XIV. By the vnworthinesse of the receiuers, the ver∣tue of the Sacraments is not taken away, nor weakened.

Neither yet do we thereby weaken or take away the vertue of the sacraments, and the force and power giuen vnto them of God, which we acknowledge to depend, not vpon the vnworthines of the ministers, or receiuers but on the faith and vertue of Christ the in∣stitutor of the sacraments. For euen as the gos∣pell doth keepe vnto it selfe alwaies, both the signification, though it bee not vnderstood of all, and the power of giuing all things which it offreth, though all bee not made partakers thereof: euen so the sacraments, those visible wordes doe the like: namely, that as the gos∣pell of it selfe, is the power of God to saluati∣on, but indeed to none but the beleeuers: So also the sacramentes are alwaies the working instruments of the holy ghost to saluatiō, how∣soeuer none receiue this powerfull working, but the true beleeuers. For which cause, the Apostles feared not to call them all which were baptized, * holy, renued, righteousse, although they Page  111knew, that among them were many hypocrits. For by such speaches they declared the great power giuen by God vnto the sacraments, & what we should beleeue they would work, vn∣lesse perhaps our hypocrisie did hinder them. In which sence if a man saye, that who so doe eate the bread of the Lord, they also are made partakers of the Lords body, that is, it cannot stand with the vertue of the sacrament, and with the vertue of the author and distributor thereof, but who so be partakers of the sacra∣mēt, must needs also be partakers of the thing signified and offered by it: such a manner of speach we cannot disallow: so that such expo∣sitions might be added, by which the people might be instructed, and those false opinions, conceiued before of the worke wrought might be drawne out of their mindes.