laudable Practice

To mark Reformation Day, words from a sermon - ' Objections against the Ceremonies used in our Church answered ' - by George Smalridge, Bishop of Bristol 1714-19, in which he points to how such ceremonies did not separate the Church of England from "other reformed churches". The fact that Smalridge was a Tory with Jacobite allegiances, and a close friend of Francis Atterbury, emphasises that this was no Whiggish, low church declaration serving partisan Hanoverian purposes: rather, this was a sermon by a bishop who, unlike his low church colleagues, was pronounced in his criticisms of Dissent and supported Tory legislation against the Dissenting interest. This, in other words, was a thoroughly high church statement of the 18th century Church of England's care and affection for, and communion with, the other Churches of the Reformation, Lutheran and Reformed. I proceed now to consider another objection urged against them [i.e. ceremonies] in order to render them odi...

From Jeremy Taylor's  A dissuasive from Popery (1664 & 1667) - which George Rust in the sermon at Taylor's funeral particularly highlighted as among his "several excellent Discourses", this one "receiv'd by a general approbation" - a critique of the invocation of saints: Now therefore we desire it may be considered, That there are as the effects of Christ's death for us, three great products, which are the rule and measure of our prayers, and our confidence; 1. Christ's merits. 2. His Satisfaction. 3. His Intercession. By these three we come boldly to the Throne of Grace, and pray to God through Jesus Christ. But if we pray to God through the Saints too, and rely upon their 1. Merit. 2. Satisfaction. 3. And Intercession; Is it not plain that we make them equal with Christ, in kind, though not in degree? ... And therefore the very being and Oeconomy of Christianity, is destroyed by these prayers; and the people are not, cannot be good Christ...

With All Saints' Day close, this final extract from Bishop Bull's (d.1710) first sermon on the angels, ' The Existence of Angels ', on the text Hebrews 1.14, follows on from last week's extract exhorting against the invocation of angels. Bull points out that if "there is great danger in doing so, but no necessity at all of doing it", this all the more true of the invocation of saints, who do not minister to us "by thy appointment" as do the holy angels. Once again, we see a thoroughly and conventionally Reformed refutation of the practice: And if we must not make any such religious addresses to the holy angels, then certainly not to the saints departed. For besides that there is no warrant either in Scripture or the practice of the primitive Church, for the invocation of saints, any more than of angels, as hath been already intimated; we may also, from what hath been said against the worship of angels, farther argue with advantage against the inv...

O Almighty God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The collect for Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles, wonderfully orients us towards the celebration of the Communion of Saints on All Saints' Day. In his Whitsun sermon ' Of the Spirit of Grace ', Jeremy Taylor powerfully expounds the passage from Ephesians on which the collect is based, unfolding the mystery of the Communion of Saints as our participation in Christ: that God should so love us as to be willing to be reconciled to us, and yet that Himself must die that He might pardon us; that God's most holy Son should give us His body to eat, and His blood to crown our chalices, and His spirit to sanctify our souls, to turn our bodies into temperance, our souls into...

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...

... what to me is the clearest and most moving of all Anglican invocations. So said Roger Scruton, in his Our Church , of the Prayer for the Church Militant. Scruton's words echo those of John Shepherd in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801): Prayers to the same effect were offered in the primitive Church at the celebration of the Eucharist, and occur in ancient, and modern Liturgies; but a form of superior, or even equal excellence to this, is nowhere to be found.  Contrary to most contemporary Anglican liturgies, both Shepherd and Scruton rightly recognise the power and beauty of the Prayer for the Church Militant. Contemporary liturgies usually contain mere outlines of intercession, entirely subject to the vagaries of those leading the intercessions. By contrast, the Prayer for the Church Militant offers a memorable, theologically rich, intercession, rooted in a robustly apostolic vision of ecclesial vision (indicated in the op...

In his first sermon on the holy angels, ' The Existence of Angels ', on the text Hebrews 1.14, Bishop Bull addresses the oft-repeated defence of the invocation of angels and saints, that it is no different to asking other Christians with whom we share earthly life to pray for us.  As Bull states, this defence is contrary to "sense and experience"; there is no meaningful comparison between fellow-Christians with whom I now share earthly life and the existence of the holy angels. What is more, there is "no necessity at all" of invoking the angels, for they always minister to us. When Christians conversing together on earth mutually desire the assistance of each other's prayers, they being by sense and experience thoroughly acquainted with their common humanity, and the frailty attending it, there is no danger of idolatry in the case; or that one should ascribe that to the other, which belongs to God alone. But if we mortal men were allowed to make such app...

At this time of year, as October days shorten and the leaves begin to fall, my thoughts usually turn to a certain colonial-era Dutch Reformed church, "in the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson": It stands on a knoll, surrounded by locust-trees and lofty elms, from among which its decent, whitewashed walls shine modestly forth, like Christian purity beaming through the shades of retirement. A gentle slope descends from it to a silver sheet of water, bordered by high trees, between which, peeps may be caught at the blue hills of the Hudson. To look upon its grass-grown yard, where the sunbeams seem to sleep so quietly, one would think that there at least the dead might rest in peace. On one side of the church extends a wide woody dell, along which raves a large brook among broken rocks and trunks of fallen trees. Over a deep black part of the stream, not far from the church, was formerly thrown a wooden bridge; the road that led to...

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...

Let us pray for the whole state of Christ's Church militant here in earth. In his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), John Shepherd hints at a relationship between the offertory and the distinctly Reformed introduction to the Prayer for the Church Militant. The stuff of the offertory - alms, bread, wine - is for the living. So too our prayers are for "Christ's Church militant here in earth": After the offertory is said, and the oblations of bread and wine, with the alms for the poor are placed upon the table, the minister addresses this exhortation to the people: 'Let us pray for the whole state of Christ's Church militant here in earth'. The latter part of this sentence is wanting in Edward's first book. The words 'militant here in earth', which were designed expressly to exclude prayer for the dead, were inserted in the second book, in which that part of this prayer which contained intercessio...

On this commemoration of the martyrdom of Bishops Latimer and Ridley, words from Jeremy Taylor indicating the esteem in which Episcopalian and Laudian thought held them and the other martyrs of the Reformed Church of England: ... thus as it [i.e. the Book of Common Prayer] was framed in the body of its first constitution and second alteration, those excellent men whom God chose as instruments of His honour and service in the Reformation, to whom also He did shew what great things they were to suffer for His name's sake, approved of it with high testimony, promoted it by their own use and zeal, and at last sealed it with their blood. That they had a great opinion of the piety and unblameable composure of the common-prayer-book, appears, in the challenge made in its behalf by the archbishop Cranmer, to defend it against all the world of enemies; by the daily using it in time of persecution and imprisonment; for so did bishop Ridley, and doctor Taylor, who also recommended it to his w...

With the dark days now upon us (it will be sunset at 6:25pm in Jeremy Taylor country today), we continue to consider sermons from Bishop Bull (d.1710) on the angels. The first of these sermons is entitled ' The Existence of Angels ', on the text Hebrews 1.14. In this extract, Bull points to words of Origen on the holy angels, rooting the Reformation refusal to countenance prayers to angels in patristic teaching. It also represents a continuation of what Sarah Hutton has termed the " Origenist moment in English theology ", a movement particularly associated with Cambridge Platonist circles, especially Taylor's friend George Rust. In other words, contrary to those who portray the Reformation understanding of the ministry of the holy angels as 'disenchantment', Bull's turn to Origen emphasises it as a richly theocentric and Christocentric vision: For Origen, speaking the sense of the Christians in his time, in answer to Celsus, objecting the neglect of wo...

On this Thanksgiving Day in Canada, laudable Practice shares extracts from A Journal of Visitation in Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and along the Eastern Shore of New Brunswick (1843) by Bishop John Inglis (son of Charles). The Journal  provides a quite wonderful insight into how Anglicanism's Reformed Catholic order took root and was nurtured in the Maritimes by the missionary activity of bishops, clergy, and laity. On this Thanksgiving Day, it exemplifies why - not least in light of the profound challenges faced by the Anglican Church of Canada - there is reason to be profoundly thankful for (rather than dismiss, obscure, or forget) the heritage of Canadian Anglicanism. Sunday, May 21. Storm and rain, through which we drove (over a wretched road, with many long and steep hills, and several broken bridges), to the church at Douglas (15 miles). To our surprise the building was well filled by about two hundred persons. The church (St. Peter's) and its burial ground were consecrate...

In the course an 1840 sermon entitled ' Prayer and Thanksgiving for Civil Rulers ', preached in the parish church of Iffley, Oxford, on the day appointed to give thanks for the preservation of the life of Queen Victoria after an assassination attempt, Old High divine William Jacobson (received orders in 1830, appointed Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford in 1848, appointed Bishop of Chester in 1865), expounded "the great Christian duty of praying and giving thanks for rulers and governors": For, remember, however much the form of government may be permitted to vary in different countries, whatever be the alterations in the working and administration of government which may be thought (and thought at times with the best reason) necessary and desirable in the same country, as one generation comes into the place of another, the duty remains as binding as ever, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. This scriptural understanding, declared Jacobson, was particula...

Do you think that you are truly called, according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, and according to the canons of this Church, to the ministry of the same? In reflecting upon the second question in the Ordering of Deacons, William White's Commentaries Suited to Occasions of Ordination (1833) addresses the apostolic nature of the Church from which the candidate receives holy orders: To justify the candidate in believing that he is called according to the will of Christ, he should be convinced, after due inquiry, that the Church to which he looks for ordination, is a true apostolick Church, deriving its authority from that founded by the apostles. For since they did confessedly found a communion, and since it did confessedly transmit its ministries, there seems no possible right to the name of a Christian Church at present, but in succession from the originally established body. What then is the result, but that an opinion, formed under due care, is a prerequisite of admission ...