"No empty or useless ceremony": absolution at Mattins and Evensong

The first lesson at Mattins on Tuesday of last week was Numbers 6, concluding with the blessing to be given by the Aaronic priesthood: "On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel".

Calvin's commentary on this - "And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them" - applies it to the Church's ordained ministers: 

The promise, which is finally subjoined, gives assurance that this was no empty or useless ceremony, when He declares that He will bless the people. And hence we gather, that whatsoever the ministers of the Church do by God’s command, is ratified by Him with a real and solid result; since He declares nothing by His ministers which He will not Himself fulfill and perform by the efficacy of His Spirit.

Reading Calvin's words immediately brought to mind those of Cranmer in the absolution at Morning and Evening Prayer:

Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness, and live; 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 ...

Or, as Calvin put it, "a real and solid result", for this absolution is "no empty or useless ceremony". The proclamation of absolution given by the Church's ministers is "ratified" by "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ", in "the Holy Spirit".  

Reading Cranmer's absolution alongside Calvin's words - and, indeed, Hooker - sets a foundation for how the Old High tradition (including, Keble) regarding this absolution as having the same efficacy as that in the Holy Communion and the Visitation of the Sick.  We might note this not only critiques later Tractarian accounts which viewed private absolution as having a particular and different efficacy; it also contradicts the Low Church view that such ministerial declaration was not actually absolution and, as in much contemporary evangelical Anglican practice, could be dispensed with.  This latter view may now pose as Reformed, but it is no such thing. To deprive the church's ministry of a power bestowed by Word and Spirit is Anabaptist, not Reformed. 

But why address this during Holy Week? It is a reminder that Anglicans over centuries, while not practising private confession and absolution, did not approach the observance of Good Friday and the Sacrament on Easter Day without "the benefit of absolution". In the week before Easter, to use the words of Keble, "Each morn and eve, the Golden Keys Are lifted in the sacred hand".  And "this was no empty or useless ceremony".  Over the centuries, Anglicans - for whom private absolution was a very rare occurrence, usually only known during grave illness or towards the end of life - have approached Good Friday and the holy Sacrament on Easter Day duly absolved, for "the Absolution and Remission of their sins" was bestowed day by day, in a weighty penitential rite (Sentences, Exhortation, Confession, Absolution), through the ministry of presbyters in the Church.