especially unto ministers to expound unto them, and to examine the children in that little catechism, which is allowed by authority; and also at the baptizing of infants to give that charge for bringing them unto the bishop to be confirmed, which by the Book of Common Prayer is prescribed."

SECTION X.

Presbyters as well as prelates were formerly allowed to confirm; with concluding remarks on the historical testimony.

But there is another assertion to which prelatical, not to say Romish, writers willingly commit themselves, and that is, as Jeremy Taylor delivers it, that "bishops were ALWAYS and the ONLY ministers of confirmation." Now this position is just as remote from the truth in the case as the other. It is not the fact that prelatical bishops have been always, or alone, the ministers in confirmation. On this point Bishop Burnet uses strong language: "The INVENTION," he says, "that was afterwards found out, by which the bishop was held to be the only minister of confirmation, even though presbyters were suffered to confirm, WAS A PIECE OF SUPERSTITION, WITHOUT ANY COLOUR FROM SCRIPTURE. It was settled, (that is, by this invented, superstitious law,) that the bishop only might consecrate the chrism; and though he was the ordinary minister of confirmation, yet presbyters were also suffered to do it, the chrism being consecrated by the bishop."

Jerome avers that even in his day, "there was nothing which a bishop can do, which a presbyter cannot do-except ordination."§ Martene, who quotes this, allows that it has been the custom of the Greek church in all ages to confirm (per simplices sacerdotes) by presbyters merely, and that it was one objection urged by them against the Latin church that it did not permit presbyters to confirm. He admits further that this practice was common to other churches also, as in Egypt, according to the testimony of Ambrosiaster. This practice was sanctioned by Rabanus; was common in Spain, as appears by the decree of its council; was also common in France, as appears by the decisions of two different councils; and was expressly sanctioned by Pope Gregory, who finding that his attempt to prohibit the presbyters of Sardinia from confirming, was resisted by the churches, altered his infallible decree and

This is the general position which is constantly assumed.
On the Thirty-nine Articles, p. 354.

Ep. ad Evagr. 85.

continued to them the indefinite exercise of their previous liberty. All this is admitted by this highest Romish authority.** And it is further manifest that the above assertion is contradicted by all the evidence adduced to prove that all the Oriental churches rejected the rite, and that the Syrian church, the Waldenses, the ancient British and Irish churches, never had any ministers higher than presbyters.

What, then, are we to think of writers and preachers, living or dead, in Charleston, or at Oxford, who, EITHER IGNORANTLY OR ARROGANTLY, authenticate such statements as the ones upon which I have been commenting, and which are necessarily involved in the very theory of confirmation as a means of communicating prelatical and saving grace? If, through ignorance, they can solemnly announce such things as facts, do they not proclaim themselves fit successors of the worthies of the dark ages; and if they can repeat them through pride and a desire to sustain the dignity of their office and the supremacy of their church, are they not doing evil for a fancied good, perpetuating fraud for the sake of favor, and blinding their own minds and the consciences of others, for the unworthy purpose of securing their own party and sectarian distinctions? It is, indeed, amazing with what effrontery such men can gather around them the cloak of self-righteous pharisaism, as they coolly say to other Christian churches around them, "Be ye excommunicate and expunged from the list of Christian churches, for ye are holier than ye, and alone possess the promise and the grace of Christ and the privileges of his kingdom." But it is still more amazing how sensible, intelligent and candid men can listen to such exhibitions of ignorant bravado and intolerant bigotry, and not rise up against them in open and manly condemnation. But our wonder, however great, must give place to the fact, however mortifying; and seek in something else than the truth and purity and charity of such a system, for those elements which commend it, in spite of all contrary evidence, to the predilections and unthinking prejudices of many.

Let it, however, be borne in mind, that in this doctrine of confirmation we have a fair type and specimen of prelacy; and in the arguments by which it is sustained, a fair sample of the grounds on which ALL that is PECULIAR to the hierarchy, and claimed by it as par excellence its own, is upheld. And just as assuredly as the torch light of investigation reveals the sand on which is built the fabric of confirmation, does it also disclose "the hay, wood, and stubble," which have been erected on that

**De Antiquis Ecclesiæ Ritibus, Antwerp, 1736, 4 vols. fol. tom. i. pp. 246, 247. See also Burnet on the Thirty-nine Articles, pp. 354, and Riddle's Christian Antiquities, p. 538. See also Binii Concilia in locis.

same foundation, in the orders, rites, and pomps of garments and of garniture, and which all perish and are utterly consumed when tried by the fire of a searching investigation.

SECTION XI.

Confirmation injurious to the character of God, and to his true Ministers.

I will now close this discussion with some reflections. For I would have my readers to understand why it is necessary to spend time in examining and discussing this subject. In itself considered, confirmation is a small matter; but as one of those marks by which Romanists and prelatists distinguish between a true and a false church, between THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, which is the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation, and those conventicles of Samaritans, which can hope for salvation only through uncovenanted mercy, it becomes of essential importance. It is one of the buttresses by which this citadel of error is sustained, and one of the chief means by which it blinds and deludes the souls of thoughtless and unwary men. It is, therefore, in every way, and to a fatal extent, injurious, and to be openly reprobated.

IT IS INJURIOUS TO THE CHARACTER OF GOD; to God the Father, whose wisdom, love, and sovereign mercy it would tie down to a mere outward and unmeaning ceremony, and to the ministry of men, of whom we have lamentable experience that they constitute VERY FILTHY CHANNELS for the exclusive communication of divine mercy; to God the Son, who is the only head, legislator, and efficient source of grace and salvation to his people, and who alone can institute and ordain ordinances for their edification; and to God the Holy Spirit, whose prerogative it is to move upon the hearts of men, even as the wind bloweth where it listeth, unfettered and unbound; who cannot, therefore, be tied down to any rites, or ceremonies, times, or places, walls, or persons, and to suppose whom subjected to lawn sleeves, carnal manipulations, holy water, greasy oil, and all the mummeries and dumb signs of paganized Christianity,††

++See Pagano Papismus, or, An Exact Parallel between Rome Pagan and Rome Christian, in their Doctrines and Ceremonies, by Joshua Stopford, B. D. 1765. Lond. rep. 1844. He quotes the following confessions at p. 3, and numerous others may be seen in Mussard's Conformity between Modern and Ancient Ceremonies, Leyden, 1667, Lond. 1745, see ch. i. "When I call to mind the institutions of the holy mysteries of ethnicks," says Beroaldus, "I am even forced to believe, that most things appertaining to the celebration of our solemnities and ceremonies are taken thence. As for example: from the Gentile religion are the shaven heads of priests, turnings round at the altar, sacrificial pomp, and many such like ceremonies which our priests solemnly use in our mysteries. How many things (good

is little short of blasphemy against his nature, and an utter denial of his personality and absolute Godhead.

CONFIRMATION IS INJURIOUS TO THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST'S TRUE AND HOLY MINISTRY, and an utter contradiction to that simplicity, meekness, and lowliness, which are characteristic of Christianity. In direct opposition to Christ's warnings, it makes essential to the church those who "lord it over his heritage;"‡‡ who "exercise lordship and authority over his ministers;" who are "called Rabbi, and Father, (right reverend father), and Master;" and transform themselves into the apostles of Christ, saying that they are apostles when they are not;"§§ and has given to these dominion over the faith, and even over the salvation of men. And, whereas, Christ told his ministers that "all ye are brethren,"* without distinction in order or in rank, and has solemnly declared that the Holy Ghost has made presbyters "the bishops of the flock," this ordinance makes essential to its administration and to the reception of that measure of grace which is requisite for salvation, the administration of an order called bishops, who are described as superior to Christ's bishops, and to whom their name has been impiously attributed, and makes the true bishops of Christ's appointment dependent upon these man-made bishops for their office, their authority, their rights, and their grace to discharge the duties even of "inferior clergy." And it can be shown that through this ambition and usurpation of God!) in our religion are like to the Pagan religion? How many rites common?"-Apud Wolfium Lection. Memor. tom. i. p. 907.

Baronius confesseth, "That in many things there is a conformity between popery and paganism; that many thing have been laudably translated from Gentile superstition into the Christian religion, hath been demonstrated by many examples, and the authority of Fathers. And what wonder if the most holy bishops have granted that the ancient customs of Gentiles should be introduced into the worship of the true God, from which it seemed impossible to take off many, though converted to Christianity."Annal. tom. i. ad annum 58, p. 606. And he comes to particulars, ad annum 44, p. 382: "Anniversary vigils thou hast in Suetonius de Vespaniano, cap. vii.; holy water and sprinkling of sepulchres, in Juvenal Sat. 6, and others. Lights in Suetonius de Octavio." Candles and torches, in Seneca and Macrobius. Polydor Virgil having in several chapters described the ancient usages and superstitious ceremonies of the pagan religion, concludes that book with these words: "And such was the beginning of sacred rites and ceremonies among the Romans, a good part of which have we embraced," etc., de inventor. rerum, lib. iv. "The pomp of rites and ceremonies," saith Cornelius Agrippa, "in vestments, vessels, lights, bells, organs, music, odors, sacrifices, gestures, rich pictures, choice of meats, fastings," etc., are not the least part of religion. And then, a little after, he adds, a great part of which, as Eusebius testifieth, hath been taken from ethnicks, and received into our religion.-De Vanitate Scient. cap. lvi. Hence even in this country we have now the titles of "The Lord Bishop," "His Grace," with armorial seals, and this even in the Protestant Episcopal church.

88See the author's Lectures of the Apostolical Succession, Lect. vi. pp. 137-142.

*See preceding note.

†See Acts 20: 17, 28, and 1 Peter 5. 2.

prelates, and the consequent destruction of the parity of Christ's ministers, and the simplicity of Christ's ordinances, the enemy came in like a flood upon the church, and covered its fruitful plains with the mud, the seeds, and the rank weeds, of heathenish superstitions. For, with the introduction of pagan rites, came pagan doctrines; and with the preservation of popish rites in the English and American prelatic church, we have now living proof that Romish doctrines are still prevalent, and growing, and likely to become dominant over Protestant truth, which is shadowed and "sicklied over" with the rank growth, and pestilent miasma of popish rites, garments, and traditions. "Difference of clerical rank has been the very element and principle of all the pomp," pride, ceremonies, gainful errors, priestcraft, hierarchical assumptions, intolerance and persecutions of the nominal church. Had the simple purity of the ministry remained, then there would have beeen no pope, no cardinals, no archbishops, no prelates, no inquisitions, no established churches; no manifold orders of Franciscans, Carmelites, Dominicans, Jesuits, Knights Templar, and Knights of St. John; no endless varieties of saints and heroes, monks and nuns,cœnobites and anchorites, and the innumerable orders, sects, schisms, crusades, wars, and murders, of the Romish hierarchy. Nor is there in the history of the church universal, a single instance of any church which lost the parity of ministers, which did not lose with it, her purity of doctrine, and her virgin simplicity of form.‡

SECTION XII.

Confirmation is injurious to the Sacrament of Baptism, and to the Recipients themselves. Conclusion.

HOW INJURIOUS ALSO IS THIS ORDINANCE OF CONFIRMATION TO THE TRUE AND HEAVEN-APPOINTED SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM!

"The heathen," says Stopford in his Pagano-Papismus, p. 261, "had several religious orders, or confraternities, of both sexes: so much is confessed by our adversaries."-Beyerlinck Magn. Theat. lib. v. p. 366; Polydor Virgil, De Inventor, lib. vii. cap. 6. The Romans had their Vestal, Titian, or Tatian, Augustal, Antonian, Aelian, Aurelian, Faustinian, and Salian Confraternities.-Alexander ab Alex. Genial. dier; lib. cap. 26.

Thus our Romanists have several religious orders; as Benedictines, Carthusians, Bernardine, Prædicators, Carmelites, Johannites, Antonites, Lazarites, Sclavonians, Gregorians, Ambrosians, Dominicans, Franciscans, Templars, the Servants of Mary, the Brethren of the Cross, the Soldiers of Jesu, the Bare-footed, the Poor Brethren, the Brethren of St. James, the Brethren of St. Sophia, the Brethren of St. Helen, the Order of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Order of St. John, the Order of St. Briget, the Order of Whippers, the Order of Basil, the Order of the Sepulchrits, the Order of Wilhelmites, the Order of Wenceslaites, the Order of Purgatory, the Order of the Dark Valley, the Order of Joseph, the Order of B. Mary de Mercede, with many more, to the number of sixty-five, enumerated by Tileman Heshusius.-Errore Pontif. loc. 25.

Mussard, who was a Huguenot clergyman, traces the Pope and the Romish orders of clergy distinctly to the same source, see ch. ii. and iii.