The English Church in the Eighteenth Century. John Henry Overton

Porteus 394

       'The Clapham Sect' 394

       John and Henry Thornton 395

       William Wilberforce 395–8

       Lords Dartmouth and Teignmouth 398

       Dr. Johnson 398–9

       Hannah More 399–402

       Strength and weakness of the Evangelical leaders 402–3

       CHAPTER X.

      CHURCH FABRICS AND SERVICES.

      (C.J. Abbey.)

       The 'Georgian Age' 403

       General sameness in the externals of worship 404

       Church architecture 405

       Vandalisms 407

       Whitewash 408

       Repairs of churches 409

       Church naves; relics of mediæval usage 411

       Pews and galleries 411

       Other adjuncts of eighteenth century churches 414

       Chancels and their ornaments 416

       Paintings in churches 419

       Stained glass 423

       Church bells 425

       Churchyards 427

       Church building 428

       Daily services 429

       Wednesday and Friday services; Saints' days; Lent; Passion Week; Christmas Day, &c. 432

       Wakes; Perambulations 436

       State services 437

       Church attendance 439

       Irreverence in church 441

       Variety of ceremonial 444

       The vestment rubric; copes 445

       The surplice; hood; scarf, &c. 446

       Clerical costume 447

       Postures of worship; Responses, &c. 449

       Liturgical uniformity 451

       Division of services 452

       The Eucharist; Sacramental usages 453

       Parish clerks 456

       Organs; church music 458

       Cathedrals 459

       The 'bidding' and the 'pulpit' prayer 461

       Preaching 463

       Lecturers 466

       Funeral sermons 468

       Baptism 468

       Catechising 469

       Confirmation 470

       Marriage 471

       Funerals 471

       Church discipline; excommunication; penance 472

       Sunday observance 474

       Conclusion 475

       

       APPENDIX: List of Authorities 477

       INDEX 489

THE ENGLISH CHURCH

       Table of Contents

IN THE

       Table of Contents

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

       Table of Contents

CHAPTER I.

       Table of Contents

INTRODUCTORY.

       Table of Contents

The claim which the intellectual and religious life of England in the eighteenth century has upon our interest has been much more generally acknowledged of late years than was the case heretofore. There had been, for the most part, a disposition to pass it over somewhat slightly, as though the whole period were a prosaic and uninteresting one. Every generation is apt to depreciate the age which has so long preceded it as to have no direct bearing on present modes of life, but is yet not sufficiently distant as to have emerged into the full dignity of history. Besides, it cannot be denied that the records of the eighteenth century are, with two or three striking exceptions, not of a kind to stir the imagination. It was not a pictorial age; neither was it one of ardent feeling or energetic movement. Its special merits were not very obvious, and its prevailing faults had nothing dazzling in them, nothing that could be in any way called splendid; on the contrary, in its weaker points there was a distinctly ignoble element. The mainsprings of the religious, as well as of the political, life of the country were relaxed. In both one and the other the high feeling of faith was enervated; and this deficiency was sensibly felt in a lowering of general tone, both in the domain of intellect and in that of practice. The spirit of feudalism and of the old chivalry had all but departed, but had left a vacuum which was not yet supplied. As for loyalty, the half-hearted feeling of necessity or expedience, which for more than half the century was the main support of the German dynasty, was something different not in degree only, but in kind, from that which had upheld the throne in time past. Jacobitism, on the other hand, was not strong enough to be more than a faction; and the Republican party, who had once been equal to the Royalists in fervour of enthusiasm, and superior to them in intensity of purpose, were now wholly extinct. The country increased rapidly in strength and in material prosperity; its growth was uninterrupted; its resources continued to develop; its political constitution gained in power and consolidation. But there was a deficiency of disinterested principle. There was an open field for the operation of such sordid motives and debasing tactics as those which disgraced Walpole's lengthened administration.

In the following chapters there will be only too frequent occasion to refer to a somewhat corresponding state of things in the religious life of the country. For two full centuries the land had laboured under the throes of the Reformation. Even when William III. died, it could scarcely be said that England had decisively settled the form which her National Church should take. The 'Church in danger' cries of Queen Anne's reign, and the bitter war of pamphlets, were outward indications that suspense was not yet completely over, and that both friends and enemies felt they had still occasion to calculate the chances alike of Presbyterianism and of the Papacy. But when George I. ascended the throne in peace, it was at last generally realised that the 'Settlement' of which so much had been spoken was now effectually attained. Church and State were so far secured from change, that their defenders might rest from anxiety. It was not a wholesome rest that