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 theTable of Feasts and Fasts, it lays down one principle which underlies all bodily and spiritual discipline—the need of training to obtain self-control. Theprinciplelaid 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 toritual. I am ordered to stand when praising, to kneel when praying. The underlyingprincipleis 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. Theprinciplelaid 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 principlewhich 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]
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, todo 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] Fromvulgus, a crowd.
[4] Cf. Acts iv. 24, "They lifted up their voiceswith one accord".
[5] The wordMass, which has caused such storms of controversy, originally meant adismissalof 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 publishedin extensoin 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.
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 Latinsacrare(fromsacer), sacred.[1] The Sacraments are the sacredmediathrough which the soul of man is fed with the grace of God.
We may think of them under three heads:—their number; their nature; their names.
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 "TheBible," and "ThePrayerBook," 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 aregeneraliter, i.e. foralland not only forspecialstates (such as Holy Orders): they are "foreveryman 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.
"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]
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 callSacramentallaws. 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.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]
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, avoluntaryoath; (3) then theexactedoath 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".
Consider, What it is;What it does;How it does it.
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,"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 areessential. Other things may, or may not, be edifying; they are not essential; they are matters of ecclesiastical regulation, not of Divine appointment. Thus, aPriestis 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 aPriest"[2] a Deacon may baptize, and if the child isin extremis, any one, of either sex, may baptize.
Again,Sponsorsare 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 toCeremonial. 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 byImmersion,Aspersion, orAffusion.
Immersion (in-mergere, to dip into) is the original and primitive form of administration.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 Greekbaptizo, 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 benoted 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 theChrisome[6] orChrism, 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]
Another ancient custom was to give the newly baptizedmilk 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,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:the National Church decides how best to secure and safeguard these essentials for her ownUse.
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 accordingtothis 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 ofsins". 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 desiringto 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 childrenwho arebaptized, dying before they commitactual 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 whoarebaptized—"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 limitthe 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.
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 baptizedin 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 theirChristian 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.
"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 wellas 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".
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 hisadoption. 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. Hebecomes 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 isthe 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.
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, orex, out; andlego, 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 thegoverned. 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?
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 ofsight. It is belief in the unseen, not in the non-existent. We hope for that we see not.[18] Themodeof 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 orGodsib, i.e. God relation.
[4] Cf. Rom. vi. 4; Eph. v. 26.
[5]TrineImmersion, 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] FromChrisma, 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 aChrisome-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.