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A32800
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Of Episcopal confirmation in two discourses / by B. Camfield.
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Camfield, Benjamin, 1638-1693.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing C381; ESTC R14520
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52,623
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130
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Ep. 72. quae est ad Stephunum Tunc enim plenè sanctificari esse Dei filii possunt si Sacramento utroque nascantur cùm scriptum sit Nisi quis natus fuerit ex aqua spiritu non potest intrare in regnum Dei. But I shall wave the urging of this also We have an undoubted and remarkable instance of Apostolical practice for it Acts 8. where Philip the Deacon having preached the Gospel at Samaria and thereby won many Converts and baptized them the Apostles at Jerusalem hearing of it send forth two of their own number Peter and John Who saith the sacred Text ver 15. c. when they were come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost and then laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost It pleased God that those admirable Gifts called there the Holy Ghost should not ordinarily be conferred on the Baptized but by the Apostles hands thereby to strengthen the Authority of those his Witnesses and by the same means promote the unity of the Church through the reverend esteem of those chief Ministers as Grotius well notes In locum In this story now we have 1. The persons confirmed the baptized Samaritans who had believed and been instructed aforehand in Philip's doctrine 2. The Ministers of Confirmation Peter and John the Apostles sent from Jerusalem on that very purpose 3. What they did in Confirmation Having heard of their faith in receiving the Word of God and their baptism in profession of that faith they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost and laid their hands upon them 4. The consequent effect thereof they received the Holy Ghost that is the more plentiful effusions of the Holy Ghost in his gifts and graces which in that beginning of the Christian Church were miraculous and extraordinary whereas the promise of the same Spirit holds good still in some due proportion unto the Christians of all Ages to the worlds end Those saith S. Ep. 73. quae est ad Jubaianum Cyprian who believed in Samaria had believed with a true faith and were baptized in the Church which is but one and to which alone it is permitted to give the grace of Baptism and to lose sins And therefore having obteined a legitimate and Ecclesiastical Baptism ought not again to be baptized but that onely which was yet wanting to be done unto them by Peter and John that by prayer and imposition of hands the Holy Ghost might be invoked and poured forth upon them Circa A.D. 250. which now also saith he is the custom observed among us that they who are baptized in the Church be offered to the Governors of the Church and by our prayer and imposition of hands obtain the Holy Ghost and be consummated or perfected with the Lord's Seal or Signature Where we see he applies the Apostolical patern to the custom retained still by the Church in Confirmation the practice whereof in his days he doth well describe and intimates also the requisiteness of it after Baptism though never so legitimate when he calls it Id quod deerat That which was yet wanting Again anoher instance we have Acts 19. where we find S. Paul confirming those who were taught and baptized before at Ephesus ver 6. When Paul laid his hands upon them saith the Text the Holy Ghost came upon them and they spoke with Tongues and prophesied They were baptized saith Grotius on the place by some other Christian but God to commend the Apostolical office would not communicate those gifts of the Holy Ghost untill the hand of some Apostle had touched them And though he be not bound to this or any other observance yet such was the method of his ordinary dispensation then among them Here now we have 12 persons first taught and then baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and then afterwards by the imposition of the Apostles hands receiving the Holy Ghost manifested according to the special way and exigency of those first times in his visible and extraordinary gifts And to this S. Paul himself seems to refer touching these Ephesians confirmed by him as upon occasion I before in part suggested Ephes 1.13 In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise Nor ought any to be offended or prejudiced because we find not the like gifts of the Spirit continued now in the Church The Holy Ghost saith S. De Baptismo l. 3. c. 16. Augustine is not now given by Imposition of hands with temporal and sensible miracles as it was at the first for the commendation of the Faith and the enlargment of the beginnings of the Church who now expects it c. But we are now to understand that after an invisible and hidden manner Divine Charity is inspired into their hearts by the bond of peace And thus as the Apostle hath it to the Corinthians 1 Epist ch 12. There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit Not the same gifts now as then yet the same spirit still To these instances of Apostolical practice therefore S. Augustine and S. Jerom Circa A.D. 203. do both freely appeal for the justifying of this sacred custom as S. Cyprian you heard before did and that without any colour for the imputation of Montanism in the case as some have fondly pleased themselves to imagine The Disciples prayed saith S. De Trinit l. 15. c. 26. Augustine that the Holy Ghost might come upon those on whom they laid their hands Which same custom the Church doth also now observe in her Governors or Bishops And then for S. Dialog advers Luciferian Jerom Dost thou not know saith he that this is the custom of the Churches to lay hands afterwards on the baptized and so to invocate the Holy Ghost Dost thou demand of me Where is it written I answer In the Acts of the Apostles and were there no Scripture Authority at all to support it the consent of the whole world might in this supply the room of a Precept for there are also many other things observed by Tradition in the Churches which have taken to themselves the Authority of a written Law as the threefold immersion in Baptism c. This 't is true he speaks in the person of Luciferianus but then he brings in Orthodoxus making a Reply by way of Acknowledgment to the same I do not indeed deny this saith he to be the custom of the CHurches that the Bishop go forth to those who were baptized afar off in lesser Cities by Priests and Deacons to lay hands upon them for the invocating of the Holy Ghost Deservedly therefore doth our Church refer us to the same Apostolical warrant Upon whom after the the example of the holy Apostles we have now laid our hands So in the Prayer at Confirmation the Fathers of the Primitive Church taking occasion and founding themselves upon the said acts and deeds of the
own and profess all these things before the whole Church to their own Salvation in the celebration of the Rite of Imposition of Hands which being done they are confirmed And there is forthwith given them full Power and Right to communicate of the Body and Blood of Christ with the Faithful Thus they who are called Waldenses or Picardi And to what you have heard from them give me leave to add the Form of receiving the Baptized and Catechized Youth among the Bohemian Brethren who sometimes go under the same Name a Remnant of the Slavonique Church and the Eminent Disciples of Wickleff Huss and Jerome of Prague as it is described to us by their last Bishop the Excellent Comenius The Young ones Ratio Discip ordinisque Ecclestin unitate Fratâ—um Bohem p. 46. saith he having been taught the Heads of Religion at Home by their Parents and Sureties or at School by their Masters are publickly delivered to the care of their Pastors in the Church before the Receiving of the Lord's Supper most usually at the time of Pastoral Visitation after this manner 1. The words of Christ Matt. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labor c. are read with a short Explication of them 2. The Youth of both Sexes appointed thereunto and preexamined by the Pastor are placed in order in the middle of the Church 3. Then they are asked whether they will renew the Covenant they entered into with God at Baptism 4. This being consented to by them the heads of that Covenant are explained according to the form prescribed by the Apostle to Titus chap. 2.11 12 13. Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts to live righteously soberly and godly in this present world looking for the blessed hope c. And they are commanded openly before the Church to renounce the World the Devil and the Flesh c. 5. Next a profession of the Faith is required of them so that they all repete aloud the Apostles Creed 6. Then on their bended Knees saying after the Minister they pray unto God to forgive the Sins of their Youth and strengthen them by his Holy Spirit unto all the good purpose of his Will which also the whole Assembly doth praying for them After which Prayers 7. There is declared to these young Disciples and the whole Church Absolulution and the Right of the Sons of God in participating the Supper of the Lord. And lastly there is added the Apostolical Rite of Imposition of Hands with the Invocation of the Name of God upon them to strengthen or confirm the hope of his Heavenly Grace Thus the Bohemian Brother-hood the most exemplary for good Order among all the Reform'd Churches abroad Unto these now I could easily superadd many other Testimonies but I will close them all with three or four of our Nation and those such as cannot be suspected of casting any favourable Eye upon a Brat of Popery or Prelacy as some have pleased unequally to yoak them Mr. Hanmer and Mr. Baxter above twenty years since have written each of them a Particular Treatise upon this Argument of Confirmation Finding no such way it seems to extricate themselves and others out of the Confusions into which the Times were then fallen as by returning back in part to what had been too rashly discarded together with the Church of England And the later of them understands that Text of St. Mr. Baxter of Confirm p. 102. 119. Paul 2 Tim. 1.6 I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the Gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my Hands of the Apostolical Imposition of Hands after Baptism for the giving of the Holy Ghost rather than the Ministerial Ordination and Gift Dr. William Gouge in his Commentary on the Text tells us that Ordinary Cases wherein Imposition of Hands was used were 1. Blessing Children by our Saviour Mark 10.16 2. Setting men apart to the publick Function of Ministers of the Word 1 Tim. 5.22 and Deacons Act. 6.6 3. Deputing Men to some special Work Acts 13.2 And 4. Confirming such as had been instructed in the Principles of Religion This last particular saith he meaning Confirmation is not expresly set down in Scripture but gathered out of it by the Ancient Orthodox Fathers and with a Joint-consent afterwards by most Divines not Papists only but Protestants also And of the same Judgment those of the late Assembly so called who put forth the English Annotations Assembl Annot. in Loc. declare themselves to be Laying on of Hands which say they is usually call'd Confirmation which stood 1. In examining those who had been Baptized what Progress they had made in the Doctrine of Christianity And 2. In praying for them that God would continue them in the Faith and give them more Grace strengthening them by the Holy Ghost Now when the chief Pastor or Pastors of the Church say they prayed for them they laid their Hands upon them whence the Apostolical Constitution was called laying on of Hands So St. Augustine and so most of the Fathers with one Consent And here now were a fair occasion to wonder that so Reverend and Divine an Assembly as that was reputed should utterly cast off a thing so well established and never so much as consider of it in their Directory Vindic. of Liturgie p. 38. That the defaming and casting out of this so blameless and gainful an Order should be necessary or useful to any Policy save only to defend the Devil from so great a Blow and to sustain and uphold his Kingdom I never yet had any Temptation or Motive to suspect or imagine Mr. Ham. L' Estrange Alliance of Divine Offices p. 262. saith our Pious and Learned Dr. Hammond And There is not any thing wherein the late pretended Reformers amuse me more than in this particular saith another worthy person Nor do I know what Account to make for them unless this may pass for one That they practiced against known and avowed Principles T. C. p. 174. §. 2. as T. C. formerly stuck not to aver of Mr. Calvin himself That as well as he allowed of Confirmation he put it out of the Church of Geneva where he was Pastor But this may suffice abundantly to have spoken concerning the Scripture Patterns and Grounds which we have for this Sacred Appointment as they are expounded and handed down to us by most unquestionable Authorities I pass on Thirdly to the Ceremony used in it the Imposition of the Bishop's Hands And here I shall offer a few words 1. Of the Ceremony it self And 2. Of the Special Minister concerned about it First Of the Ceremony it self Imposition of Hands according to the Scripture Warrant without either Crossing or Annointing with Chrism made of Oyl and Balsom or boxing on the Ear or Cheek as is used among the Papists This laying on of Hands is a most natural unaffected and Ancient Ceremony of Prayer and Benediction as we find it used first in the Old