Chapter 11. — The Number and Nature of The Sacraments.

BOOK 2. — THE CHRISTIAN SACRAMENTS.

CHAPTER 11. — THE NUMBER AND NATURE OF THE

SACRAMENTS.

CHRISTIANITY, when compared with the Mosaic institution by which it was preceded, is emphatically a spiritual dispensation. Its external religious services are simple, and its rites and ceremonies are neither numerous nor burdensome. It is universally admitted by Protestants that the sacramental ordinances of the Christian Church are but two — Baptism, and the Lord’s-supper.

The Roman Catholics, who have deluged the Church with so many superstitious rites and ceremonies, have added to the two sacramental ordinances of the New Testament, five others — Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction; but as none of these are presented in Scripture as sacraments, and as they are destitute in their nature of the essential characteristics of such ordinances, presenting no visible sign or seal of covenant relation or spiritual grace, we pass them without farther notice.

The word musthrion “means, in the New Testament, either secret — something unknown till revealed — or the spiritual import of an emblem or type.” The word in Latin is sacramentum, which means a solemn religious ceremony, or oath.

There are three leading views as to the import of the Christian sacraments.

1. The Roman Catholics teach that the sacraments contain the grace they signify, and that this grace is communicated to the recipient, provided it be not prevented by a mortal sin on the part of the individual receiving it, and provided, also, that the priests administering “have an intention of doing what the Church doeth, and doth intend to do.” It will be perceived that this theory gives to the sacraments a divine and saving efficacy, independent of faith, or any good disposition, or moral qualification whatever (a mortal sin excepted), on the part of the recipient. A doctrine so absurd as this can have no Scripture for its support, and, of course, must ground its claims wholly upon the traditions of a superstitious Church.

2. The second view of the subject is that maintained by Socinians, and more or less followed by Arians, Unitarians, Universalists, and even too much favored by some Protestants having higher claims to orthodoxy. This theory does not allow any essential difference between a sacrament and any other religious rite or ceremony; the only peculiarity of a sacrament, according to this scheme, being its emblematic character, representing spiritual grace by visible signs, and being a memorial of past events. Hence, according to this theory, a sacrament is merely a help to the exercise of faith and pious meditation, and a means of promoting the graces of Christian character.

3. The third view is that entertained by the great body of orthodox Protestants. While it admits and contends for all that the second theory implies, it maintains that a Christian sacrament has yet a deeper and more comprehensive import. The true meaning of a sacrament is well expressed in our sixteenth Article of Religion, thus:

“Sacraments ordained of Christ are not only badges or tokens of Christian men’s profession, but rather they are certain signs of grace, and God’s good will toward 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 substantially agrees with the creeds of orthodox Protestants generally. Accordingly it appears that Christian sacraments are —

1. Ordinances of Christ. They are institutions of his own express appointment. At the close of the Passover he ordained the “Supper,” administering to the “twelve” the “bread” and the “wine,” saying, “This do in remembrance of me.” In the great commission he instituted the Christian Baptism, saying, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them,” etc.

2. They are signs. They are visible emblems of internal spiritual grace. The baptismal water points us to the corruption and depravity of our nature, which needs cleansing, and to the fountain of grace by which we may be washed and purified. The bread and the wine direct our faith to the atonement of Christ — to his broken body and shed blood — exhibiting his redeeming mercy and love in suffering for sinners, that he might bring them to God.