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‘Latitudinarianism’ and the Restoration Church*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

John Spurr
Affiliation:
St Edmund Hall, Oxford

Extract

Modern historians have been more confident than Restoration Englishmen in stating who the ‘latitudinarians’ were, what they held and where they dwelt. The ‘latitudinarians’ have been described as ‘the central force in the movement toward toleration which came from within the Restoration Church of England’ and as a clerical third force, neither anglican nor puritan, but united in an advocacy of ‘natural theology and rational Christianity’. Their ‘basic convictions’, as summarized by Professor Margaret Jacob, were that

rational argumentation and not faith is the final arbiter of Christian belief and dogma; scientific knowledge and natural philosophy are the most reliable means of explaining creation; and political and ecclesiastical moderation are the only realistic means by which the Reformation will be accomplished.

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Articles
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

1 Grove, Robert, A vindication of the conforming clergy (London, 1676), p. 24Google Scholar.

2 Cope, J. I., ‘The cupri-cosmits: Glanvill on latitudinarian anti-enthusiasm’, Huntington library Quarterly, XVII (1954), 270Google Scholar.

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8 Earlier historians offered more guarded definitions of ‘latitudinarianism’ as ‘a temper rather than a creed…primarily an outlook on life and its religious significance’, Cragg, , Puritanism, p. 81, cf. pp. 34, 62–3Google Scholar; McAdoo, H. R., The spirit of anglicanism (London, 1965), chs. V and VI, p. 201Google Scholar; Tulloch, J., Rational theology and Christian theology in England in the seventeenth century (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1874), II, ch. 1Google Scholar.

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11 Wycherley, W., Plays, ed. Friedman, A. (Oxford, 1979), pp. 384–5Google Scholar.

12 See the references below and Burnet, Gilbert, History of my own time, ed. Airy, O. (2 vols., Oxford, 18971900), I, 334Google Scholar; A supplement to Burnet's history of my own time, ed. Foxcroft, H. C. (Oxford, 1902), pp. 463–4Google Scholar. I have not found any contemporary reference to the use of the word in the 1650s.

13 Nicolson, M., Conway letters (London, 1930), p. 220Google Scholar: eighteen months later More was no wiser as to the meaning of the word, ibid. p. 243. It is significant that the term emerged in Cambridge which was expected by the puritan establishment to be a stronghold of orthodoxy. More's own heterodox influence there was particularly galling to the puritan ideologues.

14 Stubbe, Henry, A censure upon certain passages contained in the History of the Royal Society (Oxford, 1671), ‘A reply’, p. 34Google Scholar; cf. Stubbe, , Lord Bacon's relation of the sweating sickness examined (London, 1671), preface to the reader, p. 9Google Scholar; [Lloyd, David], Wonders no miracles (London, 1666), p. 9Google Scholar, ‘a Latitude-man, that is, one that being of no Religion himself, is indifferent what Religion others should be of.’

15 Reliquiae Baxterianae, ed. Sylvester, M. (London, 1696), part III, 1920Google Scholar; cf. II, 386, 408, 427.

16 Jacob, , Newtonians, p. 43Google Scholar.

17 A brief account of the new sect of latitude-men: together with some reflections upon the new philosophy. By S.P. of Cambridge (London, 1662)Google Scholar, reprinted in The phenix (2 vols., London, 1707–8), II, 499–518. I cite the 1708 edition; the quotation is at p. 501.

18 Grove, , Vindication, p. 24Google Scholar.

19 Cope, , ‘Cupri-cosmits’, p. 271Google Scholar.

20 Brief account, pp. 507–8. On this antagonism see [Ken, Thomas?], Ichabod (Cambridge, 1663)Google Scholar and Gascoigne, , ‘Politics’, pp. 34Google Scholar.

21 Brief account, pp. 501–2.

22 Glanvil, Joseph, Essays on several important subjects in philosophy and religion (London, 1676), essay VII, p. 16Google Scholar.

23 Brief account, pp. 507–8.

24 Fowler, , Principles, pp. 811, 13Google Scholar, cf. Jacob, , Newtonians, pp. 32, 46–7Google Scholar. On the flyleaf of his copy of Principles (at the Bodleian Library, shelf-mark 8° A.16. Line), Bishop Thomas Barlow noted: ‘this Discourse is a Justification of a Latitudinarian (the word was hatch'd at Cambridge and there you may heare more of it) against the zealous non-Conformists’, and he discerned the influence of Henry More. Notice that the work is seen as a reply to dissent.

25 Fowler, , Principles, pp. 10, 23, 30, 36Google Scholar.

26 Fowler, , Principles, pp. 1213, 18–19, cf. pp. 16–17, 41–4Google Scholar. Fowler, , The design of Christianity (London, 1671)Google Scholar, was an avowed sequel to Principles, with the same aim, see sig. A3.

27 Bunyan, John, A defence of the doctrine of justification (?London, ?1672), pp. 91–2Google Scholar; [Fowler, Edward], Dirt wipt off (London, 1672), pp. 70–2Google Scholar.

28 Jenkyn, William, Exodus (London, 1675), pp. 53, 55–6, 47–8Google Scholar.

29 Grove, , Vindication, pp. 23, 24Google Scholar. See D[ictionary of] N[ational] B[iography], s.v. Robert Grove, for details of the subsequent controversy with Jenkyn.

30 Jacob, , Newtonians, p. 40 and ch. 1Google Scholar.

31 Before 1688 ‘high’ was applied to the clergy in the sense of dominant or extreme, as in Reliquiae Baxterianae, II, 387. I have found references to Restoration nonconformist uses of the term to imply an over-zealous conformity ([Underdown, John], The church papist (London, 1681), pp. 12)Google Scholar, a desire for union with Rome (anon., The reformed papist, or high-churchman (London, 1681), p. 2)Google Scholar, or, in short, that some anglicans were ‘Popishly Affected, Persecutors and High Church Men’, Seymour, Thomas, Advice to the readers of the common prayer (London, 1682), p. 123Google Scholar.

32 Pace Jacob, , Newtonians, pp. 48–9Google Scholar. Warly's, Reasoning apostate (London, 1677)Google Scholar and its predecessor The natural fanatick (London, 1676)Google Scholar, from which I quote sigs. A5v–A6, were replies to tracts by Milton, Marvell, Boyle, Martin Clifford and a Franciscan, Walsh. Warly was contributing to a debate provoked by Clifford on the role of reason in religion, but the only pertinent reference to ‘latitudinarianism’ in this quarrel equates it with socinianism, see , T. P.Reason regulated (no place, 1675) p. 33Google Scholar.

33 Standish, John, A sermon preached before the king (London, 1675), pp. 24–5Google Scholar; cf. Jacob, , Newtonians, pp. 47–8Google Scholar.

34 Standish, John, A sermon preached at the assizes (London, 1683)Google Scholar, epistle; also see Grove, , Vindication, p. 60 and pp. 59–69Google Scholar; Patrick, Simon, Works, ed. Taylor, A. (9 vols., Cambridge 1858), VI, 433–66Google Scholar; Annesley, Arthur, earl of Anglesey, , The truth unvailed (London, 1676)Google Scholar.

35 See Burnet, , History of my own time, II, 221Google Scholar; Supplement to Burnet, p. 101; Willman, R., ‘The origins of “whig” and “tory” in English political language’, Historical Journal, XVII, 2 (1974)Google Scholar.

36 See Puller, Timothy, The moderation of the Church of England (London, 1679), p. 127Google Scholar; Barret, John’, The rector of Sutton committed (London, 1680), p. 25Google Scholar; Pett, Peter, The happy future state of England (London, 1688), p. 283Google Scholar, second pagination, p. 13; [Hickman, Henry], Speculum sherlockianum (London, 1674), p. 38Google Scholar.

37 See South, , Sermons, III, 349Google Scholar; Barne, Miles, A sermon preach'd…on the 9th of September (London, 1683), p. 13Google Scholar. A violent argument also raged over claims to ‘moderation’, see South, , Sermons, III, 374–5Google Scholar; Evans, John, Moderation stated (London, 1682)Google Scholar; Wilkins, John, Sermons preached upon several occasions (London, 1682)Google Scholar, preface by John Tillotson.

38 See, among others, Gascoigne, , ‘Politics’, p. 6Google Scholar and Findon, J. C., ‘The nonjurors and the Church of England, 1689–1716’ (unpublished D. Phil, dissertation, University of Oxford, 1978)Google Scholar.

39 I have so far found about thirty distinct references to ‘latitudinarians’ in Restoration religious literature. All of these are given in the footnotes to this essay. While some are difficult to interpret, e.g. Dodwell, Henry, A discourse concerning the one altar (London, 1683)Google Scholar, sig. a2v, others are nigh unintelligible, e.g. [Pearse, Edward], The conformists plea for the nonconformsits (London, 1681, 2nd edn), p. 35Google Scholar. Only Albert Warren, a ‘rationalist’, sets ‘latitudinarian’ in opposition to ‘high church’, in An apology for the discourse of human reason (London, 1680), p. 38Google Scholar.

40 Cope, , ‘Cupri-cosmits’, pp. 272–86Google Scholar. Jacomb and the unidentifiable ‘Cardo’ appear in the section of the MS not printed by Cope. I am most grateful to the University of Chicago Library for supplying me with a photocopy of this unprinted section. Glanvil's exclusion of this gallery of ‘latitudinarians’ from the printed version of his essay [in Essays, essay VII] must cast doubt on the suggestion that these divines saw themselves as a movement.

41 Reliquiae Baxterianae, II, 386, 388.

42 Burnet, , History of my own time, I, 334–9Google Scholar; cf. Wood, Anthony, Athenae Oxoniensis, ed. Bliss, P. (4 vols., London, 18131820 edn), IV, 513Google Scholar.

43 See Shapiro, , Wilkins, pp. 154–5Google Scholar; McAdoo, , Spirit of anglicanism, pp. 158, 200–3, 230–9Google Scholar.

44 Ingelo was a Fellow of Eton, a musician and author of platonic romances; Jacomb, a friend of Patrick, died in 1659; and Rust lived in Ireland until his death in 1670. All three appear in D.N.B., Jacomb under the entry on his brother Thomas Jacombe. On Rust also see Walker, D. P., The decline of hell (London, 1964)Google Scholar.

45 Burnet, , History of my own time, I, 335Google Scholar; McAdoo, , Spirit of anglicanism, pp. 157–60, 187–9Google Scholar; Cragg, , Puritanism, pp. 62–4Google Scholar; Shapiro, , Probability, pp. 106–7Google Scholar; Cope, , Glanvill, p. 86Google Scholar.

46 See Patrick's, autobiography in Works, IX, 407 ffGoogle Scholar. and Cambridge University Library, Additional MS 20.

47 Patrick, , Works, IX, 407 ff., v, 1–251, VII, 407, 404–54, 485–550Google Scholar.

48 The editor's reasons for denying the tract a place in Patrick's, Works are given at I, xliii ff.Google Scholar; Glanvil makes no mention of it in his ‘Cupri-cosmits’ MS, neither does Burnet, or Birch, T., The life of John Tillotson (London, 1753 edn), p. 328Google Scholar. For the opposing view see the introduction to A brief account, ed. T. Birrell (The Augustan Reprint Society, C, 1963).

49 Patrick, , A friendly debate (London, 1684 edn), sigs. A4–A5Google Scholar; Patrick, , Works, IX, 450Google Scholar; Burnet, , History of my own time, I, 467Google Scholar; Marvell, Andrew, The rehearsal transpros'd, ed. Smith, D. (Oxford, 1971). pp. 62, 79, 97Google Scholar.

50 For these and the suggestion that he only conformed in 1664 see D.N.B; Calamy revised, ed. Matthews, A. G. (Oxford, 1934), pp. 209–10Google Scholar; Fowler, , Design, pp. 131–2, 291–3Google Scholar.

51 Fowler, , Principles, sig. vii, pp. 40–2, 114–295Google Scholar; Fowler, , Design, pp. 221–37Google Scholar; Fowler, , Libertas evangelica (London, 1680), sigs. A6v–A7, A8, pp. 43, 82–105Google Scholar.

52 Newbury, William and Edmunds, William, A letter to Dr Fowler (London, 1685), pp. I, 5Google Scholar.

53 Fowler, , Great wickedness, sig. A3, p. 26Google Scholar.

54 The development of his views can be seen in Principles, pp. 333–5; Libertas, sigs. a2, A8, pp. 164–97, 234–5, 244–5; Fowler, , A resolution of this case of conscience, whether the Church of England's symbolizing… (London, 1683)Google Scholar; Fowler, , A sermon preached at the general meeting (London, 1685), p. 31–2Google Scholar.

55 Reliquiae Baxterianae, III, 19–20; Fowler, , Libertas, sig. A8, pp. 254 ff.Google Scholar; Fowler, , Design, pp. 303–5Google Scholar; Bodleian Library, Tanner MS 40, fo. 225.

56 Wood, , Athenae Oxoniensis, III, 1244Google Scholar.

57 See Glanvil, Essays, essays III, IV and V; Cope, , Glanvill, pp. 6, 22–6, 31–2, 62–5, chs. IV–VIGoogle Scholar.

58 Glanvil, , Essays, essay IV, pp. 1723, V, pp. 24–8, VIIGoogle Scholar; Glanvil, , Some discourses, sermons and remains (London, 1681), pp. 77, 83, 117, 403 ffGoogle Scholar.

59 Glanvil, , Essays, essay VII, p. 17, VGoogle Scholar; Glanvil, , Discourses, p. 414Google Scholar. In a forthcoming essay on ‘“Rational religion” in the Restoration’ I explore the clergy's attempts to defend revealed religion as ‘rational’. When read in context, their arguments do not elevate ‘reason’ at the expense of faith and the Christian mysteries, and there is no evidence that ‘rational argumentation’ replaced faith as ‘the final arbiter of Christian belief and dogma’ (Jacob, , Newtonians, p. 34Google Scholar.)

60 Glanvil, , Discourses, pp. 74, 72Google Scholar.

61 Ibid. pp. 146–7.

62 Glanvil, , Zealous…protestant, pp. 26–7, 32–4, ch. IVGoogle Scholar; Cope, , ‘Cupri-cosmits’, p. 276Google Scholar. Cope, , Glanvill, pp. 30–1, 75, 79–80Google Scholar, misleads by the author's loose terminology.

63 Wilkins, , Sermons, pp. 1114, 105, 119–23, 150, 191, 229, 254–5Google Scholar.

64 Tanner MS 44, fos. 37, 196; Lloyd, William, A sermon preach'd at the funeral of…John Wilkins (London, 1675), pp. 36, 42–3Google Scholar.

65 Pope, Walter, Life of Seth, bishop of Salisbury, ed. Bamborough, J. B. (Luttrell Society Publications, XXI, Oxford, 1961), pp. 46–7Google Scholar. For biographical details see Shapiro, Wilkins.

66 See Shapiro, Probability, ch. III. Wilkins' Of the principles and duties of natural religion, the main statement of his epistemology, appeared posthumously in 1675 after Tillotson had partially reconstructed it from Wilkins' notes. Tillotson had already used the same theory in his The wisdom of being religious (London, 1664)Google Scholar, perhaps deriving it from book II, ch. VIII, of Stillingfleet's, EdwardOrigines Sacrae (London, 1662)Google Scholar.

67 See Reliquiae Baxterianae, III, 24–35; Bodleian Library, B. 14.15. Linc. (Barlow's notes); Tanner MS 290, fos. 240–3; Thomas, R., ‘Comprehension and indulgence’, in Nuttall, G. F. and Chadwick, O. (eds.), From uniformity to unity, 1662–1962 (London, 1962)Google Scholar.

68 Birch, , Life of Tillotson, p. 391, cf. p. 398Google Scholar.

69 Birch, Life of Tillotson; McKay, J., ‘John Tillotson, 1630–1694’ (Oxford University D.Phil. thesis 1952), especially pp. 68–9Google Scholar.

70 Birch, Life of Tillotson, for his friendships and his role as editor to Wilkins, Hezekiah Burton and Isaac Barrow.

71 Birch, , Life of Tillotson, pp. 5967Google Scholar; McKay, , ‘Tillotson’, pp. 202–11Google Scholar; Brown, D. D., ‘The dean's dilemma’, The Library, XIV (1959), 282–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

72 Burnet, , History of my own time, I, 335Google Scholar; Hickes, George, Some discourses upon Dr Burnet and Dr Tillotson (London, 1695)Google Scholar; Walker, , Decline of hell, p. 6Google Scholar; Birch, , Life of Tillotson, pp. 292–8, 317Google Scholar.

73 Reliquiae Baxterianae, III, 156–8; Thomas, , ‘Comprehension’, pp. 219–21Google Scholar.

74 John Rawlett to Baxter, 26 July 1670, Baxter Letters, Dr Williams's Library, III, fo. 121.

75 Tillotson, , Sermons (12 vols., London, 1757 edn), II, 25Google Scholar; Birch, , Life of Tillotson, pp. 402–3, 334–5Google Scholar; McKay, , ‘Tillotson’, pp. 191–5Google Scholar; Womock, Laurence, The late proposal of union among protestants (London, 1680), pp. 1214Google Scholar.

76 See Parker, Samuel, The case of the Church of England (London, 1681), part IIIGoogle Scholar; Lowth, Simon, Of the subject of church power (London, 1685)Google Scholar; J. Marshall, ‘The ecclesiology of the latitude men 1660–1689; Stillingfleet, Tillotson and “Hobbism”’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, XXXVI (1985)Google Scholar

77 Stillingfleet, Edward, Works, ed. Bentley, R. (6 vols., London, 1710), IGoogle Scholar, ‘Life of Stillingfleet’.

78 Stillingfleet, , Works, I, 147418Google Scholar.

79 Burnet, , History of my own time, I, 336Google Scholar. On the dating of Irenicum see Whiting, C. E., Studies in English puritanism from the restoration to the revolution (London, 1931), p. 479Google Scholar.

80 Grove, Robert, An answer to Mr Lowth's letter to Dr Stillingfleet (London, 1687), p. 5Google Scholar.

81 Calamy revised, pp. 102, 305; Reliquiae Baxterianae, III, 110.

82 Stillingfleet, , Works, IGoogle Scholar, sermon XVIII.

83 Stillingfleet, , Works, II, 465–9Google Scholar; Burnet, Gilbert, An apology for the Church of England (London, 1688), pp. 45Google Scholar; Bodleian Library, Ballard MS 70, fo. 51.

84 Long, Thomas, Vox cleri (London, 1690), pp. 35Google Scholar. N. B. Long mis-dates the proposals.

85 Lowth, Simon, A letter to Edward Stillingfleet (London, 1687), p. 77Google Scholar. Another critic, Samuel Parker, was silenced, see Tanner MSS 31, fo. 170, 36, fo. 255. Stillingfleet's anglican defenders included William Sherlock, William Clagett and Richard Hollingworth. For nonconformist reactions see Baxter, Richard, Richard Baxter's answer to Dr Edward Stillingfleets charge (London, 1680), p. 43Google Scholar; [Barret, John], The rector of Sutton committed (London, 1680), p. 25Google Scholar.

86 Hunter, M., The Royal Society and its fellows, 1660–1700 (The British Society for the History of Science, monograph IV, Chalfont St Giles, 1982), pp. 24, 9–10Google Scholar, catalogue entries 175, 292, 445.

87 The contention is Gascoigne's, , in ‘Politics’, pp. 89Google Scholar; but see Wilkins, , Ecclesiastes (London, 1649)Google Scholar and the references in note 63 above; Glanvil, Essays, essay IV; Tillotson, , Sermons, VI, 324–50Google Scholar.

88 The correspondence of Henry Oldenburg, ed. , A. R. and Hall, M. B. (10 vols. to date, Madison, 1965– ), VI, 372Google Scholar.

89 Fowler, , Principles, pp. 296, 36, 175Google Scholar; Glanvil, , Essays, essay II, p. 31Google Scholar; Glanvil, , Discourses, p. 119Google Scholar; Patrick, Simon, The parable of the pilgrim (London, 1665), sig. A4v, pp. 10, 13–16, 119Google Scholar.

90 Fowler, , Principles, pp. 103, 116–17, Cf. pp. 41–7, 86–103, 341Google Scholar; Patrick, , Parable, p. 16Google Scholar; Glanvil, , Essays, essay II, p. 44Google Scholar; Glanvil, , Discourses, p. 119Google Scholar.

91 Glanvil, , Discourses, pp. 406–7Google Scholar, cf. Burnet, , History of my own time, I, 467Google Scholar; Fowler, , Principles, pp. 114, 157–8Google Scholar; idem, Libertas, p. 43; idem, Dirt wipt off, pp. 31, 49; Patrick, , Parable, pp. 138–9Google Scholar, ch. XVI; Stillingfleet, , Works, I 409Google Scholar; Tillotson, , Sermons, VI, 456Google Scholar; Outram, William, Twenty Sermons (London, 1682), pp. 152–8, 166–7Google Scholar.

92 Fowler, , Principles, p. 115, cf. pp. 126 ff, 174Google Scholar; idem, Dirt wipt off, p. 45; idem, Design, pp. 91–2, 221–6; Tillotson, , Sermons, VI, 411–13, 427, 457–8Google Scholar; Outram, , Twenty sermons, p. 407Google Scholar.

93 Fowler, , Principles, pp. 212, 228–30, 233Google Scholar; Tillotson, , Sermons, VI, 445–6Google Scholar; Outram, , Twenty sermons, p. 397Google Scholar.

94 See notes 27 and 28 above.

95 Fowler, , Libertas, p. 316Google Scholar.

96 A brief account, pp. 507–8. On the extent of collaboration see Bosher, R. S., The making of the restoration settlement (London, 1957 edn), p. 5Google Scholar; Walker revised, ed. Matthews, A. G. (Oxford, 1948), pp. xiiixv, xviiiGoogle Scholar.

97 They included Simon Patrick, George Ashwell, Richard Perrinchief, Peter Du Moulin, Laurence Womock, William Lloyd and George Hall.

98 Reliquiae Baxterianae, II, 384, 436–7, 440, III, 52; Fowler, , Principles, p. 28Google Scholar; Bodleian Library, Additional MS c. 304a, fos. 16, 18, 58, 60, 68; Whiting, , Studies, pp. 1819Google Scholar; Clark, R., ‘Anglicanism, Recusancy and Dissent in Derbyshire, 1603–1730’ (Unpublished D.Phil dissertation, University of Oxford, 1979), pp. 201 ffGoogle Scholar.

99 Patrick, , Works, IX, 617Google Scholar. Tillotson, Glanvil, Fowler, Bramhall, Sanderson, Stillingfleet, Laney and Turner all said the same in print.

100 See Thomas, ‘Comprehension’.

101 Glanvil, , Zealous…Protestant, pp. 31–4Google Scholar; Patrick, , Friendly debate (1684 edn)Google Scholar, ‘general preface’ South, , Sermons, III, 352Google Scholar; Saywell, , A serious inquiry (London, 1681), p. 38Google Scholar; Tanner MS 43, fos. 7, 167; Laney, Benjamin, A sermon preached before the king (London, 1675), p. 26Google Scholar; Goodman, John, A serious and compassionate inquiry (London, 1675 edn), pp. 102, 244Google Scholar.

102 Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Letters MS 99, fo. 104; Stillingfleet, , Works, II, 465Google Scholar; Evans, John, Moderation stated, pp. 47–8Google Scholar; South, , Sermons, III, 341Google Scholar; Tanner MS. 40, fo. 39; and the references in the preceding note.

103 These are Herbert Croft, Daniel Whitby, Edmund Pearse and Samuel Bolde.

104 Outram, Twenty sermons, publisher to reader, sigs. A4–A5.

105 Maurice, Henry, A sermon preached…on January the 30th, 1681 (London, 1682), p. 33Google Scholar; also see [Allestree, Richard], The causes of the decay of Christian piety (London, 1668 edn), pp. 23–4Google Scholar; [Grove, Robert], A short defence of the church and clergy of England (London, 1681), p. 91Google Scholar; Fowler, , Design, pp. 303–5Google Scholar.

106 [Allestree, Richard], The whole duty of man (London, 1658)Google Scholar was one of the most popular of these models of piety; the description of closet devotion appears on the title page of Wetenhall, Edward, Enter into thy closet (London, 1672 edn)Google Scholar; also see Patrick, Simon, The devout Christian (1673) in Works, IIGoogle Scholar; Meriton, John, Forms of prayer for every day in the week (London, 1682)Google Scholar. The Remains of Denis Granville ed. Ornsby, G. (2 vols., Surtees Society, XXXVII, 1860, XLVII, 1865), I, 171–83, II, 17, 52–4, 59, 85–9, 107–19, 124–8, 132Google Scholar, describe attempts to increase the opportunities for daily public prayer.

107 Patrick, , Works, I, 181Google Scholar; also see Wetenhall, , Enter, pp. 439 ff.Google Scholar; anon., A weeks preparation towards a worthy receiving of the lords supper (London, 1679)Google Scholar; Glanvil, , An earnest invitation to the sacrament (London, 1674), p. 73Google Scholar; South, , Sermons, I, 427Google Scholar; Sherlock, William, A discourse concerning the knowledge of Jesus Christ (London, 1674), ch. IV, pp. 126–7, 193Google Scholar; Tillotson, , A perswasive to frequent communion (London, 1683), pp. 16, 31–2Google Scholar.

108 Patrick, , Works, I and IIGoogle Scholar for his devotional works; his pre-eminence is attested by Glanvil, , Invitation, pp. 119–20Google Scholar; Pelling, Edward, A discourse of the sacrament (London, 1685), sig. A3VGoogle Scholar; Rawlett, John, An explication of the creed (London, 1679), p. 247Google Scholar; Scott, John, The Christian life (London, 1681), p. 385Google Scholar.

109 Fowler, , Principles, pp. 73–5Google Scholar; idem, Design, ch. XXVII; idem, A discourse of offences (London, 1683), pp. 30–1; Tanner MS 31, fo. 225.

110 Cope, , Glanvill, pp. 33–4Google Scholar.

111 Sharp, John, A sermon preached…April IIth 1679 (London, 1679), p. 15Google Scholar; Sharp goes on to castigate those anglicans who ‘brand seriousness of Conversation, and a care of one's words and actions with the name of Fanaticism, and reproach every one as a Puritan, that willnot swear and drink’.

112 Birch, , Life of Tillotson, pp. 28–9, 407Google Scholar: Tillotson was still making this point in 1694, see Sermons, III, 215. Modern evangelical ‘disrelish’ can be sampled in Allison, C. F., The rise of moralism (London, 1966)Google Scholar.

113 Assheton, William, The danger of hypocrisie (London, 1673), p. 5Google Scholar; cf. Pope, , Life of Ward, pp. 46–7Google Scholar; Patrick, , Parable, p. 16Google Scholar; idem, Works, VII, 585, 428; Fowler, , Principles, pp. 116–17Google Scholar.

114 Clagett, William, Eleven sermons (London, 1693), p. 90Google Scholar.

115 South, , Sermons, II, 147Google Scholar.

116 Anon, ., A free and impartial inquiry (London, 1673), p. 93Google Scholar, cf. South, , Sermons, II, 147, 157–8Google Scholar; Fowler, , Design, p. 224Google Scholar; Sherlock, , Discourse concerning the knowledge, pp. 1213, 24, 247, 257Google Scholar.

117 Du Moulin, Lewis, A short and true account of the several advances the Church of England hath made towards Rome (London, 1680), pp, 31–4Google Scholar, cf. Reliquiae Baxterianae, III, 39–41; Marvell, , Rehearsal transpros'd, pp. 53, 143Google Scholar; Goodman, , Serious…inquiry, pp. 23–4Google Scholar.

118 Sherlock, , Discourse concerning the knowledge, p. 234Google Scholar, also see pp. 62, 118–19, 125; Fowler, , Design, pp. 225–6Google Scholar; Patrick, Parable, ch. XVI.

119 Fowler, , Design, pp. 91–2Google Scholar, also see pp. 80–1, 221–6; idem, Principles, pp. 167–74; Sherlock, , Discourse concerning the knowledge, pp. 83–6Google Scholar.

120 Hammond, Henry, The works, ed. Fulman, W. (4 vols., London, 16841689), I, 36Google Scholar.

121 Littleton, Adam, Sixty-one sermons (London, 1680), part II, 1420Google Scholar, is a typical, if full, statement of this soteriology.

122 Tillotson, , Sermons, VI, 412Google Scholar, also see Fowler, , Principles, pp. 174–5Google Scholar; Littleton, , Sermons, II, 27–8Google Scholar; Glanvil, , Discourses, p. 23Google Scholar; South, , Sermons, II, 9, 149, IV, 59Google Scholar.

123 Sherlock, , Discourse concerning the knowledge, pp. 95–6Google Scholar; Glanvil, , Discourses, p. 76Google Scholar; Goodman, John, The old religion (London, 1684), p. 106Google Scholar.

124 The silence of the churchmen on these topics is most telling, but see A brief account, p. 500; Fowler, , Libertas, pp. 83–4Google Scholar; Patrick, , Works, v, 129, 183, VII, 205, 265Google Scholar; Hammond, , Works, I, 3, 138–9, 147Google Scholar; Littleton, , Sermons, II, 182–94Google Scholar; Allestree, , Causes of the decay, pp. 162–75Google Scholar; Bull, George, Apologia (1676: Oxford, 1844 edn), pp. 47, 49, 308–30Google Scholar; Bull, , Examen censurae (1676: Oxford, 1844 edn), pp. 7780Google Scholar.

125 Patrick, , Works, IX, 425–6Google Scholar.

126 Fowler, , Principles, pp. 223, 228–30, 239–43, 175Google Scholar; Tillotson, , Sermons, VI, 412Google Scholar; Bull, George, Harmonia apostolica (1670: Oxford, 1844 edn), p. 217Google Scholar. On the repudiation of the five articles debated at the synod of Dort, also see Goodman, , Serious…inquiry, pp. 67Google Scholar; Heylyn, Peter, Certamen epislolare (London, 1658), p. 148Google Scholar; Heylyn, , Historia quinquarticularis (London, 1660)Google Scholar.

127 Wallace, D. D., Puritans and predestination – grace in English protestant theology 1525–1695 (Chapel Hill, 1982)Google Scholar, ch. v, recognizes this, but the author's concern with puritan theology leads him at times towards a quasi-nonconformist identification of all these divines as ‘latitudinarian’, as at p. 171. A label stretched so far is surely a label worth jettisoning. Contemporaries also noticed the theological similarities between say Sherlock and Fowler, see Ferguson, Robert, The interest of reason in religion (London, 1675), p. 379Google Scholar. I would not wish to give the impression that anglican divines of the older generation were not also disturbed by the emergence of the new theological consensus within the church, see, for instance, the reaction of Barlow and Tully to the work of George Bull, described in Nelson, Robert, The life of Dr George Bull (London, 1713), pp. 89257Google Scholar, and Barlow's splenetic marginalia on Goodman, , Serious…inquiry, pp. 67Google Scholar, Bodleian Library, shelf-mark 8o A.43. Linc.

128 Cragg, , Puritanism, p. 34Google Scholar.