15.8 and why God's delight but because his servants delight in prayer He that sheweth mercy let him do it with chearfulness Rom. 12.8 And he that giveth offereth a blemisht sacrifice if he do it grudgingly For God loveth a chearful giver 2 Cor. 9.7 Not so much but our losses and tribulations must be sustained with gladness Thy rod and thy staff do comfort me Psalm 23.4 Enter into the combat willingly and the continuance will be a pleasure Our consolation aboundeth by Christ for as ye are partakers of the sufferings so shall ye be also of the consolation 2 Cor. 1.7 Therefore the Apostles did change the name of a famous Disciple called Joses into a notion of this Theme and called him Barnabas which is being interpreted The son of consolation Acts 4.36 The Rabbies of the Jews hold themselves very close to this doctrine and would have it observ'd that the merrier the heart is in the Lord the more capable it is of the Spirit of God Partly because Miriam when she prophesied of the mighty acts of Jehovah took a Timbrel in her hand and danced Exod. 15.20 Partly because that Samuel after he had anointed Saul to be King over Israel told Saul Thou shalt meet a company of Prophets coming down from the high place with a Psaltery a Tabret a Pipe and a Harp and they shall prophesie and the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee and thou shalt prophesie with them and shalt be turned into another man 1 Sam. 10. verses 5 6. More emphatically when Jehosaphat called for Elisha to enquire of the Lord says Elisha Bring me a Minstrel and it came to pass when the Minstrel played that the hand of the Lord came upon him 2 Kings 3.15 That by the ravishing strains of Musick his mind might be exalted into Heavenly contemplations Which is a great check to that drowsie dulness in devotion which our late Reformers have brought in and have excluded the solemn melody of the Organ and the raptures of warbling and sweet voices out of Cathedral Quires They that miss that harmony can best tell how it was wont to raise up their Spirit and as it were to carry it out of them to the Quire in Heaven And beside chearfulness is not only an adjunct or companion with all the works of grace in that time they are bringing forth but being done and finisht that which is post-nate the after-birth as I may call it comes with such a gleam gliding over all the Soul with such serenity and peace of mind as cannot be exprest our Conscience bearing us witness that we have been conversant in doing the pleasure of the Lord as it is 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and Godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world Here I shall find work to heal the broken in heart who look upon the fruits of their lives with no content in themselves but are unsolaced and cast down because neither in number nor in weight have they brought in that which the Lord required they look on their ways and they find them crooked they look on their heart and they find it is not constant to good purposes To whom I rejoyn If this proceed from penitence from quick sense of sin from humility which is opposite to a self-justifying they have cause to praise God that they are thus affected Let them look narrowly if this Gold for it may prove no worse be currant when it is brought to the touch-stone then they may lift up their eyes and look chearfully towards Christ for it is no flattery to say they are under his grace and mercy Deal clearly that you are astonisht at your frailties because you think you can never work enough never shun sin enough and though your Conscience condemn you God will afford you equity against the rigour of Conscience for he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit Rom. 8.22 We are conceived in sin and it is so intimate unto us that we have no promise to be so spiritualized in this life that we shall not often trespass God hath concluded all in sin all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all Rom. 11.32 But it is one thing to fall into sin another thing to run into it One thing to be carried away by the passions of it another to covet and desire it One thing to be overtaken in a fault another thing to abide in it without repentance And great odds between those that are given over to please themselves in filthiness and between them that labour and desire to please God though many times they attain not to perfect that willingness The scope of the Seventh Chapter to the Romans as I apprehend the mind of the Apostle is to refresh our guilty Consciences that a regenerate man is not obnoxious to condemnation though his flesh upon some temptations make him the servant of sin because still in his mind he serves the law of God And I am confirm'd in that sense because without all contradiction He teacheth the like doctrine Gal. 5.17 The flesh and the Spirit are contrary one to another so that we cannot do the things that we would And will the righteous God require more of a sick and feeble servant than his best endeavour Will not Christ accept from us the same that he did from Mary that broke the Box of Ointment over his head She hath done what she could Mark 14.8 Let a contrite heart that would fain be righteous remember the prayer of Nehemiah Chap. 1. verse 10. Let thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy name or the protestation of St. Paul Heb. 13.18 We trust we have a good Conscience in all things willing to live honestly But this desire and willingness must be without hypocrisie not like iron that is gilded base mettal within and rich without It must be steddy industrious instant to perform Vehement holy desire is a great degree to perfection in our state For the beginning of wisdom is the desire of discipline Wisd 6.18 but a lazy careless desire is a great token of imperfection The Soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing Prov. 13.4 And again The desire of the slothful killeth him for his hands refuse to labour Prov. 21.25 Like Vagabonds that when an Officer catcheth them will feign that they desire a service and to be set at work but take them at their word and they will run away that they may live in loitering and upon other mens labours St. Paul provoking both rich and poor to liberality according to their respective abilities frames a rule upon that occasion which is applicable to all good works 2 Cor. 8.12 If there be a willing mind it is accepted according to that which a man hath and not according to that which he hath not Yea in some cases when I desire a good thing
flesh and a Spirit is mightier than flesh Apply that of the Prophet Zachary to it as we may read it by the direction of our Margent and keep to the Original Chap. 8. Verse 6. If it be difficult in the eyes of this people shall it be difficult in mine eyes saith the Lord Therefore since God is our help against the insurrection of this rebellious sin let us be comforted in his help and not in excuses For we must not plead our personal maladies and natural inclinations and think that God will take it for an answer and ask no more I am dull of understanding says one and what I am taught I cannot bear it away I am suddenly transported with indignation and cannot chuse but break out I am retentive of an injury and cannot easily be reconciled All this and the like is no better than the answer of those ill manner'd guests in the Gospel which were invited to a Feast made by a King We cannot come I pray you have us excused which sounds like confession and humility but it is denial and defiance Spend your breath in a better way and cry out often and affectionately Give me not over to my self O Lord take away from me my stony heart and give me an heart of flesh Drop down upon this barren earth and it shall bring forth quite against the byass of nature The high minded will grow meek as a Lamb the covetous will begin to disperse and scatter abroad the lying lips will confess the truth bitter cruelty will melt into pity new-fangled braveries will be laid aside and blush at vanity To what purpose are the pourings in of the Spirit but that what is wickedly in-bred from our conception should be shaken off from the tree and a better fruit spring up in the place from the increase of God Mark the rain that falls from above and the same shower that dropt out of one cloud increaseth sundry plants in a garden and severally according to the condition of every plant in one stalk it makes a Rose in another a Violet divers in a third and sweet in all So the Spirit works its multiformous effects in several complexions and all according to the increase of God Is thy habit and inclination cholerick why try thy self if thou be very apt to be zealous in a good cause and it turns thy natural infirmity into holy heat Is melancholy predominant the grace of God will turn that sad humor into devotion prayer and mortifying thy pleasures to die unto the world Is thy temperature sanguine and chearful the goodness of God will allow it unto thee in thy civil life in a good mean but over and above it will make thee bountiful easie to pardon injuries glad of reconciliation comfortable to the distressed always rejoycing in the Lord. Is a man phlegmatick and fearful if this freezing disease which is in thee from thy mothers womb be not absolutely cured yet the Holy Ghost will work upon it to make thy Conscience tender wary to give no offence to make thee pitiful penitent contrite ready to weep for thy transgressions There are two handles to take hold of every thing says a Heathen A dissolute man takes hold of original frailties and makes them Serpents a holy man declines their Serpentine nature and catcheth them by that part which may conduce to all manner of vertue This is the comfort of Hope against original inquination that this great enemy by the operation of the Spirit shall be made our friend or our foot-stool O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.24 What is stronger than a Lion yet if the Lion be kill'd out of the strong comes forth sweetness Jud. 14.14 For all this the worst is not past beside natural pronity to sin we have contracted much more evil by custom education strong habits noxious examples bad enticements and infusions The Cockatrice-egge was laid when we were in our mothers womb but it proves more venemous being hatcht and grown able to flye abroad There are seventy sons of Ahab who shall kill thee Even the sword of the Spirit There is none like it as David said of that of Goliah 1 Sam. 21.9 This is sufficient not merely to cut down grass and briars but to hew down the tree to cut off the branches to shake the leaves to scatter the fruit to fright away the fowls from the branches and the beasts from grazing under it Dan. 4. verse 14. or as the Apostle comforts us in plain words without a Parable I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me Phil. 4.13 If you be over-toiled and heated too much you know how to cool cast off some garments wipe away the sweat sit still and stir not lest you enflame your self with motion Follow the same method lay aside the burden of sin that enflames you cast off the weight and the superfluity of naughtiness bear in mind that Christ sweat drops of bloud in his Agony to make you ashamed of toiling and sweating in Satan's drudgery Take ease in a Sabbath of holy rest and moil not in the unprofitable works of darkness Try what refrigeration this will give unto your Conscience else take heed that you be not put to a terrible sweat of fear lest God take you away in his wrath and give you up for ever to Satan whom you have served so willingly To the Law and to the Testimony mind no examples but when they are wrapt up therein Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind Rom. 12.2 What a case had Noah been in if he had framed his life by common practice when all flesh had corrupted their way Chuse better company as Enoch did to walk with God Gen. 5.24 And can two walk together unless they be agreed Amos 3. verse 3. It is more than agreement it imports endearment benevolence friendship with God No title can be greater or sweeter what can match that honour of Abraham and the Apostles to be called the friends of God and Christ No league in the world more sought for or more willingly accepted no amity less burdensom or more beneficial St. Austin 8. Confess Cap. 6. brings in a couple that served the Roman Emperor thus debating upon it What can we look for in this Palace more than to be call'd the friends of our Soveraign When we have got this it is no sure and unchangeable favour And how long shall we attend before we be promoted to it But let us turn to God in this hour and sue to be his friends and it shall be done instantly and remain eternally Ask and it shall be given seek and we shall find And as we trespass by sins of daily prevention there is a dailiness of mercy to comfort us But as you love Christ and would be beloved struggle with temptations do not yield upon
the first enticement no nor upon the second or third assault Resist the Devil and he will fly from you quit your self like a man fight like a Christian The flesh is weak but the Spirit is willing ready able to assist you Matth. 26.41 Thus Hope waxeth valiant and assures it self of victory against customs habits and all contracted impotencies 2. Lay now our adventure the toil and peril of our labour wherein we are employ'd in another balance and more difficulty will appear For Hope is wise and doth not flatter it self as if the Kingdom of Heaven were accessible with little pains What carefulness ought this to work in us what self-denial what fear what zeal what unblamable conversation I run I fight I keep under my body and bring it into subjection 1 Cor. 9.27 For Christ Jesus I have suffered the loss of all things Phil. 3.8 Christ having overcome the sharpness of death hath opened the kingdom of Heaven to all believers yet to put us to our skill and labour to follow mark what he hath taught us Matth. 7.14 Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it And therefore is it so strait and narrow a question worthy to be resolved to teach us and to comfort us First a very religious life is said by a Metaphor to go in at a strait gate because it is our master-piece to find the door or to begin well therefore it is call'd to be born again For as to be born into the world needs more art and skilful Midwifery than to bring us up so to be regenerate to begin to live the life that is in Christ is exceeding irksom to flesh and bloud so many are the enticements that throng about the way to keep us from the door and to hold us in love with those sins which have been our companions As an Orator will be more timorous to deliver the first period of his speech than all that follows so we stick long at the first on-set to reform to be strict to pass away with so much vanity as must be forsaken The penitent thief could not find the door till he was going out of the world St. Paul as some compute was twenty eight years old before he left to be a blasphemer But rush on and make way through all resistances he that hath one foot over the threshold and hath cast the world behind him is well advanced into the courts of our God Secondly A Heavenly mind gathers it self up into one wish and no more One thing have I desired of the Lord which I will require Psal 27.4 Grant me thy self O Lord and I will ask no more The new creature asks nothing of God but to enjoy God give me this O Lord and for the rest let Ziba take all I will part with all to buy that one Pearl the riches of Heavenly grace The servant of sin hath all manner of pleasures under Heaven to trade in Can he ask for a shop with more variety of ware why may he not have these you will say and life eternal to boot Some of them are inconsistent with life eternal but all are not so they be added and not sought for as our Saviour distinguisheth First seek the kingdom of God and these things shall be added Matth. 6.33 But if you seek them which is to love them for themselves and above the kingdom of God it is like a man that carries a piece of timber at bredth upon his back there is no door wide enough for a man to get in with such an impediment upon his shoulders It is not the gate that excludes him but he thrusts himself out with his own improvidence Thirdly There are thousands of scandals millions of errors to be avoided but truth and holiness are in the middle in a little compass and happy is he that shuns extreams and falls perpendicularly upon the golden mean The Commandments of God are but ten words Deut. 4.13 the inventions of men and the forms of will-worship are innumerous Pray Fast give Alms Christ comprehends much external duty under those three Heads but the Traditions of men are more than can be put into a Catalogue Call upon God in the time of trouble that and no more is the Pole-star of Faith in Prayer but what a compass doth Monkishness take in to drop beads in the invocation of Angels and Saints Profaneness neglects the honour of God Superstition falls into needless excesses about it the true fear of God is in the centre as far from the one extream as from the other As in an accurate Song you must keep Minim-time or else you will put the whole Quire out so look that you sing the new song of the Lord with trembling and accurate observation miss neither Cliff nor Note that is neither sound doctrine nor pious practice These are the Reasons why it is so hard to get access to Christ in a narrow way and through a strait gate If these difficulties be not discern'd by some it is because they take up Christianity as it is in use among men and as they are born to it But they that came to it in their years of understanding and were trained up in Church-discipline many years before they were baptized and all that time were put to exact trial what they would prove and were taught it over and over how the Laws of Christ were far stricter than any other Laws in the world these were preacquainted with the Covenant which they must perform and then received it with the largest and hardest conditions Yet they were brought on with two special comforts First that God did behold from Heaven the mightiness of the task which we took upon us the troubles of persecutions the dangers of temptations the infirmities of man to resist them He knows whereof we are made he remembreth we are but dust it puts him to admire the performances of his Saints as Jesus marvelled at the Centurion's Faith Matth. 8.10 Secondly when we are under our hazards we shall have an answer from the Lord as St. Paul had My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness 2 Cor. 12.11 Therefore as the Lord said of David when he had chosen him I have laid help upon one that is mighty Psalm 89.19 So we casting our selves upon the help of God upon one that is Almighty though of our selves we have gathered little into our Omer the blessing of God upon it will not let us lack Every hard matter that rose among the people was to be brought to Moses Exod. 18.16 so in every hard cause desire the Lord to plead it and to judge it bring it to him leave it in his Court and he will end it These are the Cordials to revive Hope touching the difficulties it finds in the way to obtain that Good which is set before it CHAP. III. How a Christian's Comforts flow from the
it self to be an Immaterial substance a spark kindled in us by God from Reason and Will and Memory But what evidence is there that there is a Divine cause that worketh in and is more than these natural Faculties It is requisite to work close unto this question and I answer First because the bounds of nature are known beyond which nature cannot reach forth it self as it works in its own sphere to preserve it self in being and in well-being in health in wealth in fame and glory in extending our selves unto ages to come by leaving a posterity in preserving our Country where we are born and the like But to have our conversation in Heaven at this present in Heaven to ascend thither in our desires and in the tendencies of all our actions to aspire to live in blessedness for ever to long to be at that rest where there is no sin to look for a Church which hath neither spot nor wrinkle this could not enter into us to prosecute it all industriously constantly chearfully but by a supernatural elevation far above the vigour of a Soul prest down by a corruptible Body that is by the power of the Holy Ghost Secondly I feel the pulse of that Divine Spirit beating in me by delighting in tribulations for Christs sake and taking pleasure in infirmities upon the same score 2 Cor. 12.10 And again I am filled with consolation I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulations 2 Cor. 7.4 An obstinate Pagan might arm himself with patience and resolution to vex his persecutors and rather fall into them than decline them out of spight and contumacy But Self-love being spun out of our bowels bred in the bone who could rejoyce to endure anguish upon anguish that God might be glorified but by strength which we are not born unto but which is given us because we are born again of the Spirit Go farther yet How much is the content of a natural man laid aside when a good Christian in his deliberate thoughts sometimes prays to have the rebellions of his heart kept under by some expedient cross wisheth for wholsom correction to beat down the rankness of his sins expects God's fan to winnow the chaff from the wheat For he knows that as too much light dazles the Eyes so too much prosperitie surfeits the mind Therefore a good practitioner in Repentance perceives there is no better way to bring him in from his wandrings than to be scourged home with the gentle hand of God To which some Expositors say the Spouse alludes Cant. 6.5 reading one word as it is right in our Margent Turn away thine eyes from me for they have puffed me up If we be puffed up it is time to pray that the eye of God's outward mercy be for a little turned from us But where had nature learnt that Lesson if the Holy Ghost had never taught it Thirdly As the Apostle says No man hates his own flesh Every man not overcome with a phrenzy of melancholy loves his own being and would preserve his life The Devil that cannot die knows how loth we are to die All that a man hath will he give for his life Job 2.4 But how many Saints have undergone how many more are willing to undergo the fiery trial and offer up their bodies for the testimony of the Lord Jesus not to be cried up in popularity not to be enrolled in the same of an History as there was such a sprinkling among the Heathen But they have died like Lambs in the midst of Wolves when they have been hated and evil spoken of in excess because they would die for the truth of the Gospel which their persecutors accounted to be blasphemy against the Gods which they worshipped If Parents or Wives or Children hung upon their arms and besought them with tears to spare themselves they threw them off as Christ did Peter Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me Matth. 16. verse 22. To see a Martyr at the point of death feel no horror in his fleshly nature but to be raised up as high as the third Heavens with zeal what humane power could bring him to it nothing but the Holy Ghost did as I may say lure his Soul out of the Body with a bait of a Crown of Glory Fourthly The fruits of the Spirit are love joy peace goodness faith temperance c. Gal. 5.22 Is not the Tree known by the fruit Such a cluster hanging all together growing constantly and being fair and sound Tota in toto tempore cum toto corde it is not possible that they should grow like a Bull-rush out of the mud of corrupt nature No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 that is say it effectually and from true allegiance to serve him as a Lord for else Christ will say Why call you me Lord Lord and do not the thing which I say Luke 6.46 This is the Spirit that acts not only in prophesies and miraculous gifts but in every child of God Even in the old Testament Nehem. 9.20 Thou gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them them that is those that were led out of Egypt by Moses and hearkened to him And much more in the state of the New Testament Rom. 5.5 The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us This might be extended into a great length that the Holy Ghost is the Comforter called so by appropriation though it belong to every person of the Holy Trinity and is well exprest in the first Divine Song which is Printed before the Psalms of David in Meeter Thou art the very Comsorter in all woe and distress The Heavenly gift of God most high which no tongue can express This is the Vnction which we have from the Holy One 1 Epist Jo. 2.20 The anointing which we have received of him that abideth in you Verse 27. Anointing-oil is an oil to cure the sick James 5. An oil of gladness Psalm 45. A fomentation to mitigate aches and torments in the bones and in the heart 2. And can the Fruits chuse but be answerable to the Root they must needs partake of it First because all that we do to the honour of God must be done with gladness willingly and chearfully else it comes not from the Spirit of sons but either from the Spirit of bondage or rather from the Spirit of the world The new Disciples received the word gladly and were baptized Acts 2.41 They continued with one accord daily in the Temple with gladness and simplicity of heart Verse 46. I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord Psalm 122.1 Sing Psalms make a joyful noise unto God Psalm 66.1 Let us come with assurance in our supplications that we shall be heard praying with Faith in the Holy Ghost Jud. verse 20. And then the prayer of the upright shall be Gods delight Prov.
Faith is drawn through these narrow and abject means that like himself have no comeliness in specie and when we see them there is no comeliness that we should desire them Isa 53.2 Nevertheless it is fit we should be well taught in the Contemplation of the hidden vertue inclosed in Baptism or else we could never think it worth our labour and obedience Our Common-Prayer-Book a store-house of rare Divinity tells us what is to be expected at that Laver for them that come to be Baptized 1. That God hath promised to be the Father of the faithful and of their seed and will most surely perform and keep his promise with them and by this introduction we are incorporated into the holy Congregation Behold they whom we love above all others by nature our Children are naturalized to be the Citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom and enter into it through this door of Grace 2. Secondly As God did save Noah and his Family from perishing by water and safely led the Children of Israel through the Red Sea while their enemies were drowned so the millions of the Nations whom God hath not given to Christ for his inheritance are drowned in their own lusts and corruptions But O what a priviledge it is to be among those few that are received into the Ark of Christs Church to be exempted from the common deluge and to be the faithful seed of Abraham led through the Chanel of the Sea and Baptized in the Cloud that went along with them when the Armies of the mighty are mightily consumed 3. Thirdly We may gather out of our Church-office for Baptism that the everlasting benediction of Heavenly washing affords two Comforts it signifies the bloud of Christ to cleanse us Per modum pretii as the price that was paid to ransom us from death and the sanctifying of the Holy Spirit to cleanse us per modum habitûs by his In-being and Celestial infusion and both are put together in one Collect That all that are Baptized may receive remission of sins by spiritual regeneration There is no remission of sin without bloud says the Apostle Heb. 9.22 meaning the invaluable bloud of the Lamb of God Verse 14. And the Heavenly thing is represented by the visible Element of Water for there must be some aptitude between the Sign and the Thing signified else it were not a Sacrament that as Water washeth away the filth of the body so the Bloud of Christ delivereth our Souls from the guilt and damnableness of sin The Bloud of Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 1 Epist Jo. 1.7 The metaphor of cleansing must have respect to Baptismal-water Again Who loved us and washed us from our sins in his Bloud Revel 1.5 Where the Scripture speaks of washing from sin it must be taken from the water of Baptism figuring the vertue of Christs Bloud that in the sight of his Father makes us white as Snow The Scriptures indeed strike most upon the other string and more directly as Ephes 5.25 Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word Titus 3.6 He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost And in many other places Therefore our Liturgy falls most upon the purifying operation of the Spirit to be shadowed in the outward washing of water As when it prays Send thy Holy Spirit to these Infants and grant that they may be Baptiz'd with Water and with the Holy Ghost And Grant that all that are Baptized may receive the fulness of thy Grace Spiritual Regeneration is that which the Gospel hath set forth to be the principal correlative of Baptism O happy it is for us to be born again by Water and the Holy Ghost For better it were never to be born than not to be born twice God put a good mind into us and reform one great fault in us which is that our Baptism being past over a great while ago we cast it out of our memory and meditate but little upon the benefits and comforts of it We are got into the Church and do in a sort forget how we got in Whereas the whole life of a Christian man and woman should be a continual reflection how in Baptism we entred into Covenant with Christ to believe in him to serve him to forsake the Devil the vanities of the world and the sinful desires of the flesh Water is a pellucid Element to look through it to the bottom So look often through the sanctified Water to see what Christ hath done for you and what you have engaged to do for Christ And there is no heart so full of blackness and melancholy but will recover upon it and be as fresh in sound health as if it were filled with marrow and fatness Well did St. Paul put Baptism among the principles and foundations of Christian doctrine Heb. 6.2 For all the weight of Faith Sanctification and Mercy doth lie upon it Recount this by particulars 1. The first thought that my Soul hath upon it is That I am no longer a stranger and foreigner but a fellow-Citizen with the Saints and of the houshold of God Ephes 2.19 I am no more a-far off but made nigh by the Bloud of Christ partaker of the priviledges of the Church and called by the new Name which the mouth of the Lord shall name a Christian Isa Chap. 62. Verse 2. 2. Secondly I find that I have gained to have the highest point of Faith unfolded to me which was but darkly discerned in the Old Testament to confess the Holy Trinity in which Faith I was Baptized For because that mystery was revealed at Christs Baptism it goes ever along with this Sacrament All Nations being Baptized in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost 3. Thirdly I observe that my Christian engagement allows me not the liberty of sinning after the custom of the world but obligeth me to the strict discipline of my Lord to live holily justly and soberly to walk in newness of life as planted into the likeness of Christs death so to die unto sin for he that is dead is freed from sin Rom. 6.7 In every thing and at all times I must remember what the Sureties at the Font called Godfathers and Godmothers did promise for me in my Name which the Liturgy of Geneva retains in these words Do you promise to warn this Child to live according to God's Word and make the Law of God the square of his life to live by 'T is a binding Ceremony and we are brought up from our tender years in the knowledge of it that we continually may feel the work of the Ordinance to have our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washt with clean Water Heb. 10.21 22. And as many as are Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 To put on Christ is to follow Christ in the Law of a