the sheep of Christ. John x. 5. Yet they which have a secular power and sovereignty, they have it of God himself, howsoever they be called therefore he would resist the ordinance of God, whosoever should oppose himself to that temporal government.* These things do our Preachers teach, touching the authority of Ecclesiastical persons: so that they have great injury offered to them, in that they are blamed, as though they sought to bring the authority of Ecclesiastical Prelates to nothing; whereas they never forbad them that worldly government and authority which they have. But they have often wished, that they would come nearer to the Ecclesiastical commandments, and that either they themselves would instruct and faithfully feed the consciences of Christians out of the holy Gospel, or that, at the least wise, they would admit others hereunto, and ordain such as were more fit for this purpose. This is it, I say, that our Preachers have oftentimes requested of the Prelates themselves; so far have they been from opposing themselves at any time to their spiritual authority. But whereas we either could not bear any longer the doctrine of certain Preachers, but, being driven thereunto by necessity, have placed others in their room; or else we have retained those also, which have renounced that Ecclesiastical superiority: we did it not for any other cause, but for that these did plainly and faithfully declare the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ, the other did mingle therewith man's inventions. For so often as the question is concerning the holy Gospel, and the doctrine of truth, Christians must wholly turn themselves to the Bishop of their souls, the Lord Jesus Christ, and not admit the voice of any stranger by any means. Wherein notwithstanding neither we, nor they do offer violence to any man for Paul saith, "All things are yours, whether it be Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, whether they be things present, or things to come, even all are yours, and ye Christ's, and Christ God's." 1 Cor. iii. 21-23. Therefore, seeing that Peter and Paul are ours, and we are not theirs, but Christ's; and that, after the same manner that Christ himself is his Father's, to wit, that in all things, which we are, or may be, we might live to him alone: and seeing furthermore that to this end we have power to use all things, (yea, even men themselves, of what sort soever they be,) as though they were our * See before, the third observation upon the Confession of Augsburg: also after, in the Seventeenth Section, the third observation upon the same. 282 THE TWELFTH SECTION. OF SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL. own, and ought not to suffer that any man, or any thing, should hinder us therein: no Ecclesiastical person may justly complain of us, or object to us, that we are not sufficiently obedient to them, or that we do derogate any thing from their authority; seeing that the thing itself doth witness, that we have attempted and done all those things according to the will of God, which we have undertaken against the will of Ecclesiastical persons. These therefore be those things which we teach, touching the office, dignity, and power of the Ministers of the Church, whom they call Spiritual: the which that we should credit, we are moved thereunto by those places of Scripture, which for the most part we have rehearsed before.* THE TWELFTH SECTION. OF TRUE AND FALSE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL. Chapter 19. Of the Sacraments of the Church of Christ. God, even from the beginning, added unto the preaching of the word his Sacraments, or Sacramental signs, in his Church. And this doth the holy Scripture plainly testify. Sacraments be mystical symbols, or holy rites, or sacred actions, ordained of God himself, consisting of his word, of outward signs, and of things signified: whereby he keepeth in continual memory, and eftsoons recalleth to mind, in his Church, his great benefits bestowed upon man; and whereby he sealeth up his promises, and outwardly representeth, and, as it were, offereth unto our sight, those things which inwardly he performeth unto us, and therewithal strengtheneth and increaseth our faith through the working of God's Spirit in our hearts; lastly, whereby he doth separate us from all other people and religions, and consecrateth and bindeth us wholly unto himself, and giveth us to understand what he requireth of us. * It may be right to state, that, in consequence of much confusion arising, in the old editions of the Translation, from an inattention to the terms used in the original, such corrections have been introduced into the present edition, that the words Presbyter and Senior are now uniformly rendered by Elder, and the word Sacerdos by Priest, throughout the whole Section.-EDITOR. These Sacraments are either of the Old Church or of the New. The Sacraments of the Old were Circumcision, and the Pascal Lamb, which was offered up; under which name, reference is made to the sacrifices which were in use from the beginning of the world. The Sacraments of the New Church are Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Some there are, which reckon seven Sacraments of the New Church. Of which number we grant that Repentance, Matrimony, and the Ordination of Ministers (we mean not the Popish, but the Apostolical Ordination) are very profitable ordinances of God, but no Sacraments. As for Confirmation and Extreme Unction, they are mere devices of men, which the Church may very well want, without any damage or discommodity at all: and therefore we have them not in our Churches, because there be certain things in them which we can by no means allow of. As for that merchandize which the Romish Prelates use in ministering their Sacraments, we utterly abhor it. The author and institutor of all Sacraments is not any man, but God alone: for men can by no means ordain Sacraments; because they belong to the worship of God, and it is not for man to appoint and prescribe a service of God, but to embrace and retain that which is taught unto him by the Lord. Besides, the Sacramental signs have God's promises annexed to them, which necessarily require faith: now faith stayeth itself only upon the word of God; and the word of God is resembled to writings or letters, the Sacraments to seals, which the Lord alone setteth to his own letters. And as the Lord is the author of the Sacraments, so he continually worketh in that Church, where they be rightly used; so that the faithful, when they receive them of the Ministers, do know that the Lord worketh in his own ordinance, and therefore they receive them as from the hand of God: and the Minister's faults (if there be any notorious in them) cannot hurt them, seeing they do acknowledge the goodness of the Sacraments to depend upon the ordinance of the Lord. For which cause they put a difference, in the administration of the Sacraments, between the Lord himself and his Minister; confessing that the substance of the Sacraments is given them of the Lord, and the outward signs by the Ministers of the Lord. But the principal thing, which in all the Sacraments is offered of the Lord, and chiefly regarded of the godly of all ages, (which some have called the substance and matter of the Sacraments,) is Christ our Saviour: that only sacrifice, Heb. x. 12. and that Lamb of God slain, from the beginning of the world, Rev. xiii. 8. that rock also, of which all our fathers drank; 1 Cor. x. 4. by whom all the elect are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, through the Holy Spirit, Col. ii. 11, 12. and are washed from all their sins, Rev. i. 5. and are nourished with the very body and blood of Christ unto eternal life. John vi. 54. Now, in respect of that which is the chief thing, and the very matter and substance of the Sacraments, the Sacraments of both the Testaments are equal. For Christ, the only Mediator and Saviour of the faithful, is the chief thing and substance in them both: one and the same God is author of them both: they were given unto both Churches, as signs and seals of the grace and promises of God; which should call to mind and renew the memory of God's great benefits to them, and should distinguish the faithful from all the religions in the world; lastly, which should be received spiritually by faith, and should bind the receivers unto the Church, and admonish them of their duty. In these, I say, and such like things, the Sacraments of both Churches be not unequal, although in the outward signs they be diverse. And indeed we do yet put a greater difference between them: for ours are more firm and durable, as those which are not to be changed to the end of the world. Again, ours testify that the substance and promise is already fulfilled and performed in Christ, whereas the other did only signify that they should be fulfilled. And again, ours are more simple, and nothing so painful, nothing so sumptuous, nor so full of ceremonies. Moreover they belong to a greater people, that is dispersed through the face of the whole earth and because they are more excellent, and do by the Spirit of God stir up in us a greater measure of faith, therefore a more plentiful measure of the Spirit doth follow them. But now, since that Christ, the true Messias, is exhibited unto us, and the abundance of grace is poured forth upon the people of the New Testament, the Sacraments of the Old Law are surely abrogated and ceased; and in their stead the Sacraments of the New Testament are placed: namely, for Circumcision, Baptism; and for the Pascal Lamb and Sacrifices, the Supper of the Lord. And as in the Old Church the Sacraments consisted of the word, the sign, and the thing signified; so even at this day they are composed, as it were, of the same parts. For the word of God maketh them Sacraments, which before were none: for they are consecrated by the word, and declared to be sanctified by Him who first ordained them. To sanctify or consecrate a thing, is to dedicate it unto God, and unto holy uses; that is, to take it from the common and ordinary use, and to appoint it to some holy use. For the signs that be in the Sacraments, are drawn from common use; things external and visible. As, in Baptism; the outward sign is the element of water, and that visible washing, which is done by the Minister. But the thing signified is regeneration,* and the cleansing from sins. Likewise, in the Lord's Supper; the outward sign is bread and wine, taken from things commonly used for meat and drink. But the thing signified is the body of Christ which was given, and his blood which was shed for us, and the communion of the body and blood of the Lord. Wherefore, the water, bread, and wine, considered in their own nature, and out of this holy use and institution of the Lord, are only that which they are called, and which we find them to be. But let the word of God be added to them, together with invocation upon His holy name, and the renewing of their first institution and sanctification, and then these signs are consecrated, and declared to be sanctified by Christ. For Christ's first institution and consecration of the Sacraments standeth yet in force in the Church of God, in such sort, that they which celebrate the Sacraments no otherwise than the Lord himself from the beginning hath appointed, have still, even to this day, the use and benefit of that first and most excellent consecration. And for this cause, in the administration of the Sacraments, the very words of Christ are repeated. And forasmuch as we learn out of the word of God, that these signs were appointed unto another end and use, than commonly they are used unto; therefore we teach, that they now, in this their holy use, do take upon them the names of things signified, and are not still called bare water, bread, or wine: but that the water is called "regeneration, and washing of the new birth;" Titus iii. 5. and the bread and wine "the body and blood of the Lord;" 1 Cor. x. 16. or the pledges and Sacraments of his body and blood. Not that the signs are turned into the things signified, or cease to be that which in their own nature they are, (for then they could not be Sacraments, which should consist only of the thing signified, and have no signs ;) but therefore do the signs bear the names of the things, because they be mystical tokens of holy things, and because the signs and the things signified are sacramentally joined together: joined That is, the blood of Christ, by virtue whereof we are regenerated and washed from our sins. For, to speak properly, the thing signified by water is the blood; and by sprinkling, the washing from sins and regeneration is signified. |