SACRAMENTS

of a mystery was carried still further by Tertullian, and was greatly fostered by the fact that about this time a tendency was rapidly growing in the Church to an eissimilation of Christian worship to the Mystery- worship of the Graeco- Roman world (see art. Mystery). Tertullian (end of 2nd cent, and beginning of 3rd) is the first writer to apply the name 'sacrament' to Baptism, the Eucharist, and other rites of the Christian Church. When Pliny (c. a.d. 112), in his account of the worship of the Christians of Bithynia, describea them at their morning meetings as ' binding themselves by a sacramenium to commit no kind of crime ' (Ep. x. 96) , it has been suggested by some that he was using the word in the Christian sense, and was referring either to the baptismal vow or to participation in the Eucharist. The fact, however, that we do not find such a use of the word, even in Christian writers, for nearly a century afterwards makes this extremely unlikely: and the probability is that Pliny intended it in the old Roman sense of an oath or solemn obligation.

2. Nature and number. — (1) Though used especially Of Baptism and the Eucharist, the application of the term by Christian writers was at first exceedingly loose, for it was taken to describe not only all kinds of religious ceremonies, but even facts and doctrines of the Christian faith. The vagueness of prevailing notions is illustrated by Augustine's remark that 'signs pertaining to things Divine are called sacraments,' and by his well-known definition of a sacrament as 'the visible form of an invisible grace.' It is other-wise illustrated by the fact that Hugo of St. Victor (12th cent.) enumerates about 30 sacraments that had been recognized in the Church. The Council of Trent defined the nature of a sacrament more closely, by lay-ing it down that not all signs of sacred things have sacramental value, and that visible forms are sacra-ments only when they represent an invisible grace and become its channels. It further delimited the sacra-mental area by re-enacting in its 7th session (1547) a decision of the Council of Florence (1439) in which effect was for the first time authoritatively given to the suggestion of Peter Lombard (12th cent.) and other Schoolmen that the number of the sacraments should be fixed at 7, namely. Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Orders, and Matrimony — a suggestion that was evidently infiuenced by the belief that 7 was a sacred number.

(2) In the Reformed Churches criticism of this scheme was based on the fact that it proceeds on no settled principle. The number 7 is perfectly arbitrary; while the definition of a sacrament is still so vague that anything but an arbitrary selection of particulars is impossible. While, therefore, the Reformers retained the term 'sacrament' as a convenient one to express the general idea that has to be drawn from the char-acteristics of the acts classed together under this name — a term, moreover, that is sanctioned by the usage of the Church from the days of Tertullian — they found the distinguishing mark of a sacrament in the fact of its being instituted by Christ Himself and enjoined by Him upon His followers. And as Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the only two rites for which this can be claimed, it follows that there are only two sacra-ments in the proper sense of the word. The unique-ness that belongs to these as resting upon Christ's personal appointment and being bound up with His own words (Mt 28", Mk IBM; Mt 26» "H, 1 Co 1123-26) justifies us in separating them from all other rites and ceremonies whatsoever, however seemly and suggestive any of these may appear to be, and raises them to the dignity of forming an integral part of the historical revelation of God in Christ, and so of being not signs merely, but in very truth, in Augustine's phrase, 'the word made visible.' A justification of this segregation of Baptism and the Lord's Supper from all other rites, and their association together under a common name, is furnished in the NT by Ac 2*1. « and 1 Co lOi-*. A further justification may

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SACRIFICE AND OFFERING

perhaps be found in the fact that St. Paul traces an analogy between Circumcision and the Passover — the two most distinctive rites of the Old Covenant — on the one hand, and Baptism (Col 2") and the Lord's Supper (cf. 1 Co 5' with ll^^) respectively, on the other. 3. Efficacy. — According to the Roman view, sacra-ments are efficacious ex opere operaio, i.e. by a power inherent in themselves as outward acts. The Reformed doctrine, on the other hand, maintains that though they are Divinely appointed channels of the heavenly grace, their benefits to the recipient are contingent upon subjective spiritual conditions, and above all upon the exercise of faith in Christ Himself. See, further. Baptism, Confibmation, Eucharist, Laying ON OF Hands. J. C. Lambert.

SACRIFICE AND OFFERING.— 1 .Tbbminoloqy op SACRIFICE. — (a) General. Since every sacrifice was an offering, but all offerings were not sacrifices, this pre-liminary study of the usage of these two important terms in our EV may start from the more compre-hensive 'offering.' It is true that in the majority of the occurrences of 'offering,' both in AV and in RV, it is simply a synonym of ' sacrifice ' (cf . German Opfer). This is the case more particularly in the extensive nomenclature of the various sacrifices, as 'burnt offer-ing,' which also appears in AV as 'burnt sacrifice,' 'meal (AV meat) offering,' etc. (In AV and RV the names of the sacrifices are printed separately, in Amer. RV they are more correctly joined by a hyphen, burnt- offering, etc.) As will presently appear (§2), the com-pound expression in such cases represents but a single word in the original, which is the technical term for the particular sacrifice.

In the remaining occurrences, however, 'offering,' or its synonym 'oblation,' is used in a more extended application to denote a gift offered to God, as opposed to a secular gift, in the form of a present, bribe, or the like, to a fellow-creature. Such 'holy gifts' (Ex 282») or offerings may be divided into three classes, namely,

(1) altar-offerings, comprising all such offerings as were brought into contact with the altar (cf. Mt 23"), mostly for the purpose of being consumed thereon;

(2) the stated sacred dues, such as tithes, first-fruits, etc.; and (3) special votive offerings, e.g. those specified in Nu 7. In this comprehensive sense of the term, 'offering,' or — as almost uniformly in RV — 'obla-tion,' corresponds to the Heb. gorbdn, a word peculiar to Ezekiel and the priestly legislation. It is the corban of Mk 7", 'that is to say. Given to God' (RV; AV 'a gift'), and means 'something brought near,' i.e. to the altar, or at least presented at the sanctuary, in other words, a present to God. The term, as has been said, appears late in the history of OT sacrifice (Ezk 202» 40" and the various strata of P passim), the nearest cor-responding term in the older literature being mincMh, for which see § 2.

The classification of OT offerings above suggested serves, further, to' bring into relief the relation of 'sacrifice' to 'offering.' The former may be defined as an offering which is consumed, in whole or in pari, upon the altar, or, more briefly, as an altar-offering. It is in this more restricted sense of altar-offering that 'sacrifice' and 'offering' are employed synonymously in our English nomenclature of sacrifice.

But there is still another use of these terms in which they are not synonymous but contrasted terms. In the sacrificial system of OT, altar-offerings — 'sacrifices,' in the sense above defined — are of two kinds, animal offer-ings and cereal offerings, using the latter term a fmliori for all non-bloody altar-offerings, including not merely cereal oblations in the strict sense (flour, cakes, etc.), but also offerings of wine, oil, and the indispensable salt. Now the characteristic and significant Heb. designation of an animal, or, as it is often termed, a bloody, offering is gebach, lit. 'slaughter,' from the