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7 - Henry Hammond’s Arminian Theology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2024

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Summary

This chapter provides the first in-depth analysis of the only major contribution to the quinquarticular war by Henry Hammond. Published just after his death, Pacifick Discourse (1660) included sustained discussions of the order of decrees and the mode of grace, resulting in the clearest summary of Hammond's mature Arminian theology. The publication was the culmination of an arduous process, spearheaded by Thomas Pierce, who persuaded Robert Sanderson to confess publicly to ‘quitting the sublapsarian way’. His initial statement was deemed inadequate, so under duress Sanderson sent further correspondence. Pacifick Discourse contained two letters of reply by Hammond, including carefully selected extracts from Sanderson's correspondence. It was registered for print on 9 May 1660, though the reference entitled it ‘The Last words of the pious, reverend and very learned Dr Hammond’. It was therefore published shortly after Hammond died and just before Charles II landed at Dover. Pacifick Discourse was therefore both a sophisticated theological treatise and a politically charged publication, carefully crafted and timed to consolidate an episcopal anti-Calvinist church settlement.

Throughout the 1650s, Hammond worked hard to leverage the reputational value of English episcopalians who could be construed as anti-Calvinists. Underpinning these efforts was a concern to avoid the appearance of isolation. In a letter to Sheldon, Hammond bemoaned John Owen's backhanded compliment, which ‘tells me that the whole weight of the Episcopal caus seems especially to be divolved upon me’. He therefore urged a show of support: ‘I should be glad Dr Sanderson, or you, or some others would confute [him], for the truth is my appearing thus alone will go for little’. Hammond's other letters contained numerous tactical instructions regarding the activities and publications of episcopal divines, including ‘Dr. Sanderson’ and ‘Dr. Jackson’ whose public personas were valuable assets requiring careful management. For example, a letter to Sheldon voiced concern that Sanderson was considering attending Presbyterian lectures in Grantham. Hammond cautioned, ‘Instead of serving Dr. Sanderson, they desire to serve themselves of him … To have him thought such as they’. Pacifick Discourse therefore attempted to seize upon the apparent coup of Sanderson's anti-Calvinist confession in order to demonstrate that, despite ‘light differences’, Sanderson and Hammond were on the same page.

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The Crisis of Calvinism in Revolutionary England, 1640-1660
Arminian Theologies of Predestination and Grace
, pp. 183 - 210
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2023

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