Mr. Lewellin.—"This certainly is a very ingenious arrangement, to show out to public notice the importance of a duly authorized priesthood, on whose official actions the spiritual life and safety of Churchmen and their children are made to depend; but it is ingenuity at the expense of truth and common sense. In the prayer which precedes the ceremony of confirmation, the bishop asserts what is not true—children are not regenerated at the font of baptism; and yet it is asserted that they are. He does not pray that God would be pleased to forgive them their sins; he merely tells God that he has done it; and thus they are confirmed in the belief of a most fatal delusion—a positive falsehood."
Mr. Stevens.-"Unquestionably; every person who is confirmed, if he have any faith in the integrity of the bishop, when engaged in this act of public devotion, must believe two things; indeed, he is compelled to believe them, unless he impeaches the piety of the bishop; he must believe that he is regenerated, and consequently needs no spiritual change of heart and mind; and he must believe that all his past sins are forgiven, which renders it unnecessary for him to pray for mercy on account of any bygone acts of delinquency or—impiety. What a delusion!—a fatal delusion!"
Mr. Roscoe.—"That no such moral effects result from this act of confirmation, is very painfully demonstrated by the scenes which often follow its performance. I went some time since, at the request of a friend who, like myself, still cleaves to the church, while he loathes many of her Papal ceremonies, to witness a confirmation, and what immediately followed. Some on leaving the church appeared to be seriously impressed; but the majority were as mirthful as if returning from a fair; many resorted to the public-houses, and in the evening they were seen reeling home in a state of intoxication; and I afterwards heard of some who fell into grosser crimes."[28]
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"There is no denying the fact, that what often follows a confirmation service is most revolting to Christian feeling; tending to bring its administration into popular disrepute. Hence, I can subscribe to the truth of a statement, and an accompanying opinion, given by a clergyman of high distinction, in his reply to some official interrogations. 'I do not pretend to know,' he says, 'what may have been the effect of confirmation in former times, but I have witnessed enough in our day to make me wish to see it abolished. In some persons it creates a superstitious trust in the efficacy of the mere ceremony; to others it is a grand festival, a time to see and be seen; and too frequently ending in folly, drunkenness, and every kind of vice. I have heard more than one reclaimed drunkard, in giving an account of himself, date his first act of intemperance, or first intoxication, to the day of his confirmation; and on these accounts it is, to many, a subject of ridicule and contempt, bringing discredit upon our holy religion.... For more than ten years my own desire has been, that in any measure of church reform that may be adopted, the ceremony of confirmation may be entirely left out.'"
THE ORDINATION SERVICE.
Mr. Roscoe.—"I was not aware, till very recently, that the ordination service is so very objectionable in many of its parts, especially to any one who is jealous of the Divine honour. When a person presents himself to be admitted to the order of priesthood in our church (and it matters not whether he be a gay man of fashion or a devout servant of God), after replying to certain questions proposed to him, and giving certain assurances, he is then required to kneel in the presence of the bishop, who thus speaks in a tone of authority, as though he had all power in heaven and on earth:—'Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in the church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands; whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven, and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained. And be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God and his holy sacraments, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.' Does it not savour of blasphemy to concede to any man an authority to forgive sins?"
Mr. Lewellin.—"I think it does, Sir, and very strongly. And are you aware that the priests of the Church of England are invested with a much higher degree of authority in this matter than any of the priesthood of the Papal Church of Rome?"
Mr. Roscoe.—"Not with a higher degree of authority! That I think is impossible."
Mr. Lewellin.—"Indeed, Sir, they are. Their delegated power is made absolute, and it is unlimited; but the power of the Papal priesthood is placed under very stringent restrictions. Thus, when the Papal priest puts into requisition the exercise of his ghostly power, in the remission of the sins of the dying Catholic, the bye-laws of his church make a distinction, and for very lucrative reasons, between venial and mortal sins; he is authorized to remit venial sins, but he is powerless to remit mortal sin; and hence his form of absolution runs as follows: 'And by virtue of authority committed unto me, I absolve thee from thy sins, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.' The Episcopal Protestants' form of absolution runs thus: 'And by His authority, committed unto me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' The Papal priest remits some sins; the Protestant priest absolves from all sins; the Roman Catholic, after his priest has absolved him, has to go and live for a season amidst purgatorial fires; but as Protestantism has no purgatory, her devotee passes at once, according to this Episcopal legend, into the kingdom of heaven, after her priest has exercised his absolving power. The priest, then, according to this absolution ceremony, saves from hell, and gives a passport to heaven, by virtue of the delegated authority he received from the bishop who ordained him."