Josiah Woodward was a Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 clergyman and moral reformer. He was a devout Anglican and his advocacy of stringent adherence to Christian moral ethic is evident in the vast majority of his works.

Religious Views

At the opening The divine original, and incomparable excellency of the Christian religion exclaims his belief in the Christian religion "as founded upon divine revelation". He believed that God had revealed to humans great truths which "they could not have found by their natural light", which would mark him as a Fideist. In Fair Warnings to a Careless World he discusses his dismay and what he considered the apparent decay of the "genuine vigor of the holy religion".. In this text, he also makes clear his view that tyranny is the result of turning away from the Christian God, citing examples such as Nimrod

Nimrod

Nimrod means "Hunter"; was a Biblical Mesopotamian king mentioned in the Table of Nations; an eponym for the city of Nimrud.Nimrod can also refer to any of the following:*Nimród Antal, a director...

 and Balthazzar. Unsurprisingly, given his strong belief in religion being far superior to the state, he also expresses his opposition to the "atheistic principles of Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...

" later in the work.. In An account of the progress of the reformation of manner he also advocates promoting the titular reformation of manners and the elimination of "prophane swearing, debauchery, drunkenness and prophanation of the Lord's Day" through penal laws.

Select Bibliography

• A Disswasive from the Sin of Drunkenness
• Pastoral advice to a young person lately confirmed by the Bishop
• An account of the progress of the reformation of manners
• A kind caution to profane swearers'
• The necessary duty of family prayer
• Fair warnings to a careless world
• An earnest admonition to all, but especially to young persons: to turn to God by speedy repentance and reformation. Being the substance of six sermons, deliver'd in the chappel at Popler
• The baseness and perniciousness of the sin of slandering and backbiting
• The divine original, and incomparable excellency of the Christian religion