hold the worse in less estimation. There is of Sacraments undoubtedly some other more excellent and heavenly use.'1

This 'more excellent and heavenly use' our Church defines to be a 'means, whereby we receive the grace given to us.' They are 'visible signs, expressly commanded in the New Testament, whereunto is annexed the promise of free forgiveness of our sins, and of our holiness and joining in Christ.' Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession; but rather they be effectual signs of grace and of God's goodwill towards us, by the which he doth work invisibly in us.' This is in strict accordance with the Scripture testimony. In reference to one Sacrament-'We are born of water and of the Spirit-buried with Christ by baptism unto death. Christ sanctifieth and cleanseth his Church with the washing of water. God hath saved us by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Baptism doth now save us.' In individual instances—the baptized Apostle was manifestly strengthened by the holy ordinance. The baptized eunuch-the jailor also-"went on his way rejoicing."6 If the references to the other Sacrament are not equally full, they are not less decided. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" How largely the Pentecostal converts were refreshed by this communion, their brief history fully testifies. We cannot therefore doubt that the Scripture designates 'these heavenly ceremonies '9 as a means of rich and special grace. They exhibit the blessings of the Gospel to all. But to the faithful receiver they convey to his very bosom the blessings which they exhibit.

We complete our exposition of the Sacrament by setting it out, not only as a means of grace, but a pledge to assure us thereof.

1 Hooker v. lvii. 1. See also his Remarks on the Christian Letter' Appended to Book v. ii. 703. (Keble's Ed.)

2 Homily on Prayer and Sacraments.

3 Art. xxv.

* John iii. 5. Rom. vi. 4. Eph. v. 26. Tit. iii. 5. 1 Pet. iii. 21.

5 Acts ix. 18–20. Yet as our Church accurately expressed it—faith is confirmed and grace increased by virtue of prayer to God. Art. xxvii. Comp. verse 11. xxii. 16. also the Baptism of our Divine Master. Luke iii. 21, 22. tion of the comfort of his Baptism quoted by Mr. pp. 37-39.

iv. i.

Compare also Cyprian's descrip

Faber.

Primit. Doctr. of Regeneration,

6 Ib. viii. 38, 39. xvi. 33, 34. Acts ii. 42-47.

71 Cor. x. 16.

Hooker v. lvii. 3.

Thus "the sign of circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of the faith." The corresponding Sacrament of baptism is also a seal of the remission of sin to the worthy recipient. "This cup," spake our Lord at the sacred supper, "is my blood of the New Testament," representing his blood as shed to make way for the new covenant, and to ratify it as valid for their benefit' 3-not making the covenant more valid in itself, but certain sure witnesses, strengthening and confirming our faith to apprehend and apply it. God's gift'-as Archbishop Sandys excellently remarks -' without sealing is sure, as he himself is all one without changing. Yet to bear with our infirmity, and to make us more secure of his promise, to his writing and word he added these outward signs and seals, to establish our faith, and to certify us that his promise is most certain.' 5

Thus far we have endeavoured to set out what, according to the definition of the Church and in strict harmony with Scripture, forms the sum and substance of a Sacrament. The statement of the Foreign Reformers, as embodied in their public confessions, or as they can be elicited from a careful study of their writings, seem to be marked with some variation; nor do the most sound of them, in the writer's judgment, come up to the completeness of the Anglican exposition.6

1 Rom. iv. 11.

2 Acts ii. 38; xxii. 16. Compare Nicene Creed, Art. xxvii. 3 Matt. xxvi. 28. Scott in loco. Compare Bishop Hopkins' Works, ii. 440.

4 Art. xxv. Hooker v. lvii. 2.

$ Sermons, Parker Society Ed. pp. 303, 304.- Sweeter it is unto us than honey, where we are certified by this outward sacrament of the inward grace given unto us through his death, when in him we are assured of remission of sins and eternal life. Better food than this thy soul can never feed upon. Ibid. p. 89.

Zuingle's views of the sacrament were far short of the truth. He speaks of them assigns, by which the receiver gives to the Church a pledge of his faith' (Fol. Works ii. 198; also 202, 204. See Bishop Hall's judgment of his doctrine. Christian Moderation, Book ii. Rule viii.) Calvin's systematic statement goes further, but not far enough,— testimonies of Divine favour to us, confirmed by outward signs, combined with the pledge of our piety to him.' (Instit. iv. xiv. 1.) In his free and later communications with his friends, however, he rises to a more full and enlarged view. He speaks of agreeing with Luther, that the sacraments are not empty signs-that in baptism the power of the Spirit is present to wash and regenerate us; and that the sacred supper is a spiritual feast, in which we truly feed on the flesh and blood of Christ.' Epist. p. 82. Bucer's views of baptism appear to have been generally sound. (On Matt. xix. et De vi baptismi in his 'Scripta Anglicana.') On the Lord's supper he exhibits spiritual apprehensions.1 (We are taught,' he says, that the body and blood of Christ are received by faith.' Tetrapol. Confess.) though his mind was much clouded by the Lutheran dogma. Bullinger's Sermons on the Sacraments lately edited from his Decades, by the Norrisian Professor at Cambridge have the general imprimatur of the Anglican Church. Luther's views

We next advert to the medium, by which sacramental grace is conveyed. Let it never be supposed, that there is any innate grace in these holy ordinances. They are what they are, not by inherent efficacy, but by Divine institution. They are-as our Church most accurately defines them-means only, not sources of grace. The blessing is not in them. But it flows through them from the Great Fountain Head. Nor let this be thought to be a mere verbal distinction. To make them- -as some appear to do sources of grace, is to put them in the place of Christ. To acknowledge them as means, is to depend on Christ in them, to look for his grace imparted by them, to honour his appointment in their diligent improvement, and thus to ensure his gracious acceptance. We ascribe nothing to the instruments: all belongs to him, who condescends to work by them. Eminently clear and evangelical is the statement of Bishop Ridley- Every sacrament hath grace annexed to it instrumentally. It hath not grace included in it; but to those that receive it well, it is turned to grace. After that manner, water in baptism hath grace promised, and by that grace the Holy Spirit is given; not that grace is included in water, but that grace cometh by water." To the same purport writes the judicious Hooker- Sacraments really exhibit, but for aught we can gather out of that which is written of them, they are not really, nor do they really contain in themselves, that grace, which with them or by them it pleaseth God to bestow.'2

Bishop Ridley-let it be observed-limits the promise of grace in the sacrament to them that receive it well. And indeed, while our Church clearly insists upon the unworthy administration as no bar,3 she clearly sets out a worthy reception as an indispensable mean, to the blessing, The sacraments were ordained, that we should duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive the same, they have a wholesome effect and operation. But they that receive them unworthily, purchase to themselves damnation, as St. Paul saith." To presume that they would work alike when they are improved or profaned, is indeed the essence of Romish superstition; contravening the Divine rule expressly given to preserve the purity of worship-"Them that

on Baptism are full, though of course their weight is somewhat weakened by his mystical and unscriptural theory of the other Sacrament. See on Gal. iii. 27. 1 Works, Parker's Society Ed. pp. 240, 241. 3 Art. xxvi.

2 Book v. lxvii. 6. Compare lvii. 4.

4 Art. xxv.

honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." The real presence of Christ's most precious body and blood'-as Hooker most accurately states-' is not therefore to be sought for in the Sacrament, but in the worthy receiver of the Sacrament—in the heart and soul of him which receiveth."

Our Church justly points out faith as the principle of a worthy reception, and the only medium through which the blessing is applied. To such alone, as 'rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same,' does she conceive the ordinance to be a real and spiritual participation, 3 And this is in strict harmony with Scripture. If we are "buried with Christ in baptism," we "are risen with him from this burial through the faith of the operation of God." The "baptism that doth now save us," is expressly stated to be" not the putting away of the filth of the flesh," the mere external ceremony-" but the answer of a good conscience toward God"-the act and profession of faith. The unworthy partaking of the holy supper is "not discerning the Lord's body."6 The due reception therefore must be in the exercise of that intelligent faith, which discerns the great end, substance, and blessing of the ordinance.

Indeed we cannot but bless God for the singular wisdom, which guided the general statements of our Reformers on this important subject. They took up their position in the true mean between Rationalism and Romanism. They expounded high and glowing views of sacramental grace. But they avoided the Patristic and Romish error, by grounding it on the promise of the covenant, and linking it with the instrumental agency of faith. We need only refer to the Baptismal services, where the prayers are little more than the promises taken hold on by faith, and the exhortations encourage an undoubting confidence, grounded upon the manifested work and love of the Saviour. We are aware indeed, that statements have been produced from their writings, on the side of exaggerated views of the Sacraments. But we are persuaded that a careful comparison will exhibit these statements

11 Sam. ii. 30.

3 Art. xxvii. xxviii.

Book v. lxvii. 6. Compare Waterland, chap. v. + Col. ii. 12.

* 1 Peter iii. 21. It is not the water, but the faith,' (saith good Bishop Hall, alluding to this text) for "who takes baptism without a full faith,"-saith Jerome-" takes the water, takes not the Spirit." Baptism therefore without faith cannot save a man, and by faith doth save him."-Ep. Dec. v. Ep. iv.

61 Cor. xi. 29.

as connected with the grand principles of the Gospel, and with a more precise limitation than is often given to them. Nor must it be forgotten, that they are applied to the whole ordinancenot to the bare external ceremony-reminding us (with our Homily) that faith is a necessary instrument in all these holy ceremonies, for that, as St. Paul saith, "without faith it is impossible to please God." Indeed to insist upon the efficacy of the Sacraments without this necessary mean, is 'basely to bind ourselves to the elements and the creatures' to make the ordinances matter of idolatrous dependence rather than of warranted scriptural improvement—as if the Sacrament itself gave and did every thing by its innate grace.

It seems necessary, in order to complete our view of this part of our Ministry, to advert, as briefly as possible, to some principal errors on the right hand and on the left. That there should be errors-diversified and important errors-connected with so much difference of judgment and corruption of heart, is no marvel. The ordinances themselves are holy. Yet man's perverseness makes them the occasion of sin and fearful provocation even in the profession of a sound faith. 3 Who needs not the warning— "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall ?" 4

Archbishop Leighton admirably remarks upon the two extremes of Sacramental error- First, of those that ascribe too much to Sacraments, as if they wrought by a natural inherent virtue, and carried grace in them inseparably. Secondly, of those who ascribe too little to them-making them only signs and badges of our profession.' 5

To the first of these errors of excess we have already adverted. Others not less momentous we would briefly notice-such as making the Sacraments the causal ground of our justification, which the Apostle distinctly states to be subverting the foundations

1 Homily on Sacrament, Part i. Take an example from Cranmer, who perhaps may be considered to have spoken most strongly on the subject of the Sacraments. Speaking of baptism-Some will say, 'How can water work such great things?' To whom I answer-That it is not the water that doeth these things, but the almighty word of God (which is knit and joined to the water) and faith, which receiveth God's word and promise. For without the word of God, water is water, and not baptism.' Catechism, 1548. Homily ut supra. Bishop Hopkins gives very valuable views of the necessity of faith, as the mean of spiritual efficacy in the use of the Sacraments. Works, ii. pp. 434— 445.

31 Cor. x. 1—5.

• Ib. verse 12.

5 On 1 Peter iii. 21.