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 ...

Tillotson's sermon ' Persuasive to Frequent Communion ' is yet another example of how Latitudinarian piety could feel remarkably like High Church piety.  Or, to phrase it somewhat more accurately, the sermon demonstrates a shared piety. What is striking about the sermon is how it overturns any notion of a sacramental coldness in the Latitudinarian sensibility.  It evinces a warm joy in the Sacrament, far removed from the woefully inaccurate stereotype of the Latitudinarian approach to the Lord's Supper.  This is immediately detected in the sermon's opening, pointing to the Eucharist as the anticipation of the banquet in the Kingdom: So that as often as we approach the table of the Lord, we should comfort ourselves with the thoughts of that blessed time when we shall eat and drink with him in his kingdom, and shall be admitted to the great feast of the Lamb, and to eternal communion with God the judge of all, and with our blessed and glorified Redeemer, and the holy ...

From Tillotson's sermon at the funeral in 1683 of Cambridge Platonist Benjamin Whichcote.  It is difficult to see how the piety represented here - the praise for the Prayer Book's office for Visitation of the Sick, the devotion surrounding the reception of the Sacrament as death approaches - differs from the piety which shaped the High Church throughout the 18th century: During his sickness, he bad a constant calmness and serenity of mind; and under all his bodily weakness, possest his soul in great patience. After the Prayers for the Visitation of the Sick (which he said were excellent prayers) had been used, he was put in mind of receiving the Sacrament; to which he answered, that he most readily embraced the proposals: and, after he had received it, said to Dr. Cudworth, “I heartily thank you for this most Christian office: I thank you for putting me in mind of receiving this Sacrament:” adding this pious ejaculation: "the Lord fulfill his declarations and promises, an...

Following on from yesterday's post, the 1790  An Apology for the Liturgy and Clergy of the Church of England  (attributed to Horsley) also praised PECUSA's BCP 1789 - a revision heavily influenced by what are normally regarded as Latitudinarian concerns - for being 'in all material points' the same as 1662. This is particularly significant in light of the 1789 omitting both the Athanasian Creed and the special absolution in the Visitation of the Sick, revising the introduction to the Solemnization of Marriage, allowing the signing with the Cross in Baptism to be optional, and permitting the clause in the Apostles' Creed regarding the descent into hell to be changed to omitted or replaced by 'the place of departed spirits', and offering an alternative preface for Trinity Sunday.   These changes, while strongly condemned by the late Peter Toon , did not prevent the High Church author of An Apology from regarding the 1789 as sharing the same faith as that of 1...

F.C. Mather's classic study of Samuel Horsley, High Church Prophet (1992), states the 1790 pamphlet An Apology for the Liturgy and Clergy of the Church of England is attributed to Horsley.  Whether or not Horsley is accepted at the author, the identification of the pamphlet with one of the leading High Church voices of the era certainly points to the pamphlet's robust High Church credentials.   The pamphlet was a response to the Unitarian proposals for reform of the liturgy and abolishing subscription contained in the Duke of Grafton's  Hints Submitted to the Serious Attention of the Clergy, Nobility and Gentry, by a Layman .  Grafton had pointed to the Proposed Book of 1689, suggesting that it offered a liturgy akin to that proposed by the Samuel Clark, whose 1712 The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity had been censured by the Lower House of Convocation. Grafton praised those involved in the 1689 proposed revision as 'the most respectable Bishops and divines'...

From Simon Patrick's  A treatise of repentance and of fasting especially of the Lent-fast (1686), an indication of the seriousness with which the observance of Lent was regarded by the Restoration Church, and not just within High Church circles: And now who sees not the reasonableness of this Observance, and the great benefit we may receive thereby? If instead of contending about it (for which, thus understood, I can see no ground) we would all set our selves to make the best use we can, of what the Church hath piously ordained, and for many Ages profitably practised ...  And now who sees not the reasonableness of this Observance, and the great benefit we may receive thereby? If instead of contending about it (for which, thus understood, I can see no ground) we would all set our selves to make the best use we can, of what the Church hath piously ordained, and for many Ages profitably practised. You see, how every one of us should show in all things, the reverence and the hono...

But it must be acknowledged to be a high pitch of boldness and injustice to charge us, as if we did not ascribe all due honour to holy Orders and the Succession of Pastors. So says Gilbert Burnet in his 1677 A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England .  It would be very difficult indeed to regard this Latitudinarian statement of the ministry of priesthood and of eucharistic sacrifice as differing in any meaningful way from High Church teaching, throughout the 'long 18th century'. First, When we are ordained to be Priests, there is given us all that which our Church declares, inseparable to the Priesthood; and such is the Consecrating the Eucharist: Therefore it being declared and acknowledged on all sides; what Functions are proper to the Priesthood if we be ordained Priests, though there were no further Declaration made in the form of Ordination, yet the other concomitant actions and offices, shewing that we are made Priests, all that belongs to that function is...