Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/447

Rh grace, by the which He doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our faith in Him;" and, again, (Art. 26.) that "they be effectual because of Christ's institution and promise;" and, again, in the Article on Baptism itself, they do not say only, that it "is a sign of regeneration or the New Birth," but "an instrument whereby they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church:" this being precisely the point to which the Zuingli-Calvinist school objects: (for, of course, no mere outward engraffing into a visible church, is spoken of, and an engraffing into the Church or Body of, is an engraffing into ; for the Scripture speaks of engraffing into Him, not into His Body only, and we know of no engraffing into His Body, distinct from an engraffing into Himself;)—and, again, our Church grounds the Baptism of infants on "the institution of ," (as does the Bohemian and the ancient church) not (with the Zuinglians) on the promise to Abraham and circumcision. Again, of the Supper, it is said, that "the Body of  is given, taken, and eaten," which (as has indeed been lately pointed out with much clearness, Knox's Remains, t. ii. p. 170 sqq.) could not be consistently, and, as we have just seen, never is used in the Calvinist school. What similarity, then, does exist, is to be accounted for, in part, from the familiar intercourse of Edward the VIth.'s Reformers with foreign divines, whence they adopted, in part, their language, avoiding, however, such as expressed their characteristic views. There were also (as has been pointed out to me) at that time, hopes that the reformed Churches might be saved from abandoning Episcopacy, and meet the English view of the doctrine of the Sacraments. Thus far the use of their language must be looked upon as a concession; to which (though fruitless as all the like attempts have ever been) there was, in the then absence of this experience, much temptation. And the Reformers, under Elizabeth (while in framing our Thirty-Nine Articles, they altered some things,) retained the old Article on Baptism, as being sufficiently guarded from Zuinglianism, although not so much after the form of the Ancient Church as our Baptismal service.

Another point to be observed is, that our Reformers view the Christian dispensation, as it is a system brought into the world, and as it stands in relation to the creatures to whom it is proposed, to their previous state, moral condition, capacities, &c. in the abstract, rather than as it applies to us individually, who have been educated in it. For, thus, the character of the dispensation in itself, as a whole, could best be exhibited. Thus the article on "Works before Justification," (Art. 13.) is of much importance in clearing the system, by setting forth the relation of the Christian system to man's natural state and his unassisted powers: but to us, individually, who have been born within it, and who never were left to our mere natural powers, (having had original sin remitted to us through Baptism in our infancy, and