laudable Practice

Sunday coming is Yale Apostasy Day. On 13th September 1722, the day after commencement at Yale, seven New England Congregationalist ministers publicly declared their intention to seek episcopal orders in the Church of England. It was a day which shook the 'New England Way' and brought the Church of England to the land of the Pilgrim Fathers. Over the years of writing on Yale Apostasy Day on this blog, my interpretation of the event has changed. I initially regarded it as the arrival of 'Laudianism' in New England. Leaving aside the fact that I now believe the term 'Laudian' to be meaningless, it was opponents - not New England Church of England ministers and their congregations - who viewed the Yale Apostasy and its consequences in such a way. In more recent times, I have moved to emphasising what Church of England ministers and laity in colonial New England shared with their Congregationalist neighbours.  This year's Yale Apostasy Day post returns to anothe...

And now that we have attended this very learned and pious Prelate, from his Birth to the last Period of his Life, let us endeavour in a few Words, to recapitulate the Excellencies of his Life; and in running over his Character, strive to copy the Example of those eminent Vertues, which in this Pattern shine brightest for our Imitation. Today we reach the conclusion of our readings from Robert Nelson's 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull . These readings commenced in mid-January 2025 : we have spent over a year and a half with Nelson's account of Bull. Over that time it has, I hope, become evident why Bull was both a formative influence on and exemplar of 18th century Anglicanism. As Nelson summarises Bull's ministry, we hear an ideal that was set forth before 18th century clergy and which shaped the aspirations of 18th century laity for their clergy: He so excelled in his Profession, that he was justly esteemed one of the greatest Divines of the Age in which he lived, and that at...

For that was the wisdom of the Ancients. Antiqua Sapientia nihil aliud quam facienda & vitanda praecepit: Et tunc meliores erant viri. Postquam docti prodierunt, boni desunt. Simplex enim illa & aperta virtus in obscuram & solertem scientiam versa est; docemurque disputare, non vivere.  [Ancient wisdom prescribed nothing other than what should be done and what should be avoided; and in those days, men were better. Since the arrival of the learned, good men are lacking. For that simple and open virtue has been transformed into an obscure and subtle kind of knowledge; and we are taught how to argue, not how to live.] In the preface to his  Ductor dubitantium, or, The rule of conscience (1660), Jeremy Taylor invokes "the wisdom of the Ancients" by quoting Seneca. He sets out the aim of this work - how to live in "simple and open virtue", not how to argue. In 1660, of course, the Three Kingdoms were looking back upon decades of argument: divisive, harsh, bl...

Unbridled emotion is often treated as a positive quality in nonconformist writings, where 'weeping sessions' figured prominently. But Anglicans of this period stressed head over heart ... Stoic philosophy, with its belief int he importance of exemplary fortitude in the face of difficulties, and in the subordination of emotion to reason, enjoyed a vogue in the early 17th century. Two notable followers, Joseph Hall and Jeremy Taylor, were both sequestered loyalists. Fiona McCall's identification of the place of Stoic influences in conformist episcopalian piety, in her excellent Baal's Priests: The Loyalist Clergy and the English Revolution (2013), introduces us to a significant theme in Taylor's thought. Indeed, McCall particularly highlights Taylor's view of episcopalian suffering during the Interregnum not as a celebration of martyrdom but in Stoic terms of edification: Jeremy Taylor took the stoic view that suffering, rather than being the means to martyrdom, ...

From Samuel Clarke's sermon ' Of the Fulness of Time in which Christ appeared ', on the text Galatians 4:4-5, preached on Christmas Day: If this Divine person, the Author of our religion, notwithstanding the exceeding dignity of his nature, yet condescended to become truly and really a man; subjecting himself to all the infirmities of human nature, and being in all things made like unto his brethren, sin only excepted; This may convince us of the reasonableness of our Holy Religion; and of the possibility of our paying obedience to its laws. Had God sent his Son in great Glory, and in the Form of God, to reveal his Will to us by his absolute command only; such an extraordinary Revelation, like the Mountain that burned with Fire, would indeed have sufficiently convinced us of the necessity of Religion and the indispensableness of obedience. But when this great person vouchsafed to become, not only the Author of our Religion, but in our own nature the pattern also of our duty...

They made no part of any ancient Liturgy, neither, if my information be correct, are they read in the Communion office of any of the reformed Churches, except our own: And in ours they were first inserted at the review of Edward's Liturgy in 1552. When John Shepherd - in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - refers in this manner to the reading of the Commandments in the Communion Office, we might assume he is being critical of the provision. Those of us who are devotees of the Cranmerian Communion Office, however, have no need to fear: Shepherd offers a robust defence of this distinctive provision. He declares that "the order for the rehearsal of [the Commandments] here, requires neither vindication, nor apology": When the Commandments are read, we should remember that they are not the words of the minister, but of God himself, and we should hear them with the same humility, the same reverence, and the same determinati...

From a visitation sermon by Bishop Bull, in which he emphasises to his clergy the importance of sermons addressing "moral or practical divinity". This is, of course, a characteristic of 18th century Anglican preaching that is routinely dismissed as supposed 'moralism'.  Bull, however, offers a robust defence of such preaching, a defence which continues to be relevant. It is not "barren subtleties" that are to be heard from the pulpit but, rather, teaching which expounds and encourages the stuff of practical divinity, "that our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments", that we might live "in love and charity with [our] neighbours". Of this one speaks most truly: "The knowledge of controversies is made necessary by heretics, the study of piety by God Himself." Theology is doubtless a practical science, nothing in it but what aims at this end. And therefore, he that neglects this practical part of it, understands not the very d...

Recent posts in the series of extracts from an 1814 collection of sermons by Christopher Wordsworth (senior, d.1846), associated with the Hackney Phalanx, have demonstrated how a lively call to vibrant faith was present in Hackney and Old High preaching. Today we return to another - and no less significant - aspect of such preaching: its vision of the moral life in Christ.  The sermon was what Wordsworth described as "a Christian discourse and exposition of the sixth commandment", in light of the exhortation in the Sermon on the Mount "That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment": Anger implies displeasure against our brother, along with some degree of desire to inflict pain upon him, for an injury, real or supposed, which he has done to ourselves; or to others, whose honour and interests are dear to us. Anger is wrong, according to our Saviour, where it is " without" a due "cause;" that is, where...

Continuing with the series of extracts from an 1814 collection of sermons by Christopher Wordsworth (senior, d.1846), associated with the Hackney Phalanx, here is a characteristic expression of Old High anti-solifidian teaching and piety, echoing comments elsewhere by Wordsworth in these sermons: Here then opens upon you your path of duty. Here especially lies your part and obligation: quench not this spirit: follow the example of the holy Jesus: adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things; and walk before him in newness of life. What we before spoke of were the free graces and mercies of Almighty God in Christ Jesus. This now is your part and duty. Unless this be well performed and regarded, all the rest, be assured, must be vain. Ye must be made holy here, in order that ye may be happy hereafter. "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye, through the spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." "If ye live after the flesh," then...

Today we continue with the series of extracts from an 1814 collection of sermons by Christopher Wordsworth (senior, d.1846), associated with the Hackney Phalanx. In this extract from a sermon on 2 Kings 5 on the actions of Gehazi, servant of Elisha. Here we see a Hackney Phalanx sermon emphasising a characteristic Old High concern with a moral life shaped by the Commandments and the spiritual dangers arising from the absence of this concern. The history forcibly illustrates another important truth, that vices seldom go single, but one transgression commonly opens the way to another. The love of money, especially, is, as the Apostle says, "the root of all evil." The commandment has said, "Thou shalt not covet." But he did covet. Gehazi disobeyed that precept, and having so done, he was brought under a kind of necessity of  breaking two other commandments of the decalogue. The presents which he obtained at the hand of Naaman, he got by fraud, and so he transgressed t...

In the fourth of his 1807 Bampton Lectures, On the Nature and Guilt of Schism , Le Mesurier considers those early Christian heresies which promoted an excessive asceticism, contrasting this with the Commandments "enjoin[ing] nothing but what is practicable by all".  This reflected a consistent Old High understanding of a moral vision and ethical teaching which was grounded in ordinary duties, responsibilities, and obligations, lived out by spouses, neighbours, friends, and citizens, rather than in sectarian withdrawal.  Le Mesurier also repeated the wise Old High concern at the the destructive pastoral consequences of excessive asceticism. Inevitably this damages the living out of the Christian moral vision in ordinary life, obscuring (at best) the call to walk in the way of the Commandments. In other words, it is precisely the conventional, boring, unglamorous nature of the Old High moral vision, deeply sceptical of heroic, 'Weird' acts of asceticism, which ensures a...

To the Pulpit, the Puritan Pulpit, we owe the moral force which won our independence. The famous words of John Wingate Thornton are quoted at the outset of the weighty volume Political Sermons of the American Founding Era . The introduction to this collection similarly points to The History of the American Revolution by Massachusetts pastor William Gordon and his claim that it was the clergy of New England who spoke "boldly for the liberties of the people", against "the parson" who taught the people "slavishly to bow their neck to any tyrant".  The posts over the past few days, exploring the political sermons of Anglicans aligned to the Patriot cause, suggest a rather different account.  The preaching of Anglican political theology was shaped by the Revolution of 1688 with its commitment to constitutional liberties and obedience. It expounded (and understood itself to be) a 'middle way' between ancien regime absolutism and an over-zealous emphasi...

From  A Course of Sermons, for the Lord's Day throughout the Year , Volume II (1817) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - an extract from a sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity. His text was II Samuel 21:11-14, in which David is moved to act with charity through the example of  Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul.   This might be considered an example of the so-called 'moralism' in the preaching of the Georgian church, which later 19th century Tractarians and Evangelicals would criticise (and exaggerate).  Rather than it being a cause of embarrassment, however, we should see it is a meaningful, engaging, and significant way of shaping the Christian moral imagination. That this extract concludes with an allusion to Philippians 4:8 is a reminder that such moral teaching is deeply Scriptural.  It also embodies an enduring Old High pastoral conviction, that grace does not destroy nature, as indicated by the opening...

George Stanhope (Dean of Canterbury 1704-28) was the author of the three-volume The Paraphrase and Comment on the Epistles and Gospels (published 1705-08, dedicated to Queen Anne).  The commentary offered by Stanhope on the appointed Epistles and Gospels for Whit Monday and Whit Tuesday (in Volume III of The Paraphrase ) provides a theologically rich account of how the pentecostal gift is experienced through "the common and ordinary graces of the Spirit". The Whit Monday Epistle , Acts 10:34-end, proclaims the necessity and efficacy of the Sacrament of Baptism: These Effusions of the Holy Spirit, liberal, and glorious, and manifestly divine as they were, did not yet supersede the Necessity of those Sacraments, which Christ had left, as ordinary Marks and Means of conferring and expressing Church-Membership among his Followers. For what is St. Peter's Inference from these miraculous Gifts? Is it, that the Persons, on whom they rested, had no need of Baptism? No: But, that...