men, in the fears of a papal magnifying of the Sacraments fell into the opposite extreme: for fear it should seem absolutely necessary they made it seem almost indifferent: and for fear God's grace should be "tied to the Sacrament," they virtually disjoined God's grace from His own ordinance.
The language, in which this theory of the Sacraments was expressed, was subjected to various modifications, partly in consequence of the anxiety of this school (which is visible in the vehemence of their protests[1]) to make out to themselves that the Sacraments did not, on their theory, become "empty signs:" partly to satisfy the Lutherans, whose chief ground of complaint against the reformed lay against this innovation. It is, consequently, difficult to ascertain, in the several confessions, how much of this theory[2] they retained, and in what degree they attempted to engraft upon it the language of the old and the Lutheran Church. There is, however, a remarkable correspondence
- ↑ We are not eager in throwing off imputations, to which we feel that our views do not expose us. There is a striking difference between the sedate manner in which the Lutherans and the English Church declare against the heretical tenet, that the "Sacraments are badges and tokens of Christian men's profession," and the energy with which the Reformed Church throw it off as an imputation.
- ↑ The theory of Zuingli is fully contained in the three Helvetic Confessions (which were composed under the influence of his disciples), the Hungarian, and the Belgic: less explicitly in the Gallic (which drew upon its author, Beza, the charge of apostacy). In the Scotch, it is implied in the statement on the Lord's Supper, but not in that upon Baptism; and it is in some respects modified in (Calvin's) Catechism of Geneva. In the Heidelberg Catechism, (composed by Z. Ursini, also a disciple of Zuingli,) it is throughout implied, though not in the technical language which occurs in the Helvetic Confessions: of the other symbolical books of the Reformed German Church, the Confessio Tetrapolitana, 1530, (Bucer's): Marchica, 1613, (Pelargus') Colloquium Lipsiacum, 1631: Declaratio Thoruniensis, 1645, are entirely free from it: in the Confessio it is nearly effaced. The Bohemian or Moravian Brethren appear, according to the "Confessio Bohemica," A.D. 1535, to have been counted wrongly, as well as our own Church, as belonging to what is technically called the Reformed Church; unless so far as "Reformed" may be a negative term, opposed simply to Lutheran and Romanist, without implying doctrinal agreement among the several portions of that body. See further Note L, at the end.
