Anglican critiques of revivalism: Tillotson on "the ordinary influence of the Holy Ghost"

With reporting of the 'Asbury Revival' now having reached these shores (e.g. reports in the Independent, Daily Mail, and Premier Christianity), laudable Practice thought it might be an appropriate time to consider Anglican critiques of revivalism. There is an inevitability to calls for churches in these Islands to follow the pattern of the Asbury Revival. Indeed, such a call was issued in the Premier Christianity article already referenced: 

It seems that those in Asbury got close enough to the flame of God’s presence for his fire to consume them. Long may it continue and may we all follow suit.

Those words alone - with the assumption that an intense worship experience equates to the working of the Holy Spirit - are suggestive of the need for a renewed understanding of the historical Anglican critique of revivalism. 

One of the most significant Anglican critiques of revivalism was given by John Tillotson (Archbishop of Canterbury 1691-94) in two sermons entitled 'Of the ordinary influence of the Holy Ghost on the minds of Christians' (Sermons CXCIX and CC in Works of Tillotson, Volume VIII). At the core of Tillotson's critique is the understanding of the working of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life. The "ordinary influence" of the Spirit is experienced in - to use Cranmer's words - "a godly, righteous, and sober life":

I shall endeavour to open to you the nature of this gift of the Holy Ghost, understanding by it the ordinary influence of the Holy Spirit of God upon the hearts and minds of believers. And I doubt not but that the Scripture means by it an immediate influence and operation of the Holy Spirit of God upon the minds of men, an inward power, strength, and assistance, communicated to Christians, to all the purposes of holiness and obedience, enabling them to be such "manner of persons, in all holy conversation and godliness," as the gospel requires.

It is in this "ordinary influence", not the "extraordinary", that the promise of the outpouring and indwelling of the Holy Spirit is fulfilled in the lives of all Christians:

And that the Scripture, by the promise of the Spirit, and the various expressions concerning it, does mean this ordinary assistance common to all Christians in all times, and not only the extraordinary and miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, which were peculiar to the first ages of Christianity, seems to me to be very plain; because the Scripture makes the gift of the Spirit to be common to all believers, and to be given to all that are baptized. 

Such "ordinary influence" of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life begins at Holy Baptism, the Sacrament "neglected or slighted" by revivalist teachings and practices:

This shews the great fault of the contempt and neglect of the sacrament of baptism, which was instituted by our Saviour as the solemn rite and ceremony of admitting persons into the Christian religion, and the means of making us partakers of this gift of the Spirit, and of all the blessed fruits and effects of it; so that this sacrament cannot be neglected or slighted, without great affront to the Christian religion, and contempt of one of the greatest blessings promised in the gospel. They that were admitted to the solemn profession of Christianity by baptism, were "made partakers of the Holy Ghost;" and this not only in the apostles' times, but in all after ages; for this "promise of the Holy Ghost was to them and their children, and to all that were afar off, even to as many as the Lord their God should call;" that is, to all that should embrace the Christian religion, and make a solemn profession of it in baptisın, in all succeeding ages to the end of the world.

Tillotson also reminds us that sober-minded, faithful liturgical prayer is praying "in and by the Spirit of God", contrasting this with "the boisterous passions" which can accompany extemporary revivalist worship:

Others pretend, that the Spirit doth immediately dictate to them their prayers, which many times are very confused and unbeseeming, and too plainly the issue of a heated imagination; whereas "God is not the God of confusion, but of order." And what is merely the effect of an acquired habit, or natural fluency and facility of expression and warm affections, they confidently ascribe to the Spirit of God; whereas the Spirit of God is more frequently and certainly in the still voice, than in the high wind and fire, the boisterous passions, and fiery zeal of men. And certainly, he that takes care to put up wise and decent petitions to God, and considers carefully what to beg of him, and asks it in a becoming manner, with faith and true fervency of affection, though in a form, hath much more reason to conclude that he prays in and by the Spirit of God, than he that hath the greatest freedom of extempore effusions.

The essence of the critique of revivalism offered by Tillotson - and consistently repeated by subsequent Anglican critics - is that revivalism is fundamentally misguided in how and where it seeks the presence and workings of the Holy Spirit:

And, after all, there is a much better and clearer demonstration, that a man hath the Spirit of God, than any of these pretences; and that is, from the undoubted fruits of the Spirit, in the graces and virtues of a good life, which are visible and manifest in the temper and conversation of a good man; and without these, all pretences to the Spirit of God are but fancy and vain delusions; such men "deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them."

Tillotson's sermons 'Of the ordinary influence of the Holy Ghost on the minds of Christians' are required reading in order to understand the deep-seated and enduring Anglican caution, reserve, and scepticism regarding revivalism. They point to a significant Anglican alternative - in terms of theology, preaching, and piety - to revivalism. This should be an Anglican response to the 'Asbury Revival': offering a meaningful alternative, deeply rooted in scripture, shaped by the church's prayer and sacraments, sober and thoughtful in its teaching, quietly and modestly ministering to "bring forth in us the fruit of good living".