ant were alike bound
to make; (2) it came to signify a pledge of military fidelity, a
_voluntary_ oath; (3) then the _exacted_ oath of allegiance; (4) any
oath whatever; (5) in early Christian use any sacred or solemn act, and
especially any mystery where more was meant than met the ear or eye"
(Blight's "Select Sermons of St. Leo on the Incarnation," p. 136).

[2] Symbolical of completion.

[3] Church Catechism.

[4] Article XXV.

[5] The answer is borrowed from Peter Lombard (a pupil of Abelard and
Professor of Theology, and for a short time Bishop of Paris), who
defines a Sacrament as a "visible sign of an invisible grace," probably
himself borrowing the thought from St. Augustine.

[6] Dr. Illingworth calls "the material order another aspect of the
spiritual, which is gradually revealing itself through material
concealment, in the greater and lesser Christian Sacraments, which
radiate from the Incarnation" ("Sermons Preached in a College Chapel,"
p. 173).

[7] God is _Spirit_, St. John iv. 24.

[8] The Word was made _Flesh_, St. John i. 14.

[9] The water in Baptism is not, of course, _consecrated_, as the bread
and wine are in the Eucharist. It does not, like the bread and wine,
"become what it was not, without ceasing to be what it was," but it is
"_sanctified_ to the mystical washing away of sins".

{63}

CHAPTER V.

BAPTISM.

Consider, What it is;
What it does;
How it does it.

(I) WHAT IT IS.

The Sacrament of Baptism is the supernatural conjunction of matter and
spirit--of water and the Holy Ghost. Water must be there, and spirit
must be there. It is by the conjunction of the two that the Baptized
is "born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost".

So the Prayer Book teaches. At the reception of a privately baptized
child into the Church, it is laid down that "matter" and "words" are
the two essentials for a valid Baptism.[1] "Because some things
essential to this Sacrament may happen to be omitted (and thus
invalidate the Sacrament), ... I demand," says the priest, {64} "with
what matter was this child baptized?" and "with what words was this
child baptized?" And because the omission of right matter or right
words would invalidate the Sacrament, further inquiry is made, and the
god-parents are asked: "by whom was this child baptized?": "who was
present when this child was baptized?" Additional security is taken,
if there is the slightest reason to ques