s derived from the Latin word sacramentum, which signifies an oath, particularly the oath taken by soldiers to be true to their country and their general. The words of this oath, according to Polybius, were, obtemperatur sum et facturus quicquid mandabitur ab imperatori Sacramentibus 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 had the assurance of Christ that he would fulfil his part of the same covenant.

Of sacraments, in this sense of the word, Protestant churches admit but of 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. The Catholics, however, add to this number confirmation, penance, extreme unction, ordination, and marriage, holding in all seven sacraments; but two of those rites not being peculiar to the Christian church, cannot possibly be Christian sacraments, in contradistinction 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 may indeed be in some respects peculiar to the discipline of that church, though the penances of the Hindus 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 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. 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. These considerations seem to have some weight with the Catholic 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.

Congregation of the Holy Sacrament, a religious establishment formed in France, whose founder was Atherius, 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 the congregation de propaganda fide, should appoint.