§ 115. CALVIN'S THEORY OF THE SACRAMENTS. 583
tion, which sustams and strengthens our faith. ^^ Lord, 1 believe, help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9 : 24). To be efficacious, the sacraments must be accompanied by the Spirit, that internal Teacher, by whose energy alone our hearts are penetrated, and our affections moved. Without the influence of the Spirit, the sacraments can produce no more effect upon our minds, than the splendor of the sun on blind eyes, or the sound of a voice upon deaf ears. If the seed falls on a desert spot, it will die ; but if it be cast upon a cultivated field, it will bring forth abundant increase.
Calvin vigorously opposes, as superstitious and mischievous, the scholastic opus operatum theory that the sacraments justify and confer grace by an intrinsic virtue, provided we do not obstruct their operation by a mortal sin. A sacrament without faith misleads the mind to rest in the exhibition of a sensuous object rather than in God himself, and is ruinous to true piety.
He agrees with Augustin in the opinion that the sign and the matter of the sacrament are not inseparably connected, and that it produces its intended effect only in the elect. He quotes from him the sentence : " The morsel of bread given by the Lord to Judas was poison ; not because Judas received an evil thing, but because, being a wicked man, he received a good thing in a sinful manner." But this must not be understood to mean that the virtue and truth of the sacrament depend on the condition or choice of him who receives it. The symbol consecrated by the word of the Lord is in reality what it is declared to be, and preserves its virtue, although it confers no benefit on a wicked and impious person. Augustin happily solves this question in a few words : " If thou receive it carnally, still it ceases not to be spiritual ; but it is not so to thee." The office of the sacrament is the same as that of the word of God ; both offer Christ and his heavenly grace to us, but they confer no benefit without the medium of faith.
584 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
Calvin discusses at length the seven sacraments of the Roman Church, the doctrine of transubstantiation, and the mass. But it is sufficient here to state his views on baptism and the Lord's Supper, the only sacraments which Christ directly instituted for perpetual observance in the Church.
§ 116. Baptism.
Inst. IV. chs. XV. and XVI. Also his Briece instruction, pour armer tons bons Jideles contre les erreurs de la secte commune des Anabaptistes, Geneva, 1544, 2d ed. 1545; Latin version by Nicolas des Gallars. In Opera, VII. 45 sqq. This tract was written against the fanatical wing of the Anabaptists at the request of the pastors of Neuchatel. His youthful treatise On the Sleep of the Soul was also directed against the Anabaptists. See above, § 77, pp. .325 sqq. Calvin's wife was the widow of a converted Anabaptist.
Baptism, Calvin says, is the sacrament of ablution and regeneration ; the Eucharist is the sacrament of redemption and sanctification. Christ " came by water and by blood " (1 John 5:6); that is, to purify and to redeem. The Spirit, as the third and chief witness, confirms and secures the witness of water and blood ; that is, of baptism and the eucharist (1 John 5 : 8).^ " This sublime mystery was strikingly exhibited on the cross, when blood and water issued from Christ's side, which on this account Augustin justly called ' the fountain of our sacraments.' "
I. Calvin defines baptism as " a sign of initiation, by which we are admitted into the society of the Church, in order that, being incorporated into Christ, we may be numbered among the children of God."
II. Faith derives three benefits from this sacrament.
1. It assures us, like a legal instrument properly attested, that all our sins are cancelled, and will never be imputed unto us (Eph. 5:26; Tit. 3:5; 1 Pet. 3:21). It is far
1 Calvin confines himself (IV. ch. XIV. § 22) to the genuine words of the three witnesses in this passage, and justly ignores the interpolation of the tcrtus receptus, which is omitted in the Revised Version.