Q68. How many sacraments did Christ institute in the New Testament?

There are only two sacraments in the New Testament which are of perpetual, and universal use in the Church, according to the testimony of Ambrose and Augustin. The one is "baptism" which has taken the place of circumcision, and the various forms of purification prescribed by the law. The other is the "Lord's supper", which was adumbrated by the Paschal Lamb and the various sacrifices of the law. These are the only sacraments of the New Testament; because they are the only ones instituted by Christ, and which he requires us to observe, adding thereto the promise of grace. This argument is conclusive: The definition of a sacrament agrees with only two rites established in the New Testament. Therefore we have only two sacraments.

The Papist add to these two sacraments five others; confirmation, penance, ordination, extreme unction, and matrimony. But these are not properly called sacraments. "Confirmation and unction" are indeed ceremonies, but they were not instituted by Christ for the whole church, nor have they the promise of grace annexed to them. "Confirmation, or the laying on of hands" in the primitive church was a sign of the miraculous giving of the Holy Ghost, which soon passed away; or of a calling to the office of teaching. The thing signified by "extreme unction", with other miraculous gifts has also ceased in the church. "Penance, or private absolution" is nothing more than the preaching of the gospel, which ought not to be confounded with the signs and appendages of the promise of grace. "Order, or the ordination of" ministers does indeed declare the presence of God in the ministry; but God may work effectually by the ministry, even though the men who hold the office do not please him. "Matrimony" is no ceremony, but a moral work. The Papists enumerate this among the sacraments, because it is called a mystery, and because the old translation renders the Greek μυστηριον, "sacramentum". But Paul ought rather to be heard than the authority which is here adduced. No one is ignorant that mystery (μυστηριον) among the Greeks is of as broad a signification as "arcanum" among the Latins. Hence, to make their argument good, the Papists must admit that every mystery is a sacrament — marriage will then be the seventh sacrament; the will of God the eighth; (Eph. 1:9.) the calling of the Gentiles the ninth; (Eph. 3:3.) godliness the tenth; (1 Tim. 3:16.) and so perhaps many others might be enumerated: for in all these references the Latin translation renders the word "mystery" a sacrament. But Paul in Eph. 5:32, uses the word mystery to designate the union between Christ and the church, and not that between husband and wife.

"Theses concerning the sacraments in general."