Article XIII (VII) The Number and Use of the Sacraments
[1] In Article XIII, the adveraries approve our statement that the Sacraments are not just marks of profession among people, as some imagine. Rather, they are signs and testimonies of God’s will toward us. Through them God moves hearts to believe. [2] But here they ask us to count seven Sacraments. We hold that the matters and ceremonies instituted in the Scriptures, whatever the number, should not be neglected. Neither do we believe it to be of any consequence. However, for teaching purposes, different people do count differently, provided they still rightly keep the matters handed down in Scripture. The ancients also did not count in the same way.
[3]If we call Sacraments “rites that have the command of God, and to which the promise of grace has been added,” it is easy to decide what are true Sacraments. For rites instituted by human beings will not be called true Sacraments. For human authority cannot promise grace. Therefore, signs set up without God’s command are not sure signs of grace, even though signs perhaps instruct the unlearned or admonish about something. [4] Therefore, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and Absolution (which is the Sacrament of Repentance) are truly Sacraments. For these rites have God’s command and the promise of grace, which is peculiar to the New Testament. When we are baptized, when we eat the Lord’s body, when we are absolved, our hearts must be firmly assured that God truly forgives us for Christ’s sake. [5] At the same time, by the Word and by the rite, God moves hearts to believe and conceive faith, just as Paul says, “Faith comes from hearing” (Romans 10:17). But just as the Word enters the ear in order to strike our heart, so the rite itself strikes the eye, in order to move the heart. The effect of the Word and of the rite is the same. It has been well said by Augustine that a Sacrament is a visible Word, because the rite is received by the eyes and is, as it were, a picture of the Word, illustrating the same thing as the Word. The result of both is the same.
[6] Confirmation and extreme unction are rites received from the Fathers that not even the Church requires as necessary to salvation, because they do not have God’s command. Therefore, it is useful to distinguish these rites from the former, which have God’s direct command and a clear promise of grace.
[7] The adversaries understand priesthood not about the ministry of the Word, and giving out the Sacraments to others, but as referring to sacrifice. This is as though there should be a priesthood like the Levitical one [Leviticus 8–9] to sacrifice for the people and merit the forgiveness of sins for others in the New Testament. [8] We teach that the sacrifice of Christ dying on the cross has been enough for the sins of the whole world. There is no need for other sacrifices, as though Christ’s sacrifice were not enough for our sins. So people are justified not because of any other sacrifices, but because of this one sacrifice of Christ, if they believe that they have been redeemed by this sacrifice. [9] So they are called priests, not in order to make any sacrifices for the people as in the Law, that by these they may merit forgiveness of sins for the people. Rather, they are called to teach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments to the people. [10] Nor do we have another priesthood like the Levitical, as the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches well enough [Hebrews 8]. [11] But if ordination is understood as carrying out the ministry of the Word, we are willing to call ordination a Sacrament. For the ministry of the Word has God’s command and has glorious promises, “The gospel … is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Likewise, “So shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose” (Isaiah 55:11). [12] If ordination is understood in this way, neither will we refuse to call the laying on of hands a Sacrament. For the Church has the command to appoint ministers, which should be most pleasing to us, because we know that God approves this ministry and is present in the ministry ‹that God will preach and work through men and those who have been chosen by men›. [13] It is helpful, so far as can be done, to honor the ministry of the Word with every kind of praise against fanatical people. These fanatics imagine that the Holy Spirit is given not through the Word, but through certain preparations of their own. For example, they imagine He is given if they sit unoccupied and silent in far-off places, waiting for illumination, as the Enthusiasts formerly taught and the Anabaptists now teach.
[14] Marriage was not first instituted in the New Testament, but in the beginning, immediately after the creation of the human race [Genesis 1:28]. Furthermore, it has God’s command. It has also promises, not truly having to do with the New Testament, but rather having to do with bodily life. Therefore, if anyone wishes to call it a Sacrament, he or she should still distinguish it from those preceding ones. They are truly signs of the New Testament and testimonies of grace and the forgiveness of sins. [15] But if marriage has the name “Sacrament” because it has God’s command, other states or offices also, which have God’s command, may be called Sacraments, as, for example, the government.
[16] Finally, if among the Sacraments everything should be numbered that has God’s command, and to which promises have been added, why do we not add prayer, which most truly can be called a Sacrament? For it has both God’s command and very many promises. If numbered among the Sacraments, although in a more prominent place, it would encourage people to pray. [17] Alms could also be counted here and, likewise, troubles. These are themselves signs to which God has added promises. But let us leave out these things. For no levelheaded person will labor greatly about the number or the term, if only those things are still kept that have God’s command and promises.
[18] It is more important to understand how the Sacraments are to be used. Here we condemn the whole crowd of scholastic doctors, who teach that the Sacraments give grace by the outward act (ex opere operato), without a good frame of mind on the part of the one using them, provided he does not place a hindrance in the way. This is absolutely a Jewish opinion, to hold that we are justified by a ceremony, without a good tendency of the heart, that is, without faith. Yet this ungodly and deadly opinion is taught with great authority throughout the entire realm of the pope. [19] Paul contradicts this, and denies (Romans 4:9) that Abraham was justified by circumcision. He asserts that circumcision was an illustration presented for exercising faith. So we teach that in the use of the Sacraments, faith should be added. Faith should believe these promises and receive the promised things offered in the Sacrament. [20] The reason is plain and thoroughly grounded. The promise is useless unless it is received by faith. The Sacraments are the signs of the promises. Therefore, faith should be added in the use of the Sacraments. If anyone uses the Lord’s Supper, he should use it by faith. This is a Sacrament of the New Testament, as Christ clearly says (Luke 22:20). For this very reason he should be confident that the free forgiveness of sins promised in the New Testament is offered. Let him receive this by faith, let him comfort his alarmed conscience and know that these testimonies are not false. They are as sure as though ‹and still surer than if› God by a new miracle would declare from heaven that it was His will to grant forgiveness. What advantage would these miracles and promises be to an unbeliever? [21] Here we speak of special faith that believes the present promise that the forgiveness of sins is offered. [22] This use of the Sacrament consoles godly and alarmed minds. We are not speaking of a faith that only in general believes that God exists.
[23] It is beyond words what abuses the fanatical opinion about outward works (opus operatum) has produced in the Church (without a good disposition on the part of the one using the Sacraments). From it has come the endless profanation of the Masses. We shall speak about this later. A single letter cannot be produced from the old writers that supports the Scholastics in this matter. On the contrary, Augustine says the faith that uses the Sacrament, and not the Sacrament, justifies. And the declaration of Paul is well-known, “With the heart one believes and is justified” (Romans 10:10).