gether with his spiritual gifts ; and so those who before had been made partakers of Christ, continue and renew that participation." In articles immediately following it is taught that regard is to be had, not to the naked signs, but to the promises annexed to them ; that the signs without Christ are " inanes larvas ; " that if any- good be conferred by the sacraments, it is not from their proper inherent virtue ; for it is God alone who acts through his Spirit. Article sixteenth is in these words, " Prseterea sedulo docemus, Deum non promiscue vim suam exerere in omnibus qui sacra- menta recipiunt, sed tantum in electis. Nam quemadmodum non alios in fidem illuminat, quam quos preordinavit ad vitam : ita arcana Spiritus sui virtute efficit, ut percipiant electi quae offerunt sacramenta." Article nineteenth teaches that the benefits signi- fied by the sacraments may be obtained without their use. Paul's sins were remitted before he was baptized. Cornelius received the Spirit before he received the external sign of regeneration. In the twentieth article it is taught that the benefit of the sacra- ments is not confined to the time of their administration. God sometimes regenerates in their old age those who were baptized in infancy or youth.1
In the* Westminster Confession it is said : " Although it be a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance [baptism], yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it, or that all that are baptized, are undoubtedly regenerated. The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is ad- ministered ; yet, notwithstanding, by the right use of this ordi- nance the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited and conferred by the Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's own will, in his appointed time." 2
Calvin controverts the Romish doctrine that the Sacraments of the New Testament have greater efficacy than those of the Old. " Nihilo splendidius de illis Apostolus quam de his loquitur, quum docet patres eandem nobiscum spiritualem escam manducasse ; et escam illam Christum interpretatur." (1 Cor. x. 3.) And again, in the same paragraph, " Nee vero baptismo nostro plus tribuere fas est, quam ipse alibi circumcisioni tribuit, quum vocat • sigillum justitiae fidei.' (Rom. iv. 11.) Quicquid ergo nobis hodie in sacramentis exhibetur, id in suis ohm recipiebant Judasi, Christum scilicet cum spiritualibus suis divitiis. Quam habent nostra vir-
1 Niemeyer, pp. 194, 195. 2 Chap, xxviii. §§ 5, 6.
582 PART HI. Ch. XX.— THE MEANS OF GRACE.
tutem, earn quoque in suis sentiebant : ut scilicet essent illis divinae erga se benevolentiaa sigilla in spem salutis aeternae." 1
The doctrine of the Reformed Church, therefore, on the efficacy of baptism includes in the first place the rejection or denial of certain false doctrines on the subject. (1.) That baptism conveys grace " ex opere operato " in the sense which Romanists attach to those words, by any objective supernatural power belonging to the ordinance itself ; or in virtue of the divine efficiency inherent in the word or promise of God connected with the sacrament. (2.) That the cooperation of the Spirit, to which the efficacy of the ordinance is due, always attends its administration, so that those who are baptized, in all cases, if unresisting, experience the remission of sins and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. (3.) That baptism was appointed to be the ordinary means or channel of conveying, in the first instance, the merits of Christ's death and the saving influences of the Spirit, so that those benefits may not, except in extraordinary cases, be obtained before or without bap- tism.
In the second place the Reformed doctrine on this subject af- firms, (1.) That baptism is a divine ordinance. (2.) That it is a means of grace to believers. (3.) That it is a sign and seal of the covenant of grace. (4.) That the ordinance was intended to be of perpetual obligation, in the sense that all, not baptized in infancy, are required to submit to baptism as the divinely ap- pointed way of publicly professing their faith in Christ and their allegiance to Him as their God and Saviour ; and that all such professors of the true religion are bound to present their children for baptism as the divinely appointed way of consecrating them to God. (5.) That God, on his part, promises to grant the benefits signified in baptism to all adults who receive that sacrament in the exercise of faith, and to all infants who, when they arrive at maturity, remain faithful to the vows made in their name when they were baptized.
Proof of the Reformed Doctrine. As to the affirmations included in the doctrine of the Reformed churches concerning baptism, little need be said, as they are gen- erally conceded. In all ages, since the apostolic, the tendency in the Church has been not to detract from the importance of the Christian sacraments, but unduly to exalt them. Nothing is plainer from the whole tenor of the New Testament than that the
1 fnstitutio, iv. xiv. 23, edit. Berlin, 1834, part ii. p. 364.