Bicknell on Article XXV: Of the Sacraments

unity of the Church is based upon absolutism. Every kind of power is derived from a single head, the Pope. On the Catholic view the unity of the Church is that of a bond of love which unites a variety of free and living wills. Every element in the Church has its part.* The Pope is only one among many of the officers of the Church. On the Roman theory unity is, as it were, imposed from without by external authority ; on the Catholic theory it is evolved from within, as the spontaneous product of the one life that works in all the members of the Body of Christ. We believe that neither historically nor theo- logically can the Papal theory of unity be justified by an appeal to Scripture, and therefore we are free to reject it without forfeiting our Catholic inheritance. On the whole question see : Puller, The Primitive Saints and the See of Rome, or (for a short treatment) The Relation of the English Church to Monarchical Claims of the Roman See. Salmon, Infallibility of the Church, Lects. XVIII.-X XIII. For a shorter statement : Gore, R.C. Claims, cc. v.-viiI. or Browne, C.H.S. Lectures, vol. i. Lect. IV.

On the Vatican Council of 1870 and previous events : ‘Janus,’ The Pope and the Council.

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 in- visibly 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, Bap- tism, and theSupper of the Lord.

Those five commonly called Sacraments, that is to say, Confirmation, Penance, Or- ders, 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

De Sacramentis.

Sacramenta, a Christo insti- tuta, non tantum sunt notae professionis Christianorum, sed certa quaedam potius testi- monia, et efficacia signa gratiae atque bonae in nos voluntatis Dei, per quae invisibiliter ipse in nos operatur, nostramque fidem in se non solum excitat, verum etiam confirmat.

Duo a Christo Domino nos- tro in Evangelio instituta sunt Sacramenta: scilicet, Baptis- mus, et Coena Domini.

Quinque illa vulgo nomi- nata Sacramenta: _ scilicet, confirmatio, poenitentia, ordo, matrimonium, et extrema unc- tio, pro Sacramentis Hvan- gelicis habenda non sunt, ut quae, partim a prava Apostolo- rum imitatione profluxerunt, partim vitae status sunt in Scripturis quidem probati: sed sacramentorum eandem cum Baptismo et Coena Do-

hike nature of Sacraments with Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, for that they have not any visible sign or cere- mony 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 re- ceive them unworthily pur- chase to themselves damnation, as St. Paul saith.

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mini rationem non habentes, ut quae signum aliquod visi- bile, seu caeremoniam, a Deo institutam non habeant. Sacramenta non in hoc instituta sunt a Christo ut spectarentur, aut circumfer- rentur, sed ut rite illis utere- mur, et in his duntaxat qui

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tionem (ut inquit Paulus) sibi ipsis acquirunt.

This is one of those Articles in which large and important alterations

Notes

• Cp. Gore, B.C. Claims, c. vii. ‘The original idea of the Episcopate would have secured for the Church a duly representative government and would have provided, by the confederation of relatively independent Churches, a system of checks upon one-sided local tendencies. The Papacy represents the triumph of Imperial absolutism over representative, constitutional authority, and of centralization over consentient witness and co-operation.’ The Eastern Churcnes on the whole stand for the older view of confederation.