To illustrate the propriety of restricting the exercise of this function to the episcopal office, the following comparison may be found not inappropriate. As in the construction of an edifies, the artisans, who are inferior agents, prepare and dispose mortar, lime, timber, and the other materials; whilst, however, the completion of the work belongs to the architect; so in like manner should Confirmation, which is as it were the completion of the spiritual edifice, be administered by no other than episcopal hands.
In Confirmation, as in Baptism, a sponsor is required. If the gladiator who presents himself as a combatant, has occasion for the skill and address of a master, to direct him by what thrusts and passes he may, without endangering his own safety, despatch his antagonist, how much more necessary to the faithful is a guide and instructer, when, sheathed as it were in the panoply of this sacrament, they engage in the spiritual conflict, in which eternal salvation is to reward the success of the victor. Sponsors therefore are, with great propriety, required in the ad ministration of this Sacrament also; and the same affinity which, as we have already shown, is contracted in Baptism, impeding the lawful manage of the parties, is also contracted in Confirmation. [1]
To pass over in silence those who have arrived at such a degree of impiety, as to have the hardihood to contemn and despise this Sacrament; since in receiving Confirmation it frequently happens, that the faithful betray inconsiderate precipition or unpardonable neglect, it is the duty of the pastor to make known the age and dispositions which its sanctity demands.
They are, in the first place, to be informed that this Sacrament is not essential to salvation; but that although not essential, it is not therefore to be omitted: on the contrary, in a matter so holy, through which the gifts of God are so liberally bestowed, the greatest care should be taken to avoid all neglect; and what God proposed for the common sanctification of all, all should desire with intense earnestness. [2] Describing this admirable effusion of the Holy Spirit, St. Luke says: " And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house, where they were sitting:" and a little after, " and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." [3] From these words we may infer, that as the house in which they were assembled, was a type and figure of the church, the Sacrament of Confirmation, which had its existence for the first time on that day, is intended for the use of all the faithful. This is also an easy inference from the nature of the Sacrament: Confir-
