"Special channels and appointed means": A Hackney Phalanx sermon for the Second Sunday after Easter

From A Course of Sermons, for the Lord's Day throughout the Year, Volume I (1817) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - an extract from a sermon for the Second Sunday after Easter, on the opening words of the Gospel of the day, "Jesus said, I am the good shepherd". Mindful that Pott was born in 1759 and ordained in 1783, and that the series of sermons was published 16 years before the beginning of the Oxford Movement, this extract is a powerful example of how a richly sacramental vision, with a clear understanding of apostolic ministry and its succession, was present in the pre-1833 Church:

it is time for us to remember, and the present season being the glad memorial to our minds, that there was a joyful promise of a speedy gathering together of the same flock which were scattered. This was accomplished when "the God of peace brought again from the dead that great shepherd of the sheep". Thus was the triumph of the resurrection set in view. When that glad scene was openly displayed, the shepherd of the sheep was pleased, from thenceforth, to constitute those who should feed his flock under his own appointment, and who should convey the same charge to others in succession, and wheresoever the folds of concord and security were opened to receive them ...

He who provided so eſſectually for his flock, established and ordained the special channels and appointed means for such supplies. He left the font of baptism for ever open, as Abraham dug his wells for succeeding generations. He instituted a perpetual grant of the bread of life and blessing, for his people; not laying up corn, as Joseph did, for a seven years' famine, but giving the true bread of life, for ever, to his people ...

It is one fold, under one shepherd, however parcelled out according to the bounds of diverse nations. There is one well of life in baptism; one food of doctrine and communion; one rule of discipline, in which the duties of the pastor and the flock are marked out and prescribed.

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Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

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