56. With reference to what custom, and in imitation of whose example, does the Gloria in excelsis conclude the Eucharistic service; is the author of the hymn known; upon what is it founded; and what is its probable date?

According to the Gospel narrative of the institution of the Eucharist (Matt. xxvi. 30. Mark xiv. 26.), our Lord, having sung a hymn, went with his disciples to the Mount of Olives. This hymn

was doubtless the Great Hallel with which the Paschal feast was usually concluded; and the Gloria in excelsis, founded upon the song of the angels which welcomed his Nativity, combined with the Baptist's salutation (Luke ii. 14. John i. 29. 36.), terminates in like manner the Christian Passover. The author of this noble composition is unknown. Some have assigned it to Telesphorus, bishop of Rome (A. D. 150.); others to Hilary of Poictiers in the fourth century; et aliter alii: but, although these conjectures are all equally uncertain, the hymn is unquestionably very antient, and has been in use in the English Church for above 1200 years.

57. Give the Greek title of the Gloria in excelsis ; and quote it in the original.

It is called Ὑμνὸς ἑωθινὸς by the Greek Church, and stands thus in their formularies :—Δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις Θεῷ· καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς εἰρήνη, ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκία. Αἰνοῦμέν σε, εὐλογοῦμέν σε, προσκυνοῦμέν σε, δοξολογοῦμέν σε, εὐχαριστοῦμέν σοι, διὰ τὴν μεγάλην σου δόξαν, κύριε βασιλεῦ, ἐπουράνιε Θεὲ, πατὴρ παντοκράτωρ, κύριε υἱὲ μονογενὴ Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ, καὶ ̔́Αγιον Πνεῦμα. Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς, ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ πατρὸς, ὁ αἴρων τὰς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ κόσμου, ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς· ὁ αἴρων τὰς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ κόσμου, πρόσδεξαι τὴν δέησιν ἡμῶν· ὁ καθήμενος ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ πατρὸς, ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς. Ὅτι σὺ εἶ μόνος ἅγιος, σὺ εἶ μόνος κύριος, Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς, εἰς δόξαν Θεοῦ πατρός. Αμήν. See also Constt. Apost. VII. 47. It is there entitled ἡ προσευχὴ ἑωθινή.

SECT. X. Of the BAPTISMAL OFFICES.

1. WHAT are the Occasional Offices of the English Church?

The Occasional Offices are those of Baptism; Confirmation, preceded by the Catechism; Matrimony; Visitation and Communion of the Sick; the Burial of the Dead; and the Churching of Women.

2. To what occasions are these offices adapted; and conformable to what example?

Not only are these offices adapted to the ordinary changes and chances of life; but framed with reference to the example and practice of the great Author of our Faith. As he taught daily in the Temple, and in the Synagogue on the Sabbath; and instituted the Eucharist in holy communion with his disciples: so he ordained the sacrament of Baptism, and blessed the little children that were brought to him; he sanctified the marriage feast with his presence; he visited the sick, and comforted the afflicted; his mother was purified after the commandment of the Law; and he declared himself to be the "Resurrection and the Life" on his way to the grave of Lazarus.

3. What are respectively the points of resemblance and distinction between the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper?

Baptism and the Lord's Supper have the same Sacramental requisites, in being ordained by Christ himself, and in presenting an outward visible sign of the invisible and spiritual grace, which they respectively convey. In other respects they are essentially distinguished. The one is the seal of admission into the Church of Christ; the other of continuance therein: the one involves a single act, not to be repeated; the other is an act of constant repetition : the one does not necessarily require the consent of the recipient; the other is altogether voluntary on the part of the communicant.

4. In what light does the Church regard the Sacrament of Baptism?

As the seal of admission into the Gospel covenant, Baptism is regarded by the Church, in conformity with the declarations of our Lord and his Apostles, both as a type or emblem of the new birth by which we are made children of God, and as a means whereby, through the grace of God's Holy Spirit then imparted, we receive remission of sins, and are regenerated or born again. See John iii. 3. Acts ii. 38. xxii. 16. 2 Cor. v. 17. Gal. i. 6.

5. Does the Church of England maintain the absolute necessity of Baptism to salvation; and what are the inferences fairly deducible from the terms in which the rite is spoken of by our Lord, his Apostles, and the early Fathers, as well as from the relation which it bears to circumcision among the Jews?

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Our Church does not say, what she has no authority for saying, that there is no salvation without baptism; but since Christ, who is the author of salvation, has expressly said that "except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdon of God" (John iii. 5.), she properly regards it, as well as the other Sacrament, as generally necessary to salvation." If the kingdom of God in this passage has its ordinary import of the kingdom of Christ in this world, without the pale of which there is at least no covenanted salvation, surely it is essential to receive the appointed seal of the Christian covenant, not staying to enquire whether persons unbaptised may be saved without it. Speaking of the preservation of Noah and his family in the ark from perishing by water, St. Peter says that "the like figure thereunto, even baptism, doth also now save us" (1 Pet. iii. 21.); and St. Paul affirms that by God's mercy we are saved "by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." (Tit. iii. 5.) Hence Justin Martyr calls baptism "the laver of regeneration for the remission of sins" (Apol. 1. c. 61.); and even baptism with the Holy Ghost did not, in the time of the Apostles, supersede the necessity of the appointed rite of baptism by water. Compare Acts x. 44. sqq. with xi. 16. Nor is it reasonable to suppose that, whereas those who received not the seal of circumcision under the old covenant, were sentenced to be "cut off from God's people" (Gen. xvii. 14.), the obligation would be less binding upon the members of the new dispensation.

6. What do you understand by the word Regeneration?

Mankind "being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath," the term regeneration is borrowed by our Church from the Scriptures to express that "death unto sin, and new birth unto righteousness," whereby in baptism we become children of grace. This spiritual birth, like the natural, can only take place once, and that in baptism; and though a baptised Christian may repeatedly fall from a state of grace, and be again renewed by repentance, and amendment of life, he cannot be said to be again regenerate without a grievous misapplication both of the language of Scripture, and a total departure from the doctrine of the primitive Church. A nominal Christian is still a member of the Christian covenant, though his privileges are in abeyance; and the Lord's Supper is a means of resuming them without striking the covenant afresh.

7. What is the nature of Covenants in general, and of those of the Law and the Gospel in particular; and what are the conditions of the Christian covenant?

Generally speaking a Covenant is a compact between two parties, involving mutual obligations and mutual benefits; but where God and man are the contracting parties, the benefits are wholly on one side, and the obligations on the other. By the Law, of which Moses was the mediator, the children of Israel engaged, with a view to the promised inheritance of the Land of Canaan, to yield an implicit obedience to the divine will; and under the Gospel, revealed by the ministry of Jesus Christ, Christians become entitled to an everlasting inheritance, on fulfilling the terms of this new dispensation. The terms of this Covenant are Faith and repentance; and the promised benefits are remission of sins, the assistance of the Holy Spirit, and everlasting happiness in a future life.

8. Have not Infants been always considered capable of beneficial contracts; and may they not be equally admitted into covenant with God by baptism, as they were by circumcision.

By the common consent of mankind, beneficial contracts have always been recognised as valid, if made on the part of infants by their parents and guardians. Into the Mosaic covenant infants were admitted by circumcision, as expressly commanded by God himself, at eight days old; and if this was the case under the more rigid dispensation, it is not to be supposed that, under that "better covenant, established upon better promises," they are required to be left to the uncovenanted mercies of God.

9. From whence did our Lord adopt the rite of baptism, and the notion attached to it; and does not this adoption establish its applicability to Infants?

Baptism, though its origin is not clearly ascertained, had been long in use among the Jews before the advent of Christ, as the rite by which heathens, old and young, male and female, were admitted as proselytes to the covenant of Israel. To this rite, whether administered by immersion or affusion, they attached the notion of a new birth, probably because washing with water is an act immediately consequent upon natural birth (Ezek. xvi. 4.) ; and hence it was that our Lord expressed his surprise that Nicodemus, though a master in Israel, was at a loss to understand the spiritual meaning, in which he had employed a phrase in common use among the people. A symbolic rite then, borrowed from what is first done to infants, is clearly applicable to infants; and infants have accordingly been baptised in all ages of the Christian Church.

10. In the absence of any positive assurance on the subject, what are the arguments in favour of Infant Baptism, derivable from the New Testament and the early history of Christianity?

Although there is neither positive precept nor decisive example of Infant Baptism in the New Testament, yet our Lord represents little children as patterns of his true disciples (Matt. xix. 14.); and to one so young that he raised him in his arms, he attributed the capability of" believing in him" (Matt. xviii. 6.). In his last commission to his disciples (Matt. xxviii. 19.), he directed them to 66 baptize all nations," from which general expression infants cannot be excluded; and accordingly we read of the Apostles baptising whole