Christ on the cross (14th century)

THE Litany sets on our lips a series of moving invocations of Christ’s birth and Passion.

BY the mystery of thy holy Incarnation; by thy holy Nativity and Circumcision; by thy Baptism, Fasting, and Temptation,
Good Lord, deliver us.

By thine Agony and Bloody Sweat; by thy Cross and Passion; by thy precious Death and Burial; by thy glorious Resurrection and Ascension, and by the Coming of the Holy Ghost,
Good Lord, deliver us.

These Obsecrations (Lat. obsecro, lit. “ask on religious grounds”, “entreat”) were objected to by the Calvinist party right from the start, with John Knox (?1513-1572) complaining to Geneva about “a certain conjuring of God” in the Litany within the Prayer Book of 1552.

Yet these same prayers were to be found in Martin Luther’s Litany. The 15th century Golden Litany (here) was on this model, and much earlier St Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) wrote his Prayer XV (extract) as a litany.

O MOST loving and sweetest Lord Jesu, by Thy holy Annunciation, have mercy upon my unhappy soul. [...]
O most Sweet Lord Jesu, by Thy Scourgings, Spittings, Blows, which for us Thou didst receive,
O most Sweet Lord Jesu, by the Crown of Thorns which Thou didst bear upon Thy Head, that Thou mightest take away the thorns of our sins,
O most Sweet Lord Jesu, by Thy Cross, and the Death which on that Cross Thou didst suffer, that Thou mightest redeem us from death, …

The title Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626) gave to a similar prayer in his Devotions (here) explains everything: An Eucharistic Prayer.

BY the things which Thou didst, and bearest,
Thy Oblation and Sacrifice,
Thy emptying Thyself, Thy humbling Thyself,
Thy Incarnation, Thy Conception, Thy Birth,
Thy Circumcision, the first-fruits of Thy Blood,
Thy Baptism, Thy Fasting, Thy Temptation,
Thy Houselessness, Thy Hunger,
Thy Weariness, Thy Thirst,
Thy Sleeplessness, Thy Injuries:
Thy patience, endurance, Thy apprehension as a thief, bonds,
By Gethsemane, Gabbatha, Golgotha,
Thy obedience unto Death, Thy endurance to the Cross:
Let my prayer ascend; Turn not away Thine Ear.

All prayer is essentially Eucharistic, when it does not merely acknowledge but holds up before God a remembrance of the life of Christ to God, just as Christ himself presents it evermore before his Father’s throne.

NOW what Christ does always in a proper and most glorious manner, the ministers of the gospel also do in theirs; commemorating the sacrifice upon the cross, “giving thanks,” and celebrating a perpetual eucharist for it, and “by declaring the death of Christ,” and praying to God in the virtue of it, for all the members of the church, and all persons capable; it is in genere orationis, a sacrifice, and an instrument of propitiation, as all holy prayers are in their several proportions.

Bishop Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667). The Divine Institution Of The Office Ministerial, §V.1-2

See Introduction to the Litany, by the Revd William Bright D.D. (1824-1901).

The Visitation (15th century)

TODAY is the feast of the Visitation, the day when Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, went to see her cousin Elizabeth, and sang her famous hymn of praise, My Soul Doth Magnify The Lord (Lk 1:39-56).

WHEN Mary says, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour; and that, because he had regarded her low estate: she only utters what all have equal reason to express, to whom the mystery of godliness is revealed.

For so St. Peter describes the Christian’s feelings towards the Redeemer: (1. i. 8,) “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.”

The Christian rejoices in God his Saviour, as being to him all that he most needs and desires, “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”

He rejoices, as the debtor, released from his obligations by the bounty of a disinterested benefactor, would rejoice in the name of him through whom he was enjoying his daily freedom.

He rejoices, as a criminal at the mention of the intercessor to whose favour he is indebted for liberty and life.

If we can realize to ourselves what these would feel, we can understand how our spirit ought to rejoice in God our Saviour.

But we have still further reason to rejoice in him, as strengthening and refreshing our souls day by day.

He has not only relieved those who trust in him from the consequences of past transgression, but enables them to live as those who are “redeemed from all iniquity:” he is not only the Benefactor who has purchased their freedom, but he gives them power to “stand fast in the liberty wherewith he hath made them free from the law of sin and death.”

So that whether the Christian looks to the natural condition out of which he is raised, or to the gracious condition in which he is placed, or to the hope which is set before him, he has perpetual cause to say, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour.

John Bird Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury. A Practical Exposition Of The Gospel According To St. Luke. On Luke 1:39-55

Magnificat by Thomas Tomkins (1572 – 1656).

Composed in the “verse anthem” style, with organ accompaniment. One verse is taken here by a bass solo, and the next is sung in harmony by the rest of the choir.

A few years later, all such music was proscribed by the Puritans.

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)

THE way in which St Stephen rehearses the history of Israel’s dealings with God in this morning’s second reading (Acts 7:1-34) strongly echoes the Psalmist in Psalm 78.

THEY kept not the covenant of God : and would not walk in his law;
But forgat what he had done : and the wonderful works that he had shewed for them.

But where the Psalmist took the catalogue of God’s gracious dealings as far as David, Stephen’s point was that Jesus was always the intended crown upon God’s merciful plan for his people.

Christ it is who is “the mystery hid from ages and from generations” (Col 1:26), “the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory” (1 Cor 2:7), “the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8; 1 Pet 1:20).

Patient in withholding the execution of his justice upon us, God was all impatience to pardon us – to pardon before we had even sinned, and to choose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4).

GOD pardoned us before we sinned; and when he foresaw our sin, even mine and yours, he sent his son to die for us; our pardon was wrought and effected by Christ’s death, above sixteen hundred years ago; and for the sins of to-morrow, and the infirmities of the next day, Christ is already dead, already risen from the dead, and does now make intercession and atonement.

And this is not only a favour to us who were born in the due time of the gospel, but to all mankind since Adam: for God, who is infinitely patient in his justice, was not at all patient in his mercy; he forbears to strike and punish us, but he would not forbear to provide cure for us and remedy.

For, as if God could not stay from redeeming us, he promised the Redeemer to Adam in the beginning of the world’s sin; and Christ was the lamb slain from the beginning of the world; and the covenant of the gospel, though it was not made with man, yet it was from the beginning performed by God as to his part, as to the ministration of pardon; the seed of the woman was set up against the dragon as soon as ever the tempter had won his first battle: and though God laid his hand, and drew a veil of types and secrecy before the manifestation of his mercies; yet he did the work of redemption, and saved us by the covenant of faith, and the righteousness of believing, and the mercies of repentance, the graces of pardon, and the blood of the slain lamb, even from the fall of Adam to this very day, and will do till Christ’s second coming.

Sermon XXVII: The Miracle Of The Divine Mercy (Part III).

St Mary's Church, Dalham. © Bob Jones, Geograph. Used under licence.

WE, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. (2 Pet 3)

Traditional Anglicanism holds out the hope of heaven, and let it be said also the fear of hell, as a real and powerful motivation to repentance and amendment of life.

AND to have this our Redeemer ever before our eyes, and the liveliest sense and freshest remembrance of that dying, bleeding love still upon our souls! How will it fill our souls with perpetual joy, to think, that in the streams of this blood we have swam through the violence of the world, the snares of Satan, the seducements of flesh, the curse of the law, the wrath of an offended God, the accusations of a guilty conscience, and the vexing doubts and fears of an unbelieving heart, and are arrived safe at the presence of God!

Richard Baxter (1615-1691)

Of this heavenly life we have a mystic anticipation in our liturgy. We have left the earth; we are suddenly found really present with Christ, before God’s own altar in heaven.

SO saith St Hierom, “Let us go up with the Lord” (into heaven) “into that great parlour, spread and clean: and let us receive of him above the cup of the new testament.” …

Let us die with Christ; let us be crucified unto the world. Let us be holy eagles, and soar above. Let us go up into the great parlour, and receive of our Lord the cup of the new testament.

There let us behold the body that was crucified for us, and the blood which was shed for us. There let us say, This is the ransom of the world: this was once offered, and hath made perfect for ever all them that believe: this entered once into the holy place, and obtained everlasting redemption for us: this standeth always in the presence of God, and maketh intercession for us: this is the “Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world:” by this body I am now no more earth and ashes: by this, I am now not a bondman, but made free.

This body hath broken the gates of hell, and hath opened heaven. In this are all the treasures of God’s mercy: by this the prince of darkness is cast forth: in this body shall he come again to judge the quick and the dead.

Bishop John Jewel (1522-1571)

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth (Edgar Bainton).

AND I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
(See Rev 21:1-4)

John Bird Sumner (1780-1862)

OUR morning readings and Psalm are all focused on a common theme: God’s providential guidance of his elect nation.

This gave determination to the Jews rebuilding Jerusalem under Nehemiah  (Neh 4); it emboldened the Apostles in prison, and was a caution to Gamaliel (Acts 5:17-41); our Psalm rejoices in it (Ps 107).

O THAT men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness : and declare the wonders that he doeth for the children of men!

Yet the inclusion of the Gentiles in their elect status was something that many Jews, even Christians, could not grasp.

And so, Archbishop John Bird Sumner (1780-1862) tells us, St Paul sharply reminded them that election is a privilege “entirely to the will of God, independent of any claim or merit on the part of the nations themselves”.

But could the Gentiles, facing hostility from Jewish Christians for not keeping the Law of Moses, trust this new-found election to hold? Was this New Covenant sure?

HE first consoles them by the assurance, that although the gloomy prospect around them might justly appear discouraging, yet persecution had been the fate of Christ, and must be expected as the fate of those who professed to follow him; that it was looked for as a proof of their faithfulness, and must not be deemed any argument of the absence of divine regard; since it had been part of God’s eternal purpose and counsel to make them partakers of his gracious dispensation, and call them to the covenant of the Gospel.

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs of God, and joint heirs with, Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” viii. 16.

Then, after a digression containing farther encouragement to patience, he proceeds, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” 28 & sqq.

In conclusion, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 35. 38, 39.

Apostolic Preaching Considered &c.. Chapter II.

St Vincent Of Lérins (d. 445)

ST Peter tells us in tonight’s reading (2 Pet 1),

WE have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

The classic expression of how we can tell cunningly devised fables from the catholic faith in all ages was given by St Vincent (d. ?445) of Lérins, a monastery on a small island near Cannes now called St-Honorat which gave us a series of fine scholars and bishops, including St Caesarius of Arles.

I HAVE often then inquired earnestly and attentively of very many men eminent for sanctity and learning, how and by what sure and so to speak universal rule I may be able to distinguish the truth of Catholic faith from the falsehood of heretical pravity; and I have always, and in almost every instance, received an answer to this effect: That whether I or any one else should wish to detect the frauds and avoid the snares of heretics as they rise, and to continue sound and complete in the Catholic faith, we must, the Lord helping, fortify our own belief in two ways; first, by the authority of the Divine Law, and then, by the Tradition of the Catholic Church.

But here some one perhaps will ask, Since the canon of Scripture is complete, and sufficient of itself for everything, and more than sufficient, what need is there to join with it the authority of the Church’s interpretation?

For this reason,—because, owing to the depth of Holy Scripture, all do not accept it in one and the same sense, but one understands its words in one way, another in another; so that it seems to be capable of as many interpretations as there are interpreters.

For Novatian expounds it one way, Sabellius another, Donatus another, Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, another, Photinus, Apollinaris, Priscillian, another, Iovinian, Pelagius, Celestius, another, lastly, Nestorius another.

Therefore, it is very necessary, on account of so great intricacies of such various error, that the rule for the right understanding of the prophets and apostles should be framed in accordance with the standard of Ecclesiastical and Catholic interpretation.

Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense “Catholic,” which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally.

This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent.

We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and doctors.

The Commonitory, II.4-6

Beverley Minster Interior, looking towards the High Altar

IN my current readings through Michael F. Sadler (1819-1895), I came across a defence of the Scriptural authenticity of the Prayer Book which struck me very forcibly.

It is not simply a matter of having lots of Scriptural quotations in it, though of course it does.

It is a matter of confessing the faith in a certain narrative form, rehearsing the pure and unvarnished Apostolic history of Christ amidst prayer and the Christian year, and not as a disembodied list of doctrinal statements abstracted from it by our own ingenuity.

In speaking as Scripture speaks, we are very much obeying St Peter’s call in tonight’s reading, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God” (1 Pet 4:7-19).

IN Scripture, what is now called “doctrine,” almost invariably comes in incidentally.  It is almost inextricably mixed up with narrative, history, and practical teaching.

It  is almost always suggested by circumstances which must be understood and taken into full account if we would ascertain the exact view which the writer himself or his original  readers took of the doctrine. …

Scripture is not a collection of texts arranged in order after the manner of Bishop Gastrell’s “Institutes,” or Chalmer’s “Scripture References.” Its order is of an immeasurably higher character, and betokens some far deeper design on God’s part than to furnish us with a magazine of texts wherewith to support some systematic view of His truth. …

The Prayer-book, then, is scriptural on the subject, of all others, of the greatest moment, which is, the exhibition of the Gospel under the form in which it is presented to us in Scripture.

The Gospel appears in Scripture as the record or proclamation of the Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus; and the Church, in her yearly round of Fast and Festival, and in her daily offering of Prayer and Praise, fastens the attention of her children on that outward, objective, historical view of the Gospel, which the Scripture puts immeasurably before every other.

Church Doctrine, Bible Truth

See more by Michael Ferrebee Sadler.

Worcester Cathedral. © Philip Halling, Geograph. Used under licence.

THIS morning’s reading from Acts finds the Apostles going up to the Temple at the ninth hour (Acts 3).

This was the time of the evening sacrifice, which has found its fulfilment in the crucifixion of Jesus as the true Lamb of God (cf. Mk 15:34), commemorated now in Evening Prayer (see Bishop Beveridge).

One might have expected Jesus’s followers to turn their back on the Temple immediately, as a relic of a superstitious cult abolished by Christ’s death on the cross.

Yet St Paul continued to be diligent in attending the Temple at the pilgrimage feast of Pentecost (Acts 20:16), and was at pains to show that as a Jew, he himself kept the Law of Moses and respected the Temple when among Jews (Acts 21:17-26).

Paul Christianised such observances, keeping them “unto the Lord” (Rom 14:6); but he nevertheless did so in the Temple whenever he could (see Mark Frank).

For George Hickes (1642-1715), Dean of Worcester, the New Testament writers did not describe the earthly Christian minister as a ‘priest’ (ἱερεῦς) out of respect for the priests of the Old Dispensation still functioning in God’s Temple (cf. Heb 8:4).

THIS forbearance in the holy Penmen to use the Greek Words for Temple, when they spoke of the places appropriated to Christian Worship, as well as their long silence of our Saviour’s Priesthood, and omitting in Greek to call his Ministers Priests, seems to proceed from one common cause, I mean, from some regard they had to the Jewish Religion, which principally consisted in the Temple-Oeconomy, and Priesthood, that was in being not only when our Lord, the Founder of the new Sion, and new Jerusalem was upon Earth, but was also to continue for some time after his Ascension, till the Destruction of the old Temple [in AD 70], and the old Jerusalem, which happened about 72 Years after his Birth, and 39 after his Ascension .

Every one, who well considers this, will grant that there are apparent Reasons, why during that part of this period, our Lord was conversant upon Earth, he would not declare himself to the Jews to be the Antitype of their High Priest, that is, to be a Priest, as well as a King, and Prophet. …

They knew the Temple Worship was to continue to the Destruction of Jerusalem; and that in the mean time it was to be decently treated by them, and as they had still a Right to the Temple, and owned the God of the Temple: So they were obliged by the Will of their Lord, and all the Rules of Religious Prudence to comply as far, as they could consistently with preaching up Jesus, with the Temple-Worship, and the Law of Moses, that thereby they might more easily convert the Jews; and when they were converted, keep them firm in their Communion from relapsing to Judaism again.

Christian Priesthood Asserted. Chapter III.

See also Priesthood.

Late 14th-early 15th century font in the Church of The Holy Ghost, Crowcombe, Somerset. © Trish Steele, Geograph. Used under licence.

WE know that we are not justified for any worth of our own, nor do we turn to God, or deserve to receive his Holy Spirit, from any strength of our own.

St Luke tells us in this morning’s reading (Acts 2:22-46), that it is exposure to the Gospel that turns hearts towards God, planting that first seed of grace in our hearts; and that it is Baptism which pours out the Holy Ghost upon us.

NOW when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Herein lies an indispensable, redeeming gift of free grace. Baptism is not an adjunct to justifying faith: it is part of justifying faith.

THE grant of salvation is said in Scripture to be made over to no one on his merely believing, no matter how sincere his belief. His belief is always supposed to lead to, and to be, as it were, completed in Baptism; in accordance, in fact, with our Lord’s words, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” and “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”

Thus to the question, “Men and brethren, what shall we do [to be saved]?” St. Peter answers, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:37-38). Again, the preaching of Philip respecting Jesus was of such a sort that it called forth from the Ethiopian eunuch the question, “See, here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized?” (Acts 8:36).

To St. Paul also it was said by Ananias, to whom the Lord had sent him, that from him the Apostle should learn what he had to do, “Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins” (Acts 22:16); and as soon as St. Paul had told the Philippian jailer that he was to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it is significantly said that “He took them the same hour, and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his, straightway” (Acts 16:33).

So that salvation, as a past act of God for the world, is connected with the accomplishment of that Salvation in the Death and Resurrection of Christ; and the formal assignment of a part in this salvation to each individual is connected by the sacred writers, not with a man’s first exercising faith, but with his submission to receive holy Baptism.

Michael Ferrebee Sadler (1819-1895). Justification Of Life.

See more on Baptism, and by Michael Ferrebee Sadler.

Salisbury Cathedral

ST PETER speaks in our New Testament reading this evening of Baptism (1 Pet 3:8-4:6).

Article XXVII “Of Baptism” states in the clearest terms that Anglicans hold to the catholic doctrine of Baptismal regeneration.

BAPTISM is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from other that be not christened, but is also a sign of regeneration or new birth (Jn 3:3-8; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15), whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the Church (1 Cor 12:12-13); the promises of the forgiveness of sin (Rom 6:1-6), and of our adoption to be the sons of God (Gal 3:25-27), by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed (Eph 4:30; Eph 1:13-14; 2 Cor 1:21-22); faith is confirmed, and grace increased (Eph 4:4-7) by virtue of prayer unto God. The baptism of young children is in any wise to be retained in the Church as most agreeable with the institution of Christ (Mt 19:13-15).

However, Article IX very properly warns that this is not a fait accompli. Writing of Baptismal regeneration, the Revd Glocester Ridley (1702-1774), a Prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral, explained that “all saving grace attainable in this life is comprehended under these two general heads — illumination, or believing with the heart, and sanctification of the Spirit to obedience”, but also that these things do not all come at once.

THIS wonderful change in all our faculties, as it were annihilating our former selves, and making other creatures of us than we were before, is also, at its commencement, called “regeneration”.

Not that this change is at once, or at all perfected in this world, so as that none of the dregs of our old nature and original corruption remain; our Christian course is only a “going on” (Heb 6:1) to perfection, and not the arrival at it; it is the abounding “more and more” (1 Thess 4:1), and not a full attainment.

The guilt of original corruption may be blotted out, and the punishment remitted; but the stain continues and sullies our best performances. The blood of Christ once shed did not wash it out; but the graces of the Holy Spirit repeated and continued, gradually diminish it.

So that regeneration, if it be applied to the whole and entire change of a man, is a progressive state, the perfection of which is in another world, the commencement and degrees in this.

The commencement of it, when, instead of children of wrath, we are received into God’s favour, and have the Spirit given us as a principle of new life, gradually to unfold itself hereafter, as we shall nourish and comply with it, is usually called more particularly our regeneration, as it is our being born of the Spirit, and is the first beginning of a new and spiritual life.

Fourteen Sermons On The Divinity And Operations Of The Holy Spirit. Sermon III.

See more on Baptism, Sanctification, and by Glocester Ridley.