practice of the larger portion of the present as well as of the primitive Church.
It stands happily as an insulated case.
Some other few sentences were also omitted, at the revision of our Service in Edward's time; but the earnest prayer that sin, extinct by Baptism, may not again reign, and for the final perseverance of the baptized, is so in accordance with the other parts of the Service, that their omission cannot have proceeded from any change in doctrine. We have then great reason to bless God, that while those, to whom our Church was then committed, were in some things inclined to yield, almost all our Baptismal Service was retained, and that, unadulterated by modern notions. Some things were omitted, which, if retained, had been a blessing to us; but all our Service which remained came from the pure sources of Christian antiquity.
Of other modern Liturgies, to which I have at the moment access, those of the Lutheran Church appear to be formed on the same model as Luther's; that of Denmark and Norway, which was reformed by Bugenhagius in 1537, and submitted to Luther, adheres very closely to the old form. It was translated into Latin in 1706, by Pet. Terpager, whose preface contains notices of many modern Liturgies. That of Mechlenburg (revidirte Kirchen-Ordnung), revised under John Albert, and Ulrich Dukes of Mechlenburg, is also formed upon the old basis, with the addition only of some addresses, which are more didactic and longer than our own. The Lutheran Church, as well as ourselves, diminished the number of ceremonies, although they retained that of giving the "white vestment" to the new-baptized, with prayer, as well as exorcism: they also, as well as ourselves, engraffed short addresses, (of which, however, there were some models in the ancient Church,) but the substance of the Service in both was essentially primitive and Cathollc.
In the "reformed school," on the contrary, almost all is new; the account which Beza gives of the Genevan[1], in answer to a Popish antagonist, sufficiently represents them all. "According to the formula of our Churches, a sponsor of unblamed life and doctrine is always employed. The minister of the word asks of him before the congregation of the Church, whether he wish to offer for baptism the child whom he holds in his arms. He answers distinctly such is his mind. A short and clear explanation of the institution and use of Baptism out of the word of God, is subjoined, which is recited from writing in the vulgar tongue, so that all may hear and understand. Prayers are added that God would, by His Holy Spirit, seal in the child the adoption and ablution, which by outward Baptism is, as it were submitted to our eyes. Afterward the same minister demands of
- ↑ Respons. ad F. Baldwin. Tractat. t ii. pp. 325, 6.
