Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:52:32.934Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On Reading Charity Sermons: Eighteenth-Century Anglican Solicitation and Exhortation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

Donna T. Andrew
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Neither charity nor charity sermons were new to the eighteenth century. Giving to the needy was a long–established feature of Christianity. In his ‘Rule and Exercise of Holy Living’ (1650), an extreme expression of such Christianity, Jeremy Taylor urged good Christians to ‘Give, looking for nothing again, that is, without consideration of future advantages: give to children, to old men, to the unthankful, and the dying, and to those you shall never see again; for else your Alms or courtesie is not charity, but traffick and merchandise.’ By the eighteenth century the City of London already had a tradition of sponsored annual sermons, called ‘spital’ sermons, for its own hospitals, i.e. St Thomas's, Barts, Bethlem, etc. However, as associated charities, charities conceived by, supported and directed by contributors, grew increasingly numerous in the course of that century, charity sermons also increased in number and importance. Associated or joint–stock voluntary charity welcomed its need for ongoing financial support; this, its supporters claimed, would ensure efficiency and accountability. The problem with such support, however, was not only that the charity needed to attract, and continue to attract, large numbers of donors, but also that it needed to convince those donors to repeat their contributions annually. The charity sermon became a central instrument in this process. Thus, usually on the anniversary of the establishment of the charity, the society would invite a prominent or popular clergyman to address present and potential donors, and a collection would be taken afterwards. After one such sermon on 9 July 1762, the governing committee of the Asylum for Orphaned Girls congratulated itself, well pleased with a collection of over £226 ‘and many new subscribers added’.1

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , October 1992 , pp. 581 - 591
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Asylum for Orphaned Girls, Minute Book for the Gentlemen, Royal Shaftesbury Society, London, 11 Mar. 1761–4 Apr. 1765.Google Scholar

2 In this paper I disregard political and theological differences between sermon–givers, and argue implicitly that as far as their views of charity were concerned, their similarities were greater than their differences. This, however, is stipulative, and another paper of greater length would be needed to prove it. What I wish to consider here is not a particular reading of eighteenth–century charity sermons, but rather a method of understanding them. I would like to thank this JOURNAL'S reader for his intelligent and challenging questions.Google Scholar

3 Knightly, Chetwood, A Sermon Addressed to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs and Governors of Several Hospitals of the City of London, London 1708Google Scholar; Daniel, Waterland (vice–chancellor of Oxford University and archdeacon of Middlesex), ‘The true nature of charity’, in The Works of Daniel Waterland, 6 vols, Oxford 1843, v. 563;Google ScholarJohn, Thomas, ‘Sermon… before the Governors of the Middlesex Hospital’ [1752], 7–8;Google ScholarHugh, Morgan (canon of Hereford Cathedral), ‘Sermon Before the Governors of the Radcliffe Infirmary’ [1794], 10.Google Scholar

4 Martin, Benson, ‘A Sermon Addressed to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Governors of Several Hospitals of the City of London’ [1736], 15;Google ScholarThomas, Holme (rector of Wilden), ‘Sermon Before the Governors of the Northampton Infirmary’ [1745], 39;Google ScholarGeorge, Home (dean of Canterbury), ‘Sermon before the Governors of the Asylum for Orphaned Girls’ [1774], 18.Google Scholar

5 Chetwood, , Sermon to the Lord Mayor, 29;Google ScholarThomas, Sherlock, Several Discourses Preached at the Temple Church, 4 vols, London 1754–1758, 3. 132;Google ScholarSearle, J. B. (rector of Sisted, Essex), ‘Sermon before the Governors of Addenbrooke's Hospital’ [1797], 11.Google Scholar

6 Joseph, Butler, ‘Upon the love of God’, and ‘Upon the love of our neighbour’, in The Works, ed. Gladstone, W. E., 2 vols, Oxford 1897, 2. 185, 166–7Google Scholar; Jonn, Mickleborough, ‘The Great Duty of Labour and Work’ [1751], 20–1;Google ScholarThomas, Seeker, ‘Preached before the governors of the London Hospital, 1754’, in Fourteen Sermons, 2 vols, London 1771, 2. 226.Google Scholar

7 Daniel, Waterland, ‘The duty of doing good’, and ‘Self–Love’ in Works, v. 303, 459;Google ScholarThomas, Seeker, ‘Thou shall love thy neighbour’, and ‘Upon compassion’ in Sermons on Several Subjects, 5 vols, London 1790, 2. 96–7, 101;Google ScholarJohn, Lawson (d. 1759),‘Occasional Sermons’[1765], 331;Google ScholarThomas, Willis (rector of St George's, Bloomsbury), The Public as well as Private Advantages of Hospitals: sermon for the County Hospital at Lincoln, London 1788, 13Google Scholar.See also William, Warburton ‘The love of God and man’, in The Works of the Right Reverend William Warburton, ed. Richard, Hurd, n.p. n.d., 12 vols, London 1811, 9. 57.Google Scholar

8 Lawson, ‘Occasional Sermons’, 334–5. Thus, for example, Bishop Hinchcliffe noted in 1786 that ‘poverty was largely the result of the inability of the economy to absorb “the number of the poor [who] are daily increasing, while fewer means present themselves… for the gain of an honest subsistence“‘:Google ScholarSoloway, R. A., Prelates and People, London 1969, 265.Google Scholar, Secker had earlier argued that poverty was the result of natural inequality: ‘On the duties of the poor’, in Sermons on Several Subjects, iv. 223–4.Google ScholarBeilby, Porteus, ‘Sermons on several subjects’, in The Works of Beilby Porteus, 6 vols, 16th edn, London 1823, 3 136–7;Google ScholarHenry, Beeke (rector of Ufton, Berks.), ‘Sermon for the Devon and Exeter Hospital’ [1790], 8;Google ScholarVicesimus, Knox, Sermon for the Opening of the Chapel of the Philanthropic Society, London 1807.Google Scholar

9 , Lawson,‘Occasional Sermons’, 299–300;Google ScholarPatrick, Delaney, Sermon… before the Governors of the Magdalen Hospital, London 1763, 13;Google ScholarThomas, Church (bishop of St David's), A Sermon Preached… Before the President and Governors of the City of London Lying Hospital for Married Women, London 1753, 18–19;Google ScholarWilliam, Hazeland, Sermon for the Female Asylum at Lambeth, London 1760, 11–12;Google ScholarWilliam, Dodd, Sermon Preached Before the Governors of the Magdalen House, London 1759, pp. v–vi.Google Scholar

10 John, Warren, A Sermon preached… to the Charity Schools, London 1792, 16;Google Scholar, Knox, Philanthropic Society, 15.Google Scholar

11 Thomas, Seeker, ‘As we have opportunity’, in Sermons on Several Subjects, 4. 54–6;Google Scholar, Sherlock, Several Discourses, 2. 363;Google ScholarWilliam, Talbot, Sermon before the… Governors of the Several Hospitals of the City of London, London 1700, 26;Google ScholarThomas, Seeker, ‘On the duties of the rich’, in Sermons on Several Subjects, 3. 215.Google Scholar

12 , Butler, ‘Upon the love of our neighbour’, in Sermons, 2. 195;Google ScholarDaniel, Waterland, ‘The case of passing judgement concerning calamities examined’, in Works, 5. 502;Google ScholarThomas, Seeker, ‘Preached before the governors of the London Hospital 1754’, and ‘And the second is like unto it, thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself’, in Fourteen Sermons, 2 vols, London 1771, 2. 251, 99; 4. 68–9;Google ScholarFrancis, Atterbury, ‘Spital Sermon 1709’, in Sermons and Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions, 2 vols. London 1730, 2. 231–3.Google Scholar

13 Joseph, Roper, The Character of a Liberal Man: sermon preached… before…the governors of the several hospitals of the City of London, London 1734, 17;Google Scholar, Seeker, Sermons on Several Subjects, 4. 65.Google Scholar

14 Searle, J. B., ‘Sermon to the Governors of Addenbrooke's Hospital’ [1797], 6; Works of William Warburton, 10. 261–3;Google ScholarBrownlow, North, ‘Sermon…Lying–in Charity’ [1771], 16–17.Google Scholar

15 Beilby, Porteus, ‘Sermon Before the Annual Meeting of the Governors of the Asylum for Orphaned Girls’ [1773], 10;Google ScholarRichard, Watson, ‘Sermon… Westminster Dispensary’ [1786], 4–5;Google ScholarSamuel, Glasse, ‘The Piety, Wisdom and Policy of promoting Sunday Schools’ [1786], 13;Google ScholarGeorge, Home, Sunday Schools Recommended:, Oxford 1786, 12;Google ScholarRichard, Watson, Sermon preached before the Stewards of the Westminster Dispensary [1785], London 1793, 10–12;Google ScholarThomas, Willis, ‘Sermon for the County Hospital at Lincoln’ [1788], 12–13.Google Scholar

16 Thomas, Parkinson, Sermon before the Governors of Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge 1788, 10–11;Google ScholarHenry, Courtney, ‘Sermon for the Governors of the Charity Schools’ [1795], 14.Google Scholar