The Church: Her Books and Her Sacraments Part 9

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CHAPTER VII.

THE LESSER SACRAMENTS.

These are "those five" which the Article says are "commonly called Sacraments":[1] Confirmation, Matrimony, Orders, Penance, Unction.

They are called "Lesser" Sacraments to distinguish them from the two pre-eminent or "Greater Sacraments," Baptism and the Supper of the Lord.[2] These, though they have not all a "like nature" with the Greater Sacraments, are selected by the Church as meeting the main needs of her children between Baptism and Burial.

They may, for our purpose, be cla.s.sified in three groups:--

(I) _The Sacrament of Completion_ (Confirmation, which completes the Sacrament of Baptism).

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(II) The Sacraments of Perpetuation (Holy Matrimony, which perpetuates the human race; and Holy Order, which perpetuates the Christian Ministry).

(III) The Sacraments of Recovery (Penance, which recovers the sick soul together with the body; and Unction, which recovers the sick body together with the soul).

And, first, The Sacrament of Completion: Confirmation.

[1] Article XXV.

[2] The Homily on the Sacraments calls them the "other Sacraments"--i.e. in addition to Baptism and the Eucharist.

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CHAPTER VIII.

CONFIRMATION.

(I) What it is not.

(II) What it is.

(III) Whom it is for.

(IV) What is essential.

(I) WHAT IT IS NOT.

Confirmation is not the renewal of vows. The renewal of vows is the final part of the _preparation_ for Confirmation. It is that part of the preparation which takes place in public, as the previous preparation has taken place in private. Before Confirmation, the Baptismal vows are renewed "openly before the Church". Their renewal is the last word of preparation. The Bishop, or Chief Shepherd, a.s.sures himself by question, and answer, that the Candidate openly responds to the preparation he has received in {95} private from the Parish Priest, or under-Shepherd. Before the last revision of the Prayer Book, the Bishop asked the Candidates in public many questions from the Catechism before confirming them; now he only asks one--and the "I do," by which the Candidate renews his Baptismal vows, is the answer to that preparatory question.

It is still quite a common idea, even among Church people, that Confirmation is something which the Candidate does for himself, instead of something which G.o.d does to him. This is often due to the unfortunate use of the word "confirm"[1] in the Bishop's question. At the time it was inserted, the word "confirm" meant "confess,"[2] and referred, not to the Gift of Confirmation, but to the Candidate's public Confession of faith, before receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. It had nothing whatever to do with Confirmation itself.

We must not, then, confuse the preparation for Confirmation with the Gift of Confirmation. The Sacrament itself is G.o.d's gift to the child bestowed through the Bishop in accordance with the teaching given to {96} the G.o.d-parents at the child's Baptism: "Ye are to take care that this child be brought to the Bishop _to be_ confirmed _by him_".[3]

And this leads us to our second point: What Confirmation is.

(II) WHAT IT IS.

Confirmation is the completion of Baptism. It completes what Baptism began. In the words of our Confirmation Service, it "increases and multiplies"--i.e. strengthens or confirms Baptismal grace. It is the ordained channel which conveys to the Baptized the "sevenfold" (i.e.

complete) gift of the Holy Ghost, which was initially received in Baptism.

And this will help us to answer a question frequently asked: "If I have been confirmed, but not Baptized, must I be Baptized?" Surely, Baptism must _precede_ Confirmation. If {97} Confirmation increases the grace given in Baptism, that grace must have been received before it can be increased. "And must I be 'confirmed again,' as it is said, after Baptism?" Surely. If I had not been Baptized _before_ I presented myself for Confirmation, I have not confirmed at all. My Baptism will now allow me to "be presented to the Bishop once again to be confirmed by him"--and this time in reality. "Did I, then, receive no grace when I was presented to the Bishop to be confirmed by him before?" Much grace, surely, but not the special grace attached to the special Sacrament of Confirmation, and guaranteed to the Confirmed. Special channels convey special grace. G.o.d's love overflows its channels; what G.o.d gives, or withholds, outside those channels, it would be an impertinence for us to say.

Again, Confirmation is, in a secondary sense, a Sacrament of Admittance. It admits the Baptized to Holy Communion. Two rubrics teach this. "It is expedient," says the rubric after an adult Baptism, "that every person thus Baptized should be confirmed by the Bishop so soon after his Baptism as conveniently may be; that _so he may be admitted to the Holy Communion_." "And {98} there shall none _be admitted to Holy Communion_," adds the rubric after Confirmation, "until such time as he be confirmed, or be ready and desirous to be confirmed." For "Confirmation, or the laying on of hands," fully admits the Baptized to that "Royal Priesthood" of the Laity,[4] of which the specially ordained Priest is ordained to be the representative. The Holy Sacrifice is the offering of the _whole_ Church, the universal Priesthood, not merely of the individual Priest who is the offerer. Thus, the Confirmed can take their part in the offering, and can a.s.sist at it, in union with the ordained Priest who is actually celebrating. They can say their _Amen_ at the Eucharist, or "giving of thanks," and give their responding a.s.sent to what he is doing in their name, and on their behalf.

And this answers another question. "If I am a Communicant, but have not been confirmed, ought I to present myself for Confirmation?"

Surely. The Prayer Book is quite definite about this. First, it legislates for the normal case, then for the abnormal. First it says: "None shall be admitted to Holy Communion until such time as they have been Confirmed". Then it deals with {99} exceptional cases, and adds, "or be willing and desirous to be confirmed". Such exceptional cases may, and do, occur; but even these may not be Communicated unless they are both "ready" and "desirous" to be confirmed, as soon as Confirmation can be received. So does the Church safeguard her Sacraments, and her children.

"But would you," it is asked, "exclude a Dissenter from Communion, however good and holy he may be, merely because he has not been Confirmed?" He certainly would have very little respect for me if I did not. If, for instance, he belonged to the Methodist Society, he would a.s.suredly not admit me to be a "Communicant" in that Society.

"No person," says his rule, "shall be suffered on any pretence to partake of the Lord's Supper _unless he be a member of the Society_, or receive a note of admission from the Superintendent, which note must be renewed quarterly." And, again: "That the Table of the Lord should be open to all comers, is surely a great discredit, and a serious peril to any Church".[5] And yet the Church, the Divine Society, established by Jesus Christ Himself, is blamed, and called narrow and {100} bigoted, if she a.s.serts her own rule, and refuses to admit "all comers" to the Altar. To give way on such a point would be to forfeit, and rightly to forfeit, the respect of any law-abiding people, and would be--in many cases, is--"a great discredit, and a serious peril" to the Church. We have few enough rules as it is, and if those that we have are meaningless, we may well be held up to derision. The Prayer Book makes no provision whatever for those who are not Confirmed, and who, if able to receive Confirmation, are neither "ready nor desirous to be Confirmed".

(III) WHOM IT IS FOR.

Confirmation is for the Baptized, and none other. The Prayer-Book t.i.tle to the service is plain. It calls Confirmation the "laying on of Hands upon _those that are baptized_," and, it adds, "are come to years of discretion".

First, then, Confirmation is for the Baptized, and never for the unbaptized.

Secondly, it is (as now administered[6]) for {101} "those who have come to years of discretion," i.e. for those who are fit for it. As we pray in the Ember Collect that the Bishop may select "fit persons for the Sacred Ministry" of the special Priesthood, and may "lay hands suddenly on no man," so it is with Confirmation or the "laying on of hands" for the Royal Priesthood. The Bishop must be a.s.sured by the Priest who presents them (and who acts as his examining Chaplain), that they are "fit persons" to be confirmed.

And this fitness must be of two kinds: moral and intellectual. It must be _moral_. The candidate must "have come to years of discretion,"

i.e. he must "know to refuse the evil and choose the good".[7] This "age of discretion," or _competent age_, as the Catechism Rubric calls it, is not a question of years, but of character. Our present Prayer Book makes no allusion to any definite span of years whatever, and to make the magic age of fifteen the minimum universal age for Candidates is wholly illegal. At the Reformation, the English Church fixed seven as the age for Confirmation, but our 1662 Prayer Book is more primitive, and, taking a common-sense view, {102} leaves each case of moral fitness to be decided on its own merits. The moral standard must be an individual standard, and must be left, first, to the parent, who presents the child to the Priest to be prepared; then, to the Priest who prepares the child for Confirmation, and presents him to the Bishop; and, lastly, to the Bishop, who must finally decide, upon the combined testimony of the Priest and parent--and, if in doubt, upon his own personal examination.

The _intellectual_ standard is laid down in the Service for the "Public Baptism of Infants": "So soon as he can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, in the vulgar (i.e. his native) tongue, and be further instructed, etc." Here, the words "can say"

obviously mean can say _intelligently_. The mere saying of the words by rote is comparatively unimportant, though it has its use; but if this were all, it would degrade the Candidate's intellectual status to the capacities of a parrot. But, "as soon as" he can intelligently comply with the Church's requirements, as soon as he has reached "a competent age," any child may "be presented to the Bishop to be confirmed by him".

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And, in the majority of cases, in these days, "the sooner, the better".

It is, speaking generally, far safer to have the "child" prepared at home--if it is a Christian home--and confirmed from home, than to risk the preparation to the chance teaching of a Public School. With splendid exceptions, School Confirmation is apt to get confused with the school curriculum and school lessons. It is a sort of "extra tuition," which, not infrequently, interferes with games or work, without any compensating advantages in Church teaching.

(IV) WHAT IS ESSENTIAL.

"The Laying on of Hands"--and nothing else. This act of ritual (so familiar to the Early Church, from Christ's act in blessing little children) was used by the Apostles,[8] and is still used by their successors, the Bishops. It is the only act essential to a valid Confirmation.

Other, and suggestive, ceremonies have been in use in different ages, and in different parts of the Church: but they are supplementary, not essential. Thus, in the sub-apostolic age, ritual {104} acts expressed very beautifully the early names for Confirmation, just as "the laying on of Hands" still expresses the name which in the English Church proclaims the essence of the Sacrament.