Chapter 27. Of the Sacraments

Chapter 27. Of the Sacraments

I. Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace,⁵³⁶ immediately instituted by God,⁵³⁷ to represent Christ and his benefits, and to confirm our interest in him:⁵³⁸ as also to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church and the rest of the world;⁵³⁹ and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ, according to his Word.⁵⁴⁰

II. There is in every sacrament

a spiritual relation or sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified; whence it comes to pass that the names and the⁵⁴¹ effects of the one are attributed to the other.⁵⁴²

III. The grace which is exhibited in or by the sacraments, rightly used, is not conferred by any power in them; neither doth the efficacy of a sacrament depend upon the piety or intention of him that doth administer it,⁵⁴³ but upon the work of the Spirit,⁵⁴⁴ and the word of institution, which contains, together with a precept authorizing the use thereof, a promise of benefit to worthy receivers.⁵⁴⁵

IV. There be only two sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the gospel, that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord: neither of which may be dispensed by any but by a minister of the Word lawfully ordained.⁵⁴⁶

V. The sacraments of the Old Testament, in regard of the spiritual things thereby signified and exhibited, were, for substance, the same with those of the New.⁵⁴⁷