with a certain faith: as the Father has offered and presented Christ to all for salvation, but he is not known and received by all. Augustine, intending to express this sentiment, somewhere says, that the efficacy of the word is displayed in the sacrament, "not because it is spoken, but because it is believed." Therefore Paul, when he is addressing the faithful, speaks of the sacraments so as to include in them the communion of Christ; as when he says, " As many of you as have been baptised into Christ, have put on Christ.”(i) Again, “ By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body." (k) But when he speaks of the improper use of the sacraments, he attributes no more to them than to vain and useless figures; by which he signifies, that however impious persons and hypocrites, by their perversion of the sacraments, may destroy or obscure the effect of divine grace in them, yet that notwithstanding this, whenever and wherever God pleases, they afford a true testimony of the communion of Christ, and the Spirit of God himself exhibits and performs the very thing which they promise. We conclude therefore that sacraments are truly called testimonies of the grace of God, and are, as it were, seals of the benevolence he bears to us, which, by confirming it to our minds, sustain, cherish, strengthen, and increase our faith. The reasons which some are in the habit of objecting against this sentiment are exceedingly weak and frivolous. They allege, that if our faith be good, it cannot be made better; for that there is no real faith except that which rests on the mercy of God without any wavering, instability, or distraction. It would have been better for such persons to pray, with the apostles, that the Lord would increase their faith; (/) than confidently to boast of such a perfection of faith, as no one of the sons of men ever yet attained, or ever will attain, in this life. Let them answer what kind of faith they suppose him to have possessed, who said, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." (m) For even that, though yet only in its commencement, was a good faith, and capable of being improved by the removal of unbelief. But there is no argument which more fully refutes them than their own conscience: for if they confess themselves sinners, which, whatever they may wish, they cannot deny, they must be obliged to impute it to the imperfection. of their faith. VIII. But they say, Philip answered the Eunuch, that he might be baptised "if" he "believed with all" his "heart." (n) And what room, they ask, is there here for the confirmation of baptism, where faith fills the whole heart? On the other hand, I ask them, whether they do not feel a large part of their heart destitute of faith, and whether they do not daily know some fresh increase of it. A heathen gloried that he grew old in learning. We Christians are miserable indeed if we grow old in making no improvement, whose faith ought to be advancing from one stage to another till its attainment of perfect manhood. "To believe with all the heart," therefore, in this passage, is not to believe Christ in a perfect manner, but only signifies embracing him with sincerity of soul and firmness of mind; not to be filled with him, but to hunger, thirst, and sigh after him with ardent affection. It is the custom of the Scriptures to say that any thing is done with the whole heart, which is done with sincerity of mind: as in these and other passages: "With my whole heart have I sought thee." "I will praise the Lord with my whole heart." (0) On the contrary, when it rebukes the fraudulent and deceitful, it reproaches them with "a double heart." (p) Our adversaries further allege, that if faith be increased by the sacraments, the Holy Spirit must have been given in vain, whose work and influence it is to commence, to confirm, and to consummate faith. I confess that faith is the peculiar and entire work of the Holy Spirit, by whose illumination we know God and the treasures of his goodness, and without whose light our mind is too blind to be capable of any sight, and too stupid to be capable of the least relish of spiritual things. But instead of one favour of God, which they mention, we acknowledge three. For first, the Lord teaches and instructs us by his word: secondly, he confirms us by his sacraments: lastly, he illuminates our minds by the light of his Holy Spirit, and opens an (a) Acts viii. 37. (0) Psalm cxix. 10; cxi. 1; cxxxviii. 1. (p) Psalm xii. 2. VOL. III. 2 Q entrance into our hearts for the word and sacraments; which otherwise would only strike the ears and present themselves to the eyes, without producing the least effect upon the mind. IX. With respect to the confirmation and increase of faith, therefore, I wish the reader to be apprised, and I conceive I have already expressed, in language too plain to be misunderstood, that I assign this office to the sacraments; not from an opinion of their possessing a perpetual inherent virtue, efficacious of itself to the advancement or confirmation of faith; but because they have been instituted by the Lord for the express purpose of promoting its establishment and augmentation. But they only perform their office aright when they are accompanied by the Spirit, that internal Teacher, by whose energy alone our hearts are penetrated, our affections are moved, and an entrance is opened for the sacraments into our souls. If he be absent, the sacraments can produce no more effect upon our minds than the splendour of the sun on blind eyes, or the sound of a voice on deaf ears. I make such a distinction and distribution, therefore, between the Spirit and the sacraments, that I consider all the energy of operation as belonging to the Spirit, and the sacraments as mere instruments, which without his agency are vain and useless, but which, when he acts and exerts his power in the heart, are fraught with suprising efficacy. Now it is evident how, according to this opinion, the faith of a pious mind is confirmed by the sacraments; namely, as the eyes see by the light of the sun, and the ears hear by the sound of a voice: the light would have no effect upon the eyes, unless they had a natural faculty capable of being enlightened; and it would be in vain for the cars to be assisted with any sound, if they had not been naturally formed for hearing. But if it be true, as we ought at once to conclude, that what the visive faculty does in our eyes towards our beholding the light, and the faculty of hearing does in our ears towards our perception of sound, such is the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts for the formation, support, preservation, and establishment of our faith: then these two consequences immediately follow; that the sacraments are attended with no benefit without the influence of the Holy Spirit; and that in hearts already instructed by that Teacher they still subserve the confirmation and increase of faith. There is only this difference, that our eyes and ears are naturally endued with the faculties of seeing and hearing, but the Holy Spirit accomplishes this in our hearts by special and preternatural grace. X. This reasoning will also serve for a solution of the objections with which some persons are greatly disturbed; that if we attribute to creatures either the increase or confirmation of faith, we derogate from the Spirit of God, whom we ought to acknowledge as its sole Author. For we do not at the same time deny him the praise of its confirmation and increase; but we assert that the way in which he increases and confirms our faith is by preparing our minds by his inward illumination to receive that confirmation which is proposed in the sacraments. If the way in which this has been expressed be too obscure, it shall be elucidated by the following similitude. If you intend to persuade a person to do a certain act, you will consider all the reasons calculated to draw him over to your opinion, and to constrain him to submit to your advice. But you will make no impression upon him, unless he possess a perspicuous and acute judgment to be able to determine what force there is in your reasons; unless his mind also be docile, and prepared to listen to instruction; and lastly, unless he have conceived such an opinion of your fidelity and prudence as may prepossess him in favour of your sentiments. For there are many obstinate spirits, never to be moved by any reasons; and where a person's fidelity is suspected, and his authority despised, little effect will be produced, even with those who are disposed to learn. On the contrary, let all these things be present, and they will ensure the acquiescence of the person advised, in those counsels which he would otherwise have derided. This work also the Spirit effects within us. Lest the word should assail our ears in vain, lest the sacraments should in vain strike our eyes, he shews us that it is God who addresses us in them, he softens the hardness of our hearts, and forms them to that obedience which is due to the word of the Lord: in fine, he conveys those external words and sacraments from the ears into the soul. Our faith is confirmed, therefore, both by the word and by the sacraments, when they place before our eyes the good-will of our heavenly Father towards us, in the knowledge of which all the firmness of our faith consists, and by which its strength is augmented: the Spirit confirms it, when he makes this confirmation effectual by engraving it on our minds. In the mean time, the Father of lights cannot be prohibited from illuminating our minds by means of the lustre of the sacraments, as he enlightens our bodily eyes with the rays of the sun. XI. That there is this property in the external word, our Lord has shewn in a parable, by calling it "seed." (q) For as seed, if it fall on a desert and neglected spot of ground, will die without producing any crop; but if it be cast upon a well manured and cultivated field, it brings forth its fruit with an abundant increase: so the word of God, if it fall upon some stiff neck, it will be as unproductive as seed dropped upon the sea-shore; but if it light upon a soul cultivated by the agency of the heavenly Spirit, it will be abundantly fruitful. Now if the word be justly compared to seed; as we say that from seed corn grows, increases, and comes to maturity, why may we not say that faith derives its commencement, increase, and perfection, from the word of God? Paul, in different places, excellently expresses both these things. For, with a view to recal to the recollection of the Corinthians with what efficacy God had attended his labours, he glories in having the ministry of the Spirit, as if there were an indissoluble connection between his preaching and the power of the Holy Spirit operating to the illumination of their minds, and the excitement of their hearts. (r) But in another place, with a view to apprise them how far the power of the word of God extends, merely as preached by man, he compares ministers to husbandmen; who, when they have employed their labour and industry in cultivating the ground, have nothing more that they can do. But what would ploughing, and sowing, and watering, avail, unless heavenly goodness caused the seed to vegetate? Therefore he concludes, "Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase."(s) The apostles, then, in their preaching; exerted the power of the Spirit, as far as God made use of the instruments appointed by himself for (q) Matt. xiii. 3-23; Luke viii. 5-15. (s) 1 Cor. iii. 7. |