is safer for my soul, that I should have five guardians than two. 10. Whom, then, does the Church provide, to see you brought up in the faith of Christ, in case you are left orphans, or your parents neglect you? My god-parents. 11. You thus see the use of god-parents; why are they called by this name did you y? say Because they are to bring me up in the ways of God. 12. When did your god-parents give you your Christian name,-your new name? In my Baptism. 13. What is Baptism called? A sacrament. 14. What were you brought into by the sacrament of Baptism? Into the Church of Christ. 15. Which is called by what name in Scripture? The Body of Christ. 16. Can you remember any one in the Old Testament who had a name thus given him, when he was brought into the Church of God? Abraham. Gen. xvii. 5. 17. Any who, like yourself, was brought in when a child? Isaac. 18. How old was he then ? Eight days. 19. Can you mention any like cases in the New Testament? John the Baptist, Luke i. 60; and our Lord, Luke ii. 21. 20. Does not this show God's purpose, that children should enter his Church? Yes. 21. What action of our Lord confirms this? "He took them up in his arms. Mark x. 16. 22. What words of Christ? "Suffer little children." Mark x. 14. 23. What other ground, besides Scripture, is there for baptizing infants? The Church's practice:-Christ's Church hath done so from the first. 24. And must we not hear the Church? Yes: "If he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as a heathen man and a publican." Matt. xviii. 16, 17. 25. What advantages did you gain; that is, what were you made in baptism? "I was made a member of Christ," &c. 26. Were you not this before? No; for I was now made so. 27. Why? what were you brought into? The Church. 28. And what is the Church? Christ's Body. 29. By being made a member then of Christ's Body, you were made a member of whom? Christ. 30. Prove from Scripture that the Church is the Body of Christ. "For his Body's sake, which is the Church." Col. i. 24. "The Church, which is his Body." Ephes. i. 22. 31. The Church being the Body, prove that Christ is the Head. "He is the Head of the Body, the Church." Col. i. 18. 32. Then the members of Christ's Body, or of the Church, are members of whom? Of Christ. 33. What were you made secondly? A child of God. 34. How so? By being born of God. 35. Prove from Scripture that God's Spirit acts upon you by water; i. e. in your Baptism. 66 Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit." John iii. 5. 36. Do you remember where, before, God's Spirit moved on the face of the waters? Genesis i. 2. 37. What followed upon that? A creation. 38. What follows now? A new creation." As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Gal. iii. 27. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 2 Cor. v. 17. 39. Who effects this new creation? God, by his Spirit. "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body." 1 Cor. xii. 13. 40. By what title is the Spirit distinguished, as it regards this his special office? The Spirit of adoption. Rom. viii. 15. 41. Which means what? The Spirit who adopts, or puts me into God's family. 42. If you are brought into God's family, what is God become to you? My Father. 43. And you are properlyGod's child. 44. Or this may be shown in another way:-Whose members are you? Christ's. 45. What does He call such? Brethren. Heb. ii. 11; Matt. xxi. 10. 46. If then you are Christ's brethren, of whom are you the children? Of God. 47. Why? Because Christ is the Son of God. 48. What did you become, in the third place, by being baptized? An inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. 49. What do you mean by being an inheritor of heaven? Having a title to heaven. 50. How do you become entitled to heaven? By being made God's children. "If children, then heirs." Rom. viii. 17. BAPTISMAL PROMISES. 52. What did your godfathers and godmothers then for you? They did promise and vow three things in my name. 53. In what state were you born? In a state of wrath. "And were by na ture children of wrath, even as others." Ephes. ii. 3. 54. Into what state have you been brought by God's mercy ? Into a state of grace. 55. Which means what? That God has delivered me from sin, made me holy, and accepted me to life. |