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 if the immediate condition of a blessing is performed, that blessing must be conferred.

And since previous faith is required in baptism, and none but the baptised are admitted to the Lord's Supper, it is evident that faith is also required of communicants.
4.

That they are not _immediate_ conditions of pardon, is evident, because the same truths which the sacraments inculcate, do not when taught orally or in God's word, invariably or necessarily secure the pardon or justification of all attentive hearers.