laudable Practice

On Christmas Eve 1710, Francis Atterbury -  later Bishop of Rochester, then Dean of Christ Church, Oxford - preached in the Rolls Chapel, Chancery Lane, London. His text was Matthew 11:3, the words of Saint John the Baptist, "Art thou he that should come? or do we look for another?". The sermon contained a number of significant Advent themes, evidence of how the liturgical observance of Advent (and other seasons) shaped early 18th century Anglican preaching. At the outset of the sermon, Atterbury defined the season:  At this time of advent, particularly dedicated by the church to a devout commemoration of our Saviour's coming in the flesh, and set apart to prepare us for a worthy celebration of the approaching feast of his nativity ... As with his early Advent 1709 sermon , we see Atterbury here giving voice to a well-established understanding of Advent as oriented towards Christmas. There is much to value in this, not least the quite natural recognition of the approach ...

O Lord Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee: Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Words from Jeremy Taylor in The Great Exemplar (1649), Part I Ad. Section VIII 'Considerations upon the Preaching of John the Baptist', offer a meditation on the words of the collect of the Third Sunday in Advent and of the Advent Ember Week. As with the collect, Taylor invokes the public ministry of the Baptist as an example for ordained ministers.  What is more, just as the Baptist's public ministry - rather than his previous life of solitude - is understood by the four Evangelists' to be the fulfilment of I...

Continuing with extracts from John Shepherd's A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796), we turn to the Benedictus, used after the second lesson. Shepherd provides a richly Christological explanation of its placing after the New Testament reading, echoing Hooker's defence of the Gospel canticles: For the redemption of the world by the incarnation of the Son of God, of whom John was the forerunner, it breathes the warmest language of gratitude and praise. It is therefore properly placed after the second Lesson, which being always selected either from the Gospels or the Acts of the Apostles, necessarily exhibits some portion of the history of our redemption. That said, Shepherd - like Secker in the mid-18th century - defends the more common usage of the Jubilate, regarding the Benedictus (as did Hooker's opponents!) as addressing particular circumstances and therefore not entirely appropriate for general use: The ...

The whole of the hymn, however, having been uttered upon a peculiar occasion, and under extraordinary circumstances, and the latter part being addressed to the infant Baptist in particular, and referring solely to his immediate office, it is seldom read after the second Lesson. In its place therefore with the greatest propriety, we generally use the hundredth psalm, called Jubilate Deo. So said John Shepherd, in his 1796 A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England , of the Benedictus . Secker, in his mid-18th century Six Sermons on the Liturgy of the Church of England , admitted that "we use the more frequently" the Jubilate rather than the Benedictus.  Part of the reason for this was precisely because the Benedictus "was uttered on the birth of John the Baptist", necessitating this note from Secker: The people, in repeating it, should remember, that the words, "And thou, Child, shalt be called the Prophet of ...

From A Course of Sermons for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England (1821) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - a sermon for Saint John Baptist's Day.  Yet again Pott demonstrates the rich understanding of the liturgical calendar which could be found in the pre-1833 Church of England. He also provides a statement of the characteristic Old High suspicion of the excessive asceticism which would - in the next decade - become evident amongst some Tractarian elements. Serious repentance, as Pott states, does not not require us to withdraw to caves. This was the Old High fear, that excessive and demonstrative asceticism - itself a form of Enthusiasm - undermines the ordinary living out of the Gospel amidst daily responsibilities and duties. The memory of him who comes so commended to us by the testimony of our Blessed Lord, may well be marked for celebration in the Christian Church. Time itself may well contribute to this just regard for the name of on...

From  A Course of Sermons, for the Lord's Day throughout the Year , Volume I (1817) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - a sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, setting before us the example and teaching of St John the Baptist as a pattern for Christian repentance: Let it not be thought, then, that the well chosen season of retirement, of self-examination, of prayer, and abstinence as occasion may require, or necessity permit, with every token of sincere and heartfelt sorrow for things done amiss, or things left undone, for faults and follies deplored perhaps, but yet not wholly cured, or for misdeeds and neglects which have succeeded of some other kind; let us not think that these things are no longer: useful or expedient; that there is no garb of humiliation in the Christian household. They must have smaller experience in the way that leads to that safe and honoured path; which goes forward to the realms of perfect freedom, who can make light of the pat...

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned ... O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain: O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid: say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God - from the reading appointed for the Epistle on Saint John Baptist's Day , Isaiah 40:1-11. And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child ...And fear came on all that dwelt round about them; and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill-country of Judaea ... And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel: for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David ... to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and ...