Welchman on Article XXV: Of the Sacraments

• Grace, and do really convey that Grace, of which they are If Signs, to those who receive them worthily. But they do + 4 this, not by their own Virtue, but by the Operation of the i Holy Spirit accompanying them. Now since to institute i Sacraments belongs only to him, who has the Power of A conferring that Grace which accompanies them, they can- 4 not be more than God himself hath instituted. £69 They be certain sure Witnesses, &c.] See As ii. 38. 17 Then Peter said unto them, Rrpent and be baptized every one “o of you in the Name of Fesus Christ, for the Remisficn of Sins, 3 and ye shall receive the Gijt of the Holy Ghost, And 1 Cr. 4 x. 16. The Cup of the Blessing which we bless, is it not the |

Communion of the Blade, Chrijt ? The Bread which we break, is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ? And Eph. v. 26. That he might santify and cleanse it with the Masbing of Water, by the Mord.

Ten are two, &c.] It is plain that Christ instituted only two Sacraments, to wit, Baptism, and the Supper of

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\ y the Lord; for to these only doth the Dehnition of a Sa- “i278 crament agree. ( « 12 Bap in] See Matth. xxviii. 19. Go ye and teach all t #4 | Nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of » 1448 the Son, and of the Holy Gh:/i. ve. The Supper of the Lord) See 1 Cor. xi. 23, 24, 25, 26. 47 baue recerved of tho Lord, tat which 1 also delivered unto 4 you, That the Lord J sus, the same Night in which he was be- “2 zrayed, tank Bread; and when he had given Thanks, he brake 4 4 it, and said, Tube, eat; this is my Body, which is broken for 18 your This do in Remembrance of Me, After the same Manner 3-18 4% he took the Cup, when he had siifped, saying, This Cup is E. ihe New Testament in my Blood : This do ye, as oft as ye drink * it, in Remembrance of Mr. For as oft as ye cat this Bread,

and drink this Cup, ye de spew the Lord’s Death till be come. These five, &c.] The Word Sacramcut is indeed used by the Fathers to lignity almost every sacred Rite, or every holy Thing: But if that Word be taken in a proper Sense, for Au outward Sign of Covenant between God aud Men, 1 by God himself, for a Pledge of our Fuslification,

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und a AMcans of eur Sandtification, which is the Ratio for- 1alis, the constituent Pari ef a Sacrament, or that without which, properly peaking, it could not poluibly Be one; then tige eve mult presently be excluded from the Num- ber of Sacraments.

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See the Homily of Common Prayer and Sacraments, Nawelli Catech. p. 137. Hammond’s Pract. Cat. B. VI. Sect. 1. Fewel’s Det. Apol. Part II. Ch. 11. Div. 2. ’ Hooker’s Eccl. Pol. B. V. Set. 50, 57. Prideaux’s Fasc. Controv. Ch. 6. Q. 1, 2. |

It is here to be observed, that if we do not find the Num-

ber of the Sacraments determined in so many Words by the primitive Fathers, it is, because in their Time there was no Dispute about this Matter. Peter Lombard, a Writer of the Twelfth Century, was the first that made them to be precisely Seven. Eugenius IV. about the Year of Christ 1439, taught the Arminians the same Doctrine. The Council of Trent afterwards confirmed it by a De- cree; from whence Pius IV. inserted it in his new Creed: And so at length the Whim of a trifling Schoolman be- came an Article of Faith,

On the other Hand, Zu/tin Martyr, in his Exposition of 4, . ; our Religion, (in which aiso he declares that he speaks no-cap. 79. ad. thing out of Spite to any Man, nor with any Dissimulation) #*- makes mention of only Two Sacraments, to wit, Baptism, : and the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper. Tertullian likewise 5,” 8 joins these Two together, and says nothing of any more. De 4-2. To pass by St. Augustine, and St. Chrysastom, and other wes Writers of the following Ages. 118, 727.

In Joann.

— Ham. 85.

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Of the Unworthiness of the Ministers, which hinders not the Effect of the

Sacraments.