'The most material part of the ministry of reconciliation': a 1796 Prayer Book commentary and preaching as absolution

In his discussion of absolution in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I (1796), John Shepherd accepts that ordained ministers have "powers to absolve judicially" in matters of ecclesiastical discipline. This, however, is only so in matters of discipline. Outside of this, absolution is "ministerial" and thus declaratory. 

As seen in previous posts in this series, Shepherd has pointed to the administration of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper as acts of ministerial absolution. Now he turns to another means of ministerial absolution, what he terms "the Absolution of Word and Doctrine":

[this] appears to be that which constitutes the most material part of the ministry of reconciliation, committed by Christ to his ambassadors on earth. (2 Cor. v. 18, 19.) The exercise of this Absolution consists in publishing the terms and conditions, on which remission of sins, reconciliation to God, and everlasting salvation, are promised in the Gospel. Of these terms and conditions the ministers of Christ are authorised, and enjoined, to make public and general declaration. The apostles were commanded to "go into all the world, and to preach the Gospel to every creature." And every priest of the church of England has solemnly engaged, "out of the Holy Scriptures to instruct the people committed to his charge in all things necessary to their salvation." In particular he is bound, to declare from the word of truth, the terms, on which God is graciously pleased to admit men to his favour, and what are the conditions, without the performance of which, they shall be excluded from it.

The ministry of absolution, therefore, embraces preaching and teaching: in the words of the Litany, "that it may please thee to illuminate all Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, with true knowledge and understanding of thy Word; and that both by their preaching and living they may set it forth and shew it accordingly". This, says Shepherd "constitutes the most material part of the ministry of reconciliation". It is a significant statement: preaching, in other words, is the normative expression of the ministry of absolution.

This is emphasised as Shepherd goes on to evoke the dominical words used in the laying on of hands in the Ordering of Priests:

The terms, on which God, under the covenant of grace, remits, or retains sins, are unalterably fixed, and they are expressly declared in the Gospel. The terms are these. God pardons and absolves all true penitents, and sincere believers: and will give everlasting life to all his faithful and obedient servants. But the impenitent shall perish. The unbelieving shall die in his sins. Indignation and wrath shall be the portion of the disobedient. Whenever the minister of the Gospel, either in the public or private discharge of his office, fully and faithfully represents these truths to the people, he does, in other words, declare and pronounce to them, whose sins are remitted, and whose sins are retained by God.

Here, then, is the meaning of those dominical words in the ordination rite. They refer to the ministry of absolution undertaken by presbyters in the ministration of Word and Sacraments, of which "the most material part" is preaching (whether this be sermons, the reading of homilies, or the public reading of holy Scripture). As Shepherd states:

The duty of the minister of Christ Jesus consists principally in instruction and exhortation ... The absolution of word and doctrine, that is, the act of preaching the Gospel, and properly applying Holy Scripture.

We must note, of course, that Shepherd is no solafidian. When he refers to "the terms, on which God, under the covenant of grace, remits, or retains sins" we may very well think of the recent series of posts on the 1826 episcopal charge of Thomas Burgess, then Bishop of Salisbury:

The Gospel covenant is not a covenant of faith only, but of faith and works ...

Or, as Shepherd puts it, "the conditions, without the performance of which" we have no part of the Gospel covenant. This is the context for what critics - past and present - lazily condemn as the 'moralism' of 18th century Anglican preaching. It is no more moralism than our Lord's words, "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock".

As an example of how "the conditions" of the Gospel were set forth in 18th century Church of England preaching, we can turn to a perhaps unlikely example - Gilbert White. Despite the caricature of the great author of the Natural History of Selborne as a parson more interested in birds than the pulpit, Louis Coulson's 2011 study of White's preaching - To Edify and Delight: Introducing the Sermons of Gilbert White of Selborne - demonstrates the seriousness of White's pulpit ministry. In the sermons, we see White expound divine judgement, forgiveness, the atoning sacrifice of Christ, and the nature of repentance. It is suggestive, as Couslon notes, that in the latter years of his ministry, White's preaching "set down the values that seemed most important to him ... Repentance ... [and] Humility". White, in other words, exemplifies what preaching was more often like in quite ordinary 18th century parishes: more thoroughly scriptural than the caricatures and critics allow; indeed, we might suggest that it was more thoroughly scriptural than much 21st century Anglican preaching.

When Shepherd declares that preaching is "the most material part of the ministry of reconciliation", he offers a more deeply rooted Anglican understanding of the dominical words in the Ordering of Priests than what would emerge from the Movement of 1833. When Pusey et al interpreted these words as primarily referring to private absolution, not only was this a profound rupture with how the overwhelming majority of Church of England divines has interpreted the formula since the Reformation - it also was an dismissive rejection of ordinary Anglican spiritual life during those centuries, not least in the 18th. These were not times when the grace of absolution was unknown to Anglicans. The absolution was read at Morning and Evening Prayer. Baptism and Holy Communion were administered. And "the most material part of the ministry of reconciliation" occurred Sunday by Sunday, when the parson entered the pulpit and set forth "the terms, on which God, under the covenant of grace, remits, or retains sins".