Johannes Marck’s Marrow of Christian Theology, Didactic-Elenctic XXIX

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CHAPTER XXIX.

On the Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace.

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I. We proceed to the SACRAMENTS, which in Scripture are called Signs and Seals of the Covenant, Gen. 17:11. “it shall be for a sign of the Covenant between me and you.” Rom. 4:11. καὶ σημεῖον ἔλαβε περιτομῆς, σφραγῖδα δικαιοσύνης τῆς πίστεως [and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith]; and here they are strictly opposed to Sacrifices, and also to external visible symbols.

II. They are defined: Sacred ceremonies instituted by God, in which, under external and visible signs, he signifies, seals, and spiritually exhibits to his covenanted ones the participation of the saving benefits of Christ promised in the Covenant itself, and likewise binds them to the offices of the Covenant to be performed.

III. As Ceremonies, they are opposed to Moral Duties; as Sacred, to profane rites; as Instituted by God, to human ordinances, which do not suffice, since they are divine seals of favor and worship. And here are required: first, an External Substantial and Visible Sign, so that the Sacraments may be distinguished from the heard Word; then, its Application to man; then, the Thing Signified, the grace of the Covenant; then, the Union of sign and thing signified, not physical but relative and moral, by which the thing signified is also signed, sealed, and exhibited to the truly covenanted in and by the sign; then, the Receiving Persons, the covenanted, sufficiently fit for the act; then, the chief End, the confirmation of faith and the increase of piety. To attain this,

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not the Intention of the Minister, but the Grace of God ought to be present.

IV. Sacraments are either of the Old or New Covenant; and they differ accidentally rather than essentially, since the Thing Signified, its Union with the Sign, and its efficacy are the same, 1 Cor. 10:1, 2, 3, 4. “all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” Rom. 4:11. “he received the sign of Circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith.” Gen. 17:10. “This is my Covenant, which ye shall keep,” &c.; “every male shall be circumcised among you.” The Pontiffs and Lutherans distinguish those more, because they will have the Old Testament signifying Christ through them, and the New Testament exhibiting the thing Signified and a greater Efficacy.

Objection 1. The Sacraments of the Old Testament were shadows, Col. 2:17.

Reply But Christ himself was shadowed.

Objection 2. Baptism is called an Antitype, 1 Pet. 3:21.

Reply It is not opposed to the Type, but to another Antitype.

V. There were formerly various Extraordinary Sacraments, which lasted only for a time, such as Preservation in the Deluge through the Ark, 1 Pet. 3:21; the Mansion under the Cloud; the Passage through the Red Sea; the eating of Manna; the Water from the Rock, 1 Cor. 10:3, 4; and the Looking upon the Brazen Serpent, John 3:15, &c. In these an analogy with the grace of Christ is easily found.

VI. Ordinary Sacraments of the Old Testament are commonly said to be Two, which excelled the others, and chiefly looked to Engrafting into the Church and Nourishment in it: Circumcision and the Passover.

VII. CIRCUMCISION, περιτομή [circumcision], or מילה  [circumcision], here

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is understood not as Spiritual, but Corporal, which is: The First Sacrament of the Old Testament, by which, through the cutting off of the foreskin, made upon Abraham’s male descendants, and indeed upon infants on the eighth day, true liberation from sin through Christ was sealed to the faithful, and at the same time they themselves were distinguished from the rest of the nations promiscuously.

VIII. Circumcision was first instituted in the time of Abraham by God, Gen. 17:11, 14. “And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin,” &c.; “and the uncircumcised male, who does not circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his peoples,” &c.; but it was inculcated no less by Moses, Lev. 12:3. “on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” John 7:22. “Moses gave you Circumcision, not because it is from Moses, but from the Fathers,” &c. Since its nature was by no means changed, but it became necessary to the whole people of God and to each of its members.

IX. The Visible Substance, in which it was administered, is the Foreskin, ערלה  [foreskin]; for God willed it openly to be cut off, so that he might test their obedience, and teach the origin of sin from natural generation.

X. It had plainly to be Cut Off, not stretched back by the person acting or by an instrument. Nor is there anything here which proves that the Minister’s office in circumcising pleased God more than this wrath, from Exod. 4:25, 26. “and she sent him back from herself,” &c.; or that a little Stone had to be used, because of the word כרת  [to cut], since that does not note the instrument more than the act, compare Ps. 89:44. “thou hast also turned back” חרב  [the sword] “the edge of his sword,” &c.

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XI. Males had to be Circumcised, in whom Females were also esteemed, Gen. 34:14. “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to a man who is uncircumcised, because this is a reproach to us.” Judg. 14:3. “Is there not among the daughters of thy brethren, and among all my people, a woman, that thou goest to take a wife from the Philistines, uncircumcised?” All who belonged to Abraham as sons or servants had to be circumcised, and who accordingly were not yet circumcised, while Josh. 5:2, 4. “again circumcise the sons of Israel the second time,” &c., treats of a repeated Circumcision of the people, which in the wilderness had been entirely neglected.

XII. Christ also was circumcised, so that it might truly be evident that he had sprung from Abraham, and he would show himself obedient to the Ecclesiastical Law, and that he had come under the Law, and by shedding blood.

XIII. Infants had to be circumcised on the Eighth Day from birth, because until then they were ceremonially unclean, and too weak to bear the pain, so that they might also understand the necessity of the Sacrament not to be absolute. Yet if this day was afterwards neglected, it had to be supplied later, as is evident from the history of the son of Moses, Exod. 4:25.

XIV. The Punishment of the neglected rite was being Cut Off from the People. By this we very well understand Exclusion from the Divine Covenant; as the force of this phrase, read impersonally, or attributed actively to God in the first person, leads us to this, and other similar phrases, Ps. 69:29. “let them be blotted out of the book of life, and let them not be written with the righteous.” Ezek. 13:9. “in the council of my people they shall not be, and in the writing of the house of Israel they shall not be written.” Rev. 22:19. ἀφαιρήσει ὁ Θεὸς τὸ μέρος αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ βίβλου τῆς ζωῆς καὶ ἐκ τῆς πόλεως τῆς

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ἁγίας [God shall take away his part from the book of life, and from the holy city], &c. But this threatening does not seem to look to infants, but to adults, who did not care to be circumcised, and by that very fact despised the Covenant of God, as the active, not passive, phrase is read, Gen. 17:14. “he who does not circumcise the flesh of his foreskin,” &c.; “he has made my covenant void.”

XV. The Thing Signified by Circumcision was the Grace of the promised Covenant, Gen. 17:11. “it shall be for a sign of the Covenant between me and you;” then of Justification, Rom. 4:11. “he received the sign of Circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of Faith;” then of Sanctification, Deut. 30:6. “And Jehovah thy God shall circumcise thy heart,” &c. Rom. 2:28, 29. περιτομὴ καρδίας ἐν πνεύματι, οὐ γράμματι [circumcision of the heart, in spirit, not in letter]. Here the Foreskin can in many ways be compared with Sin, Lev. 26:41. “then their uncircumcised heart shall be humbled,” &c.; also in the bloody cutting off, though others find not one resemblance between the Foreskin and Christ.

XVI. Therefore the End of this ceremony was less Principal: the distinction of the Israelites from other peoples; but Principal: the sealing of Divine grace, and the obligation to perform more widely the offices, Deut. 10:16. “circumcise the foreskin of your heart.”

XVII. Circumcision had to Last only until the time of the New Testament, as the Scripture of the New Testament teaches, Acts 15:10. “Now therefore why do ye tempt God, that ye should impose a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” Gal. 5:2, 3, 4, 6. “Behold I, Paul, say to you, that if ye are circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing,” &c.; and also that of the Old Testament, Jer.

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31:31, 32. “Behold, the days shall come, saith Jehovah, and I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;” and the burdensome nature of Circumcision, and its distinguishing of the Israelites from the other nations as unclean. The Jews and Judaizers object:

1. That Circumcision is not from Moses, but from the Fathers.

Reply Under the New Testament many Ceremonies were antiquated which had obtained before Moses.

2. That its Eternity is inculcated, Gen. 17:7, 13.

Reply A restricted and periodic eternity, in the generations of the Israelites.

3. Predictions concerning the state of the New Testament, Isa. 52:1. “Jerusalem, city of holiness, because the uncircumcised and unclean shall not come into thee any more.” Ezek. 44:9. “No son of a stranger, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary,” &c.

Reply These treat either of the Foreskin of sin removed, or of the tranquillity of the Church from profane enemies. Nor afterwards can it be proved that, among the Ethiopians, Circumcision is used today as a Political sign of their noble descent from Solomon.

XVIII. The Other Sacrament of the Old Testament is the PASSOVER, properly denoting the Passing-over of the Angel beyond the houses of the Israelites, when the Egyptians were slain by him, according to Exod. 12:12, 13, 27; but metonymically the Ceremony then instituted. And thus it is defined: The Other Sacrament of the Old Covenant, in which, by the killing of a whole male and yearly animal, first set apart, then slaughtered, and roasted for eating, made by the Israelites on the fourteenth day of the first month as evening drew on, there was recalled into their memory the benefit of passing-over in Egypt, and of joined liberation; and at the same time there was sealed to the faithful a liberation from death and the servitude of Satan

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through the grace of Christ, and it was likewise to be eaten under the New Testament.

XIX. The Passover was instituted by God at the time of the exodus from Egypt, Exod. 12:3. “On the tenth of this month let each man take for himself a Lamb,” &c.; where also it was soon kept, verse 28. “And the sons of Israel went and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron; so did they,” &c. Nor do we see that the Nature of it or its Essentials were afterwards changed.

XX. The Visible Substance in this Sacrament was an Animal, from sheep or goats, Exod. 12:5. “a perfect animal, male, a son of a year, shall be to you from the sheep and from the goats,” &c. It had to be Whole, and Free from Defects, Lev. 22:22, 23, 24; and Male, and Annual. But Cakes, which were slain for sacred and common use at the time of Passover, do not properly constitute the Sacrament of Passover; rather, they are distinguished from it, Deut. 16:2. “And thou shalt kill the Passover to Jehovah thy God, sheep and oxen,” &c.

XXI. The Rite was Fivefold:

1. Separate Custody for Four Days.

2. Slaughter without breaking the bones.

3. Sprinkling of the blood upon the upper lintel and the two side-posts.

4. Roasting, not raw, and not boiled in water.

5. Eating, namely of the whole animal, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, performed by those standing, instructed with staff and shoes. Yet some rites seem to have been Temporary, from the nature of the place and time, but not perpetual, compare Matt. 26:17, 20, 30. “On the first day of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat

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the Passover?” &c.; “and when evening had come, he reclined with the twelve,” &c. καὶ ὑμνήσαντες ἐξῆλθον εἰς τὸ ὄρος τῶν ἐλαιῶν [and having sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives]. First, Asa succeeded in the sprinkling of blood by Asperging, 2 Chron. 30:16, &c. “they stood in their station,” &c.; “the priests sprinkled the blood from the hand of the Levites.” 2 Chron. 35:11. “and they killed the Passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hand,” &c.

XXII. Because of the variety of rites, the Ministers varied. The Fathers of families set it apart, and killed it themselves; the Priests carried the blood to the altar and sprinkled it; finally, the Israelites, all pure domestic members, even Women and Infants fit by age, ate it, under penalty of excision, Num. 9:13. “The man who shall have been clean, and was not in the way, and has ceased to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his peoples,” &c.; “that man shall bear his sin.”

XXIII. Just as the first Passover was kept in Egypt, and the second in the Wilderness, so afterwards it had to be kept solemnly in the place of public worship, Deut. 16:2, 5, 6. “In the place which Jehovah shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there,” &c.; “thou mayest not kill the Passover in one of thy gates, which Jehovah thy God gives thee, but at the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose,” &c. And yet, since all the Israelites plainly could never go up to Jerusalem at once, who nevertheless were held to the use of this Sacrament; nor could the temple contain so many men and animals at once, it seems that elsewhere also a lesser solemnity of the Passover in Canaan was necessary.

XXIV. The Time was:

1. The First Month of the sacred year, called Abib, or Nisan, with the second month added

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for the uncleanness and absence of some.

2. The Fourteenth Day from the new moon.

3. And indeed between the Two Evenings, or between the notable sunset and the setting of the sun, from about the third hour, as some think, to the fifth. Concerning the Transference of Feasts because of the Sabbath closely joined, it is asked on another day, whether that already obtained among the Jews in the age of Christ? And it seems altogether to be affirmed, since no more likely reason remains why the Jews kept the Passover later than Christ, which nevertheless we suppose to have been most certainly done, compare John 13:1. “before the feast of the Passover,” &c. John 18:28. καὶ αὐτοὶ οὐκ εἰσῆλθον εἰς τὸ πραιτώριον ἵνα μὴ μιανθῶσιν ἀλλ’ ἵνα φάγωσι τὸ πάσχα [and they themselves did not enter into the praetorium, so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover]. John 19:14, 31. “And it was the Preparation of the Passover,” &c. ἐπεὶ παρασκευὴ ἦν, ἵνα μὴ μείνῃ τὰ σώματα ἐπὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ [since it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross], &c.

XXV. Footwashing and Breaking of Bread, after Christ’s Passover, were, by a new ceremony, performed by him through gratitude for the Passover just eaten. But it was so a Sacrament that it was at the same time a Sacrifice, Exod. 12:27. “the sacrifice” פסח  [Passover] “of Jehovah is this Passover.” Num. 9:7, 13. “because he did not bring near” קרבן  [the offering] “of Jehovah at his appointed time,” &c. Just as the blood was shed to God, and here there was the greatest prefiguration of the true Sacrifice of Christ.

Objection 1. Sacrifice and Sacrament differ formally.

Reply The diverse Act of this ceremony is also diverse.

Objection 2. Sacrifices are restricted to Priests and the Temple.

Reply Here some Exception was made from the common Law.

Objection 3. The sacrificing in Egypt would have been unlawful, where nevertheless they ate the Passover, Exod. 12:26.

Reply Here regard must be had to the danger threatening among the Egyptians;

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nor had the command concerning the Passover then been given by God, when Moses said this.

XXVI. The Thing Signified was partly the past Liberation of Israel from Egypt, Exod. 12:27. “This is the sacrifice of the Passover to Jehovah, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote Egypt, and liberated our houses.” Exod. 13:8. “And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, saying, Because of this which Jehovah did for me when I went out of Egypt,” &c.; and partly the future Spiritual Redemption through Christ, 1 Cor. 5:7. καὶ γὰρ τὸ πάσχα ἡμῶν ἐτύθη Χριστός [for even Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us]. John 1:29, 36. “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” &c.; “behold the Lamb of God,” &c. Here the comparison of Christ with this Lamb can easily be instituted and a meaning suited to each of the rites, persons, place, time, and external benefits which are found in the Passover can be discovered.

XXVII. Hence the End of this ceremony and also its Duration are plain; only unto the times of the New Testament, in which all sacrifices had to cease, and the shadow to yield to the body, 1 Cor. 5:7. “Christ our Passover has been slain for us,” &c. Therefore the Eternity of the Passover is Periodic, Exod. 12:14, 15. “And that day shall be to you for a memorial, and ye shall celebrate it as a feast to Jehovah throughout your generations; by a statute of the age ye shall celebrate it,” &c.

XXVIII. The Sacraments of the New Testament are Two, Baptism and the Supper; for Paul, 1 Cor. 10:2, 3, 4, referred to these those Sacraments of the Old Testament: “all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all

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ate the same spiritual food,” &c. And these are the external Bonds of Christian Communion, 1 Cor. 12:13. “For by one Spirit we all were baptized into one body, and all were made to drink into one Spirit,” &c. Indeed, besides the Word, there are Two earthly witnesses, Blood and Water, 1 John 5:6, 8. “There are three that testify in the earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three are one,” which passage is best explained concerning the Twofold Sacrament.

XXIX. Footwashing ought not to be added to these Two Sacraments, in which Institution, Grace of the Covenant, and Sealing are lacking. For the deeds and sayings of Christ, John 13:5, 14, “he began to wash the feet of the disciples,” &c.; “If therefore I, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet,” &c., look to Charity and Humility to be exercised among Christians, taken from the custom of that land.

XXX. The Papists most ineptly urge Seven Sacraments; adding to our Two, Confirmation, Penance, Extreme Unction, Orders, and Matrimony. And the Proofs which they bring forward do not deserve refutation: from various Congruences, the Necessity of sinners, the Virtues; and from the celebrity of a Septenary Number.

XXXI. There is altogether lacking in Pontifical Confirmation a divine Institution.

Objection 1. Paul made mention of Confirmation, Unction, and Sealing, 2 Cor. 1:21, 22. ὁ δὲ βεβαιῶν ἡμᾶς σὺν ὑμῖν εἰς Χριστὸν, καὶ χρίσας ἡμᾶς, Θεός, ὁ καὶ σφραγισάμενος ἡμᾶς, καὶ δοὺς τὸν ἀρραβῶνα τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν [now he who confirms us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God, who also has sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts].

Reply It is understood there in these phrases, not as

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some external Sacrament, but as Spiritual Grace.

Objection 2. The Apostles used to impose hands upon the baptized, Acts 19:6.

Reply This ceremony was familiar in blessings and in extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, and was afterwards almost neglected.

Objection 3. A more generous gift of grace was made to the baptized, John 14:17, &c.

Reply It is not therefore to be conferred through a new Sacrament of Confirmation.

XXXII. In Penance again there is lacking divine Institution, as to Confession, Satisfaction, and Absolution with Authority; and an external visible Sign.

Objection 1. Places which attribute the Keys and the Power of Remitting to the prelates of the Church, Matt. 16:19. John 20:23.

Reply These look to the Ministry of the Gospel and the true judgment of the pastors.

Objection 2. Places which demand Confession of sins, Matt. 3:6. James 5:16.

Reply Nowhere is that Pontifical Auricular Confession commanded, but another Confession before God, and public before men, or private before a brother who has been hurt by us.

Objection 3. Those things also by which works of Repentance are urged or commended, Prov. 16:9. Matt. 3:8.

Reply Works are always to be understood, and simply necessary, by which nevertheless God can in no way be satisfied.

XXXIII. The origin of Extreme Unction flowed rather from ancient Heretics than from the Lord or the Apostles.

Objection 1. Texts which mention Unctions of the sick, Mark 6:13. James 5:14, 15.

Reply In both passages an Extraordinary and Miraculous signification is denoted, which looked to the healing of the body to be restored.

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Objection 2. That God ought by his providence to have looked out for those departing from this life.

Reply Not through a special Sacrament, I say.

XXXIV. We do not find a Sacramental Institution of Orders; nor here can the Grace of the Covenant be sealed; nor is it extended promiscuously to the covenanted.

Objection 1. The Institution of Gifts is read, Eph. 4:11, 12.

Reply Neither those which the Papists have, nor the rites of Sacramentals in the initiation to them.

Objection 2. The imposition of hands is used, 1 Tim. 4:14; 5:22.

Reply This belonged accidentally to the manner of that rite among the Papists; and it was not Sacramental, but Apprecatory, from the ancient practice of Jewish benedictions.

XXXV. Finally, Matrimony has neither a special Institution in the New Testament Church, nor an External Visible Sign, nor Signified Grace.

Objection 1. Paul calls this a Sacrament, Eph. 5:32.

Reply He is dealing with the sacred mystery, and this name is given not to external Matrimony, but to the Spiritual union of Christ with his Church.

Objection 2. It is celebrated solemnly in the Church.

Reply This is partly from human Ordinance, and partly an invocation of a blessing.

XXXVI. Finally, the Papists still ineptly add many Sacramental Signs to so many Sacraments: Crosses frequently disfigured, Holy Water temporally salted and exorcised, Tears in the time of penance, Candles blessed, or Wax of God’s love, Eulogies, &c.; to which, since they ascribe the power of Sanctification, and of driving away evils by the power of superstition, we utterly reject them as Gentile and Judaic things. Yet the Kiss of brotherly love,

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formerly prescribed as a symbol of common charity according to the relation of times and lands, we read, Rom. 16:16. ἀσπάσασθε ἀλλήλους ἐν φιλήματι ἁγίῳ [greet one another with a holy kiss]. 1 Thess. 5:26. ἀσπάσασθε τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς πάντας ἐν φιλήματι ἁγίῳ [greet all the brethren with a holy kiss], &c.

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