'How he works upon us we know not': Monday in Whitsun Week

For this Monday in Whitsun Week, from an 1814 volume of sermons by Richard Mant - appointed Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora in 1820, translated to Down and Connor in 1823 - words from his sermon 'The Aid of the Spirit, the gift of God', on a trust in the ordinary working of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life, requiring no speculative inquiries or attempts to probe beyond the plain assurance of holy Scripture:

But whatever improvement our spiritual part is capable of receiving, it is not capable of furnishing that improvement to itself. We must be wrought upon by supernatural power: we must be "strengthened with might by the Spirit of God in the inner man." How he works upon us we know not: we need not, we cannot know; and it were useless and rash to inquire; for the scriptures, not only do not supply a clue to guide us in the search, but close the door upon such inquiries, by authoritatively asserting the fact, and requiring us to believe it as an article of faith, established on sufficient evidence. Do we ask with Nicodemus, "How can these things be?" We have our answer in the reply of our Saviour, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." Let it suffice us then, that the fact of the Spirit working within us is a part of that divine revelation, which Christ came to teach us: and let us not busy ourselves with inquiries into the manner of his operations ...

Such are some of the principal operations, wherein the Holy Spirit exercises his influence upon our souls; regenerating, instructing, leading, and assisting, strengthening, renewing, and comforting all those, who are willing to profit by his fellowship, and to submit to his influence: and such and so great being the blessings, thus bestowed upon us, how can we sufficiently admire the abundant goodness of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who "grants us according to the riches of his glory to be thus strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man"?

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Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

laudable Practice

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