rather also with the sacrament. For supposing the sacraments; in their design and institution, to be nothing but signs and ceremonies, yet they cannot hinder the work of God: and, therefore, holiness in the reception of them, will do more than holiness alone: for God does nothing in vain; the sa craments do something in the hand of God, at least, they are God's proper and accustomed time of grace; they are his seasons, and our opportunity; when the angel stirs the pool, when the Spirit moves upon the waters, then there is a ministry healing. k For consider we the nature of a sacrament in general, and then pass on to a particular enumeration of the most excellent blessings of this. When God appointed the bow in the clouds to be a sacrament, and the memorial of a promise, he made it our comfort, but his own sign: "I will remember my covenant between me and the earth, and the waters shall be no more a flood to destroy all flesh." This is but a token of the covenant; and yet, at the appearing of it, God had thoughts of truth and mercy to mankind; “The bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between me and every creature"." Thus when Elisha threw the wood into the waters of Jordan,- sacramentum ligni,' the sacrament of the wood,' Tertullian calls it,-that chip made the iron swim, not by any natural or infused power, but that was the sacrament or sign, at which the divine power then passed on to effect an emanation. When Elisha talked with the king of. Israel about the war with Syria, he commanded him to smite upon the ground, and he smote thrice, and stayed. This sacramentum victoriæ,' the sacrament of his future victory' for the man of God was wroth with him, and said', "Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then thou hadst smitten Syria, until thou hadst consumed it; whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice." In which it is remarkable, that though it was not that smiting that bent the Syrians, but the ground; yet God would effect the beating of the Syrians by the proportion of that sacramental smiting. The sacraments are God's signs, the opportunities was h V. 16. 12 Kings, vi. 6. Advers. Judæos. Gen. ix. 15. 1.2 Kings, xiii. 18, 19. of grace and action. Be baptized, and wash away thy sins," said Ananiasm to Saul: and, therefore, it is called "the Javer of regeneration, and of the renewing of the Holy Ghost";" that is, in that sacrament, and at that corporal ablution, the work of the Spirit is done. For although it is not that washing of itself, yet God does so do it at that ablution,— which is but the similitude of Christ's death, that is, the sacrament and symbolical representation of it,that to that very similitude a very glorious effect is imputed; “for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection"." For the mystery is this; by immersion in baptism, and emersion, we are configured to Christ's burial, and to his resurrection: that is the outward part; to which if we add the inward, which is there intended, and is expressed by the apostler in the following words: "knowing that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin:" that is our spiritual death, which answers to our configuration with the death of Christ in baptism: "that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life 9" there is the correspondent of our configuration to the resurrection of Christ: that is, if we do that duty of baptism, we shall receive that grace: God offers us the mercy at that time, when we promise the duty, and do our present portion. This St. Peter' calls the stipulation of a good conscience,' the postulate and bargain which man then makes with God, who promises us pardon and immortality, resurrection from the dead, and life eternal, if we repent toward God, and have faith in the Lord Jesus, and if we promise we have, and will so abide. S The same is the case in the other most glorious sacrament: it is the same thing in nearer representation; only what is begun in baptism, proceeds on to perfection in the holy communion. Baptism is the antitype of the passion of Christ; and the Lord's supper σημαντικὸς τῶν παθημάτων, that also represents Christ's passion.' Baptism is the union of Acts, ix. 17. P V. 6. n Tit. iii. 5. • Rom. vi. 5. s. Et institutio paria, et significatio similia, et finis facit æqualia.-S. Aug. apud Bedam in 1 Cor. x. So Cyril. Hieron. Catech. 2. the members of Christ, and the admission of them under one head into one body, as the apostle affirms," we are all baptized into one body;" and so it is in the communion, "the bread which we break, it is the communion of the body of Christ, for we, being many, are one body and one bread";" in baptism we partake of the death of Christ : and in the Lord's supper, we do the same, in that, as babes,-in this, as men in Christ; so that what effects are affirmed of one, the same are, in greater measure, true of the other; they are but several rounds of Jacob's ladder reaching up to heaven, upon which the angels ascend and descend, and the Lord sits upon the top. - And because the sacraments evangelical be of the like kind of mystery with the sacraments of old; from them we can understand, that even signs of secret graces do exhibit as well as signify. For, besides that there is a natural analogy between the ablution of the body and the purification of the soul, between eating the holy bread and drinking the sacred chalice, and a participation of the body and blood of Christ,— it is also in the method of the divine economy, to dispense the grace which himself signifies, in a ceremony of his own institution. Thus at the unction of kings, priests, and of prophets, the sacred power was bestowed; and "as a canon is invested in his dignity by the tradition of a book, and an abbot by his staff, a bishop by a ring (they are the words of St. Bernard *), so are divisions of graces imparted to the diverse sacraments." And, therefore, although it ought not to be denied, that when, in Scripture and the writings of the holy doctors of the church, the collation of grace is attributed to the sign, it is by a metonymy, and a sacramental manner of speaking, yet it is also a synecdoche of the part for the whole; because both the sacrament and the grace are joined in the lawful and holy use of them, by sacramental union, or rather by a confederation of the parts of the holy covenant. "Our hearts are purified by faith"," and so our consciencesz are also made clean in the cistern of water. "By faith we are saved";" and yet "he hath saved us by the laver of regeneration ;" and they are both joined together by St. Paul, t 1 Cor. xii. 13. y Acts, xv. 9. b Tit. iii. 5. u 1 Cor. x. 16, 17. z Ephes. v. 26. C Ephes. v. 26. * Serni, de cœna Domini. e -"Christ gave himself for his church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word," that is, plainly, by the sacrament; according to the famous commentary of St. Austin, " accedat verbum ad elementum et tum fit sacramentum," "when the word and the element are joined, then it is a perfect sacrament," and then it does effect all its purposes and intentions. Thus we find that the grace of God is given by the imposition of hands: and yet as St. Austin rightly affirms, "God alone can give his Holy Spirit, and the apostles did not give the Holy Ghost to them upon whom they laid their hands, but prayed that God would give it, and he did so at the imposition of their hands." Thus God sanctified Aaron; and yet he said to Moses, Thou shalt sanctify Aaron,' that is, not that Moses did it instead of God, but Moses did it by his ministry, and by visible sacraments and rites of God's appointment. And though we "are born of an immortal seed, by the word of the living Gods," yet St. Paul said to the Corinthians, "I have begotten you through the Gospel." And thus it is in the greatest as well as in the least, he that drinks Christ's blood, and eats his body, hath life abiding in him:' it is true of the sacrament, and true of the spiritual manducation, and may be indifferently affirmed of either, when the other is not excluded; for as the sacrament operates only by virtue of the Spirit of God, so the Spirit ordinarily works by the instrumentality of the sacraments. And we may as well say, that faith is not by hearing, as that grace is not by the sacraments: for as, without the Spirit, the word is but a dead letter, so, with the Spirit, the sacrament is the means of life and grace and the meditation of St. Chrysostom1 is very pious and reasonable, " if we were wholly incorporeal, God would have given us graces unclothed with signs and sacraments; but because our spirits are in earthen vessels, God conveys his graces to us by sensible ministrations." The word of God operates as secretly as the sacraments, and the sacraments as powerfully as the word; nay, the word is always joined in the worthy administration of the sacrament, which, therefore, operates both as word and sign by the - d 2 Tim. i. 6. Acts, viii. 18. h Homil. in Mat. ear, and by the eyes, and by both in the hand of God, —andis the conduct of the Spirit,-all the effect that God intends, and that a faithful receiver can require and pray for. For justification and sanctification are continued acts they are like the issues of a fountain into its receptacles; God is always giving, and we are always receiving, and the signal effects of God's Holy Spirit sometimes give great indications, but most commonly come without observation ; and, therefore, in these things we must not discourse as in: the conduct of other causes and operations natural: for although, in natural effects, we can argue from the cause to the event, yet, in spiritual things, we are to reckon only from the sign to the event. And the signs of grace we are to place instead of natural causes, because a sacrament in the hand of God, is a proclamation of his graces; he then gives us notice, that the springs of heaven are opened; and then is the time to draw living waters from the fountains of salvation. When Jonathan shot his arrows beyond the boy, he then, by a sacrament, sent salvation unto David; he bade him be gone and fly from his father's wrath; and although Jonathan did do his business for him by a continual care and observation, yet that symbol brought it unto David;—for so we are conducted to the joys of God, by the methods and possibilities of men. In conclusion, the sum is this; the sacraments and symbols, if they be considered in their own nature, are just such as they seem, water, and bread, and wine; they retain the names proper to their own natures: but because they are made to be signs of a secret mystery, and water is the symbol of purification of the soul from sin, and bread and wine, of Christ's body and blood, therefore the symbols and sacraments receive the names of what themselves do sign > they are the body and they are the blood of Christ; they are metonymically such. But because, yet further, they are, instruments of grace in the hand of God, and by these his Holy Spirit changes our hearts, and translates us into a divine nature,-therefore the whole work is attributed to them by a synecdoche: that is, they do in their manner the 1 St. Austin in Levit. q. 57. Solet autem res quæ significat, ejus rei nomine, quam significat, nuncupari. Theodoret, dial. i. c. 8. Tã psy cάMÁTÍ TÓ THÙ συμβόλου τέθεικεν ὄνομα· τῷ δὲ συμβόλῳ, τὸ τοῦ σώματος. |
