A PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING

UPON THE

ANNIVERSARY DAY OF OUR BAPTISM.

(FROM BISHOP COSIN'S DEVOTIONS.)

O LORD, heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, who of thine infinite goodness towards me, when I was born in sin, and was no other than an heir of everlasting wrath, didst vouchsafe that I should, as upon this day, be born again of water and the Holy Ghost in the blessed laver of Baptism, being thereby made a member of Christ, and an heir of eternal life; for this thine inestimable favour, I do here gratefully commemorate that happy day, and in most humble and hearty wise, I do extol the

came to the use of your reason; and that you have conscientiously observed your engagements to God, in the chief bent of your heart, and course of your life; or have truly repented, and effectually returned to your duty, whenever, through the frailty of human nature, you have done otherwise. You may then, I say, very cheerfully shut your eyes from beholding the things of the present world, in order to open them to see God in a better state.-From the same.

abundant riches of thy glorious grace, in Thy sight, and in the sight of Thy holy angels, with all the company of heaven, renewing that sacred vow which was then made in my name, to forsake the wicked world, and to live as a Christian ought to do, in obedience to Thy holy faith and commandments; most humbly beseeching Thee of Thy great mercy to pardon me all the former breaches of my solemn promise, and to endue me so with the assistance of Thy Holy Spirit, that henceforth I may walk in newness of life, worthy of that blessed estate whereunto Thou hast called me; and keeping myself unspotted of the world, the flesh, and the devil, I may daily die unto sin, for which cause I was baptized unto the death of Christ; and as I have had my part on this day, in the first regeneration, so I may at the last day, have my part in the second and great regeneration of the world, to live and reign with thee for ever, through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

AN

ADDRESS

BEFORE AND AFTER A

CONFIRMATION.

DEARLY BELOVED IN THE LORD,

BEFORE I proceed to put the solemn question, which is prescribed by the Liturgy of our Church, I would place before

1829.

you, as briefly, yet as forcibly as I can, the grounds and conditions of that gracious covenant, into which you have been baptized. You were born into this world with a body liable to pain, and sickness, and death, and with a soul weak and inclined to evil, and alienated from the favor of God through the transgression of our first parents. The Apostle describes our state before baptism in those few but expressive words, which our Church has transferred into her Catechism-" By nature we were the children of wrath."

In such a state it would have been

Eph. ii. 3.

dreadful to have been left: God had therefore.

compassion on us, and sent His only Son into the world to reconcile us unto Himself. Christ took our flesh upon Him, and was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man, and lived to fulfil all righteousness, and died to make an atonement for our sins, and rose again to show that he had conquered death for us, and ascended into heaven, there to make intercession for us, until He shall come again to judge the living and the dead, and to receive the righteous unto Himself, that "where he is, there they may be also." These several points He commanded His Apostles to teach all nations "baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." In pursuance of this command you were baptized, and thereby admitted into all the benefits of Christ's coming into the world; you were made members of Christ, parts, as it were, of His very body-so closely are all Christians united to Him and to each other-children of that God from Whom you were before estranged through the sin of Adam; and inheritors of that kingdom, from which, for the same sin, you had been shut out. These are very great blessings and privileges, which God, for His dear Son's sake, be

stowed upon you in your baptism, and which He will make good to you through your lives, and in the hour of your deaths, provided that you are not wanting in your duty towards Him. But how, if we rightly consider our Christian calling, should we

ever be wanting in it? Do we not owe every thing to God? Is He not all love and goodness to us? Has He not pardoned us for His dear Son's sake: yea, rather than we should not be pardoned, has He not given His only Son to die upon the cross for us? And knowing how weak we are by nature, and how ignorant of His will, has he not poured His Holy Spirit into our hearts, and put His written Word into our hands, that we may be able, at all times, to read and consider what His will is? And has He not diminished our apprehensions of death, and taught us to look forwards to another life after this; and promised that that life should be full of happiness to every faithful and obedient servant of His dear Son? Can the commands of so good and great a Being ever be grievous to us? Can we ever be so happy as when we are doing His will? And are we not hereby laying up a store of happiness for ourselves for ever?

What we have to do is no large

1 St. John v. 3.

matter: the history of our Blessed St. Matt. xi. 30. Lord is soon read; His commands are soon learnt; His Holy Spirit is ever ready to help us to keep them. Every command which you keep, will bring you comfort; you will look back on your past lives with pleasure, and look forward with hope, through Christ. Every year you will be growing in goodness: Religion will have become the habit of your lives: you will still have much to