'Evangelical absolution': a 1796 Prayer Book commentary and the absolution in the Holy Communion

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them that with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him; Have mercy upon you; pardon and deliver you from all your sins; confirm and strengthen you in all goodness; and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The quietly beautiful words of the absolution in the traditional Prayer Book Holy Communion hold together two of the forms of absolution discussed by John Shepherd, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I (1796):

In this form, the declaratory and precatory absolutions are happily united ...

Shepherd's description of these two forms captures their significance for Anglican communicants over the centuries:

The former part consists of God's merciful promise of pardon to true penitent believers. In the latter part, the bishop or priest, in exact conformity to the sentiments and practice of the fathers, directs addresses to the throne of grace, and intercedes with God for the actual pardon and absolution of particular persons.

This latter part, the precatory form, Shepherd states, "is a direct prayer for pardon and forgiveness". It this which again embodies the ministry of the bishop or presbyter:

This ministerial benediction and intercession was always considered as a principal act of episcopal and sacerdotal power in the business of evangelical absolution.

Here, then, is the parson interceding for the congregation, praying that they may - through "hearty repentance and true faith" - know the forgiveness of "our heavenly Father". That the intercession is prefaced by the declaration of the God's "great mercy" makes it particularly resonant. It is a response to the words of the general Confession:

Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father ...

And it echoes across the remainder of the Holy Communion:

whose property is always to have mercy ... who of thy tender mercy ... merciful Father ... Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, have mercy upon us.

In some ways, we can perhaps regard the absolution - in which "the declaratory and precatory absolutions are happily united" - as the pivot in the Holy Communion. It turns us towards the "great mercy" of "our heavenly Father", that we may then approach the holy Table, trusting in that mercy. We draw near to the holy Sacrament, then, in the spirit called for by the Second Exhortation:

no man should come to the holy Communion, but with a full trust in God's mercy.

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