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 God.
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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]
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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, God[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.
[6] Dr. Illingworth calls "the material order another aspect of the
spiritual, which is gradually revealing itself through material
concealment, in the greater and lesser Christian Sacraments, which
radiate from the Incarnation" ("Sermons Preached in a College Chapel,"
p. 173).
[7] God is _Spirit_, St. John iv. 24.
[8] The Word was made _Flesh_, St. John i. 14.
[9] The water in Baptism is not, of course, _consecrated_, as the bread
and wine are in the Eucharist. It does not, like the bread and wine,
"become what it was not, without ceasing to be what it was," but it is
"_sanctified_ to the mystical washing away of sins".
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