'This consummate divine': Robert Nelson's 'Life of Dr. George Bull'

Robert Nelson's 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull provides a good introduction to an oft misunderstood, if not overlooked, divine of the 18th century Church of England. Beginning with the Tractarians, Bull was portrayed as a proto-Anglo-catholic: a quite ridiculous view of a very obviously Protestant theologian. More recently, the retrieval of the Reformed tradition in the post-1662 Church of England tends to employ Bull as a foil for a vibrant Reformed orthodoxy. This is the role of Bull, for example, in Samuel Fornecker's excellent exploration of Arminian Conformity in the late 17th and early 18th century Church of England. Here Bull - who was regarded himself as a defender of Nicene faith - stands in a line of heterodox thought which resulted in Samuel Clarke's anti-Trinitarian theology. 

Nelson's Life provides a necessary corrective to such views. Nelson was - until he conformed in 1710 - a Nonjuror. As such, he was a robust opponent of heterodoxy, most obviously seen in his debate with Samuel Clarke. Likewise - and too often forgotten in Anglo-catholic folklore about the Nonjurors - he was a committed Protestant whose writings included Transubstantiation contrary to Scripture; or the Protestant's Answer to the Seeker's Request (1681) and a rebuttal of Roman claims in A Letter to an English Priest of the Roman Communion at Rome (1690).

This being so, Nelson's praise for Bull situates the latter in the mainstream of Church of England divinity during the 'long 18th century', a mainstream defined by creedal orthodoxy and an eirenic Protestantism.

In the preface to the Life, Nelson provides a brief description which both encapsulates Bull's standing and epitomises the divinity of the 18th century Church of England:

yet being Dead he still speaketh with so much clearness and strength of Reason, with so masterly a Knowledge in his own Profession, the best of Studies, with such an affecting Pathos, that impresseth it upon the Minds of others, and above all with such an inward Sense of Piety and Devotion, the true Christian Unction, in those Sermons and Discourses which are now Published, that the World would not have been at a loss to have framed a just Idea of this consummate Divine, if these Remains had been the only Works of his, which were to have been conveyed down to Posterity.

Nelson here sees in Bull significant characteristics of the 18th century Church of England: an intellectual and theological confidence, an attractive piety, and serious preaching. This latter point, in particular, is entirely at odds with the woefully outdated but stubbornly popular Old Hat view of the 18th century Anglicanism. By contrast - and echoing Nelson's view of Bull's sermons - the PECUSA Bishops in 1804, in a 'Course of Ecclesiastical Studies' for those pursuing holy orders, stated:

It seems necessary to this course of study, to recommend the sermons of some of the most distinguished preachers, who have so abounded in the Church of England for some ages past, that the only matter will be, from among many of great name, to select a convenient number.

Amongst this number we must surely place Bull, "this consummate Divine" and an exemplar of the strengths and vibrancy of the 18th century Church of England.

Over the next number of weeks, extracts from Nelson's Life will be posted, further exploring Bull's standing, legacy, and role, and how he shaped the contours of 18th century Anglican conformity.