laudable Practice

In his discussion of ancient liturgical practices in  A Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist, as laid down in Scripture and Antiquity , Waterland recognises that the Communion Office in BCP 1662 differs from many of the "old Liturgies" with regards to both the invocation of the Holy Ghost and the memorial and oblation.  Does the absence of these from 1662 weaken the apostolic and catholic credentials the High Church tradition claimed for the rite? In terms of the invocation of the Holy Ghost, Waterland denies that evidence for it can be found before " the fourth century, and indeed towards the middle of it".  Even then, the point of the invocation coheres with, rather than contradicts, Waterland's Reformed Eucharistic theology : invoking the Spirit over the bread and wine is "to make them authentic and effective representatives of our Lord's body and blood".  As such, the petition in the 1662 Prayer of Consecration he then regards as having ...

The Socinians here object, that the text does not say that the Eucharist is ordained for remission, but that the blood, the blood spilled upon the cross, was shed for remission. But it is obvious to reply, that that blood which was once literally given for remission, upon the cross, is now every day symbolically and mystically given in the Eucharist, and given with all its fruits: therefore remission of sins is given. Such is the nature of symbolical grants, as I have before explained at large: they exhibit what they represent, convey what they signify, and are in divine construction and acceptance, though not literally or substantially, the very thing which they supply the place of.  Daniel Waterland  A Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist, as laid down in Scripture and Antiquity , Chapter IX, 'Of Remission of Sins conferred in the Eucharist'.

Ours is a wonderful heritage of excellent preachers. The High Church Puritan's  excellent post ' Why Anglicans Can't Preach ' has rightly received considerable attention.  Now the post's title, of course, is meant to be provocative.  As the quotation above from the post indicates, it is not suggesting that the Anglican tradition has a fatal flaw which inhibits or undermines solid preaching.  No, the point is that we - in North Atlantic Anglicanism - have forgotten what was once a strength of the Anglican tradition: solid, substantive preaching. Take thou authority to preach the Word of God ... Every newly-ordained presbyter once heard these words.  Preaching was to be a normal, routine exercise of ministry.  "I read Prayers and Preached this morning" is perhaps the most common refrain in the diaries of Parson Woodforde, a reminder that preaching was the normal expression of the priest's teaching ministry.  It was not glamorous, it was not in th...

In The Mystical Presence: A Vindication of the Reformed or Calvinistic Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist (1846), John Williamson Nevin identified the then widespread Reformed "undervaluation of the sacraments, reducing them in the end to mere signs" not as the outworking of the historic Reformed confessions (which actually witness to a rich Eucharistic theology) but, rather, as the result of the influence of Socinian and Arminian teaching. Quoting from Socinian confessions and catechisms, Nevin describes them as turning the Lord's Supper "into a naked commemoration of Christ's benefits".  Similarly, "with the rise of Arminianism in the following century, in the bosom of the Reformed Church, we find a similar undervaluation of the sacraments".  He quotes from the Remonstrant theologian Philipp van Limborch : They operate upon us as signs, that represent to our mind the thing whose signs they are.  Nor should any other efficacy be sought in them ...

A significant portion of Waterland's 1739 charge as archdeacon to the clergy of Middlesex - The Sacramental Part of the Eucharist Explained - refutes admiration for Eastern Eucharistic theologies and the related proposal of the need for an epiclesis in the Prayer of Consecration.   The context was the influence of Non-juror works and the suggestion emanating from Non-juror Usager circles of 'restoring' the invocation of the Holy Spirit found in the 1549 rite.  Elsewhere, Waterland had referred to this portion of the rite being "thrown out afterwards, upon prudential considerations, and at the instance chiefly of two learned and judicious foreigners, whom Archbishop Cranmer called in to assist at the review of our Liturgy in 1551". At the opening of the charge Waterland refers to 1702, the beginning of Queen Anne's reign.  As the beginning of this reign witnessed the reconciliation of moderate Non-jurors to the Church of England, he seems to be using it as...

In A Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist, as laid down in Scripture and Antiquity (1737), summarising Calvin's Eucharistic doctrine, Waterland emphasises that "that great man and illustrious reformer" established a view of the sacrament which was "steering a kind of middle course, between extremes".   He points in particular to an extract from the Institutes , describing it as "very near the truth, and the whole truth": We say that they [the body and blood] are truly and efficaciously exhibited to us, but not naturally.  By which we mean, not that the very substance of his body, or that the real and natural body of Christ are there given, but all the benefits which Christ procured for us in his body.  This is that presence of his body which the nature of the Sacrament requires. Waterland, however, detects "ambiguity" here: "his account was too confused".  He goes on to explicitly define the ambiguity and confusion: ...

In his A Summary View of the Doctrine of Justification , Daniel Waterland's (1683-1740) critique of the "Solifidian doctrines, as taught by some in later times" particularly emphasised the negative impact of such teaching on an abiding concern of the High Church tradition, "practical Christianity".  Such a theology, incapable of giving a meaningful account of the role and significance of good works, Waterland contrasted with his own tradition: But we take due care so to maintain the doctrine of faith, as not to exclude the necessity of good works; and so to maintain good works, as not to exclude the necessity of Christ's atonement, or the free grace of God. The latter part of this statement points a key aspect of Waterland's work, his affirmation of a classical Reformed understanding of justification: ... justification as a kind of law term, expressing a judicial transaction.  Protestants of every denomination have set themselves to defend it ......