Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/493

Acts ii. 38—(continued.)
Zuingli-Calvinists.	Socinians.
"be said to be given to us 'for the remission of sins.'" Sclater, in Rom. ii. 25. ap. Gat. p. 92.—"The meaning of Act. ii. 38. xxii. 26. is, that Baptism is to be received as a seal, for the greater certainty of pardon. For had not the Jews believed, and Paul repented, before they were baptized? But, who knows not that remission belongs, by the Divine promise, to those who believe and truly repent? Why then are they to be baptized? For a fuller confirmation." Walæus, Disp. 44. de Bapt. Thes. 27. 29. ap. Gat. p. 97.—"Scripture requires beforehand, in all who are to be baptized, faith and repentance, and so the beginning and seed of regeneration; therefore regeneration cannot be begun in Baptism; for the cause cannot be subsequent to the effect." Malcolm, ad loc. ap. Gat. p. 92. paraphrases "Receive Baptism, a sign of remission of sins." Peter Martyr, ad. 1 Reg. 8. f. 73. v.—"If the Divine Scriptures seem to attribute remission of sins or salvation to the outward symbols, that is to be understood as a metonymy, whereby what belongs to the things signified is given to the sign, and the things signified are expressed by their symbols." Ad Rom. p. 608. ibid. "Sacraments have the same relation to justification, as the preaching of the Gospel and the promise concerning Christ, which is offered to us to salvation. For frequently in the Sacraments, what belongs to the thing itself, is ascribed to the Sacraments." Danæus (adv. Bellar. t. ii. contr. ii. 42. c. 14. ad arg. ap. Gat. p. 103.) in answer to the argument that "Holy Scripture attests that Sacraments are instruments, not seals only," answers,—"Instruments and signs, yea, though they only seal and attest, are said by a trope and metonymy to do that which they	"meant to ascribe every thing to repentance, before named; or, if he meant to take account at all of that outward washing, he did not mean the very remission itself, but a sort of declaration and sealing of the remission. And, in many places in the New Testament, in which sins are said to be remitted, or the like phrase, this is either by a Hebrew idiom, or by a simple metonymy common to all languages, and they signify not the thing itself, but the declaration of the things. This by the way, which will not however be useless to the right understanding of all those places, where remission of sins either is, or seems to be, attributed to Baptism."