down there, where a certain ruler, bargaining as it were for the kingdom of God, asketh our Saviour (Luke xviii. 18): _Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?_ But Christ first propounds one part of the price, namely, observation of the commandments, or obedience; which when he answered that he had kept, he adjoins the other, saying (verse 22): _Yet lackest thou one thing; Sell all that thou hast, and distribute to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me._ This was matter of _faith_. He therefore not giving sufficient credit to Christ and his heavenly treasures, went away sorrowful. The same covenant is contained in these words (Mark xvi. 16): _He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned_: where _faith_ is expressed, _repentance_ is supposed in those that are baptized. And in these words (John iii. 5): _Except a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven_: where, _to be born of water_, is the same with regeneration, that is to say, conversion to Christ. Now that _baptism_ is required in the two places cited just before, and in divers others, we must understand, that what _circumcision_ was to the _old covenant_, that _baptism_ is to the _new_. Seeing therefore that was not of the essence, but served for a memorial of the _old covenant_, as a ceremony or sign, (and was omitted in the wilderness); in like manner this also is used, not as pertaining to the essence, but in memory and for a sign of the _new covenant_ which we make with God. And provided the will be not wanting, the act through necessity may be omitted; but _repentance_ and _faith_, which are of the essence of the _covenant_, are always required. [Sidenote: There are no laws added by Christ, beside the institution of the sacraments.]