Baptism

meaning. The significance of the rituals themselves has to be imposed on
mystically and externally, as they are then an end in itself. This is the stand of
the Roman Catholic Church and Pentecostal Churches. Both these churches
give some sort of mystical power for the external act of baptism.
These steps have been condensed into one - without the disciplining period -
in the Roman Catholic Church and in some Orthodox Churches. Yet in all
liturgy of the Church there is a statement, "Let us now pray for these persons
who have renewed their commitment to Christ", indicating the true dogma.
This combining several steps into one must have come into existence due to
pressure of population. There may have been other historical reasons for it.
Church in the third and fourth centuary certainly followed the sequence with
proper gaps. Eastern Churches had followed this tradition to this day, though
the age when these be done is not defined. Hence most churches followed
their own timings. Reformed churches insist on these being separate events
and confirmation can only be after the age of 13 following the Jewish
tradition. We should not be surprised to see a spectrum of ritual modes and
spectrum of arrangements in the series of rituals through history. This is
simply because the rituals themselves were simply a means to bringing people
to faith and ultimate salvation.
Rev. Dr. R.D. Crouse in his article on “BAPTISM, CONFIRMATION AND
HOLY COMMUNION” quotes John Cosin a 17th century Bishop of Durham:
... "The ancient fathers and bishops of the Church everywhere, in their
learned, Godly, and Christian writings impute unto (Confirmation) those gifts
and graces of the Holy Ghost which doth not make men and women
Christians, as they were at first in their baptism, but when they are made such
there, assisteth them in all virtue, and armeth them the better against all the
several temptations of the world, and the devil, to resist the vices of the flesh.
When Baptism was at first administered to them of full age who in their
infancy were either Jews, or heathen, there was no reason to sever
Confirmation from it. But when it was administered to infants (as it was to
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