Arminius

The word sacrament, so called from sacrum or from sacrare, signifies among other things that oath by which soldiers bound themselves to their commander and pledged him obedience and fidelity, and so made themselves over wholly to him. Hence, by a fitting metaphor, this word has been transferred to sacred use, and signifies a sign of the divine covenant entered into with men, by which they are consecrated to God as to their Commander.

But since this word extends very widely, we do not treat of it insofar as it signifies every divine secret, and so takes in the Gospel itself, the Incarnation of Christ, the calling of the Gentiles, etc.; nor insofar as it signifies every symbolic divine mystery, which signifies something other than what it presents to the senses, such as ceremonies, types, parables, signs and figures, all of which, because they pertain to divine things, were called sacraments by the ancients. We treat instead of the stricter signification of sacrament: namely, insofar as it signifies and seals to us the grace of God.

Since the grace of God concerns either this temporal life or the spiritual life, sacraments too have been instituted by God to signify both. But we, leaving aside those that regard this life (whether they are general, as the rainbow was, or particular, as was Gideon's fleece, wet with dew and dry), shall treat only of those that regard the grace of the spiritual life. And since these are taken sometimes for the sign, sometimes for the thing signified, and sometimes for the whole combination of sign and thing signified, we are about to treat of them taken in the first signification, and we define them thus.

Sacraments are signs and seals, sacred and visible, instituted by God and by Christ the Mediator, so that through them the promised grace of God may be signified and sealed to those in covenant with him; and that they in turn may pledge and testify their faith in God and in Christ and their mutual love for one another, and may be distinguished from unbelievers.

We say that they are signs and seals, both from the nature of the sacraments, since besides the outward appearance which they bring before our senses they signify and seal something else to us, and from the most customary usage of speech in Holy Scripture. And they are signs not natural, which signify by their own nature all that they signify, as smoke signifies fire, but voluntary, whose whole signification depends on the choice of the one who institutes them. Nor are they miraculous; without a miracle they signal the underlying thing, that is, they both signify and seal it, and for this reason they are also called seals.

We say that they are signs sacred and visible. Sacred, on two counts: 1. because they have been instituted for us by God; 2. because they have been instituted not for any use whatever, but only for sacred use. They are called visible because signs that denote invisible grace are, and must be, altogether of this kind; and because it belongs to the nature of a sign that it be perceptible by sense, for what is not so cannot be called a sign.

We hold the author of the sacraments to be God. For since it belongs to God alone to prescribe laws to the Church, to remit sins, to promise grace, and to confer the very thing denoted by the sacraments, it belongs to him alone also to shadow forth and seal these same things by his signs. Wherefore no creature can arrogate to itself the right or authority of establishing new sacraments without falling into the most grievous crime of injured divine majesty.

The matter can be considered in two ways, either relatively or absolutely. If it is considered relatively, the matter of the sacraments will be that outward sign instituted by God, fit for signalling the things signified. But if absolutely, that is, insofar as it takes in the whole action, which consists in the visible and bodily reception of the symbols and the spiritual and invisible reception of Christ and his benefits, we hold that the matter is twofold: the one external, the symbols themselves; the other internal, Christ with all his benefits.

The form of the sacraments is twofold, the one external, the other internal. The external form is, first, the word of institution and promise; hence Augustine: Let the word be added to the element, and it becomes a sacrament. For it is brought about by the word that outward things perceptible by sense are signs of invisible things, though by their own nature they would signify nothing of the kind: not by changing the sign into the thing signified, nor by infusing any new quality, but only by changing the use. It is, second, that ordered action, according to God's institution, by which the minister, the people of God being assembled, communicates the outward symbols and declares their true use. And since this action proceeds from the minister not as the principal efficient cause but only as the instrumental one, we conclude that the efficacy or dignity of the sacraments does not depend on him, and that his intention neither hinders nor furthers the effect of the sacrament, provided the institution itself is kept.

Since sacraments belong to the genus of relatives, their internal form must consist in a relation to something else. It consists, therefore, not in a bodily union, nor in the presence of sign and thing signified in the same place, nor in transmutation or consubstantiation, but in that most fitting analogy of the sign to the thing signified, which regards both the representation and the sealing of the thing signified.

From this very close analogy and agreement of the sign with the thing signified there arise in Holy Scripture various figurative ways of speaking about the sacraments. For sometimes the sign is denoted by the name of the thing signified, as: My covenant shall be in your flesh. Sometimes the thing signified receives the name of the sign, as: Our passover is sacrificed. Sometimes the property of the thing is attributed to the sign, as: Whosoever drinketh of this water shall never thirst. Or conversely, what is proper to the sign is attributed to the thing, as: This is my body which is broken for you.

The sign and the thing signified differ chiefly in these respects. 1. The signs are bodily, visible, earthly; the things signified are spiritual, invisible and heavenly. 2. The signs are received visibly, by hand, mouth, members and bodily senses, and even by unbelievers themselves; but the things signified are received by faith and the Spirit alone, and by the faithful alone. 3. The signs are given to confirm and seal faith concerning things received or to be received; but the things signified are the very object of faith. 4. The things signified are simply necessary to salvation; the signs are not simply necessary. 5. In different sacraments the signs are different, but the thing signified is, generally speaking, the same.

God has instituted his sacraments not for any men whatever, but only for those with whom he has entered into his covenant; and they, so long as they are comprehended under the covenant, are bound to use them. Nor are only some of the covenanted bound to them, but each and every one, because they were instituted for the use of all. From this it can be gathered how greatly those err and deceive themselves who hold that certain sacraments were given not to all, but only to some members of the Church.

The proper end of the sacraments is either primary or secondary. The primary end is the visible confirmation and sealing of the invisible grace of God and of our union with Christ. The secondary end is either a sign of the faith and piety of the Church toward God; or a bond joining those in covenant with God in mutual love; or lastly a mark by which the sons of God are distinguished from the sons of the devil. And since this is the secondary end, those err who assert that the sacraments were instituted by God for its sake alone.

The lawful use of the sacraments is considered either in the things that regard those who distribute the sacraments, or in those who communicate in the sacraments. In the former, the use requires: 1. that the ministers of God set before the distribution an explanation of the sacraments, in a clear voice and in a language known to all; 2. that they neither take away from nor add to the institution of God. In the latter, the use requires: 1. that they communicate in the visible signs, which is common to unbelievers as much as to believers, until their unbelief has been certainly established; 2. the use requires faith, by which they apply to themselves Christ with his benefits, sealed by the outward symbols; and this is proper to the faithful.

Now since the word and the sacraments are so joined that the latter can do nothing without the former, it is worth while to see in what they agree and in what they differ. They agree in this, that both have the same author, minister, object and end, and that the power of the Holy Spirit is bound to neither. But they differ chiefly in these respects: that the word signifies by institution, the sacrament signifies according to the likeness it has with the thing signified; that the word is to be preached to all, even to those not yet born again, the sacrament is to be given only to the covenanted; that by the word faith is begun and confirmed, by the sacraments faith already begun is confirmed and increased; that the word is received by the ears, the sacrament by the other senses; that the word teaches and confirms without the sacraments, but the sacraments can neither exist nor have any efficacy without the word; that without the word adults are not saved, but without the sacraments they can be saved, provided contempt is absent.

The sacraments also differ from sacrifices, and are not to be held the same as them.

1. They differ in the whole action of the covenanted: for in the sacraments God confers something on us and we receive it, but in sacrifices we offer something to God. 2. They differ in their proximate end: for propitiatory sacrifices serve to obtain from God saving and spiritual goods, but the sacraments serve to apply to us those goods once obtained, and eucharistic sacrifices serve for giving thanks for those goods obtained and applied. But although these differ thus among themselves, one and the same rite can nevertheless, on different accounts, be called both a sacrifice and a sacrament.

So much for the nature of the sacraments; it remains that we say a few things about their number. There are, then, sacraments of the covenant of works, such as the tree of life was, and sacraments of the covenant of grace, and these either of grace promised, which are called sacraments of the Old Testament, or of grace exhibited, which are called sacraments of the New Testament. Those of the Old Testament were of two kinds. Either they were temporary and extraordinary, of which some correspond to our baptism, such as the passage through the Red Sea, the sojourn under the cloud, the flood; and some correspond to the Lord's Supper, such as the manna given from heaven and the water flowing from the rock. Or they were fixed and ordinary, whose use lasted until the coming of Christ's kingdom; and these were chiefly two, circumcision and the Passover, the former of initiation, the latter of confirmation in the covenant. Of the New Testament there are likewise two: one of initiation, baptism; the other of continuation and confirmation, the Lord's Supper.

The sacraments of the Old and New Testament agree in some things and differ in others. They agree: 1. in the efficient cause, which on both sides is God; 2. in their generic parts, sign and thing signified; 3. in the principal thing signified; 4. in their end, that they are visible symbols of an invisible thing. But they differ: 1. in the sign, which is different on each side; 2. in number, because formerly they were very many, now they are fewer; 3. in duration, because the former were abrogated at the coming of Christ, while the latter are to last until his second coming; 4. in extent, for the former pertained only to the Jews and to those reckoned among the Jews, the latter pertain to all men of the whole world; 5. in love [sic: for claritate, "in clarity"?], for the old were more obscure, as designating Christ to come, while ours are clearer, because they signify that Christ has already come.