laudable Practice

On Christmas Eve 1710, Francis Atterbury -  later Bishop of Rochester, then Dean of Christ Church, Oxford - preached in the Rolls Chapel, Chancery Lane, London. His text was Matthew 11:3, the words of Saint John the Baptist, "Art thou he that should come? or do we look for another?". The sermon contained a number of significant Advent themes, evidence of how the liturgical observance of Advent (and other seasons) shaped early 18th century Anglican preaching. At the outset of the sermon, Atterbury defined the season:  At this time of advent, particularly dedicated by the church to a devout commemoration of our Saviour's coming in the flesh, and set apart to prepare us for a worthy celebration of the approaching feast of his nativity ... As with his early Advent 1709 sermon , we see Atterbury here giving voice to a well-established understanding of Advent as oriented towards Christmas. There is much to value in this, not least the quite natural recognition of the approach ...

In an 1851 sermon preached in Westminster Abbey on the feast of the Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin, ' On a Recent Proposal of the Church of Rome to make a New Article of Faith ', Christopher Wordsworth - a leading figure in the Old High tradition, Bishop of Lincoln 1869-85 - addressed the process which led to the Bishop of Rome promulgating the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. In this extract, Wordsworth expounds how refusal to accept this doctrine is rooted in the Scriptural proclamation and creedal confession of the Incarnation. Not only is the mystery of the Incarnation not aided by the doctrine Immaculate Conception. In fact, as Wordsworth emphasises, the mystery and grace of the Incarnation is more faithfully acknowledged by a recognition that the Blessed Virgin is, with us, entirely dependent upon the Redeemer. This also points to the grounds for what Wordsworth terms "the true honour of the Blessed Virgin", her overshadowing by the Holy Spi...

now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility ... Despite what the Advent purists tell us, that Advent stands entirely apart from Christmas, that any anticipation of the celebrations of the Lord's Nativity pollutes Advent, Cranmer's collect for the season - prayed from Evensong on the eve of Advent Sunday until Christmas Eve - sets before us, throughout Advent, morning and evening, the approach of the Nativity. Cranmer could, of course, have composed the Advent collect without any reference to the Nativity. This is the case, after all, with the collects for Advent II and IV. While, however, this may be true of those two collects, it is not the case with the pre-1662 collect for Advent III : Lord, we beseche thee, geve eare to our prayers, and by thy gracious visitacion lighten the darkenes of our hearte, by our Lorde Jesus Christe. It is difficult, I think, to contend that this collect is not an anticipation of Christmas. ...

Ye shall pray for Christ’s holy Catholick Church; that is, for the whole Congregation of Christian People dispersed throughout the whole World ... The words from the Bidding Prayer in the Canons of 1604 came to mind last Thursday as I stood amidst the splendour of Saint Stephen's Basilica in Budapest. The Bidding Prayer echoes, of course, the Prayer for the Church Militant: beseeching thee to inspire continually the universal Church with the spirit of truth, unity, and concord: And grant, that all they that do confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word, and live in unity, and godly love ... That the Christians of Hungary - Roman Catholic and Lutheran, Calvinist and Orthodox - were intended to be included in these prayers is evident from Archbishop Matthew Parker's 1566 prayers "for the preseruation of those Christians and their Countreys, that are nowe inuaded by the Turke  in  Hungary". These prayers were published by royal authority, to be used ...

Repent ye; for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. S. Matt. 3.2. At Matins in Advent, I use this penitential sentence (found in 1662 and 1926), the proclamation of Saint John the Baptist. The dark December mornings begin with the words of the Forerunner, cutting through the cold, the pressing demands of the approach of the festive season, thoughts too easily distracted by the prospects of busy roads and Christmas-card writing. The odd, discomforting character of John - "his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey" - is what I need alongside the the joyous anticipation of Advent: an incessant reminder from the Judean wilderness that all is not well, with the world, with the Church, with me. That Our Lord takes for Himself these very words of John (Matthew 4.17) emphasises their significance. That John, he who is "more than a prophet", "among them that are born of women there hath not risen a great...

Throughout Advent, I will be posting some Marian extracts from Jeremy Taylor's Great Exemplar , demonstrating how in Taylor we see that a thoroughly Protestant understanding (evident, for example, in his Dissuasive , with its robust critique of Tridentine Marian practices) is no barrier to a tender reverence for the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We begin today with words from the outset of Taylor's account of 'The History of the Conception of Jesus'. Here we see how Taylor's depiction of the Blessed Virgin evinces love and reverence, a quiet joy that the grace of God had prepared her for "a full measure of honour": In the days of Herod the king, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a holy maid called Mary, espoused to Joseph; and found her in a capacity and excellent disposition to receive the greatest honour that ever was done to the daughters of men. Her employment was holy and pious, her person young, her years florid and s...