The Three Marks of the Visible Church—Part 5

By Robin G. Jordan

In this fifth part of the article, "The Three Marks of the Visible Church," we continue our examination of the connection between the second distinguishing mark of the visible Church of Christ identified by the English Reformers and the theology of the sacraments found in the formularies of the reformed Church of England. In this part we take a look at the provisions of the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal as they relate to the due administration and right use of the sacraments of the Holy Communion and Baptism.

To ensure that the sacrament of the Holy Communion is duly administered and rightly used the rubrics of the Communion Service direct “the Curate” to repel those who are “an open evil liver” or “have done anything wrong to his neighbour by word or deed” and those “betwixt whom malice and hatred” reigns. At the beginning of the service the Minister “rehearses” the Ten Commandments and the people, after each Commandment pray, for mercy for their past transgressions and grace to God’s Commandments in the future. The rubrics direct the Minister to give warning for the celebration of the Holy Communion, reading one of two Exhortations after the Sermon or Homily. The First Exhortation warns of the danger of unworthy reception and emphasizes the necessity of self-examination, confession of one’s sinfulness to God, reconciliation with one’s neighbor, restitution and satisfaction for all injuries and wrongs that one has done, and forgiveness of the offenses of others. Those with an unquiet conscience are invited to go to a “discreet and learned Minister of God’s Word” and “by the ministry of God’s Word obtain “the quietening of his conscience, and avoidance of all scruple and doubtfulness. The Second Exhortation warns of the danger of negligence to come to the Holy Communion and of willful abstinence from the Lord’s Table. The Communion Service also contains a Third Exhortation that rubrics direct the Priest to say at the time of the celebration of the Communion, the communicants being conveniently placed for the receiving of the holy Sacrament.

The First Exhortation is attributed to Peter Vermigli, also known as Peter Martyr. The Second and Third Exhortation are taken from the Order of Common of 1548, which was the work of Cranmer himself.

A comparison of the more recent service books with The Book of Common Prayer highlights the great weight the Prayer Book gives to rightly and worthily receiving the sacrament of the Holy Communion. If a communicant comes to the Holy Communion in an unfit state—unrepentant, unreconciled, unforgiving, and devoid of a vital faith, and eats and drinks the sacrament to his condemnation, the fault lies with the communicant, not the Prayer Book. The newer service books may be deficient in this particular area but not the Prayer Book. Like a dutiful watchman the Prayer Book warns the foolhardy of the danger to their souls. Their blood is on their own heads if they disregard its warning.

While the Prayer of Consecration has been criticized for its lack of a fully developed epiclesis and anamnesis and other elements found in the Eucharistic Prayers of the early Church, it contains everything that Archbishop Cranmer concluded from his study of the New Testament is needful to duly ministering the sacrament of the Holy Communion according to Christ’s ordinance. In the New Testament we find four accounts of the Last Supper, the first three in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke and the fourth in Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians. The latter is believed to be the oldest of the four accounts. Cranmer drew upon these accounts in compiling the Consecration-Prayer. It begins with thanksgiving and praise, followed by supplication for worthy reception; remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross; a brief epiclesis, or petition to God; that those receiving the bread and wine may be partakers of Christ’s Body and Blood; and the recitation of the dominical words of institution. In the 1552, 1559, and 1604 Communion Services the communion follows immediately after the recitation of these words. In the 1662 Communion Service the addition of an “Amen” separates their recitation from the communion. In the 1552-1604 Communion Service the communion may be described as a part of the Consecration-Prayer. In the 1662 Communion Service it is a separate liturgical element.

The rubrics of the 1662 Communion Service prescribe the use of the manual acts during the dominical words of institution. The 1552-1604 Communion Service are silent on their use, relying on custom rather than rubrics in matters of ceremonial. The inclusion of the manual acts was one of the few concessions that the Restoration Bishops made to the Puritans at the Savoy Conference. They incorporated the manual acts because they themselves also saw a need for their inclusion but not for the same reasons as the Puritans.

The element of giving thanksgiving and praise is found in all four accounts, as is that of reciting the dominical words of institution. The element of recalling Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and petitioning God that those receiving the cup and the bread may be partakers in Christ’s Body and Blood is derived from Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians. See 1 Corinthians 10:16 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. In recalling that sacrifice, we are proclaiming Christ’s death until he comes again in glory. God needs no reminder of what he foreordained before time.

Cranmer dropped the invocation of the Holy Spirit and upon the bread and wine that are found in the 1549 Canon because he found no Scriptural basis for such practices in the four accounts of the Last Supper or elsewhere in the Scriptures. Nowhere in Scripture did he find any precedent for invoking the Holy Spirit upon inanimate objects or pronouncing God’s blessing over such objects. Jesus in the four Scriptural accounts of the institution of the Lord’s Supper, in taking the bread, blessing it, and breaking it, gave thanks to God, not actually blessed the bread, following the customary Jewish practice of blessing God as a form of giving thanks. This is evident from a comparison of the four accounts as well as familiarity with Jewish table graces of the time. In the Scriptures God’s blessing is pronounced over people. The Scriptures contain no reference whatsoever to the invocation of the Holy Spirit upon inanimate objects or people, especially by Christ. The standard for the Prayer Book Communion Service is not ancient liturgies from the time of the early Church but Jesus’ own ordaining of the sacrament of Holy Communion as recorded in the New Testament.

In the 1552 Prayer Book Cranmer removed the self-oblation of the communicants from the Prayer of Consecration and e relocated it to a position after the communion. The 1559, 1604, and 1662 Prayer Books retain communicants’ self-oblation in this position. This was to prevent the misinterpretation of the sacrament as a sacrifice. Such an interpretation of the sacrament the Reformers did not regard as comprising any part of the due administration or right use of the sacrament but rather as a serious abuse. Like the Last Supper, the Prayer Book Communion Service concludes with the praise of God in the form of the canticle Gloria in Excelsis. The rubrics after the Communion Service require the minimum of three communicants for a celebration of the Holy Communion in addition to the Priest. This eliminates the practice of private Masses, which the Reformers also considered a serious abuse of the sacrament. The rubrics also require the use of ordinary bread, not sacramental wafers. They further prohibit the removal of any leftover consecrated bread and wine from the church but direct the Priest to reverently consume it immediately after the Blessing, with the assistance of those Communicants the Priest calls to him.

The declaration on kneeling states that by kneeling to receive communion “no adoration is intended, or ought to be done, either unto the Sacramental Bread or Wine thereby bodily received, or unto any Corporal Presence of Christ’s natural Flesh and Blood.” Such adoration would not only be a misuse of sacrament but also idolatry and abhorrent to all faithful Christians.

Both the 1662 Office of Baptism and its predecessor the 1559 Office of Baptism contain rubrical provisions to ensure the due administration and right use of the sacrament of Baptism. The 1559 Office of Baptism was used for a period of almost one hundred years—until the abolition of the Prayer Book in 1645. The 1559 Office of Baptism is substantially the 1552 Office of Baptism except for a small number of changes made in 1604. The most significant of these changes was who might administer the sacrament of Baptism. The 1549, 1552, and 1559 Prayer Books permitted laypersons to baptize children in cases of extreme emergency. In practice the individual who most often baptized a child in such cases was the midwife who delivered the child. The Puritans objected to lay baptism on the grounds that the sacraments of the gospel should be administered by ministers of the gospel. In 1604 permission for laypersons to baptize children in cases of emergency was withdrawn and the administration of baptism even in such cases was limited to “the lawful minister of the parish or any other lawful minister, that can be procured.” This represent a departure from primitive Catholic doctrine and practice, which recognizes the regularity and validity of lay baptism.

In 1662 a number of changes were made in the Office of Baptism. The two most significant are that the rubrics specified the number and sex of the godparents for children. The godparents give surety for an infant at the time of the child’s baptism. A blessing of the water in the font was added to the prayer “Almighty, everliving God.” The 1549 Prayer Book had contained a blessing of the water in font but such blessing had been dropped from the 1552 Prayer Book on the grounds that there was no Scriptural warrant for this blessing and it was contradictory to and incompatible with Scripture. The 1552 Prayer Book and the 1559 Prayer Book contain a petition in the prayer “Almighty, everliving God,” asking God to “graunt that al thy servantes whiche shalbe baptised in this water, may receve the fulnes of thy grace, and ever remaine in the nombre of thy faithful and elect children….” This petition is similar to the brief epiclesis in the Prayer of Consecration in the Communion Service:

and graunt that we receivyng these thy creatures of breade and wine, accordinge to thy sonne our saviour Jesu Christes holy institution, in remembrauce of his death and passion, may be partakers of his moste blessed body and bloude….

The Scottish bishops who drew up the ill-fated Scottish Prayer Book of 1637 added a blessing of the water in the font in that rite. Bishop John Cosin in his Notes on the Prayer Book explains why the Restoration bishops also added a blessing of the water in font to the 1662 rite. Their reason for adding such a blessing was the precedence of the 1549 rite and the liturgies of the early Church. These rites contained a blessing of the water in the font. In the Restoration bishops’ addition of this blessing they placed the rule of antiquity above the rule of Scripture.

The blessing of the water in the font, however, is redundant since the Flood Prayer clearly states that God has sanctified all water for the purposes of Baptism. In the Scottish rite the blessing took the form of a dedication of the water in the font to the purposes of baptism. In the 1662 rite the blessing asks God to sanctify what he has already sanctified.

Another major change was that an Office of Baptism for those of riper years was added to the Prayer Book. It was modeled on the Office of Baptism for infants.

The Examination of the Candidate in the Form for the Ordering of Deacons in the Ordinal of 1661 identifies assisting the Priest in the administration of the Holy Communion and baptizing infants in the absence of the Priest as two of the duties of a Deacon. In the Examination of the Candidate in the Form for the Ordering of Priests the candidate vows to faithfully “minister…the Sacraments…of Christ….” At the imposition of hands the Bishop says these words, “And be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God, and of his holy Sacraments….” At the delivery of the Bible the Bishop says, “Take thou Authority to preach the Word of God, and to minister the holy Sacraments in the Congregation, where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto.”