Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

Introductory Essay.
Ixxvii
then do I,, as a minister of JESUS CHRIST, give
you assurance, that GOD, of His grace,
for the
sake of CHRIST, hath forgiven you all your
sins."* This general confession of sins is ap
pointed both before communion and in the
visitation of the sick.f Even the shadow of
absolution has been removed by the statement,
"
I give you assurance that GOD hath forgiven
you." In confirmation there does not seem to
be any spiritual act, except
the saying
LORD S prayer,
the blessing, and a hymn."}
the
In
the Baptism of Infants, though not a priestly
office,
"
the sponsors
are reminded that the
child has, through the faith of regeneration,
become a child of GOD." The Swedish body
has even yet retained more of ritual than we ;
but having lost the succession and the faith of
the sacrament (with the power of administering
it), it is but an empty show, the casket of a lost
jewel. It has substituted in the Apostles
Creed,
"
the Christian
"
Church for
"
the
Catholic Church,"|| and has lost therewith the
very idea of Catholicity.
We have had already too sad experience of
an attempt to unite externally bodies which in
ternally disagree, in the unhappy Episcopate at
Jerusalem (which may GOD bring to an end !)
and its most disastrous consequences, both on
* Christ. Kern. p. 411. + Ib. p. 420. J Ib. pp. 419, 420.
16. p. 414. |i 16. p. 428.