_The Articles_.—There are seven Articles—xxv. to xxxi.—bearing more or less upon the subject; and from these we may gather the real teaching of our Church. The first of them, the twenty-fifth, refers to sacraments in general. ‘Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only badges or tokens of Christian men’s professions, but rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace, and God’s good will towards us, by the which He doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our faith in Him.’ In other words, before men they are badges of our profession, and before God they are signs or witnesses by which God works invisibly in the soul. In this definition there is no idea of any change in the substance of the sign. The sign is not described as being changed into the thing signified, but as being accompanied by it, so that when the believer with the hand and lip visibly receives the sign, it pleases God in His own great grace invisibly to feed the soul and confirm the faith. The visible sign and the invisible gift are therefore kept quite distinct. The one is mercifully granted in connexion with the other, but never said to be incorporated with it, for the sign would cease to be a sign if it were changed into the thing signified. With this definition of a Sacrament, the 27th Article—which describes that of baptism—exactly agrees. It describes it not merely as a badge of a Christian man’s profession, but also declares that it is a sign and means of grace. ‘A sign of regeneration or new birth;’ a ‘means whereby as by an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly (1) are grafted into the Church; (2) the promises of forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed; (3) faith is confirmed, and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God.’ But no change is here described as taking place in the water. It is nowhere said to be changed into regeneration. The gifts described are God’s direct gifts to the soul, and are never said to be infused into the element of water. The water is sanctified, or set apart for sacramental use, but the consecration produces no change in its quality or substance. The new birth is not in the water, but is the act of the Holy Spirit moving in the soul. The minister on earth visibly administers the visible sign to the body, and we trust that God in heaven invisibly bestows the invisible gift on the soul. It is not my business now to discuss the connexion between the visible sign and the invisible gift. It is enough for my present purpose to point out that the one is not changed into the other, but that the water remains water, or, in other words, that the sign does not cease to be a sign, as it would do if it were changed into the thing signified.