chief instrument vouchsafed for making him fit for the kingdom of heaven? How any persons who profess themselves really anxious to live for Christ, can altogether withdraw themselves from the Lord's supper, is indeed a mystery! Must it not make us fear that there is some sinful desire or doing, indulged, which oftentimes hinders the approach? O that we 'could see congregations bearing some proportion to the inhabitants, and the communicants bearing some proportion to the body of the congregation! That we could behold the young coming forward to put on the impenetrable armour of grace; and the man of business rejoicing to lay his burden of care at the foot of the cross; and the aged, within a few steps of the eternal world, fearing to disobey the last command of their blessed Redeemer! Remember the zeal of the early Christians, and receive, as often as you may, these tokens of love, no less sure to faith than if an angel's hand were the bearer. Have we not sin to answer for, and be purified from? "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin," (1 John i. 7.) Have we not need of help? "My strength is made perfect in weakness," (2 Cor. xii. 9.) Have we not blessings to acknowledge? And do we ask what reward shall we give unto the Lord for all the benefits which He hath done? "I will receive the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord." (Psalm cxvi. 13.)

Having thus gone through our public service, from the exhortation to the final blessing, we may well say of it as was said of Tyrus, "Thy builders have perfected thy beauty!" (Ezek. xxvii. 4); and we ought not to omit that memorable testimony, worthy not only to be fixed on record, but to be engraven on the horns of the altar, which was given to our Common Prayer by the King and Parliament in that act which

established the use of it; "That it was BY THE AID OF THE HOLY GHOST, with uniform agreement concluded and set forth. May it ever enjoy the same testimony from their successors, and may they ever support, strengthen, and invigorate those laws which have been placed as a fence about it, that no persons whatsoever presume, under the highest penalties, to preach, declare, or speak anything in derogation, depraving, or despising of the said book, or anything therein contained, or any part thereof."—Act for Uniformity.

Besides the Constant Offices of the Church, she has also appointed Occasional Services, and all of them admirably suited to the several important occurrences of human life to which they relate. They are besides framed in conformity with the practice of the Divine Founder of our religion, who by his teaching, and especially by his example, marked the influence of his Gospel as extending not only to the congregational offices of devotion, but also to those in which members of the Church, in their individual capacity, are particularly interested. Thus we find him not only in the temple on the Sabbath, but with his disciples at the last supper; at the marriage feast; blessing the little children; visiting the sick; comforting the afflicted; at the grave with the mourners; and pointing to the resurrection. So has our Church, with affectionate regard for the spiritual wants and necessities of her members, appointed devotional services for those leading events in the life of man, which especially call for and require the benign and consolatory influence and aid of our holy religion.

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CHAPTER XVI.

OCCASIONAL OFFICES:-BAPTISM.

THE MINISTRATION OF PUBLIC BAPTISM OF INFANTS, TO BE USED IN THE CHURCH.

BAPTISM being the sacrament of our initiation and entrance into Christianity, and by order of nature before the Communion, the office belonging to it might naturally be supposed to hold the pre-eminent place in our liturgy; but as the Communion, both in the primitive Church and in the beginning of the Reformation, was accounted the principal part of the daily service of God in public, and baptism more rarely happening, the Church thought fit to make them contiguous in order, which were so frequent companions in use.

Three Offices for Baptism have been appointed by our Church; 1st, for the public baptism of healthful infants openly in the Church; 2nd, a private and short office for the baptism of weak infants in houses; 3rd, for the baptism of persons who have arrived at years of discretion, and are able to answer for themselves.

Washing with water fitly represents that regeneration or new birth which our Saviour requires of us (John iii. 3-7), before we can become Christians; for as that is the first office done unto us after our natural birth, in order to cleanse us from the pollutions of the womb (Ezek. xvi. 4), so when we are admitted into the Church we are first baptized, whereby the Holy Ghost cleanses us from the pollutions of our sins, and renews us unto God (Tit. ii. 5), and so become as it were spiritual infants, and enter into a new life and being, which before we had not. For this reason,

when the Jews baptized any of their proselytes, they called it their "new birth, regeneration, or being born again;" and, therefore, when our Saviour used this phrase to Nicodemus, he wondered that he, "being a master in Israel," should not understand him. And in the Christian Church, by our Saviour's institution and appointment, those who are dead to God through sin are born again by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Ghost. How proper water is to typify the Holy Ghost, may be seen by consulting several texts of Scripture where water and the blessed Spirit are mentioned as corresponding one to another, (Isaiah XLIV. 3; John iv. 14; vii. 37-40.)

Christ instituted the form of baptism only as to the essential parts of it, namely, that it should be performed by a proper minister, with "water, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" (Matt. xxviii. 19); but as for the rites and circumstances of the administration of it, he left them to the determination of the apostles and of the Church; yet, without doubt, a form was very early agreed upon, because almost all the Christian Churches so administer it in the same manner. The latter age, indeed, had made some superfluous additions*, but our reformers removed them, and restored this office to a nearer resemblance of the ancient model than any other Church can show.

No express mention of baptizing infants has been made by Christ or his apostles, and we must therefore gather the truth from the reasoning of analogy, from incidental expressions, and the records of the practice of the Church; (and here we may remark by the way, that Scripture makes no express mention of the alteration of the Sabbath, and yet there are few who do not think the observation of the first day of the week

* See PALMER's Antiquities of the English Ritual, Vol. II.

page 168.

is sufficiently authorized by the New Testament; and yet this is not more clearly implied than the other,) God commanded infants to be circumcised, which proves that there is no impropriety in admitting them into a religious covenant; and this command, when applied to baptism, is of greater weight, as it is admitted that circumcision was a type of baptism. Our Saviour made no restriction or exception when he instituted baptism, which he did in very general terms: "Go and make disciples of (as the original word signifies) all nations, baptizing them," &c.; this is a proof that he intended no alteration in the objects of baptism, but only to exalt the action of baptizing to a nobler purpose and larger use, for nations consist of persons of all ages, and therefore infants as well as adults are included; and this inference will be more evident, when we reflect that the commission was given in Judea, where baptism was an ordinary rite, administered by the Jews, as well to their own as to the children of proselytes, and who would consequently receive converts to Christianity in the same manner. Had our Saviour intended any alteration in the Jewish practice of baptism, or any limitation with respect to age, he would not have failed to specify it. And since the Gospel is a better covenant than the Jewish law (Heb. viii. 6), it must be inferred that there is in the former the same comforts and assurances to parents that there is in the latter, which admitted children into it the eighth day after their birth, (Gen. xvii.) When Lydia was baptized, and her household (Acts xvi. 15), and when St. Paul baptized the household of Stephanas, it is hard to believe that there was never a child in those families. Since the apostles assure us that "they which are of faith," that is, all Christians, "are children of Abraham" (Gal. iii. 7), then surely their offspring have as