4. The above remarks are not intended to apply, and in fact are not applicable to the Lutheran system. Lutherans do, indeed, teach the necessity of the sacraments, but as they also teach that true, living, saving faith is the indispensable condition of their efficacy ; and, as they further teach that in the case of adults such faith produced by the Word precedes baptism, they do not make baptism the ordinary and indispensable channel for the communi- cation of the saving influences of the Holy Spirit. They hold that all who, through the reading or hearing of the Word, are led to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, are thereby made children of God and heirs of eternal life. They believe with the Apostle (Gal. iii. 26), that we " are all the chil- dren of God by faith in Christ Jesus." It is this doctrine of sal- vation by faith, or as Luther has it, u by faith alone," that has saved the Lutheran system from the virus of ritualism.
§ 6. Validity of the Sacraments.
That is valid which avails for the end intended. The question, therefore, as to the validity of the sacraments is a question as to what is necessary to their being that which they purport to be. The answer to this question is that they must conform to the prescriptions given in the Bible concerning them. The elements employed must be those which Christ ordained. The form, or the manner in which those elements are given and received, must be in accordance with his directions ; and the ordinance must be administered with the intention of doing what He has com- manded. Thus if baptism be a washing with water, then it is necessary that water should be the element employed in its ad- ministration. If it be a washing with water in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, then those words, or that form, must be used ; and the ordinance must be administered and received in the faith of the Trinity. The general faith of the Church has been in favour of the validity of heretical bap- tism ; but heresy was made to include other departures from the standard of faith, than the denial of the essential doctrines of the Gospel. Baptism is a Christian ordinance. It involves on the part of both the administrator and the recipient the profes- sion of the Christian religion. It is perfectly evident that the same service, as to matter and form, performed by a heathen to a heathen, who attached an entirely different meaning to what was done, could not be regarded as a Christian ordinance.
The other condition necessary to the validity of the sacraments
524 PART HI. Ch. XX. — THE MEANS OF GRACE.
concerns the intention of those engaged in the service. They must intend to do what Christ commanded. If a man receives the ordinance of baptism, he must intend to profess his faith in the Gospel and to accept the terms of salvation therein presented. And the administrator must have the purpose to initiate the re- cipient into the number of the professed disciples of Christ. A sacrament, therefore, administered by an idiot, or a maniac, or in sport, or in mockery, is utterly null and void. It has no mean- ing and is entirely worthless.
The only question on which there is much diversity of opinion on this subject, is, Whether the validity of the sacraments de- pends on the official standing of the person by whom they are administered ? We have seen that Romanists make canonical ordination or consecration absolutely essential. If any man but a bishop (in their sense of the word) should confirm or ordain, nothing is done. The service in either case is an empty one, con- veying neither grace nor authority. If any other than a priest should absolve a penitent, no absolution takes place ; and so of the Lord's Supper, the words of consecration pronounced by any lips but those of a canonically ordained priest, produce no change in the elements. The reason of this is, not merely that the offi- ciator acts in such cases disorderly and improperly, but that he has neither the prerogative nor the power to render the sacra- ments effectual. They are invalid, because they do not avail to accomplish the end for which they were appointed. Romanists are guilty of a benevolent inconsistency in making baptism an exception to this rule. There is the same logical or theoretical reason that baptism should be invalid when administered by an unordained person, as that confirmation, ordination, or absolution, when thus administered, should be null and void. But as baptism is held to be essential to salvation, souls must often perish, when a priest is inaccessible, unless lay baptism be allowed. In cases of such emergency the Church of Rome, therefore, pronounces baptism to be valid (i. e., efficacious) when administered by a layman, a woman, or even by a pagan, provided the adminis- trator really intends t6 baptize, *. e., to do what the Church con- templates in the administration of that ordinance.
The standards of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches place preaching the Word and the administration of the sacraments on the same ground. They teach (1.) That Christ has appointed certain officers in his Church. (2.) That by his Spirit he calls and qualifies certain men for the discharge of the duties of those