this Section proceeds to guard this important truth from abuse, by carefully showing upon what this grace-conveying efficacy of the sacraments does not, and upon what it does, depend.

1st. This grace is not contained in the sacraments themselves, nor " is it conferred by any power in them."

According to the Romish and Ritualistic view, the grace signified is contained in the sacrament itself, as qualities inhere in substances, and it is together with the outward sign presented as a real objective sense to every recipient, whether believer or unbeliever. They hold also that the sacrament confers this grace upon every recipient who does not positively resist, as an ojpus operatum — by the sole force of. the sacramental action, as hot iron burns.*

This whole view is explicitly rejected as false by our Confession. And the whole efficacy of the sacrament is said to depend not upon any part of it separately, nor upon the whole together, but upon the sovereign power of the Holy Ghost, who is always present and uses the sacrament as his instrument and medium.

2d. The efficacy of the sacraments does not depend upon either the personal piety or the *' intention" of the person who administers them.

The Romanists admit that the efficacy of the sacraments does not depend upon the personal piety of the administrator, but they insist that it depends (a) upon the fact that the administrator is canonically authorized; (b) upon the fact that the administrator exercises at the moment of administration the secret " intention" of doing thereby what the Church intends in the definition of the sacrament.f The priest may outwardly pronounce every word and perform every action prescribed in the ritual, and the recipient may fulfil every condition required of him, and yet if the priest fails in the secret intention of conferring the grace through the

* Cone. Trident., Sess. vii., Cans. 6 and 8.

t Ibid., Sess. vii.. Can. 11. Dens, vol. v. p. 127.

sacrament then and there, the recipient goes away destitute of the grace he supposes himself to have received, and which the priest has ostensibly professed to confer,

3d. But the efficacy of the sacraments depends — (a.) Upon their divine appointment as means and channels of grace. They were not devised by man as suitable in themselves to produce a moral impression. But they were appointed by God, and we are commanded to use them as means of grace, and hence God virtually promises to meet every soul who uses them rightly in the sacrament. Christ seals his gracious covenant by them, and hence in their use invests with the grace of that covenant every soul to which it belongs. (6.) The efficacy of the sacrament resides in the sovereign and everpresent personal agency of the Holy Ghost, who uses the sacraments as his instruments and media of operation. The Spirit is the executive of God. He takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us. Through him even the humanity of Jesus is virtually omnipresent, and all the benefits secured by his sacrifice are revealed and applied.

This section is levelled against two tenets of the Church of Rome. That Church holds that the sacraments, when rightly administered, are of themselves effectual to confer grace ; and that the intention of the priest or administrator is essential to a sacrament ; so that if a priest goes through all the forms of administering baptism or the Lord's supper, and does not in his own mind intend to administer it, it is in fact no sacrament. That the sacraments themselves cannot confer saving grace is evident ; for if they had this power in themselves, they would be equally effectual to all who receive them. But many are partakers of the sacraments, who are not partakers of the grace of God. Simon Magus was baptized, and yet remained in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.— Acts viii. 13, 23. That the efficacy of the sacraments does not depend upon the intention of the adminis- * Dick's Lectures on Theology, vol. iv , p. 118.

282 C )NFESSION OF FAITH. [CHAP. XXVII.

trator is not less evident; for this would place the administrator in God's stead, whose sole prerogative it is to render the sacraments effectual for the purposes designed by them. Besides, in this case, no one could be certain that he had received the sacraments; because he could not be absolutely certain of the intention of another. In opposition to these absurd tenets, we maintain that the efficacy of the sacraments depends upon the working of the Spirit on the souls of the receivers ; and upon the word of institution, which contains a precept authorizing the use of these ordinances, and a promise of benefit by them to the worthy receivers.