'The affection of the Heart is the consummation of all moral goodness': A May Day meditation on Prayer Book piety, Sunday Matins, and the plain Georgian church
For an accompanying text to guide our thoughts, we turn to Timothy Puller's 1677 work The Moderation of the Church of England. Puller was priested in 1664. His work rejoices in the latitude of the Church of England, seeing therein a reflection of the "mild Oeconomy of the Gospel":
Which cannot but afford a rare and serious pleasure as well as use; as it must be very delightful to behold any imitation of the Divine Wisdom, which hath made all things in number, weight, and measure; which governs the World and all his Creatures, according to unsearchable measures of Righteousness and Equity, who dispenseth all things sweetly and easily.
Puller, then, is our guide, as Sunday Matins is said amidst the plain, sober setting of Old St. Stephen's, Whitby.
The Prayer Book eschews the debates of - to use phrases from The Declaration of King Charles I prefaced to the Articles of Religion - "curious points" which have oft afflicted the Churches, leading to "curious and unhappy differences". At Prayer Book Matins, "all further curious search [is] laid aside, and these disputes shut up in God's promises". A broad, generous orthodoxy animates Prayer Book Matins, with "matters of doubtful controversy" not set before or imposed upon us. In the words of Puller:
In our publick Prayers, our Churches Moderation is apparent, in that it never intended to intermingle matters of doubtful Controversy; but hath sufficiently provided for the simplicity of the plainest, and the devotion of the most intelligent: Thus our Bishops according to great Moderation also, justified our Church in their debate with the Presbyterian Brethren. 'The Church hath been careful to put nothing into the Liturgy, but what is either evidently the word of God, or what hath been generally received in the Catholick Church; neither of which can be called private opinion: and if the contrary can be proved, we wish it out of the Liturgy.'
The structure of Prayer Book Matins, with its "moderately short" prayers, provides a sober, balanced approach to public worship - "confess[ing our sins] with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart ... to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at his hands, to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his most holy Word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul":
Our Prayers are framed, both according to a grave, modest, and serious manner; every one of them being moderately short, and all together not immoderately long; and so, more accommodate to render Devotion more earnest and intent: and properly intermitted by other parts of Divine Service, that by a moderate variety, the Devotions of Christians may be both entertained and advantaged.
The directions and rubrics for Prayer Book Matins are few, while the calendar accompanying it is not at all intricate. This, after all, is not an exercise for a clerical elite but common prayer which reflects, as Puller puts it, "the simplicity of the Christian Gospel":
In all the Churches of this Kingdom, Cathedral and Parochial, the Church now hath moderately appointed the same Rules and Cautions, and the same use among us every where, and those few in number, plain and easy to be understood ... Among us an easy Calendar is prefixt, with few Canons and Prescriptions, and those very intelligible: wherein according to an excellent Moderation the People have their parts for excitation sake, and to unite their affections
The Ceremonies (as will be further shewed) are not held by our Church as any part of the Divine Worship: but only outward signs and helps of Devotion. Our Church lays also greatest stress upon the inward affection and intention of the mind, as the most necessary and principal part of the Divine Worship; as that which only can render all outward expressions of our Honour of God acceptable: Because in the affection of the Heart is the consummation of all moral goodness; especially in the worship of God; For the best Being is to be served with the most excellent operations of our best Faculties; Therefore God, who is the most Excellent, most Infinite, and most pure Spirit, must be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth; in due regard to which just consideration, all the Offices of our Church are framed, so as to promote chiefly a due sense of God, and of the Divine Attributes; a Heavenly and spiritual disposition of Mind, a real and unaffected Piety, a sincere and hearty Devotion.
At Matins, of course, holy Scripture is read. No declaration precedes these readings, no acclamation follows them, beyond the very modest 'Here endeth the First/Second lesson'. The Exhortation at the outset of Matins states that amongst the reasons why Christians assemble is "to hear his most holy Word". It is what Christians do: we attend to and heed the Scriptures. We do so in Matins, without a particular theory accounting for the authority of holy Scripture being required of us:
The Church of England according to an excellent Moderation, commends unto all of her Communion ... a diligent hearing and reading the Holy Scriptures: as appears in sundry places of the Homilies, more particularly in the first Homily, which is, a fruitful exhortation to the reading and knowing of Holy Scripture. That man (saith the Homily) is ashamed to be called a Lawyer, Astronomer, Physician, Philosopher, that is ignorant in the Books of Law, Astronomy, Physick, Philosophy; and how can any man then say, that he professeth Christ and his Religion, if he will not apply himself to read, hear, and know the Books of Christian Doctrine ...
The Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures, our Church according to great wisdom doth rather take for granted than labour much to prove such an undoubted principle of Religion ... our Church according to a great Moderation leaves it to the Providence of God by what particular arguments (of the many which lie before us) we may come to this satisfaction: Not causing the satisfaction of any to depend upon one sort of means to the neglect of another.
Sunday Matins will close with a sermon. It does so, as Puller states, "on one hand esteeming its real use and benefit; on the other hand, not judging it the chief exercise of Religion, and the worship of God". The sermon, in other words, follows Matins, it does not overshadow it, nor is it a reason that "(as Mr Hooker saith) the Prayers of the Church should be slighted, neglected, or mangled". As to the content of the sermon and its delivery, it is to be "rational and sober", not the stuff of mysticism or Enthusiasm:
The Moderation in our Church is further known, in that among us its Ministers are not expected, nor do they endeavour to take the people in their Preaching by mysterious non-sense, or by storm and sensible noises, and uncouth tones and grimaces, whereby a tumult and confusion is rais'd in the animal passions; scaring weak people almost out of their wits and common sense: just as the Valentinian Hereticks used hard words and thundring noises in their Conventicles to cause astonishment in the people: Our design is otherwise, by a rational and sober surrender of their minds to gain our Hearers to truth and goodness.
Puller quite beautifully summarises Prayer Book piety in general, and Sunday Matins in particular, when he states the ground for our worship:
Lastly, In our Church, the worship of God is supposed to proceed, not so much from a principle of fear and dread, as of love and thankfulness: Whereas some in a way to overthrow all Religion, have given out, That the fear of God is only the dread men have of some unknown, arbitrary, and uncontroulable power: Such a fear, they suppose the only motive to the worship of God; the only foundation and bond of Justice: An Experiment taken up to keep men obedient to Laws. The Moderation of our Church governs it self very justly in this matter ... the first and the chief reason of our worship of God, is frequently owned (in the Offices of our Church) and supposed to be a sense of the Infinite Divine Excellencies, and his constant bounty and benefits, and gracious goodness to mankind, especially in our Lord Jesus Christ: which of themselves are sufficient motives to Religion: and make the same proceed from the most free, and most suitable, and noble principle that can be of affection and thankfulness to God.
'Love and thankfulness' is evoked from the beginning to the end of Prayer Book Matins. The Exhortation to "Almighty God our heavenly Father". The General Confession is to our "Almighty and most merciful Father", while the Absolution is from "Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ". Twice at Matins we pray the Lord's Prayer, addressing, the words of the Catechism, "our heavenly Father, who is the giver of all goodness". The Second Collect, For Peace, is offered to the God who is "the author of peace and lover of concord". The Third Collect, For Grace, is addressed to "O Lord, our heavenly Father". If the Prayer for All Sorts and Conditions is said, God is invoked as "the Creator and Preserver of all mankind". And then there is 'The Grace', gathering up all in the grace, love, and fellowship of the Triune God.
It is not some "arbitrary, and uncontroulable power" whom we worship in Sunday Matins, but the gracious God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness, and live", so "that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight", "whose service is perfect freedom".
Puller has guided us through Sunday Matins, bringing us to discern how it reflects the "mild Oeconomy of the Gospel". So, too, is this reflected in the gentle light and quiet sobriety of Old St. Stephen's; not overpowering us with colour and image but, rather, modestly, gently drawing us to behold that "the affection of the Heart is the consummation of all moral goodness". If this all seems very modest, on both epistemological and aesthetic grounds, good: such is hardly a criticism in a loud, angry age, bombarded by images and deafened by harsh voices demanding allegiance in the culture wars. By contrast, the moderation of Sunday Matins and the sober interior of a Georgian parish church point to another way, as Puller suggested:
Comments
Post a Comment