laudable Practice

Sitting on my desk, alongside a somewhat battered Church of Ireland BCP 1926, is a hard-backed copy of a 1973 Alcuin Club study, by Timothy J. Fawcett - The Liturgy of Comprehension 1689: An abortive attempt to revise The Book of Common Prayer . It is, I think, the only published study of the Liturgy of Comprehension, the attempted revision of the Prayer Book in the immediate aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, in an attempt to reconcile Dissenters to the Church of England. It sits on my desk for two reason. Firstly, because it influenced the Church of Ireland post-disestablishment revision of the Prayer Book. Secondly, because of my affection for John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury 1693-97, a strong supporter of William and Mary, and a leading figure in the proposed revision of 1689. It is not that I welcome all the suggested revisions of 1689. Some, I think, would have been unwise and de-stabilising for the Church of England and 18th century Anglicanism. Some were unnecessary,...

From a sermon preached by Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, on the First Sunday in Lent, 1695: It is certain, That the main design and chief effect of Religion, is to Purify our Hearts, to Reform our Natures, to Restrain our Inclinations, our Appetites and Passions, and to spread such an influence through our whole Lives, through all our Powers, and in all our Actions, that the world may from thence, as from the evidentest as well as the powerfullest Argument, be convinc'd both of the beauty and force of this Religion. The Christian Religion in its true Purity, and as it is received among us, is so stript of all those outward appearances of Pompous and Costly, of severe or cruel Performances, that unless it reforms our Natures and our Lives, it has not enough in it to feed and support that false quiet that Superstition may give ... But as to us and our Religion, What can we expect from it, if it has not a real influence upon our Hearts and Lives? Can we think that for our going sometim...

Gilbert Burnet's sermon for 30th January 1681 is a fine example of how those termed 'Latitudinarians' could approach this commemoration of the Royal Martyr. The sermon was preached before the Aldermen of the City of London in St Lawrence Jewry, a Latitudinarian centre. The vicar at the time was Cambridge Platonist Benjamin Whichcote. The phrase 'Royal Martyr' is a good place to begin consideration of the sermon. Burnet had no hesitation in referring to the "just esteem and veneration of this Royal Martyr" or to expressing "detestation of so unparalleled a wickedness ... the horridness of so unexempled a wickedness". Indeed, in the sermon Burnet pointed to that iconic statement of Royalist and Episcopalian devotion when considering the darkness of the 1640s, Eikon Basilike : "we have his character given us in such true and lasting colours, in that Picture which he drew for himself, in his solitudes and sufferings". In other words, Latit...

That some Anglicans invoked Article XIII of the Thirty-nine to criticise the Archbishop of Canterbury's Diwali statement is an excellent example of exactly how not to use the Articles of Religion.  In sending greetings to Hindu communities in the United Kingdom celebrating Diwali, the festival of light, the Archbishop praised the "example of care and kindness in Hindu communities". Such "acts of community of family love and kindness", he said, "can bring light into these moments of darkness". And so, "Hindu communities are so often being the light we need". The usual suspects, of course, were immediately attacking on Twitter/X: this was "contrary to the gospel ... there is only one light of the world who is Jesus Christ our Lord"; "praising an entirely different religion, without any reference to God, the incarnation or salvation"; "no Archbishop Welby, Jesus is the light we need. Why not point people to Christ rat...

 ... one of the signal weaknesses of the American Prayer Book tradition. A recent article at the North American Anglican  addressed the absence of the Athanasian Creed from PECUSA's BCP 1789 and the 1801 Articles of Religion . It leads us to question if the decision to omit the Athanasian Creed from the liturgy and the Articles represented a serious rupture with the classical Anglican and Prayer Book tradition. Was it? The interpretation of the Athanasian Creed given by Taylor and Burnet would suggest otherwise. Affirming the catholic truth of the articles set forth in the Athanasian Creed, Taylor nevertheless counsels that this Creed has a secondary nature: For the articles themselves, I am most heartily persuaded of the truth of them, and yet I dare not say, all that are not so are irrevocably damned, because without this symbol the faith of the apostles' creed is entire, and he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; that is, he that believeth such a belief as is ...

Burnet's  An exposition of the Thirty-nine articles of the Church of England  (1699)- which would become the most influential commentary on the Articles in the 18th century - gives expression to what I have (somewhat cautiously) described as a 'Trinitarian minimalism' evident in late 17th/early 18th century Anglicanism. In his discussion of Article I - 'Of Faith in the Holy Trinity' - Burnet refuses to probe too deeply into the mystery of the Trinity: Instead of going farther into Explanations of that which is certainly very far beyond all our apprehensions, and that ought therefore to be let alone ... Referring particularly to Matthew's account of the Great Commission, Paul's closing salutation in 2 Corinthians, and the threefold salutation to the churches in Revelation, Burnet points to another key feature of 'Trinitarian minimalism': "there are very full and clear proofs of it in the New Testament".  These are things that can only be of...

But it must be acknowledged to be a high pitch of boldness and injustice to charge us, as if we did not ascribe all due honour to holy Orders and the Succession of Pastors. So says Gilbert Burnet in his 1677 A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England .  It would be very difficult indeed to regard this Latitudinarian statement of the ministry of priesthood and of eucharistic sacrifice as differing in any meaningful way from High Church teaching, throughout the 'long 18th century'. First, When we are ordained to be Priests, there is given us all that which our Church declares, inseparable to the Priesthood; and such is the Consecrating the Eucharist: Therefore it being declared and acknowledged on all sides; what Functions are proper to the Priesthood if we be ordained Priests, though there were no further Declaration made in the form of Ordination, yet the other concomitant actions and offices, shewing that we are made Priests, all that belongs to that function is...

Following on from the series of posts on how the High Church tradition in the late 17th and early 18th centuries viewed Lutheranism, we turn to Burnet's  An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion   (1699). Burnet's 'Low Church' and Latitudinarian stance does not lead to a different appraisal of Lutheran Eucharistic doctrine.  Rather, there is the same understanding that the distinctives of Lutheran teaching on the Sacrament - 'consubstantiation' and 'ubiquity' - are to be regarded as merely speculative views that do not detract from agreement 'in everything else that relates to the Sacrament', both in terms of teaching and practice.   For as in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, both Lutherans and Calvinists agreeing in the same Devotions and Acts of Worship, a mere Point of Speculation concerning the manner in which Christ is present, ought not to divide those who agree in everything else that relates to the Sacrament; every one may in ...

They know of no Power in a Priest to pardon Sin, other than the Declaring the Gospel Pardon, upon the Conditions on which it is offered. Burnet, in the famous 1712 Preface to the Third Edition of his Pastoral Care , declared this to be one of the principles of "the Low Church-men" (noting 'I myself am ranked among them').  This conviction was reflected in the Proposed 1689 BCP's revision of the Special Absolution in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent, and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences; and upon thy true faith and repentance, by his authority committed to me, I pronounce thee absolved from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Should this proposed revision be dismissed as a 'Low Church' rejection of priestly absolution, retained at the Reformation in order that - in Laud...