Jeremy Taylor
Jeremy Taylor (1613 – August 13 1667) was a clergyman in the Church of England who achieved fame as an author during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He is sometimes known as the "Shakespeare of Divines" for his poetic style of writing.
Quotes
[edit]- My trust is in God.
- 13 August 1667: Last words, also quoted in Famous Sayings and their Authors, p. 44
- The Church hath power to intend our Faith, but not to extend it; to make our belief more evident, but not more large and comprehensive. For Christ and his Apostles concealed nothing that was necessary to the integrity of Christian Faith, or salvation of our souls; Christ declared all the will of his Father, and the Apostles were Stewards and Dispensers of the same Mysteries, and were faithful in all the house, and therefore concealed nothing, but taught the whole Doctrine of Christ; so they said themselves.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 1.
- For heresy is not an error of the understanding, but an error of the will. And this is clearly insinuated in Scripture, in the style whereof Faith and a good life are made one duty, and vice is called opposite to Faith, and heresy opposed to holiness and sanctity.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 2.
- For to believe what God hath commanded, is in order to a good life; and to live well is the product of that believing, and as proper emanation from it, as from its proper principle, and as heat is from the fire. And therefore, in Scripture, they are used promiscuously in sense, and in expression, as not only being subjected in the same person, but also in the same faculty; faith is as truly seated in the will as in the understanding, and a good life as merely derives from the understanding as the will. Both of them are matters of choice and of election, neither of them an effect natural and invincible or necessary antecedently (necessaria ut fiant, non necessario facta.)
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 2
- He that submits his understanding to all that he knows God hath said, and is ready to submit to all that he hath said if he but know it, denying his own affections and ends, and interests and humane persuasions, laying them all down at the foot of his great Master Jesus Christ, that man hath brought his understanding into subjection, and every proud thought unto the obedience of Christ, and this is εἰς ὑπακοὴν πίστεως, the obedience of Faith, which is the duty of a Christian.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 2
- A wicked person in his error becomes heretic, when the good man in the same error shall have all the rewards of Faith. For whatever an ill man believes, if he therefore believe it because it serves his own ends, be his belief true or false, the man hath an heretical mind, for to serve his own ends, his mind is prepared to believe a lie. But a good man that believes what according to his light, and upon the use of his moral industry he thinks true, whether he hits upon the right or no, because he hath a mind desirous of truth, and prepared to believe every truth is therefore acceptable to God, because nothing hindered him from it, but what he could not help, his misery and his weakness, which being imperfections merely natural, which God never punishes, he stands fair for a blessing of his morality, which God always accepts.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 2
- Honorius was condemned for a Monothelite; yet in one of the Epistles which the sixth Synod alleged against him, (viz. the second) he gave them counsel that would have done the Church as much service as the determination of the Article did; for he advised them not to be curious in their disputings, nor dogmatical in their determinations about that Question; and because the Church was not used to dispute in that Question, it were better to preserve the simplicity of Faith, then to ensnare mens consciences by a new Article.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 2
- When men think every thing to be their Faith and their Religion, commonly they are so busy in trifles and such impertinencies in which the scene of their mistake lies, that they neglect the greater things of the Law, charity, and compliances, and the gentleness of Christian Communion; for this is the great principle of mischief, and yet is not more pernicious then unreasonable.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 2
- The truth is, all these ways of Interpreting of Scripture which of themselves are good helps, are made either by design, or by our infirmities ways of intricating and involving Scriptures in greater difficulty, because men do not learn their doctrines from Scripture, but come to the understanding of Scripture with preconceptions and ideas of doctrines of their own, and then no wonder that Scriptures look like Pictures, wherein every man in the room believes they look on him only, and that wheresoever he stands, or how often soever he changes his station. So that now what was intended for a remedy, becomes the promoter of our disease, and our meat becomes the matter of sicknesses: And the mischief is, the wit of man cannot find a remedy for it; for there is no rule, no limit, no certain principle, by which all men may be guided to a certain and so infallible an Interpretation, that he can with any equity prescribe to others to believe his Interpretations in places of controversy or ambiguity.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 4
- The sum is this: Since holy Scripture is the repository of divine truths, and the great rule of Faith, to which all Sects of Christians do appeal for probation of their several opi∣nions, and since all agree in the Articles of the Creed as things clearly and plainly set down, and as containing all that which is of simple and prime necessity; and since on the other side there are in Scripture many other mysteries, and matters of Question upon which there is a veil; since there are so many Copies with infinite varieties of reading; since a various Interpunction, a parenthesis, a letter, an accent may much alter the sense; since some places have diverse literal senses, many have spiritual, mystical and Allegorical meanings; since there are so many tropes, metonymies, ironies, hyperboles, proprieties and improprieties of language, whose understanding depends upon such circumstances that it is almost impossible to know its proper Interpretation; now that the knowledge of such circumstances and particular stories is irrevocably lost: since there are some mysteries which at the best advantage of expression, are not easy to be apprehended, and whose explication, by reason of our imperfections, must needs be dark, sometimes weak, sometimes unintelligle: and lastly, since those ordinary meanes of expoun∣ding Scripture, as searching the Originals, conference of places, parity of reason, and analogy of Faith, are all dubious, uncertain, and very fallible, he that is the wisest and by consequence the likeliest to expound truest in all probability of reason, will be very far from confidence, because every one of these and many more are like so many degrees of improbability and incer∣tainty, all depressing our certainty of finding out truth in such mysteries and amidst so many difficulties. And therefore a wise man that considers this, would not willingly be prescribed to by others; and therefore if he also be a just man, he will not impose upon others; for it is best every man should be left in that liberty from which no man can justly take him, unless he could secure him from error: So that here also there is a necessity to conserve the liberty of Prophesying, and Inter∣preting Scripture; a necessity derived from the consideration of the difficulty of Scripture in Questions controverted, and the uncertainty of any internal medium, of Interpretation.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 4
- If Scripture be the repository of all Divine Truths sufficient for us, Tradition must be considered as its instrument, to convey its great mysteriousness to our understandings.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 5
- Now the Question is not whether General Councils have a promise that the Holy Ghost will assist them; For every private man hath that promise, that if he does his duty he shall be assisted sufficiently in order to that end to which he needs assistance; and therefore much more shall General Councils in order to that end for which they convene, and to which they need assistance, that is, in order to the conservation of the Faith, for the doctrinal rules of good life, and all that concerns the essential duty of a Christian, but not in deciding Questions to satisfy contentious or curious or presumptuous spirits. But now can the Bishops so convened be factious, can they be abused with prejudice, or transported with interests, can they resist the Holy Ghost, can they extinguish the Spirit, can they stop their ears, and serve themselves upon the Holy Spirit and the pretence of his assistances, and cease to serve him upon themselves, by captivating their understandings to his dictates, and their wills to his precepts? Is it necessary they should perform any condition? is there any one duty for them to perform in these Assemblies, a duty which they have power to do or not do? If so, then they may fail of it, and not do their duty: And if the assistance of the Holy Spirit be conditional, then we have no more assurance that they are assisted, then that they do their duty and do not sin.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 6
- The Authority of a Council is not greater then the Authority of the Apostles, nor their dictates more sacred or authentic.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 6
- Is it possible for any man to contrive a way to make the Decree of the Council of Trent, commanding the public Offices of the Church to be in Latin, friends with the fourteenth chapter of the Corinthians?
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 6
- [A Papal approval] cannot make [a council] divine, and necessary to be heartily believed. It may make it lawful, not make it true, that is, it may possibly by such means become a Law but not a truth. I speak now upon supposition the Popes confirmation were necessary, and required to the making of conciliary and necessary sanctions. But if it were, the case were very hard: For suppose a heresy should invade, and possess the Chair of Rome, what remedy can the Church have in that case, if a General Council be of no Authority without the Pope confirm it? will the Pope confirm a Council against himself; will he condemn his own heresy? That the Pope may be a Heretic appears in the Canon Law, which says he may for heresy be deposed, and therefore by a Council which in this case hath plenary Authority without the Pope.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 6)
- There is no General Council that hath determined that a General Council is infallible: No Scripture hath recorded it; no Tradition universal hath transmitted to us any such proposition; So that we must receive the Authority at a lower rate, and upon a less probability then the things consigned by that Authority. And it is strange that the Decrees of Councils should be esteemed authentic and infallible, and yet it is not infallibly certain, that the Councils themselves are infallible, because the belief of the Council’s infallibi∣lity is not proved to us by any medium, but such as may deceive us.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 6
- I will not be so severe and dogmatical against them [as Gregory of Nazianzus]: For I believe many Councils to have been called with sufficient Authority, to have been managed with singular piety and prudence, and to have been finished with admirable success and truth. And where we find such Councils, he that will not with all veneration believe their Decrees, and receive their sanctions, understands not that great duty he owes to them who have the care of our souls, whose faith we are bound to follow (saith S. Paul) that is so long as they fol∣low Christ, and certainly many Councils have done so: But this was then when the public interest of Christendom was better conserved in determining a true Article, then in finding a discreet temper, or a wise expedient to satisfy disagreeing persons; (As the Fathers at Trent did, and the Lutherans and Calvinists did at Sendomir in Polonia; and the Sublapsarians and Supralapsarians did at Dort:) It was in Ages when the sum of Religion did not consist in maintaining the Grandezza of the Papacy; where there was no order of men with a fourth Vow upon them to advance S. Peters Chair; when there was no man, nor any company of men, that esteemed themselves infallible, and therefore they searched for truth as if they meant to find it, and would believe it if they could see it proved, not resolved to prove it because they had upon chance or interest believed it; then they had rather have spoken a truth, then upheld their reputation, but only in order to truth. This was done sometimes, and when it was done, God's Spirit never failed them, but gave them such assistances as were sufficient to that good end for which they were Assembled, and did implore his aid.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 6
- For [the passage] pasce oves [feed my sheep] there is little in that Allegation, besides the boldness of the Objectors; for were not all the Apostles bound to feed Christ's sheep? had they not all the Commission from Christ, and Christ's Spirit immediately? S. Paul had certainly; did not S. Peter himself say to all the Bishops of Pon∣tus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithinia, that they should feed the flock of God, and the great Bishop and Shepherd should give them an immarcescible Crown; plainly implying, that from whence they derived their Authority, from him they were sure of a reward.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 7
- But I am too long in this impertinency: If I were bound to call any man Master upon earth, and to believe him upon his own affirmative and authority; I would of all men least follow him that pretends he is infallible and cannot prove it. For that he cannot prove it, makes me as uncertain as ever, and that he pretends to infallibility makes him careless of using such means which will morally secure those wise persons, who knowing their own aptness to be deceived, use what endeavours they can to secure themselves from error, and so be∣come the better and more probable guides.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 7
- Well! Thus far we are come: Although we are secured in fundamental points [of doctrine] from involuntary error, by the plain, express, and dogmatical places of Scripture, yet in other things we are not but may be invincibly mistaken, because of the obscurity and difficulty in the controverted parts of Scripture, by reason of the incertainty of the means of its Interpretation, since Tradition is of an uncertain reputation, and sometimes evidently false, Councils are contradictory to each other, and therefore certainly are equally deceived many of them, and therefore all may; and then the Popes of Rome are very likely to mislead us, but cannot ascertain us of truth in matter of Question; and in this world we believe in part, and prophecy in part, and this imperfection shall never be done away till we be translated to a more glorious state; either we must throw our chances, and get truth by accident or predestination, or else we must lie safe in a mutual toleration, and private liberty of persuasion, unless some other Anchor can be thought upon where we may fasten our floating Vessels, and ride safely.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 7
- We are bound to follow because we judge it true, not because the Church hath said it, and this is to judge of the Church by her Doctrine, not of the Doctrine by the Church. And indeed it is the best and only way.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 9
- Although every man is bound to follow his guide, unless he believes his guide to mislead him; yet when he sees reason against his guide, it is best to follow his reason: for though in this he may fall into error, yet he will escape the sin; he may doe violence to truth, but never to his own conscience; and an honest error is better than an hypocritical profession of truth, or a violent luxation of the understanding, since if he retains his honesty and simplicity, he cannot err in a matter of faith or absolute necessity: God's goodness hath secured all honest and careful persons from that; for other things, he must follow the best guides he can, and he cannot be obliged to follow better then God hath given him.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 9
- I consider, that although no man may be trusted to judge for all others, unless this person were infallible and authorized so to doe, which no man nor no company of men is, yet every man may be trusted to judge for himself, I say every man that can judge at all, (as for others they are to be saved as it pleaseth God) but others that can judge at all must either choose their guides who shall judge for them, (and then they oftentimes do the wisest, and always save themselves a labour, but then they choose too) or if they be persons of greater understanding, then they are to choose for themselves in particular, what the others doe in general, and by choosing their guide; and for this any man may be better trusted for himself then any man can be for another
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 10
- No man speaks more unreasonably, then he that denies to men the use of their Reason in choice of their Religion.
- Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 10
Holy Living (1650)
[edit]- ...if love hath filled all the corners of our soul, it alone is able to do all the work of God.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 1, introduction.
- He that is choice of his time will be choice of his company, and choice of his actions.
- Holy Living (1650), chapter. 1, section 1
- This grace (purity of intention) is so excellent that it sanctifies the most common actions of our life and yet is so necessary that without it, the very best actions of our devotion are imperfect and vicious.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 1, section 2
- God is in the bowels of thy brother; refresh them, when he needs it, and then you give your alms in the presence of God, and to God; and He feels the relief which thou providest for thy brother.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 1, section 3
- O let Thy mercy descend upon the whole church; preserve her in truth and peace, in unity and safety, in all storms, and against all temptations and enemies; that she, offering to Thy glory the never-ceasing sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving, may advance the honour of her Lord, and be filled with His Spirit, and partake of His glory. Amen.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 1, Prayers and Devotions
- Faith, hope, and charity are the best weapons in the world to fight against intemperance.
- Holy Living (1650) ch. 2, section 2.
- Some married persons, even in their marriage, do better please God than some virgins in their state of virginity: they, by giving great example of conjugal affection, by preserving their faith unbroken, by educating children in the fear of God, by patience, and contentedness, and holy thoughts, and the exercise of virtues proper to that state, do not only please God, but do in a higher degree than those virgins whose piety is not answerable to their great opportunities and advantages.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 2, section 3
- ...since God has appointed one remedy for all the evils in the world and that is a contented spirit.
- "Holy Living" (1650) ch. 2, section 6. "Of Contentedness in all Estates".
- My children are not so much mine as they are God’s.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 2, section 6.
- ...for there is some virtue or other to be exercised, whatever happens...
- "Holy Living" (1650) ch. 2, section 6. "Of Contentedness in all Estates".
- God gave necessities to man, that all men might need; and several abilities to several persons, that each man might help to supply the public needs, and, by joining to fill up all wants, they may be knit together by justice, as the parts of the world are by nature.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 3, introduction.
- Let no man appropriate to his own use what God, by a special mercy, or the republic, hath made common; for that is both against justice and charity too; and by miraculous accidents, God hath declared his displeasure against such enclosure.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 3, section 3.
- Love is the greatest thing that God can give us; for himself is love; and it is the greatest thing we can give to God; for it will also give ourselves and carry with it all that is ours.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 4, section 3.
- Remember that zeal, being an excrescence of divine love, must in no sense contradict any action of love. Love to God includes love to our neighbour; and therefore no pretence of zeal for God’s glory must make us uncharitable to our brother; for that is just so pleasing to God as hatred is an act of love.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 4, section 3.
- The Holy Ghost is certainly the best preacher in the world, and the words of Scripture the best sermons.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 4, section 4.
- Upon the wings of fasting and alms holy prayer infallibly mounts up to heaven.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 4, section 5.
- Whatever we beg of God, let us also work for it, if the thing be matter of duty, or a consequent to industry; for God loves to bless labour and to reward it, but not to support idleness. And therefore our blessed Saviour in his sermons joins watchfulness with prayer, for God’s graces are but assistances, not new creations of the whole habit, in every instant or period of our life. Read Scriptures, and then pray to God for understanding. Pray against temptation; but you must also resist the devil, and then he will flee from you. Ask of God competency of living; but you must also work with your hands the things that are honest, that ye may have to supply in time of need. We can but do our endeavor, and pray for blessing, and then leave the success with God; and beyond this we cannot deliberate, we cannot take care — but, so far, we must.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 4, section 7.
- Love is as communicative as fire, as busy and as active...
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 4, section 8.
- If any man be well grown in grace, he must needs come [to receive the Eucharist], because he is excellently disposed to so holy a feast: but he that is but in the infancy of piety had need to come, that so he may grow in grace. The strong must come lest they become weak; and the weak that they may become strong. The sick must come to be cured; the healthful to be preserved.
- Holy Living (1650), ch. 4, section 10.
- O holy and ever-blessed Spirit, Who didst overshadow the holy Virgin, the mother of our Lord, and caused her to conceive by a miraculous and mysterious manner, be pleased to overshadow my soul, and enlighten my spirit, that I may conceive the holy Jesus in my heart, and may bear Him in my mind, and may grow up to the fulness of the stature of Christ, to be a perfect man in Christ Jesus. Amen.
- Holy Living (1650), Prayers for All Sorts of Men and All Necessities, Special Devotions to be used upon the Lords Day, and the great Festivals of Christians.
Holy Dying (1651)
[edit]- All that a sick and dying man can do, is but to exercise those virtues which he before acquired, and to perfect that repentance, which was begun more early.
- Holy Dying (1651), Dedication.
- By a daily examination of our actions we shall the easier cure a great sin, and prevent its arrival to become habitual. For to examine we suppose to be a relative duty, and instrumental to something else. We examine ourselves, that we may find out our failings and cure them; and therefore if we use our remedy when the wound is fresh and bleeding, we shall find the cure more certain and less painful.
- Holy Dying (1651), chapter 2, section 2.
- Charity is the great channel through which God passes all his mercy upon mankind. For we receive absolution of our sins in proportion to our forgiving our brother. This is the rule of our hopes, and the measure of our desire in this world; and in the day of death and judgment the great sentence upon mankind shall to transacted according to our alms, which is the other part of charity. Certain it is, that God cannot, will not, never did, reject a charitable man in his greatest needs and in his most passionate prayers; for God himself is love, and every degree of charity that dwells in us is the participation of the divine nature.
- Holy Dying (1651), chapter 2, section 3.
- And what can be greater than that from the goodness and love of God we receive Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and adoption, and the inheritance of sons, and to be coheirs with Jesus, and to have pardon of our sins, and a Divine nature, and restraining grace and the grace of sanctification, and rest and peace within us, and a certain expectation of glory?
- Holy Dying (1651), chapter 4, section 6.
- O most gracious and eternal God and loving Father, Who hast poured out Thy bowels upon us, and sent the Son of Thy love unto us to die for love, and to make us dwell in love, and the eternal comprehensions of Thy Divine mercies, O be pleased to inflame my heart with a holy charity towards Thee and all the world.
- Holy Dying (1651), chapter 4, section 10.
- But exhortations must prevail with their own proper weight, not by the passion of the speaker.
- Holy Dying (1651), chapter 5, section 2.
- The sacraments and ceremonies of the gospel operate not without the concurrent actions and moral influences of the suscipient.
- Holy Dying (1651), chapter 5, section 4.
- Virtue and vice are oftentimes so near neighbours that we pass into each other’s borders without observation, and think we do justice when we are cruel; or call ourselves liberal when we are loose and foolish in expenses; and are amorous when we commend our own civilities and good nature.
- Holy Dying (1651), chapter 5, section 6.
- It remains, that we who are alive should so live, and by the actions of religion attend the coming of the day of the Lord, that we neither be surprised nor leave our duties imperfect, nor our sins uncancelled, nor our persons unreconciled, nor God unappeased; but that, when we descend to our graves, we may rest in the bosom of the Lord, till the mansions be prepared where we shall sing and feast eternally. Amen. Te Deum laudamus.
- Holy Dying (1651), chapter 5, section 8.
Other Works
[edit]- God is pleased with no music from below so much as in the thanksgiving songs of relieved widows, of supported orphans, of rejoicing, and comforted, and thankful persons.
- Sermon XXV, Part IV: "The Duties of the Tongue"
- Can any thing in this world be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth can come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster?
- Sermon XX, Part II
- The thing framed says that nothing framed it; the tongue never made itself to speak, and yet talks against him that did; saying that which is made, is, and that which made it, is not. But this folly is infinite as hell, as much without light or bound as the chaos or the primitive nothing.
- "Apples of Sodom," part II, sermon XX of Twenty-Five Sermons for the Winter Half-Year, Preached at Golden Grove (1653)
- The first things that hinders the prayer of a good man from obtaining its effects is a violent anger, and a violent storm in the spirit him who prayers.
- Works of Jeremy Taylor, Anthology of English Prose (Dent 1948)
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
[edit]- Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
- In self-examination, take no account of yourself by your thoughts and resolutions in the days of religion and solemnity; examine how it is with you in the days of ordinary conversation and in the circumstances of secular employment.
- P. 117.
- Faith converses with the angels, and antedates the hymns of glory.
- P. 218.
- God is everywhere present by His power. He rolls the orbs of heaven with His hand; He fixes the earth with His foot; He guides all creatures with His eye, and refreshes them with His influence; He makes the powers of hell to shake with His terrors, and binds the devils with His word.
- P. 274.
- Her heart was a passion-flower, bearing within it the crown of thorns and the cross of Christ.
- P. 397.
Attributed
[edit]- Bishop Jeremy Taylor is clear, that men will find it impossible to do anything greatly good, unless they cut off all superfluous company and visits.
- George Horne, Olla Podrida, No. 9.
