UC-NRLF IlilllllllH B ? flDfl Ebb L-dxxro^^ i?u)v) bread and common (kolvov) wine ; but after those dread mvocations and the coming of the Adorable, Good, and Life-giving Spirit, the oblations laid on the Holy Table, are no more mere (filov) bread and common {kolvov) wine, but the precious and immaculate Body and Blood of Christ, the God of all." Migne, Patrologice GrcBccz, torn. 'Jf), p. 103. Saint Gregory of Nyssa says in the same way : " The bread again is thus far common bread, but when the mystery consecrates it, it is called and it becomes the Body of Christ." Migne, Patrologice GrcEC(2, torn. 46,/. 582. Saint Athanasius writes: "Thou wilt see the Levites (Deacons) bearing bread and a cup of wine ; and so long as the supplications and prayers have not yet taken place bare (fi^og) is the bread and cup ; but when the great and wonderful prayers have been completed over it, then the bread becometh the Body and the cup the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Sermo ad Baptizat. " Quoted by Eutych. de Pasch. in Card. Mai Biblioth. Nov. iv., 62 / also in Scriptt. Vett. Vat. Coll., ix., 623." Puseys Doctrine of Real Presence from the Fathers, p. 237. The Ancient Liturgies bear testimony also to the same belief. " Send down then on us, and on these loaves, and on these cups. Thy Holy Ghost, that He may sanctify and Il8 APPENDIX. perfect them, as God Almighty. And make this Bread the Body." {Liturgy of Saint Mark.) In the Liturgy of Saint James the words are : " Send down the same most Holy Ghost, Lord, upon us, and upon these holy and proposed gifts, that coming upon them with His Holy and good and glorious presence. He may hallow and make this bread the Holy Body of Thy Christ. . . . And this cup the precious Blood of Thy Christ." In the Liturgy of Saint Chrysostom we read : "And make this bread the precious Body of Thy Christ . . . and that which isinthiscup, the precious Blood of Thy Christ . . . chang- ing them by Thy Holy Ghost." Translations of the Primitive Liturgies, Neale and Littledale, pp. 24, 51, 115. Note IX. — The difference between Catholic and Ro- man teaching on this subject does not concern the Pres- ence itself but the mode or manner of the presence. The question is not as to whether there be a change, but whether there be such a change that the material substance of the elements ceases to be. Thorndike writes in his treatise on the Laws of the Church: "As it is by no means to be denied that the ele- ments are really changed, translated, turned, and con- verted into the Body and Blood of Christ . . . yet is not this change destructive to the bodily substance of the ele- ments but cumulative of them, with the Spiritual grace of Christ's Body and Blood." Thorndike' s Works, vol. iv., p. 82. Anglo- Cat ho lie Library. With regard to our differences with Rome on the sub- ject of the Eucharist, "All controversy is about the mode," says the saintly Launcelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winches- ter. The same views are frequently expressed by others of the Caroline Divines, such as Bishops Montague, Bil- son, Morton, and Overall, the latter the author of that HOLY EUCHARIST. II9 part of the Catechism which treats of the Sacraments. "Abate us T?ansubstantiation," says Bramhall, "and those things which are consequents of their determination of the manner of Presence, and we have no difference with them in this particular." Bramhalts Works, vol, iii., p. 165. Anglo-Catholic Library. " I cannot see where there is any real difference be- twixt us " (and the Church of Rome) " about this Real Presence if we would give over the study of contradic- tion, and understand one another right." Thus writes Bishop Cosin, in his notes on the book of Common Prayer, and adds, " So have I heard my Lord Overall preach it a hundred times." Anglo-Catholic Library, Cosin s Works, vol. v., p. 155. Cosin also writes : " It is confessed by all Divines that upon the words of Consecration the Body and Blood of Christ is really substantially present, and so exhibited and given to all that receive it." Ibid., p. 131. Laud in his controversy with Fisher agrees that there is a substantial Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ after Consecration, but objects to the word " conversion " as descriptive of the change which takes place. Vol. ii., p. 322, Laud's Works. Anglo-Catholic Library. Note X. — The following is from Appendix II., to Dr. John Mason Neale's " Translation of the Venerable Sacra- ment of the Altar : " On Transubstantiation. In Article XXVIII., the Church of England says as follows : " Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of bread and wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ ; but is repugnant to the plain words 120 APPENDIX. of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many superstitions." * In this sentence we must notice : 1. That not all change whatsoever, but the change of the substance of bread and wine in the Eucharist is denied. 2. That it is denied on four grounds : (i.) Because it cannot be proved from Holy Writ. (ii.) Because it is opposed to the plain words of Scrip- ture. (iii.) Because it overthrows the nature of a Sacrament. (iv.) Because it has given occasion to many supersti- tions. It is evident that the entire meaning of this denial de- pends on the signification of the word "substance ; " this word bears two distinct and almost contrary meanings : the popular and the scholastic. 1. The popular meaning of the word is well known to all of us ; if we see something black of which we do not know the name, we speak of it as a " black substance ; " if, in like manner, we taste something sweet, we call it " a sweet substance ; " by this we mean " that the thing which we see or taste is black or sweet ; " we make no nice dis- tinction in our mind between one part of the " thing " and another, but by " substance" we simply mean the whole thing as it is apprehended by our senses. 2. Scholastically, " substance " has a very different meaning ; it means, not the whole thing as apprehended by our senses, but the invisible, inward, and secret power or part of the " thing," the presence of which is signified by the outward signs, qualities, or properties of it ; these outward signs are called "accidents." A thing maybe black, sweet, heavy, cold, these are not its " substance." but its " accidents." The substance underlies them all, as it were, and makes the thing to be what it is. In this HOLY EUCHARIST. 121 sense of the word we can neither taste, touch, see, nor hear the " substance " of a thing.; our senses can appre- hend its " accidents " only. It would appear that in Article XXVIII., as quoted above, the Church of England uses the word " substance " in the first, or popular sense, and consequently means to deny that Consecration effects any change in the bread and wine as far as what is cognizable by the senses is concerned ; and by implication to assert that after Con- secration the bread and wine remain in their original natural state, in so far as they are subject to the senses. That is to say, no change is wrought which our senses are miraculously withheld from discerning, but the bread and wine are truly testified by our senses to be such after the Act of Consecration. That this is the meaning which substance is intended to bear in the quotation would seem to be the case, when it is considered : 1. That the Articles were very much directed against popular errors (see quibus vulgo dicebatur in Art. XXX.), and therefore it is natural that words should be used more in a popular than a strictly scholastic sense. 2. That the English writers of the period during which the Articles were written and moulded into their present form, and even subsequently too, were seldom scholasti- cally exact in their use of the word "substance." For instance. Hooker, one of the most learned and painstak- ing of Anglican divines, in a well-known passage, speak- ing of the Eucharist, says : " this Bread hath in It more then the substance which our eyes behold " (Eccles. Pol., b. v., c. Ixviii., 12). It would be nonsense to talk of our eyes beholding the " substance " of anything in the strict scholastic sense of the word. But Hooker never wrote nonsense, and so it is plain he uses the word in the 122 APPENDIX. more popular sense, in which it is credible that it is used in the Anglican formularies. 3. That only the popular sense of the word "substance " would give force to the four reasons for refusing to credit a change of " substance " adduced by the Article. And against the doctrine of a change of " substance " thus un- derstood, the four reasons are cogent enough. (i.) No single passage of Holy Writ can be quoted to prove that the Eucharistic Consecration effects the small- est change in any natural quality of the Bread and Wine. (ii.) Scripture, by speaking of the Consecrated Sacra- ment as Bread and the Fruit of the Vine (S. Mark. xiv. 25; I Cor. X. 16, 17; xi. 26-29), shows ^" "plain words" they are still in a true sense Bread and Wine, which they would not be had they lost any of their natural qualities. (iii.) A Sacrament must have an outward and visible part, and an inward and invisible part ; if the truth of the outward and visible part of the Eucharist is destroyed by the change of some of the natural qualities of the Bread and Wine, its perfection as a Sacrament is injured. (iv.) Many revolting and superstitious uses of the Eucharist are recorded, which plainly show that, in the minds of those that practised them, the natural qualities of the Bread and Wine had been transmuted into some- thing above nature. But, on the other hand, if " substance " be understood in the strict scholastic meaning of the word, it can hardly be true to say that the Article forbids us to believe in a doctrine of Transubstantiation, or is directed against the belief that Consecration changes the hidden, unseen na- ture of the Bread and Wine. I. Because the four reasons adduced do not touch such a doctrine: (i.) Christ says, " This is My Body," "This is My HOL V E UCHA RIS T. 1 2 3 Blood : " the Bread and Wine of which He spoke were not His Body and Blood before He gave the consecrating Word ; that Word, then, must have in some sense changed them ; but it did not change them outwardly or accident- ally; then it must have changed them inwardly or substan- tially. Transubstantiation, thus understood, can be proved from Holy Writ. (ii.) If by Transubstantiation we thus mean that the outward parts of the Bread and Wine remain, in all points, in their original nature, while inwardly, and by a super- natural change, they become the Body and Blood of Christ, the doctrine is in no way repugnant to the plain words of Scripture. (iii.) Nor does this doctrine overthrow the nature of a Sacrament, for it maintains the duality of the Sacrament in its full integrity. (iv.) Nor have any superstitions arisen, as far as is known, from such a belief. 2. Because Transubstantiation, as just explained, would seem to be the very doctrine taught by the Church of England herself, in her formularies and Catechism : The Church of England teaches that in order that the Bread and Wine may becorne the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ they must be consecrated by a Priest ; the special agent implying something special in the act. In the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ she teaches that there are two things : J I An outward part or sign. ) ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ( Accidents. ) r An inward part or thing ^ g^^^ ^^^ gj^^^ ^^ II. j signified. (Christ. C Substance. ) 124 APPENDIX. That is : In Prayer-Book language. Before Consecration there is on the Altar mere bread and wine, both as respects the outward part or sign, and the inward part or thing signi- fied ; after Consecration there is still bread and wine as regards the outward part or sign, but the Body and Blood of Christ has become the inward part, or thing signified. In Scholastic language. Before Consecration there is on the Altar mere bread and wine, both accidentally and substantially ; after Consecration, bread and wine acci- dentally, the Body and Blood of Christ substantially. Latin divines, from the mediaeval age downwards, are accustomed to use the word "substance" only in its strict scholastic sense. This should always be carefully borne in mind in reading their works, or their meaning, when they employ the word either by itself, or included in the word " Transubstantiation," may be seriously miscon- ceived." Note XI. — The Greek Church uses the term Transub- stantiation, but, it would seem, in a far less definite and formal sense than the Latin Communion. Article XVII., " Of the Holy Eucharist," of the Council of Bethlehem (1672) says : " When we use the word Transubstantiation, we by no means think it explains the mode in which the bread and wine are converted into the Body and Blood of the Lord, for this is altogether incomprehensible and im- possible for any to understand but God alone, and the at- tempt to understand it can only be the result of irrever- ence and impiety." In notes on this article in his ''History of the Holy Eastern Church, General, Ifttroductz'on," vo\. ii., pp. 11 73, II 74, Dr. Neale says: "I quote from the Larger Russian Catechism. ... In the Exposition of the Faith by the Eastern Patriarchs, it is said that the word Transubstan- HOLY EUCHARIST. 125 tiation is not to be taken to define the manner in which the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of our Lord : for this none can understand but God ; but only thus much is signified, that the bread truly, really, and substantially becomes the very true Body of the Lord, and the wine the very Blood of our Lord." "The Russian Church has evidentlydetermined to de- cline the use, or the distinction of the Gvoia (substance) and the aviifit^rjKOTa of the bread and wine; which the Council of Bethlehem brought prominently forward." Note XIL — Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says: "Judge not the matter from the taste, but from faith be fully as- sured without misgivings that thou hast been vouchsafed the Body and Blood of Christ." Lecture xxii., section vi. Catechetical Lectures, Oxford Library, chap. Hi., p. 34. And Bishop Cosin tells us that " Yet our faith does not cause or make that presence but apprehends it as most true and really effected by the word of Christ. And the faith whereby we are said to eat the Flesh of Christ is not that only whereby we believe that He died for our sins (for this faith is required to suppose and precede the sacramental manducation) but more properly that where- by we believe these words of Christ, ' This is My Body.' " Anglo-Catholic Library, Cosin s Works, vol. iv.,p. 171. Note XIIL — Instances of the employment of Eucha- ristic Doctrine in defence of the Incarnation are found in the case of the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies. The former of these divided the Person of Christ. With the opponents of this error, "Since their object was to prove that He who discharges the functions of Mediation in His fleshly nature is personally identical with the Eternal Word, nothing was more directly to the purpose than to show how this truth is exhibited in the Holy Eucharist. And therefore the writings of S. Cyril of Alexandria, and of other opponents of Nestorius, bring out the truth, that 126 APPENDIX. the inward part in the Holy Eucharist is not any fresh Body of Christ, but the very same Body which He took of the Virgin, and which He offered on the Cross. To quote the words of S. Leo, the final defender of the truth of Our Lord's Person against both its assailants: 'Al- though He be placed on the Father's Right Hand, yet in safne Flesh which He took of the Virgin does He carry out the Sacrament of our Propitiation.' " Wilberforce on the Holy Eucharist, ch. z'x.) Of the Eutychian heresy Bishop Pearson says (" On the Creed" Art. III. : " Vain therefore was that old conceit of Eutyches, who thought the union to be made so in the natures that the humanity was absorbed and wholly turned into the Divinity, so that by that transubstantia- tion the human nature had no longer being. And well did the ancient Fathers, who opposed this heresy, make use of the Sacramental union between the bread and wine and the Body and Blood of Christ, and thereby showed, that the human nature of Christ is no more really con- verted into the Divinity, and so ceaseth to be the human nature, than the substance of the bread and wine is really converted into the substance of the Body and Blood and thereby ceaseth to be both bread and wine." Bishop Pearson of course, uses the word "substance" in the popular sense. Note XI V.— The doctrine of the Real Objective Pres- ence would seem to be but a complement of the dogma of the Incarnation. After consecration the elements are physically what they were before, but still are changed into something else. They are no longer common bread and wine but the Body and Blood of Christ " under the form of bread and wine " as the Homilies phrase it. " Saint Athanasius urged that when the Word became flesh His unchangeable Godhead did not change. He HOLY EUCHARIST. 127 became flesh without ceasing to be God. He veiled His Godhead under manhood, His Godhead being unchanged. And now He veils both Godhead and manhood under these poor outward forms, the forms of bread and wine. Yet these forms do not therefore cease to be. The Word be- came flesh, yet was the Word still; so now the lower sub- stance, the earthly part, the bread and wine become, in the language of Saint Ambrose, Saint Chrysostom, Saint Athanasius, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, the Body and Blood of Christ without therefore ceasing to be, as to the outward part, bread and wine still." — Pusey, The Doctrine of the Real Presence from the Fathers, p. 239. And so Pearson, in his work on the Creeds, writes : " As therefore all the fieraGToixeicjcyi^ of the sacramental elements maketh them not cease to be of the same na- ture which before they were ; so the Human Nature of Christ, joined to the Divine loseth not the nature of hu- manity, but continueth with the Divinity as a substance in itself distinct." Article III., note 91. The following list of books is suggested as most use- ful for the general reader on the subject of the Holy Eucharist : Wilberforce on the Holy Eucharist. Wilberforce on the Incarnation. (These two books should be read together.) Sadler's Church Doctrine — Bible Truth. Sadler's One Offering. Bishop Hamilton on the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Keble's Eucharistical Adoration. Pusey on the Real Presence. Pusey's Doctrine of the Real Presence from the Fathers. Neale and Littledale's Translation of Ancient Litur- gies. Berdmore Conyston's Catholic Sacrifice. Confirmation. LECTURE III. THE VERY REVEREND WILFORD L. ROBBINS, D.D. Dean of All Saints Cathedral, Albany, N. Y. CONFIRM A TION. I. The doctrine of Confirmation is doubtless accounted, by popular estimate, one of the less difficult of the subjects which have to do with the Sacramental system of the Church. The definition of that doctrine in the author- itative formulas of the Church is meagre. An office for the administration of the rite is pro- vided in the Prayer Book, but this office is not rich in doctrinal suggestiveness. The Twenty- fifth Article refers incidentally to the subject, but in terms which confuse quite as much as they enlighten, and which leave us with what amounts to a mere negation. The Catechism says noth- ing of Confirmation. This silence naturally produces on many minds the impression that a subject thus passed over cannot, to say the least, be of prime importance. Meanwhile the ritual connected with the office is of a symbolic type very easily apprehended. It 132 CONFIRMATION. consists in a solemn benediction of the children of the Church by their chief pastor, accompanied by a prayer that God will strengthen them with gifts of grace for their hard warfare. Here I fancy the majority of Churchmen rest content. They do not seek to penetrate further into the mystery of the doctrine, perhaps esteem that there is no mystery to penetrate. The pop- ular interpretation based upon this slender doc- trinal foundation swings indeed, according to the bent of individual minds, between two rather widely divergent extremes. On the one hand the preface to the office is taken as key-note, and Confirmation becomes little more than a public profession of faith. The act of the child then presented to the Bishop is emphasized, and God has very little to do with the matter save as He must be accounted as accepting this willing proffer of a soldier's service. The Bishop's bene- diction is construed sentimentally, it is a most becoming symbol of God's gracious favor. On the other hand, the mind imbued with the sacra- mental character of the Church's life lays greater stress on the Divine aspect of the rite. God does the confirming, not man. Confirmation is a distinct spiritual crisis in life, thenceforward the soul is endued with a fulness of spiritual power which enables it to reach a higher plane of Christain attainment than was possible before. CONFIRMA TION. 133 But even so, the exact nature of the gift be- stowed, the relation of Confirmation to baptismal grace, its relative importance in the Christian life, these are questions which are left to answer themselves as best they may. The moment that one enters upon any serious inquiry, however, he finds that the subject so far from being simple is exceedingly complex, encom- passed with peculiar difficulties whether it be ap- proached on the historical, the ritual, or the doc- trinal side. By reason of the paucity of reference in Anglican formularies, we are driven for infor- mation to Scripture and the testimony of the primitive Church, together with the general con- sensus of the Church Catholic of later ages. But while the Scripture basis is plain so far as it goes, immediately that the rite emerges as an accepted part of the sacramental system of the early Church in the writings of the Fathers, we find certain ritual additions esteemed essential of which there is no trace in Scripture. We find, moreover, that the language of the Fathers is, on the surface at least, capable of various construc- tions. Often they seem to attribute to Baptism what in other passages they state in no less de- cided terms to be the distinctive grace of Con- firmation. Moreover, we find that a great change has passed over the use of the Western Church, namely, the deferring of Confirmation to a time 134 CON FIRM A TION. long subsequent to Baptism, which brings to the front a difficult problem which in this form never pressed upon the early Church for solution — the question, What is the spiritual estate of a man baptized but as yet unconfirmed? And lastly, whatever Confirmation may or may not be, if it be a sacramental rite at all it has to do with a gift of the Spirit. And here lies the profoundest difficulty in the way of exact defi- nition of the Confirmation gift. In the course of the doctrinal development of the Church the truths which have to do more especially with the First and Second Persons of the Blessed Trin- ity have been explicated and defined with a far greater fulness than can be predicated of the doctrine of the Spirit. This is partly due it may be to historic causes, but also in great measure we must attribute it to the inherent difficulty of dogmatic definition in treating of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. He is recognized as pre-eminently in this latter dispensation "the Lord and Giver of life ; " He is " with the Father and Son together worshipped and glorified " ; He "spake by the prophets." But though we re- cognize His agency in all the manifold works of grace which abound within the Church, He is still like " the wind that bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth." To CONFIRM A TION. 135 draw an analogy from the spirit of man : here lies the very centre of personal existence, this is nearer to us than the breath we breathe, it is ourselves, and yet it eludes definition, its activ- ities transcend explanation. Love, which is the highest exercise of the spirit, the firmest rock amid the shifting sands of human experience, is yet essentially paradoxical in its nature, the spirit losing itself in another, only to find its true self through the willing abandonment of self. The illustration must not, of course, be pressed too far, but it surely should lead us to recognize that we may know some things from living experience, which yet refuse to be bodied forth in language strictly amenable to logic. II. The method which naturally suggests itself in approaching the subject of Confirmation is to begin with those passages of Scripture which seem to bear upon the apostolic institution of the rite. In Acts viii. we read that, after the death of Stephen, Philip went down to Samaria to preach the Gospel. The preaching bore fruit and many were converted and baptized. " Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John : who when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might re- ceive the Holy Ghost : for as yet He was fallen 136 CONFIRM A TION. Upon none of them : only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost" (vs. 14-18). Again in Acts xix. we read that S. Paul com- ing to Ephesus found certain disciples there whose knowledge in the things pertaining to the Gospel was most inadequate ; they had not even heard of Christian Baptism, but had received only the baptism of John. S. Paul then having in- structed them concerning the faith baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus. *'And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them ; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied " (v. 6). One thing at least is evident from these pas- sages. The Pentecostal outpouring was not an isolated event in the history of the Christian Church, a gift bestowed once for all. It was not merely the signal glory of the founding of the Church, but rather the instituting of a ministry of grace henceforth committed to the Apostles. Again in the light of the two above-quoted events we can hardly fail to make application of S. Peter's words (Acts ii. 38), " and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost," to the laying on of hands. We read : "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, CON FIRM A TION. 1 3 7 and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." The gift of the Holy Ghost is so explicitly connected with the laying on of hands in the later apostolic practice that the words which might otherwise have seemed to refer to a fruit of the baptismal washing must be regarded as signifying another and distinct gift. And S. Peter straightway adds, *' For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call " — which precludes the limitation of the gift to apostolic times alone. But the locus classicus which gives fullest as- surance that this laying on of hands is a perma- nent institution of the Church is found in Heb. vi. I, 2. The writer of the Epistle has been up- braiding the disciples whom he is addressing with their feeble grasp on the fundamental verities of the Christian life. " For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God ; and. are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat" (v. 12). And then in an enumeration of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ he mentions three groups of such doctrinal foundations — repentance and faith, Baptisms and the laying on of hands, resur- 138 CON FIRM A TION, rection and eternal judgment. It is not neces- sary to enter here into the somewhat vexed question of the use of the plural '* baptisms," which is most probably explained as referring to the baptism of John unto repentance contrasted with Christian Baptism. But the point to be noted is the unhesitating acceptance of the lay- ing on of hands as a permanent institution along with Baptism, among the very primal Christian doctrines. Moreover, the close connection in which it is here placed with Baptism leaves no doubt that the reference is to the rite of Confir- mation, rather than to ordinary benedictions or to the laying on of hands in ordination, which latter certainly would hardly thus have been classed with "the first principles of Christ." We find then clear evidence in Scripture of Confirmation, administered as we may infer only by Apostles, the matter of which consisted in prayer and the laying on of hands, while the inner grace is the gift of the Holy Ghost. That this apostolic laying on of hands was commonly accompanied at the first by the display of mirac- ulous powers on the part. of the recipient can- not be taken in the light of S. Paul's teaching as differentiating the gift of the Spirit then and now in any material sense. The higher chrismata remain, though the miraculous evidence of the Spirit's indwelling has been withdrawn. CON FIRM A TION. 139 There is one other passage in the Book of the Acts which brings out even more strongly the distinction between this gift of the Spirit and the grace of Baptism. Although the normal method for the conferring of the gift is by the laying on of hands, God's grace is not tied down to any one channel. I refer to the case of Cornelius re- counted in Acts X., where we read that while S. Peter was yet speaking ** the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word." Then it is that S. Peter exclaims, "" Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord " (vs. 47, 48). Doubtless there is much which is very mysterious in this account. It is hard for us to understand how those who had not as yet been incorporated into Christ by the Sac- rament of Baptism could receive the fulness of the spiritual gift. But incidentally we may surely learn that it is at all times precarious to set a limit to the abounding activity of God's grace; in this, as in most matters theological, we are on safer ground in our affirmations than in our negations. The point, however, which is of special interest to our present inquiry is that the gift of the Spirit did not supersede the need of Baptism. There must then be a distinctive grace attached to each, the one does not swallow I40 CONFIRMA TION. Up the other as the greater the less. The order of bestowment may by God's miraculous dis- pensation be inverted, both are still necessary to the perfection of Christian life. Bearing these plain statements of apostolic practice in mind, many other passages become clear in which otherwise we should hardly have understood the latent reference. Such, for in- stance, are S. Paul's words in i Cor. xii. 13: " For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit," (R. V.) — where the distinction and evident prog- ress marked by the two phrases " baptized in the Spirit " and " made to drink of the Spirit " cor- respond exactly to the varying movements of grace in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confir- mation. Or again in Gal. iv. 6, " And because we are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." — where plainly the Sonship is the fruit of Baptism, while the gift of the Spirit is subsequent to the Sonship and as it were grounded upon the bap- tismal grace. When we pass from the testimony of Scripture to that of the Fathers we seem at first to find the clear distinction between the grace conferred in Baptism and in the laying on of hands some- what obscured. It would be easy to quote nu- CON FIR MA TION. 1 41 merous passages from S. Cyprian, S. Augustine, S. Jerome, and many others, which appear on the surface at least to identif the giving of the Holy Ghost with the baptismal gift. But one fact al- ready adverted to must be borne in mind which throws an entirely new light on this language. In the early Church, nay down to the thirteenth century, and in England probably later, Confir- mation was always administered, as it is to this day in the Eastern Church, either immediately after Baptism or as soon as circumstances might permit. Thus Confirmation was in practice so fused with Baptism, that the two were often re- ferred to as though together they constituted one Sacrament. Not that the distinction was ever really forgotten, but the one was regarded as the complement and completion of the other. There was, so to speak, a rhetorical and a more doc- trinally exact use of the word Baptism. In the former, as including Confirmation it could be spoken of as conferring the gift of the Holy Ghost, but in the narrower use of the term it is doubtful if a single passage can be adduced in which any Christian writer of the early centuries attributes the gift of the Spirit in the stricter sense to the Sacrament of regeneration. ""^ * For the proof of this assertion, worked out with great thorough- ness, see Canon Mason's " Relation of Confirmation to Baptism," passim. 142 CONFIRMATION. The Eastern Church, retaining as it does the primitive practice of administering Confirmation to infants immediately after Baptism, seems like- wise to have retained the primitive doctrine. Thus the language of Macarius, the Bishop of Vinnitza, in his Th^ologie Dogmatiqiie Orthodoxe^ sets forth the doctrine of the Russian Church on the sub- ject in the clearest language : " The principal invisible effect of the Sacrament of Unction {i. e. Confirmation) is to communicate to the faithful the Holy Spirit. In Baptism we are only purified of all sin and regenerated by the energizing {la vertii) of the Holy Spirit, but we are not yet worthy of receiving this Spirit in us, and of becoming His Tem- ples ; by Unction He is communicated to us with all the gifts of His grace, which are indispensable for the spiritual life."* Meanwhile in the Roman Church a tendency is evident, at any rate since the Council of Trent, to confuse the Confirmation and baptismal gifts. Following the lead of S. Thomas Aquinas, the language of the Tridentine Catechism shows a somewhat dubious appreciation of the grace of Confirmation, and we miss the clearness of state- ment which characterized the earlier theology: " The difference which there is in the natural life between gen- eration and growth is the same as that between Baptism, which has the effect of regenerating, and Confirmation, by virtue of which the faithful develop, and attain perfect strength of soul. * Quoted by Father Puller in his tract, "What is the Dis- tinctive Grace of Confirmation ?" p. 35. CONFIRMATION. 143 Besides inasmuch as a new and distinct kind of Sacrament ought to be appointed when the soul incurs a new difficulty, it can easily be seen that, as we need the grace of Baptism for the formation of the mind by faith, so it is exceedingly profitable that souls should be confirmed by another grace, in order that they may not be deterred from the confession of the true faith by any danger or dread of pains or penalties or death." (Cat. Trid. Sacr. Confirm. §4.) The language of the Pontifical of the Roman Church in the administration of Confirmation is still, of course, the unmistakable language of Catholic Christendom, but her popular theology, as well as her conciliar explication of that lan- guage, both point to a distinct lapse from the earlier standard. Whatever vagueness may have attached to this point at the time of the Anglican Reformation, and however we may regret that the primitive doctrine was not more clearly emphasized in the authoritative teaching of our Prayer Book, we have still to be thankful that no phrase has crept into our formularies which contravenes the truth. In the baptismal office the activity of the Holy Ghost as the agent of regeneration is repeatedly recognized : " Wash him and sanctify him with the Holy Ghost," we pray. Again with fine dis- crimination the phrase runs, '* Give Thy Holy Spirit to this infant, that he may be born again, and be made an heir of everlasting salvation." And after the administration we thank God that 144 CONFIRMA TION. it hath pleased Him to regenerate the infant with His Holy Spirit. But nowhere is the gift of the Holy Ghost in His proper Person, His indwelling in the soul in the plentitude of His grace-giving attributes, implied as a resultant of the Sacra- ment of regeneration.^ In the Confirmation office itself the lines of the old Sarum use are pretty closely followed. The Confirmation prayer indeed is softened down, and loses in clearness of statement. " Strengthen them, we beseech Thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and daily increase in them Thy manifold gifts of grace," has not the ring of certitude of the old phrase, " Send upon them * An exception must perhaps be made of one expression in the form of " Ministration of Baptism to such as are of Riper Years. " In the exhortation we read, ' ' Doubt ye not, therefore, but earnestly believe, that He will favorably receive these present persons, truly repenting, and coming unto Him by faith ; that He will grant them remission of their sins, and bestow upon them the Holy Ghost ; that He will give them the blessing of eternal life, and make them partakers of His everlasting kingdom." This office was compiled in the Revision of 1662, and the carefully guarded wording of the parallel passages in the Office for Infant Baptism, which connect the gift of the Spirit in Baptism specifi- cally with regeneration, seems in this instance not to have been observed. It remains for us simply to confess that we have here a gross carelessness of doctrinal statement. We are forced to do a slight violence to grammar and interpret the phrase, in the light of the earlier form upon which it is founded, as referring to a bestowal of the Spirit to the end that the gift of eternal life may be received, and a share in God's everlasting kingdom. CONFIRMATION. 145 the seven-fold Spirit, the Holy Comforter from Heaven." Yet there is nothing in the former which can be reasonably said to evacuate the prayer of its doctrinal significance. And the solemn words of benediction whereby the indi- vidual application of the Confirmation prayer is made to each candidate, " Defend, O Lord, this Thy child with Thy heavenly grace, that he may continue Thine forever: and daily increase in Thy Holy Spirit more and more until he come unto Thy everlasting Kingdom," while it falls short of the parallel prayer in the book of 1549, " Sign them, O Lord, and mark them to be Thine forever by the virtue of Thy Holy Cross and Passion. Confirm and strengthen them with the inward unction of the Holy Ghost mercifully unto everlasting life," followed by the signing of the candidate on the forehead with the sign of the Cross and benediction in the name of the Trinity, is yet perfectly consistent with a fervent recogni- tion of the bestowal of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands. It must be confessed, however, that there are many influences at work which tend to becloud the primitive doctrine of Confirmation in our Communion. First of all there is the popular misconception which confuses Confirmation with the ratification of baptismal vows. As has been well said, we ought to have been guarded against lO 146 CON FIRM A TION. this error by the fact that by the public catechis- ing of the children which is ordered plain provis- ion is made for a frequent ratification of the baptismal vow. Every time that a child of the Church responds to the question, ** Dost thou not think that thou art bound to believe and to do as thy sponsors have promised for thee? " '' Yes, verily, and by God's help so I will," he is pub- licly ratifying and confirming his vows. The history of this error is interesting. In the first Prayer Book of Edward VI. it was ordered that no children should be confirmed until they should be able to recite the answers of the Catechism. The Catechism was printed in this book as a part of the Confirmation ofifice, and the Bishop was to publicly examine the chil- dren therein before confirming them. In the rubric preceding the ofifice this order is said to be most convenient to be observed because that thus the children may openly " ratify and confess " the promises made for them in baptism. In the Prayer Book of 1552 the words ''ratify and confess " were changed to " ratify and confirm," apparently, as Blunt says, "put of pure love for a synonym." And in our present book, the pub- lic catechising at the time of Confirmation having been dispensed with, the old rubric appears in part as the preface or initial address of the ser- vice proper. Thus we have, through the original CONFIRMATION. 147 incorporation of the Catechism with the office, an emphasis laid on a preparatory rite which not unnaturally led to its being regarded as an es- sential part of the service. A.nd then by a trick of words, confess changed to confirm, an im- pression is conveyed to the uninstructed that from this confirming of vows arose the very name Confirmation of the Sacrament itself. It is well to bear in mind that the word Con- firmation, in the sense in which it is now applied, is not of primitive antiquity. It is confined to the Western Church, and first appears in the writings of S. Ambrose. By the time of S. Gregory it seems to have become thoroughly es- tablished, though not to the exclusion of the apostolic term of " the laying on of hands," '' the sealing," and the name most frequently em- ployed in the earlier Fathers, and still used by the Eastern Church, of " Unction " or " the Chrism." We may well believe also that the language of Article XXV. has had much indirect influence in ^stultifying a due appreciation of the meaning and benefits of Confirmation. The Article indeed does not forbid the calling Confirmation a Sacra- ment, but by placing it on so distinctly lower a plane than the " two Sacraments of the Gospel," (a phrase somewhat difficult of interpretation, and at best hardly a happy one as marking the 148 CON FIRM A TION. distinguished dignity of the two greater Sacra- ments generally necessary for salvation), it does what in it lies to belittle what is plainly a grace- giving ordinance of apostolic appointment, one of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Names are of secondary importance. Whether we call Confirmation a Sacrament or a sacra- mental ordinance, makes comparatively little difference in the abstract. But as an historic fact, when the name Sacrament is denied to Con- firmation the drift is to shrink from attributing to it so unspeakably glorious a gift as the per- sonal indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Nor can I think that the true escape from the dilemma lies in maintaining that Confirmation should be regarded as an integral part, the mere completion, of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. This line is taken by some punctilious Anglicans who seek thus to compass loyalty to the Articles along with the preservation of the sacramental character of Confirmation. But in this view the disciplinary rule of the Western Church, which separates the two by the interval of years, would be hard indeed to justify. Nor is it consistent with the clear voice of the Church which assures us that by Baptism alone a man may most surely be saved. We are driven to acknowledge that Article XXV., while wholesome in its tone as di- rected against certain evident abuses, has been of CONFIRMA TION. 149 very doubtful value to the Church in so far as it treats of Confirmation. Moreover, the extremely- awkward wording of the Article, which seems to imply that Confirmation falls either under the category of " an estate of life allowed in Scrip- ture " or else of "a corrupt following of the Apostles," yet awaits a perfectly satisfactory ex- planation. The suggestion has been made that the phrase " a corrupt following of the Apostles " may be intended to cover that perversion of Con- firmation which identified the essential matter of the Sacrament with unction rather than with prayer and the laying on of hands. This is per- haps on the whole the best explanation offered, but even this bears the stamp of an enforced in- genuity. And lastly, the trend of Roman doctrine has had its influence in confusing the mind of the Church concerning the dignity and significance of Confirmation. The popular definition, that it is the Sacrament of growth, misleads all the more effectually because it allows of a deep mystical import being assigned to the Sacrament which satisfies minds that would rebel against any ra- tionalistic interpretation. The phrase itself may be capable of a construction which shall not run counter to the witness of Scripture and Christian antiquity. But it obviously suggests a natural analogy which, if examined critically, is found to 1 50 CONFIRM A TION. meet very imperfectly the requirements of the case. We cannot do better than quote Canon Mason's comment, although he appears to lay a somewhat undue stress perhaps upon certain im- plications contained in the name criticised : " Growth in the natural world is not the result of anything new and adventitious, except what comes in the way of support. The life begun in birth naturally asserts itself in growth, if only it be sustained with proper food. No third movement, distinct from generation on the one hand, and from nutrition on the other, needs to be imparted at a given moment in order to produce growth. And certainly there is no movement known by which the immature life can be made to pass forthwith into maturity, from the weakness of infancy into the strength of accomplished manhood. Such a passage is the slow work of time. The Roman, view of Confirmation as a Sacrament of growth does not suit the symbolism of a Sacrament given once and once for all. If Con- firmation were a Sacrament given daily or at frequent intervals, beginning with the Baptism of the infant, and ceasing when the infant might be said to have attained its full spiritual stature, then Confirmation might be considered the Sacrament of growth, but not Confirmation as we understand it, administered without repeti- tion, and imprinting upon the soul a character which can never be effaced. The Holy Eucharist is the Sacrament which answers to the nutriment by which the spiritual life is sustained and de- veloped, as Holy Baptism is that which first initiates the life ; and there seems to be no room in the analogy for another Sacrament which is to have the effect of imparting growth, least of all for one imparting a sudden growth from a state of imperfection into one of perfection." III. Among the practical questions which con- front us in our modern use of Confirmation the most insistent is the Western custom of separat- CON FIRM A TION. 151 ing it completely from the Sacrament of Bap- tism, and postponing it until the baptized child has come to years of discretion. That this is a purely disciplinary matter and lies quite within the power of the Church to determine is evident; it touches directly neither the form nor the doc- trine of the Sacrament. An analogy might be found in the custom which prevailed to a large extent in the early Church of postponing Baptism until late in life, in order that the stains con- tracted by sin might be washed away and the soul new-born just before its departure from this earth to Paradise. We may deprecate this as unwise, and think that we can trace the rise of the custom to an inadequate grasp of the doc- trine of the nature and potency of baptismal for- giveness, but the Sacrament of Baptism was not in any way vitiated through its undue postpone- ment. So with the modern postponement of Confirmation, it may be wise or unwise, that is a matter for practical inquiry, but it does not nec- essarily mark any doctrinal divergence from primitive standards. Whether in its inception the custom is to be traced in part at least, like the illustration above adduced, to an inadequate grasp of doctrine is another question. In the Anglican Communion there is another change, however, in the administration of Con- firmation which seems to touch the matter of the 1 5 2 CON FIR MA TION. Sacrament more nearly. The use of Chrism is of remote, if not apostolic, antiquity, and prevails in all other branches of the Catholic Church except our own. It is impossible to assert with positiveness that the anointing with oil was a part of the rite of Confirmation as practised by the Apostles, but both its symbolic significance and its apparently universal use in the times im- mediately succeeding that of the Apostles would lead us to suppose this to have been the case. Anointing would to the mind of the Jew have been associated with some of the most significant ritual acts of the old dispensation. Not only persons but things were anointed as a symbol of solemn consecration, as Jacob anointed the pil- lar and Moses the furniture of the Tabernacle. Whether anointing was used in setting apart the prophet to his office is doubtful, but it was always the consecration act for high-priest and king. The ritual of the Chrism rapidly developed in the Church, and there soon came to be various anoint- ings, one before Baptism as well as one after, the latter immediately preceding the laying on of hands. This latter anointing seems generally, in the earliest time, like the laying on of hands, to have been confined to the Bishop, at least the anointing on the forehead with the sign of the cross was reserved to him. We find traces very early, moreover, of the Chrism being regarded CON FIRM A TION. 1 5 3 as the essential matter of the Sacrament. And after the middle of the fourth century the laying on of hands as a separate rite seems in the East to have fallen into abeyance, while the priest was allowed to administer the unction with oil which had been consecrated by the Bishop. The lay- ing on of hands in the West held its place longer, though unction would appear even as early as S. Augustine to have been regarded as of equal importance, and quite as truly the channel of Sacramental grace. While we may regret that so edifying and beautiful a ceremony, and one of such universal acceptance in the Church, has fallen into disuse among us, we are abundantly justified on the ground of Scripture in regarding either prayer or the laying on of hands, or both combined, as the essential matter of the Sacrament. Having these the Sacrament is certainly valid, though there seems no sufficient ground for the omission of the Chrism. The Anglican Church has received and reaf- firmed the Western use of separating Confirma- tion from Baptism by a space of several years. She has added thereto a special emphasis laid upon the intelligence and faith requisite to the most edifying reception of the Sacrament. Her traditions point to an age-limit rather older than that customary in the Roman Communion. 154 CONFIRMATION. Since in this she has traversed no Scriptural or Catholic doctrine we are bound in loyalty to yield obedience. But this attitude of the Church lays upon us a very special responsibility. The only possible excuse for deferring Confirmation to the age of twelve or fourteen years is that the recipient may be so spiritually and intellectually prepared that he may the more abundantly bring forth the fruits of the Spirit when the Spirit is given. The preparation of candidates then be- comes of paramount importance. It is not the question whether the requisite repentance and faith could be exercised by sponsors as in the case of Baptism. Doubtless they could. Primitive practice and that of the Eastern Church to-day bear witness to this. But since the Anglican Church wills that in this Sacrament the individual himself shall repent and believe, and orders that such instruction shall be given as shall enable him to approach this great spiritual crisis with mind and heart alert to the responsibilities in- volved, in the name of sound reason let the instruction be searching and thorough. If the stories be true which come to us of the customs which prevailed in this regard not so very long ago, there has been a marked awakening within the last forty years. But there is much room for improvement still. It is an awful thought that a child advanced enough in years to have CONFIRMA TION. 155 fallen into habits of sin and to have grown grossly careless of spiritual things should be brought to receive the great gift with no quickened sense of the privileges which lie open to him, and the redoubled heinousness of deliberate rejection. The perfunctory gathering of a class for presen- tation to the Bishop, the unworthy ambition latent in the desire to receive commendation for the number rather than the character of the can- didates, threatens dishonor to the Sacrament, and may mean lamentable disaster to the souls of men. If one seek for a clearer definition of what is meant by the gift of the Spirit in Confirmation, as distinguished from the energizing of the Spirit in prevenient grace, in the new birth, and the multiform activities of the regenerate life ante- cedent to Confirmation, we may be driven to confess that amplification beyond the statement of the fact is difficult. In the New Testament record there is the mark of a spiritual crisis at Pentecost inaugurat- ing a new dispensation. So striking is the con- trast between the old order and the new, that the world could even be said to have been without the Spirit before His coming in the Pentecostal outpouring. If the reading of S. John vii. 39, upheld by the best manuscript authorities, is to be received, the Apostle uses a yet more startling 1 5 6 CON FIR MA TION. phrase, " for the Spirit was not yet, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Yet the world had been full of the activity of the Spirit in prophets and holy men from the dawn of time. Jesus Himself on the night of Easter Day breathed upon His disciples and said : " Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained." Read that wonderful last discourse of Jesus with His disciples on the eve of the Passion, con- tained in chapters fourteen to eighteen of S. John's Gospel. There you will find the best ex- plication of the blessing bestowed through the personal indwelling of the Spirit as contrasted with the richest and most abundant of His activ- ities exercised upon the soul of man from "with- out " rather than from " within," if we may adopt the bold figure of speech which some have ven- tured. The contrast between the world before and after Pentecost is, of course, only used as an analogy. All Christians live under the blessing of the new dispensation, and the very fruits of the Baptismal grace are the outflow of the Spirit's abiding presence in the world. But the analogy will help us to apprehend how a personal indwelling in the soul may be distinguished from other movements of grace, exercised by the same CONFIRM A TION. 157 Spirit, which bring the soul into close and saving union with God. And perhaps a word is necessary here in reply- to the charge that this magnifying of Confirma- tion tends to obscure the pre-eminent honor as- signed by the Church of all ages to the two Sac- raments of Baptism and the Eucharist. This lecture is not designed to plead a special cause, but merely to put before you very briefly the Scriptural basis and an outline of the history of Confirmation. Holy Baptism which cleanses from sin through incorporation into Christ, and which endows the soul thus regenerate with grace to attain all holiness, must ever remain, with the Blessed Eucharist, the incomparably precious bond of the covenant of grace. But to shrink from the language of Scripture in defin- ing the grace of Confirmation as the gift of the Spirit, because of an implied negation which would leave, in the words of a recent writer, " The majority of adults without this blessed gift," is a simple begging of the question. The more rational course would be to inquire whether the Church has not been guilty of laxity in fail- ing to press Confirmation more strenuously upon all her children as the very perfecting of their Baptism. And there certainly is cause for heart- searching in some quarters where Confirmation has ceased to be regarded, as essential, when it 1 5 8 CON FIRM A TION. may be had, to a participation in the most sacred mysteries of the Lord's Body and Blood. In conclusion let us bear in mind that however admirable any analysis of the Spirit's gifts may be in aiding us to apprehend the fulness of the blessing vouchsafed through His indwelling pres- ence — even that old sevenfold division conse- crated by immemorial usage in the Church and embedded in the very Confirmation prayer itself — such analysis will hinder rather than help if we fail to lay emphasis on the fact that it is the Holy Ghost Himself, not His attributes or spirit- ual powers merely, who is given in Confirmation. The ray of sunlight may be broken up into its various constituent colors by the prism for pur- poses of clearer scientific apprehension; analysis is a useful process if it does not end in itself, but to enjoy the beauty and receive the benefit we must at the last accept the light as God has given it with the hearts of children. And so above all other preparation for the great gift of the Spirit is the eager making ready for a Heavenly guest, the breaking down of every barrier which may hinder His flooding the whole house of the heart with the gracious fulness of His own Divine Presence. TDol? ©rbere. LECTURE IV. THE RT. REV. ALEX. CHAS. GARRETT, D.D., LL.D. Bishop of Northern Texas. HOLY ORDERS. " Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you : As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. "And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." — John xx. 21-23. The interest aroused in favor of Christian unity- has brought the question of Holy Orders into fresh prominence. Clear views upon this subject are essential to right thinking upon any possible methods of healing our *' unhappy divisions." The essay of the lamented Bishop of Durham, which, from the authority of his great name, has had a vast influence in shaping the thought of the day, and the volume of Bampton Lectures by Dr. Hatch, have both contributed to impress a certain view of the sacred ministry upon the minds of reading men. No one will deny to these writers the praise of rare scholarship and un- II 1 62 HOLY ORDERS. wearied patience in their search for information and collation of authorities. Yet one cannot fail to note how often Lightfoot is compelled to modify his opening statement. He seems to feel that he has said more than the evidence will war- rant, that he is likely to be misunderstood if taken literally, and that some apology is neces- sary for the strength of his language. These are his words: " The kingdom of Christ, not being a kingdom of this world, is not limited by the restrictions which fetter other societies, political or religious. It is in the fullest sense free, comprehen- sive, universal. It displays this character, not only in the ac- ceptance of all comers who seek admission, irrespective of race or caste or sex, but also in the instruction and treatment of those who are already its members. It has no sacred days or seasons, no special sanctuaries, because every time and every place are holy. Above all, it has no sacerdotal system. It interposes no sacrificial tribe or class between God and man, by whose inter- vention alone God is reconciled and man forgiven. Each indi- vidual member holds personal communion with the Divine Head. To Him immediately he is responsible, from Him directly he obtains pardon and draws strength." — Reprint Whittaker, pp. i, 2. As an ideal picture nothing could be more beautiful. No one knew better than the distin- guished writer that this was only an ideal. For this reason he hastens to correct the evil likely to ensue in a practical world, and proceeds as follows : "It is most important that we should keep this ideal definitely in view. . . . Yet the broad statement, if allowed to stand alone, HOLY ORDERS, 163 would suggest a false impression. ... As appointed days and set places are indispensable to her efficiency, so also the Church could not fulfil the purposes for which she exists without rulers and teachers, without a ministry of reconciliation — in short with- out an order of men who may in some sense be designated a priesthood." — Ibid., p. 2. From this it is plain that until the Militant Church become the ideal a " ministry of reconcil- iation " is essential to its existence. What may be the particular form of this ministry in any age is simply a question of fact to be determined by evidence. In the words of Dr. Hatch, " That for the preservation of which we have to contend is not so much ancient form as historical continuity " (Bampt. Lect., p. 211). The divine life of the Church, and the histori- cal unity of the present with the past, are thus conceded by those two writers who have been too often quoted against them. Our Lord is at once the centre and exponent of authority. As a focus He gathers all rays of light and life which have ever been into Himself, and from Him as their centre they flow out again to the world. He is the revealer of the Father, and thus expresses to all creatures whatever they may know of the mysterious spiritual Being who made and now sustains them. A material universe gives knowledge of mate- rial laws, or rather of the sequences which intelli- 1 64 HOLY ORDERS. gence may observe therein ; but spiritual things are spiritually discerned. I. Our Lord appears as one sent — *'As My Father hath sent Me," as one having authority derived, not from the dignity of His person, but from God, the author of His mission — "A Body hast Thou prepared Me; Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God ; " to do the works which God had given Him to do, whatever they might be. The point to be observed just here is, that the author- ity by which those works of teaching, of power, or of mercy are done is an authority derived from the mission He is sent to fulfil, is official rather than personal. While in the manner of its ex- ercise it is impossible to avoid finding the power of His divine personality, the authority itself is the gift of God conferred upon Him in His official capacity as the Mediator of the new covenant. It is in this view that it assumes importance as the pattern of ministerial authority. ''As My Father hath sent Me " — with this authority to teach, to serve, to suffer, to forgive, to heal, to send — " so send I you." This gift bestowed on Me is now bestowed on you. " Go ye into all the world, preach, baptize, remit and retain sins, serve, suffer, send others." Thus the authority is from above, not from below, is not the fruit of personal character but the adding to the person of official rank. HOLY ORDERS. 165 2. But as no one can take this honor unto him- self except he be lawfully called and sent, so no one can perform the duties of any office without the special grace pertaining to that office. '' He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Here is the official em- powerment in the gift of special grace as before there had been the express bestowal of mission and authority. It is not intended to affirm that by this means all natural abilities are surrendered or the want of them supplied ; still less that all peculiarities of character are set aside or all deficiencies in moral discernment made good. The individual instrument retains its special qualities of tone while yet the breathing through it is to a sweeter tune. No doubt there may still be "A rift within the lute," a flaw in morals or spiritual faith, which may indeed " Make all its music mute," but even then the unworthy recipient of minis- terial grace is nevertheless set apart to the Lord's service, and the validity of his ministerial acts remains though he have lost his harmony with things divine. In short the authority and the power to exer- cise it are coordinate and arise together out of the original commission. t66 holy orders. I. The Church as the Body of Christ has a great office in the economy of grace. She pos- sesses the common Hfe in which all the members share. They live because she lives. Drawing her life from Christ the head, those who inhere in her are one with Him. She perpetuates His presence and dispenses His grace in the world. As the Body of Christ she is an organism not an organization. She may be mutilated but cannot dissolve. The germ planted once for all in the humanity of Christ continues to grow by its own laws. A common error of the present day is found just here. The Church is held to be an organization composed of individuals who asso- ciate themselves together for religious purposes, who change their mode of government, principles of belief, and general form as changing condi- tions of environment may suggest. In the words of Dr. Hatch: " The history of the organization of Christianity has been in reality the history of successive readjustments of form to altered circumstances." — B. L., 213. It would be difficult to find in a similar compass a more complete failure to apprehend the essence of the case. I. How shall man know anything of God? Force is gauged by its effects. We measure gravi- tation by the work it does. Astronomers weigh the planets, calculate their orbits and velocity of HOLY ORDERS. 167 movement, and thus reach some idea of the power which sustains and drives them. But of that power itself we know nothing save through its manifestation. This manifestation depends upon the work to be done and the capacity of the mind observing. The natural eye can range over the heavens at will, and gather much valuable knowledge of the glowing worlds which shine there. This knowledge is real as far as it goes, but indefinitely defective. The same eye looking through a large telescope finds its field narrowed indeed, but how vast the added multitude of worlds! Nebulae are resolved into their compo- nent stars; complexity in unity is revealed where simplicity alone had been expected; and vast fields of ether utterly unknown to our fathers are laid open before us. The power needed to wield all these suns and systems is seen to be immeas- urably greater than was before supposed. The greatness of the work grows upon us with grow- ing knowledge, and we judge of the power doing it accordingly. The argument from design as usually presented has failed because the indefinite has been confounded with the infinite. It will forever remain true that the "heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork," that the " invisible things of Him are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power l68 HOLY ORDERS. and Godhead." But it is also becoming more ap- parent every day that the measures by which we have estimated these manifestations of Deity are so very defective that our conclusions have been erroneous. We have not been able to estimate them at their proper value; but this can never overthrow the manifestations themselves, how- ever it may make us desire a better interpreter of them. And if in presence of these facts of the physi- cal universe we feel our insufficiency as readers of their hidden meaning, the case becomes more difficult when we attempt the consideration of the graver problems presented in the sphere of morals. Here will and conscience add their special difficulties to those of the understanding. Feeling and sensibility also demand recognition, and require an explanation both of their origin and destiny. Sin, the most appalling fact of human experience, wrings the cry of misery from the soul, but finds neither exposition of its origin nor remedy for its effects in nature. It is plain that reasoning based on natural phenomena and human experience can carry us but a little way toward the throne of God. True, the structure of the human mind, the laws of thought, the voice of conscience, the power of will — all lead us up to God in '* Whom we live, and move, and have our being; " yet we are all painfully conscious of HOLY ORDERS. 169 the limitations of this knowledge and of the in- adequacy of our niost elevated conceptions. We feel the truth of the words, '' No man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whom- soever the Son will reveal Him " (Matt. xi. 27). The need of some other agent than mere nature can supply presses upon us with every advance of knowledge. We " cannot by searching find out the Almighty unto perfection " by any use of natural methods. On the other hand it is equally true that methods of revelation must lie within the plane of human faculties, however far beyond they may point and lead us. We cannot take cold immensity by the hand, nor rest our breaking hearts upon the infinite, nor soothe our fainting souls by the contemplation of force. Would we know that "God is love," it is not in the glowing sunshine nor the silver moonlight that we shall learn it, but in the " face of Jesus Christ." The Humanity of Christ is the vehicle for the conveyance to humanity at large of that wider knowledge of God for which the race has always longed, but which it has failed to attain by all the efforts of philosophers and men of science. Christ having ascended and passed through the heavens has left the ** Church which is His Body " as His agent and representative upon lyo HOLY ORDERS. earth. Because He lives the Body lives. Each member of the Body shares the common life, and lives because of its inherence in the Body. The unity arises from participation in the life of the organism. The common life is the source of all abilities and powers. Flowing directly from Christ the head, but only through channels di- vinely appointed for its conveyance, it brings to all the world the revelation of knowledge and love not otherwise to be obtained. It is thus plainly seen to be the office of the Church to teach; to make known to mankind the supernatural facts of which she is at once the witness and exponent; to foretell the future as she records the past ; and to make known from age to age the ever-opening purposes of God. She is the guardian of a definite faith which it is her office in the world both to preserve and pro- claim. Having received the " lively oracles " she is their custodian and interpreter. The '^ faith once for all delivered to the saints" is an ascer- tainable deposit of truth of which she is the wit- ness and keeper. But it must be remembered that she is a living Body ever weaving into the present not only the precious things of the past, but assimilating also all new developments. With prevision of the future maturing latent powers for the work to be accomplished later. Adhering always to the HOLY ORDERS, 171 primitive type, but unfolding in each successive age such qualities of special adaptation as the in- tellectual and moral condition of mankind may demand. Not binding herself in the inelastic bandages of the dead, nor forcing her people into a rigid conformity to some outgrown models, but rather showing to every age the matchless power of her life by her wondrous revelation of hidden truth. There is movement everywhere, for all with which she has to do is living. Alive herself with the imperishable life of her Divine head she enshrines a living faith and preaches a living Gos- pel. Her creeds are not merely dead symbols of a buried age, but filled with the life of God. Her Sacraments and various ministries of grace are not only memorials of great events in the history of her life, but agencies by which those great events are made to live again until the world's end. She is thus a living teacher meeting the requirements of successive generations by the growing talents with which she is endowed. 2. But man needs far more than to be as- sured by a voice he can understand that " God is love; " he must be informed also how that fact can help him. He feels separated from God by the insuperable barrier of sin. In his calm mo- ments when conscience is allowed to work with- out intimidation, he knows himself to be both responsible and guilty. The sense of ill-desert 172 HOLY ORDERS. cannot be removed by any process known to him. The history of religion is little more than the history of human effort to escape from this terri- ble sense of ill-desert. The sacrifices of appease- ment offered on all the altars of the world are the proof of this statement. But the terrible truth remains — '' It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins " (Heb. X. 4). How, then, shall they be removed? The Incarnation is the only answer to this ques- tion. The Humanity becomes the vehicle of re- demption. The High Priest presents the sacri- fice of perpetual efficacy. " Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ, once for all " (Heb. x. 9, 10). Here the priestly office of the Church comes plainly into view. The eternal sacrifice must be continually presented. The healing virtue must be applied to every individual and to each suc- ceeding age. Pardon, pity, love, must be minis- tered without ceasing until time shall be no more. It is the office of the Church, as the Body of Christ, to extend the benefits of the Incarnation to succeeding generations. For this purpose she is furnished with sacramental media for the con- veyance of life and blessing; by the Sacrament of Baptism imparting the gift of regenerating grace, by the Sacrament of the Altar effecting its HOLY ORDERS. 173 renewal from day to day. The Spirit-bearing Body keeps in circulation the currents of life flowing always from the head to the members. As a whole she perpetuates the redeeming work of Christ, not by repeating it, but by applying its manifold agencies of help to those in need. ** Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more." He now appears as our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary to plead there the efficacy of His sacrifice, where " He ever liveth to make intercession for us," while the Church, representing Him on earth, offers con- tinually the memorial of that ''sacrifice," applies to the souls of men the efficacy of that " inter- cession," by remitting the sins of penitents, lift- ing up the fallen, restoring the lost, and comfort- ing those that mourn. With human sympathies, through human means of grace she keeps in touch with human needs, takes into herself our griefs and pains, and heals the gaping wounds which sin has made by the ministration of Divine remedies. This Divine organism preserves the Divine life of the Son of Man in this lower world for the healing of mankind. Incorporated into this Body we are incorporated into Him who is the head of the Body, and thus obtain the bene- fit of all Christ's redemptive work. " Buried with Him by baptism" we are with Him also " raised " into "newness of life," and "made to sit together 174 HOLY ORDERS. in heavenly places." The Church Is thus seen to be the mediating agent througli whom all priestly benefits obtained by the " one Mediator between God and men " are made available for the relief of human needs. 3. But wide as is the area over which the phil- osophy of religion aided by the light of Revela- tion carries the mind, and deep and profound as are the issues of life affected by the priestly work of the eternal sacrifice, it must not be forgotten that both of these are but preliminary steps to the high prerogatives of royalty, to a share in which the King of Kings invites those who are to be '' heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." It is impossible to overestimate the sublimity and importance of the words of Christ as recorded in the closing lines of St. Matthew's Gospel: " All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." — Matt, xxviii. 18-20. This high prerogative of royal power for the government of all nations is the most majestic claim ever pronounced by human lips. Nothing short of the Divine right to its exercise as the Mediatorial King could possibly justify such lan- guage. Lips merely human would have withered HOLY ORDERS. 175 in the utterance. Government is doubtless the greatest work of God. Building a whole universe of worlds and flashing them into space to wheel in measured order obedient to the laws of motion and gravitation has not been found as difficult in fact as the guiding of free intelligence in a single pair created with the dread possession of liberty. The principles which govern dead material things or shape new forms of chemical combination, or develop new results in the flora and fauna of suc- ceeding ages, will be found of little force in di- recting the human will to choose the more remote good of righteous action rather than the gratifica- tion of present pleasure. The stern discipline of conscience sustained by repeated intimations of the penalty inseparable from moral delinquency will be found in fact all too weak to restrain the soul from following the line of least resistance in pursuit of present enjoyment, though well as- sured both of the guilt and sorrow which must inevitably ensue. The government of free moral beings, who, from the complexity of their nature, are capable of good and evil, is therefore a much higher science than marshalling the suns and systems of the visible heavens. To bring such beings to a condition of stable equilibrium in the full enjoyment of liberty in accordance with the eternal law of righteousness 176 HOLY ORDERS. is the purpose for which the Mediatorial Kingdom has been estabhshed. *'A sceptre of righteous- ness " is the sceptre of this King. To teach man- kind the principles of righteousness, to bestow upon mankind such gifts of grace as may secure the triumph of such principles, and to raise man- kind to the power and glory which are the im- perishable birthright of those who reign in righteousness, is the sublime object for which the "Word was made Flesh" — for which ** He endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God " (Heb. xii. 2). Here again, the office of the Church as the " Body of Christ " becomes conspicuously appar- ent. Her very purpose in the world is both to teach and empower men to govern themselves by the law of righteousness. Engrafted into her by Baptism men are "brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; " are taught in all sacred learning; trained in all holy ways; and " made kings and priests unto our God." " Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is " (i John iii. 2). The words of S. Peter seem to glow with the radiance of the eternal day : '' But ye are a chosen genera- tion, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar HOLY ORDERS. 177 people " (i Pet. ii. 9). These are the high prero- gatives of the '* Body " in its organic unity. The peculiar honors of the Divine Head are also the honors of those who share His life and love. The Kingdom of God among men extends by the agency of men. But the principle of govern- ment descends from above and is distributed from the Head to the members. The living Church holds the power as a delegation from above, not as an evolution from below. The Divine Hu- manity is the channel for its conveyance through such media as have been Divinely appointed for the purpose. The practical dominion of right- eousness over the nations of the earth is slowly effected as the Church brings the power of re- deeming love to bear upon the national conscience in each succeeding age. This she accomplishes by Christian education, organized charities, be- nevolent associations, and the multiplied agencies she has been commissioned to employ for sancti- fying the civilization of the world. The govern- ment of her King — the government of truth and righteousness — it is her high mission to establish in the hearts of all her members until ''the king- doms of this world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ." Thus the threefold ofifice of the Church as the Spirit-bearing Body of Christ for the salvation of mankind stands out boldly before us. The pillar 12 17.8 HOLY ORDERS. and ground of the truth, the treasury of pardon and healing grace, and the kingdom of righteous- ness, she represents Christ in the world, *' till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ " (Eph. iv. 13). II. The Ministry is the organ for the perform- ance of these corporate functions. I. As in the body of a man there are many members, all sharing the common life, yet all have not the same office, so also is the Church. The eye, the ear, and other organs of the body live because the body lives, die when the body dies, yet they do not derive their special designa- tion as organs from the common life but from the original Source of all life, who hath fashioned them according to the counsel of His own will. Should the eye be born blind the body is wholly blind, nor can all the life of the body, though vigorous in every other orp-an, give sensibility to the eye. The organ of sight is necessary to vision. Destroy it by accident or disease and the power of vision is destroyed with it. Our Lord "glorified not Himself to be made an high priest," but was *' called of God, as was Aaron " (Heb. v. 4, 5). He, in turn, " ordained twelve that they should be with Him, whom He called Apostles," and " appointed other seventy HOLY ORDERS. 179 also that they should go into every city and place whither He Himself would come ; " and later, He more specifically commissioned and appointed those whom He had called and chosen that they should "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." On the day of Pen- tecost, the Holy Ghost having descended and fully empowered those before appointed, they began to execute the high functions to which they had been appointed. Here the infant organism is seen in its first attempts at organic development. {a) Its life is a derived life, flowing directly from Heaven through the " power from on high " which had been promised. It flows through veins and arteries prepared beforehand to receive it. It finds organs divinely constituted to pre- serve and perpetuate it in the world. It does not create, develop, or evolve the ministerial organ— that has been already ordained by ex- ternal power and authority, and is waiting ex- pectant for the fulfilment of the promise. {b) The life of the " Body " is our life. The Apostles on the morning of that memorable day, and the " three thousand " baptized converts who were " added unto them " before the setting of the sun, all shared the same life, all felt the throb of a common pulse, all lived because Christ lived and they had been incorporated into Him. This l8o HOLY ORDERS. life is not the aggregate of the individuals who on that morning or evening constituted the "Body;" it is the life of the Body as such whether the individuals incoporated be many or few. The life is not diminished though many be cut off, nor increased though a " multitude which no man can number " stand before the throne. The members live because they inhere in the Body, the Body lives because it is the Body of Christ. {c) Every organ of the Body is also a member of Christ, but every member is not an organ. No one can be ordained to any holy function who has not first been made a partaker of the life of Christ by Holy Baptism. But participation in the grace of sanctification does not involve participation in the grace of Orders. Every nerve and muscle shares the common life, but this does not constitute the one the organ of vision nor assign to the other the duty to smooth or contract the brow. The Church is an organic whole which grows according to its own laws which were impressed upon its germinal cell as first planted in the world by the Lord Himself. The members cannot change this original consti- tution any more than the hand can say to the head, I have no need of thee. The constitution is of the very life of the organism. To change it would be to change the organism itself, and set HOLY ORDERS. i8i up some new thing in the world quite other than that of which our Lord is the Head and Life. It has now become fashionable to dwell upon the priestly and royal powers of the Body as a whole, as though these could enable us to dispense altogether with the sacred ministry as composed of a body of men chosen out of the aggregate of members and set apart to their holy functions by Apostolic commission and authority. As well afifirm that the diffused sensibility of the nervous system will enable us to see without eyes or hear without ears. IIL As a matter of simple historical fact the Church has never existed without a ministry of Divine appointment. As we have already seen, our Lord Himself was " called of God," and also definitely set apart by the Holy Ghost for the work of His very awful ministry, declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection from the dead, and proclaimed by the Divine Voice as the " Beloved Son," glorified in the past and to be glorified again in the near future. He having been thus solemnly ordained, con- secrated, and sent, with similar solemnity selects, calls, ordains, and sends His apostles with definite mission and authority and official empowerment to send others as He had sent them, to preach, baptize, remit and retain sins; and, in a word, to i82 HOLY ORDERS. act as the Divinely constituted organs of His Humanity for the founding and perpetuation of His Kingdom *' even to the end of the world." The germ thus planted soons begins to grow, and as it grows unfolds its hidden powers ac- cording to the law of its being. The law is im-- pressed upon it at the outset and is inherent in its original constitution. How shall we ascertain the constitution of a grain of wheat ? By careful observation of its method of growth — " first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." It would be childish and absurd to look for this last first. Nor is the result produced by environment or the conditions in which the grain is placed. If the conditions be unfavorable the plant may die or grow only with a sickly and fruitless life; but if it live and grow at all it must follow the original law of its being; and j:he successive ap- pearance of each part in its season and time is absolute proof of the original law, and illustrates its nature. Now the method of evolution of the sacred ministry has been traced so often by men of the greatest learning that it must be quite un- necessary to repeat it here. The ordination by apostolic laying on of hands of the seven Deacons after their popular election ; the ordaining at a later period, also by apostolic imposition of hands, of elders or Presbyters in HOLY ORDERS. 183 every city, are positive proof of the nature of the law by which the growth and fruitfulness of the Church were governed. It is the law of develop- ment through the agency of human instruments contained in the Divine commission, "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." And when the Apostles make provision for the con- tinuance of their office by the appointment and ordination, by imposition of apostolic hands, of men to represent them and who were to '' commit " to others the sacred authority thus intrusted to them, a farther proof is given of the true nature of the original law for the propagation of the Church in the world. Timothy, Titus, Epaphro- ditus, and many others are conspicuous cases in point. Now to affirm that this method of growth was the result of an effort to copy the synagogue among Jewish converts, and the assemblies common among the heathen by Gentile converts (as Lightfoot and Hatch do everywhere), is equiv- alent to the affirmation that organisms grow by imitation rather than assimilation. The wheat draws into itself the substances necessary to its growth, and by assimilation converts them into silicate, gluten, starch, and whatever else its life law enables it to produce; but it does not copy or merely absorb by imitation what it finds. The calla lily and the rose growing side by side draw their nourishment from the same air and 1 84 HOLY ORDERS. sun and soil, but each follows the law of its own life in the use it makes of it — a law not derived from its environment but inherent in itself. Whatever men may have found useful in any age for the government of assemblies or religious societies the Church may or may not have adopted, because human nature is very much the same in every age and country; but the thing thus adopted is speedily changed in quality and use, having a new life imparted to it by which its nature and work are elevated and spiritualized. The same thing is illustrated in the literature which Christianity has inspired. Such words as "grace," "faith," "virtue," "humility," "love," existed in human speech before Christ was born. Our Lord found them ready for His purpose, poured into them the power of His own life, re- produced them full of a heavenly sound and sweetness before unknown; and they live to-day as the sufficient evidence of the source and quality of the life which they have been consecrated to express. The names most familiar to us by which we designate those ordained to any holy function were in use before Christianity adopted them; but the question is, not whether they existed in human use, but whether they have been adopted by Divine appointment; not whether they have been copied, but whether they have been conse- HOLY ORDERS. 185 crated to specific uses in the Body of Christ. On this point there cannot be any room for contro- versy if only men are willing to be governed by Holy Scripture and history. {a) The Deacons were originally appointed to minister in alms and charities under the direction of their superiors, to preach upon occasion, and baptize those converted. There their powers ended. S. Stephen, the first martyr, is the chief illustration of the preaching Deacon, and S. Philip appears in the wider range, both preaching and baptizing. Though his ministry was accom- panied by special wonders and mighty works, yet his ministerial powers were limited. ''When the Apostles and elders at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John," to whom the higher function of "laying on of hands" be- longed. The limitation of the power of Deacons, thus plainly shown even in the case of those otherwise specially endowed, has never been seriously called in question. {U) As the Apostles travelled about preaching the Gospel and making converts, they ordained Presbyters in every city, intrusting to them the higher authority, not only to preach and baptize as the Deacons could, but to minister also in the more awful responsibility of the remission of sins and the spiritual feeding of the people in the 1 86 HOLY ORDERS. Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Subject to the order of the Apostles who had ordained them, they governed the infant churches with such delegated powers as they were authorized to use. Here, then, were three distinct orders in the sacred ministry. As there had been the High Priest, Priests, and Levites among the Jews, so here, first our Lord, the twelve, and the seventy, then, after the Ascension, Apostles, Presbyters, and Deacons. The trinity of sacred ofifices has so far been preserved. Was it departed from later and a new thing under the sun of two orders introduced ? Let him produce the proof who can, for it is still " evident unto all men diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these orders of ministers in Christ's Church — Bishops, Priests, and Deacons " (Preface to the Ordinal). Some, indeed, being anxious to escape from this conclusion, have been bold enough to affirm that the Apostles dying left no successors, and that therefore the threefold cord was broken and the ministry in two orders alone survived ; that the Presbyters, thus left without a head, fell to quar- relling among themselves, and were compelled to choose one to preside, and so maintain order. This position was advanced at the time of the Reformation, and has lately been reproduced with all the weight which the Bampton lecturer. Dr. HOLY ORDERS. 187 Hatch, and the far greater Dr. Lightfoot, could give it. Here I must quote the words of the now- far-famed S. Jerome, which have attained much wider range than that somewhat sour foe of Bishops ever dreamed of. The passage is found in the commentary on the Epistle to Titus, chapter i. '' Before there were factions in religion, and the people began to say, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, the churches were governed by the common advice of the Presbyters. But when every man thought those whom he had baptized to be his own, and not Christ's, it was decreed in the whole world that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be set above the rest, to whom all the care of the Church should appertain, and the seeds of division rooted out." The ''decree," aforesaid, has never been produced, but let that pass. S. Jerome then proceeds to show how the words " Bishop " and " Presbyter " were used in- terchangeably in these early days, and builds his argument for their identity upon the familiaf passages in which they occur together {cf. Phil, i. I, Acts XX. 28), and concludes : '* These things I bring to show that anciently Presbyters were all one with Bishops; and that in tract of time, to pluck up the roots of dissension, all the charge of the Church was committed to one " {Ibid.). The question of real moment here is, at what 1 88 HOLY ORDERS. time this radical change was made, and by what authority? If the purpose of it were to stop the growth of schisms it was not long before it was called for. Schisms and divisions grew even in the Apostles' times, as appears from the Epistles of S. Paul. Wherefore these words of S. Je- rome, interpret them as we may, do not afifirm that Presbyters ruled the Church after the Apos- tles' time. Whatever powers they exercised were held subject to apostolic direction. Now, since the Apostles in natural course could not live always, the necessity was plain that they should commit to others such powers as were necessary for the perpetual government of Christ's Church. These powers may be summarized briefly, as the power to preach the word and min- ister the Sacraments, the right use of the keys, and the imposition of hands for the continuance of the ministry in the world. To quote the words of Bishop Bilson (*' The Perpetual Government of Christ Church"): " The Apostles, both in teaching and governing the churches, when they were present had helpers ; when they were absent had substitutes ; after their final departures or deaths left successors." — Bilson, p. 277. Again on the next page : "It may not be denied but as the word and sacraments are the most essential seeds of the Church, so the handling and sowing thereof in the Lord's ground must be the general and principal charge of all pastors and presbyters that either feed or rule the flock of Christ. . . . Wherefore in preaching the word and ministering the sacra- HOLY ORDERS. 189 ments, the scriptures know no difference betwixt pastors and teachers, bishops and presbyters." (c) The powers of discipline and government must also remain forever in the Church. The question now is to whom these powers were com- mitted, whether equally to Bishops and Presby- ters or to Bishops only. The power of discipline was committed to the Apostles in the memorable words spoken to S. Peter : *' I will give thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven " (Matt. xvi. 19). And on another oc- casion is extended to all the Apostles : " Receive ye the Holy Ghost : Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained " (John xx. 22, 23). This power was held and exercised by the Apostles after our Lord's Ascension. It was never intrusted to the Presbyters, but was always used, as most conspicuously at Corinth, under the direction of the Apostles. In due time this specific power of discipline was given to Timothy, Titus, and others by apostolic appointment, and with definite directions as to the place and sphere of its exercise. Another mark by which Bishops were distinguished from Presbyters in the Apos- tles' time is singularity. Presbyters were many, 190 HOLY ORDERS. Bishops one in a city over the many Presbyters. To quote Bishop Bilson again : " This singularity of one pastor in each place descended from the Apostles and their scholars in all the famous churches of the world by a perpetual chain of succession, and doth to this day continue, but where abomination or desolation, I mean heresy or violence, interrupt it. Of this there is so perfect record in all the stories and fathers of the Church, that I much muse with what face men that have any taste of learning can deny the voca- tion of Bishops came from the Apostles. For if their succession be apostolic, their function cannot choose but be likewise apostolic ; and that they succeeded the Apostles and Evangelists in their churches and chairs may inevitably be proved, if any Christian persons or churches deserve to be credited." — pp. 319, 320. It is unnecessary to point out the illustrious example of S. James as the first Bishop of Jeru- salem and president of the first council, of which the record is preserved in Acts xv. ; of S. Timothy, who was placed over the Church at Ephesus with specific superiority over all other officers; of S.Titus, who was similarly appointed to Crete with a definite authority over all he found there. The third distinctive mark by which the Bishop was separated from Presbyters, even in the Apos- tles' days, is the power of ordination. Those recent writers before referred to who have made so much use of S. Jerome seem to have forgotten how the saint when writing to Evagrius corrects the over-strong statement al- HOLY ORDERS. 191 ready quoted from his commentary on Titus. Like Bishop Lightfoot he expressed himself in terms which he found it necessary to modify. He is indeed anxious to impress upon his correspond- ent how much he thinks of Presbyters, to which order he himself belonged, and how little of Bishops, to whose rank he had not attained. These are his words : " What doth a Bishop, save ordination, which a Presbyter may not do ? " (Ad Evag. cii.). Now those words of Jerome — excepta ordinatione — are sufficient to end the whole con- troversy with those who take him for their oracle. Here it is conceded by this mighty champion, that in whatever other respects he and his order had no superiors, they had in this — they could not ordain Presbyters and Deacons; and there- fore the Church must die with them if there had been no Bishops with apostolic authority to send others as they had been themselves sent. It would be tedious to cite again the cases of Ss. Timothy and Titus, to whom this special charge and power were given — to "ordain Elders in every city," and to " set in order the things that are wanting." It would also weary were we to produce again the countless passages which have been collated from the fathers to illustrate this same fundamental verity of the order and polity of the Church. The Historic Episcopate may be conceded to 192 HOLY ORDERS. be a " growth " without drawing with it any of the consequences which recent writers have en- deavored to deduce. As a matter of simple his- torical fact the Church has never existed with- out the three Orders since our Lord imparted His Divine Life to it, and defined the law of its growth and development in the world — which law revealed its nature when the Apostles began to exercise their functions after the Day of Pentecost. 1. There always have been those to whom the elementary and preparatory work has been given, in whom tenderness and sympathy, as shown in the ministries of charity, were particularly re- quired, and whose duty it was to report to those who had sent them the condition of the work they had in hand. 2. There have always been those to whom higher functions were assigned, who were ad- mitted to closer relation with our Lord, to whom profounder mysteries were intrusted in offering the memorial sacrifice and proclaiming with authority the remission of sins; whose "lips should keep knowledge " that they might be able to " instruct the ignorant and them that are out of the way ; " whose should be the spiritual eye to see the Heavenly vision, the spiritual ear to hear the Word of the Lord, and the spiritual tongue to *' preach the Gospel to the poor and to pro- claim the acceptable year of the Lord." HOLY ORDERS. 1 93 3. There have always been in the Church, by- whatever name distinguished, those who possessed all the powers of the two orders just enumerated but to whom was also given by express Divine appointment other exclusive powers, never at any time possessed by the Presbyters and Deacons, and therefore quite impossible to be derived from them — powers the most important of which were the " keys," for the ultimate discipline of offenders, and "" imposition of hands " for the ordaining and consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons for the propagation of the Church in the world until time shall be no more. By these " the whole Body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint sup- plieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying of itself in love " (Eph. iv. 16). 4. The Ministry being the Divinely commis- sioned organ of the Body for the performance of the functions of the Body has its own functions thereby defined. (i) The Church Militant must ever continue a teaching Church. Her prophetical office cannot become obsolete until her Lord return in power and great glory. The message to every succeed- ing age is her message; the "hope of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" is her hope; the 13 194 HOLY ORDERS. *' love " of " His appearing " is her love. To make mankind know and feel these mighty powers of the world to come is her great business in the world. It is the solemn duty and lofty privilege of every member of the Body in " his vocation and ministry," both to illustrate in his own life and impress upon others by precept and example, these facts of the Church's life and faith and hope. On this it is not possible to lay too much stress. Here indeed is a wide sphere of useful- ness where the Laity may do most excellent Avork, and exercise a power for good quite beyond the reach of the clergy. Nevertheless the Church has a teaching " organ," an inspired tongue, dis- tinctively commissioned and appointed to "teach all nations," to " publish the glad tidings of good things," to " preach the Gospel to every creature." This order of men is set apart to give themselves wholly to the "ministry of the Word," to bend all their powers that way, to qualify themselves by prayer and study of Divine things to receive and convey to others the message they have been authorized to deliver. I say *' authorized to de- liver " advisedly, because the ministers of the Word are " heralds " and " ambassadors " to pro- claim terms of pardon and reconciliation, to an- nounce coming penalties which are surely to overtake the disobedient, and glorious blessings which await those who shall be found " meet for HOLY ORDERS. 195 the inheritance of the saints in light." This is a matter of authority and official empowerment. There are many of the Laity possessing gifts of knowledge and sanctification at whose feet the clergy would gladly sit and learn in all humility, but the word of a " prophet " and " ambassador " is not dependent upon his personal merits but upon his official appointment. He represents Christ, as the organ of the Body specifically des- ignated for the purpose, and can neither devolve upon another, nor suffer another to assume (with- out due official empowerment in regular order), the functions he has been ordained to discharge. Of course we are not ignorant of the difficul- ties (for others) involved in this view. But the question is not, What complications have re- sulted in the lapse of time from the passions and prejudices of men? but. What is the function of the sacred ministry by Divine appointment? Here also it is not our purpose to inquire what powers of compensation the Body itself may have whereby organic deficiency in any part may not indeed be supplied, but in some sense dis- pensed with by increased vitality elsewhere. A nice question, ably handled by many writers of note, but lying outside the compass of this lec- ture. (2) It is difficult to understand what Lightfoot and Hatch hope to gain by dwelling upon the 196 HOLY ORDERS. hieratical quality of the priesthood of the Laity, but denying any similar significance to that of the clergy. Whatever quality of priesthood belongs to the Body as a whole cannot possibly be taken away from those who are the organs of the Body for the performance of its priestly functions. Whatever power of vision the body has cannot surely be taken away from the eye, which is the organ of vision. Certainly the eye cannot see unless it inhere in a body with nerve ganglia sensitive to light. And, doubtless, there could be no clerical priesthood unless there were a Body with priestly functions to be performed, of which the ministry is the priestly organ. But what is the quality in sacrifice which gives it value? Is it the pain and nervous horror of the quivering victim? Is it the crimson gore poured out at the foot of the altar? These things are valueless as purchase-money before the throne of God. Their value lay in their spiritual signifi- cance. They pointed away from themselves to the *' Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." They were symbols and shadows to raise the soul of the ignorant worshipper to the contemplation of heavenly things. And when we stand, reverently with bowed heads, before the tragedy of the Cross, wherein lies its efificacy? Is it in the torn muscles and lacerated nerves, the drops from the sacred Head HOLY ORDERS. 1 97 responsive to the cruel thorns, the tide of '' blood and water" flowing from the spear thrust? Only in a very secondary sense. It is the " blood of God," as the Apostle has expressed it in the Acts, with which He hath "purchased" the ''Church of God." The eternal sacrifice is a spiritual reality consummated before the foundation of the world, but " manifested " on the plane of time and history for the revelation of God and the re- covery of fallen man. The Church is the per- petual witness of this sublime revelation, and she is to present continually a " memorial of the sacrifice of the death of Christ until His coming again." Surely the power and glory of the priest- hood are not found in the right and ability to use the sacrificial knife, but in the official authority to communicate to mankind the spiritual gifts of life and power once for all procured by the Great High Priest, and to be by them preserved and conveyed to the perishing race, " until the end of the world." Christ Himself, both Priest and Victim, hath delegated by authority to those whom He hath commissioned, the distinctive and specified function of remitting and retaining sins as the Divinely constituted organs of His Hu- manity for that purpose. He hath also plainly set forth and designated the sacramental media by the continued use of which the grace of life, pardon, and spiritual nourishment is to be ob- 198 HOLY ORDERS. tained through the official ministration of the organs He hath ordained. Whatever other high and awful priestly powers He may still hold in His own hands, these at least He has delegated to those who represent Him here. The priesthood of His Presbyters is, therefore, His priesthood to offer such sacrifices as He hath appointed. Very awful indeed is the responsibility laid upon those who are commissioned to serve in the sacred ministry of the Church. Let them beware how they listen to voices in the air, lest they forget the dread solemnity of the office and administra- tion to which they have been called. (3.) The statement of Dr. Hatch, that '' Chris- tianity became more democratical " as time went on, is another evidence of the strange way in which some minds fail to catch the essence of the question. If our Lord was merely the result of human development, evolved by natural process out of the Jewish life of His age, then, of course. His religion would also be merely of human origin, and would naturally change with the changing times according to the fashion of this world. To affirm this is to beg the whole question. If the supernatural facts lying at the base of Christian- ity be not historically true, it is mere waste of time to endeavor to construct a system of doc- trine and polity to suit them. What is to be HOLY ORDERS. 199 gained by deceiving ourselves? Christianity is either supernatural or it is not. If not, our Scriptures, creeds, and history are all worthless, for they aflfirm it to be supernatural. But if it be in truth supernatural, what is gained by trying to eliminate the supernatural from its life and growth? Christ is not elected a King by popular vote. When *' they would take Him by force to make Him a King, He withdrew Himself from them." When challenged with the question, ''Art Thou a King? " He acknowledged His royal dignity. His Kingdom is not of this world, and is not es- tablished in the world by such means as the chang- ing policy of the shifting ages may approve. He has issued His royal edicts, appointed the polity of His government, and designated officers for the execution of His laws. The constitution of His Kingdom is Divine, has been handed down from Heaven by the loving hand of His own Hu- manity, has been intrusted to the care of His Church with duly commissioned organs for its preservation and propagation in the world. To "say that this has changed, or is changing, or can be changed, is to be guilty of high treason against Him who is " the same yesterday and to- day, and forever." All powers, gifts, govern- ments whatsoever in the Church of Christ are from above, and can never under any circum- 200 HOLY ORDERS. stances be derived from the people on whom they are conferred by external commission and de- scent from Christ Himself. Holy Orders, we conclude, are of Divine and perpetual authority in the Church, which, as the Body of Christ, is to convey to all ages the bless- ings of His Incarnation. The sacred ministry is the Divinely appointed organ for communicating to mankind the life and graces flowing from Christ to His Body, the Church. The ministry is constituted in three Orders, commonly designated as Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. These all derive their special designation as " organs " of the " Body " by external commission and descent from the Apostles. The functions of the three orders are plainly defined in Holy Scripture and ancient authors, and may be sum- marized as follows : Bishops are distinguished by the power of impo- sition of hands for ordaining successors, and con- veyance of special grace; by the authority of gov- ernment and discipline as well of clergy as of laity. Presbyters are ordained to be ministers of the Word and Sacraments, to remit and retain sins in such sort as the Lord hath commanded, to offer the memorial of the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and thus to ''show forth the Lord's death until He come." HOLY ORDERS. 20 1 Deacons are ordained to minister to the poor, preach if they be thereto Hcensed, wait upon those who serve the altar, and thus to purchase to themselves a '' good degree " in due season. By the harmonious operation of the three orders in the faithful discharge of all holy func- tions the Church and Kingdom of God have been appointed to grow in the world " until the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." lanction, flDatrimon?, anb lienance. LECTURE V. RIGHT REV. CHARLES C. GRAFTON, S.T.D., Bishop of Fond du Lac. UNCTION, MA TRIMONY, AND PENANCE, " I speak concerning Christ and the church." — Eph. v. 32. "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church." — S. James v. 14. "For behold this self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clear- ing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!" — 2 Cor. vii. II. Three subjects have been assigned for this dis- course: Marriage, Unction, and Penance. They seemingly stand apart. The light and joy of the marriage feast with its garlands and sweet odors, and music, and dancing feet, and blossoms of hope. The darkened room, the whispered si- lence, the mystery of pain, the sufferings of the body in sympathy with its partner soul, the stealthy step of death. The tribunal of Penance, where mercy and justice clasp their hands ; where God's paternal love strives with His erring child ; from whence the devils, baffled, flee away in rage; 2o6 UNCTION, MA TRIM ON Y, AND PENANCE. whose deepened sorrow issues in holy vengeance against sin ; whose falling tears become " the wine of angels," or turn to jewels in Christ's crown. Different in outward garb, one bond unites them all, and that is, grace. There is the grace of Matrimony, the grace of Unction, the grace of Penance. May the Holy Spirit enlighten us with the mind of Christ, fill us with His wisdom, and so lift us up together into the Divine light, that we may love that which He reveals and by obe- dience be conformed to it. I. First, let us consider the subject of Unction. The reason of its use lies hidden in the person of Christ. Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed. So He declared Himself to be, at the opening of His ministry, in the synagogue at Nazareth. "And He came to Nazareth . . . and . . . went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and stood up for to read. . . . And when He had opened the book. He found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the cap- tives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set UNCTION, MA TRIM NY, AND PENANCE. 207 at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." ^ As the Son of Man, He is anointed with the Holy Ghost to be the world's Supreme Prophet, who is to proclaim the year of jubilee, and to be in Himself "the beginning of the new creation of God." He comes to gather men into union with His own transforming nature, that He may lift them up into God. He goes out upon His work and all nature acknowledges its new Mas- ter. The waves uphold Him. The heavens open over Him. The earth cannot retain Him. Dis- ease flees before Him. The devils crying out acknowledge Him. The angels minister to Him. At His word death yields up its prey. He has jurisdiction over all things, spiritual and material. "They brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed, and . . . Jesus said . . . Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be for- given thee." And when they questioned, and thought evil in their hearts, He replied, " But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then saith He to the sick of the palsy. Arise, take up thy bed and go unto thine house." f In the exercise of His anointing power He gives light to the souls and healing to the bodies *S. Luke iv. 18. t S. Matt. ix. 4-6. 2o8 UNCTION, MATRIMONY, AND PENANCE. of men. As Elijah stretched himself upon the child, his face to the child's face, his hands to the child's hands, so does Christ bring His Body in contact with our bodies and His Soul in contact with our souls, that our bodies may be made whole by His Body and our souls engraced by the embrace of His. Our nature is a plural unit ; and as such Christ so addressed it, and the restora- tion of the body declared that the healing gift of grace had touched the soul. Ofttimes, together with His spoken word He used some significant action, appealing to the blind man's sense of touch or the deaf man's use of sight. Here He stretches forth His hand to heal, here makes an ointment of the clay and spittle and anoints the blind man's eyes. This, then, is our first thought— that the Man Christ Jesus was anointed to be the light of the world, to be as such the world's Good Samaritan, and the enlightener and healer both of the bodies and souls of men. Further observe this, that Christ ordained that the grace and power of His anointing were to continue to all generations. This gift was not bestowed by Him on the Church at large and then delegated by the Church to its ministers. It was given first by Christ to the Apostles. The anointing flowed down first to Aaron's beard. It flowed, in other UNCTION, MATRIMONY, AND PENANCE, 209 words, from Christ, the Anointed Head, to the priesthood. From thence it descended to the whole body. It flowed down to the very skirts of the mystical garment of the Church. Let us recall how this began. In the prepara- tory and disciplinary period of their Apostleship, Christ gathers the twelve out from the whole body of disciples into union with His own pro- phetical ministry and sends them forth to teach. They were at first limited in their mission to Israel. It is important to note the limits of their jurisdiction. They were given jurisdiction over "all devils."* This is the way their gospel power began. Next, their ministerial power in frustrat- ing the ravages of sin extended to the cure of disease. Further they were authorized to preach the coming in of the Kingdom of God,f and that men should repent. This was their message — such was their authority. And they went out and preached repentance, and Satan's power was shaken. ''They cast out devils," and they deliv- ered penitents from bodily evils. '' They anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them." % It is immaterial whether they carried the oil with them or found it on their journey It is sufficient that they used it as they did, with the * S. Luke ix. i. f S. Luke ix. 2; S. Matt. x. 7. X S. Mark vi. 13. 2IO UNCTION, MA TRIMONY, AND PENANCE. Master's sanction. Christ herein, according to His wont, blessed a recognized remedial agent to symbolize and communicate His gift. It is but trifling to suppose that the Apostles adopted the unction without the Master's direction and solely for the healing properties the oil was sup- posed to possess. Their common action shows it to have been done in obedience to a command. And its obvious symbolical meaning was to bear witness to Christ the Anointed in whose name they wrought. " The Apostles used it," says Wordsworth, '' to show by the application of an appropriate, visible sign, that the healing was ef- ected, by their instrumentality, in the Name of Christ, the Messiah or Anointed One of God, and in His power who had sent them." And when, after Pentecost, God the Holy Ghost, by His permanent indwelling united the Apostles to Christ; and, guiding them into all truth, revealed Christ's mind to them, then did God the Holy Ghost declare through them how this anointing for the weal of soul and body of Christian men should ever be continued in the Church. " Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." * * S. James v. 14. UNCTION, MATRIMONY, AND PENANCE. 211 And for what purpose were they to do this? Why were the elders, or priests, to be sum- moned? In order intelligently to answer these questions we must first clearly discriminate between those special gifts which our Lord bestowed upon His Church, and the powers which belong to the orders of the ministry. Our Lord, speaking to the eleven, said that certain signs should follow them that believe. "They should speak with new tongues, they should take up serpents; and if they drank any deadly thing it should not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall re- cover."* We know these signs, as Christ foretold, fol- lowed upon prayers and acts of faith, but they are unconnected with the grace of order. Clergy and laity alike exercise these special gifts ot prophecy, and inspiration, and speaking with tongues, and miracles and healings. And here, brethren, take heed that ye fall not into a common error of these days of spiritual darkness, and suppose aught of Christ's good gifts have perished from the Church. For all His gifts are contained in His abiding Presence. And wherever there is need, and the requisite faith, the natural world still owns its Master * S. Mark xvi. 17. 212 UNC TION, MA TRIM ON V, A ND PEN A NCE, and shows itself subordinate to the spiritual ne- cessities of His Kingdom. Doubtless, when such manifestations were frequent in the Apostles' time, the sick, and the sick man's friends, with our natural infirmity of clinging to this life, would be prone to seek out those to whom the special gifts of healing or mir- acles had been vouchsafed, or who were supposed to possess them. It was possibly to check this tendency that the grave and holy patriarch S. James, presiding over the Church at Jerusalem, and, as the organ of the Holy Ghost, speaking to the whole Church and for all time, promul- gated the order for the Christian when sick, tell- ing him what to do and what to expect. What is he to do? He is not to anxiously seek for persons accounted possessed of miracu- lous or faith-healing powers, but to send for the priests, the ordinary ministers who are every- where at hand ; for the elders, upon whom, as such, no special gift of healing has been bestowed. So far as the cure of the body is concerned, let the faithful trust themselves to the prayers of the priest. Let them believe that '' The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much." God will hear him just as He did Elijah, if there is need. But, in this time of sickness the important con- UNC TION, MA TRIM ON F, A ND PEN A NCE. 2 1 3 cern is the soul. Let the priest come and minister to it as the lay faith or mind healer cannot do; let confession be made and sins remitted. And further S. James, who exercised a special author- ity in matters of Church government and disci- pline, gave order (based upon the earlier Apos- tolic use under the Master's direction) that the sick should be anointed with oil. S. James uses the plural form "elders," "call for the Elders of the Church " not as excluding the ministrations of a single priest, but as manifest- ing the oneness of the priesthood and the efificacy that comes from united prayer. The term used, viz., " Elder," excludes the unordained layman and the deacon ; it includes the Bishop. For while the layman may act a3 a spiritual door- keeper of the Church, and, in case of necessity, admit souls by the Sacrament of Baptism, he cannot, being unordained, minister to those within in aught that requires consecration. The dea- con may, indeed, bear the chalice of the Precious Blood, and communicate the faithful, yet cannot assist in ministering the gifts of grace which are disciplinary and restorative. So it is the elder or priest who is here bidden to " pray over the sick and anoint him with oil, in the name of the Lord." The oil, for the Church does everything de- 2 1 4 UNC TION, MA TRIMON V, A ND PEN A NCE. cently and in order, is prayerfully set apart for its holy purpose."^ The consecration of the oil shows that God blesses natural restoratives — '' the medicine He gives to heal our sickness " f — and it witnesses against those who wantonly reject all use of medicine. " Honor a physician with the honor due to him. The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth ; and he that is wise will not abhor them." \ Its consecration further declares that the benefit comes not from the natural * In the holy orthodox Eastern Church it is consecrated by seven priests. In our western portion of Christendom it has been reserved, as of propriety, to the bishop. The priest, indeed, can consecrate the Host and absolve the penitent, for he has jurisdiction over the natural and spiritual Body of Christ, but he does not consecrate the sacred oils. For while the " Sacraments of the Gospel " are administered by the priest, the Sacraments of the Spirit, i.e.^ Ordination, Confirmation, and Unction, ap- pertain primarily to the bishop. In all these the presbytery may assist: in laying on of hands in Ordination, in administer- ing the Chrism in Confirmation, when it is so administered, and in anointing the sick with the holy oil which the bishop has blessed. The merciful providence of God, by the ordering of events, did away with the form of anointing set forth in the first Prayer- Book of Edward, which was defective in not providing authorita- tively for the consecration of the oil. No national church, nor, indeed, a general council, can abrogate God's word, nor set aside a means of grace; and though the Anglican Church has been deprived of an office authorized by common authority, it has been providentially preserved from one which the rest of Christen- dom would have regarded as defective. f Ps. cxlvii. 3. if Eccles. xxxviii. i, 4. UNC TION, MA TRIM ON V, A ND PEN A NCE. 2 1 5 means alone, but by the added power of the word of God. For it is a common law that by- Sacraments all life, natural and spiritual, is given and preserved. The food we eat is a Sacrament communicating life in the natural order, as the Eucharist is in the heavenly. The consecration of the oil moreover connects the outward symbol with Christ, the Anointed Healer of mankind, who is the remedy for all our woes, and it signifies the spiritual blessings we are to receive from Him. For Sacraments are, as our Articles declare, effectual signs of grace, i.e., they effect what they signify. And the Holy Spirit tells us, by S. James, what the efTect here will be. Body and soul of the sick alike need help. If he hath committed sins, let him confess them, and let prayer be made for his healing. The prayer of faith and the anointing shall then avail '' to save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." Observe here most carefully that all the terms used — the "saving," and "raising up," and "for- giveness of sin " — imply, as your Bibles will in many places declare unto you, a spiritual bene- fit. " The engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." * God " hath raised us up together, and ma de us sit together in heavenly places in * S. James i. 21. 2i6 UNCTION, MATRIMONY, AND PENANCE. Christ Jesus." "^ "Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." f Now, whatever may be the primary object of the sick man's desire — to get well or not — of a spiritual benefit the soul must be the primary re- cipient. To this the bodily benefit which may follow is incidental and subordinate. You will perceive from all this that the Church's established order for Christian anointing differs from the act of the disciples described in S. Mark. Then, the Holy Ghost had not been given. Their baptism, like that of S. John Bap- tist, was but an outward sign, without an accom- panying inward grace. Their anointing was but a sign of Christ's coming, and a communication of a gift of mere bodily health. After Pente- cost, the Church is established. The Holy Spirit dwells ever after in her. In this dispensation of the Spirit a higher plane of power and blessing is reached. The gifts are spiritual. The soul is the primary recipient of them, and the body re- ceives its blessing as it is subordinate to the soul, and as it is saved, raised up, and forgiven. In contrast with the other Sacraments we see that Unction has its own special significance. As Baptism is by way of washing, and as Commun- * Eph. ii. 6. f Rom. vi. 4. UNC TION, MA TRIMON K, A ND PEN A NCE. 2 1 7 fon is by way of food, Unction uses a remedial agent and removes infirmities. In Baptism we are regenerated, in Confirmation fortified, in Communion fed, in Penance restored, by Unc- tion we are healed, assuaged, gladdened, calmed, refreshed. Wounded in its life-contest with its ever-pres- ent enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, the penitent soul takes refuge in the absolving word of Christ ministered to us by His priests. When sickness, with its trials, its anxieties, its temptations, its fears, and doubts, and weariness, comes upon us, when spiritual assaults are more keenly felt, and the spirit is apt to faint, and the avenue that leads to the great unknown begins to hem us in, then comes the Unction that bright- ens, cheers, strengthens, assuages, heals — a fresh anointing from the Great Anointed, breathing of peace and calmness — as a final adornment and preparation for presentation at the court of the Great King. It is not to be used when illness is but trifling, nor properly just when the sick is in extremis, as it is mistakenly asserted the Roman Church only employs it ; ^ but when illness is " serious " it may be resorted to, or when by reason of illness * It is called extreme unction in the Roman Church, because it is the last unction administered, and because it is a preparation for death. 2 1 8 UNC TION, MA TRIM ON Y, A ND PEN A NCE. there is danger of death. It is not to be admin- istered to young children, because it requires acts spiritual, but to those who have come to years of discretion. The recipient must be a baptized person. The organs of the five senses are usu- ally anointed, but one anointing, i.e., on the head, is held to suffice. It may be repeated. That the chief end of the Sacrament is the communication of some spiritual benefit, and not bodily healing, is seen from this. Had the chief end of this Sacrament been bodily restoration, we should have found considerable evidence of its use, and references to the healings effected, in the writings of the early centuries. But if the purpose of its promulgation by S. James was to lead men away from resorting to the miracu- lous or faith healing gifts to the ordered minis- tration of the clergy for the spiritual needs of the sick, we naturally should find in early writings but little said concerning it. And this is the case. As a spiritual aid in time of serious illness, it did not enter into the teachings of the Cate- chumens, as Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, and the Eucharist necessarily did. It did not have to find a place in the Apologies. It was not, like Baptism and the Holy Eucharist, a necessity. Its use would be limited and infrequent in times of persecution. It could not, like the Blessed Sacrament, be borne to the sick by lay hands. UNCTION, MA TRIM ON V, AND PEN A NCR. 2 r 9 Its use would naturally be further limited by the mixed marriages of Christians and heathen, and the difficulty of performing a Christian rite in the presence of the latter. But its existence in the Church as a usable means of grace is witnessed to, not only by in- direct and imperfect references made to it by Origen, S. Ephrem, S. Ambrose, S. Chrysostom, S. Cyril of Alexandria, and clearly by S. Innocent, but by the practice of heretics mentioned by S. Irenseus in the second century, and in later times by the concurrent custom of the Greeks, Armen- ians, Nestorians, andall the Orientals, who in this matter are at one with the Western Church. This common and abiding usage in the Church East and West is a witness that the promulgation by S. James, in his singular position as Presiding Apostle at Jerusalem, was not to serve a tempo- rary purpose ; that it was not a practice, like the kiss of peace or the washing of the feet, which the Church would preserve in its public ceremonial rites, but that it was a means of grace intended for all Christian people through all time. The Word of God may be neglected, but it cannot be repealed. It abideth forever. Whatever Christ, by Himself or through His Apostles, instituted for the conveying of grace to the soul, is of perpetual and enduring value. God forbid that our Communion, thankful for 2 2 o UNC TION, MA TRIM ON V, A ND PEN A NCE. all that the providence of God has done for it, should be unwilling to acknowledge any of its short-comings, or fail to claim all its Catholic heri- tage, or abstain from seeking to regain this Holy- Anointing, which the late learned and saintly Bishop of Brechin called '' the lost Pleiad of the Anglican Communion." II. Matrimony. Let us turn now to our second topic. Man, created in the image of God, bears witness of Him. Humanity was divided, by the creative evolutionary action, into male and female. As the Son is begotten of the Father, and is God of God and Light of Light, this mystery was shadowed forth in that the woman is represented as taken of the very substance of the man. She was bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. As the Father and Son are eternally united by the action of the Holy Ghost which proceeds from each, so the man and the woman were united in matrimony. They were to typify, by their mutual love and the perma- nence of their marriage relation, the life of God in Himself. The Incarnation began a new creation. There is a new bridegroom, Jesus Christ. A new bride, the Church. She is form^ed, by Sacraments, out of His side. She is bone of His bone, flesh of UNC TION, MA TRIM ON F, A ND PEN A NCR. 221 His flesh. And marriage has now a new sym- bolic meaning, and has received, for its higher mission and greater task, the grace needed for its fulfilment. Christian marriage, i.e., the marriage of the baptized, is now to bear witness to the mystery of Christ and the Church. It is to bear witness to three great facts concerning it. The oneness of the Bridegroom and His all- satisfying love. The oneness of the Church and its organic unity. The inseparability of the union, which neither life nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any creature, can sever. Let me speak to you of the different ways by which, through the grace given by Christ, Chris- tian marriage is made to fulfil this high and three- fold office. Concerning the first — the One Bridegroom and His all-satisfying love — you must remember that Christ has instituted two kinds of marriage: the marriage of the baptized man and woman to one another, and the mystical marriage of either to Himself in the religious state. The religious state, my brethren, was found- ed by our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a state, as you may know, of entire self-consecration and is founded on the three counsels of poverty, chas- 2 2 2 UNC TION, MA TRIM ON V, A ND PEN A NCR. tity, and obedience. These counsels our Lord gave at different times, saying to the rich young man who came to Him, " If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast and come and fol- low Me;"* when Apostles disputed who should be greatest, putting a little child before them and saying: "He that will be greatest among you, let him become as a little child." Again, He taught them : "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given." "There be eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." f He clearly designated here, you observe, a perma- nent and unalterable state. He exemplified these counsels in His own life — by His voluntarily assumed poverty, when He left His home at Nazareth and became a w^an- derer, having no place where to lay His Head ; by His abandonment of His blessed mother, when He separated from her at Cana's feast till His hour should come; by His obedience to the minute course and rule of life laid down for Him by prophecy and type in the Scriptures; and which He fulfilled to the letter, subjecting His human will to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In this life of voluntary poverty, chastity, and * S. Matt. xix. 21. f S. Matt. xix. II, 12. UNC TION, MA TRIMON F, A ND PEN A NCR. 223 obedience, He trained the Apostles. The early- Church was full of the spirit of this life; for it is to be shared in by every Christian, according to his vocation. It took, under Apostolic direction, a recognized form. There were the "widows " * or consecrated virgins, as we hear from S. Igna- tius the latter were called. S. Paul gives order concerning this ecclesiastical institute (S. Tim. chap. v. 9-16) as well as concerning natural widows who were simply Church beneficiaries (S. Tim. chap. V. 3-8). He commended the state by his own example and exhortation. " He that is unmar- ried careth for the things of the Lord how he may please the Lord." Every age of the Church has been enriched by this life of entire consecra- tion. The greatest missionaries of the Church have come forth from its organizations. The state, changing in outward form, has ever preserved its internal principles. These were given by the Master. And the life is thus an integral portion * " In the sub-apostolic age X^pa, widow had an ecclesiastical, as well as a ;?«/«ra/ meaning; it was even used of women who had never been married, but who had consecrated themselves to God in a single life. Cf, S. Ignatius ad Smyrn, c. 13: 'The virgins who are called widows.' It would appear probable that in the Apostolic age all women consecrated to God in a single life, and for doing works of mercy, formed a single rdyfia or order. One aspect of such a general institute was developed in this por- tion of the Church and another in that. In time the different elements of the common apostolic institute became distinct bodies." Liddon's Notes on S. Timothy. 2 24 UNC TION, MA TRIM ON F, A ND PEN A NCE. of Christianity. To be destitute of it is to be wanting in a requisite token of the Church of Christ. For nothing can our Communion be more grateful to God than for the renewal of this life within this century. " Blessed, thrice blessed, they," as a saintly servant of God wrote,"^ " to whom Christ alone sufificeth, the one aim of whose being is to live to Him and for Him. For Him they adorn them- selves; His eyes alone they desire to please through His graces in them ; Him they long to serve without distraction; at His feet they ever sit; to Him they speak in their inmost souls, to Him they hearken. He is their light, their love, their holy joy; to Him they ever approach with trustfulness; Him they consult in all things, on Him they wait- Him they love, even because they love Him, and desire nothing from Him but His love, desire no love but only His. Blessed foretaste of life eternal, to desire noth- ing on earth but the life of angels, and the new song; to be wholly His, whom her soul loveth, and He, the Lord of angels, to be wholly hers, as she says, * I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine.' " Blessed indeed as this life is to those conse- crated ones who walk faithfully in it, its value to the Church lies in the standing witness it bears *Pusey. Tar. Sermons, vol. ii. The Sacredness of Marriage. UNC TION, MA TRIM ON F, A ND PEN A NCE. 225 to the supreme importance of the eternal world ; to the moral law of self-sacrifice by which the Divine life is attained, and pre-eminently as it sets forth the mystery of the oneness of the Bridegroom and the all-sufificiency of His love. How was the second point — the oneness of the Church, as the one Bride — to be proclaimed? The answer is, by the Gospel law regulating the mar- riage of the priests. Where the stricter line, counselled by S. Paul, is not taken, and the priest marries, the New Testament allows him to be married but once. This law is set forth very explicitly in God's Word, in the special epistle given for the selec- tion, ordination, and discipline of the Christian ministry. Speaking of the two lower orders of the clergy, S. Paul writes:"^ "A bishop" — an elder or presbyter — " must be blameless, the hus- band of one wife." In like manner he says of the deacons: "Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife." There are only three possible interpretations of this divinely given Church law, viz., that the priest must be married ; that he must not have been or be a polygamist ; that he must marry, if at all, only once. It is not difficult to see which of these is the correct one and expresses the mind of God. * I S. Tim. iii. 2, 12. 15 226 UNCTION, MATRIMONY, AND PENANCE. The text cannot mean that the priest must be married, for this construction ignores the signifi- cance and use of the word " one." The text does not say that he must be married, but must be the husband but of one wife. It is also entirely irreconcilable with what S. Paul counsels in i Cor. vii. 7, and would make God's Word contra- dict itself. " It would suggest — with equal rea- son — that he must have children (cf. ver. 4) be- cause, if he has them, the Apostle gives rules concerning them." "^ This law for the clergy cannot be construed as merely prohibiting their indulgence in polygamy. For no special reason can be assigned why the clergy should be thus warned against that which, equally with murder and theft, was regarded as a crime by all Christians. Nor can the meaning be the exclusion from Holy Orders of those who had been polygamists before their conversion, for at this time simultaneous polygamy had dis- appeared among the Jews, and was regarded as infamous by Greeks and Romans. There is but one conclusion left. The text means, and can have no other meaning than this: that, by God's command, the clergy cannot law- fully marry more than once. This interpretation is put beyond all question, by the parallel com- mand given respecting the women. The " widow " * Liddon. UNCTION, MA TRIM ON Y, AND PENANCE. 227 who is to be admitted into the ecclesiastical order of widows, is required to be the " wife of one husband." * This cannot mean a prohibition against her having several husbands at the same time, as if other women might, but that she should be but once married; and so in respect of the admission of men to the ecclesiastical order, the command that the presbyter and deacon shall be the husband of one wife prohibits succes- sive, not a simultaneous, polygamy. The spiritual reason for this command is, that the ideal of marriage, which suggests that of Christ and His Church, is violated by a second marriage. There is but one Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, and one bride, the Church. It is to this fact the clergy are to bear witness, not merely by sermons about the One Holy Catholic Church, but by the more emphatic and persuasive witness of a life involving a special sacrifice. It was by their acts and lives the prophets of old so effec- tively taught, and so now would Christ have His stewards and ambassadors in the same impres- sive manner bear witness to a sensualized and blinded world. Of old, the high priest could marry but once, and then only a virgin. His marriage was to typify Christ and His Church. And that which under the law was bound on the high priest only, now in the fulness of the Gospel * I S. Tim. V. 9. 228 UNCTION, MA TRIM ON Y, AND PENANCE. grace is made the law of every Christian priest. Bodies which have lost the priesthood, have lost with it the sense of its sanctity and obligation. But for Church clergy to preach about the one Church and marry twice, is to break a clear com- mandment and deny by their action what they preach. Our Anglican Communion in America has been so surrounded by the nebulous and shattered Christianity of the sects, that, like Israel affected by her sojourn at Babylon, our spiritual insight has suffered, and the elevating voice of some re-establishing Ezra* is needed to recall us to our forgotten obligations. The mystical marriage to Christ of the relig- ious declares the oneness of the Bridegroom, the single marriage of the priest the oneness of the Bride, the eternal union between Christ and His Church is witnessed by the indissolubility of Christian marriage. A consummated Christian marriage is abso- lutely indissoluble. Priests are not bound to unite persons out of their cures. They should be careful not to marry without witnesses, or to marry persons suspected of running away or being under age; or in any way which is not public ; or where the conditions of entering into matrimony soberly and in the fear of God are disregarded ; or, save in exceptional cases, other * Ezra ix. 1-5. UNCTION, MA TRIM ON Y, AND PENANCE. 229 than in church; and should always make strict inquiry concerning the parties* previous state and relation to each other, and whether they have been baptized, as the blessing of the Church can be given only to such. There are impedi- ments to marriage which may enable the Church to declare void a marriage. There are ecclesi- astical restrictions which may be dispensed ; but the bond of matrimony cannot be broken.* The teaching of the Master is most clear: " Whosoever putteth away his wife and marrieth another committeth adultery." '' If a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she committeth adultery." f " Whoso- ever marrieth her that is put away from her hus- band committeth adultery." % " Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, commit- teth adultery against her."§ The Apostolic * In the Holy Roman Church no marriage can be dissolved except in three cases. " First, when of two unbaptized persons, man and wife, the one is converted, and the unconverted party refuses to live peaceably in wedlock, the convert may marry again, and thereupon also the other party. So the Church understands S. Paul, I Cor. vii. 13, 15. Again, the Pope can grant a divorce a vinculo in the marriage of baptized persons before cohabitation. Such a marriage in that stage is also dissolved by the profession of one of the parties in a religious order. Beyond these three cases the Catholic Church allows neither the lawfulness nor the validity of any divorce a vinculo by whomsoever given, to what- soever parties." — Rickaby, S. J., " Moral Philosophy," p. 274. t S. Matt. xi. II, 12. X S. Luke xvi. 18. § S. Mark x. 11. 230 UNCTION, MA TRIM O NY, AND PENANCE. teaching is the same. " And unto the married I command, yet not I but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband. But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be recon- ciled to her husband." * Both the man and the woman are thus absolutely forbidden to re-marry after separation. One text alone requires explanation. Our Lord said : " Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication^ and shall marry an- other, committeth adultery." f The explanation is this. One school of Jewish teachers had al- lowed divorce for trifling causes, and the Master rebukes this practice, and gives as the only excuse for a separation the sin He names. X Now an ex- cuse for separation is not a permission to re- marry. For He does not say: " Whosoever shall marry another, except it be for fornication, com- mitteth adultery." But the exception is placed after and applies only to separation, which S. Matthew, writing for the Jews, who had disputed about this matter, alone records. It does not apply to the marrying again, which our Lord in every other place absolutely forbids. * I Cor. vii. 10, II. f S. Matt. xix. g. % Into the dispute between the meaning of the term used it is not necessary to enter. The word is Tropveia (fornication), not fiotxeia (adultery). See Dr. Dollinger, First Age of the Church, ii., 262, 359, Liddon's University Ser., Human Law, note. UNCTION, MA TRIMONY, AND PENANCE. 231 In this respect our American Church is not yet in entire accord with the preponderating witness in regard to Christ's teaching as given by the undivided Church.* Since we assert with much confidence in our Articles that National Churches have erred and do err, so we ought to have the courage and hu- mility to acknowledge that our American Church has erred also, in not sufficiently guarding the in- violability of marriage. Our nation is sunk in pol- lution, in this matter of marriage, out of which only some scourge of God can seemingly deliver it. Yet not so only, let us hope, but also by the blessed influences that go forth from Christian homes, where the grace of Christ forms the true bond * A learned Anglican canonist, the Rev. G. Bayfield Roberts, thus sums up the ancient Church law on the subject: " Of twenty councils, seven allow the re -marriage of the innocent party, under certain circumstances^ viz.: Vannes (465); an Irish synod of un- certain date; two councils of Rome (826, 853); Worms (868); Bourges (1031); Limoges II (1031); the two latter councils being constituted by the same Bishops. Thirteen absolutely forbid re- marriage : Apostolical canons, received by the great Council of Trullo (692); Elvira (305); Aries (314); Carthage (407); Milevis (416); Hertford (673); Nantes (658); Soissons (744); Fruili(79i); Toul II (860); Aix III (862); Tribur (895); Trosle (909). Now, putting aside the obscure Council of Vannes, which only virtually, not specifically, permits re-marriage, and that to the man only, and the Irish synod, of unknown date and of questionable au- thenticity, there remain only five councils which permit re-mar- riage, at two of which the same Bishops were present. This re- duces the number to four, of which the earliest in date is 826, 232 UNC TION, MA TRIM ON Y, A ND PEN A NCE. of that marriage union which is typical of the enduring relation of Christ and His Church. " ' Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church.' Love as He loved who loved the Church more than Himself, and gave Himself for her. Love as He loved who loved souls not for what they were but for what He would make them. We love after the pattern of Christ when we love in one another the deathless beauty of the soul which Christ gives; when we love in despite of defects which Christ will by His grace remove; when we are patient and forbear- ing with what Christ has not yet removed, look- ing and longing for His transforming grace now, yet onward still to that mighty working whereby He is able to subdue all things to Himself. This and not one is of any special weight. On the other hand, thirteen councils absolutely forbid re-marriage, and among them are several councils of the greatest weight and authority. The Canon law on the subject was, at any rate, definitely settled for the whole Church by the year 692, when (if not before) the African code was added to the existing Greek code. The former explicitly condemned re-marriage after divorce, and by its reception in the East obtained oecumenical sanction. The counter evidence of a few obscure and insignificant local councils may fairly be dis- missed as of no weight, and as having been influenced by the laxity of the civil law." " The Eastern Church discountenances such marriages, and it is only since the eleventh century that it has tolerated them." The American Church canons allow of re-marriage of the inno- cent party. The English Church does not. UNCTION, MA TRIMONY, AND PENANCE. 233 love shall grow with years, as the love of Christ and the grace of Christ, which is the beauty of the soul, grows and is enlarged in each. This love shall be refined and purified by sickness and the wasting of the body, as the soul shall lay aside its dross. . This love shall not decay, much less die after the body's death. For souls which are united in Christ shall not be separated from Christ; they shall live on still, one in the one love of Christ. Love, then, with a love which shall not pass away; a love of Christ, from Christ, in Christ, to Christ. So shall love be per- fected in the abiding fulness of that transporting, deifying love when God shall be all in all and we shall be like Him who is love, and we, 'ac- cepted in Christ Jesus,' ' shall see Him as He is.' " * HI. Briefly, dear brethren, must I speak of Penance, the third subject assigned me. Let me put be- fore you two preliminary thoughts. First, the power of the priesthood to remit or retain sins. God only can forgive sins. He has, however, committed this power in the new dispensation to Christ as the Son of Man. It is His by two gifts. The gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was given " without measure to Him " * Abbreviated from Pusey : Sermon on Marriage. 234 UNCTION, MA TRIMONY, AND PENANCE. and dwelt within His human nature and empow- ered it. Secondly, the gift of the commission and anointing received at His baptism. Pos- sessed by these two gifts of this authority He wrought a miracle to show that as Son of Man He had power to forgive sins. Of this power He made the Apostles partakers by two acts. When, after saluting all who were pres- ent,* He next saluted the Apostles f and breath- ing on them, said: " Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained," X He thus made them partakers of the ministerial authority He received at His bap- tism. When according to His promise made the Apostles, that they should be endued with power from on high, § the Holy Spirit descended and abode within them at Pentecost, He then made them the spiritual agents of His absolving power. The terms in which their commission is given are comprehensive. || It was not a mere power * S. John XX. 19. f V. 20. X V. 19, 21. § S. Luke xxiv. 49. I " The pastors of the Church may be understood to remit or retain sin in divers ways. i. They remit sins dispositive, by work- ing in persons fit dispositions, upon which remission of sins, by God's promise, is consequent ; the dispositions of faith and re- pentance. 2. They remit (or retain) sins declarative, as the am- bassadors of God, in His name pronouncing the word of recon- ciliation to the penitent, and denouncing wrath to the obstinate in sin. 3. They remit sins impetrative, obtaining pardon for sins UNCTION, MATRIMONY, AND PENANCE. 235 to remove Church censures. ** I cannot," says Maurice, " in any case read * punishment ' where I find ' sin ' written. I must regard remission of punishment as a very poor and miserable sub- stitute for remission of sins." * Also it was not, says Bishop Andrewes, *' a personal privilege to be in them and to die with them, that they should only execute it for a time, and none ever after them. God forbid we should so think it." f It was a power to be exercised by the priesthood throughout all time. The laity have their share in the priesthood and exercise it by interceding for one another and forgiving injuries done to themselves; but the Priest speaks for Christ and absolves from sin as against God. It is not a mere declaration that God will forgive or for Christ's sake has for- given, but a communication of grace. When the Puritans at the Savoy Conference asked, "that the form of absolution be declarative and con- ditional, as ' I pronounce thee absolved,' instead of '/ absolve thee,' the Bishops replied : ' The form of absolution in the Liturgy is more agreeable to by their prayers. 4. They remit sins dispensative^ by consigning pardon in administration of the Sacraments, especially in conferring Baptism, whereby, duly administered and undertaken, all sins are washed away, and in the absolving of penitents." — Dr. Isaac Barrow : Power of the Keys, Works, vii., 365. * Maurice : The Gospel of St. John, p. 456. f Andrewes: Sermon on Absolution, Works, v., 91. 236 UNCTION, MATRIMONY, AND PENANCE. the Scriptures than that which they desire, it being said in S. John xx., " Whose sins you remit, they are remitted," not " Whose sins you pro- nounce remitted." ' " * So our Church has ever held and taught. The form for personal absolution given in the Ejiglish Prayer-Book, from which ours has not departed in doctrine, is : " Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to His Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in Him, of His great mercy forgive thee thine offences: and by His authority committed unto me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." This is the teaching of the Word of God and of our Church on Absolution, f The second thought I bring you is this. It is by all admitted that the baptized soul by griev- ous sin or habit of sin may be rightly cut off from the body of Christ and become excommu- nicate. To be by sin in this sad condition is to be outside the Ark. How can we be reunited to Christ and restored to our covenanted privi- leges ? The regularly ordained way as our XXXIII Article declares is by " Penance." In the early Church this was public. Now it is *Cardwell : Conferences, 3d ed., Oxford, 1849, PP* 332. 361. f See Appendix. UNCTION, MA TRIMONY, AND PENANCE. 237 rarely so and is privately administered.* And note that the d'eclarations of absolution in Morn- ing and Evening prayer are not a judicial exercise of the power of the keys. They have their place. They do a work. They avail to the cleansing of imperfections and minor transgressions and are part of that perpetual cleansing and advancing purification Christ is ever bestowing on the faith- ful. But they are parts of offices of the Church, said by the Church, and properly avail for those in the body and not for those out of it as the ex- communicate are. The regularly ordained way by which the ex- communicate may be restored on repentance to their former estate, is by the ministry of recon- ciliation. Nor is it those only who are excommunicate formally or de facto or who are under sentence of death who may avail themselves of this privilege. All souls distressed by the burden of sin and who cannot quiet their own conscience, be the burden what it may, are lovingly invited by the Priest in the words of the English Prayer-Book, "to come to me or to some other minister of God's word and open their grief that they may receive the benefit of absolution." Not once in fifty years do the silver trumpets of the jubilee sound, but perpetually do they * See Rubric Visitations of Prisoners. 238 UNCTION, MATRIMONY, AND PENANCE. proclaim under the Gospel the proffered restora- tion of our lost estate. In conclusion, dear brethren, let me say a word to you on the general subject of the confession of our sins to God in the presence of a Priest. There is a technical and disputatious way of re- garding it and a devotional and common-sense one. For most persons at some times in their lives do I believe it will be found helpful, but the thought I would leave you to-night, and espe- cially I address myself to the gentlemen here present, is, that such a confession is, for the loyal churchman and the noble-minded man, the way of honor. Sometimes souls resort to confession because they desire to have that same absolving word Christ spoke to penitents : " ' Son,' ' daugh- ter,' thy sins be forgiven thee. Go in peace," said personally to themselves. They want not to be left concerning their acceptance to the uncertainty of their own varying feelings, but to possess the pledged assurance Christ left in the Gospel. They come again not merely to know they are forgiven but for the larger grace that absolution gives, the healing of the wounds of sin and the fortifying of the soul against future temptation. But these motives spring from self and our own needs. There is a further and more constraining motive which affects us men. It is the motive of honor. Whenever in heat of temper UNCTION, MA TRIMONY, AND PENANCE. 239 by word or act you have wronged another, you feel your own manhood stained until you have by an apology made reparation. And by your code of honor you make the reparation, privately or publicly, according as your insult has been a public or private one and proportionate to its character. Now as conscientious Christians we must acknowledge the difference between our sins and those of old time. We have sinned after that God by becoming Incarnate has shown us in the crucifixion how sin stabs His heart. We have sinned not against the invisible God as Patriarchs and Jews did, but against Christ the Son of Man. And honor demands that our acknowledging act of reparation should be made not to the invisible God but to Jesus Christ, and since it cannot be made to God visible in the flesh, should be made to the visible man or Priest who represents Him. This is the way of honor, and the way of honor is the manly and ennobling way and the way of peace. This is man's side of confession, but then there is Christ's side. He loves to forgive. He loves to renew His forgiveness to the increasing purifi- cation of the soul. For Christian repentance and Christ's forgiveness are progressive. You have been forgiven. Christ has touched your heart. It may be years ago. You feel you are His. You are walking with Him. The 240 UNCTION, MATRIMONY, AND PENANCE. power of sin has been broken. You know His love and peace. But with your advance there is an ever-abiding sorrow for forgiven sin and a deepening sense of sin's enormity, of your sinful- ness and your ingratitude. You understand why the Church at every Communion would have us say of our sins, " the burden of them is intolera- ble." This deepening sense of sin has its parallel in common life. The child sins against its par- ents, it repents and is forgiven. The long years go on. The child grows up and has children of its own. It realizes what a father's or mother's love is. And as the hairs of that dear head are whitening and the step becomes feeble and the hour of departure may be at hand, the loving heart tells again its old childish transgression and asks anew for the word of forgiveness. " You are quite sure you have forgiven me all that ? '* " Why my child," says the dear old saint, '' I forgave you that long ago." "Yes, dear mother or father, but I just wanted to hear you say it again, when I know now as never before the pain I must have given." And the kiss tells more than of forgiveness, it tells of undying and eternal union in love. And so the soul increasing in holiness, increasingly realizes Christ's sorrow and love, and takes up the loving plaint of forgiven David, " Wash me more and more from my wick- edness, and cleanse me from my sin." UNCTION, MA TRIMONY, AND PENANCE. 241 And on His side, oh, remember how Christ loves to forgive, to cleanse, to purify, to adorn, to perfect the soul by His perpetual absolutions. No mother loves to adorn and deck her child as Christ loves to beautify the soul. The more He sees the likeness of Himself in any soul, the more He loves it and desires to make it yet more worthy of His love. His patience is never wearied. His grace is never exhausted. Every act of trust gladdens His heart. Every resort to the ministries of His grace baffles His foes. If we have caused that Sacred Heart to grieve by our sins, our neglects, our shortcomings, our waste of grace, let us by a sorrow after a godly sort, by clearing of ourselves by indignation, by vehement desire, by zeal, yea by revenge taken upon ourselves, make it rejoice. The power of absolution is inherent in every priest, the privilege of using that gift is the right of every penitent soul. APPENDIX. Confession and Absolution. The controversies that have raged about this subject in the past, and the differences of opinion about it which ex- ist in the Church at the present time, will be found on ex- amination to be superficial rather than fundamental ; that is to say, there is not so much dispute in regard to the position of the Church, which is sufficiently clear, as there is in regard on the one hand to the Roman practice of compulsory confession, and on the other to the Protestant practice of no confession at all. The contest has been largely between those who advocate these different prac- tices on various grounds which are aside from the teaching of the Church. In the notes that follow authorities are collected to show what the Church's position is. When this is seen, the controversy really ceases to be a practical one, and becomes merely an academic debate between two conten- tions which are both outside of the Church. These authorities are grouped in three divisions: i, the legislation of the Church as expressed in formularies and canons; 2, the teaching and practice of the Church, as exhibited in (a) visitation articles of Bishops and (d) writings of eminent divines. /. THE LEGISLATION OF THE CHURCH AS EX- PRESSED IN FORMULARIES AND CANONS. " Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 243 forgive, they are forgiven ; and whose sins thou dost re- tain, they are retained. And be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God, and of His holy Sacraments ; In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." {Book of Common Prayer, Form and Manner of Ordainmg Priests.'] Such are the solemn and awful words of the Ordinal pronounced by the Bishop as he places his hands on the head of the candidate whom by that declaration and act he advances to the Priesthood. Although it is God alone who forgives sins, yet He for- gives them by His ministers who have received the power of absolution through the gift of the Holy Ghost. In the Preface to the American Prayer-Book we read : " That this Church is far from intending to depart from the Church of England in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship, or further than local circumstances require." In the English Book the intending communi- cant " who cannot quiet his own conscience " is bidden to go to his parish priest, " or to some other discreet and learned* minister of God's holy Word and open his grief ; that by the Ministry of God's Holy Word he may receive the benefit of absolution together with ghostly counsel and advice to the quieting of his own conscience and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness." And in the American Book, " Let him come to me or to some other *" Discreet " and "learned" are both technical terms well known to the Canon Law, and mean approved by the Bishop as learned and discreet, that is, trained in moral divinity and other- wise fitted for the office of confessor. " It is not allowed to any Greek Priest to act as confessor, but only to discreet persons, ad- vanced in years, to whom a faculty for that purpose is given by the Bishop to whom they are subject." Smith's Ecc. Grcec. Oxf, 1676,/. 115. 244 APPENDIX, Minister of God's Word and open his grief, that he may receive such godly counsel and advice as may tend to the quieting of his conscience and the removing of all scruple and doubtfulness." In the Office for the Visitation of the Sick in the Eng- lish Prayer-Book the Priest is ordered to move the sick person "to make a special confession of his sins," after which he is directed to absolve him in these words, "Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to His Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in Him, of His great mercy forgive thee thine offences. And by His authority committed to me I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen." In the American Book in the Office for the Visitation of Prisoners, the Priest is directed to exhort the prisoner " to a particular confession of the sin for which he is con- demned," and after the confession has been made "to declare to him the pardoning mercy of God in the form which is used in the Communion Service." In the Canons of 1603 the regular practice of confession is taken for granted. The 113th Canon enjoins secrecy on the Minister* in respect to all confessions confided to him, in these terms: " Provided always, that if any man confess his secret and hidden sins to the Minister, for the unburthening of his conscience, and to receive spirit- ual consolation and ease of mind from him, we do not in * Before the time of the Commonwealth the term Minister was used as equivalent to Priest, but during that period became per- verted from its original meaning. Accordingly the Bishops at the Savoy Conference, in revising the Prayer-Book substituted the word Priest for that of Minister in the Rubric before the Absolu- tion so as to preclude Deacons. CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 245 any way bind the said Minister by this our Constitution, but do straitly charge and admonish him, that he do not at any time reveal or make known to any person whatso- ever, any crime or offence so committed to his trust and secrecy (except they be such crimes as by the Laws of this Realm his own life may be called in question for conceal- ing the same), under pain of irregularity."* The Annotated Book of Common Prayer, John Blunt, D.D., Revised and En- larged Edition, p. 446. In 1634 Canons modelled on the English enactments were introduced into Ireland. They were drawn up by Bishop Bramhall and approved by Archbishop Ussher, the Primate. Canon XIX orders that " The Minister of every parish, and in Collegiate and Cathedral Churches some principal Minister of the Church, shall, the afternoon be- fore the said administration " [of the Holy Communion], "give warning, by the tolling of the bell, or otherwise, to the intent that if any have any scruple of conscience, or desire the special Ministry of reconciliation, he may afford it to those who need it. And to this end the peo- ple are often to be exhorted to enter into a special exam- ination of their own souls; and that, finding themselves either extremely dull, or so much troubled in mind, they do resort unto God's Ministers to receive from them as well advice and counsel for the quickening of their dead hearts and the subduing of those corruptions whereunto they have been subject, as the benefit of absolution like- * " In Ecclesiastical Law ' irregularity' means deprivation, ac- companied by a perpetual incapacity for taking any benefice what- ever. It is the severest punishment which can be inflicted on a Clergyman under the Canon Law, short of degradation from his Orders." The Annotated Book of Common Prayer, note 2, p. 446. 246 APPENDIX. wise, for the quieting of their consciences, by the power of the Keys which Christ has committed to His Ministers for that purpose." Wilkins Concilia, torn, iv., p. 501. In 1635 Canons were sent up by the Scottish Bishops to Charles I for approval, and were revised by Laud and Juxon. Among these was the following : "Albeit Sacra- mental Confession and Absolution have been in some places very much abused; yet if any of the people be grieved in mind for any delict or offence committed, and for the unburthening of his conscience confess the same to the Bishop or Presbyter ; they shall, as they are bound, minister to the person so confessing all spiritual consola- tions out of the Word of God ; and shall not deny him the benefit of Absolution after the manner which is pre- scribed in the Visitation of the Sick, if the party show himself truly penitent, and humbly desire to be absolved." " The Church and the World" 1876,^. 210. Revd.J. C. Chambers. To this may be added also the testimony of the Homi- lies of which the Thirty-fifth Article of Religion speaks in these terms : " The second Book of Homilies, the sev- eral titles whereof we have joined under this Article, doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine, and necessary for these times, as doth the former Book of Homilies, which were set forth in the time of Edward the Sixth; and therefore we judge them to be read in Churches by the Ministers, diligently and distinctly, that they may be understanded of the people." In the Homily on " Common Prayer and Sacraments," p. 376, we are told that "Absolution hath the promise of forgiveness of sins," and in that on "Repentance and a true Reconciliation unto God," p. 577, we read : " I do not say but that, if any do find themselves troubled in CONFESSrOAF AND ABSOLUTION 247 conscience, they may repair to their learned curate or pastor, or to some other godly learned man, and show the trouble and doubt of their conscience to them, that they may receive at their hand the comfortable salve of God's Word." //. TEACHING AND PRACTICE OF THE CHURCH AS EXHIBITED IN (a) VISITATION ARTICLES OF BISHOPS. In 1567 Archbishop Parker in his Visitation articles directs: "VI item. You shall enquire of the doctrine and judgment of all and singular hedd and members of your Church . . . whether any of them do either privalie or openlie preach or teach any unwholesome, erroneous, sedi- tious doctrine ... or in other point do perswade or move any not to conform themselves to the order of reli- gion, reformed, restored, and received by public authority in the Church of England. As for example . . . that every article in our crede, commonly received and used in the Church is not to be received of necessity ; or that MORTAL OR VOLUNTARY SINS, COMMITTED AFTER BAP- TISM, BE NOT REMISSABLE BY PENANCE." Wilkins Con- cilia, torn. iv.,p. 253. Bishop Overall, the author of the section of the Church Catechism which treats of the Sacraments, in the ist Article of his Visitation in 1619 asks: "Whether doth your Minister before the several times of the administra- tion of the Lord's Supper, admonish and exhort his parishioners if they have their consciences troubled and disquieted, to resort unto him, or some other learned Minister, and open his grief, that he may receive such ghostly counsel and comfort as his conscience may be re- 248 APPENDIX. lieved, and by the Minister he may receive the benefit of Absolution, to the quiet of his conscience and avoiding of scruple. And if any man confess his secret and hidden sins, be he sick or whole, to the Minister, for the unbur- thening of his conscience, and receiving such spiritual consolation, doth or hath the said Minister at any time revealed and made known to any person whomsoever any crime or offence so committed to his trust, contrary to the 1 1 3th Canon ? " Second Report of the Commissioners on Rubrics, p. 483. In 1625 Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, makes the same inquiry in the same words. Second Report of the Commissioners 07t Rubrics, 1868,/. 494. In 1636 Bishop Dee of Peterborough inquires: " Doth your Minister . . . commonly premonish his Parishioners, if they be troubled in conscience, to confess, and open their grief to him, that they may receive the benefit of ab- solution ? " " The Doctrine of Absolutio7t," Maskell, p. 1 37, note. In the same year Bishop Wren of Norwich asks: " Whether your Minister before the several times of the administration of the Lord's Supper admonish and exhort his Parishioners, if any of them have their consciences troubled and disquieted, to resort to him, or to some other learned Minister, and open their grief that they may re- ceive the benefit of Absolution ? And if any man con- fess his secret and hidden sins, being sick or whole, to the Minister, for the unburthening of his conscience, and re- ceiving of spiritual consolation or ease of mind from him, doth he the said Minister . . . ever reveal or make known to any person whatever, any crime or offence, so committed to his trust and secrecy? " Second Report, etc., 1868,/. 560. In his Visitation Articles in 1638 Bishop Montague in- quires: " Doth he " (the Minister) " comfort the sick per- CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 249 son as concerning his soul's health, his state to God ward ? Doth he upon hearing his confession, which he shall per- suade him to make, absolve him from all his sins, settle his faith, affiance, and confidence in God ? And hath he at any time discovered any part of his confession ? " Doth he especially exhort his parishioners to make confession of their sins to himself or some other learned, grave, and discreet Minister, especially in Lent against that holy time of Easter ; and that they may receive com- fort and absolution, and so become worthy receivers of such sacred mysteries?" Second Report, etc., i86S,p. 583. And in the same year Bishop Duppa of Peterborough asks: " Hath your Minister at any time revealed the con- fession of any made to him in secret, contrary to the 1 13th Canon, and so hath brought a scandal upon the ancient Remedy of sin and sinners ? " Second Report, etc., 1868, P- 577. In 1640 Bishop Juxon of London makes the same in- quiry in substantially the same language. Second Report, etc., 1868, p. 591. As do also Bishops Gunning of Ely in 1678 {Second Report, etc., 1868, p. 648), Fuller of Lincoln in 1668 {Second Report, etc., 1868, _^. 635), Turner of Ely in 1686 (" The Doctrme of Absolution," Maskell, p. 137, 7iote^, Fleetwood of St. Asaph in 1710 {Second Report, etc., 1868, p. 667), and many others. "It has been shown that in the diocese of Norwich (there was no reason for selecting this diocese for investi- gation, except that the gentleman who made it is an in- cumbent there) since the Reformation the majority of the Bishops have at their Visitations made inquiries concern- ing Confession which implied both its practice and its use." ''A Contribution to the Cause of Christian Unity," O'Neill, p. d>g. In the year 1640 Convocation ordered that at all Epis- 25© APPENDIX. copal and Archidiaconal Visitations the following inquiry should be made of all Church Wardens : " Have you ever heard that your said Priest or Minister hath revealed and made known at any time to any person whatsoever any crime or offence committed to his trust and secrecy, either in extremes of sickness, or in other case whatsoever . . . Declare the name of the offender when and by whom you heard the same." Heylin on the Creed, p. 486. This laid down a general rule by which all Diocesans in the future were to be governed. Coming down to our own times, Bishop Hamilton of Salisbury, who died in 1869, in one of his charges speaks thus : " If with the Homily, you ever speak of Absolution and Confession as a Sacrament, you must indicate this distinction of your Church ; and you maybe thankful that through this very distinction, you are the more free to in- sist upon the Penitents having those dispositions, which are the necessary qualifications for Absolution, and to warn persons against the exceeding peril of profaning that holy ordinance, and so of bringing upon their souls the guilt of sacrilege. At the time of the Reformation such guilt was, it is said, very frequently incurred ; and I ques- tion not that our Reformers were glad to find themselves justified in making the question of confession one less of obligation than of the claims and privileges of an awak- ened conscience." Power of the Priesthood in Absolution, Canon Cooke, p, 167, 2d ed. (d) WRITINGS OF EMINENT DIVINES. In the Catechism put forth by the authority of Arch- bishop Cranmer in the year 1548, and dedicated by him to Edward VI, we read : " Now God doth not speak to us with a Voice sounding out of heaven ; but He hath CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION 251 given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the authority to forgive sin to the ministers of the Church. Wherefore let him that is a sinner go to one of them. Let him knowledge and confess his sin, and pray him that, according to God's commandments, he will give him absolution, and comfort him with the word of grace and forgiveness of his sins." Short Instruction into Christian Religion. Oxford, 1829,^. 202. Latimer says : " To speak of right and true confession I would to God it were kept in England ; for it is a good thing." Sermons and Remains of Hugh Latimer, p. 180, ed. 1844. And the judicious Hooker affirms : " That our Saviour by those words, ' Whose sins ye remit they are remitted,' did ordain judges over sinful souls, give them authority to absolve from sin, and promise to ratify in heaven whatsoever they should do on earth in execution of this their office." Ecclesiastical Polity, Book vi., C. vi., 3,/. 486. Ox., 1848. Bishop Jewel, who died in 1 571, states : " The difference between us and our adversaries on the whole matter is not great : . . . Three kinds of confession are expressed unto us in the Scriptures. The first made secretely unto God alone : the second openly before the whole congre- gation : the third privately unto our brother. Of the two former kinds there is no question. Touching the third if it be discreetly used, to the greater comfort and satisfac- tion of the penitent without superstition or other ill, it is not in any wise by us reproved. . . . Thus much only we say, that private confession to be made unto the Minister is neither commanded by Christ nor necessary to salva- tion." Defence of the Apology, Part II., C. vi., Div. I. Works, vol. iv.,p.\Z6. Ox., 1848. George Herbert (died 1632), in his "Priest to the Tem- ple," writes: "In his visiting the sick or otherwise af- 252 APPENDIX. flicted he followeth the Church's counsel, namely, in per- suading them to particular confession ; labouring to make them understand the great good use of this ancient and pious ordinance, and how necessary it is in some cases." The Parson Co77tforting, chap, xv., vol. i., p. i86. Dr. Donne, Dean of Saint Paul's, whose life has been written by Isaak Walton, the Angler, and whom De Quincey has described in his essay on Casuistry,* as " one of the subtlest intellects that England has produced," writes : " Confiteor Domino, says David, I will confess my sins to the Lord ; sins are not confessed if they be not confessed to Him, in case of necessity it will suffice, though they be confessed to no other. Indeed a confes- sion is directed upon God, though it be made to His Min- ister: if God had appointed His angels or His saints to absolve me, as He hath His Ministers, I would confess to them. . . . Men come not willingly to this manifesta- tion of themselves, nor are they to be brought in chains, as they do in the Roman Church, by a necessity of an exact enumeration of all their sins, but to be led with that sweetness with which our Church proceeds, in appointing sick persons, if they feel their consciences troubled with any weighty matter to make a special confession, and to receive absolution at the hands of the priest : and then we are to remember that every coming to the Communion is as serious a thing as our own transmigration out of the world, and we should do as much here for the settling of our consciences as upon our death-bed." Sermons, Ivi., vol. a., p. 563. London, 1839. Dr. Donne was born and brought up in the Roman Church and studied for the ministry in that Communion. He was converted to Anglicanism before middle life. He *De Quincey's Works, vol. vii., p. 276. CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION", 253 was as remarkable for his piety as he was distinguished by his ability and learning. He died in 1632. Bishop Montague, who died in 1641, writes : " It is con- fessed that all priests, and none but priests, have power to forgive sins; it is confessed that private confession unto a priest is of very ancient practice in the Church, of ex- cellent use and practice being discretely handled. We refuse it to none if men require it, if need be to have it. We urge and persuade it in extremes ; we require it in cases of perplexity for the quieting of men disturbed and their consciences." A Gaggfor the New Gospel, etc., p. 83. The author of " The Religion of Protestants " and of the famous saying, " The Bible and the Bible alone is the re- ligion of Protestants," writes : " Since Christ for your ben- efit and comfort has given such authority to His Minis- ters, upon your unfeigned repentance and confession, to absolve and release you from your sins . . . therefore, in obedience to His gracious will, and as I am warranted, and even enjoined, by my holy mother, the Church of England, expressly, in the Book of Common Prayer, in the rubric of visiting the sick (which doctrine this Church hath also embraced so far), I beseech you that by your practice and use you will not suffer that commission which Christ has given to His Ministers to be a vain form of words without any sense under them ; to be an an- tiquated, expired commission, of no use nor validity in these days ; but whensoever you find yourself charged and oppressed, especially with such crimes as they call * Pec- cata vastantia conscientiam,' such as do lay waste and depopulate the conscience, that you have recourse to your spiritual physician, and freely disclose the nature and malignancy of your disease, that he may be able, as the cause shall require, to proportion a remedy, either to search it with corrosives, or comfort and temper it with 254 APPENDIX. oil. And come not to him only with such a mind AS YOU WOULD GO TO A LEARNED MAN EXPERIENCED IN THE Scripture, as one that can speak comfort- able, QUIETING WORDS TO YOU, BUT AS ONE THAT HATH AUTHORITY DELEGATED TO HIM FROM GOD HiMSELF TO ABSOLVE AND ACQUIT YOU OF YOUR SINS." Chillin^WOrtJlS Works, vol. ill., p. 206. Lojidon, 1820, Sermon 7. The times in which Chillingworth lived were much given to controversy. He became unsettled in his views while at Oxford and was finally converted to Roman Cathol- icism by Fisher, but was induced by Laud to return from Douay, whither he had gone, to Oxford, and re-examine the question. This resulted in his return to his old alle- giance to the English Church. The sermon, quoted from above, was preached after his return. Chillingworth died in 1644. Bishop Jeremy Taylor says, speaking of confession: " It is a very pious preparation to the Holy Sacrament that we confess our sins to the Minister of religion." . . . Works, vol. IX., p. 299. London, 1828. And again he writes : " But the priest's proper power of absolving (which is in no case communicable to any man who is not consecrated to the Ministry) is a giving the penitent the means of eternal pardon, the admitting him to the Sacraments of the Church, and the peace and communion of the faithful ; because this is the only way really to obtain pardon of God ; there being in ordinary no way to heaven but by serving God in the way which He hath commanded us by His Son, that is, in the way of the Church, which is His Body, whereof He is Prince and Head." Vol. ix.,p. 258. Jeremy Taylor died in 1667. In the " Guide for the Penitent," p. 113, London, 1761, written either by Jeremy Taylor or Bishop Duppa, and united with Taylor's ''Golden Grove," under advice concern- CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 255 ing Confession, we read: " That besides this Examination of your conscience which may be done in secret between God and your own soul, there is great use of Holy Con- fession ; which though it be not generally in all cases, and peremptorily commanded, as if without it no salvation could possibly be had ; yet you are advised by the Church under whose discipline you live, that before you are to receive the Holy Sacrament or when you are visited with any dangerous sickness, if you find any one particular sin, or more, that lies heavy upon you, to disburden yourself of it into the bosom of your Confessor, who not only stands between God and you to pray for you, but hath the power of the Keys committed to him, upon your true repentance to absolve you in Christ's name for those sins which you have confessed to him." And Bishop Cosin, who took the leading part in the last revision of the English Prayer-Book (1662), in his ''Notes on the Book of Common Prayer" commenting on the rubric in the Visitation Office, " Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession," etc., writes : " The Church of England, howsoever it holdeth not Confession and Absolution Sacramental, that is, made unto and re- ceived from a Priest, to be so absolutely necessary AS THAT WITHOUT IT THERE CAN BE NO REMISSION OF SINS ; yet by this place it is manifest what she teacheth concerning the virtue and force of this sacred action. The Confession is commanded to be special. The Abso- lution is the same that the ancient Church and the pres- ent Church of Rome useth. . . . Our * if he feel his con- science troubled 'is no more than his 'if he find out his sins ' (' si inveniat peccata ') ; for if he be not troubled with sin, what needs either Confession or Absolution } Venial sins that separate not from the grace of God need not so much to trouble a man's conscience. If he hath com- 256 APPENDIX. mitted any mortal sin then we require confession of it to a priest, who may give him upon his true contrition and repentance the benefit of absolution, which takes effect according to his disposition that is absolved. . . . The truth is, that in the Priest's absolution there is the true power and virtue of forgiveness, which will most certainly take effect, ' unless an obstacle is imposed,' as in Baptism." Attglo-CathoUc Library. Cosiiis Works, vol. v., p. 163. Cosin died 1672. Commenting on the same rubric Dr. John Henry Blunt in " The Annotated Book of Cotnmon Prayer " p. 466, re- vised and enlarged edition. Button, 1884, says: "It is plain that the kind of Confession named in the Rubric is that which is commonly known as 'Auricular Confession ' ; for although privacy is not enjoined, it is quite certain that it would be sought both by Priest and penitent, and that without it the Confession would most likely be of a very general, instead of a ' special ' character. That it is also intended to be private or ' auricular ' — spoken to the ear of the Priest alone — is shown by the original form of the Rubric in 1549, which speaks of 'all private confes- sions ' with an evidently inclusive sense — this here enjoined being one of the kind included." Blunt died only a few years ago. Archbishop Wake, the author of various books against the errors of the Church of Rome, writes: "The Church of England refuses no sort of Confession either public or private, which may be any way necessary to the quieting of men's consciences, or to the exercise of that power which our Saviour Christ has left to His Church. " We have our penitential canon for public offenders ; we exhort men, if they have the least doubt or scruple, nay sometimes though they have none, but specially be- fore they receive the Holy Sacrament to confess their CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 257 sins. We propose to them the benefit not only of ghostly advice how to manage their repentance, but the great comfort of absolution too, as soon as they have completed it. . . . When we visit our sick, we never fail to exhort them to make a special confession of their sins to him that ministers to them ; and when they have done it, their absolution is so full that the Church of Rome itself could not desire to add anything to it." Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England, in Gibsons Pre- servative against Popery, vol. xii.,p. 107. Archbishop Wake died 1737. And Wheatly in ''A Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer," p. 375, in his dissertation on the Visita- tion Office says: "And therefore the Church of England at the Reformation, in the particular now before us, freed it from all encroachments with which the Church of Rome had embarrassed it, and reduced confession to its primitive plan. She neither calls it a Sacrament, nor requires it to be used as universally necessary ; but because it is re- quisite THAT NO MAN SHOULD COME TO THE HOLY COM- MUNION, BUT WITH A FULL TRUST IN GOD'S MERCY, AND WITH A QUIET CONSCIENCE; SHE THEREFORE ADVISES, THAT IF THERE BE ANY WHO IS NOT ABLE TO QUIET HIS OWN CONSCIENCE, BUT REQUIRETH FURTHER COMFORT OR COUNSEL, HE SHOULD COME TO HIS OWN, OR TO SOME OTHER DISCREET AND LEARNED MINISTER OF GOD'S WoRD, AND OPEN HIS GRIEF, THAT, BY THE MINISTRY OF GOD'S HOLY Word, he may receive the benefit of absolu- tion, TOGETHER WITH GHOSTLY COUNSEL AND ADVICE, TO THE QUIETING OF HIS CONSCIENCE, AND AVOIDING OF ALL SCRUPLES AND DOUBTFULNESS. " So that we may still, I presume, wish very consistently with the determination of our Church, that our people would apply themselves oftener than they do to their 17 258 APPENDIX. spiritual physicians, even in the time of their health, since it is much to be feared they are wounded oftener than they complain, and yet, through aversion of disclosing their sore, suffer it to gangrene for want of their help who should work the cure." Wheatly died in 1742. Wilson, the saintly Bishop of Sodor and Man, writes : "And they that are sick and have any faith in God's Word, will, as St. James advises send for the Minister of God. that he may pray over him, that he may examine the sin- cerity of his faith and his repentance, and that, if he is truly penitent, he may receive absolution, which the Spirit of God assures him shall have a real effect." Anglo-Cath- olic Library. Wilsons Works, vol. in., p. 416. Bishop Wil- son died in 1755, Bishop Harold Browne of Winchester says in his " Ex- position of the Thirty- Nine Articles," p. 595, Button, 1890 : " Thus the Church of England provides for all troubled consciences the power of relieving themselves, by making confession of guilt to their pastor, or ' any other discreet and learned minister,' and so gives them comfort and counsel, but does not bind every one of necessity to re- hearse all his private sins to man, nor elevate such useful confession into a sacrament essential to salvation." And Bishop Moberly of Salisbury, the immediate prede- cessor of the present Bishop, writes : " We have still the offer (Oh ! that we would think of it more readily, and use it oftener) of the benefit of Absolution, together with ghostly counsel and advice, to the quieting of the Con- science." " The Great Forty Days," p. 135. Sir W. Palmer in his " Treatise on the Church of Christ,''' vol. i.,p. 518, 2d ed., London, a work authorized as a text- book in seminaries of the American Church, says: "The practice of private confession to priests, and absolution. she never abolished. . . . That the Church did not mean CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 259 to abolish Confession and Absolution (which she even re- gards as a sort of Sacrament) in general, appears from the Office of the Eucharist, and from the Visitation of the Sick, then drawn up; and from the power conferred on Priests in the ordination services. The Homilies drawn up in 1562, only declared this Confession and Absolution not essential generally to the pardon of sin, but this does not militate against its desirableness and benefit which the Church never denied. We only disused the Canon, ' omnes utriusque sexus ' made by the Synod of Lateran in 121 5; and for good reasons restored the practice of confession to the state it was in previously, when it was not enjoined at a particular time of every year. The al- teration was only in a matter of changeable discipline." And in the Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology, p. 142, 2d ed., Blunt, under the head of Confes- sion we read: "Although the canons of the mediaeval Church of England respecting confession were not actually repealed, their compulsory force may be said to have lapsed during the Reformation period ; and (with- out any word indeed depreciating the value of confes- sion) the Church of England habitually reverted to the earlier system of voluntary confession. The authori- tative Anglican statements and injunctions respecting it will be found in the third of the Ten Articles of A. D. 1536; in The Institution of a Christian Man, and its revised form, The Erudition for any Christian Man; in the Exhortation to Communion, and the office for the Visitation of the Sick, contained in the various editions of the Book of Common Prayer from A. D. 1549 to A. D. 1662, and in the 113th of the Canons of A. D. 1603. From these documents it will be found that the ancient system of ' auricular * or private confes- sion is still permitted, and in some cases encouraged; 26o APPENDIX, and that, beyond the disuse of any words which would imply its absolute necessity to salvation, there is nothing that breaks into the ancient traditions of the Church upon the subject. The opinion of all those divines, who have best expressed the theology of the Church of Eng- land as distinguished from that of the Dissenters, have also invariably run in the same direction, from the time of Hooker to that of Keble." Quotations to the same effect might be multiplied almost indefinitely. Suffice it, however, to mention the names of a few distinguished prelates and theologians who either simply recommended or both recommended and practised confession : Bishop Andrewes, the author of the Answer to Cardinal Bellarmine; Bishop White, author of the Reply to Fisher; Dr. Isaac Barrow, author of a Treatise against the Supre7nacy of the Pope; Bishop Sparrow, one of the Savoy Commissioners ; Bishop Beveridge, Bishop Berke- ley, Bishop Home, Bishop Pearson, author of the Exposi- tion of the Creed ; also Heylin, Bishop Ken, Archbishop Sharp, author of " Sermons against Popery; " Bishop Hall, author of " N'o Peace with Rome ; " Bishop Forbes, Isaac Williams, Bishop Grey, Bishop Milman, Keble, Pusey, Charles Marriott, and Liddon. The American Church speaking by her formularies teaches the same doctrine of Penance that the Church of England does. Besides her general adherence to the doctrine and discipline of that Church declared in the Preface of the Book of Common Prayer, she ex- pressly inculcates the practice of penance. She recom- mends it wherever the Church of England does. In one case she absolutely requires it: the case of ex- communicated persons seeking to be reconciled to the Church. CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 261 The XXXIII Article of Religion reads as follows : "That person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the Unity of the Church and excommunicated, ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as an Heathen and Publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the Church by a Judge that hath authority there- unto." Commenting on this Article Bishop Harold Browne writes: " The Church of England is clear enough in its principles though restrained in her practice. This Article speaks plainly her doctrine." Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, p. 773. It seems scarcely necessary to say that the Church Club is not responsible for any individual opinions on points, not ruled by the Church, which, the learned theologians who have been good enough to lecture under its auspices, may have expressed. GENERAL LIBRARY -U.C. BERKELEY BOOOfl'JbO?!