The hard and dry character, indeed, of Calvin or Beza's mind was ill calculated for the restoration of the view of the Sacraments, which was now in the reformed Church destroyed: their mystical character was now effaced; Baptism was a sign to man; a mean of increasing the faith of the parents; a seal of grace before given; a sign of grace hereafter to be conveyed; but in no other sense a sacrament, than was the bow in the cloud[1], which was a sign of God's covenant,—an assurance to the infirmity of men's faith, but, in no sense, an instrument of grace.
This, as was said, belonged to the intellectual character of the theology of this school. The workings of faith, although incredible to the unbeliever, may still be made cognizable to the human intellect: the tendency of outward representations to embody to the mind things spiritual, to employ sense against sense, and to make things seen the means of lifting up the heart to things unseen, is also very obvious; as is also the power of a visible attestation to increase our credence in the things so attested.
- ↑ I find that Chamier actually refers to the like emblems as explaining his view of Sacraments. "It belongs to seals to give certainty, by signifying only, not by effecting. This is plain from the rainbow, Gen. ix.—the going back of the sun, Jos. xxxviii.—and is altogether the general doctrine of all signs added to promises." Tom. iv. l. 2. c. 5. § 42. and Calvin, Instit 4. 14. 18. "The name 'sacrament' comprehends generally all the signs, which God ever ordained to man, to assure him of the truth of his promises, whether natural or miraculous." Of the former sort he instances the tree of life and the rainbow. "Not that the tree gave them immortality, which it could not give to itself, or that the bow had any efficacy in restraining the waters (being only a refraction of the solar ray), but because they had a mark stamped on them by the word of God, so as to be documents and seals of his testaments." Of the miraculous, he instances the smoking furnace (Gen. xv.), Gideon's fleece, the shadow of the sun-dial of Ahaz; and the only difference which he makes between these and the Christian Sacraments is that the signs here given are ceremonies." Vorstius (Anti-Bellarm. ad. tom. iii. contr. 1. Thes. 1, 2, arg. 2.) instancing the same "sacred signs, which are analogous to the Sacraments," says, "these have the power of sealing only, but not of conferring saving grace, through themselves; therefore we must hold the same of the real Sacraments." The same signs are instanced also in the Hungarian Confession, by P. Martyr, Loci 4. 7. 2. and so generally among the reformed writers.
