Jeremy Taylor
The Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, Bishop and Theologian, was born in 1613, in Cambridge, and was chaplain to Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud and King Charles I before the English Civil War and the victory of Parliament. He is one of the principal "Caroline Divines"; that very wonderful grouping of High Church clergy and theologians under Charles I. He was, like many of the other Caroline Divines, known for his non-Calvinistic soteriological views, termed today "proto-Arminian".
He wrote many wonderful pieces of theology and Christian living, very beautiful in their language, among them being his work on the Eucharist "The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament", which defended the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, as well as opposed the Roman Catholic view of Transubstantiation.
He wrote also "The Worthy Communicant", a piece expounding on the Supper and the practice necessary for worthily receiving it.
His manual on a prayerful and Christian life, "The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living", or just "Holy Living", is a lovely guide for Christians then and to the present day. And he wrote many more things besides.
He was jailed by Parliamentarians after their ascendancy in the English Civil War and the execution of Archbishop Laud and others, before living in Wales and acting as a lecturer and chaplain for a period.
After the Restoration he was made Bishop of the Diocese of Down and Connor, today the separate bishoprics of Down and Dromore, and Connor, in Ireland.
He is commemorated on the Calendar of Saints in the Church of England, the Church of Ireland, the Episcopal Church, and other parts of the Anglican communion on 13 August.
Quotes
"If a despair seizes you in a particular temporal instance, let it not defile thy spirit with impure mixture, or mingle in spiritual considerations; but rather let it make thee fortify thy soul in matters of religion, that, by being thrown out of your earthly dwelling and confidence, you may retire into the strengths of grace, and hope the more strongly in that by how much you are the more defeated in this, that despair of a fortune or a success may become the necessity of all virtue." - Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living
Links
- Holy Living - Read Online
- The Worthy Communicant - Buy in USA, Read Online
- The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament - Read Online