'Quiet religion and silent piety': Jeremy Taylor on the Blessed Virgin as the model of contemplation

In The Great Exemplar, when reflecting upon the Annunciation, Jeremy Taylor echoes the long-established tradition that the Blessed Virgin Mary was at prayer when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her: "she was in her oratory, private and devout". The illustration which accompanied Taylor's reflections (pictured) was also clearly based on the equally long-established iconography of the Annunciation. Here, then, is a deeply traditional Marian piety within a reformed context (for Taylor, as a good Laudian son of the Church of England would not countenance prayers invoking Mary).

What then follows is profoundly beautiful meditation on the "quiet religion" of the Blessed Virgin, with Mary a model for the vast majority of Christians in a way that is not and cannot be so with Saint Paul. What is more, Taylor here presents the Blessed Virgin as a contemplative, encouraging us in a "quiet and silent piety", in "those graces which walk in a veil and silence". As Taylor said elsewhere, these are "the essential parts of Religion rather than by the uncertain significations of any exterior adherencies".

Taylor's meditation on the Annunciation, therefore, calls us to become Marian in contemplation and "quiet religion", our heart, mind, and soul fixed upon - to use words from the opening of Taylor's meditation - "the glory and eminencies of the divine love manifested in the incarnation of the Word eternal".

And it is not altogether inconsiderable to observe, that the holy virgin came to a great perfection and state of piety by a few, and those modest and even, exercises and external actions. St. Paul travelled over the world, preached to the Gentiles, disputed against the Jews, confounded heretics, wrote excellently learned letters, suffered dangers, injuries, affronts, and persecutions to the height of wonder, and by these violences of life, action, and patience obtained the crown of an excellent religion and devotion: but the holy virgin, although she was engaged sometimes in active life, and in the exercise of an ordinary and small economy and government, or ministries of a family, yet she arrived to her perfections by the means of a quiet and silent piety, the internal actions of love, devotion, and contemplation: and instructs us, that not only those who have opportunity and powers of a magnificent religion, or a pompous charity, or miraculous conversion of souls, or assiduous and effectual preachings, or exterior demonstrations of corporal mercy, shall have the greatest crowns, and the addition of degrees and accidental rewards; but the silent affections, the splendours of an internal devotion, the unions of love, humility, and obedience, the daily offices of prayer and praises sung to God, the acts of faith and fear, of patience and meekness, of hope and reverence, repentance and charity, and those graces which walk in a veil and silence, make great ascents to God, and as sure progress to favour and a crown, as the more ostentatious and laborious exercises of a more solemn religion ... Many times God is present in the still voice and private retirements of a quiet religion, and the constant spiritualities of an ordinary life.

(The illustration is by William Faithorne, for an early edition of The Great Exemplar.)

Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

Pride, progressive sectarianism, and TEC on Facebook

Let me begin this post with an assumption that will be rejected by some readers of laudable Practice , but affirmed by other readers. Observing Pride is an understandable aspect of the public ministry of TEC. On previous occasions , I have rather robustly called for TEC to be much more aware and respectful of the social conservatism of the Red states and regions in which it ministers. A failure to do so risks TEC declining yet further into the irrelevance of progressive sectarianism. At the same time, TEC also obviously ministers in deep Blue states and metropolitan areas - and is the only Mainline Protestant tradition in which a majority of its members vote Democrat .* With Pride now an established civic commemoration, particularly in such contexts, there is a case for TEC affirming those aspects of Pride - the dignity of gay men and lesbian women, their contribution to civic life, and their place in the church's life - which cohere with a Christian moral vision. (I will n...

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