'This great master of the Ancient Fathers': Robert Nelson's 'Life of Dr. George Bull' and the patristic confidence of the 18th century Church of England
It is against this background that we see Bull address the activity of "Romish missionaries" in his parish:
While Mr. Bull was Rector of Suddington, the Providence of God gave him an Opportunity of fixing Two Ladies of Quality, in that Neighbourhood, in the Protestant Communion; who had been reduced to a very wavering State of Mind, by the Arts and Subtleties of some Romish Missionaries. Their specious Pretences to Antiquity were easily detected by this great Master of the Ancient Fathers; and by his thorough Acquaintance with Scripture, and the Sense of the Catholick Church, in Matters of the greatest Importance, he was able to distinguish between Primitive Truths, and those Errors which the Church of Rome built upon them. He had frequent Conferences with both these Ladies, and answered those Objections which appeared to them to have the greatest Strength, and by which they were very near falling from their Stedfastness; for one of them he Writ a small Treatise, which she had Requested from him, but no Copy of it is to be found among those Papers he left behind him; nothing remaineth of it but the Remembrance that it was Written, and that he did thereby succeed in Establishing the Lady in the Communion of the Church of England. Both the Ladies always owned with the greatest Sense of Gratitude this signal Service they received from the Learning and Capacity of Mr. Bull.
What immediately struck me in reading this passage were echoes of Jeremy Taylor. It was Taylor who was the author of A Letter Written to a Gentlewoman Newly Seduced to the Church of Rome, addressing the same gender and social context. Taylor had the same invocation of the Primitive Church: "So that the Church of England hath the same faith without dispute that the Church had for 400 or 500 Years". He likewise emphasised that Roman developments contrasted with Primitive truth, "from ancient Traditions to new pretences". Nelson's reference to Bull's "thorough Acquaintance with Scripture", which would have led the two ladies in question to search the Scriptures, echoes Taylor's emphasis on holy Scripture:
You are gone from a Church where you were exhorted to read the Word of God, the holy Scriptures from whence you found instruction, institution, comfort, reproof, a treasure of all excellencies, to a Church that seals up that fountain from you.
There is also Nelson's phrase "the Sense of the Catholick Church", which is exactly the same phrase found in Taylor's Rules and Advices to his clergy - "Every Minister ought to be careful that he never expound Scriptures in publick contrary to the known sence of the Catholick Church".
The similarities are interesting and perhaps suggestive. They could mean that Nelson used Taylor's A Letter Written to a Gentlewoman as a template for describing Bull's approach to the two ladies in his parish, particularly in light of the fact - as Nelson notes - that Bull's written document for one of the ladies was not retained amongst his papers. Alternatively, and this is entirely plausible in light of Taylor's stature as a divine, Bull himself was guided by Taylor's work in these interactions.
What is also significant in this extract is how it exemplifies the self-confidence of the Restoration Church of England, that it was, in the words of Eamon Duffy, "Primitive Christianity revived". The flowering of patristic studies amongst Restoration Church of England divines - with Bull himself, of course, central to this process - gave rise to a conviction that the Church of England was the best embodiment of the Primitive Church, a conviction which endured across the 'long 18th century'. Bull's knowledge of the Fathers and his confidence that the teaching of the Church of England, not that of Rome, agreed with "Primitive truths", was part of a much broader movement. It was also to be seen, for example, in William Beveridge's sermon 'Steadfastness to the Established Church Recommended':
there are [some] who blame our Reformation as defective, as if the Church were not reformed, not purged enough from the errors it had before contracted; but if such would but lay aside all prejudices, and impartially consider the constitution of our Church, as it is now reformed, they might clearly see, that as there is nothing defective, so neither is there any thing superfluous in it, but that it exactly answers the pattern of the Primitive and Apostolical Church itself, as near as it is possible for a national Church to do it; insomuch, that they who truly believe all that she teaches, and practise all that she requireth, may be as pure and holy as any of the first Christians, or the Apostles themselves were, or can be, so long as they continue in the Church Militant here on earth.
In a recent post in this series, I highlighted how the fact that the Arminian Conformist Bull and the Reformed Conformist Beveridge both delighted in the practice of singing metrical Psalms was an expression of the "unity and accord" of the 18th century Church of England, a unity and accord greater than their theological differences regarding aspects of soteriology. A shared conviction that the Church of England was the closest to "the pattern of the Primitive and Apostolical Church" is a reminder that such unity and accord was not only in terms of piety. It had profoundly theological roots, not least this shared conviction of 'Primitive Christianity restored'.
Comments
Post a Comment