Confirmation and restoration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…Confirmation and restauration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…

Prop. 10. To this Ministerial Approbation of the Profession, and Qualification of the expectant, there is to be adjoined a Ministerial Investiture, or Delivery of the Benefit expected.

Prop. 10. To this Ministerial Approbation of the Profession, and Qualification of the expectant, there is to be adjoyned a Ministerial Investiture, or Delivery of the Benefit expected.

This is the proper work of the Ministers of Christ. He that is Himself in the Heavenly Glory, hath left his Spirit within to draw men to him, and his Ministers without, to Deliver up the Counter-covenant on his part, in his Name, and to espouse them to Christ, and to Accept them in his Name, and stead. And this Investiture is one of the principal parts of the Nature and use of Sacraments, which all have not fully Considered of. The Papists tell us of seven Sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, the Eucharist, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction. Calvin sticks not to yield them three. The name Sacrament being not in Scripture, but of mere Ecclesiastic use, and being a word that will stretch, I distinguish between three sorts of Sacraments. 1. For any Divine Institution which notably signifieth Spiritual Grace: And so (though I think Extreme Unction none, as being now no duty, yet) I doubt not but ⟨p. 89⟩there's more then seven. 2. For any solemn Investiture of a person by Ministerial Delivery, in a state of Church-privileges, or some special Gospel-mercy. And so I grant that there are five Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Absolution, the Lords Supper, and Ordination. As a man that delivereth Possession of a house, doth deliver the Key to him that enters; and as we are Invested in the Possession of land, by the delivery of a twig and turf; and as Ministers were wont to be invested, or have Induction into the Churches by giving them the Books, and the Bell-ropes; and as women were wont to be married with a ring, and as a Prince doth Knight a man by a sword; so Christ by his Ministers doth first by Baptism Invest us in our Church-state, and Infant-privileges: and by Confirmation, confirm us in our Church-state, and Invest us with a Right to the Privileges of the Adult: and by Absolution reinvest us in the Privileges that we had forfeited: and by the Lords Supper Deliver to us Christ and his Benefits, for our ordinary nourishment, and growth in Grace: and by Ordination he Investeth the pardon ordained with Ministerial Power. 3. But taking the word Sacrament in that strictest sense, as our Divines define a Sacrament,