your ordinary ministers; you will make it before me, and oh! how I do hope and pray that you will have grace given you of God to make it sincerely and to keep it faithfully; you will make it in the presence of a numerous congregation, of many intelligent Christians, and also of many relatives and friends most anxious for your eternal welfare; holy angels also will be witnesses, interested by the view of those who are then dedicating themselves to that blessed God, whose face they always behold. Oh! my young friends, what a happy thing it will be, if you have then the testimony of a good conscience, that in simplicity and Godly sincerity you are there really devoting yourselves to God. But what an awful thought is it, if you shall be without great seriousness of mind on so very solemn an occasion, and in the presence of so many witnesses! Oh! remember that one of them at least, even the all-seeing God, will then know all that is in your mind and heart, and that others will live to see whether future proofs of your sincerity appear, and whether you keep the promise which you make, and the covenant into which you enter with God.

Look then, I pray you, upon this ceremony of Confirmation as a most solemn transaction between yourselves and your God, and the more solemn as being, as I have said, the first public ceremony of a religious nature in which you have been so personally and individually engaged, and to be performed in the presence of so many witnesses. Enter into it with much seriousness, consideration, self-examination, and prayer.

B

It may be a day of great blessing to your souls. It may be that God will then in mercy send down the Holy Ghost upon you. What that blessing is, and why it may be expected, I will endeavour to shew you in some future address. I part with you for the present with a most anxious desire that you may retire from hearing this address with a deep and strong impression upon your minds that Confirmation, in which you ratify and confirm your baptismal vow, with your own mouth and consent, openly before the Church and its Bishop, and in the presence of God himself, is a most important and solemn ceremony, requiring all your attention, thought, and prayer, yet to be engaged in with a willing and thankful heart, as a great spiritual privilege, and with a lively hope of receiving in it great and unspeakable spiritual benefits.

ADDRESS II.

On the Promises made at Baptism.

I

In my former address to you, my dear young people, I endeavoured to shew you what was the origin of the ceremony of Confirmation, and why it can be performed only by a Bishop and not by any inferior minister. stated to you that the purpose for which you were to go to that ceremony was, to ratify and confirm, in your own persons and by your own act and deed, the promise which had been made for you by your Godfathers and Godmothers at your baptism. And I said much with an anxious desire to impress you with a deep and solemn feeling of the importance and interest of this ceremony to you, as being the first time in which you had engaged, actually for yourself and openly before the Church, in any public religious duty of so personal and individual a nature. I told you then that I would afterwards explain to you, more at large, the obligations of the baptismal vow, that promise which you made by your sureties when you were first baptized, which you have therefore been always bound to observe, and which you are now going to take upon yourselves in the presence of the Bishop, of your own minister, of many others

similarly situated with yourselves, and of various other witnesses.

Consider with me then seriously what those engagements were into which you entered at the time of your baptism. They appear in the form of questions proposed by the clergyman who baptized you and of answers given by the friends who kindly stood forward to undertake for you. The first question is this. "Dost thou, in the name of this child, renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh, so that thou wilt not follow nor be led by them?" They answered for you, "I renounce them all." In the second question the clergyman asked whether you believed all the articles of the Christian faith, going over them as they are mentioned in the Apostle's creed, which I need not repeat to you as you are so well acquainted with it. The answer made in your name was this, "All this I stedfastly believe." The third question was, "Wilt thou be baptized in this faith?" To this the answer was given, "That is my desire." And the fourth and last question put to you through your sureties was in these words, "Wilt thou then obediently keep God's holy will and commandments and walk in the same all the days of thy life?" And thus they finally answered for you, "I will."

Now let us go over these various promises in order. In presenting yourselves to the Bishop for the confirmation of these engagements in your own person you say that you renounce the devil and all his works, the

vain pomp and glory of the world, with all the covetous desires of the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh, so that you will not follow nor be led by them." The devil is that fallen and wicked spirit who, as a serpent, deceived our first parents to their ruin, and still goes about, like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He is the father of lies and the author of all evil, the hater and enemy of God, the tempter to sin, and indefatigable in his exertions to ruin men's souls. Shall you go before the Bishop to renounce the devil heartily and decidedly? Oh! I hope that you will, and that now and henceforth you may ever resist him that he may flee from you. The works of the devil are sins of every kind, such as lying, swearing, stealing, sabbathbreaking, disobedience to parents, and innumerable others of a similar kind. Will you really and truly renounce these and all such like works? Are you prepared to say from your hearts that you will ? Oh ! be ready to do so, I beseech you. The devil and his works are hateful to God: let them be detested and avoided by you. The vain pomp and glory of the world with all covetous desires of the same are also to be renounced by you. You are to engage not to love or follow any of those vain shews, or fashionable amusements, or frivolous pleasures, or extravagant dress, of which persons who are of the world and not of Christ are so fond, and in which they so commonly indulge. You are also to promise not to hanker in your hearts after these things, nor to set your desires upon riches, nor to be ambitious of honours. Can you, my children,