laudable Practice

The False and Erroneous doctrine of the Calvinists On Predestination and the Providence of God. 1] That Christ did not die for all men, but only for the elect. 2] That God created the greater part of mankind for eternal damnation, and wills not that the greater part should be converted and live. 3] That the elected and regenerated can not lose faith and the Holy Spirit, or be damned, though they commit great sins and crimes of every kind. 4] That those who are not elect are necessarily damned, and can not arrive at salvation, though they be baptized a thousand times, and receive the Eucharist every day, and lead as blameless a life as ever can be led. Reading Peter Lake's On Laudianism (2024), we might assume that these are words from a Laudian publication of the 1630s, for "Arminian assumptions were absolutely central to the Laudians' own position" (p.425). 'Laudianism', after all, was "an attempt gradually to Arminianise the culture, to disseminate  .....

Today begins a Lenten series of short reflections on penitential material in the Book of Common Prayer 1662/1926. We begin with the opening words of the Exhortation at Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer: Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloke them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father; but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same, by his infinite goodness and mercy. It is a gentle invitation. "Dearly beloved brethren" - not the Baptist's "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?". No, the Exhortation invites us to repentance gently, graciously, after the manner of Our Lord, in fulfillment of the Prophet's words: A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench. The same gentle invit...

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...

On this commemoration of Jeremy Taylor (he died on this day in 1667), we consider two short extracts from his work, demonstrating one of the most compelling and attractive aspects of his thinking - its eirenic character. We begin with a passage from his  The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Statement (1654): That which seems of hardest explication is the word corporaliter, which I find that Melancthon used; saying, 'corporaliter quoque communicatione carnis Christi Christum in nobis habitare'; which manner of speaking I have heard he avoided after he had conversed with Oecolampadius, who was able then to teach him and most men in that question ... Here is Taylor praising the eucharistic theology of Oecolampadius, the figure who probably has the best claim to the title 'father of Reformed eucharistic theology'. As Bruce Gordon notes (in his excellent biography of Zwingli ), Oecolampadius was "in many respects ... Zwingli's theological better...

In a recent tweet , theologian John Milbank referred to John Colet (d.1519), the humanist scholar and Dean of St Paul's, saying "We need his spirit now. Christian Platonism. So crucial to Anglican tradition".  My response was to post a picture of Benjamin Whichcote, a reminder of how the Cambridge Platonists ensured that this tradition of thought continued in the reformed Church of England.  Milbank recognised this with his reply "the candle of the Lord", a reference to the characteristic motif of the Cambridge Platonists. It was rather appropriate that the exchange occurred just prior to the Transfiguration, a feast replete with Christian Platonist themes.  In his sermon 'Our Conversation is in Heaven' (1651), Whichcote unfolds our participation in the Transfiguration. Here in this world, there is the salvation of grace, which for the substance, is the same with the salvation of glory. Spiritual life is always before eternal life ... 'At the appear...

From Discourse XXVI of Cambridge Platonist Benjamin Whichcote, 'That the Unity of the Church is carefully maintained by all those who are sincere Christians': 'Tis a great mistake in zeal for truth, to let it run out in some smaller matters, which have scarce been thought of by the whole series of Christians of all ages, but only of late. Some allege the severity of some of the ancient prophets, as Elijah, Elisha, and the Baptist. But the dispensation wherein such carriage and practice was not unusual, from extraordinary persons, is now changed into a new one, whose distinguishing character is charity. We are carefully to bridle all motions of distempered heat, the effects whereof are as unjustifiable, as itself. Christ hath made it the cognisance of his disciples, to love one another. This, of course, is characteristic of the Cambridge Platonists.  What comes next, however, is perhaps rather surprising: Archbishop Laud says, the church of England is not such a shrew to he...

Many thanks to the North American Anglican for publishing my essay ' Listening to the wise son of Sirach: the significance of the use of the Apocrypha in Tillotson's preaching '.  The essay suggests that his use of the Apocrypha points to Tillotson standing within a tradition of sapiential theology inherited from Hooker and the Cambridge Platonists. It is also a call for contemporary Anglicans to deepen their use of the Apocrypha as a means of renewing a sapiential preaching which can resonate with a contemporary culture seeking a meaningful, enduring wisdom. ------ Rather than explicitly locating Tillotson within a 'Latitudinarian' tradition – mindful that the meaningfulness of the category ‘Latitudinarian’ has increasingly been convincingly challenged – we might suggest that Tillotson’s use of the Apocrypha, with its emphasis on the Wisdom books, stands within a tradition of sapiential theology in the post-Reformation Church of England, derived from Hooker, sus...

In his excellent Participation in God: A Study in Christian Doctrine and Metaphysics (2019), Andrew Davison states:  Our reason is a likeness to the divine Logos; similarly, what we come to know gets it being and intelligibility from its participation in God.  Since reason is a participation in divine truth in this twofold way, reason is already a sort of revelation (p.318). In a footnote, Davison points to Kathryn Tanner's equally excellent Christ the Key (2010) providing "illustrative examples on this theme" from the Cambridge Platonists, noting that the agreement with his Thomist account "is striking". Tanner, quoting from the Cambridge Platonists, says that they were "bucking Enlightenment trends in the understanding of divine agency, God's working ... not identified here with exceptional, occasional interventions that interrupt the ordinary operations of natural processes" (p.279).  She quotes Whichcote twice: reason is always the means of ...

From Tillotson's Sermon 'Of The Inward Peace And Pleasure Which Attends Religion': My design, at present, from these words, is to recommend religion to men, from the consideration of that inward peace and pleasure which attends it. And surely nothing can be said more to the advantage of religion, in the opinion of considerate men, than this. For the aim of all philosophy, and the great search of wise men, hath been how to attain peace and tranquillity of mind; and if religion be able to give this, a greater commendation need not be given to religion ... Now religion, and the practice of its virtues, is the natural state of the soul; the condition which God designed it. As God made man a reasonable creature, so all the acts of religion are reasonable and suitable to our nature: and our souls are then in health, when we are what the laws of religion require us to be, and do what they command us to do ... A great part of religion consists in moderating our appetites and passio...

From Tillotson's sermon at the funeral in 1683 of Cambridge Platonist Benjamin Whichcote.  It is difficult to see how the piety represented here - the praise for the Prayer Book's office for Visitation of the Sick, the devotion surrounding the reception of the Sacrament as death approaches - differs from the piety which shaped the High Church throughout the 18th century: During his sickness, he bad a constant calmness and serenity of mind; and under all his bodily weakness, possest his soul in great patience. After the Prayers for the Visitation of the Sick (which he said were excellent prayers) had been used, he was put in mind of receiving the Sacrament; to which he answered, that he most readily embraced the proposals: and, after he had received it, said to Dr. Cudworth, “I heartily thank you for this most Christian office: I thank you for putting me in mind of receiving this Sacrament:” adding this pious ejaculation: "the Lord fulfill his declarations and promises, an...