The Exhortation at Mattins and Evensong: Penitence

In the days before and after Ash Wednesday, laudable Practice considered the words of the Absolution at Mattins and Evensong through the commentary provided in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796), by clergyman John Shepherd. We now turn to the Exhortation in those offices. Shepherd expounds how the Exhortation draws us to a meaningful repentance, flowing from the penitential sentences, addressing heart, mind, and soul, in an exercise of the presbyteral ministry of reconciliation.

Note, too, how Shepherd - writing in 1796 - emphasises that the ministry of the presbyter is not derived "from the Legislature".  This is yet another example of how Old High teaching consistently reaffirmed the divine authority of the ordained minister, decades before Newman (bearing false witness) declared in Tract I that Anglican clergy relied on "secular advantages".

Shepherd's commentary also demonstrates the importance of the Exhortation to the penitential rite at the beginning of Morning and Evening Prayer, inevitably leading us to question the absence of a similarly weighty exhortation from contemporary Anglican versions of Morning and Evening Prayer. Related to this, his commentary on the Exhortation also points to the fullness of the penitential rite in these Cranmerian offices: weighty Exhortation, meaningful Confession, significant Absolution. It was this which underpinned Hooker's declaration that private confession and absolution was no necessity:

the difference of generall and particular formes in Confession and absolution, is not soe materiall, that any mans safety, or ghostly good should depend upon it (LEP VI.4.15).

Reading Shepherd's commentary thus brings us to recognise the richness of the Exhortation and what has been lost as a result of Prayer Book Sunday Mattins being replaced with the Parish Communion in which penitential material is, to say the least, rather less weighty and meaningful.

The affectionate and apostolic salutation, "Dearly beloved brethren," is intended to engage the attention of the congregation, and to express the tender love of the Minister for the souls of those committed to his charge. He knows what God expects from us; he sees the danger of our neglect, and therefore, he admonishes us to confess our sins, to repent of them and to amend our lives. It is not from his own, or any human authority, that he does this. From the introductory Sentences, as well as from various other passages of Scripture, it is plain, that Confession and Repentance are not the imposition of our spiritual guides or civil governors. They are duties required by God himself, and the practice of them is indispensably necessary to salvation. The Minister of the Gospel, like the Prophets of the Old Testament, comes armed with "the sword of the Spirit, the word of God." They, who legitimately minister in spiritual things, have an office, which they received, neither from the Legislature, nor "the will of man, but from God." And however mean and contemptible the speech, person, or worldly circumstances of the Minister of Christ Jesus may appear, from him you hear the voice of God, commanding all men every where to acknowledge their transgressions, to make humble confession of their sins, and to repent ...

From that word, the Church has selected the three essential points of true repentance. The first admonishes us to confess our sins with humility and lowliness of heart, with a heart sensible of our own vileness and unworthiness, like that of the publican, who "stood afar off, and would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven." This must be accompanied with penitential sorrow, contrition, and remorse, for having offended so good and merciful a God. These will produce the third essential of repentance, an "obedient heart," and make us firmly resolve and earnestly endeavour, for the future, "to keep God's holy will and commandments." To such repentance God has graciously annexed forgiveness. But we are not to presume, that there is any thing like merit in our repentance and obedience. For forgiveness and justification we are indebted solely to the "infinite mercy and goodness of God," through the meritorious sufferings, and efficacious mediation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.