But for a weak and fallible man to assume a power in any sense, to remit or retain the sins of another, how shall we divest such a notion of presumption, or reconcile it with the enlightened and enquiring spirit of the nineteenth century?
We are baptized, as I have always understood, for the remission of sins. Say then, that a person desired baptism at your hands, but that on examination you thought you had found him wanting in the necessary qualifications, that he had not faith. Would you baptize him? But if part of the grace of Baptism be the remission of sins past, by withholding from him the sacramental means whereby they are remitted, do you not retain them? And under such circumstances, would not the virtue of your commission—the “power of the keys,” be brought home to you? And considering the life-giving effect of Baptism, if you are tempted to measure God’s ways by our ways, must it not strike you as the very height of presumption, to say as you do—I baptize thee? But as the remission of sins is a result of Baptism, and as we have not according to the old puritanical objection, any “scripture warrant” for the words with which we administer that mystery, would it argue greater presumption to say in words that mean no more, “I absolve thee of all thy past offences?” The Greek Church seems to have viewed the matter in this light, for as we learn from Bingham, they perform the rite in the optative form. “Baptizetur servus Christi in nomine Patris, &c.—let the servant of Christ be baptized, &c.” [56]
But say, that you had mistaken the thoughts of the heart of the would be convert, would not “the tremendous responsibility” of which his Lordship speaks be neutralized as it respected both the convert and yourself, by the comforting consideration that there is an after appeal to One that judgeth righteously, at whose tribunal the act or sentence of His official on earth will be reversed, if pronounced in error, but everlastingly confirmed if otherwise? Is absolution therefore a matter of indifference? Why then was the Christian ministry ordained, and its authority sealed by the assurance of its divine Founder,—“he that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me despiseth Him that sent me?”
Your third objection lies against the words, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” as they are used in our Ordination Service.
The old cavil, as it is mentioned by Hooker, was “The Holy Ghost we cannot give, and therefore we foolishly bid men receive it.” [57a]
Your objection to the use of these words would seem to be, that in their literal sense they imply a power of commanding his gifts. But surely there is a wide distinction between the dispenser of a spiritual gift, and the giver of it. “God,” says Jeremy Taylor, “is the fountain of the power, man conveys it by an external rite . . . God is the consecrator, man is the minister; the separation is mysterious and wonderful, the power great and secret.” [57b]
Now, if a Bishop really believes that the Imposition of Hands is a divinely instituted rite, the means ordained by inspiration of Christ, and used by his Apostles, whereby the gift of the Holy Ghost is conveyed and received, for the ministration of the mysteries of the gospel dispensation:—if he believe that he is a minister of the Spirit, an apostolically appointed steward of these mysteries, I can see nothing “foolish,” nothing presumptuous in his saying at the very moment that he believes that he is dispensing the gift—“Receive ye the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto you by the Imposition of our Hands.” It would, at least, tend to show that he had faith in the efficacy of his ministration. But to imitate the significant act of our Saviour and his Apostles, ever performed by them with a specific object, and ever resulting in a blessing, in the communication of some spiritual gift, to have recourse to the sign, with no faith in the thing signified, esteeming it but a barren ceremony,—would seem to me to be but little short of an “indefensible” mockery of an external rite, hallowed to spiritual purposes by the authority of inspiration.
If you can believe in the mystery of the sacraments, if you can believe that “the bread which we break, the cup of blessing which we bless,” do, by the prayer and solemn invocation of the Priest, become, in some inexplicable and mysterious manner, the “Communion of the body and blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord’s Supper:” if, in this faith, you hesitate not to give the consecrated elements to the communicants, manifesting the signification of the rite, by the words, the “body and blood of Christ, take, eat—drink:”—I can see but little reason why you should stumble, at the not more mysterious communication of the spiritual gift for the office ministerial, by the Imposition of Hands. They are mysteries; but the whole gospel dispensation is a mystery:—we must become as “little children” or we cannot receive them—for no sooner do we grow wise enough to ask “how these things can be,” than we are certain to reject them as “foolishness.” Some boldly, like the Socinian, as requiring a “prostration of intellect,” too humiliating to be submitted to—others hiding from themselves their want of faith, under the garb of humility, under which garb, I wish, that frequently something more of rationalism may not lurk, than its wearer would either willingly suspect or acknowledge.
But you request the Archbishop of Canterbury, “that it may be allowed by his Grace’s authority or sanctioned by his opinion, that in this form, all that relates to the gift of the Spirit” (the ministration of it rather, since the Bishop is not the fountain of the power—not the giver), “may be considered precatory.” [59a]—Precatory!—“the great mysteries of our religion are all by way of solemn prayer.” “The form of words,” says Jeremy Taylor, “doth not alter the case, for Ego benedico, and Deus benedicat is the same, and was no more, when God commanded the Priest in express terms to bless the people.” [59b]
But what is there in the words, “receive ye the Holy Ghost,” to prevent your taking them in the sense which would seem “to suit your own views?”