Of these things in this manner entreateth Zwinglieth in his book ad principes germini contra aegium, saying, Doth not a faithful man desire, when he feeleth his faith to fall, to be upholden and restored to his place? And where in the whole world shall he hope to find that more conveniently than in the very actions of the sacraments, so much as belongeth to all sensible things? Well, let it be that all creatures allure and provoke us to the contemplation or beholding of God's majesty. Yet all that their allurement or provoking is done. But in the sacraments there is a lively provoking and speaking allurement. For the Lord speaketh, and the elements also speak. And they speak and persuade that to our senses which the word and spirit speaketh to our mind. Howbeit, Hitherto all these visible things are nothing, unless the sanctification of the Spirit go before. These things he handleth more at large, first in his annotations upon the twenty-seventh chapter of Jeremy, and afterward in Expusine fide ad regum Christianem. Furthermore, we read that St. Augustine, disputing against the Maniches, Lib. XIX. Contra. Forcedom. Cap. XI. said, Men cannot be gathered together into any name of religion, either true or false, unless they be knit together in some fellowship of visible signs and sacraments. We acknowledge this opinion of St Augustine, fetched from the Scriptures to teach touching the sacraments, that we by them are gathered and knit together into the unity of the body of Christ, and are separated from all other religions, fellowships and assemblies. And more too we are bound by them as by an oath to the true worship of one God and unto one sincere religion, to the which we openly profess that we agree and give our consent with all them that are partakers of the sacraments. Where this chiefly is to be marked, that the gathering or knitting together into the unity of the body of Christ have a double respect, for either we are joined with Christ, that he is in us, and we live in him, or else we are coupled with all the members of Christ, to wit, with Christ's faithful servants. I mean with the Catholic Church itself. Furthermore, we are knit together with Christ in spirit and faith. But we are joined to the Church, or to the members of Christ, by the unity of faith and of the Spirit, and by the bond of charity, all which verily are the inward gifts of the Spirit, which freely are bestowed on us by the Lord only, not by any creatures, nor by any elements. Sacraments therefore do visibly graft us into the fellowship of Christ and his saints, who were invisibly grafted by his grace before we are partakers of the sacraments, but by receiving of the sacraments we do now open and make manifest of whose body we should be, and our members, the Lord with his signs or marks by his minister also visibly marking us for his own household and for his own people. which thing by the scriptures we will fully open and make manifest. They who in times past, by the force of the covenant, by the grace, mercy, and promise of God, were the people of God, were by circumcision visibly gathered together into one church, and knit together into one body. For the apostle St. Paul saith unto the Ephesians, Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, called uncircumcision of them that are called circumcision in the flesh made with hands, that at that time, I say, ye were without Christ, and were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, whereby It is also easily understood how the Jews by circumcision were distinguished from other religions and fellowships, and that circumcision in another place for this cause is put for them that are circumcised, and why the name of uncircumcision was reproached for, for those that were uncircumcised were counted for ungodly and unclean persons that had no fellowship, nor part or inheritance with God and his saints. of baptism, which was ordained in the stead of circumcision, something is spoken in my former sermons. And also the apostle setteth it out most plainly. And as the body, saith he, is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, which is one, though they be many, yet are but one body, even so is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. We are therefore knit together by the sacrament of baptism into the unity of the body of Christ, so that to have broken this bond and to yield ourselves into another fellowship of religion and brotherhood may worthily be called sacrilege and treason. Hereunto the apostle seemed to have respect when he asked the Corinthians, Are ye not baptized into the name of Christ? declaring thereby that they which are baptized into the name of Christ have openly sworn and bound their faith before the church of Christ, so that now they neither can nor ought to rejoice in any other name than in the name of Christ, into whose household they are received by baptism. So I say, we are separated by baptism from all other religions, and are only consecrated to Christian religion. He hath the like place in all points touching the supper of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 10. For when the apostle would declare to the Corinthians, that it is a thing far from all godliness, and seemly, yea, and sacrilegious, that Christians should eat in the idols' temples, things offered to idols, and be partakers of the Gentiles' sacrifices, reasoning from the manner and nature of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. He saith, Fly from my dietary. I speak as unto them that have understanding. Judge ye what I say, the cup of blessing which we bless. Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ, the bread which we break? Is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we that are many are one bread and one body, because we are all partakers of one bread. Behold Israel, which is after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then, that the idol is anything? Or that which is sacrificed unto idols is anything? Nay, but rather this I say, that those things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God, and I would not that ye should have fellowship with the devils. He cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of the devils. He cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils, etc. For all this is Paul saying, which since it serveth notably to our purpose and is very plain, I will but briefly run over it. First he layeth down the state and scope of the matter, whereunto he immediately directeth his whole discourse. flee, saith he, idolatry. And he meaneth by the word idolatry whatsoever pertaineth to idolatry, especially the eating of meat offered to idols. But if ye know not what idolatry idolatry is, which word he there useth, and understandeth that it is a Greek word which Paul useth in this case, and it signifieth a thing sacrificed to an idol, or a thing publicly in sacrifice consecrated to an idol. And it is the manner of the Corinthians to sacrifice the altars of their gods in idol houses, that is to say, in their idol temples, and to call Christians unto those their sacrifices. And they, when they come, sat and ate of that which was offered unto idols, eating without difference with the idolaters, thinking they might have done that without any fault at all. Because by the bright shining of the gospel it appeared that neither the idol, neither that God whom the idol represented, and therefore also the things themselves that were offered to idols, were nothing else but vain names and things of no price or estimation. But Paul, disputing against these from the eighth chapter unto the eleventh, teaches that it is far wide from Christianity to be partakers of the Gentiles' sacrifices, and saith, I will speak unto you as unto them that have discretion, that after I have shadowed out unto you which way to walk, you by the sharpness of your wit may understand what is true and what is false, and to be short, which way you must incline. And then he cetereth certain grounds of arguments, which they afterward, discussing, might by their diligence polish and make perfect. They, saith he, that are partakers of the supper of the Lord, in which the bread of the Lord is broken, and the cup of the Lord is drunken, are of the same communion, fellowship, or body with the Lord. For kynonia, which word Paul uses here, and which interpreters have translated communion, or partaking, though fellowship is better than partaking, As in the Dutch translation, Gij Mijnd is better than Gij Mijndeth Chaf, is not taken lactably, as I may so say, for the distributing, giving, or reaching out of Christ's body by the minister, but passively, for the fellowship and society, for the body, I say, of the Church. As when the Church is called a communion, that is an assembly, or gathering together, and society of saints or godly Christians. Furthermore, the church is called kynonia, or a communion, of the body and blood of Christ, because it is redeemed by the body and blood of Christ, and being partaker of Christ liveth by him. For he liveth in the godly Christians, communicating unto them all his good gifts and life, and that the partakers of the supper of the Lord are the body and communion of Christ, he declareth by a reason which followeth, saying, because we, that are many, are one bread and one body. Whereunto by and by he addeth another more evident reason for interpretation's sake, saying, For we are all partakers of one bread. In that we are partakers of one bread, saith he, we do openly testify that we are partakers of the same body with Christ and all his saints. In which words he hath a notable respect to the analogy. For as by uniting together are many grains, as Cyprian saith, is made one bread, or one loaf, as are many clusters of grapes, one wine is pressed out, so out of many members groweth up, and is made the body of the church, which is the body of Christ. Now in the words of Paul, these things offer themselves unto us to be marked. First, For that now he calleth that a multitude, or many, by a word expressing his mind better, which before he named a communion. A communion, therefore, is nothing else but a multitude, or congregation. For he said, the bread is the partaking of the body of Christ. But now he saith, we being many are one bread, one body. We being many, saith he, that is, all we which are a multitude and a congregation or church, redeemed by the body of Christ which was given, and by his blood which was shed for us. Afterwards, he saith, we being many are one body. He doth not say, are made one body. For we are not first grafted into the body of Christ, as we have often repeated already, by partaking of the sacraments, but we which were before engrafted by grace invisibly, are now also visibly consecrated. Again, by the like reason of sacraments, or by an example of the scripture taken from the sacraments of the people of the Old Testament, it shows that the partakers of the sacraments are one body both with him to whom they offer, and with them with whom they offer, or with whom they eat of things offered to idols. Behold, saith he, the Israelites, which offer sacrifices after the flesh. Are not they that offer the sacrifices, kinoinai, that is to say communicants, fellows, or partakers of the things of the temple or of the altar? For under the word of the things of the temple or of the altar, thusiasterion, is his word, he comprehendeth whatsoever doth belong to the worship and religion of the God of the Jews, so that the sense or meaning may be this, are not all they, one body, one communion, one people, both with the God of Israel and with his people, which each of the sacrifices offered to the God of Israel by the Israelite people, as if he had said, There is none that is ignorant of it, or that can deny it, since it is confessed and manifest among all men. By these things he leaveth to the Corinthians, of their own accord, thus much to be gathered. Therefore they that are partakers of the sacraments of the Gentiles, are one body, and one fellowship, with the gods of the Gentiles, and the Gentiles which do sacrifice. Now by the figure occupatio which is when we in answering we prevent an objection that may be made he placeth these words between what shall i say then that the idol is anything or that that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything where unto by and by he addeth but this i say that the things which the gentiles offer in sacrifice they offer to devils not to god Hereupon he might lawfully have inferred. Therefore, if you continue to be partakers of things offered to idols, you shall verily be one body and one fellowship, both with the devil himself and all his members. But because this might have been taken of many to have been bitterly spoken, he added another saying, somewhat more mild and gentle in seth, and I would not that you should be canonia, that is, communicants, or partakers, and have fellowship with devils. After which words, by comparing the contrary parts, he bringeth in the sum of the whole matter, to which he directed all his reasons, and saith, He cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils. He cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils, and so forth. The sacraments therefore do separate us from all other worshipings and religions, and do bind and consecrate, yea, and also, as it were, make us of the same body with one true God and sincere Christian religion, because we, being partakers of them, do openly profess that we be the members of Jesus Christ, which no man that is well in his wits will take, and make them the members of fornication and of idols. That which Zwinglius, that learned man, hath in exposition fide Christiani ad regum Christianum, is not impertinent to this purpose. Sacraments, saith he, are instead of an oath. For sacramentum, with the Latins, is used also for an oath. For they that use one and the selfsame sacraments are one peculiar nation, and an wholly sworn congregation. they are knit together into one body, and into one people, whom also betrayeth shall perish. Therefore the people of Christ, since by eating his body sacramentally they are knit into one body, now he that is faithless, and yet dare be so bold as to make himself one of this society of fellowship, betrayeth the body of Christ, as well in the head as in the members. By this it is easy to understand that sacraments put us in mind of our duty, especially if we mark in the writings of the apostle how, considering the manner of sacraments, the apostles frame their exhortations, where again the analogy being considered, it has very much light and force in it. Trees are pruned and all that which is dry, barren, and superfluous in them is cut away. And so by circumcision they that were circumcised were put in mind to cut away with the knife of the Spirit whatsoever grew in the flesh against the law of God. Hereunto had Moses respect when he said in Deuteronomy, Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked whom Jeremy, following in the fourth chapter, saith, Be circumcised in the Lord, and cut away the foreskin of your hearts. Those things which the apostles have taught, touching the celebration of the Passover, are more plain than that they need here to be rehearsed. And I have already entreated of them at large in the sixth sermon of my third decade The very same apostle, in his epistle to the Romans, saith, Know ye not that all we who have been baptised into Jesus Christ have been baptised into his death? We are buried then with him by baptism into his death, that likewise as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. So we are put in mind by the mystery of baptism to renounce and forsake Satan and the world, to mortify and subdue the flesh, and to bury the old Adam, that the new man may rise up again in us through Christ. Furthermore, the supper of the Lord doth admonish us of our brotherly love and charity, and of the unity that we have with all the members of Christ. It warneth us also of purity and sincerity in that because we have openly professed that we are united to Christ and to all his members, we should have a special care and regard that we be not found faithless and untrue to our Lord Christ and his Church, that we should not defile ourselves with foreign and strange sacrifices. We are also admonished of thankfulness to magnify the grace of God who has redeemed us, according to that saying, as often as ye shall eat this bread and drink of this cup, ye shall show forth his death until he come. Thus far have I entreated of the force, the end, and the effect of sacraments. unto the which I have, as I think, attributed no more, nor no less, than I ought, that is, as much as may be proved out of the Scripture, to be due unto them. They are the institutions of Christ, therefore they care not for counterfeit and strange praises. They have praise sufficient, if they have those praises, which he that instituted them, namely God and Christ Jesus, the High Priest of the Catholic Church, folks safe to attribute unto them. Now because there is mention made very oft of faith in this whole book, I will further show also that without faith, sacraments profit nothing. And again that to those which receive them by faith, they are not superfluous or vain, for this seemeth as yet to belong to the full exposition and consideration of sacraments. The sacraments without faith profit not, it is easily proved, for it is said that sacraments are seals of the preaching of the gospel, and things appertaining to the same. For if the preaching of the gospel be heard without faith, it doth not only profit nothing unto life, but it turneth rather into judgment to him that heareth, the Lord himself bearing witness, and saying, If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. To that saying of the Lord agreeth this of the apostle. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto the fathers, but the word which they heard did not profit them, because it was not coupled with faith, to them that heard. Who now is such a doorhead which cannot gather, that sacraments without faith are unprofitable? Especially since the same apostle saith, Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But all our worthiness before God But all our worthiness before God does consist in faith. The same apostle yet again witnessing how to the prophet, the just shall live by faith. And by faith the elders, or fathers, obtained a good report. Whereunto also belongeth that which is read in the gospel, they which were bidden were not worthy, whereupon it followeth that worthiness consisteth in faithful obedience. Hereunto also may be referred, I think, those examples whereof mention hath been made more than once already before. All our fathers were baptised, and did all eat of one's spiritual meat, but in many of them God had no delight. and Paul against Seth. Without faith it is impossible to please God, wherefore without faith sacraments profit nothing. The examples of Simon Magus and Judas the traitor are very well known, of which one was baptised, the other admitted to the supper, and yet had no fruit of the sacraments because they wanted true faith. To those pithy and divine testimonies of God we will now add some places of St. Augustine, one of his nineteenth book against Paustus, and twelfth chapter, Peter saith, Baptism saveth us, unless they should think the visible sacrament were sufficient, by which they had the form of godliness, and through their evil manners, by living lewdly and desperately, should deny the power thereof, by and by he addeth, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but in that a good conscience maketh request to God. Again, Lib. 2 contra literas pitilani cap 7, he saith, They are not therefore to be thought to be in the body of Christ, which is the church or congregation, because they are corporally partakers of his sacraments. For they in such are also holy, but to them that use and receive them unworthily they shall be forcibly to their greater judgment. For they are not in that society of Christ's church, which in the members of Christ, by being built to get knit together and touching one another, do grow into the fullness of God. For that church is builded on a rock, as saith the Lord. Upon this rock will I build my church. But they build on the sand, as the Lord also saith. He that heareth my words, and doth them not, I will liken him to a foolish man. And again in his treatise upon John 13, the syllables of Christ's name and his sacraments profit nothing, where the faith of Christ is resisted. For faith in Christ and his sacraments is, to believe in him which justifies the ungodly, to believe in the mediator, without whose intercession we are not reconciled unto God. Thus far, Augustine. An objection is made, if sacraments do nothing profit without our faith, then they depend on our worthiness or unworthiness, so that they are not perfect. I answer, that among the wicked and unbelieving ever's sacraments verily of themselves are sufficiently ratified and confirmed by the institution of God. Neither dependeth their perfectness upon the condition and state of the partakers, that they are either better among the good or worse among the bad. For that remaineth perfect and sound which the Lord hath instituted, and retaineth his institution always good. Howsoever men vary are now faithless. For the apostle saith, Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid. Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar. But I have touched this matter also somewhat before. Yet because it is one thing to offer, and another thing to receive, God verily offereth of his goodness his bountiful gifts unto men to this end. to profit and to save them, and to make them whole, as a physician doth by ministering physic to his patient. But because that foolish and mad man does not acknowledge the benefit, as a sick patient which refuses physic being ministered, the benefit which is offered does not more profit the one, then physic doth receive doth prop good to the other, not through the default of him that offereth the benefit, or of him which mineth with physic, but through the folly of him which refuseth, and will none of it. After this manner disputeth St. Augustine also of this matter. For lib. 3, de baptismo cont. Donat cap. 14, he saith, It skilleth not, when the perfectness and holiness of the sacrament is in handling, what he believeth, and what manner of faith he hath, that receiveth the sacrament. Verily it veileth very much to the way of salvation, but to the question of the sacrament it maketh no matter. Also contra literas petiliani Lib 2, cap 47, he saith, remember that the lewd life and corrupt manners of evil men do nothing hinder the sacraments of God, to make them not holy at all, or less holy, but that to the ungodly they are a testimony of their damnation, and not a furtherance of their salvation. He also tracked in Joan 26 Seth, if thou receive the sacrament calmly, it ceases not to be spiritual, but to thee it is not so. As easily is that objection computed, that baptism profiteth not infants, if we will say that sacraments without faith profit not, for infants have no faith, thus they babble. We answer first The baptism of infants is grounded upon the free mercy and grace of God, who saith, I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed. And again suffer children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of God. Infants, therefore, are numbered and counted of the Lord himself among the faithful, so that baptism is due unto them as far forth as it is due unto the faithful. by the imputation of God, infants are faithful, whereunto pertaineth this saying of our Saviour, He that shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, etc., for he manifestly calleth little ones believing, for imputation's sake, doubtless not for confession, which by no means as yet is in little ones. To this also may be added, that the father of the infant, doth therefore desire to have his child signed with the mark of the people of God, to wit baptism, because he believeth the promises of God, that is, that his infant is in the household of God, therefore there is faith in the baptism of infants. But the father doth not believe, be it so, yet that is no hindrance to the infant, for in the faith of the church he is brought to be baptised. The church verily believeth that infants ought to be brought to the Lord. The church believeth that they are of the household and people of God. Therefore she commandeth them to be partakers of the mysteries, so that again, in the baptism of infants, a man may found fine faith. Hereunto doth St. Augustine add this, saying, Lib. 1, De peccatorum meritis et remissione, cap. Wherefore infants are rightly called faithful, because they after a sort do confess their faith by the words of them that bear them. He reasoneth more touching this matter in his epistle to Boniface, which is in order the three and twentieth, where he that desireth may find more. But all these things, say they, prove not that infants have faith of their own, for the faith of their parents, of their bearers, or the faith of the church is another's faith and not theirs, be it so. Yet most certain is that saying that the Lord counteth infants among his, that is, among the faithful, so that now they are not only baptised in another's faith, but in their own, that is to say, which it pleaseth the Lord to impute unto them. Furthermore, that is not another's, which is common to the selfsame body, But infants are in the very same body of the church, whereby that which is the church's is their own, and not another's. Neither can any man easily tell what motions of the Holy Spirit infants have beside, etc. For inasmuch as they are of God, they have the Spirit of God, and whoso have not, they are not of God. Romans 8. As they decline too much to the left hand, which are persuaded that sacraments, yea, without faith, do profit the receivers, yet they go too far wide on the right hand, who think that the sacraments are superfluous to them that have faith. Faith, they say, doth fully acquit us, so that after we have faith, sacraments can increase nothing in us. Therefore it must needs be that they are unprofitable. Such, in times past, are the heretics Messalieni, read to have been, who were both called echitiai, or enthusiastai, that is, divine men forsooth, and inspired by God. For they did contend that the faithful, after they had received the Holy Ghost, had need of no sacraments. But these men are very injurious even to God himself. who instituted not his sacraments for the faithful without great cause, neither unprofitably. And verily Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. And he was counted the friend of God, just and holy, not having void doubtless of the Holy Ghost. But he also received circumcision, the seal of the righteousness of faith which was before he was circumcised. He said to the same Abraham, Every man-child, whose foreskin shall not be circumcised, shall be cut off from my people, because he hath broken my covenant. Truly the angel of the Lord is ready to kill Moses, because he delayed circumcision in his children longer than was lawful, either by his own negligence, or through the fault of his madianistish wife. What shall there be found any more righteous and holy than the Son of God, as he which, having received the fullness of the Spirit, poureth plentifully of the same into his members, he himself being the head? Yet he came to John the Baptist, and requireth to be baptised of him in Jordan. And when he refused and said, I am need to be baptised of thee, And comest thou to me, he heareth, suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Certainly righteousness giveth to every man that which is his own. Faith therefore, which is the righteousness of Christians, giveth glory to God, and believeth that he, being wonderfully wise, doth will well unto men. and therefore that he hath instituted nothing unprofitably, but all things for the salvation of his faithful ones. A faithful man therefore useth all the institutions of God without any reasoning or gainsaying. Neither is there any here, I think, that will say that this deed of Christ pertaineth nothing to him, whereby undoubtedly he laid before us an example to follow. Yea, that which he himself did He willed other also to do, when he sent his disciples forth, and said, Go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to all creatures, baptising them in the name of the Father, etc. He which shall believe and be baptised shall be saved. Where truly he joineth together both faith and baptism, which to abide upon he would not have done, if sacraments were superfluous there, where faith is. Whereby it manifestly appeareth that they are wrong as far as heaven is wide, which think that sacraments are indifferent. That is to say, a thing put to our own will and choice, either to use or not to use. For as we have heard already, a flat commandment concerning baptism So the Lord, instituting and celebrating the supper, saith, Do this in the remembrance of me. He therefore that despiseth these commandments of God, I seen on how he can have faith, whereby he should be invisibly sanctified. Hitherto belongeth now that which the faithful prince of Ethiopia confesseth, that he believeth with all his heart in the Lord Jesus, yet nevertheless As soon as he saw water, he said, Behold, here is water. What letteth me to be baptized? He does not say, I believe with all my heart, and feel that I am justified and cleansed. Why then should I be washed with water, having no filth remaining? Therefore, wheresoever true faith is, their sacraments are not contend or refused, but more desired. Poor Cornelius and St. Turin also, after he had received the Holy Ghost, doth not gainsay Peter, who said, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptised, which have received the Holy Ghost, as well as we? Peter was a faithful preacher of the gospel, a skilful teacher of the truth, therefore he deceiveth no man, and he teaches us by his own deed that faith doth then specially provoke us to be partakers of the sacraments which is true in the faithful. To whom Paul, his fellow-minister, agreeth, saying, Let every man prove himself, and then let him eat to this bread, and drink of this but that proving is made by faith. Therefore, not faith but unthankfulness doth contemptuously reject the sacraments. Truly I am not ignorant that very many, without the use of visible sacraments, have been sanctified, and at this day also are sanctified, but none of those despised or condemned them. They were not partakers of the sacraments, being thereunto driven by necessity, as there be at this day some that are held captives under the tyranny of Antichrist and the Turk, and for the time believe with all their whole heart in the Lord Jesus. Therefore the examples of these, or such like, are no defence for them which may receive the sacrament, if they regard the ordinance of God, and set so much by them as a duty they should do. I will note here, for the singular benefit of the readers, St Augustine's disputation, because it maketh notably for our purpose. He quest lib in Levitt 3, cap 84, saith, It is demanded not without cause, whether invisible sanctification do profit nothing without visible sacraments, wherewith a man is visibly sanctified. without doubt is observed. For more tolerably it may be said that this sanctification is not without them, than that it doth not profit, if it be without them, since in sanctification all their profit consisteth. But we must also weigh this, how it is rightly said that without the sacraments sanctification cannot be. For visible baptism did nothing profit Simon Magus, to whom invisible sanctification was wanting, but because this invisible sanctification profited them that had it, in like manner they which were baptized received also the visible sacraments. And yet neither is it showed where Moses himself was sanctified with visible sacrifices of oil, who notwithstanding did visibly sanctify the priests, but who dare deny that he was invisibly sanctified, whose grace was so great, surpassing and excellent? This also may be said of John the Baptist, for he was first a baptizer before he was seen to be baptized, whereupon we can deny by no means that he was sanctified, yet we do not find that that was visibly wrought in him before he came to the ministry of baptizing. This also may be verified at the thief crucified with Christ, to whom the Lord said, as he hung with him on the cross, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. For he could not have been partaker of so great felicity, unless he had been invisibly sanctified, whereby we gather that invisible sanctification have been present with some, and profited them, without the visible sacraments, and that visible sanctification, which is wrought by visible sacraments, may be present without this invisible sanctification, but yet may not profit us. Yet nevertheless, the visible sacrament is not therefore to be contemned. For the condemner, thereof, can by no means be invisibly sanctified. Hereof it is that Cornelius, and that they were with him, when they did not now appear to be invisibly sanctified by the Holy Ghost poured into them, yet notwithstanding they are baptized. Neither is visible sanctification, which had invisible sanctification going before it, counted superfluous. Thus far he. With this disputation another question also hath some affinity or likewise, which is, whether sacraments depend upon the worthiness of the ministers, and whether they be hindered in their force by the unworthiness of the ministers. Cyprian more than one place doth contend that they cannot baptise which want the Holy Ghost, which error springeth thereupon, for that he attributes too much to the ministry of baptism. He doth think that men are purified or cleansed by baptism, so that thereby he doth gather that an unclean person cannot purify or cleanse, and therefore not baptize, and that the baptism of an unclean person is not baptism, for whence he deriveth anabaptism, or rebaptizing. But if that holy man had rightly and religiously distinguished between power and ministry, between the sign and the thing signified, between the outward and inward sanctification, he had undoubtedly understood that we are invisibly sanctified by the mere grace of God, and that this inward sanctification is outwardly, by the ministry, represented and sealed. There he might have understood that sealed evidences may be published as well by an evil minister as by a good. God's sacraments are to be referred to God, the author of them, who is faithful and true in all his ordinances, how false and faithless whoever men may be. Though Judas were a thief, yet he preached and baptized, whose doctrine and baptism was as well the doctrine and baptism of Christ as was Peter's and Andrew's, James's and John's, and touching the perfectness and pureness both of the doctrine and baptism done by the ministry of Judas, no man ever doubted, as though they were never taught or baptized, whom he taught and baptized, who in the meanwhile is called of the Lord himself, not a devilish man, but a very devil. For he baptized not in his own name, but in the name of Christ. He preached not his own, But the doctrine of Christ, to conclude, the Lord of his goodness, for his truth's sake, and not for Judah's sake, wrought in the faithful, which working of his and another's ungraciousness and maliciousness could not hinder, as at this day verily it hindereth not a wit. Truly we must do what we can to have holy and unblameable ministers. so far forth as, by our care and diligence, we are able to procure and bring to pass. Yea, let us deprive and disgrace them, whom we shall find to have behaved themselves unworthy of their function. But in the meantime, let us not doubt at all of the pureness of the sacraments which they, while they were in their office, ministered unto us, that is to say, are to the same manner and form as the Lord instituted. And verily, as the faithful do not fasten their minds on the elements, so neither they do on the ministers. They, in all things, look only up to God, the Author of all goodness, and to the end of those things which the Lord ordained. St. Augustine hath handled this matter very diligently, excellently well, applying to these things very effectual arguments whose words I will set down. Lib. 3. Contra Donatist. Dei Baptismo. 3. Cap. 10. The water is not unholy, saith he, or defiled, over which the name of the Lord is called on, though it be called on of unholy and unclean persons, because neither the creature itself, nor yet the name, is unclean. And the baptism of Christ consecrated with the words of the gospel is holy, both by them that are unclean and in them that are unclean, though they be defiled and unclean, because his holiness cannot be polluted. And in his sacraments a divine power is present, either to the salvation of them that use them well or to the condemnation of them that use them ill. Doth the light of the sun or of a candle when it shineth through a filthy sink, gather no uncleanness from thence? And can the baptism of Christ be polluted with any man's wickedness? For if we apply our minds unto the very visible things under which sacraments are delivered, who knoweth not that they are corruptible? But who we ascend unto that which is figured by them, who seeth not that they be incorruptible? though men by whom it is ministered according to their deservings are either rewarded or punished. And so forth, I could allege many examples of this kind, if I thought them necessary, for I think that by them it is largely and plainly enough declared, that the perfectness and pureness of the sacraments are not to be esteemed by the worthiness or unworthiness of the ministers, but by the truth of God who did institute them. To him be glory, power and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. This sermon and recording ends on page 351. Still Waters Revival Books is now located at PuritanDownloads.com. It's your worldwide, online Reformation home for the very best in free and discounted classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, MP3s, and videos. For much more information on the Puritans and Reformers, including the best free and discounted classic and contemporary books, mp3s, digital downloads and videos, please visit Still Waters Revival Books at PuritanDownloads.com. 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