laudable Practice

O Almighty God, who by thy blessed Son didst call Matthew from the receipt of custom to be an Apostle and Evangelist: Grant us grace to forsake all covetous desires and inordinate love of riches, and to follow the same thy Son Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen. Yesterday many of us who are Anglicans will have observed Saint Matthew the Apostle , one of twenty observances of saints in the Book of Common Prayer 1662. This was, of course, a matter of some controversy in the Elizabethan Church and beyond. According to the 1572 Admonition to the Parliament , the inclusion in the Prayer Book of "holydayes ascribed to saincts" was evidence of its reliance upon "that popishe dunghil, the ... Masse boke ful of all abhominations". Such observances were contrary to "the best reformed churches". There is a sense in which the Anglo-catholic tradition might affirm this, seeing in the observances of saint...

From Jeremy Taylor's  A dissuasive from Popery (1664 & 1667) - which George Rust in the sermon at Taylor's funeral particularly highlighted as among his "several excellent Discourses", this one "receiv'd by a general approbation" - a critique of the invocation of saints: Now therefore we desire it may be considered, That there are as the effects of Christ's death for us, three great products, which are the rule and measure of our prayers, and our confidence; 1. Christ's merits. 2. His Satisfaction. 3. His Intercession. By these three we come boldly to the Throne of Grace, and pray to God through Jesus Christ. But if we pray to God through the Saints too, and rely upon their 1. Merit. 2. Satisfaction. 3. And Intercession; Is it not plain that we make them equal with Christ, in kind, though not in degree? ... And therefore the very being and Oeconomy of Christianity, is destroyed by these prayers; and the people are not, cannot be good Christ...

With All Saints' Day close, this final extract from Bishop Bull's (d.1710) first sermon on the angels, ' The Existence of Angels ', on the text Hebrews 1.14, follows on from last week's extract exhorting against the invocation of angels. Bull points out that if "there is great danger in doing so, but no necessity at all of doing it", this all the more true of the invocation of saints, who do not minister to us "by thy appointment" as do the holy angels. Once again, we see a thoroughly and conventionally Reformed refutation of the practice: And if we must not make any such religious addresses to the holy angels, then certainly not to the saints departed. For besides that there is no warrant either in Scripture or the practice of the primitive Church, for the invocation of saints, any more than of angels, as hath been already intimated; we may also, from what hath been said against the worship of angels, farther argue with advantage against the inv...

In his first sermon on the holy angels, ' The Existence of Angels ', on the text Hebrews 1.14, Bishop Bull addresses the oft-repeated defence of the invocation of angels and saints, that it is no different to asking other Christians with whom we share earthly life to pray for us.  As Bull states, this defence is contrary to "sense and experience"; there is no meaningful comparison between fellow-Christians with whom I now share earthly life and the existence of the holy angels. What is more, there is "no necessity at all" of invoking the angels, for they always minister to us. When Christians conversing together on earth mutually desire the assistance of each other's prayers, they being by sense and experience thoroughly acquainted with their common humanity, and the frailty attending it, there is no danger of idolatry in the case; or that one should ascribe that to the other, which belongs to God alone. But if we mortal men were allowed to make such app...

In the fifth of his 1807 Bampton Lectures, On the Nature and Guilt of Schism , Le Mesurier demonstrates the Protestant nature of the Old High tradition regarding the cult of the saints: You may remember that when Moses died, his body was not to be found: and this, as it is well understood, was done in mercy, lest the Israelites should, from the great benefits of which he had been the instrument to them, have been led to worship his remains, or in any other way to pay him adoration. It is striking to see how God appears to have pursued a similar course with respect to the first publishers of the New Testament. Of the Virgin Mary we know absolutely nothing after the ascension of our Saviour, except that she was at one time with the disciples at Jerusalem ... Going on to others, we may observe that of Joseph, her husband, not a word is said. We are left to collect that he died before our Lady only from what passed at the foot of the cross. The same remark applies to the apostles. Of them ...

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...

From  A Course of Sermons, for the Lord's Day throughout the Year , Volume II (1817) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - an extract from a sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity.  Preaching on Ezekiel 14:14 - "Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord" - Pott contrasted seeking out "the prudent care, the pious prayers, and charitable offices of others" with invocation of the saints.  Mindful that within a few decades the successors to the Tractarians would be recommending this practice, Pott's sermon is a reminder of the Protestant character of the Old High tradition: We cannot avoid remarking in this place, since man has been so weak as to flee to other intercessors, even saints and angels, with that kind of trust and confidence, which is due only to one righteous Advocate; that there is a clear difference between the intercessi...