SERM wards his neighbour; and, in the answers

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to the two next questions, these duties are set forth more at large.

As it is impossible for us to do God's will without his special grace, which we can only expect to be granted to our diligent petitions, the catechism next presents us with the prayer which our Saviour himself taught to his disciples, and with a commentary or paraphrase upon it; and, lastly, it concludes with a short account of the two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's supper.

I shall make some few remarks on each of these, passing over in silence, or in a very few words, those parts which are obscure and immaterial for you to know; what is important, as I hinted before, is neither difficult to be explained or understood.

The first question, as to the name, arises from a custom which prevailed among va

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rious nations, of giving to persons new SERM. apellations on their being adopted into new families; in like manner, we, on being made members of Christ's family, received a Christian name, which denotes our relationship to him; this name, therefore, is very aptly asked of us, when we are going to be questioned further as to the privileges which are conferred on us by baptism. These are said to be three-we were made members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven; in other words, we are admitted into the society of Christ's disciples, we become one of that body of which he is the head, we gain a title to the mercy of God, and are put in a capacity of obtaining a blessed immortality after death.

Of the engagements which our godfathers and god-mothers are said to enter into for us, the first promises that we should forsake all kinds of sin whatever

SERM. (the world, the flesh, and the deyil, being

a phrase to that import) the second, that we should believe all the articles of the Christian faith; and the third, that we should obey God's holy will; which we may in a great measure, though not perhaps entirely, learn from the commandments.Now there is certainly nothing improper in our sponsors making these vows for us, and we are indisputably bound to observe them; and, for the same plain reason, they are so greatly for own good; for, by the transgression or neglect of them, we shall draw on ourselves God's indignation, and be everlastingly punished in the life to

come.

I am now to consider the apostle's creed, as it is called, all the articles of which my god-fathers and god-mothers promised I should believe. The first article requires my assent to this truth-that there is an Almighty God, the Father, and maker of

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heaven and earth; this is evident from the SERM. existence of myself and every thing around

me, from the order and regularity with which the universe is conducted, and from the common consent and universal agreement of all mankind. Who makes the sun to rise and to set, the moon and the planets to perform their stated rounds, the seasons to return at regular periods, the grain which is buried in the earth uniformly to revive and to grow up, but some almighty superintending cause-which is God? We are next called on to believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. Of the truth of all this, we have the clearest testimony:-about eighteen hundred years ago, a great personage, called Jesus Christ, was born of a pure virgin, among the Jews; he declared that he was sent from God, and that

SERM. he was God's only Son: and he confirmed

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the truth of those declarations by the wisdom of his instructions, and by the many wonderful works which he performed. The Jews, through envy and malice, and fearing that the religion which he taught was to be erected on the ruin of theirs, falsely accused and crucified him, at the time Pontius Pilate was their governor, on the day which we now keep and call Good Friday; and, when they perceived that he was dead, he was taken from the cross and buried in a new sepulchre; a large stone was rolled at the mouth of it, and a guard of armed soldiers placed before it, lest his disciples should come in the night and steal him away.

The creed next asserts that-" he descended into hell."-Whatever is meant by this, I think we may be certain that it is not the place of torment, which usually goes by that name; it possibly means that

place