The distinction may be made dearer by the follow- ing illustrations : To baptize is not a ceremony, but a necessary church act ; but the use of a cope and sur- plice, of a silver baptisnud cup and bowl, of certain liturgically prescribed words, the laying on of the hands, the sign of tlie cross— these constitute ceremo- ny. Again, we celebrate the Lord's Supper in obedi- enoe to Christ's command, but ceremony prescribes how we shall ftimish a table, as a New Testament al- tar ; what kind of vessels we shall use ; whether, like the Lutherans, we shall give the wqfer to each com- municant, with the same words, or, like the Reformed, shall cut the bread, etc. ; whether the communicants shall kneel or not, etc These examples show that what is necessary and what is vduntaiy, what is di- vinely enjoined and what is pleasing to man, the ker- nel and the shell, cannot be mechanically separated; and that, tiiough some ceremony enters into all relig- ious services, it should never be mere empty, unnfean- ing form. What are called in public life court cere- monials are indeed such, but the minister of the Gospel may not be merely a master of ceremonies. In judicial proceedings ceremony may have real significance : e. g. in the taking of oath, the raised hand and set form of words, the assumption of a black cap by the judge when pronoundng sentence of death, and the breaking of a staff before the execution, non-essential, yet syoft- bolic acts, powerfully infiuence the imagination.
The application of the term ceremony to the rites of Christian baptism, marriage, burial, etc. is repug- nant to our feelings, as implying excessive formality. The Socinians alone call baptism and the Lord's Sup- per ceremonies, regarding them as essentially unmean- ing observances, ^ough enjoined by Christ. On the other hand, the Roman Catholic and High-Church view assigns to certain ceremonial acts somewhat of saving efficacy, to attain which duly authorized forms must be observed. The evangelical Protestant, eschewing dtiier extreme, accepts as hdps in the Christian life such ritual forms as by their outward correspondence with the religious idea tend to edify ; but he does not trust in them as having power to save ; for him, fiur more important than sprinkled water, folded hands, chrism, or holy yessd, is the Word qfGodj understood
CEREMONY
190
CERINTHUS
by an, And pointing him to the sacrifice of Christ as his hope and salvation. We see, therefore, that the term ceremony is less frequently applicable to the ser- vices of the Protestant than to those of the Roman Catholic or Greek Charch ; and, indeed, in this sense the word b rather foreign to Protestant ecclesiastical and scientific language.
The Reformers were not panctilioas in this respect, however; but, in their symbolical books, used cere- mony as synonymous with rktu ecdetiatiiauj and named, as such, ordo kctiomim, oraUomtm, vetUtiu eccl^ ticuHcua et aHa tmUia {Apol. Conf, xH ; Hase, Jjibri 8ymb, p. 250). Frequently ceremony was confounded with tradUionei^ and what holds good of these applies also to it. Nevertheless, a clear perception of the im- port of ceremony, and its distinction from the essential church act, is shown in their doctrine that it is not ^^per $e cidhu divimu out aliqua taJUempan divimi cuU tut'' (Form, Concord, EpU, cap. x, p. 651), and that no general conformity therein is required by the practice of the ancient Church ; and of more importance still, that no justifying or saving power belongs to the per- formance of ceremonial acts {Apol, viii, p. 206. Pao^ lus ideo damnat Mosaiclis ceremonias, sicut traditiones damnat, quia existimabantur esse opera, qnas meren- tur jnstitiam coram Deo). If sudi an opinion of their value obtains, they must be abandoned (Lather, Tisi^reden, th. xi, cap. 10, 8). So we must not, for the sake <k onr ease or peaoe, take part in ceremonies which conscience disapproves, to effect the true aim of all ceremonies ; i. e. the teaching the ignorant and pro- ducing harmony of worship. If those in use foil, the Church may and should establish others; so that, on the one hand, the people lack not those seemly forms, which justly apprehended, **do serve to a decent order and godly discipline," and, on the other, be not so overburdened or misled by them as '* in the bondage of the shadow" to lose "the freedom of the sphit" (^Preface to EngUsh Prayer^hook),
The Articles of Religion of the Church of England declare that '^the Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies" (Art. XX) : and " every particular Church hath authority to ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies, etc." The Methodist Episcopal and Pro- testant Episcopal churches have similar articles. ** If our reasonable service to God as Christians implies certain external acts of worship, these external acts must he performed after an external manner — ^that is to say, there mutt he certain forms and ceremonies in our divine worship. And those sects, like the Quakers, who have pretended to deny this &ct, have proved, by their own quaint and peculiar ceremonies, that tome- thing of the tort it needfiU even to their foim of Chris- tianity. But as it is needful, so likewise is it advan- tageous to observe decent and orderly ceremonies in religion." Without such institutions, religion might be preserved, indeed, by a few of superior understand- ing and of strong powers of reflection, but among man- kind in general all trace of it would soon be lost. When the end for which they aie appointed is kept in view, and the simple examples of the New Testament are observed, they are of vast importance to the pro- duction both of pious feelings and of virtuous conduct ; but there has constantly been a propensity in the hu- man race to mistake the means for the end, and to con- sider themselves as moral and religious when they scrupulously observe what was intended to produce morality and religion. The reason is obvious : cere- monial observances can be performed without any great sacrifice of propensities and vices ; they are pal- pable ; when they are observed by men who, in the tenor of public life, do not act immorally, they are re- garded by others as indicating high attainments in virtue ; and through that self-deceit which so wonder- | fully misleads the reason, and inclines it to minister to the passions which it should restrain, men have them- ' selves become persuaded that their acknowledgment .