IX. Of the Sacraments

In the order in which we are discussing the Church's doctrines, we shall here speak of the Sacraments, by which Christ's merits are applied to us ; and as the objections with which we are met are not so serious on this point as on many others which we have been combating, except perhaps on the Holy Eucharist, we will briefly explain the chief difficulties that are raised against the other sacraments, reserving for the last those of which the Holy Eucharist is the subject, though it is by far the most important.

The Sacraments of the New Covenant are not only sacred signs * Gen. xviii. 26., Dan. ix. 20., Matt. xxiv. 22.

which represent the grace promised to us, neither are they mere pledges by which it is secured to us ; but they are the very instruments by which the Holy Spirit conveys actual grace to the faithful, in virtue of the words which are repeated, and the outward actions which accompany them.

When God works by external signs, which of themselves bear no proportion to the effects they produce, He shows clearly that besides what is effected by our good dispositions, there must be an operation of His Holy Spirit coincident with the outward sign of the Sacrament, through which it is the merits of our Saviour are applied to us in that sacrament ; so that no one can reject this doctrine without depreciating our Lord's meritorious sacrifice, and the work of divine power by which we are regenerated.

We acknowledge seven signs, or sacred ceremonies, ordained by Jesus Christ as the ordinary means of sanctifying and perfecting His children, which we prove to be such, either by the account Holy Scripture gives of their institution, or by the express words of Jesus Christ who established them, or by the grace which by the same Scripture we find is attached to them, and which prove them to be of Divine origin.

HOLY BAPTISM. — As infants cannot supply the want of Baptism by acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity, nor by a promise to receive this sacrament, we believe that unless they are actually baptised they have no part in the great work of redemption, and that thus dying in Adam, they are not made partakers in Jesus Christ. It would be as well to observe here that the Lutherans, as well as the Catholics, believe in this absolute necessity of infants being baptised, and are equally surprised that any Christians should deny a truth which, till Calvin, no one dared even to dispute ; this shows how this truth was generally esteemed, and what a firm hold it had upon the minds of people, nevertheless Protestants do not fear to let their infants die like little heathens, without any symbol of Christianity, and without letting them receive any grace if they happen to die before the day of their next meeting for public worship.

CONFIRMATION. — The Imposition of Hands was practised by the Holy Apostles to confirm the Christians in the faith, in times of persecution. Its principal effect was the descent of the Holy Spirit into their hearts, and the infusion of His gifts, so that our opponents make but a sorry excuse in rejecting it, because they say the Holy Spirit now no longer descends visibly among us, — though all the Christian Churches, from the time of the Apostles, have religiously retained the practice, using at the same time the Holy Chrism, to show more clearly, by virtue of this Sacrament, the real though unseen anointing of the Holy Ghost.

PENANCE AND SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. — We believe that it has pleased Jesus Christ to permit those who have submitted to the authority of the Church by being baptised, and who have fallen into sin afterwards, to return and submit themselves to the judgment of the same Church in the tribunal of penance, where she exercises the authority given to her of retaining and remitting those sins. The commission granted to the Ministers of the Church to absolve sins is conveyed in such unlimited terms, that they cannot confine it to the case of those guilty of open and notorious sin, without great rashness. And as when they pronounce absolution in the name of Jesus Christ, they are following the exact words of the commission, the judgment is understood to be given by Jesus Christ Himself, for Whom they are instituted judges. It is The invisible Judge who inwardly absolves the penitent; while the Priest exercises the visible functions. This judgment being so beneficial a restraint on all our thoughts, actions, and passions, a foundation also of wise counsels and 'advice, and a source of great comfort to souls really penitent, when not only absolution is granted to them in the general terms in which Protestant Ministers practise it, but they are really and effectively absolved by the authority of Jesus Christ, after a particular knowledge of each case, we cannot imagine but that our adversaries, seeing so many salutary results arise from it, must indeed regret its disuse, and must feel some shame while advocating a Reformation which abolished such a wise and holy practice.

EXTREME UNCTION. — The Holy Spirit having invested Extreme Unction, by the testimony of St. James, with the express promise of forgiveness of sins, and comfort to the sick man, we find nothing wanting to this Holy ceremony to constitute it a Sacrament. We have only to remark, that the Council of Trent observes, The sick man's soul is to be more considered than his body, and that as spiritual benefits are the peculiar promises of the new Covenant, it is this we more especially look for from this holy anointing ; whereas comfort to the body is granted, or not, according to the inscrutible decrees of Divine Providence, and as God deems expedient for it.

MARRIAGE. — When we consider that Jesus Christ gave a new form to Marriage in limiting this holy bond to two persons to be unchangeably and indissolubly united, and made it a symbol of the Eternal union of Himself with His Church, we shall not find it so difficult to comprehend that Marriage is a means of conveying the Holy Spirit to the Christian, and we praise His infinite goodness who has been pleased to consecrate in this manner the origin of our birth.

HOLY ORDERS. — Laying on of hands in Ordination is accompanied with such wondrous gifts and powers of the Holy Spirit, and so complete an out-pouring of His fullest graces, that it most certainly ought to be received as one of the Sacraments ; so much so, that our opponents do not themselves deny Consecration of Ministers altogether, but they simply exclude it from the Sacraments common to the whole Church.