laudable Practice

At the heart of the preparation for the Sacrament urged by Taylor in The Worthy Communicant is the recognition that the Sacrament itself is prayer - and that, therefore, faithful prayer in daily life is necessary if we are to faithfully partake of the Lord's Supper: The holy sacrament is, in its nature and design, a solemn prayer, and the imitation of the intercession, which our glorious High Priest continually makes for us in heaven; and as it is our ministry, and contains our duty, it is nothing else but the solemnity and great economy of prayer, for the whole, and for every member, and for all and every particular necessity of the church; and all the whole conjugation of offices and union of hearts, and conjunction of ministers, is nothing but the advantages, and solemnity, and sanctification of prayer; and, therefore, in order to do this work in solemnity as we ought, it were very fit that we examine ourselves, how we do it in ordinary and daily offices. In other words, if th...

On Fridays throughout Lent, laudable Practice will be posting extracts from Jeremy Taylor's The Worthy Communicant; or, A discourse of the nature, effects, and blessings consequent to the worthy receiving of the Lord's Supper and of all the duties required in order to a worthy preparation (1667). Taylor's work is, to say the least, difficult to place within current Anglican practice, shaped by the Parish Communion Movement, with the expectation that weekly reception will be the norm. Added to this, not only is the penitential aspect of contemporary eucharistic liturgies much inferior to that in Prayer Book tradition, any sense of an expectation of preparation to partake of the Sacrament is almost entirely absent from Anglican piety (as in most other liturgical and sacramental traditions).  This is what Michael Ramsey warned Anglicans about in his 1956 essay ' The Parish Communion ', noting that that were "weaknesses which haunt the wide and rapid growth of t...

At the Eucharist of Ash Wednesday, 18.2.26 Matthew 6.16 “And whenever you fast, do not look somber, like the hypocrites, for they mark their faces to show others that they are fasting.” [1] On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, it is difficult not to recognise that this day begins a season of fasting. We heard it in the introduction to our liturgy: “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Lord to observe a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial …” [2] We heard it in the first reading from the prophet Joel: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting …” [3] And we will hear it again in our final hymn, referring to our Lord’s time in the wilderness: “Forty days and forty nights, thou was fasting in the wild …” [4] Lent is a time for fasting. Depending on our age, health, and circumstances, this may mean abstaining from one of the day’s meals throughout Lent; or it may mean simplifying our diet in Lent; or...

Wherefore, laying aside these shifts and excuses, let us all set ourselves in good earnest to resist all manner of temptations: let us putout all the strength which we naturally have to this purpose, and beg of God super naturally to supply us with what we have not. Especially at this solemn time, set apart to commemorate the great conflict of our Saviour with the tempter in the wilderness, and to prepare and qualify us for such spiritual encounters. Let us lookup to the example of Christ, and remember how victorious he was over those fierce assaults of Satan; and what assurance he hath given us, that they who tread in his steps, and resolutely fight the good fight, shall be alike victorious. And whilst we resist as he did, let us be sure to use the same means of resistance, that he used, fasting and prayer: for there is no kind of temptation, but may, by the joint force of these, be cast out. To these, therefore, let us fly. These let us lay hold of, bending our knees often in private...

This series of short Lenten reflections on penitence in the Prayer Book concludes with a prayer from the Burial of the Dead in the Church of Ireland Book of Common Prayer 1926. Fittingly for these days of late Lent, the prayer is the collect for Easter Even, placed alongside a prayer for the bereaved after the reading from Scripture. It ensures that as we gather at the grave and confront our mortality, we hear the call to penitence. Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ ... In the Passion of the Lord, death has been swallowed up in victory. In the words of the Apostle: "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection". In the face of death we are recalled to our baptism, the sign of our participation in the death and resurrection of Christ: living out this gift, in penitence and faith, we are conformed to the Lord's death that we might share...

From Tillotson's sermon ' The Danger of Impenitence, Where the Gospel is Preached ', on the text Matthew 11:21-22, refuting the doctrine of irresistible grace. He does so on the grounds that sufficient grace always accompanies the "outward means of repentance", as opposed to the Calvinist notion that, without irresistible grace, the outwards means of repentance were not a means of grace unto repentance. In other words, each time the call to repentance is heard in the reading of the Scriptures, the praying of the liturgy, or preaching from the pulpit, grace truly accompanies such call, sufficient for authentic repentance. What Repentance is here spoken of; whether a meer external and Hypocritical Repentance in shew and appearance only, or an inward and real and sincere Repentance ... The Reason of this doubt depends upon the different Theories of Divines, about the sufficiency of Grace accompanying the outward Means of Repentance, and whether an irresistible degree...

... remembering always, that Baptism doth represent unto us our profession;  At the conclusion of the Prayer Book Baptism offices for infants and for adults, the priest who has administered the Sacrament is to exhort, in the former case, the godparents of the newly baptised, and in the latter case, the newly baptised. The words of the exhortation are rooted in the Apostle's words, "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?". And, after the manner of the Apostle, the declaration "that Baptism doth represent unto us our profession", calls us to recognise that the covenant of grace into which we are placed by Holy Baptism requires life-long penitence, that we may not forsake this grace: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" which is, to follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be made ...

From Tillotson's sermon ' The Danger of Impenitence, Where the Gospel is Preach'd ', on the text Matthew 11:21-22: Sin will yet farther appear shameful, in that it is so great a Reproach to our Understandings and Reasons, and so foul a Blot upon our Prudence and Discretion. Omnis peccans aut ignorans est, aut incogitans , is a Saying, I think, of one of the School-men; (as one would guess by the Latin of it) Every Sinner is either an ignorant, or inconsiderate Person. Either Men do not understand what they do, when they commit Sin; or if they do know, they do not actually attend to, and consider what they know: Either they are habitually or actually ignorant of what they do: for Sin and Consideration cannot dwell together; 'tis so very unreasonable and absurd a thing, that it requires either gross Ignorance, or stupid Inadvertency, to make a Man capable of committing it. Whenever a Man sins, he must either be destitute of Reason, or must lay it aside or asleep for ...

In last week's Friday Lenten reading from Jeremy Taylor's Golden Grove sermon ' The Invalidity of a Late, or Deathbed Repentance ', we saw how Taylor declared that repentance "consists in the abolition of sins". This week's reading continues from that point, with Taylor declaring "repentance is not only an abolition" (emphasis added). It must also include holy living: repentance is not onely an abolition, and extinction of the body of sin, a bringing it to the altar, and slaying it before God and all the people; but that we must also mingle gold and rich presents, the oblation of good works, and holy habits with the sacrifice, I have already proved: but now if we will see repentance in its stature and integrity of constitution described, we shall finde it to be the one half of all that which God requires of Christians. Faith and Repentance are the whole duty of a Christian. Faith is a sacrifice of the understanding to God: Repentance sacrifices ...

That it may please thee to give us true repentance; to forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances; and to endue us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, to amend our lives according to thy holy Word, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. That the Litany draws to a close with this petition, that it is our final petition, reflects Our Lord's words: "So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants". Morning Prayer has been said. Prayer and praise has been offered. The holy Scriptures have been read. The Litany has been said, with its petitions for all sorts and conditions. And after all this, we remain "unprofitable servants", who must seek forgiveness for our sins and grace for amendment of life. That it may please thee to give us true repentance ... True repentance. Passing regret is not true repentance. In the words of Jeremy Taylor: "Repentance implies a deep sorrow, as the beginni...

From a sermon preached by John Tillotson, then Dean of Canterbury, on Ash Wednesday 1689, on ' The unprofitableness of Sin in this Life, an Argument for Repentance ': there is another great Miscarriage in this matter, and that is the delay of Repentance; men are loth to set about it, and therefore they put it upon the last hazard, and resolve then to huddle it up as well as they can: but this certainly is great folly, to be still making more work for Repentance, because it is to create so much needless trouble and vexation to our selves; 'tis to go on still in playing a foolish part, in hopes to retrieve all by an after-game; this is extreamly dangerous, because we may certainly sin, but it is not certain we shall repent, our Repentance may be prevented, and we may be cut off in our sins; but if we should have space for it, Repentance may in process of time grow an hundred times more difficult than it is at present. But if it were much more certain, and more easie than it i...

Last Friday, we commenced Lenten readings from one of the more controversial of Jeremy Taylor's Golden Grove sermons, ' The Invalidity of a Late, or Deathbed Repentance '. It is too often presented as a Caroline rupture with Reformation thought. The previous post emphasised how such an interpretation did not do justice to Luther and Calvin on repentance, and how Taylor's understanding of repentance cohered with the Reformation. Today's extract continues on this theme. Here Taylor contrasts authentic repentance, "a deep sorrow", with a mere "superficial sigh". Crucially, Taylor insists that repentance must be such a sorrow "must be productive" of both a hatred and a declining of sin: Repentance implies a deep sorrow, as the beginning and introduction of this duty; not a superficiall sigh, or tear, not a calling our selves sinners, and miserable persons; this is far from that godly sorrow that worketh repentance; and yet I wish there were...

From a sermon preached by Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, on the First Sunday in Lent, 1695: It is certain, That the main design and chief effect of Religion, is to Purify our Hearts, to Reform our Natures, to Restrain our Inclinations, our Appetites and Passions, and to spread such an influence through our whole Lives, through all our Powers, and in all our Actions, that the world may from thence, as from the evidentest as well as the powerfullest Argument, be convinc'd both of the beauty and force of this Religion. The Christian Religion in its true Purity, and as it is received among us, is so stript of all those outward appearances of Pompous and Costly, of severe or cruel Performances, that unless it reforms our Natures and our Lives, it has not enough in it to feed and support that false quiet that Superstition may give ... But as to us and our Religion, What can we expect from it, if it has not a real influence upon our Hearts and Lives? Can we think that for our going sometim...

Today begins a Lenten series of short reflections on penitential material in the Book of Common Prayer 1662/1926. We begin with the opening words of the Exhortation at Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer: Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloke them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father; but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same, by his infinite goodness and mercy. It is a gentle invitation. "Dearly beloved brethren" - not the Baptist's "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?". No, the Exhortation invites us to repentance gently, graciously, after the manner of Our Lord, in fulfillment of the Prophet's words: A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench. The same gentle invit...

Confession must be always accompanied with great sorrow for our sins, considering the great dishonour we have brought to God, and the danger into which we have brought our selves; I will declare mine iniquity, (says David,) and I will be sorry for my sin. And this Sorrow must be proportionable to the degree of our Sin. If we have been very wicked, and have sinned greatly against the Lord, and have multiplied our transgressions, and continued long in an evil course, have neglected God, and forgotten him days without number, the measure of our sorrow, must bear some proportion to the degree of our Sins; if they have been as Scarlet and Crimson, (as the Prophet expresseth it) that is, of a deeper dye than ordinary, our Sorrow must be as deep as our Guilt; for it is not a slight trouble and a few tears that will wash out such stains. Not that tears are absolutely necessary, tho' they do very well become, and most commonly accompany a sincere Repentance. All tempers are not in this alik...

In contrast to Roman Catholic Europe, one of the distinguishing features of Protestant Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries was the rejection of the Lenten fast from meat. This flowed, of course, from the magisterial Reformation, across jurisdictions, rejecting papal Canon Law and its Lenten abstinence obligation, regarding this as an offence against Christian liberty. In Ductor Dubitantium (1660), Taylor provides a characteristically Protestant critique of the law of Lenten abstinence. As discussed in an earlier post , this is certainly not because Taylor disregarded the discipline of fasting - and nor, of course, did the magisterial Reformers. There was, however, no divine or apostolic command to fast during Lent. As Taylor therefore declared in rejecting the Lenten obligation, "the Conscience is at liberty". In this extract, Taylor emphasises how a law of Lenten abstinence promotes the erroneous belief "that the keeping of Lent is so sacred, so principal a point of ...

Each Friday of Lent, laudable Practice  has been presenting words from Jeremy Taylor reflecting on fundamental practices shared by the Christian traditions. Today we conclude this short series with the practice of preparing to receive the Holy Sacrament. These extracts are from The Worthy Communicant (1660). We might regard this devotional work as flowing from Hooker's eirenic eucharistic theology: clearly Reformed (Taylor: "these things are not consequent to the reception of the natural body of Christ, which is now in heaven; but of his word and of his Spirit, which are, therefore, indeed his body and his blood"), while regarding Reformed affirmation of "the participation of the body and blood of Christ" to be that "wherein all agree" (LEP V.67.6-7). This leads Taylor to follow Hooker in regarding "curious and intricate speculations" (V.67.3) as a hindrance to a warm sacramental piety. Instead, the intention of this work is "not to mak...

Each week of Lent, laudable Practice is presenting words from Jeremy Taylor reflecting on fundamental practices shared by the Christian traditions. Today's practice is private prayer. Taylor here echoes the deeply patristic tradition of understanding the Lord's Prayer both as the Dominical prayer for all Christians and the form to guide all our prayer.  This extract begins by expounding the significance of private prayer to the Christian life, quoting patristic witnesses to this effect. Prayer here is a chief means of sanctification, making us a shrine of the Triune God. The commentary on the petitions of the Lord's Prayer demonstrates how this Prayer is "mysterious, and, like the treasures of the Spirit, full of wisdom and latent senses", a nourishing well from which we to drink deeply, as it guides and shapes our prayers.  The extract then concludes with Taylor addressing three practical aspects of prayer: when we are to pray, distractions in prayer, and postur...