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Produced by Al Haines | |
THE CHURCH | |
HER BOOKS AND HER SACRAMENTS | |
BY | |
E. E. HOLMES, B.D. | |
ARCHDEACON OF LONDON | |
A COURSE OF INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN AT ALL SAINTS | |
MARGARET STREET, IN LENT, 1910 | |
_NEW IMPRESSION_ | |
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. | |
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON | |
FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK | |
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS | |
1914 | |
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. | |
IN WATCHINGS OFTEN: Addresses to Nurses and Others. With a Preface by | |
the Right Rev. EDWARD KING, D.D., late Bishop of Lincoln. With a | |
Frontispiece (the Crucifixion, by PERUGINO). Crown 8vo, paper boards, | |
2s. 6d.; cloth, 3s. 6d. | |
PRAYER AND ACTION; or, The Three Notable Duties (Prayer, Fasting, and | |
Almsgiving). With an Introduction by the Bishop of London. Crown 8vo, | |
2s. 6d. net. | |
IMMORTALITY. Crown 8vo, 4s. net. (_Oxford Library of Practical | |
Theology_.) | |
PARADISE: A Course of Addresses on the State of the Faithful Departed. | |
Crown 8vo, paper covers, 1s. net; cloth, 2s. net. *** _Extracted from | |
"Immortality"_ | |
RESPONSIBILITY: An Address to Girls. 16mo, paper covers, 4d. net; | |
bound in rexine, 1s. net. Cheap Edition, 1d. net. | |
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO., | |
LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS | |
TO | |
H. F. B. M. | |
{vii} | |
INTRODUCTION | |
These Lectures were originally delivered as the Boyle Lectures for | |
1910, and were afterwards repeated in a more popular form at All | |
Saints, Margaret Street. They are now written from notes taken at | |
their delivery at All Saints, and the writer's thanks are due to the | |
kindness of those who lent him the notes. Some explanation of their | |
elementary character seems called for. The Lecturer's object was | |
twofold:-- | |
(1) To remind an instructed congregation of that which they knew | |
already--and to make them more grateful for the often underrated | |
privilege of being members of the Catholic Church; and | |
(2) To suggest some simple lines of instruction which they might pass | |
on to others. Unless the instructed Laity will help the Clergy to | |
teach their uninstructed brethren, a vast number of {viii} Church | |
people must remain in ignorance of their privileges and | |
responsibilities. And if at times the instructed get impatient and | |
say, "Everybody knows that," they will probably be mistaken. Many a | |
Churchman is ignorant of the first principles of his religion, of why | |
he is a Churchman, and even of what he means by "the Church," just | |
because of the false assumption--"Everybody knows". Everybody does not | |
know. | |
It seems absurd to treat such subjects as _The Church, Her Books, Her | |
Sacraments_, in half-hour Lectures; but, in spite of obvious drawbacks, | |
there may be two advantages. It may be useful to take a bird's-eye | |
view of a whole subject rather than to look minutely into each | |
part--and it may help to keep the Lecturer to the point! | |
E. E. H. | |
{ix} | |
CONTENTS | |
CHAP. PAGE | |
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii | |
I. The Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 | |
II. The Church's Books (1) The Bible . . . . . . . . 21 | |
III. " " (2) The Prayer Book . . . . . 40 | |
IV. The Church's Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 | |
V. Baptism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 | |
VI. The Blessed Sacrament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 | |
VII. The Lesser Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 | |
VIII. Confirmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 | |
IX. Holy Matrimony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 | |
X. Holy Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 | |
XI. Penance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 | |
XII. Unction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 | |
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 | |
Dear Saviour! make our hearts to burn, | |
And make our lives to shine, | |
Oh! make us ever true to Thee, | |
And true to all that's Thine-- | |
Thy Church, Thy Saints, Thy Sacraments, | |
Thy Scriptures; may we own | |
No other Lord, no other rule, | |
But Thee, and Thine alone. | |
A. G. | |
{1} | |
THE CHURCH. | |
CHAPTER I. | |
THE CHURCH ON EARTH. | |
_Christus Dilexit Ecclesiam_: "Christ loved the Church"[1]--and if we | |
love what Christ loved, we do well. | |
But three questions meet us:-- | |
(1) What is this Church which Christ loved? | |
(2) When and where was it established? | |
(3) What was it established for? | |
First: _What is the Church?_ The Church is a visible Society under a | |
visible Head, in Heaven, in Paradise, and on Earth. Who is this | |
visible Head? Jesus Christ--visible to the greatest number of its | |
members (i.e. in Heaven and in Paradise), and vicariously represented | |
here by "the Vicar of Christ upon Earth," the Universal Episcopate. | |
{2} | |
Next: _When and where was it established?_ It was established in | |
Palestine, in the Upper Chamber, on the first Whitsunday, "the Day of | |
Pentecost". | |
Then: _What was it established for?_ It was established to be the | |
channel of salvation and sanctification for fallen man. God may, and | |
does, use other channels, but, "according to the Scriptures," the | |
Church is the authorized channel. | |
As such, let us think of the Church on earth under six Prayer-Book | |
names:-- | |
(I) The Catholic Church. | |
(II) The National Church. | |
(III) The Established Church. | |
(IV) The Church of England. | |
(V) The Reformed Church. | |
(VI) The Primitive Church. | |
(I) THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. | |
The Creeds call it "the _Catholic_ Church" and describe its doctrine as | |
"the _Catholic_ Religion," or the "_Catholic_ Faith". The Te Deum, | |
Litany, and Ember Collect explain this word "Catholic" to mean "the | |
holy Church _throughout all the {3} world_," "_an universal_ Church," | |
"_thy holy_ Church universal"; and the Collect for the King in the | |
Liturgy defines it as "the _whole_ Church". The "Catholic Church," | |
then, is "the whole Church," East and West, Latin, Greek, and English, | |
"throughout all the world ".[2] Its message is world-wide, according | |
to the terms of its original Commission, "Go ye into _all the world_". | |
Thus, wherever there are souls and bodies to be saved and sanctified, | |
there, sooner or later, will be the Catholic Church. And, as a matter | |
of history, this is just what we find. Are there souls to be saved and | |
sanctified in Italy?--there is the Church, with its local headquarters | |
at Rome. Are there souls to be saved and sanctified in Russia?--there | |
is the Church, once with its local {4} headquarters at Moscow. Are | |
there souls to be saved and sanctified in England?--there is the | |
Church, with its local headquarters at Canterbury. It is, and ever has | |
been, one and the same Church, "all one man's sons," and that man, the | |
Man Christ Jesus. The Catholic Church is like the ocean. There is the | |
Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean: and yet there are | |
not three oceans, but one ocean. The Atlantic Ocean is not the Indian | |
Ocean, nor is the Indian Ocean the Pacific Ocean: they are all together | |
the one universal ocean--"the ocean". | |
But, after all, is not this a somewhat vague and nebulous conception of | |
"The Church". If it is to go into all the world, how, from a business | |
point of view, is this world-wide mission, in all its grandeur, to be | |
accomplished? The answer is seen in our second name:-- | |
(II) THE NATIONAL CHURCH. | |
For business and administrative purposes, the world is divided into | |
different nations. For business and practical purposes, the Church | |
follows the same method. The Catholic Church is the channel of "saving | |
health to all nations". As at Pentecost the Church, typically, reached | |
"every {5} nation under heaven," so, age after age, must every nation | |
receive the Church's message. The Universal Church must be planted in | |
each nation--not to denationalize that nation; not to plant another | |
National Church in the nation; but to establish itself as "the Catholic | |
Church" in that particular area, and to gather out of it some national | |
feature of universal life to present to the Universal Head. Thus, a | |
National Church is the local presentment of the Catholic Church in the | |
nation. As Dr. Newman puts it: "The Holy Church throughout all the | |
world is manifest and acts through what is called _in each country_, | |
the Church Visible". | |
As such, the duty of a National Church is two-fold. It must teach the | |
nation; it must feed the nation. First: it is the function of the | |
National Church to teach the nation. What is its subject? Religion. | |
It is to teach the nation religion--not to be taught religion by the | |
nation. It is no more the State's function to teach religion to the | |
authorities of the National Church[3] than it is the {6} function of | |
the nation to teach art to the authorities of the National Gallery. | |
Nor, again, is it the function of a National Church to teach the nation | |
a _national_ religion; it is the office of the Church to teach the | |
nation the _Catholic_ religion--to say, in common with the rest of | |
Christendom, "the Catholic religion is this," and none other. Thus, | |
the faith of a National Church is not the changing faith of a passing | |
majority; it is the unchanging faith of a permanent Body, the Catholic | |
Church. Different ages may explain the faith in different ways; | |
different nations may present it by different methods; different minds | |
may interpret it in different lights; but it is one and the same faith, | |
"throughout all the world ". | |
A second function of the National Church is to feed the nation--to feed | |
it with something which no State has to offer. It is the hand of the | |
Catholic Church dispensing to the nation "something better than bread". | |
When a priest is ordained, the Bishop bids him be "a faithful dispenser | |
of the Word of God, and of His holy Sacraments," and then gives him a | |
local sphere of action "in the congregation where thou shalt be | |
lawfully appointed thereunto".[4] Ideally, this {7} is carried out by | |
the parochial system. For administrative purposes, the National Church | |
is divided into parishes, and thus brings the Scriptures and Sacraments | |
to every individual in every nation in which the Catholic Church is | |
established. It is a grand and business-like conception. First, the | |
Church's _mission_, "Go ye into all the world"; then the Church's | |
_method_--planting itself in nation after nation "throughout all the | |
world"; dividing (still for administrative purposes) each nation into | |
provinces; each province into dioceses; each diocese into | |
archdeaconries; each archdeaconry into rural deaneries; each rural | |
deanery into parishes; and so teaching and feeding each unit in each | |
parish, by the hand of the National Church. | |
All this is, or should be, going on in England, and we have now to ask | |
when and by whom the Catholic Church, established in the Upper Chamber | |
on the Day of Pentecost, was established in our country. | |
(III) THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. | |
The Catholic Church was established, or re-established,[5] in this | |
realm in the year {8} 597.[6] It was established by St. Augustine, | |
afterwards the first Archbishop of Canterbury. How do we know this? | |
By documentary evidence. This is the only evidence which, in such a | |
case, is final. If it is asked when, and by whom, our great public | |
schools were established, the answer can be proved or disproved by | |
documents. If, for instance, it is asked when, and by whom, | |
_Winchester_ was established, documents, and documents only, {9} can | |
answer the question---and documents definitely reply: in 1387, by | |
William of Wykeham; if it is asked when, and by whom, _Eton_ was | |
established, documents answer: in 1441, by Henry VI; if it is asked | |
when, and by whom, _Harrow_ was established, documents respond: in | |
1571, by John Lyon; if it is asked when, and by whom, _Charterhouse_ | |
was established, documents again reply: in 1611, by Sir Thomas Sutton. | |
It can all be proved by, and only by, documentary evidence. So with | |
the sects. Documents can prove that the Congregationalists established | |
themselves in England in 1568, under Robert Brown; Quakers in 1660, | |
under George Fox; Unitarians in 1719, under Samuel Clarke; Wesleyans in | |
1799, under a Wesleyan Conference. Records exist proving that these | |
various sects were established at these given dates, and no records | |
exist proving that they were established at any other dates. So with | |
the Church. Records exist proving that it was established by | |
Augustine, in England, in 597, and no records exist even hinting that | |
it was established at any other time by anybody else. | |
{10} | |
"_As by Law Established._"[7] | |
A not unnatural mistake has sometimes arisen from the phrase "_as by | |
law_ established". Where is this law? It does not exist. No law ever | |
established the Church of England. The expression refers to the | |
protection given by law to the Catholic Church in England, enabling it | |
to do its duty in, and to, the country. It tells of the legal | |
recognition of the Church in the country long before the State existed; | |
it expresses the legal declaration that the Church of England is not a | |
mere insular sect, but part of the Universal Church "throughout all the | |
world". A State can, of course, if it chooses, establish and {11} | |
endow any religion--Mohammedan, Hindoo, Christian, in a country. It | |
can establish Presbyterianism or Quakerism or Undenominationalism in | |
England if it elects so to do; but none of these would be the Church of | |
Jesus Christ established in the Upper Chamber on the Day of Pentecost. | |
As a matter of history, no Church was ever established or endowed by | |
State law in England.[8] If such a tremendous Act as the establishment | |
of the Church of England by law had been passed, it is obvious that | |
some document would attest it, as it does in the case of the | |
establishment of the Scotch Presbyterian Church in the reign of William | |
III. No such document exists. But an authentic {12} record does exist | |
proving the establishment of the Pentecostal Church in England in 597. | |
It is this old Pentecostal Church that we speak of as the Church of | |
England. | |
(IV) THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. | |
Who gave it this name? The Pope.[9] It was given by Pope Gregory in a | |
letter to Augustine. In this letter[10] Gregory speaks of three | |
Churches--the {13} Church of Rome, the Church of Gaul, and the _Church | |
of the English_, and he bids Augustine compile a Liturgy from the | |
different Churches for the "Use" of the Church of England. | |
We see, then, that the Church of England is the Catholic Church in | |
England. As the Church of Ephesus is the Catholic Church in Ephesus, | |
or the Church of Laodicea is the Catholic Church in Laodicea, or the | |
Church of Thyatira the Catholic Church in Thyatira, so the Church of | |
England is the Catholic Church in England. Just as St. Clement begins | |
his Epistle to the Corinthians with, "The _Church of God_, which is at | |
Rome, to the _Church of God_ which is at Corinth," so might Archbishop | |
Davidson write to the Italians, "_The Church of God_, which is at | |
Canterbury, to the _Church of God_, which is at Rome". It is in each | |
case, "the Church of God," "made visible," in the nation where it is | |
planted. | |
{14} | |
But, being national (being, for example, in England), it is, obviously, | |
subject to the dangers, as well as the privileges, of national | |
character, national temperament--and, in our case, national insularity. | |
The national presentment of the Catholic Church may err, and may err | |
without losing its Catholicity. The Church of England, "as also the | |
Church of Rome, hath erred";[11] it has needed, it needs, it will need, | |
reforming. Hence we come to our fifth name:-- | |
(V) THE REFORMED CHURCH. | |
The name is very suggestive. It suggests two things--life and | |
continuity. | |
First, _life_. A reforming Church is a living Church. Reformation is | |
a sign of animation, for a dead organism cannot reform itself. Then, | |
_continuity_. The reformed man, must be the same man, or he would not | |
be a reformed man but somebody else. So with the Church of England. | |
It would have been quite possible, however ludicrous, to have | |
established a new Church in the sixteenth century, but that would not | |
have been a reformed Church, it would have been {15} another | |
Church--the very last thing the Reformers contemplated. | |
A Reformed Church, then, is not the formation of a new Church, but the | |
re-formation of the old Church. | |
How did the old Church of England reform itself? Roughly speaking, the | |
English Reformation did two things. It affirmed something, and it | |
denied something. | |
First, it affirmed something. For instance, the Church of England | |
affirmed that the Church in this country in the sixteenth century was | |
one with the Church of the sixth century. It affirmed that it was the | |
very same Church that had been established in Palestine on the Day of | |
Pentecost, and in this realm by Augustine in 597. It reaffirmed its | |
old national independence in things local just as it had affirmed it in | |
the days of Pope Gregory, It re-affirmed its adherence to every | |
doctrine[12] held by the undivided Church, without adding thereto, or | |
taking therefrom. | |
{16} | |
Then, it denied something. It denied the right of foreigners to | |
interfere in purely English affairs; it denied the right of the Bishop | |
of one National Church to exercise his power in another National | |
Church; it denied the claim of the Bishop of Rome to exercise | |
jurisdiction over the Archbishop of Canterbury; it denied the power of | |
any one part of the Church to impose local decisions, or local dogmas, | |
upon any other part of the Church. | |
Thus, the Reformation both affirmed and denied. It affirmed the | |
constitutional rights of the Church as against the unconstitutional | |
claims of the Pope, and it denied the unconstitutional claims of the | |
State as against the constitutional rights of the Church. | |
Much more, very much more, "for weal or for woe," it did. It had to | |
buy its experience. The Reformation was not born grown up. It made | |
its mistakes, as every growing movement will do. It is still growing, | |
still making mistakes, still purging and pruning itself as it grows; | |
and it is still asserting its right to reform itself where it {17} has | |
gone wrong, and to return to the old ideal where it has departed from | |
it. And this old ideal is wrapped up in the sixth name:-- | |
(VI) THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. | |
Re-formation must be based upon its original formation if it would aim | |
at real reform. It is not necessarily a mechanical imitation of the | |
past, but a genuine portrait of the permanent. It is, then, to the | |
Primitive Church that we must look for the principles of reformation. | |
If the meaning of a will is contested years after the testator's death, | |
reference will be made, as far as possible, to the testator's | |
contemporaries, or to writings which might best interpret his | |
intentions. This is what the English Reformers of the sixteenth | |
century tell us that they did. They refer perpetually to the past; | |
over and over again they send us to the "ancient fathers,"[13] as to | |
those living and writing nearest to the days when the Church was | |
established, and as most likely to know her mind. They go back to what | |
the "Commination Service" calls "The Primitive Church". This | |
"Primitive Church" is the Reformed Church now established in England. | |
{18} The Reformers themselves never meant it to be anything else, and | |
would have been the first to protest against the unhistoric, low, and | |
modern use of the word "established". In this sense, they would have | |
been the sturdiest of sturdy "Protestants". | |
And this word Protestant reminds us that there is one more name | |
frequently given to the Church of England, but not included in our | |
scheme, because found nowhere in the Prayer Book. | |
THE PROTESTANT CHURCH. | |
The term is a foreign one--not English. It comes from Germany and was | |
given to the Lutherans in 1529, because they protested against an | |
edict[14] forbidding them to regulate their own local ecclesiastical | |
affairs, pending the decision of a General Council. | |
It had nothing whatever to do with "protesting" against ceremonial. | |
The ceremonial of the Church in Lutheran Germany is at least as | |
carefully elaborated as that seen in the majority of English churches. | |
Later on, the term was borrowed from the Germans by the English, and | |
applied to {19} Churchmen who protested (1) against doctrines held | |
_exclusively_ by Rome on the one hand, and by Lutherans and Calvinists | |
on the other; and (2) against claims made by the King over the rights | |
and properties of the Church. Later still, it has been applied to | |
those who protest against the ancient interpretation of Prayer-Book | |
teaching on the Sacraments and Ceremonial. | |
There is, it is true, a sense in which the name is fairly used to | |
represent the views of all loyal English Churchmen. Every English | |
Churchman protests against anything unhistoric or uncatholic. The | |
Church of England does protest against anything imposed by one part of | |
the Church on any other part of the Church, apart from the consent of | |
the whole Church. It does protest against the claims of Italy or of | |
any other nation to rule England, or to impose upon us, as _de fide_, | |
anything exclusively Roman. In this sense, Laud declared upon the | |
scaffold that he died "a true Protestant"; in this sense, Nicholas | |
Ferrar, founder of a Religious House in Huntingdonshire, called himself | |
a Protestant; in this sense, we are all Protestants, and in this sense | |
we are not ashamed of our unhistoric name. | |
{20} | |
In these Prayer-Book names, then, we see (1) that the Church on earth | |
is a society, established in the Upper Chamber on the Day of Pentecost; | |
(2) that it was established to be the ordained and ordinary channel | |
through which God saves and sanctifies fallen man; (3) that, in order | |
to accomplish this, and for business and administrative purposes, the | |
Church Catholic establishes itself in national centres; (4) that one | |
such national centre is England; and (5) that this Pentecostal Church | |
established in England is the Church which "Christ loved," the Sponsa | |
Christi, the "Bride of Christ":-- | |
_Elect from every nation,_ | |
_Yet one all o'er the Earth._ | |
[1] Eph. v. 25. | |
[2] The primary meaning of the word Catholic seems to refer to | |
world-wide extension. St. Augustine teaches that it means "Universal" | |
as opposed to particular, and says that "The Church is called Catholic | |
because it is spread throughout the whole world". St. Cyril of | |
Jerusalem says: "The Church is called Catholic because it extends | |
throughout the whole world, from one end of the Earth to the other," | |
and he adds, "because it teaches universally all the doctrines which | |
men ought to know" ("Catechetical Lectures," xviii. 23). | |
[3] "Foul fall the day," writes Mr. Gladstone, "when the persons of | |
this world shall, on whatever pretext, take into their uncommissioned | |
hands the manipulation of the religion of our Lord and Saviour." | |
[4] Service for "The Ordering of Priests". | |
[5] There was, of course, an ancient British Church long before the | |
sixth century, and there is evidence that it existed in the middle of | |
the second century. It sent bishops to the Council of Arles in 314, | |
and there is a church at Canterbury in which Queen Bertha's chaplain | |
celebrated some twenty-five years before the coming of Augustine. But | |
its origin is shrouded in mystery, and it had been practically | |
extinguished by Jutes, Saxons, and Angles before Augustine arrived. | |
"Of the ancient British Church," writes Bishop Stubbs, in an | |
unpublished letter, "we must be content to admit that history tells us | |
next to nothing, and that what glimmerings of truth we think we can | |
discover in legend grow fainter and fainter the more closely they are | |
examined. Authentic records there are none." Some ascribe the first | |
preaching of the Gospel in Britain to St. Peter, others to St. Paul, or | |
St. James, or St. Simon Zelotes, and the monks of Glastonbury ascribe | |
it to their founder, Joseph of Arimathea, who was, they say, sent to | |
Britain by St. Philip with eleven others in A.D. 63. Cf. letter of Dr. | |
Bright to "The Guardian," 14 March, 1888, and see "Letters and Memoirs | |
of William Bright," pp. 267 _seq_. | |
[6] i.e. the English, as distinct from the British Church. | |
[7] "The word Establishment," writes Bishop Stubbs, "means, of course, | |
the national recognition of our Church as a Christian Church, as the | |
representment of the religious life of the nation as historically | |
worked out and by means of property and discipline enabled to | |
discharge, so far as outward discharge can insure it, the effectual | |
performance of the duties that membership of a Christian Church | |
involves. It means the national recognition of a system by which every | |
inch of land in England, and every living soul in the population is | |
assigned to a ministration of help, teaching, advice, and comfort of | |
religion, a system in which every English man woman and child has a | |
right to the service of a clergyman and to a home of spiritual life in | |
the service of the Church" ("Visitation Charges," p. 303). | |
[8] A State can, of course, _endow_, as well as establish, any form of | |
religion it selects. It has a perfect right to do so. But the State | |
has never endowed the Church of England, and it can only disendow it in | |
the sense that it can rob it of its own endowments--just as it can, by | |
Act of Parliament, rob any business man of his money. It has done this | |
once already. At the Great Rebellion, the Church of England was, in | |
this sense, disestablished and disendowed. By the Act of Uniformity of | |
Charles II, it was reinstated into the rights and liberties from which | |
it had been deposed. But it remained the same Church which Augustine | |
established in England all the time. Its reinstatement no more made | |
the Church a new Church, than the restoration of Charles II made the | |
monarchy a new monarchy. | |
[9] It is sometimes asked, Does not the presence of the Bishops in the | |
House of Lords constitute an Established Church? No. Representatives | |
from all the sects might, and some probably will, sit there without | |
either making their sect the established Church of the country, or | |
unmaking the Catholic Church the Church of the country. Bishops have | |
sat in the House of Lords ever since there has been a House of Lords to | |
sit in, but neither their exclusion, nor the inclusion of non-Bishops, | |
would disestablish the Church of England. | |
It is also asked, do not the Prime Ministers make the Bishops? Prime | |
Ministers, as we shall see, do not _make_ but _nominate_ the Bishops. | |
[10] Augustine is worried, as we are worried, by the variety of customs | |
in different Churches, and asks Pope Gregory "why one custom of masses | |
is observed in the Holy Roman Church and another in the Church of the | |
Gallic Provinces". "My brother knows," replied Gregory, "the custom of | |
the Roman Church in which he was brought up. But my pleasure is that | |
you should, with great care, select whatever you think will best please | |
Almighty God wherever you find it, whether in the Church of Rome, or in | |
the Church of Gaul, or in any other Church, and then plant firmly in | |
the Church of the English that which you have selected from many | |
Churches.... Choose, then, from each individual Church things pious, | |
religious, righteous, and having, as it were, collected them into a | |
volume, deposit them with the minds of the English as their custom, | |
their Use." | |
[11] Art. XIX. | |
[12] "I protest," wrote Archbishop Cranmer, "and openly confess that, | |
in all my doctrine, whatsoever it be, not only I mean and judge those | |
things as the Catholic Church, and the most holy Fathers of old, with | |
one accord, have meant and judged, but also I would gladly use the same | |
words which they used, and not use any other words, but to set my hand | |
to all and singular their speeches, phrases, ways, and forms of speech, | |
which they did use in their treatise upon the Sacraments, and to keep | |
still their interpretation." | |
[13] See Preface to the Prayer Book. | |
[14] The Edict of the Diet (or Council) of Spires. | |
{21} | |
CHAPTER II. | |
THE CHURCH'S BOOKS. | |
For the purpose of these lectures, we will select two:-- | |
(1) _The Bible_, the possession of the whole Church. | |
(2) _The Prayer Book_, the possession of the Church of England. | |
(1) THE BIBLE. | |
And notice: _first, the Church; then, the Bible_--first the Society, | |
then its Publications; first the Writers; then the Writings; first the | |
Messenger, then the Message; first the Agent, then the Agencies. | |
This is the Divine Order. Preaching, not writing, was the Apostolic | |
method. Oral teaching preceded the written word. Then, later on, lest | |
this oral teaching should be lost, forgotten, or misquoted, it was | |
gradually committed to {22} manuscript, and its "good tidings" | |
published in writing for the Church's children. | |
It is very important to remember this order ("first the Church, and | |
then the Bible"), because thousands of souls lived and died long before | |
the New Testament was written. The earliest books of the New Testament | |
(the First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians) were not written | |
for twenty years after the Day of Pentecost; the earliest Gospel (St. | |
Mark) was not committed to writing before A.D. 65. And, even if the | |
Bible had been written earlier, few could have read it; and even then | |
few could have possessed it. It was a rare book, wholly out of reach | |
of "the people". The first Bible was not printed until 1445. | |
But, thank God, the Church, which wrote the book, could teach without | |
the book; and we may be sure that no single soul was lost for the want | |
of what it could not possess. "Without a Bible," says St. Irenaeus, | |
writing in the second century, "they received, from the Church, | |
teaching sufficient for the salvation of their souls." | |
Then, again, the Church alone could decide which books were, and which | |
books were not, "the Scriptures". How else could we know? The society | |
authorizes its publications. It affixes {23} its seal only to the | |
books it has issued. So with the Divine Society, the Church. It | |
affixes its seal to the books we now know as the Bible. How do we | |
know, for instance, that St. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians are | |
part of the Bible, and that St. Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians is | |
not part of the Bible? Because, and only because, the Church has so | |
decided. If we had lived in the days of persecution it would have made | |
a considerable difference to us whether this or that sacred book was | |
included in the Christian Scriptures. Thus, when the early Christians | |
were ordered by Diocletian to "bring out their books," and either burn | |
them or die for them, it became a matter of vital importance to know | |
which these books were. Who could tell them this? Only the society | |
which published them, only the Church. | |
Again, the Church, and only the Church, is the final _interpreter_ of | |
the Bible--it is the "_witness_ and keeper of holy writ".[1] The | |
society which publishes a statement must be the final interpreter of | |
that statement. Probably no book ever published needed authoritative | |
interpretation more than the Bible. We call it "the book of {24} | |
peace"; it is in reality a book of war. No book has spread more | |
discord than the Bible. Every sect in the world quotes the Bible as | |
the source and justification of its existence. Men, equally learned, | |
devout, prayerful, deduce the most opposite conclusions from the very | |
same words. Two men, we will say, honestly and earnestly seek to know | |
what the Bible teaches about Baptismal Regeneration, or the Blessed | |
Sacrament. They have exactly the same _data_ to go upon, precisely the | |
same statements before them; yet, from the same premises, they will | |
deduce a diametrically opposite conclusion. Hence, party wrangling, | |
and sectarian bitterness; hence, the confusion of tongues, which has | |
changed our Zion into Babel. Indeed, as we all know, so sharp was the | |
contention in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, that translations | |
of the Bible were actually forbidden by two local Church Councils.[2] | |
An interpreter is as much needed now, as in the days of the Ethiopian | |
Eunuch. "_How_ readest thou?"[3] is a question second only in {25} | |
importance (if, indeed, it is second) to "_What_ is written?" Upon | |
"how" we read, will very largely depend the value of "what" we read. | |
We go, then, to the Church to interpret the book which it gave us. | |
And notice--to say this, is not to disparage the Scriptures because we | |
exalt the Church. It is to put both Church and Scriptures in their | |
true, historical place. We do not disparage a publication because we | |
exalt the society which issues that publication; rather, we honour the | |
one by exalting the other. Thus, when we say that the creeds interpret | |
the Bible, we do not disparage the Bible because we exalt the creeds, | |
any more than we disparage the Church when we say that the Bible proves | |
the creeds. Take the "Virgin Birth," as a single illustration. Are we | |
to believe that our Blessed Lord was "born of the Virgin Mary"? Church | |
and Bible give the same reply. The Church taught it before the Bible | |
recorded it; the Bible recorded it because the Church taught it. For | |
us, as Churchmen, the matter is settled once and for all by the | |
Apostles' Creed. Here we have the official and authoritative teaching | |
of the Catholic Church, as proved by the New Testament; "born of the | |
Virgin Mary". | |
{26} | |
It is this Bible, the Church's Manual of doctrine and devotion, that we | |
are to think of. | |
We will think of it under five familiar names:-- | |
(I) The Scriptures. | |
(II) The Bible. | |
(III) The Word of God. | |
(IV) Inspiration. | |
(V) Revelation. | |
(I) THE SCRIPTURES. | |
This was the earliest name by which the Bible was known--the name by | |
which it was called for the first 1200 years in Church history. It was | |
so named by the Latin Fathers in the fifth century, and it means, of | |
course, "The Writings". These "Scriptures," or "Writings," were not, | |
as the plural form of the word reminds us, one book, but many books, | |
afterwards gathered into one book.[4] They were a library of separate | |
books, called by St. Irenaeus "The Divine Library"--perhaps {27} the | |
best and most descriptive name the Bible ever had. This library | |
consists of sixty-six books, not all written at one period, or for one | |
age, but extending over a period of, at least, 1200 years. | |
The original copies of these writings, or Scriptures, have not yet been | |
discovered, though we have extant three very early copies of them, | |
written "by hand". These are known as the _Alexandrine_ manuscript (or | |
Codex), the _Vatican_ manuscript, and the _Sinaitic_ manuscript. Where | |
may they be found? | |
One, dating from the latter part of the fourth, or the early part of | |
the fifth century, is in the British Museum--a priceless treasure, | |
which comparatively few have taken the trouble to go and see. It is | |
known as the _Alexandrine_ manuscript, and was presented to Charles I | |
by the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1628. It consists of four | |
volumes, three of which contain nearly all the Old Testament, and parts | |
of the Apocrypha, and a fourth, containing a large part of the New | |
Testament. | |
A second manuscript, dating from the fourth century, is in the Vatican | |
Library in Rome, and is, therefore, known as the _Vatican_ manuscript. | |
{28} It contains nearly the whole of both the Old and New Testaments, | |
and of the Apocrypha. | |
The third manuscript, dating also from the fourth century, is in the | |
Imperial Library at St. Petersburg. It was discovered by Prof. | |
Tischendorf, in 1859, in a basket of fragments, destined to be burned, | |
in the Monastery of St. Catherine on _Mount Sinai_; hence it is called | |
the _Sinaitic_ manuscript. | |
These are the three earliest MS. collections of the Bible as yet | |
discovered--and strange stories, of mystic beauty, and, it may be, of | |
weird persecution, they could tell if only they could speak. Other | |
manuscripts we have--copies of ancient manuscripts; versions of ancient | |
manuscripts; translations of ancient manuscripts; texts of ancient | |
manuscripts. So they come down the ages, till, at last, we reach our | |
own "Revised Version," probably the most accurate and trustworthy | |
version in existence. | |
"The Scriptures," or "the Writings," then, consist of many books, and | |
in this very fact, they tell their own tale--the tale of diversity in | |
unity. They were written for divers ages, divers intellects, divers | |
nations, in divers languages, by divers authors or compilers. They | |
were not all {29} written for the twentieth century, though they all | |
have a message for the twentieth century; they were not all written for | |
the English people, though they all have a truth for the English | |
people; they were not all written by the same hand, though the same | |
Hand guided all the writers. In, and through the Scriptures, "God, at | |
sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the | |
fathers by the prophets"; and in, and through them, He "hath in these | |
last days, spoken unto us by His Son".[5] | |
Time passes, and these sixty-six books, written at different periods, | |
in different styles, in different dialects, are gathered together in | |
one book, called "The Book," or The Bible. | |
(II) THE BIBLE. | |
It was so named by the Greek Fathers in the thirteenth century, | |
hundreds of years after its earliest name, "The Scriptures". The word | |
is derived from the Greek _Biblia_, books, and originally meant the | |
Egyptian _papyrus_ (or _paper-reed_) from which paper was first made. | |
A "bible," then, was originally any book made of paper, and {30} the | |
name was afterwards given to the "Book of Books"--"_The Bible_". | |
Here, then, are sixty-six volumes bound together in one volume. This, | |
too, tells its own tale. If "The Scriptures," or scattered writings, | |
speak of diversity in unity, "The Bible," or collected writings, tells | |
of unity in diversity. Each separate book has its own most sacred | |
message, while one central, unifying thought dominates all--the | |
Incarnate Son of God. The Old Testament writings foretell His coming | |
("They are they which testify of me"[6]); the New Testament writings | |
proclaim His Advent ("The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us"[7]). | |
Thus, all the books become one book. | |
_Many the tongues,_ | |
_The theme is one,_ | |
_The glory of the Eternal Son._ | |
Take away that central Figure, and both the background of the Old | |
Testament and the foreground of the New become dull, sunless, | |
colourless. Reinstate that central Figure, and book after book, roll | |
after roll, volume after volume, becomes bright, sunny, intelligible. | |
This it is which separates the Bible from every other book; this it is | |
which makes it the worthiest {31} of all books for reverent, prayerful | |
criticism; this it is which makes its words nuggets of gold, "dearer | |
unto me than thousands of gold and silver"; this it is which gives the | |
Bible its third name:-- | |
(III) THE WORD OF GOD. | |
In what sense is the Bible the Word of God? Almost any answer must | |
hurt some, and almost every answer must disappoint others. For a time, | |
the "old school" and the "new school" must bear with each other, | |
neither counting itself "to have apprehended," but each pressing | |
forward to attain results. | |
In speaking of the Bible, we commonly meet with two extreme classes: on | |
the one hand, there are those who hold that every syllable is the Word | |
of God, and therefore outside all criticism; on the other hand, there | |
are those who hold that the Bible is no more the "Word of God" than any | |
other book, and may, therefore, be handled and criticized just like any | |
other book. In between these two extremes, there is another class, | |
which holds that the Bible is the Word of God, and that just because it | |
is the Word of God, it is--above all other books--an "open Bible," a | |
{32} book open for sacred study, devout debate, reverent criticism. | |
The first class holds that every one of the 925,877 words in the Bible | |
is as literally "God's Word" as if no human hand had written it. Thus, | |
Dean Burgon writes: "Every word of it, every chapter of it, every | |
syllable of it, every letter of it, is the direct utterance of the Most | |
High.... Every syllable is just what it would have been ... _without | |
the intervention of any human agent_." This, of course, creates | |
hopeless difficulties. For instance, in the Authorized Version (to | |
take but one single version) there are obvious insertions, such as St. | |
Mark xvi. 9-20, which may not be "the Word of God" at all. There are | |
obvious misquotations, such as in the seven variations in St. Stephen's | |
speech.[8] There are obvious doubts about accurate translations, where | |
the marginal notes give alternative readings. There are obvious | |
mistakes by modern printers, as there were by ancient copyists.[9] | |
There are three versions of the Psalms now in use (the Authorized | |
Version, the Revised Version, and the Prayer-Book Version), all | |
differing {33} from each other. The translators of the Authorized | |
Version wish, they say, to make "_one more exact_ translation of the | |
Scriptures," and one-third of the translators of the Revised Version | |
constantly differs from the other two-thirds. Here, clearly, the human | |
agent is at work. | |
Then there are those who, perhaps from a natural reaction, deny that | |
any word in the Bible is in any special sense "the Word of God". But | |
this, too, creates hopeless difficulties, and satisfies no serious | |
student. If the Bible is, in no special sense, the Word of God, there | |
is absolutely no satisfactory explanation of its unique position and | |
career in history. It is a great fact which remains unaccounted for. | |
Moreover, no evidence exists which suggests that the writers who call | |
it the Word of God were either frauds or dupes, or that they were | |
deceived when they proclaimed "_God_ spake these words, and said"; or, | |
"Thus saith _the Lord_"; or, "The Revelation of _Jesus Christ_ by His | |
servant John". There must, upon the lowest ground, be a sense in which | |
it may be truly said that the Bible is the Word of God as no other book | |
is. This we may consider under the fourth name, Inspiration. | |
{34} | |
(IV) INSPIRATION. | |
What do we mean by the word? The Church has nowhere defined it, and we | |
are not tied to any one interpretation; but the Bible itself suggests a | |
possible meaning. | |
It is the Word of God heard through the voice of man. | |
Think of some such expression as: "_The Revelation of Jesus Christ | |
which God gave by His angel unto His servant John_" (Rev. i. 1). Here | |
two facts are stated: (1) The revelation is from Jesus Christ; (2) It | |
was given through a human agent--John. God gave it; man conveyed it. | |
Again: "_Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost_" | |
(2 Pet. i. 21). The Holy Ghost moved them; they spake: the speakers, | |
not the writings, were inspired. Again: "_As He spake by the mouth of | |
His holy Prophets_"[10] (St. Luke i. 70). He spake; but He spake | |
through the mouthpiece of the human agent. And once again, as the | |
Collect for the second Sunday in Advent tells us, it is the "_blessed | |
Lord Who (hast) caused all Holy Scriptures to be written_". God was | |
the initiating {35} cause of writings: man was the inspired writer. | |
Each messenger received the message, but each passed it on in his own | |
way. It was with each as it was with Haggai: "Then spake Haggai, the | |
_Lord's messenger_ in the _Lord's message_" (Haggai i. 13). The | |
message was Divine, though the messenger was human; the message was | |
infallible, though the messenger was fallible; the vessel was earthen, | |
though the contents were golden. In this unique sense, the Bible is | |
indeed "the Word of God". It is the "Word of God," delivered in the | |
words of man. | |
Thus, as Dr. Sanday puts it, the Bible is, at once, both human and | |
Divine; not less Divine because thoroughly human, and not less human | |
because essentially Divine. We need not necessarily parcel it out and | |
say such and such things are human and such and such things are Divine, | |
though there are instances in which we may do this, and the Scriptures | |
would justify us in so doing. There will be much in Holy Scripture | |
which is at once very human and very Divine. The two aspects are not | |
incompatible with each other; rather, they are intimately united. Look | |
at them in one light, and you will see the one; look at them in another | |
light, and you will see {36} the other. But the substance of that | |
which gives these different impressions is one and the same. | |
It is from no irreverence, but because of the over-towering importance | |
of the book, that the best scholars (devout, prayerful scholars, as | |
well as the reverse) have given the best of their lives to the study of | |
its text, its history, its writers, its contents. | |
Their criticism has, as we know, been classified under three heads:-- | |
(1) Lower, or _textual_ criticism. | |
(2) Higher, or _documentary_ criticism. | |
(3) Historical, or _contemporary_ criticism. | |
_Lower criticism_ seeks for, and studies, the best and purest text | |
obtainable--the text nearest to the original, from which fresh | |
translations can be made. | |
_Higher criticism_ seeks for, and studies, documents: it deals with the | |
authenticity of different books, the date at which they were written, | |
the names of their authors. | |
_Historical criticism_ seeks for, and studies, _data_ relating to the | |
history of the times when each book was written, and the light thrown | |
upon that history by recent discoveries (e.g. in archaeology, and | |
excavations in Palestine). | |
{37} | |
No very definite results have yet been reached on many points of | |
criticism, and, on many of them, scholars have had again and again to | |
reverse their conclusions. We are still only _en route_, and are | |
learning more and more to possess our souls in patience, and to wait | |
awhile for anything in the nature of finality. Meanwhile, the living | |
substance is unshaken and untouched. | |
This living substance, entrusted to living men, is the revelation of | |
God to man, and leads us to our last selected name--Revelation. | |
(V) REVELATION. | |
The Bible is the revelation of the Blessed Trinity to man--of God the | |
Son, by God the Father, through God the Holy Ghost. It is the | |
revelation of God to man, and in man. First, it reveals God _to_ | |
man--"pleased as Man with man to dwell". In it, God stands in front of | |
man, and, through the God-Man, shows him what God is like. It reveals | |
God as the "pattern on the mount," for man to copy on the plain. But | |
it does more than this: it reveals God _in_ man. So St. Paul writes: | |
"It pleased God to reveal His Son _in_ me";[11] and again, "God hath | |
{38} shined _in_ our hearts".[12] The Bible reveals to me that Jesus, | |
the revelation of the Father, through the Eternal Spirit, dwells in me, | |
as well as outside me. He is a power within, as well as a pattern | |
without. | |
Yet again. The Bible reveals God's purpose _for_ man. There is no | |
such other revelation of that purpose. You cannot deduce God's purpose | |
either in man's life, or in his twentieth century environment. It can | |
only be fully deduced from Revelation. Man may seem temporarily to | |
defeat God's purpose, to postpone its accomplishment; but Revelation | |
(and nothing but Revelation) proclaims that "the Word of the Lord | |
standeth sure," and that God's primal purpose is God's final purpose. | |
Lastly, the Bible is the revelation of a future state. Things begun | |
here will be completed there. As such, it gives man a hope on which to | |
build a belief, and a belief on which to found a hope. | |
We must believe, | |
For still we hope | |
That, in a world of larger scope, | |
What here is faithfully begun | |
Will be completed, not undone. | |
{39} | |
Thus, we may, perhaps, find in these five familiar names, brief | |
headings for leisure thoughts. In them, we see the _Scriptures_, or | |
many books, gathered together into one book called _The Book_. In this | |
book, we see the _Word of God_ delivered to men by men, and these men | |
_inspired_ by God to be the living _media_ of the _Revelation_ of God | |
to man. | |
Our next selected book will be the Church of England Prayer Book. | |
[1] Art. XX. | |
[2] The Council of Toulouse, 1229, and the Council of Trent, 1545-63. | |
[3] St. Luke x. 26, | |
[4] The first division of the Bible into _chapters_ is attributed | |
either to Cardinal Hugo, for convenience in compiling his Concordance | |
of the Vulgate (about 1240), or to Stephen Langton, Archbishop of | |
Canterbury (about 1228), to facilitate quotation. _Verses_ were | |
introduced into the New Testament by Robert Stephens, 1551. It is said | |
that he did the work on a journey from Paris to Lyons. | |
[5] Heb. i. 1, 2. | |
[6] St. John v. 39. | |
[7] St. John i. 14. | |
[8] Acts VII. | |
[9] The University Presses offer L1 1s. for every such hitherto | |
undiscovered inaccuracy brought to their notice. | |
[10] This is the Church's description of Inspiration in the Nicene | |
Creed: "Who spake by the Prophets". | |
[11] Gal. i. 15, 16. | |
[12] 2 Cor. iv. 6. | |
{40} | |
CHAPTER III. | |
THE CHURCH'S BOOKS. | |
(2) THE PRAYER BOOK. | |
We now come to the second of the Church's books selected for | |
discussion--the Prayer Book. | |
The English Prayer Book is the local presentment of the Church's | |
Liturgies for the English people. | |
Each part of the Church has its own Liturgy, differing in detail, | |
language, form; but all teaching the same faith, all based upon the | |
same rule laid down by Gregory for Augustine's guidance.[1] Thus, | |
there is the Liturgy of St. James, the Liturgy of St. John,[2] the | |
Liturgy of St. Mark, and others. A National Church is within her | |
rights when she compiles a Liturgy for National Use, provided that it | |
is in harmony with the basic Liturgies of the Undivided Church. She | |
has {41} as much right to her local "Use," with its rules and ritual, | |
as a local post office has to its own local regulations, provided it | |
does not infringe any universal rule of the General Post Office. For | |
example, a National Church has a perfect right to say in what language | |
her Liturgy shall be used. When the English Prayer Book orders her | |
Liturgy to be said in "the vulgar,"[3] or common, "tongue" of the | |
people, she is not infringing, but exercising a local right which | |
belongs to her as part of the Church Universal. This is what the | |
English Church has done in the English Prayer Book. | |
It is this Prayer Book that we are now to consider. | |
We will try to review, or get a bird's-eye view of it as a whole, | |
rather than attempt to go into detail. And, as the best reviewer is | |
the one who lets a book tell its own story, and reads the author's | |
meaning out of it rather than his own theories into it, we will let the | |
book, as far as possible, speak for itself. | |
Now, in reviewing a book, the reviewer will probably look at three | |
things: the title, the preface, the contents. | |
{42} | |
(I) THE TITLE. | |
"_The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments and | |
other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the Use of the | |
Church of England._" | |
Here are three clear statements: (1) it is "The Book of Common Prayer | |
"; (2) it is the local "directory" for the "_Administration_ of the | |
Sacraments of the Church," i.e. of the Universal Church; (3) this | |
directory is called the "Use of the Church of England". Think of each | |
statement in turn. | |
(1) _It is "The Book of Common Prayer"_.--"Common Prayer"[4] was the | |
name given to public worship in the middle of the sixteenth century. | |
The Book of Common Prayer is the volume in which the various services | |
were gathered together for common use. It is many books in one book. | |
As the Bible is one book made up of sixty-six books, so the Prayer Book | |
is one book made up of six books. These books, revised and abbreviated | |
for English "Use," were:-- | |
{43} | |
(1) The Pontifical. | |
(2) The Missal. | |
(3) The Gospels. | |
(4) The Gradual. | |
(5) The Breviary. | |
(6) The Manual. | |
Before the invention of printing, these books were written in | |
manuscript, and were too heavy to carry about bound together in one | |
volume. Each, therefore, was carried by the user separately. Thus, | |
when the Bishop, or _Pontifex_, was ordaining or confirming, he carried | |
with him a separate book containing the offices for Ordination and | |
Confirmation; and, because it contained the offices used by the Bishop, | |
or _Pontiff_, it was called the _Pontifical_. When a priest wished to | |
celebrate the Holy Eucharist, he used a separate book called "The | |
Missal" (from the Latin _Missa_, a Mass[5]). When, in the Eucharist, | |
the deacon read the Gospel for the day, he read it from a separate book | |
called "The Gospels". When he {44} went in procession to read it, the | |
choir sang scriptural phrases out of a separate book called "The | |
Gradual" (from the Latin _gradus_, a step), because they were sung in | |
_gradibus_, i.e. upon the steps of the pulpit, or rood-loft, from which | |
the Gospel was read. When the clergy said their offices at certain | |
fixed "Hours," they used a separate book called "The Breviary" (from | |
the Latin _brevis_, short), because it contained the brief, or short, | |
writings which constituted the office, out of which our English Matins | |
and Evensong were practically formed. When services for such as needed | |
Baptism, Matrimony, Unction, Burial, were required, some light book | |
that could easily be carried _in the hand_ was used, and this was | |
called "The Manual" (from the Latin _manus_, a hand). | |
These six books, written in Latin, were, in 1549, shortened, and, with | |
various alterations, translated into English, bound in one volume, | |
which is called "The Book of Common Prayer". | |
Alterations, some good and some bad, have from time to time been | |
adopted, and revisions made; but the Prayer Book is now the same in | |
substance as it always has been--a faithful reproduction, in all | |
essentials, of the worship and {45} teaching of the Undivided Church. | |
As we all know, a further revision is now contemplated. All agree that | |
it is needed; all would like to amend the Prayer Book in one direction | |
or another; but there is a sharp contention as to whether this is the | |
time for revision, and what line the revision should take. The nature | |
of the last attempted revision, in the reign of William III,[6] will | |
make the liturgical student profoundly grateful that that proposed | |
revision was rejected, and will suggest infinite caution before | |
entrusting a new revision to any but proved experts, and liturgical | |
specialists.[7] | |
Whatever changes are made, they should, at least, be based on two | |
principles--permanence and progress. The essence of progress is | |
loyalty to the past. Nothing should be touched that is a permanent | |
part of the Ancient Office Books; nothing should be omitted, or added, | |
that is outside the teaching of the Universal Church. For the | |
immediate present, we would ask that the {46} Prayer Book should be | |
left untouched, but that an Appendix, consisting of many unauthorized | |
services now in use, should be "put forth by authority," i.e. by the | |
sanction of the Bishops. | |
(2) _The Administration of the Sacraments of the Church_.--The | |
Sacraments are the treasures of the whole Church; the way in which they | |
may be "administered" is left to the decision of that part of the | |
Church in which they are administered. Take, once again, the question | |
of language. One part of the Church has as much right to administer | |
the Sacraments in English as another part has to administer them in | |
Latin, or another part in Greek. For instance, the words, "This is My | |
Body" in the English Liturgy are quite as near to the original as "_Hoc | |
est Corpus Meum_" is in the Latin Liturgy. Each Church has a right to | |
make its own regulations for its own people. | |
So with "rites and ceremonies". Provided the essence of the Sacrament | |
is not touched, the addition or omission of particular rites and | |
ceremonies does not affect the validity of the Sacrament. For, the | |
title of the Prayer Book carefully distinguishes between "The Church" | |
and "The Church of England," "the _Sacraments_" and the | |
"_administration_ of the Sacraments". It is for {47} _administrative | |
purposes_ that there is an English "Use," i.e. an English method of | |
administering the Sacraments of the Universal Church. It is this use | |
which the title-page calls:-- | |
(3) _The Use of the Church of England_.--This "Use" may vary at | |
different times, and even in different dioceses. We read of one "Use" | |
in the Diocese of York; another in the Diocese of Sarum, or Salisbury; | |
another in the Diocese of Hereford; another in the Diocese of Bangor; | |
and so on. Indeed, there were so many different Uses at one time that, | |
for the sake of unity, one Use was substituted for many; and that Use, | |
sufficient in all essentials, is found in our "Book of Common Prayer ". | |
(II) THE PREFACE. | |
It was written, in 1661, by Bishop Sanderson, and amended by the Upper | |
House of Convocation. | |
What, we ask, do these preface-writers say about the book to which they | |
gave their _imprimatur_? | |
First, they state their position. They have no intention whatever of | |
writing a new book. Their aim is to adapt old books to new needs. | |
{48} Adaptation, not invention, is their aim. Four times in their | |
short Preface they refer us to "the ancient Fathers" as their guides. | |
Next, they state their object. Two dangers, they tell us, have to be | |
avoided. In compiling a Liturgy from Ancient Sources, one danger will | |
be that of "too much stiffness in _refusing_" new matter--i.e. letting | |
a love of permanence spoil progress: another, and opposite danger, will | |
be "too much easiness in _admitting_" any variation--i.e. letting a | |
love of progress spoil permanence. They will try to avoid both | |
dangers. "It hath been the wisdom of the Church of England to keep the | |
mean between the two extremes," when either extreme runs away from the | |
"faith once delivered to the Saints ". | |
Another object they had in view was to give a prominent place to Holy | |
Scripture. "So that here," they say, "you have an Order for Prayer, | |
and for the reading of the Holy Scriptures, much agreeable to the mind | |
and purpose of _the old Fathers_." | |
Next, they deal with the principles which underlie all ritualism. In | |
speaking "of Ceremonies, why some be abolished and some {49} retained," | |
they lay it down that, "although the keeping or admitting of a | |
Ceremony, in itself considered, is but a small thing, yet the wilful | |
and contemptuous transgression and breaking of a Common Order and | |
discipline is no small offence before God". Then, in a golden | |
sentence, they add: "Whereas the minds of men are so diverse that some | |
think it a great matter of conscience to depart from a piece of the | |
least of their ceremonies, they be so addicted to their old customs; | |
and, again, on the other side, some be so new-fangled that they would | |
innovate all things, and so despise the old, that nothing can like | |
them, but that is new: it was thought expedient, not so much to have | |
respect how to please and satisfy either of these parties, as _how to | |
please God_, and profit them both". | |
Finally, whilst wishing to ease men from the oppressive burden of a | |
multitude of ceremonies, "whereof St. Augustine, in his time, | |
complained," they assert the right of each Church to make its own | |
ritual-rules (in conformity with the rules of the whole Church), | |
provided that it imposes them on no one else. "And in these our doings | |
we condemn no other nations, nor prescribe anything but to our own | |
people only; for we think it {50} convenient that every country should | |
use such ceremonies as they shall think best." | |
It is necessary to call attention to all this, because few Church | |
people seem to know anything about the intentions, objects, and | |
principles of the compilers, as stated by themselves in the Prayer Book | |
Preface. | |
(III) THE CONTENTS. | |
These a reviewer might briefly deal with under three heads--Doctrine, | |
Discipline, and Devotion. | |
_Doctrine._ | |
The importance of this cannot be exaggerated. The English Prayer Book | |
is, for the ordinary Churchman, a standard of authority when | |
theological doctors differ. The _Prayer Book_ is the Court of Appeal | |
from the pulpit--just as the Undivided Church is the final Court of | |
Appeal from the Prayer Book. Many a man is honestly puzzled and | |
worried at the charge so frequently levelled at the Church of England, | |
that one preacher flatly contradicts another, and that what is taught | |
as truth in one church is denied as heresy in another. This is, of | |
course, by no {51} means peculiar to the Church of England, but it is | |
none the less a loss to the unity of Christendom. | |
The whole mischief arises from treating the individual preacher as if | |
he were the Book of Common Prayer. It is to the Prayer Book, not to | |
the Pulpit, that we must go to prove what is taught. For instance, I | |
go into one church, and I hear one preacher deny the doctrine of | |
Baptismal Regeneration; I go into another, and I hear the same doctrine | |
taught as the very essence of The Faith. I ask, in despair, what does | |
the Church of England teach? which teacher am I to believe? What is | |
the answer? It is this. I am not bound to believe either teacher, | |
until I have tested his utterances by some authorized book. This book | |
is the Prayer Book. What does the Church of England Prayer Book--not | |
this or that preacher--say is the teaching of the Church of England? | |
In the case quoted, this is the Prayer Book answer: "Seeing now, dearly | |
beloved brethren, that _this child is regenerate_".[8] Here is | |
something clear, crisp, definite. It is the authorized expression of | |
the belief of the Church of England in common with the whole Catholic | |
Church. | |
{52} | |
Or, I hear two sermons on conversion. In one, conversion is almost | |
sneered at, or, at least, apologized for; in another, it is taught with | |
all the fervour of a personal experience. What am I to believe? What | |
does the Church of England teach about it? What does the Prayer Book | |
say? Open it at the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, or at the | |
third Collect for Good Friday, and you will hear a trumpet which gives | |
no uncertain sound. | |
Or, I am wondering and worried about Confession and Absolution. What | |
does the Church of England teach about them? One preacher says one | |
thing, one another. But what is the Church of England's authoritative | |
utterance on the subject? Open your Prayer Book, and you will see: you | |
will find that, with the rest of the Christian Church, she provides for | |
both, in public and in private, for the strong, and for the sick. | |
This, at least, is the view an honest onlooker will take of our | |
position. A common-sense Nonconformist minister, wishing to teach his | |
people and to get at facts, studies the English Prayer Book. This is | |
his conclusion: "Free Churchmen," he writes, "dissent from much of the | |
teaching of the Book of Common Prayer. In {53} the service of Baptism, | |
expressions are used which naturally lead persons to regard it as a | |
means of salvation. God is asked to 'sanctify this water to the | |
mystical washing away of sin'. After Baptism, God is thanked for | |
having 'regenerated the child with His Holy Spirit'. It is called the | |
'laver of regeneration,' by which the child, being born in sin, is | |
received into the number of God's children. In the Catechism, the | |
child is taught to say of Baptism, 'wherein I was made the child of | |
God'. It is said to be 'generally necessary to salvation,' and the | |
rubric declares that children who are baptized, and die before they | |
commit actual sin, are undoubtedly saved'."[9] What could be a fairer | |
statement of the Prayer-Book teaching? And he goes on: "In the | |
visitation of the sick, if the sick person makes a confession of his | |
sins, and 'if he heartily and humbly desire it,' the Priest is bidden | |
to absolve him. The form of Absolution is '... I absolve thee from all | |
thy sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy | |
Ghost'. In the Ordination Service, the Bishop confers the power of | |
Absolution upon the Priest." Nothing could be fairer. It is precisely | |
what the Church {54} of England _does_ teach in her authorized | |
formularies which Archbishop Cranmer gathered together from the old | |
Service-books of the ancient Church of England. | |
The pulpit passes: the Prayer Book remains. | |
_Discipline._ | |
The Prayer Book deals with principles, rather than with details--though | |
details have their place. It is a book of discipline, "as well for the | |
body as the soul". It disciplines the body for the sake of the soul; | |
it disciplines the soul for the sake of the body. Now it tightens, now | |
it relaxes, the human bow. For example, in the _Table of Feasts and | |
Fasts_, it lays down one principle which underlies all bodily and | |
spiritual discipline--the need of training to obtain self-control. The | |
_principle_ laid down is that I am to discipline myself at stated times | |
and seasons, in order that I may not be undisciplined at any times or | |
seasons. I am to rejoice as a duty on certain days, that I may live in | |
the joy of the Redeemed on other days. Feasts and Fasts have a | |
meaning, and I cannot deliberately ignore the Prayer-Book Table without | |
suffering loss. | |
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 God 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. God 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 _Mass_, 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 God. | |
{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, 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". | |
{63} | |
CHAPTER V. | |
BAPTISM. | |
Consider, What it is; | |
What it does; | |
How it does it. | |
(I) WHAT IT IS. | |
The Sacrament of Baptism is the supernatural conjunction of matter and | |
spirit--of water and the Holy Ghost. Water must be there, and spirit | |
must be there. It is by the conjunction of the two that the Baptized | |
is "born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost". | |
So the Prayer Book teaches. At the reception of a privately baptized | |
child into the Church, it is laid down that "matter" and "words" are | |
the two essentials for a valid Baptism.[1] "Because some things | |
essential to this Sacrament may happen to be omitted (and thus | |
invalidate the Sacrament), ... I demand," says the priest, {64} "with | |
what matter was this child baptized?" and "with what words was this | |
child baptized?" And because the omission of right matter or right | |
words would invalidate the Sacrament, further inquiry is made, and the | |
god-parents are asked: "by whom was this child baptized?": "who was | |
present when this child was baptized?" Additional security is taken, | |
if there is the slightest reason to question the evidence given. The | |
child is then given "Conditional Baptism," and Baptism is administered | |
with the conditional words: "If thou art not already baptized,"--for | |
Baptism cannot be repeated--"I baptize thee in the name of the Father, | |
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." So careful is the | |
Church both in administering and guarding the essentials of the | |
Sacrament. | |
And notice: nothing but the water and the words are _essential_. Other | |
things may, or may not, be edifying; they are not essential; they are | |
matters of ecclesiastical regulation, not of Divine appointment. Thus, | |
a _Priest_ is not essential to a valid Baptism, as he is for a valid | |
Eucharist. A Priest is the normal, but not the necessary, instrument | |
of Baptism. "In the absence of a {65} Priest"[2] a Deacon may baptize, | |
and if the child is _in extremis_, any one, of either sex, may baptize. | |
Again, _Sponsors_ are not essential to the validity of the Sacrament. | |
Sponsors are safeguards, not essentials. They are only a part--an | |
invaluable part--of ecclesiastical regulation. When, in times of | |
persecution, parents might be put to death, other parents were chosen | |
as parents-in-God (God-parents)[3] to safeguard the child's Christian | |
career. Sponsors are "sureties" of the Church, not parts of the | |
Sacraments. They stand at the font, as fully admitted Church members, | |
to welcome a new member into the Brotherhood. But a private Baptism | |
without Sponsors would be a valid Baptism. | |
So, too, in regard to _Ceremonial_. The mode of administering the | |
Sacrament may vary: it is not (apart from the matter and words) of the | |
essence of the Sacrament. There are, in fact, three ways in which | |
Baptism may be validly administered. It may be administered by | |
_Immersion_, _Aspersion_, or _Affusion_. | |
Immersion (_in-mergere_, to dip into) is the original and primitive | |
form of administration. {66} As the word suggests, it consists of | |
dipping the candidate into the water--river, bath, or font. | |
Aspersion (_ad spargere_, to sprinkle upon) is not a primitive form of | |
administration. It consists in sprinkling water upon the candidate's | |
forehead. | |
Affusion (_ad fundere_, to pour upon) is the allowed alternative to | |
Immersion. It consists in pouring water upon the candidate. | |
All these methods are valid. Immersion was the Apostolic method, and | |
explains most vividly the Apostolic teaching (in which the Candidate is | |
"buried with Christ" by immersion, and rises again by emersion)[4] no | |
less than the meaning of the word--from the Greek _baptizo_, to dip. | |
Provision for Immersion has been made by a Fontgrave, in Lambeth Parish | |
Church, erected in memory of Archbishop Benson, and constantly made use | |
of. But, even in Apostolic times, Baptism by "Affusion" was allowed to | |
the sick and was equally valid. In the Prayer Book, affusion is either | |
permitted (as in the Public Baptism of infants), or ordered (as in the | |
Private Baptism of infants), or, again, allowed (as in the Baptism of | |
those of riper years). It will be {67} noted that the Church of | |
England makes no allusion to "Aspersion," or the "sprinkling" form of | |
administration. The child or adult is always either to be dipped into | |
the water, or to have water poured upon it.[5] Other ceremonies there | |
are--ancient and mediaeval. Some are full of beauty, but none are | |
essential. Thus, in the first Prayer Book of 1549, a white vesture, | |
called the _Chrisome_[6] or _Chrism_, was put upon the candidate, the | |
Priest saying: "Take this white vesture for a token of innocency which, | |
by God's grace, in the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, is given unto thee". | |
It typified the white life to which the one anointed with the Chrisma, | |
or symbolical oil, was dedicated.[7] | |
{68} | |
Another ancient custom was to give the newly baptized _milk and honey_. | |
So, St. Clement of Alexandria writes: "As soon as we are born again, we | |
become entitled to the hope of rest, the promise of Jerusalem which is | |
above, where it is said to rain milk and honey". | |
_Consignation_, again, or the "signing with the sign of the cross," | |
dates from a very early period.[8] It marks the child as belonging to | |
the Good Shepherd, even as a lamb is marked with the owner's mark or | |
sign. | |
Giving salt as a symbol of wisdom (_sal sapientiae_); placing a lighted | |
taper in the child's hand, typifying the illuminating Spirit; turning | |
to the west to renounce the enemy of the Faith, and then to the east to | |
recite our belief in that Faith; striking three blows with the hand, | |
symbolical of fighting against the world, the flesh, and the devil: all | |
such ceremonies, and many more, have their due place, and mystic | |
meaning: but they are not part of the Sacrament. They are, {69} as it | |
were, scenery, beautiful scenery, round the Sacrament; frescoes on the | |
walls; the "beauty of holiness"; "lily-work upon the top of the | |
pillars";[9] the handmaids of the Sacrament, but not essential to the | |
Sacrament. To deny that the Church of England rightly and duly | |
administers the Sacrament because she omits any one of these | |
ceremonies, is to confuse the picture with the frame, the jewel with | |
its setting, the beautiful with the essential.[10] | |
We may deplore the loss of this or that Ceremony, but a National Church | |
exercises her undoubted right in saying at any particular period of her | |
history how the Sacrament is to be administered, provided the | |
essentials of the Sacrament are left untouched. The Church Universal | |
decides, once for all, what is essential: {70} the National Church | |
decides how best to secure and safeguard these essentials for her own | |
_Use_. | |
(II) WHAT IT DOES. | |
According to the Scriptures, "_Baptism doth now save us_".[11] As God | |
did "save Noah and his family in the Ark from perishing by water," so | |
does God save the human family from perishing by sin. As Noah and his | |
family could, by an act of free will, have opened a window in the Ark, | |
and have leapt into the waters, and frustrated God's purpose after they | |
had been saved, so can any member of the human family, after it has | |
been taken into the "Ark of Christ's Church," frustrate God's "good | |
will towards" it, and wilfully leap out of its saving shelter. Baptism | |
is "a beginning," not an end.[12] It puts us into a state of | |
Salvation. It starts us in the way of Salvation. St. Cyprian says | |
that in Baptism "we start crowned," and St. John says: "Hold fast that | |
which thou hast that no man take thy crown".[13] Baptism is the | |
Sacrament of initiation, not of finality. Directly the child is | |
baptized, we pray that he "may lead the rest of his life according {71} | |
to _this beginning_," and we heartily thank God for having, in Baptism, | |
called us into a state of Salvation. In this sense, "Baptism doth save | |
us". | |
But what does it save us from? Sin. In the Nicene Creed we say: "I | |
believe in one Baptism for the remission of _sins_". Baptism saves us | |
from our sins. | |
In the case of infants, Baptism saves from original, or inherited, | |
sin--the sin whose origin can be traced to the Fall. In the case of | |
adults, Baptism saves from both original and actual sin, both birth sin | |
and life sin. | |
The Prayer Book is as explicit as the Bible on this point. In the case | |
of infants, we pray: | |
"We call upon Thee for this infant, that he, _coming to Thy Holy | |
Baptism_, may receive remission of his sins"--before, i.e., the child | |
has, by free will choice, committed actual sin. In the case of adults, | |
we read: "Well-beloved, who are come hither desiring _to receive Holy | |
Baptism_, ye have heard how the congregation hath prayed, that our Lord | |
Jesus Christ would vouchsafe to ... _release you of your sins_". And, | |
again, dealing with infants, the Rubric at the end of the "Public | |
Baptism of Infants" declares that "It is certain, by God's Word, that | |
children _who are {72} baptized_, dying before they commit _actual | |
sin_, are undoubtedly saved". | |
In affirming this, the Church does not condemn all the unbaptized, | |
infants or adults, to everlasting perdition, as the teaching of some | |
is. Every affirmation does not necessarily involve its opposite | |
negation. It was thousands of years before any souls at all were | |
baptized on earth, and even now, few[14] in comparison with the total | |
population of the civilized and uncivilized world, have been baptized. | |
The Church nowhere assumes the self-imposed burden of legislation for | |
these, or limits their chance of salvation to the Church Militant. | |
What she does do, is to proclaim her unswerving belief in "one Baptism | |
for the remission of sins"; and her unfailing faith in God's promises | |
to those who _are_ baptized--"which promise, He, for His part, will | |
most surely keep and perform". On this point, she speaks with nothing | |
short of "undoubted certainty"; on the other point, she is silent. She | |
does not condemn an infant because no responsible person has brought it | |
to Baptism, though she does condemn the person for not bringing it. | |
She does not limit {73} the power of grace to souls in this life only, | |
but she does offer grace in this world, which may land the soul safely | |
in the world to come. | |
One other thing Baptism does. Making the child a member of Christ, it | |
gives it a "Christ-ian" name. | |
_The Christian Name_. | |
This Christian, or fore-name as it was called, is the real name. It | |
antedates the surname by many centuries, surnames being unknown in | |
England before the Norman invasion. The Christian name is the | |
Christ-name. It cannot, by any known legal method, be changed. | |
Surnames may be changed in various legal ways: not so the Christian | |
name.[15] This was more apparent when the baptized were given only one | |
Christian name, for it was not until the eighteenth century that a | |
second or third name was added, and then only on grounds of convenience. | |
Again, according to the law of England, the only legal way in which a | |
Christian name can be given, is by Baptism. Thus, if a child has been | |
registered in one name, and is afterwards baptized {74} in another, the | |
Baptismal, and not the registered, name is its legal name, even if the | |
registered name was given first. | |
It is strange that, in view of all this, peers should drop their | |
Christian names, i.e. their real names, their Baptismal names. The | |
custom, apparently, dates only from the Stuart period, and is not easy | |
to account for. It would seem to suggest a distinct loss. The same | |
loss, if it be a loss, is incurred by the Town Clerk of London, who | |
omits his Christian name in signing official documents.[16] The King, | |
more happily, retains his Baptismal or Christian name, and has no | |
surname.[17] Bishops sign themselves by both their {75} Christian and | |
official name, as "Randall Cantuar; Cosmo Ebor.; A. F. London; H. E. | |
Winton; F. Oxon.". | |
We may consider three words, both helps and puzzles, used in connexion | |
with Holy Baptism: _Regeneration, Adoption, Election_. Each has its | |
own separate teaching, though there are points at which their meanings | |
run into each other. | |
_Regeneration_. | |
"We yield Thee hearty thanks that it hath pleased Thee to regenerate | |
this infant." So runs the Prayer-Book thanksgiving after baptism. | |
What does it mean? The word regeneration comes from two Latin words, | |
_re_, again, _generare_, to generate, and means exactly what it says. | |
In Prayer-Book language, it means being "_born again_". And, notice, | |
it refers to infants as well {76} as to adults. The new birth is as | |
independent of the child's choice as the natural birth. | |
And this is just what we should expect from a God of love. The child | |
is not consulted about his first birth, neither is he consulted about | |
his second birth. He does not wait (as the Baptists teach) until he is | |
old enough to make a free choice of second birth, but as soon as he is | |
born into the world ("within seven or fourteen days," the Prayer Book | |
orders) he is reborn into the Church. Grace does not let nature get | |
ten to twenty years' start, but gives the soul a fair chance from the | |
very first: and so, and only so, is a God of love "justified in His | |
saying, and clear when He is judged". | |
_Adoption_. | |
But there is a second word. The Baptismal Thanksgiving calls the | |
Baptized "God's own child by Adoption". A simple illustration will | |
best explain the word. When a man is "naturalized," he speaks of his | |
new country as the land of his _adoption_. If a Frenchman becomes a | |
naturalized Englishman, he ceases legally to be a Frenchman; ceases to | |
be under French law; ceases to serve in the French army. He {77} | |
becomes legally an Englishman; he is under English law; serves in the | |
English army; has all the privileges and obligations of a "new-born" | |
Englishman. He may turn out to be a bad Englishman, a traitor to his | |
adopted country; he may even hanker after his old life as a | |
Frenchman--but he has left one kingdom for another, and, good, bad, or | |
indifferent, he is a subject of his new King; he is a son of his | |
adopted country. He cannot belong to two kingdoms, serve under two | |
kings, live under two sets of laws, at the same time. | |
It is so with the Baptized. He has been "adopted" into a new kingdom. | |
He is a subject of "the Kingdom of Heaven". But he cannot belong to | |
two kingdoms at the same time. His "death unto sin" involves a "new | |
birth (regeneration) unto righteousness". He ceases to be a member of | |
the old kingdom, to serve under the sway of the old king, to be a | |
"child of wrath". He renounces all allegiance to Satan; he becomes | |
God's own child by "adoption". He may be a good, bad, or indifferent | |
child; he may be a lost child, but he does not cease to be God's child. | |
Rather, it is just because he is still God's child that there is hope | |
for him. It is because he is {78} the child of God by adoption that | |
the "spirit of adoption" within him can still cry, "Abba, Father," that | |
he can still claim the privilege of his adopted country, and "pardon | |
through the Precious Blood". True, he has obligations and | |
responsibilities, as well as privileges, and these we shall see under | |
the next word, Election. | |
_Election_. | |
The Catechism calls the Baptized "the elect people of God," and the | |
Baptismal Service asks that the child may by Baptism be "taken into the | |
number of God's elect children". What does it mean? The word itself | |
comes from two Latin words, _e_, or _ex_, out; and _lego_, to choose. | |
The "elect," then, are those chosen out from others. It sounds like | |
favouritism; it reads like "privileged classes"--and so it is. But the | |
privilege of election is the privilege of service. It is like the | |
privilege of a Member of Parliament, the favoured candidate--the | |
privilege of being elected to serve others. Every election is for the | |
sake of somebody else. The Member of Parliament is elected for the | |
sake of his constituents; the Town Councillor is elected for the sake | |
of his fellow-townsmen; the Governor is elected for the sake of the | |
{79} governed. It is so with spiritual elections. The Jews were | |
"elect"; but it was for the sake of the Gentiles--"that the Gentiles, | |
through them, might be brought in". The Blessed Virgin was "elect"; | |
but it was that "all generations might call her blessed". The Church | |
is "elect," but it is for the sake of the world,--that it, too, might | |
be "brought in". No election ends with itself. The Baptized are | |
"elect," but not for their own sakes; not to be a privileged class, | |
save to enjoy the privilege of bringing others in. They are "chosen | |
out" of the world for the sake of those left in the world. This is | |
their obligation; it is the law of their adopted country, the kingdom | |
into which they have, "by spiritual regeneration," been "born again". | |
All this, and much more, Baptism does. How does it do it? | |
(III) HOW DOES IT DO IT? | |
This new Birth! How is it accomplished? Nobody knows. How Baptism | |
causes all that it effects, is as yet unrevealed. The Holy Ghost moves | |
upon the face of the waters, but His operation is overshadowed. Here, | |
we are in the realm of faith. Faith is belief in that which is out of | |
{80} sight. It is belief in the unseen, not in the non-existent. We | |
hope for that we see not.[18] The _mode_ of the operation of the Holy | |
Ghost in Baptism is hidden: the result alone is revealed. In this, as | |
in many another mystery, "We wait for light".[19] | |
[1] See Service for the "Private Baptism of Children". | |
[2] Service for the Ordination of Deacons. | |
[3] From an old word, Gossip or _Godsib_, i.e. God relation. | |
[4] Cf. Rom. vi. 4; Eph. v. 26. | |
[5] _Trine_ Immersion, i.e. dipping the candidate thrice, or thrice | |
pouring water upon him, dates from the earliest ages, but exceptional | |
cases have occurred where a single immersion has been held valid. | |
[6] From _Chrisma_, sacred oil--first the oil with which a child was | |
anointed at Baptism, and then the robe with which the child was covered | |
after Baptism and Unction, and hence the child itself was called a | |
_Chrisome-child_, i.e. a child wearing the Chrisome robe. | |
[7] In the 1549 Prayer Book, the Prayer at the Anointing in the | |
Baptismal Service ran: "Almighty God, Who hath regenerated thee by | |
water and the Holy Ghost, and hath given unto thee the remission of all | |
thy sins, He vouchsafe to anoint thee with the Unction of His Holy | |
Spirit, and bring thee to the inheritance of everlasting life. _Amen_." | |
[8] St. Jerome, writing in the second century, says of the Baptized, | |
that he "bore on his forehead the banner of the Cross". | |
[9] 1 Kings vii. 22. | |
[10] It is a real loss to use the Service for the Public Baptism of | |
Infants as a private office, as is generally done now. The doctrinal | |
teaching; the naming of the child; the signing with the cross; the | |
response of, and the address to, the God-parents--all these would be | |
helpful reminders to a congregation, if the service sometimes came, as | |
the Rubric orders, after the second lesson, and might rekindle the | |
Baptismal and Confirmation fire once lighted, but so often allowed to | |
die down, or flicker out. | |
[11] 1 Pet. iii. 21. | |
[12] Baptismal Service. | |
[13] Rev. iii. 11. | |
[14] Not more, it is estimated, than two or three out of every eight | |
have been baptized. | |
[15] I may take an _additional_ Christian name at my Confirmation, but | |
I cannot change the old one. | |
[16] The present Town Clerk of London has kindly informed me that the | |
earliest example he has found dates from 1418, when the name of John | |
Carpenter, Town Clerk, the well-known executor of Whittington, is | |
appended to a document, the Christian name being omitted. | |
[17] The following letter from Mr. Ambrose Lee of the Heralds' College | |
may interest some. "... Surname, in the ordinary sense of the word, | |
the King has none. He--as was his grandmother, Queen Victoria, as well | |
as her husband, Prince Albert--is descended from Witikind, who was the | |
last of a long line of continental Saxon kings or rulers. Witikind was | |
defeated by Charlemagne, became a Christian, and was created Duke of | |
Saxony. He had a second son, who was Count of Wettin, but clear and | |
well-defined and authenticated genealogies do not exist from which may | |
be formulated any theory establishing, by right or custom, _any_ | |
surname, in the ordinary accepted sense of the word, for the various | |
families who are descended in the male line from this Count of | |
Wettin.... And, by-the-by, it must not be forgotten that the earliest | |
Guelphs were merely princes whose baptismal name was Guelph, as the | |
baptismal name of our Hanoverian Kings was George." | |
[18] Rom. viii. 25. | |
[19] Is. lix. 9. | |
{81} | |
CHAPTER VI. | |
THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. | |
The Blessed Sacrament!--or, as the Prayer Book calls it, "The Holy | |
Sacrament". This title seems to sum up all the other titles by which | |
the chief service in the Church is known. These are many. For | |
instance:-- | |
_The Liturgy_, from the Greek _Leitourgia_,[1] a public service. | |
_The Mass_, from the Latin _Missa_, dismissal--the word used in the | |
Latin Liturgy when the people are dismissed,[2] and afterwards applied | |
to the service itself from which they are dismissed. | |
_The Eucharist_, from the Greek _Eucharistia_, thanksgiving--the word | |
used in all the narratives {82} of Institution,[3] and, technically, | |
the third part of the Eucharistic Service. | |
_The Breaking of the Bread_, one of the earliest names for the | |
Sacrament (Acts ii. 42, 1 Cor. x. 16). | |
_The Holy Sacrifice_, which Christ once offered, and is ever offering. | |
_The Lord's Supper_ (1 Cor. xii. 10), a name perhaps originally used | |
for the _Agape_, or love feast, which preceded the Eucharist, and then | |
given to the Eucharist itself. It is an old English name, used in the | |
story of St. Anselm's last days, where it is said: "He passed away as | |
morning was breaking on the Wednesday before _the day of our Lord's | |
Supper_". | |
_The Holy Communion_ (1 Cor. x. 16), in which our baptismal union with | |
Christ is consummated, and which forms a means of union between souls | |
in the Church Triumphant, at Rest, and on Earth. In it, Christ, God | |
and Man, is the bond of oneness. | |
All these, and other aspects of the Sacrament, are comprehended and | |
gathered up in the name which marks its supremacy,--The Blessed | |
Sacrament. | |
{83} | |
Consider: What it is; | |
What it does; | |
How it does it. | |
(I) WHAT IT IS. | |
It is the supernatural conjunction of matter and spirit, of Bread and | |
Wine and of the Holy Ghost. Here, as in Baptism, the "inward and | |
spiritual" expresses itself through the "outward and visible". Both | |
must be there. And, notice again. This conjunction is not a | |
_physical_ conjunction, according to physical laws; nor is it a | |
spiritual conjunction, according to spiritual laws; it is a Sacramental | |
conjunction, according to Sacramental laws. As in Baptism, so in the | |
Blessed Sacrament: the "outward and visible" is, and remains, subject | |
to natural laws, and the inward and spiritual to spiritual laws; but | |
the Sacrament itself is under neither natural nor spiritual but | |
Sacramental laws. | |
For a perfect Sacrament requires both matter and spirit.[4] If either | |
is absent, the Sacrament is incomplete. | |
Thus, the Council of Trent's definition of {84} _Transubstantiation_[5] | |
seems, as it stands, to spoil the very nature of a Sacrament. It is | |
the "change of the whole substance of the bread into the Body, of the | |
whole substance of the wine into the blood of Christ, _only the | |
appearance_ of bread and wine remaining". | |
Again, the Lutheran doctrine of Consubstantiation destroys the nature | |
of the Sacrament. The Lutheran _Formula Concordiae_, e.g., teaches | |
that "_outside the use the Body of Christ is not present_". Thus it | |
limits the Presence to the reception, whether by good or bad. | |
The _Figurative_ view of the Blessed Sacrament {85} destroys the nature | |
of a Sacrament, making the matter symbolize something which is not | |
there. | |
It is safer to take the words of consecration as they stand, | |
corresponding as they do so literally with the words of Institution, | |
and simply to say: "This (bread: it is still bread) is My Body" (it is | |
far more than bread); "this (wine: it is still wine) is My Blood" (it | |
is far more than wine). Can we get beyond this, in terms and | |
definitions? Can we say more than that it is a "Sacrament"--The | |
Blessed Sacrament? And after all, do we wish to do so? | |
(II) WHAT IT DOES. | |
Briefly, the Blessed Sacrament does two things; It pleads, and It | |
feeds. It is the pleading _of_ the one Sacrifice; It is the feeding | |
_on_ the one Sacrifice. | |
These two aspects of the one Sacrament are suggested in the two names, | |
_Altar_ and _Table_.[6] Both words are liturgical. In Western | |
Liturgies, _Altar_ is the rule, and _Table_ the exception; in Eastern | |
Liturgies, _Table_ is the rule, and _Altar_ {86} the exception. Both | |
are, perhaps, embodied in the old name, _God's Board_, of Thomas | |
Aquinas. Both contain a truth. | |
_The Altar_. | |
This, for over 300 years, was the common name for what St. Irenaeus | |
calls "the Abode of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ". Convocation, | |
in 1640, decreed: "It is, and may be called, an Altar in that sense in | |
which the Primitive Church called it an Altar, and in no other". This | |
sense referred to the offering of what the Liturgy of St. James calls | |
"the tremendous and unbloody Sacrifice," the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom | |
"the reasonable and unbloody Sacrifice,"[7] and the Ancient English | |
Liturgy "a pure offering, an holy offering, an undefiled offering, even | |
the holy Bread of eternal Life, and the Cup of everlasting Salvation ". | |
The word Altar, then, tells of the pleading of the Sacrifice of Jesus | |
Christ. In the words of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to Leo | |
XIII: "We plead and represent before the Father the Sacrifice of the | |
Cross"; or in the words of Charles Wesley: "To God it is an {87} Altar | |
whereon men mystically present unto Him the same Sacrifice, as still | |
suing for mercy"; or, in the words of Isaac Barrow: "Our Lord hath | |
offered a well-pleasing Sacrifice for our sins, and doth, at God's | |
right hand, continually renew it by presenting it unto God, and | |
interceding with Him for the effect thereof". | |
The Sacrifice does not, of course, consist in the re-slaying of the | |
Lamb, but in the offering of the Lamb as it had been slain. It is not | |
the repetition of the Atonement, but the representation of the | |
Atonement.[8] We offer on the earthly Altar the same Sacrifice that is | |
being perpetually offered on the Heavenly Altar. There is only one | |
Altar, only one Sacrifice, one Eucharist--"one offering, single and | |
complete". All the combined earthly Altars are but one Altar--the | |
earthly or visible part of the Heavenly Altar on which He, both Priest | |
and Victim, offers Himself as the Lamb "as it had been slain". The | |
Heavenly Altar is, as it were, the centre, and all the earthly Altars | |
the circumference. We gaze at the Heavenly Altar through the Earthly | |
Altars. We plead what He pleads; we offer what He offers. | |
{88} | |
Thus the Church, with exultation, | |
Till her Lord returns again, | |
Shows His Death; His mediation | |
Validates her worship then, | |
Pleading the Divine Oblation | |
Offered on the Cross for men. | |
And we must remember that in this offering the whole Three Persons in | |
the Blessed Trinity are at work. We must not in our worship so | |
concentrate our attention upon the Second Person, as to exclude the | |
other Persons from our thoughts. Indeed, if one Person is more | |
prominent than another, it is God the Father. It is to God the Father | |
that the Sacrifice ascends; it is with Him that we plead on earth that | |
which God the Son is pleading in Heaven; it is God the Holy Ghost Who | |
makes our pleadings possible, Who turns the many Jewish Altars into the | |
one Christian Altar. The _Gloria in Excelsis_ bids us render worship | |
to all three Persons engaged in this single act. | |
_The Table_. | |
The second aspect under consideration is suggested by the word | |
_Table_--the "Holy Table," as St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Athanasius | |
call it; "the tremendous Table," or the "Mystic {89} Table," as St. | |
Chrysostom calls it; "the Lord's Table," or "this Thy Table," as, | |
following the Easterns, our Prayer Book calls it. | |
This term emphasizes the Feast-aspect, as "Altar" underlines the | |
Sacrificial aspect, of the Sacrament. In the "Lord's Supper" we feast | |
upon the Sacrifice which has already been offered upon the Altar. | |
"This Thy Table," tells of the Banquet of the Lamb. As St. Thomas puts | |
it:-- | |
He gave Himself in either kind, | |
His precious Flesh, His precious Blood: | |
In Love's own fullness thus designed | |
Of the whole man to be the Food. | |
Or, as Dr. Doddridge puts it, in his Sacramental Ave:-- | |
Hail! Sacred Feast, which Jesus makes! | |
Rich Banquet of His Flesh and Blood! | |
Thrice happy he, who here partakes | |
That Sacred Stream, that Heavenly Food. | |
This is the Prayer-Book aspect, which deals with the "_Administration_ | |
of the Lord's Supper"; which bids us "feed upon Him (not it) in our | |
hearts by faith," and not by sight; which speaks of the elements as | |
God's "creatures of Bread and Wine"; which prays, in language of awful | |
solemnity, that we may worthily "eat His Flesh {90} and drink His | |
Blood". This is the aspect which speaks of the "means whereby" Christ | |
communicates Himself to us, implants within us His character, His | |
virtues, His will;--makes us one with Him, and Himself one with us. By | |
Sacramental Communion, we "dwell in Him, and He in us"; and this, not | |
merely as a lovely sentiment, or by means of some beautiful meditation, | |
but by the real communion of Christ--present without us, and | |
communicated to us, through the ordained channels. | |
Hence, in the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus is for ever counteracting within | |
us the effects of the Fall. If the first Adam ruined us through food, | |
the second Adam will reinstate us through food--and that food nothing | |
less than Himself. "Feed upon _Him_." But how is all this brought | |
about? | |
(III) HOW IT DOES IT. | |
Once again, nobody knows. The Holy Ghost is the operative power, but | |
the operation is overshadowed as by the wings of the Dove. It is | |
enough for us to know what is done, without questioning as to how it is | |
done. It is enough for us to worship Him in what He does, without {91} | |
straining to know how He does it--being fully persuaded that, what He | |
has promised, He is able also to perform.[9] Here, again, we are in | |
the region of faith, not sight; and reason tells us that faith must be | |
supreme in its own province. For us, it is enough to say with Queen | |
Elizabeth:-- | |
_He was the Word that spake it;_ | |
_He took the bread and break it;_ | |
_And what that Word did make it,_ | |
_I do believe and take it._[10] | |
[1] _Leitos_, public, _ergon_, work. | |
[2] Either when the service is over, or when those not admissible to | |
Communion are dismissed. The "Masses" condemned in the thirty-first | |
Article involved the heresy that Christ was therein offered again by | |
the Mass Priest to buy souls out of Purgatory at so much per Mass. | |
[3] E.g. St. Luke xxii. 17. "He took the cup, and eucharized," i.e. | |
gave thanks. | |
[4] _Accedit verium ad elementum, et fit Sacramentum_ (St. Augustine). | |
[5] This definition is really given up now by the best Roman Catholic | |
theologians. The theory on which Transubstantiation alone is based | |
(viz. that "substance" is something which exists apart from the | |
totality of the accidents whereby it is known to us), has now been | |
generally abandoned. Now, it is universally allowed that "substance is | |
only a collective name for the sum of all the qualities of matter, | |
size, colour, weight, taste, and so forth". But, as all these | |
qualities of bread and wine admittedly remain after consecration, the | |
substance of the bread and wine must remain too. | |
The doctrine of Transubstantiation condemned in Article 22, was that of | |
a material Transubstantiation which taught (and was taught _ex | |
Cathedra_ by Pope Nicholas II) that Christ's Body was sensibly touched | |
and broken by the teeth. | |
[6] "The Altar has respect unto the oblation, the Table to the | |
participation" (Bishop Cosin). | |
[7] Cf. Jeremy Taylor's "Holy Living," chap. iv. s. 10. | |
[8] Cf. Bright's "Ancient Collects," p. 144. | |
[9] Rom. iv. 21. | |
[10] "These lines," says Malcolm MacColl in his book on "The | |
Reformation Settlement" (p. 34), "have sometimes been attributed to | |
Donne; but the balance of evidence is in favour of their Elizabethan | |
authorship when the Queen was in confinement as Princess Elizabeth. | |
They are not in the first edition of Donne, and were published for the | |
first time as his in 1634, thirteen years after his death." | |
{92} | |
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 classified in three groups:-- | |
(I) _The Sacrament of Completion_ (Confirmation, which completes the | |
Sacrament of Baptism). | |
{93} | |
(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. | |
{94} | |
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, | |
assures 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 God 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 God's gift to the child | |
bestowed through the Bishop in accordance with the teaching given to | |
{96} the God-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. God's love overflows its channels; what | |
God 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 assist 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 assent 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 assuredly 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 asserts 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 | |
Title 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 assured 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". | |
{103} | |
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. | |
For instance, Confirmation is called _The Anointing_,[9] and _The | |
Sealing_, and in some parts of the Church, the Priest dips his finger | |
in oil blessed by the Bishop, and signs or seals the child upon the | |
forehead with the sign of the Cross, thus symbolizing the meaning of | |
such names. But neither the sealing, nor the anointing, is necessary | |
for a valid Sacrament. | |
Confirmation, then, "rightly and duly" administered, completes the | |
grace given to a child at the outset of its Christian career. It | |
admits the child to full membership and to full privileges in the | |
Christian Church. It is the ordained Channel by which the Bishop is | |
commissioned to convey and guarantee the special grace attached {105} | |
to, and only to, the Lesser Sacrament of Confirmation.[10] | |
[1] "Ratifying and _confirming_ the same in your own persons." | |
[2] The word was "confess" in 1549. | |
[3] The Greek Catechism of Plato, Metropolitan of Moscow, puts it very | |
clearly: "Through this holy Ordinance _the Holy Ghost descendeth upon | |
the person Baptized_, and confirmeth him in the grace which he received | |
in his Baptism according to the example of His descending upon the | |
disciples of Jesus Christ, and in imitation of the disciples | |
themselves, who after Baptism laid their hands upon the believers; by | |
which laying on of hands the Holy Ghost was conferred". | |
[4] 1 St. Peter ii. 9. | |
[5] Minutes of Wesleyan Conference, 1889, p. 412. | |
[6] In the first ages, and, indeed, until the fifteenth century, | |
Confirmation followed immediately after Baptism, both in East and West, | |
as it still does in the East. | |
[7] Is. vii. 16. | |
[8] Acts viii. 12-17; Acts xix. 5, 6. | |
[9] In an old seventh century Service, used in the Church of England | |
down to the Reformation, the Priest is directed: "Here he is to put the | |
Chrism (oil) on the forehead of the man, and say, 'Receive the sign of | |
the Holy Cross, by the Chrism of Salvation in Jesus Christ unto Eternal | |
Life. Amen.'" | |
[10] The teaching of our Church of England, passing on the teaching of | |
the Church Universal, is very happily summed up in an ancient Homily of | |
the Church of England. It runs thus: "In Baptism the Christian was | |
born again spiritually, to live; in Confirmation he is made bold to | |
fight. There he received remission of sin; here he receiveth increase | |
of grace.... In Baptism he was chosen to be God's son; in Confirmation | |
God shall give him His Holy Spirit to ... perfect him. In Baptism he | |
was called and chosen to be one of God's soldiers, and had his white | |
coat of innocency given him, and also his badge, which was the red | |
cross set upon his forehead...; in Confirmation he is encouraged to | |
fight, and to take the armour of God put upon him, which be able to | |
bear off the fiery darts of the devil." | |
{106} | |
CHAPTER IX. | |
HOLY MATRIMONY. | |
We have called Holy Matrimony the "_Sacrament of Perpetuation_," for it | |
is the ordained way in which the human race is to be perpetuated. | |
Matrimony is the legal union between two persons,--a union which is | |
created by mutual consent: Holy Matrimony is that union sanctioned and | |
sanctified by the Church. | |
There are three familiar names given to this union: Matrimony, | |
Marriage, Wedlock. | |
Matrimony, derived from _mater_, a mother, tells of the woman's (i.e. | |
wife-man's) "joy that a man is born into the world". Marriage, derived | |
from _maritus_, a husband (or house-dweller[1]), tells of the man's | |
place in the "hus" or house. Wedlock, derived from _weddian_, a | |
pledge, reminds both man and woman of the life-long pledge which each | |
has made "either to other". | |
{107} | |
It is this Sacrament of Matrimony, Marriage, or Wedlock, that we are | |
now to consider. We will think of it under four headings:-- | |
(I) What is it for? | |
(II) What is its essence? | |
(III) Whom is it for? | |
(IV) What are its safeguards? | |
(I) WHAT IS IT FOR? | |
Marriage is, as we have seen, God's method of propagating the human | |
race. It does this in two ways--by expansion, and by limitation. This | |
is seen in the New Testament ordinance, "one man for one woman". It | |
expands the race, but within due and disciplined limitations. | |
Expansion, without limitation, would produce quantity without quality, | |
and would wreck the human race; limitation without expansion might | |
produce quality without quantity, but would extinguish the human race. | |
Like every other gift of God, marriage is to be treated "soberly, | |
wisely, discretely," and, like every other gift, it must be used with a | |
due combination of freedom and restraint. | |
Hence, among other reasons, the marriage union between one man and one | |
woman is {108} indissoluble. For marriage is not a mere union of | |
sentiment; it is not a mere terminable contract between two persons, | |
who have agreed to live together as long as they suit each other. It | |
is an _organic_ not an emotional union; "They twain shall be one | |
flesh," which nothing but death can divide. No law in Church or State | |
can unmarry the legally married. A State may _declare_ the | |
non-existence of the marriage union, just as it may _declare_ the | |
non-existence of God: but such a declaration does not affect the fact, | |
either in one case or the other. | |
In England the State does, in certain cases, declare that the life-long | |
union is a temporary contract, and does permit "this man" or "this | |
woman" to live with another man, or with another woman, and, if they | |
choose, even to exchange husbands or wives. This is allowed by the | |
Divorce Act of 1857,[2] "when," writes Bishop Stubbs, "the calamitous | |
legislation of 1857 inflicted on English Society and English morals | |
{109} the most cruel blow that any conjunction of unrighteous influence | |
could possibly have contrived".[3] | |
The Church has made no such declaration. It rigidly forbids a husband | |
or wife to marry again during the lifetime of either party. The Law of | |
the Church remains the Law of the Church, overridden--but not repealed. | |
This has led to a conflict between Church and State in a country where | |
they are, in theory though not in fact, united. But this is the fault | |
of the State, not of the Church. It is a case in which a junior | |
partner has acted without the consent of, or rather in direct | |
opposition to, the senior partner. Historically and chronologically | |
speaking, the Church (the senior partner) took the State (the junior | |
partner) into partnership, and the State, in spite of all the benefits | |
it has received from the Church, has taken all it could get, and has | |
thrown the Church over to legalize sin. It has ignored its senior | |
partner, and loosened the old historical bond between the two. This | |
the Church cannot help, and this the State fully admits, legally | |
absolving the Church from taking any part in its mock re-marriages. | |
{110} | |
(II) WHAT IS ITS ESSENCE? | |
The essence of matrimony is "mutual consent". The essential part of | |
the Sacrament consists in the words: "I, M., take thee, N.," etc. | |
Nothing else is essential, though much else is desirable. Thus, | |
marriage in a church, however historical and desirable, is not | |
_essential_ to the validity of a marriage. Marriage at a Registry | |
Office (i.e. mutual consent in the presence of the Registrar) is every | |
bit as legally indissoluble as marriage in a church. The not uncommon | |
argument: "I was only married in a Registry Office, and can therefore | |
take advantage of the Divorce Act," is fallacious _ab initio_.[4] | |
Why, then, be married in, and by the Church? Apart from the history | |
and sentiment, for this reason. The Church is the ordained channel | |
through which grace to keep the marriage vow is bestowed. A special | |
and _guaranteed_ grace is {111} attached to a marriage sanctioned and | |
blest by the Church. The Church, in the name of God, "consecrates | |
matrimony," and from the earliest times has given its sanction and | |
blessing to the mutual consent. We are reminded of this in the | |
question: "Who _giveth_ this woman to be married to this man?" In | |
answer to the question, the Parent, or Guardian, presents the Bride to | |
the Priest (the Church's representative), who, in turn, presents her to | |
the Bridegroom, and blesses their union. In the Primitive Church, | |
notice of marriage had to be given to the Bishop of the Diocese, or his | |
representative,[5] in order that due inquiries might be made as to the | |
fitness of the persons, and the Church's sanction given or withheld. | |
After this notice, a special service of _Betrothal_ (as well as the | |
actual marriage service) was solemnized. | |
These two separate services are still marked off from each other in | |
(though both forming a part of) our present marriage service. The | |
first part of the service is held outside the chancel gates, and | |
corresponds to the old service of _Betrothal_. Here, too, the actual | |
ceremony of "mutual consent" now takes place--that part of {112} the | |
ceremony which would be equally valid in a Registry Office. Then | |
follows the second part of the service, in which the Church gives her | |
blessing upon the marriage. And because this part is, properly | |
speaking, part of the Eucharistic Office, the Bride and Bridegroom now | |
go to the Altar with the Priest, and there receive the Church's | |
Benediction, and--ideally--their first Communion after marriage. So | |
does the Church provide grace for her children that they may "perform | |
the vows they have made unto the King". The late hour for modern | |
weddings, and the consequent postponement[6] of Communion, has obscured | |
much of the meaning of the service; but a nine o'clock wedding, in | |
which the married couple receive the Holy Communion, followed by the | |
wedding breakfast, is, happily, becoming more common, and is restoring | |
to us one of the best of old English customs. It is easy enough to | |
slight old religious forms and ceremonies; but is anyone one atom | |
better, or happier for having neglected them? | |
{113} | |
(III) WHOM IS IT FOR? | |
Marriage is for three classes:-- | |
(1) The unmarried--i.e. those who have never been married, or whose | |
marriage is (legally) dissolved by death. | |
(2) The non-related--i.e. either by consanguinity (by blood), or | |
affinity (by marriage). | |
(3) The full-aged. | |
(1) _The Unmarried_. | |
Obviously, marriage is only for the unmarried. But, is not this very | |
hard upon those whose marriage has been a mistake, and who have been | |
divorced by the State? And, above all, is it not very hard upon the | |
innocent party, who has been granted a divorce? It is very hard, so | |
hard, so terribly hard, that only those who have to deal personally, | |
and practically, with concrete cases, can guess how hard--hard enough | |
often on the guilty party, and harder still on the innocent. "God | |
knows" it is hard, and will make it as easy as God Himself can make it, | |
if only self-surrender is placed before self-indulgence. But the | |
alternative is still harder. We sometimes forget that legislation for | |
the individual may bear even harder {114} on the masses, than | |
legislation for the masses may bear upon the individual. And, after | |
all, this is not a question of "hard _versus_ easy," but of "right | |
_versus_ wrong". Moreover, as we are finding out, that which seems | |
easiest at the moment, often turns out hardest in the long run. It is | |
no longer contended that re-marriage after a State-divorce is that | |
universal Elysium which it has always been confidently assumed to be. | |
There is, too, a positively absurd side to the present conflict between | |
Church and State. Here is a case in point. Some time ago, a young | |
girl married a man about whom she knew next to nothing, the man telling | |
her that marriage was only a temporary affair, and that, if it did not | |
answer, the State would divorce them. It did not answer. Wrong-doing | |
ensued, and a divorce was obtained. Then the girl entered into a | |
State-marriage with another man. But that answered no better. A | |
divorce was again applied for, but this time was refused. Eventually, | |
the girl left her State-made husband, and ran away with her real | |
husband. In other words, she eloped with her own husband. But what is | |
her position to-day? In the eyes of the State, she is now living with | |
a man who is not {115} her husband. Her State-husband is still alive, | |
and can apply, at any moment, for an order for the restitution of | |
conjugal rights--however unlikely he is to get it. Further, if in the | |
future she has any children by her real husband (unless she has been | |
married again to him, after divorce from her State-husband) these | |
children will be illegitimate. This is the sort of muddle the Divorce | |
Act has got us into. One course, and only one course, is open to the | |
Church--to disentangle itself from all question of extending the powers | |
of the Act on grounds of inequality, or any other real (and sometimes | |
very real) or fancied hardship, and to consistently fight for the | |
repeal of the Act. This, it will be said, is _Utopian_. Exactly! It | |
is the business of the Church to aim at the Utopian. Her whole history | |
shows that she is safest, as well as most successful, when aiming at | |
what the world derides. | |
One question remains: Is not the present Divorce Law "one law for the | |
rich and another for the poor"? Beyond all question. This is its sole | |
merit, if merit it can have. It does, at least, partially protect the | |
poor from sin-made-easy--a condition which money has bought for the | |
rich. If the State abrogated the Sixth {116} Commandment for the rich, | |
and made it lawful for a rich man to commit murder, it would at least | |
be no demerit if it refused to extend the permit to the poor. | |
(2) _The Non-Related_. | |
But, secondly, marriage is for the non-related--non-related, that is, | |
in two ways, by Consanguinity, and Affinity. | |
(_a_) By _Consanguinity_. Consanguinity is of two kinds, lineal and | |
collateral. _Lineal_ Consanguinity[7] is blood relationship "in a | |
_direct_ line," i.e. from a common ancestor. _Collateral_ | |
Consanguinity is blood relationship from a common ancestor, but not in | |
a direct line. | |
The law of Consanguinity has not, at the present moment, been attacked, | |
and is still the law of the land. | |
(_b_) By _Affinity_. Affinity[8] is near relationship by marriage. It | |
is of three kinds: (1) _Direct_, i.e. between a husband and his wife's | |
blood relations, and between a wife and her husband's blood relations; | |
(2) _Secondary_, i.e. between a husband {117} and his wife's relations | |
by marriage; (3) _Collateral_, i.e. between a husband and the relations | |
of his wife's relations. In case of Affinity, the State has broken | |
faith with the Church without scruple, and the _Deceased Wife's Sister | |
Bill_[9] is the result. So has it | |
brought confusion to the Table round. | |
The question is sometimes asked, whether the State can alter the | |
Church's law without her consent. An affirmative answer would reduce | |
whatever union still remains between them to its lowest possible term, | |
and would place the Church in a position which no Nonconformist body | |
would tolerate for a day. The further question, as to whether the | |
State can order the Church to Communicate persons who have openly and | |
deliberately broken her laws, needs no discussion. No thinking person | |
seriously contends that it can. | |
(3) _For the Full-Aged_. | |
No boy under 14, and no girl under 12, can contract a legal marriage | |
either with, or without the consent of Parents or Guardians. No man | |
{118} or woman under 21 can do so against the consent of Parents or | |
Guardians. | |
(IV) WHAT ARE ITS SAFEGUARDS? | |
These are, mainly, two: _Banns_ and _Licences_--both intended to secure | |
the best safeguard of all, _publicity_. This publicity is secured, | |
first, by Banns. | |
(1) _Banns_. | |
The word is the plural form of _Ban_, "a proclamation". The object of | |
this proclamation is to "ban" an improper marriage. | |
In the case of marriage after Banns, in order to secure publicity:-- | |
(1) Each party must reside[10] for twenty-one days in the parish where | |
the Banns are being published. | |
(2) The marriage must be celebrated in one of the two parishes in which | |
the Banns have been published. | |
{119} | |
(3) Seven days' previous notice of publication must be given to the | |
clergy by whom the Banns are to be published--though the clergy may | |
remit this length of notice if they choose. | |
(4) The Banns must be published on three separate (though not | |
necessarily successive) Sundays. | |
(5) Before the marriage, a certificate of publication must be presented | |
to the officiating clergyman, from the clergyman of the other parish in | |
which the Banns were published. | |
(6) Banns only hold good for three months. After this period, they | |
must be again published three times before the marriage can take place. | |
(7) Banns may be forbidden on four grounds: If either party is married | |
already; or is related by consanguinity or affinity; or is under age; | |
or is insane. | |
(8) Banns published in false names invalidate a marriage, if both | |
parties are cognisant of the fact before the marriage takes place, i.e. | |
if they wilfully intend to defeat the law, but not otherwise. | |
(2) Licences. | |
There are two kinds of Marriage Licence, an Ordinary, or Common | |
Licence, and a Special Licence. | |
{120} | |
An _Ordinary Licence_, costing about L2, is granted by the Bishop, or | |
Ordinary, in lieu of Banns, either through his Chancellor, or a | |
"Surrogate," i.e. substitute. In marriage by Licence, three points may | |
be noticed:-- | |
(1) One (though only one) of the parties must reside in the parish | |
where the marriage is to be celebrated, for fifteen days previous to | |
the marriage. | |
(2) One of the parties must apply for the Licence in person, not in | |
writing. | |
(3) A licence only holds good for three months. | |
A _Special Licence_, costing about L30, can only be obtained from the | |
Archbishop of Canterbury,[11] and is only granted after special and | |
minute inquiry. The points here to notice are:-- | |
(1) Neither party need reside in the parish where the marriage is to be | |
solemnized. | |
(2) The marriage may be celebrated in any Church, whether licensed or | |
unlicensed[12] for marriages. | |
(3) It may be celebrated at any time of the day. It may be added that | |
if any clergyman {121} celebrates a marriage without either Banns or | |
Licence (or upon a Registrar's Certificate), he commits a felony, and | |
is liable to fourteen years' penal servitude.[13] | |
Other safeguards there are, such as:-- | |
_The Time for Marriages_.--Marriages must not be celebrated before 8 | |
A.M., or after 3 P.M., so as to provide a reasonable chance of | |
publicity. | |
_The Witnesses to a Marriage_.--Two witnesses, at least, must be | |
present, in addition to the officiating clergyman. | |
_The Marriage Registers_.--The officiating clergyman must enter the | |
marriage in two Registers provided by the State. | |
_The Signing of the Registers_.--The bride and bridegroom must sign | |
their names in the said Registers immediately after the ceremony, as | |
well as the two witnesses and the officiating clergyman. If either | |
party wilfully makes any false statement with regard to age, condition, | |
etc., he or she is guilty of perjury. | |
Such are some of the wise safeguards provided by both Church and State | |
for the Sacrament of Marriage. Their object is to prevent the {122} | |
marriage state being entered into "lightly, unadvisedly, or wantonly," | |
to secure such publicity as will prevent clandestine marriages,[14] and | |
will give parents, and others with legal status, an opportunity to | |
lodge legal objections. | |
Great is the solemnity of the Sacrament in which is "signified and | |
represented the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and His Church". | |
[1] Husband--from _hus_, a house, and _buan_, to dwell. | |
[2] Until fifty-three years ago an Act of Parliament was necessary for | |
a divorce. In 1857 _The Matrimonial Causes Act_ established the | |
Divorce Court. In 1873 the _Indicature Act_ transferred it to a | |
division of the High Court--the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty | |
Division. | |
[3] "Visitation Charges," p. 252. | |
[4] It is a common legal error that seven years effective separation | |
between husband and wife entitles either to remarry, and hundreds of | |
women who have lost sight of their husbands for seven years innocently | |
commit bigamy. Probably the mistake comes from the fact that | |
_prosecution_ for bigamy does not hold good in such a case. But this | |
does not legalize the bigamous marriage or legitimize the children. | |
[5] The origin of Banns. | |
[6] The Rubric says: "It is convenient that the new-married persons | |
receive the Holy Communion _at the time of their marriage_, or at the | |
first opportunity after their marriage," thus retaining, though | |
releasing, the old rule. | |
[7] Consanguinity--from _cum_, together, and _sanguineus_, relating to | |
blood. | |
[8] Affinity--from _ad_, near, and _finis_, a boundary. | |
[9] See a most helpful paper read by Father Puller at the E.C.U. | |
Anniversary Meeting, and reported in "The Church Times" of 17 June, | |
1910. | |
[10] There seems to be no legal definition of the word "reside". The | |
law would probably require more than leaving a bag in a room, hired for | |
twenty-one days, as is often done. It must be remembered that the | |
object of the law is _publicity_--that is, the avoidance of a | |
clandestine marriage, which marriage at a Registry Office now | |
frequently makes so fatally easy. | |
[11] 25 Hen. VIII, cap. 21. | |
[12] Such as, for example, Royal Chapels, St. Paul's Cathedral, Eton | |
College Chapel, etc. | |
[13] Cf. Blunt's "Church Law," p. 133; 4 Geo. IV, c. 76, s. 21. | |
[14] It will be remembered that runaway marriages were, in former days, | |
frequently celebrated at Gretna Green, a Scotch village in | |
Dumfriesshire, near the English border. | |
{123} | |
CHAPTER X. | |
HOLY ORDER. | |
The Second Sacrament of Perpetuation is Holy Order. As the Sacrament | |
of Marriage perpetuates the human race, so the Sacrament of Order | |
perpetuates the Priesthood. Holy Order, indeed, perpetuates the | |
Sacraments themselves. It is the ordained channel through which the | |
Sacramental life of the Church is continued. | |
Holy Order, then, was instituted for the perpetuation of those | |
Sacraments which depend upon Apostolic Succession. It makes it | |
possible for the Christian laity to be Confirmed, Communicated, | |
Absolved. Thus, the Christian Ministry is a great deal more than a | |
body of men, chosen as officers might be chosen in the army or navy. | |
It is the Church's media for the administration of the Sacraments of | |
Salvation. To say this does not assert that God cannot, and does not, | |
save and sanctify souls in any other way; but it does assert, as | |
Scripture does, that the {124} Christian Ministry is the authorized and | |
ordained way. | |
The Threefold Ministry. | |
In this Ministry, there are three orders, or degrees: Bishops, Priests, | |
and Deacons. In the words of the Prayer Book: "It is evident unto all | |
men, diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that, from | |
the Apostles' time, there have been these Orders of Ministers in | |
Christ's Church; Bishops, Priests, and Deacons".[1] | |
(I) BISHOPS. | |
Who was the first Bishop? Jesus Christ, "the Shepherd and Bishop of | |
our souls". When, and where, was the first Ordination? In the Upper | |
Chamber, when He, the Universal Bishop, Himself ordained the first | |
Apostles. When was {125} the second Ordination? When these Apostles | |
ordained Matthias to succeed Judas. This was the first link in the | |
chain of Apostolic Succession. What followed? In apostolic days, | |
Timothy was ordained, with episcopal jurisdiction over Ephesus; Titus, | |
over Crete; Polycarp (the friend of St. John), over Smyrna; and then, | |
later on, Linus, over Rome. And so the great College of Bishops | |
expands until, in the second century, we read in a well-known writer, | |
St. Irenaeus: "We can reckon up lists of Bishops ordained in the | |
Churches from the Apostles to our time". Link after link, the chain of | |
succession lengthens "throughout all the world," until it reaches the | |
Early British Church, and then, in 597, the English Church, through the | |
consecration of Augustine,[2] first Archbishop of Canterbury, and in | |
1903 of Randall Davidson his ninety-fourth successor. | |
And this is the history of every ordination in the Church to-day. "It | |
is through the Apostolic Succession," said the late Bishop Stubbs to | |
his ordination Candidates, "that I am empowered, through the long line | |
of mission and Commission {126} from the Upper Chamber at Jerusalem, to | |
lay my hands upon you and send you."[3] | |
How does a Priest become a Bishop? In the Church of England he goes | |
through four stages:-- | |
(1) He is _nominated_ by the Crown. | |
(2) He is _elected_ by the Church. | |
(3) His election is _confirmed_ by the Archbishop. | |
(4) He is _consecrated_ by the Episcopate. | |
(1) He is _nominated_ by the Crown. This is in accordance with the | |
immemorial custom of this realm. In these days, the Prime Minister | |
(representing the people) proposes the name of a Priest to the King, | |
who accepts or rejects the recommendation. If he accepts it, the King | |
nominates the selected Priest to the Church for election, and | |
authorizes the issue of legal documents for such election. This is | |
called _Conge d'elire_, "leave to elect". | |
(2) He is _elected_ by the Church. The King's {127} nominee now comes | |
before the Dean and Chapter (representing the Church), and the Church | |
either elects or rejects him. It has power to do either. If the | |
nominee is elected, what is called his "Confirmation" follows--that | |
is:-- | |
(3) His election is _confirmed_ by the Archbishop of Canterbury, | |
according to a right reserved to him by _Magna Charta_. Before | |
confirming the election, the Archbishop, or his representative, sits in | |
public, generally at Bow Church, Cheapside, to hear legal objections | |
from qualified laity against the election. Objections were of late, it | |
will be remembered, made, and overruled, in the cases of Dr. Temple and | |
Dr. Gore. Then, if duly nominated, elected, and confirmed,-- | |
(4) He is _consecrated_ by the Episcopate. To safeguard the | |
Succession, three Bishops, at least, are required for the Consecration | |
of another Bishop, though one would secure a valid Consecration. No | |
Priest can be Consecrated Bishop under the age of thirty. Very | |
carefully does the Church safeguard admission to the Episcopate. | |
{128} | |
_Homage._ | |
After Consecration, the Bishop "does homage,"[4] i.e. he says that he, | |
like any other subject (ecclesiastic or layman), is the King's | |
"_homo_". What does he do homage for? He does homage, not for any | |
spiritual gift, but for "all the possessions, and profette spirituall | |
and temporall belongyng to the said ... Bishopricke".[5] The | |
_temporal_ possessions include such things as his house, revenue, etc. | |
But what is meant by doing homage for _spiritual_ possessions? Does | |
not this admit the claim that the King can, as Queen Elizabeth is | |
reported to have said, make or unmake a Bishop? No. Spiritual | |
_possessions_ do not here mean spiritual _powers_,--powers which can be | |
conferred by the Episcopate alone. {129} The "spiritual possessions" | |
for which a Bishop "does homage" refer to fees connected with spiritual | |
things, such as Episcopal Licences, Institutions to Benefices, Trials | |
in the Ecclesiastical Court, Visitations--fees, by the way, which, with | |
very rare exceptions, do not go into the Bishop's own pocket! | |
_Jurisdiction._ | |
What is meant by Episcopal Jurisdiction? Jurisdiction is of two kinds, | |
_Habitual_ and _Actual_. | |
Habitual Jurisdiction is the Jurisdiction given to a Bishop to exercise | |
his office in the Church at large. It is conveyed with Consecration, | |
and is given to the Bishop as a Bishop of the Catholic Church. Thus an | |
Episcopal act, duly performed, would be valid, however irregular, | |
outside the Bishop's own Diocese, and in any part of the Church. | |
_Actual Jurisdiction_ is this universal Jurisdiction limited to a | |
particular area, called a Diocese. To this area, a Bishop's right to | |
exercise his Habitual Jurisdiction is, for purposes of order and | |
business, confined. | |
The next order in the Ministry is the Priesthood. | |
{130} | |
(II) PRIESTS. | |
No one can read the Prayer-Book Office for the _Ordering of Priests_ | |
without being struck by its contrast to the ordinary conception of | |
Priesthood by the average Englishman. The Bishop's words in the | |
Ordination Service: "Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of | |
a Priest in the Church of God," must surely mean more than that a | |
Priest should try to be a good organizer, a good financier, a good | |
preacher, or good at games--though the better he is at all these, the | |
better it may be. But the gift of the Holy Ghost for "the Office and | |
Work of a Priest" must mean more than this. | |
We may consider it in connexion with four familiar English clerical | |
titles: _Priest, Minister, Parson, Clergyman_. | |
_Priest._ | |
According to the Prayer Book, a Priest, or Presbyter, is ordained to do | |
three things, which he, and he alone, can do: to Absolve, to | |
Consecrate, to Bless. | |
He, and he alone, can _Absolve_. Think! It is the day of his | |
Ordination to the Priesthood. He is saying Matins as a Deacon just | |
_before_ his {131} Ordination, and he is forbidden to pronounce the | |
Absolution: he is saying Evensong just _after_ his Ordination, and he | |
is ordered to pronounce the Absolution. | |
He, and he alone, can _Consecrate_. If a Deacon pretends to Consecrate | |
the Elements at the Blessed Sacrament, not only is his act sacrilege | |
and invalid, but even by the law of the land he is liable to a penalty | |
of L100.[6] | |
He, and he alone, can give the _Blessing_--i.e. the Church's official | |
Blessing. The right of Benediction belongs to him as part of his | |
Ministerial Office. The Blessing pronounced by a Deacon might be the | |
personal blessing of a good and holy man, just as the blessing of a | |
layman--a father blessing his child--might be of value as such. In | |
each case it would be a personal act. But a Priest does not bless in | |
his own name, but in the name of the Whole Church. It is an official, | |
not a personal act: he conveys, not his own, but the Church's blessing | |
to the people. | |
Hence, the valid Ordination of a Priest is of essential importance to | |
the laity. | |
{132} | |
But there is another aspect of "the Office and Work of a Priest in the | |
Church of God". This we see in the word | |
_Minister._ | |
The Priest not only ministers before God on behalf of his people, but | |
he ministers to his people on behalf of God. In this aspect of the | |
Priesthood, he ministers God's gifts to the laity. If, as a Priest, he | |
pleads the One Sacrifice on behalf of the people, as a Minister he | |
feeds the people upon the one Sacrifice. His chief ministerial duty is | |
to minister to the people--to give them Baptism, Absolution, Holy | |
Communion; to minister to all their spiritual needs whenever, and | |
wherever, he is needed. | |
It is, surely, a sad necessity that this ministerial "office and work" | |
should be so often confused with finance, doles, charities, begging | |
sermons, committees, etc. In all such things he is, indeed, truly | |
serving and ministering; but he is often obliged to place them in the | |
wrong order of importance, and so dim the sight of the laity to his | |
real position, and not infrequently make his spiritual ministrations | |
unacceptable. A well-known and London-wide respected Priest said {133} | |
shortly before he died, that he had almost scattered his congregation | |
by the constant "begging sermons" which he hated, but which necessity | |
made imperative. The laity are claiming (and rightly claiming) the | |
privilege of being Church workers, and are preaching (and rightly | |
preaching) that "the Clergy are not the Church". If only they would | |
practise what they preach, and relieve the Clergy of all Church | |
finance, they need never listen to another "begging sermon" again. So | |
doing, they would rejoice the heart of the Clergy, and fulfil one of | |
their true functions as laity. | |
The Parson. | |
This is one of the most beautiful of all the clerical names, only it | |
has become smirched by common use. | |
The word Parson is derived from _Persona_, a _person_. The Parson is | |
_the_ Person--the Person who represents God in the Parish. It is not | |
his own person, or position, that he stands for, but the position and | |
Person of his Master. Like St. Paul, he can say, "I magnify mine | |
office," and probably the best way to magnify his office will be to | |
minimize himself. The outward marks of {134} respect still shown to | |
"the Parson" in some places, are not necessarily shown to the person | |
himself (though often, thank God, they may be), but are meant, however | |
unconsciously, to honour the Person he represents--just as the lifting | |
of the hat to a woman is not, of necessity, a mark of respect to the | |
individual woman, but a tribute to the Womanhood she represents. | |
The Parson, then, is, or should be, the official person, the standing | |
element in the parish, who reminds men of God. | |
_Clergyman._ | |
The word is derived from the Greek _kleros_,[7] "a lot," and conveys | |
its own meaning. According to some, it takes us back in thought to the | |
first Apostolic Ordination, when "they cast _lots_, and the _lot_ fell | |
upon Matthias". It reminds us that, as Matthias "was numbered with the | |
eleven," so a "Clergyman" is, at his Ordination, numbered with that | |
long list of "Clergy" who trace their spiritual pedigree to Apostolic | |
days. | |
{135} | |
_Ordination Safeguards._ | |
"Seeing then," run the words of the Ordination Service, "into how high | |
a dignity, and how weighty an Office and Charge" a Priest is called, | |
certain safeguards surround his Ordination, both for his own sake, and | |
for the sake of his people. | |
_Age._ | |
No Deacon can, save under very exceptional circumstances, be ordained | |
Priest before he is 24, and has served at least a year in the Diaconate. | |
_Fitness._ | |
This fitness, as in Confirmation, will be intellectual and moral. His | |
_intellectual_ fitness is tested by the Bishop's Examining Chaplain | |
some time before the Ordination to the Priesthood, and, in doubtful | |
cases, by the Bishop himself. | |
His _moral_ fitness is tested by the Publication during Service, in the | |
Church where he is Deacon, of his intention to offer himself as a | |
Candidate for the Priesthood. To certify that this has been done, this | |
Publication must be signed by the Churchwarden, representing the {136} | |
laity, and by the Incumbent, representing the Clergy and responsible to | |
the Bishop. | |
Further safeguard is secured by letters of Testimony from three | |
Beneficed Clergy, who have known the Candidate well either for the past | |
three years, or during the term of his Diaconate. | |
Finally, at the very last moment, in the Ordination Service itself, the | |
Bishop invites the laity, if they know "any impediment or notable | |
crime" disqualifying the Candidate from being ordained Priest, to "come | |
forth in the Name of God, and show what the crime or impediment is". | |
Why all these safeguards? For many obvious reasons, but specially for | |
one. Priest's Orders are indelible. | |
_The Indelibility of Orders._ | |
Once a Priest, always a Priest. When once the Bishop has ordained a | |
Deacon to the Priesthood, there is no going back. The law, | |
ecclesiastical or civil, may deprive him of the right to _exercise_ his | |
Office, but no power can deprive him of the Office itself. | |
For instance, to safeguard the Church, and for {137} the sake of the | |
laity, a Priest may, for various offences, be what is commonly called | |
"unfrocked". He may be degraded, temporarily suspended, or permanently | |
forbidden to _officiate_ in any part of the Church; but he does not | |
cease to be a Priest. Any Priestly act, rightly and duly performed, | |
would be valid, though irregular. It would be for the people's good, | |
though it would be to his own hurt. | |
Again: by _The Clerical Disabilities Act_ of 1870, a Priest may, by the | |
law of the land, execute a "Deed of Relinquishment," and, as far as the | |
law is concerned, return to lay life. This would enable him legally to | |
undertake lay work which the law forbids to the Clergy.[8] | |
He may, in consequence, regain his legal rights as a layman, and lose | |
his legal rights as a Priest; but he does not cease to be a Priest. | |
The law can only touch his civil status, and cannot touch his priestly | |
"character". That is indelible. | |
Hence, no securities can be superfluous to safeguard the irrevocable. | |
{138} | |
_Jurisdiction._ | |
As in the case of the Bishops, a Priest's jurisdiction is | |
twofold--_habitual_ and _actual_. Ordination confers on him _habitual_ | |
jurisdiction, i.e. the power to exercise his office, to Absolve, to | |
Consecrate, to Bless, in the "Holy Church throughout the world". And, | |
as in the case of Bishops, for purposes of ecclesiastical order and | |
discipline, this Habitual Jurisdiction is limited to the sphere in | |
which the Bishop licenses him. "Take thou authority," says the Bishop, | |
"to preach the word of God, and to minister the Sacraments _in the | |
congregation where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto_." This | |
is called _Actual_ Jurisdiction. | |
_The Essence of the Sacrament._ | |
The absolutely essential part of Ordination is the Laying on of Hands | |
(1 Tim. iv. 14; Acts vi. 6; 2 Tim. i. 6). Various other and beautiful | |
ceremonies have, at different times, and in different places, | |
accompanied the essential Rite. Sometimes, and in some parts of the | |
Church, Unction, or anointing the Candidate with oil, has been used: | |
sometimes Ordination has been accompanied with the delivery of a Ring, | |
the Paten {139} and Chalice, the Bible, or the Gospels, the Pastoral | |
Staff (to a Bishop),--all edifying ceremonies, but not essentials. | |
(III) DEACONS. | |
A Deacon is a server. The word comes from the Greek _diakonos_, a | |
servant, and exactly describes the Office. Originally, a permanent | |
Order in the Church, the Diaconate is now, in the Church of England, | |
generally regarded as a step to the Priesthood. This is a loss. But | |
it is as this step, or preparatory stage, that we have to consider it. | |
Considering the importance of this first step in the Ministry, both to | |
the man himself, and to the people, it is well that the laity should | |
know what safeguards are taken by the Bishop to secure "fit persons to | |
serve in the sacred ministry of the Church"[9]--and should realize | |
their own great responsibility in the matter. First, there is the age. | |
(1) _The Age._ | |
No layman can be made a Deacon under 23. | |
{140} | |
(2) The Preliminaries. | |
The chief preliminary is the selection of the Candidate. The burden of | |
selection is shared by the Bishop, Clergy and Laity. The Bishop must, | |
of course, be the final judge of the Candidate's fitness, but _the | |
evidence upon which he bases his judgment_ must very largely be | |
supplied by the Laity. | |
We pray in the Ember Collect that he "may lay hands suddenly on no man, | |
but make choice of _fit persons_". It is well that the Laity should | |
remember that they share with the Bishop and Clergy in the | |
responsibility of choice. | |
For this fitness will, as in the case of the Priest, be moral and | |
intellectual. | |
It will be _moral_--and it is here that the responsibility of the laity | |
begins. For, in addition to private inquiries made by the Bishop, the | |
laity are publicly asked, in the church of the parish where the | |
Candidate resides, to bear testimony to the integrity of his character. | |
This publication is called the _Si quis_, from the Latin of the first | |
two words of publication ("if any..."), and it is repeated by the | |
Bishop in open church in the Ordination Service. The {141} absence of | |
any legal objection by the laity is the testimony of the people to the | |
Candidate's fitness. This throws upon the laity a full share of | |
responsibility in the choice of the Candidate. Their responsibility in | |
giving evidence is only second to that of the Bishop, whose decision | |
rests upon the evidence they give. | |
Then, there is the testimony of the Clergy. No layman is accepted by | |
the Bishop for Ordination without _Letters Testimonial_--i.e. the | |
testimony of three beneficed Clergymen, to whom he is well known. | |
These Clergy must certify that "we have had opportunity of observing | |
his conduct, and we do believe him, in our consciences, and as to his | |
moral conduct, a fit person to be admitted to the Sacred Ministry". | |
Each signature must be countersigned by the signatory's own Bishop, who | |
thus guarantees the Clergyman's moral fitness to certify. | |
Lastly, comes the Bishop himself, who, from first to last, is in close | |
touch with the Candidate, and who almost invariably helps to prepare | |
him personally in his own house during the week before his Ordination. | |
It will be _intellectual_. In addition to University testimony, | |
evidence of the Candidate's {142} intellectual fitness is given to the | |
Bishop, as in the case of Priests, by his Examining Chaplains. Some | |
months before the Ordination, the Candidate is examined, and the | |
Examiner's Report sent in to the Bishop. The standard of intellectual | |
fitness has differed at various ages, in different parts of the Church, | |
and no one standard can be laid down. Assuming that the average | |
proportion of people in a parish will be (on a generous calculation) as | |
twelve Jurymen to one Judge, the layman called to the Diaconate should, | |
at least, be equal in intellectual attainment to "the layman" called to | |
the Bar. | |
It does sometimes happen that evidence is given by Clergy, or laity, | |
which leads the Bishop to reject the Candidate on moral grounds. It | |
does sometimes happen that the Candidate is rejected or postponed on | |
intellectual grounds. It does, it must, sometimes happen that mistakes | |
are made: God alone is infallible. But, if due care is taken, publicly | |
and privately, and if the laity, as well as the Clergy, do their duty, | |
the Bishop's risk of a wrong judgment is reduced to a very small | |
minimum. | |
A "fit" Clergy is so much the concern of the laity, that they may well | |
be reminded of their {143} parts and duties in the Ordination of a | |
Deacon. For, as Dr. Liddon says, "the strength of the Church does not | |
consist in the number of pages in its 'Clerical Directory,' but in the | |
sum total of the moral and spiritual force which she has at her | |
command". | |
[1] "The Threefold Ministry," writes Bishop Lightfoot, "can be traced | |
to Apostolic direction; and, short of an express statement, we can | |
possess no better assurance of a Divine appointment, or, at least, a | |
Divine Sanction." And he adds, speaking of his hearty desire for union | |
with the Dissenters, "we cannot surrender for any immediate advantages | |
the threefold Ministry which we have inherited from Apostolic times, | |
and which is the historic backbone of the Church" ("Ep. to the | |
Philippians," p. 276, later ed.). | |
[2] The Welsh Bishops did not transmit Episcopacy to us, but rather | |
came into us. | |
[3] In a book called _Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum_, Bishop Stubbs has | |
traced the name, date of Consecration, names of Consecrators, and in | |
most cases place of Consecration, of every Bishop in the Church of | |
England from the Consecration of Augustine. | |
[4] The Bishops are one of the three Estates of the Realm--Lords | |
Spiritual, Lords Temporal, and Commons (not, as is so often said, King, | |
Lords, and Commons). The Archbishop of Canterbury is the first Peer of | |
the Realm, and has precedency immediately after the blood royal. The | |
Archbishop of York has precedency over all Dukes, not being of royal | |
blood, and over all the great officers of State, except the Lord | |
Chancellor. He has the privilege of crowning the Queen Consort. | |
[5] Cf. "Encyclopedia of the Laws of England," vol. 11, p. 156; and 25 | |
Hen. VIII, cap. 2, s. 6. | |
[6] 14 Car. II, c. 4, s. 10. See Phillimore's "Ecclesiastical Law," | |
vol. 1, p. 109. | |
[7] But see Skeat, whose references are to [Greek: kleros], "a lot," in | |
late Greek, and the Clergy whose portion is the Lord (Deut. xviii. 2, 1 | |
Pet. v. 3, cf. Acts i. 17). The [Greek: kleros] is thus the portion | |
rather than the circumstance by which it is obtained, i.e. Acts i. 17 | |
rather than Acts i. 26. | |
[8] For example: farming more than a certain number of acres, or going | |
into Parliament. | |
[9] Ember Collect. | |
{144} | |
CHAPTER XI. | |
PENANCE. | |
SACRAMENTS OF RECOVERY. | |
We deal now with the two last Sacraments under consideration--Penance | |
and Unction. Both are Sacraments of healing. Penance is for the | |
healing of the soul, and indirectly of the body: Unction is for the | |
healing of the body, and indirectly of the soul. | |
"Every Sacrament," says St. Thomas Aquinas, "has been instituted to | |
produce one special effect, although it may produce, as consequences, | |
other effects besides." It is so with these two Sacraments. Body and | |
Soul are so involved, that what directly affects the one must | |
indirectly affect the other. Thus, the direct effect of Penance on the | |
soul must indirectly affect the body, and the direct effect of Unction | |
on the body must indirectly affect the soul. We will think of each in | |
turn. First, Penance. | |
{145} | |
_Penance._ | |
The word is derived from the Latin _penitentia_, penitence, and its | |
root-meaning (_poena_, punishment) suggests a punitive element in all | |
real repentance. It is used as a comprehensive term for confession of | |
sin, punishment for sin, and the Absolution, or Remission of Sins. As | |
Baptism was designed to recover the soul from original or inherited | |
sin, so Penance was designed to recover the soul from actual or wilful | |
sin....[1] It is not, as in the case of infant Baptism, administered | |
wholly irrespective of free will: it must be freely sought ("if he | |
humbly and heartily desire it"[2]) before it can be freely bestowed. | |
Thus, Confession must precede Absolution, and Penitence must precede | |
and accompany Confession. | |
_Confession._ | |
Here we all start on common ground. We all agree upon one point, viz. | |
the necessity of Confession (1) _to God_ ("If we confess our sins, He | |
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins") {146} and (2) _to man_ | |
("Confess your faults one to another"). Further, we all agree that | |
confession to man is in reality confession to God ("Against Thee, _Thee | |
only_, have I sinned"). Our only ground of difference is, not | |
_whether_ we ought to confess, but _how_ we ought to confess. It is a | |
difference of method rather than of principle. | |
There are two ways of confessing sins (whether to God, or to man), the | |
informal, and the formal. Most of us use one way; some the other; many | |
both. | |
_Informal Confession_.--Thank God, I can use this way at any, and at | |
every, moment of my life. If I have sinned, I need wait for no formal | |
act of Confession; but, as I am, and where I am, I can make my | |
Confession. Then, and there, I can claim the Divine response to the | |
soul's three-fold _Kyrie_: "Lord, have mercy upon me; Christ, have | |
mercy upon me; Lord, have mercy upon me". But do I never want--does | |
God never want--anything more than this? The soul is not always | |
satisfied with such an easy method of going to Confession. It needs at | |
times something more impressive, something perhaps less superficial, | |
less easy going. It demands more time for {147} deepening thought, and | |
greater knowledge of what it has done, before sin's deadly hurt cuts | |
deep enough to produce real repentance, and to prevent repetition. At | |
such times, it cries for something more formal, more solemn, than | |
instantaneous confession. It needs, what the Prayer Book calls, "a | |
special Confession of sins". | |
_Formal Confession_.--Hence our Prayer Book provides two formal Acts of | |
Confession, and suggests a third. Two of these are for public use, the | |
third for private. | |
In Matins and Evensong, and in the Eucharistic Office, a form of | |
"_general_ confession" is provided. Both forms are in the first person | |
plural throughout. Clearly, their primary intention is, not to make us | |
merely think of, or confess, our own personal sins, but the sins of the | |
Church,--and our own sins, as members of the Church. It is "we" have | |
sinned, rather than "I" have sinned. Such formal language might, | |
otherwise, at times be distressingly unreal,--when, e.g., not honestly | |
feeling that the "burden" of our own personal sin "is intolerable," or | |
when making a public Confession in church directly after a personal | |
Confession in private. | |
In the Visitation of the Sick, the third mode of {148} formal | |
Confession is suggested, though the actual words are naturally left to | |
the individual penitent. The Prayer Book no longer speaks in the | |
plural, or of "a _general_ Confession," but it closes, as it were, with | |
the soul, and gets into private, personal touch with it: "Here shall | |
the sick man be moved to make a _special_ Confession of his sins, if he | |
feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter; after which | |
Confession, the Priest shall absolve him (if he humbly and heartily | |
desire it) after this sort". This Confession is to be both free and | |
formal: formal, for it is to be made before the Priest in his | |
"_ministerial_" capacity; free, for the penitent is to be "moved" (not | |
"compelled") to confess. Notice, he _is_ to be moved; but then (though | |
not till then) he is free to accept, or reject, the preferred means of | |
grace. | |
God never handcuffs Sacraments and souls. Sacraments are open to all; | |
they are forced on none. They are love-tokens of the Sacred Heart; | |
free-will offerings of His Royal Bounty. | |
These, then, are the two methods of Confession at our disposal. God is | |
"the Father of an infinite Majesty". In _informal_ Confession, the | |
sinner goes to God as his _Father_,--as the Prodigal, after doing | |
penance in the far country, went {149} to his father with "_Father_, I | |
have sinned". In _formal_ Confession, the sinner goes to God as to the | |
Father of an _infinite Majesty_,--as David went to God through Nathan, | |
God's ambassador. | |
It is a fearful responsibility to hinder any soul from using either | |
method; it is a daring risk to say: "Because one method alone appeals | |
to me, therefore no other method shall be used by you". God multiplies | |
His methods, as He expands His love: and if any "David" is drawn to say | |
"I have sinned" before the appointed "Nathan," and, through prejudice | |
or ignorance, such an one is hindered from so laying his sins on Jesus, | |
God will require that soul at the hinderer's hands. | |
_Absolution._ | |
It is the same with Absolution as with Confession. Here, too, we start | |
on common ground. All agree that "_God only_ can forgive sins," and | |
half our differences come because this is not recognized. Whatever | |
form Confession takes, the penitent exclaims: "_To Thee only it | |
appertaineth to forgive sins_". Pardon through the Precious Blood is | |
the one, and only, source of {150} forgiveness. Our only difference, | |
then, is as to God's _methods_ of forgiveness. How does God forgive | |
sin? Some seem to limit His love, to tie forgiveness down to one, and | |
only one, method of absolution--direct, personal, instantaneous, | |
without any ordained Channel such as Christ left. Direct, God's pardon | |
certainly is; personal and instantaneous, it certainly can be; without | |
any sacramental _media_, it certainly may be. But we dare not limit | |
what God has not limited; we dare not deny the existence of ordained | |
channels, because God can, and does, act without such channels. He has | |
opened an ordained fountain for sin and uncleanness as a superadded | |
gift of love, and in the Ministry of reconciliation He conveys pardon | |
through this channel. | |
At the most solemn moment of his life, when a Deacon is ordained | |
Priest, the formal terms of his Commission to the Priesthood run thus: | |
"Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the | |
Church of God, now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our hands. | |
Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou | |
dost retain, they are retained." "_Now_ committed unto thee." No | |
Priest dare hide his commission, play with {151} the plain meaning of | |
the words, or conceal from others a "means of grace" which they have a | |
blessed right to know of, and to use. | |
But what is the good of this Absolution, if God can forgive without it? | |
God's ordinances are never meaningless. There must, therefore, be some | |
superadded grace attached to this particular ordinance. It was left to | |
be used. It is not left merely to comfort the penitent (though that it | |
does), nor to let him hear from a fellow-sinner that his sins are | |
forgiven him (though that he does); but it is left, like any other | |
Sacrament, as a special means of grace. It is the ordained Channel | |
whereby God's pardon is conveyed to (and only to) the penitent sinner. | |
"No penitence, no pardon," is the law of Sacramental Absolution. | |
The Prayer Book, therefore, preaches the power of formal, as well as | |
informal, Absolution. There are in it three forms of Absolution, | |
varying in words but the same in power. The appropriating power of the | |
penitent may, and does, vary, according to the sincerity of his | |
confession: Absolution is in each case the same. It is man's capacity | |
to receive it, not God's power in giving it, that varies. Thus, all | |
three Absolutions in the {152} Prayer Book are of the same force, | |
though our appropriating capacity in receiving them may differ. This | |
capacity will probably be less marked at Matins and Evensong than at | |
Holy Communion, and at Holy Communion than in private Confession, | |
because it will be less personal, less thorough. The words of | |
Absolution seem to suggest this. The first two forms are in the plural | |
("pardon and deliver _you_"), and are thrown, as it were, broadcast | |
over the Church: the third is special ("forgive _thee_ thine offences") | |
and is administered to the individual. But the formal act is the same | |
in each case; and to stroll late into church, as if the Absolution in | |
Matins and Evensong does not matter, may be to incur a very distinct | |
loss. | |
When, and how often, formal "special Confession" is to be used, and | |
formal Absolution to be sought, is left to each soul to decide. The | |
two special occasions which the Church of England emphasizes (without | |
limiting) are before receiving the Holy Communion, and when sick. | |
Before Communion, the Prayer Book counsels its use for any disquieted | |
conscience; and the {153} Rubric which directs intending Communicants | |
to send in their names to the Parish Priest the day before making their | |
Communion, still bears witness to its framers' intention--that known | |
sinners might not be communicated without first being brought to a | |
state of repentance. | |
The sick, also, after being directed to make their wills,[3] and | |
arrange their temporal affairs, are further urged to examine their | |
spiritual state; to make a special confession; and to obtain the | |
special grace, in the special way provided for them. And, adds the | |
Rubric, "men should often be put in remembrance to take order for the | |
settling of their temporal estates, while they are in health"--and if | |
of the temporal, how much more of their spiritual estate. | |
_Direction._ | |
But, say some, is not all this very weakening to the soul? They are, | |
probably, mixing up two things,--the Divine Sacrament of forgiveness | |
which (rightly used) must be strengthening, and the human appeal for | |
direction which (wrongly used) may be weakening. | |
{154} | |
But "direction" is not necessarily part of Penance. The Prayer Book | |
lays great stress upon it, and calls it "ghostly counsel and advice," | |
but it is neither Confession nor Absolution. It has its own place in | |
the Prayer Book;[4] but it has not, necessarily, anything whatever to | |
do with the administration of the Sacrament. Direction may, or may | |
not, be good for the soul. It largely depends upon the character of | |
the penitent, and the wisdom of the Director. It is quite possible for | |
the priest to over-direct, and it is fatally possible for the penitent | |
to think more of direction than of Absolution. It is quite possible to | |
obscure the Sacramental side of Penance with a human craving for | |
"ghostly counsel and advice". Satan would not be Satan if it were not | |
so. But this "ghostly," or spiritual, "counsel and advice" has saved | |
many a lad, and many a man, from many a fall; and when rightly sought, | |
and wisely given is, as the Prayer Book teaches, a most helpful adjunct | |
to Absolution. Only, it is not, necessarily, a part of "going to | |
Confession". | |
{155} | |
_Indulgences._ | |
The abuse of the Sacrament is another, and not unnatural objection to | |
its use; and it often gets mixed up with Mediaeval teaching about | |
Indulgences. | |
An _Indulgence_ is exactly what the word suggests--the act of | |
indulging, or granting a favour. In Roman theology, an Indulgence is | |
the remission of temporal punishment due to sin after Absolution. It | |
is either "plenary," i.e. when the whole punishment is remitted, or | |
"partial," when some of it is remitted. At corrupt periods of Church | |
history, these Indulgences have been bought for money,[5] thus making | |
one law for the rich, and another for the poor. Very naturally, the | |
scandals connected with such buying and selling raised suspicions | |
against the Sacrament with which Indulgences were associated.[6] But | |
Indulgences have nothing in the world to do with the right use of the | |
lesser Sacrament of Penance. | |
{156} | |
_Amendment._ | |
The promise of Amendment is an essential part of Penance. It is a | |
necessary element in all true contrition. Thus, the penitent promises | |
"true amendment" before he receives Absolution. If he allowed a priest | |
to give him Absolution without firmly purposing to amend, he would not | |
only invalidate the Absolution, but would commit an additional sin. | |
The promise to amend may, like any other promise, be made and broken; | |
but the deliberate purpose must be there. | |
No better description of true repentance can be found than in | |
Tennyson's "Guinevere":-- | |
_For what is true repentance but in thought--_ | |
_Not ev'n in inmost thought to think again_ | |
_The sins that made the past so pleasant to us._ | |
Such has been the teaching of the Catholic Church always, everywhere, | |
and at all times: such is the teaching of the Church of England, as | |
part of that Church, and as authoritatively laid down in the Book of | |
Common Prayer. | |
God alone can forgive sins. Absolution is the conveyance of God's | |
pardon to the penitent sinner by God's ordained Minister, through the | |
ordained Ministry of Reconciliation. | |
{157} | |
Lamb of God, the world's transgression | |
Thou alone canst take away; | |
Hear! oh! hear our heart's confession, | |
And Thy pardoning grace convey. | |
Thine availing intercession | |
We but echo when we pray. | |
[1] Cf. Rubric in the Baptismal Office. | |
[2] Rubric in the Order for the Visitation of the Sick. | |
[3] Rubric in the Order for the Visitation of the Sick. | |
[4] See the First Exhortation in the Order of the Administration of the | |
Holy Communion. | |
[5] St. Peter's at Rome was largely built out of funds gained by the | |
sale of indulgences. | |
[6] The Council of Trent orders that Indulgences must be granted by | |
Pope and Prelate _gratis_. | |
{158} | |
CHAPTER XII. | |
UNCTION. | |
The second Sacrament of Recovery is _Unction_, or, in more familiar | |
language, "the Anointing of the Sick". It is called by Origen "the | |
complement of Penance". | |
The meaning of the Sacrament is found in St. James v. 14-17. "Is any | |
sick among you? let him call for the elders of the Church; and let them | |
pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the | |
prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; | |
and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." | |
Here the Bible states that the "Prayer of Faith" with Unction is more | |
effective than the "Prayer of Faith" without Unction. What can it do? | |
It can do two things. It can (1) recover the body, and (2) restore the | |
soul. Its primary {159} object seems to be to recover the body; but it | |
also, according to the teaching of St. James, restores the soul. | |
First, he says, Anointing with the Prayer of Faith heals the body; and | |
then, because of the inseparable union between body and soul, it | |
cleanses the soul. | |
Thus, as the object of Penance is primarily to heal the soul, and | |
indirectly to heal the body; so the object of Unction is primarily to | |
heal the body, and indirectly to heal the soul. | |
The story of Unction may be summarized very shortly. It was instituted | |
in Apostolic days, when the Apostles "anointed with oil many that were | |
sick and healed them" (St. Mark vi. 13). It was continued in the Early | |
Church, and perpetuated during the Middle Ages, when its use (by a | |
"_corrupt_[1] following of the Apostles") was practically limited to | |
the preparation of the dying instead of (by a _correct_ "following of | |
the Apostles") being used for the recovery of the living. In our 1549 | |
Prayer Book an authorized Office was appointed for its use, but this, | |
lest it should be misused, was omitted in 1552. And although, as | |
Bishop Forbes says, "everything of that earlier Liturgy was praised by | |
those who {160} removed it," it has not yet been restored. It is "one | |
of the lost Pleiads" of our present Prayer Book. But, as Bishop Forbes | |
adds, "there is nothing to hinder the revival of the Apostolic and | |
Scriptural Custom of Anointing the Sick whenever any devout person | |
desires it".[2] | |
_Extreme Unction._ | |
An unhistoric use of the name partly explains the unhistoric use of the | |
Sacrament. _Extreme_, or last (_extrema_) Unction has been taken to | |
mean the anointing of the sick when _in extremis_. This, as we have | |
seen, is a "corrupt," and not a correct, "following of the Apostles". | |
The phrase _Extreme_ Unction means the extreme, or last, of a series of | |
ritual Unctions, or anointings, once used in the Church. The first | |
Unction was in Holy Baptism, when the Baptized were anointed with Holy | |
Oil: then came the anointing in Confirmation: then in Ordination; and, | |
last of all, the anointing of the sick. Of this last anointing, it is | |
written: "All Christian men should account, and repute the said manner | |
of anointing among the other Sacraments, forasmuch as it is a visible | |
sign of an invisible grace".[3] | |
{161} | |
_Its Administration._ | |
It must be administered under the Scriptural conditions laid down in | |
St. James v. 14-16. The first condition refers to:-- | |
(1) _The Minister_.--The Minister is _the Church_, in her corporate | |
capacity. Scripture says to the sick: "Let him call for the Elders," | |
or Presbyters, "of the Church". The word is in the plural; it is to be | |
the united act of the whole Church. And, further, there must be | |
nothing secret about it, as if it were either a charm, or something to | |
be ashamed of, or apologized for. It may have to be done in a private | |
house, but it is to be done by no private person.[4] "Let him call for | |
the elders." | |
(2) _The Manner_.--The Elders are to administer Sacrament not in their | |
own name (any more than the Priest gives Absolution in his own name), | |
but "in the Name of the Lord". | |
(3) _The Method_.--The sick man is to be anointed (either on the | |
afflicted part, or in other ways), _with prayer_: "Let them pray over | |
him". Prayer is essential. | |
{162} | |
(4) _The Matter_.--Oil--"anointing him with oil". As in Baptism, | |
sanctified water is the ordained matter by which "Jesus Christ | |
cleanseth us from all sin"; so in Unction, consecrated oil is the | |
ordained matter used by the Holy Ghost to cleanse us from all | |
sickness--bodily, and (adds St. James) spiritual. "And if he have | |
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." | |
For this latter purpose, there are two Scriptural requirements: | |
_Confession_ and _Intercession_. For it follows: "Confess your faults | |
one to another, and pray for one another that ye may be healed". Thus | |
it is with Unction as with other Sacraments; with the "last" as with | |
the first--special grace is attached to special means. The Bible says | |
that, under certain conditions, oil and prayer together will effect | |
more than either oil or prayer apart; that oil without prayer cannot, | |
and prayer without oil will not, win the special grace of healing | |
guaranteed to the use of oil and prayer together. | |
In our days, the use of anointing with prayer is (in alliance with, and | |
in addition to, Medical Science) being more fully recognized. "The | |
Prayer of Faith" is coming into its own, and is being placed once more | |
in proper position in the {163} sphere of healing; _anointing_ is being | |
more and more used "according to the Scriptures". Both are being used | |
together in a simple belief in revealed truth. It often happens that | |
"the elders of the Church" are sent for by the sick; a simple service | |
is used; the sick man is anointed; the united "Prayer of Faith" (it | |
_must_ be "of Faith") is offered; and, if it be good for his spiritual | |
health, the sick man is "made whole of whatsoever disease he had". | |
God give us in this, as in every other Sacrament, a braver, quieter, | |
more loving faith in His promises. The need still exists: the grace is | |
still to be had. | |
_If our love were but more simple,_ | |
_We should take Him at His word;_ | |
_And our lives would be all sunshine_ | |
_In the sweetness of our Lord._ | |
[1] Article XXV. | |
[2] "Forbes on the Articles" (xxv.). | |
[3] "Institution of a Christian Man." | |
[4] In the Greek Church, seven, or at least three, Priests must be | |
present. | |
{165} | |
INDEX. | |
A. | |
Absolution, 149. | |
Adoption, 76. | |
Affusion, 65. | |
Altar, 86. | |
Amendment, 156. | |
Anointing, 104, 158. | |
Aspersion, 65. | |
Augustine, St., 3, 12, 13, 49. | |
B. | |
Baptism, Sacrament of, 63. | |
Forms of administration, 65. | |
Ministry of, 65. | |
Bible, the, names of, 26. | |
Inspiration of, 34. | |
Interpretation of, 23. | |
MSS., 27. | |
Versions, 32. | |
Bishops, 124. | |
Their Confirmation, 127. | |
" Consecration, 127. | |
" Election, 126. | |
" Homage, 128. | |
" Nomination, 126. | |
Books, the Church's, 21 | |
Breviary, 44. | |
Bright, Dr., 8. | |
C. | |
Chrism, 67. | |
Christian name, 73. | |
Church, the, names of-- | |
Catholic, 2. | |
Church of England, 12. | |
Established, 7. | |
National, 4. | |
Primitive, 17, | |
Protestant, 18. | |
Reformed, 14. | |
Clergymen, 134. | |
Communion, Holy, 82. | |
Confession, 145. | |
Confirmation, 94. | |
Age, 101. | |
Essentials, 103. | |
Names of, 104. | |
New name at, 73. | |
Sacrament of completion, 93. | |
Consecration, 83, 91. | |
Consignation, 68. | |
Consubstantiation, 84. | |
Criticism, 36. | |
Higher, 36. | |
Historical, 36. | |
Lower, 36. | |
D. | |
Deacons, ordination of, 139. | |
Age of, 139. | |
Laity and responsibility, 140. | |
Preparation of, 140. | |
Direction, 153. | |
Discipline, 54. | |
Dissenters and Confirmation, 99. | |
E. | |
Election, 78. | |
Endowments, 11. | |
Established Church, 7. | |
Eucharist, 81. | |
Extreme Unction, 160. | |
F. | |
Faith and Prayer with oil, 162. | |
G. | |
God-parents, 65. | |
Gospels, the, 44. | |
Gradual, the, 44. | |
H. | |
Holy Orders, 123. | |
Homage of Bishops, 128. | |
I. | |
Illingworth, Dr., 61. | |
Immersion, 65, 67. | |
Indulgences, 155. | |
Inspiration, 34. | |
Interpretation of Scripture, 33. | |
J. | |
Jurisdiction, 129. | |
K. | |
Kings and Bishops, 126, 128. | |
L. | |
Laity responsible for ordination of deacons, 140. | |
Lesser Sacraments, 92. | |
Liddon, Dr., 143. | |
Lightfoot, Bishop, 124. | |
Liturgy, 81. | |
M. | |
Manual, the, 44. | |
Manuscripts of the Bible, 26. | |
Marriage, 106. | |
A Sacrament, 107, 110. | |
Affinity, 116. | |
Age, 117. | |
By banns, 118. | |
By licence, 119. | |
Consanguinity, 116. | |
Deceased wife's sister, 117. | |
Divorce, 108. | |
False names, 121. | |
In registry office, 110. | |
Who for, 107, 113, 116. | |
Mass, 81. | |
Matter, 61. | |
Minister, 132. | |
Missal, the, 43. | |
N. | |
Name, Christian, 73. | |
Nonconformists and Holy Communion, 99. | |
O. | |
Oil, Holy, 159. | |
Orders, Holy, 123. | |
Bishops, 124. | |
Deacons, 139. | |
Indelibility of, 136. | |
Priests, 130. | |
P. | |
Parson, 133. | |
Penance, 145. | |
Perpetuation, Sacraments of, 93. | |
Pontifical, the, 43. | |
Prayer Book, 40. | |
Its contents, 50. | |
" preface, 47. | |
" title, 42. | |
Priesthood, 130. | |
Primitive Church, 7. | |
Protestant Church, 18. | |
R. | |
Reconciliation, ministry of, 145. | |
Recovery, Sacrament of, 93, 145. | |
Reformed Church, 14. | |
Regeneration, 75. | |
Revelation, 37. | |
S. | |
Sacraments, 58. | |
Their names, 62. | |
" nature, 60. | |
" number, 59. | |
The Blessed Sacrament, 81. | |
The lesser, 92. | |
Sacrifice, 82, 87. | |
Sanday, Dr., 35. | |
Scriptures, the, 26. | |
Sects, 9. | |
Spiritualities and Temporalities, 128. | |
Sponsors, 65. | |
Stubbs, Bishop, 8, 10. | |
Supper, the Lord's, 82. | |
T. | |
Table, the Holy, 88. | |
Threefold Ministry, 124. | |
Transubstantiation, 83, 84. | |
Trine immersion, 67. | |
U. | |
Unction, Extreme, 160. | |
Unction, Holy, 159. | |
W. | |
Word of God, 31. | |
ABERDEEN: THE UNIVERSITY PRESS | |
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Church: Her Books and Her | |
Sacraments, by E. E. Holmes | |
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