Skip to main content

'Better than indiscreet and superstitious zeal': A Hackney Phalanx sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

From A Course of Sermons, for the Lord's Day throughout the Year, Volume II (1817) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - an extract from a sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. Preaching on the Gospel of the Sunday, the Lord's compassion for the Widow of Nain, Pott holds the Lord's example before us as a call to exercise charity.  Note the contrast between the duty of charity, exercised towards the neighbour in daily living, and the "self-inflicted pains" of "superstitious zeal", a further example of the Old High critique of an Enthusiasm which would later be seen amongst Tractarians.

The Gospel will instruct them how to take up this part with a good grace, and without any overweening zeal: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ": such is the precept. None are exempted from the duties it enjoins. If this be a sort of voluntary suffering, yet it has a better end than many of those self-inflicted pains, which have been prompted by indiscreet and superstitious zeal; by which the benefit of others has not been in the least considered or promoted. Nor will a readiness to bear a part of the burden of our neighbour, serve only to add another to the number of those, who are heavy laden in the world. To what end would it be, to swell that list by voluntary miseries? A far better purpose will be answered, by foregoing some hours of worldly business or amusement, and by consenting to give up some measures of indulgence. 

The exercise of charity will be enlarged; and the growth of every noble quality of heart and mind, will be expanded. Some measures of compassion must be cherished by every member of the common family of mankind, or the fruits of temporal prosperity will be bitter at the last. It is to be observed likewise, that they who think it too severe a duty to rob themselves of any cheerful moment, and to open any inlet to the floods of sorrow, by taking a voluntary part in the burdens or the griefs of others; they who can make use of selfish pleas to justify a careless life, or to excuse a cold neglect, must have formed no just conception of the real satisfactions which are experienced by the benevolent, even where they seem to give up their own pleasures, and to make a sacrifice of some enjoyments, which cannot be called unlawful or forbidden. The measure of enjoyment is really increased in all such cases. So true it is in every sense, that "the merciful man doeth good to his own soul". He enlarges the best sources of its happiness, and establishes a sure ground of contentment. He cultivates those pleasures, which will bear reflection, and which will lose nothing of their sweetness by decay, or by the changes of a varying season.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders.  With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter.  The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition).  Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical).  Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...
25 comments
Read more

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition.  A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics".  Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics.  What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition.  Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...
19 comments
Read more

1928 practices and the 1979 book: unthinking conservatism or popular piety?

Those responsible for Earth & Altar - a new blog emanating from a group within TEC - are to be congratulated for an excellent contribution to wider Anglican discussion and debate. The commitment to "an expansively conceived credal orthodoxy as fully compatible with LGBTQ inclusion, gender equality, and racial justice" is an important part of a wider retrieval of creedal orthodoxy within what we might call the post-liberal generation. It is in this spirit that I want to respond to a recent post on the site by Andrew McGowan , Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Professor of Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School.  Against the background of another round of "ill-defined" liturgical revision in TEC, he understandably urges that a fuller reception of the 1979 BCP should occur before further reforms. In doing so, however, he takes aim at what he describes as "clinging to the ritual structures of 1928" while using the text of 1979.  We ...
2 comments
Read more