laudable Practice

Jeremy Taylor's 1647 The Liberty of Prophesying has often been interpreted as an aberration in his body of works. For those who present Taylor as a straightforward 'Laudian', The Liberty of Prophesying  is to be dismissed as the unfortunate influence of Chillingworth and Great Tew, quickly forgotten by its author, who returned to conventional 'Laudian' ways. For those who praise The Liberty of Prophesying as an anticipation of the Broad Church tradition, it is a matter of regret that Taylor abandoned this spirit for conventionally harsh High Church tendencies. What both approaches overlook, however, is how central themes of The Liberty of Prophesying echo throughout Taylor's work. The place it gives to the conscience and reason, and a scepticism about excessive claims for ecclesiastical tradition, are both prominent in  Ductor Dubitantium, or the Rule of Conscience , published in 1660. Likewise, the critique of Augustine, fundamental to Taylor's 1655  Unu...

In recent years, laudable Practice has turned to the commentary of John Shepherd on the Book of Common Prayer. Beginning in March 2023 , we considered his  A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796). June 2024 commenced a series of posts - concluding in August 2025 - on the Holy Communion in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801). Today, at the beginning of June, the month when ordinations usually take place in Anglican churches, we return to the first volume and begin a series on Shepherd's review of Absolution in the theology and practice of the Prayer Book.  Shepherd opens his consideration of Absolution in the Prayer Book by stating his intention to place it in the context of "the primitive Church": Without stating in detail the disputes that have existed between Christians of different denominations, and which have oftentimes terminated in contrary extrem...

One might have expected Roman Catholic missionaries not to feature in Nelson's 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull . Nelson was writing after the Glorious Revolution, when the idea of restoring England to the papal fold was, to say the least, a quixotic cause. In this section of the Life , however, we are in the years between the Restoration and the Revolution, a time when Charles II died in the communion of Rome, and James II would become King in spite of being a Roman Catholic. It was still the case, therefore, that a certain glamour and sense of monarchical approval could be associated with swimming the Tiber. In addition to this, memories of high status conversions to Rome under Charles I and of the commitment of Roman Catholic families to the Royalist cause could add lustre to the idea of conversion. It is against this background that we see Bull address the activity of "Romish missionaries" in his parish: While Mr. Bull was Rector of Suddington, the Providence of God gave...

"It is to be delivered into their hands." We have the unanimous testimony of the Fathers, that the communicants always received the elements into their own hands ... During the corrupter ages, when the sacramental bread and wine were believed to be the actual Body and Blood of Christ, a wafer was substituted for bread, and that was by the priest put into the mouth of the communicant, that no particle of the Body of Christ should be wasted or lost. And lest the blood should be  spilt, or any accident happen, the cup was totally withheld from the laity. At the Reformation the primitive practice was restored, and the Communion in both kinds delivered into the hands of the people. It is but a brief extract from John Shepherd's A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), addressing the 1662 rubric after the Prayer of Consecration and before administration of the Bread and Cup. What this extract suggests, however, is what was obscured i...

When contemporary Anglican liturgists lament and bewail the 1662 Holy Communion, they often point to the Prayer of Consecration, regarding it is as infinitely inferior to patristic forms. John Shepherd, by contrast, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), sees continuity between the 1662 Prayer of Consecration and patristic forms. Both seek the same purpose: The form of Consecration in the ancient Church was a repetition of the history of the institution, together with prayer to God, that he would sanctify the elements of bread and wine by his Holy Spirit, and make them to become the Body and Blood of Christ, not by altering their nature and substance, but their qualities and powers; and by exalting them from simple elements of bread and wine, to become types and symbols of the Body and Blood of Christ, and efficacious instruments of conveying to worthy receivers all the benefits of his death and passion.  What at least partly ex...

That it may please thee to illuminate all Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, with true knowledge and understanding of thy Word; and that both by their preaching and living they may set it forth and shew it accordingly,  We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. In this Advent Ember Week, with Christmas close, this petition from the Litany has a particular relevance, bringing us to pray for bishops, priests, and deacons who will preaching on the feast of the Nativity. In his ' Rules and Advices ' to his clergy, Jeremy Taylor emphasised the importance of preaching at the principal feasts: Let every Preacher in his Parish take care to explicate to the people the Mysteries of the great Festivals, as of Christmas, Easter, Ascension-day, Whitsunday, Trinity Sunday, the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary; because these Feasts containing in them the great Fundamentals of our Faith, will with most advantage convey the mysteries to the people, and fix them in their memories, by the solemni...

In the fourth of his 1807 Bampton Lectures, On the Nature and Guilt of Schism , Le Mesurier continues with his exposition of how authority functioned amongst the patristic churches. This was the " example of the primitive church " to which the Church of England returned at the Reformation, in which (to use the words of Article XXXIV) "every particular or national church hath authority" to order its affairs: In all this, clearly, there is nothing like what can be properly called jurisdiction in one church or bishop over another: nothing but what I have stated, that when any evils were to be resisted, or any point of doctrine or of discipline to be ascertained, those bishops who could do so, met together and declared their sentiments. Those sentiments were communicated to the other churches, and were adopted and observed according to their apparent reasonableness, and the weight of character which belonged to those from whom they came. Nothing was pretended to but tha...