"If we dare not approach Him": Jelf's Bampton Lectures on why the invocation of saints

In the fourth of his 1844 Bampton Lectures, An inquiry into the means of grace, their mutual connection, and combined use, with especial reference to the Church of England, Jelf - one of those whom Nockles lists as the 'Zs', the post-1833 continuation of the Old High tradition - turns to the matter of the invocation of saints.  Mindful that this was but three years after Newman's attempt in Tract XC to undermine the teaching of Article 22, and that within a few decades advanced Anglo-catholic devotional manuals would be promoting this practice, Jelf's rejection of it is firm and robust, a statement of the classical Protestant position: "one of the worst corruptions of the Church of Rome".

As with the words of Holden Pott, quoted in a recent post, this demonstrates how the Old High tradition was an expression of magisterial Protestantism.  What is more, this rejection of the practice of the invocation of saints continues to be normative for the vast majority of Anglicans and for authorised Anglican liturgies. While Jelf's language is not, of course, at all appropriate for an ecumenical age, and should not be employed by how contemporary Anglicans addressing the Roman Catholic practice. Jelf's stance is, however, significant as an expression of the theological principle underpinning rejection of the practice; as a reminder of why the teaching of Article 22 remains normative; and to explain why the vast majority of Anglicans do not invoke the saints.

it is in quality of His perfect Manhood, that the great Intercessor, perfect God and perfect Man, is pleased to be at all times accessible (we may say without presumption personally accessible) to His redeemed creatures; yet who is not so accessible, if we dare not approach Him, or if we seldom approach Him, without the aid of a subordinate intermediator ...

In the Roman Litanies, after the invocation of the Blessed Trinity, a multitude of saints, varying as the occasion requires, are directly invoked to aid the work of grace by their prayers. Hence God is entreated by the blood of Thomas à Becket (surely in awful parody on the invocation of God by the merit of that Blood which cleanseth all sins) to grant His grace. Hence Offices and Litanies proper to the Blessed Virgin, as the Queen of Heaven, the giver of grace ...

Multitudes of worshippers in the Roman obedience totally neglect Christ, His merits and mediation, and rest in the mediation and merits of the particular patron and local saints, looking for grace and mercy to them finally. The whole earth has been partitioned out amongst the various saints, or to different modifications of the same name. The Blessed Virgin has been dishonoured, indeed her person multiplied by a variety of titles. But what is dishonour done to the Virgin Mary, compared with the dishonour done to Almighty God? And yet it is to a Church such as this, with virtual idolatry and saint worship stamped upon her rituals, that we are invited to submit ourselves, as to the sole depository of the means of grace.