What Is a Sacrament?

Answ”. A sacrament is an holy ordinance instituted by Christ, wherein by sensible signs, Christ, nd the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.

O. What did the word sacrament originally mean?

A. An oath, whereby soldiers bound themselves to be faithful to their General.

Q. Why then are Christ’s sealing ordinances called sacraments? A. Because therein we swear, that we will be faithful followers, subjects, and soldiers to Christ; and he enga-getK to bestow all his blessings upon us.

Q. Why are the sacraments called holy ordinances?

A. Their author, matter, objects, and ends, are holy.

£). How many parts are in every sacrament?

A. Two j the sign, and the thing signified.

O. What call you the sign? A. That outward

ihing in the sacrament which may be seen, felt, or tasted.

£). What is the thing signified in all sacraments?

A. Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant.

Q. Wherein doth the sign, and thing signified in sacraments, differ? A. The sign is something natural and sensible, but the thing signified is spiritual.

Q. What is the form of a sacrament?

A. The word of divine institution, which unites the sign and thing signified, and gives us ground to expect his rendering them effectual, Matin, xxvi. 28.

Q. What relation ‘doth “the word of institution consti-Quest. §2. Sacraments in general.’ 317

tute between these? A. It makes the sign

to represent, seal, and apply the thing signified.

(J”. What is ‘meant by the sign’s representing Christ and his benefits? A. Its carrying a resemblance oi him

and his benefits,. 1 Pet. iii.,21. 1 Cor. il. 23,-26.

Qj What is meant by the sign’s sealing Christ and his benefits ?. A. Its confirming our interest in Christ and his blessings, Rom.. iv. 11. 1 Pet. iii. 21.

Q. Do the sacraments make our interest in Christ or his promise firmer in itself?

A. No*, they only further shew the firmness of it, and tend to strengthen our faith in Christ and his promise.

O; How do you prove, that the sacraments are seals of God’s covenant? A> Because circumcision (and,

by consequence, all other sacraments) is called a seal of the righteousness of ‘faith, Rom. iv. 11.

Q. What is meant by the sacramental sign’s applying Christ and his benefits? A. That in and by the sign,

Christ and his benefits are really made over to us.

Q. To whom do the signs-in the sacrament represent, seal, and apply Christ and his benefits?

A, To believers only, Exod. xii. 48. Ezek. xliv. 9. Q.. How dctb that appear?

A. Others have no eyes to see, no hand or mouth of faith to receive Christ*, and are not in the-new covenant, of which alone the sacraments are seals.

Q. Who have a right to partake of the sacraments? A. Such as are saints in appearance have a right before men •, but only real saints have a right before God.

Q^. How is it that hypocrites have a right to the sacraments before men, when they have none b-efore God?

A. They have the outward appearance of saints and the wickedness of their heart is unknown to men. Acts xiii. 13.

Q. Is it sinful and dangerous for hypocrites to receive the sacraments? A. Yes •, it is. a robbing of God,

and wounding of their owr souls, Matth. vii. 6. - Q. In what do the word and, sacraments agree;? A. God is the.author,..Christ the matter, and the glo= ry of God, and the good of his people, the end in both, Q. In what do the. word and sacraments differ? A. In their subjects, and’ in their, manner of conveying Christ and his grace to us.

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O. How do they differ in their subjects? A. .The

word is given to all men in general,,; but the sacrament? belong only to such as are in covenant with God.

O. How do they differ in their manner of manifesting and conveying Christ and his grace to us?

A. By the word we are at first united to Christ, and it represents him in a more simple manner; the sacraments do more fjlly confirm our faith, by giving us a visible token thai Christ is ours; the word is a disposition to God as our inheritance; the sacraments are anlnFeftment upon this inheritance.

Q. For what end hath Christ instituted sacraments in hb church? A. To keep up the remembrance of his

own death; give his people solemn fellowship with them, and their obligations to him; strengthen their grace j and distinguish them from the rest of the world, 1 Cor. x, xi.

Q. How are Christ’s sacraments usually distinguished?

A. Into those of the Old, and of the New Testament.

Q. What different kinds of sacraments were under the Old Testament? A. Ordinary and extraordinary.

Q. What were the ordinary sacraments of the Old Testament? A. Circumci-ion and the passover.

Q. What was the outward sign in circumcision?

A. The cutting off of the flesh of the foreskin.

Q. What was signified by that?

A. The destruction of original sin, which is conveyed by natural generation; pardon of sin j and dedication of the person to God.

Q. When was the sacrament of circumcision instituted?

A. About 2107 years after the creation, Gen.xvii.

Q. What sCrved the church for sacraments before?

A. The sacrifices, &c. which represented Christ’s death, and our living by and on him, Hcb. x. 1.

Q. What was the peswver?

A. The feasting on a sacrificed lamb on the 14th day of the month Abib, or M^rch.

Q. What was represented by this lamb?

A. Christ the Lamb of God in his death, 1 Cor. v. 7.

Q. Why was this lamb to bs an unblemished male of the first year?

A. To represent the purity, excellency, aid vigour of Christ as our suffering Surety, Heb. vii. 2o

Quest. Q2. Sacraments in general. 31Q

O. Why was the paschal lamb to be roasted ‘?

A. To shew the severuy of Christ’s suffer. ngs, Psal. xxii.

Q, Why was not a bone of this Lamb to be broken?

A. To shew how exactly the Father would uphold Christ in his sufferings, John xix. 3d. Isa, 1. 1,9.

Qj, Why was this lamb to be eaten with bitter herbs?

A. To keep in remembrance the bitterness of the Egyptian bondage; and shew that Christ must be received with bitter repentance for sin, Zech. xii. 10.

Q. WThy was nothing of the lamb to be left?

A, To shew that Christ must be wholly leceived by faith, John i. 12.

O. Why was the lamb to be eaten with unleavened bread f A. To keep in remembrance Israel’s hasty

dismission from Egypt ar.d shew that Christ must be received with sincerity of heart, 1 Cor. v. 8.

Q. When was the passover instituted?

A, When Israel came up cut of Egypt and about 2508 years after the creation, and 1492 before Christ.

Q. For what ends was it instituted? A. To be a

type of Christ, a seal of the covenant of grace, and a memorial of a temporal deliverance, 1 Cor. v. 8.

Q. Why was it called the passover P

A. Because it was a memorial of Israel’s passing out of Egypt, and of the angel’s passing over their houses when he smote the first-born of the Egyptians, Exod. xii.

Q. What made the angel pass over the houses of the Israelites? A. The sprinkling of their door-posts and

lintels with the blood of the paschal lamb, Exod. xii.

O. What was signified by the an-gei*S passing over their houses on account of this sprinkling of blood?

A. That the blood of Christ, sprinkled on our conscience, is a sure defence from divine wrath, Rom. viii. 1.

Q. What were the extraordinary, and less proper sacraments of the Old Testament?

A. Israel’s passage through the Red-sea, the mann39 rock, &c. 1 Cor. x. 1, — 4.

Q. What did Israel’s passage through the Red-sea signify? A. Our salvation from bondage, and separation from the world, through the blood of Christ, Eph. i. 7.

Q. What did the manna, and water-yielding rock, signify? A. Christ’s flesh a meat indeed, and his blood as drink indeedy John vi. 32, — 51. Rev. vii. v.