designed by Sacraments, and therefore a form must deter- ART. mine and apply it; and it is highly suitable to the nature of XXV. things, to believe that our Saviour, who has instituted the Sacrament, has also either instituted the form of it, or given us such hints as to lead us very near it. The end of Sacraments is double; the one is by a solemn federal action both to unite us to Christ, and also to derive a secret blessing from him to us: and the other is to join and unite us by this public profession, and the joint partaking of it, with his body, which is the Church. This is, in general, an account of a Sacrament. This, it is true, is none of those words that are made use of in Scripture, so that it has no determined signification given to it in the word of God; yet it was very early applied by Pliny to those vows Lib. x. by which the Christians tied themselves to their religion, Ep. 97. taken from the oaths by which the soldiery among the Romans were sworn to their colours or officers; and from that time this term has been used in a sense consecrated to the federal rites of religion. Yet if any will dispute about words, we know how much St. Paul condemns all those curious and vain questions, which have in them the subtilties and oppositions of science falsely so called. If any will call 1 Tim. vi. every rite used in holy things, a Sacrament, we enter into 20. no such contentions. The rites therefore that we understand when we speak of Sacraments, are the constant federal rites of Christians, which are accompanied by a divine grace and benediction, being instituted by Christ to unite us to him, and to his Church; and of such we own that there are two, Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord. In Baptism, there is matter, water; there is a form, the person dipped or washed, with words, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of Matth. the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: there is an institution, Go xxviii. 19. preach and baptize; there is a federal sponsion, The answer 1 Pet. iii. ́. of a good conscience; there is a blessing conveyed with it, 21. Baptism saves us; there is one Baptism, as there is one body Mat. xxvi. and one spirit; we are all baptized into one body. So that 26, 27. here all the constituent and necessary parts of a Sacrament are found in Baptism. In the Lord's Supper, there is bread and wine for the matter. The giving it to be eat and drunk, with the words that our Saviour used in the first supper, are the form: Do this in remembrance of me, is 1 Cor. xi. the institution. Ye shew forth the Lord's death till he come again, is the declaration of the federal act of our part: it is also the communion of the body and of the blood of Christ, 1 Cor. x. that is, the conveyance of the blessings of our partnership 16, 17. in the effects of the death of Christ. And we being many, 23 to 27. ART. XXV. Lib. 3. dist. 2. Acts viii. 12, 14, 15, 16, 17. are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread; this shews the union of the Church in this Sacrament. Here then we have in these two Sacraments, both matter, form, institution, federal acts, blessings conveyed, and the union of the body in them. All the characters which belong to a Sacrament agree fully to them. In the next place we must, by these characters, examine the other pretended Sacraments. It is no wonder if, the word Sacrament being of a large extent, there should be some passages in ancient writers, that call other actions so besides Baptism and the Lord's Supper; for in a larger sense every holy rite may be so called. But it is no small prejudice against the number of Seven Sacraments, that Peter Lombard, a writer in the twelfth century, is the first that reckons Seven of them: from that mystical expression of the Seven Spirits of God, there came a conceit of the sevenfold operation of the Spirit; and it looked like a good illustration of that, to assert Seven Sacraments. This Pope Eugenius put in his instruction to the Armenians, which is published with the Council of Florence; and all was finally settled at Trent. Now there might have been so many fine allusions made on the number Seven, and some of the ancients were so much set on such allusions, that since we hear nothing of that kind from any of them, we may well conclude, that this is more than an ordinary negative argument against their having believed, that there were Seven Sacraments. To go on in order with them: The first that we reject, which is reckoned by them the second, is Confirmation. But to explain this, we must consider in what respect our Church receives Confirmation, and upon what reasons it is that she does not acknowledge it to be a Sacrament. We find that after Philip, the Deacon and Evangelist, had converted and baptized some in Samaria, Peter and John were sent thither by the Apostles, who laid their hands on such as were baptized, and prayed that they might receive the Holy Ghost; upon which it is said, that they received the Holy Ghost. Now though ordinary functions, when performed by the Apostles, such as their laying on of hands on those whom they ordained or confirmed, had extraordinary effects accompanying them; but when the extraordinary effects ceased, the end for which these were at first given being accomplished, the Gospel having been fully attested to the world, yet the functions were still continued of confirmation as well Heb. vi. 2. as ordination: and as the laying on of hands, that is reck XXV. oned among the principles of the Christian doctrine, after ART. Repentance and Faith, and subsequent to Baptism, seems very probably to belong to this; so from these warrants, we find in the earliest writings of Christianity mention of a Confirmation after Baptism, which for the greater solemnity and awe of the action, and from the precedent of St. Peter ⚫ and St. John, was reserved to the Bishop, to be done only by him. Upon these reasons we think it is in the power of the Church to require all such as have been baptized, to come before the Bishop and renew their baptismal vow, and pray for God's Holy Spirit to enable them to keep their vow; and upon their doing this, the Bishop may solemnly pray over them, with that ancient and almost natural ceremony, of laying his hands upon them, which is only a designation of the persons so prayed over, and blessed, that God may seal and defend them with his Holy Spirit; in which, according to the nature of the New Covenant, we are sure that such as do thus vow and pray, do also receive the Holy Spirit, according to the promise that our Saviour has made us. In this action there is nothing but what is in the power of the Church to do, even without any other warrant or precedent. The doing all things to order, and to edifying, will authorise a Church to all this; especially, since the now universal practice of Infant Baptism makes this more necessary than it was in the first times, when chiefly the Adult were baptized. It is highly reasonable that they, who gave no actual consent of their own, should come, and by their own express act make the stipulations of Baptism. It may give greater impressions of awe and respect, when this is restrained to the highest order in the Church. Upon the sincere vows and earnest prayers of persons thus confirmed, we have reason to believe that a proportioned degree of God's grace and Spirit will be poured out upon them. And in all this we are much confirmed, when we see such warrants for it in Scripture. A thing so good in itself, that has at least a probable authority for it, and was certainly a practice of the first ages, is upon very just grounds continued in our Church. Would to God it were as seriously gone about, as it is lawfully established. But after all this, here is no Sacrament, no express institution, neither by Christ nor his Apostles; no rule given to practise it, and, which is the most essential, there is no matter here; for the laying on of hands is only a gesture in prayer; nor are there any federal rites declared to belong to it; it being indeed rather a ratifying and confirming XXV. ART. the Baptism, than any new stipulation. To supply all this, the Church of Rome has appointed matter for it. The chrism, which is a mixture of oil-olive and balm, (opobalsamum,) the oil signifying the clearness of a good conscience, and the balm the savour of a good reputation. This must be peculiarly blessed by the Bishop, who is the only minister of that function. The form of this Sacrament is the applying the chrism to the forehead, with these words, Signo te signo crucis, et confirmo te chrismate salutis, in nomine Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti: 1 sign thee with the sign of the cross, and confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. They pretend Christ did institute this; but they say the Holy Ghost which he breathed on his Disciples, being a thing that transcended all Sacraments, he settled no determined matter nor form to it; and that the succeeding ages appropriated this matter to it. tolyc. Tert. 70. We do not deny, but that the Christians began very early to use oil in holy functions; the climates they lived in making it necessary to use oil much, for stopping the perspiration, that might dispose them the more to use oil in their sacred rites. It is not to be denied, but that both Theophil. Theophilus and Tertullian, in the end of the second, and 1. i. ad Au- the beginning of the third century, do mention it. The de Bapt. c. frequent mention of oil, and of anointing, in the Scripture, 7,8. de Re- might incline them to this: it was prophesied of Christ, sur. Car. c. that he was to be anointed with the oil of joy and gladness 8. Cypr.Ep. above his fellows: and the names of Messias and Christ do also import this; but yet we hold all that to be mystical, and that it is to be meant of that fulness of the Spirit which he received without measure. Upon the same account we do understand those words of St. Paul in the same mystical sense: He that establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts: as also 1 John ii. those words of St. John: But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you; and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you all things. These words do clearly relate to somewhat that the Christians received immediately from God; and so must be understood figuratively: for we do not see the least hint of the Apostles using of oil, except to the sick; of which afterwards. So that if this use of oil is considered only as a ceremony of a natural signification, that was brought into the rituals of the Church, it is a thing 2 Cor. i. 21, 22. 20, 27. XXV. of another nature but if a Sacrament is made of it, and ART. a divine virtue is joined to that, we can admit of no such thing, without an express institution and declaration in Scripture. Cod. Affr. supra. The invention that was afterwards found out, by which Con. Araus. the Bishop was held to be the only minister of confirmation, c. 1, 2. even though Presbyters were suffered to confirm, was a Can. 6. piece of superstition without any colour from Scripture. Con. Tol. It was settled, that the Bishop only might consecrate the c. 20. chrism; and though he was the ordinary minister of confirmation, yet Presbyters were also suffered to do it, the chrism being consecrated by the Bishop: Presbyters thus confirming, was thought like the Deacons giving the Sacrament, though Priests only might consecrate the Eucharist. In the Latin Church Jerome tells us, that in his Hieron. ad time the Bishop only confirmed; and though he makes Lucifer. the reason of this to be rather for doing an honour to them, than from any necessity of the law, yet he positively says, the Bishops went round praying for the Holy Ghost on those whom they confirmed. It is said by Hilary, Hilar. in that in Egypt the Presbyters did confirm in the Bishops ab- cap. 4. ad Ephes. ut sence: so that custom, joined with the distinction between the consecration, and the applying of the chrism, grew to be the universal practice of the Greek Church. The greatness of dioceses, with the increasing numbers of the Christians, made that both in France, in the Councils of Orange; and in Spain, in the Council of Toledo, the same rule was laid down that the Greeks had begun. In Spain some Priests did consecrate the chrism, but that was severely forbid in one of the Councils of Toledo: yet at Rome the ancient custom was observed, of appropriating the whole business of confirmation to the Bishop, even in Gregory the Great's time: therefore he reproved the Cler- Greg. Ep. gy of Sardinia, because among them the Priests did confirm, l.iii. Ep. 9. and he appointed it to be reserved to the Bishop. But when he understood that some of them were offended at this, he writ to the Bishop of Carali, that though his former order was made according to the ancient practice of the Church of Rome, yet he consented that for the future the Priest might confirm in the Bishop's absence. But Pope Nicholas in the ninth century pressed this with more rigour for the Bulgarians being then converted to the Christian religion, and their Priests having both baptized and confirmed the new converts, Pope Nicholas sent Bishops among them, with orders to confirm even those who had already been confirmed by Priests: upon which, the contest being then on foot between Rome and Constantinople, |