Q. xvi. How do penitents receive the benefit CHAP. of Absolution in the American Church? A. By admission to the Holy Communion. A. Yes. Absolution is nothing but the remission of the sins of the individual penitent absolved; that is, the application to his case of the merits of our Blessed Saviour. The Holy Communion, which the Church calls the most comfortable Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and in which she declares that the bread broken is a partaking of the Body of Christ, and the cup blessed is a partaking of the Blood of Christ, is the appointed means of conveying to individuals "remission of our sins and all other benefits of His passion.' 1 XXXIX ARTICLES, Art. xxviii. The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another; but rather it is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's death: insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith, receive the same, the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ; and likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ. HOMILIES. Of Common Prayer and Sacraments. Now with like, or rather more brevity, you shall hear how many Sacraments there be, that were instituted by our Saviour Christ, and are to be continued, and received of every Christian in due time and order, and for such purposes as our Saviour Christ willed them to be received. And as for the number of them, if they should be considered according to the exact signification of a Sacrament-namely, for the visible signs expressly commanded in the New Testament, whereunto is annexed the promise of free forgiveness of our sins, and of our holiness and joining in Christ—there be but two; namely, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. For although Absolution hath the promise of forgiveness of sin; yet by the express word of the New Testament, it hath not this promise annexed and tied to the visible sign, which is imposition of hands. For this visible sign-I mean laying on of hands is not expressly commanded in the New Testament to be used in Absolution, as the visible signs in Baptism and the Lord's Supper are: and, therefore, Absolu XIV. PART I. tion is no such Sacrament as Baptism and the Communion are, and though the Ordering of ministers hath this visible sign and promise, yet it lacks the promise of remission of sin, as all other Sacraments besides the two above named do. Therefore, neither it, nor any other Sacrament else be such Sacraments as Baptism and the Communion are. COMMUNION OFFICE. Prayer next before the Prayer of Consecration. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his Blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His Body, and our souls washed through His most precious Blood. IBID. Invocation in the Prayer of Consecration. We most humbly beseech Thee, O merciful Father, to hear us; and of Thy Almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify with Thy Word and Holy Spirit, these Thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that we receiving them according to Thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of His death and passion, may be partakers of His most blessed Body and Blood. And we earnestly desire Thy fatherly goodness, mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; most humbly beseeching Thee to grant, that by the merits and death of Thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in His Blood, we and all Thy whole Church may obtain remission of sins, and all other benefits of His passion. And here we offer and present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto Thee; humbly beseeching Thee that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of Thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with Thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one Body with Him, that He may dwell in them and they in Him. IBID. Sentences on delivering of the Elements. The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul to everlasting life. The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul to everlasting life. IBID. Thanksgiving after receiving. We most heartily thank Thee, for that Thou dost vouchsafe to feed us, who have duly received these holy Mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of Thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, and dost assure us thereby of thy power and goodness towards us; and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical Body of Thy Son, which is the blessed company of all faithful people, and are only heirs, through hope of Thy everlasting Kingdom, by the merits of the most precious death and passion of Thy dear Son. 1 HOOKER, Ecc. Pol. V. lxvii. 7. Take, therefore, that wherein all agree, and then consider by itself what cause why the rest in question should not rather be left as superfluous than urged as necessary. It is on all sides plainly confessed, first, that this Sacrament is a true and real participation of Christ, who thereby imparteth Himself, even His whole entire person as a mystical Head, unto every soul that receiveth Him, and that every such receiver doth thereby incorporate or unite himself with Christ as a mystical member of Him, yea, of them also whom He acknowledgeth to be His own; secondly, that to whom the Person of Christ is thus communicated, to them He giveth by the same Sacrament His Holy Spirit, to sanctify them as it sanctifieth Him, which is their Head; thirdly, that what merit, force, or virtue soever there is in His Sacrificed Body and Blood, we freely, fully, and wholly have it by this Sacrament; fourthly, that the effect thereof in us is a real transubstantiation of our souls and bodies from sin to righteousness, from death and corruption to immortality and life; fifthly, that because the Sacrament being of itself but a corruptible and earthly creature must needs be thought an unlikely instrument to work so admirable effects in man, we are, therefore, to rest ourselves altogether upon the strength of His glorious power, who is able and will bring to pass, that the Bread and Cup which He giveth us, shall be truly the thing He promiseth. IBID. V. lxvii. 12. He which hath said of the one Sacrament, "wash and be clean," hath said concerning the other likewise, "eat and live." If, therefore, without any such particular and solemn warrant as this is, that poor distressed woman coming unto Christ for health could so constantly resolve herself, "may I but touch the skirt of his garment I shall be whole;" what moveth us to argue of the manner how life should come by bread, our duty being here but to take what is offered, and most assuredly to rest persuaded of this that can we but eat we are safe? IBID. V. lxvii. 12. ad finem. What these elements are in themselves it skilleth not, it is enough that to me which take them, they are the Body and Blood of Christ, His promise in witness hereof sufficeth. His word He knoweth which way to accomplish; why should any cogitation_possess the mind of a faithful communicant but this? O my God, Thou art true, O my soul, thou art happy. Q. xviii. Has the American Church the right to regulate this matter? CHAP. XIV. PART I. A. Certainly; it is one of those matters of traditions and ceremonies which may be regulated by every particular Church.1 1 XXXIX ARTicles, Art. xxxiv. It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, or utterly like; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word. Whosoever, through his private judgment, willingly and purposely, doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the Word of God, and be ordained and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked, (that others may fear to do the like,) as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church, and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate, and woundeth the consciences of the weak brethren. Every particular or national Church hath authority to ordain, change, and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by man's authority, so that all things be done to edifying. CHAPTER XV. PRIVILEGES IN THE CHURCH. Sacerdotal Intercession and Benediction. Q. 1. WHAT other benefits, besides those already considered, of doctrine, the Sacraments, and the exercise of the keys, do we derive from God through the ministry of the Church? A. Those of sacerdotal Intercession (vrevis) and Benediction (evλoyia.) Q. 2. You speak of sacerdotal Intercession; what do you understand by that term? A. I mean the act of the Minister praying for CHAP. the people, and presenting their prayers to God.1 1 Abp. POTTER on Church Government, ch. v. To present the people's prayers to God, and to intercede with Him to bless them, has always been reckoned an essential part of the Sacerdotal Office. Q. 3. What authority have we for believing that the prayers of special persons, as of Christian Ministers, have any peculiar efficacy with God? A. The authority of God's own Word, and the records therein contained of the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian Dispensations.1 1 HOOKER, V. xxv. 3. As the place of public prayer is a circumstance in the outward form thereof which hath moment to help devotion, so the Person much more with whom the people of God do join themselves in action, as with him that standeth and speaketh in the presence of God for them. The authority of his calling is a furtherance, because if God have so far received him into favour as to impose upon him by the hands of men that office of blessing the people in His Name, and making intercession to Him in theirs, which office he hath sanctified with his own most gracious promise (Numbers vi. 23,) and ratified that promise by manifest actual performance thereof, when (2 Chron. xxx. 27,) others before, in like place, have done the same; is not his very Ordination a seal, as it were, to us that the self-same Divine Love that hath chosen the instrument to work with, will by that instrument effect the thing whereto He ordained it, in blessing His people, and accepting the prayers which His servant offereth up unto God for them? Q. 4. To speak, first, of the efficacy of sacerdotal Intercession in Patriarchal times, can you give examples of it from Holy writ? XV. Job xlii. 8 A. Yes. God says to Abimelech, that He would heal him, when Abraham had prayed for Gen. xx.7.17. him, "for he is a prophet." He says to Job's i. 4, 5. friends, "My servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept."1 Abraham and Job in the Gen. xxii. Patriarchal dispensation were not only Fathers Job i. 5. |