known, is the same in kind_ as that of the truth.

_That the sacraments are not_ IMMMEDIATE _conditions of pardon or
justification_, is evident, from a multitude of considerations.

1. If the sincere reception of the sacraments actually secures pardon
or justification _per se, immediately_, without the intervening
instrumentality of a living faith, then faith is not the only condition
of justification as the scriptures teach, but we are justified either
by faith, or by the sacraments, and then there will be _three conditions
of justification_, faith, baptism, and the Lord's Supper! For thousands
receive the eucharist sincerely, who are unregenerate, and have not a
living faith.

2. Because no sinner is morally qualified for pardon, until he has been
regenerated, and has consecrated himself to the service of God; but
multitudes receive the sacrament who are unregenerate, and who
therefore cannot be justified or pardoned, even by the sincere
reception of the sacraments. Hence as the reception of the sacraments
is no certain proof of pardon, it cannot be the immediate condition of
it.

3. The sacraments are not immediate conditions of justification or
pardon, because _previous faith_ is required in the recipients of each
of them. "He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved," [Note 20]
says the great Redeemer; "but he that believeth not shall be damned."
But if some may be baptised who are destitute of faith, then the
existence of faith is not necessarily involved in baptism. And as
baptism without faith does not rescue the soul from damnation, it
evidently cannot be the _immediate_ or certain condition of pardon; for