I hasten to pass on to the Sacraments.  None, none, not two, not one, O holy Christ, have they left.  Their bread is poison; and as for their baptism, though it is still true baptism, nevertheless in their judgment it is nothing, it is not a wave of salvation, it is not a channel of grace, it does not apply to us the merits of Christ, it is a mere token of salvation (Calvin, Instit. iv. 15).  Thus they have made no more of the baptism of Christ, so far as the nature of the thing goes, than of the ceremony of John.  If you have it, it is well; if you go without it, there is no loss suffered; believe, you are saved, before you are washed.  What then of infants, who, unless they are aided by the virtue of the Sacrament, poor little things, gain nothing by any faith of their own?  Rather than allow anything to the Sacrament of baptism, say the Magdeburg Centuriators (Cent. v. 4.), let us grant that there is faith in the infants themselves, enough to save them; and that the said babies are aware of certain secret stirrings of this faith, albeit they are not yet aware whether they are alive or not.  A hard nut to crack!  If this is so very hard, listen to Luther’s remedy.  It is better, he says (Advers.  Cochl.), to omit the baptism; since, unless the infant believes, to no purpose is it washed.  This is what they say, doubtful in mind what absolutely to affirm.  Therefore let Balthasar Pacimontanus step in to sort the votes.  This father of the Anabaptists, unable to assign to infants any stirring of faith, approved Luther’s suggestion; and, casting infant baptism out of the churches, resolved to wash at the sacred font none who was not grown up.  For the rest of the Sacraments, though that many headed beast utters many insults, yet, seeing that they are now of daily occurrence, and our ears have grown callous to them, I here pass them over.

There remain the sayings of the heretics concerning life and morals, the noxious goblets which Luther has vomited on his pages, that out of the filthy hovel of his one breast he might breathe pestilence upon his readers.  Listen patiently, and blush, and pardon me the recital.  If the wife will not, or cannot, let the handmaid come (Serm. de matrimon.); seeing that commerce with a wife is as necessary to every man as food, drink, and sleep.  Matrimony is much more excellent than virginity.  Christ and Paul dissuaded men from virginity (Liber de vot. evangel.).  But perhaps these doctrines are peculiar to Luther.  They are not.  They have been lately defended by my friend Chark but miserably and timidly.  Do you wish to hear any more?  Certainly.  The more wicked you, are, he says, the nearer you are to grace (Serm. de. pisc.  Petri).  All good actions are sins, in God’s judgment, mortal sins; in God’s mercy, venial.  No one thinks evil of his own will.  The Ten Commandments are nothing to Christians.  God cares nought at all about our works.  They alone rightly partake of the Lord’s Supper, who bury consciences sad, afflicted, troubled, confused, erring.  Sins are to be confessed, but to anyone you like; and if he absolves you even in joke, provided you believe, you are absolved.  To read the Hours of the Divine Office is not the function of priests, but of laymen.  Christians are free from the enactments of men (Luther, De servo arbitrio, De captivilate Babylon).