SERMON XIII.

THE TWO SACRAMENTS.

REV. xi. 4.

"These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the GOD of the earth."

In

Ir has been well and wisely ordered in the Church of England that there are only two Sacraments. In the Church of Rome there are seven and it is very true, that in some sense there may be seven and more, as solemn Church ordinances and ceremonies, whereby Divine Grace is conveyed, are sacramental: as we do not doubt but that at Confirmation, and at Holy Orders, and at the sacred rite of Marriage, GoD is pleased, through the forms of His Church, to afford spiritual aid and benediction. this sense we might speak of many Sacraments; and then we should say that ours are the two great Sacraments, as compared with the rest. But I think we have reason to be thankful to Almighty God that He has so overruled it in the ordering of our own Church, that there should only be two Sacraments; thus raising them to their own proper dignity and importance, as set apart and distinguished from the rest, admitting of no others to be classed together with them. For the Catechism does not say there may not be other Sacraments, but that these two only hath CHRIST ordained in His Church as generally necessary to salvation. These two are so raised above whatever else may be worthy of the name, that they are rightly put to stand by themselves. By these two we are joined on to CHRIST; we are made parts of His Body, and become partakers of His Incarnation :

being through His Manhood united unto God, and having thereby spiritual truth and nourishment. In these two we have life in CHRIST; and without these two we have not life.

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Now this was set forth in the Church of Israel beforehand, for Circumcision was a type or shadow of Baptism, inasmuch as by this outward rite there was admission into the Jewish Church : of him that is uncircumcised, it is said, that soul shall be cut off from his people'." The same was the case with regard to the Passover, and the eating of the Lamb, which was the sign beforehand of the LORD's Supper; it is said of this as of the former rite, that the man that forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people"." In like manner our LORD speaks of these two Sacraments as necessary to salvation of Baptism, that, " : Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of GOD3:" and of the Holy Eucharist, that " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you*." Our LORD would evidently have His Church, in which alone is salvation and forgiveness of sins, to consist especially of these two, as the visible signs and means by which we are joined into His life-giving Body, in the same way that no one, unless he was circumcised and ate of the Lamb, could belong to that outward and ceremonial Jewish Church of old. And this HE HIMSELF showed by that remarkable sign at His death, when the Water and the Blood flowed from His side. It has always been supposed, that as Eve, "the mother of all living," was taken out of the side of Adam, when "GOD caused a deep sleep to fall upon" him, so when our LORD, the second Adam, slept the deep sleep of death, the Church-the only mother of the truly living-issued, as it were, from His side, by the two Sacraments, the Water and the Blood. This is the reason why the Evangelist bears witness to it by such a solemn declaration, as signifying the vast importance of the fact, and the necessity of believing it: "And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true; and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe And afterwards, in his Epistle, St. John speaks of these two as still continuing on

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earth: This is HE that came by water and blood. . . And it is the Spirit that beareth witness." "There are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood"."

It has at all times been believed that these two, viz. the Water and the Blood, represented the two Sacraments, and that in them consisted the Church itself, inasmuch as by these two only we are made and preserved members of CHRIST's Body. Thus, St. Augustine says, " Adam slept that Eve might be made; CHRIST died that the Church might be made:" that the spear which pierced His side " opened unto us the door of life, out of which

flowed the Sacraments of the Church; without which there is no entrance into that life, which is true life "." In another place St. Augustine says, "the blood and water forthwith flowed, which are the two Sacraments of the Church; the water, by which the Bride is purified; the blood, which is her dower'." St. Ambrose says, From His dead Body flowed forth the life of us all." "The water and the blood went forth-the one to cleanse, the other to redeem. Let us drink the price paid for us 10" St. Chrysostom says that I these fountains went forth, since of both the Church is composed. Here the sacred mysteries received their origin; by the water we are born again, by the blood and flesh we are nourished'." St. Cyril, of Alexandria, speaks of the Blood and Water, as" the image and first offerings of the mystical Eucharist, and of holy Baptism 2."

Now does it not appear from these circumstances, what great wisdom and reverence there has been in this appointment of our Church, whereby these, our two Sacraments, are set apart from all others? they alone set forth the very opening of CHRIST'S side that door into the true ark of refuge, wherein alone they are saved, who perish not with the world. And when, after our LORD's death, the Christian Church is spoken of, these two outward signs are mentioned as essential to it. Thus we read, “They were all baptized." "They continued in the Apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread"." The only two Sacramental signs mentioned are Baptism and the breaking of

7 1 John v. 6. 8.

9 De Symbol ad Catech. 1 Hom. lxxxiv.

8 In Joan. Tr. cxx. 2.

10 In Lucam.

cap. 6.

2 In Joan.

3 Acts ii. 42.

bread. And St. Paul, when he compares the Christian state to that under the Law, mentions two Sacraments only as the essential parts of its description-the Baptism and the spiritual food: " and were all," he says, baptized unto Moses in the cloud, and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat." And afterwards, in the same Epistle, he mentions these same two, and none other: "For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit 5." And often separately he speaks of Baptism, or the Holy Eucharist, in a way that he does not speak of any other essential life-giving rite; as, "6 By one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body ";"

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as many as have been baptized into CHRIST have put on CHRIST';" and, For we being many are one Bread and one Body: for we are all partakers of that one Bread "."

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And when we come to the works of those great and good men who lived in the early ages, to ascertain what was then taught in the Churches, we find this same point fully established. They often speak of Sacraments, applying the expression to all outward signs, by which God is pleased to represent and to convey spiritual edification. For such was the meaning of the word with them. "Signs," says St. Augustine," which appertain to Divine things are called Sacraments '.' But then, like ourselves, and as Holy Scripture, they set these two quite apart from any thing else, as essential to salvation by CHRIST'S Own appointment. Thus St. Augustine says, that by the Resurrection of our LORD we are set free" from the heavy burden of those numerous outward signs of the Law, and instead of those have a few, most easy of performance, in meaning most noble, of observance most pure, which the LORD HIMSELF, and Apostolical discipline, hath delivered to us-such as the Sacrament of Baptism, and the celebration of the Body and Blood of the LORD'." St. Augustine, in other places, speaks of the advantage of our Christian liberty in this respect. And St. Chrysostom, "No one can enter into the kingdom of Heaven, unless he be born

again by water and the Spirit; and he that eateth not the flesh of the LORD, and drinketh not His blood, is cast out of eternal life "." Thus he mentions these two Sacraments only.

So that our Church has cleared away all that was overlaid upon it through the corruption of ages, and showed us the true foundations built on that Rock, which is CHRIST; has manifested the bright proportions of that spiritual building, which had been so sadly hidden and obscured; has set before us two Sacraments only by which we have part in the Incarnation of CHRIST; the two breasts of our spiritual mother.

Now with regard to the seven Sacraments of the Church of Rome, it must, indeed, be allowed that the number Seven is a very sacred number: the number seven speaks of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church, as was shown in the seven lamps on the golden candlestick3; the number seven speaks of the rest which good men have in CHRIST, which was set forth by the seventh day of rest in the Law; the number seven speaks of our reconciliation with GOD, and forgiveness; so that we also, like as God has forgiven us, are to forgive an offending brother seven times a day, and until seventy-times seven. But it does not follow, from all this, that we, in fallen and corrupt ages, are to invent for ourselves, or to define seven Sacraments, in a way which neither CHRIST nor His Apostles, nor the early ages of the Church, have in any way sanctioned, and then to say, as the Church of Rome does, that every one is “accursed" who believes that there are any more or any less than seven-the seven which itself has made up and declared.

We hold in great honour and reverence all means by which GOD is pleased, through outward ordinances, to communicate His Grace, as Confirmation and Holy Orders, and the like; but we place these two Sacraments by themselves, and apart, as the two great pillars of the faith, because it was so appointed, and has been so from the beginning, and because we are not told of any thing else so essential to salvation. And we may find out in Holy Scripture that the number Two also is not without its sacred significations. By two Sacraments we are united to CHRIST. This seems to flow from the great mystery of the Incarnation,

2 De Sacerdot. Orat. 3.

3 Exod. xxv. 31.