ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the biblical treatment of the law and holiness as well as the harmony and tension provided by such an unlikely symbiosis of theological understandings. The fundamentals of John Bramhall's sacramental theology are based on an entirely different premise, though members of the congregation in Dublin Cathedral in 1661 would have been forgiven for thinking otherwise. For James Ussher the sacrificial interpretation of the Eucharist was not only a hindrance to unification but also a reason for departure. Ussher's criticism of modern Roman interpretation is generally common to Protestant theologians of his generation and it would be an error to regard him as a Zwinglian. The attendant five sacraments of Roman Catholicism did not survive the Reformation as sacraments within the Protestant Churches. One such, penance, obtained a newfound meaning with the Roman Church since it was now considered as fundamental to the preparation of a soul about to receive the blessed sacrament.
