Favorite Quotes from Anglicans

Discussion in 'The Commons' started by Lowly Layman, Dec 28, 2012.

  1. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    I do love the collective wisdom of Anglicans past. Below is one of my favorite quotes by Richard Hooker... What are you all's?


    "Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man to wade too far into the doings of the Most High; whom although to know be life, and joy to make mention of his name, yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know him not as indeed he is, neither can know him; and our safest eloquence concerning him is our silence, when we confess without confession that his glory is inexplicable, his greatness above our capacity and reach." ~Richard Hooker
     
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  2. Incense

    Incense Active Member

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    Lowly Layman you are an idea thief hehe! I was in bed last night thinking today when I wake up I want to see if there was an Anglican quotes thread and if not I was making one! I know very very little Anglican authors and I thought this was a way to meet various ones and get introduced to their work :D
     
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  3. Pax_Christi

    Pax_Christi Member

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    "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
    ~ C.S. Lewis
     
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  4. Aaytch Barton

    Aaytch Barton Active Member

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    J. C. Ryle once said, referring to his conversion, “Nothing to this day appeared to me so clear and distinct as my own sinfulness, Christ’s preciousness, the value of the Bible, the absolute necessity of coming out of the world, the need of being born again, and the enormous folly of the whole doctrine of baptismal regeneration.”

    This remained his conviction his entire life, and indeed baptismal regeneration was one of the greatest problems in the Church of England in his age. On his tombstone is engraved a summary of justification (Ephesians 2:8, ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith.’) and sanctification (II Timothy 4:7, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.’).

    It may be true that most Anglicans believe in baptismal regeneration, but not the best ones. Besides Ryle, Whitfield and Newton fought the notion their entire careers.
     
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  5. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    I've been reading the Homilies, thanks to the link Consular so graciously produced, and if they aren't a quote a minute I don't know what is...

    Here's one I've read and reread from the 1st Homily concerning the reading of Sacred Scripture:
    "Unto a Christian man there can be nothing either more necessary or profitable than the knowledge of holy Scripture; forasmuch as in it is contained God's true word, setting forth his glory and also man's duty. And there is no truth nor doctrine necessary for our justification and everlasting salvation, but that is or may be drawn out of that fountain and well of truth. Therefore as many as be desirous to enter into the right and perfect way unto God must apply their minds to know holy Scripture; without the which they can neither sufficiently know God and his will, neither their office and duty. And, as drink is pleasant to them that be dry, and meat to them that be hungry, so is the reading, hearing, searching, and studying of holy Scripture to them that be desirous to know God or themselves, and to do his will"

    Beautiful. Just beautiful.
     
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  6. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    Great minds think alike?
     
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  7. Incense

    Incense Active Member

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    Today was telling a friend about how much my life is full of assurance when I read in the Word of God...

    and indeed great mind hehe!
     
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  8. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    Aaytch Barton already beat me to Bishop JC Ryle, but here is a quote by him that I dearly cherish from his pamphlet The Cross: A Call to the Fundamentals of Religion

    "Oh! reader, beware of self-righteousness. Open sin kills its thousands of souls. Self-righteousness kills its tens of thousands. Go and study humility with the great apostle of the Gentiles. Go and sit with Paul at the foot of the cross. Give up your secret pride. Cast away your vain ideas of your own goodness. Be thankful if you have grace, but never glory in it for a moment. Work for God and Christ with heart and soul, and mind and strength, but never dream for a second of placing confidence in any work of your own...Reader, once more I say, beware of self-righteousness in every possible shape and form. Some people get as much harm from their fancied virtues as others do from their sins. Take heed, lest you be one. Rest not, rest not till your heart beats in tune with St. Paul's. Rest not till you can say with him, 'God forbid that I should glory in anything but the cross.'"
     
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  9. Toma

    Toma Well-Known Member Anglican

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    I suppose "not the best ones" mustn't take the Church Herself into consideration: the Catechism and the Articles of Religion! Here's a good opportunity to cite a foundational Anglican quote:

    CATECHISM QUESTION II:

    "Q. Who gave you this [Christian] name?
    A. My Godfathers and Godmothers in Baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, as child of God, and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven."

    Regardless of the personal opinions of men like Ryle, the apostolic doctrines & formularies of the Anglican Church say that we are born anew, re-gen-erated, in Baptism.
     
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  10. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    Consular that is a good point. But is Baptism and the Sacrament of Baptism the same thing? I do not think so, nor do I believe the Anglican reformers thought so. We are taught in many places, including the catechism, that a sacrament is a visible sign of an inner grace. A sign does nothing but demarcate, point to, or make visible some reality that is not readily grasped by the senses. Mile markers, for example, let me see where I am on a road by showing me how far along I have been traveling it. It is not the reality itself, meaning if some prankster came along and changed the sign, it would somehow magically change the length of the road. The same is true of sacraments. If someone started calling the eating of a chocolate sundae the sacrament of holy communion, it wouldn't make it holy communion. The sacrament of Baptism, is by simple substitution, the visible sign of Baptism; not Baptism itself. And the visible sign does not overthrow the inner, spiritual reality it is intended to make visible. I doubt anyone would say that, just because one has received the Sacrament of Baptism, but has not inwardly repented of his sinfulness and given Christ Lordship over his life through faith but stubbornly reject Him, is saved simply by the reception of the sacrament. His sacrament was no Baptism at all because it was the visible sign of something that never happened at all.
    The reverse is also true, if a person has, perhaps very shortly before his death, given his trust to the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of his soul, and has been filled with the Holy Ghost, but dies unexpectedly prior to receiving the Sacrament of Baptism, he has still been baptized inwardly, even if no visible sign has been provided. Another analogy is the difference between birthdays and birthday parties. My family often celebrates birthdays on days other than one's actual birthday, but it does change the reality of when the anniversary truly is. Nor, if a birthday party were missed entirely, would it mean that someone would remain the same age indefinitely.. Having said that, I now have a new topic for the forum.
     
  11. Pax_Christi

    Pax_Christi Member

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    Inasmuch as I agree with many things that Consular believes, I must say with much pain that I don't agree with Baptismal Regeneration. I agree with Lowly Layman's post above.
     
  12. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    "Much pain"?? Lol. Come to the darkside Pax...we have devils food cake ;)
     
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  13. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    Just for the record, I don't disagree with baptismal regeneration, insofar as we are speaking of baptism in the sense of that "circumcision made without hands". I just don't believe in sacramental regeneration.
     
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  14. Pax_Christi

    Pax_Christi Member

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    I dislike disagreeing with people who have much in common with me :) ... However, I must join the darkside! Give me them devil cakes :p
     
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  15. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    "We have returned to the Apostles and old Catholic fathers. We have planted no new religion, but only have preserved the old that was undoubtedly founded and used by the Apostles of Christ and other holy Fathers of the Primitive Church…." –Bishop John Jewel, Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae
     
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  16. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    "We are no more followers of Luther or Calvin than of the Pope, where either they or he fall away from Holy Scripture, or cease to walk in the footsteps of the old Fathers who consent in the Catholic Faith" -John Cosin
     
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  17. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    William H. Lewis, Position of the Protestant Episcopal Church with Reference to Other Protestant Denominations (1852)
     
  18. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    ~Venerable Bede
     
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  19. Incense

    Incense Active Member

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    That's a lot to say!
     
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  20. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    "Parishioners will welcome the assurance, if news of changes and experiments has come their way, that no such changes are contemplated in this parish church; they will not be used as guinea pigs for liturgical experiments. The form used at weddings and at the baptism of their children will be exactly the same as it has been for centuries.

    There have been changes in the world around – especially perhaps in the Victorian era, which we are pleased to think of as solid – but human needs are very constant and those who study it will find that the Book of Common Prayer, compiled from ancient sources in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries meets those needs in a manner more realistic than more contemporary efforts in this direction. It is difficult for instance to discover any need in 1966 which is not fittingly brought to God in the 400 year old words of the Litany. So the motto for our public transactions with Almighty God in the churches of our parish will be ‘Business as usual’. If any declare that we stick in the mud, we retort that by loyalty to the Prayer Book we stand on a rock."--Beeston Parish Paper
     
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