SERMON XIV.

CONFIRMATION.

HEBREWS Vi. 1, 2.

Leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

IT is now some weeks since notice of the Confirmation about to be holden by our Bishop was given. The time appointed for it draws nigh. Some of those before me are candidates for it, and ought to have their minds and hearts fixed on coming to it properly prepared; that is to say, in repentance and faith. All before

the last day, we may stand each in his loth, in the one family which is in heaven and earth.

h Dan. xii. 13.

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me are concerned in it, as being one of

the principles of the doctrine of Christ." It is evidently declared to be such in the text I have just read, which sets forth the laying on of hands," as a principle of the doctrine of Christ; that is to say, it is one of the fundamentals of our religion. And to this, in the first place, I would beg attention; because, now-a-days, whilst people talk much of fundamentals, there is a fondness for establishing one two or three fundamentals, more or fewer as it may happen; among which, what are called externals, (such as "laying on of hands" is thought too exclusively to be,) are not reckoned. Indeed, one finds people so forgetful of the plain words of the Apostle, as to deny Baptism a place among fundamentals. But let us guide our words with discretion in this respect, remembering that Scripture declares the "laying on of hands" (and this is used in Confirmation) to be a "principle" and "foundation" " of the doctrine of Christ:" to be a thing which all baptized persons are required to seek,

in order that they may the better "go on unto perfection," although it be not set forth as so indispensable to salvation as is Baptism; this last being, as our Catechism speaks," generally necessary," that is to say, ordinarily necessary for whoever would be saved.

Now the holding this fundamental doctrine suggests a further question. Since the "laying on of hands" is of such importance, from whom is it to be had? with whom rests, now, the dispensation of the manifold gifts of the Spirit? It rests with those who have themselves received the imposition of hands for the work of the Ministry in direct succession from the Apostles; with those who have received the gifts of the Spirit "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the Ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ "."

The imposition of hands for Confirmation was limited in the Apostles' time to the Apostles themselves, and therefore has ever since been the pecuEph. iv. 12.