William H. Kelley (1841-1915), an apostle of the then-RLDS Church, provided the following in favour of the doctrine of confirmation of the Holy Spirit:
Laying on of Hands for the Receiving of the Holy Spirit
Tertullian, A.D. 200 (De. Bapt., Chap. VI.):--
“After baptism, the hand is imposed by blessing, and calling and inviting of the Holy Spirit, who willingly descends from the Father on the bodies that are cleansed and blessed.”
Further upon this, in Chap. VIII., he says:--
“It is the fleshly or outward act of baptism that we are dipped in water; the spiritual effects that we are freed from our sins. Then follows laying on of hands, the dispenser inviting the Spirit of God by prayer; and, being cleansed by baptismal water, we are disposed for the Holy Spirit under the hands of the angel of the church.”
Speaking concerning the order and state of the church at this early time, after the death of the apostles, he says (De Script., Chap. XXXVI.):--
“She believeth in God, she signs with water (that it, baptizeth), she clothes with the spirit (viz., by the imposition of hands), she feeds with the Eucharist (administers the emblems of the Lord’s body), and exhorts to martyrdom (to faithfulness, and the keeping of the law of God even unto death), and against this order or institution she receives no man.”
Eusebius, not the pope of that name, but Eusebius Pamphilius, who lived about three hundred years after Christ, in his work (Book VII., Chap. II.), certifies that:--
“The ancient manner of receiving members into the church was with prayer and the laying on of hands.”
Again he says (Book VI., Chap. XXVI.):--
“That one Novatius being sick was baptized, if it may be called a baptism, which he received, for he obtained not after his recovery that which he should have done by the canon of the church, to wit, confirmation by the hands of the bishop, which having not obtained, how can he be supposed to have received the Holy Spirit?”
That was about the year 260.
With these I might also cite Mosheim’s “Church History,” Vol. I., page 91; and Gahan’s “Church History,” page 93.
Cyprian, in A.D. 250, and against whom none will being an accusation, in his seventy-third letter, when referring to the fact of the apostles going to Samaria to confirm those that Philip had baptized, says:--
“Which custom is also descended to us, that they who are baptized might be brought by the rules of the church, and by prayer of imposition of hands to obtain the Holy Ghost.”
Again in Epistle 72:--
“It is of no purpose to lay hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit, unless they receive the baptism of the church.”
Augustine, of the fourth century, writes:--
“Still we do what the apostles did, when they laid their hands on the Samaritans and called down the Holy Ghost upon them.”
Mosheim says, in his history:--
“After baptism they by prayer and the laying on of hands were solemnly recommended to the mercy of God and dedicated to his service.”—First Century, Part II., Chap. IV., verse 13.
Cyprian, who lived in the third century, says:--
“Those who have been dipped abroad outside the church and have been stained among heretics and schismatics, when they come to us and to the church ought to be baptized, for the reason that it is in a small matter (that is, of no value) to lay hands on them that they may receive the Holy Ghost, unless they receive also the baptism of the Church.”—Epistle 71.
Mosheim says:--
“For many of the first Christians were no sooner baptized according to Christ’s appointment, and dedicated to the service of God by solemn prayer and the imposition of hands, than they spoke in languages they had never known or learned before; foretold future events, healed the sick by pronouncing the name of Jesus, restored the dead to life, and performed many things above the reach of human power.”—First Century, Part I., Chap. VI., verse 9. (William H. Kelley, Presidency and Priesthood: The Apostasy, Reformation, and Restoration [Boston: Alfred Mudge and Sons, Printers, 1891], 370-72)
