laudable Practice

There is a sense in which the desire expressed in the Commination service, that 'the said discipline may be restored again', was actually fulfilled.  The use of church courts and the imposition of public penance was a regular feature in the Elizabethan, Jacobean, Caroline, and Restoration Church.  As recent research has indicated, during the Restoration era 'the ecclesiastical courts had exerted a significant influence over England’s religious landscape', including imposing public penance in order to obtain absolution.   This 1696 sermon certainly indicates that the disciplinary system of the church courts was under criticism in the era after the Revolution.  The preface to the published sermon admits, 'I am not insensible, what scandalous Imputations our Ecclesiastical Courts lie under'.  That said, it robustly affirmed the role of the courts and the ecclesiastical discipline they upheld: If others of the Clergy would follow so good an Example, and do ...