laudable Practice

In regard to the apostles; the Holy Ghost is promised to be a guide and teacher, to reveal to them, and instruct them in some truths which our Saviour, whilst he was with them, had not so fully acquainted them withal, because of their present in capacity and unfitness at that time to receive them. "I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." In his sermon 'Of the Coming of the Holy Ghost, as a Guide to the Apostles', on the text John 16:12-13, Tillotson points to the gift of Pentecost as fundamental to the nature of the Christian faith. Regarding "those truths [in] which the disciples were fully instructed in after the coming of the Holy Ghost", he understands these to be the divine illumination, by means of the Holy Spirit, which led the Apostles to discern how their mission was to embrace the Gentiles: That our Saviour did not design the setting up of an...

On this Saint Patrick's Day, words from an 1829 sermon by Richard Mant, Bishop of Down and Connor, entitled ' The Visible Church of Christ: the United Church of England and Ireland a True and Sound Part of it '. In this extract, Mant - a noted Old High divine - sets forth a defence of sola scriptura  as patristic and catholic. And so, "no article of faith, which was not plainly laid down in Scripture" could be proclaimed by the Church or required of Christians: as affirmed by Article VI of the Articles of Religion, Scripture is "the full and perfect rule for the Church of Christ".  Agreeable to this was the universal testimony of the primitive Christians, both in the Apostolical times, and in those which immediately, and afterwards for many ages uninterruptedly succeeded. The Scriptures, which the Apostles had acknowledged or delivered, the Churches constantly received for their own direction, and regularly transmitted to their posterity. Upon these scri...

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. Jeremy Taylor in Ductor Dubitantium , 'Rule XIV. The Christian law both of Faith and Manners is fully contained in the Holy Scriptures; and from thence onely can the Conscience have divine Warrant and Authority': Of the perfection and fulness of the Christian law I have already given accounts; but where this law is recorded, and that the Holy Scriptures are the perfect and onely Digest of it, is the matter of the present Rule, which is of great use in the Rule of Conscience; because if we know not where our Rule is to be found, and if there can be several Tables of the law pretended, our obedience must be by chance or our own choice, th...

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 ...

Will you diligently read the same unto the people assembled in the Church where you shall be appointed to serve? Answer. I will. Addressing the fourth question in the Ordering of Deacons, William White's Commentaries Suited to Occasions of Ordination (1833) points to how patristic accounts regularly emphasise the significance of the public reading of holy Scripture in the liturgies "of the primitive Church": Of the many marks manifested by this Church, of her being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, there may be considered the importance which she gives to the public reading of the Holy Scriptures, as not one of the least. There is no branch of the service of the primitive Church more demonstrative than this. In the apology of Justin Martyr, edited within half a century of the decease of the last of the apostles; and in the account which the apologists gives of the worship of the Christian assemblies of his day, this is distinctly noticed, as a part of...

Do you unfeignedly believe all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament? Answer. I do believe them. In considering the third question asked at the Ordering of Deacons, William White's Commentaries Suited to Occasions of Ordination (1833), points to how Jewish and Christian understanding has been remarkably settled on the matter of, respectively, the canons of the Old and New Testaments: There is something worthy of remark in the unanimity of testimony which the Church, in all the various places of her settlement, has borne to the integrity of the Scriptures handed down in her. In regard to the Old Testament, indeed, the Roman Catholic Church has added to the canon. But this does not affect the principle maintained; because the witness in that department is the Jewish Church, and not the Christian ... In regard to the Scriptures of the New Testament, there is no diversity. And that this should be the case, after all the contentions which have taken place in regard to t...

In his sermon ' The Minister's Duty in Life and Doctrine ' - preached at the primary visitation of his diocese in 1661 - Jeremy Taylor set out three reasons why "in all the interpretations of Scripture, the literal sense is to be presumed and chosen, unless there be evident cause to the contrary": 1. That God hath plainly and literally described all his will,  both in belief and practice, in which our essential duty, the  duty of all men, is concerned. 2. That, in plain expressions,  we are to look for our duty, and not in the more secret  places and darker corners of the Scripture. 3. That you  may regularly, certainly, and easily do your, duty to the  people, if you read and literally expound the plain sayings,  and easily expressed commandments, and promises, and threatenings of the Gospel, and the Psalms, and the prophets. On this basis he then warned his clergy against setting aside "the literal sense" of Scripture in favour of "a spiritual and...

In these days following Michaelmas, we continue to consider the first of Bishop Bull's sermons on the angels, entitled ' The Existence of Angels ', on the text Hebrews 1.14. In this extract, Bull evokes the description gives of the Sadducees in the Acts of the Apostles, "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit". There is also something of an echo of Christ's condemnation of the Sadducees in Matthew 22, "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures". As Bull demonstrates, the existence and ministry of the angels is not dependent on the speculations and theories of the Schoolmen, but on the holy Scriptures, which establish what "is sufficient [cf. Article 6] for us to know and believe": And so much of the real existence of angels, proved by the authority of the divinely-inspired writers, by the consent of heathen philosophers, and by very powerful reasons; which I thought fit to premise, lest there should happe...

Reading and hearing the word of God are but the several circumstances of the same duty: instrumental especially to faith, but consequently to all other graces of the spirit ... The Scriptures read are the same thing to us which the same doctrine was when it was preached by the disciples of our blessed Lord, and we are to learn of either with the same dispositions ... The Holy Ghost is certainly the best preacher in the world, and the words of Scripture the best sermons. All the doctrine of salvation is plainly set down there, that the most unlearned person, by hearing it read, may understand all his duty ... The wit of man cannot more plainly tell us our duty, or more fully, than the Holy Ghost hath done already. Good sermons and good books are of excellent use; but yet they can serve no other end but that we practice the plain doctrines of Scripture ... Set apart some portion of thy time, according to the opportunities of thy calling and necessary employment, for the reading of Holy S...

... the Church of England is the best Reformed Church in the world. Jeremy Taylor's declaration in his sermon at Bramhall's funeral would have won the vigorous agreement of Bramhall's predecessor as Archbishop of Armagh, Ussher. Something of this was indicated by  Richard Parr , a chaplain to Ussher and later biographer, describing how the Archbishop viewed the fate of the Church of England in the 1640s as "the greatest blow that had been ever given to the Reformed Churches". When Charles Richard Elrington - Regius Professor of Divinity, Trinity College Dublin - edited the works of Ussher in the mid-19th century, his introduction used the same phrase to describe Ussher's view of the Churches of England and Ireland: "the best reformed in the world". For Taylor, no less than for Ussher, the Churches of England and Ireland were Reformed . Both Taylor the Laudian and Ussher the Reformed Conformist were sons of the Reformation. In controversy with Count...

Each Friday of Lent, laudable Practice is presenting words from Jeremy Taylor reflecting on fundamental practices shared by the Christian traditions. Today's practice is the reading of holy Scripture. Taylor - echoing Hooker - reminds us that the reading of holy Scripture is the first and primary form of preaching; unlike preaching, the reading of Scripture is the direct gift of the Holy Spirit. While hearing a "good sermon" is "of excellent use", it does not, therefore, exceed in spiritual significance the practice and discipline of reading the Scriptures.  Taylor, of course, here captures a significant emphasis of the Reformation. However this also flowed from the pre-Reformation Devotio Moderna and the reforming calls of Catholic humanists such as Erasmus and Cassander (both of whom Taylor highly praised).   Reformation practices also 'democratised' monastic spirituality, both in terms of individual lectio divina and the community gathering around...

 As we consider extracts from Keble's Advent sermons in his Sermons for the Christian Year: Advent to Christmas Eve , we turn to a sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent. As indicated last week , what guides these readings is my view that little, if anything, distinguished Keble's preaching from sermons delivered in Old High pulpits.  Today's extract is a particularly striking example of this. Reflecting on the words of the collect for the Second Sunday of Advent, Keble urges faithful private reading of holy Scripture, and a serious devotion to such reading of the Scriptures.  Two particular aspects of this extract are worth noting. Firstly, reflecting Old High convictions, the Scriptures of the New Testament are regarded as "the new law": in other words, we "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the teaching of the New Testament in order that it may bear fruit in our lives. Good works and the moral life are the fruit of reading the Scriptures, not the...

Continuing with extracts from John Shepherd's A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796), in his discussions of the reading of scripture in these offices, he carefully notes Cranmer's words : For it must be observed, that though "the most part of the Bible is read through every year once,"  [emphasis added] yet some chapters of particular books, and three whole books, are left unread and unnoticed. Cranmer's phrase is itself suggestive that not every part of scripture was to be read in "the Common Prayers in the Church", as Shepherd goes on to acknowledge: yet some chapters of particular books, and three whole books, are left unread and unnoticed. What were the reasons, why these parts were omitted, I now proceed to enquire. In his review of the passages of scripture not included in the daily lectionary, Shepherd highlights the wise reasoning involved in not including such passages and, indee...

Continuing with extracts from John Shepherd's A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796), we turn to the Lessons in at Matins and Evensong. Shepherd addresses the practice of two Lessons from the Old and New Testaments: Though the two covenants differ in language and form, yet in sentiment and substance they agree: for they are in fact but two different parts of one and the same system, the former being introductory and preparatory to the latter ... "What is the law," says Justin Martyr, "but the prediction of the Gospel? and what is the Gospel, but the law fulfilled?" "Things there prefigured," says Austin, "are here performed." "Between the two Covenants," says Chrysostom, "there is neither repugnance, nor contrariety of meaning; the difference is merely verbal. I have repeatedly said, that two Covenants, two handmaids, and two sisters, are the attendants on one Lor...

In this third Lenten sermon from Cornelius Duffie - rector of Saint Thomas, New York City 1824-27 - we see how the Old High tradition reverenced "the reading of the Holy Scriptures as a prominent mean of grace".  The same Old High affirmation would be seen in Jelf's 1844 Bampton Lectures .  It is a reminder of how the Old High tradition embodied the teaching of the Book of Homilies' ' A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading and Knowledge of holy Scripture ' and the piety of the Prayer Book's petition, "that, with meek heart and due reverence, they may hear, and receive thy holy Word". I have now completed what I proposed in setting before you the reading of the Scriptures as a mean of grace. Here, then, is a plain duty, accessible to all, and easy of performance; one which has the promise and assurance of God's blessing, and which is, in itself, calculated to promote holy thoughts, good dispositions, heavenly desires. If we neglect this mean ...

Resuming the series of weekly posts from the responses to Tract XC by Old High bishops in the visitation charges of the early 1840s, today we turn to the 1842 visitation charge of Richard Mant, Bishop of Down and Connor:   The Laws of the Church: The Churchman's Guard Against Romanism and Puritanism .  As with the charges of Bagot of Oxford and Phillpotts of Exeter , the point of these extracts is not to focus on the rejection of Tract XC but, rather, on how these charges provide a rich seam of Old High teaching. This first extract from Mant's charge demonstrates how the Old High tradition robustly reaffirmed Article VI and the sufficiency of Scripture, significantly distinguishing Old High thought from the increased willingness in Tractarian circles to reject Article VI's affirmation and exalt the authority of 'tradition'. Also noteworthy is the quotation from Burnet's commentary on the Articles, another indicator of how the latitudinarian Burnet was regarded ...