ON THE ORDER OF CONFIRMATION.

LECTURE VI.

PSALM lvi, 12.

"Thy vows are upon me, O God, I will render praises unto thee."

WHEN it is said in the scriptures, that a person has a vow upon himself, the expression plainly has the same meaning as the more frequent phrase that a person is under a vow; in either case the thing signified is that the person has bound himself by a solemn promise and engagement to the performance of some certain act. When moreover the words "thy vows" are, as in the text, addressed to God, they must be interpreted of promises made by man to his Maker and ruler, and when it is immediately added that praise shall be rendered to the same Almighty being, this addition has the same force as would be given by saying that the promises are owned, are renewed, and shall forthwith be accomplished. Such was the confession and intention of the Psalmist in

regard both to mercies received, and to consequent proofs of thankfulness designed. Christians at large have also, and from the strongest motives, in various ways promised unto the Lord our God, and may be told according to the words which the Psalmist elsewhere employs, to keep what they have uttered towards him that ought to be feared. On some it rests that they should perform what they said with their lips, and spake with their mouths when they were in trouble; others must remember and fulfil the love and duty which they avowed when the Lord put gladness in their hearts, and crowned them with the blessings of goodness. Let each then who bears the name of a member of Christ, recollect and perform what he owes in particular, and moreover let all universally bear in mind the promise and the vow on the declaration of which they were at first admitted to the waters of regeneration, and received within the Christian covenant. The baptismal vow was required of them in order to their reception of that sacrament which the great head of the church pronounced generally necessary to salvation, and without having thus bound themselves, they would not have been within the offered terms of grace, thus alone have they visibly been placed in the way of the better life to come. Their vow

in this case is not merely a promise in thankfulness for a favour, but is a step demanded towards the grant of the favour itself. The attainment of the blessings promised is connected with their observation of the vow. The engagements made in baptism are also such that the matters of them would yet be necessary to salvation, even on the supposition that salvation is at all attainable without the establishment and reception of the previous covenant. Seeing then that the substance of the baptismal promises must at all events be performed and maintained, seeing also for what abundant mercies and glorious hopes men have taken upon themselves in the beginning these vows of God, how great is the cause that all who are thus pledged should, as soon as capable, with the Spirit and the understanding consider and support their act, that they should openly profess and faithfully live as they have undertaken, should ⚫ take heed that they may daily perform their vows! The above reflections lead us to the now suitable notice of appropriate visible acts by which thankfulness and duty under such surpassing blessings may be shown, strengthened, and realized; in more explicit terms the text and the thoughts which have been connected with it, properly introduce the mention and discussion of the

Christian rite of confirmation. This rite is an acknowledgment that the vows of God are on us, and is moreover an act of gratitude and praise. What it is in its nature will however be well retraced by ripened minds, and made clear to the young, by looking sufficiently into the office of our church for its administration, to which examination these remarks will principally be confined, and by so doing, our objects may in the main be answered, without much attempt to give further instruction or advice. Let us then first endeavour to trace the ideas which we ought properly to attach to this word confirmation. The simplest meaning of the term in common language is strengthening and assuring. We extend this

sense to saying that a matter is confirmed when it becomes acknowledged and fully testified. Both these senses of the word are to be found in the sacred rite of the church which we are now considering the act or fulfilment of confirmation in its present intention for uses of faith and holiness, is in its great and superior meaning, the answer of God himself to the prayers of his church, and the gift of his Spirit by which he confirms, establishes, strengthens those who thus duly come to him. This is the real and essential confirmation. Whatever also by God's blessing is allowed to be of use

towards this holy attainment has accordingly the title of confirmation, and in this way that name as may probably appear to you, is principally employed of the office and ceremony which is now the matter for our thoughts. The administration of the order is considered as the act of God's minister the bishop in which he uses appointed means for seeking graces on those who are rightly ordered and disposed for receiving them. In yet another sense confirmation is the act of those persons also who in this solemn rite are the subjects of prayer and laying on of hands, for they themselves avow, testify, and so in that way confirm the promises once made in their baptism. On the whole the name confirmation as was just said, in common language seems to apply rather to the rite and ceremony, which is considered as an act of the bishop, than to the part borne by those who here repeat their first profession. This view I will now try to shew by the language of the church. The charge to the sponsors in the public baptism of infants is "Ye are to take care that this child be brought to the bishop to be confirmed by him." In the rubric at the end of the office of public baptism of such as are of riper years, it is declared "expedient that every person, thus baptized, should be confirmed by the bishop." The catechism is explained to be