laudable Practice

Preparing to read the Commandments at the Holy Communion on this Monday of Holy Week, I turned to Taylor's discourse on the Decalogue in The Great Exemplar . Here Taylor - referencing Clement of Alexandria, a favourite in his works -  sets forth the place of the Commandments in the Christian moral vision, as the way that is fulfilled in "Christian charity". This is the context for the saying of the Commandments in the Holy Communion, the way that is to taken up "in the mystical body of thy Son, which is the blessed company of all faithful people", who "continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in". St. Clement of Alexandria saith, the Pharisees' righteousness consisted in the not doing evil, and that Christ superadded this also, that we must do the contrary, good, and so exceed the Pharisaical measure ...  But the balance in  which the Judge of quick and dead weighs Chris tians is, not only t...

In this week's reading from ' The Invalidity of a Late, or Deathbed Repentance ', Taylor explicitly sets out "the absolute necessity of holy living", defined by "all those Commandments in Scripture": The second generall consideration is, The necessity, the absolute necessity of holy living, God hath made a Covenant with us, that we must give up our selves, bodies and souls, not a dying, but a living, and healthfull sacrifice. He hath forgiven all our old sins, and we have bargained to quit them, from the time that we first come to Christ, and give our names to him; and to keep all his Commandements. We have taken the Sacramentall oath, like that of the old Romane Militia, we must beleeve, and obey, and do all that is commanded us, and keep our station, and fight against the flesh, the world, and the devil, not to throw away our military girdle, and we are to do what is bidden us, or to die for it, even all that is bidden us, according to our power.  For,...

Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways ... As we approach the holy Sacrament, we are again reminded - as in the Litany - that we are called to "true repentance". Not passing regret. Not momentary guilt. Rather, we are to "truly and earnestly repent". In the words of the Catechism, answering "What is required of them who come to the Lord's Supper?": "To examine themselves, whether they repent them truly of their former sins, stedfastly purposing to lead a new life". and are in love and charity with your neighbours ... It is a beautiful, evocative Prayer Book phrase. The repetition of "love and charity" emphasises what must be the nature of our relationships, rooted in Our Lord's summary of the Law.  As for the first exhortation in the Holy Communion decla...

Almighty and most merciful Father, We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, We have offended against thy holy laws ... The general Confession at Morning and Evening Prayer opens by invoking our "most merciful Father", placing us alongside the Prodigal - ashamed, hungry, journeying back from the far country, utterly reliant on the Father's grace in Christ: And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 'Almighty' does not contradict this. In fact, it assures us that this love and mercy flows eternally from our "most merciful Father". In the words of Article XVII, this "is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort". We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep ... It is a phrase deeply rooted in the scriptures of the Old and New T...

Though we have already either in the Morning Prayer, or Litany, or both, prayed for the King's Majesty, yet the Communion being an office distinct from them, and originally performed at a different hour, it was proper that a prayer for the King should be inserted here likewise, and the Church has for the sake of variety provided us with two Collects, either of which may be used. With these words John Shepherd - in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - turns to another distinctive provision in BCP 1662, the praying of the Collect for the King before the Collect of the Day. He notes how both of the Collects provided include petitions for the Sovereign's duty "to defend in the exercise of true religion": In these Collects the subject of petition is nearly the same; but this distinction may be observed, that in the latter we pray exclusively for the King, while in the former we pray both for King and people, that is, fo...

They made no part of any ancient Liturgy, neither, if my information be correct, are they read in the Communion office of any of the reformed Churches, except our own: And in ours they were first inserted at the review of Edward's Liturgy in 1552. When John Shepherd - in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - refers in this manner to the reading of the Commandments in the Communion Office, we might assume he is being critical of the provision. Those of us who are devotees of the Cranmerian Communion Office, however, have no need to fear: Shepherd offers a robust defence of this distinctive provision. He declares that "the order for the rehearsal of [the Commandments] here, requires neither vindication, nor apology": When the Commandments are read, we should remember that they are not the words of the minister, but of God himself, and we should hear them with the same humility, the same reverence, and the same determinati...

What it thy duty towards thy Neighbour? My duty towards my Neighbour is to love him as myself, and to do to all men as I would they should do unto me ... To honour and obey the King, and all that are put in authority under him: To submit myself to all my governors ... To hurt nobody by word nor deed ... To bear no malice nor hatred in my heart: To keep my hands from picking and stealing, and my tongue from evil-speaking, lying, and slandering. I grew up in a society scarred by riots: mobs throwing petrol bombs; properties and businesses destroyed; sectarian thugs intimidating communities. Apart from the values of my law-abiding parents, and their deep sense of obligation to our neighbours, what most shaped my view of such disorder were the above words learnt in Catechism class in the parish church during my early teens. My duty towards my neighbour - flowing from the Commandments, as the Catechism demonstrates - was to be given expression in respect for lawful authority, for the K...

Today we continue with the series of extracts from an 1814 collection of sermons by Christopher Wordsworth (senior, d.1846), associated with the Hackney Phalanx. In this extract from a sermon on 2 Kings 5 on the actions of Gehazi, servant of Elisha. Here we see a Hackney Phalanx sermon emphasising a characteristic Old High concern with a moral life shaped by the Commandments and the spiritual dangers arising from the absence of this concern. The history forcibly illustrates another important truth, that vices seldom go single, but one transgression commonly opens the way to another. The love of money, especially, is, as the Apostle says, "the root of all evil." The commandment has said, "Thou shalt not covet." But he did covet. Gehazi disobeyed that precept, and having so done, he was brought under a kind of necessity of  breaking two other commandments of the decalogue. The presents which he obtained at the hand of Naaman, he got by fraud, and so he transgressed t...

In the fourth of his 1807 Bampton Lectures, On the Nature and Guilt of Schism , Le Mesurier considers those early Christian heresies which promoted an excessive asceticism, contrasting this with the Commandments "enjoin[ing] nothing but what is practicable by all".  This reflected a consistent Old High understanding of a moral vision and ethical teaching which was grounded in ordinary duties, responsibilities, and obligations, lived out by spouses, neighbours, friends, and citizens, rather than in sectarian withdrawal.  Le Mesurier also repeated the wise Old High concern at the the destructive pastoral consequences of excessive asceticism. Inevitably this damages the living out of the Christian moral vision in ordinary life, obscuring (at best) the call to walk in the way of the Commandments. In other words, it is precisely the conventional, boring, unglamorous nature of the Old High moral vision, deeply sceptical of heroic, 'Weird' acts of asceticism, which ensures a...

Last Advent laudable Practice considered how the unchanging features of the Cranmerian Office (the 1662 daily office and the family of 1662-like variants of the daily office) took on a particular meaning appropriate for Advent.  This Advent I turn to the Cranmerian Holy Communion.  It is, I accept, a rather clumsy term but it can be used to describe 1662 Holy Communion and the family of 1662-like variants - PECUSA 1928 , Scotland 1929 , and Canada 1962 . Despite the variations in these rites around the Prayer of Consecration, they maintain both the words of Cranmer and significant distinguishing features of 1662. For example, while the Summary of the Law is offered as an alternative, the Commandments are printed first in each of these rites.  'Ye that do truly' introduces the confession in each.  The same words of administration from 1559 - both of which are Cranmer's sentences - are maintained. And the Gloria in excelsis, as with Cranmer and 1662, is post-Communi...

A recent Spectator article - critiquing the 'Spiritual But Not Religious' concept - offered what could be a rather good explanation of the use of the Commandments in the Prayer Book Communion Office: There's an annoying mantra from the SBNR types that I heard ad nauseam growing up: ‘Faith isn’t about rules but relationship.’ The problem here isn’t what is being affirmed; it’s what’s being denied. To say faith is about relationship not rules makes rules sound simply restrictive. But this isn’t the way rules work in the Abrahamic faiths. God’s laws are the ways of life, grooves marked out for us to make our way through often perilous ground. Rules are not imperatives imposed upon us from without. Rather, they answer to our innate orientation to goodness. This reflects how the Commandments are presented in Deuteronomy as gift, the way of flourishing: See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy Go...