BAPTISM

OF

ADULTS.

The preparation of a

for Baptism.

SECT. III.-The Ministration of Baptism to such as are of Riper Years, and able to answer for themselves.

This Office was added at the last revision of the Prayer-Book in 1661; the composition being attributed to Dr. George Griffith, Bishop of St. Asaph'. The want of such an Office was felt at that time, owing to the growth of Anti-Pædobaptism and the general neglect of the ordinances of the Church during the Rebellion. It is now used on the occasion of the Baptism of converts from Heathenism or Judaism by our missionaries, and of persons who have not been baptized in infancy through the carelessness or perverse notions of their parents'. A rite of this nature is therefore seldom administered in a Christian country; and whenever it is called for, it is an occasion of peculiar solemnity.

The rubric directs not only examination of the canCatechumen didate, but that timely notice shall be given to the bishop, or whom he shall appoint for that purpose, a week before at the least, to secure a due preparation, and instruction in the principles of the Christian religion. The

1 See Joyce, English Synods, pp. 703 sq.; Lathbury, Convocation, p. 283.

2 Cases will occur in which it may seem doubtful whether this Office or that for the Baptism of Infants should be used. The rubric at the end of this Office directs the use of the latter for the Baptism of persons before they come to years of discretion to answer for themselves. And Confirmation and Communion should immediately follow the Baptism of an adult. Hence

the Office for the Baptism of Infants should be used for all persons who are not fitted either by age or intelligence for Confirmation, changing the word infant for child or person, as occasion requireth.

3 This rubric is altered in the American Prayer-Book to suit the actual practice in such cases: 'timely notice shall be given to the Minister, that so due care may be taken, &c.'

OF

the Service

Infant Bap

Catechumen is also exhorted to prepare himself with BAPTISM prayers and fasting for the receiving of this Holy Sacra- ADULTS. ment, according to the rule of the primitive Church'. Variations of The Service is formed upon that for the Baptism of from that for Infants, with many changes, however, which adapt it to tism. the different circumstances of the persons who are to be baptized. The Gospel is taken from our Saviour's discourse with Nicodemus concerning the necessity of a new birth of water and of the Spirit; and the Exhortation that follows it treats of repentance in connexion with Baptism. Moreover, since the Catechumens are able to make in their own persons the Christian profession of faith and obedience, the demands are addressed to them. Godfathers and Godmothers are required to be present, but only as chosen witnesses of their profession, with the further duty of putting them in remembrance of their vow, and calling upon them to use all diligence to be rightly instructed in God's holy Word ". The concluding Exhortation warns the newly-baptized, that as they are made the children of God and of the light by faith in Jesus Christ,' it is their part and duty to walk an

6

1 Justin. Mart. Apol. c. 79, p. 93: Οσοι ἂν πεισθώσι καὶ πιστεύ ωσιν ἀληθῆ ταῦτα τὰ ὑφ ̓ ἡμῶν διδασκόμενα καὶ λεγόμενα εἶναι, καὶ βιοῦν οὕτως δύνασθαι ὑπισχνῶνται, εὔχεσθαί τε καὶ αἰτεῖν νηστεύοντες παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τῶν προημαρτημένων ἄφεσιν διδάσκονται, ἡμῶν συνευχομένων καὶ συννηστευόντων αὐτοῖς. ἔπειτα ἄγονται ὑφ ̓ ἡμῶν ἔνθα ὕδωρ OTí, K. T. A. Concil. Carthag. IV. (398), seu Statuta Ecclesiæ Antiqua, can. 85: Baptizandi nomen suum dent, et diu abstinentia vini et carnium, ac manus impositione crebro examinati baptismum percipiant: Mansi, III. 958. See Guericke, Manual, p. 225.

6

4

2 1 Tim. vi. 12; Guericke, p.

227.

3 Shortly before their admission to the rite itself, the competentes received all necessary instruction on the nature of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper; but a more detailed teaching on these subjects (such as has come down to us in St. Cyril's KатηxhσELS μυσταγωγικαὶ) was reserved until after their admission to Baptism and their first Communion :' Guericke, pp. 229 sq. See Cyril. Hierosol. Catech. XVIII. §§ 32, 33, pp. 224 sq. ed. Par. 1631.

4 φωτισθέντες, Just. M. Apol. c. 80, p. 94.

BAPTISM Swerably to their Christian calling, and as becometh the

CHAPTER V.

The Occasional Offices.

SECT. I.-The Catechism.

PREVIOUSLY to 1661 the Catechism was inserted in the Order of Confirmation. The title in the PrayerBooks of Edward VI. and Elizabeth was, Confirmation, wherein is contained a Catechism for Children; and in 1604, The Order of Confirmation, or laying on of hands upon children baptized, and able to render an account of their faith, according to the Catechism following; with a further title to the Catechism itself, that is to say, An Instruction to be learned of every Child, before he be brought to be confirmed by the Bishop.

The insertion in the Prayer-Book of such an authorized exposition of the elements of the Christian faith and practice, belongs to the Reformation'. English versions and expositions of the Lord's Prayer and Creed had existed in early times2. But immediately before the Reformation, it appears that these elements were by no means generally known. The origin of our rubrics about catechising may be referred to the Injunctions issued in catechising 1536 and 15383, which ordered the Curates to teach the fore the Reformation.

1 The idea is probably due to Hermann's Consultation, where, after Baptism, follows (fol. 183), "Of the Confirmation of children baptized and solemn profession of their faith in Christ, and of their obedience to be showed to Christ, and to His congregation:' and a Catechism is inserted in this

order of Confirmation, to be re-
cited as the public confession of
those who come to be confirmed.
No part, however, of our Cate-
chism was borrowed from this
source.

2 See above, p. 12.
Strype, Eccl. Mem. Hen. VIII.

3

i. 42.

ordered be

CHISM.

THE CATE- people the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, sentence by sentence, on Sundays and Holydays, and to make all persons recite them when they came to Confession'. And when the great hindrance to reformation was removed by the death of Henry, the instruction of the young and the ignorant was among the first particulars to which the advisers of Edward directed their efforts, in the Injunctions of 15472: and as soon as a Book of Service was prepared, a Catechism was placed in the First in it, that the exposition of these Christian elements might not depend on the care or ability of the Curates. This manual still remains in our Prayer-Book, with only a few verbal alterations 3, and the addition of an expla

The Catechism placed

Prayer

Book.

1 Burnet, Hist. Ref. IV. p. 101, ed. Nares (Records, Bk. III. Ño. xi.) Item; That ye shall every Sunday and Holy-day through the year openly and plainly recite to your parishioners, twice or thrice together, or oftener, if need require, one particle or sentence of the Paternoster, or Creed, in English, to the intent they may learn the same by heart and so from day to day to give them one little lesson or sentence of the same, till they have learned the whole Paternoster and Creed in English, by rote. And as they be taught every sentence of the same by rote, ye shall expound and declare the understanding of the same unto them, exhorting all parents and householders to teach their children and servants the same, as they are bound in conscience to do. And that done, ye shall declare unto them the Ten Commandments, one by one, every Sunday and Holyday, till they be likewise perfect in the same. Item; That ye shall in Confessions every Lent examine every person that cometh to confession unto you, whether they can

recite the Articles of our Faith, and the Paternoster in English, and hear them say the same par ticularly... Cf. can. LIX. (1604).

2 Cardwell, Doc. Ann. pp. 7, 25: "Whether they have not diligently taught upon the Sundays and Holydays their parishioners, and specially the youth, their Paternoster, the Articles of our Faith, and the Ten Commandments in English; and whether they have expounded and declared the understanding of the same.'

3 The third answer was thus expressed:-'that I should forsake the devil, and all his works and pomps, the vanities of the wicked world... The preface to the Commandments was added in 1552, and the Commandments were then given at length, which had before been in a very curtailed form, nearly as they had been in Henry's Primer (1545, ed. Burton, p. 460). In 1661, the words, 'the King and all that are put in authority under him, -were substituted for -the King and his Ministers' (in the American Prayer-Book it is, the civil authority'): and in