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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56120	A sermon preached in the Parish-Church of Bridgewater, July 16, 1693, before the Right Reverend Father in God, Richard, Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, at a confirmation by Fran. Prode ...	Prowde, Francis, 1653 or 4-1723.	1694 (1694)	Wing P3879; ESTC R6025	16,780	34

fuit ut Christianorum liberi postquam adoleverant coram Episcopo sisterentur says Mr. Calvin It was the Ancient Custom Instit l. c. 〈◊〉 19. for the Children of Christian Parents when they were fit for Confirmation to be brought before the Bishop And They are certainly to be condemned of gross Partiality and Vncharitableness say s Mr. Hanmer who blush not to say that the Bishops out of pride Mr. Hanmer on Confirm p. 51. have appropriated to themselves the Laying on of Hands in Confirmation And that Mr. Baxter allows this Rite to have been all along generally administred by Bishops must needs be evident to any one who reads his Book on Confirmation where he labours to prove that though Bishops did Anciently officiate in this Case yet that Presbyters might do it the Nature of the Thing and Necessity requiring Thus these unhappy Opposers of Episcopacy have recorded their Judgments But after all such is the Moderation of the purest and best constituted Church in the World I mean the Church of England in this Case that so the Divine End and Design of Confirmation be accomplished she does not censure those Churches which want Protestant Bishops I proceed to the Third particular I propounded to consider some Objections which are brought against this Usage And 1. Some will not permit Confirmation to derive from Apostolica Example and though the Primitive Church entertain'd it as such a Doctrine yet say they it was theirs and has been all along since a gross Mistake Thus I find Mr. Cartwright on the Rhemist's Testament and some others arguing Their main Argument is That those Texts of Scripture which are brought for Confirmation are all to be interpreted onely of conferring the Miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost And that when these Gifts ceased in the Church Confirmation vainly had its beginning To which in short it may be answered That it is clear even beyond denial that the Laying on of Hands joyn'd with Prayer was used in the conferring Grace or Divine Blessing long before the Apostles Times And farther it can never be proved that onely the Miraculous Gifts of the Holy Spirit were given by the Apostles in their Laying on of Hands But as the internal saving Gifts of the Spirit were more necessary in their own Nature and promised by our Saviour to the End of the World so they must be given by the Apostles and thence Confirmation obtained in the Christian Church Lib. 3. de Baptis Cap. 16. It is not now says St. Austin as it was that by the Testimony of temporal and sensible Miracles the Holy Ghost is by the Imposition of Hands given as formerly to recommend and demonstrate the Truth of the then new Christian Faith and for the Enlargement of the lately begun Church for who as he expostulates does now expect that those upon whom Hands are Imposed for the receiving the Holy Ghost should suddenly begin to speak with Tongues But invisibly says he is the Love of God inspired into their Hearts Thus St. Austin answers this Objection But indeed 't is very plain that the Prejudice of Mr. Cartwright and others against this Doctrine derives from their Abhorrence of Popish Superstition For This is evident from their Writings and this leads me to a Second Objection against Confirmation that it is a Popish usage and a Compliance with the Superstition of the Church of Rome and this tho' contrary to all reason has prejudiced too many against it Indeed it must be confessed that the Church of Rome has made Confirmation a Sacrament nay has gone farther preferred it to Baptism made it consist in opere operato bestowed it on Infants and clogged it with several unnecessary Ceremonies In short as they have done in other matters so they have robb'd it of its Apostolical Primitive Design and Decency and exposed it under a false Notion and in an antick Garb. But if this may be lawfully argued against Confirmation when 't is rightly used and applyed then must we cast off the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper In short reject Christianity it self because all or most of its admirable Doctrines have been abused and debauched by the Church of Rome For whoever seriously inquires into the nature of it will certainly find that the Doctrine of the Church of Rome as it differences it self from us is really made up of nothing but folly and contradiction to the Divine design of Christianity But to return the Church of England having removed from Confirmation all popish Superstition and Pretences to a Sacrament and having ordered a preparatory Catechism for all those to learn and competently to understand who shall be admitted to it In short having taken all possible care to answer the design of its Primitive Institution to impress upon the thoughts of youth a great and lasting Veneration for Religion obliges them to consider and reassume in their own Persons what their Sureties promised for them in their Baptism In short that they will believe and behave themselves as becomes Christians These things premised they are by fervent Prayer attended with the Apostolical sign of Laying on of Hands recommended to God and the happy Effects of their own pious resolves Now if this be a true tho' short account of the Church of England's design in Confirmation how unreasonable is it for any one to object against it as Popish and Superstitious But I shall conclude this Objection with an agreeable passage I find in Mr. Baxter's Postscript to his Tract on Confirmation Some will say says he it is mere Prelacy or a Prelatical design and some that it is Independancy or an Independant design and some that it is but Presbyterian Examination whereas they might know that it is proper to none of them which is common to them all If it be Prelacy how comes it to be found with Independants If if be Independancy how comes it to be approved by Prelates and Presbyterians Is it not rather like Christianity it self and the Truths and Duties we commonly own and therefore not to be appropriated to any Thus Mr. Baxter pressed on with the mighty force of Truth answers this Objection But 3. The saddest occasion of the most prevailing Objection against this Primitive usage is The evident want of an hearty and true concern for Religion for alas instead of the Primitive Christian Spirit of Piety and Unity a careless and prophane Temper or a furious and irregular Zeal have too apparently got the ascendant in our English world Hence we are too generally prejudiced against our Happiness and hence all our great misfortunes derive to be really a Christian is to be in love with all the Divine methods which lead us to Heaven to be sincerely devoted to all the genuine Acts of Piety Justice and Sobriety to practise whatever is acceptable to God lovely among Men and agreeable to the rational designs of our Natures These things demonstrate us Christians would make us happy here and

Confirmation observing whence it deriv'd how it obtain'd and has been practis'd in the Church 2. I shall briefly observe the qualification of the Person to whom originally the Administration of it seems to have been assign'd 3. I shall answer some Objections which are brought against it And 4. and Lastly by way of Application I shall propound some Considerations evincing the Reasonableness Divine Excellency and Necessity of its Practice To begin with the First of these Particulars to wit to present a true and distinct Account of the Doctrine of Confirmation observing whence it deriv'd how it obtain'd and has been practised in the Church The learned Grotius tells us Grot. Annot Cap. 6. Paul ad Hebr. v. 2. that Imposition of Hands joyn'd with Prayer was peculiarly us'd in the Primitive Christian Church in these five following Cases Baptizatis ad obtinendam vim confirmantem spiritus sancti ordinatis ad Presbyterium post peccata reconciliatis Corpore infirmis imò novis conjugibus benedictionem ab Ecclesiâ postulantibus i. e. To those who have been baptiz'd in order to obtain the confirming Influence of the holy Spirit in ordination to the Penitent in cases of sickness and to the newly married And most of these if not all as he hints deriving from Hebrew Customs and to this purpose we find it recorded in these following parts of Divine Writ Gen. 48. Vers 14 15 and 16. And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head who was the younger and his left hand upon Manasses's head guiding his hands wittingly for Manasses was the first born And he blessed Joseph and said God before whom my Fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk the God that fed me all my life long bless the Lads Here we find the Laying on of the Hand joyned with Prayer used to conferr Divine Grace Thus we likewise find it practised Numb 6. vers 27. being an Account of that sacred Form of Blessing wherewith God himself taught Aaron and his Sons to bless the Children of Israel Our English Translation reads it They shall put my name upon the Children of Israel and I will bless them Junius and Tremellius paraphrase the words Et imponentes manus filiis Israelis invocabunt nomen meum ego benedicam eis Putting their Hands on the Children of Israel they shall pray to me for them and I will bless them And in their Notes on this Text of Scripture they add farther in these words duobus signis testatum facient Populo meo gratiam meam c. By these two Signs Calling on my Name and the solemn Laying on of their own Hands they shall assure my People of that Grace which I according to my Promise will bestow upon them And this Grace or the Effect of this Blessing as the Learned Dr. Patrick observes Dr. Pa●● Aqua g●●talis from some of the Jewish Rabbins used to be called the Weapons and Armour of Israel To the same purpose we read Numb 8. vers 10 11 and 14. Thou shalt bring the Levites before the Lord and the Children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the Children of Israel and the Levites shall be mine I shall onely add one instance more Numb 27. vers 18. That when Moses was to leave the World and his troublesome Charge the Israelites he was order'd by God himself to constitute Joshua his Successour after this Manner And the Lord says the Text said unto Moses take thee Joshua the Son of Nun a Man in whom is the Spirit and Lay thine Hand upon him I might instance in other Passages to this same purpose but these are sufficient to point to us whence the Sacred usage of Imposition of Hands in the Christian Church deriv'd its Original And to apply this more particularly to our present Case The Jews having circumcised their Children at Eight days old so soon as they were capable of instruction they took the greatest care of them imaginable particularly when their Sons were five Years old they instructed them in the Text of the Law when they were ten Years old they put them to the Text of the Talmud and when they arriv'd at Thirteen they were publickly presented in an holy Assembly there solemnly to oblige themselves to be Filii praecepti subject to the Law to keep the Pascha Sabbath and the rest of their Ceremonies Veem's ●●eposit of ●●e Moral ●●w Bux●●rf Syn. ●●daic thence forward they were to answer for their own Sins and hereupon Prayer was made for them with the Imposition of the High-Priest's hands in order to the conferring Divine strength In short agreeable to these and such usages during the Patriarchal and Mosaick Oeconomies we find it practis'd under the Christian Dispensation For by Laying on of Hands as an applicatory Sign join'd with Prayer did our Saviour and his immediate Followers heal Diseases Thus our Blessed Lord demean'd himself toward the Children which came unto him he put his hands upon them and blessed them praising their inoffensive and unprejudic'd Tempers as resembling that happy habit of Thoughts which disposes to the Entertainment of his Divine Religion This Imposition of Hands join'd with Prayer we read our Saviour's Apostles evidently practis'd ●●●ts 6. v. 1. Thus they invested the seven Deacons in their Office thus Barnabas and Paul at Antioch were consecrated to that Divine undertaking which God had assign'd them Thus Timothy was ordain'd Bishop and thus all along in the Apostles Times it was an unquestionable and allow'd way to bless consecrate and conferr Grace by Prayer and the Laying on of Hands And thus particularly in reference to Confirmation these following Texts of Scripture are almost Universally interpreted as Precedents for our Instruction And not to insist on my Text which I have already explain'd thus we read Acts 19. vers 5 6. When they heard this they were baptiz'd in the Name of the Lord Jesus and when Paul had Laid his Hands upon them the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with Tongues and prophesied Indeed we find mention'd here onely the miraculous Effects of the Holy Ghost they being absolutely necessary then and allowed by the Divine Power and Wisdom for the infant State of the Church But as the saving Gifts of the Holy Spirit were promis'd by our Saviour to the End of the World and were ever necessary so it must be allow'd That they were then conferr'd though the External operations which presently demonstrated their Collation perhaps for that Reason onely are particulariz'd But farther the Doctrine of Confirmation is plainly recorded in Hebrews 6. vers 2. Therefore says the Apostle in the First Verse of that Chapter leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead Works and of faith toward God of the Doctrine of

Baptisms and Laying on of Hands and of Resurrection of the Dead and of Eternal Judgment Here we find the Doctrine of Confirmation placed among the clearest and most necessary Christian Truths such as are Essentials of our Religion Faith Repentance Baptism Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Judgment And it must necessarily follow from this Text of Scripture That either the Doctrine of Confirmation is not here design'd by the Apostle which is contrary to the general Sence of Expositors Or else we must inferr That the Apostle rank'd these Christian Doctrines very unagreeably which is a too strangely severe Reflection upon the great Apostle Or else we must conclude That we are hence obliged to pay an extraordinary Deference to this Apostolical usage considering and esteeming it as one of the happy Advances toward Heaven which the Divine Wisdom has assign'd us Now according to these and other Texts of Scripture in the New Testament those that were baptiz'd in the Ancient Christian Church Adult Persons soon after Baptism Children when being taught and capable of understanding the Principles of Christian Religion were brought to the Bishop publickly to acknowledge and confirm their baptismal Vow and by Laying on of the Bishop's Hand join'd with devout Prayer for them were bless'd by him in order to their growing in Grace and the knowledge of Christ Epist 3. ad Jul. This in short is the usage which Cyprian declares was continued in the Church from the Apostles Time and Example who mentioning the Samaritans baptiz'd by Philip and afterwards Confirm'd by Peter and John as we read in my Text tells us that they who in the Church of Christ have receiv'd Baptism 't is still the Custom that they be offer'd And by our Prayers says he and the Laying on of our Hands receive the Holy Ghost Book I. against Marcion Contra Lucif The flesh says Tertullian by Imposition of Hands is shadowed that the Soul by the Spirit may be illuminated St. Jerom having declared that by the Imposition of Authorized Hands and Prayer the Holy Ghost was still convey'd to the Baptiz'd expostulates thus Dost thou ask me where it is written I answer in the Acts of the Holy Apostles But if there were not so plain Authority of Scripture for it the Practice of the whole Christian World in this particular might challenge the force of a Command St. Austin discoursing on this Subject expresses himself thus Rhemist 's Testa Acts 8. Is there any Man of so perverse an heart as to deny those Children on whom we Impose Hands in Confirmation to have receiv'd the Holy Ghost because they speak not with Tongues as was frequent and agreeable to the Times when the Gospel was first planted To these I might add the Suffrages of many more but this Account of the Doctrine of Confirmation from Antiquity is so apparent and has been so often and so learnedly perform'd that I own my self obliged to Apologize for pretending to it I shall therefore onely add these two Remarks 1. That 't is observable Cornel. Epist ad Fabium apud Euseb Opt. l. 2. cont Par. that the first opposers of this Doctrine were the Novatians and the Donatists 2. 'T is likewise observable that no one in the Primitive Church was admitted to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper without Confirmation And so great a Veneration had the then Christian World for that Sacrament that there was no publick Assembly for the Worship of God without a Communion And as this particular Christian Zeal began to decline Impiety and Wickedness gradually prevail'd But while I insist on this particular I shall briefly observe that this Christian usage has been recommended to our Practice by Protestants of the greatest Character even among all Parties Apol. part 4. de Baptis puer The Waldenses in their Apology to the Marquiss of Brandenburgh 1532. speaking of Children which have been baptiz'd thus express themselves When they are come to years of understanding Confess Waldens de Confir and can give a competent Account of their Faith and begin truly to love Christ we bring them to profess these things whatever their Parents or Godfathers or the Church have taught them that on their own accord they may make a free profession of all these things before the whole Church to their own Salvation in the Celebration of the Office of Imposition of Hands Which being performed they are Confirm'd by the Bishop Confess Waldens de Confir Chem Ex. Concil Triden de Confir And this they tell us was observ'd in the Times of the Apostles Thus likewise Chemnitius that extraordinary Person accounts for this Doctrine as 't was held by the Protestant Churches in general Nostri saepè ostenderunt c. Our Divines have often prov'd that the Rite of Confirmation being separated from Popish Superstitions might be very happily us'd even according to the Holy Scriptures that those who have been baptiz'd in their Infancy when they come to years of discretion should be carefully taught the Doctrine of the Church in some short and easie Catechism and when they are found in some competent measure to understand it that then they be brought to the Bishop and the Church and that the Child who in his Infancy was baptiz'd should 1. In short be put in mind of his Baptism what was then bestow'd upon him and what he likewise then promis'd to doe that he would renounce the Devil profess the Christian Faith and endeavour after all Holy Obedience 2. That the Child publickly before the Congregation own this Faith 3. That there be added a serious Exhortation out of God's Word That he will continue in that Covenant which he made in Baptism and that Faith and Doctrine which he then professed 4. That publick Prayer be made for those Children That God would govern preserve and confirm them in that Profession by his Holy Spirit At which Prayer without all Superstition may be used the Putting on of Hands Neither would such a Prayer says he be to no purpose for 't is warranted upon the Consideration of the Gift of perseverance and the Confirming Grace Such a Confirmation says he would afford great Advantage both to the younger Sort and the whole Church And then he goes on to prove how agreeable this would be to Scripture proving several particulars out of the Acts of the Apostles Chap. 8 14 19. and from several Canons made in several Councils much to the same purpose Melanct. Confess Ecclesiarum Sax. cap. de Confirm Hemin Syntag. cap. 22. Calv. Inst l. 4. c 19. Melancthon declares for this usage in the Churches of Saxony and Hemingius for those of Denmark thus likewise Mr. Calvin Hic mos olim fuit c. It hath been an Ancient Custom that Children being instructed in an easie and short Catechism should be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him And in his Commentary on Hebrews 6. he has these words Transactâ Infantiâ c.