P. And how did you think all your sins, since your baptism, were forgiven you?

S. I confessed them to God, and some of them to the minister, and I received the Lord's Supper; and I thought that then I was forgiven, though I never had the true sense and power thereof on my heart and life.

P. What if you had never been baptised, and were now first to be baptised, what would you do?

S. I would understand and consider better of it, that I might not do I know not what.

P. Why truly, baptising is well called christening; for baptism is such a covenant between God and man, as maketh the receiver of it a visible Christian; and if you had sincerely renewed and kept this same covenant, you had needed no new conversion or regeneration, but only particular repentance for your particular following sins. Baptism is to our Christianity what matrimony is to a state of marriage; or like the enlisting and oath of a soldier to his captain, or of a subject to his prince. And therefore I will put you upon no other conversion than to review your baptism, and understand it well, and after the most serious deliberation to make the same covenant with God over again, as if you had never yourself made it before, or rather as one that hath not kept the covenant which once you made.

Now, if you were to be baptised presently, there are these three things which you must do: 1. Your understanding must know the meaning of the covenant, and m believe the truth of the word of God, which is his part. 2. Your will must heartily desire and accept of the benefits of God's covenant offered you, and resolvedly consent to the conditions" required of you. 3. And you must presently oblige yourself to the faithful practice of them, and to continue true to your covenant, from the time of your baptism till death.

S. Truly, if conversion be no more than to do what I vowed to do, and to be a Christian seriously which before I was but by name and hypocritical profession, I have no more reason to stick at it than to be against baptism and Christianity itself. First, then, will you help my understanding about it?

P. 1. You must understand and believe the articles of the christian faith, expressed in the common Creed, which you hear every day at church, and profess assent to it.

m John xviii. 12; Acts i. 37, and xvi. 31; 2 Cor, viii. 5.
n Matt. xxviii. 19, 20.

S. Alas! I hear it, and say it by rote, but I never well understood it, or considered it.

P. The christian belief hath three principal parts: that is, our believing in God the Father, and in God the Son, and in God the Holy Ghost. And each of these hath divers articles. I. In the first part all these things must be understood and believed. 1. That there is P one only God, in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; who is an infinite, eternal, perfect Spirit; a perfect life, understanding, and will; perfectly powerful, wise, and good; the first efficient, chief-governing, and final Cause, or End, of all; of whom, and through whom, and to whom, are all things; the Creator, and therefore the Owner, the Ruler, and the Benefactor, and End, especially of

man.

2. That this God made Adam and Eve in his own image, under a perfect law of innocency, requiring perfect obedience of them on pain of death.

3. That they broke this perfect law by wilful sin, and thereby fell under the sentence of death, the displeasure of God, the forfeiture of his grace, and of all their happiness.

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4. That all of us having our very beings and natures from them, (and their successors,) derive corruption or pravity of nature also from them, and a participation of guilt: and these corrupted natures are disposed to all actual sin, by which we should grow much worse, and more miserable.

5. That God, of his mercy and wisdom, took advantage of man's sin and misery to glorify his grace, and promised man a Redeemer, and made a new law or covenant for his government and salvation, forgiving him all his sins, and promising him salvation, if he believe and trust in God his Saviour, and repent of sin, and live in thankful, sincere obedience, though imperfect.

6. In the fulness of time, God sent his Son, his eternal

• Matt. xxviii. 19, 20.

P 1 Cor. viii. 4, 6; 1 John v. 7; 1 Tim. i. 17; Psalm cxxxiv. 7-9; cxlvii. 5; xlvii. 7, and cxlv. 9; Isa. xl. 17; Neh. ix. 6; Rev. iv. 8, and xv.3; Ezek. xviii. 4. ¶ Gen. i. 27, and ii. 16, 17; Eccl. vii. 29.

* Gen. iii.; Rom. iii. 23, and vi. 23.

$ Rom. v. 12, 18, and iii. 9, 19; Gen. ii. 16, 17; Eph. ii. 2, 3; Heb. ii. 14 ; John viif. 44.

Gen. iii. 15; John iii. 16.

16; 1 John ii.; John x. 30;

" Gal. iv. 4 ; John i. 1—3; xiv. 2, 3, and iii. 1 Tim. ii. 5; Matt. i. 20, 21; Heb. iv. 15; vii. 26; ix, 26; viii. 2, and x. 21; 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4; Luke xxiii. 43, and i. 27, 28; 2 Tim. i. 10; Acts ii. 9; iii. 21; ii. 36, and x. 36.

Word, made man, to be our Redeemer; who was conceived in a virgin by the Holy Ghost, and, by perfect obedience, fulfilled God's law, and became our example, and conquered all temptations, and gave himself a sacrifice for our sins, in suffering, after a life of humiliation, a cursed, shameful death upon the cross; and being buried, he arose again the third day, and having conquered death, assured us of a resurrection; and after forty days' continuance upon earth, he ascended bodily, in the sight of his disciples, into heaven, where he is the Teacher, the King, and the Intercessor for the church with God; by whom alone we must come unto the Father, and who prepareth for us the heavenly glory, and us for it.

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7. Before he ascended, he made a more full and plain edition of the aforesaid law or covenant of grace; and he gave authority to his chosen ministers, to go and preach it to all the world, and promised them the extraordinary gift and assistance of his Holy Spirit: and he ordained baptism to be used as the solemn initiation of all that will come into his church, and enter into the covenant of God: in which covenant God the Father y consenteth to be our reconciled God and Father, to pardon our sins for the sake of Christ, and give us his Holy Spirit, and glorify us in heaven for ever: and God the Son consenteth to be our Saviour, our King and Head, our Teacher and Mediator, to bring us reconciled to his Father, and to justify us, and give us his Spirit, and eternal life: and God the Holy Ghost consenteth to dwell in us as the Agent and Advocate of Christ, to be our Quickener, our Illuminator and Sanctifier, the Witness of Christ, and the earnest of our salvation. And we, on our part, must profess unfeigned belief of this gospel of Christ, and repentance for our former sins, and consent to receive these gifts of God, giving up ourselves, soul and body, to him, as our only God, our Saviour and our Sanctifier, as our chiefest Owner, Ruler, and Benefactor; resolving to live as his own, as his subjects and his children, in true resignation of ourselves to him, in true obedience and thankful love: renouncing the world, the flesh, and the devil, that would tempt us to the contrary; and this is the end; but not in our own strength, but by the gracious help of the Spirit of God.

* Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; Mark xvi. 16; y 2 Cor. v. 18-20; 1 John v. 9--12; 2 Gal. iv. 6; Tit. iii. 3, 5.

Rom. x. 10.
John vi.

* John i. 10-12; Rom. xii. 1, 2.

Rom. viii. 13; Luke xiv. 26; Acts xxvi. 18.

This is the baptismal covenant, the manner of whose outward administration you have often seen.

By this covenant, as it is God's law and act on his part, all that truly consent and give up themselves thus absolutely to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are presently pardoned all the sins that ever they were guilty of, as by God's instrumental act of oblivion and in it they have the gift of their right to the Spirit, and to everlasting life, and of all the mercies necessary thereunto.

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8. The Holy Ghost, in a peculiar manner, is given to all that thus truly believe and consent to the holy covenant: to dwell and work in them, and regenerate them more fully to the nature and image of God, working in them, 1. A holy liveliness and activity for God. 2. A holy light and knowledge of God. 3. A holy love and desire after God, and all that by which God is manifested unto man. And they that have not this renewing Spirit of Christ, are none of his and by this the temptations of the flesh, the world, and the devil, must be overcome.

9. At death men's souls are judged particularly and enter into joy or misery; and, at the end of this world, Christ will come in glory, and raise the dead, and judge all the world according to their works. And they that have sincerely kept this covenant (according to the several editions of it, which they were under) shall be openly justified and glorified with Christ where they shall be made perfect themselves in soul and body, and perfectly know, love, praise, and please the most blessed God for evermore, among the blessed saints and angels: and those that have not performed this covenant shall be for ever deprived of this glory, and suffer in hell everlasting misery, with devils and ungodly men.

These nine points must all be competently understood by you; or else you cannot understand what baptism, repentance, conversion, Christianity, is: and you consent to you know not what. S. Alas! Sir, when shall I ever be able to understand and remember all this?

P. It is all but your common catechism; yea, it is all but the creed which you daily repeat, a little opened. But if you do

c Cor. xii. 12, 13; Rom. viii. 9, 16, 26, 30; Gal. iv. 6, and v. 17, 24 ; John iii. 6-8; Eph. ii. 1, 2; Tit. iii. 3, 5; Acts xxvi. 18; 2 Tim. v. 7; 1 John ii. 15.

d Luke xxiii. 43, and xvi. 22, 26; 2 Cor. v. 18; Phil. i. 23; Acts i. 11; 1 Cor. xv.; John v. 22, 29, and xvii. 24; Matt. xxv., and xiii. 41-43; 2 Tim. iv. 8, 18; 2 Thess. i. 8-10, and ii. 12.

not remember all these words; if yet you remember the sense and matter of them, it will suffice.

S. But you told me, that besides understanding and belief, the e will's true consent is also necessary.

P. II. That is the second part of religion and holiness, and, indeed, the very heart of all: for what the will is, that the man is. But I need not here many words to tell you, that when you have considered the terms of the baptismal covenant, your hearty, resolved, full consent to it, is the condition of your present right, upon which Christ taketh you as his own.

S. But hath my will no more to do but to consent to that covenant?

P. That implieth that your consent must still continue, and that it reach to the particular means and duties which Christ shall appoint you. And the Lord's Prayer is given as the more particular rule of all the desires of your will. Wherefore you must well study the meaning of that prayer.

S. You told me also that practice is the third part of religion : how shall I know what that must be ?

P. III. You must here know, 1. The rule of your practice. 2. That your practice must be according to that rule. The foundation and end of all your practice is laid down already in what is said.

I. The foundation and root of all is your relation to God, according to this covenant. 1. You are devoted to him as being totally his own; and therefore you must live to him, and seek his glory, and rest in his disposals. 2. You are related to him as his subject, and therefore must endeavour absolutely to obey him above all the world. 3. You are related to him, when you are a true believer, as his child and friend ; and therefore must live in faithfulness and love. And this is the foundation and sum of all your holy life.

II. And the ends of all your practice must be, 1. That you may be fully delivered from all sin and misery, be made more holy and more serviceable to God and profitable to men,' and

e Exod. xx. 3; Jos. xxiv. 16, 25; 2 Cor. viii. 5; Mark xvi. 16; 1 Pet. iii. 21; Rev. xxii. 17; Matt. xi. 29, and xxviii. 24; John xiv. 8; Luke v. 14, and xiv. 26, 33; Acts ix. 6, 7; Eph. ii. 18, 22, and iii. 5, 16.

f 1 Cor. vi. 19; Psalm c. 2-5.

g Psalm v. 2; x. 16, and xlvii. 6, 7.

h Gal. iii. 26, and iv. 6; John xi. 52; Rom. viii. 16, 17, 26.

1 Tit. ii. 14, and iii. 3, 5, 6; 1 Cor. vi. 20, and vii. 32; John xv. 8; 1 Pet. iv. 11; 1 Thess. iv. 1; 2 Tim. ii. 3, 4, 12; 2 Thess. i. 9, 10; Col. iii. 1, 4, 5; Luke xii. 32; Jam. ii. 5; 2 Pet. i. 11.