Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/322

112 The hard and dry character, indeed, of Calvin or Beza's mind was ill calculated for the restoration of the view of the Sacraments, which was now in the reformed Church destroyed: their mystical character was now effaced; Baptism was a sign to man; a mean of increasing the faith of the parents; a seal of grace before given; a sign of grace hereafter to be conveyed; but in no other sense a sacrament, than was the bow in the cloud, which was a sign of covenant,—an assurance to the infirmity of men's faith, but, in no sense, an instrument of grace.

This, as was said, belonged to the intellectual character of the theology of this school. The workings of faith, although incredible to the unbeliever, may still be made cognizable to the human intellect: the tendency of outward representations to embody to the mind things spiritual, to employ sense against sense, and to make things seen the means of lifting up the heart to things unseen, is also very obvious; as is also the power of a visible attestation to increase our credence in the things so attested.