SACK

(Fr. vin sec, from which the term is generally suppose'd to be derived.) A Spanish wine of the dry kind. The important part which it plays in Shakspeare is well known. Falstaff calls it sherris sack, which means sherry sack; so called, says Blount, in his Glo ographia, from Xeres, a sea town of Corduba, where that kind of sack is made. At a later period, sack seems to have been used as a general term for all kinds of sweet wines; and it has been conjectured that, instead of being a corruption of the French sec, as above noticed, it derives its name more probably from a common practice of the Spaniards, of putting their sweet wines into sacks made of goat skins, and thus transporting them from one place to another. It may be interesting to observe, that the term sack, in the sense of a bag, is found in all the European and many Asiatic languages. SACKBUT, A wind instrument of the trumpet species, but differing from the common trumpet in form and size. It is of low or ba pitch, and is drawn out or shortened by the means of sliders, according to the acutene or gravity of the tone to be produced. It is, in fact, the trombone of the Italians. SACRAMENT, (Lat. aw oa/A.) The military oath taken by every Roman soldier, by which he swore to obey his commander and not desert his standard. Sacrament. In Theology, a word which does not occur in scripture, nor po e es any exact equivalent there; but employed very early by writers in theology to signify certain distinctive ceremonies of the Christian faith. Our Saviour appointed the baptism of believers as an initiatory rite; he also commanded the observance of the supper of 1073 SACRISTY. the Lord to be held in remembrance of him. These, then, are the badges by which Christian men are known, and by which they make profe ion of their belief. The expre ions of scripture, moreover, with which the appointment of these ceremonies is attended, have been generally considered to attach some ulterior meaning to them. The one is called the second birth, the other is said to be the communion of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ; and the mysteries which seem to be concealed under these terms have been made the subjects of various interpretations. According to the general consent of ancient orthodoxy, the sacraments have in themselves a peculiar efficacy, conferring grace upon the recipient, and imparting to him the benefits of the Christian covenant. The Romish church is accused of holding the extreme opinion that this grace is conferred ex opere operatb, by the mere act, the recipient remaining pa ive; that they fail of operation only where he is under the influence of positive sin; but that the administration of the Eucharist to a dying man unconscious of the whole proceeding, would have the same effect as if he received it in the most holy frame of mind. The English church requires the worthy acceptation of the person himself, as is expre ly stated, with a tacit reference to this superstitious notion, in its twenty-fifth article. It guards, at the same time, against the idea very generally held among the Protestant churches abroad, and our own di enting sects, in the words with which the article begins: — " Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only signs or tokens of Christian men's profe ion; but rather they be certain sure witne es and effectual signs of grace, arid God's will towards us, by the which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our faith in him." The question as to the number of such ceremonies must be settled by the definitions of a sacrament which theologians shall propound. It is agreed that a sacrament is a federal rite, instituted by Christ or the Apostles, with a direct appointment of matter by which some interior meaning is signified, and the form of manner of its application. This definition is conceived by Protestants to restrict the number to two only: the Romanists extend it to seven, adding to Baptism and the Lord's Supper Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction, [s. 1086]