they seem to regard the Sacraments as extolled, if they place their efficacy on a level with that of God's written word[1],
- ↑ Calvin, ad Act. 22. 16. "As to the formal cause of the forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit holds the first place; but there is joined the inferior organ, the preaching of the Gospel, and Baptism itself." Institt. 4. 14. 7. "Let this be regarded as settled, that the Sacraments have no other office than the Word of God." Whitaker, de Sacram. q. 4. c. 2. ap. Gat. p. 92. "The Word and the Sacraments operate in the same way." Rivetus, Disp. 43. de Bapt. Thes. 30. ap. Gat. p. 97. "The end of the Sacraments is to seal to the faithful the promise of the Gospel, and confirm faith; because as the Word, so Sacraments are organs whereby God acts upon and moves the hearts of the faithful." P. Martyr, loci, 2. 17. 45. "As the word sounds, and is heard in the voice, so the Sacrament, in the visible and apparent sign, speaks and admonishes us, which when we believe, we obtain in fact that which it promises and signifies. And think not that sins are remitted to us by receiving the Sacrament,—by the action of the Sacrament itself (opus operatum). For this we obtain by faith, when we believe what it teaches us visibly, by the institution of Christ, so that the Sacrament is of the same avail as the Word of God." And in nearly the same words as Calvin—"This must abide fixed and certain, that nothing
as wine is given in a vessel; whereas the office appointed them by God is to attest and ratify the good-will of God towards us. They are from God, like good tidings from men, or earnests in making bargains; inasmuch as in themselves they do not confer any grace, but inform us, and show, what have been given us by the Divine bounty." Peter Martyr, ad. Rom. xi. ap. Gat. "We utterly deny that any Sacraments confer grace. They offer it, indeed; but by signifying it only (sed in significatione); for in Sacraments, in words, and visible signs, the promise of God made to us through Christ is proposed to us; which if we apprehend by faith, we both obtain greater grace than that was which we before had, and seal by the seal of the Sacraments the gift which we had embraced by faith." Loci, 4. 7. 16. "The schoolmen [rather St. Augustine] say that the 'Sacraments of the Gospel confer grace;' but this is nothing else than to attribute to creatures the cause of our salvation, and to bind ourselves to the symbols and elements of this world!" [Some of these writers, by "conferring grace," mean "imparting the first good motions," and this they deny, because in adults there must have been faith and repentance to qualify them to receive Baptism. To this statement there could have been no objection, but that they proceed to infer, 1st, that Baptism is never the instrument of conferring this primary grace, and so not in infants. 2d. According to them faith and repentance contain in themselves justification, regeneration, adoption, insertion into Christ, whereof Baptism becomes but the seal.]
