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THE ROMISH AND PRELATICAL RITE OF CONFIRMATION EXAMINED, and proved to be contrary to the Scriptures, and the Practice of all the earliest and purest Churches, both Oriental and Western. By THOMAS SMYTH, D.D., Author of "Lectures on the Apostolical Succession; ""Presbytery and not Prelacy the Scriptural and Primitive Polity;" &c. With an Appendix, on the duty of requiring a Public Profession of Religion. Edinburgh: Kennedy. London: Hamilton.

1845.

THOSE of our readers who may be curious to see what and how a Transatlantic presbyterian can write on the subject of confirmation and some kindred points, may furnish themselves with a very fair specimen in this little volume. We will frankly say it is a learned and able work and can only regret that the prevalence of popish or semi-popish views on these and similar topics among not a few churchmen-views, too, in some cases maintained with much bitterness and bigotry-should give occasion to assaults, (perhaps we ought in fairness to call them defences,) which cannot but inflict much injury upon a guiltless Church. In saying guiltless Church, we speak of our recognized formularies, understood in their true spirit and scope, and not as interpreted by those who from without view them in a false light, or by those who from within wrest them to our Church's injury and their own. We fear that what may be called the Scottish branch of the American Episcopalians, much like their brethren on the other side the Tweed, are great offenders in this respect; and while we would by no means justify Dr. Smyth and his brethren in the strong things they have said and written, it must in justice be allowed that the casus belli is not always on one side. The preface to Dr. S.'s treatise, (dedicated very characteristically "to all who wish to be confirmed in the truth, and delivered from bondage to a rite by which they are confirmed in error and delusion,") is as follows. It will explain what we have hinted in regard to the origin of the work, and convey a fair idea of its spirit.

"Few words," the author observes," are necessary as a preface to this little work. It is short, but I trust conclusive; and though the subject treated of is a small matter' in itself, which in some circumstances we might overlook, yet when it is held forth as a sign and a mark of the true and only Church of Christ, it comes to be of supreme and infinite importance. And as confirmation, in this view of it, has been of late very boldly and prominently advocated, and the challenge offered to all who reject it, to give a reason for their faith, it becomes necessary as boldly and publicly to expose the unscripturality, the novelty, the absurdity, and the exceedingly dangerous character of

this Romish and prelatical rite. It has recently been enacted by certain inferior clergy,' very probably under the direction of their superior,' that henceforth no person who has not received prelatical regeneration by their water-baptism, and completed grace' by their confirmation, shall be admitted to their communion. This is a fair inference from prelatical premises, and, like them, is full of the gall of bitterness,' and of hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness.' But as some minds are very sensible to fear, and credulous of boldly assumed authority and power, it is necessary, in order to preserve such individuals from those who go about the streets, and into every house where they can gain admittance, not that they may win souls to Christ, but make proselytes to the Church,' not that they may make men' wise unto salvation,' but may instruct them in the dogmas of apostolical succes. sion, priestly power, and prelatical grace-not that they may build them up in a knowledge of the scriptures, but may enable them to get by heart,' and to say, certain statements about the Church, confirmation, and suchlike formalities, or grosser errors; it is necessary to expose especially the nature of such conduct. We speak that which we know, and testify to that which we have seen.' 'But they shall proceed no further,' without at least a warning voice to them and their victims; 'for their folly shall be manifest unto all men,' as far as God shall please to give voice and power to this feeble effort to vindicate the truth of his word, the freeness of his grace, the spirituality of his worship, the reality of conversion and renewal in the Holy Ghost, and the all-sufficiency of his own appointed means and ordinances.”—(pp. vii.-ix.)

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The volume bears on the reverse of its title-page the following

extracts.

"Confirmation is too often so mistaken and perverted, as to become an empty and unmeaning form, or a dangerous snare.' ."-(Archbishop Whateley, Charges and other Tracts, p. 93.)

"The invention that was afterwards found out, by which the bishop was held to be the only minister of confirmation, was a piece of superstition, without any colour from scripture."-(Bishop Burnet on the Thirty-Nine Articles, p. 354.)

66 Properly, then, confirmation was a temporary usage, connected with a miraculous display. It is not a sacrament, nor would that Church be unapostolical which should reject it."-(History of the Rise and Progress of Christianity, by Dr. Hinds of Oxford, and Chaplain to Archbishop Whateley.)

We will give Dr. S. the benefit of all this, and yet contend for the apostolic rite of confirmation as soberly and scripturally understood, protesting withal as earnestly as he himself can do against its heretical and superstitious abuse. Nor is our view of its apostolical origin peculiar to us as Episcopalians. We have not Calvin at hand for reference, but we cannot be mistaken in the impression which former perusals have given us, that Calvin himself—that great Presbyterian father-admits that Heb. vi. 2, is alone sufficient to prove that this rite was of apostolical institution, and that therefore it ought to be still continued in the Church. However we are not intending to tilt it with our Presbyterian brother, and will therefore content ourselves with giving him another episcopal extract for the next edition of his work, and which may serve at

the same time to convey our general view of the subject. We quote from a "Sermon on Confirmation, by John, Bishop of Lincoln"- the present Dr. Kaye; a prelate whose mild amiability, sober judgment, and profound learning well entitle him to the love and respect in which we believe he is generally held. His Lordship's text is Acts viii. 17; "Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost." The Sermon thus opens :

"We learn from the sacred writings, that to lay the hand upon the head of an individual, and to accompany the action by prayer to God, was a customary mode of testifying anxiety for the individual's welfare, of bespeaking for him, in an especial manner, the divine protection and favour, and of applying, if I may so speak, the blessing invoked from heaven particularly to him. Thus Jacob, a short time before his death, laid his hand on the heads of the sons of Joseph, and blessed them. So familiar were the Jews with the custom, that we find them bringing young children to Christ, in order that he might put his hands on them, and pray and we find our Saviour marking his approbation of the manner in which this pious solicitude of the parents was expressed, by taking the children up in his arms, and putting his hands upon them, and blessing them. The two apostles, therefore, on the occasion to which the words of my text refer, did nothing which the spectators would think new or strange, though they could not fail to be astonished at the new and extraordinary results which followed the act.

"The occasion was this: Philip whose appointment to the office of deacon is recorded in the sixth chapter of Acts, had gone down to the city of Samaria, and there preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, had made and baptized many converts to the Gospel. No sooner was the intelligence that Samaria had received the word conveyed to the apostles at Jerusalem, than they sent Peter and John; who, when they were come down, prayed for the new converts, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet, the author of the narrative proceeds, he was fallen upon none of them; only, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then, we read in the words of my text, laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

That the new converts, when they thus received the Holy Ghost, received also some extraordinary power, some power of doing that to which the natural faculties of men are unequal, is evident from the verse which immediately follows. It is there said, that Simon, of whom we are told that before time he had used sorcery, when he saw that, through laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given, offered money, saying, give me also this power, that on whom-soever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. It is evident, therefore, that they who had received the Holy Ghost were now endowed with powers which they did not possess before the imposition of the apostles' hands, and the display of which excited in the bosom of Simon a desire to possess the ability to communicate similar powers.

"The truth of this observation is confirmed by another passage in the book of Acts. We read in the nineteenth chapter, that St. Paul, when he came to Ephesus, found certain disciples, of whom he inquired, Whether they had received the Holy Ghost since they believed? They answered, that they had not so much as heard whether there was any Holy Ghost. St. Paul finding on further inquiry, that they had been baptized unto John's baptism, baptized them first in the name of the Lord Jesus, and then laid his hands upon them. The consequence of the imposition was, that the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied. They were at once endowed with the ability to speak various languages, of which the knowledge is ordinarily acquired only by long and persevering study;

and thus to become instruments in propagating the Gospel throughout the world.

"In both the cases which have been mentioned, the laying on of the apostles' hands followed the administration of the rite of baptism; in the latter case immediately, in the former after a long interval. Taking then, in this, as in all other instances, the practice of the apostles for its guide, the Church made the imposition of hands the concluding part of the ceremony of baptism; not with the expectation that the act would be attended with the same extraordinary effects as in the case of those on whom St. Peter and St. Paul laid their hands, but with the pious intent of giving to the baptized person, by this significant act, a stronger assurance that the gracious promises made to him would be fulfilled.

"It should be borne in mind, that at the time of which we are speaking, much the larger portion of the candidates for baptism were adults,-persons who had arrived at the age of manhood,--and having been converted from heathenism by the preaching of the apostles, or their successors, had embraced the Gospel from conviction. It was not the custom to admit such persons immediately to the rite of baptism: they were required to go through a preparatory course of instruction and discipline, in order that the Church might have satisfactory evidence of their advancement both in Christian knowledge and Christian practice, of their sincere belief of the truths revealed in the Gospel, and of their sincere determination to show forth that belief in their lives. As soon as those points were satisfactorily ascertained, the rite of baptism was conferred, of which, as I have already observed, the imposition of hands formed a part. Our Church, therefore, follows the prac tice of the Primitive Church, when, in its office for the baptism of such as are of riper years, it directs that they should be confirmed by the bishop as soon after their baptism as conveniently may be.

66 In process of time the Church of Christ extended itself throughout the greater part of the Roman Empire. The consequence of its diffusion was, that the larger portion of baptized persons, instead of being grown up persons as at first, were now the infant children of Christian parents. For the Church rightly inferred from the gracious declaration of Christ respecting the little children who were brought unto him, that "of such is the kingdom of heaven;" the Church, I say, rightly inferred from this declaration that little children are admissible to baptism and capable of regeneration. As however they are incapable from their tender age of any profession of faith, that profession is made for them by their sponsors, who undertake that they shall be trained up in that course of godly instruction and discipline which in their case must of necessity follow, though, as we have seen, in the case of the first converts to the Gospel, it preceded baptism. But, though the Church determined that the helplessness and weakness of children constitutes no bar to their admission to the privileges of the Christian covenant, it requires that, when they come to years of discretion they shall give some proof that they both understand the terms of their admission, and that they are willing to fulfil the obligations which were contracted in their names at their baptism. With this view the laying on of hands, with which the ceremony of baptism was at first concluded, was by degrees separated from it, and deferred till the child had become capable of rendering an account of his faith, and of taking upon himself the engagements entered into for him by others.

"The Church of England does not, like the Church of Rome, supersti tiously elevate confirmation into a sacrament: that it cannot be, because it was not instituted by our blessed Lord, nor is any promise of Divine Grace positively annexed to it. Nor does our Church enjoin its observance on the ground that there is any thing defective in the rite of baptism, any thing wanting to complete its efficacy which confirmation supplies. In what light then does the Church regard it? As an affecting and edifying religious ordinance; as a convenient mode of recalling to the minds of young persons the solemn vows and promises which were made in their names at their baptism,

and of impressing them with a lively conviction that they have made themselves responsible for the punctual fulfilment of those vows and promises. This is the light in which the Church regards confirmation; and surely if the candidates come to receive it in a proper frame of mind, it cannot fail to have a most beneficial effect on their conduct in after life.

"It is certain, however, that these benefits can be derived from a participation in this solemn rite only by those candidates who come in a serious and devout frame of mind. If they have been taught to look forward to the day of confirmation as to a holiday, to a day on which they are to be released from their ordinary avocations and labours, and from the control of their parents and masters, no benefit can possibly result to them. Well indeed will it be if some evil does not happen to them; if they are not betrayed by the heedlessness natural to their age, in the absence of customary restraint, into some foolish or even vicious excess. Yet it is to be feared that too many of the candidates entertain no adequate conception of the importance of the act which they are about to perform.'

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Such are the views of a living English prelate on the subject of confirmation. For all practical purposes the statement appears to us sufficiently ample: nor do we think Dr. Smyth's learning will carry us much farther. For ourselves we are not only content, but thankful, to steer our course on this and kindred points under the sober guidance of Dr. Kaye and other of our episcopal fathers whom we could name. May they long live to shed their mild and cheering light upon our beleagured Church!

A Sermon on Confirmation. By John, Bishop of Lincoln. Second Edition (1838), pp. 5-13.

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