when he was uncircumcised"." By these, we stop the mouth of heretics: for if they deny that our Lord Jesus Christ was delivered to death for our sins, and is risen again for our justification; we shew them our Sacraments, that they were ordained to put us in remembrance of Christ, and that by the use of them, we shew the Lord's death till He come. We tell them, these are proofs and signs, that Christ suffered death for us on the cross. As St. Chrysostom saith, "Laying out these mysteries, we stop their mouths"."

What? are they nothing else but bare and naked signs? God forbid. They are the seals of God, heavenly tokens, and signs of the grace, and righteousness, and mercy, given and imputed to us. Circumcision was not a bare sign. "That is not circumcision which is outward in the flesh," saith St. Paul," but the circumcision of the heart"." And again, "In Christ ye are circumcised with circumcision made without hands, by putting off the sinful body of the flesh, through the circumcision

m Rom. iv. 11. n Chrysost. in Matt. Hom. lxxxiii.

Rom. ii. 28.

of Christ "." Even so is not Baptism any bare sign. St. Chrysostom saith, "Christ's Baptism is Christ's Passion 9." They are not bare signs; it were blasphemy so to say. The grace of God doth always work with His Sacraments: but we are taught not to seek that grace in the sign, but to assure ourselves by receiving the sign, that it is given us by the thing signified. We are not washed from our sins by the water, we are not fed to eternal life by the bread and wine, but by the precious Blood of our Saviour Christ, that lieth hid in these Sacraments.

St. Bernard saith, "The fashion is to deliver a ring, when seisin and possession of inheritance is given: the ring is a sign of the possession. So that he which hath taken it may say, The ring is nothing, I care not for it; it is the inheritance which I sought for. In like manner, when Christ our Lord drew nigh to His passion, He thought good to give seisin and possession of His grace His disciples, and that they might

to

P Coloss. ii. 11.

9 Baptisma ejus, etiam Passio ejus est. Ad Hebr. Hom. xvi.

receive His invisible grace by some visible sign"."

St. Chrysostom saith, "Plain or bare water worketh not in us, but when it hath received the grace of the Holy Ghost, it washeth away all our sins'."

So saith St. Ambrose also; "The Holy Ghost cometh down, and halloweth the water." And, "There is the presence of the Trinity'." So saith St. Cyril; "As water, thoroughly heated with fire, burneth as well as the fire: so the waters which wash the body of him that is baptized are changed into divine power, by the working of the Holy Ghost"."

So said Leo, sometime a Bishop of Rome; "Christ hath given like preeminence to the water of Baptism as He gave to His mother. For that power of the Highest, and that

Datur annulus ad investiendum, &c. Serm. de cœna Domini.

s In nobis non simplex aqua operatur: sed cum accepit gratiam Spiritus, abluit omnia peccata. Hom. xxxv. in Johann.

!

Spiritus Sanctus descendit, et consecrat aquam. Præsentia Trinitatis adest. Ambr. de Sac. lib. i. cap. 5.

u Quemadmodum viribus ignis aqua, &c. Johan. lib. ii. cap. 42.

Cyril. in

overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, which brought to pass that Mary should bring forth the Saviour of the world, hath also brought to pass that the water should bear anew or regenerate him that believeth."

Such opinion had the ancient learned Fathers, and such reverend words they used, when they treated of the Sacraments. For it is not man, but God Who worketh by them: yet is it not the creature of bread or water, but the soul of man that receiveth the grace of God. These corruptible creatures need it not; we have need of God's grace. But this is a phrase of speaking. For the power of God, the grace of God, the presence of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, the gift of God, are not in the water, but in us. And we were not made, because of the Sacraments; but the Sacraments were ordained for our sake.

Now for the number of Sacraments, how many there be: it may seem somewhat hard to say, and that it cannot be spoken

* Dedit aquæ, quod dedit matri. Virtus enim altissimi, et obumbratio Spiritus Sancti, quæ fecit ut Maria pareret salvatorem, eadem fecit, ut regeneret unda credentem. Leo, Serm. v. de Nat. Dom.

without offence. For men's judgments herein have swerved very much. Some have said, there are two; others three; others four; and others, that there are seven Sacraments. This difference of opinions standeth rather in terms than in the matter. For a Sacrament in the manner of speaking which the Church useth, and in the writings of the holy Scriptures, and of ancient Fathers, sometimes signifieth properly, every such Sacrament which Christ hath ordained in the New Testament, for which He hath chosen some certain element, and spoken special words to make it a Sacrament, and hath annexed thereto the promise of grace. Sometimes it is used in a general kind of taking, and so every mystery set down to teach the people, and many things that indeed, and by special property, be no Sacraments, may nevertheless pass under the general name of a Sacrament.

The Sacraments instituted by Christ are only two: the Sacrament of Baptism, and of our Lord's Supper; as the ancient learned Fathers have made account of them. Ambrose, having occasion of purpose to treat of the Sacraments, speaketh but of two. He

St.