Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/342

132 men, in the fears of a papal magnifying of the Sacraments fell into the opposite extreme: for fear it should seem absolutely necessary they made it seem almost indifferent: and for fear God's grace should be "tied to the Sacrament," they virtually disjoined God's grace from His own ordinance.

The language, in which this theory of the Sacraments was expressed, was subjected to various modifications, partly in consequence of the anxiety of this school (which is visible in the vehemence of their protests ) to make out to themselves that the Sacraments did not, on their theory, become "empty signs:" partly to satisfy the Lutherans, whose chief ground of complaint against the reformed lay against this innovation. It is, consequently, difficult to ascertain, in the several confessions, how much of this theory they retained, and in what degree they attempted to engraft upon it the language of the old and the Lutheran Church. There is, however, a remarkable correspondence