"All that is essential in them": Jelf's Bampton Lectures on the ordinances of Matrimony, Confirmation, and Visitation of the Sick
In the seventh of his 1844 Bampton Lectures, An inquiry into the means of grace, their mutual connection, and combined use, with especial reference to the Church of England , Jelf - one of the Zs, those whom Nockles highlights as the post-1833 continuation of the Old High tradition - addresses the question if the Church of England has "not abandoned some of the means of grace, by her refusal to recognise five out of the seven Sacraments, which the Church of Rome retains?". Earlier in the lectures he had considered the ordained ministry as a means of grace. Next week's post will explore his understanding of private confession and absolution. In today's extract we see Jelf refute the suggestion that the Church of England was deprived of particular graces because it rightly did not define Matrimony, Confirmation, and Unction as Sacraments of the Gospel. Matrimony The holy estate of Matrimony is so highly esteemed amongst us as to be considered compatible with the highest...