Letter to the English Churchman concerning criticism of the Reformed Church of England and praise of the Cromwellian chaos.
Sir:
The Letters to the Editor on the spiritual state of the pre-Rebellion Church of England swing from one extreme to the other. Ignoring historical facts, they back-project later dark sectarian interpretations onto more luminous times. The rejection of the Restitution by an alleged 2,000 (nearer 800) ministers in 1662 was a …
Posts Tagged Unitarian Church
Apostate Church of England
Dec 17
The debates between the Master of the Temple Church, Richard Hooker and his Deputy Walter Travers between 1585-1586 sparked off controversies which are still unsettled. The original subject matter, however, has been radically altered through changing theological fashions and back-projections of subsequent controversies. The original discussions arose through differences regarding preaching and lecturing, public worship, predestination, …
… worldwide ups and downs, triumphs and defeats. However, the gospel has spread territorially, church planting has increased and there are far more Christians in the world today than ever before. I now receive letters from Continents and countries where spiritual blindness prevailed half a century ago. True, these churches are handicapped by modern apostate churches, the dumbing down of doctrine, the growth of para-church movements, big business and entertainment groups masquerading as …
… I would have never finished reading the book. Could it be that in arguing that there was no Church in England until the 16th century and even that was ‘corrupt’, Gay is thinking of the teachings of the doctrines of grace found in such men of God as Bede, Greathead and Bradwardine which Gay cannot stomach? Wycliffe alone disproves Gay’s theory of a non-existent Church in England, yet Gay merely mentions Wycliffe in passing as one who preached against the pope.
Gay looks to …
Queen Elizabeth II’s Role in the Church of England
Dear Sir,
Archbishop Rowan warns against self-deception regarding the supreme government of the Church of England, seemingly unaware himself that there are no ecclesiastical, political or constitutional grounds for assuming Elizabeth II to be that church’s Supreme Governor.
At the Elizabethan Settlement, Cox, Sandys, Grindal etc. persuaded Elizabeth …
… the past so motivated the churches. Of course, there are great spiritual treasures to be found in church history and much to be learnt through past triumphs and failures. However, there is also a danger in this preoccupation with the past against which we must be warned. As our churches grow sadly less and less dependent on Scripture, we tend to look for historical roots for our support. So many once Bible-believing churches who scorned tradition are now looking to the past to prove their …
… in his twenties in 1692 and assisted his father, Increase Mather, aged fifty-three in his Boston church – miles away from Salem. Young as he was, Cotton Mather had a great deal of experience with witches. He had studied a huge amount of material concerning witchcraft in Europe and the North American colonies and was particularly influenced by reports from Sweden where prayer, counselling and intense care had led to cures. At 25 years of age Cotton felt that he now knew enough about …
Clifford on Schism
Oct 24
… Clifford defending certain sixteenth and seventeenth century schisms from the English Reformed Church.
Sir: Dr Clifford’s habit of ridiculing sound arguments (see Issue 7710) as ‘vendettas’ and ‘pompous’ and contradicting them with fiction, half-truths and wishful-thinking merely fosters division. His astonishment at Robert Law’s views concerning Seceders arises from his insufficient knowledge of our Reformers and pre-Commonwealth Puritans who were strictly against …
