suffered death, the wages of sin, for me" insomuch, that if I believe in him, and repent, I shall be forgiven; and the third day after his death arose again to life for the justification of this my faith. Rom. iv. 25.

IV. Q. Do you hope for any thing more in and through Christ?

A. Yes, for eternal life in heaven.k

V. Q. Hath he done any thing farther to secure God's mercy to you, and your obedience to God?

A. He hath in my baptism made a covenant of peace between his Father and me, whereof he himself is the Mediator; and hath offered me the food of eternal life," namely, his spiritual body and blood in his last supper, whereby, if I constantly and worthily receive it, I am fed to virtue, and that happy life by his Holy Spirit."

VI. Q. What hath the Father promised you in this covenant?

A. To adopt me for his own child," to unite me to his Son as a member of his spiritual body, the church, and to provide for me an inheritance of everlasting life, if I perform my part in this covenant.

VII. Q. What is your part in this covenant?

A. I have therein vowed to renounce and fight against the enemies of his glory and my salvation,' to believe all the articles of the Christian faith, and to keep the commandments of God, which I cannot do, if I do not, in a reasonable degree, understand those articles and commandments. VIII. Q. What are the enemies of God and your salvation?

A. The devil," the world, and the flesh.

IX. Q. Have you any reason for renouncing these together?

A. Yes, because they combine against God and my soul. I renounce the devil as the author of rebellion and sin; the pride and pomp of the world, as his instruments of tempta

tion; and also the pride and lust of my own corrupted heart, as those inward traitors that lay me open to his temptations."

X. Q. Do you renounce all fleshly pleasure?

A. All, in thought, word, and deed, so far as it is sinful, and even innocent pleasure, so far as it may enfeeble my Christian resolution, and turn away my affections from God." XI. Q. What are you to believe?

A. Not only in the one only God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but also, that God is always present with me;d knows every thing I speak, think, and do; that he will call me into judgment for them at the last day ; and that he will adjudge me to happiness in heaven, or misery in hell, according as I shall have performed, or neglected, my engagements in the covenant.

XII. Q. And what have you vowed to do, or abstain from, in this covenant?

A. I have vowed to do, to the best of my power, whatsoever God requires of me, and to abstain from whatsoever he forbids me in his ten commandments, delivered to the Israelites in the law by Moses, confirmed by Christ to all Christians, and summed up by him in two, Matt. ii. 22. and, among others, most particularly to obey his commandments, to mortify my pride, and love of fleshly pleasures those original and diabolical causes of all other sins; together with his commandment of love for all my Christian brethren.i

XIII. Q. Are you of yourself able to keep your part in this covenant?

A. I am not; but I am commanded by my Saviour, continually to watch, lest I enter into temptation, and incessantly to pray for the assistance of the Holy Ghost, which he hath promised to all endeavouring Christians.'

XIV. Q. Do you believe in the holy Catholic church, and in its four happy privileges?

A. I do believe in the holy Catholic church," in the com

a 1 John ii. 16. Phil. ii. 3.
2 Tim. iii. 4. Eccles. ii. 1.

e Acts xv. 18. Matt. x. 26.

b Rom. xiii. 14. Gal. v. 17. Job v. 24.

d Psal. cxxxix. 7, 8, 9. Acts xvii. 27, 28. f Rom. ii. 3. Rom. ii. 5.

g Matt. xxv. 31. 2 Cor. v. 10.

h Mark xiii. 37. Rom. viii. 13. Matt. xi. 29. Matt. xvi. 24.

i John xiii. 34, 35. 1 Cor. xiii.

Mark xiii. 37. Luke xviii. 1.

1 John xiv. 26. Acts x. 44, 45. Rom. viii. 5. Rom. xiv. 17. 1 Cor. vi. 19.

m 1 Tim. iii. 15. Matt. xviii. 17.

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munion of saints," the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and everlasting life, and in every religious doctrine which the truly catholic church tells me by its head Christ Jesus, who, as the head always does, in his holy Scriptures, speaks to and for his whole body, the church; and I likewise believe that whosoever does not endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,' nor to live and act by the mind of Christ Jesus,' is cut off from him and his body."

I have made this catechism as short and easy as possibly can be, without omitting any thing that is necessary, for two reasons: first, because I am sure, the knowledge of our religion is, in itself, short and easy; and secondly, because I fear there are some among you who will not give much time nor thought even to this one thing needful. Let such however consider, if they have indeed the use of common sense, how they can pass their lives in carelessness and ignorance as to religion, with death, judgment, and eternity before them. If the attentive reader of this catechism remembers scriptures sufficient to prove its doctrines, he hath nothing farther to do than to apply them feelingly to his conscience; but if he does not, let him at least search his Bible for those I have quoted, and he must be satisfied; for how often must God repeat the same thing to him, ere he can be convinced of its truth? And yet he hath been pleased to repeat these saving truths in many other passages of Scripture with a variety of plain expressions, which its attentive reader will himself observe and remember for his own use.

Here is a very short view of the most necessary Christian principles, in regard both to faith and practice, which include and enforce on your minds a number of most excellent precepts, besides these necessary principles, such as, 'be you perfect men, as your Father which is in heaven is. perfect God;' 'forgive and you shall be forgiven ;' 'overcome evil with good ;' do unto all men, as you would they should do unto you;' with many others, delivered by Christ him

a Acts ii. 42. Eph. iii. 6.
P John v. 28, 29.

VOL. VI.

Acts xxvi. 18. Luke xxiv. 47.
9 John vi. 47.

Eph. iv. 2, 3. 1 Cor. v. 5. Mark xvi. 16. Heb. x. 25,

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self, or by the Holy Spirit, writing by the apostles, all closely connected with, or following from, the leading principles, delivered to you in this short catechism, which you will find, and ought carefully to consider, in the Scriptures of the New Testament. But among them all there is not one that might be applied to our hearts with more profit than Christ's saying of little children, of such is the kingdom of heaven.' Here the humility, the simplicity, and innocence of the Christian temper and spirit is set before our very eyes in a lovely little image, more strongly by far than words can possibly express it. If the great masters of painting have adopted this thought to represent the high order of cherubim by winged infants, should not the soul of a Christian much rather endeavour to copy into itself the beautiful representation?

Finally, my beloved brethren, attend closely to the promise of eternal life, made to you in the gospel of God, that ye may firmly believe in, and trust to that promise, for St. Paul tells all true Christians, ye stand by faith.' 'Stand fast therefore in that faith,' according to the exhortation of the same apostle; quit ye like men; be strong. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.' Begin with this work of God, to believe in him whom he hath sent.' Lift up this shield of faith, which shall quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,' and enable you both to prove and adorn your Christian profession by good works in the service of the living God, who hath told you, that the just shall live by his faith,' that is, shall rule his life by the principles of his faith, and by that faith shall be justified at the last day. As however you can do nothing of yourselves, fly to God, your strength, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance.' If faith, no greater than a grain of mustard seed, is able to remove a mountain,' how much more easily may it remove the poor little hillock of your pride, and dry up the filthy puddle which the love of sinful pleasure and of worldly gain hath poured upon you? If this is once done, your conscience having dropped its clog, your lightened soul shall spring upward toward God on the wings of that faith, and on those of

gratitude and love. The world sets before you only little things, seen it is true, but uncertain as riches, which make themselves wings and fly away,' carrying with them your sensual pleasures, and all your folly prides itself in. Faith in the promise of God offers you great things, unseen indeed at present, but absolutely certain and eternal. If 'you live by faith, and not by the sight of your eyes and the pride of life,' these great things shall in you shut out the sight of those little things, and this is the victory which overcometh the world, even your faith.' This, for instance, is that wise and glorious faith, which, fixing the eye of the soul on a judgment to pass on it, and on the eternal joy or misery that is to follow that judgment, encourages the martyr to die in flames for his holy religion.

And it is that same faith, which calling up your attention and desires from things below, and fixing them on things above, on the glory, honour, and immortality,' engaged to you by the promise of God, may mortify the deeds of the flesh' in you, and give you a claim to the character of martyrs; for who are martyrs, but they who renouncing themselves, their corrupted nature, their pride and sensual pleasures,' repose themselves, with all their hopes and comfort in God? Every true Christian, though not called to the stake for his religion, is in some degree a martyr, for ' he dies daily' by the mortification of sensuality, and imitates Christ, the great martyr, 'who before Pilate witnessed a good confession for us.' Do not be discouraged at this, for your short affliction' in dying to the pleasures of sin shall work for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' If your faith shuts you in from pride and fleshly pleasure, it opens to you the glories of an immortal crown, and those rivers of pleasures which flow at the right hand of God,' insomuch that, even in this life, your conscience and hope in him shall pour upon you such delights as infinitely exceed those of the sensualist. Know, that while you are at home in the body,' more especially if you at all obey your body, to fulfil the lusts thereof, you are absent from the Lord. Although, therefore, you walk in the body, do not walk after the body.' Be willing rather to be absent from the body, that through the Spirit you may be present with the Lord. Know you not, that your body is the tem

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