Introduction
One of the most cherished parts of the Anglican Liturgy is the comfortable words. These words reflect a theological and pastoral concern to communicate assurance and comfort to believers. Though unique to Anglican Liturgy, the comfortable words are in keeping with a deep importance of comfort in scripture. This scriptural theme was important to the Continental Reformation, which emphasized the proclamation of God’s promises to weary souls. In the Book of Common Prayer, before communion there is a corporate confession of sin, then an absolution where the minister proclaims the promise of God’s forgiveness. The comfortable words are given immediately following this absolution.
The Particular Verses Given
In the 1662 book of common prayer the comfortable words are as follows:
Hear what comfortable words our Savior Christ saith unto all that truly turn to him.
COME unto me all that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.
St. Matthew 11:28
So God loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
St. John 3:16
Hear also what Saint Paul saith.
This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
1 St. Timothy 1:15
Hear also what Saint John saith.
If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins.
1 St. John 2:1[1]
In “Companion to the Altar” Thomas Comber (1645-1699) commenting on these four particular verses says:
Here are selected four of the most full and proper sentences in all the New Testament containing in them the very marrow of the gospel, so overflowing with sweet and powerful comforts, that if duly considered they will satisfy the most jealous souls, and chear the most broken hearts, if believed and embraced they will utterly banish all clouds of sorrow and despair. [2]
So we see these verses are a distillation of the promises of the gospel.
Placement in the Liturgy
Some might ask if the comfortable words undermine a sacramental understanding of absolution. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but Jesus instructed others to remove the tombstone and take off the grave clothes of Lazarus. In the same way, God alone forgives sins, but he uses his servants to help remove the stench of sin that so often clings to a person’s conscience. In this line of thought, a minister has a unique God-given charism to pronounce the forgiveness of sins to a congregation.
Do these Comfortable words take away from a robust understanding of absolution? Thomas Comber again writes:
Some may be so scrupulous or so fearful as to question the power or the fidelity of the Servant, but who can or dare doubt of the authority and the truth of God. Can any deny what he affirms in his own word? Or shall any suspect that which He promiseth with his own mouth? Be the sinner never so much disconsolate, surely it will revive him to hear the Majesty against whom he hath sinned, so kindly speaking peace unto him: Yet these sentences are not to be thought a different kind of comfort from what we had before in the Absolution, for there are those promises there mentioned and are pursuance of it, and a further confirmation to it.[3]
So we see the comfortable words are not in opposition to absolution nor meant to detract from the pronouncement of forgiveness from the minister, but the comfortable words serve as further confirmation from Scripture itself of the absolution.
What is Comfort?
The type of comfort in the Comfortable words is not a presumptuous comfort that neglects self-reflection or repentance. It is not a comfort that leads to apathy or laziness. The modern notion of comfort is different from what we might call liturgical comfort. The etymology of comfort comes from confortare, which means not just to console but also to strengthen or fortify something, and it is a thoroughly biblical concept. Biblical comfort is God fortifying and renewing his people to strengthen them. As the absolution before the comfortable words says, “Have mercy upon you; pardon and deliver you from all your sins; confirm and strengthen you in all goodness.”
In Greek the word for comfort, paraclete, means to call along side of, with the idea of comfort being aid or help that comes alongside of someone.
We see comfort throughout Scripture:
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Ps 23:4 NIV)
Or,
May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant. (Ps 119:76 NIV)
Isaiah says,
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.(Isa 40:1–2)
In Isaiah 40 comfort of God’s people is connected to a proclamation of the forgiveness of sins. The Holy Spirit is called the comforter in John 14:26. Comfort is prominent in the opening of 2nd Corinthians:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Cor 1:3–5 NIV)
Comfort is an important scriptural theme. When Cranmer arranged the comfortable Words He knew the importance of God’s promises being given to his people in order that they be renewed and strengthened.
Comfort and the Continental Reformation
Cranmer’s influence on incorporating the comfortable words is probably inspired by Archbishop of Cologne Hermann von Wied. In his Consultatio, Herman von Wied speaks of gospelcomfort and includes three of the verses found in the comfortable words.[4]
An emphasis upon a theology of comfort and assurance connected to the promises of God was central to the Continental Reformation. The theological debates in the reformation were not just about speculative theories of justification but were directly related to assurance of the forgiveness of sins and pastoral concerns. The theological and pastoral are often blended together in early reformation confessions.
This is seen explicitly in the 39 Articles. Article XI: “Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only, is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort.” This Article explicitly connects justification to a biblical comfort.
The Augsburg Confession, filled with Scripture and quotes from the church fathers, heavily emphasizes the consolation and comfort of the gospel. Written in 1530 (19 years before the first edition of the Prayer Book), Article XX on “Good Works” starts with a foundation of the doctrine of justification by faith, saying, “But although this doctrine is despised by the inexperienced, nevertheless Godfearing and anxious consciences find by experience it brings the greatest consolation, because consciences cannot be set at rest through any works, but only by faith, when they take the sure ground that for Christ’s sake they have a reconciled God.”[5]
The Augsburg confession will then argue this reconciliation and consolation in God’s promises leads to a new life with good works: “through faith the Holy Ghost is received, hearts are renewed and endowed with new affections, so as to be able to bring forth good works.”
Note the the Augsburg Confession is joining theology and doctrine in a warm pastoral tone. The emphasis on consolation echoes the ideas of comfort found in the Comfortable words.
One of the most well-known catechisms is the Heidelberg Catechism. It opens with the question:
What is thy only comfort in life and death?
That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me”[6]
The comfortable words in the prayerbook reflect this reformational ethos of comfort that was contemporaneous to Cranmer. This brief survey shows how various doctrinal documents in the reformation were very concerned with a biblical comfort. This was not just a concern for a theoretical or speculative debate about doctrine, but a very pastoral and relational application of doctrine.
Conclusion
Thomas Comber writes of the Comfortable words:
Whoever hath been truly sensible of his sins and deeply humbled for them, will find it no easy matter to believe that God hath yet and favor for him; for although it be most desirable, yet it is a happiness so strange and undeserving , that it is often too big for the hope of a poor penitent”[7]
Thomas Cranmer arranged the liturgy so that penitent sinners and weary saints might receive the fragrant and gracious words of forgiveness and be able to go to receive the sacrament (which the prayer book also says is full of comfort) with the consolation that their sins are forgiven. The comfortable words repeated again and again throughout the church year echo the Prophet Isaiah’s message:
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for (Isa 40:1–2 NIV)
Notes
- The Book of Common Prayer… (Cambridge: John Baskerville for B. Dod, 1762), 153. PDF accessed by www.justusanglican.org ↑
- Thomas Comber, A Companion to the Altar: Or, an Help to the Worthy Receiving of the Lord’s Supper. By Discourses and Meditations Upon the Whole Communion Office. To Which Is Added, an Essay Upon the Offices of Baptism and Confirmation (London: Printed by J. Macock, for John Martyn at the Bell in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, and Richard Lambert at York, 1675), 201 ↑
- Comber, A Companion to the Altar, 201 ↑
- Charles Neil and J. M. Willoughby, eds., The Tutorial Prayer Book for the Teacher, the Student, and the General Reader (London: The Harrison Trust, 1912), 327 ↑
- The Augsburg Confession, trans. Charles P. Krauth, in The Book of Concord, ed. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, https://bookofconcord.org/augsburg-confession/of-good-works/ ↑
- Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, The Heidelberg Catechism, trans. E. V. Gerhart, John W. Nevin, Henry Harbaugh, John S. Kessler, and Daniel Zacharias (Louisville, KY: GLH Publishing, 2019), Lord’s Day 1. ↑
- Comber, A Companion to the Altar, 200 ↑
