Chapter 32. Of the Sacraments.
WILLIAM PERKINS
Chapter 32. Of the Sacraments.
This much about the preaching of the word. Now follow the appendants to that; namely, the Sacraments.
A Sacrament is that by which Christ and His saving graces are signified, exhibited, and sealed to a Christian, by certain external rites. Rom 4.11, He received the sign of circumcision as the seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had when he was circumcised.
Gen 17.11, You shall circumcise the foreskin of your flesh, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.
God alone is the author of a Sacrament; for the sign cannot confirm anything at all, except by the consent and promise of the One from whose hands the benefit promised must be received. Therefore, it is God alone who appointed signs of grace, and it is in His power alone that grace is bestowed.
And God made a Sacrament by the sacramental word, as Augustine witnesses. He says, "Let the word come to the element, and there a Sacrament is made."
The sacramental word is the word of institution, which God has severally set down in each Sacrament. There are two parts of the word: the commandment, and the promise.
The commandment is that by which Christ appoints the administration of the Sacraments, and receiving those sacraments. As in Baptism: Go into the whole world, baptizing them in the Name, etc. In the Lord's
Supper: Take, eat, drink, do this.
The promise is the other part of the institution, by which God ordained elements, that they might be instruments and seals of His grace. As in Baptism: I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. In the Supper: This is my body given for you; and This is my blood of the New
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Testament. Therefore, this word in the administration of the Sacrament ought to be pronounced distinctly and aloud; yes, and as occasion serves, also explained to the end that all those to whom the commandment and promise pertain, may know and understand it. Hence, it is very plain that the minister's impiety does not nullify the Sacrament, nor does it in any whit hinder a worthy receiver; no more than the piety of a good minister can profit an unworthy receiver. This is because all the efficacy and worthiness of it, depends only upon God's institution, if it is observed.
The parts of a Sacrament are the Sign, and the Thing [Signified] by the Sacrament.
The sign is either the Matter that is sensible, or the Action concerned with it. The sensible Matter is usually called the sign. The mutation of the sign is not natural
(by changing its substance), but respective — that is, only in regard to its use. For it is severed from a common use to a holy one. Therefore, there is no such force or efficacy in making us holy, that is inherent or tied to the external signs, as might naturally be found in baths used to purify corrupt diseases. But all such efficacy is wholly appropriate to the Holy Spirit; and yet, so as to be an inseparable companion of the true faith and repentance of those who turn to the Lord, together with the sign exhibited. From which it comes to pass that, by God's ordinance, a certain signification of grace and its sealing, agrees with the sign.
The Thing Signified by the Sacrament, is either Christ and His graces which concern our salvation, or the action concerned with Christ.
I say, first Christ, and then His graces, because no man receives grace from Christ, unless he is made truly partaker of his very body and blood Joh 6.53 — just as no man can by right reap any fruit from the ground, of which he does not first have just title and interest.
The action concerning Christ is spiritual; and it is either the action of God, or of Faith.
WILLIAM PERKINS
• The action of God is either the Offering or the Application of Christ and His graces to the faithful.
• The action of Faith is the consideration, desire, apprehension, and receiving of Christ in the lawful use of the Sacrament.
This much about the parts of a Sacrament. Now follows the union of the parts.
This sacramental union, is not natural according to the place. For there is no mutation of the sign into the thing signified; nor is the thing signified either included in or fastened upon the sign. But it is respective, because there is a certain agreement and proportion of the external things with the internal, and of the actions of the one with the actions of the other. By this it comes to pass that the signs (as it were, certain visible words incurring into the external senses), by a certain proportionate resemblance, draw a Christian mind to the consideration of the things signified, and to be applied.
This mutual, and if I may say, sacramental relation, is the cause of so many figurative phrases and metonymies, as when one thing in the Sacrament is put for another. Such as, I. The sign is used for the thing signified. Exo 12.11,
You shall eat it (namely, the Lamb) in haste, for it is the Lord's Passover. Joh 6.51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
1Cor 5.7, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
1Cor 10.17, We who are many, are one bread, and one body, because we are all partakers of one bread.
II. The name of the thing signified is given to the sign; such as, The bread is Christ's body, the cup is
Christ's blood, 1Cor 11.24; Mat 26.28.
III. The effect of the thing signified is given to the sign; such as, Gen 17.10 & Act 7.8, Circumcision is a covenant; Luk 22.20, The cup is the New Testament in
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Christ's blood. Tit 3.5, Baptism is the washing of the new birth.
IV. That which properly belongs to the sign is attributed to the thing signified. Deu 10.16, Circumcise the foreskin of your hearts. Joh 6.53, Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
The end for which a Sacrament was ordained is, I. To better confirm our faith. For by it, as by certain pledges that are given, God of His great mercy binds
Himself to us, as it were. Now, a Sacrament confirms our faith, not by any inherent or proper power that it has in itself, as a powerful medicine has when received by a patient — whether he sleeps or wakes, it confirms his strength. Rather, it confirms by reasoning and using the signs, as when the Holy Ghost frames in our hearts a conclusion such as this:
All those who are converted, rightly using the Sacraments,
shall receive Christ and his graces.
I am converted; and either now or before, I have rightly used the Sacraments.
Therefore, I shall receive Christ and his graces.
II. That it might be a badge and mark of that profession by which the true Church of God is distinguished from other congregations.
III. That it might be a means to preserve and spread abroad the doctrine of the Gospel.
IV. It serves to bind the faithful, that they continue to be both loyal and grateful to their Lord God.
V. It is the bond of mutual amity between the faithful.
WILLIAM PERKINS
How a Sacrament is necessary to salvation.
The Covenant of Grace is absolutely necessary to salvation. For in comprehending Christ Jesus as the very substance of the Covenant, man must necessarily either receive it, or perish eternally. But a Sacrament is not absolutely necessary, except as it is a prop and stay for faith to lean upon. For it cannot entitle us to the inheritance of the sons of god, as the Covenant does; but only because faith goes before, it seals that which was previously bestowed upon us. As we see in human contracts, the bond arises from the mutual consent of the parties. But the instrument or bill, and setting the seal to it, do not make but rather confirm the bond mutually made before. Mutual consent remaining firm, the contract remains in force, even if the instrument or seal is lacking.
Therefore, the lack of a Sacrament does not condemn, but the contempt of it is what will condemn a man. The lack of a Sacrament is when we are justly hindered from receiving it, as when one is prevented by death, or lives in such a place where he cannot receive the Sacrament. And as for the neglect of a Sacrament, though it is a very grievous sin, yet it is one for which the one who is heartily penitent for neglecting it, may well hope for pardon.
The holy use of a Sacrament is when those who are truly converted, use those rites which God has prescribed, for their true ends, in the receiving of a Sacrament. Therefore, I. The reprobate, though God offers the whole sacrament to them, yet they receive the signs alone, without the things signified by the signs. This is because the sign without the right use of it, is not a Sacrament to the receiver of it. So Paul says, Rom 2.25,
Circumcision is truly profitable if you keep the Law. But if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision. And Augustine has this
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statement: If you receive it carnally [without faith], it does not cease to be spiritual, though to you it is not so.
II. The Elect who are not yet converted to the Lord, receive in like manner the bare signs without the thing signified; yet the Sacrament will have its good effect in them afterward. For the Sacrament received before a man's conversion, is both ratified and profitable to the penitent afterward. And that use of the Sacrament which was utterly unlawful before, then becomes very lawful.
III. The Elect already converted, due to their salvation, receive both the sign and the thing signified, together; yet, for receiving it unworthily (which comes to pass because of their manifold infirmities, and relapses into sin), they are subject to temporal punishments.
The difference between a Sacrament and a Sacrifice is this: in a Sacrament, God bestows His graces upon us; but in a sacrifice, we return to God faith and obedience.
There are many differences between the Sacraments of the Old Testament and those of the New.
I. They were many, but these are few.
II. They pointed at the Christ to come; these show that He has come.
III. They were appropriate to the posterity of Abraham; but these are common to the whole Church, culled out of the Jews and Gentiles.