"The great means of grace": Jelf's Bampton lectures on the reading of Scripture

In the fifth 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 reflect on Holy Scripture, "whether read or preached", as a means of grace (significantly alongside Holy Communion), "the food appointed for the sustenance of this spiritual life":

"To know Jesus Christ and Him crucified" is the grace of graces, "life eternal" begun on earth ; and all and every part of the one Volume of inspiration - the whole history, every Psalm, Prophecy, Gospel, Epistle, are, collectively and singly, means of grace, contributing, in their several appointed degrees, by and with the Holy Ghost their Author, to kindle and keep alive in our hearts the grace of illumination; as living parts of that Word, which "is a lantern unto our feet, and a light unto our paths". And thus are "grace and peace multiplied unto us, through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord".

But, independently of doctrine, there is in Holy Scripture, as a means of grace, still another use, which is yet not another, but a modification of the same; or, say rather, the living body of illuminating grace; the correction of our own lives by the standard of God's will. The commandments, the precepts, the threatenings, the promises of God, are as much an object of faith, as the sublimest mysteries of the Holy Trinity; and they too are revealed to us by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost moving the writers, and by His illuminating grace lightening the darkness of our own minds ...

What a mighty engine, then, is entrusted to us in the holy Volume! Well might St. Augustine call it instrumentum "the great means of grace" ... It is the voice of God in our souls!

Noting that "the public and continuous reading of the Scriptures is the natural and indispensable duty of the Church", Jelf points to how this aspect of the Prayer Book order is rooted in patristic practice:

And thus, however neglectful individuals may be of their true interests, our Church has at least, by a public act, expressed her sense of the profitableness of the Scripture for all. She intends that each one of her children may hear the whole Psalter monthly, the Old Testament, nearly entire, once in the year, and the whole of the New Testament thrice. And the time may come when many of her children, from the least to the greatest, may flock to the House of God, in order to receive the daily portion of the bread of life, which the Holy Ghost has provided for those who are worthy of the blessing. 

And is this free publication of God's Word an innovation upon the ancient practice of Christ's Church? Quite the reverse. Not only was the ultimate appeal, in matters of controversy amongst theologians, to the Scriptures rightly interpreted, but the public reading and the private study of the Holy Volume "in a tongue understanded of the people", was a recognized part of the institution of the Church. The facts admit of no dispute. To pass over other early writers, it is impossible to read even St. Augustine, St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, or St. Jerome, without finding repeated exhortations, express or implied, to the general enjoyment of the whole Word of God. The Commentaries on the Scriptures by each of those writers, not esoteric but popular Commentaries, often conveyed in the shape of Homilies ad populum, are wholly inexplicable, except upon the supposition that the Scriptures themselves were familiar to the ears and hearts of the people, nay, that on many occasions they held them in their hands and referred to the passages as they were cited by the preacher.

We see here Jelf's Old High understanding of the significance of the reading of Scriptures as a means of grace as thoroughly Cranmerian:

The first original and ground [of Divine Service] whereof if a man would search out by the ancient Fathers, he shall find, that the same was not ordained but of a good purpose, and for a great advancement of godliness. For they so ordered the matter, that all the whole Bible (or the greatest part thereof) should be read over once every year ... here you have an Order for Prayer, and for the reading of the holy Scripture, much agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old Fathers.

It is also worth noting how Jelf's account of the reading of Scriptures as "the great means of grace" reminds that Mattins and Evensong is a means for us to receive such grace.