laudable Practice

As David Lindsay - Bishop of Brechin (1619-34 and Bishop of Edinburgh 1634-38) - continues his defence of the Articles of Perth, in his 1621 account of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held at Perth in 1618 , he again emphasises that such matters of ceremony and practice are not  determined by Scripture. Contrary to those who attacked the Articles of Perth, and who exalted the previous ceremonial order of the 1560 Book of Discipline , Lindsay explicitly states that the provisions of the Articles were not "knowne verities": None of the affirmatiue voters approued the Articles for knowne verities; for when wee speake of knowne verities, we vnderstand the verities defined in Scripture, such as are the points of our faith, which no man ought to call in question: but that any man did giue his voice otherwise, then his iudgement led him, yee will hardly perswade vs, much lesse, that any man would openly professe this. This, as Lindsay has previously demonstrated , re...

In his attack on Cranmer's Swiss eucharistic theology, Gardiner turns to sources he otherwise definitively rejected: Justus Jonas hath translate a Catechism out of Dutch into Latin, taught in the city of Noremberge in Germany, where Hosiander is chief preacher: in which Catechism, they be accounted for no true Christian men that deny the presence of Christ's body in the sacrament. The words "really" and "substantially" be not expressed, as they be in Bucer, but the word "truly" is there: and as Bucer saith, that is substantially ...  Philip Melancton, no papist nor priest, writeth a very wise Epistle in this matter to Ecolampadius, and signifying soberly his belief of the presence of Christ's very body in the sacrament. Invoking the prominent Lutheran theologians Melanchton and Jonas, and Bucer's eirenic eucharistic theology (a via media between Wittenberg and Zurich), Gardiner followed what is now a common, predictable path amongst papali...

Having considered the account given by Nelson, in his 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull , of the controversy following the 1669 publication of Bull's Harmonia Apostolica , we now turn to one particular aspect of that controversy, the involvement of a leading Dissenting divine: Some time after this, Mr. Daniel Williams, now a Doctor in Divinity, and an eminent Preacher and Writer in this City, among the Presbyterians, made himself famous for managing the Controversy against the Anti-Antinomian Principles, when they were breaking in with great impetuosity among those of his Persuasion. Williams (b.1643, d.1716), who refused to conform in 1662, was described by Nelson as standing in the line of Baxter's thought - in his  Aphorisms of Justification (1655) - regarding the necessity of works for our salvation, as against those whom Bull critiqued as 'Antinomians':  Dr. Williams may be said to have succeeded Mr. Baxter, in the Management of these Disputes, as he also incurred ther...

Early October. The colours of Autumn can be seen. Leaves begin to fall. The days are shortening. And yesterday it was Harvest Thanksgiving in the parish. Beginning in September, increasing in early- and mid-October, with some found here and there in late-October, many churches across these Islands have observed or will observe Harvest Thanksgiving. The Sundays of mid-Autumn, then, ring out with the collect of harvest, "we yield thee humble and hearty thanks for this thy bounty"; with the singing of 'Come, ye thankful people, come'; and with the words of Deuteronomy, "When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee". It is a time of year I particularly enjoy. The evocative colours of Autumn, the mists and the apples, the colder mornings and early evening sunsets, the chestnuts and pumpkins: it is a time to give thanks for the richness and bounty of the year. It is also fitting to give thanks...

At the Coronation of His Majesty the King, the Archbishop of Canterbury said this prayer over the oil with which the King was to be anointed: Blessed art thou, Sovereign God, upholding with thy grace all who are called to thy service. Thy prophets of old anointed priests and kings to serve in thy name and in the fullness of time thine only Son was anointed by the Holy Spirit to be the Christ, the Saviour and Servant of all. By the power of the same Spirit, grant that this holy oil may be for thy servant Charles a sign of joy and gladness; that as King he may know the abundance of thy grace and the power of thy mercy, and that we may be made a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for thine own possession. Is this Christian Nationalism? On Sunday 10th November this year, Remembrance Sunday, the Bishop of London will lead the nation in Christian prayer , before the Royal Family, representatives of the Government and Parliament, the Armed Forces, and ex-servicemen's organisations...

Last week we saw how, in his 1621 account of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held at Perth in 1618 , David Lindsay - Bishop of Brechin (1619-34 and Bishop of Edinburgh 1634-38) - made the case that the Church of Scotland had authority to alter ceremonies established at the Reformation. Lindsay invoked Reformed insistence that "ceremonies are but temporal" to undermine an exalted claim for fixing that particular ceremonial order as beyond change and reform. In today's extract, Lindsay moves on to consider the various Articles of Perth , demonstrating how it was fitting that they, in changed circumstances, altered the ceremonial order of the 1560 Book of Discipline . He began by again emphasising that changing circumstances justify a change to mere ceremonies: For if by occasion of any of these circumstances, the obseruation, which was profitable at one time, become hurtfull at another, and that which serued for reformation, breedes and fosters corruption, pr...

And albeit this author would not have them bare tokens, yet and they be only tokens ... One can almost hear the contempt with which Gardiner, in the above quote, used the word "tokens" with reference to Cranmer's doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Noting Cranmer's denial that the Bread and Wine are "bare tokens", Gardiner suggests that this denial misses the point - the Bread and Wine are still then "only tokens". Cranmer, however, does not run from the term in his Answer to Gardiner (1551). In fact, he confidently embraces it, affirming that the Bread and Wine in the Supper are indeed "tokens": Is therefore the whole use of the bread in the whole action and ministration of the Lord's holy Supper but a naked or nude and bare token? Is not one loaf being broken and distributed among faithful people in the Lord's Supper, taken and eaten of them, a token that the body of Christ was broken and crucified for them? and is to them spiri...

Last week, in our readings from Robert Nelson's 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull , we reached a crucial, defining moment - the publication, in 1669, of Bull's Harmonia Apostolica . The heated controversy surrounding this work on justification is addressed at some length by Nelson. In the edition we have been reading, Nelson's account of the controversy and the various debates surrounding the work extends from page 89 to page 276, one-third of the entire book. This itself provides some idea of the significance of the work and the debate it provoked.  Despite this, Nelson presents the opposition to Bull's work as unnecessary. He notes at the outset, for example, that, from the perspective of 1713, Bull's understanding of the relationship between faith and works had become the settled view of the Church of England: The best of it is, this Contention was of no long Continuance: For not long after this Treatise was Printed and received with much Applause on one side, and Con...

At Parish Communion and Holy Baptism on the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, 28.9.25 1 Timothy 6:12a “Fight the good fight of the faith …” [1] Saint Paul’s words in his First Letter to Timothy might make some contemporary Christians rather cautious: can such military language be used about the Gospel of peace? The answer must be ‘yes’ because this language is used in a number of places by the Apostle Paul in the Scriptures of the New Testament.  Our reading today was from Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. In his Second Letter, he also exhorts Timothy to be “a good soldier of Jesus Christ” [2]. In his Letter to the Ephesians, he encourages Christians to “put on the whole armour of God” [3]. In his Letter to the Philippians, he refers to someone ministering alongside him as his “fellow-soldier” [4]. The use of military language to describe Christian faith and life, then, is very clearly Scriptural. What is more, it has resonated with Christians across the centuries. John Chrysostom, one...

As Michaelmas approaches, words from Calvin's commentary on Psalm 91:11-12 , demonstrating how a lively understanding of the ministry of the angels was present in Reformed thought (as also seen in the writings of Bullinger ): The Psalmist adds, "all your ways" in the plural number, to convey to us more distinctly that wherever we go we may expect that the angels shall always extend their guardianship to us. The course of our life is subject to many windings and changes, and who can tell all the storms by which we are liable to be tossed? It was necessary, therefore, to know that the angels preside over all our particular actions and purposes, and thus to be assured of their safe-conduct in whatever quarter we might be called to move ... "They shall bear thee upon their hands." He gives us a still higher idea of the guardianship of the angels, informing us, that they not only watch lest any evil should befall us, and are on the alert to extend assistance, but bea...

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What other text is rest of the there in Scripture that encountereth with these words of Scripture, This is my body, whereby to alter the signification of them? There is no Scripture saith, Christ did not give his body, but the figure of his body ... Gardiner's words, quoted by Cranmer in his Answer to Gardiner  (1551), aptly summarise the core of his critique of Cranmer and, indeed, the core of the Roman and Lutheran critiques of the Swiss eucharistic theologies: "This is my body". The Swiss and their English supporters, it was alleged, pervert the Lord's words, emptying them of content, leaving only an empty figure. Cranmer's response is not to flee from or equivocate on the key affirmations of the Swiss eucharistic theologies, but to robustly reaffirm them: The Scripture is plain, and you confess also, that it was bread that Christ spake of, when he said, This is my body. And what need we any other Scripture to encounter with speech these words, seeing that all ...

Our readings from Nelson's 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull now reach the publication of Bull's first work, the work which would establish his reputation as the leading divine of the Arminian Conformist stream of thought in the post-Restoration Church of England. His  Harmonia Apostolica   quickly became a defining text of what Samuel Fornecker's excellent study terms Arminian Conformity. It is this which makes Nelson's opening comments on the work particularly interesting: In the Year 1669, he first Printed that excellent Piece, his Apostolical Harmony, &c. which was begun by him, when but Young, with a View of settling Peace in the Church, upon a Point of greatest Importance to all its Members. This Book he Dedicated to his Diocesan the Bishop of Gloucester, Dr. William Nicholson, a very proper Judge and Patron, who had very much also encouraged and supported him in this Work. I have previously mentioned in this series that Stephen Hampton places Nicholson amon...