Question 92

A sacrament—This is a theological and ecclesiastical and not a biblical word. The term sacrament is not found in Holy Scripture. In this respect it stands on the same footing as Trinity, incarnation, consubstantial, and such-like scientific terms. The word sacrament has a very interesting and instructive history. Perhaps the best and most accessible summary of the history of the word will be found in Trench’s Study of Words, Lect. iv. In seeking out the origin and original use of this word which we have appropriated to a religious use, we must not only pass beyond Scripture, but beyond the Church and Church life altogether, and seek it among the usages of the judicial and military life of ancient Rome. The word sacrament, sacramentum, a sacred, a dedicated thing, originally signified that sum of money which was deposited by parties who entered on a lawsuit before a Roman tribunal: it was a kind of wager as to the right, and it took this name because when forfeited it was handed over to the treasury of some temple, or other sacred institution, much as contending parties among ourselves sometimes agree to hand over forfeited sums to hospitals or other public charities. The word next came to signify the military oath that the Roman recruit took to his general or to the emperor. From these senses the term became extended to any solemn promise or undertaking. And when the Church took over the term into her vocabulary, she applied it to designate certain religious doctrines and ordinances, especially such as contained an element of mystery, and inwardness, and depth. Thus the word sacramentum was employed in the Vulgate to translate the Greek word mystery, wherever that word occurred in the New Testament: thus we find Jerome, in speaking of the book of Revelation, saying tot verba, quot sacramenta, every word in this book contains a mystery. And thus through a long and instructive history it has come about that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are known among ourselves as the sacraments; and that because they, by Christ’s appointment, mystically represent, seal, and apply Christ and the benefits of the new covenant.

instituted by Christ—“Instituted by Christ in His Church” (Larger Catechism): “immediately instituted by God” (Confession). To institute is to set up, appoint, originate. The accounts of the institution of the two sacraments are given repeatedly in the Gospels. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul also gives us an authoritative account of the institution of the Supper, which, he says, he received of the Lord Himself. In instituting the ordinance of the Supper, Christ Himself knit the sacramental bond between the sign and the things signified: and that bond holds and operates wherever and whenever the Supper is rightly dispensed and received.

Calvin says that the term sacrament, taken generally, includes all the signs which God ever commanded men to use, that He might make them sure and confident of the truth of His promises. Sometimes God took a natural object and attached to it a sacramental significance and value. The tree of life was such a sacrament to Adam: as again the rainbow was to Noah. The tree was previously a tree, and the bow a bow: but when they were, so to say, inscribed with the word of God, a new use was attached to them: they became signs and seals of God’s covenants: they became sacraments. Miracles were sometimes wrought, on the other hand, to seal and confirm the bare word of God, as in the case of the burning furnace that Abraham saw, and the fleece now dry and now wet which fortified Gideon’s faith, and the backgoing shadow on Hezekiah’s sun-dial. All these things were of the nature of sacraments. On this subject Flavel says: “Of sacraments there are two sorts, some extraordinary and transient, as the fiery pillar, the manna, and the water out of the rock; and some ordinary and standing, as circumcision and the Passover before Christ, and baptism and the Lord’s Supper since Christ’s death.” But Calvin’s instances agree better with the correct definition and true nature of a sacrament than some of Flavel’s. The manna and the water were miracles of grace, and no doubt, over and above their immediate use, they supported the faith of Israel in God and in His promises. But these things were not directly and immediately given to Israel as signs and seals of the word of God. “But leving the ambiguitie of the word, I take the worde sacrament, as it is tane and used in the Kirk of God, for a haly signe and seal that is annexed to the preached word of God, to seal up and confirme the truth contained in the same word, in sick sort, that I call not the seal separated fra the word a sacrament. . . . Therefore the word only cannot be a sacrament; nor the element only cannot be a sacrament: bot word and element conjunctly man make a sacrament: and sa Augustine said weill, Let the word come to the element and ye sal have a sacrament: then I call a sacrament the word and seal conjunctlie, the ane hung to the uther” (Robert Bruce).

by sensible signs—Sensible, Lat. sensus, sensibilis. The senses are those faculties by which man, and in their measure the lower animals also, perceive external objects by means of impressions made on certain organs of the body. The senses are usually spoken of as being five in number, namely, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. And that is called sensible which possesses properties or attributes that affect the senses. Thus water in the one sacrament, and bread and wine in the other, are sensible, that is, they are capable of being perceived and apprehended through the senses and organs of the body. signs—Lat. signa, marks; a sign is that by which anything is represented, a token, an indication. The student who takes the trouble will easily discover the leading uses of this word in Scripture. “I call the signs in the sacrament quhatsoever I perceive and takis up be my outwarde senses, be myne eye especially. . . . The reasoun quherfore I call them signes is this: I call them not signes, because they signifie only, as the bread signifies the body of Christ, and the wine signifies the blood of Christ. I call them not signes, because they represent only, but I call them signes because they have the body and blood of Christ conjoyned with them. . . . They are instruments to deliver and exhibite the thing that they signifie, and not in respect onely of their representation, they are called signes. For if they did nathing bot represented or signified a thing absent, then ony picture or dead image suld be a sacrament. . . . There is na picture of the king that will deliver the king unto you; therefore na picture can be a sacrament. . . . Then, I say, I call the sacraments signs, because God has maid them potent instrumentis to deliver that same thing quhilk they signifie” (Bruce’s Sermons).

Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant—For the old covenant, the covenant of works and resulting life, see Answer 12, also Confession, chap. vii., Macpherson’s edition. And for new covenant, the covenant of grace, see Answer 20, and for “Christ and the benefits of the new covenant” see Answers 20 to 38 inclusive. “Nowe, I ga to the thing signified, and I call the thing signified be the signes in the sacrament, that quhilk Irenæus, that auld writer, callis the heavenly and spiritual thing, to wit, hail Christ, with His hail gifts, benefits, and graces, applied and given to my saul. . . . Sa I call not the thing signified the grace and virtue that flowes fra Christ onelie, nor Christ Himself and His substance, without the vertue and grace onelie: but jointly the substance with the graces, hail Christ, God and man, without separation of His natures, without discretion of His substance fra His graces” (Bruce). “The sacraments are auxiliary or instrumental in conveying to believing men the spiritual blessings of the forgiveness of the sins which they continue to commit, a growing sense of God’s pardoning mercy, and grace and strength to resist temptation and discharge duty, and improve privilege, and to be ever advancing in holiness: or, to adopt the language of the Shorter Catechism, the sacraments instrumentally convey assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end” (Cunningham, Reformers).

represented—Re-presented, presented over again: as before in the word, so now in the sacramental elements and actions. In addition to the expository use of the word here, there may also be a certain polemical reference to the Popish position that the sacraments “contain the grace which they signify and represent.” “God, considering our frame, hath not only appointed that we should be told of the great things of the gospel and the redemption of Christ, and be instructed in them by His word: but also that they should be, as it were, exhibited to our view by sensible representations, the more to affect us with them” (Jonathan Edwards).

sealed—“A metaphor from contracts” (Bengel). Lat. sigillum, diminutive of signum, a mark or sign; a securing and authenticating mark or stamp. Hence that which confirms and ratifies a promise or an engagement; as in many Scripture passages. The classical Scripture passage for the sacramental use of sign and seal is of course Rom. iv. 11, on which Schaff, supplementing Lange, remarks: “We have here an intimation of the true idea of sacraments: they are signs, seals, and means of grace, but not the grace itself. Circumcision is not the covenant, neither is baptism regeneration. A sign and seal can never be the substitute for the thing signed and sealed, nor should it be made a ground of confidence or hope; but it is all-important as a divine ratification, and gives, so to say, legal validity to our claims, as the governmental seal to a written instrument.” And Bruce is here, as always, as true as he is racy: “Sacraments serve to this end also, to seal up and confirm the truth that is in the word: for as the office of the seale hung to the evident is not to confirme ane uther truth nor that quhilk is in the evident; and suppose ye believed the evident of before, yet be the seales ye beleeve it the better; even sa, the sacrament assures me of na uther truth nor is conteined within the word: yit because it is a seale annexed to the word, it persuades me the better of the same: for as the mair that the outward senses be walkned, the mair is the inward hart and mind persuaded to belief. Now, the sacrament walknes all the outward senses, sick as the eye, the hand, and all the rest: and the outward senses being moved, na question, the Spirit of God concurring therewith, moves the hart the mair.” (See Cruden’s full and admirable analysis of this scriptural term.)

and applied—The Larger Catechism has “signify, seal, and exhibit.” At first sight exhibit seems a repetition of signify, but when we carefully examine the word we find that apply was a once well-known though now obsolete sense of exhibit. In its modern sense exhibit means much the same as represent or signify, but in old Scotch and English it meant, as it still means in the technical language of medicine, and as in the text of the Larger Catechism, to deliver over, to administer, to make application of. Thus Bruce: “The sacrament exhibits and delivers the thing that it signifies to the soul and hart. Then in respect the Lord hes appointed the sacrament as hand to deliver and exhibit the thing signified.” And Bishop Gardner: “But in this sacrament, we be made participaunt of His Godhode, by His humanite exhibite vnto vs for fode.” And George Gillespie, explaining what “exhibitive signs” mean in Protestant writers, says: “I answer, that exhibition is a real, effectual, lively application of Christ, and of all His benefits, to every one that believeth, for the staying, strengthening, confirming, and comforting of the soul” (Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, Book III. chap. xii.).

to believers. This is a scriptural name and description of those who are true disciples of Christ and genuine children of God. See Acts v. 14; 1 Tim. iv. 12. This name is borne by those who by faith receive, depend, and rely upon Jesus Christ for salvation and eternal life. And the doctrine of the Catechism is that the sacraments are appointed for such, and for such alone. A full discussion of the question as to whether the sacraments are regenerating and converting ordinances will be found in the fourth book of George Gillespie’s Aaron’s Rod Blossoming. Jonathan Edwards also, with all his matchless strength and insight, fully discusses this matter. Dr. Cunningham epitomizes Gillespie’s arguments in his essay on Zwingle and the Doctrine of the Sacraments, an essay that all students who would understand the Reformed doctrine as to the sacraments should carefully read. Divinity students are earnestly urged to master Robert Bruce’s Five Sermons on the Sacraments. They who do so will carry clear and fruitful views with them into their expositions and exhortations in connection with this important subject. Professor James Candlish’s beautiful Handbook is accessible to all.

Uses

1. “It wald be speered, Quherefore are sacraments annexed, seeing we gat na mair in the sacrament nor we get in the word? Thy hart cannot wist nor imagine a greater gift nor to have the Sonne of God, quha is King of heaven and earth. And therefore, I say, quhat new thing wald thou have? The sacrament is appointed that we may get a better grip of Christ nor we get in the simple word. The sacraments are appointed that I might have Him mair fullie in my saul; that He might make the better residence in me. This, na doubt, is the cause quherefore thir seales are annexed to the evident of the simple word” (Bruce).
2. “Therefore let it be a fixed point, that the office of the sacrament differs not from that of the word of God; and this is to hold forth and offer Christ to us, and in Him the treasure of heavenly grace” (Calvin).

Questions

1. Derive Sacrament, and give some account of the changes through which this term has passed.
2. Explain and illustrate the phrase sensible signs.
3. What does Augustine mean when he says that a sacrament is a visible word? And again, that there may be invisible sanctification without the visible sign, and, on the other hand, a visible sign without true sanctification?
4. Set forth in Catechism language some of the benefits of the covenant of grace.
5. State shortly the Protestant doctrine of the sacraments as seals; and illustrate and establish from Scripture.
6. Explain Manton’s words: On God’s part the sacraments are signs and seals, on our part they are a badge and a bond.