Baxter - BX5202 B29 1689

( 67 Iigion into perfidioufnefs and mockery) howheinous fin must this needs be ? And here let us confider, I. Who thefe Godfathers in Eng- land ufually be. II. What they do, III. How they perform what they Vow and undertake. L.. I. They are tsfually fameof the Parents Friends. M. They are ufually fuch as thefe : i. The poor that have no rich Friends do fometimes intreat a poor neighbour to do the office, and fometimes hire any man that will do it: Which I never knew tell in Lendon,by begging they made me underftand that men do it as Labourer's work for theirwages :About half a Crown is the ordinary pay of Beggers, or very poor Folks Godfathers. But the Poor andMiddling fort do ufe to try fome rich Friend or Neighbour, if they have any filch, in hopes of fame frnall gift; fome give us for the Child a Shilling, fome half a Crown, fome a flver Spoon. The Richer fort reek to perlons rather above than below their Rank, in expe1ation of a piece of Plate, or fome fuch bigger gift. And in other Na- tions Princes are Godfathers to Children whom they never fee,nor perhaps the Land oftheir nativity : And with us it is very often fome that dwel not very near,who oft fevre as Proxy to nand in their place, and they only give the expected gift and bear the name. Il. What they are to do,I told youbefore, i.To perfonate the Child, and take on them to fay as in his name [Ibelieve, I renounce, I delire] when they are three and the Childbut one, and Ib three perfons by fiction reprefent one, and fay that He doth that which he doth not, either, per fe vel per alias. z. They Vow or promife folemnly to do all the things be- fore named. Ch. 4. Numb. 7. viz. To fee that the Child be taught a faon as he jhall be able to learn what a 'solemn Vow, Promife and Profeon he made by them; and that they call on him to hear Sermons,and chiefly that theyprovide that he may learn,theGreed,the Lord's Prayer,and the Ten Commandments in the Vulgar Tongue,and All other things that a Chriflian ought to know and believe to his Souls health, and that he be virttsûuflybrought Ito leada Chriftian andGodly life. All this they folemnly undertake to God and the Church. K z III. And

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