laudable Practice

Having considered the account given by Nelson, in his 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull , of the controversy following the 1669 publication of Bull's Harmonia Apostolica , we now turn to one particular aspect of that controversy, the involvement of a leading Dissenting divine: Some time after this, Mr. Daniel Williams, now a Doctor in Divinity, and an eminent Preacher and Writer in this City, among the Presbyterians, made himself famous for managing the Controversy against the Anti-Antinomian Principles, when they were breaking in with great impetuosity among those of his Persuasion. Williams (b.1643, d.1716), who refused to conform in 1662, was described by Nelson as standing in the line of Baxter's thought - in his  Aphorisms of Justification (1655) - regarding the necessity of works for our salvation, as against those whom Bull critiqued as 'Antinomians':  Dr. Williams may be said to have succeeded Mr. Baxter, in the Management of these Disputes, as he also incurred ther...

Last week, in our readings from Robert Nelson's 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull , we reached a crucial, defining moment - the publication, in 1669, of Bull's Harmonia Apostolica . The heated controversy surrounding this work on justification is addressed at some length by Nelson. In the edition we have been reading, Nelson's account of the controversy and the various debates surrounding the work extends from page 89 to page 276, one-third of the entire book. This itself provides some idea of the significance of the work and the debate it provoked.  Despite this, Nelson presents the opposition to Bull's work as unnecessary. He notes at the outset, for example, that, from the perspective of 1713, Bull's understanding of the relationship between faith and works had become the settled view of the Church of England: The best of it is, this Contention was of no long Continuance: For not long after this Treatise was Printed and received with much Applause on one side, and Con...

Our readings from Nelson's 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull now reach the publication of Bull's first work, the work which would establish his reputation as the leading divine of the Arminian Conformist stream of thought in the post-Restoration Church of England. His  Harmonia Apostolica   quickly became a defining text of what Samuel Fornecker's excellent study terms Arminian Conformity. It is this which makes Nelson's opening comments on the work particularly interesting: In the Year 1669, he first Printed that excellent Piece, his Apostolical Harmony, &c. which was begun by him, when but Young, with a View of settling Peace in the Church, upon a Point of greatest Importance to all its Members. This Book he Dedicated to his Diocesan the Bishop of Gloucester, Dr. William Nicholson, a very proper Judge and Patron, who had very much also encouraged and supported him in this Work. I have previously mentioned in this series that Stephen Hampton places Nicholson amon...