Me as. Emma or yea .93rxerazos..] Ent,—The following words of
Richard Baxter, "the illustrious chief of the Puritans," as Lord Macaulay calls him, may be of interest at the present time. In his treatise on Confirmation, published in 1658, Baxter writes :— "Now in this reamed covenant as they give themselves up to Christ afresh, and personally engage themselves to him, and renounce his enemies, owning their infant baptism, when this was done by others in their Samoa, so God is ready to bless his own ordinance. The Papists shall have no cause to say that we need- lessly or erroneously do deny either the name of Confirmation ; or the true use and ends of it, or the notional title of a Sacrament to it in &large, yet not in the largest sense. We affect not to fly further from them than we needs must; much less to fly from the Ancient Practice of the Universal Church."
In his Poor Man's Family Book, written after 1662, Baxter thus addresses a plain, ignorant man :— " If you Will read the Church Liturgy about Confirmation, you will see that you should have been able to say all the Church Catechism. [And it is ordered that none shall be admitted to the Holy Communion, till such time as he be confirmed, or be ready and desirous to be confirmed.] So that you see that if the Bishops and Pastors would faithfully manage this great work, none should communicate at the Lord's Table, till he professed all this Covenant Consent, in which your true Conversion doth Demist."
I have copied the passages from the Practical Works of R. Baxter, in four volumes, folio, 1707 edition. The first passage occurs in Vol. IV., p. 268, and the second passage in Vol. 1V., p. 16L—I am, Sir, &a., J. R. WARII.
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