and as we list to be thrust from Communion with the Church, insomuch that if we cannot proceed against them by any orderly course of judgement, they are rather to be suffered for the time than molested.  Many there are, reclaimed as Peter, many as Judas, known well enough, and yet tolerated: many which must remain undiscovered til the day of his appearance, by whom the secret corners of darkness, shall be brought into open light (VI.4.15).