laudable Practice

Now therefore let us be friends with these men, and make peace with them, and with all their nation; And covenant with them, that they shall live after their laws, as they did before ...

1 Maccabees 6.58, 59

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Invalidity of a Late or Death-bed Repentance', Part I, Sermon V, from the second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - this is now, I think, the fourth reference to 🐝 in this collection of Taylor's sermons:

"... you have offered to your subjects and to the whole world an inspiring example of dedication to duty and a commitment to maintaining the principles of freedom, justice and democracy, in keeping with a noble vision of the role of a Christian monarch" - BXVI to Elizabeth II

Now when the nations round about heard that the altar was built and the sanctuary renewed as before, it displeased them very much.

1 Maccabees 5.1

"... trouble not yourself that all the world is not amended according to your pattern; see that you be perfect at home, that all be rightly reformed there ... Somethings cannot be reformed, and very many need not, for all thy peevish dreams."

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Descending and Entailed Curse Cut Off', Part II, Sermon IV, from the second volume of the Golden Grove sermons -at the sermon's conclusion, a joyful description of the blessing of friendships and family, "so great a society of nature and manners":

Another reason to be grateful for the King's understanding of his vocation as a Christian monarch.

Julian of Norwich is often appropriated by the purveyors of new age woo, but she was very much steadfastly orthodox and beautifully so, and is even particularly Augustinian in her framings, and monergistic. And incredibly brilliant in her beautiful theological articulations.

And when they saw the sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned ... They rent their clothes, and made great lamentation, and cast ashes upon their heads.

1 Maccabees 4.38-39

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Descending and Entailed Curse Cut Off', Part II, Sermon IV, from the second volume of the Golden Grove sermons -"then he scatters a blessing round about his habitation":

Then said Judas to the men that were with him, Fear ye not their multitude, neither be ye afraid of their assault.

1 Maccabees 4.8

At Evensong, the 1st reading was from Isaiah 19: "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands ..."

A reminder in the midst of Advent of the faithful witness of Coptic and Assyrian Christians in ancient lands.

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Descending and Entailed Curse Cut Off', Part II, Sermon IV, from the second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - in this Interregnum sermon, Taylor quotes from the prohibited Book of Common Prayer:

A view over a rural scene dotted with winter trees, as the early winter evening casts a grey sky orange yellow, illuminating hard frozen ploughed fields

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 9
‘Evening Snow’
Artist: SR Badmin

Anders Andersen-Lundby, 'Wintery Church in the Twilight', 1882. 🇩🇰

They said one to another, Let us restore the decayed estate of our people, and let us fight for our people and the sanctuary.

1 Maccabees 3.43

On a snowy day, a small figure with his dog shines a torch as he walks past a snow-topped barn. This barn has strong echoes of ‘the repair shop’

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 8
‘Winter Farmyard’
Artist: Ronald Lampitt

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Descending and Entailed Curse Cut Off', Part I, Sermon III, from the second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - Taylor indicates his understanding of Original Sin as an inherited predisposition to sin, rather than inherited guilt:

The collect, in the Prayer Book as proposed in 1928, for the Conception of the BVM. With fitting, necessary reserve and modesty - "commemorate ... Conception ... Mother of the Lord" - it is also rooted in Advent's anticipation of "thy Son" coming to "us in great humility":

Just A Hint Of Sunlight. 8°C with rain approaching. Starlings

Just A Hint Of Sunlight. 8°C with rain approaching. Starlings.

"'For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed' ... therefore doth the church appropriate this Scripture to the celebration of the advent, before the feast of the birth of our Saviour."

John Donne, in a 1619 sermon.

"He has also provided a model for all who in any age have to answer similar ready-made recipes for setting the world right in five weeks. (Travers is dead, the type is perennial.)"

CS Lewis on Hooker

Excellent. We really do need to make much of this relationship in the CofI.

I could not agree more.
🇩🇰 🇳🇴 🇸🇪 🇫🇮

They come against us in much pride and iniquity to destroy us, and our wives and children, and to spoil us: But we fight for our lives and our laws.

1 Maccabees 3.20-21

Early Morning Light. 4°C and in need of wellies. Hares in the valley.

Early Morning Light. 4°C and in need of wellies. Hares in the valley.

There is something very sound about the King of Norway hosting "the country's bishops" - a not insignificant phrase - for dinner at this season. 🇳🇴 ⛪️
H/t @msteele1549.bsky.social

Jeremy Taylor in 'The Descending and Entailed Curse Cut Off', Part I, Sermon III, from the second volume of the Golden Grove sermons - as Taylor continues to comment on Original Sin, an anticipation of the title he gave to his two discourses on the subject, Deus Justificatus:

A Set of Ronald Welch Novels Fast-paced and colourful, Ronald Welch’s novels join up the dots of English history in a remarkably vivid, human way. The gripping plots . . .

There was a nice review essay about this in @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social who have recently republished Ronald Welch’s books

foxedquarterly.com/shop/set-14-...

Absolutely super. Thank you!