Christopher Wordsworth on the Sacraments

The virtue and efficacy of the Christian Sacraments are derived from Christ, the Eternal Son of God—God of God; Very God of Very God—Who took our Nature in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and became Very Man, having a real human body, soul, and spirit; and Who joined our Nature for ever to the Divine Nature in His own Person, and died for us on the Cross. From the pierced side of Christ, sleeping on the Cross in death, as from a divine fountain, the Life of the Church flowed in the streams of the two Sacraments.

The Apostle and beloved disciple St. John, who declares in his Gospel more fully than any other of the Evangelists, the Godhead and Manhood of Christ, has also stated more clearly than any other the nature of the two Sacraments, Baptism and the Holy Communion, which receive their efficacy from the Incarnation and Death of Christ, Very God and Man. St. John does not mention the Institution of either Sacrament; and with good reason. The facts of their Institution had been already sufficiently recorded in the three preceding Gospels, and St. John’s silence is an eloquent testimony to the truth and adequacy of that Evangelical record of their Institution.

But he descends more deeply into the profound mystery of their nature and inner working. First he states their necessity wherever they may be had. He does this by reciting the same divine preamble Amen, Amen, or Verily, Verily, from the mouth of Christ, which ushers in His own solemn declaration concerning each of the two Sacraments, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except— (John 3:5; 6:53).

In the one case, when speaking of the Sacrament of Baptism, Christ uses the singular number (“I say unto thee” and “Except a man be born of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God”), because it is necessary for every one singly and individually to be regenerate, or born anew, by water and the Holy Ghost, in the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, if he is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; as it was needful for every Israelite singly to be circumcised, if he would not be cut off from God’s people (Gen. 17:14). And in speaking of the other Sacrament He uses the plural number, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son, and except ye drink His Blood, ye have no life in you (plural),” because that Sacrament is not to be received singly, but its reception is a federal act, to be done in society with others. It is a Holy Communion, in which the faithful are partakers (as in the Hebrew Peace-offering) with God, and with one another, and by which they dwell in Him Who is God, and He dwells in them. And it has an analogy also to the eating of the Passover, which was an act of communion, and was necessary for every Israelite (Exod. 12:3, 4, 24, 23).

In Baptism every one is engrafted singly into Christ’s mystical Body; in the Holy Communion, His faithful members, having been already engrafted into that Body by Baptism, receive pardon, grace, refreshment, strength, pledges of resurrection and immortality by loving communion with Him Who is “the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25; cp. John 6:54), and Whose “Blood cleanseth from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

By two miracles, recorded in St. John’s Gospel in connexion with two pools of water,—Bethesda and Siloam,—our Lord illustrates His own working in the Sacrament of Baptism.

He shows by the miracle at Bethesda that not the element of water, but His own divine power working in the element, is the energizing cause of the virtue in Baptism; by His Divine Word He healed the impotent man at that pool of water, without the water itself (John 5:8, 11).

But at the other pool, that of Siloam, where He healed the blind man by means of the element of water in the pool, to which He sent the blind man, and to which the blind man went in faith, He showed that when He has been pleased to annex the virtue of regeneration to the element, as He has done in the Sacrament of Baptism by His own divine institution of the Sacrament, it is necessary to comply with His appointment, and to resort with faith and obedience to that Sacrament which He has vouchsafed to appoint to be the means of regeneration to us, and which is therefore called in Holy Scripture the “laver of regeneration” (Titus 3:5).^[1]

St. John in his Gospel describes what he heard and saw when our Lord was hanging dead upon the Cross. One of the soldiers pierced His side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water (John xix. 34). The early Church, and the best Divines of our own Church, and our own Church herself in her Baptismal Office:^[2] invite us to regard that act as representative of the streams of life, and of gracious pardon, love and cleansing, which flow, in the Blessed Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Communion, from the wounded side of Christ, God and Man, sleeping in death on the Cross. “The Church,” (says Richard Hooker, V. lvi. 7,)” is in Christ, as Eve was in Adam, yea by grace we are every one of us in Christ and in His Church, as by nature we are in those our first parents. God made Eve of the rib of Adam; and His Church He formeth out of the very wounded and bleeding side of the Son of Man. His Body crucified, and His Blood shed for the life of the World, are the true elements of that heavenly being which maketh us such as He is of Whom we come.” And this Life from Him is communicated to us by means of the Blessed Sacraments instituted by Him for that purpose. “Haec sunt gemina Ecclesiae Sacramenta,” says S. Augustine.^[3]

The earliest Christian treatise concerning the Sacrament of Holy Baptism is by Tertullian, writing about the close of the second century. He thus speaks,^[4] “Happy is the Sacrament of Water, in which we are washed from our old sins, and are liberated into Eternal Life!” “Nos pisciculi secundum ιχθυν nostrum Jesum Christum in aqua nascimur^[5] , nec aliter quam in aqua salvi sumus.” We are born in water, and are kept alive in it, i.e. by being faithful to our Baptismal Vow. “Nothing,” he says, “so hardens men’s minds as the visible simplicity of God’s works, and the magnificence of their effects. So it is in Baptism. There is no pomp or pageantry in it, no sumptuousness. A person goes down into the water, and rises up from it not much changed in appearance, and therefore men will not believe that he has become an heir of immortality. Is it not marvellous (they say) that Death should be dissolved in the Font? Yes, certainly it is; and let us believe it the more because it is marvellous. For what ought God’s works to be, but beyond all marvel? We marvel, because we believe. Infidelity wonders and believes not. To Unbelief all simple things are vain, and great things are impossible.”

He then refers to the operation of God the Holy Spirit at Creation, moving on the face of the waters, which was the womb of the Earth. So it is in Holy Baptism (c. 3). The Holy Ghost broods over the Water in the Font, and imparts to it its regenerative virtue. After Baptism comes the Laying on of Hands, for the giving of the Holy Ghost. And he refers to the laying on of the hands of the Patriarch Jacob, in the figure of the Cross, on the heads of Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh (c. 8).

He refers also to the history of the Flood, and to the admission of Noah and his family into the Ark,^[6] the type of the Church, and their salvation by water; and the message of peace by the Dove, the figure of the Holy Ghost. He adverts to the deliverance of God’s people Israel from Egypt and Pharaoh bypassing through the Red Sea, the figure of Baptism.^[7] “Nunquam sine aqua Christus:” Water was at His Baptism and First Miracle, and on the Cross, when Water flowed from His Side (c. 10). Tertullian does not say that the element of Water gives life and pardon and grace. No; God alone does this; but He is pleased to give them to the faithful and penitent by means of Water in the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, which Christ has instituted for that purpose, and which He commanded His disciples to administer to all Nations taught by His Word, Who said, “Except a man be born of Water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (c. 13). We have One God, One Baptism (he says, c. 15), and One Church in Heaven. The ministry of Baptism is to be exercised by the “Summus Sacerdos, Episcopus,” and by Priests and Deacons, but not without the authority of the Bishop.

As to Lay Baptism, Tertullian adds (c. 17), “The Lord’s Word ought not to be hidden by any one. And, in like manner, Baptism, which is God’s muster-roll, may be dispensed by all; but since the Laity ought to be distinguished by that modesty which is the mark of their superiors, let them not usurp the Episcopal Office. Emulation is the mother of Schism. Let it suffice them to exercise this ministry in cases of necessity, when the circumstances of place, time, or person require it. Easter and Pentecost and the Lord’s Day are most seasonable for Baptism. But every day is the Lord’s; every hour, every season is suitable for Baptism. Let adults, who are to be baptized, fast and pray, and confess their sins, and make reparation for them. After Baptism they will be tempted as the Lord was. Watch, therefore, and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Pray—pray more fervently than before. And when ye pray, remember me, Tertullian, a sinner.” Tertullian expresses his own private opinion that Baptism had better be deferred till after the time of infancy; but S. Cyprian and the sixty-six Bishops in Synod with him, A.d. 253, were in favour of Infant Baptism,^[8] the necessity of which they grounded on the doctrine of Original Sin and on our Lord’s words, Luke 9:56, and by reference to the admission of Hebrew infants into covenant with God by circumcision on the eighth day after birth.

To pass from Baptism to Holy Communion. After the miracle at the Pool of Bethesda, our Lord crossed to the other side of the Lake, and fed the five thousand men, by the ministry of His disciples, with five barley loaves and two small fishes, which had been blessed by Him and distributed to His disciples, and were miraculously multiplied by Him so as to feed that great multitude, and to leave a residue of twelve baskets full, much exceeding the original supply.

This miracle was at the season of the Passover—of that Passover (it is most probable) which preceded by one year that Passover at which He instituted the Holy Communion, the evening before His Passion, when He said to His assembled disciples, “Take, eat, this is My Body,” “Drink ye all of this,” and thus explained the prophetic meaning of what He had done in the miracle.

On the morrow after that miraculous feeding of the five thousand He preached a sermon in the Synagogue at Capernaum, and explained the spiritual nature and significance of that wonderful and merciful act.

Making a retrospective reference to that Miracle, and also well knowing “what He would do” and would suffer at that same season in the next year, and having a divine prospect of it before Him, He declared the necessity of partaking of that Sacrament, by which His Death would be shown in all future ages of the Church till His Coming again (1 Cor. 11:20), and by which not only that Death would be commemorated, but the benefits of it be imparted to all penitent, faithful, and loving receivers of that which is the “Communion of His body and blood” (1 Cor. 10:16). In that Sermon at Capernaum He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day; for My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me, and I in him” (John 6:53-56). At the same time, while the reality of His presence in that Sacrament is assured to us by His own Divine Word, and the effects of that presence are declared to us, He appears at the same time to have guarded His disciples against inquisitive speculations as to the manner of that presence.

The men of Capernaum were staggered by His appearance, and asked, “Rabbi, when camest Thou hither?” (John 6:25) He had come in the darkness of the night. He had come walking on the waves of the sea. No one could trace His footsteps in that night and on those waves. But His disciples did not inquire as to the manner of that coming, but gladly received Him into the ship, and then the storm ceased and the ship was at the shore.

In this narrative we see therefore a divine warning against curious speculations as to the manner of Christ’s presence in that Holy Sacrament, at the same time that we recognize the reality of the Blessing we receive,—Christ’s Presence with us,— and perceive the duty and happiness of all faithful receivers. Therefore the faithful receivers do not pry into the mode of His coming and of His divine presence in that Holy Sacrament, but they believe His Divine Word, and resolve all into an act of faith and loving adoration; “O Lord, Thou art powerful and merciful, faithful and true;” and “O my soul, thou art happy, in union and communion with thy God” (cp. Hooker, Eccl. Pol. V. lvi.).

We have been considering the Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ as the Communion of the faithful with Him, and with one another in Him. But we must not forget that it is an Eucharist, a Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving; and that it is so called by St. Paul (1 Cor. 14:16), “How shall the layman say the Amen at thy Eucharist?”i.e. at the consecration of the Bread and Wine, and at the offering of them with thanksgiving to God.

The ancient Church recognized a prediction of this Eucharistic offering in the words of God by the prophet Malachi (1:11), “From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same My Name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in everyplace incense shall be offered unto My Name, and a pure offering.”

The sub-Apostolic Father S. Justin Martyr says (c. Tryphon. c. 41) that “this is a figure of the Bread and the Cup in the Eucharist;” and S. Irenaeus, the Scholar of S. Polycarp the disciple of St. John, says (c. Haeres iv. 32, ed. Grabe) that “Christ taught His disciples to offer to God the firstfruits of His creatures, not as if the Creator needed anything, but that they might not be unfruitful and ungrateful; and that He took Bread, one of His creatures, and gave thanks and said, “This is My Body;” likewise the Cup, which is also one of His creatures, and owned it as His Blood, and thus taught us the new Oblation of the New Testament.”

S. Irenaeus also says that “the Church, having received this oblation from the Apostles, offers it up in all the World to God, Who giveth us nourishment; and that she presents to Him the firstfruits of His own gifts, according to the words of Malachi.”

“It is certain,” says the learned Editor of Irenaeus, Dr. Grabe (p. 323), “that the Fathers of the Church, whether coeval with, or next succeeding to, the Apostles, regarded the Holy Eucharist as the Evangelical sacrifice offered on the altar, in the Bread and Wine” (the one as the chosen representative of all solid food, the other of liquid), “as sacred gifts to God the Father; such offerings being, before consecration, the firstfruits of all His creatures, and being offered in recognition of His supreme dominion over all;^[9] and also being offered after consecration as the mystical body and blood of Christ, for the representation of the oblation of His Body and Blood upon the Cross, and for the imputation of the benefits of His death.”^[10]

S. Irenaeus says (ibid. cap. 34, p. 327), “The Bread which is from the earth, when it has received the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, but an Eucharist, consisting of two parts, one earthly, the other heavenly; and so our bodies, receiving the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but have a hope of the Resurrection” (cp. ibid. v.2, p.400).

But while the Fathers recognized a real spiritual presence, they did not believe in a carnal Transubstantiation of the elements.^[11] S. Chrysostom says (on Heb. 9:9), “We make a commemoration of Sacrifice” (i. e. of the Sacrifice once offered by Christ on the Cross); and S. Augustine says (c. Faust, 20:18), “Christians celebrate a memorial of the same past sacrifice,” “Peracti ejusdem sacrificii memoriam celebrant;” and in his Epistle to Boniface (xxiii. p.267) he declares that “the Sacrament is called a Sacrifice because it is a resemblance of the sacrifice offered by Christ.” And Gelasius, Bishop of Rome (A.D. 492— 496), says,^[12] “The Sacraments which we receive of the Body and Blood of Christ are a divine thing; and yet there does not cease to exist in them the substance of Bread and Wine;” and Theodoret (Eranist. ii. p.126) says, “The Bread and Wine even after consecration lose not their own nature, but remain in their proper substance, shape, and form.”^[13]

Let me here add two memorable passages from S. Justin Martyr, writing in the middle of the second century, and describing the administration of the Christian Sacraments, and the worship of the Christian Church on the Lord’s Day, when, according to Apostolic practice, the Christians came together “to break bread on the first day of the week” (Acts 20:7).

In his first Apology he says,^[14] “As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach is true, and undertake to conform their lives to our doctrine, are instructed to fast and to pray and to entreat from God the remission of their past sins, we fasting and praying together with them.

“They are then conducted to a place where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For they are there washed in the Name of God the Father, and Lord of the Universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit (cp. ibid. p. 94, on regeneration in Baptism).

“After we have thus washed him who has expressed his conviction and assented to our doctrines, we conduct him to the place where those who are called brethren are assembled, in order that we may offer up earnest prayers together for ourselves, and for him who has been baptized, and for all others everywhere, that having iearned the truth we may be deemed worthy to be found walking in good works, and keeping the commandments so that we may obtain everlasting salvation.

“Prayers being ended, we salute one another with a kiss.^[15] Bread is then brought to the presiding brother, and a cup of wine mixed with water; and he, taking them, gives praise and glory to the Father of the Universe, through the Name of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and continues some time to offer thanks to Him for having deemed us worthy of these gifts. The prayers and thanksgivings being ended, all the people present signify their assent by saying Amen, which in the Hebrew tongue answers to the word γενοιτο (so be it) in Greek. The President having given thanks, and the people having signified their assent, they whom we call Deacons give to each of those who are present a portion of the Bread and of the Wine mixed with water^[16] over which the thanksgiving was pronounced, and they carry a portion to the absent.

“This food is called by us Eucharist; and no one is allowed to partake of it who does not believe what we teach to be true, and has not been washed with the laver (of baptism) for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who does not live as Christ has commanded us to do. For we do not receive it as common bread and common drink; but in the same manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, being Incarnate through the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our Salvation, so we have been taught that the food having been blessed by prayer of the Word from Him (by which food our blood and flesh are nourished by transformation) is the flesh and blood of the Incarnate Jesus. For the Apostles, in the records composed by them, which are called Gospels, have declared that He gave them this command, ‘Do this in remembrance of Me.’ ‘This is My Body,’ and in like manner having taken the cup and given thanks He said, ‘This is My Blood,’ and that He distributed the Bread and Wine to them only.”

S. Justin proceeds to describe the order of worship and instruction in Christian assemblies on the Lord’s Day. “On the day called Sunday there is a gathering together of all who dwell in cities or in the country. In them the records of the Apostles, or the writings of the Prophets, are read as long as circumstances allow. When the Reader has finished, the Presiding Minister delivers a sermon, in which he admonishes and exhorts to an imitation of those good things. Then we rise up together and pray. Then (as was before said) Prayer being ended, Bread and Wine and Water are brought, and the President sends up prayers and thanksgivings in like manner with all his might, and the People signify their assent by saying Amen. That upon which the thanksgiving has been pronounced (i.e. the Holy Eucharist) is distributed to every one, and every one partakes;^[17] and a portion is sent to the absent by the hands of the Deacons.

“They who are rich and are willing give as much as they deem fit, and whatever is collected (at the offertory) is deposited with the President, who thence succours the orphans and widows, sick and needy persons, and strangers; in a word, takes care of all who are in want.

“We meet together on Sunday because it is the first day; on which God having made the necessary change in darkness and matter began to create the World. And on this day our Saviour Jesus Christ arose from the dead. He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday), and on the morrow, which is Sunday, having shown Himself to His Apostles and disciples, He taught them those things which, we have now propounded to you.”

Let us now review the foregoing statements. It appears (1) that the celebration of the Holy Communion was an essential part of Christian Worship on the Lord’s Day. This may be proved from primitive Apostolic practice (see on Acts 20:7).

(2) That the Holy Communion was accompanied with the Weekly Offertory.

Our Blessed Lord joined Almsgiving with Prayer in His Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 6:1-16), and taught that habitual Almsgiving is as much a Christian duty as habitual Prayer. And St. Paul therefore inculcated it as an act of Christian Worship on the Lord’s Day (1 Cor. 16:1, 2). And S. Justin Martyr, as we have seen, in the second Century represents it as such.

In the Weekly Offertory rich and poor are united as brethren in offering to God,^[18] Who specially loves the “Widow’s mites;” and they are joined together in thus consecrating their substance to Him, by the reverent presentation of their gifts on the Holy Table to Him from Whom all receive whatever they have to give, and Who will bless them with abundant increase for what they offer to Him for His dear Son’s sake.

This act of Offering had therefore a special place in the Eucharistic Liturgies of the Ancient Church.

The rite of Confirmation after Baptism has been disparaged by some, because it was not, like the two Sacraments, instituted by Christ Himself while upon earth.

But it may be observed that whatever the Apostles did—being guided by the Holy Spirit sent by Christ Himself reigning in heaven—for the bestowal of spiritual grace, which is of perpetual and universal necessity for the faithful, was virtually done by Christ, acting in them and by them.

Also, by reason of the special character of Confirmation, it could not have been instituted before Christ’s Ascension into Heaven.

Confirmation is the divinely appointed means for the plenary effusion of the gift of the Holy Ghost on those who have been baptized. And that gift could not be bestowed before Christ was glorified by His Ascension into Heaven. As St. John says (7:39), “The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”

The importance and dignity of Confirmation are further evident from the fact that it could not be ministered, as Baptism was, by a Deacon of the Church, St. Philip.

The Apostles took care to send down two of their number, St. Peter and St. John, from Jerusalem to Samaria, to lay their hands, with prayer, on those who had been baptized by St. Philip, in order that they might receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; in other words, that they might be confirmed. And it is affirmed that when the Apostles had done so, they, on whom they laid their hands, received the Holy Ghost (Acts 8:14—17).

In order that it might not be supposed that this act of Confirmation could be performed only by two Apostles—Peter and John,—or only by Apostles who had been called by our Lord when upon earth, the Holy Spirit has thought fit to record in the Acts of the Apostles, that Confirmation was administered also by a single Apostle,—one who was not of the original twelve,—St. Paul (Acts 19:4—6).

It is rightly supposed that Confirmation is specified in the Epistle to the Hebrews (6:2)—after the mention of Baptism—in the words “laying on of hands,” as among the “first principles of the doctrine of Christ.”

Certain it is that the ancient Fathers speak of Confirmation as ministered by Bishops—as successors of the Apostles—for the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost on the baptized. “They who are baptized,” says S. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage in the third century,^[19] “are brought to the Chief Pastors of the Church, that by our prayer and the laying on of hands they may receive the Holy Ghost, and be completed by the seal of Christ.”

And S. Jerome^[20] says, “This is the usage of our Churches. The Bishop goes forth and makes a tour, in order to lay his hands and to invoke the Holy Spirit on those who have been baptized by our Priests and Deacons.”

This bringing of all under the hands of the Bishop, —as their Father in God, and the personal centre of unity in a diocese,— for his benediction, was a symbol of that unity of all, as spiritual children in Christ, which is a fundamental principle of the Church.

Confirmation being the completion of Baptism, as S. Ambrose calls it,^[21] was termed the “consummating unction “ (χρισις τελειωτικη)^[22]

The further consideration of the Ancient Liturgies of the Church must be reserved for the history of a later period, when they assumed a definite form.

[1] Baptism was also called φwτισμoσ or illumination. See on Hebrews 6:4, and S. Justin Martyr, p. 94 D. καλειται τουτο το λουτρον φωτισμοσ and p. 258 A. and 351 A.

[2] “Almighty and Everlasting God, Whose most dearly beloved Son for the forgiveness of our sins did shed out of His most precious side both Water and Blood”

[3] In Joann. Tract. 120, and Sermon v. Cp. Bp. Andrewes’ Sermon, vol. iii. pp. 345—360.

[5] On the word ιχθυσ applied to Christ, and formed from the initials of the words ‘Ιησους Χριστος θεου Υιος Σωτερ, and thence applied to Christians, may I refer to the authorities quoted, and to the remarks on the ancient Autun Inscription, in my Miscellanies? i. p. 92.

[6] Another figure authorized by St. Peter (1 Pet. iii. 21), and adopted by our Church in her office for Holy Baptism, “Almighty and Everlasting God, Who of Thy great mercy didst save Noah and his family in the Ark,” &c.

[8] Epist. 64. Routh, Rel. Sac. iii. 98. Cp. S. Augustine, Serm. 8 and Serm. 10, de Verbis Apostoli and de Peccitorum Mentis, i. c. 30, and Wall on Infant Baptism, Oxf. 1836.

[9] The Priest humbly and reverently presents and offers the Bread and Wine as the firstfruits and representatives of the creatures to God, the Creator and Giver of all good to the body as well as to the soul; and as afterwards to be consecrated in the Holy Eucharist. This action is very significant. It is a consecration of Creation to holy uses. The Rubric of the Church of England prescribes this oblation to be made by the Priest before the Prayer for the Church Militant.

[10] See the authorities from S. Ignatius, S. Irenaeus, S. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and S. Cyprian there quoted, p. 323, and see the learned treatise of Joseph Mede on the Christian Sacrifice, in his works, p. 373, where he says “the ancient Church first offered the Bread and Wine unto God to agnize Him the Lord of the Creatures, and then received them again as the symbols of the Body and Blood of His dear Son.”

[13] Compare Bishop Ridley (Life by N. Ridley, pp.620, 6S1); Bishop Andrewes c. Bellarmin., p. 184; Archbishop Laud against Fisher, p. 256; Dr. Waterland “on the Service of the Eucharist considered in a Sacrificial view,” vol. vii. pp.34-39; Bishop Bull, vol. ii. p. 250, ed. Oxon. 1827, who says “the Eucharistical Sacrifice thus explained (as representative and commemorative) is indeed a λογικε θυσια, a reasonable sacrifice” but he adds that it widely differs from the “sacrifice of the Mass taught in the Church of Rome.”

[16] On the primitive use of water mingled with wine in the Holy Communion, see S. Cyprian, Ep. 63, pp. 151, 154, 157, with Bp. Fell’s note; S. Aug. de Doct. Christ, iv. 45; Bp. Wilson, Paroch. vii. p. 20, Keble.

[17] A statement which deserves attention in reference to the question of what is called “non-communicating attendance.”

[22] See Bp. Taylor’s Dissertation with that title, Works xi. 215; and Hooker, V. lxvi.; and Hammond’s Treatise de Confirmatione, Works iv. p. 851; and the Canons of the Church of England of 1603, Canon lx., where Confirmation is called “a laudable custom, continued from the Apostles’ times.”

[23] Christopher Wordsworth, “On the Christian Sacraments” A Church History to the Council of Nicaea, A.D. 325. Volume I (1881) Chapter 6: 51-68.