The Church: Her Books and Her Sacraments Part 5

It is the same with the rubrical directions as to {55} ritual. I am ordered to stand when praising, to kneel when praying. The underlying _principle_ is that I am not to do things in my own way, without regard to others, but to do them in an orderly way, and as one of many. I am learning to sink the individual in the society. So with the directions as to vestments--whether they are the Eucharistic vestments, ordered by the "Ornaments Rubric," or the preacher's Geneva gown not ordered anywhere. The _principle_ laid down is, special things for special occasions; all else is a matter of degree. One form of Ceremonial will appeal to one temperament, a different form to another. "I like a grand Ceremonial," writes Dr. Bright, "and I own that Lights and Vestments give me real pleasure. But then I should be absurd if I expected that everybody else, who had the same faith as myself, should necessarily have the same feeling as to the form of its expression."[10] From the subjective and disciplinary point of view, the mark of the Cross must be stamped on many of our own likes and dislikes, both in going without, and in bearing with, ceremonial, especially in small towns and villages where there is only one church.

The principle {56} which says, "You shan't have it because I don't like it," or, "You shall have it because I do like it," leads to all sorts of confusion. As Dr. Liddon says: "When men know what the revelation of G.o.d in His Blessed Son really is, all else follows in due time--reverence on one side and charity on the other".[11]

_Devotion._

Reading the Prayer Book as it stands, from Matins to the Consecration of an Archbishop, no reviewer could miss its devotional beauty. It is, perhaps, a misfortune that the most beautiful Office of the Christian Church, the Eucharistic Office, should come in the middle, instead of at the beginning, of our Prayer Book, first in order as first in importance. Its character, though capable of much enrichment, reminds us of how much devotional beauty the Prayer Book has from ancient sources. In our jealous zeal for more beauty we are, perhaps, apt to underrate much that we already possess. G.o.d won't give us more than we have until we have learnt to value that which we possess.

It is impossible, in the time that remains, to {57} do more than emphasize one special form of beauty in "The Book of Common Prayer"--The Collects. The Prayer-Book Collects are pictures of beauty. Only compare a modern collect with the Prayer-Book Collects, and you will see the difference without much looking.

Learn to value the Prayer Book. From birth to death it provides, as we shall see, special offices, and special prayers for the main events of our lives, though many minor events are still unprovided for.

[1] See p. 13.

[2] Possibly, the origin of the British Liturgy revised by St.

Augustine, and of the present Liturgy of the English Church.

[3] From _vulgus_, a crowd.

[4] Cf. Acts iv. 24, "They lifted up their voices _with one accord_".

[5] The word _Ma.s.s_, which has caused such storms of controversy, originally meant a _dismissal_ of the congregation. It is found in words such as Christ-mas (i.e. a short name for the Eucharist on the Feast of the Nativity), Candle-mas, Martin-mas, Michael-mas, and so on.

[6] This was published _in extenso_ in a Blue Book, issued by the Government on 2 June, 1854.

[7] It is difficult to see how any revision could obtain legal sanction, even if prepared by Convocation, save by an Act of Parliament after free discussion by the present House of Commons.

[8] Public Baptism of Infants.

[9] "The Folkestone Baptist," June, 1899.

[10] "Letters and Memoirs of William Bright," p. 143.

[11] "Life and Letters of H. P. Liddon," p. 329.

{58}

CHAPTER IV.

THE CHURCH'S SACRAMENTS.

We have seen that a National Church is the means whereby the Catholic Church reaches the nation; that her function is (1) to teach, and (2) to feed the nation; that she teaches through her books, and feeds through her Sacraments.

We now come to the second of these two functions--the spiritual feeding of the nation. This she does through the Sacraments--a word which comes from the Latin _sacrare_ (from _sacer_), sacred.[1] The Sacraments are the sacred _media_ through which the soul of man is fed with the grace of G.o.d.

{59}

We may think of them under three heads:--their number; their nature; their names.

(I) THE NUMBER OF THE SACRAMENTS.

In the early Church the number was unlimited. After the twelfth century, the number was technically limited to seven. Partly owing to the mystic number seven,[2] and partly because seven seemed to meet the needs of all sorts and conditions of men, the septenary number of Sacraments became either fixed or special. The Latin Church taught that there were "seven, and seven only": the Greek Church specialized seven, without limiting their number: the English Church picked out seven, specializing two as "generally necessary to salvation"[3] and five (such as Confirmation and Marriage) as "commonly called Sacraments".[4]

The English Church, then, teaches that, without arbitrarily limiting their number, there are seven special means of grace, either "generally necessary" for all, or specially provided for some. And, as amongst her books she selects two, and calls them "_The_ Bible," and "_The_ Prayer {60} Book," so amongst her Sacraments she deliberately marks out two for a primacy of honour.

These two are so supreme, as being "ordained by Christ Himself"; so pre-eminent, as flowing directly from the Wounded Side, that she calls them "the Sacraments of the Gospel". They are, above all other Sacraments, "glad tidings of great joy" to every human being. And these two are "generally necessary," i.e. necessary for all alike--they are _generaliter_, i.e. for _all_ and not only for _special_ states (such as Holy Orders): they are "for _every_ man in his vocation and ministry". The other five are not necessarily essential for all. They have not all "the like nature of Sacraments of the Gospel," in that they were not all "ordained by Christ Himself". It is the nature of the two Sacraments of the Gospel that we now consider.

(II) THE NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTS.

"What meanest thou by this word, Sacrament?" The Catechism, confining its answer to the two greater Sacraments, replies: "I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace..."[5]

{61}

Putting this into more modern language, we might say that a Sacrament is a supernatural conjunction of spirit and matter.[6] It is not matter only; it is not spirit only; it is not matter opposed to spirit, but spirit of which matter is the expression, and "the ultimate reality". Thus, for a perfect Sacrament, there must be both "the outward and visible" (matter), and "the inward and spiritual" (spirit).

It is the conjunction of the two which makes the Sacrament. Thus, a Sacrament is not wholly under the conditions of material laws, nor is it wholly under the conditions of spiritual laws; it is under the conditions of what (for lack of any other name) we call _Sacramental_ laws. As yet, we know comparatively little of either material or spiritual laws, and we cannot be surprised that we know still less of Sacramental laws. We are in the student stage, and are perpetually revising our conclusions. {62} In all three cases, we very largely "walk by faith".

But this at least we may say of Sacraments. Matter without spirit cannot effect that which matter with spirit can, and does, effect. As in the Incarnation, G.o.d[7] expresses Himself through matter[8]--so it is in the Sacraments. In Baptism, the Holy Spirit "expresses Himself"

through water: in the Eucharist, through bread and wine. In each case, the perfect integrity of matter and of spirit are essential to the validity of the Sacrament. In each case, it is the conjunction of the two which guarantees the full effect of either.[9]

(III) THE NAMES OF THE SACRAMENTS.

As given in the Prayer Book, these are seven--"Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord," Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Unction.

We will think now of the two first.

[1] St. Leo defines a Sacrament thus: "_Sacramentum_. (1) It originally signified the pledge or deposit in money which in certain suits according to Roman Law plaintiff and defendant were alike bound to make; (2) it came to signify a pledge of military fidelity, a _voluntary_ oath; (3) then the _exacted_ oath of allegiance; (4) any oath whatever; (5) in early Christian use any sacred or solemn act, and especially any mystery where more was meant than met the ear or eye"

(Blight's "Select Sermons of St. Leo on the Incarnation," p. 136).

[2] Symbolical of completion.

[3] Church Catechism.

[4] Article XXV.

[5] The answer is borrowed from Peter Lombard (a pupil of Abelard and Professor of Theology, and for a short time Bishop of Paris), who defines a Sacrament as a "visible sign of an invisible grace," probably himself borrowing the thought from St. Augustine.