it by his sacraments.

In this word we have his pro

mises; in the sacraments we see them.

It would require a long time, if I should utter that might be said in this matter, especially in laying open such errors and abuses as have crept into the church. But I will have regard to this place, and to frame my speech, that the meanest and simplest may reap profit thereby.

That you may the better remember it, I will keep this order. I will shew you what a sacrament is; secondly, who hath ordained them; thirdly, where fore they were ordained, and what they work in us; fourthly, how many there are, and then I will briefly speak of every one of them.

A Sacrament is an outward and visible sign whereby God sealeth up his grace in our hearts, to the confirmation of our faith. St. Augustine saith, A sacrament is a visible sign of grace invisible.' And that we may the better understand him, he telleth us what thing we should call a sign. A sign is a thing that, besides the sight itself which it offereth to the senses, causes of itself some other certain things to come to knowledge.' In baptism the water is the sign, and the thing signified is the grace of God. We see the water, but the grace of God is invisible; we cannot see it. Moreover he saith, Signs, when they be applied to godly things, be called Sacraments.'

The signification and the substance of the sacrament is to shew us how we are washed with the passion of Christ, and how we are fed with the body of Christ. And again, If sacraments had not a certain likeness and representation of the things whereof they be sacraments, then indeed they were

no sacraments. they have with the things they represent, they be oftentimes termed by the names of the things themselves. Therefore, after a certain manner of speech (and not otherwise) the sacrament of the body of Christ is the body of Christ, and the sacrament of the blood of Christ the blood of Christ.

And because of this likeness which

Not any

Who hath ordained the sacraments? Prelate, not any prince, not any Angel or Archangel, but only God himself. For he only hath authority to seal the charter, in whose authority only it is to grant it; and only he giveth the pledge, and confirmeth his grace to us, which giveth his grace into our hearts.

Chrysostom saith, The mystery were not of God, nor perfect, if thou shouldest put any thing to it. In the days of Noah, when God determined to be merciful unto his people, and never to drown the whole world with water, he said (Gen, ix.) "I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and the earth; and when I shall cover the earth with a cloud, and the bow shall be seen in the cloud then will I remember my covenant which is between me and you, and between every living thing in flesh, and there shall be no more waters of a flood to destroy all flesh."

In like manner when God would witness and establish to Abraham and his seed after him the promise of his mercy he himself ordained a sacrament to confirm the same, "This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee; let every man-child among you be circumcised." (Gen. xvii.) Thus God ordained the sacrament of circumcision.

This sacrament was a seal of God's promise to Abraham, and a seal of Abraham's faith and obedience towards God. By this sacrament was man bound to the Lord, and by the same sacrament God vouchsafed to bind himself to man.

But how is the sacrament formed? Of what parts is it made? Augustine saith, Join the word of Christ's institution with the sensible creature, and thereof is made a sacrament.' Join the word of the creature of water, and thereof is made the sacrament of baptism; take away the word, then what is the water other than water? The word of God and the ereatures make a sacrament.. But why were sac'Man cannot be raments ordained? He telleth you, gathered together to the profession of any religion, whether it be true or false, unless they be bound in the fellowship of visible signs of sacraments.'

The first cause why they were ordained is that thereby one should acknowledge another as fellows of one household, and members of one body. So was all Israel reckoned the children of Abraham because of their circumcision; and all such as were uncircumcised were cut off from the people, and had no part in the commonwealth of Israel, because they were uncircumcised; even as we take them that are not baptized to be none of our brethren, to be no children of God, nor members of his church, because they will not take the sacrament of baptism.

Another cause is to move, instruct, and teach our dull and heavy hearts by visible creatures, that so our negligence in not heeding or marking the word of God spoken unto us might be amended. For if any man have the outward seal, and have not the faith

thereof sealed within his heart, it availeth him not; he is but a hypocrite and dissembler. So the circumcision of the foreskin of the flesh taught them to mortify their fleshly affections, and to cut off the thoughts and devices of their wicked hearts. Therefore said Stephen to the Jews, (Acts vii.) "Ye stiffnecked and of uncircumcised hearts and ears, you have always resisted the Holy Ghost."

So, when in baptism our bodies are washed with water, we are taught that our souls are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. The outward washing or sprinkling doth represent the sprinkling and washing which is wrought within us; the water doth signify the blood of Christ. If we were nothing else but soul, he would give us his grace barely and alone, without joining it to any creature, as he doth to his angels; but seeing our spirit is drowned in our body, and our flesh doth make our understanding dull, therefore he giveth his grace by sensible things.

Chrysostom saith, 'I am otherwise affected than is he which believeth not; when he heareth of the water of baptism, he thinketh it is nothing else but water; but I see (not the creature only which mine eyes do see, but also) the cleansing of my soul by the Holy Ghost. He thinketh that my body only is washed I believe that my soul is thereby made pure and holy, and withal, I consider Christ's burial, his resurrection, our satisfaction, righteousness, redemp. tion, adoption, our inheritance, the kingdom of heaand the fulness of the Spirit.' For I judge not of the things I see by my bodily eyes, but by the eyes of my mind.

ven,

When one that is unlearned, and cannot read,

looketh upon a book, be the book never so true, never so well written, yet because he knoweth not the letters, and cannot read, he looketh upon it in vain. He may turn over all the leaves, and look upon all, and see nothing; but another that can read, and hath judgment to understand, considereth the whole story, the mighty deeds, grave counsels, discreet answers, examples, promises,-the very drift and meaning of him that wrote it.

So do the faithful receive the fruit and comfort by the sacraments which the wicked and ungodly neither consider nor receive.

Thus do the sacraments lead us and instruct us to behold the secret and unknown mercies of God, and to carry ourselves to the obedience of his will. And this is the other cause why sacraments were ordained. (To be Continued.)

SACRED REFLECTIONS.

No. I.

IT is the declaration of an Apostle, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." To be in Christ is to be a Christian not in name, but in reality; to be in Christ is to be interested in him as our Saviour; it is to be united to him as our head by a true and living faith; it is to be "found in him, not having our own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." And how