APPENDIX

TO THE

RITUA L.

CONTAINING

INSTRUCTIONS AND EXHORTATIONS

Proper to be made before and after the ADMINI STRATION of the PAROCHIAL SACRAMENTS,

and other ECCLESIASTICAL RITES

and CEREMONIES.

175

EXHORTATION BEFORE

BAPTISM.

NHE Sacrament of Baptism,

THE which I am now going to ad

minister, is an Ordinance of our. Lord Jesus Christ; by means of which we are delivered from the power of Satan, whose slaves we were born by sin and being by this Sacrament washed from sin, by virtue of the blood of the Son of God, we.receive through him a new birth; are made children of God by grace; are incorporated in Jesus Christ; and consecrated as God's temple by his holy Spirit: becoming at the same time living members of his Church; and receiving an undoubted right and title to the eternal inheritance of the kingdom of heaven.

Conformable to the Practice of the Primitive Church, the person who is to be baptized, is presented to the Church. by you who are his Godfather and Godmother, as his

spiritual Parents: and as witnesses and sureties for his fulfilling his baptismal engagements: and who by this act take upon yourselves the obligation of seeing that, as soon as he shall be capable of it, he be properly instructed in the Principles of the Christian Faith, and in the duties of a Christian life. You give in his name, which ought not to be heathenish or profane, nor taken from the Surname of any other person: but truly Christian, taken from some one of the Saints of God: that with them, his name may be enrolled in the Book of Life. You ask in his name, of the Church of God, to be admitted to the Faith; that is, to be made a Christian, and this in order that he may obtain everlasting Life: which, as you are here reminded, is not to be obtained, without keeping the Commandments: and especially the two great precepts of divine Charity.

Then as all mankind are born in the state of Original sin, and are spiritually possessed by Satan, who has possession of their souls till he is driven from them by the power of