Thomas, Lord Buckhurst, and Earl of Dorset, a statesman and poet, the son of Richard Sackville, Esq., of Buckhurst, in the parish of Witham in Sussex, was born in the year 1536. He was sent to Hart Hall in Oxford, in the latter end of the reign of Edward VI, whence he removed to Cambridge, where he took a master of arts degree, and thence to the Inner Temple. He now applied himself to the study of the law, and was called to the bar. We are told that he commenced poet whilst at the universities, and that these his juvenile productions were much admired, none of which, however, have been preserved.

In the fourth and fifth year of Queen Mary, we find him a member of the house of commons; about which time, in 1557, he wrote a poetical piece, entitled The Induction, or The Mirror of Magistrates. This last was meant to comprehend all the unfortunate Great from the beginning of our history; but the design being dropped, it was inserted in the body of the work. The Mirror of Magistrates is formed on a dramatic plan; in which the persons are introduced speaking. The Induction is written much in the style of Spencer, who, with some probability, is supposed to have imitated this author.

In 1561, his tragedy of Gorboduc was acted before Queen Elizabeth by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple. This was the first tolerable tragedy in our language. The Companion to the Playhouse tells us, that the three first acts were written by Mr Tho. Norton. Sir Philip Sidney, in his Apology for Poetry, says, "it is full of stately speeches, and well-founding phrases, climbing to the height of Seneca in his style, &c." Rymer speaks highly in its commendation. Mr Spence, at the instigation of Mr Pope, republished it in 1736, with a pompous preface. It is said to be our first dramatic piece written in verse.

In the first parliament of this reign, Mr Sackville was member for Sussex, and for Bucks in the second. In the mean time he made the tour of France and Italy, and in 1566 was imprisoned at Rome, when he was informed of his father's death, by which he became possessed of a very considerable fortune.

Having now obtained his liberty, he returned to England; and being first knighted, was created Lord Buckhurst. In 1570 he was sent ambassador to France. In 1586 he was one of the commissioners appointed to try the unfortunate Mary queen of Scots; and was the messenger employed to report the confirmation of her sentence, and to see it executed. The year following he went ambassador to the States General, in consequence of their complaint against the earl of Leicester; who, diluting his impartiality, prevailed on the queen to recall him, and confine him to his house. In this state of confinement he continued about 10 months, when Leicester dying, he was restored to favour, and in 1580 was installed knight of the Garter: but the most incontrovertible proof of the queen's partiality for Lord Buckhurst appeared in the year 1591, when she caused him to be elected chancellor in the university of Oxford, in opposition to her favourite Essex. In 1598, on the death of the treasurer Burleigh, Lord Buckhurst succeeded him, and by virtue of his office became in effect prime minister; and when, in 1601, the earls of Essex and Southampton were brought to trial, he sat as lord high steward on that awful occasion.

On the accession of James I. he was graciously received, had the office of lord high treasurer confirmed to him for life, and was created earl of Dorset. He continued in high favour with the king till the day of his death; which happened suddenly, on the 19th of April 1608, in the council chamber at Whitehall. He was interred with great solemnity in Westminster abbey. He was a good poet, an able minister, and an honest man. From him is descended the present noble family of the Dorsets. "It were needless (says Mr Walpole) to add, that he was the patriarch of a race of genius and wit."

Sackville, Charles, earl of Dorset, a celebrated wit and poet, descended from the foregoing, was born in 1637. He was, like Villiers, Rochester, Sedley, &c., one of the libertines of King Charles's court, and sometimes indulged himself in inexcusable excesses. He openly discountenanced the violent measures of James II; and engaged early for the prince of Orange, by whom he was made lord chamberlain of the household, and taken SACRAMENT is derived from the Latin word *sacramentum*, which signifies an oath, particularly the oath taken by soldiers to be true to their country and general. The words of this oath, according to Polybius, were, *obtemperatus sum et facturus quicquid mandabatur ab imperatoribus juxta vires*. The word was adopted by the writers of the Latin church, and employed, perhaps with no great propriety, to denote those ordinances of religion by which Christians came under an obligation, equally sacred with that of an oath, to observe their part of the covenant of grace, and in which they have the assurance of Christ that he will fulfil his part of the same covenant.

Of sacraments, in this sense of the word, Protestant churches admit of but two; and it is not easy to conceive how a greater number can be made out from Scripture, if the definition of a sacrament be just which is given by the church of England. By that church, the meaning of the word sacrament is declared to be "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof." According to this definition, baptism and the Lord's Supper are certainly sacraments; for each consists of an outward and visible sign of what is believed to be an inward and spiritual grace; both were ordained by Christ himself, and by the reception of each does the Christian come under a solemn obligation to be true to his divine master, according to the terms of the covenant of grace. (See BAPTISM and SUPPER of the Lord). The Romanists, however, add to this number confirmation, penance, extreme unction, ordination, and marriage, holding in all seven sacraments; but two of these rites not being peculiar to the Christian church cannot possibly be Christian sacraments, in contradiction to the sacraments or obligations into which men of all religions enter. Marriage was instituted from the beginning, when God made man male and female, and commanded them to be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth; and penance, as far as it is of the same import with repentance, has a place in all religions which teach that God is merciful, and men fallible.—The external severities imposed upon penitents by the church of Rome (see PENANCE) may indeed be in some respects peculiar to the discipline of that church, though the penances of the Hindoos are certainly as rigid; but none of these severities were ordained by Christ himself as the pledge of an inward and spiritual grace; nor do they, like baptism and the Lord's Supper, bring men under obligations which are supposed to be analogous to the meaning of the word *sacramentum*. Confirmation has a better title to the appellation of a sacrament than any of the other five popish rites of that name, though it certainly was not considered as such by the earliest writers of the Christian church, nor does it appear to have been ordained by Christ himself, (see CONFIRMATION). Ordination is by many churches considered as a very important rite; but as it is not administered to all men, nor has any particular form appropriated to it in the New Testament, it cannot be considered as a Christian sacrament conferring grace generally necessary to salvation. It is rather a form of authorizing certain persons to perform certain offices, which respect not themselves but the whole church; and extreme unction is a rite which took its rise from the miraculous powers of the primitive church vainly claimed by the succeeding clergy. (See ORDINATION and EXTREME UNCTION). These considerations seem to have some weight with the Romish clergy themselves; for they call the eucharist, by way of eminence, the holy sacrament. Thus to expose the holy sacrament, is to lay the consecrated host on the altar to be adored.—The procession of the holy sacrament is that in which this host is carried about the church, or about a town.

Numerous as we think the sacraments of the Romish church, a sect of Christians sprung up in England early in the current century who increased their number.—The founder of this sect was a Dr Deacon, we think, of Manchester, where the remains of it subsisted very lately, and probably do so at present. According to these men, every rite and every phrase in the book called the APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS were certainly in use among the apostles themselves. Still, however, they make a distinction between the greater and the lesser sacraments. The greater sacraments are only two, baptism and the Lord's Supper. The lesser are no fewer than ten, viz., five belonging to baptism, exorcism, anointing with oil, the white garment, a taste of milk and honey, and anointing with chrism or ointment. The other five are, the sign of the cross, imposition of hands, unction of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony. Of the nature of these lesser sacraments, or the grace which they are supposed to confer, our limits will permit us to give no account.—Nor is it necessary that we should. The feet which taught them, if not extinguished, is certainly in its last wane. It has produced, however, one or two learned men; and its founder's Full, True, and Comprehensive View of Christianity, in two Catechisms, is a work which the Christian antiquary will read with pleasure for information, and the philosopher for the materials which it contains for meditation on the workings of the human mind. It was published in 8vo, in the year 1748.

CONGREGATION OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT, a religious establishment formed in France, whose founder was Augustin, bishop of Bethlehem, and which, in 1644, received an order from Urban VIII. to have always a number of ecclesiastics ready to exercise their ministry among pagan nations, wherever the pope, or congregation de propaganda, should appoint.