Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n
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A47220
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An exposition on the church-catechism, or, The practice of divine love composed for the Diocese of Bath & Wells.
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Ken, Thomas, 1637-1711.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing K261; ESTC R23977
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74,137
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105
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and Fasts of thy Church as in the number of those happy days set apart for the remembrance of thy love Glory be to thee O Lord God who didst command the Sabbath or seventh day to be kept holy and strictly observed by the Jews as thy Sabbath in memory of the Creation of thy making Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and of thy resting the seventh day of thy blessing the seventh day and hallowing it We Christians O Lord God following the moral equity of thy Command and authorised by Apostolical Practice celebrate the Lord's day the first day of the week in memory of our Redemption in memory of thy Resurrection from the dead O most beloved Jesu when thou didst rest from the labours and sorrows of the New Creation O may I ever remember thy day and thee Glory be to thee O my God my Love who hast under the Gospel delivered us from the Rigours but not from the Piety of the Jewish Sabbath Lord since the blessing of everlasting Salvation which we Christians on thy day commemorate does wonderfully exceed the Creation commemorated by the Jews O let our love and praise and devotion and zeal proportionably exceed theirs also O my God O my Love let thy All-powerfull Love abound in my heart and in the hearts of all that profess thy Name that in all these and all other possible instances of thy love our Souls may be continually employ'd to praise and to love thee O my God O my Love I renounce and detest c. as p. 39. All profanations of thy hallow'd Day and of all other holy Times dedicated to thy praise and thy love All Jewdaizing Severities all Worldly-mindedness and unnecessary business or not allowing those under my care liberty and leisure for thy service on thy day All unmercifulness to my very Beasts All indevotion or forgetfulness of thee All the least tendencies From all these and the like c. as p. 39. Next to thy glorious self O my God O my Love and for the sake of thy supreme independent Love thou hast commanded me to love my Neighbour allied to me by nature or by grace all Strangers and Enemies as well as Friends To honour all men as being made after thy likeness and the greater likeness they retain to thee to honour them the more Glory be to thee Thou O my God O my Love hast commanded me to love my Neighbour as my self O for the sake of thy love give me love to relieve and assist him in all instances wherein he may need my help as freely as fully as affectionately as I my self would desire to be treated were I in his condition O my God O my Love for the sake of thy dearest Love give me grace to love my Neighbour not in word and in tongue onely but in deed and in truth to wish well to all men and to contribute my hearty prayers and endeavours and to give them for thy sake all lawfull and reasonable and necessary succours Glory be to thee O my God O my Love who by commanding me to love my Neighbour as my self dost imply the regular love of my self that I should doe all I can to preserve my self free and vigorous to glorify thee in my station 'T is for thy sake onely I can love my self and he does not wish or endeavour his own happiness he really hates himself that does not love thee Thou Lord by enjoining me to love my Neighbour as my self hast intimated my duty of loving those best which either in bloud are nearest my natural self or in grace nearest my Christian self O let thy love teach me to observe the true order of Charity in loving others O thou eternal source of Goodness give me grace to imitate that boundless Goodness let thy love work in me an universal propension to love and to doe good to all men to be mercifull to others as thou Lord art mercifull Q. Shew me how the love of your Neighbour is in the Second Table divided A. The love of my Neighbour which is the fulfilling of the Law of all the Commands of the Second Table is divided according to those different conditions of our Neighbour wherein we most exercise our love or hatred to him Q. In how many ruling Instances may we exercise that love or hatred A. Either in outward acts or inward disposition Q. How in outward acts A. Five several ways in respect of his superiority in the Fifth Commandment His Safety in the Sixth His Bed in the Seventh His Propriety in the Eighth or His good Name in the Ninth Q. How in our inward disposition A. By regulating our very Desires in relation to him as the Tenth obliges us to doe Q. Let me hear how Divine Love moves in each of these Commands A. It moves in such acts as follow The Fifth Commandment Let thy reverential Love O my God teach and incline me to shew respectfull Love to all my superiours in my inward esteem in my outward speech and behaviour Glory be to thee O Lord who hast comprehended all that are above me under the tender and venerable Names of Father and Mother that I looking on them as Resemblances and Instruments of thy Sovereign Power and Paternal Providence to me may be the more effectually engaged for thy sake to reverence and love them O my God give me grace to imitate thy Paternal Goodness and for the sake of thy Love to love and cherish and provide for to educate and instruct and pray for my Children to take conscientious care to give them medicinal correction and good example and to make them thy children that they may truly love thee O my God give me grace for the sake of thy love to Honour my Father and Mother to render them all love and reverence and thankfulness and all that regard which is due from a Child that I may pay obedience to their commands submission to their corrections attention to their instructions and succour to their necessities and may daily pray for their welfare Thou O Lord hast set our most Gratious King over us as our Political Parent as thy Supreme Minister to govern and protect us and to be a terrour to those that doe ill O grant Him a long and happy Reign that we may all live a peaceable and quiet life under Him in all godliness and honesty Defend Him from all His Enemies let Him be ever beloved by thee and let Him ever love thee and ever promote thy love Multiply O Lord God the blessings of thy love on our most Gratious Queen Mary Catharine the Queen Dowager their Royal Highnesses Mary Princess of Orange and the Princess Anne of Denmark and on all the Royal Family Give them grace to exceed others as much in Goodness as in
AN EXPOSITION ON THE Church-Catechism OR THE PRACTICE OF Divine Love COMPOSED For the Diocese of Bath Wells LONDON Printed for Charles Brome at the West-end of St. Paul's and William Clarke in Winchester 1685 Imprimatur Io. Battely RR mo P. D no. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cantuar. Ã Sacris domesticis Ex Aedibus Lamb. Aug. 9. 1685. To the Inhabitants within the Diocese of Bath and Wells THOMAS their Unworthy Bishop wisheth the Knowledge and the Love of God Dearly Beloved in our Lord THE Church has provided this short Catechism or Instruction to be learn'd of every person before he be brought to be Confirm'd by the Bishop wherein she teaches all things that a Christian ought to know and believe for his Soul's health and she has enjoyn'd All Fathers and Mothers Masters and Dames to cause their Children and Servants and Prentices to come to the Church at the time appointed and obediently to hear and be ordered by the Curate untill such time as they have learn'd all that is here appointed to be learn'd How seasonable and necessary this Injunction is in these days our wofull experience does sufficiently convince us when we reflect on the gross Ignorance and Irreligion of persons in those places where Catechizing is neglâ—cted which all sober Christians do sadly deplore Since then the Providence of God who is wont to glorifie his strength in the weakness of the Instruments he uses has caught me up from among the meanest Herdmen into the Pastoral Throne and has been pleased to commit you to my care The Love I ought to pay to the chief Shepherd obliges me to feed all his Lambs and his Sheep that belong to my flock and according to my poor abilities to teach them the Knowledge and the Love of God and how they may make them both their daily study and practice One thing onely I most earnestly beg of you all whether old or young that ye would help me to save your own Souls that ye would learn and seriously consider again and again the terms on which your Salvation is to be had As for you who have Families I beseech you to instill into your Children and Servants their Duty both by your Teaching and your Example In good earnest it is less cruel and unnatural to deny them Bread for their mortal Bodies than saving Knowledge for their immortal Souls Ye that are Fathers or Masters I exhort you to tread in the steps of Abraham the Father of the faithfull and the friend of God and like him to command your Children and Housholds to keep the way of the Lord. Ye that are Mothers or Mistresses I exhort you to imitate that unfeigned Faith which dwelt in young Timothy's Grandmother Lois and his Mother Eunice who taught him from a Child to know the Holy Scriptures which were able to make him wise to Salvation and like them to bring up your Children and Servants in the nurture and admonition of the Lord I passionately exhort and beseech you all of either Sex never to cease your conscientious zeal for their instruction till you bring them to Confirmation To renew their Baptismal vow To make open profession of their Christianity To discharge their Godfathers and Godmothers To receive the solemn Benediction of the Bishop To share in the publick Intercessions of the Church and to partake of all the Graces of God's Holy Spirit implor'd on their behalf that God who has begun a good work in them may perfect it till the day of Christ and that I my self at that dreadfull day may render an account of you with joy How much the Catechism of our Church may conduce to so desirable an end you will in some measure judge by the following Explication as imperfect as it is and which by God's gratious assistence I have so contriv'd that at one and the same time it may both inform your understanding and raise your affections and that it might the better sute with every ones leisure and infirmities it is Pen'd in short Forms of Devotion to be us'd in whole or in part in separate Collects or Ejaculations or occasionally as your Spiritual necessities shall require God of his infinite mercy bless the whole to his own Glory and to your Edification through Iesus the Beloved Amen Amen AN EXPOSITION ON THE Church-Catechism c. Question WHAT is your Name Answer N. or M. Q. Why do you answer by that Name rather than by your Sirname A. Because it is my Christian Name and was given me when I was made a Christian and puts me in mind both of the Happiness and duty of a Christian. Q. Where do you learn the Happiness and the Duty of a Christian A. The very next answer teaches me the Happiness and all the rest of the Catechism the Duty of a Christian. Q. Who gave you this Name A. My Godfathers and Godmothers in my Baptism wherein I was made a Member of Christ the Child of God and an Inheritour of the Kingdom of Heaven Q. Shew me from hence the Happiness of a Christian. A. The Happiness of a good Christian is altogether unutterable he is one who has Christ for his Head God for his Father and Heaven with all its joys and glories which are all eternal for his Inheritance Q. Shew me on the contrary the condition of a bad Christian. A. The misery of a bad Christian is altogether insupportable He has Christ for his Enemy the Devil for his Father and Hell with all its miseries and torments and despair which are all eternal for his Doom Q. Which of these Conditions do you chuse A. I adore the goodness of God who has set before me life and death blessing and cursing and in great compassion to my Soul has bid me chuse life and with all my heart I chuse life even life eternal Q. Are there not many in the World that chuse death A. It is too too visible there are such is the extreme madness and folly of obstinate Sinners that they chuse the Service of the Devil before the Service of God and Hell before Heaven the damnation of such men is wholly from themselves and having chosen death even death eternal it is most just with God to give them their choice Q. Blessed be God who has given you grace to make a right choice Tell me what you must doe to obtain that which you have chosen life eternal A. All that I am to doe is reduc'd to one word onely and that is Love This is the first and the great Command which comprehends all others the proper Evangelical Grace and eternal Truth has assured me This doe and thou shalt live So that if I truly love God I shall live beloved by God to all eternity Q. Tell me wherein the love of God doth consist A. The love of God is a grace rather to be felt than defin'd So that I can doe no