Anglican critiques of revivalism: Mant against "instantaneous conversion"

In his 1812 Bampton Lectures - An appeal to the Gospel, or, An inquiry into the justice of the charge, alleged by Methodists and other objectors, that the gospel is not preached by the national clergy - Richard Mant (received orders in 1802, consecrated to the episcopate in 1820) challenged the revivalist notion of the necessity of "a special and instantaneous conversion". Mant, referring to the "writings of the Founders of Methodism, and of the most eminent among those Ministers of the Establishment, who, like the professed Methodists, have been distinguished (I think unduly) by the appellation of Evangelical or Gospel Preachers", confronted the accusation from revivalists that "the Gospel is not preached in our Church":

[those who] claim the appellation of Evangelical or Gospel preachers, thereby exclude, by implication at least, if not expressly, from a share in that appellation those of their fellow-labourers, whose opinions and style of preaching do not correspond with their own.

Against the revivalists' "special and instantaneous conversion", Mant set forth an alternative understanding of conversion known to Anglican piety, slower but more certain, milder but more secure:

Conversion, according to our notions, may not improperly be said to consist of a rational conviction of sin, and sense of its wretchedness and danger; of a sincere penitence and sorrow of heart, at having incurred the displeasure of a holy God; of steadfast purposes of amendment with the blessing of the divine grace; of a regular and diligent employment of all the appointed means of grace; and of a real change of heart and life, of affections and conduct, and a resolute perseverance in well-doing. The triumph of such conversion as this is not attended by alternations of extreme joy and despondency; of the most ecstatic rapture, and the most gloomy despair; sometimes by heavenly exultation, and sometimes by the agonies of hell. It has little of what is brilliant and dazzling to decorate; little of what is magnificent and imposing to dignify and exalt it. It cannot be described as intended by the Lord to set the world in a flame [quoting Whitefield]: the minister, who is God's instrument to effect it, cannot be pompously represented to be carried as on eagle's wings [from Whitefield works]; or be elevated into a comparison with Joshua, going from city to city, and subduing the devoted nations: its direction cannot be said to be marked out by a sign from heaven, as the cloud employed by Providence to conduct the people of Israel on their march through the wilderness [Whitefield]: its progress cannot be described to be terrible as an army with banners: its effects cannot be extolled into a rivalry with the success of the victorious and imperial Constantine [quoting Wesley]. But if its operations are slow, they are certain; if its effects are milder, they are more secure; if its conquests are less extensive, and it draws a less numerous crowd of suppliants at its chariot wheels, it exerts a more permanent dominion over those, whom it has subdued. Unambitious of earthly distinction, and contented with doing good, its throne is the humble and contrite spirit, and its sceptre is righteousness and peace.

The reality of such conversion through the ordinary preaching (addressing the reason as much as the heart) and regular ministrations of the established Church was expounded by Mant:

We may therefore hold ourselves acquitted of any dereliction of evangelical truth, if we decline inforcing instantaneous conversion, as necessary to the salvation of Christians. And if, on the contrary, we warn our hearers against being deluded by such fanciful, irrational, and unscriptural conceits; if we address them as beings, formed in the image, after the likeness of God, and although lamentably fallen indeed, and partakers of a nature essentially corrupt, yet still endowed with reason, the glorious inheritance derived from their gracious Creator; if we endeavour to convince their understandings, and thereby to alarm their fears, and animate their hopes; if we labour to persuade their minds of the necessity of a Redeemer to reconcile them to their offended God, and fill their hearts with a devout affection and veneration for Him, who paid the price of their redemption; if we impress on them the awful truth, that the wages of sin, notwithstanding the sacrifice of Christ, and notwithstanding their admission into his Church, will eventually be death, unless it be heartily repented of through faith in the blood of the Redeemer, and followed by reformation and amendment of heart and life; if we persuade them not to rely on strong internal impulses, but to make diligent use of the appointed means of grace; and if we thus encourage and assist them, not to expect a sudden change of heart, but, under the guidance of the revealed will of God, and with the preventing and assisting grace of the Holy Spirit, gradually to build themselves up in faith and holiness, and so to grow unto an holy temple of the Lord.

A key consequence of this is that addressing "humble Christians ... who, having been once regenerated by water and the Holy Spirit, have so followed his heavenly motions, and improved his sanctifying graces" with a call for a supposed need for "instantaneous conversion" is a denial of the redeeming, sanctifying work of God in their lives:

And are we to be told that Christians, such as these, must experience an intire change of heart, a thorough conversion of their ways? It is not to ascribe any merit to their righteousness; it is no prejudice to the precious efficacy of the Redeemer's blood, or to the all-sufficiency of the Holy Spirit, (God forbid!) to say that they need no conversion. By that blood they have been purified from the original corruption of their nature; by that blood they have been cleansed of their actual sins; by the Holy Spirit of God they have been regenerated; his preventing grace hath conducted them; his assisting grace hath cooperated with, and given effect to their zealous endeavours to persevere in the course of piety and virtue; his sanctifying influence renews and invigorates them day by day. Let God have all the glory of their continuance in their Christian career: but let it not be judged necessary that they should undergo a change of mind, of views, and dispositions, when that change must be from holiness unto sin; let them not be subject to a conversion, which must be the very reverse of turning them from darkness unto light, from the power of Satan unto God.

Mant, therefore, provides a robust scriptural and theological account to undergird a conventional, ordinary Anglican piety, in which conversion is authentically experienced through "outward and ordinary means", including preaching characterised by "moral persuasion upon the soul" and in which "reason is ... engaged". Here, in the words of Mant, was a "more sober, more rational, and (I trust) more evangelical doctrine".