laudable Practice

From Samuel Clarke's sermon ' Of the Fulness of Time in which Christ appeared ', on the text Galatians 4:4-5, preached on Christmas Day: If this Divine person, the Author of our religion, notwithstanding the exceeding dignity of his nature, yet condescended to become truly and really a man; subjecting himself to all the infirmities of human nature, and being in all things made like unto his brethren, sin only excepted; This may convince us of the reasonableness of our Holy Religion; and of the possibility of our paying obedience to its laws. Had God sent his Son in great Glory, and in the Form of God, to reveal his Will to us by his absolute command only; such an extraordinary Revelation, like the Mountain that burned with Fire, would indeed have sufficiently convinced us of the necessity of Religion and the indispensableness of obedience. But when this great person vouchsafed to become, not only the Author of our Religion, but in our own nature the pattern also of our duty...

On this Christmas Eve, we turn to Bishop Bull's sermon ' The blessed Virgin's low and exalted Condition ' on the text Luke 1:48-49 - "For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden; for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For He that is mighty hath done for me great things; and holy is His name". Bull declares "that both it [i.e. the text] and the whole Magnificat, or song of the blessed Virgin, is applicable to, and may be made use of by, all true Christians".  There is something of an echo here of Bede's statement that the use of the Magnificat at Evening Prayer is a "meditating upon the incarnation". Even more significantly, Bull is also following Augustine : it means more for Mary to have been a disciple of Christ than to have been the mother of Christ. It means more for her, an altogether greater blessing, to have been Christ's disciple than to have been Christ's mother. There is, then, s...

In these days before Christmas Day, laudable Practice will follow on from the short Advent series on sermons on the Last Things by Tillotson, Bull, and Clarke by sharing extracts from sermons on the Incarnation by these three divines of the 18th century Church of England. Today's extract is from Tillotson's 1680 sermon ' Concerning the Incarnation of Christ ', preached on 21st December in the Church of St. Lawrence Jewry, London, on the text John 1:14. Note how this sermon was delivered before Christmas. Tillotson described the time as the "Occasion of the Annual Commemoration of the Incarnation and Nativity of our B. Lord and Saviour". Tillotson's text, of course, has significance as the Prayer Book's appointed Gospel for Christmas Day. He was, in other words, preparing the congregation for the proclamation of this Gospel at Christmas Communion.  Pointing to the Evangelist's account of the Incarnation as a setting forth of God's "most g...

O Lord, raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of thy Son our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be honour and glory, world without end. Amen. Jeremy Taylor in his sermon ' The Invalidity of a Late or Death-bed Repentance ', from his Golden Grove sermons: This is the sum total of repentance: we must not only have overcome sin, but we must after great diligence have acquired the habits of all those Christian graces which are necessary in the transaction of our affairs, in all relations to God and our neighbour, and our own person. It is not enough to say, "Lord, I thank Thee, I am no extortioner, no adulterer, not as this publican;" all the reward of such a penitent is that when he hath escaped the corruption ...

In the conclusion of his sermon ' Of a Future Judgement ', Samuel Clarke provides three applications of the scriptural proclamation of the Last Judgement. Reflecting a key concern of 18th century Church of England preaching, Clarke again emphasises that this teaching calls us to holy living: "then let us continually be aware, that all Other expectations whatsoever, are mere Deceits". To reject this as 'moralism' is, quite frankly, to entirely ignore vast swathes of the New Testament, as Clarke's references illustrate.  Also noteworthy is Clarke's use of words from II Maccabees, a reminder that references to the Apocrypha were standard in the preaching of all three divines quoted in this short series. The fact that we see this in Tillotson and Clarke evidences the fact that this was by no means a 'high church' characteristic: it was a standard Church of England practice, in accordance with Article VI. Finally, the preaching of these three divine...

In the final extract from Bishop Bull's sermon ' The Vanity of this Life, the Eternity of the next ', he summarises how - in the words of Article VII - "both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ". This insistence on the unity of the covenants grounds the Christian hope in God's enduring purposes, "the old catholic faith" stretching back to patriarchs and prophets.  We can detect here, I think, an affirmation of a Reformed approach to reading of the Scriptures of the Old Covenant, a refusal to stand the New Testament against the Old, declaring the same hope in both, "the doctrine of a future life and judgment". As the Advent season begins again for us the cycle of feasts and observances which lead from Incarnation, to Cross, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, Bull's sermon is a call to read and hear the Scriptures of the Old Testament as a proclamation of our salvation in Christ, in expectation...

This week brings to a close the short Advent series of posts from sermons on the Last Things by divines of the 18th century Church of England. As we come to the conclusion of each of the sermons, it has hopefully been demonstrated that they are evidence - contrary to the stubbornly enduring Old Hat view of Anglicanism in that century - of a lively, robust, and vibrant proclamation of the Last Judgement in 18th century Anglican preaching. Today we turn to the conclusion of Archbishop Tillotson's sermon ' Of the Certainty of a Future Judgment '. Here Tillotson exhorts that we are to live as if the Last Judgement "were already and actually present", calling us to a serious repentance and reclaiming us for the duties of Christians: the gospel plainly declares that all this shall be, and thou professest to believe it. Why then dost thou not live as if thou didst believe these things? Why should not that which will certainly be, have to all reasonable purposes the same ...

Dec. 18 ... I read Prayers and Preached this Morning at Weston - the diary of Parson Woodforde . It was the Fourth Sunday in Advent 1785, with one week until Christmas Day. The congregation at Morning Prayer in Weston Church would have heard Parson Woodforde pray the collect of the day: "O Lord, raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us ...". And, of course, the Advent collect would have rung out: "give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life". Parson Woodforde's sermon would have been on a text from the lessons of the day, perhaps from Isaiah 30:1-27, the Old Testament reading appointed in the Proper Lessons for Sundays in the Prayer Book: For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength ... At the Ante-Communion, the words of the Epis...

O Lord Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee: Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Words from Jeremy Taylor in The Great Exemplar (1649), Part I Ad. Section VIII 'Considerations upon the Preaching of John the Baptist', offer a meditation on the words of the collect of the Third Sunday in Advent and of the Advent Ember Week. As with the collect, Taylor invokes the public ministry of the Baptist as an example for ordained ministers.  What is more, just as the Baptist's public ministry - rather than his previous life of solitude - is understood by the four Evangelists' to be the fulfilment of I...

In his sermon ' Of a Future Judgement ', Samuel Clarke gives voice to a significant concern in much preaching in the 18th century Church of England: that the New Testament declares the Last Judgement to be on the grounds of the fruits of righteousness in our lives. To dismiss this as 'moralism' - as 18th century revivalists did, followed by 19th century evangelicals and Tractarians, echoed by much contemporary commentary on 18th century Anglicanism - is to, at best, obscure the teaching of the New Testament and not least that of Our Lord: Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Clarke's critique of a reliance on "any unconditionate Decree", that is, on an assumed knowledge of the decree of predestination, likewise reflects wider concerns amongst 'Arminian' and 'Latitudinarian' thought. It al...

In the previous extract from Bishop Bull's sermon ' The Vanity of this Life, the Eternity of the next ', we saw how he pointed to Psalm 1 as declaring the judgement that is to come. Here he also turns to Psalm 102 as an example of the Psalter proclaiming the Last Judgement, particularly seeing in Ps.102:25f "the very doctrine of St. Peter" concerning the end of the ages. Again, it is a reminder to us that to pray the Psalter, not least in these days of Advent, is to be called to prepare for the "dissolution of this present world": In the time of the captivity lived the penman of the 102d Psalm, as clearly appears from the thirteenth and following verses; and he is thought by some learned interpreters to have been Nehemiah. But whoever was the writer of the Psalm, we have therein a very remarkable passage to our purpose in the twenty-fifth and following verses: "Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy ha...

Continuing with this Advent series of extracts from sermons on the Last Things by divines of the 18th century Church of England, we return to Archbishop Tillotson's sermon ' Of the Certainty of a Future Judgment '.  Having established "the truth and certainty" of the Last Judgement, Tillotson expounds how this should lead us - in the words of the Advent collect - to 'cast away the works of darkness', rather than pass days, years, and months "in the gross neglect of God and religion, and of [our] immortal souls": Thus you see the truth and certainty of a future judgment confirmed, from the acknowledgments of men's natural hopes and fears, from the natural notions which men have concerning God and his providence, and from plain revelation of Scripture. All that I shall do farther at present, shall be to make some reflections upon what hath been delivered, concerning the certainty of a future general judgment ... If there be such a day certainly...

One of the greatest glories of Morning Prayer in Ireland is the Canticle Urbs Fortitudinis ('We have a strong city', based on Isaiah XXVI v.1).  It is a comment which captures the wisdom of the Irish Prayer Book tradition: cautious, very modest reform of 1662, with gentle enrichments (Harvest Thanksgiving, Saint Patrick's Day, The Form for the Consecration of a Churches and Churchyard, The Order for the Publick Institution of a Minister to a Cure) that go with the grain of, rather than disrupting, the rhythms of Cranmerian liturgy. Amongst those gentle enrichments, pride of place goes to the Urbs Fortitudinis, an alternative to the Te Deum and Benedicite as the first canticle at Morning Prayer. It has been a favourite in the Church of Ireland over the century since its introduction in the revision of 1926 . This popularity is at least partly explained by a native pride in the Urbs. It also perhaps due to the Urbs resonating in the context of the political uncertainties whi...

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. Jeremy Taylor in Ductor Dubitantium , 'Rule XIV. The Christian law both of Faith and Manners is fully contained in the Holy Scriptures; and from thence onely can the Conscience have divine Warrant and Authority': Of the perfection and fulness of the Christian law I have already given accounts; but where this law is recorded, and that the Holy Scriptures are the perfect and onely Digest of it, is the matter of the present Rule, which is of great use in the Rule of Conscience; because if we know not where our Rule is to be found, and if there can be several Tables of the law pretended, our obedience must be by chance or our own choice, th...

The third 18th century Church of England divine to whom we turn to consider their preaching on the Last Things, during these days of Advent, is Samuel Clarke. Yes, you read that correctly: Samuel Clarke, the divine whose work The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity provoked intense controversy in the years following its publication in 1712, leading to the robust affirmation of Trinitarian orthodoxy by Daniel Waterland. Clarke's heterodoxy on the matter of the Holy Trinity made him the champion of theological radicals and the bête noire  of the strongly orthodox, Tory, and High Church Lower House of Convocation.  Despite this, however, his sermons were popularly received across the 18th century Church of England. This is seen in the fact that the strongly orthodox 'Yale Apostates' - those New Congregational ministers who in 1722 embraced the Church of England and sought episcopal orders - made a point, when in London in March 1723 , of hearing Clarke preach. When George Prety...

In this Advent series of 18th century Anglican sermons on the Last Things, we turn to Bishop Bull's sermon ' The Vanity of this Life, the Eternity of the next '. In this extract, Bull points to the Psalms as proclaiming the last judgement, particularly seeing in Psalm 1 a declaration that the "winnowing time of judgement will come". It is a reminder to us that to pray the Psalter during this season is to be prepared in heart and soul for "the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead". To the same purpose are those Psalms of David, wherein he amply describes the prosperous and flourishing estate of many wicked men; and, on the other side, the calamitous and afflicted condition of many good and virtuous in this world; and yet in the close pronounceth these to be most happy men, and the other to be most miserable; which cannot be true, but on supposition of a future state and resurrection. Of this sort...

During these days of Advent laudable Practice will be posting extracts from sermons by three Church of England divines of the 18th century, addressing the matter of the Last Things. In addition to providing material for reflection during the Advent season, it will also be an exercise in demonstrating how - contrary to the interpretation promoted by 19th century Tractarians and evangelicals, and commonly received thereafter - 18th century Anglican preaching could be robustly grounded in Scripture, setting forth the fundamentals of the Faith, and establishing a foundation for faithful living. In the words of one commentator in 1828 , just as the 'long 18th century' was coming to a close, Anglican preaching of that century was marked by "clear reasoning, sober argument, and touching exhortation". We begin with an extract from Archbishop Tillotson's sermon ' Of the Certainty of a Future Judgment ', in which he sets out belief in the final judgement as reasona...

Advent must, I think, be the season of the Old High imagination. It is at least partly related to the arrival of Winter with December days, a desire for churches and liturgy to reflect the healthy stripping away in the natural world that comes with Winter. Winter's sharpness clears away that which cannot sustain us and thus focusses us on light and life. It was Washington Irving (a good churchman) who said, "But in the depth of winter, when nature lies despoiled of every charm, and wrapped in her shroud of sheeted snow, we turn for our gratifications to moral sources".  The Winter days of Advent invite us to think of churches and liturgy which likewise are without gaudy distractions or excessive ceremonies, not hindering us turning in heart, mind, and soul, through scripture, prayer, and sacrament, to the Source of Righteousness, Grace, and Truth, the One who alone can sustain us in the winter of this world. And so, with the days short, the mornings dark, the sun setting...