_ST. PETER AND SIMON MAGUS._
"Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the Apostles'
hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying,
Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay my hands, he
may receive the Holy Ghost."--ACTS viii. 18, 19.
We have in the last exposition endeavoured to explain the origin of
the rite of Confirmation and to connect its development in the second
century with the first notice of its rise in germ and principle at
Samaria. There have been from time to time modifications and changes
in the ordinance. The Church has availed itself of the power she
necessarily possesses to insist upon different aspects of Confirmation
at different periods. The Church of England at the Reformation brought
out into prominence the human side of Confirmation as we may call it,
which views the rite as a renewal and strengthening of the baptismal
vows of renunciation, faith, and obedience, which had fallen too much
out of sight, while still insisting on the Divine side as well, which
regards Confirmation as a method of Divine action, a channel of Divine
grace, strengthening and blessing the soul. Yet no one can imagine
that the Reformers invented a new ordinance because they insisted on a
forgotten and latent side of the old rite. So it was during the second
century and in Tertullian's time. The exigencies of the Christian
Church of that age had led to certain modifications of apostolic
customs, but the central idea of solemn imposition of hands continued,
and was regarded as of apostolic appointment. If we descend a little
lower this is plain enough. St. Cyprian, the contemporary and disciple
of Tertullian, expressly attributes the institution of the rite to the
action of the Apostles at Samaria, a view which is subsequently
attested by those great lights of the ancient Church, St. Jerome and
St. Augustine.[156] As my object is, however, not to write a treatise
on Confirmation, but to trace the evolution and development of
apostolic customs and ritual, and to show how they were connected with
the Church of the second century, I restrain myself to Tertullian
alone.
[156] The evidence from these writers will be found in a collected
shape in Bingham's _Antiquities_, book xii., chap. iii., sec. vi.
St. Augustine, in his Tract VI., on 1 St. John iii., expressly
deals with the objection that because the Apostles imparted
miraculous gifts by the imposition of hands, therefore their
conduct forms no precedent for us. "In the first age the Holy
Ghost fell on them that believed; and they spake with tongues
which they had never learned, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
These were signs proper for that time; for then it was necessary
that the Holy Ghost should be thus demonstrated in all kinds of
tongues, because the gospel was to run throughout the whole world
in all sorts of languages. But this demonstration once made, it
ceased." I have above called Cyprian the disciple of Tertullian,
because we learn from St. Jerome that Cyprian when asking for the
works of Tertullian always said, "Da Magistrum," "Give me the
master."
I cannot see how this argument is to be evaded without rejecting the
testimony of Tertullian and denying what we may call the historic
memory and continuity of the Church at the close of the second
century. Upon the testimony of Tertullian we very largely depend for
our proof of the canonicity of the books of the New Testament. Men
when impugning or rejecting Tertullian's witness on this or any
similar question, should bear in mind what the results of their
teaching may be; for surely if Tertullian's clear evidence avails not
to prove the apostolic character of confirmation, it cannot be of much
use to establish the still more important question of the canon of the
New Testament or the authorship of the Gospels and Acts. We think, on
the other hand, that Tertullian's references to this practice are
naturally and easily explained by our theory that the Churches
established by the Apostles followed their example. The first converts
that were made after the Apostles had founded a Church were treated by
the resident bishop and presbyters exactly as the Apostle had treated
themselves. Timothy at Ephesus acted as he had seen St. Paul do.
Timothy completed his converts' baptism by the imposition of hands,
and then his successor followed the example of Timothy, and so
confirmation received that universal acceptation which the writings of
the Fathers disclose.
I. Let us now return to the consideration of the actual doings of
Peter and John at Samaria, and the lessons we may draw from thence as
touching the manner in which men should follow the example left by
them at this crisis in Church history. The Apostles prayed for those
that had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, and then they
laid their hands upon them, and the baptized received the Holy Ghost.
Prayer went before the imposition of hands, to show that there was
nothing mechanical in their proceedings; that it was not by their own
power or virtue that any blessing was granted, but that they were only
instruments by whom the Lord worked. The Apostles always acted,
taught, ordained, confirmed, in the profoundest confidence, the surest
faith that God worked in them and through them. St. Paul in his
address to the elders of Miletus and Ephesus, whom he had himself
ordained, spoke of their ordination, not as the work of man, but of
the Holy Ghost. He pierced the veil of sense and saw, far away and
behind the human instrument, the power of the Divine Agent who was the
real Ordainer. "Take heed unto yourselves and to all the flock, in the
which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops." And so again in his words
to Timothy there was not a shadow of doubt when he bid him "stir up
the gift of God, which is in thee through the laying on of hands:" a
gift which was doubtless no miraculous power, but the purely spiritual
endowment, needful now as in ancient times for the edification and
strengthening of human souls. As it was in ancient times so is it
still, the Church of Christ unites prayer with imposition of hands.
She cannot recognise any difference in the methods of God's dealing
with human souls in apostolic times and in modern ages. Human wants
are the same, human nature is the same, the promises of God and the
ministry of God are the same; and therefore as in Samaria, so in
England, the work of baptism is completed when further prayer is
offered, and the imposition of hands by the chief ministers of God's
Church signifies her holy confidence in the abiding presence and work
of the Divine Spirit.
We desire to insist upon this devotional side of confirmation, because
the rite of confirmation has been too often treated as a mere
mechanical function, just indeed as men in times of spiritual deadness
and torpor come to regard all spiritual functions in a purely
mechanical aspect. The New Testament brought to light a religion of
the spirit; but human nature ever tends to become formal in its
religion, and therefore has persistently striven, and still
persistently strives, to turn every external function and office in a
mechanical direction. The Apostles prayed and then laid their hands
upon the Samaritan converts, and we may be sure that these prayers
were intense personal supplications, dealing directly with the hearts
and consciences of the individuals. Confirmation, united with fervent
prayer, public and private, with searching addresses directed to the
conscience, with personal dealing as regards individual hearts,
followed by public imposition of hands,--surely every one must
acknowledge that such a solemnisation and sanctification of the great
crisis when boyhood and girlhood pass into manhood and womanhood must
have very blessed effects. Experience has, indeed, proved the wisdom
of the ancient Church concerning this ordinance. Confirmation has not
developed itself exactly in the East as we know it in the West. In the
Eastern Church, as amongst the Lutherans of Germany, confirmation can
be administered by a presbyter as well as by a bishop, to whom alone
the Western Church limits the function. But whether in the East or
West, confirmation is regarded as the transition step connecting
baptism and the Eucharist. Christian bodies which have rejected the
ancient customs have felt themselves obliged to adopt a similar
method. Preparation for first Communion has taken the place of
confirmation. There has been the same earnest dealing with conscience,
the same fuller instruction in Christian truth and life, and the one
thing lacking has been that following of the apostolic example in
solemn imposition of hands, which would have thrown back the young
mind to the days of the Church's earliest life, and helped it to
realize something of the continuity of the Church's work and
existence.
Many, as I know, ministering in societies where confirmation after the
ancient model has been rejected, have bitterly lamented its disuse as
depriving them of a solemn appointed time when they should have been
brought into closer contact with the lives, the feelings, and the
consciences of the lambs of Christ's flock. I am bound to confess, at
the same time, that no one is more alive than I am to the many defects
and shortcomings in the modes and fashions in which confirmation is
sometimes viewed and conferred. The mere mechanical view of it is far
too prevalent. Careful and prayerful preparation, systematic
instruction in the field of Christian doctrine, is still in many cases
far too little thought of. Confirmation offers a splendid opportunity
when an earnest pastor may open out to young minds eager to receive
truth, a fuller acquaintance with the deep things of God. Alas! how
miserably such earnest young minds are sometimes met. It is stated
that it was by injudicious treatment at such a time that the ardent,
enthusiastic mind of the late Charles Bradlaugh was alienated from
Christian truth. Intelligent sympathy is what the young desire and
crave for at such seasons. Then it is that the man who has kept his
mind fresh and active by wide and generous study finds the due reward
of his labours. He does not attempt to meet doubts and difficulties by
foolish denunciations. He knows that such doubts are in the air; that
they meet the young in the newspapers, magazines, conversations of the
day. He proves by his instructions that he knows of them and enters
into them. He encourages frank discussion of them, and thus often
proves himself at a very trying time the most helpful and consoling
friend to the young and troubled spirit.
Confirmation, if viewed merely from the purely human side, and if we
say nothing at all about a Divine blessing, offers a magnificent
opportunity for a wise pastor of souls. He will, indeed, treat
different ranks in different ways. A class of ploughboys or of village
lads and girls need plain speaking on the great facts of life and of
the Gospel, while the higher and more educated or sharper inhabitants
of cities and towns require teaching which will embrace the problems
of modern thought, as well as the foundation truths of morals. A
perfunctory repetition of the Church Catechism, as in some parishes,
or a brief study of a portion of the Greek Testament, as in some of
our public schools, is a miserable substitute for that careful
preparation embracing devotional as well as intellectual preparation,
which such an important function demands.[157] Then, again, the method
in which confirmation is administered calls for improvement and
change. The confirmation of immense crowds at central churches tends
to confirm the mere mechanical idea about confirmation. Parochial
confirmations, a confirmation of the young of each congregation in
presence of the congregation itself, that is the standard at which we
should aim. The Church of Rome can give us wise suggestions on this
point. Some time ago I noticed an account of a Roman Catholic
confirmation in the west of Ireland. It was held in a town of twelve
or fifteen thousand inhabitants. The bishop took a week for the
confirmations in that town, examining all the children beforehand,
bringing them thus into direct contact with himself as their supreme
pastor, and assuring himself of the sufficiency of their preparation.
[157] It seems to me a great pity that, owing to the modern public
school system, the confirmation of boys of the upper and middle
classes is almost entirely passing from their own home pastors to
the masters of public schools, and not always with happy results.
This tends to increase the hard mechanical view of confirmation
against which I protest.
II. We have now noted some of the defects connected with modern
confirmations; but the conduct of Simon Magus and this incident at
Samaria remind us that defects and shortcomings must ever exist, as
they existed in the Church of the Apostles. We note here Simon's offer
and St. Peter's address. Simon Magus had believed, had been baptized,
and doubtless had also been confirmed by the Apostles. In the case of
some of the Samaritans, at least, the presence of the Holy Ghost must
have been proved by visible or audible signs, for we are told that
when Simon _saw_ that through the imposition of apostolic hands the
Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money to enable him to do the
same. His offer sufficiently explains the nature of his faith. He was
convinced intellectually of the truth of certain external facts which
he had seen. He knew nothing of spiritual want, or the power of sin,
or a desire for interior peace and sanctity. He looked upon the
Apostles as cleverer jugglers and sorcerers than himself, accessible
to precisely the same motives, and therefore he offered them money if
they would endow him with the knowledge and power they possessed and
exercised. The Acts of the Apostles, as a mirror of all Church
history, thus selects for our instruction an event which sounds a
warning needful for every age.
Simon Magus had a mere intellectual knowledge of the truth, and that
mere intellectual knowledge, apart from a moral and spiritual
conception of it, plunged him into a deeper fall than otherwise might
have been the case. Simon Magus was a typical example of this, and
successive centuries have offered many notable imitations. Julian the
Apostate was brought up as a Christian clergyman, and used to read the
lessons in Church, whence he would adjourn to join in the polluting
rites of paganism; and so it has been from age to age, till in our own
time some of the bitterest opponents of Christianity, at home or in
the mission field, have been those who, like Simon, knew of the Gospel
facts but had tasted nothing of the Gospel life.
We may derive from this incident guidance in a difficult controversy
which has of late made much stir. Men have asserted that Christian
missionaries were giving far too much time to mere intellectual
training of pagans, instead of devoting themselves to evangelistic
work. A writer who has never visited the mission-field has no right to
pass judgment on such a matter. But cannot we read in this passage a
warning against such a tendency? Intellectual conviction does not mean
spiritual conversion. Of course we know that no human effort can
ensure spiritual blessings, but if intellectual training of clever
pagan youths, and not spiritual work, be regarded as the great object
of Christian missions; if the Holy Ghost be not honoured by being made
the supreme lord of heart and life and work, we cannot expect any
blessed results to follow. We read very little in the earliest ages of
the Church about educational missions. The work of education was not
despised. The school of Alexandria from the earliest times held high
the standard of Christian scholarship. But that school, though open,
like all ancient academies, to every class, was primarily intended for
the training of Christian youth, placing before all other studies the
Divine science of theology.
The offer, again, of Simon Magus has given a name to a sin which has
been found prevalent in every age and in every country. The sin has,
indeed, taken different shapes. Simony, throughout the Middle Ages,
was a common vice against which some of the more devout popes strove
long and vigorously. In England and according to English law simony
means still the purchase of spiritual office or spiritual functions.
It would be simoniacal for a bishop to receive money for conferring
holy orders or for appointment to a living. It would be an act of
simony for a man to offer or give money to attain either holy orders
or a living. How then, it may be said, does the unhallowed traffic in
Church livings continue to flourish? Simply because, through
colourable evasions, men bring themselves to break the spirit of the
law while they keep within its strict letter. Simony, however, is a
much more extensive and far-reaching corruption than the purchase of
ecclesiastical benefices. Simony can take subtler shapes and can adapt
itself to conditions very different from those which prevail under an
established Church. Every one recognises, in word at least, the
scandalous character of money traffic in Church offices. Even those
who really practise it, hide from themselves, by some device or
excuse, the character of their action. But the simoniacal spirit, the
essence of Simon's sin, is found in many quarters which are never
suspected. What is that essence? Simon desired to obtain spiritual
power and office, not in the Divine method, but in low earthly ways.
Money was his way because it was the one thing he valued and had to
offer; but surely there are many other ways in which men may
unlawfully seek for spiritual office and influence in the Church of
Christ. Many a man who would never dream of offering money in order to
obtain a high place in the Church, or would have been horrified at the
very suggestion, has yet resorted to other methods just as effective
and just as wrong. Men have sought high position by political methods.
They have given their support to a political party, and have sold
their talents to uphold a cause, hoping thereby to gain their ends.
They may not have given gold which comes from the mine to gain
spiritual position, but they have all the same given a mere human
consideration, and sought by its help to obtain spiritual power; or
they preach and speak and vote in Church synods and assemblies with an
eye to elections to high place and dignity. An established Church,
with its legally-secured properties and prizes, may open a way for the
exercise of simony in its grosser forms. But a free Church, with its
popular assemblies, opens the way for a subtler temptation, leading
men to shape their actions, to suppress their convictions, to order
their votes and speeches, not as their secret conscience would direct
them, but as human nature and earthly considerations would tell them
was best for their future prospects. How many a speech is spoken, how
many a sermon is preached, how many a vote is given, not as the Holy
Ghost directs, but under the influence of that unhallowed spirit of
sheer worldliness which led Simon to offer money that he too might be
enabled to exercise the power which the unworldly Apostles possessed.
The spirit of simony may just as really lead a man to give a vote or
to abstain from voting, to make a speech or keep silence, as it led
men in a coarser and plainer age to give bribes for the attainment of
precisely the same ends. In this respect, again, as warning against
the intrusion of low earthly motives in the concerns of the Divine
society, the Acts of the Apostles proves itself a mirror of universal
Church history.
Then we have the address of St. Peter to this notorious sinner. It is
very plain-spoken. The Apostle had been himself a great sinner, but he
had not been harshly or roughly dealt with, because he had become a
great penitent. St. Peter was most sympathetic, and could never have
spoken so sharply as he did to Simon Magus had he not perceived with
quick spiritual insight the inborn baseness and hollowness of the
man's character. Still he does not cut him off from hope. He speaks
plainly, as Christ's ministers should ever do when occasion requires.
Simon Magus was a man of great influence in Samaria, but there was no
"fear of man which bringeth a snare" about the Apostles, and so St.
Peter fearlessly tells Simon his true position. "He was in the gall of
bitterness and bond of iniquity." He indicates to him, however, the
steps which, whether then or now, a person in that position should
take if he desires to escape from the due reward of his deeds. "Repent
therefore of this thy wickedness." Repentance, then, is the first step
which a man whose heart is not right in God's sight has to take. There
was no hesitation, as we have already remarked when speaking of St.
Peter's preaching at Jerusalem, about pressing upon men the duty of
hearty, sincere repentance, embracing sorrow for sin and genuine
amendment of life. Then having exhorted to repentance, the Apostle
proceeds, "And pray the Lord, if perhaps the thought of thy heart
shall be forgiven thee." Prayer is the next step. First comes
repentance, then prayer, and then forgiveness. There was nothing in
St. Peter's teaching which lends the least countenance to the modern
error which teaches that an unconverted man should not pray, that his
one duty is to believe, and, till he does so, that his prayer is
unacceptable to God. Simon Magus was as estranged from God as a human
soul could well have been, yet St. Peter's word to him then, and his
word to every sinner still, would be an exhortation to diligent
prayer. "Pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart shall be
forgiven thee." The exhortation of Peter was blessed, for the time, to
the sinner. It awoke a temporary sense of sin, though it wrought no
permanent change. It has left, however, an eternal blessing and a
permanent direction to the Church of Christ. In his preaching on the
day of Pentecost to the Jews of Jerusalem, he shows us how to deal
with those who are not as yet partakers of the Christian covenant.
"Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus
Christ," was his message to the devout Jews of Jerusalem; "Repent and
pray" is his message to the sinner who has been brought, all unworthy,
into the kingdom of light and grace, but knows nothing of it in heart
and life. St. Peter valued the blessings of belief in Christ and
admission by baptism into His kingdom, but he knew that these benefits
only intensified a man's condemnation if not realized in heart and
lived in practice. St. Peter's visit to Samaria in company with St.
John has much to teach the Church on many other points, as we have
pointed out, but no lesson which can be derived from it is so
important as that which declares the true road for the returning
sinner to follow, the value of repentance, the efficacy of heartfelt
prayer, the supreme importance of a heart right in the sight of God.