John Wesley's Extract of The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Dying

by Jeremy Taylor

Published respectively in 1650 and 1651, Holy Living instructs the reader on leading a virtuous life, while Holy Dying offers guidance on preparing for a pious Christian death.

Seventy-five years after their publication John Wesley discovered Taylor’s works—an encounter he said left him “exceedingly affected.” Taylor’s works inspired the spiritual turning point for Wesley, who said that upon reading, he

immediately resolved to dedicate all his life to God.

While the language of Taylor’s time may seem demanding, the underlying principles shine as brightly as ever. Though presented in religious context, readers will recognize popular concepts such as time management, social networking,

self-control, and personal accountability.

These things and more reside within Taylor’s Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Holy Dying, seeking to provide Christians with a fundamental understanding of how to manage our day-to-day affairs in order better to serve ourselves, and

our God.

128 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 10, 2018

About the author

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) was a cleric in the Church of England and a writer.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in preparation for a paper on early Methodist death narratives, where I will ask: what does holy dying look like? As I read Wesley's extract of this influential classic, I was struck by how much I saw the Methodist pulse kind of gathering in some of Taylor's thoughts. No doubt Wesley was strongly influenced by this work particular with it's view of "every day, every way" holiness. No matter of our life is too small to bring into obedience and stewardship before the Lord. I found his writing on obedience and chastity quite interesting and well said and offers much for us to consider in the current ecclesial community that can too easily shy away from both of those concepts. Likewise, Taylor offers much to consider in how we can live with an eye to our ultimate bodily death. As Taylor writes, "He who will die well and happily must dress his soul by a diligent and frequent scrutiny...therefore every night we must make our bed the memorial of our grave." It puts me in mind of an A.W. Tozer quote I heard recently, "True religion confronts earth with heaven and brings eternity to bear upon time." It seems to me that we cannot live well if we cannot die well and we cannot die well unless we live well. Both seem as a two way mirror reflecting back on each other.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering Jeremy Taylor's book was originally written/published in England in 1651, it has obviously stood the test of time. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, was deeply influenced by Taylor's writing, and republished it about 80-90 years after Taylor wrote it.

As the title states, there are plenty of "rules" in this book, and that grates against our 21st century thought process. We aren't used to living by any rules at all!

However, every sport has rules. Banking and finance have rules. The legal system has rules. Education has rules. Medicine, science, and math all have rules.

So, upon reflection, we actually DO live by rules; a LOT of them, and we never think twice about it. Why then, do we feel negative when someone in a theological area suggests rules, especially when those who claim no god and no theological rules have not seemed to fare very well overall?

[James R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

important

Important to read but excruciating wordy. It needs serious editing and reformatting. There are too many redundant elements. Read it once and bounce