Mysteries of God, committed to the stewardship of the Christian Ministry. They are much more than rites and ceremonies. They have the reality after which the pagan mystagogues were dimly feeling, the purification of the soul, the gift of communion with God. The Christian Mysteries mean the dwelling of Christ in his people, the hope of glory. They are the ritual and ceremonial expression of the fulfilment of God's secret purpose from the foundation of the world, the redemption and the sanctification of all men by the Incarnate Word. They are divinely appointed signs of this Redemption that is being wrought, of grace that is being given; and since with God, who calls the things that are not as though they were, to signify that a thing is being done is all one with the doing, they are therefore signs which effect that which they signify.'

In the older Latin version of the Scriptures the Greek word mysterium was rendered, in the whole range of its meaning, by sacramentum. In the later revision, perfected by the labours of St. Jerome, the word mysterium is more commonly retained.2 The former use, however, corresponds to the practice of Latin writers during several centuries. With Tertullian sacramentum nostrum means the Christian religion as a whole. The esoteric tradition which some heretics opposed to the public

1 The habitual use of the word μvoтhpiov and its cognates by the Greek Fathers leaves no room for doubt as to its meaning for Christians. See the examples in Bingham, I. iv., and add to these the Mystagogic Catechism of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, which is instruction for those who are advancing from baptism to τὰ θειότερα μυστήρια.

2 The texts in which the Vulgate has sacramentum are Dan. ii. 18; iv. 6; Tob. xii. 7; Wisd. ii. 22; Eph. i. 9; iii. 3, 9; v. 32; 1 Tim. iii. 16; Rev. i. 20. The selection seems to be quite arbitrary, and does not indicate any appropriation of the word to a specific sense.

teaching of the Church he scornfully calls a "hidden sacrament." The clergy of Rome wrote to St. Cyprian that "the whole sacrament of faith is set forth in the confession of the Name of Christ." By St. Cyprian himself the word is constantly used in this way; the most familiar example being his phrase sacramentum unitatis for the mystery or revealed truth of the unity of the Church. In St. Leo the Great we find the sacrament of the Incarnation, and much later in Isidore of Seville the sacrament of the Trinity. Lactantius uses the word of the truths obscurely revealed in the Sibylline verses.1

Side by side with these expressions we find the word in constant use for the sacred rites of the Church. In either use it is to be regarded purely as the equivalent of mysterium, and its meaning is determined by that of the Greek word, as used in the New Testament. We are not concerned with the sense in which it was employed by Latin writers who were not Christian. For them a sacramentum was either a pledge deposited for surety in a court of justice, or an oath, and especially the soldier's oath of obedience. The former use of the word has coloured some definitions of the Christian Sacraments; the latter, in connection with St. Paul's imagery of the Christian warfare, has afforded opportunities for a play upon words. Neither helps us to understand what meaning the Church of the first age found in the word mysterium. St. Augustine would seem, however, to be indicating a current use of the Latin word where he says that signs or symbolical actions, "when they appertain to Divine things, are called sacramenta." Latin literature yields no example of such use, but it may have been established in

1 Tertull., Apol., c. 15; De Praescr., c. 20, 26. Cypr., Ep., xxx. § 3; De Unit. Eccl., c. 7. Leo M., Serm., xxiv. 4. Isid. Hisp., Contra Iud., i. 4. Lactantius, vii. 24.

the popular language. In that case the appropriation of the word to the Christian Mysteries would seem to show that what was chiefly regarded in them was that element of signification, which underlies the Greek term; and so we are helped to understand the meaning of St. Paul.1

The sacred ceremonies and rites used in the Christian Church are obviously not all of equal importance. St. Augustine observed the fewness of those which are of palmary significance, "Baptism in the Name of the Trinity, the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, and whatever else is appointed in Holy Scripture." To these few the name of Sacrament was gradually restricted. The dividing line was supplied by the emphasis laid upon the doctrine of grace; and those sacraments were distinguished which were expressly connected with the gift of sanctification. Among these Baptism and the Lord's Supper are eminent. The institution of these two alone, with their proper form, is recorded by the holy evangelists, and they have therefore been called by way of distinction the Sacraments of the Gospel. It was long before there was any clear demarcation of other Sacraments. Early in the twelfth century Hugh of St. Victor, in his great work De Sacramentis Christianae Fidei, still adhered to the wider sense of the word. Some few years later Peter Lombard specified seven-the rites of Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, the Unction of the Sick, Ordination, and Marriage-as being in a peculiar sense the Sacraments of the New Testament. The dominating influence of his work as a text-book in the mediaeval schools secured the general acceptance of this classification, which found no less favour in the Eastern Church than in the West, and the meaning of the word Sacrament 1 See Note M.

in common use has been narrowed from its former extension so as to include no other rites but these.1

This distinction of the seven Sacraments, commonly so called, is purely theological. Certain rites are observed to be ordinary means appointed by God for the conveyance to the soul of sanctifying grace. To these the general term mystery or sacrament is reserved in a special sense. The distinction is convenient so long as we are careful to remember the more general sense of the word. The seven are specially marked, by the evidence of Holy Scripture and Christian tradition, as means of grace.

The elementary doctrine of the Sacraments, thus narrowly understood, is very simple. Treated theologically it is the subject of endless complications. These we put aside for the most part, noting only some questions which are practically unavoidable.

The first is the question of matter and form. A Sacrament, being a sign, must be an object of sense. In what does the sensible sign consist? St. Augustine says, in well-known words which will hardly bear translation, "accedit verbum ad elementum, et fit sacramentum." He is speaking of baptism. The water of baptism, in itself, is mere water and nothing more. But when used in conjunction with the "word of faith," the declaration of what is done in the Name of the Holy Trinity, it has power to cleanse the soul. The element and the word together make the Sacrament. In a later

1 Aug., Ep. 54, ad Ianuar., § 1: "Sacramentis numero paucissimis, observatione facillimis, significatione praestantissimis, societatem novi populi colligavit, sicut est baptismus Trinitatis nomine consecratus, communicatio Corporis et Sanguinis ipsius, et si quid aliud in Scripturis canonicis commendatur." Petr. Lomb., Sent., iv. § 1. Aug., Tract. 80, in Ioan., § 3. Commenting on John xv. 3,

2

age this sentence was read as describing the nature of a Sacrament in general. An element of some kind, and a word, that is to say, a fixed formula, were taken to be essential. When the peripatetic philosophy invaded the schools, and everything existing in nature was analysed into matter and form, the constitution of a Sacrament seemed to be assured; the element was the matter, the word was the form. Great ingenuity was spent in applying this principle to the other Sacraments, with doubtful success. As eventually modified, however, the distinction has become useful, and is now thoroughly established in theological language. By the matter of a Sacrament we understand either a tangible thing or an action, as water, oil, or the imposition of hands. Taken in itself this thing, or this action, may have various significations; its signification in the Sacrament is determined by accompanying words, which are called the form. The two together make up the sensible and intelligible sign which is the Sacrament.

For such a sign to be an effectual conveyance of grace it must be appointed by the Author of grace; in the words of the English Catechism, it must be "ordained by Christ himself." This ordinance may be either specific, as in Baptism and to a less degree in the Lord's Supper, or generic, as perhaps in the case of Ordination, the rite or outward sign of which, so far as we know, was not particularly specified. The determination of

he says, "Quare non ait, mundi estis propter baptismum, quo loti estis, sed ait, propter verbum, quod locutus sum vobis, nisi quia et in aqua verbum mundat? Detrahe verbum, et quid est aqua nisi aqua? Accedit verbum ad elementum, et fit sacramentum, etiam ipsum tanquam visibile verbum. . . . Hoc est verbum fidei quod praedicamus, quo sine dubio, ut mundare possit, consecratur et baptismus."