CHAPTER 27
OF THE SACRAMENTS
Section 27.1.—Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, [Rom 4:11; Gen 17:7,10] immediately instituted by God, [Matt 28:19; 1 Cor 11:23] to represent Christ and his benefits, and to confirm our interest in him; [1 Cor 10:16; 1 Cor 11:25-26; Gal 3:27] as also to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church and the rest of the world, [Rom 15:8; Exod 12:48; Gen 34:14] and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ, according to his word. [Rom 6:3-4; 1 Cor 10:16,21]
Section 27.2.—There is in every sacrament a spiritual relation or sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified: whence it comes to pass that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other. [Gen 17:10; Matt 26:27-28; Titus 3:5]
LC 163.—What are the parts of a sacrament?—The parts of a sacrament are two: the one, an outward and sensible sign used according to Christ's own appointment; the other, an inward and spiritual grace thereby signified. [Matt 3:11; 1 Pet 3:21]
The word sacrament does not occur in the Scriptures. In its classical usage it designated anything which binds or brings under obligations, as a sum of money given in pledge, or an oath, and especially the oath of military allegiance.
In its ecclesiastical usage, the word while retaining its general sense of something binding as sacred, was at an early period used as the Latin equivalent of the
Greek word mysterion (musthrion), that which is unknown until revealed, and hence any symbol, type or rite having a latent spiritual meaning. Hence the word naturally came to be applied in a general and vague sense to the Christian ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and with them also to many other religious doctrines and ordinances.
It is plainly, therefore, impossible to determine the nature or the number of the sacraments from either the etymology or the usage of the word sacrament. We want a thorough definition of the thing, not of the name. This we can get only by taking Baptism and the Lord's Supper, which all men acknowledge to be genuine sacraments, and, by a strict examination of their origin, nature and uses, determine (a) the true character of the class of ordinances to which they belong, and (b) whether any other ordinances belong to the same class or not. In this way the definition of a sacrament given in our Standards was formed. This definition involves the following points:
1st. A sacrament is an ordinance immediately instituted by Christ. LC 162, and SC 92.
2d. A sacrament always consists of two elements—(a) An outward sensible sign, and (b) an inward spiritual grace thereby signified.
3d. The sign in every sacrament is sacramentally united to the grace which it signifies; and out of this union the scriptural usage has arisen of ascribing to the sign whatever is true of that which the sign signifies.
4th. The sacraments were designed to "represent, seal and apply the benefits of Christ and the new covenant to believers." SC 92.
5th. They were designed to be pledges of our fidelity to Christ, binding us to his service, and at the same time badges of our profession, visibly marking the body of professors and distinguishing them from the world.
1st. WCF 27.1 says that a sacrament is an ordinance "immediately instituted by God to represent Christ," etc. This is true if the word sacrament is used in its general sense to include also the Old Testament sacraments of circumcision and the passover. But it is an important distinction of the New Testament sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper that they were both immediately instituted by Christ himself. Therefore both the Larger (LC 162) and the Shorter (SC 92) Catechisms have it, "A sacrament is an holy ordinance instituted by Christ in his Church." This should be remembered, because it serves to exclude most of the pretended sacraments of the Church of Rome from any right to a place in this class of Christian ordinances.
2d. Every sacrament consists of two elements—(a) An outward sensible sign, and (b) an inward spiritual grace thereby signified. In Baptism the outward sensible sign is (a) water, and (b) the water applied in the name of the Triune God to the person of the subject baptized. The inward spiritual grace, thereby signified is (a) primarily spiritual purification by the immediate personal power of the Holy Ghost in the soul, and (b) hence, secondarily, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, hence the union of the baptized with Christ, hence regeneration, justification, sanctification, perseverance to the end, glorification, etc.—i.e., all the benefits of the new covenant. In the Lord's Supper, the outward sensible signs
are—(a) bread and wine, and (b) the consecration and the bread broken, and the wine poured out, distributed to, and received and eaten and drunk by, the communicants. The inward spiritual grace thereby signified is (a) primarily, Christ crucified (his flesh torn and blood shed) for us, and giving himself to us to be spiritually received and assimilated as the principle of a new life, and (b) hence, secondarily, union with Christ, the indwelling of the Spirit, regeneration, justification, sanctification, etc.—i.e., all the benefits secured by the sacrificial death of Christ.
3d. "There is in every sacrament a spiritual relation or sacramental union between the sign and the thing signified." This sacramental union between the sign and the grace which it signifies, the Romish and Lutheran Churches understand to be, at least in the case of the Lord's Supper, a literal identity. Thus when Christ took the bread and said, "This is my body," they insist that it means that the bread is his body. All other Christians understand the phrase to mean, "This bread represents sacramentally my body."
This sacramental union, therefore, between the sign and the thing signified is (a) symbolical and representative—the one symbolizes and so represents the other; and (b) instrumental because by divine appointment, through the right use of the sign, the grace signified is really conveyed.
The grounds of this sacramental union are—(a) The natural fitness of the sign to symbolize the grace signified, as washing with water to symbolize spiritual purification by the Holy Ghost. (b) The authoritative appointment of Christ that these signs rightly used
shall truly represent and convey the grace they signify. (c) The spiritual faith of the believing recipient, a gift of the Spirit of Christ, whereby in the proper use of the sign, he is enabled to discern "the Lord's body." 1 Cor 11:29.
Out of this spiritual relation, or sacramental union between the sign and the grace signified, which we have thus explained by a natural and legitimate use of language, the one is put for the other, and whatever is true of the grace signified is asserted of the sign which signifies it. Thus, to eat the bread and drink the wine in the Lord's Supper is to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ; that is, to participate in the sacrificial virtue of his death. And whatever is true of Baptism with the Holy Ghost is attributed to Baptism with water. Ananias said to Paul, "Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins." Acts 22:16. "Christ gave himself for the Church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word." Eph 5:26. "Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." Acts 2:38. Hence Romanists and Ritualists have inferred that the sign is inseparable from the grace signified, and that these spiritual effects are due to the outward ordinance. Hence the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. But it must be observed that the Scriptures do not assert these spiritual attributes of water baptism in itself considered, but of water baptism as the sign or emblem of baptism by the Holy Ghost. These spiritual attributes belong only to baptism by the Spirit, and they accompany the sign only when the sign is accompanied by that which it signifies. It does not
follow, however, that the sign is inseparable from the grace. The grace is sovereign; and experience teaches us that it is often absent from the sign, and that the sign is least frequently honoured by the presence of the grace when it is itself most implicitly relied upon.
4th. The sacraments were designed (1) to represent the benefits of Christ and the new covenant. They are as signs or pictures of the truths they represent, and hence present those truths to the eyes and other senses of the recipients in a manner analogous to that in which they are presented to the ears in the preaching of the Word. This follows from what has just been shown as to their beings outward, sensible signs, signifying inward and spiritual grace. (2) They were designed to be "seals" of the benefits of the new covenant. The gospel is presented under the form of a covenant. Salvation and all the benefits of Christ's redemption are offered upon the condition of faith. In the sacraments God sensibly and authoritatively pledges himself to invest us with this grace if we believe and obey. In receiving the sacrament we actively assume all the obligations implied in the gospel, and bind ourselves to fulfil them. Circumcision, Paul says, "is the seal of the righteousness of faith," Rom 4:11; and Baptism is declared to be the circumcision of Christ. Col 2:11-12. We are said to be actually buried with Christ in baptism [Rom 6:4]; i.e., united to him in his death. Jesus says, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:20); that is, This cup represents my blood, by which the new covenant was ratified; and therefore it is a visible confirmation of the covenant, since it is a visible representative of the blood. If a man was circumcised, he was a debtor to do the whole
law. Gal 5:3. As many as are baptized unto Christ have put on Christ. Gal 3:27.
(3.) The sacraments were designed to "apply"—i.e., actually to convey—to believers the benefits of the new covenant. If they are "seals" of the covenant, they must of course, as a legal form of investiture, actually convey the grace represented to those to whom it belongs. Thus a deed conveys an estate, or the key handed over in the presence of witnesses the possession of a house from the owner to the renter. Our Confession is explicit and emphatic on this subject. The old English word "exhibit," there used, does not mean to show forth; but in the sense of the Latin exhibere, from which it is derived, to administer, to apply. Compare the following: "A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ; wherein, by sensible signs, Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed and applied to believers." SC 92. "A sacrament is an holy ordinance instituted by Christ in his Church, to signify, seal and exhibit unto those that are within the covenant of grace the benefits of his mediation." LC 162. "The grace which is exhibited in or by the sacraments, rightly used, is not conferred by any power in them." WCF 27.3. "The efficacy of Baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered; yet notwithstanding, by the right use of this ordinance, the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited and conferred by the Holy Ghost," etc. WCF 28.6. This the Confession carefully guards in WCF 27:3, showing that the sacraments have no inherent power or virtue at all, but that the right use of the sacrament is
by divine appointment the occasion upon which the Holy Ghost conveys the grace to those to whom it belongs. So that this grace-conferring virtue depends upon two things: (a) The sovereign will and power of the Holy Spirit. (b) The lively faith of the recipient. The sacrament is a mere instrument; but it is an instrument of divine appointment.
5th. The sacraments being seals of the covenant of grace—at once pledges of God's faithfulness to us and of our obligation to him—they of course (a) mark us as the divine property, and bind us to the performance of our duty, (b) and hence are badges of our profession, and, putting a visible difference between those who belong to the Church and the rest of the world, give visibility to the Church, and separate its members from the world.
Section 27.3. The grace which is exhibited in or by the sacraments, rightly used, is not conferred by any power in them: neither doth the efficacy of a sacrament depend upon the piety or intention of him that doth administer it, [Rom 2:28-29; 1 Pet 3:21] but upon the work of the Spirit, [Matt 3:11; 1 Cor 12:13] and the word of institution; which contains, together with a precept authorizing the use thereof, a promise of benefit to worthy receivers. [Matt 26:27-28; Matt 28:19-20]
Having asserted that the sacraments actually confer the grace which they represent to worthy recipients, our Confession in this section proceeds to guard this important truth from abuse, by carefully showing upon what this grace-conveying efficacy of the sacraments does not, and upon what it does, depend.
1st. This grace is not contained in the sacraments themselves, nor is it "conferred by any power in them."
According to the Romish and Ritualistic view, the grace signified is contained in the sacrament itself, as qualities inhere in substances, and it is together with the outward sign presented in a real objective sense to every recipient, whether believer or unbeliever. They hold also that the sacrament confers this grace upon every recipient who does not positively resist, as an opus operatum—by the sole force of the sacramental action, as hot iron burns.[1]
This whole view is explicitly rejected as false by our Confession. And the whole efficacy of the sacrament is said to depend not upon any part of it separately, nor upon the whole together, but upon the sovereign power of the Holy Ghost, who is always present and uses the sacrament as his instrument and medium.
2d. The efficacy of the sacraments does not depend upon either the personal piety or the "intention" of the person who administers them.
The Romanists admit that the efficacy of the sacraments does not depend upon the personal piety of the administrator, but they insist that it depends (a) upon the fact that the administrator is canonically authorized; (b) upon the fact that the administrator exercises at the moment of administration the secret "intention" of doing thereby what the Church intends in the definition of the sacrament.[2] The priest may outwardly pronounce every word and perform every action prescribed in the ritual, and the recipient may fulfil every condition required of him, and yet if the priest fails in the secret intention of conferring the grace through the
sacrament then and there, the recipient goes away destitute of the grace he supposes himself to have received, and which the priest has ostensibly professed to confer.
3d. But the efficacy of the sacraments depends—(a) Upon their divine appointment as means and channels of grace. They were not devised by man as suitable in themselves to produce a moral impression. But they were appointed by God, and we are commanded to use them as means of grace, and hence God virtually promises to meet every soul who uses them rightly in the sacrament. Christ seals his gracious covenant by them, and hence in their use invests with the grace of that covenant every soul to which it belongs. (b) The efficacy of the sacrament resides in the sovereign and ever-present personal agency of the Holy Ghost, who uses the sacraments as his instruments and media of operation. The Spirit is the executive of God. He takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us. Through him even the humanity of Jesus is virtually omnipresent, and all the benefits secured by his sacrifice are revealed and applied.
Section 27.4. There be only two sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the Gospel; that is to say, baptism and the supper of the Lord; neither of which may be dispensed by any but a minister of the Word, lawfully ordained. [Matt 28:19; 1 Cor 11:20,23; 1 Cor 4:1; Heb 5:4]
As we have seen, the word sacrament was used very indefinitely in the early Church to include any religious rite which had a latent spiritual meaning. A preeminence was always awarded to Baptism and the Lord's
Supper as forming a class by themselves, but the number of ordinances to which the term sacrament was applied varied at different times and in different places from two to twelve. At last the number seven was suggested during the twelfth century, and determined authoritatively by the Council of Florence, 1439, and by the Council of Trent, 1562. These are baptism, confirmation, the Lord's Supper, penance, extreme unction, orders, marriage. In order to prove that "there be only two sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the gospel—that is to say, baptism and the supper of the Lord"—we have only to show that the other five so-called sacraments claimed by the Romanists do not belong to the same class of ordinances with Baptism and the Lord's Supper. And we do this by applying the definition of a sacrament above given. Thus—
Penance, confirmation, and extreme unction are not divine institutions in any sense.
Marriage was instituted, not by Christ, but by God, and orders were instituted by Christ, but neither of these ordinances (a) consists of an outward visible sign signifying an inward spiritual grace, nor (b) does either of them "represent, seal or confer Christ and the benefits of the new covenant."
Our Confession also adds that no one has a right to administer the sacraments save a lawfully-ordained minister. This is not said in the interest of any priestly theory of the ministry, as if there were any grace or grace-conferring virtue transmitted by ordination in succession from the apostles to the person ordained. But since the Church is an organized society under laws executed by regularly-appointed officers, it
is evident that ordinances, which are badges of Church membership, the gates of the fold, the instruments of discipline and seals of the covenant formed by the great Head of the Church with his living members, can properly be administered only by the highest legal officers of the Church, those who are commissioned as ambassadors for Christ to treat in his name with men. 1 Cor 4:1; 2 Cor 5:20.
Section 27.5. The sacraments of the Old Testament, in regard of the spiritual things thereby signified and exhibited, were, for substance, the same with those of the New. [1 Cor 10:1-4]
We saw, under WCF 7.5-6, that the old and the new dispensations were only two different modes in which the one changeless covenant of grace was administered and its blessings dispensed. The sacramental seals of the covenant must, therefore, be essentially the same then and now. The difference is—(a) that they were more prospective and typical then, and that they are more commemorative now. They signified a grace to be revealed then; they signify a grace already revealed now. (b) They were, as to form, more gross and carnal then, and more spiritual now.
Thus Baptism has taken the place of circumcision as the rite of initiation. They both signify spiritual regeneration. Deut 10:16; Deut 30:6. Circumcision was Jewish baptism, and Baptism is Christian circumcision. Gal 3:27,29; Col 2:10-12.
Thus the Lord's Supper grew out of the Passover. He took the old bread and the old cup and gave them a new consecration and a new meaning. Matt 26:26-29.
"Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." 1 Cor 5:7.
QUESTIONS
1. What was the classical usage of the word sacrament?
2. What was the early ecclesiastical usage of the word?
3. On what principles, therefore, are we to form our definition of a sacrament?
4. What is the first point involved in the definition of a sacrament given in our Standards?
5. What is the second point involved therein?
6. What is the third point involved?
7. What is the fourth point involved?
8. What is the fifth point involved?
9. What does our Confession teach as to the person by whom our New Testament sacraments were immediately ordained?
10. Of what two parts does every sacrament consist?
11. In the case of Baptism, what is the outward visible sign?
12. In the case of baptism, what is the inward spiritual grace signified?
13. In the case of the Lord's Supper what is the sensible sign?
14. In that case, what is the inward spiritual grace signified?
15. What do the Romish and Lutheran churches regard as the nature of the "sacramental union" subsisting between the sign and the grace signified?
16. What, according to the true doctrine, is involved in the sacramental union or relation between the sign and the grace signified?
17. What are the true grounds upon which that relation rests?
18. What manner of speaking of the sign or visible part of the sacraments has grown out of this relation which the sign sustains to the grace signified?
19. Quote instances of this manner of speaking in the Scriptures in the case of each of the sacraments.
20. What false inferences do Romanists and Ritualists deduce from this manner of speaking?
21. What, on the contrary, is the true explanation of the usage?
22. What is the design of the sacraments?
23. How do they "represent" the benefits of Christ and the new covenant?
24. What is meant by saying they are "seals" of the covenant of grace?
25. Prove that they are so.
26. In what sense do our Standards use the word "exhibit" in this connection?
27. Prove that our Standards teach that the sacraments do really convey the grace they signify.
28. In what sense do they affirm this, and upon what do they teach this grace-conveying efficacy depends?
29. How do the sacraments become badges of our profession?
30. What is the object of the third section of this chapter? [WCF 27:3]
31. What is the Romish doctrine as to the manner in which the sacraments "contain" and "confer" grace?
32. What does this section teach in opposition to this?
33. What do the Romanists teach are the conditions on the part of the administrator upon which the efficacy of the sacraments depends?
34. How does the efficacy of the sacrament depend upon its divine appointment?
35. How does it depend upon the sovereign will and power of the Holy Ghost?
36. What was taught in the early Church as to the number of the sacraments?
37. When was the number seven authoritatively established?
38. What are the seven sacraments acknowledged by the Romanists?
39. How can it be proved that Baptism and the Lord's Supper form a class by themselves?
40. Show that the definition of a sacrament will not apply to the rest.
41. Why can the sacraments be administered only by a lawfully-ordained minister?
42. What were the sacramental seals of the covenant of grace under the old dispensation?
43. Which corresponds to Baptism and which to the Lord s Supper?
44. In what respects do they differ? And show that they are virtually the same.
[1] Conc. Trident., Sess. vii., Cans. 6 and 8.
[2] Ibid., Sess. vii., Can.11. Dens, vol.. v. p. 127.