III. Of vvhat parts a Sacrament consisteth.

Hereby also we knowe, of what parts pro∣perly consisteth a Sacrament, namely of the word and outward signe, but so as they be re∣ferred to the thing signified and represented by them, and whereof they are a Sacrament. For that wherof any thing is a Sacrament, can not be the Sacrament it selfe, nor parte of the Sacrament: sith euerie Sacrament is a Sacra∣ment, of some other thing then it selfe. Meane while we doe not simplie separate the thing it selfe from the Sacrament, neither do we denie but among the fathers, and most of the godlie and learned writers, vnder the name of Sacra∣ment, is comprehended that it selfe, whereof any thing is a Sacrament: as by the name of Baptisme not only is vnderstood the outward washing with water, and the word, but also is Page  102contained, the verie inwarde cleansing of the conscience from sinne & regeneration. There∣fore we embrace that saying of Ireneus, of the Lords supper, that it consisteth of an earthly mat∣ter, and a heauenly: Neither doe wee our selues vse to forbeare such kinde of speaches when we talke of the sacramēts: but yet in this sence, not that it is properly a part of the sacrament, sith it is rather that, to the participation wher∣of the sacraments doe bring vs: but that the sacrament hath a mistical relation vnto it: and by the band or knott of this relation, the earthly matter is coupled with the heauenly. And thus doe wee reconcile many sayings of the learned writers and of the Fathers, which seeme to haue some diuers and contrary mea∣nings, when indeede their opinions are one & the same euery where: most of them calling sacramentes simply by the names of signes, fi∣gures, tokens, tipes, antytipes, formes, seales, sealinges, cerimonies, visible wordes, and such like names: others, saying it consisteth of an earthly matter & a heauenly: which howe it is to be vnderstood, we declared euen nowe: but all often calling the sacraments, by the names of those things, whereof they bee sacraments, after the vse of the holy Scriptures: when as notwithstanding all men haue ment and professed in the name of sacraments, these three thinges, the word, the signes added to the word, and the thinges where of they are signes.