VII. VIII. LASTLY, I fhall conclude with a SERM. proper Exhortation to all that are concerned to offer themselves for it, with some short Inftructions how they are to prepare and qua lify themselves for it, in what Manner they are to receive it, and to behave themselves afterwards. And in all these Particulars my Text will afford us Light fufficient, and lead us to take Notice of every thing that is obfervable; though I shall have no Occafion to explain it any otherwise than as I go along. To begin then, I am to enquire and examine in the I. FIRST Place into the Original and Inftitution of this Holy Rite. And if we confider it as a Rite wherein Perfons baptized in their Infancy, take their Baptismal Engagement upon themselves so soon as they are arrived at Years of Discretion; or fo foon as they are duly catechifed or inftructed in the folemn Promise which their Godfathers or Sureties then made for them; we may then very fafely deduce the Practice of it from a very ancient and religious Cuftom among the Jews: Who were above all Things careful (as indeed they are still) to fee their Children early and Q4 thoroughly VII. SER M. thoroughly inftructed in the Jewish or Mofaick Law *. To this end they had in every Village a Perfon called the Inftructor of Babes (to whom St. Paul Rom. ii. 20. feems to allude) whose Business it was to teach Children the written Law, till they were ten Years of Age; and from that Time till they were fifteen, to inftruct them in the Talmud, or Oral Traditions +. At the Age of thirteen, they were brought to the Houfe of GOD, to be publickly examined, and if they were approved, were then declared to be Children of the Precept‡: i. e. They were thenceforth obliged to keep the Law, and were accounted anfwerable for their own Sins ||. And whereas our Saviour fubmitted himself to this Examination, when he was but twelve Years old (for that is fupposed to have been the End of his staying behind at Jerufalem, and offering himself to the Doctors in the Temple) it was by Reason of his extraordinary Qualifications and Endowments, which to fpeak in the Language ufed by the Jews, ran before the Command ** And from this Cuftom among the Jews, the Jofeph. Antiq. 1. iv. c. 8. And Buxtorf. Synagog. ** Grotius in Luc. Rite of Confirmation in the Chriftian Church SER M. VII. is thought by fome to be deduced. But now here I must premife, what I shall fhew more diftinctly by and by, that befides the Engagement, of the Party confirmed, to take the Baptismal Vow upon himself; in the Rite of Confirmation, as it is used by Chriftians, we suppose that the Graces of the Holy Ghost are communicated at the fame Time, by the Impofition of the Hands of the Bishop, to enable the Perfon, on whom he imposes them, to keep this Vow. And this we derive from the Inftitution as well as from the Practice of the Apoftles. And an Institution of the Apoftles, whilft they were under the visible Direction and Guidance of the Holy Ghoft, may juftly be called a Divine Inftitution. And that the Rite of Confirmation (as it is used in our own Church) was fo inftituted, I fhall take upon me in this Difcourfe to fhew. In doing this I fhall proceed as regularly and as easily as I can, and will infer no more from any Text, but what it obviously implies: I fhall begin with that which is already before us, which informs us that, when the Apostles which were at Jerufalem, heard that Samaria had received the Word of GOD, (and had been VII. SER M. been baptized, as the twelfth and fixteenth. Verfes relate) they fent unto them, two of their own Number, Peter and John, to the End that by the Impofition of their Hands and Prayers, the Samaritans might receive the Holy Ghoft. Now from hence we learn that the Holy Ghost was wanting to the Samaritans even after they were baptized: Confequently that neither could Baptifm alone, though administer'd in the Name of the Lord Jefus, ver. 16. as this was, confer him on the Samaritans in fuch Degree as they needed him; nor yet could the Person that administer'd it to them (though an Evangelist, though a Worker of Miracles, though plentifully endued with the Holy Ghost himself) by any additional Administration of his, communicate the Holy Ghost to others. Because, if the Holy Ghoft were a Confequence of Baptifm fimply confidered, or without a subsequent Impofition of Hands; or if Philip had had any Power to communicate him, by the Impofition of his own Hands; two Apostles would not have been fent from Jerufalem to pray for and lay their Hands upon them. Thus far we are full and clear: And the fame may be argued from another Occurrence recorded alfo in the Acts of the Apostles, and VII. which happened to the Ephefians, Acts xix, SER M. 5, 6. upon whom, after they had been baptized in the Name of the Lord Jefus, the Apostle St. Paul laid his Hands: And then the Holy Ghoft came on them: Which shews again that the Apostle's laying on his Hands, as well as his Baptizing them, was neceffary to perfect and confirm the Ephefians with the Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghoft. Now from these two Inftances it plainly appears that the Impofition of Hands for conferring or communicating the Holy Ghost was of Apoftolical Practice and Appointment both: Practifed by Peter and John and Paul; and by the two former by the Appointment of the other Apostles at Jerufalem. But because it often happened that the laying on of the Hands of the Apostles was attended with extraordinary and miraculous Gifts, which is intimated in the Verses following my Text, Ats viii. 18, 19. but more clearly expreffed in the Inftance of the Ephefians which I mentioned laft, and of whom it is particularly related, that they spake with Tongues and prophefied, Acts xix. 6. as foon as Paul had laid his Hands upon them; because, I fay, this laying on of Hands was originally attended with such mighty Effects; and because no fuch Effects attend I |
