tached such importance to these, as was inconsistent with the exercise of that exclusive reliance upon Christ, for salvation, which the Gospel strictly enjoins. Those persons were the early heretical Ceremonialists in the Christian Church. The apostles frequently strongly expostulated with such persons; and most energetically warned disciples of Christ against the deadly evil of confiding in the performance of, or submission to, any sacerdotal rite, for acceptance with God. In proof of this, we especially refer to the apostolic epistles sent to the Romans, the Galatians, and the Philippians.

Christianity enjoins two ceremonials-the rites of Baptism by Water, administered in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. The sacrament of Baptism we regard as a rite significant of discipleship to Jesus Christ, and of the putting away of the filthiness of sin, and of dedication to the service of the triune Jehovah. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper is commemorative of the sufferings, the agony, passion, and death, of "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." In this ordinance, the death of Christ, as the divinely appointed atonement for sin, is emblematically commemorated; and those who partake of the bread, and drink of the cup-which represent the offered body and shed blood of the Redeemer thereby formally declare their faith in Christ; and by rightly using this holy ordinance obtain increase of faith, and enjoy sweet communion with saints, with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

In the primitive Christian Churches, the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper were not regarded as conferring grace, except only as they were means of grace to those who used them as helps to their faith and love. No spiritual efficacy was supposed to be necessarily connected with their administration-no divinely judicial or moral change was believed to be effected by their mere administration or formal participation. Salvation was regarded as, exclusively, resulting from the mercy of God, exercised through the atonement of Christ, and as being received by all who believed in Christ as their Saviour, or who died, in infancy, before they were capable of exercising faith. But, at a very early period, it appears from the reproofs administered by the apostle Paul to the Corinthian Church, that the ordinance of Baptism was abused by Sectarianism, and the observance of the Lord's Supper was, wickedly, made the means of gluttony and drunkenness.

As spirituality declined, in the churches, Carnalism and Ceremonialism increased. Augmented importance was attributed to the administration of the sacraments by those who professed to possess power, thereby, to convey grace to those who were admitted to partake of the ordinances. Ministers of religion were then regarded as a priestly order, invested with extraordinary spiritual power, by which they could confer grace and salvation on those to whom they administered the holy sacraments. Thus originated the dogmas of Baptismal regeneration, and of priestly absolution. In the commencement of the third century, of the Christian era, the heresy of Baptismal re

generation existed. Hence, Tertullian advised to defer the receiving of baptism to an advanced period of life, in order that the benefit conferred, by being baptized, might not be forfeited by gross sin, but be retained until the end of life.

After Constantine the Great had taken Christianity under the patronage of the state, Priestism and Ceremonialism rapidly progressed. Both the Greek and the Latin Churches introduced into their religious services, numerous superstitious ceremonies; which they continue to celebrate with much of ceremonial pomp and devotion. The ancient hypocritical Pharisees of Judea were great ceremonialists. They attached more importance to the tithing of mint, anise, and cummin-the washing of hands and of cups-than to the weightier duties of religion and morality-than to the all-comprehensive duty of love to God and man. So, also, in the Greek and Roman Churches, ceremonial observances and priestly offices, are regarded as much more important than attention to the duties of repentance, faith, and obedience to the moral law.

Both the Greek and the Roman Churches profess that there are seven Sacraments obligatory to be observed. In the Greek Church, they are designated, baptism, chrism, confession, penance, the eucharist, marriage, ordination, and extreme unction. The professed sacraments of the Roman Church, are substantially the same as those of the Greek Church. Baptism, confirmation, penance, the eucharist, matrimony, extreme unction, and ordination, are designated sacraments, because they are regarded as most solemn ceremonials, in the due performance of which, the services of priests are required; who, in administering these ceremonials, are supposed to be empowered to confer divine spiritual blessings on those who receive these, so-called, sacraments at their hands. Of only six of these sacraments can the laity partake, and only six of them may the clergy receive. The sacrament of orders belongs exclusively to the clergy, and the sacrament of matrimony is allowed only to the laity. There is, however, no Scriptural authority for so many sacraments. Confirmation, penance, matrimony, extreme unction, and ordination, are not truly sacraments. Priestism and superstition have originated, and continue to maintain, the erroneous opinion, that there are seven sacraments.

We

Unscriptural ceremonialism, also, largely exists among the clergy and members of the Anglican Church, as by law established. do not now so much refer to the use of unscriptural ceremonies, as to the unscriptural dogmas, that are held and propagated, concerning the use of rites which are of Divine authority. We refer especially to the doctrines of Baptismal regeneration, and priestly absolution. Baptismal regeneration is held by a large proportion of the ministers of the establishment. We are, however, fully aware that there are many of the ministers of the Church, by law established, who do not hold this unscriptural and soul-destroying error; but most earnestly denounce it, and preach the doctrines of justification by faith, and that only those have regeneration, by the Holy Ghost, who repent and believe. Yet we are decidedly of opinion, that Baptismal rege

neration is taught by the authorized formularies of the establishment; which all its ministers have subscribed, and are obliged to use in discharging the duties of their ministerial office.

The service appointed to be used in the baptising of infants, for example, makes it compulsory upon ministers, after they have baptized an infant, to say as follows—

"Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child is regenerated, and grafted into the body of Christ's Church, let us give thanks unto Almighty God for these benefits; and, with one accord, make our prayers unto Him, that this child may lead the rest of his life according to this beginning.

"We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant with thy Holy Spirit, to receive him for thine own child by adoption, and to incorporate him into thy holy Church.”

We must also observe, that in the Catechism, which the ministers are required to teach, and the members of the Church to learn, are the following questions and answers

A. My godfathers and godmothers in my baptism; wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven."

The Book of Common Prayer also contains the "Order of Confirmation," appointed to be used upon the laying on of the hands of the Bishop on all that have been baptized, and who repeat the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, answer the questions contained in the Church Catechism, and promise to endeavour to observe such things as are contained in those formularies. According to the said "Order of Confirmation," the Bishop is required to say, in reference to all such persons—

Almighty and everliving God, who hast vouchsafed to regenerate these thy servants, by water and the Holy Ghost, and hast given unto them forgiveness of all their sins;

66

We make our humble supplications unto thee for these thy servants, upon whom (after the example of thy holy Apostles) we have now laid our hands, to certify them (by this sign) of thy favour and gracious goodness towards them."

That, according to the doctrine of the Established Church, salvation is made to depend upon water baptism is also inferrable from the fact, that the form of prayer, provided to be read at the burial of the dead, is not allowed to be read at the burial of any person, adult, or infant, who has died without water baptism. The Rubric says, that this form is "not to be used for any that die unbaptized." But-although the deceased may have lived a most immoral life, if he has not been formally excommunicated, or been declared, by the verdict of a jury, to have committed self-murder-if he has been baptized, the minister of the establishment, called upon to officiate, being the duly appointed minister, is obliged to pronounce the following words at the interment

"Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, of his great mercy, to

take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ

How awful to think, that these words must be pronounced over the dead bodies of drunkards, adulterers, thieves, and other abandoned characters-for the minister may be severely punished if he omit them-but they are, by equal authority, forbidden to be uttered over the dead body of an innocent infant having died unbaptized! Monstrous is the law of the establishment in this matter!

As such statements are contained in the formularies, of the Established Church, we think, that the Bishop of Exeter, and those who agree with him, act consistently-as professed believers, ex animo, in all the Book of Common Prayer contains-in maintaining the doctrine of Baptismal regeneration. The Bishop of Exeter, before admitting clergymen to curacies or benefices, in his diocese, examines them as to their holding this doctrine. The following are questions put to clergymen, to which he requires affirmative replies—

"Does our Church hold, and do you hold, that all infants, duly baptized, according to the offices of baptism in the Book of Common Prayer, are therein born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost?

"Does our Church hold, and do you hold, that all infants so baptized, are in baptism made by God members of Christ, children of God and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven?"

At a diocesan Synod, recently convened by the Bishop of Exeter, the bishop proposed, for adoption, by the clergy, the followingDECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 1. Acknowledging "one baptism for the remission of sins," we hold, as of faith, that persons duly baptized are not only baptized once for all, but also are baptized with the one baptism of Him who "baptizeth with the Holy Ghost," and who thus making us to be "born again of water and the Spirit," delivered us thereby from the guilt and bondage of all sins original and actual.

We hold, as implied in the aforesaid article of the Creed, all the graces ascribed to baptism in our catechism. For-"By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body," even the body of Jesus Christ. We are all made to be "His body," members in particular of "His body," "members of Christ "—and being thus baptized into Him, we are "baptized into his death," who "died for our sins." We are "dead with Him," "dead unto sin," "buried by baptism with Him, wherein also we are risen with Him," quickened together with Him," "set together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Believing that the Holy Ghost so given us in baptism by Jesus Christ, that we are in Him "created anew." We believe, also, that we are children of God in Him, and, "if children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ," inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.

66

2. We hold, accordingly, that all infants presented either in church or privately, according to the Book of Common Prayer, and baptized with water in the "name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," being spiritually engrafted and incorporated into his mystical body; original sin being so far from an obstacle, to the right reception of baptism, that, as St. Augustine says, "Infants, because they are not as yet guilty of any actual sin, have the original sin that is in them remitted through the grace

of Him who saveth by the washing of regeneration." And as our own church declares that the baptized child, "being born in original sin, and in the wrath of God, is by the laver of regeneration in baptism received into the number of the children of God and heirs of everlasting life, for our Lord Jesus doth not deny His grace and mercy unto such infants, but most lovingly calls them unto him.

.

Similar opinions, to those expressed by the Bishop of Exeter, are held by the Puseyites, otherwise called Oxford Tractarians. We shall give a few brief quotations, from the "Tracts for the Times,” which will justify our statement.

66.

The sacrament of baptism by which souls are admitted into covenant with God, and without which none can enter into the kingdom of heaven." (John iii. 5.) Tracts, vol. i., No. 35, p. 1.

66

. . . Pardon in baptism is free, full, instantaneous, universal, without any service on our part: the pardon on repentance for those who have forfeited their baptismal pardon, is slow, partial, gradual, as is the repentance itself; to be humbly waited for, and to be wrought out through that penitence were the repentance at once perfect, so, doubtless would the pardon be." Tracts, vol. ii., No. 67. Preface, p. xxii.

Regeneration is in Scripture connected with baptism; it is nowhere disconnected from it. Baptism is spoken of as the source of our spiritual birth; as no other cause is save God. Other causes are, indeed, mentioned as connected with our new birth,—but no other instrument is spoken of as having the same relation to our heavenly birth as this of water." Whoever has been baptized, was thereby incorporated into Christ, and so being made a portion and member of the Son of God, partakes of that Sonship, and is himself a child; so that henceforth the Father looks upon him, not as he is in himself, but as in, and a part of, his well-beloved Son." Tracts, vol. ii., No. 67, pp. 12, 13.

66

The sacrament of baptism is not a mere sign or promise, but actually a means of grace, an instrument by which, when rightly received, the soul is admitted to the benefit of Christ's atonement; such as the forgiveness of sin, original and actual, reconciliation to God, a new nature, adoption, citizenship in Christ's kingdom, and the inheritance of heaven; in a word, regeneration." Tracts, vol. iii., No. 76, p. 1.

66

There is no hint that regeneration can be obtained in any other way, but by baptism.

66

Holiness (is) actually conferred upon us in baptism, as members of the Holy Son of God, and clothed with Him." Tracts, vol. ii., No. 67, pp. 14, 163.

66

A person not commissioned from the bishop, may use the baptism, and sprinkle or bathe with the water, but there is no promise from Christ that such a man shall admit souls to heaven." Tracts, vol i., No. 34, p. 4.

Thus, the teachings contained in the Oxford Tracts, accord with the sentiments expressed by the Bishop of Exeter, as before stated, relative to Baptismal regeneration, and concur with the statements which we have before quoted from the Book of Common Prayer. We are, therefore, driven to the conclusion, that, if the Prayer Book be the test of the Churchman's orthodoxy, the Bishop of Exeter and the Puseyites, or Tractarians, who hold the dogma of Baptismal regeneration, are orthodox Churchmen, and by the same rule, the Evangelicals in the establishment are heretical Churchmen.

When, however, we appeal to the Holy Scriptures-the only sure