very few forms, and often consisted of nothing more than the affusion of water on the person baptized, with a repetition of the words of baptism. It is unnecessary for me to enter on the discussion relative to the proper ministers of baptism, which has been treated with his usual learning by Bingham, in his Scholastical History of Lay-Baptism. The church of England has not encouraged the practice of baptizing children by the hands of laymen or women, even in urgent cases. But it cannot with reason be apprehended, that infants who depart before baptism can be administered, are without the benefits of that sacrament. Because the catholic church has always held that the wish to receive baptism is sufficient in a case of necessity; and if the church who hath the power of administering this sacrament, be prevented by the visitation of God from fulfilling her intentions, her desire and wish are sufficient to remove apprehension. It is needless to make any lengthened observations on the practice of the church of England in the administration of baptism in private. The minister is directed to perform the office, by repeating the Lord's Prayer, and any other collects of the office of public baptism which the time permits. Amongst these it would certainly seem proper that the benedictions beginning "O merciful God, grant "that the old Adam," &c. and the following prayer for the sanctification of the font of water should be used. For we observe that in the ancient offices for the baptism of the sick in the church of Constantinople, and in the sacramentary of Gelasius, there is a short form for consecrating the water".

Hooker, b. viii. 60. Gelasii Sacramentar. Muratori, m Goar, Rit. Græc. p. 370. tom. i. p. 595, &c.

The rules of the English church, as to supplying that portion of the rites of baptism which was omitted in a case of private baptism, are nearly the same as those which prevailed before the reformation of our offices".

66

66

The rubric informs us that we should "not doubt "but that the child so baptized is lawfully and sufficiently baptized, and ought not to be baptized again." This is also a rubric in the manual of the church of Salisbury. In case the child recovers, the rubric directs him to be brought into church; and if the minister himself baptized the child, he is directed to notify it to the congregation; but if he did not, he is directed to inquire whether the sacrament was rightly performed, and in like manner to notify to the congregation the validity of that baptism. This is also prescribed in the manual of the church of Salisbury, except the two cases of notification P. After notifying to the congregation the validity of the private baptism, the priest is directed to perform the whole office of baptism, with the exception of the benediction and consecration of the water before mentioned: and the same directions occur in the manuals of Salisbury and York 4.

In case the priest should doubt from the answers of those who bring the child, whether it was lawfully baptized, a form of proceeding is appointed, which is also prescribed by the ancient rubrics of the English churches.

But if they which bring the infant to the church do make such uncertain answers to the priest's questions, as that it cannot appear that the child was baptized with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, (which are essential parts of baptism,) then let the priest baptize it in the form before appointed for public baptism of infants; saving that at the dipping of the child in the font, he shall use this form of words:

If thou art not already baptized, N. I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Si vero dubitet rationabiliter sacerdos utrum infans ad baptizandum sibi oblatus prius in forma debita fuerit baptizatus, vel non: debet omnia perficere cum eo sicut cum alio

quem constat sibi non baptizatum, præterquam quod verba sacramentalia essentialia proferre debeat sub conditione, hoc modo dicendo:

N. si baptizatus es, ego non rebaptizo te: sed si nondum baptizatus es, ego baptizo te in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

r Manuale Sarisb. fol. 44, 45. Eboracens. ad finem baptismi.

CHAPTER VI.

CONFIRMATION.

SECTION I.

ANCIENT RITES OF CONFIRMATION.

THE rite of confirmation (which is sometimes called a sacrament by the Fathers, though not in the same high and peculiar sense as baptism and the eucharist a) was regarded as an appendix to the sacrament of baptism. Not indeed that baptism was in any way imperfect or invalid without confirmation; but that the grace which the Holy Spirit communicated at baptism, for the remission of sins and regeneration, was increased and strengthened by confirmation. In primitive times, when many persons were baptized together on the vigils of Easter, Pentecost, and Epiphany, in the presence or by the hands of the bishop, the newly baptized, after ascending from the water, were immediately confirmed by him, with imposition of hands and

a The Fathers gave the name of sacrament or mystery to every thing which conveyed one signification or property to unassisted reason, and another to faith. Hence Cyprian speaks of the "sacraments" of the Lord's Prayer, meaning the hidden meaning conveyed therein, which could only be appreciated by a Christian. The Fathers sometimes speak of

confirmation as a sacrament, because the chrism signified the grace of the Holy Ghost; and the imposition of hands was not merely a bare sign, but the form by which it was conveyed: see Bingham, book xii. c. I. sect. 4. Yet at the same time they continually speak of two great sacraments of the Christian church.

prayer for the Holy Ghost.

In after-ages, when

baptisms were administered in many other churches besides the cathedral, and the presbyters and deacons received a commission from their bishops to administer this sacrament, it became necessary either to disjoin confirmation from baptism, or to give presbyters a commission to perform both. The former course has been followed by the western churches of England, &c. where confirmation is always administered by the bishop, and generally several years after baptism; and the latter has been adopted by the patriarchate of Constantinople and all the eastern churches, in which presbyters have, from time immemorial, been permitted to confirm; and in those churches confirmation is always administered to infants immediately after baptism. To the apostolical rites of prayer and imposition of hands, the church added that of anointing with an unguent or chrism, made of oil and balsam, and hallowed by the prayers of the bishop. It is difficult, if not impossible, to state the period at which the use of chrism was introduced into the church; but we learn from the writings of Tertullian and Origen, that it was already customary both in the east and west at the end of the second or beginning of the third century b. This chrism was intended to signify the grace of the Holy Spirit then conferred.

Notwithstanding the antiquity of chrism in the church, yet the imposition of hands is still more

b Tertull. de Baptismo, c. 7. "Exinde egressi de lavacro perungimur benedicta unctic. 8. "dehinc manus

one

imponitur, per benedictionem advocans et invitans Spiritum Sanctum." Origen. Hom. ix, in Levit.