laudable Practice

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,...

... 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 ...

Having considered in some recent posts Phillpotts' Old High critique of auricular confession , in light of the Tractarian attempt to promote private confession and absolution as a normative, routine practice within Anglicanism, we turn now to E.H. Browne's consideration of the matter in his An Exposition of the Thirty Nine Articles: Historical and Doctrinal (1874). Browne had received orders in 1836 and 1837, became Norrisian chair of divinity at the University of Cambridge in 1854, was appointed Bishop of Ely in 1864, as was transferred to Winchester in 1873. He was, therefore, a significant divine. Expounding Article 25, Browne contrasts the teaching of the Council of Trent with that of the Reformed churches, amongst which he places the Church of England: The reformed Churches have generally abolished auricular confession, as obligatory and sacramental. The Lutherans indeed still retain it, as a regular part of Church order and discipline. The Augsburg Confession declares co...

On Saint Patrick's Day, Bruce Springsteen posted on social media a series of photographs from the island of Ireland. Amongst the photographs was this one, in a church immediately identifiable as a rural Church of Ireland parish church.  The photograph captures the quiet, modest piety of Irish Anglicanism, a quiet, modest piety which was the traditional characteristic of those churches termed Protestant Episcopalian.  We see here a parish church designed for worship according to the Book of Common Prayer, with its modest ceremonies, its words shaping and sustaining the faith of generations, its rites marking the passage of years and lives; a Reformed Catholick church, in which liturgy and sacrament are reverently, faithfully celebrated, with the plain glass and walls, and absence of imagery, reflecting classically Reformed concerns; in which prayer desk and pulpit embody the good and godly routine of Sunday Morning Prayer and sermon, quietly nourishing the faithful; in which th...

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 ...

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...