laudable Practice

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Mercy of the Divine Judgments; or, God's Method in Curing Sinners', Part I, Sermon XII, second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - "he hath anointed us kings and priests in the royal priesthood of Christianity":

It is what the CofI BCP 1926 allows, for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. I think it is appropriate, as a way of marking the penitential solemnity of these two days.

I do like how the rubric at the beginning of the Penitential Service (the same rubric as in the 1662 Commination) speaks of earlier Anglican rhythms and practices.

"the Epistle, telling us what we should do, 'fast;' or, as the Gospel, taking it for granted that we shall fast ... that the Epistle be not sent, and the Gospel brought you, and both in vain."

Lancelot Andrewes in his Ash Wednesday 1621 sermon, on the call to fast in Lent.

Burke, in 'Reflections', on the French revolutionary regime's hostility to the RC Church in France - an attack on "our common hope", shared by "protestant nations":

At the conclusion of Zwingli's 'An Exposition of the Faith' (1531) - he assures King Francis that the Swiss Reformed city-states are not "the Anabaptist rabble", hostile to the civic order (p.277):

View looking down onto a long row of very big, suburban gardens. Each garden is laid out differently and each one is full of different garden activity.

Other work by the Ladybird artists
‘February’
Artist: Ronald Lampitt 1958

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Mercy of the Divine Judgments; or, God's Method in Curing Sinners', Part I, Sermon XII, second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - giving thanks that we have not "been born under the dominion of a Turkish lord, or in America, where no Christians do inhabit":

"The republic of Berne, one of the happiest, the most prosperous, and the best governed countries upon earth ..."

Burke, in 'Reflections', praising the Swiss city-state and canton: stolidly Reformed, governed by conservative burghers, cautiously investing its wealth.

From Zwingli's 'An Exposition of the Faith' (1531) - a well-known passage, strongly condemned by Luther for its inclusion of pre-Christian pagans. Equally important, however, is the inclusion of Francis' medieval Catholic predecessors (p.275f).

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Mercy of the Divine Judgments; or, God's Method in Curing Sinners', Part I, Sermon XII, second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - "this variety, of these labours and admirable arts, with which God so studies and contrives the happiness & salvation of man":

Burke on the English Reformers:

"Perhaps they were (like those whom they opposed) rather more than could be wished under the influence of a party spirit ... Many of their descendants have retained the same zeal; but, (as less engaged in conflict) with more moderation."

From Julian Jackson's 'A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles De Gaulle' - the vile, dark heart of Vichy exposed in one of the regime's propaganda posters attacking De Gaulle and the Free French.

Sound.

"The teachers who reformed our religion in England bore no sort of resemblance to your present reforming doctors in Paris."

Edmund Burke in 'Reflections', refuting those polemicists who make facile comparisons between the Reformation and the French Revolution.

From Zwingli's 'An Exposition of the Faith' (1531) - "the pious will not cease from good works simply because it is impossible to gain any merit by them ... Where there is true faith, works necessarily result, just as fire necessarily brings with it heat" (p.272).

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Mercy of the Divine Judgments; or, God's Method in Curing Sinners', Part I, Sermon XII, second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - a sermon opening from the Shakespeare of divines:

From Zwingli's 'An Exposition of the Faith' (1531) - on the three forms of government, according to "the Greeks". While monarchy can become tyranny, "we are alert and vigilant lest aristocracy or democracy should begin to degenerate into conspiracy and confusion" (p.266f):

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Faith and Patience of the Saints; or, the Righteous Cause Oppressed', Part III, Sermon XI, second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - addressing sequestered Episcopalians and defeated Royalists:

From Zwingli's 'An Exposition of the Faith' (1531) - on seeing, tasting, touching, smelling the Bread and Wine of the Sacrament (p.264):

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Faith and Patience of the Saints; or, the Righteous Cause Oppressed', Part III, Sermon XI, second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - on not offering theological and spiritual judgements "in cases where we have no word from heaven":

From Zwingli's 'An Exposition of the Faith' (1531) - on how the Bread in the Supper is rightly called the Body of Christ (p.263):

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Faith and Patience of the Saints; or, the Righteous Cause Oppressed', Part III, Sermon XI, second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - offering a critique of a cult of martyrdom, for "dying in a good cause is not enough":

"In solitude, if I escape the example of bad men, I want likewise the counsel and conversation of the good."

Flooded fields under a leaden sky, a scene that could be the Somerset Levels

“Heavy rains that often fall in February have flooded the low-lying meadows in the broad valley.”
‘What to Look for in Winter’, 1959
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe
Writer: EL Grant Watson

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Faith and Patience of the Saints; or, the Righteous Cause Oppressed', Part II, Sermon X, second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - on Christendom as an answer to prayers offered during persecution:

live and die inquiring and deliberating."

"The causes of good and evil ... are so various and uncertain, so often entangled with each other, so diversified by various relations, and so much subject to accidents which cannot be foreseen, that he who would fix his condition upon incontestible reasons of preference must 1/2

From Zwingli's 'An Exposition of the Faith' (1531) - Zwingli's acceptance of the BVM's title Theotokos on the basis of Christological orthodoxy (p.256f):

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Faith and Patience of the Saints; or, the Righteous Cause Oppressed', Part II, Sermon X, second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - I wonder who Taylor had in mind in this Interregnum sermon?