laudable Practice

Last week's reading from Robert Nelson's The Life of Dr. George Bull (1713) considered the place of metrical psalms in Bull's devotional and congregational life. Following his comments on this, Nelson turns to another great High Church exponent of the singing of metrical psalms and a contemporary of Bull, Bishop William Beveridge (d.1708).  The various debates which surrounded metrical psalmody in the 18th century Church of England never doubted the practice itself. However, in addition to complaints that congregations too often left the singing of psalms to the clerk and groups of singers, another frequent complaint was that where congregations did participate in the singing of the psalms they sat to do so. There are consistent exhortations for congregations to stand when praising God in psalm singing. Nelson is pleased to point to this being the practice in Beveridge's congregations: I have with pleasure beheld the Conformity of the whole Congregation to his own D...

By happy coincidence, following on from yesterday's post for Charles Inglis Day , our next reading from Robert Nelson's The Life of Dr. George Bull (1713) addresses the place of metrical psalms both in Bull's personal piety and in divine service: Before I quit this Head of his Private Devotions, I must beg leave to observe, that Singing the Praises of God, made a Part of his Spiritual Exercises in his Retirement, which he chose to Celebrate in the Words of the Royal Psalmist, as Translated into Metre for that Purpose. A Duty recommended by St. Paul in several of his Epistles; and yet how few can be prevailed upon to join in Psalmody, when it is made a Part of the Publick Service of the Church? It is evident that Nelson sees nothing at all unusual about Bull's personal piety including the singing of metrical psalms. That metrical psalms had a place in the devotions of an Arminian and High Church divine was clearly unremarkable. What is more, as can be seen in the above ...

As we resume our readings from Robert Nelson's The Life of Dr. George Bull (1713), we find Nelson describing family devotions in the Bull household. It provides a fascinating insight into a crucial aspect of Church of England piety throughout the 'long 18th century': household prayers were a feature not only of clerical households but also expected in many lay households.  Nelson begins by noting that extemporary prayer was not a feature of the Bull household's family devotions. This introduces us to a characteristic of domestic piety in Church of England families throughout this period, contrasting with, for example, both Puritan and Methodist household piety. The absence of extemporary prayer was, Nelson explained, a question of what we best in shaping devotion: Upon these Occasions Mr. Bull did not give himself the Liberty of using Prayers of his own Composing, though he was very well qualified for what is called extempore Prayer, if he would have ventured upon suc...

In our readings from Robert Nelson's The Life of Dr. George Bull (1713), we have previously considered Bull's reading of 'the prayers' (that is, Morning and Evening Prayer), and his ministry from the pulpit . Today we turn to his administration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. While Nelson is still, at this point, discussing Bull's incumbency in the years following the Restoration, it almost certainly stands as a description of his administration of the sacraments throughout his ministry. In doing so it also reveals something of how the understanding of the Sacraments in Anglicanism throughout the 'long 18th century'. Nelson begins by drawing attention to the frequency of Bull's administration of the Holy Communion in his parish: He Administered the Sacraments of our Holy Religion with great Reverence and Solemnity; The Holy Eucharist, the Mysterious and the Rite and Perfection of Christian Worship, was not performed so often in this Parish, ...

Having considered how George Bull, as a young incumbent in the Restoration era, handled the reading of the liturgy, Robert Nelson, in his The Life of Dr. George Bull , turned to Bull in the pulpit. He begins by noting the seriousness with which Bull approached the ministry of preaching: But tho' Mr. Bull thus excelled in discharging all the Offices of the Liturgy, yet he did not shine less in the Pulpit, from whence he did for several Years instruct his Parish Twice every Lord's-day. The great End and Design of his Sermons, for I have often heard him with great Pleasure and Edification, was to acquaint his People with the Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make them Wise unto Salvation; and therefore all Subjects which he handled, were always strengthened and confirmed by Passages from Holy Writ, and those Passages explained and made easy to the Capacity of the meanest Understanding, and such useful Observations drawn from them, as gave fresh Light to his Subj...

In our readings from Robert Nelson's 1713 The Life of Dr. George Bull , we left Bull in the early months of 1662, newly instituted to the cure of Suddington, beginning to slowly reconcile his parishioners to the liturgy which had prohibited under the Cromwellian regime. Nelson had made the point that the manner in which Bull read the Prayer Book offices "reconciled the Minds of his Parishioners to the Common-Prayer, before the Use of it was Publickly Restored". This leads Nelson to reflect more widely on the significance of the minister reading divine service. In doing so, he was also reflecting a concern later raised by the then  Bishop Bull , would emphasise the significance of "reverence and devotion" in the clergy "Reading Divine Service, or the Prayers of the Church". Nelson, echoing the later Bull, challenges those who fail to recognise the significance of "devout and decent reading of the Prayers of the Church": It is possible, this d...

In the afternoon to the Abbey, where a good sermon by a stranger, but no Common Prayer yet - 1st July 1660. After dinner to St. Margaret’s, where the first time I ever heard Common Prayer in that Church - 5th August 1660. In the morn to our own church, where Mr. Mills did begin to nibble at the Common Prayer, by saying 'Glory be to the Father, &c.' after he had read the two psalms; but the people had been so little used to it, that they could not tell what to answer  - 4th November 1660. This day also did Mr. Mills begin to read all the Common Prayer, which I was glad of - 11th November 1660. Pepys' diary entries for 1660 provide an insight into how the return of the Book of Common Prayer was, in many places, approached with a prudent caution in the aftermath of the Restoration. It was, of course, the case that, as the Preface to the 1662 revision would declare, in constitutional terms, the legal requirement to use to the Prayer Book had not been legitimately repeale...

Today we resume our weekly readings from Robert Nelson's 1713 The Life of Dr. George Bull , one of the particularly significant divines of the 18th Church of England. Prior to Lent, we had left Bull in the immediate aftermath of the Restoration, in a nation reeling from the political and religious divisions of the past few decades, his preaching already indicating the wisdom and moderation of the Arminian Conformity central to the Church of England during the long 18th century. We now move to 1662, when Nelson was presented to a new cure: In the Year 1662, Mr. Bull was presented to the Vicaridge of Suddington St. Peter, by the then Lord Chancellor the Earl of Clarendon, at the Request and Application of his constant Patron, and worthy Diocesan, Dr. Nicholson, who was made Bishop of Gloucester upon the Restoration, and who had all that Merit which was necessary to fill so great a Station in the Church to the best Advantage, if his Steddiness to her Doctrines and Discipline, in ...

In the Year 1659, the Nation began to be very sensible of the Misery they had long groaned under, and were very earnest to relieve themselves from that Oppression, which had so long prevailed among them ...  Upon the Restoration, Mr. Bull frequently Preached at Cirencester, where there was a populous and large Congregation. With these words, Robert Nelson - in his 1713 The Life of Dr. George Bull - brings us to the Restoration. Bull who, as we have seen in recent posts, was a conforming Episcopalian, ministering in the Cromwellian Church during the final years of the Interregnum, continued to minister in his parish. This itself is an indication of how normal it was for conforming Episcopalian clergy to be serving in the Cromwellian Church, and then continue to minister at the restoration of episcopacy. Nelson notes that Bull at the Restoration was also regularly preaching at Cirencester, where his aged father-in-law was incumbent: The Choice of the Subjects which he discoursed up...

But this emphasis [in Restoration Episcopalian accounts] on martyrdom, ejection and exile has obscured the extent to which prominent episcopalian conformists were subsequently prepared to defend their Interregnum careers, presenting their ministries in these years as evidence of steadfast commitment to both the Church of England and the king. By staying within the Church, ministers had acted as a bulwark against heresy and error, the last bastions of ‘true Protestantism’, and thereby worked to protect and to ‘undeceive’ the distracted laity - (re)shaping attitudes towards liturgy, episcopacy and even monarchy. William White, in ' Remembering Episcopalian Conformity in Restoration England ', thus reminds us that alongside the narrative of persecution and martyrdom promoted by formerly non-conformist Episcopalians at the Restoration, there was another narrative to be told, that of the Episcopalian Conformists in the Cromwellian Church. As we saw last week , George Bull was amongs...

After recounting how Bull received holy orders from Skinner, the deprived Bishop of Oxford, Robert Nelson - in his The Life of Dr. George Bull - tells of how the newly-ordained Bull began to minister in a parish: When he was furnished with those Sacerdotal Powers, which are the Characteristick of a Presbyter, he embraced the first Opportunity the Providence of God offered for the exercising of them according to his Commission. A small Living near Bristol, called St. George's, presenting itself, he the rather accepted it, because the Income was very inconsiderable; it being very likely, that upon that account he would be suffered to reside without Disturbance from the Men of those Times, who would not think it worth their pains to persecute and dispossess him for 301. a Year. Now this, to say the least, is rather interesting, because Bull was now ministering within the Cromwellian state church. Two matters are not mentioned by Nelson. Firstly, we are not told how the living was se...

The young George Bull, having completed his studies with the Puritan Mr. Thomas - and having read those books by "Hooker, Hammond, Taylor, Grotius, Episcopius, &c" provided by the younger Thomas -  now sought ordination. According to Nelson's The Life of Dr. George Bull , this was a moment when Bull's theological allegiances were demonstrated: Soon after that he left Mr. Thomas, he entertained Thoughts of going into Holy Orders; he had read enough to convince him, that meer Presbyters had no Power to give him a Commission to exercise the Sacred Function, especially when the plausible Plea of Necessity could not be urged. In this Case Mr. Bull fought out for an unexceptionable Hand, that his Mission might be valid, according to the Practice of the Christian Church for Fifteen hundred Years, which affordeth not one Instance of Presbyterian Ordination, but what was condemned by the universal Voice of the Catholick Church.  This, of course, was in a context in which e...