fore the fittest to be put first; but chiefly because it is a very proper introduction to the foresaid vow, which they made when they were baptized, and leads them directly to the articles of the Christian faith, and to the rules of holy life which they then promised to believe and observe.

For, whereas they have every one two names, a Christian and a surname,-the latter they have from their natural parents of whom they were at first born, which is therefore properly the name of their family. But the other was given them by their spiritual parents, their godfathers and godmothers, when they were born again of water and of the Holy Spirit, and so were made Christians; which therefore, is called their Christian name, and is proper to every Christian person as such, as he is a Christian, that is to say, a disciple or a scholar of Jesus Christ, one who professeth Acts 11. 26. to learn of Him and to believe and live as He hath taught in His Holy Word. This every one undertaketh and promiseth when he is baptized, or christened; that is, made a Christian, and therefore hath this his Christian name given him.

Wherefore, as this is the only name we mean, when we ask this question, 'What is your name?' meaning your Christian name: so their answer to this question, by declaring their Christian name, naturally brings in all they promised in their Baptism, when this name was given to them: and therefore this is the most proper question that could be thought of to be first propounded to them.

From whence we may also observe, that every one's Christian name, as it is the proper name of his person, it distinguisheth him from other Christians; and as it is a Christian name, it distinguisheth him from all other sorts of people, and so puts you in mind, that you are not Jews, or Turks, or Heathens, but Christians: that you are of that religion which Jesus Christ hath revealed and settled in the world; which being not only the best, but the only good and true religion professed upon the earth, you, who profess it, should be the best of men: so far exceeding all other in virtue and goodness, that no other people may so much as seem to be good and virtuous in comparison of you. You"name the Name of Christ," and therefore you should

2 Tim. 2.19. “depart from all iniquity." You are "called by Him out 1 Pet. 2. 9. of darkness into His marvellous light," and therefore you Phil. 2. 15. should "shine as lights in the world." This your Christian name, whensoever you write, or read, or speak, or hear it mentioned, should put you in mind of.

Jer. 31. 33, 34; Heb. 8. 10 - 12.

Gen. 17.

4-23.

QUESTIONS.

Wherein appears the excellency of this Catechism?
How many parts doth it consist of?

Why doth it begin with this question, What is your name?'

How many names have you?

Which is here meant?

Why is it called your Christian name?

What is a Christian?

What doth this name put you in mind of?

Q. Who gave you this name?

A. My godfathers and godmothers in my Baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven.

They who bring a child to holy Baptism, are called his godfathers and godmothers, because they are the means of his being there regenerate, or born again of God. They also give him his Christian name, because that belongs to him only as he is a Christian, and so the child of God; and they gave him this name in his Baptism, or at the same time that he is baptized, because it is then that he is brought into this relation to God; so as to be made His child according to the tenour of the New Covenant, which God hath made with mankind in Jesus Christ, promising pardon, and peace, and grace, and His Own Fatherly care of, and provision for all those who repent and believe in Him.

And that this is the most proper time for it, appears also in that Abram had his name Abraham given him by God Himself, at the same time that he entered into Covenant with him, and ordained circumcision to be the outward sign or way whereby he and his posterity should be admitted into it. So that he had this new name given him the same day that he was circumcised, and that too by God's Own ap

pointment. From whence His Church could not but conclude, that it was His Divine will, that when any were circumcised, and so admitted into His Covenant, they should, at the same time, have the name given them by which they should ever after be called, to put them always in mind of the conditions of that Covenant which they were then admitted into.

63.
ch. 2. 21.

And accordingly this was the constant practice of the Jewish Church all along to our Saviour's time; and therefore we read that John the Baptist had his name given him Luke 1. 59when he was circumcised, and so had Jesus himself. Which same Jesus having laid aside that troublesome and painful yoke of circumcision, and instead thereof instituted the most easy Sacrament of Baptism, to be the means or rite of admitting persons into His Church, and so into the aforesaid Covenant which God in Him hath made with mankind; therefore His Church hath ever since used to give every person that is baptized his name at the same time that he is baptized, and so admitted into the great privileges of the New Covenant, to be a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven.

12. 12-27.

He is in baptism made a member of Christ,' because he is made a member of His Church. For Christ and His Church, or the Congregation of all Christian people, are one body, of which Christ is the Head, and all Christians are the 1 Cor. 6.15; members, every one in his place and station. Therefore we Col. 1. 18. are said to be baptized into Christ, and by one Spirit we are Gal. 3. 27; all baptized into one body, even into the body of Christ, and 1 Cor. 12. by that means are made the members of Christ; so as to be 13. moved, influenced, and actuated, by that Holy Spirit which proceeds from Him, as the members of our natural bodies are by the spirits which flow originally from the head.

Rom. 6. 3.

He is therein also made the child of God,' because at the same time that he is baptized, or born again of water, he is born also of God the Spirit, and therefore is His child, John 3. 5. as having received "the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father," that is, call God our Father. And besides, Rom. 8.15; he that is the member of Christ,' is therefore also the Gal. 4. 6. child of God' for Christ being the Son of God, all His members must needs stand in the same relation to God that He

doth, though in a lower degree, according to their capacities. Hence it is that, as it is He that gives them power to become John 1. 12. the sons of God, so "He is not ashamed to call them breHeb. 2. 11. thren," as He doth, because His Father is their Father also,

Matt. 25.

40; 28. 10. and therefore theirs, because His.

John 20. 17.

Rom. 8. 17;
Gal. 4. 7.

Heb. 1. 2.

Rev. 21.7.

And as every member of Christ is a child of God, so every child of God is an inheritor,' that is, an heir of the Kingdom of Heaven:' so as to have a just title to it, as an heir-at-law has to an estate upon earth; for "if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." They are "joint-heirs," or, as we may say, co-heirs, not with one another, as if the inheritance was to be divided amongst them for here every child is an heir to the whole, having the same right and title to all the inheritance, as if he was the sole heir. But they are all and every one "joint-heirs with Christ," Who is " heir of all things." And therefore in Him they shall also every one inherit all things.

This is that which is here called the Kingdom of Heaven,' of which every child of God is the inheritor; which therefore consisteth not in the enjoyment of any one or more particular things, but of all things that God hath made, and of Him too that made them; and yet, to our unspeakable comfort, all that are duly baptized according to Christ's institution, are thereby made heirs or inheritors of this Kingdom. It is settled upon them in their Baptism; and they shall hereafter have the full possession and enjoyment of it, unless, while they are in this world, they provoke their Heavenly Father to disinherit and cast them off, by not doing what they promised when they were baptized. What that is, we shall see in the answer to the next question, and thereby know how to prevent our being disinherited.

QUESTIONS.

Who are they whom ye call godfathers and godmothers?
Why are they so called?

Why did they give you your name?

Why did they give it in your Baptism?

How do you prove that to be a proper time for it?
What do you mean by your being a member of Christ?
How doth it appear that you were made so in Baptism?

How do you prove that

you were then also made the child

of God?

In what sense were you in baptism made an inheritor of the Kingdom of God?

In what doth the Kingdom of God consist?

May you not be disinherited?

What must you do to prevent it?

PART I. OF THE BAPTISMAL VOW.

Q. What did your godfathers and godmothers then for you?

A. They did promise and vow three things in my name. First, that I should renounce the Devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh. Secondly, that I should believe all the articles of the Christian faith. And thirdly, that I should keep God's holy will and Commandments, and walk in the same, all the days of my life.

ALL that naturally proceed from the first man being born in sin, are by nature the children of wrath, obnoxious to the displeasure of the Almighty God, with all the dismal effects and consequences of it. But when any of them are bap- Eph. 2. 3. tized, they are taken off from the old stock, the first Adam, and there grafted into, and so made members of Christ, the last Adam. And in Him they are received into the favour 1 Cor.15.45. of God, made His children, and entitled to all the great blessings that He hath promised, both in this world and the next; which promise, He, for His part, will be sure to perform to them, if they do but continue to live as becometh His children, and according to the laws of that new state into which they are admitted.

Which that they may, although they are bound to do it by the very nature of the state itself, and are admitted into it only upon that condition, yet to tie them more strictly to it, they must solemnly vow and promise it, before they can (except in some extraordinary cases) be baptized. If they be of riper years, they must make this promise every one for himself, in his own person: but if they be children, not