axapioría) shows that the Apostle is speaking of the Holy Eucharist, and insisting on the necessity of its being celebrated in the vulgar tongue, that the people may know when and how to make the responses. It is, however, just the Holy Eucharist or Mass which the Roman Canon Law forbids being translated for public use into any other language.

ii. The use of an unknown tongue in Public Worship is also at variance with the custom of the Primitive Church. All the early liturgies were composed in the vernacular tongue of those for whose use they were intended. Those of St. James and St. Chrysostom in Greek, others in Syriac or Coptic. The Greek words Kyrie Eleison, still retained in the Roman Missal, point to the conclusion that the Mass of the Roman Church was originally in Greek, and that its translation into Latin was probably made with the intention of obeying the Apostolic precept, when Greek began to fall into disuse in Rome, and the bulk of the Christian people began to speak Latin. The use of Latin as the vernacular gradually dropped out in Europe during the course of the ninth century, in consequence of the subversion of the Roman Empire. Gregory VII., in the eleventh century, insisted on the use of the Latin Liturgy, in order to support the Papal pretensions. (See "Plain Reasons," etc., § 34.)

ARTICLE XXV.

Of the Sacraments.

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.

There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord.

Those five commonly called Sacraments, that is to say, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction, are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel, being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles, partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures; but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, for that they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God.

The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about, but that we should duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive the same they have a wholesome effect or operation; but they that receive them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation, as Saint Paul saith.

De Sacramentis.

Sacramenta a Christo instituta, non tantum sunt notæ professionis Christianorum, sed certa quædam potius testimonia, et efficacia signa gratiæ atque bonæ in nos voluntatis Dei, per quæ invisibiliter ipse in nos operatur, nostramque fidem in se non solum excitat, verum etiam confirmat.

Duo a Christo Domino nostro in Evangelio instituta sunt Sacramenta: scilicet, Baptismus, et Cœna Domini.

Quinque illa vulgo nominata Sacramenta, scilicet, Confirmatio, Pœnitentia, Ordo, Matrimonium, et Extrema Unctio, pro Sacramentis Evangelicis habenda non sunt, ut quæ partim a prava Apostolorum imitatione profluxerunt, partim vitæ status sunt in Scripturis quidem probati; sed Sacramentorum eandem cum Baptismo et Cana Domini rationem non habentes, ut quæ signum aliquod visibile, seu cæremoniam, a Deo institutam, non habeant.

Sacramenta non in hoc instituta sunt a Christo ut spectarentur, aut circumferrentur, sed ut rite illis uteremur; et in his duntaxat qui digne percipiunt salutarem habent effectum ; qui vero indigne percipiunt, damnationem (ut inquit Paulus) sibi ipsis acquirunt.

THE word Sacramentum originally meant a military oath of allegiance. In a Christian sense the word was applied to those rites by which the Christian is pledged to the service of Christ.

The Christian sacraments are, however, at the same time much more than this. The Article defines sacraments to be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather (1) certain sure witnesses of grace and God's good will; (2) effectual signs (efficacia signa) of grace and God's

good will; that is, means by which (per que, sc. sacramenta) God works invisibly in us.

In other words, sacraments are (1) witnesses or signs of grace, (2) means of grace.

This definition of the Article is therefore in accordance with the definition of the Church Catechism, which declares a sacrament to be (1) an outward visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; (2) a means whereby we receive the same inward and spiritual grace of which it is a sign.

Both the Article and the Catechism, therefore, assert that the sacraments not only signify something, but also convey what they signify.

The Church of England limits the term "Sacrament" to the two rites of which we can say for certain that they were expressly "ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel," that is to say, Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord."

These two positive institutions of our Lord Himself are, and must always be, the chief rites of the Christian Church. No other institutions stand on the same level as these two. Their agreement with this Article's definition of a Sacrament will be proved under Articles XXVII. and XXVIII.

Accordingly the Article goes on to assert that those five commonly called sacraments are not to be counted for sacraments of the Gospel, both for other reasons, and because "they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God."

(1) The first of these five is Confirmation.

This ordinance has so far the nature of a sacrament that it has (1) an outward and visible sign, viz. the laying on of hands; and (2) an inward and spiritual grace, viz. the strengthening grace of God's Holy Spirit. It may therefore be fitly called a Sacramental ordinance. But although sanctioned by Apostolic usage (Acts viii. 14, 17; xix. 1–6), and declared in Scripture to be one of the "first principles" and "foundations" of Christian doctrine (Heb. vi. 1), and always practised in the Church, it has yet not the like nature of a sacrament with Baptism and the Lord's Supper according to the definition just laid down, in that it has no visible sign or ceremony ordained of God.

(2) The next mentioned is Penance.

Penance (Latin, pœnitentia) is in its simplest use synonymous with Repentance. At an early period of Church history it acquired a technical sense, viz. that of public discipline imposed by the Church on offending members. That the English Church recognizes the use of penance in some form is shown by the opening of the Commination service, which describes how in the Primitive Church such persons as stood convicted of notorious sin were at the beginning of Lent put to open penance, and punished in this world, that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord, and expresses a wish that the said discipline might