all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

How do you prove that this commission given to the Apostles of baptizing all nations, is to be understood of baptism administered in water?

From the belief and practice of the Church of Christ in all ages, and of the apostles themselves, who administered baptism in water: Acts viii. 36, 38. "See, here is water," said the Eunuch to St. Philip, "what does hinder me from being baptized?—and they went down into the water, both Philip and the Eunuch; and he baptized him." Acts x. 47, 48. "Can any man forbid water," said St. Peter, "that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord."

Of these seven sacraments we will speak as they occur, but we may here observe, that by the above question and reply," What Scripture have you for baptism," &c. the Pope and the Doctor both appear to have forgotten that it is asserted in Section II. (p. 73) that " Infant baptism, and several other necessary articles are either not at all contained in Scripture, or, at least, not plain in the Scripture without the help of tradition." Truly, if they had given more of the Scriptures, and less of their " Church," it had been better for their readers, generally. However, they have found more texts in favour of baptism than they can find for Popery; although we think a much better explanation might have been found than that which they have given. But two sacraments only do Protestants admit, as generally necessary to salvation-ordained by Christ, viz. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. We now proceed to Confirmation:

What do you mean by Confirmation?

Confirmation is a sacrament, wherein, by the invocation of the Holy Ghost, and imposition of the Bishop's hands with the unction of holy chrism, a person receives the grace of the Holy Ghost, and a strength in order to the professing of his faith.

What scripture have you for Confirmation?

Acts viii. 15, 17, where Peter and John confirmed the Samaritans. They prayed for them that they might receive the Holy GhostThen laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost."

What scripture have you for the Eucharist, or supper of the Lord?

We have the history of its institution set down at large, Matt. xxvi., Mark xiv., Luke xvii., 1 Cor. xi., and that this sacrament was to be continued in the Church" till the Lord comes," that is, till the day of judgment, as we learn from St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 26.

Sacraments are the signs and seals of our faith, as circumcision was to Abraham (Rom. iv. 11); but they are not a part of our faith itself, nor spoken of in that summary of it called the Apostles' Creed. An established ordinance of a Church, when not opposed to the Scriptures, should be attended to; and had Confirmation and Extreme Unction been all, the Church of Rome had never broken communion with the greater part of the Christian world, whether they had been considered as sacraments or ordinances *. Protestants believe Confirmation to be a renewal of their Christian vows, which it is obligatory upon them to make, and that it is beneficial for

*It is not to be supposed by this expression that men who, in the exercise of their own reason with which God had gifted them that they might distinguish truth from error, would have yielded to the superstitions and seducing foppery as practised by the Romish Church at the present day, though had Confirmation been a chief point in dispute, it might, perhaps, have been reduced to the level of common sense. As in the Church of the Jews, the mercy of the law was lost to those who, with pharisaical sanctity, strictly attended to its external observances, even to the tything of mint, anise and cummin, so is the pure religion of Christ ever obscured by the vauities of Popery, when she can introduce them—whilst she constantly profanes the name of the Almighty throughout her endless traditions (so contrary to his express command) to strengthen prejudice, and mislead ignorance. For the sacred name of HIM who can only be worshipped in spirit and in truth, we shall more properly, on the present occasion, substitute that which is really meant—the Pope himself-his Confirmations will then be better understood." The obligations which accompany the character of (Papal) confirmation" are these:- He (the Papist) is "to bear a true and perpetual allegiance to the Pope, in whose service he lists himself as a soldier: to stand to his colours the mark of which he receives in his forehead [the cross of the Priest's finger] to fight his battles against his enemies, the world, &c. &c.-to be faithful unto death, and rather to die than desert from the service [i. e. of Popery], or to change sides," &c. &c. &c.-but if Papists become "deserters and rebels," &c.-it will "be a mark of eternal ignominy, and reproach to their souls amongst the damned." In the course of the ceremony, the Bishop gives each of his flock a pat on the cheek, which creates the patience and humility they are ever after endued with. Much then is said of the spiritual efficacy of the chrism with which they are anointed; and which, we are told, is composed " of oil of olives and balsam-solemnly consecrated-kept with great veneration in the Church-with which the Chalices, &c. are anointed, and that it would be no less a crime than sacrilege, to use profanely anything thus sanctified." It is then said, "the mysterious compound of oil and balm denotes the graces, &c. of the Holy Spirit in their souls, by the strengthening and softening of the oil, and the sweet odour of the balm," &c. Does all this acting and show make these ceremonies a sacrament and an essential to obtain salvation?

them to do so; but they do not believe in it as the hierarchal superstition of the Popish Church, viz. that their pastors have the power of conferring the gifts of the Holy Ghost upon them as they were conferred by the Apostles upon their own disciples in the infant state of the Christian Church. But if Papists actually receive the Holy Ghost from their priests, it is no wonder that the laity are as infallible as their clergy.

As the Supper of the Lord is commanded by CHRIST himself, of course it is practised in the Protestant Church in the express manner in which he commanded it to be received; and this sacrament and baptism being the only two ordained by our Saviour, they are the only two which the primitive Bishops acknowledged. The Romish Church cannot say the other five which she has introduced are even generally necessary to salvation, since no member of her Church can partake of them all; her sacrament of Holy Orders excludes the laity;—her sacrament of marriage excludes her clergy;were it not for her self-assumed happy faculty of manufacturing miracles (among which, laying prostrate the senses of, otherwise, sensible men, is by far the greatest)—what a miserable figure would she make when divested of the superstitious mantle by which her native deformity is enveloped ! We now come to the sacrament of Penance, and are, at once, put into the confessional, thus:

What do you mean by the sacrament of Penance?

The confession of sins, with a sincere repentance, and the priest's absolution.

What scripture have you to prove that the bishops and priests of the Church have power to absolve the sinner that confesses his sins with a sincere repentance?

John xx. 22, 23." Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: And whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." Matt. xviii. 18. "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven: And whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." Which texts Protestants seem to understand in the same manner as

we, since in their Common Prayer Book, in the order for the Visitation of the Sick, we find this rubric: "Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter. After which confession the priest shall absolve him (if he humbly and heartily desire it) after this sort:

"Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences; and by his authority committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."

How do you prove from the text above quoted of John xx. 22, 23, and Matt. xviii. 18, the necessity of the faithful confessing their sins to the pastors of the church, in order to obtain the absolution and remission of them?

Because, in the text above quoted, Christ has made the pastors of the Church his judges in the court of conscience, with commission and authority to bind, or to loose, to forgive, or to retain sins, according to the merits of the cause, and the disposition of the penitents. Now, as no judge can pass sentence without having a full knowledge of the cause; which cannot be had in this kind of causes, which regard men's consciences, but by their own confession; it clearly follows, that he who has made the pastors of the Church the judges of men's consciences, has also laid an obligation upon the faithful to lay open the state of their consciences to them, if they hope to have their sins remitted. Nor would our Lord have given to his Church the power of retaining sins, much less the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Matt. xvi. 19, if such sins as exclude men from the kingdom of heaven might be remitted independently of the keys of the Church.

Have you any other texts of scripture which favour the Catholic doctrine and practice of Confession?

Yes. We find in the old law, which was a figure of the law of Christ, that such as were infected with the leprosy, which was a figure of sin, were obliged to show themselves to the priests, and subject themselves to their judgment. See Lev. xiii. and xiv., Matt. viii. 4. Which, according to the holy Fathers, was an emblem of the confession of sins in the sacrament of penance. And in the same law a special confession of sins was expressly prescribed. Num. v. 6, 7. "When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the Lord, and that person be guilty: Then they shall confess their sins which "they have done." The same is prescribed in the New Testament, James v. 16, "Confess your faults one to another;" that is, to the priests or elders of the Church, whom the apostle had ordered to be called for, ver. 14. And this was evidently the practice of the first Chris

tians, Acts xix. 18, Many that believed, came and confessed, and showed their deeds."

The passages quoted from SS, John and Matthew are those upon which the Pope and his clergy found their claims to bless or curse whom they please*. But, before we proceed farther, we must beg here to notice a Popish reason which will be seen in the fifth chapter, where we are told that, as an excuse for taking the cup from the laity, Christ, when he said, "Drink ye all of it," only addressed himself to the Apostles who were the ALL.-And who, we ask, were those to whom he addressed himself when he said, "Whosesoever sins ye remit," &c.? However, this method of Popish reasoning is too contemptible for us to follow, since we are opposed to Garnet's Safeguard of Equivocation +. Let us examine the question on its own merits; but we must once more protest

*By the Bulla in Coena Domini (read annually at Rome), "the excommunication and anathematization of all Heretics whatsoever, and their favourers," &c. is too clearly expressed to be misunderstood by the most credulous; all Protestant and Popish sovereigns also, who do not annul, &c. all laws contrary to the tenor of this Bull, are alike objects of its ban; and as such a circumstance never occurred, nor ever will occur, all the world are anathematized ; and (by the 24th Section of Paul V.) past the power of that Pope, or any of his successors, to absolve them!!!The Uni versity of Coimbra says (Hist. des Papes, tom. v. p. 476,) it "knows that by the mouth of the Sovereign Pontiff it is God himself who speaks" !!!—(See p. 32.)

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Henry Garnet, the Jesuit, whom Romanists venerate as a martyr, and whom Protestants execrate as a traitor. We will meet each party half-way, in the words of Mr. Townsend, (Accus. of Hist., p. 278) "He died the death of a hypocrite, for his falsehood was justified by his faith; and he might have believed it to be sanctioned by his Church. By wickedness he would have served God; by equivocation he would have supported religion. He died a martyr, a liar, and a traitor!"

This Garnet was one of the principal conspirators against the British throne and nation, and who complotted with the King of Spain to send over troops to destroy both, the year previous to Elizabeth's death." In 1604, he was a chief agitafor of the Gunpowder plot; and on the 1st day of October in that year, as Mr. tells us, (p. 265) "Garnet openly prayed for the good success of the great action, about to happen at the commencement of the Parliament." This wretched man was the patronizer of a book, (see the above work, p. 271) entitled "Treatise on Equivocation," which was written "in defence of lying and fraudu lent dissimulation," wherein such holy exertious might be deemed necessary by afflicted Papists, who could thus do justice to the "good cause of Popery and save themselves by equivocation! Arch-priest Blackwell also approved of this book. It was found in the desk of Francis Tresham (a colleague of Garnet's in the Gunpowder plot) after his death. Speaking of the perjuries of Garnet, "This," says Sir Edward Coke, (in a letter to Lord Salisbury, dated March 24, 1605-6— State Paper, No. 208.) "This is the fruit of equivocation, (the book whereof was found in Tresham's desk,) to affirm manifest falsehoods, upon his salvation, in ipso articulo mortis. It is true, no man may judge in this case; but it is the most fearful example that I ever knew to be made so evident as this is."ner5 76H 34