sent as existing between faith and the instrument- ality used by our Lord in the perfornnince of His miracles. The faith involved in sacramental obedience is faith, not in outward rites, but in Him by whom these rites were a]>pointed, whose instruments they also are. One particular passage (1 Co I'-'-") is frequently quoted as an indication that St. Paul <lisjpar.-iged Baptism as compared with preaching. Careful examination ol the purpose of that passage leads to a conclusion entirely dill'erent. Had St. Paul not recognized the primary imjiortance of I5aj)tism as the sacra- ment of initiation into the Church, had ho not supposed that his administration of it was more liable tlian his preaching to encourage the party watchword — *I am of Paul,' ho would not have adverted to his apostolic |)ractiee in this connexion. He thanks God that he baptized few of the Corinthians himself, just because he knows the su]ireme incorporating signilicance of that ordin- ance, and perceives the misinterpretation which party-spirit might have put upon any special dili- gence shown by him as a minister of the actual rite of Baptism — ' lest any man should say that ye were baptized into my name' (1 Co 1").
(c) The observance of sacramental rites based itself in the Apostolic Church upon the authority of Christ's institution. The question which concerns us here is not that as to the origin of these rites. The sacraments meet us upon the very threshold of the Apostolic Church ; and the discussion of their institution and of their relation to con- temporary Jewish customs belongs to the province of Gospel study. What we are here concerned with is the authority which secured or sanctioned their observance in the Church. Only one such authority — that of the apostles — can in the first instance be imagined. Whether that authority was official or not, it must still have been etiective. The apostles were believed to know the mind of Christ. They were the companions of His minis- try. They were the witnesses of His resurrection. Without their injunction or approval sacramental observance could not have been introduced. But their authority was not original. It was deriva- tive. They were a.w6<TTo\oi of Christ (Clem. Kom. Ep. ad Cor. i. 42). The things which they taught the Church to observe were the things which Christ commanded. (Mt 28-"). Hence the sacraments must have been supposed to possess the authority of our Lord Himself; and this is the belief upon which sacramental observance was established. Apart •altogether from historical criticism of their con- tents, the Gospels bear testimony to the convictions which held sway in the Apostolic Church. St. Matthew's record (28'""-"), whatever view be taken as to the textually unassailable Trinitarian for- mula, proves that the Christian observance t)f Baptisiu was referred directly to the appointment of our Lord ; and this conclusion is conhrmed both by the description of baptism as 'in (iirl, eis, iv) the name of Jesus Christ ' (Ac 2^ S"" lO^"*, etc.), and by the distinction insisted upon between Christian baptism and the baptism of John (Ac 18" 19^"', He 6-). The combined witness of the Synoptists leaves no doubt that our Lord's own institution was believed to be the origin of the Eucharist. Lk 22'^''- -" may be indebted in some way to 1 Co JJ24. 26. but there is no ground for the conjecture that St. Paiil's account diverges at this point from the tradition of the Church at Jerusalem ; while his own emphatic dodanition — 'I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you ' (v.^) — whether referring to a special revelation or not, indicates clearly the .supreme authority consist- ently presupposed as the foundation of .sacramental observance. More than tlie bare command of Christ was contemidated as investing the sacra-
426
SACllAMENTS
SACKAMENTS
ineiits with their authority. It was His command, Burrounded in either case with circumstances of incomparable solemnity. If St. Mattliew repre- sents tlie belief of the primitive Church, IJaptism was conceived of as an ordinance of the Kisen Lord, delivered by Him on an occasion of tran- scending importance, decreed in the same breath with a claim to universal authority in heaven and on earth, associated with an imperial charge to make disciples of all the nations, and accompanied by a promi.se of His unfailing presence all the numbered days until the completion of the age. If the Synoptists and 1 Co IV^--^ 10'"- " represent the belief of the primitive Church, the Eucharist was conceived of as an ordinance appointed by the Lord upon the eve of His sacrifice and in anticii)a- tion of it, upon an occasion of unique and con- summating intimacy of self-revelation to His disciples, an occasion overshadowed, indeed, by the approaching betrayal and crucifixion, and therefore hlled to overflowing with recollections inexpressibly moving and poignant, but con- secrated also as the inauguration of the present communion of His body and blood, and radiant wth the assurance which it contained of the impending triumph of His Kingdom. The sacra- ments, thus regarded as ' holy ordinances insti- tuted by Christ,' afford an indication that the idea of positive ordinance, side by side with and counter- balancing the idea of individual charismatic free- dom, was part of the essence of Christianity from the tirst. For the new ' way,' Christ had appointed beforehand certain definite rites which all life quickened by the Holy Spirit should observe. And the extraordinary solemnity of circumstance with which their appointment had been empha- sized secured for these observances, even apart from discernment of their meaning or experience of their virtue, and without the original aid of any formulated sacramental theory, the homage of unquestioning practice. The sacraments of Christ may be said to resemble the words of Christ in this, tlial, while tilled liy Him with manifold grace and truth, the wealth of their contents would not be appropriated otherwise than gradually, and at the first, in consequence, their reception rested for its assurance chiefly upon the strength of that sovereign authority to which they owed their promulgation. In the apostolic belief that they were holy ordinances instituted by the Founder and King and Head of the Cliurch we find the one sufficient explanation of their earliest prevalence. The faith of a))ostolic times saw the authority of our Lord's Person standing as fountain-head at the beginnings of sacramental observance ; and, were it not for the demand made upon faith by the miracles of Pentecost and the Resurrection, the crediliility of this historic witness to the actual institution of the sacraments by Christ would never in all probability have been seriously challenged.