in too much with the modern "reformed" notion of making the service a method of instruction, and (as the case might be) a corrective either of supposed superstitions, or of undervaluing of the Sacraments, or (in some "reformed" services) of inculcating their view of the whole scheme of Christian doctrine. He had also brought in some of the modern theology, as, the parallel of the rite of Circumcision with the sacrament of Baptism; the resting the right of our children to Baptism, in part, upon the promise to Abraham, and the like; into which persons had been betrayed by looking out for arguments and analogies against the Anabaptists, instead of adhering simply to the practice of the early Church. Bucer's prolixity herein is incidentally noticed by Melancthon, his fellow-worker in the task of revising the Cologne Service. (See Melancthon's Ep. quoted by Abp. Laurence, l.c.)
The comparison of our own Baptismal Service with Archbishop Hermann's is the more interesting, as illustrating the proceedings and principles of the reformers of our Services. It seems certain that they had this work before them. It had been translated into English the year (1547) before the reformation of our Prayer book, and most probably with the very view of preparing men's minds for that reformation. It had been received with great interest, an amended edition being published in the next year (1548), in which the reformation of our Services was completed. The order also of Edward VI.'s First Book agrees in some respects with Hermann's only; as, in that the Lord's Prayer and the Belief occur after the exhortation upon the Gospel. One prayer, however, only, (the thanksgiving after the Gospel, "Almighty and Everlasting God, our Heavenly Father," &c.) was admitted from Hermann's Service, which has not been traced up to the Ancient Church; and this prayer is primitive in its character, whether it be actually so or no. The excrescences, on the other hand, abovementioned, which Bucer had introduced, are lopped off unsparingly. Nothing is admitted in the way of argument, or proof, or teaching, as it is more or less in Hermann's or Bucer's Service. When any thing has been adopted from it, it has been in the way of hint, not by directly incorporating it. With the exception of the above prayer, nothing can be directly identified with the Service of Hermann. The few and earnest opening words in our Service are substituted for a long exposition occupying several pages; the exhortation following upon the Gospel is enlarged, perhaps, from one in the corresponding place in Hermann; and the address to the god-parents before the Interrogatories, condensed perhaps from a more diffuse one, which followed upon them in Hermann. This is the whole which is not derived from the early Church; and here also it is remarkable, how all exhortation is in our Service made subservient to prayer, and to the direct object of the Sacrament, instead of being, as in the reformed
