Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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the sacraments can produce no more effect upon our minds, than the
splendor of the sun on blind eyes, or the sound of a voice upon deaf ears. If
the seed falls on a desert spot, it will die; but if it be cast upon a cultivated
field, it will bring forth abundant increase.
Calvin vigorously opposes, as superstitious and mischievous, the scholastic
opus operatum theory that the sacraments justify and confer grace by an
intrinsic virtue, provided we do not obstruct their operation by a mortal
sin. A sacrament without faith misleads the mind to rest in the exhibition of
a sensuous object rather than in God himself, and is ruinous to true piety.
He agrees with Augustin in the opinion that the sign and the matter of the
sacrament are not inseparably connected, and that it produces its intended
effect only in the elect. He quotes from him the sentence: “The morsel of
bread given by the Lord to Judas was poison; not because Judas received
an evil thing, but because, being a wicked man, he received a good thing in
a sinful manner.” But this must not be understood to mean that the virtue
and truth of the sacrament depend on the condition or choice of him who
receives it. . The symbol consecrated by the word of the Lord is in reality
what it is declared to be, and preserves its virtue, although it confers no
benefit on a wicked and impious person. Augustin happily solves this
question in a few words: “If thou receive it carnally, still it ceases not to be
spiritual; but it is not so to thee.” The office of the sacrament is the same
as that of the word of God; both offer Christ and his heavenly grace to us,
but they confer no benefit without the medium of faith.
Calvin discusses at length the seven sacraments of the Roman Church, the
doctrine of transubstantiation, and the mass. But it is sufficient here to
state his views on baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the only sacraments
which Christ directly instituted for perpetual observance in the Church.
§ 116. BAPTISM.
Inst. IV. chs. XV. and XVI. Also his Brieve instruction, pour
armer tous bons fideles contre les erreurs de la secte commune des
Anabaptistes, Geneva, 1544, 2d ed. 1545; Latin version by Nicolas
des Gallars. In Opera, VII. 45 sqq. This tract was written against
the fanatical wing of the Anabaptists at the request of the pastors of
Neuchâtel. His youthful treatise On the Sleep of the Soul was also
directed against the Anabaptists. See above, § 77, pp. 325 sqq.
Calvin’s wife was the widow of a converted Anabaptist.