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'God hath taken care of all our good': Jeremy Taylor, the literal sense, and temporal matters

In a recent post, I drew attention to Jeremy Taylor adhering to a conventionally Reformed 'literal sense" of Scripture, rejecting the 'spiritual sense' common in pre-Reformation exegesis and preaching, and often maintained by Lutherans. From the same sermon -'The Minister's Duty in Life and Doctrine', preached at the primary visitation of his diocese in 1661 - here is another expression of the 'literal sense', this time in regards to the teaching of Scripture on temporal matters:

In moral precepts, in rules of polity and economy, there is no other sense to be inquired after but what they bear upon the face; for he that thinks it necessary to turn them into some further spiritual meaning, supposes that it is a disparagement of the Spirit of God to take care of governments, or that the duties of princes and masters are no great concerns, or not operative to eternal felicity, or that God does not provide for temporal advantages; for if these things be worthy concerns, and if God hath taken care of all our good, and if "godliness be profitable to all things, and hath the promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come," there is no necessity to pass on to more abstruse senses, when the literal and proper hath also in it instrumentality enough towards very great spiritual purposes. "God takes care" for servants, yea "for oxen" and all the beasts of the field; and the letter of the command enjoining us to use them with mercy, hath in it an advantage even upon the spirit and whole frame of a man's soul; and, therefore, let no man tear those Scriptures to other meanings beyond their own intentions and provisions. In these cases a spiritual sense is not to be inquired after.

Taylor's counsel against a 'spiritual sense' which deprives the Scriptures of temporal meaning and application rests in a rich and significant theological affirmation: "God hath taken care of all our good". This not only looks back to the Reformed insistence on the 'literal sense' - it also looks forward to how this was reflected in an important strain of 18th century Anglican preaching. Georgian era sermons on the moral duties of the Christian life were routinely condemned by Revivalists and Tractarians, and continue to be so by their respective heirs. Taylor, however, reminds us that rejection of such preaching is also a rejection of large portions of holy Scripture, which set forth a vision of temporal flourishing and well-being. Applying a 'spiritual sense' to such parts of Scripture is to obscure or reject the truth that "God hath taken care of all our good", including the temporal. To use words from Cranmer, holy Scripture ministers to us "those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul". 

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