hazard their everlasting Welfare Can we think it possible I say that rational Creatures should act with so prodigious a Carelesness who yet believe not that the Scene of this World shall be shut up in everlasting Oblivion but that there will come a Day wherein they must give Account for their Works and be accordingly happy or miserable for ever No certainly whatever Pretences Men may make to deceive others and perhaps in some measure themselves too there must lurk some secret Seeds of Infidelity in the Heart of every wicked Man and the true Reason why this World has so much the Ascendant over the Lives of Christians must be their not having a firm Belief of the Glories of the other Whoever therefore will so enter into a religious course of Life as to be able to persevere in well-doing to the end whoever will so lay the Foundation as to be able to finish must before all things attain a firm and settled Belief of the great Truths of Religion And as without this Ground-work it is not possible he should ever be resolute enough to overcome the Enemies of his Religion and Happiness so with it it is not possible he should ever be overcome by them He that has a firm and steady Belief of the Greatness and Excellency of those Riches which neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and to which Thieves cannot break through to steal will never be so dazled with the glittering of Gold as to let it steal away his Heart and Affections He that has a great and noble Idea of the Glory which shall be revealed hereafter will never be enticed to squander away those Talents which God has given him only in appearing splendid and great here He that hath a strong and vigorous expectation of those Pleasures which God hath prepared for them that love him which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have they entered into the Heart of Man to conceive will never be persuaded to give himself up to the voluptuousness and sensuality of a Beast In a word he that is full of Faith and can look with assurance beyond things Temporal to those which are Eternal has left no room in himself where the Devil can enter with his Suggestions but is fortified on all sides against all Temptations 3. Now to attain such a Faith as this not slight and superficial but firm and well-grounded and immovable against all Assaults a Man ought to proceed by these steps First he must by serious Consideration work in his own Mind a full and perfect Conviction of the Being of God and of the Excellency of his Attributes From thence he must collect the certainty of God's Providence over Men and the Obligation of Mens Duty towards God From hence will follow the necessity of Religion here and the certainty of the Reward of Vertue hereafter After this he must consider the necessity of a Divine Revelation to establish true Religion and the Proofs which evidence the Christian Institution to be such a Revelation And above all he must fix these Things strongly and imprint them on his Mind by deep and constant Meditation 4. He that cometh to God must in the first place believe that he Is i. e. he must not only by a slight and careless assent go along inconsiderately with the common Opinion but he must form in his Mind a considerate and rational a strong and vigorous Persuasion of the Being of God Take a view of this great and glorious Fabrick of the World consider the stupendous Magnitude and the exquisite Order of its Parts consider the numberless Instances of Infinite Power and unfathomable Wisdom which appear in this our Spot of Earth consider the exquisite Artifice which discovers it self in the Structure of the Body of Man and the inconceivable Subtilty of the Operations of his Mind consider at the same time how frail and depending and corruptible all these things are how weak and unable even Man the noblest Part of the visible World is to be the Cause or so much as the Preserver either of himself or any thing else And this will raise in the Mind such a powerful Conviction of the Being of God as will be a lasting and immovable Foundation on which to build a rational and considerate Design of Religion 5. To one that is thus persuaded of the Being of God it will be easie to conclude That as that Supreme Being from whom all other Things received their Original must himself be Eternal as he from whom all the Powers of all Things that exist are derived must himself be All-powerful and as he by whose Establishment all Things in all Places were made to move in such wise and wonderful Order as far exceeds the Capacity of the wisest of Men to comprehend must himself be All-knowing and All-wise So it cannot be but that he who is All-knowing All-powerful and All-wise who sees through all things at one view and can effect all things with the same ease that he can will them must govern direct and manage all things by an Over-ruling Providence And because his Power is so great as not possibly to be compelled and his Wisdom so perfect as not possibly to be seduced to do any thing contrary to those Eternal Rules which the immutable Law of the Divine Nature and the unalterable Constitution and Relation of Things has fixed that therefore this his Government of the World must be Just and Equitable according to the nicest and exactest Measures of Infinite Goodness Righteousness and Truth 6. From this Notion of the Being of the Attributes and of the Providence of God most evidently follows the Necessity of Religion For if God be a Being of Infinite Power Knowledge and Wisdom 't is manifest he is to be Reverenced to be Honoured and to be Feared If he concerns himself with the Government of his Creatures and imploys these infinite Perfections in Ruling and Ordering the World 't is manifest he is to be Worshipped Prayed to and Adored And if this his Government of the World be regulated by the exactest Measures of infinite Goodness Righteousness and Truth 't is manifest he is to be Loved to be Praised and to be Imitated 7. And because it cannot be but that a just and true and good Being whose Nature and whose Happiness consists in the Perfection and in the Exercise of these Attributes must be pleased with those Creatures who love to imitate his Justice his Goodness and his Truth therefore there must of necessity be a Reward laid up in store for Vertue and those whose delight it has been to conform themselves to the likeness of the Divine Nature shall certainly be admitted to partake in some degree of the Divine Happiness Wherefore if this Reward be not given to Vertue in this present Life if the good things of this World be distributed not only promiscuously but even generally to the disadvantage of the Vertuous and to the advantage of those who
been thro' carelesness the causes of their Destruction How shall we be astonisht and cut to the heart to hear them curse us and say Had those who should have instructed us been as careful to teach us our Duty as we were capable and willing to have learnt it we had never come into this miserable condition And how will it double the Torments even of Hell it self to have the punishment not only of our own Sins but also of all the sins of those who have been undone by our neglect inflicted upon us 5. 'T is not therefore a slight and trivial matter to be Sureties for Children in Baptism 't is not enough barely to make Profession of our Faith in their Name at the Font but we are bound afterward to perform conscientiously what we there solemnly promised for them before God and his Church as a Duty wherein their Souls and our own and the welfare of the Church of Christ are highly concerned Tertullian thought it a great objection against the use of Infant-Baptism that the Sureties were there obliged to promise what they were not sure they should live to perform and what if they did live they could not be sure they should be able to perswade the baptized Person to take upon himself He never once thought that so great a Trust might be wilfully betrayed or so solemn a promise carelesly neglected which would have been a much stronger Objection What would he have said if he had lived in these times wherein nothing is more common than for Men to take upon themselves this great Charge without ever designing to think more of it 6. Let those Men consider this who make no scruple to promise in the presence of God and his Church what they never design to think upon after Let those consider this who make no scruple to Answer readily for a Child whom by reason of its great distance they have no probability of ever seeing more Let those consider this who when they have been Sureties for a Child deliver it immediately to its Parents as if they were by that Mockery released from their Promise and God deluded as easily as Men Lastly Let those consider this who think themselves obliged to restifie their Love to a Child whom they have been Sureties for by some little and trifling Marks of Kindness while they are at the same time most inhumanely and unchristianly cruel to it by neglecting that one great Kindness which they have promised and vowed to do for it 7. I doubt not but the notorious neglect of this important Duty is one great cause of the shameless Wickedness of our present Age. For while Parents and Sureties are careless to instruct Children in the Nature and Obligation of their Baptismal Vow vicious Inclinations prevail upon them and insensibly grow into Vicious Habits before they come to a perfect Knowledge of the Necessity and Excellency of Religion of the Extent and Obligation of their Duty and of the Greatness and Certainty of the Happiness annexed to it Whereas were Sureties according to their solemn Promise made to God and his Church conscientiously careful to see that those for whom they have Undertaken be timely and diligently instructed Religion would have the first Possession of innocent and unprejudiced Minds Children would for the most part though differently according to their different Tempers be early wrought upon to admire the Beauty and the Pleasure of Virtue to thirst after the Love of God and the Happiness of Heaven and would be brought to Confirmation with a deep Sense and Conviction of their Duty with an earnest desire of professing the reality of their Faith and renewing their Promises of Obedience and with a full resolution of living suitably to that Profession and those renewed Promises the remaining part of their Lives THE END Essay the Second Of Confirmation CHAP. I. Of the Nature Design and Use of Confirmation THAT there is a certain Period of time at which every Man that is truly Religious began to be so and from which the beginning of his Religious Life might truly be dated is evident But of what use the Knowing and Fixing this Period in a Man 's own Mind may be is generally very little considered For whilst some have groundlesly asserted that there is a certain Time of every good Man's Conversion after which it is impossible for him to fall away into a state of Wickedness and whilst others have weakly imagined that there is a certain Time of Conversion after which though a Man does fall into great Wickednesses yet he cannot fall finally from a State of Grace most others have thought that there is little or no use of inquiring at all into the exact time when the Religious Life begins or if there were that it is hardly possible for a Man to Fix and Determine it since Men generally become Religious not by a sudden Conversion but by a gradual Progress But though it be indeed true that Men generally become Religious not at once but by degrees yet may a Man nevertheless certainly Fix to himself the Period from whence to date the beginning of his Religious Life For if his Progress has been only from a more imperfect State of Virtue which consists in a constant sincere endeavour to obey all the Commandments of God but accompanied with many Frailties Inadvertencies and Surprizes to a more perfect and uniform practice of Holiness he has been all along in the Course of a Religious Life But if his Progress has been from a Course of known and wilful sin to a Victory or Conquest over his Lusts and Temptations he must reckon his Religious Life from no longer a time notwithstanding any pious Intervals and Struglings which he may have had with his Habitual Temptations than from that Period since which he has never fallen into any known and gross sin And the Uses of a Man's fixing within himself such a Period would be that more assured and settled Peace of Conscience which would arise from the distinct and clear View of a well examined course of past Holiness that effectual bar against falling into the Act of any known sin which would be put by a Man's considering that by such an Act he must lose all the comfort of his past Virtue and be forced to begin his Religious Life again from a new Period And above all that mighty dread of going on in a circle of Sinning and Repenting Repenting and Sinning into which Men would be rowzed by being brought to understand clearly that such a course is no part of a Religious Life at all 2. Now this Period from which I suppose a Christian to begin his Religious Life must be either Baptism Confirmation or Repentance In those who are converted from the Profession of any other Religion to that of Christianity the Period from whence their Religious Life ought to begin is Baptism And the Principal cause of that strict Piety for which the Primitive Christians are so
deservedly Eminent seems to be that great rigour with which they insisted upon Mens living in a constant course of Piety from the time of their entring into this solemn Covenant In those who have been educated from their Infancy in the Christian Religion the Period from whence their Religious Life ought to be dated is Confirmation the time from their Baptism being only their Preparation or time of Instruction But then for those who have neglected this great and solemn Opportunity or have since fallen into any great and wliful sins the only remaining time from whence their Religious Life can be reckoned is Repentance i. e. the Time since which they have so perfectly had the Conquest over all their Temptations as not to have been seduced by them any more into any gross or wilful sin Of Baptism I have already spoken in the former Essay of Confirmation I shall treat in this of Repentance in the next 3. In the Primitive Church those who upon Profession of their Faith and Repentance were by Baptism admitted into the Church of Christ had this their Admission compleated or perfected afterwards by the Imposition of Hands When the Samaritans had received the Word of God and many of them were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus only the Holy Ghost was as yet fallen upon none of them we find that two of the Apostles were sent to lay their hands on them and then they received the Holy Ghost Acts 8. 17. This was the constant practise of the Apostles stles to perfect or compleat Baptism by the Imposition of Hands which two things are therefore laid down together among the Principles or Foundations of the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6. 2. and were accordingly practised jointly by the Church in succeeding Ages This Custom saith St. Cyprian is also descended to us that they who are baptized be brought by the Rulers of the Church and by our Prayer and the Imposition of Hands may obtain the Holy Ghost and be consummated with the Seal of the Lord. And Tertullian After Baptism the hand is imposed by Blessing calling down and inviting the Holy Spirit Then that most Holy Spirit willingly descends from the Father upon the Bodies that are cleansed and blessed 4. But of this Confirmation of Persons baptized at riper years which was anciently administred immediately after Baptism and is therefore by many not without reason look'd upon as a Part of the Ceremony of Baptism it self it is not my purpose to speak now more largely That which I am at this time more especially to consider is that Confirmation as it is now in use in the Church whereby those who have been baptized in their Infancy are at Years of Discretion perfected or made compleat Members of the Church And the Design and Use of Confirming such Persons is plainly this Baptism being a Covenant wherein there are as well certain Conditions promised to be performed on the part of the Person Baptized as certain Privileges assured to be conferred on God's part and Infants though they be capable of being admitted to the Privileges of Members of the Church yet not being capable of promising or performing any Conditions any otherwise than by means of certain Sureties who ingage to instruct them in the Nature and Obligation of the Promises made in their Name at their Baptism 't is manifest that these baptized Infants when they come to Years of Discretion if they desire to continue to be Partakers of the Privileges which God has appropriated to the Members of his Church they must be willing also to perform the Conditions which God has indispensably required of all those Members That they may enter therefore into these Obligations with the advantage of greater Solemnity and Choice it has most wisely been instituted that as soon as they be of Age to understand the Nature and the Obligation of that Promise which was made in their Name at their Baptism they should be brought to make a publick Declaration in the presence of God and his Church of their taking freely upon themselves that Vow and of their Resolution to live from thenceforward conformably to the Conditions of that great and solemn Covenant and that upon this publick Profession of their Faith and most solemn Purposes of Obedience they should by Imposition of Hands have the great Privileges of Baptism sealed anew and secured to them 5. And that this might be done the more solemnly and effectually so as to have a lasting effect upon the Minds and Lives of Men as the solemn Administration of Baptism had antiently among the Primitive Christians it were very much to be wished that as in those Primitive Times Persons converted to Christianity were not before Baptism admitted as compleat Members to the Communion of the Church but were esteemed only as Candidates desirous to be instructed in the Christian Religion so those who have now been only baptized in their Infancy should before Confirmation be looked upon by others and by themselves too as no other than Catechumens It were to be wished that no one might be admitted to the Communion before he were confirmed and that no one might be admitted to Confirmation before he had attained a perfect Knowledge of the extent and obligation of all the Duties of Religion and given sufficient evidence of his Resolution to live suitably to that Knowledge It were to be wished that as in the Primitive Church there were certain solemn Times appointed for Baptism as Easter and Whitsontide at which those who were before prepared by a regular course of Catechizing were admitted with great solemnity into the compleat Communion of the Church so there were now such solemn seasons appointed against which Ministers of particular Parishes should for some time before-hand diligently instruct and prepare those who were of Age to be presented to the Bishop to be confirmed And above all it were to be wished that the whole Process might be performed with so much Reverence and Solemnity that all the Persons confirmed might understand and be convinced that they came now to have all the Privileges which God hath promised to the Members of his Church sealed and assured to them that they now received the Assistance of the Holy Spirit to enable them effectually to perform their Duty and that they now solemnly undertook for themselves before God and the Church what their Sureties promised for them before at Baptism to Live from henceforward in all Holiness and Purity and in constant Obedience to all the Commands of God the remaining part of their Lives 6. Were this excellent Institution thus solemnly and religiously observed exceeding great would be the Effects which we might justly hope to see produced by the use of it The Effect that the Imposition of the Apostles hands had upon the first Converts to Christianity was no less than the induing them with those extraordinary Gifts of Speaking with Tongues Working Miracles and the like And though these mighty