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The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

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as if God, through them, infuses or impresses grace to salvation, even on<br />

those who do not believe or accept. <strong>The</strong> meaning of the sentence: 'It is not<br />

the sacrament which justifies, but the faith of the sacrament,' is not that<br />

faith justifies without accepting the grace which God offers <strong>and</strong> imparts in<br />

the word <strong>and</strong> sacraments, or that it accepts the grace without the means or<br />

organ of the word <strong>and</strong> sacraments. For the object of faith is the word <strong>and</strong><br />

sacraments; nay, rather, in the word <strong>and</strong> sacraments the true object of faith<br />

is the merit of Christ, the grace of God, <strong>and</strong> the efficacy of the Spirit. Faith<br />

justifies, therefore, because it lays hold of those things in the word <strong>and</strong><br />

sacraments. God does not impart His grace in this life all at once, so that it<br />

is straightway, absolute, <strong>and</strong> finished, so that God has nothing more to<br />

confer, man nothing more to receive; but God is always giving <strong>and</strong> man is<br />

always receiving, so as ever to be more closely <strong>and</strong> perfectly joined to<br />

Christ, to hold more <strong>and</strong> more firmly the pardon of sins; so that the benefits<br />

of redemption, which have been begun in us, may be preserved,<br />

strengthened, <strong>and</strong> increased. Wherefore the sacraments are not idle or bare<br />

signs, but God, through them, offers to believers His grace, imparts it,<br />

applies it, <strong>and</strong> seals it...Between the promise <strong>and</strong> faith the relation is so<br />

close that the promise cannot benefit a man without faith, nor faith benefit a<br />

man without the promise...In this sense Luther says: '<strong>The</strong> sacraments were<br />

instituted to excite, nourish, strengthen, increase, <strong>and</strong> preserve faith, so that<br />

whether in the promise naked, or in the promise in the vesture of the<br />

sacramental rite, it may grasp <strong>and</strong> accept grace <strong>and</strong> salvation.'" In<br />

discussing more particularly the benefits of the Eucharist, the same great<br />

writer says: 544 "Faith, in the reception of the Eucharist, should reverently<br />

consider <strong>and</strong>, with thanksgiving, embrace all the riches <strong>and</strong> the whole<br />

treasure of the benefits, which Christ the Mediator, by giving up His body<br />

<strong>and</strong> shed-. ding His blood, has purchased for His Church...That they also<br />

receive the remission of sins, who are conscious of grievous crimes, <strong>and</strong> do<br />

not renounce them, but cherish still the purpose of evil-doing, who bring<br />

no fear of God, no penitence or<br />

544 Examen Concil. Trid. (Ed. Francoff. a. M. 1707,) 364, 366.

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