The gospel becomes a series of slogans that slip off the tongue so glibly and easily, and so-called extempore prayer is set in a dull, inferior and habitual "personally contrived liturgy", in the sense of an unvarying form that has none of the quality of a well-composed collect or written petition for our corporate and individual approach to God.

In her 2019 Lenten meditation The Merciful Humility of God, theologian Jane Williams urges something similar. Keeping company with Jesus during Lent's forty days of fasting, we should learn to look beneath the surface of his humble actions--touching the lepers, feeding the hungry, washing his disciples' feet, even or especially dying through imperial torture--and see the unconquerable glory and power of God working out the salvation of the world.

People interested in leaving Islam for Christianity often believe that the personality of God is the same; they have heard that Christians worship the true God but our fault is in associating Jesus with him, calling Jesus God's Son. So when they move from Islam to Christianity they tend to focus on superficial differences regarding dress and diet. They rightly realize that they are getting rid of Muhammad and declaring allegiance to Jesus.

Under this legislation those who refused to attend Church of England service (recusants), whether Catholic or Nonconformist, could also suffer severe penalties.

But from 1800 these Acts were seldom enforced, except at Oxford and Cambridge universities, where Nonconformists and Catholics could not matriculate (Oxford) or graduate (Cambridge). The Acts were finally repealed over a number of years with little controversy.