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further to enforce this, it was one of the articles which was exhibited, in order to be admitted by authority *; "That he, whose child, at ten years "old and upward, was not able to say the Cate

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chism, should pay ten shillings to the poor's box; "the like penalty to be inflicted upon masters and "mistresses, who had servants of fourteen years and "upwards, that could not say the Catechism by "heart."

* GIBSON'S Codex, p. 453,

OF

OF THE

ORDER OF CONFIRMATION;

OR,

LAYING ON OF HANDS UPON THOSE THAT ARE BAPTIZED, AND COME TO YEARS OF DISCRETION.

THOUGH Confirmation was not, like Baptism and the Supper of the Lord, positively instituted by Christ himself, yet this sacred rite was administered by the Apostles to the converts that they baptized; and in the primitive Church all persons were, after Baptism, brought to the Bishop to receive his benediction. This benediction was a solemn prayer for the gift of the Holy Ghost; and this prayer was usually preceded by the ceremonies of unction, or chrism, signing with the sign of the cross, or obsignation, and the imposition or laying on of hands.

Chrism, or material unction*, was used by the Apostles in healing the sick +; but it does not appear to have then made any part of the original rite of

*

Xpoμa, unction, was a common name for the whole of the Rite of Confirmation; so was gays, consignation, or signing with the cross. So was likewise imposition or laying on of hands, The title of our form is Imposition or laying on of hands.

+ See Mark vi. 3.

James v. 4.

Confirma

Confirmation. It is first mentioned as one of the external ceremonies attending this rite by TERTUL LIAN* and ORIGEN †, both of whom flourished early in the third century. After it was once introduced into the Office of Confirmation, it soon came to be regarded, not merely as symbolical, but as the instrumental cause of great spiritual effects §. To this unction, as the completion of Baptism, was ascribed the power of making every Christian a Priest, or partaker of the royal Priesthood. It is described as the confirmation of the covenant made with God in Baptism on our part; and on the part of God, as the collation ¶ or communication of the gifts of the Holy

* De Bapt. Cap. vii.

+ In Levit. Hom. ix.

Bishop PEARSON thinks, that the use of chrism in Confirmation was introduced very soon after the age of the Apostles. DAILLE, with others, is of opinion, that material chrism in Confirmation was not known before the beginning of the third century, about which time TERTULLIAN, and after him ORIGEN, mention it. The chrism of THEOPHILUS of Antioch, who wrote before either of them, is not a material but spiritual and mystic unction.

Some of the ancients imagined, that the consecration of the oil effected a mystical change in its nature, not unlike the change that was supposed to take place in the waters of Baptism, or the elements of the Eucharist.

In allusion to the words of 1 Peter ii. 5, 9. ORIGEN as cited above. JEROM cont. Lucif. c. ii. AMBROS. de init. cap. vi. PRUDENTIUS says,

Post inscripta oleo frontis signacula, per quæ

Unguentum regale datum est, et chrisma perenne. Psychom.

Constit. Apost.

5

Spirit.

Spirit. But this ceremony of anointing at the time of Confirmation, being simply an ecclesiastical institution, and having likewise been grossly abused in the ages of superstition, was not adopted at the Reformation by the Church of England, which, like every other national Church, has the power of decreeing its own rites and ceremonies *.

The second ceremony at Confirmation was consignation, or signing the forehead with the sign of This was accompanied with unction, and together with it was considered as "the seal of the

the cross.

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Holy Spirit +." The ceremony of consignation is first mentioned by TERTULLIAN; but in subsequent ages it became so frequent and familiar, that scarce any office of religion, whether public or private, was performed without it. By the Church of England it was retained as a part of the Confirmation Rite in her first Book of Offices, but rejected in the second. At Confirmation the crossing was always performed with material unction; and when our Reformers abolished the use of chrism, to preserve consistency, it was requisite that its concomitant appendage, obsignation, should likewise be removed.

But the most solemn ceremony, and that which universally prevailed in the Rite of Confirmation, was the imposition or laying on of hands. This ceremony is of very great antiquity, having been used by JACOB in blessing the two sons of JOSEPH; and

* Article xx.

+ Second General Council, held at Constantinople, A. D.-381.

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by MOSES, when he appointed JOSHUA to be his successor. Among the Jews it was practised in all benedictions, and on various other occasions; but in the Christian Church it was more peculiarly applied to conferring Orders, reconciling penitents, and adminis tering Confirmation.

THE ORIGIN, ANTIQUITY, AND NECESSITY OF CON-
FIRMATION.

After the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, they preached the Gospel and baptized. The inferior Ministers did the same.

PHILIP in particular, who is supposed to have been the second of the seven Deacons, and next to STEPHEN, preached, and baptized many at Samaria. These Converts received all the benefits conferred by Baptism. Still it appears, that something more was wanting to confirm and make them perfect for St. Luke informs us, that "when the "Apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that "Samaria had received the word of God, they sent "unto them Peter and John: who, when they were "come down, prayed for them, that they might re"ceive the Holy Ghost. (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost *.” If some additional ministration had not been neces

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