Dearly beloved, forasmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin, (and that which is born of the flesh is flesh,) and they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but live in sin, committing many actual transgressions; and that our Saviour Christ saith, none can enter into the kingdom of God, except he be regenerate and born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost; I beseech you to call upon God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that of his bounteous goodness he will grant to these persons that which by nature they cannot have; that they may be baptized with water and the Holy Ghost, and received into Christ's holy Church, and be made lively members of the same. _Then shall the Priest say_, Let us pray. (_And here all the Congregation shall kneel_.) Almighty and everlasting God, who of thy great mercy didst save Noah and his family in the ark from perishing by water; and also didst safely lead the children of Israel thy people through the Red Sea, figuring thereby thy holy Baptism; and by the Baptism of thy well-beloved Son Jesus Christ, in the river Jordan, didst sanctify the element of water to the mystical washing away of sin: We beseech thee, for thine infinite mercies, that thou wilt mercifully look upon _these_ thy _servants_; wash _them_ and sanctify _them_ with the Holy Ghost; that _they_, being delivered from thy wrath, may be received into the ark of Christ's Church; and being stedfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity, may so pass the waves of this troublesome world, that finally _they_ may come to the land of everlasting life, there to reign with thee world without end, through Jesus Christ our Lord _Amen_. Almighty and immortal God, the aid of all that need, the helper of all that flee to thee for succour, the life of them that believe, and the resurrection of the dead: We call upon thee for _these persons_, that _they_, coming to thy holy Baptism, may receive remission of _their_ sins by spiritual regeneration. Receive _them_, O Lord: and as thou hast promised by thy well-beloved Son, saying, Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: So give now unto us that ask; let us that seek find; open the gate unto us that knock; that _these persons_ may enjoy the everlasting benediction of thy heavenly washing, and may come to the eternal kingdom which thou hast promised by Christ our Lord. _Amen_. | _In the ministration of Baptism of such as be of riper years it may suffice to say one or other of the two opening prayers_, Almighty and everlasting God, _or_ Almighty and immortal God. _Then shall the people stand up, and the Priest shall say_, Hear the words of the Gospel, written by Saint John in the third chapter, beginning at the first verse.