370 DIVERS PAPAL HERESIES. Christians, who should seek it earnestly of him.Luke xi. 13; James i 5; 1 John ii. 27; Heb. viii. 11; Rom. viii. 9; Acts v. 32. The ancient fathers could in the Scriptures hardly discern more than two sacraments, or mysterious rites of our religion, by positive law and institution of our Saviour to be practised.' But the popes have devised others, and, under uncharitable curses, propound them to be professed for such,' affirming them to confer grace by the bare performanceof them. Every clergymanand monk is boundby Pius IV. to profess "there are just seven of them,' and the Tridentine synod "anathematizes all those who say there are more or fewer, ' although the ancients never hit on that number. But these our sacraments both contain grace, and also confer it upon those who worthily receive them."' They require men to believe, under a curse, that each of those was instituted of Christ, and confers grace by the bare performance. Particularly, they curse those who do not hold "matrimony for a sacrament instituted by Christ, and conferring grace."' What can be more ridiculous than to say that marriage was instituted by Christ, or that it confers grace ? Yet, with another anathema, they prefer virginitybefore it;7 and why, forsooth, is not that another sacrament? And then they must be comparing the worth of these sacraments, condemning those heavilywho may conceive them equal, as being divine institutions: "If any shall say that these seven sacraments are so equal one to another, that one is in no respect of more worth than another, let him be anathema." The first, as it seems, who reckoned the sacraments to be seven was Peter Lombard, whom the schoolmen followed, and Pope Euge- nius IV. followed them; and afterward the Trent men formed it into an article, backed with an anathema.' Aug. Doctr. Christ. Ep. ad Jen. 9 Si sacramenta essent pauciora, magna impietas fuisset et superstitio, &c. Bell. de Sacr. ii. 25. "If the sacraments were fewer, there would have been great impiety and superstition," &c. 3 Profiteor quoque septem esse proprie et vere sacramenta.Bulla Pii IV. Si quis dixerit .... esse plura vel pauciora quam septem .... anathema sit. Syn. Trid. secs. vii. can. 1. 3 Hsec vero nostra et continent gratiam, et ipsam digne suscipientibus conferunt. P. Rug. in Instr. Arm. Si quis dixerit per ipse novas legis sacramenta ex opere ope- rato, non conferri gratiam . . . anathema sit.Ibid, can. 8. s Si quia dixerit matrimonium non esse vere as proprie unum ex septem legis evan- gelici sacramentis, aChristo Domino institutum .... neque gratiam conferre, ana- thema sit. Sess. xxiv. can. 1. 7 Sess. xxiv. can. 10. 9 Si quis dixerit hic septem sacramenta ita esse inter se paria, ut nulla ratione aliud sit alio dignius, anathema sit.Secs. vii. can. 3. 9 Novas legis septem sunt sacramenta, &c. P. Eug. in Instr. Arm. Bellarmine could find none before him. Vid. de Sacrum. ii. 25.
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