branch is to be cut off and cast into the fire. The negligence of men in authority may permit a dead branch to remain upon the tree: but there is a time coming, when God shall descend from heaven to behold and visit this vine. What is now amiss, will then be rectified, without respect of persons. For which great day of visitation and inquisition may God Almighty by his grace prepare all those who diligently seek it! AMEN. AN ESSAY ON CONFIRMATIO N. I. THAT there was such a practice as Confirmation in the primitive Church, is clear from the express words of the New Testament; and that the proper subjects of it were those Christians who had already been admitted to Baptism. For the proof of which, we need only attend to the following account of this matter, which is delivered to us in the Acts of the Apostles-Now 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 receive 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 layed they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost *. The occasion which called for the exercise of Confirmation, and all the circumstances which attended it, are here so exactly related, that I shall endeavour to explain the *Acts viii. 14, &c. |