"To meet the great day of account with confidence and joy": A Hackney Phalanx sermon for Stir-up Sunday

Since Advent 2021, laudable Practice has journeyed through the liturgical year with the sermons of Joseph Holden Pott. Associated with the Hackney Phalanx, the Old High circle which deeply influenced the early 19th century Church of England, Pott's A Course of Sermons, for the Lord's Day throughout the Year was published in 1817. The sermons have offered a significant insight into how Old High theology and piety was articulated from the pulpit.

Today's final extract is from the sermon for the Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity, the Sunday next before Advent. Based on the reading for the epistle, from Jeremiah 23, Pott emphasises how the righteousness of Christ is both the ground of our justification and is to bear the fruit of righteousness in the Christian life. This reflects an enduring Old High theme, echoed many times in Pott's sermons, on the necessity of good works.

This, of course, echoed the collect of the Sunday: "plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works". In doing so, it was also a preparation for the Advent season and "the great day of account". Once again, this demonstrates how the liturgical year could meaningfully shape pre-1833 Old High preaching.

As this year-long series of extracts from Holden's sermons comes to an end, I trust that it has suggested something of the depth of preaching in the Old High tradition and the pre-1833 Church of England.

The Prophet had just made this declaration concerning the long-expected Saviour of mankind, "I will raise up unto David a righteous branch: and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute justice and judgment upon earth". All this was to be fulfilled when Christ, the righteous branch of the royal stock of David, and the king over a new kingdom, should begin to exercise the part of judge by publishing that word of truth which has power to save, and which also has authority to judge; to condemn those who oppose its testimony, or who slight its salutary dictates. The Prophet then goes on to supply a further word of comfort and encouragement to such as I would give ear to his predictions concerning one who should be manifested of the royal house of David. "In his days", saith the Prophet, "Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely"; and, he adds the reason for their safety and salvation; "for this", saith he, "is his name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness" ...

Let us then apply our best pains to mark the purport of that name, and to consider how fully it becomes a name of trust and consolation; enabling those who take it for their sure reliance, to meet the great day of account with confidence and joy ...

The text, then, will now enable us to see with joy and comfort what their plea shall be who tread in those good ways to which Christ and his faithful witnesses have invited men. Walk they must in those ways, if they hope to reach the happy end to which they lead, and from which all unrighteous persons shall forever be excluded. The main ground, then, of access to the state of grace, of acceptance before God, of peace and reconciliation, and the main title to the glories of an everlasting kingdom, are the same from first to last. Whatever be the terms of duty, without which there could be no improvement in the day of trial, and no future recompense proportioned to those alternatives of choice and reasonable service, still the sole plea which shall endure in judgment, and prevail in that day, is that which the text displays, "the Lord our righteousness".

... let us fix the clear results of these considerations in our minds; and remember that the Redeemer's righteousness, his infinitely precious blood and merits are laid as the sole ground of acceptance before God; that they only shall be accepted of the Ļord, and shall share the recompense of glory who lead holy lives, and are righteous in their measure and proportion in this season of proficiency: and that such fruits of holiness will thrive only through the quickening influences, and supplies, the guidance and direction of God's ever-blessed Spirit.

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 ...

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...

'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

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