In case the priest should doubt from the answers of those who bring the child, whether it was lawfully baptized, a form of proceeding is appointed, which is also prescribed by the ancient rubrics of the English churches.

But if they which bring the infant to the church do make such uncertain answers to the priest's questions, as that it cannot appear that the child was baptized with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, (which are essential parts of baptism,) then let the priest baptize it in the form before appointed for public baptism of infants; saving that at the dipping of the child in the font, he shall use this form of words:

If thou art not already baptized, N. I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Si vero dubitet rationabiliter sacerdos utrum infans ad baptizandum sibi oblatus prius in forma debita fuerit baptizatus, vel non debet omnia perficere cum eo sicut cum alio quem constat sibi non baptizatum, præterquam quod verba sacramentalia essentialia proferre debeat sub conditione, hoc modo dicendo:

N. si baptizatus es, ego non rebaptizo te: sed si nondum baptizatus es, ego baptizo te in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen г.

r Manuale Sarisb. fol. 44, 45. Eboracens. ad finem baptismi.

CHAPTER VI.

CONFIRMATION.

SECTION I.

ANCIENT RITES OF CONFIRMATION.

THE rite of confirmation (which is sometimes called a sacrament by the Fathers, though not in the same high and peculiar sense as baptism and the eucharista) was regarded as an appendix to the sacrament of baptism. Not indeed that baptism was in any way imperfect or invalid without confirmation; but that the grace which the Holy Spirit communicated at baptism, for the remission of sins and regeneration, was increased and strengthened by confirmation. In primitive times, when many persons were baptized together on the vigils of Easter, Pentecost, and Epiphany, in the presence or by the hands of the bishop, the newly baptized, after ascending from the water, were immediately confirmed by him, with imposition of hands and

a The Fathers gave the name of sacrament or mystery to every thing which conveyed one signification or property to unassisted reason, and another to faith. Hence Cyprian speaks of the "sacraments" of the Lord's Prayer, meaning the hidden meaning conveyed therein, which could only be appreciated by a Christian. The Fathers sometimes speak of

confirmation as a sacrament, because the chrism signified the grace of the Holy Ghost; and the imposition of hands was not merely a bare sign, but the form by which it was conveyed: see Bingham, book xii. c. 1. sect. 4. Yet at the same time they continually speak of two great sacraments of the Christian church.

In after-ages, when

prayer for the Holy Ghost. baptisms were administered in many other churches besides the cathedral, and the presbyters and deacons received a commission from their bishops to administer this sacrament, it became necessary either to disjoin confirmation from baptism, or to give presbyters a commission to perform both. The former course has been followed by the western churches of England, &c. where confirmation is always administered by the bishop, and generally several years after baptism; and the latter has been adopted by the patriarchate of Constantinople and all the eastern churches, in which presbyters have, from time immemorial, been permitted to confirm ; and in those churches confirmation is always administered to infants immediately after baptism. To the apostolical rites of prayer and imposition of hands, the church added that of anointing with an unguent or chrism, made of oil and balsam, and hallowed by the prayers of the bishop. It is difficult, if not impossible, to state the period at which the use of chrism was introduced into the church; but we learn from the writings of Tertullian and Origen, that it was already customary both in the east and west at the end of the second or beginning of the third century b. This chrism was intended to signify the grace of the Holy Spirit then conferred.

Notwithstanding the antiquity of chrism in the church, yet the imposition of hands is still more

b Tertull. de Baptismo, c. 7. "Exinde egressi de lavacro perungimur benedicta unctic. 8. " dehinc manus

one

imponitur, per benedictionem advocans et invitans Spiritum Sanctum." Origen. Hom. ix. in Levit.

primitive. By this rite, accompanied with prayer, the apostles conferred the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit; and in the same manner the successors of the apostles communicated those spiritual gifts which are not perceived by the senses, but by faith.

In all the rituals of the Christian church, and in those of the Monophysites and Nestorians, who have in some respects separated from the apostolic doctrines, we find prayers at confirmation, in which the bishop or his representative invokes the grace of the Holy Spirit on those who are to be confirmed: and in almost all we find this prayer preceded or followed by an imposition of hands. The ancient Roman order, according to the sacramentary of Gelasius, and the ordo Romanus, and many other monuments, directed the bishop to give the imposition of hands to all the candidates at the same time, whilst he invoked the manifold gifts of the Holy Ghost for themd. In the church of Alexandria a similar invocation was followed by an imposition of hands and a benediction. The Nestorians, who separated from the catholic church about A. D. 431, still retain the imposition of hands on each individual, followed by a benediction and prayere. The churches

c Sirmond, a learned Jesuit, admits the imposition of hands to be the peculiar rite of confirmation, to which the church added chrism. See his sentiments at p. 341, 352 of the Anæreticus Petri Aurelii, Paris, 1633. Habertus and Estius agree with him. See Bingham's Antiq. book xii. c. 3. §. 2.

d Sacramentar. Gelasii, Muratori, tom. i. p. 571. “Deinde

ab episcopo datur eis Spiritus septiformis. Ad consignandum imponit eis manum in his verbis." Ordo Romanus apud Hittorp. p. 83. "Pontifex vero veniens ad infantes-elevata et imposita manu super capita omnium, det orationem super eos, cum invocatione septiformis gratiæ Spiritus Sancti."

e Rituale Copt. Alexandrin. Assemani, tom. iii. p. 84. Ordo Chald. Nestorian. ib. p. 138.

of Constantinople, of Armenia, and of Antioch and Jerusalem, all desire prayer to be made for the Holy Spirit, but they do not seem directly to notice the imposition of hands. However, we know that originally it was used in the east by the testimony of the Apostolical Constitutions. Nor may we justly say that these churches are devoid of a valid confirmation, because they retain the prayer for the Holy Spirit: and if we do not reckon the imposition of hands in the anointing to be the original form, it may yet suffice; since we have no reason to judge that the ancient form was omitted from any wrong motive. It should be noticed, that the imposition of hands seems not to have been given to each individual in the ancient Roman ritual, though in the patriarchate of Alexandria, and in Chaldea, such a form appears to have prevailed. And although the church of England has directed the bishop to lay his hand on the head of each individual with a benediction, yet the ancient rite of the Roman church, when the bishop lifted up his hands over all the

f Goar, Rit. Græc. p. 355. Ordo Confirm. Armen. Assemani Codex, tom. iii. p. 118. Rit. Syror. ib. p. 149, 155.

§ Ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τούτοις ἀκόλουθα λεγέτω. ἑκάστου γὰρ ἡ δύναμις τῆς χειροθεσίας ἐστὶν αὕτη. Apost. Const. lib. vii. c. 44. p. 381. ed. Clerici.

h This appears from the ancient Ordo Romanus, where, as it is cited in note d, the bishop is first said to invoke the grace of the Holy Spirit on the children, elevatâ et impositâ manu super capita omnium;" and then, the prayer being

ended, and the deacons asking the name of each of the children, "Pontifex tincto pollice in chrismate, faciat crucem in frontibus singulorum ita dicendo," &c. p. 83. This form coincides with that appointed by the Roman Pontificale de Confirmandis, except that the rubric does not distinctly recognise it as an imposition of hands. "Tunc extensis versus confirmandos manibus," is somewhat different from "elevatâ et impositâ manu super capita omnium."

i See note e, p. 200.