Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
CHAPTER LI.
THE MINISTRATION OF BAPTISM TO SUCH AS ARE OF RIPER YEARS.
The minister, coming to the font, which is to be filled with pure water, shall use the following, or some other suitable exhortation:
Dearly beloved, forasmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin, (and that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but live in sin, committing many actual transgressions,) and that our Saviour Christ saith, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God; I beseech you to call upon God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that of his bounteous goodness he will grant to these persons that which by nature they cannot have: that they may be baptized with water and the Holy Ghost, and received into Christ's holy Church, and be made lively members of the same.
Then shall the minister say:
Almighty and immortal God, the aid of all that need, the helper of all that flee to thee for succor, the life of them that believe, and the resurrection of the dead: we call upon thee for these persons now to be baptized. Receive them, O Lord, as thou hast promised by thy well-beloved Son, saying, Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: so give now unto us that ask; let us that seek find; open the gate unto us that knock; that these persons may enjoy the everlasting benediction of thy heavenly washing, and may come to the eternal kingdom which thou hast promised by Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Then shall the people stand up, and the minister shall say:
Hear the words of the Gospel, written by St. John in the third chapter, beginning at the first verse.