the sponsor whether he will undertake that the child, when of a fit age, shall be instructed in the Christian doctrine and the Apostles' creed, which he recites distinctly. He assents to this doctrine, and undertakes to do so. The requisition is repeated, and he is again required to undertake that the child shall be instructed in the whole doctrine of both Testaments and the law of God, whereof an epitome is then recited out of Matthew's Gospel, according to the precepts of which he may so form his life, as to dedicate himself entirely to the glory of God in Jesus Christ, and the edification of his neighbours. He undertakes this, and then at last the child is baptized with pure water in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost."
"Now then, Baldwin," asks Beza, "what blamest thou here? We, you see, have restored the principal part of Baptism, i.e. the explanation of the doctrine of it, which was taken away by your Catholics." The Reformed Baptismal Liturgies are strikingly characterized, and as strikingly condemned, by this triumphant appeal of Beza to his antagonist, "we have restored the principal part of Baptism, viz. the explanation of the doctrine of it!" Not then our blessed Saviour's institution, not His words of blessing, not even the prayers of the congregation, are the "principal part of Baptism," "but the explanation of the doctrine of it." And, indeed, how should it be otherwise, when Baptism was considered no longer an instrument of grace, but a mere outward seal of mercies already bestowed?
With this statement of Beza, the very outward form of the "reformed" Liturgies remarkably coincides: in the French, the "explanation" is three times as long as the rest of the service: in the old Scotch (borrowed from the English at Geneva), the "exposition" occupies seven pages; an explanation of the Creed (which is alone added to the Genevan form, and is the only variation from it) fifteen and a half, the Baptismal prayers one only! in the Belgic the exposition equals the length of all the rest of the Service; in the Scotch directory (1645) it is longer; and so in the rest.
On the other hand the meagreness as well as coldness of the actual Baptismal Service will probably strike every one accustomed, through the use of our own, to the fulness, and depth, and warmth of the Services of the Ancient Church.
Prayer, as Beza implies, was become, in the Reformed Churches, a secondary part of the office; and so again, in most of their offices, there is but one short prayer previous to the act of Baptism, and a thanksgiving subsequently. The Lord's prayer is omitted in the Liturgies of Zurich, Belgium, Alasco's, and the Scotch Directory, 1645. In the Zurich and Polanus' form there is no thanksgiving, and but a brief wish added; in the Belgian a thanksgiving was but occasionally offered; in that of the French Protestants and Geneva, there was neither. From an account given of the Scotch Service in 1644,
