laudable Practice

Today starts a new series on Laudable Practice , as we turn to the Aberdeen Doctors, the group of eirenic thinkers centred around Patrick Forbes, Bishop of Aberdeen 1618-35. Under the leadership of Forbes, the Aberdeen Doctors offered to the Church of Scotland an alternative to the ideological certainties of both Carolinism (what others - mistakenly, I believe - call 'Laudianism') and the Covenanters: a moderate understanding of episcopacy, a modest account of the Reformed tradition, and a defence of peaceable conformity. One of this group, Robert Baron, 'doctor and professor of divinity',  preached at Forbes' funeral , praising him as an Athanasius of the church of the northern kingdom: For (as Gregorie Nazianzen reasoned concerning Athanasius his prayses) to prayse him, it is to prayse vertue; and to prayse vertue, it is to prayse God, who is the author and giver of it. I say, that to prayse him, is to prayse vertue; because, (as Nazianzen there sayeth of Athanas...

He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel. Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance ... The absolution at Morning and Evening Prayer declares the precatory nature of absolution: the bishop or presbyter is praying that God's forgiveness would be known by the penitent. As we continue with readings from John Shepherd's discussion of absolution in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I (1796), we see how he points to patristic sources as confirming the precatory nature of absolution: the Absolution was not the act of the priest but of God. In the writings of the Fathers and the decrees of councils, to the efficacy of the prayers and intercessions of the priest, is the remission of sin often ascribed. The Prayer Book form of absolution at Morning and Evening Prayer, and at the Holy Communion, are therefore profoundly and deeply patristic: "The priests," says Chrysosto...

He was buried about a Week after his Death at Brecknock, and lies, as I am informed, between two of his Predecessors, Bishop Manwaring and Bishop Laucy, and his Funeral was attended with great Numbers of the Gentry and Clergy, both of the County of Caermarthen and Brecknock.  It was on 17th February 1710 that Bishop George Bull passed from this earthly life. In Robert Nelson -in his 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull - fittingly notes that Bull was laid to rest alongside two particular predecessors in the See of St Davids. Roger Maynwaring was bishop 1636-46, William Lucy 1660-1677 - the last bishop before the Parliament abolished episcopacy and the first bishop after the Restoration. Nelson's reference to Bull's mortal remains resting between two predecessors whose episcopates reflected "the late unhappy confusions" was hardly without significance: it was a reflection of Bull's own experiences during the Interregnum and of his Tory loyalties. Bull had initially reques...

On this last day of August, some words for New Georgians from Robert Morris' Rural Architecture (1750). Morris provides a quite wonderful exposition of why the New Georgian finds stolid, rational joy in the plain simplicity of the Georgian parish church. He begins by introducing the roots of such plain simplicity: most who have wrote on this Subject, have raised nothing but Palaces, glaring in Decoration and Dress; while the Cottage, or plain little Villa, are passed by unregarded Gaiety, Magnificence, the  rude Gothic, or the Chinese unmeaning Stile, are the Study of our modern  Architects; while Grecian and Roman Purity and Simplicity are neglected.  These classical roots may alert us to how such church architecture coheres with the theme of the posts of Jeremy Taylor Week , of the Ciceronian and Senecan humanism valued by Taylor and bequeathed to 18th century Anglicanism. Having praised the classical Greek and Roman simplicity, Morris continues: As an Admirer of thos...

For this concluding post of Jeremy Taylor Week, we turn to four sermons, delivered in quite different contexts. One of the sermons was preached just prior to the outbreak of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.  The other three sermons were preached in the years immediately following the Restoration. Two of the sermons marked civic occasions, addressing the polity. Two of the sermons were at funerals, including that preached by George Rust at Taylor's funeral. We begin in 1638, with Taylor's first published work, his Gunpowder Plot sermon , preached, at Laud's direction, in the St. Mary's, Oxford. His text was Luke 9.54, James and John seeking to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritan village. For Taylor, the Gunpowder Plot conspirators - and all those who encouraged the "already too much clashing of armour and effusion of blood for a Christian cause" - followed the path of James and John. When first I considered they were Apostles, I wondered they should be s...

It is not only in Taylor's books of divinity that classical Roman wisdom had a significant presence and role. This was also the case with his sermons. In other words, Taylor's vision of a Christian humanism integrating the wisdom of Cicero and Seneca was also heard in his pulpit ministry. This in itself is revealing, pointing to how Taylor's use of Cicero and Seneca was no mere literary device in his written works (which would be - as we have seen - a rather unconvincing interpretation), but integral to his theological vision.  If we consider the 25 sermons of the Golden Grove Winter volume (preached from Advent Sunday unto Whitsun, published in 1653), we find Cicero, Seneca, and Quintilian appearing regularly. In many cases, they are invoked as Taylor expounds the nature of the moral life.  Sermons XXII, XXIII, and XXIV are jointly entitled 'The Good and Evil Tongue'. In Sermon XXII , Seneca is quoted on how the foolish tongue is contrary to reason: Every beam of ...