2. To confirm our faith; for God by this sacrament doth signify and seal unto us from heaven, that according to the promise and new covenant which he hath made in Christ, he will truly receive into his grace and mercy all penitent believers who duly receive this holy sacrament; and that for the merits of the death and passion of Christ, he will as verily forgive them all their sins as they are made partakers of this sacrament. In this respect the holy sacrament is called "the seal of the new covenant and remission of sins." (Rom. iv. 11; Matt. xxvi. 28; 1 Cor. xi. 25.)
In our greatest doubts we may, therefore, receiving this sacrament, undoubtedly say with Samson's mother, "If the Lord would kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would at this time have told us such things as these." (Judges xiii. 23.)
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Lewis Bayly (born perhaps at Carmarthen, Wales, perhaps near Biggar, Scotland, year unknown; died at Bangor, Wales, October 26, 1631) was an Anglican bishop. He was educated at Oxford, became vicar of Evesham, Worcestershire, and probably in 1604 became rector of St. Matthew's Church, Friday street, London.
He was then chaplain to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (died 1612), later chaplain to King James I, who, in 1616, appointed him bishop of Bangor. He was an ardent Puritan.
Bayly's fame rests on his book The Practice of Piety, directing a Christian how to walk that he may please God (date of first edition unknown; 3d edition, London, 1613). It reached its 74th edition in 1821 and has been translated into French, German, Italian, Polish, Romansh, Welsh, and into the language of the Massachusetts Indians. It was one of the two books which John Bunyan's wife brought with her and it was by reading it that Bunyan was first spiritually awakened.