| 11. Children to be baptized, because, in the covenant, not by virtue of Christ's commands. | 12. Sacraments not said to be efficacia. | 13. Body of Christ not said to be given in the Supper. | 14. Effect of Sacraments to signify grace. | 15. Sacrament attestation. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helv. 1566 …… | in a different sense | ……… | ……… | ……… |
| Helv. 1536 …… | …………… | ……… | ……… | |
| Helv. 1532 | ………… | ……… | ||
| Gall.……… | …………… | doubtful. | ……… | |
| Scot.……… | …………… | ……… | ||
| Belg.……… | …………… | ……… | ||
| Hungar.…… | …………… | ……… | ||
| Heidelb.…… | …………… | ……… | ……… | |
| Genev.……… | …………… | ……… |
Note (M), on page 133.
The following synopsis of Baptismal Liturgies will probably impress upon the reader (at least they did upon myself) several distinct feelings.—First, a feeling of Catholicity and of oneness in the Ancient Church, (in that, amid verbal variations, it all spoke so much the same language,) and the conviction of the Apostolicity of traditions, which (without such absolute uniformity, as would imply subsequent imitation), are still alike in all but words. It is very affecting to find, in an old formulary of a far distant Church, the very same form of words with which our Church has guided our own devotions; to light, for instance, upon the incidental notices of the same renunciation of the "devil, and his works, and his pomps," as preceding Baptism, in the ancient Churches of Africa Proper, Jerusalem, Asia Minor, Egypt, Italy, and the East and West; and to hear this renunciation, as we now make it, urged by Tertullian, but two centuries after Christ, as an incitement to Christian holiness.—Secondly, The conviction of the greater warmth and cheeringness of the formularies of the ancient Church, and so of our own, in comparison with the timid, didactic forms of the Reformed Church.—Thirdly, Increased conviction of the deep piety of those who, without precisely copying, so transfused the spirit of the ancient liturgies into our own.—Fourthly, Thankfulness to God for having guided our Reformers to these more ancient sources.
With regard to the different liturgies quoted—for the more ancient, I thought it quite sufficient to avail myself of the valuable researches of Palmer's Origines Liturgicæ, vol. ii. p. 166, sqq.; from which accordingly I have taken the prayers quoted, only translating them, that the comparison might be the easier. The originals may be seen in his important and interesting work. In one or two places only I have added an original authority.
