which, at confirmation, the bishop will ask you if you are willing to take upon yourselves, or if you are willing to ratify and confirm the same. Do you, then, understand the question, or do you not? Are you willing so to do, or are you not willing? Take care, in making the answer, that you be not guilty. of a lie; for if you be, you prove yourselves the children of the devil, who is the "father of lies." Reflect, moreover, as I have before told you, that you will be in the presence of God and the congregation, both of whom will bear witness to your sincerity, or to your hypocrisy. Do you then, once more, resolve to forsake sin and the devil, to believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and to render all your service and obedience to God? If you do not resolve thus within yourselves, then, by all means, I would advise you, for the present at least, to think no more about being confirmed. But should you come to this resolution, as I hope all of you may, then may you, with a clear conscience, answer as you are directed, and say "I do;" and you will immediately proceed with the bishop to offer up your praises to Almighty God for the good resolutions which you will have just formed in your hearts. The bishop and the congregation, in alternate response, will say "Our help is in the name of the Lord; Who hath made heaven and earth. Blessed be the name of the Lord; Henceforth, world without end. Lord, hear our prayers; And let our cry come unto thee." And then the bishop will address himself to all present, and say-" Let

us pray;" and afterwards deliver the following appropriate prayer to the throne of Grace: " Almighty and everlasting God, who hast vouchsafed to regenerate these thy servants," or to cause these thy servants to be born again, "by water and the Holy Ghost, and hast given unto them forgiveness of all their sins; Strengthen them, we beseech thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and daily increase in them thy manifold gifts of grace; the spirit of wisdom and understanding; the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength; the spirit of knowledge and true godliness; and fill them, O Lord, with the spirit of thy holy fear, now and for ever. Amen."

In this address, you perceive that the character and nature of the holy ceremony are properly kept in view. The bishop appropriately refers to the sacrament of baptism, which must necessarily have preceded and been preparatory to confirmation, as a solemnity at which a new birth was undergone by means of water and the Holy Spirit; and as those in the act of being confirmed, have confirmed just before the promises previously made in their behalf, he prays the Almighty that he will confirm and strengthen them, by sending them an increase of the Holy Spirit; then, as the Rubric informs us, "all of them in order kneeling before the bishop, he shall lay his hand upon the head of every one severally, saying, as follows:

66

Defend, O Lord, this thy child (or this thy servant) with thy heavenly grace, that he may continue thine for ever; and daily increase in thy Holy

Spirit more and more, until he come unto thy everlasting kingdom. Amen."

Now in regard to this, more correctly termed the ceremonial part of the ordinance, two points suggest themselves to our notice, which, at the beginning of this discourse, I promised to consider here in their proper places. The first of these points is, the person who officiates; the second is the form or gesture which is used. Why, in the first place, it may be asked, is the bishop appointed as the most proper person to act upon this occasion? Have we any express order given us in the Scriptures, that the bishops alone, who are of the highest order of the priesthood, should perform the ceremony? It might further be asked; could not the ratification and the confirmation be undertaken in the presence of a subordinate minister, as well as in the presence of a bishop? Undoubtedly, my brethren, it could, and in cases of extreme urgency or necessity, such probably has been the case. Yet, in those things which are not directly enforced by God himself, our national church has acted most wisely in following the examples which have been given in the Holy Scriptures, a rule in respect to which she assimilates herself to the primitive church, and to the church as it was established immediately after the age of the apostles. Now, in the Acts of the Apostles, we find that though the inferior and subordinate ministers performed the rite of baptism, yet it always happened that the apostles, or others who were dis

tinguished from the common order of ministers, were selected to bless and confirm the minds of those who had been previously admitted into the church by baptism. In compliance with such a practice, we read that when many of the inhabitants of Samaria had been baptized by Philip the Deacon, there went unto them the apostles "Peter and John: Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost." Many other passages of similar import might likewise be mentioned, but our text will suffice for the present. "And Paul," an apostle, "chose Silas and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. And he went through Syria and Cilicia confirming the churches." And that such a practice was not only scriptural, but reasonable, will appear the more clearly when we consider the form of " laying on of hands," used at confirmation. The whole ceremony, indeed, must be regarded in the light of a blessing on the part of him who officiates, to whom his superior dignity will secure him more attention and respect. Now the dignity of the party who blesses, as well as the gesture which he uses on the occasion, are authorized by examples of great antiquity. Accordingly we find Noah, Abraham, and Isaac, all preeminent in years and dignity, conferring a blessing on those who were inferior to them in these respects, and though, in the account of the blessings which a Acts, viii. 17.

those patriarchs conferred, we do not find that they placed their hands upon the heads of their children, yet it by no means follows that they did not do this, for in the above cases, only the bare act of blessing is mentioned, and no particulars are given respecting it. The case, however, is different in regard to the narrative of the blessing conferred by Jacob upon his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh. Here we have full particulars given us, part of which are as follows: "And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly." This custom was likewise observed by the apostles, one example of which has been given in the case of Peter and John, who went down to Samaria to visit those who had been before baptized by Philip. The custom has been followed ever since by the Christian church, from generation to generation, and by such reasons has our own church been influenced, both as to the person who blesses, and the form which he observes in conferring his blessing.

a

As the substance of the blessing, which I have already recited, is similar to the preceding prayer, there is no necessity that I should now make any remarks upon it. I will simply observe, that Jacob's blessing was conferred in the form of a prayer to the Almighty. It ran thus: may “the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name

a Gen. xlviii. 14.