BERKELEY ^ LIBRARY UNIVESvTY OF Edward C.M.Tower Ex Llbris C(tTiAAA^^ s^GB WITH THE GRATITUDE AND AFFECTIONATE REGARD OF A FORMER COLLEAGUE 083 PREFACE FEW words only are needed to explain the origin of this short Essay. Some years ago when I was Principal of the Clergy Training School, Cambridge, I used to lecture to the members of the School on Christian Doctrine ; and part of the course on the Sacraments was devoted to the subject of Confirmation. If this book should chance to fall into the hands of any of my old pupils and friends of those days, they may perhaps be reminded of what was a happy and useful time to me and I should like to think to them also. When it became my duty and happiness as Bishop to minister Confirmation, I naturally for my own guidance and help reviewed under a new sense of responsibility what I vii PREFACE had written on Confirmation in former years. On several occasions I have lectured on Confirmation to meetings of Clergy; and from time to time I have been asked to publish the substance of the lectures. This little volume is a response to these requests. It will be no ordinary pleasure if I am allowed in this way to help my brethren the parochial Clergy in their own study of the subject and in their most important work of preparing Can- didates for the Laying on of Hands. In working at the subject and in putting my notes in order for publication I have avoided consulting any of the many books on Confirmation, nor have I passed beyond the limits of the New Testament. The conclusions as to the teaching of the New Testament, which I have thus reached independently of others, are, I believe, strongly confirmed by the fact that in the belief of the Church of the first centuries the gift given to the true disciple in Confirmation is the gift of the Holy Spirit. In the revision of the proof sheets I have had the help of a younger student of PREFACE theology. He knows at least in part what a very peculiar pleasure it is to me to thank him for his criticisms and suggestions. I must confess that, when I was a young clergyman, my views as to Con- firmation were vague. Clearness and definiteness came to me from one to whom I with numberless others owe a debt which we can never express in words. The first year I examined for the Theological Tripos in Cambridge was the last year Dr Westcott examined. I vividly remember the meeting of examiners for the review of the examination papers held in Dr Westcott's house in Scroope Terrace one day in May 1886. We worked from early morning till late afternoon at our somewhat dreary task of criticism and revision. But there was an oasis in the desert. The examiner who set the paper on Christian Doctrine gave some patristic passages for comment. Among these was one from Tertullian's treatise de Baptismo vi. — ' Non quod in aquis Spiritum Sanctum conse- quamur, sed in aqua emundati sub angelo Spiritui Sancto praeparamur.' The sub- ject was clearly one on which Dr Westcott PREFACE had a definite and strong conviction. For a few moments he spoke, as those who knew him can imagine him speaking, on the true meaning of Confirmation suggested by Tertullian's words. 'If,' I remember that he said, ' Confirmation had been always properly understood, many of the con- troversies about Baptism would never have arisen.' Dr Westcott's words were always strangely illuminating. To his words of that afternoon I look back with abiding gratitude. CONTENTS Subject 1. The two momenta of the Christian dispensation (i) the Incarnation; (2) the outpouring of the Spirit 3f. These brought into contact with the individual in Baptism and Confirmation 4. The divine use of historical events 5. Baptism 6fF. Confirma- tion 8. The divine side in the Sacraments the essential side 9. Ratification of the baptismal vows an accidental element in Confirmation 10. Language of the Confirma- tion Service open to mistake, its history 10 ff. Two analogies: (i) God's dealings with our Lord and God's dealings with us: Christ's Baptism and Confirmation 14 f. The offices of the Spirit towards Him 15 ff. (2) God's dealings with the Church and God's dealings with individuals: training, Easter day the Church's birthday, Pentecost the Church's Confirmation 18 ff. I. Historical passages of the Book of the Acts. Three periods of the history: incidents recorded typical 22 f. (i) Jerusalem: Acts ii. 38 24 f. (2) Judaea and Samaria : (i) Samaria: Acts viii. 12 ff. 25f (ii) Caesarea: Acts X. 44 ff. 26 ff. Visit of Ananias to Saul of Tarsus 29 ff. (3) Extension of the Church : Ephesus : Acts xix. i if. 31 ff. Review of these notices 33 f II. Passages of the Epistles which speak of outward sign and inward grace. 2 Tim. i. 6ff. 35 ff.: Heb. vi. if. (vi. 4, ii. 3f.,x. 29) 41 ff. Possible allusion to laying on of hands in St Paul's metaphor of sealing 50 ff. Unction probably a sign ia CONTENTS Confirmation in the Apostolic age; for (i) Laying on of hands and unction closely related in the Bible 53 f. : (2) The unction testified to by Tertullian, Canons of Hippolytus, Irenaeus was probably a survival from Apostolic days 54 ff. ; (3) The language of 2 Cor. i. 21 f. and i John ii. 20, 27 is probably not simply metaphorical 57 ff. The meaning of (i) Laying on of hands in O.T. N.T., 61 ff. (2) Anointing in O.T., N.T 67 ff. in. Passages of the Epistles which speak of the definite gift of the Holy Spirit, (i) St James iv. 5 70 ff. (2) St Paul's Epistles (i) First Group : i Thess. i. 6, iv. 7 f., 2 Thess. ii. 13 72 ff. ; (ii) Second Group: i Cor. ii. 12 74 ff.; I Cor. vi. 11 76 ff.: i Cor. xii. 13 79 ff.; 2 Cor. i. 21 f. 81 ff.; 2 Cor. v. 5 83 f.; 2 Cor. xi. 4 84f,; Gal. iii. 2ff. 85 ff.; Gal. iv. 6f. 87 ff.; Rom. i. 11 f. 89 ff.; Rom. v. 5 91 f. ; Rom. viii. 14 ff. 92 ff. ; (iii) Third Group : Eph. i. 13 f. 94 ff. ; Eph. iv. 30 96 f. ; (iv) Fourth Group : Titus iii. 4 ff. 98 ff. (3) The Catholic Epistles : i John iii. 24 102 f. Conclusions 103. (i) Historical: Confirmation had a recognised place in Apostolic Churches 104 ff. Two essential elements (i) prayer for the Holy Spirit, (ii) outward sign of blessing 106 f. Confirmation essentially the same now as in Apostolic days 107 f. The outward sign 108 f. The Minister in Confirmation 109 ff. (2) Doctrinal : The gift in Confirmation the gift of the Spirit in close connexion with membership in the Body 111. The gift in relation to (i) the past 112; (ii) the present 112 f. ; (iii) the future 113. Extraordinary gifts subordinate 114. God deals with individuals through historical events and therefore our Christian position does not depend on emotions 114 f. Need of care lest (i) we regard Sacra- ments as limiting our conception of God's dealings; (ii) formulae become to us final expressions of God's ways 115 ff. Preparation of Candidates for Confirmation (i) general : Christian belief, Christian conduct 117 ; (ii) special : the gift of the Spirit ; our Lord's instruction of the Apostles in preparation for the Day of Pentecost 117 f. CONTENTS Note on the anarthrous Trvtv/xa, nvfvyLa ayiov. The common view that these phrases denote an operation or influence of the Spirit first formulated by Bp Middleton 119 f. (i) The Old Testament: 'the Spirit' used absolutely of the Spirit of God 121 f. The anarthrous 'Spirit' similarly used 122 f. So in the LXX the anarthrous irvevfia 124. (2) The New Testament: (i) consideration of typical passages — Acts xix. 2 ff., i Cor. ii. I2fif., I Cor. xii. 3 ff . 124 ff . ; (ii) Examination of phrases 127 f. Conclusion that nvevna and nvfvfia ayiov denote the Holy Spirit in a personal sense 128. Ex- planation lies in (i) the fact that these phrases are of the nature of proper names 128; (ii) the omission of the article qualitative 128 f Compare Oeos and xp^f^'^os 129 f. The omission of the article with 7rv€Vfia and nvcvfxa ayiov a means of emphasis 130. An example of this in John vii. 39 130 f. xiu CONFIRMATION IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE I propose in the following pages to review the evidence which the New Testament supplies as to the place of Confirmation during the Apostolic age in the life and thought of the Church. I shall endeavour to consider the passages of the Apostolic writings which refer, or may be reasonably thought to refer, to Con- firmation. The subsequent history of Confirmation in the Church of Christ lies outside the range of this investigation. I shall indeed have occasion to speak of the Confirmation Service in the Book of Common Prayer both in its present and in its earlier forms. Otherwise I shall hardly transgress the limits of the New Testa- ment. The attempt, however inadequately carried out, to gain a clear conception of E. C. J I CONFIRMATION IN the thoughts which in the first days gathered round an Ordinance of the Church can never be without profit. Custom, routine, and controversy had not as yet marred the first freshness and sim- pHcity of faith. The essential meaning of the primary rites of the Church was not as yet obscured by the influence of secondary and accidental associations. The sense of the powers of the spiritual world was vivid and immediate. The conscious effort therefore to bring ourselves into contact with this age of initial in- spiration cannot but tend to correct and to quicken our use of the inheritance which is ours as members of Christ's Church. Much indeed of the ground which is traversed in the following pages has often been traversed before. Yet, as we pass along, some of the details which will claim our attention may be fresh wholly or in part. Of such a subject it is always worth while to endeavour to gain a connected view. THE APOSTOLIC AGE The two great momenta of the whole Christian dispensation are (i) the Incarna- tion of the Son of God ; (2) the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. In that whole dispensation the divine purpose in the creation of man in the image of God and with a capacity to attain to the likeness of God was ideally fulfilled ; and, to use the bold phrase of Greek theology, man was put into the way of ' being made divine ' (^OeoTTOLeLO-Oai), The purpose of the Incarnation was threefold — revelation, reconciliation, fellow- ship. The Son came in the Father s Name (^.^. John V. 43) and revealed the Father to men {e.£; John xiv. 9, xvii. 26). Through the atoning life and death of the Incarnate Son of God man was cleansed, forgiven, reconciled to God ; through the Lord's quickening resurrection man 'was begotten again unto a living hope ' (i Pet. i. 3) : ' in Christ ' man is the redeemed son of the Father in Heaven. * In Christ' man can 'abide in God and God in him' (i John iv. 16). The purpose of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit also was threefold — revelation, 3 I— a CONFIRMATION IN endowment, fellowship. As the Son was sent in the Fathers Name and revealed the Father, so the Spirit was sent in the Son's Name (John xiv. 26) and reveals the Son (John xv. 26, xvi. 14). Through the power of the indwelling Spirit each member of the Church is taught little by little to understand the infinite meaning of the Incarnation, and with a faith which grows larger and deeper to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the power of the indwelling Spirit the manifold gifts of grace are communicated to all those who are * in Christ ' — faith, wisdom, knowledge, * a right judgment in all things.' Through the power of the indwelling Spirit the divine blessing of ' fellowship ' is realized by each of the faithful (2 Cor. xiii. 13, Phil. ii. i), the fellowship of man with the Father and with the Son (i John i. 3), the fellowship of man with man in the brother- hood of the redeemed (i John i. 7 ; comp. Eph. iv. 3 fif.). These two great momenta of the whole Christian dispensation, the Incarnation of the Son of God and the outpouring of the Spirit of God, are brought into contact THE APOSTOLIC AGE with the individual in Baptism and in Confirmation. It is no objection against this position to say that the truths connected with the Incarnation and the gift of the Spirit may be, and often are, vitally apprehended at some other time than the season of Baptism and the season of Confirmation. As we trace the divine action we see that God has been pleased to deal with the world by historical events. We might a priori have expected that God would have wrought out the spiritual work of redemption by a spiritual process in the spirits of men. We know that He did redeem the world by a series of historical events which took their place among other historical events. These events were at the time only very parti- ally understood even by the holiest men who watched them and had their part in them. The disciples did not at once grasp the meaning of the Lord's life on earth or of the Cross or of the Resurrec- tion or of Pentecost. But there were the events, complete on the divine side, perfect manifestations of the eternal will of God, for the mind and the heart to work upon, CONFIRMATION IN for men gradually to realize and to ap- propriate. And as it was with the world, so it is with the individual. Baptism is the sacrament of cleansing. The first Christian act done to the little child is an act of washing. He is thereby outwardly, visibly, historically brought into contact with ' the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.' He must 'lead the rest of his life according to this beginning.' We confess *one Baptism for the remission of sins.' Baptism is both the pledge of forgiveness and an assured entrance into a new life in which forgiveness and cleansing are essential and abiding elements. * If we walk in the light... the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin' (i John i. 7). Baptism is the sacrament of regenera- tion. It is the revelation of the divine Fatherhood in the case of the individual life. It is as though God laid His hand on the baptised and said ' This is my son,' *This is my daughter.' The fact of Father- hood on God's side and of sonship on man's cannot be altered. It remains a fact, a source of untold blessing or a seal of condemnation. It must in daily life be 6 THE APOSTOLIC AGE recognised and realized. He who has proved himself unworthy to be called a son of God must return and claim that which is his with the confession * Father, I have sinned/ Conversion is based on regenera- tion. Again, as in the natural so in the spiritual world birth is a beginning ; it is not maturity. Birth must be followed by growth and development. And growth and development depend on the healthful- ness of the conditions of life. Regeneration is not spiritual attainment. Baptism is the sacrament of incorpora- tion. He who is baptised is baptised ' into Jesus Christ.' He is brought into union with Christ and, through Christ the Mediator, into union with the Father and with the Spirit (Matt, xxviii. 19). But in this aspect also Baptism is a beginning. He who has been baptised into Christ 'must grow up in all things into Him* (Eph. iv. 15). Union must become communion. The union with Christ which is pledged in Baptism is confirmed and deepened in the Eucharist. The divine Presence vouchsafed to the believer in the Eucharist can only be rightly understood CONFIRMATION IN in the light of the divine Presence assured to him in Baptism. Baptism then is the impartment out- wardly, visibly, historically, of the new life in Christ. But in the spiritual order there can be no life apart from that Holy Spirit who is 'the Giver of life.' In Baptism the Holy Spirit works and is bestowed as the divine Power who quickens and renews. In Confirmation the redeemed child of the Heavenly Father is outwardly, visibly, historically brought into contact with the second great momentum of the whole Christian dispensation. In Confirmation he is made a partaker of the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of revelation, unfolding to him according to the measure of his growing capacity the fulness of the Incarnate Word ; the Spirit of endowment, communicating to him the manifold grace of God that he may live and^ serve according to the Fathers will ; the Spirit of fellowship, bringing him into closer union and communion with God and with man. Confirmation is the strengthening of the child of God by the Father's gift of the Father's Spirit^ ^ It seems to me a most serious loss when in the Confirmation 8 THE APOSTOLIC AGE In the Sacraments^ it is the divine side, that which God gives to man, which is essential. Everything else is secondary and subordinate, it may be of great spiritual beauty and value, of great importance in the sphere of Church order and of practical edification, but not the very thing itself which is the intention of the Sacrament. But among Christian men there has been ever a tendency to exalt the human and secondary element in the Sacrament, to give undue prominence (i) in Baptism to the promises made by the Catechumen or by the Sponsors ; (2) in the Eucharist to the memorial before God made by man of the Sacrifice completed on the Cross ; (3) in Confirmation to the renewal of the promises prayer 'Defend, O Lord, this thy Child,' the word * Servant' is substituted for the word 'Child.' We do not cease to be God's children when we grow old. The oldest no less than the youngest candidate for Confirmation seeks the divine gift as the redeemed child of God; compare Gal. iv. 6 'Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. In any revision of the Prayer Book we may hope that the alternative phrase *0r this thy Servant ' will be struck out. * I have ventured to use the word Sacrament In an extended sense so as to include Confirmation. The ' outward and visible sign ' in Confirmation, the laying on of hands, has the clear authority of the New Testament, though we have no explicit declaration in the New Testament that it was * ordained by Christ Himself.' CONFIRMATION IN made at Baptism. It is with this last point alone that we are now concerned. The ratification of the baptismal vows was in days not long past generally re- garded, and is still too often regarded, as the chief meaning of Confirmation. The phraseology of the Book of Common Prayer is doubtless largely responsible for this popular misconception. It is worth while therefore to trace the history of this phrase- ology ; for it is not too much to hope that in any revision of the Book it may be rectified. In the rubrics then which in the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. (1549) preface the service it is said, 'And this order is most convenient to be observed for divers considerations. First, because that when children come to the years of dis- cretion, and have learned what their God- fathers and Godmothers promised for them • in Baptism, they may then with their own mouth, and with their own consent, ratify and confess the same.' In the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. (1552) these rubrics kept the place which they had in the First Book, but (possibly through a mere printers error or more probably THE APOSTOLIC AGE from a love of verbal conceits^) the word * confirm ' was substituted for the word 'confess/ In the Prayer Book of 1662 the rubrics of the two older Books became the Preface to be read by the Bishop *or some other Minister appointed by him ' ; and in the Preface, in spite of the obvious tautology, the phrase * ratify and confirm * was retained ; and there to the confusion of our people's minds it still remains. Further, in 1662 the question of the Bishop and the answer of those to be Confirmed were added ; and in that question the language of the Preface reappears, * ratifying and confirming the same in your own persons.' Thus the words * ratify and confirm,' * ratifying and confirming,' standing in the very forefront of the service, appear to give an authoritative interpretation of the name of the rite — Confirmation. They suggest that the meaning of Confirmation is not that those who have been baptised are therein them- * When it is said, as it is often said, that the Candidate 'confirms and is confirmed,' the word 'confirm* is used in two wholly (lifTcrcnt connotations. There is no real analog be- tween * confuminj^ (ratifying) promises ' and • being cooturmed (strengthened) by the gift of the Spirit.* II CONFIRMATION IN selves confirmed by the gift of the Spirit, but that they confirm the promises once made for them by their Godparents. And this impression, conveyed by the actual language of the service, is strengthened by the absence of the word * confirm ' in the prayer at the laying on of hands and in the other prayers. The older Books were not open to this charge. In the Prayer Book of 1549 and in that of 1552 the rubric immediately preceding the actual service was *And the Bishop shall confirm them on this wise^'; and in the former of these two Books the prayer which the 'Minister' said before the Bishop's act of Confirmation contained the petition addressed to God * Confirm and strength them with the inward unction of thy Holy Ghost.' Thus the use of the word ' confirm ' by the Prayer Book of 1662 in the one context and its omission in the other have together facilitated a fatal lowering of the conception of Con- firmation. The emphasis of the Service ^ In the present * Order of Confirmation ' we have in the first rubric * all that are to be then confirmed ' ; in the Preface ' none hereafter shall be confirmed' ; in the final rubric ' until such time as he be confirmed, or be ready and desirous to be confirmed.' 12 THE APOSTOLIC AGE appears to rest on the human, not on the divine side. The essence of the rite Hes in the prayer for the gift of the Spirit and in the laying on of hands (comp. Acts viii. 15, 17). The renewal of the Baptismal vows on the other hand is an accident of the rite, appropriate only in the case of those whose Confirmation is separated from their Baptism by an interval of time. It is the pledge on the part of those who were baptised in infancy and who in riper years present themselves for Confirmation that they are fit to receive the outward and visible sign of so great an inward and spiritual graced ^ The Preface and the Question in the Order of Confirmation, if I may frankly express my own opinion, are in urgent need of complete revision, (i) It must be confessed that the Preface is frigid and stiff to an even painful degree. Its history explains its character. It is a rubric made to serve a purpose for which it was not originally intended. It is not an address to the Candidates but a formal and impersonal statement of the con- ditions of Confirmation. We can hardly therefore wonder that it is wholly destitute of spiritual power or fervour, and stands in complete contrast to the Exhortations in the Communion Office, to the Addresses in the Baptismal Offices, and to the Address in the Ordinal to Candidates for the Prieslhootl. (7) It is a Preface not to the Service but only to the Question. It docs not say a single word as to the essential meaning of Confirmation, an omission which is an unspeakable loss. The Service of Con- firmation is a deeply significant Service both to the Candidates themselves and also to the general congregation. Is it not the boundcn duty of the Church to set forth with authority in that 13 CONFIRMATION IN In approaching the teaching of the New Testament on the subject of Con- firmation let us consider two analogies. (i) There is the analogy between God's historical dealings with His Son and His historical dealings with us. The Lord as the representative Israelite chose to have part in the Baptism of His forerunner. He was baptised by John in the river Jordan. As He came up out of the water, the Spirit descended upon Him. The Lord's Baptism was followed by the Lord's Confirmation. He was confirmed by His Father through the Holy Spirit. Through- out His earthly life He could look back Service the spiritual gift in Confirmation, and that in words which will touch hearts and consciences? (3) A Bishop who has the happiness of confirming many adult and sometimes aged persons cannot but feel keenly the inappropriateness of the Preface in such cases. Its language — 'that children being now come to years of discretion' — suggests that Confirmation is a rite only for the young, and thus increases the difficulty which older persons often experience in offering themselves for this means of grace. (4) It is obvious that the Preface and the Question are applicable only in the case of those who were baptised in infancy and who had sponsors. Under the conditions of the present day when many come forward for Confirmation who were baptised in infancy by a Nonconformist Minister or who were baptised as adults, perhaps immediately before Confirmation, some change is clearly necessary. It is most important that Candidates should give a pledge of fitness ; but such a pledge ought not to take a form which is untrue and unreal in the case of a considerable number. 14 THE APOSTOLIC AGE to that hour as the time when, and to that place as the place where, He received the fulness of the Father's gift. We note in the history the immediate connexion be- tween the Baptism, the outpouring of the Spirit, and the assurance of Sonship. Herein the Lord set an example to all His disciples. The disciple may well be content to do and to receive what the Master Himself did and received. In this history we have a sufficient argument for Confirmation. The sequel is well worth attentive study. We can trace at least in part the different offices which the Holy Spirit fulfilled to the Son of Man. The Spirit was to the Lord the Spirit of guidance and support in conflict. * Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness during forty days, being ays 0' tempted of the devil' (Luke iv. i)\ The ' ijytro iv tQ TTveunaTt Iv r^ ipTiM> t^M^/'o? TeTOv irve^fiaros {v.l. 5id rb ivoiKovy airrov vvevfia) iy hjuv. 18 THE APOSTOLIC AGE and God's historical dealing with indi- viduals. During the time of the Lord's ministry the Church may be said to have been in the position of a catechumen. The Lord was commonly known as 'the teacher/ His followers as 'His disciples/ 'His scholars.' It was the period of the Church's preparatory training. The day of the Resurrection, not (as is often said) the day of Pentecost, was the Church's birthday. When the Lord rose from the dead, the Church, 'the first fruits unto God' from among men, came into being. On the evening of ' that day, the first day of the week,' the risen Lord appeared to the representatives of the Church, the Eleven and ' them that were with them ' (John XX. 19, Luke xxiv. 33). He 'breathed on them,' a sacramental act significant of a new creation \ He said to them ' Receive ye the Holy Ghost,' the ^ John XX. 21 Kal toOto elwiov ive6 vjxas. For a discussion of other points connected with the history of the Day of Pentecost I must refer to my Credibility of the Book of the Acts, pp. 30 ff. ^ 'lovdala is here used in the large sense — the land of the Jews — which it often bears ; compare, e.£., Jos. Antiq. I. vii. 2 {eU T7)v t6t€ ixkv 'Kavavalav Xeyofxivrfv vvv bk ^lovdcUav fi€T(fKrfK€), Tacitus Hist. 11. 78 (Haec [Caesarea] Judaeae caput est), Luke iv. 44, Acts X. 37. THE APOSTOLIO AGE uttermost part of the earth/ Three periods are here marked off. (i) There is the earliest period, when Jerusalem was still the home of the Christian brotherhood, (ii) There is the intermediate period, when the Church was gradually spreading over what we now call the Holy Land. Samaria is specially mentioned because the Samari- tans were half Jews and half Gentiles, (iii) There is the period of world-wide extension, when the Church was evangel- izing the Provinces of the Roman Empire till, having at first borne witness in Jeru- salem, it at length bore witness also at Rome. Of these three periods St Luke does not give a full or exhaustive history. In each of them he selects and records typical incidents. The Confirmation scenes in the Acts are chosen, we cannot doubt, from many similar scenes. Each is a represen- tative scene for a particular period of the Church's development. The significance of each lies in the fact that it is illustrative. The Epistles, as we shall presently see, enable us to some extent to fill in incidents of this kind which are wanting in St Luke s record. 23 CONFIRMATION IN (i) Jerusalem. I have already spoken of the day of Pentecost. The gift of the Spirit was on that morning bestowed on repre- sentatives of the Church apart from any sacramental act or sign. The gift was divine not only in itself but in all the circum- stances of its bestowal. No human ministry intervened between the Giver and the recipients. But what of the later events of that day ? Were the three thousand persons confirmed who on that day received the word and were baptised ? Nothing is said of any laying on of hands ; and certainly we have no right to assume that to have happened which is not recorded. The occasion was wholly abnormal. But it is clear that a definite bestowal of the Holy Ghost consequent on, but distinct from, their Baptism was vouchsafed to these earliest converts to the faith. St Luke, who is characteristically brief in his narra- tive and is often content by a passing hint to suggest important details of the history, intimates this in his record of St Peter's exhortation and assurance (ii. 38): * Repent ye, and be baptised every one of you in the 24 THE APOSTOLIC AGE Name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins ; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (^at Xrifixfjeo-de rrjv S(opeav Tov aylov irvevfiaros)-' The phrase Xafieiv TO ayiov TTvevfJia (TrvevfMa ayiov) is the phrase elsewhere used by St Luke in reference to the reception of the gift of the Spirit at Confirmation (viii. 15, 17, x. 47, xix. 2; comp. John vii. 39, i Cor. ii. 12, 2 Cor. xi. 4, Gal. iii. 2, 14, Rom. viii. 15, i John ii. 27). For 7] Scoped in this connexion compare viii. 20, x. 45, xi. 17. (2) The land of the Jews and Samaria. In the intermediate period two typical scenes are recorded by St Luke. (i) Samaria (viii. 12 ff.). Those who in ' the city of Samaria ' believed the good news proclaimed by Philip the Evangelist * concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ^' were baptised each one (eySaTTTi^oi/To v. 12). The Apostles at Jerusalem, hearing of the evangelization of the Samaritans, sent Peter and John as * It is worthy of note that this twofold description of the fiJa7- yiXtov occurs in the Acts only here and in xxviii. 13, 31, i,r. at the point where the second period of the Apostolic hislorv begins (Samaria) and at the point where the extension of the Cnurch to 'the uttermost part ot the earth' (Rome) is related. 25 CONFIRMATION IN their representatives to this first colony of the Gospel. The two Apostles, when they came, offered prayer (clearly in the assembly of 'the Brethren') that those who had been baptised * might receive the Holy Ghost' (oTTODS Xd/3coaLP irvevjjia ayiov). Then the sacramental sign was conferred on each, and each 'received the Holy Ghost' — TOTe eTTeridecrav ra? \eipa^ eir avrovs, kol iXdfji/Savov TTveviJia dyiov. The imperfects eTrerWeo-av and iXafjifiavov are pictorial ; they individualize ; they enable us, as it were, to see the two Apostles * confirming ' the converts one after the other and the converts one after another rejoicing in the reception of the divine gift. We note in the careful language of the historian (v. 1 6) the contrast between the state of those who *had only been baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus' and the full possession of the blessings of renewal through the illapse (iTTLTrenTcoKos) of the Spirit. (ii) Caesarea (x. 44 ff.). The typical Confirmation scene just noticed is laid at *the city of Samaria.' The next is laid at Caesarea, the capital of Judaea, the country 26 THE APOSTOLIC AGE of the Jews (comp. Tacitus quoted above, p. 2 2n). St Peter was prepared by a vision for the invitation of the Roman Centurion. When the Apostle reached Caesarea, he was met by Cornelius and entered into his house. While he was speaking to him and the 'many* that were 'come together/ 'the Holy Ghost fell on all those who were hearing the word.' No scruple, the Apostle urged, could be felt by any as to the baptism of those whom God had thus accepted. At his command they were 'baptised in the name of Jesus Christ.' In the case of this assembly of Gentiles, as in the case of the Apostles themselves, there was no sacramental act or sign. The Holy Ghost was given independently of any ' laying on of hands.' The fact marks the occasion as the Gentile Pentecost (xi. 15 axTirep koX icf/ rjfias iv ^PXV)- The historian in this narrative, as in the record of the Day of Pentecost (ii. 17, 33), is careful to use the Pentecostal keyword which he employs nowhere else — inl ra idirq 17 So)p€a Tov 7rvevfiaT0<; tov ayiov cfc/c^in*at {v. 45). Here was a typical fulfilment of the promise that ' in the last days ' God ay CONFIRMATION IN would *pour forth of his Spirit upon all flesh' (ii. 17, Joel ii. 28). Hence the emphasis laid on this outpouring of the Spirit in the immediate sequel (xi. 15 ff.), when St Peter at Jerusalem defended his action, and later in the same Apostle's speech (xv. 8) at the Council of Jerusalem, when the liberty of the Gentile Churches had to be vindicated. This history, let us remark, is a warning against two opposite and very common temptations — (i) the temptation to undervalue the sacraments ; even after the converts had received the gift of the Spirit, the Apostle gave command that they should be baptised ; (ii) the temptation to deny or to endeavour to explain away manifestations of divine grace in those who have had no part in outward ordinances. This latter point is of special importance in regard to the subject under discussion. A clear and strong conviction of the blessing of Confirmation does not justify us in remaining blind to the signs of the presence of the Spirit in the holy men and women who have had no part in, or who even reject, the rite of Confirmation. He who is most loyal to the order of the 28 THE APOSTOLIC AGE Catholic Church will rejoice in every token that the bounty of the Father in Heaven is not limited by that order. One other incident belonging to this period demands notice. The Acts contains two accounts of the visit of Ananias to Saul of Tarsus after his conversion (ix. lo ff., xxii. 12 fif.). In both the his- torian tells us of the Baptism of Saul. In the earlier of the two passages he speaks also of a Maying on of hands.' Ananias in a vision receives a divine command to go to Saul ; for Saul too has had a vision and has seen Ananias * coming in and laying his hands on him, that he might receive his sight.' Ananias obeys. He goes to Saul and, laying his hands on him, says * Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way which thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mayest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost.' ' And straightway,' St Luke adds, * there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight ; and he arose and was baptised.' It can hardly be questioned by those who, in view of the reinforcement of tradition by the internal 29 CONFIRMATION IN evidence of the Book itself, regard St Luke as the author of the Acts, that St Luke derived his information as to the conversion of St Paul from the Apostle himself We have good reason therefore for believing that the compressed narrative of the visit of Ananias to Saul of Tarsus gives with approximate accuracy the words spoken by Ananias and the true sequence of events. We learn then that a 'disciple,' who apparently held no official position in the Church, received a divine commission to admit Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor, into the Church of the redeemed; that so divinely commissioned he laid his hands on him, conferring thereby on him a twofold gift, the gift of physical restoration and the gift of the Holy Spirit ; and that immediately afterwards Saul was baptised. The restoration of sight was doubtless to Saul a pledge of the reality of the spiritual endowment (comp. Mark ii. 6 ff., Matt. ix. 3 ff., Luke V. 21 ff.). Here, as in the case of Cornelius and his friends, the gift of the Spirit preceded Baptism. If we hesitate to regard Ananias' * laying on of hands ' as a conscious and formal act of Confirmation, 30 THE APOSTOLIC AGE yet at any rate the history witnesses to the habitual recognition in the Apostolic Church of a close connexion between 'the laying on of hands ' and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit. (3) The extension of the Church to * the uttermost part of the earth/ In the period of world-wide extension St Luke selects one Confirmation scene. Ephesus was the great centre of Asiatic idolatry, a typical stronghold of false worship. When St Paul arrived there (xix. I ff.) and found * certain disciples,' he is represented as asking them the question ' Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed ? (et TTvevfia ayiov iXafiere wLcrTeV' aavres ;).' The question does not look to an inner consciousness which the 'dis- ciples ' might have had of the presence and influence of the Holy Spirit but to a definite reception of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of their Christian life (7ricrT€vcrai^TC9) of such a kind that, if it had been vouchsafed to them, they could not but remember it. The Apostle assumed that, if they were 'disciples,' they must have been baptised. He is anxious to know if 31 CONFIRMATION IN their Baptism had been followed by their Confirmation. When they answered that they had indeed been baptised, but baptised only with Johns Baptism, he explained to them the Baptist's work and faith in Jesus. * And when they heard this, they were baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them.' The question of St Paul is very significant. There is nothing in the narrative to lead us to suppose that he followed at Ephesus a course which he did not follow elsewhere. It was natural to him to ascertain whether such converts as he found in this place or in that had received the grace of Confirmation. It is equally clear from the history that it was his regular practice to confirm by the laying on of hands those who had been baptised. Further, the question reveals what was commonly but not universally the case in the Apostolic age with those who had been baptised. It was to be hoped, but it was not to be assumed, that they had * received the Holy Ghost' If they had not, the explanation might lie in the fact that they owed their conversion to an 32 THE APOSTOLIC AGE evangelist who had authority to baptise but not to confirm (comp. viii. 12, 14 ff.). A review of these historical notices, which, it will be remembered, are repre- sentative, brings out the following points : (i) In the Apostolic Church a definite bestowal of the Holy Spirit normally followed Baptism^ (2) The outward and visible sign was the 'laying oh of hands.' (3) The gift was sometimes evidenced by an extraordinary * manifestation of the Spirit,' tongues (ii. 4, x. 46, xix. 6) and prophecy (xix. 6). But this was not always so. In the case of the converts at Samaria (viii. 17) and, we may add, of Saul of Tarsus (ix. i7f.), no such * manifestation * is recorded. Such an extraordinary * mani- festation ' then, whatever its varying forms*, was not of the essence of the gift but was rather an accidental result of the Spirit's presence. St Paul mentions * prophecy ' and 'divers kinds of tongues' among many * This was not the case, so far as the record goes, in the following instances, (i) the Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch by Philip the Evangelist (viii. 38) ; {2) of Lydia and her house at Philippi (xvi. 15); (3) of the jailor at Philippi (xvi. 33) ; (4) of the converts at Corinth (xviii. 8). ^ For a discussion as to the nature of 'tongues* I must refer to my Credibility of the Book of the Acts, pp. 35 ff. E- C. 33 3 CONFIRMATION IN other modes of the * manifestation of the Spirit' (i Cor. xii. 4ff., 28ff.); and he clearly does not rank * tongues ' as among the highest of the Spirit's gifts (i Cor. xiii., xiv.). (4) The minister, at least normally, was an Apostle. (5) * Laying on of hands' was not confined to one school of the Apostles. The rite was administered by the Apostles of the Circumcision and by the Apostle of the Gentiles. The imposi- tion of hands after Baptism is represented as the natural act of the Apostles in the case of their converts. No explanation of the origin of the practice is given. In the first days it had a place in the life of the Church. Short of an express statement to that effect we could have no more con- vincing proof that herein the Apostles were following a command which they had received from the Lord Himself. 34 THE APOSTOLIC AGE II. Passages of the Apostolic Epistles which speak of an outward and visible sign in Confirmation and of the corresponding inward and spiritual grace, 2 Timothy i. 6 f. 8t' r\v aXrlav dva/ii' fjLj/7]crK(o ae dvat,o)7rvpe2v to x^ptcr/xa tov 0€OV, O icTlV iu (Tol Sid TTJS €7rt^CCr€C09 TCOV ^eipcov fiov • ov yap eScoKev r^plv 6 Oeos irvevfia heiXias, dWd hwdfjiecos /cat dydTrrjs /cat (raxfypovLCTfJiov, It is perhaps universally assumed that these words refer to Timothy's Ordination : so Chrysostom, roureWt, rr)v X^P^^ '''^^ TTvevfiaTOf;, rjv eXaySes eU TrpocTTacriav rrj? iKK\r)(TLas, els (rrjfieLa, els ttjv XaTpeiav diracrav. But the oftener I read the passage, the clearer, I confess, it seems to me that St Paul has in view not Timothy's Ordination but Timothy's Confirmation. For this opinion I will give my reasons. It is convenient to turn first to that passage in the First Epistle (i Tim. iv. 14) which is commonly regarded as referring to the same occasion as our present passage. The words are these : firj dfieket, 35 3— « CONFIRMATION IN Tov iv GTol j(a/DLor/xaT09, o iS60r) col Sta 7rpo(f>r)Teias fJiera eTTiOecreo)^ rcov yeipoiv tov TTpea^vTepLov. The fact that in one passage the allusion is to the ' laying on of the hands of the presbytery ' and in the other to the * laying on of my hands * does not in itself seem to me a serious difficulty in the way of supposing that the two passages have the same event in view. An Apostle, as a Bishop now, would doubtless take the leading place among the presbyters in an act of Ordination ; and in the fervour of a personal appeal he might well refer exclusively to his own part in the solemn rite of blessing. Yet the impression produced by the difference of language is that the two passages allude to two different occasions. And this impres- sion is greatly strengthened when we examine the context of the two passages. In the verses which precede the earlier passage (i Tim. iv. iiff.) Timothy is regarded as a leader. He is to 'command and teach,' to shew himself a * pattern to the faithful/ to *give attention' to the public reading of Scripture, to public exhortation, and to public teaching. It is 36 THE APOSTOLIC AGE that he may fulfil these duties of a pastor and teacher that he is to be careful not to * neglect the gift that is in him.' The context in the later passage is wholly different. St Paul recalls * the unfeigned faith ' which was ' in ' Timothy, a faith, he adds, which 'dwelt first in thy grand- mother Lois and thy mother Eunice.' The assurance that in Christian faith Timothy resembled his Mother and his Grandmother is the occasion of the appeal which follows: 'For the which cause I put thee in remem- brance that thou ever kindle into flame the gift of God, which is in thee through the laying on of my hands.' There is nothing here which leads up to the thought of the grace of Ordination. The mention of Timothy's Mother and Grandmother sug- gests that the charisma which Timothy is ever to keep alive is one which is bestowed on all faithful people, and that the occasion when he received the ' outward and visible sign ' of its bestowal was at an early stage of his Christian life. Again, how is the charisma described } * For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness (SetXta?), but of power and love and soberness {cr(t)(f>povL(r[xov).* 37 CONFIRMATION IN When St Paul speaks of * us/ does he mean * us disciples ' or ' us to whom a ministry or an oversight has been com- mitted ' ? I do not doubt that he here regards himself and Timothy simply as members of the Church. For the negative clause, * not a spirit of fearfulness/ recalls at once the wide and general language of an earlier Epistle, 'Ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye received the spirit of adoption ' (Rom. viii. 1 5 ; comp. Gal. iv. 6) ; and the gifts of * power ' and ' love ' and ' soberness ' are catholic gifts, gifts, that is, which are common to all those who are *in Christ Jesus.'^ Lastly, we turn to the succeeding context. The inference of duty (ovv) which the Apostle draws for Timothy from the premiss of assured endowment is that he must not be * ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me his prisoner* (comp. V. i6) ; he must * suffer hardship with the gospeP according to the power ^ For dijpafiii compare ^.^. Eph. iii. i6, Col. i. ii ; fordydTT] e,f. I Cor. xii. 31 — xiv. i ; for ffta^poviatib^e.g. Rom. xii. 3, i Tim. ii. 9, 15, Titus ii. 2, 5 f., 12. * Comp. Phil. i. 27 f. ffvvaO\(ivvTe% ry Triffrei toO ei^ayyeXlov Kal fi^ TTTvpdfievoi k.t.X. 38 THE APOSTOLIC AGE of God, who saved us and called us with an holy calling/ Here too the * us ' is certainly ' us Christians.' The ' holy call- ing' (comp. 2 Thess. i. ii, i Cor. i. 26, Phil. iii. 14, Eph. iv. i, 4) looks back to the first beginning of the Christian life. The duties to which St Paul summons Timothy are such as are binding on all the people of God. A review of the whole passage then leads to the con- clusion that St Paul, conscious that he is now nearing his end, recalls to Timothy s mind an occasion, which both of them would vividly remember, when, his ' be- loved child' (i Cor. iv. 17) having been * baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus,' he himself ' laid his hands on him and the Holy Ghost came upon him* (comp. Acts xix. 6). It is not difficult to find a place for this occasion in the history recorded in the Acts. When during his second missionary journey St Paul revisited Lystra, Timothy was already a * disciple ' and already well known to the * brethren' both at Lystra and at Iconium (Acts xvi. 2). Clearly he was not now a * neophyte.' We are precluded then 39 CONFIRMATION IN from connecting his Confirmation with this visit of St Paul to Timothy's home. It must have taken place during St Paul's earlier sojourn at Lystra (Acts xiv. 8 ff.). The narrative of the Apostle's first visit to Lystra is wholly occupied with the healing of the cripple and its sequel. But it contains an incidental reference to successful evangelistic work. When the Jews who came from Antioch and Iconium had stoned St Paul and dragging him out of the city had left him, ' the disciples/ it is said, stood round his seemingly dead body. St Paul then did not leave Lystra till he had planted an infant Church there. Of the disciples who were ' the first fruit ' of Lycaonia it is no extravagant conjecture that Timothy was one. During this first visit to Lystra Timothy, we may reason- ably suppose, was baptised and had the Apostle's hands laid on him. The Epistle then supplements the story of the Acts. To the one Confirmation scene of St Paul's ministry recorded in the Acts it adds another and an earlier Confirmation scene. It strengthens the inference which we drew from the account of what took place 40 THE APOSTOLIC AGE at Ephesus, that the Apostle was wont, after his converts had been baptised, to lay his hands on them that they might receive the endowment of the Spirit. Further, it is to be especially noticed that the grace of Confirmation in the Epistle does not lie in any extraordinary ' manifestation of the Spirit,' such as tongues or prophecy or the working of miracles, but in the bestowal of a purely spiritual endowment, * power and love and soberness/ Hebrews vi. if. iwl rrjv reXetoTrjra (fyepcofieda, ixrj iraXiv deixi\iov KaTa^aXko/ievoL fjLerapoLa<; dno veKpSiv epycoi/y kol TriorTeco^ inl deov, l3a7rTLO'ix(t)p StSa^Tj? {v. L hi^(Lyj]v) cttc- 64ije(x)<; re yeipcoVy avacrrdcreoi^; (v. L dva- oracreci? re) veKpaiv /cat KpCfiaTos aloiviov. A few words must first be said as to the closely related subjects of reading and of construction in the clause with which we are immediately concerned {/SairTLcrfxojv..* X^i'Pcov). The reading StSa^'^J? is found in XACDvg ; StSax-r/V in Bd. The former reading, being that found in different groups of MSS. representing different types of text, must, I think, be regarded as the better supported reading. Codex B is CONFIRMATION IN undoubtedly a high authority ; but to accept a reading practically supported by it alone seems to attribute to it undue weight, unless indeed such a reading commends itself strongly on the ground of intrinsic probability. The reverse of this appears to be the case here. If we take the reading StSa^T^i/, it is in apposition to Oeyiekiovy on which depend the genitives /xerai/oiag and m(rr€ft)9. When the regimen of Oe^iekiov has once been broken by hihaxqvy it is impossible to revert to Oeixekiov in regard to the genitives of the final clause avacrrd' (r€co9 and Kpifxaros. These two latter fenitives must in that case depend on iSaxoi^' The adoption then of the reading StSax^yi^ (i) dislocates the passage, cutting off two of the three clauses from connexion with the essential idea conveyed in the word defxekiov ; (2) it fails to recognise the difference between the abstract terms * repentance,' * faith,' 'resurrection,' * judg- ment' and on the other hand the terms describing the definite and concrete acts of * baptism ' and * laying on of hands.' The addition of the word 'teaching' in reference to these latter words is necessary in order 42 THE APOSTOLIC AGE to correlate them with the other four words. Hence, though Westcott and Hort prefer SiSaxr}^, I venture on the ground both of documentary evidence and of in- ternal considerations to adopt the reading SiSaxTJ^;. Th^ word SiSaxrjs denotes the * inward and spiritual ' meaning of the two * outward and visible signs,' ^aTrrtcr/xot and We next enquire what is the reference in /SaTTTLo-fJiCiJi' and eVt^eVewg yeipcov. Bishop Westcott in loco maintains that the former term includes 'Christian Baptism and other lustral rites,' adding that *the teaching would naturally be directed to shew their essential difference/ He gives a somewhat similarly inclusive meaning to the ' laying on of hands,' regarding it as 'the expressive symbol of a solemn blessing (Matt. xix. 13), of the restoration or communication of strength for a definite work.' Such too in general is the interpretation of the former term given by Dr Vaughan in his com- mentary on the Epistle; though he explains the latter as 'that sequel and complement of baptism of which we have examples in Acts viii. 17 and xix. 6.' No one can 43 CONFIRMATION IN lightly differ from these two masters of exegesis. Yet I confess that I catinot accept their interpretation. For (i) the writer of the Epistle disparages such * lustral rites ' as being 8t/catc5/xara o-apKos yi^XP^ /cat/oou Stoyo^cicrecus inLKeiixeua (ix. lo); it cannot be part of the ' foundation ' to shew the insufficiency of these ; the ^teaching' which is part of the 'foundation' must be positive, not controversial; (2) the reference to ' repentance ' and * faith ' leads on to the mention not of 'lustral rites' generally but of Christian Baptism speci- fically (comp. Acts ii. 38) ; (3) the writer marks the great crises of the Christian life here and hereafter ; the Christian man * repents ' and ' believes ' ; he is ' baptised ' and * confirmed ' ; he will ' rise ' and be 'judged.' Another interpretation of the plural fiawTLoriMcov then must be sought. Now just as e.£', ao-Tracr/xos means an act of salutation, so ^aTrrtcr/xos (ix. 10, Mark vii. 4, Col. ii. 12 V, /.) means an act of baptism or washing. The phrase SiSaxr) fiaTTTLCTfjLaiv therefore signifies 'the teaching about acts of washing,' the exposition of the truths and spiritual principles embodied 44 THE APOSTOLIC AGE and expressed in the baptism of this disciple and of that. The exact expression seems chosen to denote not the Christian rite in the abstract (^SaTrrtcr/xa) but the Christian rite in its concrete application to individual believers (comp. x. 22). If this interpretation of fiairTLo-ficov is correct, the meaning of eVt^ecrea)? x^^P^^ is fixed. It cannot be general and inclusive ; it must exclusively denote that act of spiritual blessing which in the Apostolic Church normally followed Baptism. The question still remains What was the writer's conception of the 'teaching' to which he refers ? The answer is given in three passages of the Epistle, one of these being in the immediate context of the passage which we have just been con- sidering. (a) vi. 4 Toifs aira^ (fxjJTLaOevTa^y yevcrafievov^ re rrj^; Scopeaq rrj^ inovpaviov /cat fJi€T6)(ov<; yevy^OivTa^ TrvevfiaTo^ dytov, /cat KaXop yevo-afievov^ deov prjfia /c.r.X. The writer is describing persons whom ' it is impossible to renew again unto repentance.' They are those who 'were once for all enlightened and tasted in its beauty the 4S CONFIRMATION IN word of God and the powers of the world to come and fell away.' He further defines what he meant by the words 'who were once for all enlightened They were * enlightened ' ' in that (or when) they both tasted the heavenly gift and became par- takers of the Holy Ghost/ The (f>(0TL(TiJL6<; has two parts (re... /cat). First those who were ' enlightened ' consciously realized their part in God's gift of the *only begotten Son' (John iii. i6; comp. Rom. v. 15, 17) and in God's gifts that are *in Christ/ the gift of 'eternal life' (i John v. 11) and the gift of sonship (John i. 12). This manifold gift of redemption and renewal is pledged to all who are 'baptised into Jesus Christ' (Gal. iii. 27, Rom. vi. 3). The allusion then in these words is to Baptism. Secondly those who were 'en- lightened' had a participation in the en- dowment of Pentecost; 'they became partakers of the Holy Ghost.' This par- ticipation in the Holy Ghost was, as we learn from the Acts, conveyed to believers by the 'laying on of hands.' In these words therefore the writer clearly defines the 'teaching about baptisms and the 46 THE APOSTOLIC AGE laying on of hands' of which he has just spoken. (d) ii. 3 f. yJTLS [sc. (rcoTrjpLa], ^PXV^ \afiovcra \a\eiadai 8ta rov KvpLov, vno t(ov aKovcrdvroiv €ts i^/xa? ifiefiaLcoOr), crvv€7n- fxapTvpovvTOS Tov 6eov,,,7rv€VfJiaTO^ ayiov fiepLO-fJiOL^ Kara rrjv eavrov dekrjcTLv. The mind of the writer goes back to the time when the message of salvation was first brought to him and to his friends (et? ^J/ias) by evangelists who had themselves heard the Lord, and when God bore His witness to the message of the Gospel by a bestowal of the Spirit as definite and unmistakeable as * the signs and wonders * to which he refers. The passage recalls some Confir- mation scene or scenes in some Palestinian Church such as the representative Confir- mation scene which St Luke records as taking place in *the city of Samaria' (Acts viii. 14 ff.). It is a strong and circumstantial testimony to the truth of the narratives contained in the Acts. (c) X. 29 6 TOP vloi/ rov 0€ov Kara- iraTTjaas, /cat ro at/xa T7J9 SLadij Kr)<; kolvov rjyrjo-dfxepos iv ^ y)yLda'07), /cat to irvevfia T179 xdpiTo<; eVv^SptVas. * The language 47 CONFIRMATION IN used/ writes Bishop Westcott in loco, * suggests the open repudiation of the baptismal confession and covenant/ That the writer has in view the initiation of the Christian life appears from the words Iv w 7]yLdo-67) (comp. I Cor. vi. ii). In his baptism the man was ' sanctified' ' in the blood of the covenant.' Having been * bap- tised into Jesus Christ' he rejects Christ — note the august title 'the Son of God' ; comp. vi. 6 — and His redemption. In another passage of the Epistle (x. 22) the * outward and visible sign ' is made prominent, XeXov- crfiepoL TO (rcofxa vSan KaOapco : here * the inward and spiritual grace.' In the words which follow — * hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace' — the allusion to the gift in Confirmation is no less clear. The special phrase, 'the Spirit of grace,' is significant. The Spirit given in Confirmation is the vehicle to those who are 'in Christ' of 'the manifold grace of God' (i Pet. iv. 10). Thus the writer of the Epistle reveals incidentally what is his conception of that 'teaching about baptisms and the laying on of hands' which he reckons as pertain- ing to the 'foundation.' In Baptism the 4a THE APOSTOLIC AGE convert realizes his own part in God's gift of Christ and of the blessings involved in that supreme gift. As his 'body is washed with pure water/ so he is 'sanctified in' the blood of Christ. In Confirmation he is made a 'partaker of the Holy Ghost/ in whom the divine grace is embodied and bestowed. Together Baptism and Con- firmation are an ' enlightenment.' Hence- forth, if he is faithful, he can ' walk in the light/ ' the true light ' which * now shineth * (i John i. 7, ii. 8). We can now estimate the significance of the passage of the Epistle (vi. if.) from which we started, (i) We learn the close association in the Apostolic age of Baptism and Confirmation. Through them the convert was brought into personal relation with the great gifts of God bestowed on man in the Incarnation and in Pentecost, (ii) We learn the name of Confirmation current in the Apostolic age — eVt^eo-t? -^eipcjVy ' the laying on of hands.' (iii) We learn the importance which in the Apostolic age was attached to these two sacramental acts and their spiritual meaning, (iv) We learn that the gift of the Spirit in the £. c. 49 4 CONFIRMATION IN Apostolic age was not essentially connected with any so called miraculous powers, (v) We learn that in the Apostolic age Con- firmation as well as Baptism was the acknow- ledged inheritance of Christians of different schools of thought. The unknown writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews was a Jew ; but the tone and temper of his teaching was not that of St Paul or of the Apostles of the Circumcision. He was deeply embued with the literary culture and the philosophic thought of Alexandria. His Epistle shews us that, however widely the first disciples differed in their interpretation of some elements of Christian truth, there was no divergence of practice or of thought in regard to Baptism and Confirmation. We have now reviewed all the passages in the New Testament which speak of the laying on of hands in connexion with Confirmation. Is there any indirect allusion to this outward and visible sign in the Apostolic writings ? I cannot but think 50 THE APOSTOLIC AGE that such an allusion is to be found in the three passages in which St Paul speaks of a divine sealing. They are these : 2 Corinthians i. 2 1 f. 6 8e fie/Saicov rjfias (Tvv vfuv els XpuaTov kol ^ptcrag rjfjia<; deos, 6 Kal o'(f)payLadiJi€vos rjjjia^ /cat Sovs rov dppa- pcova Tov TTPevfjLaTos ev rat? KapSiai^ -qjxcov. Ephesians i. 1 3 f. ei/ ^ [sc. rco xp^crr^^ Kol vfieLS (iKovcravTe^ tov Xoyov 7^9 d\r]0€La^, TO evayyeKiov T'^s crcoTrjpias Vfjiwy, iv (o /cat TTLCTTevo-aPTe^;, icrcfypayLaOrjTe tS irvevfiaTL ttJ^ eTrayyekias rw dyiw, o \v, L 09] IcTiv dppa^oiv TTJs K\YjpovofJiLa<; r^ficov, els diroXv- Tpaxriv TTJs TrepLTTOLijaecos, cts eiraivov rr}? 86 ^7) s aVTOV. Ephesians iv. 30 /cat firj XvirelTe to TTvevfia TO dyiov tov deov, iv (o ea^pa- yiadr^Te els rjfjiepav dTroXvTpcoaecJs, In each of these passages the sealing is intimately connected with the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the XapaKTTJpy the ' impress * or * stamp ' which is imparted and which abides. He who ' seals ' is God. We have a close parallel to these passages in John vi. 27 tovtov yap 6 TraTrjp eo-cjypdyLO'ev 6 Oeos ' the Father * sealed' the Incarnate Son by the Spirit 5« 4—2 CONFIRMATION IN who abode on Him (John i. 32, iii. 34). Further, in these passages the use of the aorist shews that the reference is to a definite crisis of the Christian Hfe in the past. In 2 Cor. i. 21 f. the present parti- ciple {/Se^aicoi') gives place to a series of aorist participles {y^piaas, acfypayLo-dfjievoSy S0V9). In Eph. i. I3f. it is clear that the allusion is to the time when the converts became believers {aKovcravTes* . -Triorrevo'av- res icr(f)payLa9r)Te) ; compare Acts xix. 2 el TTvevfxa ayiov ikd^ere. TnaTevaavre^ ; There can be no doubt then that St Paul in these passages has in mind the bestowal of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation. Now the metaphor of sealing suggests not only the ideas of possession and of consequent security but also that of a certain character being impressed on the person who is sealed. This latter idea is vividly and, so to speak, pictorially expressed by ' the laying on of hands.' Just as the washing of the neophyte in Baptism is the outward and visible sign that God cleanses him from his sins, so the imposition of hands with prayer for the Holy Spirit is the outward and visible sign that God seals him with 52 THE APOSTOLIC AGE the Holy Spirit. The divine seaHng is the heavenly and spiritual counterpart of the human and earthly act of the laying on of hands. When St Paul speaks of God sealing men with the Holy Spirit, he seems to be indirectly alluding to the ministers of Christ laying their hands on the converts and praying for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost (Acts viii. 15). But at this point another question suggests itself. In the Apostolic Church was the laying on of hands the only out- ward and visible sign used in Confirmation ? Or was unction also a recognised symbol ? Three lines of argument converge to suggest an affirmative answer to the latter question. (i) Laying on of hands and anointing are in the Bible closely related sym- bolical acts. According to Numbers viii. 10 the Levites were originally set apart by a laying on of hands : * the children of Israel shall lay their hands upon the Levites.* The Priests and in particular 53 CONFIRMATION IN the High Priest were anointed {e.g. Ex. xxviii. 41). In New Testament times both actions were used in regard to the sick. Both the Lord Himself and the Apostles laid their hands on the sick {e.g, Mark vi. 5, viii. 23, Acts xxviii. 8). The Apostles when our Lord first sent them forth in Galilee anointed the sick (Mark vi. 13); and St James, writing *to the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion,' enjoins (v. 14) that prayers should be offered for the recovery of the sick accompanied by anointing. It would be very natural therefore if in Con- firmation both laying on of hands and unction were employed by the Apostles and their followers. (2) In the sub-apostolic literature there is, so far as I know, no clear allusion to Confirmation. But in the writings of Tertullian, which belong to the end of the second century and to the beginning of the third. Confirmation holds an assured place in the sacramental system of the Church. The language used by this Father implies that he is referring to established customs in his own Church of Carthage ; and among these customs was an anointing of the 54 THE APOSTOLIC AGE baptised immediately preceding the laying on of hands. The chief passages are these : de Baptismo vii., viii. Exinde egressi de lavacro perungimur benedicta unctione de pristina disciplina, qua ungi oleo de cornu in sacerdotio solebant Dehinc manus imponitur, per benedictionem advo- cans et invitans Spiritum Sanctum. de Resurrectione Carnis viii. Scilicet caro abluitur ut anima emaculetur : caro ungitur ut anima consecretur: caro signatur* ut et anima muniatur : caro manus imposi- tione adumbratur ut et anima spiritu illuminetur : caro corpore et sanguine Christi vescitur ut et anima de Deo saginetur. A fuller description of this rite is given in the Canons of Hippolytus (ed. Achelis p. 98) : ' Ubi ex aqua ascendit, presbyter prehendit chrisma cuxaptcrrta? et signat frontem et os et pectus ejus signo crucis ungitque totum corpus ejus et caput et faciem dicens : Ego te ungo in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti...Ibi episcopus manum imponens omnibus qui baptizati * The allusion is to the signing with the sign of the cross; comp. e.g. ad Uxorem ii. 5 (Latebisne tu, cum lectulum, cum corpusculum tuum signas ?), 8 (furtiva signatio). 55 CONFIRMATION IN sunt, haec orat dicens : Benedicimus tibi, omnipotens Domine Deus, quia hos dignos reddidisti, qui iterum nascerentur, et super quos Spiritum Tuum Sanctum effundis, ut jam uniti sint corpori ecclesiae/ If, as seems probable, these Canons are sub- stantially those of Hippolytus and this portion of them original, we have evidence that at Rome about 230 a.d. unction was practised as a rite preparatory to the laying on of hands. Irenaeus enables us to carry the evi- dence somewhat further back. In the first of his five Books against Heresies^ (ed. Massuet) i. 21. 3 he tells us that a certain Gnostic sect, the Marcosians, anointed the person who had just been baptised — eTretra ixvpitpvai Tov TereXeafxevov rqj ottco tco oltto )8a\cra/xov to yap [xvpov tovto tvttov t7J<; vnep ra oka evco^ias elpai Xeyovcnv, There can be little doubt that the rites and litur- gical formulae of the Gnostic sects were derived from, and were a parody of, the rites and liturgical formulae of the Catholic ^ The third book was written during the episcopate of Eleutherus (iii. 3. 3). Eleutherus was Bishop of Rome a.d. 175 — 190. 56 THE APOSTOLIC AGE Church. We infer therefore that this unction was a custom in the Church when the Marcosians broke away from it, and that consequently it must have been in use at least as early as the middle of the second century. It seems however very improbable that, while unction had an acknowledged place as a religious rite in the Old Testament and was practised at least to some extent in Apostolic times together with laying on of hands in the healing of the sick, it should have sprung up independently in the Church of the second century in close connexion with the laying on of hands in Confirmation. It is far more probable that the unction of which, for example, Tertullian speaks was a survival from Apostolic days. (3) We now turn to two passages of the New Testament, viz., 2 Cor. i. 21 f., I John ii. 20, 27. 2 Corinthians i. 21 f. (quoted above p. 51). Here a divine act of anointing is spoken of side by side with a divine act of sealing, and both are intimately connected with the gift of the Spirit. We saw that in all probability this sealing is to be regarded as 57 CONFIRMATION IN the heavenly counterpart of the earthly sign of laying on of hands. In the same way is it not natural to look upon the divine anointing as the spiritual reality figured by an anointing with material oil ? I John ii. 20, 27 Kol ujutets xpLorfia e^ere aTro tov aytov* oiSare iravre^ — ovk iypaxfja (v. L /cat otSare irdvTa, ovk eypaxfja) v/xLV OTL OVK OLOaT€ TTjv akiqueiav, aKk otl oiSare avTrjv, kol otl ttolv \jjevSo<; e/c rrj^ oKiqOeia^ ovk e(TTLv,,,Kal u/xet? to xpLcrfia o IXdfieTe ofTT avTov fxeveu iv vfjuvy kol ov ^peiav e^ere tVa rt? SuSdo'Ky vjias' aXX* a>9 to avTOv •^pLCTfia StSacr/C€t v/i-a? nepl wavTcov, /cat d\r)9e<; ecTTiv /cat ovk ecTTiv ^ev8o<;, /cat KaOo)^ iSiSa^ev vjia^, jxepeTe iv avTco, St John is here speaking of the * many anti-christs' who had arisen. Against their deceits Christians are fore-armed. They all have a teacher in the unction which they received. It abides in them. It teaches them * concerning all things.' They *know the truth.' What then is this unction, this anointing oil? A comparison of St John's language in the Gospel (xiv. 16, 26, xvi. 13) with his language here leaves us in no doubt. What is there said of the Holy 58 THE APOSTOLIC AGE Spirit is here said of the unction. The unction of the Epistle is the Spirit. The unction, the Spirit, had been bestowed on the Christians to whom St John wrote at a definite time to which they could look back (o eXaySere v, 27 ; comp. Acts xix. 2). I cannot doubt that the Apostle recalls to the minds of his friends the pledge which they received in their Confirmation. But if so, is the term ' unction ' wholly metaphorical (comp. Luke iv. 18, Acts iv. 27, x. 38)? The allusion to the unction is to us abrupt and startling. Nothing in the passage has prepared the way for it. No explanation is given. It seems to require some context of personal sacred association. It can hardly be questioned that the whole passage gains in force, directness, and intelligibility, if we assume that unction was used among those to whom St John wrote as a symbol of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation. When then we weigh all these con- siderations, it becomes exceedingly probable that in Apostolic times besides the laying on of hands anointing was used as an outward and visible sign in the rite of 59 CONFIRMATION IN Confirmation. Such a supposition at once explains the language of St Paul and of St John and accounts for the custom of later times. But it must be carefully noted that we have no explicit evidence as to Apostolic usage and that our conclusion is no more than a probable inference. The Church of England as a national branch of the Catholic Church is fully justified in dispensing with a symbol which, as the evidence when carefully considered seems clearly to shew, was not universal in the Apostolic Churches and in retaining only the laying on of hands. This un- doubtedly was the regular Apostolic sign in Confirmation ; it is in itself simpler and is more in harmony with Western and modern customs and ideas. At this point it will be well to endeavour to ascertain the meaning of these two sym- bolical acts, (i) the laying on of hands and (2) anointing. In all such enquiries it must be remembered that symbolism belongs to the poetry of life and is not 60 THE APOSTOLIC AGE capable of a precise and rigid expla- nation. It must be enough if we ask ourselves what are the main ideas which find natural expression in any symbolical act, and what are the associations which have gathered round it. The following is an attempt to classify the uses of these two symbolical actions in the Old and in the New Testament. I. The laying on of hands. Old Testament. 1. In blessing : Gen. xlviii. 14 ff. (Jacob blessing Ephraim and Manasseh). 2. In appointment to a work or office: (i) Numb. viii. 10 f. (' The children of Israel shall lay their hands upon the Levites : and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for a wave offering, on the behalf of the children of Israel, that they may be to do the service of the Lord '). (ii) Numb, xxvii. 18 ff. ('And the Lord 61 CONFIRMATION IN said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him.., And thou shalt put of thine honour upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may obey'). Deut. xxxiv. 9 (' And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom ; for Moses had laid his hands upon him'). 3. In the ritual of sacrifices : Ex. xxix. 10, 15, 19, Lev. i. 4, io(lxx), iii. 2, 8, 13, iv. 4, 24, 29, 33, viii. 14, 18, xvi. 21, 2 Chron. xxix. 23. All these passages except the last are from the Priest's Code. The most important pas- sage — it is interpretative — is Lev. xvi. 21 f., * And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins ; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a man that is in readiness into the wilderness : and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a solitary land.' 62 THE APOSTOLIC AGE 4. In the execution of the guilty or the trial of the accused : Lev. xxiv. 14 ('Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp ; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him'), Susanna 34. There is a close analogy between the sacrificial victim and the criminal. Both are looked upon as representative. On both the sin of the community is regarded as concen- trated (comp. Josh. vii. i). Of this the laying on of hands is the natural symbol. ' When a tribesman is executed for an impious offence, he dies on behalf of the community, to restore normal relations between them and their god ; so that the analogy with sacrifice is very close in purpose as well as in form. And so, the cases in which the anger of the god can be traced to the crime of a particular individual, and atoned for by his death, are very naturally seized upon to explain the cases in which the sin of the community cannot be thus individualised, but where, nevertheless, according to ancient custom, reconciliation is sought through the sacrifice 63 CONFIRMATION IN of a theanthropic victim' (Robertson Smith The Religion of the Semites p. 401). It should be noticed that in all these passages from the Old Testament except Gen. xlviii. i4ff. (^nt^i? n^^»i.) the verb i»d is used. The word means to lean or rest one thing upon another (e.g. Amos v. 19, the hand upon a wall). In the later language the verb ^dd has a technical meaning, ' to appoint by laying on of hands ' ; so a Rabbi made a disciple. The noun HD'^DD means * appointment by the laying of hands.' See Buxtorf Lex. Chald. Talmud, et Rabbin. 1498, Schoettgen Horae Hebr. \. p. 874 f., ii. p. 887 f. The idea then expressed in the sym- bolical act of laying on of hands is the transference of character or of endowment — divine favour, the function of service, official honour and capacity, guilt. More- over the notion of the unity of tribal or national life is not far in the background. In some cases — the appointment of the Levites, the sacrificial victims (especially the goat in the ritual of the day of Atonement), the condemned criminal — it is prominent. That which belongs to the 64 THE APOSTOLIC AGE whole community is concentrated on a representative. New Testament. 1. In blessing : Mark x. i6, (||Matt. xix. 15). 2. In healing the sick : a. The Lord, e.g-. Mark v. 23, vi. 5, vii. 32, viii. 23, 25. )8. The disciples, [Mark] xvi. 18, Acts ix. 12, 17 (see above pp. 29 ff.), xxviii. 8. 3. In Confirmation : Acts viii. 17, 19, xix. 6, 2 Tim. i. 6 (see above pp. 35 fif.), Hebr. vi. 2. 4. In Absolution : I Tim. v. 22. The passage is commonly taken to refer to Ordination ; and for this interpretation there is ancient authority. But the sequence of ideas seems to imply that the laying on of hands spoken of is a symbol of absolution and restoration*. ^ Compare Hort T/^^ Christian EccUsin pp. 314 f. E. C. 65 5 CONFIRMATION IN 5. In Ordination or in appointment to some special work of ministry : Acts vi. 6, xiii. 3, i Tim. iv. 14. In the New Testament as in the Old the idea embodied in the laying on of hands is the transference of character or endowment, divine favour, health bodily or spiritual, the gift of the Spirit, authority and charis- mata for ministry. In the New Testament as in the Old the thought of corporate life must not be dissociated from the laying on of hands; only now the catholic society, the brotherhood of the Redeemed, has taken the place of the nation. In all cases (for our Lord Himself was 'sent' by the Father) the final source of blessing is God the Father. The man who lays hands on another is the outward and visible channel of blessing. He who so acts does so in relation to his membership in the Spirit-bearing body, the Church. The en- dowment of which he is the channel is a share in the endowment which belongs to the whole Christian society as such. 66 THE APOSTOLIC AGE II. Anointing. Old Testament. The religious use of unction in the Old Testament is an extension of its social use in the life of the East. Unction followed the bath (Ruth iii. 3). The host anoints his guests for their comfort and as a sign of his welcome and good will (comp. 2 Chron. xxviii. 15, Luke vii. 46). Anointing is regarded as the antithesis of mourning or fasting when life is bereft of its dignity and completeness (2 Sam. xii. 20, Amos vi. 6, Dan. x. 3 ; comp. Matt. vi. 1 7). Unction therefore is the symbol of prosperity and fulness of gladness and of strength (Ps. xcii. 10, Prov. xxvii. 9, Eccles. ix. 8). Oil is one of God's gifts for man's happiness. (Judg. ix. 9, Ps. civ. 15). When we turn to the religious use of unction, we note that, by a metaphor drawn from human hospitality, God is said to anoint those whom He regards with favour and to whom He is pleased to grant His blessing (Ps. xxiii. 5, xlv. 7). So Prophets are metaphorically described as anointed 67 5—2 CONFIRMATION IN (i Kings xix. i6, Ps. cv. 15 ; comp. Is. Ixi. I * The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me'). In regard to two classes of officers in the theocracy the outward symbol of unction was used — the High Priest (Lev. viii. 12, Ps. cxxxiii. 2, Ecclus. xlv. 15) and the king {e,g, I Sam. xvi. 13 ' Samuel... anointed [David] in the midst of his brethren ; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward '). The ideas therefore involved in religious anointing are (i) divine favour; (2) the bestowal of the divine gift of fulness of life and power ; and this gift is in two passages regarded as ' the spirit of Jehovah ' ; (3) consequently consecration to God and His service, as the guest is bound to his host by ties of hospitality. New Testament. Anointing is mentioned in the following connexions : (i) Hospitality: Luke vii. 46. 68 THE APOSTOLIC AGE (2) Healing : (a) Luke x. 34, Apoc. iii. 18. (d) John ix. 6, 1 1 {tttjXop iiroLrjcrev Koi eTri^pLO-iv fxov rov<; ocfydaXjiovs) ; comp. Mark vii. 33, viii. 23. (c) Mark vi. 13, Jas. v. 14. (3) The gift of the Holy Spirit : (a) Christ: Luke iv. 18 (Is. Ixi. i), Acts iv. 27, X. 38 ; comp. Hebr. i. 9 (Ps. xlv. 7). (d) Christians : 2 Cor. i. 21 f., i John ii. 20, 27. In the last group of passages (3) the fulness of life and power is embodied in the personal Holy Spirit; comp. e.^-. John vi. 63 (to TTvevfia to ^coottolovv). III. Passages of the Apostolic Epistles which speak of the definite bestowal of the Holy Spirit, It remains still to consider those pas- sages of the New Testament which speak of a definite historical bestowal of the Holy 69 CONFIRMATION IN Spirit upon members of the Church but do not mention any outward or visible sign. In these passages the language employed, especially the use of the aorist, seems to shew plainly that the writer has in mind a special crisis in the past, a crisis which in some cases the context connects explicitly with the beginning of the Christian life. It is clear that these passages must be considered in the light of the historical and representative narratives of the Acts (viii. 15 ff., xix. 6), of 2 Tim. i. 6 f., and of Heb. vi. 2, 4. ( I ) The Epistle of St James, probably the earliest Christian writing which has come down to us. iv. 5 fj SoKeire otl k€vco<; rj yparj \eyci Upos (fydovov einTTodei ro nvevfjia o KaTaiKLaev iv rjfjLLv ; These somewhat difficult words seem to mean 'Or think ye that the Scripture saith in vain The Spirit which he made to dwell in us yearneth over us enviously ? ' St James appears to condense into a single Christianized saying the teaching of those passages in the Old Testament which speak of God's jealousy over His people. Compare 70 THE APOSTOLIC AGE e.g. Ex. XX. 5, Deut. xxxii. i6, Is. Ixiii. lo (* But they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit^). We are now however only con- cerned with the words to irpevjxa o Karco- KLcrev ev rjfjLLv, The aorist KaTcoKicrevy 'caused to make his abiding home in us* (comp. Rom. viii. 9, 11, i Cor. iii. 16, vi. 19, 2 Cor. vi. 16), points back to a clearly marked season in Gods dealing with believers. For, though the Epistle is addressed to * the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion' (i. i), yet in two other crucial passages ' us ' and ' our ' refer to Christians as such (i. 18, ii. i)\ It is not easy to decide whether the eu rjfuv regards Christians as a society or as individuals ; whether, in other words, the allusion is to the gift of the Spirit given at Pentecost to the whole Church^ or to the same gift pledged to each several Christian in Confirmation. It may with some force be urged that the word eTnrroOel, denoting the relation of the Holy Spirit to the individual ^ In ii. 21 the Apostle writing as a Jew to Jews speaks of 'Abraham our father.' In iii. 3, 6, v. 17 the ^imv^ -hfJ^^y, ^M**' are quite unemphatic and refer to us men. ^ Comp. I Pet. i. 12 a vvv dvqyy^Xf} v/xiy 5iA tQp eikiTTfXttfa- /x^ytau vfias irvtOixari dylt^ diroirraXiyTi dr ovpavov, 7« CONFIRMATION IN Christian (comp. fjirj XvirelTe to irvevixa to dyiov Tov Oeov Eph. iv. 30), points to the latter interpretation. But in truth the two interpretations are so closely akin that perhaps we are not bound sharply to distinguish between them. (2) St Paul's Epistles. (i) First group : the two Epistles to the Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians i. 6 Se^dfiepoL rov \6yov iv OkixpeL TToWfj [leTa x^/^as TTPevfiaros dyiov. iv. 7 f- ov yap iKakeaev rjfjid^ 6 ded7 ff-)- The particular metaphor chosen enables St Paul to suggest the thought that the gift of the Spirit had refreshed and invigorated those who had long and hopelessly traversed the wilderness of ignorance and sin. This reception of the Spirit was closely associ- ated with Baptism, yet it was not identical 80 THE APOSTOLIC AGE with Baptism. It has a distinct place of its own in the Apostle's account of the initial stage of the Christian life (Traz/reg). When we compare his words here with the typical history of his dealings with converts (Acts xix. 5 f.), we cannot doubt that the reference here is to the gift of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation. 2 Corinthians i. 21 f. 6 8e fie/Saiciv yjfjLOL*; (Tvv vfXLV €19 XpLCTTOj^ KOL \pi(Ta<; yjfias deoSy 6 Koi (TcfypayLcrd/xevo^; r)fia<; koL Sou? top appa/3cova tov Trreujutaro? iv ral? KapBiaL^ rjficjv, St Paul has just protested against the charge of fickleness which had been brought against him {v, 17). His message was not an alternation of * yea ' and ' nay * {v, 1 7). For neither is such the character of Him who was the centre of that message, 'the Son of God Christ Jesus' {v, 19). * In Him' is the affirmation {to Nat) 'of all the promises of God,' and therefore 'through Him' is their ratification and fulfilment {to ^AfjLijv) {v. 20). The thought of this ratification of the promises suggests at once to the Apostle's mind (i) the word fiefiaiovv ; comp. Rom. xv. 8 C19 to )8e^ata)crat rd? CTrayyeXtas T(t)v naTepojv : £. c. 81 6 CONFIRMATION IN (2) the idea of the divine confirmation not of promises only but of men. ' It is God who confirmeth us missionaries and you converts aHke, bringing us into union with Christ. ' This divine process of confirmation springs out of the supreme gift of the Holy Spirit once for all given 'to us and to you/ God 'anointed' us — the ei<; XpucrTov leads on to the xP^crcL?; He 'sealed' us; He put the Spirit into our hearts who is the pledge of all divine gifts (comp. Eph. i. 14 dppaficov TTjs KXrjpovofJLLa^ TjiJLwp). Two points must be noted, (i) Some commentators take the 'us* and 'our' — j^pccras rjixa^, crcfipayLadfjiepos Ty/xas, iv rats KapSiais rjyiiov — to refer to the missionaries. This is unnecessary after the 'us with you^' — 6 he fie^aucov rj/xag crvp v/jlIv; incredible when we compare other Pauline passages — 2 Cor. v. 5, Eph. i. 14, iv. 30 where similar language is used in regard to Christian people generally, (ii) The transition from the present parti- ciple {^e^aicov) to the three aorist participles (xp^crag, cr<^/)ayto"aju,ei^o9, Sov?) marks clearly ^ Compare Eph. i. 12 7)ixas ('us Jews'); v. 13 iv ^ koI iifieis ('you Gentiles'); v.- 14 ttjs KXrjpopo/xias rj/xQy ('ours both Jews and Gentiles'). 82 THE APOSTOLIC AGE that the Apostle has in mind a bestowal of the Spirit which lay in the past, when the Corinthian Christians became believers (Eph. i. 14). We have already seen (see above pp. 51 ff., 57 f.) that in ^tcras and (T(l)payLcrdfievo^ we probably have an allusion to outward signs used in Confirmation. 2 Corinthians v. 5 6 Se KaTepyaadfievo^ tJ/XCIS €19 aVTO TOVTO ^€09, 6 8oV9 1]fUV TOV dppafiojva tov 7n^€u/xaT09. In the previous verse St Paul has spoken of the goal of being to which he looks forward — Iva KaraTToOfj to 6p7)t6v vtto Trj<; ^corj^ — life absorbing into itself, transmuting into itself, all that is mortal in the man. ' Now,' he adds, 'he who wrought us for this very thing is God.' For the thought we compare Eph. ii. lO avTov yap iaf^ev TroiT^/xa, KTicrdivTe^; eV XpLaTO) 'irjcrov. The reference is to the spiritual re-creation of each man, outwardly and visibly consummated in his Baptism. He then continues * who gave us the earnest of the Spirit.' For the definite reference in this phrase to Con- firmation see above on i. 22. The Spirit then given to each man is the pledge of his final renewal and of his immortality. In 83 6— a CONFIRMATION IN Rom. vili. ii — ^(oonoLijcreL /cat ra dvrjra crcofiara vjxcov Sta tov ii^OLKovvTo^ avTov TTvevfxaros (v. L 8ta to Ivoikovv avrov TTvevfia) iv vfiiv — the thought is very similar; but in this latter passage St Paul has in mind the perpetual indwelling of the Spirit, which is the outcome of the initial gift ; and he regards the Spirit not as the pledge but as the means, or, if we adopt the alternative reading, as the cause, of the future and final quickening. 2 Corinthians xi. 4 el fih yap 6 ipXOfievo^ aWov ^lr)orovv Krjpvaaei ov ovk iKTjpv^afiep, fj TTvevfia erepov Xafifidvere o OVK i\d^€T€,,,Kakcos dve)(€cr0e (v, L dveC- X^o'Oe). St Paul fears the seduction of his converts at Corinth from their pledged loyalty to the Christ {v. 3). 'For if indeed,' he continues in bitter irony, 'the teacher who visits you is preaching another Jesus whom we did not preach, or if ye are receiving a different Spirit whom ye did not receive. . .this is indeed a noble tolerance of yours.' The iK-qpy^ajxev points back to the time of the conversion of the Corinth- ians. The reference in nvevfia erepov o OVK eXaySere is again quite definite, z.e.y to 84 THE APOSTOLIC AGE their reception of the Spirit at that time in their Confirmation (comp. Acts xix. 2). Galatians iii. 2 ff. e^ epycov vofxov to TTvevfJia eXajSere fj ef a/corj? 7rL(rT€(o<; ; ev- ap^djJiepoL TTPevfJiaTL vvv crapKL einreketo'de ; ...6 ovv kTri\opr)y(ji)v vjxiv to Trvevfia kol kvepyojv 8vvdfX€L<; kv vplv i^ ipyaiv vofiov ff ef oLKorjq TTLCTTeo)^ ; The Galatians were in danger of lapsing into a formal lifeless legalism. St Paul points them to the fatal contradiction between the position in which they were now placing themselves and their original position which had received the seal of divine approval. Then they did not rely on works done in bondage to the Law, but on faith which led them to hear and obey the proclamation of the Gospel (comp. Rom. i. 5, xvi. 26). To that faith of theirs God had responded by the gift of the Spirit. They believed ; therefore they received the Spirit (comp. Acts xix. 2). Clearly St Paul refers to a reception of the Spirit to which they could look back as a definite and clearly marked, an outward and visible, crisis in their lives. This remembrance leads him to speak of a second contradiction between 85 CONFIRMATION IN their past and their present. Nothing lower than the Spirit dominated the be- ginning of their Christian Hfe. Nothing higher than the flesh dominated the sup- posed perfecting of their Christian Hfe, of which they now boasted. They were in fact exchanging their Pentecostal life in the Spirit for a legal life in the flesh. After an allusion to the frustration of their earlier sufferings for the sake of Christ involved in their retrograde movement St Paul resumes (ovi/) his question as to efiicacy of faith and of works. But the question takes a new form and that in two directions. First he concentrates his thought on the divine side, on God as the giver of the Spirit. Secondly he turns from the historical scene of their reception of the Spirit to the continued bounty of God in the bestowal of the Spirit (6 eVt- Xopr)ywv: comp. Phil. i. igy. That bounty is God*s recognition not of man's works but of man's faith. Such seems to be the sequence of thought in the passage. We are now concerned with the words to ^ On the relation of 6 iirixofyqyCjv to iXd^tre see above pp. 73 f. 86 THE APOSTOLIC AGE TTvevfxa iXd^ere. We learn from them that, when St Paul planted the Gospel there, there were Confirmation scenes in Galatia. Further, we infer the importance which St Paul attached to Confirmation. He appeals to it as involving a standard of the life which followed it. Galatians iv. 6 f. on Se ecrre utot, i^aTricTTeikev 6 deo<; to Trvevfjia tov vlov avTov €19 ras KapSia^ rjiJicop, Kpa^ov 'A^ySa 6 Trarijp, (OCrT€ OVK€TL €t 00VA05 aAAa Vt09, €L 0€ VtOS KOI KXrjpovofioSj Slol deov. In the Christian dispensation there are two supreme Missions, the Mission of the Son and the Mission of the Spirit : ' God sent forth {i^aneareLXev) his Son ' ; * God sent forth {i^aTrio-TeiKev) the Spirit.' In the preceding verse St Paul has spoken of the Mission of the Son and its purpose — 'that we might receive the adoption of sons.' * In Him' we are sons. The Mission of the Son was definite ; it had its place among the events of history. The Apostle now passes on to speak of the Mission of the Spirit. That also was historical. The Day of Pente- cost, like the day of the Saviour's birth, had its place in the annals of human history. S7 CONFIRMATION IN Here however he regards that historical Mission of the Spirit as it is historically rehearsed and applied in the case of indivi- dual Christians — 'God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.' Confirmation, as we have already said (see above p. 21), is the Pentecost of the individual soul. That is the thought which finds expression here. St Paul is enforcing here one aspect of the Mission of the Spirit. He is 'the Spirit of adoption' (Rom. viii. 15). He is the seal of sonship and the means of the realization of sonship. He makes the sense of sonship articulate in the believer {KpoXpv 'A^ySa 6 TraTrjp). Hence the re- markable description of the Holy Spirit as 'the Spirit of his Son.' The Spirit, who witnesses of their sonship to those who are ^in Christ,' is Himself the Spirit of the Eternal Son, sent by the Father through the mediation of the Son. His office in the Church is, if we may venture so to express it, rooted in His eternal Being, in His eternal relation to the Father and the Son. In the last verse (wcrre ovk^tl k.tX) St Paul sums up the result of the two Missions, the Mission of the Son and the 88 THE APOSTOLIC AGE Mission of the Spirit, and presents that result as the possession of each individual Christian. The relation of each man to God as a bondservant is henceforth obliterated. He who is 'in Christ' is a son, an heir, of God, the thought of heirship introducing the idea of the boundless future possibilities of God's purpose for His sons. If I mistake not, the 8ta Oeov refers not to KXrjpovofio^ alone but to vto? and KXrjpovojJios, It takes up emphatically at the close of the paragraph, the thought of the twice-repeated efaTreVretXei^ 6 deos* Man is constituted son and heir not by his own deserts but by the direct inter- position of God Himself \ Romans i. 1 1 f. eViTro^ctJ yap ISeiv u/acIs, Lva Ti fieTaSai ^dpi(Tp.a vfxiv TrvevfiaTLKov eU TO (TTiq piyOrjvai v/xa?, tovto 8e ecttiv aw- 7rapaK\.r)0rjvaL iv vplv 8ia rff^ iv dXXryXot? m(TT€a)9 viJioiv re kol i/xov. If we take into account the typical narrative of St Luke (Acts xix. 2), it appears at least possible that St Paul looked forward to a like exercise of his Apostolic ministry at ^ To indicate this thought I have ventured slightly to alter the punctuation of Westcott and Hort's text. 89 CONFIRMATION IN Rome. The language used is patient of this interpretation. St Paul does not say Lva fieraSct) ^apicr/xara vfjuv TrvevixariKd (comp. I Cor. xii. i, 4, Rom. xii. 6). He has some one definite ^dpicrixa wvevfjiaTLKov in mind. The tl separated from the substantive and adjective is by position slightly prominent. The word vaptcr/xa in 2 Tim. i. 6 (see above pp. 35 ff.) is used of the ^inward and spiritual grace' in Confirmation. The phrase els to o-ry^pi^- OrjvaL vfxas very well suits this interpretation. Though crTrjpil^eLv is not elsewhere in the New Testament^ specially used in relation to Confirmation, yet it naturally and appropriately expresses the result of Con- firmation — the strengthening and compact- ing of the spiritual character. Nor do the words which follow strike a different note. In them St Paul guards against seeming to describe himself simply as a benefactor : he will receive as well as give. He and his friends at Rome alike will be encouraged {o-vvTrapaKhqdrjvai^), they by his 1 See I Thess. iii. 2, 13, 2 Thess. ii. 17, iii. 3, Rom. xvi. 25; Acts xviii. 23; I Pet. v. 10; iiria-TTjpLi^eip Acts xiv. 22, xv. 32, 41. ^ For the juxtaposition oi o-TTjpl^eiv and irapaKoKelv comp. Acts xiv. 22, XV. 32, I Thess. iii. 2, 2 Thess. ii. 17. 90 THE APOSTOLIC AGE faith and he by their faith — their faith deepened and invigorated by the Holy Spirit (i Cor. xii. 9). The language of the passage is not indeed decisive ; but, when it is read in the light of St Paul's action at Ephesus, it appears naturally to suggest that he looked forward to visiting the Church at Rome, which had not been either planted or watered by any one of the Apostles, that he might exercise his apos- tolic ministry among the Christians there and might give them the seal of the Spirit^ Romans v. 5 tJ dyaTrr] tov 6eov cAc/cej^vrat ev rat? KapSiat^ Xjiicov 8ta 7rpevfiaT0<; ayCov TOV hoOivro^ rjijiiv. We notice the aorist TOV hoOivTo^ with its definite reference to the beginning of the Christian life. The Holy Spirit once given is the means whereby the love of God also is abundantly ^ The rendering of the passage in the Syriac Vulgate, the Peshitta, implies this interpretation — 'Because I am greatly desiring to see you and to give you the gift of the Spirit, that by it ye may be strengthened and together we may be comforted by the faith of you and of me.' Bengel's note in loco is instruc- tive — ' Talibus donis abundabant Corinthii, qui Paulum praesen- tem habuerant: i Cor. i. 7, xii. i, xiv. i, nee non Galatae, Gal. iii. 5. Ac plane ecclesiae illae, ouae apostolorum praesentia gaudebant, praerogativas insignes in hoc genere habuere, v. gr. ex apostolica manuum impositione. Act. xix. i, 6, viii. 17 s., i Tim. i. 6.' The last reference should be noted (see above pp. 35 fi".). 91 CONFIRMATION IN bestowed and made to dwell in the hearts of believers. St Paul in reference to God's love given through the Spirit uses the Pentecostal keyword (see above p. 22 n.). Romans viii. I4ff octol yap irvevixaTi 0eov ayovTaiy ovroi viol Oeov elcriv. ov yap iXd/3€T€ TTvevfia SovXeias Trakiv et9 (f)60ov, aXXa ikd/SeTe Tn^ev/xa vloOeaias, iv (o Kpa^Ofxev 'AyS^a 6 wari/jp' avTo to Trvev/Jba crvvixapTvpei tw Tn^eu/tart rjyLwv on ecrfxev T€Kva deov' el 8e T€Kva /cat KXrjpovofjiOL* KXrjpovofxoL fJiev 0€ov, crvvKXy^povoixoi Se X/jicttot), elirep o-vvTrdayoiJiev Iva Kal avv- Soiaadcofiev, For dyovTai compare Luke iv. I rjyeTO ev rai TTve-ufxaTi kv ttj epijfjia), St Paul in this passage dwells on the same thoughts as he had already expressed in Gal. iv. 6f. (see above pp. 87 fif). In the iXd^ere (comp. 1 Cor. ii. 12 ; see above p. 25) he has in view Confirmation. In Gal. /. c, he refers to the action of God {e^aTrea-reiXev 6 ^€05... ct? rds Kaphlas T^fJLcov) ', here to the Christian's reception and possession of the gift. Here accordingly he dwells on the Christian's appeal to God as Father {Kpdljoyiev), prompted and inspired by the Spirit, and on the response of the 92 THE APOSTOLIC AGE human spirit to the Spirit's witness as to the relation of the Christian to God as His child. It will be noticed also that reKva here takes the place of vloi (Gal. /. ^.), pointing to the divine act of spiritual generation^ and to the abiding spiritual con- sequences in him who has been ' begotten again unto a living hope.' This relation of the believer to God carries with it the reality of heirship — ' heirs of God ' ; and this heirship is seen to involve a participa- tion in the divine destiny (if we may so speak) of Christ Himself; the final end being, through fellowship in Christ's suffer- ings, fellowship in Christ's glory (comp. vv. 29, 30). Thus St Paul here traces the eternal significance of the divine Gift. The Christian man * received ' the Spirit. The Spirit inspires the assurance of the Fatherhood of God ; the Christian is God's * child.' He is constituted therefore in union with Christ God's heir. He will share in Christ's eternal 'glory.* The thought finds another expression in a later passage of this chapter — ttiv airapxf)v rov 1 Comp. I Pet. i. 3, ^3, John i. 11 f., iii. 3—8, i John ii. 19, iii. 9, iv. 7, V. I, 4, 18. 93 CONFIRMATION IN 7rveijiJbaTo<; exovres {v, 23). As the *firstfruit* is the promise of the ingathering of the harvest, so the Spirit ' received ' and possessed in the present is the pledge of a larger and richer operation of the same Spirit in the future — the complete realiza- tion of 'the adoption as sons,' 'the re- demption of the body,' when ' He who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also the mortal bodies' of Christian men ' by his Spirit who dwelleth ' in them {v. II). (iii) Third group: Philippians, Coloss- ians, Philemon, Ephesians. Ephesians i. 13 f. ei/ w koI -ufxel^ OLKovaavre^ top Xoyov Trj^9 avTov, The allusion to Confirmation has been already pointed out (see above pp. 51 ff.). St Paul here dwells on two as- pects of the gift of the Spirit, (i) That gift has its relation to the past. The 94 THE APOSTOLIC AGE Spirit is TO TTpevfjia ttj^ eTrayyekia^, Compare ii. i 2 rciiv SLaOrjKcov rrj<; eVayyeXta?, iii. 6 TOL eOvq^^.o-vvixiro^a ttj^ iirayyeKia^ iu XptcTTO) ^Irjcrov, The article (rrjs inayye- Xta?) points to the divine promise, the promise of redemption given by God to Israel. The Spirit poured forth on Christian men is ' the Spirit of the divine promise,' the Spirit, that is, whose coming formed part of, was included in, God's promise to Israel through the Prophets (Is. xxxii. 15, Ezek. xi. 19, xxxvi. 26 f., xxxvii. 14, xxxix. 29, Joel ii. 28); compare Luke xxiv. 49, Acts i. 4, ii. i2>^ 39. St Paul in the immediately preceding context had spoken of the relative position of Jew and of Gentile. ' We Jews were the first to hope in the Christ' {v, 12). In Christ 'you Gentiles also having heard and having believed were sealed with the Spirit, whose Presence was comprehended in the promise first given by God to us Jews, in which God now vouchsafes to you Gentiles to share.' Thus the rr\% inayyeKCas is closely related to the great theme of the Epistle: * He made both one* (ii. 14). (2) On the other hand the gift has its 95 CONFIRMATION IN relation to the future. The Spirit is ' the earnest of our inheritance.' ' It must be observed/ notes Bishop Lightfoot in loco, *that the expression is not ivexvpov "a pledge/' but appaficov ''an earnest." In other words the thing given is related to the thing assured — the present to the hereafter — as a part to the whole. It is the same in kind.' The inheritance (comp. Gal. iv. 6 f., Rom. viii. 17), of which the Spirit is the present assurance, is heavenly and spiritual, conditioned and dominated by the Spirit. Thus the phrase here is akin to, but wider than, the 17 airapyy) tov TrvevfJLaros of Rom. viii. 23. The end of the sealing by the Spirit is defined by two parallel clauses. It is 'unto the redemption of God's own possession,' the full and complete emancipation of all God's people whom, like Israel, He has made His own. This thought is expanded in Rom. viii. 21 — 23. It is also 'unto the praise of His glory' (comp. vv. 6, 12), the vindication and the universal acknowledge- ment of God's perfection. The history of redemption ends in doxology. Ephesians iv. 30 /cat firi XvTretrc to 96 THE APOSTOLIC AGE TrvevfJia to ayiov rov Oeov, iv co e(T(f>payLcr0r)Te €19 rj/jiepav aTToXur/ocucrea)?. The main thoughts are those of the earlier passage just discussed. But the context is different. There the ideas were personal ; here they are those of corporate life — *We are members one of another* [v. 25). Christ- ians in their daily intercourse with their fellow-Christians must ever watch lest they should so act or speak as to grieve (/JL19 XvireiTe, note the present imperative) the one Spirit (iv. 3 f.), who dwells in all. The fxT) XvTretre brings out the personality of the Spirit. It may be added that probably the phrase ev w €a(])payLo-drjT€ (contrasted with the eo-cfypayicrOrjTe rco TTvevfiaTL of the earlier passage) was de- liberately used to suggest, in harmony with the context, the thought of incorpora- tion (comp. I Cor. xii. 13). We may paraphrase St Paul's words thus ' Be ever vigilant in your dealings with your brethren, lest you grieve the Holy Spirit in whom ye were incorporated and having been incorporated were sealed.' Christians are baptised into the Spirit. In Confirmation they are sealed by the Spirit. E. c. 97 7 CONFIRMATION IN (iv) Fourth group : The three Pastoral Epistles. Titus iii. 4 ff. ore Be 07 xprjo-TOTrj^; kol 7) <^ikavd poiTTia inecfxivr) rov cr(OT7]po<; rjfjicov Oeov, ovK i^ epyoyv rcov iv BiKaioavvrj d eTToiTjcraiiev rjiJiei^; dXXa Kara to avTOv eXeos icraxrev ijixas Sta Xovrpov TraXivyeveaia^ koX di/aKaLV(ocrea)<; nvev/jiaros ayioVy ov i^eyeev icf}" T^/xa? TrXovcrto)? 8ta 'iTycrov l^piarov tov crcoTTJpos 7]fxa)Vy tVa Si/catcu^eVre? rrj eKeivov ■)(dpLTL KXripovofMOL yevrjOcofjiev Kar eXiriSa ^0)7]^ alcovLov, The passage is by no means free from difficulties of interpretation, (i) What is the construction of the words Old Xovrpov .. .7rvevfjLaTo<; dytov? Grammati- cally it is possible to take both rraXivyeveo-ia^; and duaKaiPcoo-eco^ in connexion with Sta Xovrpovy z.e.y ' by the washing^ of regenera- tion and of renewal.' But against this construction there are three objections, (i) The phrase Xovrpov dvaKaLvcoaeo)^ TTvevfjiaro^ dyiov is a cumbrous phrase, (ii) If, as in this case is necessary, dva- Kaivcoaeo)^ expresses a single definite act of the Holy^ Spirit, the phrase rraXiv- yeve(Tia<^ KaX dvaKaivcocrecos is open to the ^ Not 'laver'; see Dean Robinson's note on Eph. v. 26. 98 THE APOSTOLIC AGE charge of tautology ; and further, the second word is a weaker word than the first, (iii) The special gift and the con- sequent operation of the Holy Spirit are not in the New Testament connected with the washing of Baptism. We conclude therefore that the Apostle intends to mark two means of salvation : 'He saved us by the washing of regeneration and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost.' We are led next to ask the question Is the di/a/catVwcrts a single act or a constant activity of the Holy Spirit ? In Rom. xii. 2 (/xera/uLO/o- (fyovaOe rrj avaKaivcxxjei tov 1/009) a process of renewal is clearly intended (note the present imperative fjLeTafjLopcfyovo-de) ; com- pare 2 Cor. iv. 166 eo-cj tjixojv [av9 poiTTo^^ avaKaivovrai rfp^epa /cat rjfjiepa, Col. iii. 10 ivhvadyievoL tov viov \avdp(i)TTOv] tov avaKai- vovfjievov K.T.X. (where evovo-dfievoL tov veov answers to the iraKivyeveo-La of our present passage), Eph. iv. 23 dvaveovo-dai 8e r^ TTvevfjLaTL TOV voos vfjicov. We are therefore safest if, in accordance with the form of the word dvaKaivo)(Ti^y we understand the phrase hid,..dvaKaLV(x)0'e(i)^ rrvevfiaTo^ dyiov to refer to the continual operation of the Holy 99 7—2 CONFIRMATION IN Spirit, though at the same time it is clear from the context {eaoicrev , , .e^eyeev) that St Paul has prominently in his mind the initiation of the process of renewal. (2) What is the time referred to in ecrcoorev 77/xa9? The 'us' appears to be not St Paul and Titus and the .flock of Titus but gen- erally 'us Christians' (so in ii. 8, 12, 14, iii. 3). If we had to consider the words by themselves, we might paraphrase them thus ' God brought us into a state of salvation (comp. i Pet. iii. 21) when we severally had our part in the washing of regeneration.' But we must take these words in close connexion with the previous clause ore Se...e7r€^ai/7y. The sequence of clauses is ore 1^ )(^py](TTQT7]<;,,ATre<^dvy),,, iaojcrev Tjfias (comp. Gal. iv. 4 ore Se rjXdev TO TrXijpcofia tov ^povov, k^aTredreikev k.t.X.). ' When the work of redemption was com- pleted by the coming of the Spirit and God's goodness and love towards man were thereby manifested to the world, then in accordance with His mercy, and not because of any works of ours done in a righteousness according to the Law, He brought us Christians into a state of 100 THE APOSTOLIC AGE salvation by means of the washing of regeneration and the renewing operation of the Holy Spirit.' It seems to follow that in the next words ov efe^eei^ €(f> T^jxas nXovcTLcos the allusion is to the first out- pouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. For e^ex^ev compare Acts ii. I?) 2>i'^ i^ ^he latter verse the words ttjv t€ kirayyeKiav rov TTz/ev/iaro? rov ayiov \a^a)v wapa Tov Trarpos explain 8ia ^Irjaov XpicrTov Tov acorrjpof; rj^Siv of our present passage. Thus, when we regard the passage as a whole, we are led to the conclusion that St Paul has in mind God s dealings with the Christian Church rather than with individual Christians. The reference to the rite of Confirmation in the words 8ta... dvaKaLvaxrecjs Tr^'cv/xaro? ayiov ov e^e^^eu k(j> Tj/Lta9 7rXovo-ta>9 is clear and important, but it is indirect. Confirmation is the application of Pentecost to the individual soul. In the final clause (Iva St/caico^eVrc? K.T.X.) St Paul emphasises thoughts which we have already noticed in an earlier passage of his writings. Baptism and Confirmation are the seal of justification or acquittal; compare i Cor. vi. ii (see above CONFIRMATION IN p. 78). By Baptism and Confirmation the believer is constituted ' an heir, an heir at present so far as hope is concerned, of eternal life ' ; compare Gal. iv. 7, Rom. viii. 17, Eph. i. 14 (see above pp. 89, 93, 96)\ (3) The Catholic Epistles'. I John ii. 20 f., 27, see above pp. 58 f. I John iii. 24 /cat ev tovtco yuvaxTKOfjiev OTL fiepeu kv i^jxlv, Ik tov nvevfJiaTos ov riy2v eScoKev. Compare iv. i^ ev tovtco jlvcxxtko- fiep OTL ev avTO) /xeVo/xei' kol avT09 ep rjyuv OTL €K TOV TTPevfiaTo^ avTov SeScoKep rjixLV, St John here says that the knowledge — the growing and progressive knowledge of experience — that God the Father dwells in us comes from (comp. iv. 6 e/c tovtov yLvcocrKofxev) the Spirit whom He gave us. Christians, the Apostle implies, cannot be mistaken about the presence of the Spirit with them. They remember the time at 1 I think that it is far more forcible to take fw^? aiwviovy re- served for solemn emphasis to the end of the sentence, closely with K\r)pou6fxoi ; for Kkrjpopofie'iv ^(jotjp aiihvLov see Mark x. 17, Matt. xix. 29, Luke x. 25, xviii. 18. The kolt iXirida qualifies KXrjpovdfjLOL yePTjdCi/JLev ; comp. Rom. viii. 24 f. 2 The passage from the Epistle of St James (iv. 5) has been already considered (see above pp. 70 ff.). 102 THE APOSTOLIC AGE the beginning of their Christian course when God gave them the supreme gift. They then received the pledge of an outward and visible sign. If they faith- fully asked for the gift, the pledge was not a vain thing. God did not mock them. With the outward and visible sign they received the inward and spiritual grace ; and that grace has not been withdrawn. The Spirit, of whose presence they were and are assured, witnesses to them that the Father Himself dwells in them. In iv. 13 — 'He hath given us of his Spirit' — St John emphasises the thought that the gift of the Spirit once given abides with the faithful. The investigation just brought to a close justifies conclusions historical and doctrinal. Some of these I have already pointed out. It will however be convenient to bring them together and to present them in a single statement. 103 CONFIEMATION IN (i) Historical conclusions. The writer of the Acts selected, as we saw, typical Confirmation scenes. He only tells us of the two Apostles of the Circum- cision, St Peter and St John, confirming disciples at the city of Samaria and of the Apostle of the Gentiles confirming disciples at Ephesus\ The Epistles of the New Testament enable us to supplement these representative narratives. The Epistles of St Paul, if our interpretation has been correct, imply that he confirmed Timothy at Lystra during his first missionary jour- ney ; that during his second missionary journey he confirmed disciples in the Churches of Galatia, probably at Thessa- lonica, and at Corinth ; that during his third missionary journey he confirmed disciples while sojourning at Ephesus^ It is at least a possible inference from his words (Rom. i. ii) that he looked forward 1 Perhaps also of Ananias at Damascus confirming Saul of Tarsus (see above pp. 29 fF.). 2 The Epistle to the Ephesians was a circular letter to the Churches of Asia Minor. But the language of Acts xx. 18 — 'Ye yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how it was with you that I was all the time ' {irQs fied' vfxwy rbv Trdvra xpopop iyepd/jLTjv) — shews that while in Asia, St Paul did not visit other cities besides Ephesus. 104 THE APOSTOLIC AGE to confirming disciples at Rome, when he was allowed to pay his long projected visit to the capital of the Empire. It is a reason- able inference from the language which the Apostle uses in his letter to Titus that Confirmation formed part of the ministry of his delegate in Crete. Passing to the other Epistles of the New Testament, we note that the Epistle of St James not im- probably affords evidence as to the practice of Confirmation in the Mother Church at Jerusalem ; that the Epistle to the He- brews clearly indicates that Confirmation was familiar to the Hebrew Christians of some Church or of some Churches in Palestine ; and that the First Epistle of St John carries on the evidence to the close of the Apostolic age when that Apostle had made his home at Ephesus. It is true that with two exceptions (2 Tim. i. 6 f., Hebr. vi. i f.) the passages in the Epistles speak not of the outward rite but of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit on believers. The terms employed however seem plainly to imply that this bestowal of the Holy Spirit was a definite and clearly marked event at the beginning of the Christian 105 CONFIRMATION IN life of the faithful. Moreover these pas- sages must be read in the light of the typical narratives of the Acts, of 2 Tim. i. 6 f., and of Hebr. vi. 2, 4. When we thus review and coordinate all the evidence, it appears to be a safe conclusion that Con- firmation was the regular practice of the Apostolic Church. It was not confined to one school of the Apostles or to one group of Churches. It had a recognised place in the life of the whole Christian society, and that from the very first. The simplest and most natural explanation of the facts lies in the belief that the Apostles knew that in this matter they were acting in accordance with the will of the Lord Himself. From St Luke's account of the Con- firmation in the city of Samaria we learn what are the two essential elements in Confirmation. The Apostles gave to the converts the outward and visible sign. From the Father in Heaven alone could there come the inward and spiritual grace ; prayer was made therefore to God that He would vouchsafe the gift. In the rite of Confirmation then there must be (i) the prayer that the gift of the Holy Spirit 106 THE APOSTOLIC AGE may be given to those who are confirmed ; (2) the outward and visible sign of bless- ing. These two essential elements are preserved intact and unchanged in the Confirmation Service of the English Church. Confirmation appears in the New Tes- tament as distinct from, yet as closely associated with, Baptism. It is the com- plement of Baptism, conveying to those who have been engrafted into Christ a full participation in the divine fellowship of the regenerate life. In the records of the Apostolic age we do not possess an account of any Confirmation except in connexion with evangelistic work. Those who under these circumstances were baptised and con- firmed were men and women. Questions therefore as to the separation of Baptism and Confirmation did not arise. There is no evidence in regard to the case of those who may then have been baptised as infants. We believe that the baptism of infants is required by a consideration of the essential character of Baptism. And in confirming only those who are of an age to understand the meaning of the Ordin- 107 CONFIRMATION IN ance we believe that the Church is acting wisely in view of the essential character of Confirmation, and certainly in accordance with what we know of Apostolic practice. The decision as to the age at which those baptised in infancy shall be confirmed appears clearly to lie within the compe- tence of a particular branch of the Catholic Church. The deviation of the practice of the later Church from the clearly recorded precedent of Apostolic times consists rather in the practice of infant baptism than in postponement of Confirmation to years of discretion. There does not appear to be any ground for thinking that the separation of Confirmation from Baptism involves any change in the character of Confirma- tion. Confirmation among ourselves is in regard to its essential nature precisely what Confirmation was when it was administered in the first days by the Apostles them- selves. The outward and visible sign in Con- firmation was the ancient symbol of bless- ing, the laying on of hands. Indeed in the Apostolic Church, so far as the evidence goes, Confirmation was known as 'the io8 THE APOSTOLIC AGE laying on of hands' (Hebr. vi. 2). We found however reason to think that at least in some cases those who had been baptised, probably in addition to the im- position of hands, were anointed, this unction being a token of the fulness of the new life in the Spirit and of consecration to God. Lastly, we ask the question What is the evidence as to the Minister of Con- firmation in the Apostolic age ? Philip, the deacon and evangelist, baptises the converts at Samaria but does not confirm them. When we read of Ananias laying his hands on Saul of Tarsus that he might ' receive [his] sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost,' it is not clear that the act of Ananias was meant to be pro- perly an act of Confirmation. If we assume that it was, it must be remembered that Ananias had received a divine command to do what he did, and that therefore the cir- cumstances were abnormal. If then we put this narrative on one side, in each case in which the minister of Confirmation is explicitly mentioned in the New Testa- ment, it is an Apostle. But these cases 109 CONFIRMATION IN are only three in number (Acts viii. 14 ff., xix. 6, 2 Tim. i. 6) ; and it may justly be argued that these cases are too few to justify the inference that no one except an Apostle administered Confirmation in the first age of the Church's history. More- over it may be urged that, when the Gospel spread widely, if Confirmation was a uni- versal custom in the Church, its ministry cannot have been confined to the Apostles in the narrow sense of the word. Further, the question which St Paul asked the disciples whom he found at Ephesus is significant. That question implies that he supposed it possible that they had been already confirmed. Now it seems certain that St Paul was the first Apostle who visited Ephesus ; and of this he must have been himself aware. Either then he must have thought that these disciples had migrated to Ephesus from some Church where an Apostle had ministered or he must have known that others in the Church beside Apostles administered Confirma- tion. The latter alternative, though prob- able, is not certain. In truth the evidence of the New Testament is too meagre to no THE APOSTOLIC AGE warrant any absolute conclusion as to the Minister of Confirmation. To suppose that there was a formal and rigid rule is probably to transfer to the Apostolic age the ideas of later times. It is most likely that we shall not be far from the truth if we suppose that Confirmation was pre- eminently an Apostolic ministry, but that besides the Apostles others also who were most closely associated in position and authority with them, as for example the Prophets, were wont to lay their hands on the converts who had been baptised. (2) Doctrinal conclusions. The gift conveyed to the true disciple by the laying on of hands was always regarded in the Apostolic Church as no- thing less than the gift of the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost that Spirit was * poured forth ' on representatives of the whole Church, and henceforth the whole Church as a society was a possessor of this divine endowment. In Confirmation then the individual disciple is allowed to seek and to appropriate the gift once for all bestowed on the Body in which by Baptism III CONFIRMATION IN he became a member. The idea of fellow- ship in that Body must never be allowed to recede into the background of our con- ception of Confirmation. In Confirmation outwardly, visibly, historically the redeemed child of God receives in its fulness the blessing which belongs to incorporation in the ' Spirit-bearing ' Body of Christ. The gift which is his is not merely an inspiration or an influence of the Holy Spirit but the indwelling Presence of that divine Person who jealously yearns over those in whom He has made His abode (J as. iv. 5) and who can be grieved by their sins, specially their sins against the unity of the Body (Eph. iv. 30). In regard to the pas^^: The bestowal by God of the sanctifying Spirit is the con- summation of the sentence of acquittal from the sins which have stained the past life (i Cor. vi. II, Tit. iii. 5). In regard to the present : The gift of the Spirit is the means and evidence of adoption. The Spirit inspires the prayers ^ In this paragraph and in those which follow I have adduced only those passages of the New Testament which have been discussed in the preceding pages. Other passages will readily occur to the student of the New Testament. THE APOSTOLIC AGE of the child of God (Gal. iv. 6, Rom. viii. 15). He is the seal which God sets on those whom He makes His possession (2 Cor. i. 22, Eph. i. 13, iv. 30) and is con- sequently the pledge to them of security. Through Him there comes the conscious- ness of God's love (Rom. v. 5) and the assurance that the Father Himself abides in His redeemed child (i John iii. 24, iv. 13). He hallows (i Thess. iv. 7, 2 Thess. ii. 13, i Cor. vi. 11) and con- tinually renews (Tit. iii. 5 f ). He imparts the gifts of refreshment (i Cor. xii. 13), joy (i Thess. i. 6), power, love, and that disciplined mind which gives seemliness and moral beauty to the outward life (2 Tim. i. 7). He unfolds the manifold meaning of God's supreme gift in Christ (i Cor. ii. 12, I John ii. 21, 27). In regard to the future : The Spirit is the pledge of spiritual gifts which shall be hereafter manifested (2 Cor. i. 21 f, v. 5, Eph. i. 14) and of the * inheritance ' which in the life of the world to come the re- deemed shall have in and with Christ (Gal. iv. 6 f, Rom. viii. 17, Titus iii. 7). It will be observed that in the habitual E. c. 113 8 CONFIRMATION IN teaching of the Apostles the thought of extraordinary charismata has a quite subor- dinate place. They were not of the essence, they were the accidents, of the Pentecostal gift. They might (Acts xix. 6 ; comp. ii. 4, X. 46) or they might not (viii. 1 7 ; comp. ix. 17) be an evidence of the presence of the Spirit. When the Lord on the night of the betrayal explained to the Apostles what should be the office and the work of the Paraclete, He was silent in regard to them. The Apostles consistently and con- tinually dwelt on those gifts of grace and power which through the Spirit are the permanent endowment of those who are ' in Christ.' The gift of the Spirit verily and in deed received by the faithful in Con- firmation covers, it will be seen, the whole field of life and in its potency and promise reaches on into the unknown and un- imagined future. It is at once an endow- ment and a foretaste. God's dealings with individuals, like His dealings with the world, take the form of historical events ; such is our conclusion from a study of the Apostolic history and teaching. The great gifts of redemption 114 THE APOSTOLIC AGE are assured and conveyed in the faithful use of outward and visible signs at definite times, to which men can look back as days of regeneration and endowment. Thus our Christian position depends not on ever-changing emotions but on historical facts which must be progressively realized in life as God works in us and as we yield ourselves to His working. But it is needful for us to be jealously on our guard lest we allow ourselves to regard the Sacraments and kindred Ordinances of grace as limiting and confining our conception of God's immediate dealings with the spirits which He has made and redeemed ; lest we per- mit phrases and formulae, hallowed by immemorial use, to become for us the final and absolute expression of God's inscrut- able ways. We say, for example, as we believe that the Apostles said, that God gave the Holy Spirit to His redeemed child when with prayer he received the lay- ing on of hands, and that now it rests with him continually to keep alive the gift once for all given to him. Such language is relatively true. It sets forth the reality of the divine gift and the duty of him who 115 8—2 CONFIRMATION IN has received it to believe in it and to use it. But from another and a yet higher point of view we speak, as we believe that the Apostles spoke, of God's continual supply of the Holy Spirit, of an ever fresh gift, to use St John's pregnant phrase, of 'grace for grace.' All human language is tentative and inadequate, presenting com- plementary aspects of realities which essen- tially belong to the divine and eternal order. Again, as the history of Cornelius assures us, God works in the spirits of men in ways transcending the ordered se- quence of outward ordinances, which yet we believe to be in accordance with His revealed will . The means of grace are chan- nels which convey but do not circumscribe the bounty of God. The most convinced loyalty to the sacramental order of Christ's Holy Catholic Church is quite compatible with, nay ultimately requires, an eager and joyful recognition of the presence and of the activity of the Holy Spirit in those who refuse to seek God's gift in ways which, we are assured, have the sanction of the Apostles of Christ, and which experience from the first days until now has shewn to ii6 THE APOSTOLIC AGE be valid and secure and to be full of the richest spiritual blessing. The conclusions which we have reached as to the place of Confirmation in the Apos- tolic age have an important bearing on a very practical subject — the preparation of candidates for Confirmation. That pre- paration is of two kinds — general and special. There must be a general preparation The Church of England plainly and with obvious wisdom requires that every one who is confirmed shall have been in- structed in the rudiments of Christian belief and in the great rules of Christian conduct. Of such elementary teaching the Catechism is at once the symbol and the manual. This knowledge is a necessary prerequisite for Confirmation. But there must also be a special pre- paration. If the bestowal of the outward and visible sign is not to be a bare and profitless ceremony, the candidate must understand what is the inward and spiritual grace. This is the essence of a true pre- paration for Confirmation. The candidate 117 CONFIRMATION IN must be taught what the manifold gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit are, and what is his need of them, if he is worthily to live the life of God's redeemed child on earth. He must be taught as His child to ask the Father in Heaven to give to him the Holy Spirit. He must be taught the life-long duty of ever kindling afresh the gift of grace which will be in him by the laying on of hands, that he may increase in the Holy Spirit more and more until he come unto the everlasting kingdom. In all this the shepherd of souls will endeavour to follow the example of the Chief Shep- herd. The Lord Himself in the upper room on the eve of the Passion and when He manifested Himself after the Resur- rection prepared His disciples for the day of Pentecost. He unfolded to them the nature and office of the Paraclete. He taught them to desire and to expect *the promise of the Father.' 'When the day of Pentecost was fully come,' they were such that on them God could ' pour forth ' the gift of the Holy Spirit. Confirmation is the Pentecost of the individual soul. ii8 THE APOSTOLIC AGE Additional note on the meaning of THE ANARTHROUS irvevfia, irvevfia aycov. What is the difference between the phrases TO irvevfiay to (iycov irvevfia, to irvevfMa to aycop and on the other hand the phrases irvevfia^ TTvevfia &ycov? The answer commonly given to this question is to the effect that the former group of phrases denotes the personal Holy Spirit, the latter an operation, a gift, or an in- fluence of the Holy Spirit. This is substantially the view which is taken e.g. by Bishop Westcott on John vii. 39, Dr Hort on i Peter i. 12, Dr Vaughan on Hebr. ii. 4, and Dr Swete on Mark i. 8. It was apparently first formulated by Bishop Middleton in his treatise on T/ie Doctrine of the Greek A rticle applied to the criticism a?id illustra- tion of the New Testament. The Bishop sets forth his conclusions in his note on Matthew i. 18 (pp. 124 ff., ed. Rose). He traces six meanings of the word irvev^ia^ with two only of which are we now concerned. They are these : {a) The word TTvevfia * is employed kut ^^o^v^ to denote the Great and Pre-eminent Spirit, the Third Person in the Trinity ; and in this acceptation it is worthy of remark that irvcvfia or irvev^ia ayiov is never anarthrous ; except, indeed, when other terms, confessedly the most definite, lose the Article from some cause alleged in the Pre- 119 CONFIRMATION IN liminary Inquiry V {b) *The [next] sense of irvevfia is easily deducible from the [last] ; being here not the Person of the Holy Spirit but his influence or operation.... And in this meaning a remarkable difference may be observed with respect to the Article. Though the Holy Spirit be but one, his influences and operations may be many : hence TTvevixa and TTvevjxa ayiop are, in this sense, always anarthrous, the case of reneived mention or other reference being of course ex- cepted. The expressions of "being filled with the Holy Ghost," " receiving the Holy Ghost," " the Holy Ghost being upon one," &c. justify this observation/ There are few subtler questions of language than the significance of the presence and of the absence of the definite article ; i^^ so incapable of being brought under quite definite and rigid rules. This is preeminently the case with Greek. The special question under consideration is further complicated by the fact that the word irvevfia is less determinate than the English * spirit' It signifies * wind,' * breath,' and hence it may approximate in meaning to our English expression ' inspiration ' ; see, e.g., John iii. 8 TO irvevixa ottov OeXet irvely koX ttjp (fxovrjv avrov uKoveif;, Kol ovk ol8a^ iroOev €p')(eraL teal irov VTrdjer ovrco^ iarlv 7rd<; 6 ^yeyevvqixevo^ ifc rov ^ E.g. * In propositions which merely affirm or deny existence, the name of the person or thing, of which existence is affirmed or denied, is without the Article ' (p. 42). 120 THE APOSTOLIC AGE TTvevfiarof; : John xx. 22 f. €V€ia<; \6yoi<:, aW' eV Bi>SafCTOi<{ irvevfiaro^. CONFIRMATION IN The Kai — a Kol XaXovfjuev — emphasises the close correspondence between the knowledge of Chris- tian truth and the proclamation of Christian truth. The same Spirit who teaches the truth teaches the words in which that truth may be appropriately expressed. The reference in the phrase ev StSaKTol<; irvev^aTo^ is defined by the preceding words €kd/3o/jb€P...T6 irveOfia to i/c rod 0€OV. Again, in i Cor. xii. 3 St Paul asserts ovBeU ev TTvev/LLaTL 0€ov XdXcov Xiyec ^ KvaOejia 'It^ctoi)?, koX ouSel? hvvarai elirelv Kvpto<; 'It^o-oO? el fjurj ev TTvevfjLaTL aym. Does he here refer to 'an in- spiration from God ' and to ' a holy inspiration * or to the personal Holy Spirit? The succeeding context shews decisively that the latter is the true answer. For he continues ' Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit (to 3e avTo TTvevixa)! That the last words can only point in the fullest sense to the personal Holy Spirit is clear from the two parallel phrases, ' the same Lord,' ' the same God.' The Apostle then goes on to draw out the thought of the distri- bution of the gifts of the one Spirit. ' To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal.... All these [operations] worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as he will.' If any lingering doubt remains whether St Paul is thinking of an influence or gift of the Spirit, or on the other hand of the divine Person, it is removed by the 126 THE APOSTOLIC AGE concluding words * even as he will/ Further, in the enumeration of the manifold gifts of the one Spirit * faith ' has a place ; ' to another faith in the same Spirit (ev rw avrw irvevixaTL)! In these words, which do not admit of doubt, we have a comment on the phrases under discussion ev TTvev/juaTi Oeovy ev irvevfiari dylo). The par- ticular expression ttlo-tc^ ev tm avro) irvev^aTL as well as the context as a whole shew conclusively that the absence of the definite article does not imply any indefiniteness in the phrases kv irvev- fjuarc Oeov, iv irvev^iarL afyicp : they can only be interpreted of the one divine Person, the Holy Spirit. (ii) The same conclusion is reached if we examine particular phrases. In Acts ii. 4 we read iirXrjaOrjaav irdvre^ irvev- fiaro^ dyiov kov rjp^avTo XaXelv €T€pac<; yXcoaaat^ : in iv. 8 IIeT/309 irXr^aSei^ irvevfuiTO^ dyuov elirev 7rp6<: avTov<; k.tX. But in iv. 3 1 (where there has been no allusion in the preceding context which can account for the presence of the article) we read eirXrjaOrjaav airavre^ tov dyiov irvev- fjLaTOf;^ Kal iXdXovv tov Xoyov tov Oeov fiCTa irap- pTjaia^. Again, we have the phrase iv Bvvdfiei TTvevfiaTOf! dyiov (Rom. xv. 1 3, 19) but elsewhere (Luke iv. 14) iv ttj hvvdfiei tov irvev^aTo^^ while the idea receives full and unambiguous expres- sion in our Lord's words (Acts i. 8) Xijfiyjfeade SvvafjLLv iireXOovTo^ tov dyiov irvevfiaTOf: i u/xa?. Again, in Phil. ii. i St Paul uses the phrase 127 CONFIRMATION IN KOLVcavia irvev^aro^iy but in 2 Cor. xiii. 13 77 Kocvcovia Tov dyiov TTvevfjuaTo^. Lastly, we take the expression, the crucial expression in con- nexion with Confirmation, Xa^elv Trveufjua aycov (Acts viii. 15, 17, 19; xix. 2); elsewhere how- ever the article is prefixed to Trvevfia — Acts x. 47 TO TTvevfia TO ayiov eXa^ov^ I Cor. ii. 1 2 eXd/Sofjuev ...TO TTvev/jia TO ifc tov OeoVy Gal. iii. 2 to irvevfia eXd^eTc (comp. John vii. 39) ; and in Acts ii. 38 a still more emphatic phrase is employed Xijfiyjreade ttjv Bcopedv tov dyiov irvevfiaTO^ (comp. Acts X. 45, Phil. i. 19, I John iii. 24, iv. 13). A consideration of these passages and of these synonymous phrases requires, I believe, the conclusion that the anarthrous Trvev^ia, TTvev/jua ajLou, is capable of expressing clearly and definitely the Holy Spirit in the full per- sonal sense. The question remains what explanation can be given of this definite use of the anarthrous TTvev/jbay irvevfxa dycov. The explanation is to be found in the recognition of two principles. (1) The phrases to wvevfjua to dycov, to dycov irvevfjba, to Trvevfjua, irvevfjua dycov, Trvevfia have come to have the character of proper names and hence without alteration of essential mean- ing the article may or may not be prefixed. (2) The omission of the article before a sub- stantive in many cases does not imply indefinite- ness but lays stress on character; it is qualitative. Thus Hebr. i. 2 67r* ecr^j^ciToy tcjv rjixepoiv tovtcov 128 THE APOSTOLIC AGE iKd\7ja€v rj^lv h viw, i.e. ' in Him who is nothing less than the Son ' ; xii. 7 ti7J Oeov vwdp'x^cjv (Phil. ii. 6), if we substitute rov 6eov for deovy we feel at once how much less forcible the words become. Or replace Oeov by tov Beov in the phrases Oeov ovheU ecopaKev ircoTroTe (John i. 18), Oeov ovSeU TrajTrore reOearai (i John iv. 12); and we are conscious that the sentences are robbed of their peculiar and arresting vigour : the order of the words and the omission of the article here combine to emphasize Oeop. The same is true of the word E. c. 129 9 CONFIKMATION IN 'X^piaro^. In i Cor. i. 23 {rjfxeif; he Kt^pva-a-ofiev Xpi'O'Tov io-ravpco/jbivov) how much depends on the absence of the article ? The thought is concentrated on the paradox — ^the one who is anointed of God yet crucified by man.' In the same way, especially if we read the language of the Apostles aloud and become aware of its subtle feeling, we shall discover that when the anarthrous Trvevfia and irvevfia ayiov are used the intention of the writer is to dwell on the unique character of Him of whom he speaks. The absence of the article is a means of emphasis. We take as an example John vii. 39 tovto Se elirev irepl tov irvevfiaro'^ ov e/jueWov Xafx^dveiv oi TTLaTevaavre^ eh avTov ovttco yap rjv Trvevfiay OTL ^lr)aov<; OVTTCO iBo^da0rj. Here the second clause (yap) explains the efieWov of the first. It seems to follow that the to irvevfia of the first clause and the irvevjia of the second are co- extensive in meaning. The apparent difficulty in the way of this interpretation really lies in the words ouTTQ) rjv, which superficially may be re- garded as denying the existence of the Holy Spirit before Pentecost. The meaning however of the expression is sufficiently defined by the preceding context ; the ovttco tjv must be inter- preted in the light of the e^xeWov Xafifidvecv. The best comment on ovttco '^v..,iBo^da07] is John xvi. 7 ^^^ y^p P'h dTTeXdco, TrapdKkrjTO<; ov fMrj eXOrj TTpo<; v/jLd<; (comp. xiv. 26, xvi. 13). The anarthrous TTvevfia lays stress on the essential 130 THE APOSTOLIC AGE idea of Trvevfm and can best be represented in English simply by an emphasis on the word Spirit — ' the Spirit', there being an implied con- trast between *the Spirit ' and the Lord 'not yet glorified' but still * known' by men * after the flesh/ 131 INDEX Acts i. 2, i6 n. ; i. 8, 22 f. ; ii. 38, 24 f. ; viii. 12 ff., 25 ; ix. 10 flf., 29 f.; X. 44 ff., 26 ff. ; xix. I ff., 31 f., 124 f. ; XX. 18, 104 n. ; XX viii. 23, .^i. 2511. Ananias (visit to Saul of Tar- sus), 29 f., 109 Anointing, in O.T., 67 f. ; in N.T., 68 f. ; in Confirma- tion, 53 ff., 109 Article (Greek), omission of, 128 ff. dvaKaLpuxriSf 99 i. 21 f., 51 f., 57 f., 81 ff. ; V. 5» 83 f. ; vi. 6, 121 ; xi. 4,84 X/)tpayii^€iv, 50 ff., 97 Temple, The, scene of gift at Pentecost, 21 n. TertuUian, 54 f. Thessalonians, First Epistle to, i. 6, iv. 7f., 72 ff. Thessalonians, Second Epistle to, ii. 13, 72 ff. Timothy, Confirmation of, 35ffM 104 Timothy, First Epistle to, iv. 14, 35 f., V. 22, 65 Timothy, Second Epistle to, i. 6f.,35ff. Titus, Epistle to, iii. 4 ff., 98 ff. 0e6s (anarthrous), 129 Vaughan, Dr, 17 n., 43, 119 Westcott, Bp, 17 n., 43, 119. Westcott and Hort's text, 89 n. CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. BY THE SAME AUTHOR The Credibility of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Hulsean Lectures, 1900-1901. Crown 8 vo. 6s. The Syro-Latin Text of the Gospels. 8vo. 75. 6d. net. The Old Syriac Element in the Text of the Codex Bezae. Svo. p. 6d. net. LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. NEW THEOLOGICAL WORKS THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. By Henry Barclay Swete, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity, Cambridge. 8vo. CAMBRIDGE BIBLICAL ESSAYS. By Members of the University. Edited by Henry Barclay Swete, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity, Cambridge. 8vo. THE EPISTLE OF ST JAMES. The Greek Text, with Introduction and Commentary. By the late F. J. A. Hort, D.D. 8vo. THE TWO EMPIRES: THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. Being Lectures on Early Church History. By Brooke Foss Westcott, D.D. Crown 8vo. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD IN IDEA AND IN HISTORY. Bampton Lectures, 1909. By Rev. Walter Hobhouse, M.A., Honorary Canon and Chancellor of Birmingham Cathedral. THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS. A new History of Israel with special Reference to the Revelation of Jeho- vah. Translated and Adapted from Professor Westphal's ** Jehovah" by Clement du Pontet, M.A. With Maps. 8vo. RITSCHLIANISM. Norrisian Prize Essay, 1908. By the Rev. E. A. Edghill, M.A. LONDON : MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. GENERAL UBBABy.u.C. BERKELEY