laudable Practice

Richard Warner -  in two sermons in the second volume of his  Old Church of England Principles Opposed to "New Light"  (published in 1818) - on "the necessity of practical religion", capturing the characteristic Georgian Anglican emphasis on the need for good works.  This is an emphasis rooted (of course) in the Scriptures and, indeed, in the Homilies ("faith of itself is full of good works", "true faith bringeth forth good works") and the Prayer Book (" and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command", "direct, sanctify, and govern, both our hearts and bodies, in the ways of thy laws, and in the works of thy commandments; that through thy most mighty protection, both here and ever, we may be preserved in body and soul"). This view of the necessity of practical religion, of obedience, or "good works", being a condition of salvation, was kept up under every dispensat...

Richard Warner - in a sermon in the second volume of his Old Church of England Principles Opposed to "New Light" (published in 1818) - again capturing a distinctive aspect of the Anglican experience.  The quietness, gentleness, and modesty of the characteristically Anglican spiritual life, alongside suspicion of and discomfort with Enthusiasm, rather than being evidence of spiritual coldness reveals how the Holy Spirit operates in the process of our conversion and sanctification over a lifetime: Hence, then, my brethren, you perceive the wickedness or folly of those who now pretend to especial communications of the Holy Spirit; to extraordinary inspirations from heaven; to particular illuminations; to sudden and forcible conversions from heinous sin to certain salvation; and to personal experiences of the operation of the Holy Ghost upon their inner man. All such pretensions are false and wicked; the offspring either of an heated imagination, and a wild enthusiasm; or, what ...