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mortifying of our flesh, and the spiritual life, which He produces in us. Thus we receive in Baptism a twofold benefit from our God; provided that we destroy not the virtue of this sacrament by our ingratitude to wit, We have here a sure pledge that God is willing to be our propitiated Father, not imputing to us our sins and offences; and secondly, that He will assist us by His Holy Spirit, to fight against the devil, sin, and the lusts of our flesh, even so as to gain the victory over them, and to live in the liberty of His kingdom, which is a kingdom of righteousness and peace. Since, therefore, these two things are accomplished in us by the grace of Christ, it follows that the virtue and the substance of Baptism are both included in Him. And in fact we have no other cleansing than by His blood; and we have no other renewal than by His death and resurrection; and the same blessings that He communicates to us by His Word, He also distributes to us by His Sacraments.

But our gracious God is not content to have adopted us for His children, and received us into the communion of His Church: He hath chosen more fully to extend His goodness over us; promising that He will be our God, and the God of our seed, unto a thousand

generations. And although the children of believers belong to the corrupt race of Adam, He nevertheless fails not to accept them by virtue of this Covenant, and adopt them into the number of His People. Hence from the beginning He chose that in His Church the children should receive the sign of circumcision, whereby He then represented all that today is manifested in Baptism. And as He commanded that they should be circumcised, so He adopted them for His children, and called Himself their God, as He was the God of their fathers.

Now, therefore, since our Lord Jesus came down to earth, not to diminish the grace of God His Father, but so to enlarge the Covenant of salvation which then was confined to the people of the Jews, as to include the whole world: there can be no doubt that our children are the heirs of that life which He hath promised to grant. And for this cause St. Paul hath said, that they are sanctified of God from the womb, that they may be distinguished from the children of heathen and unbelievers. And therefore our Lord Jesus Christ

received the children that were brought to Him, as it is written in the Gospel:

HEN were there brought unto Him little children,

THEN

that He should put His hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

Since then He declares that the kingdom of heaven belongs unto them; since He layeth His hands upon them, and commendeth them to God His Father: He doth sufficiently teach us, that we must not exclude them from His Church. Therefore, in pursuance of this rule, we shall receive this child into His Church, to the end that he may be made partaker of the blessings which God hath promised to the faithful. And first of all we shall present him to God by our prayers, humbly saying with all our hearts thus:

"Then the Minister is to pray for a blessing to attend this ordinance."

L

PRAYER.

ORD God, Eternal and Almighty Father! since it

hath pleased Thee of Thine infinite mercy to promise, that Thou wilt be a God to us and to our children: We pray Thee to confirm this grace unto the child here present, begotten and born of parents whom Thou hast called into Thy Church. And even as he

is offered and consecrated unto Thee by us, so wilt Thou receive him into Thy holy protection, declaring Thyself to be his God and Saviour, forgiving him the original sin whereof the whole race of Adam is guilty, and sanctifying him by Thy Holy Spirit: that when he shall come to years of discretion, he may know and worship Thee as his only God, and glorify Thee throughout all his life.

And to obtain such mercies,

wilt Thou be pleased to incorporate him into the fellowship of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he may have a part in all His benefits, as a member of His Body. Grant, Father of Mercies, that the Baptism we confer upon him according to Thine Ordinance, may produce its fruit, and manifest its power, even as Thou hast declared in the Gospel of Thy Son: Who hath taught us to say:

OUR

UR Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy
Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done

in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our

daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive

our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and

the power, and the glory, for ever.

AMEN.

'The Minister is also to exhort the parents to the careful performance of their duty requiring,

S this child is to be received into the fellowship of

As

the Christian Church, you do promise, when he is come to years of discretion, to instruct him in the doctrine embraced by God's People, and summarily comprehended in our common Confession of Faith, to wit:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN.

You promise that you will teach this child to read the Word of God. You will instruct him in the principles of our holy Religion, as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. You will teach

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