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THE NATURE AND NUMBER OF THE

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SACRAMENTS

T is one of the most striking miracles of ecclesiastical history that the Anglican Church, at the time of the Reformation, surrounded and invaded by Protestant teachers, should have so largely remained loyal to the faith and practice of Catholic Christendom. This is especially noticeable in her teaching on the sacraments. For it was upon the subject of the sacraments that there was the widest divergence between Catholic and Protestant teaching.

Let us see first what was the teaching of the great Protestant leaders of the Reformation era. Zwingli held the sacraments in the lowest possible esteem. He taught that they were merely signs of a covenant between man and man; they were external things without any spiritual value in themselves, and without any spiritual effect upon those who received them. Luther and Melanchthon held that the sacraments were tokens

of a covenant between God and man, pledges of the truth in the Divine promises of forgiveness, and means of assurance and peace. Their effect was confined to the subjective acts of the individual at the moment of reception, Luther varied in his teaching from time to time; but his permanent belief was that the sacraments were a sort of visible preaching to enkindle faith. Calvin taught that only the elect received Divine grace; and therefore in his opinion the inward grace of the sacrament was divorced from the outward sign. In general, the Protestants held that the sacraments could have merely a subjective effect, and that objectively they were not means of grace at all. The Catholic view was that the sacraments were actual and objective means of grace, effecting what, they signified in the souls of the recipients.

Now let us see what is the teaching of Article XXV in the Prayer Book on the nature of the sacraments. The first paragraph reads as follows: "Sacraments ordained of Christ, be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace and God's good-will towards us, by the which He doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our faith in Him." This

leaves nothing to be desired as a declaration of Catholic doctrine concerning the sacraments.

As to the teaching of the Prayer Book on the number of the sacraments, this same Article goes on to name all the Seven Sacraments of Catholic tradition, and refrains from saying that any of them are to be rejected. If it were the intention of the Church to reject one or more of the seven, this would clearly be the place to say so. What then are these seven Sacraments as named in the Prayer Book? Baptism, the Supper of the Lord, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction.

Now it is perfectly true that the Article does divide them into the two greater and the five lesser sacraments. Baptism and the Supper of the Lord are called the two greater sacraments, because they are generally necessary to salvation,

which means necessary for all states of life or people in general,— and because the Gospel gives us a record of their having been ordained by Christ our Lord. The institution of the five lesser sacraments is not recorded in the Gospel; and these sacraments are adapted to the particular needs of special classes of people: children coming to years of discretion, those repenting of grievous sin, those who are called to the sacred ministry, a man and woman seeking to be united

in wedlock, and those who are seriously sick or in danger of death. These lesser sacraments might be called sacraments of the Church, as distinguished from sacraments of the Gospel: But as our Lord gave His Divine authority to the Church, they come to us really guaranteed by His authority.

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The rest of the language in the Article about the five lesser sacraments is unfortunately ambiguous and obscure. It speaks of them as "being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles, partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures." The use of the word 'partly" is ambiguous, because it may mean that part of the rites connected with each sacrament may have come from the corrupt following of the Apostles, or that one or more out of the five may have come from this corrupt following. If the latter be the one intended, it does not tell which of the sacraments are to be thus singled out for vituperation. The former meaning is the only one that makes sense. For it is historically true that during the middle ages the administration of the sacraments had become cluttered up with all sorts of extraneous rites and ceremonies which often hid rather than expressed the true significance of the sacraments themselves.

Fortunately this article is not the only teaching

of the Prayer Book upon the subject of the sacraments. In the case of three of the five lesser sacraments, we have forms for their administration duly set forth in the Prayer Book; and these forms bear witness to the belief of the Church that in these sacraments there is an outward sign which conveys an inward grace. In Confirmation through the outward sign of the laying on of the Bishop's hands and the form of words accompanying that act, the soul is strengthened with the Holy Ghost the Comforter and given power daily to increase in His seven-fold gifts of grace. In Matrimony, through the outward sign of the giving formal consent and the giving and receiving a ring, and through the Benediction given by the Priest, the man and woman are filled with spiritual benediction and grace, to enable them so to live together in this life that they may in the world to come have life everlasting. In Orders,

to illustrate by the "Form and Manner of Ordering Priests," through the laying on of the Bishop's hands the young deacon receives the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in the Church of God.

The American Prayer Book contains no definite form of absolution suitable for use in the sacrament of Penance. In the English Prayer Book, in the Office for Visitation of the Sick, the sick