laudable Practice

In a recent essay , Alan Ford - a leading historian of the Church of Ireland - considered the Jacobean and Caroline Irish Church in the context of what he termed "the wider perspective of Atlantic Protestantism". Alongside Ford's essay, I was also reading Plantation Churches: Places of worship in early Seventeenth-century Ulster (2025). In its concluding chapter, the book refers to The Middle Church, at the heart of Jeremy Taylor country. While built at Taylor's direction and consecrated in 1668, it is noted that a worshipper "would have seen little difference" between The Middle Church and Jacobean churches in Ireland. Around the same time, I also stumbled across online pictures of the Reformed church in Vámosatya , on the eastern edge of Hungary's Northern Great Plain. Ford's essay and the pictures of Vámosatya church provoked me to consider looking in the other direction - not across the Atlantic, but across Europe, to the continent's eastern...

As Hungary will be featuring in Monday's post, I thought it would be appropriate today - as Saint Bartholomew's Day approaches, the anniversary of the implementation of the 1662 Act of Uniformity - to consider how Episcopalian divine John Durel, in his A view of the government and publick worship of God in the reformed churches beyond the seas wherein is shewed their conformity and agreement with the Church of England (1662), points to the government, ceremonies, and liturgy of the Reformed Churches of Hungary and Transylvania as he defends the episcopal and liturgical order of the English Church. On the matter of church government, Durel notes the account given by the Episcopalian Isaac Basire, who had spent time in Hungary and Transylvania during the Interregnum: Reverend Doctor Basire sheweth out of the very Canons of the Hungarian Churches that they have Bishops both name and thing for their Governors and Pastors; that they think themselves bound to have those several Orde...

We are very close to the end of John Shepherd's commentary on the 1662 Holy Communion in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801). Today we consider the Blessing, at the conclusion of the office. Shepherd commences his commentary on the Blessing by rooting the practice in Scripture: Among the ancient people of God it was customary to dismiss religious assemblies with a blessing pronounced by one of the principal persons present, sometimes by the King, but more commonly by the priests. Thus at the removal of the ark to Mount Sion, "as soon as David had made an end of offering burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of Hosts"; and thus likewise at the dedication of the temple, "Solomon, when he had made an end of praying, arose from before the altar of the Lord, and he stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel." But "to bless in the name of the Lord" was th...

By happy coincidence, following on from yesterday's post for Charles Inglis Day , our next reading from Robert Nelson's The Life of Dr. George Bull (1713) addresses the place of metrical psalms both in Bull's personal piety and in divine service: Before I quit this Head of his Private Devotions, I must beg leave to observe, that Singing the Praises of God, made a Part of his Spiritual Exercises in his Retirement, which he chose to Celebrate in the Words of the Royal Psalmist, as Translated into Metre for that Purpose. A Duty recommended by St. Paul in several of his Epistles; and yet how few can be prevailed upon to join in Psalmody, when it is made a Part of the Publick Service of the Church? It is evident that Nelson sees nothing at all unusual about Bull's personal piety including the singing of metrical psalms. That metrical psalms had a place in the devotions of an Arminian and High Church divine was clearly unremarkable. What is more, as can be seen in the above ...

Saturday past, 16th August, was the commemoration of Charles Inglis in the Church of Ireland calendar of 'worthies'. Today, therefore, we have a belated observance of Charles Inglis Day on the blog. Each year, Charles Inglis Day is an opportunity both to reflect on the witness of this son of the Church of Ireland (his father was a rector in the Diocese of Raphoe) and to consider the character of early Canadian Anglicanism, not least in light of the abysmal state of the contemporary Anglican Church of Canada. This year, we consider a short, passing reference in Inglis' 1803 visitation charge , to the clergy of Nova Scotia: It may be proper to add, that, at the present time, great attention is paid to the Improvement of Psalmody by the Members of our Church in England; and that several excellent Publications have lately appeared there, which will much assist those who are disposed to promote, or engage in this laudable design. In a footnote, Inglis highlights two then recentl...

At Parish Communion on the Ninth Sunday after Trinity, 17.8.25 Hebrews 12:1-2a “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses … let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” [1] Stained glass depictions of great saints and those who have gone before us in the Faith are a common feature of parish churches. Here in our parish church, their depictions surround us as we gather for worship.  A peaceful, quiet spirit often shines through such stained glass.  And yet few - if any - of these great saints, of those who have gone before us in the Faith - lived in peaceful, quiet times. From where I stand in this pulpit, I can view Saint Patrick, apostle to this Island. Patrick lived in turbulent times. His homeland, the place the Romans called Britannia, was subject to pagan raids and invasions as the Roman Empire collapsed. He, of course, was captured during one of those raids, becoming a slave on this Island.  When he returned as a bishop, carrying the ...

Preaching, in 1663, at the funeral of John Bramhall , Archbishop of Armagh, Jeremy Taylor referenced a 1660 incident when the Laudian Bramhall, returning from exile with King Charles II, received a delegation of Dutch Remonstrant clergy: at his leaving those parts upon the king's return, some of the remonstrant ministers of the Low Countries coming to take their leaves of this great man, and desiring that, by his means, the Church of England would be kind to them, he had reason to grant it, because they were learned men, and in many things of a most excellent belief; yet he reproved them, and gave them caution against it, that they approached too near and gave too much countenance to the great and dangerous errors of the Socinians. It was a reminder that, despite the dark allegations of Taylor's Presbyterian opponents, accusing him of Socinianism, he was (as has been clearly seen in this series of posts) robustly committed to Trinitarian and Christological creedal orthodoxy. Th...

Having established a rational for the place of the Nicene Creed in the Church's life - as an exposition of the rule of faith, the Apostles' Creed; as reliant upon the authority of holy Scripture; and as an expression of the Trinitarian and Christological truths confessed by the first four general councils - Taylor also demonstrated the place of Nicene faith in Christian prayer and piety. In his Collection of Offices (1657), liturgical texts to be used in place of the then prohibited Book of Common Prayer, Taylor proposed that at Morning Prayer "The Nicene Creed [is] to be said upon the great Solemnities of the yeare". This reflected what Taylor would urge his clergy at the Restoration : Let every Preacher in his Parish take care to explicate to the people the Mysteries of the great Festivals, as of Christmas, Easter, Ascension-day, Whitsunday, Trinity Sunday, the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary; because these Feasts containing in them the great Fundamentals o...

Next to this analogy or proportion of faith, let the consent of the Catholic Church be your measure, so as by no means to prevaricate in any doctrine, in which all Christians always have consented. This will appear to be a necessary rule by and by; but, in the mean time, I shall observe to you, that it will be the safer, because it cannot go far ...   When Taylor, as the newly-consecrated Bishop of Down and Connor, preached to his clergy during the primary visitation at Lisnagarvey in 1661, he thus instructed them to conform their expounding of the Scriptures to "the consent of the Catholic Church". The words following define Taylor's understanding of 'Catholic consent': "doctrine ... in which  all Christians  have consented" (emphasis added). This was the understanding of the Trinitarian and Christological teaching of the first four general councils, as Taylor made explicit in the accompanying  Rules and Advices to his clergy: Every Minister ought to ...

Yesterday's post considered Taylor's understanding of the Creed of Nicaea in The Liberty of Prophesying , published in 1646. Taylor was then a relatively young 33 years old, in holy orders for 13 years, and belonging to the defeated party in the first Civil War. If, as was suggested yesterday, The Liberty of Prophesying was intended to a theological justification for the royal policy of seeking an accommodation with the Independents amongst the Parliamentarians, we might have expected Taylor's thinking to have significantly changed when we reach the final years of his life, when he wrote the Dissuasive from Popery , published in 1664 and 1667 , the year of his death. He was then a bishop in the restored established Church, with the monarch again upon his throne, and the bitter experiences of the 1640s and 50s in the past.  It is significant, however, that Taylor's understanding of the Creed of Nicaea's relationship to Scripture is maintained across these decades. ...

On this 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, this year's Jeremy Taylor Week - the days around his commemoration on 13th August - will be considering Taylor's understanding and use of the Nicene Creed. We begin with a text from Taylor's writings that has often produced some puzzlement, The Liberty of Prophesying (1646). There is, I think, little cause for such puzzlement. The Liberty of Prophesying reflects two contexts.  The first is the theological thought centred on the Great Tew Circle, not least Chillingworth's The Religion of Protestants (1637). Taylor's affinity with Great Tew is well established, as are his interactions with Chillingworth. The Liberty of Prophesying breathes the same air as The Religion of Protestants , setting forth a generous Protestant irenicism, best embodied, in the view of both works, in the Church of England. The second context, however, is the radically different political landscape addressed by the The Liberty of Prophes...