Abstract
Benjamin Whichcote (1609–1683), the reputed father of Cambridge Platonism, and Henry Hallywell (1641–1703), a younger member of the group, each preached a sermon series on Philippians 4:8 in which they stressed the necessity of moral virtue as a means to deiformity and participation in God. It is argued here that both drew on the Platonic and Origenian epistemological doctrine that there must be conformity between the knower and the thing known, and the Christian soteriological and ethical implications of this doctrine are explored. The dependence of Hallywell on Whichcote and the impossibility of his having read Whichcote in a printed source also suggest his close association with a group of rational divines gathered around Whichcote at St Lawrence Jewry in London. The present study introduces that group and calls for further prosopographical research on London Latitudinarianism, especially in relation to Cambridge Platonism.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
(Philippians 4:8, Authorised Version)
An earlier version of this paper was read at the ‘Facets of “Participation” in the Renaissance and the Early Modern Period’ conference at the Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Bucharest, 19 April 2018. I am grateful for the invitation to speak there and for the discussion which followed my paper.
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Notes
- 1.
All subsequent writers base Whichcote’s biography on (Tillotson 1683). On Whichcote’s thought and intellectual influence, see (Hunt 1870–1873, 1: 431–39); (Tulloch 1872, 2: 45–116); (Westcott 1877); (Campagnac 1901, x, xv–xxvii); (Inge 1926, 47–53); (Powicke 1926, 50–86); (Pawson 1930, 18–32); (De Pauley 1937, 2–66); (Jordan 1932–1940, 4: 99–116); (Argyle 1946); (Williams 1964); (Roberts 1968); (Davenport 1972); (Greene 1991); (Beiser 1996, 159–65); (Schneewind 1998, 196–99); (Gill 1999, 2006); (Hutton 2000, 2002, 2004); (Taliaferro and Teply 2004, 12–15); (T. Jones 2005).
- 2.
(Roberts 1968, 11–12) barely mentions this period of Whichcote’s ministry. (Hutton 2004) says that John Locke attended Whichcote’s sermons at St Lawrence Jewry, but Locke’s letter to Richard King, 25 August 1703, seems to refer to reading his sermons, see (Whichcote 1753, xxxiv) and (Locke: 2015, 8: letter no. 3328).
- 3.
- 4.
Information from Mark Burden, who very kindly supplied me with digital photographs of the complete volumes.
- 5.
Concerning Smith, see (Whichcote 1753, xvi–xix; Roberts 1968, 270). (Davenport 1972, 179–80) identified ‘Smith’ as the Cambridge Platonist John Smith, without saying why. (Michaud 2017, 60, 195) also identifies Smith with John Smith, whose duties, he suggests, as a sizar at Emmanuel College probably included recording Whichcote’s sermons; this seems to me unlikely, because: (1) it would mean that all of the Whichcote sermons published by Clarke were preached before 1644 when John Smith left Emmanuel to take up a fellowship at Queens’ College, with this strand of the tradition containing nothing from the remainder of the Interregnum or the Restoration period; (2) Salter’s reference to ‘one Smith’ seems uncharacteristically careless, given his precise identification of other associates of Whichcote in his preface to ‘Eight Letters of Dr. Antony Tuckney and Dr. Benjamin Whichcote’ (Whichcote 1753, separately paginated i–xl); (3) since Smith is such a common name. I agree with Mark Burden that Smith was likely to have been a member of the St Lawrence Jewry congregation; I am also grateful to John Henderson for email conversations on this point.
- 6.
For Hallywell’s hand, see (CCC, MS 21, fols 21, 32, 33–35, 37).
- 7.
Unfortunately, we do not know the names of any of these supply preachers.
- 8.
- 9.
(Burnet 1833, 1. 339–49) lists Whichcote, Cudworth, Wilkins, More, Worthington, Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Patrick, Lloyd and Tenison.
- 10.
- 11.
(Kidder 1924, 192) notes the ‘custom’ by which the archbishop who had consecrated a bishop ‘appropriated the next appointment to some piece of the new Bishop’s patronage’.
- 12.
See, e.g., (Staudenbaur 1974, 159–61), who says that Whichcote was neither a Platonist nor even a philosopher; (Levitin 2015), makes no mention of Whichcote’s sermons, nor his correspondence with Tuckney – all of his index entries for Whichcote refer to his commonplace book at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., MS V.a.326.
- 13.
Cambridge Platonism is one of the areas currently being researched by ‘The History of Human Freedom and Dignity in Western Civilization from Antiquity to Modernity’ project on the Nachleben of Origen, for which see http://itn-humanfreedom.eu/
- 14.
(Roberts 1968, 164) notes that Whichcote was not a universalist, and I have not found the other themes in Whichcote’s writings.
- 15.
- 16.
Hallywell found the quotation from Chrysostom in (Cassander, 239–40); for Cassander, see (Schoor and Meyje 2016).
- 17.
- 18.
(Birch 1752, viii) notes that Lady Barnardiston complained that while Tillotson had been curate of Cheshunt, Herts, ‘Jesus Christ had not been preach’d amongst them’.
- 19.
Whichcote’s treatment of this theme is so continuous as to defy citation but see especially the places referenced by (Roberts 1968, 147–70).
- 20.
Cf. (Cudworth 1647, 13–21).
- 21.
Cf. (Rust 1686, 21–46).
- 22.
- 23.
- 24.
Abbreviation: ODNB = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2004. Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and B. Harrison. 60 Vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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British Library, London, Add. MS 39332 (7), Dunkin Collection, Sussex Incumbencies.
Christ’s College, Cambridge, MS 21, fols 21, 32, 33–35, 37, six letters from Henry Hallywell to Henry More.
Edinburgh University Library, MS La. III, 545, Robert Kirk, ‘Sermons, conferences, opinions of the late transactions, with a description of London anno 1689’.
London Metropolitan Archives, MS P69/LAW1/B/008/MS02593/002, St Lawrence, Jewry, Churchwardens accounts (from 1671–2 for united parishes of St Lawrence Jewry and St Mary Magdalen, Milk Street), 1640–1 to 1697–8.
The National Archives, London, PRO 30/24/24/16-17, two volumes of sermons by Benjamin Whichcote.
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Epilogue: The Legacy of Preaching on Deiformity in Philippians 4:8
Epilogue: The Legacy of Preaching on Deiformity in Philippians 4:8
In an age of ‘moral preaching’, we might expect there to have been a number of sermons on Philippians 4:8 with a message similar to that of Whichcote and Hallywell. Sampsom Letsome’s Preacher’s Assistant, a list of published sermons on biblical texts from the Restoration in 1660 to the date of publication, 1753, listed nine other sermons on this text, which make a useful comparison (Letsome 1753, 226). Examination of these sermons shows that, while the other preachers agreed with Whichcote and Hallywell that the verse could be expounded morally, the stress of our authors on deiformity was not replicated. The High Churchman Thomas Manningham’s sermon of 1686 focused on loyalty to James II (Manningham 1686, 7–9; Wood 1813–20, 4: 555; Gray 2004), while even John Sharp devoted a good portion of his 1691 sermon to urging acceptance of the new monarchs, William and Mary (J. Sharp 1691, 25–31). In the seven sermons on the text published during the first half of the eighteenth century, five by Anglicans (Strype 1724; W. Jones 1726; Burnet 1747; Trapp 1752; Gough 1752)Footnote 22 and two by dissenters (Foster 1737; Lardner 1751),Footnote 23 there were occasional echoes of Whichcote and Hallywell’s language on the image of God and the imitation of Christ, but all fell short of any real discussion of deiformity. So, were Whichcote’s and Hallywell’s stress on deiformity and participation in God isolated examples of preaching by Cambridge Platonists who were closely associated with London Latitudinarianism? I would urge that research is urgently needed on the group of divines associated with the St Lawrence Jewry community, in both their biographies and their published sermons. There, I suspect that we shall find their legacy within a community of richly social participation in the divinity of late seventeenth-century London. If we do not, that will serve to highlight how significant and distinctive Whichcote and Hallywell were in presenting this Origenian doctrine in their sermons on Philippians 4:8.
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Lewis, M.A. (2019). ‘Think on These Things’: Benjamin Whichcote and Henry Hallywell on Philippians 4:8 as a Guide to Deiformity. In: Hedley, D., Leech, D. (eds) Revisioning Cambridge Platonism: Sources and Legacy. International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, vol 222. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22200-0_8
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