laudable Practice

For this Tuesday in Whitsun Week, from an 1814 volume of sermons by Richard Mant - appointed Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora in 1820, translated to Down and Connor in 1823 - further words from his sermon 'The Aid of the Spirit, the gift of God', on how the working of the Spirit is ordinarily dependent upon "certain means", chiefly prayer.  Again we see Mant's emphasis on the presence and working of the Holy Ghost known in and through the ordinary practice of the Christian life: The gift of the Holy Ghost then is of the free grace of our heavenly Father, granted by him in his goodness, and purchased by his Son. But free as is this gift of God, and utterly incapable as we are of meriting or purchasing it for ourselves, it remains in the third place to be remarked that he has appointed certain means, by which the aid of the Holy Spirit is to be procured. All the blessings, which we receive from God, are free gifts of his mercy and loving kindness; but they are all ...

For this Monday in Whitsun Week, from an 1814 volume of sermons by Richard Mant - appointed Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora in 1820, translated to Down and Connor in 1823 - words from his sermon 'The Aid of the Spirit, the gift of God', on a trust in the ordinary working of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life, requiring no speculative inquiries or attempts to probe beyond the plain assurance of holy Scripture: But whatever improvement our spiritual part is capable of receiving, it is not capable of furnishing that improvement to itself. We must be wrought upon by supernatural power: we must be "strengthened with might by the Spirit of God in the inner man." How he works upon us we know not: we need not, we cannot know; and it were useless and rash to inquire; for the scriptures, not only do not supply a clue to guide us in the search, but close the door upon such inquiries, by authoritatively asserting the fact, and requiring us to believe it as an article of fait...

On the Sunday after Ascension Day, many Anglicans will (in one form or another) pray Cranmer's beautiful petition: We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before ... In his Sermon VI (from a collection of sermons published in 1675 but preached during the 1640s and 50s), Henry Hammond set forth how the promise of the Comforter was "the main business" of our Lord's Ascension: The third, and in sum, the powerfullest Argument to prove God's willingness that we should live, is, that he hath bestowed his spirit upon us; that as soon as he called up the Son, he sent the Comforter. This may seem to be the main business that Christ ascended to Heaven a­bout; so that a Man would guess from the xvi Chapter of St. John and Vers. 7. that if it had not been for that, Christ had tarried amongst us till this time; but that it was more expedient to send the Spirit...