this child be brought to the Bishop _to be_ confirmed _by him_".[3]

And this leads us to our second point: What Confirmation is.

(II) WHAT IT IS.

Confirmation is the completion of Baptism. It completes what Baptism
began. In the words of our Confirmation Service, it "increases and
multiplies"--i.e. strengthens or confirms Baptismal grace. It is the
ordained channel which conveys to the Baptized the "sevenfold" (i.e.
complete) gift of the Holy Ghost, which was initially received in
Baptism.

And this will help us to answer a question frequently asked: "If I have
been confirmed, but not Baptized, must I be Baptized?" Surely, Baptism
must _precede_ Confirmation. If {97} Confirmation increases the grace
given in Baptism, that grace must have been received before it can be
increased. "And must I be 'confirmed again,' as it is said, after
Baptism?" Surely. If I had not been Baptized _before_ I presented
myself for Confirmation, I have not confirmed at all. My Baptism will
now allow me to "be presented to the Bishop once again to be confirmed
by him"--and this time in reality. "Did I, then, receive no grace when
I was presented to the Bishop to be confirmed by him before?" Much
grace, surely, but not the special grace attached to the special
Sacrament of Confirmation, and guaranteed to the Confirmed. Special
channels convey special grace. God's love overflows its channels; what
God gives, or withholds, outside those channels, it would be an
impertinence for us to say.

Again, Confirmation is, in a secondary sense, a Sacrament of
Admittance. It admits the Baptized to Holy Communion. Two rubrics
teach this. "It is expedient," says the rubric after an adult Baptism,
"that every person thus Baptized should be confirmed by the Bishop so
soon after his Baptism as conveniently may be; that _so he may be
admitted to the Holy Communion_." "And {98} there shall none _be
admitted to Holy Communion_," adds the rubric after Confirmation,
"until such time as he be confirmed, or be ready and desirous to be
confirmed." For "Confirmation, or the laying on of hands," fully
admits the Baptized to that "Royal Priesthood" of the Laity,[4] of
which the specially ordained Priest is ordained to be the
representative. The Holy Sacrifice is the offering of the _whole_
Church, the universal Priesthood, not merely of the individual Priest
who is the offerer. Thus, the Confirmed can take their part in the
offering, and c