A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

The first council which decreed this invocation and intercession, is denounced by the Romanists themselves as schismatical and heretical; it was the Council at Constantinople, under Constantine Copronymus. Nor have all the researches of the Romish advocates availed to adduce from the early ages one single writer, layman or ecclesiastic, who has enjoined this practice as a duty. All that they have succeeded in showing is, that in the course of the first five centuries several individual writers are to be found who commend the practice as useful. Against these we will cite the following; and from a comparison of the passages cited on both sides, it will be clear that although, notwithstanding the reproof of the apostle, (Col. ii. 18,) the invocation of angels, and afterwards of saints, obtained in some places in the Christian Church, it was always an open point which men were free to reject or not, as they might think fit; and that, therefore, both the Council of Copronymus in the eighth century, and the Council of Trent in the sixteenth, were violating ecclesiastical tradition, when by their anathemas they sought to abridge Christian liberty by confirming a corrupt and foolish custom; especially when the caution of the apostle Paul, and the decree of the Council of Laodicea, are taken into consideration. It is a remarkable thing that, among all the liturgies which Messrs. Kirke and Berrington have cited in their volume, entitled, “The Faith of the Catholics,” Lond. 1830, amounting to eleven, only one is to be found, and that of the Nestorian heretics, containing an invocation to a saint for intercession:—thus showing how wide a distinction is to be drawn between the excited expressions of individual writers, and the authorized practice of the Church. All the other liturgies do no more than the Roman canon of the mass; viz. 1st, assume, generally, that the saints departed pray for the saints militant; and, 2ndly, pray to God to hear their intercessions. This is no more tantamount to an invocation of the saints, than a prayer to God for the assistance of the angels would be tantamount to a prayer to the angels themselves.—Perceval.

IRELAND. (See Church of Ireland.)

IRVINGITES. The followers of Edward Irving, a minister of the Scottish establishment, who was born in 1792, and died in 1834. In 1822, he was appointed to a Scotch presbyterian congregation, and for some years officiated in a chapel with great applause, but was at length deposed from his ministry by the presbytery, for holding an awful heresy concerning our blessed Lord, whose nature he considered as peccable, or capable of sin. He still continued, however, to act as minister of a congregation in London. Both in Scotland and in England he had many followers; and since his death Irvingism has found its way into Germany and other foreign countries. The first form which his party assumed was connected with certain notions concerning the millennium, and the immediately impending advent of our blessed Lord: and presently after, as precursors of the expected event, miraculous gifts of tongues, of prophecy, of healing, and even of raising the dead, were pretended to by his followers; though Irving himself never pretended to those more miraculous endowments. Superadded to these notions, was a singularly constructed hierarchy, of apostles, angels, &c. They affect the name of Apostolicals.

The Irvingites call themselves The Catholic and Apostolic Church; and the following sketch of the denomination was supplied by a member to Mr. Horace Mann, and printed by him in the Census Report of 1851.

“The body to which this name is applied make no exclusive claim to it: they simply object to be called by any other. They acknowledge it to be the common title of the one Church baptized into Christ, which has existed in all ages, and of which they claim to be members. They have always protested against the application to them of the term ‘Irvingites;’ which appellation they consider to be untrue and offensive, though derived from one whom, when living, they held in high regard as a devoted minister of Christ.

“They do not profess to be, and refuse to acknowledge that they are, separatists from the Church established or dominant in the land of their habitation, or from the general body of Christians therein. They recognise the continuance of the Church from the days of the first apostles, and of three orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, by succession from the apostles. They justify their meeting in separate congregations from the charge of schism, on the ground of the same being permitted and authorized by an ordinance of paramount authority, which they believe God has restored for the benefit of the whole Church. And so far from professing to be another sect in addition to the numerous sects already dividing the Church, or to be ‘the One Church,’ to the exclusion of all other bodies, they believe that their special mission is to reunite the scattered members of the one body of Christ.

“The only standards of faith which they recognise are the three creeds of the Catholic Church—the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene or Constantinopolitan Creed, and that called the Creed of St. Athanasius. The speciality of their religious belief, whereby they are distinguished from other Christian communities, stands in this: that they hold apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors, to be abiding ministries in the Church, and that these ministries, together with the power and gifts of the Holy Ghost, dispensed and distributed among her members, are necessary for preparing and perfecting the Church for the second advent of the Lord; and that supreme rule in the Church ought to be exercised, as at the first, by twelve apostles, not elected or ordained by men, but called and sent forth immediately by God.

“The congregations which have been authorized as above stated, are placed under the pastoral rule of angels or bishops, with whom are associated, in the work of the ministry, priests and deacons. The deacons are a distinct and separate order of ministers, taken from the midst of, and chosen by, the respective congregations in which they are to serve, and are ordained either by apostles or by angels receiving commission thereunto. The priests are first called to their office by the word through the prophets, (“no man taking this honour to himself,”) and then ordained by apostles; and from among the priests, by a like call and ordination, are the angels set in their places.

“With respect to the times of worship, the holy eucharist is celebrated, and the communion is administered, every Lord’s day, and more or less frequently during the week, according to the number of priests in each particular congregation; and, where the congregations are large, the first and last hours of every day, reckoning from 6 A. M. to 6 P. M., are appointed for Divine worship; and, if there be a sufficient number of ministers, there are, in addition, prayers daily at 9 A. M. and 3 P. M., with other services for the more special object of teaching and preaching.

“In the forms of worship observed, the prayers and other devotions to be found in the principal liturgies of the Christian Church are introduced by preference, wherever appropriate; and in all their services the bishops and clergy of the Catholic Church, and all Christian kings, princes, and governors, are remembered before God. It may also be observed, that in their ritual observances and offices of worship external and material things have their place. They contend that, as through the washing of water men are admitted into the Christian covenant, and as bread and wine duly consecrated are ordained to be used not merely for spiritual food, but for purposes of sacramental and symbolic agency, so also that the use of other material things, such as oil, lights, incense, &c., as symbols and exponents of spiritual realities, belongs to the dispensation of the gospel.