2 Cor. i. 3.

Ezek. xvii. 31,32, 2 Pet. iii. 9.

The Absolution or Remission of sins to be pronounced by the Priest alone, standing; the people still kneeling.

A

LMIGHTY God, the Father of

DOM

A D. 900

our Lord Jesus Christ, who de

Ezek. xxxiii. 11. rather that he may turn from his

by the Priest alone, standing] This Rubric stood in the form "by the Minister alone," until 1661. Bishop Cosin altered it to "by the Minister alone standing, and all the people still kneeling," and his alteration subsequently developed into the existing words before the revision was completed. The reason for inserting the word "standing" was that some of the clergy had been accustomed to read it on their knees, although, as Bishop Andrewes wrote, "because he speaks it authoritativè, in the name of Christ and His Church, the Minister must not kneel, but stand up," and this posture was observed by the majority. The other three words, "the Priest alone," have a history which fixes their meaning. At the Savoy Conference of 1661, the Presbyterians' 11th "exception" to the Prayer Book was to the effect that as the word " Minister was used in the rubric before the Absolution, and not "Priest," or "Curate," therefore it should be used instead of those words throughout the book. To this it was replied by the Church of England Commissioners that it would be unreasonable to use the word Minister alone, for "since some parts of the Liturgy may be performed by a Deacon, others by none under the order of a Priest, viz., Absolution, Consecration, it is fit that some such word as Priest should be used for those officers, and not Minister, which signifies at large every one that ministers in that holy office, of what Order soever he be." The word "Minister" had formerly been used as identical with "Priest," as may be seen by the 32nd Canon, which forbids Bishops to "make any person, of what qualities or gifts soever, a Deacon and a Minister both together in one day." This distinctive meaning had now passed away, and "Ministers" was colloquially the name for Dissenting preachers, and for Clergymen of every Order. By the insertion of the new word, therefore, the whole Rubric was intended to enjoin, not only that the congregation are not to repeat the Absolution, as they have repeated the Confession, but also that it must not be said by a Deacon. If a Deacon says Morning or Evening Prayer, in the presence of a Priest, the latter should say the Absolution, and if no Priest is present, the Deacon should make a pause, to give opportunity for the offering up of a short secret prayer by himself and the congregation, and then pass on to the Lord's Prayer.

The Absolution was composed by the Revisers of 1552, evidently with the old form of Absolution, which was used in the Prime and Compline Services, before them. There is also some similarity between the opening words and those of a Prayer which was placed at the end of the Litany in the Primer of 1535; and which again, from the prayer, "forgive us now while we have time and space," seems to have been founded on the ancient Absolution, with its "spatium veræ pœnitentia," though the first part is identical with a Lenten Collect of St. Gregory's Sacramentary.

Some phrases, a good deal like those of our Absolution, are also found in the form of prayer got up by John à Lasco, or Laski, a Polish refugee, for the German congregation which he was allowed to gather together at Austin-friars in London; but the

Martene i 803,

814.

Deus omnipotens Salvator et Re- 1 id. i. 790. demptor generis humani, qui apostolis suis dedit potestatem ligandi atque solvendi ipse te absolvere dignetur... ... Misereatur vestri omnipotens Deus, Salisbury Use. et dimittat vobis omnia peccata vestra:

likeness is not such as to make it probable that the English form was derived from his Latin one, though it does rather indicate that both were in part derived from some such originals as those printed in the text above.

Two questions have been raised with respect to this form of Absolution. First, whether those who composed it, and placed it where it is, intended it for an Absolution of penitent sinners, or merely for a declaration of God's mercy. Secondly, whether, irrespective of their intention, it is so constructed as to be effective for the remission of sins.

(1) The first question is all but decided by the title. Here, in the Communion Service, and in the Prayers to be used at Sea, the same word, "Absolution," is used for designating two different forms; and in the Visitation of the Sick, the third form in use by the Church of England is spoken of in the direction " the Priest shall absolve him." It seems beyond all probability that this designation could have been used of all three forms without any verbal distinction, and yet that a real difference of meaning lay hidden under the use of it, and that to such an extent as to make it in one place contradictory of itself in another place. What the word "Absolution" in the rubrical title so far proves, is confirmed by the addition made to it at the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, when it was altered to the "Absolution, or remission of sins," clearly showing what opinion the Divines there assembled held respecting the intention with which the form was inserted fifty-one years before. It is still further confirmed by a note of Bishop Andrewes (one already quoted), in which, after saying that the Absolution is pronounced authoritativè, he adds, For authority of Absolution, see Ezek. xxxiii. 12. Job xxxiii. 23. Num. vi. 24. 2 Sam. xii. 13. John xx. 23." An examination of these passages of Scripture will show that Bishop Andrewes (one of the most learned theologians and Scriptural scholars that the Church of England has ever had) must certainly have supposed that this was intended for an actual Absolution; and that, in his opinion, it was such.

(2) The Absolution itself is constructed on a similar principle to that on which Collects are formed; and as the precatory part of a Collect is sometimes very short and condensed', so here the actual words of Absolution are only "He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe His holy Gospel." The preceding portion is a statement of the antecedent reasons-God's mercy, and the delegation of His authority-for pronouncing Absolution; and what follows is an authoritative exhortation to follow up the words of temporary confession and absolution with prayer for perseverance and final pardon. The words which thus form the essence of the Absolution are of a declaratory kind, while those in the old Morning and Evening Services of the Church were precatory, as may be seen from the original Latin form printed above, and its English translation in the note below; but the change has rather strengthened than weakened the force of the form adopted. Nor must we be led

1 See "Introduction to the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels."

Matt. vi. 9. 13.

The people shall answer here, and at the end of all other prayers, Amen.

Then the Minister shall kneel, and say the Lords Prayer with an audible voice; the People also kneeling, and repeating it with him, both here, and wheresoever else it is used in Divine Service.

Ἐλθέτω ἡ

away by the word "declaratory," so often used to distinguish this from the other two forms of Absolution used in the Prayer Book; for to " declare" God's pardon of sinners is to give effect to that pardon, as when the authorized subordinate of an earthly sovereign declares pardon in that sovereign's name. This form is, in fact, closely analogous to the formulary of Baptism used in the Eastern Church,- The servant of God (N.) is baptized in the Name of the Father, Amen, and of the Son, Amen, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen." And as these words are undoubtedly sufficient for fulfilling our Lord's words, "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," so are the absolving words of our Absolution sufficient to fulfil His other words, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them."

The special form in which the Absolution is moulded was probably adopted from a careful consideration of the use which was to be made of it. It is an Absolution uttered over a mixed congregation, and yet it can only be efficacious towards those who have honestly said the Confession as it is intended to be said. The conditions of pardon are therefore distinctly expressed, that the impenitent may not be misled, and take to themselves a forgiveness to which they have no claim. And as it is a public Absolution, "He pardoneth and absolveth" is adopted in analogy with the "tribuat vobis omnipotens et misericors Dominus," rather than the positive form, "by His authority I absolve,” as used in absolving individual penitents'.

The effect of this Absolution in the daily services of the Church is (1) to reconcile the Church, as a community, daily to her God, through the mercies of Christ; (2) to prepare each person present for the work of offering praise to Him; (3) to convey pardon of

The ancient form of Confession, Misereatur, and Absolution, was as follows, being used in the midst of the preces at Prime and Compline. The Priest, looking towards the Altar,

I confess to God, the Blessed Mary, and all the Saints [turning to the chor), and to you, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed, of my own fault [looking back to the Altar]. I beseech Holy Mary, all the Saints of God, and [looking back to the Choir] ye to pray for me. The Choir replies, turning to the Priest,

Almighty God have mercy upon you, and forgive you all your sins, deliver you from all evil, preserve and strengthen you in all goodness, and bring you to everlasting life. Amen.

Then the Choir, turning to the Altar,

I confess to God. ... to pray for me.

Then let the Priest say to the Choir, in the first person, if necessary,
Almighty God have mercy upon you.... . everlasting life. Amen.

The Almighty and merciful Lord grant you Absolution and Remission of all your sins. space for true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

sin to an extent correlative with the extent of penitence in those over whom it is uttered. As was said in the case of the general Confession, that it does not supersede a particular confession ; so it must be remembered that the general Absolution does not supersede a particular one. But the necessity for absolution is se great, that the Church has provided against any one being without it by this daily utterance of it, in which it is cast abroad as the Sower sowed his seed, or as God sends His rain upon the just and the unjust. It is a ministration in close analogy with the continual superabundance of the mercies of God in Christ, which flow down even to the skirts of our High Priest's clothing. According to the words, "freely ye have received, freely give," the Church casts her bread upon the waters in faith, believing that God's word of absolution will not return unto Him void. And for its efficiency, in the words of a recent writer, "all that is needed is that there be fit, i. e. truly repentant recipients of it; that secured, wheresoever it touches, it blesses and heals1."

The people shall answer] The words "here and at the end of all other prayers" were added by Bishop Cosin. He also wished to make a marked separation between the portion of the service ending with the Absolution, and that beginning with the Lord's Prayer. After the "Amen" to the former he wrote, "I'lace here a fleuron," and at the head of the Lord's Prayer, over leaf, he has made a note, "Set here a faire compartment (ornamental page-heading) before this title." And although he has not erased the previous title before the Sentences, he has here repeated it," An Order for Morning Prayer." He probably contemplated the occasional use of a short service, from which all before the Lord's Prayer was to be omitted. In the first series of his notes on the Prayer Book (Works, v. 47), Bishop Cosin has also written on the Lord's Prayer, "Here begins the service; for that which goes before is but a preparation to it, and is newly added in King Edward's Second Book, in imitation of the Liturgy and Mass of the Church of Rome. But as their hours begin with the Lord's Prayer, so begins our mattins, and the high service of the altar. And they begin as they should do, for this was the ancient custom of the Christians, when they were met together to pray; they said that prayer for a foundation and a beginning of all the rest, which Christ Himself had taught them." [Cf. Works ii. 9.]

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Then the Minister] From 1552 to 1661, the Rubric stood, "Then shall the Minister begin the Lord's Prayer with a loud voice." Before 1552, it had been "The Priest being in t

1 Principles of Divine Service, i. 317.

and ever.

Amen.

Then likewise he shall say, O Lord, open thou our lips.

Answer.

praise.

Priest.

O God, make speed to save us.

Answer.

O Lord, make haste to help us.

quire, shall begin with a loud voice the Lord's Prayer, called the Paternoster." It was altered to its present form by Bishop Cosin. The mattins began here in the Prayer Book of 1549; and before that time, the Lord's Prayer was said secretly by the Priest, the public part of the service beginning with the "Domine, labia mea aperies," as is shown in the Latin Rubric printed before that versicle.

with him] That is, simultaneously, clause by clause. wheresoever it is used in Divine Service] Bishop Cosin overlooked the Rubric immediately before the Lord's Prayer in the Communion Service, which directs the priest to say it, without any direction as to the people. It is not likely that there was any intention of overriding that Rubric by this.

The Doxology was added here in 1661, but not by Bishop Cosin, who wrote among some "Directions to be given to the printer," "Never print the Lord's Prayer beyond-deliver us from evil. Amen." The Doxology is supposed not to have been in the original of St. Matthew, as it is not in St. Luke. In the ancient Liturgies of the East, after "deliver us from evil" (said, with the rest of the prayer, by the people), the priest offers a prayer against the evil and the Evil One, called the Embolismus; and the Doxology is then sung by the people. Probably this is a primitive usage; and the antiphon so sung has crept into the text of the Gospel.

The paraphrase of Bishop Andrewes, in his note on the Lord's Prayer here, is very concise and instructive.

Our Father. Etsi læsus est, Pater est.

Which art in Heaven. Eminenter, non inclusive.
Hallowed be Thy Name. In me, per me, super me.

Thy Kingdom come. Ut destruatur regnum peccati, per quod regnavit mors et diabolus.

In earth. In me, qui sum terra.

In heaven. A sanctis angelis.

Give us this day our daily. Pro necessitate.

Bread. Proprium, licite acquisitum, supercolestem et corpo

Sacerdos statim. Deus in adjutorium meum intende.

R. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.

some special relation to some peculiar member. For the first petition may not unfitly be thought the prayer of angels; the second, the prayer of the saints departed; the third, the prayer of the faithful living; the fourth, the prayer of all creatures; the fifth, the prayer of penitent sinners; the sixth, the prayer of infants."

The various modes in which saints have used this Divine prayer with a special intention, are almost infinite; and it would be well for every one to follow their example, by having such a special intention in view whenever it is said in the Services of the Sanctuary. In this place, at any rate, it should be offered up as the complement and crown of the Absolution and Confession, on the one hand; and laid hold of, on the other hand, as a mediatorial key, by which the door of heaven is to be opened for the ascent of the Church's praises to the Throne of God. It is a prayer, says the old " Mirroure," that said in the Unity of the Church, is never unsped.

Some ancient English versions of the Lord's Prayer will be found in the notes to Evening Prayer; where also will be found an exposition and a paraphrase; the one, an ancient one, illustrating the general meaning of the Lord's Prayer; the other, modern, drawing out its fulness as a prayer for the Unity of the Church, according to the method of special intention above suggested.

THE VERSICLES.

O Lord, open Thou] These versicles and responses have been used time immemorial as the opening of the daily service of praise which the Church continually offers to God. They are mentioned in the rule of St. Benedict (the great founder of the Benedictine order, which guarded and expressed the devotional system of the Church for so many ages, and who died in A.D. 543), as the prefatory part of the service; and he probably adopted them from the previous custom of the Church; the two Psalms from which they are taken having been used at the beginning of the daily Offices in the East from the earliest ages. Taken from such a source, with only the change from the singular to the plural number in the pronouns1, they form a most fitting prefix

1 This change of pronouns was made in 1552. A reason for retaining the singular is given in an old exposition of the services. "And take heed that all this verse, both that part that is said of one alone, and that that is answered of all together, are said in the singular number; as when ye say 'mine,' or 'me,' and not 'our,' or ' us,' in token that ye begin your praising and prayer in the person of holy Church, which is one, and not many. For though there be many members of holy Church, as there are many Christian men and women, yet they make one body, that is holy Church, whereof Christ is the Head." Mirror xli. The same commentary explains, that "O Lord, open thou my lips," and its response, were used only at Mattins, because all the day after the lips should remain ready for God's praises. ["The Mirroure of our Ladye" is a commentary on the daily Services, written for the Nuns of Sion, and printed in 1530.]

to the Psalmody which is so integral a portion of Divine Service. Except the Lord open our lips, we cannot show forth His praise with the heart. They are the "Sursum Corda" of the Daily Service, and yet have a tone of humility and even penitence, given to them by their derivation from the fifty-first and seventieth Psalms. It is probably to express this penitential tone that the musical note to which the first of them is said by the Priest is always a low one, being depressed as much as a fifth from the pitch in which the Lord's Prayer has been recited: and also that we continue kneeling till the Gloria Patri. The second versicle is a paraphrase of the " Hosanna,"-Save, Lord, we beseech Thee,with which our Lord was led in triumph to the Temple.

GLORIA PATRI.

The beautiful dogmatic anthem which is here used for the first time in the service is of primitive origin, and, if not an independently inspired form, is naturally traceable to the angelic hymns in Isaiah vi. 3, and Luke ii. 13, the Trinitarian form of it being equally traceable to that of the baptismal formula ordained by our Lord in Matt. xxviii. 19. Clement of Alexandria, who wrote before the end of the second century, refers to the use of this hymn under the form, Αἰνοῦντες τῷ μόνῳ πατρὶ καὶ υἱῷ καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι, "giving glory to the one Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," and a hymn of about the same date is printed by Dr. Routh, in which there is an evident trace of the same custom : ὑμνοῦμεν πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν, καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα Θεοῦ, “ Praise we the Father and Son, and Holy Spirit of God." It is also referred to even earlier by Justin Martyr. The Arian heretics made a great point of using Church phraseology in their own novel and heretical sense; and they adopted the custom of singing their hymn in the form, "Glory be to the Father, by the Son, and in the Holy Ghost," which evaded the recognition of each Person as God. It thus became necessary for the Church to adopt a form less capable of perversion; and in ancient liturgies it is found as it is still used in the Eastern Church, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and ever, world without end." In the Western Church, the second part, "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end," has been used for nearly as long a period, being found ordered in the fifth Canon of the Council of Vaison, presided over by Cæsarius of Arles, in A.D. 529. The use of the hymn in this place, after the Domine ad adjurandum, is also recognized by the rule of St. Benedict a few years further on in the sixth century; and it is

:

found so placed in the earliest English services, those which are usually called "Anglo-Saxon." It also occurs in the same posi tion in the daily offices of the Eastern and the Roman Churches at the present day so that the Church throughout the world opens its lips day by day with the same words of faith in the Blessed Trinity, and of devout praise to each Person; worshipping one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. The addition of the succeeding versicle and response gives to this unity of praise on earth a further likeness to the unity of praise which was revealed to St. John: "And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (Rev. xix. 6).

In the Prayer Book of 1549 the old usage of saying the Hallelujah" from Easter to Trinity Sunday in this place was continued. It was expunged altogether in 1552; restored in the English form, Praise ye the Lord," and for constant use, in the Elizabethan revision. The response to it, "The Lord's Name be praised," is first found in the Scottish Prayer Book of 1637, and was inserted here in 1661. The latter represents in an unvarying form the variable invitatories which used to precede the Venite in the old Latin services.

There are two old customs still kept up with respect to the Gloria Patri. The one is that of turning to the East, as in the recitation of a Creed, whenever it is said or sung in Divine Service; an usage enjoined in the ancient Psalter of the Church of England, and still observed, e. g. at Manchester Cathedral. The other custom is a more general one, that of reverently inclining the head during the first half of the hymn, as a humble gesture recognizing the Divine glory of each of the Three Persons, and in imitation of the gesture of the angels, who veil their faces with their wings when singing to the glory of the Trinity in the vision of Isaiah. An old Canon of the Church of England enjoins: "Quotiesque dicitur Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, ad eadem verba Deo humiliter se inclinent." Wilkins' Conc. iii. 20. And in the Mirroure," there is the direction, "Ye incline at Gloria Patri."

Bishop Cosin wished to revive the use of Invitatories on Sundays, having inserted this Rubric in the Prayer Book which was laid before the Revisers of 1661, immediately after "Praise ye the Lord" " And upon any Sunday, or Lord's Day, this com

Mal. i 14.

Al. hands.

See Exhort. and Gen. Conf.

For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are all the corners of the earth and the strength of the hills is his also.

The sea is his, and he made it and his hands prepared the dry land.

O come, let us worship, and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For he is the Lord our God and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the Wilderness;

When your Fathers tempted me: proved me, and saw my works.

memoration of His rising from the dead shall be said or sung. Priest, Christ is risen againe, &c. And upon the feast of Easter, Christ, our Passover, is offered up for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, &c., ut in die Pasch. Then shall be said or sung," the Venite as we now have it.

Then shall be said or sung] This Rubric, as altered by Bishop Cosin, has great historical value, for the illustration that it gives of the mode in which the Psalms were intended to be said or sung. It is as follows: "Then shall be said or sung this Psalme following (except on Easter Day, when another Anthem is appointed), one verse by the priest, and another by the people; and the same order shall be observed in all psalmes and hymns throughout this Book. But in colledges, and where there is a Quire, the same shall be sung by sides, as hath bin accustomed." In the third series of his notes on the Prayer Book, there are also these remarks on the response, 66 And our mouth shall shew forth Thy praise:" "This is the answer of all the people. In the second book of Edward VI. the word 'Choir' is every where put for our word Answer;' and by making this answer, they promise for themselves that they will not sit still to hear the psalms and hymns read only to them, as matter of their instruction; but that they will bear a part in them with the priest, and keep up the old custom still of singing, and answering verse by verse, as being specially appointed for the setting forth of God's praise; whereunto they are presently invited again by the minister, in these words, Praise ye the Lord.' So that our manner of singing by sides, or all together, or in several parts, or in the people's answering the priest in repeating the psalms and hymns, is here grounded; but if the minister say all alone, in vain was it for God's people to promise God, and to say, that their mouth also should shew forth His praise." [Works, v. 445.]

VENITE EXULTEMUS.

This Psalm has been used from time immemorial as an introduction to the praises of Divine Service; and was probably adopted by the Church from the services of the Temple1. It was perhaps such a familiar use of it in both the Jewish and the Christian system of Divine Service, which led to the exposition of it given in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews,

1 In the Eastern Church an epitome of the first three verses is used, but in the Latin and English Churches it has always been used entire.

where the Apostle is showing the connexion between the two dispensations, and the way in which all belief and worship centres in our Divine High Priest and perpetual Sacrifice.

In one of St. Augustine's sermons he plainly refers thus to the ritual use of the Venite: "This we have gathered from the Apostolic lesson. Then we chanted the Psalm, exhorting one another, with one voice, with one heart, saying, 'O come, let us adore, and fall down before Him, and weep before the Lord who made us.' In the same Psalm too, Let us prevent His face with confession, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms.' After these the lesson of the Gospel showed us the ten lepers cleansed, and one of them, a stranger, giving thanks to his cleanser" (St. Aug. Serm. Ben. ed. 176, Oxf. trans. 126). Durandus, in his Rationale of Divine Offices, says that this psalm was sung at the beginning of the service to call the congregation out of the church-yard into the church; and that it was hence called the Invitatory Psalm ; but probably this was a local or temporary use of it, and does not represent the true spirit of its introduction into the Morning Service. It is far more likely that its comprehensive character, as an adoration of Christ, was that which moved the Divine Instinct wherewith the Church is endowed to place this psalm in the forefront of her Service of Praise.

Until the translation of our Offices into English it was the custom to sing the Venite in a different manner from that now used; with the addition, that is, of Invitatories. These were short sentences (varied according to the ecclesiastical season) which were sung before the first verse, after each of the five verses into which it was then divided, and also after the Gloria Patri at the end. Thus in Trinity Season, "Laudemus Jesum Christum; quia Ipse est Redemptor omnium sæculorum," would be sung before and after the first, and also after the third and fifth of the divisions indicated in the Latin version above. After the second, fourth, and Gloria Patri, would be sung Quia Ipse est Redemptor omnium sæculorum" only; and at the conclusion the whole of the Response, as at the beginning. These Invitatories were altogether set aside, as regards the Venite, in 1519; and, as has been already shown, the "Sentences" were substituted for them at the commencement of Divine Service in 1552. Thus reduced to its psalter simplicity, the Venite Exultemus is used before the Psalms every morning, except upon Easter Day, when a special Invitatory Anthem is substituted, which is printed

66