'The power and efficacy are of God': a 1796 Prayer Book commentary and the Sacrament of Baptism as absolution
The dispensation of Absolution, as practised in the ancient church, is reducible to these four heads:
1. The Absolution of Baptism, and of the Supper of the Lord, or sacramental Absolution.
2. The Absolution of reconciliation to the church, and re-admission into its communion.
3. The Absolution of word and doctrine, or declaratory Absolution.
4. The Absolution of prayer, or precatory Absolution.
These four heads shape his review, as he addresses each in turn. We begin, then, with the Sacrament of Baptism:
The sacrament of baptism was esteemed by the Fathers the most universal Absolution. To adopt the words of antiquity, it was the grand, the divine indulgence in the Christian church. It was the Absolution, or remission of all those sins, which the party baptized committed before his entry into the mystical body of Christ.
When the ministers baptises, therefore, they are engaged in the ministry of absolution. Indeed, this is, as Shepherd states, "the most universal Absolution". (It is worth noting at this point that this has significance for the Ordinal's statement regarding deacons: "in the absence of the Priest to baptize infants". And, in light of Shepherd's third head, "to preach, if he be admitted thereto by the Bishop". Deacons, therefore, have a share in the ministry of absolution.)
Shepherd continues by highlighting how the minister administering Baptism is not itself absolution - the absolution of Baptism is God's work:
Yet in the sacrament of baptism, the ministry only, is to be accounted human; the power and efficacy are of God.
This, of course, reflects the doctrinal position at the heart of Shepherd's understanding and routinely heard by 18th century Anglicans from the Book of Common Prayer:
and hath given power, and commandment, to his Ministers, to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins: He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel.
Likewise, God has "given power, and commandment, to his Ministers" to administer the Sacrament of Baptism - but it is "He [who] pardoneth and absolveth" in this Sacrament. This, Shepherd goes on to demonstrate, is rooted in Scripture and is reflected in the words of both Augustine and the 13th century Franciscan and scholastic, Alexander of Hales:
St. John the Baptist makes this very distinction. "I baptize with water: He baptizeth with the Holy Ghost" (John 1. 26, 33). Austin has observed, "that to baptize by way of ministry, is one thing, to baptize by way of power is another. The power of baptizing, the Lord has retained to himself, but he has given the ministry to his servants".
Alexander of Hales, says, "it is a matter of equal power to baptize inwardly, and to absolve from mortal sin. It was not proper for God to commit to man the power of baptizing inwardly, lest our hope should be placed in man. By parity of reason, it was not proper that he should communicate to man the power of absolving from actual sin".
The relationship between the minister and the grace of absolution is set forth in the defining act of Absolution, Holy Baptism. The minister baptises with water in the name of the Triune God; it is the Triune God who absolves. As in the other ministries of absolution, "the power ... the Lord has retained to himself".
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