4. What is the nature of the Christian Sacraments? “Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only badges or tokens of Christian men’s profession, 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.”—25_th_ _Art. Ch. of England_. 5. What do you understand by “spiritual grace,” which you say it is the design of the Sacraments to convey to the soul? The term grace has many significations in Scripture: but most commonly it either means good-will, or favour (Romans xi. 6; 2 Tim. i. 9; Rom. v. 20); or it signifies the _internal operation of the Holy Spirit_ upon the soul, regenerating, purifying, and sanctifying our nature: and the Sacraments, when duly regarded, are signs and pledges of the one, and effectual means of conveying the other. 6. How, then, are the Sacraments to be regarded? Simply as _means_ of grace, and not as _necessarily_ conveying any internal benefit to the soul: for no such benefit is, or can be, derived from them, unless the mind be previously prepared to partake of them as God has willed and commanded. 7. What proofs can you adduce that the internal benefits of Sacraments are not absolute, and independent of the previous state of the mind? _First_, because we have no warrant either in Scripture, or in the reason of things, to think so; and, _secondly_, because, if they were so, no one could eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper to their own condemnation, which St. Paul affirms is the case with those who eat and drink unworthily. (1. Cor. xi. 29. Acts viii. 13, 20–23.) 8. But though this is the case in the Lord’s Supper, are not the benefits of Baptism absolute and unconditional? No: repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ are indispensably necessary in all cases previously to any _saving_ benefits being derived from the use of this sacrament. Repentance and faith, however, though previously necessary, are in nowise the _meritorious_ and _procuring_ cause of these benefits; they form only a preparatory and necessary meetness for a due reception of them. 9. But are not infants, although incapable of either repentance or faith, invariably regenerated, renewed, and sanctified in and by this sacrament? All that are baptized are said to be regenerated, because the outward ordinance is a sign or emblem of “spiritual regeneration.” And nothing is more common, both in Scripture and in ancient writings, than the use of a term which only denotes the _sign_ for the _thing signified_. And in the judgment of Christian charity, in all cases when this sacrament is rightly received, and the after conduct corresponds with the professions therein made, we may conclude that they partake, as of the sign, so also of the thing signified.