laudable Practice

In the conclusion of his sermon ' Of a Future Judgement ', Samuel Clarke provides three applications of the scriptural proclamation of the Last Judgement. Reflecting a key concern of 18th century Church of England preaching, Clarke again emphasises that this teaching calls us to holy living: "then let us continually be aware, that all Other expectations whatsoever, are mere Deceits". To reject this as 'moralism' is, quite frankly, to entirely ignore vast swathes of the New Testament, as Clarke's references illustrate.  Also noteworthy is Clarke's use of words from II Maccabees, a reminder that references to the Apocrypha were standard in the preaching of all three divines quoted in this short series. The fact that we see this in Tillotson and Clarke evidences the fact that this was by no means a 'high church' characteristic: it was a standard Church of England practice, in accordance with Article VI. Finally, the preaching of these three divine...

In the final extract from Bishop Bull's sermon ' The Vanity of this Life, the Eternity of the next ', he summarises how - in the words of Article VII - "both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ". This insistence on the unity of the covenants grounds the Christian hope in God's enduring purposes, "the old catholic faith" stretching back to patriarchs and prophets.  We can detect here, I think, an affirmation of a Reformed approach to reading of the Scriptures of the Old Covenant, a refusal to stand the New Testament against the Old, declaring the same hope in both, "the doctrine of a future life and judgment". As the Advent season begins again for us the cycle of feasts and observances which lead from Incarnation, to Cross, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, Bull's sermon is a call to read and hear the Scriptures of the Old Testament as a proclamation of our salvation in Christ, in expectation...

This week brings to a close the short Advent series of posts from sermons on the Last Things by divines of the 18th century Church of England. As we come to the conclusion of each of the sermons, it has hopefully been demonstrated that they are evidence - contrary to the stubbornly enduring Old Hat view of Anglicanism in that century - of a lively, robust, and vibrant proclamation of the Last Judgement in 18th century Anglican preaching. Today we turn to the conclusion of Archbishop Tillotson's sermon ' Of the Certainty of a Future Judgment '. Here Tillotson exhorts that we are to live as if the Last Judgement "were already and actually present", calling us to a serious repentance and reclaiming us for the duties of Christians: the gospel plainly declares that all this shall be, and thou professest to believe it. Why then dost thou not live as if thou didst believe these things? Why should not that which will certainly be, have to all reasonable purposes the same ...

In his sermon ' Of a Future Judgement ', Samuel Clarke gives voice to a significant concern in much preaching in the 18th century Church of England: that the New Testament declares the Last Judgement to be on the grounds of the fruits of righteousness in our lives. To dismiss this as 'moralism' - as 18th century revivalists did, followed by 19th century evangelicals and Tractarians, echoed by much contemporary commentary on 18th century Anglicanism - is to, at best, obscure the teaching of the New Testament and not least that of Our Lord: Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Clarke's critique of a reliance on "any unconditionate Decree", that is, on an assumed knowledge of the decree of predestination, likewise reflects wider concerns amongst 'Arminian' and 'Latitudinarian' thought. It al...

In the previous extract from Bishop Bull's sermon ' The Vanity of this Life, the Eternity of the next ', we saw how he pointed to Psalm 1 as declaring the judgement that is to come. Here he also turns to Psalm 102 as an example of the Psalter proclaiming the Last Judgement, particularly seeing in Ps.102:25f "the very doctrine of St. Peter" concerning the end of the ages. Again, it is a reminder to us that to pray the Psalter, not least in these days of Advent, is to be called to prepare for the "dissolution of this present world": In the time of the captivity lived the penman of the 102d Psalm, as clearly appears from the thirteenth and following verses; and he is thought by some learned interpreters to have been Nehemiah. But whoever was the writer of the Psalm, we have therein a very remarkable passage to our purpose in the twenty-fifth and following verses: "Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy ha...

Continuing with this Advent series of extracts from sermons on the Last Things by divines of the 18th century Church of England, we return to Archbishop Tillotson's sermon ' Of the Certainty of a Future Judgment '.  Having established "the truth and certainty" of the Last Judgement, Tillotson expounds how this should lead us - in the words of the Advent collect - to 'cast away the works of darkness', rather than pass days, years, and months "in the gross neglect of God and religion, and of [our] immortal souls": Thus you see the truth and certainty of a future judgment confirmed, from the acknowledgments of men's natural hopes and fears, from the natural notions which men have concerning God and his providence, and from plain revelation of Scripture. All that I shall do farther at present, shall be to make some reflections upon what hath been delivered, concerning the certainty of a future general judgment ... If there be such a day certainly...

The third 18th century Church of England divine to whom we turn to consider their preaching on the Last Things, during these days of Advent, is Samuel Clarke. Yes, you read that correctly: Samuel Clarke, the divine whose work The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity provoked intense controversy in the years following its publication in 1712, leading to the robust affirmation of Trinitarian orthodoxy by Daniel Waterland. Clarke's heterodoxy on the matter of the Holy Trinity made him the champion of theological radicals and the bête noire  of the strongly orthodox, Tory, and High Church Lower House of Convocation.  Despite this, however, his sermons were popularly received across the 18th century Church of England. This is seen in the fact that the strongly orthodox 'Yale Apostates' - those New Congregational ministers who in 1722 embraced the Church of England and sought episcopal orders - made a point, when in London in March 1723 , of hearing Clarke preach. When George Prety...

In this Advent series of 18th century Anglican sermons on the Last Things, we turn to Bishop Bull's sermon ' The Vanity of this Life, the Eternity of the next '. In this extract, Bull points to the Psalms as proclaiming the last judgement, particularly seeing in Psalm 1 a declaration that the "winnowing time of judgement will come". It is a reminder to us that to pray the Psalter during this season is to be prepared in heart and soul for "the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead". To the same purpose are those Psalms of David, wherein he amply describes the prosperous and flourishing estate of many wicked men; and, on the other side, the calamitous and afflicted condition of many good and virtuous in this world; and yet in the close pronounceth these to be most happy men, and the other to be most miserable; which cannot be true, but on supposition of a future state and resurrection. Of this sort...

During these days of Advent laudable Practice will be posting extracts from sermons by three Church of England divines of the 18th century, addressing the matter of the Last Things. In addition to providing material for reflection during the Advent season, it will also be an exercise in demonstrating how - contrary to the interpretation promoted by 19th century Tractarians and evangelicals, and commonly received thereafter - 18th century Anglican preaching could be robustly grounded in Scripture, setting forth the fundamentals of the Faith, and establishing a foundation for faithful living. In the words of one commentator in 1828 , just as the 'long 18th century' was coming to a close, Anglican preaching of that century was marked by "clear reasoning, sober argument, and touching exhortation". We begin with an extract from Archbishop Tillotson's sermon ' Of the Certainty of a Future Judgment ', in which he sets out belief in the final judgement as reasona...

From Jeremy Taylor's sermon for Advent Sunday - ' Dooms-Day Book: or, Christ's Advent to Judgement ' - a particularly powerful extract on how Christian duties to the poor are to be understood in light of the Lord's advent and and the last judgement: Every man that lives wickedly disgraces the religion and institution of Jesus, he discourages strangers from entring into it, he weakens the hands of them that are in already, and makes that the adversaries speak reproachfully of the Name of Christ; but although it is certain our Lord and Judge will deeply resent all these things, yet there is one thing which he takes more tenderly, and that is, the uncharitablenesse of men towards his poor: It shall then be upbraided to them by the Judge, that himself was hungry and they refused to give meat to him that gave them his body and heart-bloud, to feed them and quench their thirst; that they denyed a robe to cover his nakednesse, and yet he would have cloathed their souls wit...

For today's post, another extract from an 1818 sermon by John Lonsdale, associated with the Hackney Phalanx, on the occasion of the death of Queen Caroline. Lonsdale here challenges stereotypes of the late Georgian Church promoted both by Tractarians and evangelicals, with their accounts of a Church and a dominant theology exclusively defined by natural theology and moralising sermons. In stark contrast to such narratives, Lonsdale - in the midst of a sermon for a time of civic and national mourning - appeals to "the far surer guide" of revelation in order to give a vibrant exposition of the final judgement and the life everlasting: Nor will Reason ever permit us to entertain such unworthy notions of God's attributes, (for I will not suppose the case of direct Atheism) as to believe that he may have impressed our nature with these feelings and faculties merely to deceive us; to buoy us up into a vain imagination that we have another state to look to, after the curtai...

The Prayer Book Society's Advent seminar on Saturday past on the Four Last Things - death, judgement, heaven, hell - provided an excellent overview of how the Prayer Book sets before us the Last Things. What was particularly striking was the emphasis from the contributors on the sparse, stark nature of the Prayer Book's presentation of these truths. 'Sparse' and 'stark' are words often applied, as a criticism, to the Prayer Book Order for the Burial of the Dead. Cranmer's sparse and stark burial rite was needed to undo the colourful cultus and piety of purgatory enshrined in late medieval Latin Christendom. Perhaps, however, it is no less needed today, in the face of both a sickly sentimentalism, on the one hand, and, on the other, a refusal to acknowledge the fact of our mortality. The Prayer Book's sparse, stark recognition of our mortality both strips away the sentimentalism and confronts cultural denial of death: "in the midst of life we are in...

During this Advent laudable Practice is sharing extracts from the sermons of Cornelius Roosevelt Duffie , Rector of Saint Thomas, New York City, 1824-27. The sermons demonstrate the vitality of the pre-1833 Old High observance of Advent.  This extract, from an Advent Sunday sermon (on the epistle of Advent I, Romans 13:8-14 ), offers a robust eschatological vision. There are echoes here of the Advent collect's "we may rise to the life immortal", the Nicene Creed's "And I look for ... the life of the world to come", and "heirs through hope of thy everlasting kingdom" in the second post-communion prayer. The extract, in other words, offers an example of how Advent preaching should expound the Church's eschatological hope. what call to holiness and watchfulness more persuasive or effectual, than the words which the Church addresses to him at this season, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." Christians, she exclaims, your stat...