Thursday, September 18, 2008

For the Commemoration of Edward Bouverie Pusey:

"What wraps the Saint already in the third Heaven, may yet uphold us sinners, that the pit shut not her mouth upon us. The same reality of the Divine Gift make It Angels’ food to the Saint, the ransom to the sinner. And both because It is the Body and Blood of Christ. Were it only a thankful commemoration of His redeeming love, or only a shewing forth of his death, or a strengthening only and refreshing of the soul, it were indeed a reasonable service, but it would have no direct healing for the sinner.”
-E.B. Pusey, The Holy Eucharist a Comfort to the Penitent

"Deep sins after Baptism are forgiven, but upon deep contrition which God giveth, and deep contrition is, for the most part, slowly and gradually worked into the soul, deepening with deepening grace, sorrowing still more, as, by God’s grace, it more deeply loves; grieved the more, the more it knows Him Whom it once grieved, and through that grief and love inwrought in it by God, the more forgiven.”

--E.B. Pusey, Entire Absolution of the Penitent

"Penitence is not punishment, it is at its heart an expression of love, a response to the greatness of the love of God, in creation, redemption, and sanctification. The reality of that grace, the reality of the penitence which it calls forth, and the reality of the salvation God offers are the true themes of Pusey’s teaching. In his sermons, as in his more technically theological writings, he protested strongly against views which would reduce in any way the living power of the Gospel.”

-Geoffrey Rowell, The Vision Glorious