'We see the great mystical body gradually enlarged': John Jebb on the 1662 commemoration of the faithful departed

In this All Saintstide, when prayerful commemoration of the faithful departed has particular significance, we turn to words from John Jebb, the Irish High Church theologian who became Bishop of Limerick in 1822 (until his death in 1833). Jebb noted that "commemoration of the pious dead ... had been in practice from the earliest times", was retained "in the first book of Edward". but omitted from 1552 "at the persuasion of Martin Bucer". The first sign of restoration of the primitive practice was in "the Prayer Book intended for Scotland, in 1637". The 1662 revisers "attending to the example of the Scotch Prayer Book, inserted a judicious, but most impressive, compendium of the old commemoration". 

It is a significant and revealing statement of a strain of Old High thought. Above all, there is what Jebb terms "a deep reverence for catholic antiquity". Related to this, there is an openness to the Prayer Books of 1549 and 1637. This forms the background for Jebb's exposition of the 1662 commemoration, seeing it as standing in continuity with patristic practice and 1549/1637.

He demonstrates that the 1662 form is no inadequate, weak commemoration, but - while appropriately judicious - theologically and devotionally rich:

It thanks God 'for all his servants departed this life in his faith and fear; beseeching him to give us grace so to follow their good example, that, with them, we may be partakers of God's heavenly kingdom.' It thanks God for them: therefore we are to regard them not merely with respect, but with interest; as qualified in themselves, and as designed by him whom we address, to be to us, and all who come after, a source of benefit and blessing ...

We implore 'grace to follow their good example; that, with them, we may be partakers of the heavenly kingdom': that is, we intreat Him, who has made this gracious provision for our improvement, that he would excite us to the contemplation of departed Christian excellence, and cooperate effectually with the contemplation thus excited. This, therefore, is a means, of more than human efficacy: it is a model for shaping our character both of mind and heart, and it is through the softening power of the Divine Spirit that we are to be made pliant to this exquisite model. The end is suitably exalted: it is, that being thus formed while here, we may be fitted for our destined place in the church triumphant; that being, in this state of preparation, united, in belief and practice, in mind and heart, to those who have gone before, who, 'being dead, yet speak,' we may hereafter participate in the same happiness, and mutually heighten our mutual bliss by the everlasting remembrance of benefits interchangeably communicated and received.

Thus, in the doctrine of Vincentius, in the doctrine of the Church of England, we see the realization of Saint Paul's magnificent figure: we see the great mystical body gradually enlarged, and ultimately perfected, by a self-contained and self-advancing principle; each part in strictest harmony with every other part, and all the parts promoting the completion of the whole. The whole body, 'fitly framed together, and compacted, by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working, in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love.' The mystical body, then, though at all times perfect in organization, is to gain its destined magnitude by slow degrees, and by continual accretion: and, consequently, the parts successively superadded must be made to accord with the antecedent parts; enlivened by one and the same animating spirit; operative by one and the same vital energy; aiding, not injuring, the general symmetry of the body.

Jebb brings us to see why the 1662 commemoration should continue to shape Anglican piety and liturgy in prayerful remembrance of the faithful departed. It is "judicious", avoiding unseemly and unnecessary speculation about the state of the faithful departed, trusting and resting in - to apply words from Article XVII - "God's promises ... as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture". The "that with them we" petition in the 1662 commemoration is entirely free of any urgent pleading for the faithful departed, which would obscure "God's promises ... as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture". Instead, it is a quiet and hope-filled petition that "all thy whole Church" would attain to the fulness of "thy heavenly kingdom". Quietly trusting in the grace of God in Christ, "our only mediator and advocate", it commends us all - living and departed - to our heavenly Father, as "we see the great mystical body gradually enlarged".