Approaching All Hallows: Old High Church piety and the Communion of Saints (1)

It is not denied they pray for us, in regard of that Communion of Saints, whereof this holy performance is a principal and main part; for us in general, out of fellow-feeling and commiseration of our miseries which themselves have tasted in this valley of tears; for their friends in particular, whom they remember, whose state they recommend unto God in prayer; they having lost no endowment in their Soul in Glory, which did accrue unto them upon Earth ...

For we say, we may not pray unto them; contrary to our own Bibles ... we and our people will pray unto the Lord, who is ready, willing, able to hear vs every way, without such Advocates or Mediators ... We do not, we dare not pray to Saints, that is speak to them, or entreat them to pray for us.

Richard Montagu An Answer to the Late Gagger of Protestants (1624), XXIX-XXX.

No doubt, the early Christians, believing in 'the communion of saints,' had a lively conviction that saints departed were still fellow-worshippers with the Church militant, and thought that those in Paradise still prayed for those on earth. But it does not therefore follow that they consider that those who joined with us in prayer, ought to be themselves addressed in prayer.

E.H. Browne An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles (1854), Article XXII.

These extracts from Montagu and Browne provide an insight into the place of the Communion of Saints in Old High Church piety.  The rejection of invocation is, of course, entirely conventional, uncontroversial Old High Church teaching.  This, however, does not prevent a lively sense of the Communion of Saints animating the piety of this tradition, underpinned by the conviction - articulated by both Montagu and Browne - that the Saints in glory are praying for us. As All Saints' Day approaches, laudable Practice will reflect on how the Communion of Saints was celebrated in Old High Church piety.

We begin today with the daily office.  It might initially be thought that the thoroughly Reformed nature of Cranmerian Morning and Evening Prayer would be rather unpromising territory for evidence of the a lively piety regarding the Communion of Saints.  Over the centuries, however, Old High Church commentators have drawn attention to how Mattins and Evensong in two particular ways draw us into Communion with the Saints in glory.

To say the Te Deum or Benedicite at Mattins is to share in the Saints' praise of the Holy Trinity.  In the Te Deum we join with "The glorious company of the Apostles ... The goodly fellowship of the Prophets ... The noble of Martyrs".  In the Benedicite, we join with the "Spirits and Souls of the Righteous", with "Ananias, Azarias, and Misael" in praising the Lord God.  As Secker states, quoting Hebrews 12:23, in this way we join "the spirits of just men made perfect" in their praise of the Triune God.

With the Benedictus and Jubilate at Mattins, and the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis at Evensong, we share in the praises of the Saints in a particular fashion.  Comber describes Benedictus as "composed by holy Zacharias", while Wheatly refers to the Jubilate "wholly repeating the evangelical state there revealed to holy David".  The Magnificat, says Comber, allows us "to rejoice with her" who is "the blessed Virgin", with the Nunc Dimittis is the words of "that holy doctor ... Simeon".  Here, then, we enter into the praises of the Saints of the Old and New Covenants.  As Hooker puts it:

persuaded as we are that the praises of God in the mouths of his Saints are not so restrained to their own particular but that other may both conveniently and fruitfully use them ... because the mystical communion of all faithful men is such as maketh every one to be interested in those precious blessings which any one of them receiveth at God's hands (LEP V.40.3).

Morning and evening, our praises in the daily office are a share in the praises of the Communion of Saints. Morning and evening too, we affirm that belief in the Communion of Saints is integral to the Church's Trinitarian and Christological Faith, as expressed in the Apostles' Creed.  In expounding the meaning of this confession of Faith in the Communion of Saints, Secker emphasises that it has reference to the Saints in glory:

Nor have we communion only with the "saints" on earth, but are of one city and one family, with such, as are already got safe to heaven. Doubtless they exercise that "communion" towards us by loving and praying for the brethren, whom they have left behind them. And we are to exercise it towards them; not by addressing petitions to them, which we are neither authorized to offer, nor have any grounds to think they can hear; but by rejoicing in their happiness; thanking God for the grace, which he hath bestowed on them, and the examples, which they have left us; holding their memories in honour; imitating their virtues; and beseeching the Disposer of all things, that, having followed them in holiness here, we may meet them in happiness hereafter; and become, in the fullest sense, "fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God," having "with all those, that are departed in the true faith of his holy name, our perfect consummation and bliss , both in body and soul, in his eternal and everlasting glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord".

Note how Secker (d.1768) concurs with Montagu (d.1641) and Browne (d.1891) that the Saints in glory are praying for the Church Militant.  This, then, was consistent Old High Church teaching across these centuries, echoing what Browne described as the "lively conviction" of the Primitive Church.

With our praises at Morning and Evening Prayer sharing in those of the Saints, and with the confession of Faith morning and evening declaring our fellowship with the Saints in glory, Old High Church piety points to the daily office as a means of inhabiting the Communion of Saints, with the Saints' praising the Holy Trinity, and being reminded of their prayers for us within the Body of Christ.

(Unless otherwise indicated, quotes are from Mant's use of High Church divines in his Notes, 1825.)