cation, save by an Act of Parliament
after free discussion by the present House of Commons.

[8] Public Baptism of Infants.

[9] "The Folkestone Baptist," June, 1899.

[10] "Letters and Memoirs of William Bright," p. 143.

[11] "Life and Letters of H. P. Liddon," p. 329.

{58}

CHAPTER IV.

THE CHURCH'S SACRAMENTS.

We have seen that a National Church is the means whereby the Catholic
Church reaches the nation; that her function is (1) to teach, and (2)
to feed the nation; that she teaches through her books, and feeds
through her Sacraments.

We now come to the second of these two functions--the spiritual feeding
of the nation. This she does through the Sacraments--a word which
comes from the Latin _sacrare_ (from _sacer_), sacred.[1] The
Sacraments are the sacred _media_ through which the soul of man is fed
with the grace of God.

{59}

We may think of them under three heads:--their number; their nature;
their names.

(I) THE NUMBER OF THE SACRAMENTS.

In the early Church the number was unlimited. After the twelfth
century, the number was technically limited to seven. Partly owing to
the mystic number seven,[2] and partly because seven seemed to meet the
needs of all sorts and conditions of men, the septenary number of
Sacraments became either fixed or special. The Latin Church taught
that there were "seven, and seven only": the Greek Church specialized
seven, without limiting their number: the English Church picked out
seven, specializing two as "generally necessary to salvation"[3] and
five (such as Confirmation and Marriage) as "commonly called
Sacraments".[4]

The English Church, then, teaches that, without arbitrarily limiting
their number, there are seven special means of grace, either "generally
necessary" for all, or specially provided for some. And, as amongst
her books she selects two, and calls them "_The_ Bible," and "_The_
Prayer {60} Book," so amongst her Sacraments she deliberately marks out
two for a primacy of honour.

These two are so supreme, as being "ordained by Christ Himself"; so
pre-eminent, as flowing directly from the Wounded Side, that she calls
them "the Sacraments of the Gospel". They are, above all other
Sacraments, "glad tidings of great joy" to every human being. And
these two are "generally necessary," i.e. necessary for all alike--they
are _generaliter_, i.e. for _all_ and not only for _special_ states
(such as Holy Orders): they are "for _every_