VIII.

THE OFFICIAL UNITING AND

T

BLESSING.

[Then the Minister shall say,

HOSE whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder.]

This branch of the Ceremony and the introduction, as the spiritually effective part of the whole, of these exquisitely appropriate words of our Lord Himself features which are peculiar to the English and American Rites-we owe indirectly, as has been explained,' to the studies of the great Luther. They seem, indeed, to have been used by the early Christians, and to be a part of the often mentioned "certa solemnia verba," though as to what precisely these words were, (the Marriage Rite being long among their unpublished mysteries), no testimonies, so far as known are

1 Page 72.

2" No Liturgies were committed to writing before the end of the 2d or even of the 3d century."-Procter, p. 305.

"In the persecutions under Diocletian and his associates, though a strict inquiry was made after the books of Scripture and other things belonging to the church, which were often delivered

now extant."

The words under consideration constitute in a peculiar sense the "certa solemnia verba" of our Rite. The twain having been previously prepared, as to each other, are by this act cemented together forever.

By way of an outside view, we have just spoken of this union as thus cemented. A strict regard, however, to the profounder nature of it, would reject this term as savoring too much of a mechanical bond. For this union is, if we may so speak, of the nature, not of a mechanical joining, but of a chemical uniting. It is not one which holds two distinct entireties together by any kind of cement; but that which, by the eternal laws of God, like those in which the chemical affinities act, dissolves two existences into one. The eternally established proportions and conditions of the two being given, they coalesce into one new being-new and single in its status in the universe, new and single in the pur

up by the traditores to be burnt, we never read of any Ritual books. delivered up among them."-Bingham, Antiq

uities, xiii. v. 3.

This explains also in part the long time (two or three years) during which Catechumens were commonly kept back from full communion, namely until they could repeat from memory not only the creed, etc., but the Liturgies and forms of Divine service.

3 The same holds of the ancient Egyptians, not a fragment of whose Marriage Rite is now known-an evidence that the Ceremony among them was religious and a mystery."

poses for which it exists. For neither of the units of which this new existence is comprised, remain the same they were before that union, but are both changed by the processes of union, not only in their powers and relations to one another, but to all the world beside. Nor can any mechanical agency produce a true separation. Nothing can do that, but an agency which dissolves all earthly unions, in this case death itself, working by the same Divine laws, and causing a "precipitation" of one or the other party. Otherwise, the will of man cannot do it, and should not attempt it. "What God has joined together, asunder."

let not man put

994

It is very noteworthy, as part of the Ceremony of Protestant Christendom, that no other words

"The characteristics of the Marriage relation are, that it draws the parties from all the rest of society, and unites them into one family, forming new relationships of affinity; that it mingles their blood, and thus inaugurates a new stock of descent with all its complicated effects upon inheritances of property and relationships by consanguinity; that by the common law it effects a legal unity of the husband and wife, merging her legal existence for the time being almost entirely in his, and erecting him as the head of the family, bound for its support, and in a great measure responsible for its acts; and that it cannot, like mere civil contracts, be dissolved by the mutual consent of the parties, but must, in general, last until the death of one of them. Marriage thus changes the legal relations of the parties to each other and to all the rest of mankind. It is the corner stone of the family, around which are grouped the children with their

of men.

could indicate more distinctly the Religious relations of Marriage, and the authority of the Church in the union-whatever human laws or customs may allow or forbid-" What God hath joined." The statement of the formula is absolute-unconditional upon any dogmas or statutes It expresses the universal conviction and teaching of the Church, that this union is an act of God, on the Divine side, and of Religion on the human side, to be executed by the Church through her Ministers, as the agents of the Highest; and, appealing, (as she gives solemn notice in the opening publication,) to the final assize above, whatever human courts, whose jurisdiction reaches not to the internal and spiritual meaning of these sacred mysteries,' may decree or fail to peculiar relations, in which are centred the ties of blood, and by which are determined many of the dispositions of property. It gives the husband and wife rights and duties toward each other's persons and property; it gives them, as parents, rights and duties toward the persons and property of their children; and to the children rights and duties toward the persons and property of the parents."-Pomeroy, Elements of Municipal Law, Art. 742.

We use the word here in a purely Scriptural signification, (regardless of any sacramental or ecclesiastical sense which it may have acquired in some quarters); as by our Lord in Mark iv. 11, and often, “ Unto you [my followers, my Church] it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables ;" and by the Apostle, speaking of this very thing, in Eph. v. 32, “They two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery.”

decree, that this is one of those things concerning which she has received a spiritual jurisdiction, and that what she thus binds will be found bound on high, and what she thus looses, will be found also loosed there. This, too, is the foundation and significance of her pronouncing

THE FINAL BENEDICTION.

[The Minister shall add this Blessing: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost,' bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully with his favor look upon you, and fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace; that ye may so live together in this life, that in the world to come ye may have life everlasting. Amen.]

The Christian Church recognizes and perpetuates the commission entrusted to the ancient church, through her Divinely appointed Ministers, to be the channel for delivering a special and peculiar blessing from Almighty God upon those who worthily receive and employ His ordained institutions of religion and grace.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,

• Matt. xviii. 18.

Concerning the triune form see page 62 and following.