§ 91. THE SACKAMENTS IN GENERAL. i75
gerations. He defines a sacrament to be a visible sign of an invisible grace or divine blessing.' Two constituents, therefore, belong to such a holy act : the outward symbol or sensil)le element (the signurriy also sacramentum in the stricter sense)^ which is visible to the eye, and the inward grace or divina virtue (the res or virtus sacramenti)^ w^hich is an object of faith.' The two, the sign and the thing signified, are united by the word of consecration.' From the general spirit of Augustine's doctrine, and several of his expressions, we must infer that he considered divine institution by Christ to be also a mark of such holy ordinance.* But subsequently this important point retired fi'om the consciousness of the church, and admitted the widening of the idea, and the increase of the number, of the sacraments.
Augustine was also the first to frame a distinct doctrine of the ojperation of the sacraments. In his view the sacraments work grace or condenmation, blessing or curse, according to the condition of the receiver.^ They operate, therefore, not
' Signum visibile, or forma visibilis gratias invisibilis. Augustine calls the sacraments also verba visibilia, signacula corporalia, signa rerum spiritualium, signacula reram divinarum visibilia, etc. See Hahn, 1. c. p. 11 ff. The definition is not adequate. At least a third mark must be added, not distinctly mentioned by Augustine, viz., the divina institutio, or, more precisely, a mandatum Christi. This is the j)oint of difference between the Catholic and Protestant conceptions of the sacrament. The Roman and Greek churches take the divine institution in a much broader sense, while Protestantism understands by it an express command of Christ in the Xew Testament, and consequently limits the nmnber of sacraments to baptism and the Lord's Supper, since for the other five sacraments the Catholic church can show no such command. Yet confirmation, ordination, and marriage have practically acquired a sacramental import in Protestantism, especially in the Lutheran and Anglican churches.
■^ Augustine, De catechiz. rudibus, § 50 : " Sacramenta signacula quidem rerum divinarum esse visibilia, sed res ipsas invisibiles in eis honorari." Serm. ad pop 292 (torn. V. p. 770) : " Dicuntur sacramenta, quia in eis aliud videtur, aliud intelligitur. Quod videtur, speciem habet corporalem ; quod intelligitur, fructum habct Bpiritalem." '
' Augustine, In Joann. Evang. tract. 80 : " Detrahe verbimi, et quid est aqua [the baptismal water] nisi aqua ? Accedit verbum ad elementum, et Jit sacramentum, etiam ipsum tamquam visibile verbum."
♦ Comp. Epist. 82, §§ 14 and 15 ; Ep. 138, § 7 ; De vera relig. c. 16, § 33 ; and Hahn, p. 154,
* Comp. the proof passages in Hahn, p. 279 ff. Thus Augustine says, e. g., D«
476 THIKD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
immediately and magicaHy, but mediately and etliically, not ex ojpere operato^ in the latei- scholastic language, but throi.gh the medium of the active faith of the receiver. They certainly have, as divine institutions, an objective meaning in them selves, like the life-principle of a seed, and do not depend on the subjective condition of the one who administers them (as the Donatists taught) ; but they reach with blessing only those who seize the blessing, or take it from the ordinance, in faith ; they bring curse to those who unworthily administer or receive them. Faith is necessary not as the efficient cause, but as the subjective condition, of the saving operation of the offered grace.' Augustine also makes a distinction between a transient and a permanent effect of the sacrament, and thereby prepares the way for the later scholastic doctrine of the character indelehilis. Baptism and ordination impress an indelible character, and therefore cannot be repeated. He is fond of comparing baptism with the badge of the imperial service,^ which the soldier always retains either to his honor or to his shame. Hence the Catholic doctrine is : Once baptized, always baptized ; once a priest, always a priest. ^Nevertheless a baptized person, or an ordained person, can be excommunicated and eternally lost. The popular opinion in the church already inclined strongly toward the superstitious view of the magical operation of the sacrament, which has since found scholastic expression in tlie opus qperatum theory.
The church fathers with one accord assert a relative (not absolute) necessity of the sacraments to salvation." They saw
bapt. contra Donat. 1. iii. c. 10 (torn. ix. p. 76) : " Sacramento suo divina virtus ad- Bistit sive ad salutem bene utcntium, sive nd pemiciem male utentium." De unit, eccl. c. 21 (torn. ix. p. 256) : " Facile potestis intcUigere ct in bonis esse et in malis Bacramenta divina, sed in illis ad salutem, in malis ad damnalionem."
' Hence the later formula : Fides non facit ut sit sacramentum, sed ut pronlf. Faith does not produce the sacramental blessing, but subjectively receives and appropriates it.
" Stigma militare, character militaris. To this the expression charader indddiilis certainly attaches itself easily, though the docfrine concerning it cannot be traced with certainty back of the thirteentli century. Comp. Hahn, L c. p. 298 ff., whert It is referred to the time of Pope Innocent III.
' Even Augustine, De peccat. merit, et remiss, lib. i. c. 24, § 34: "Prajtcr baptiHmum et participationem mensiE dominica; non solum ad regnum Dei, sed nee ad