Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A80203
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The church-catechism with a brief and easie explanation thereof for the help of the meanest capacities and weakest memories. By T.C. D.D.
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Comber, Thomas, 1645-1699.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing C5444A; ESTC R223943
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15,091
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34
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Christ always to continue on earth after his Resurrection No § Did He forty days after in our nature and as our Head ascend up into Heaven Yes § Is He now at Gods right hand in fulness of glory with power over all things Yes § Doth He there make Intercession for us to his Father by pleading the merits of His Obedience and Sacrifice on earth for the acceptance of our persons and services Yes Art VII Of Christs coming to Judgment § Shall not Christ come again from Heaven at the last day in great glory and power to judg all the World in righteousness Yes § Shall every one at that day both those that shall then be found alive and those that have been dead give an account to Him of all their thoughts words and actions Yes § Can any escape this Judgment No § Or hide their Sins from this Judg No Art VIII Of the Holy-Ghost his Divinity and Office § Is not the Holy-Ghost God equal with the Father and the Son Yes § Is it not the work principally of the Holy-Ghost to apply unto us the benefits which Christ hath purchased for us Yes § Hath He in order thereunto revealed the will of God for our Salvation in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Yes § Was the same delivered to the Church to be the only rule of our Faith and Life Yes § And doth He by the Ministry of this his word inlighten convert sanctifie and comfort us Yes Art IX Of the Church § Is the whole company of believers in all ages and places united into one body under Christ their head called the holy Catholick Church Yes § Can any particular company of Christians properly call themselves the Catholick Church No § Or can any one Man pretend to be the Head thereof No § Had God a Church in all Ages to worship Him Yes § Can the Gates of Hell ever prevail to destroy Gods Church upon earth No And of the Communion of Saints § Are there any priviledges belong to us as members of the Church Yes § Have all the true Members thereof Communion Yes 1. With one another in all offices of Piety and Charity Yes 2. And with Christ their Head in grace and glory here and hereafter Yes Art X. Of Remission of Sins § Is there forgiveness of Sin to be had in the true Church Yes § Doth our meer being of the Church intitle us thereto No § Shall all and only those who truly repent and believe have all their Sins for Christs sake freely pardoned Yes § And shall all others though in the Church remain under the guilt of Sin and wrath of God No yes Art XI Of the Resurrection of the Dead § Shall the bodies of those that die remain always in the grave No § Shall all the dead be raised up at the last day Yes § And shall their bodies be inseparably united again to their Souls which never die Yes Art XII Of Life Everlasting § Shall every one at the Resurrection receive according to their works done in the body Yes § Shall the Righteous live for ever with God in heaven in unconceivable glory and happiness Yes § And shall the wicked endure intolerable and continual torments both in soul and body in hell for ever Yes §. Amen § Do you by the word Amen testifie 1. Your stedfast belief of all this Yes 2. And your desire ro live accordingly Yes Qu. 6. Of the practical belief of these Articles § Are not the belief of the holy Trinity and of what the several persons have done for you the chief fundamental Articles of your faith Yes § Is it sufficient to Salvation barely to know these fundamentals and to assent to them as true No § Is it further necessary to Salvation that you sincerely pay that duty to every person which his proper work for you doth peculiarly challenge Yes § Do they rightly believe in God the Father who do not love Him fear Him and serve Him as their great Creator and merciful Preserver No § Do they believe aright in God the Son who do not submit to Him trust in Him and obey Him as their only Lord and Saviour No § Do they rightly believe in God the Holy Ghost who do not follow His direction and make use of his assistance as their Guide Sanctifier and Comforter No Qu. 7 8 9 10 11. Of the Ten Commandments § Are any in this life freed from their Obligation to obey the Moral Law No § Is not the Moral Law which is the Rule of our Obedience summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments Yes Preface Of the Motives to Obedience § Should not 1. Gods Soveraignty over us 2. His relation to us 3. and his delivering as Israel of old from Egyptian bondage so us from our spiritual thraldom ingage us to keep all his Commandments Yes Explicatory Questions on the several Commandments See page 16 17 18 19. Of our Duty to God contained in the four first Commandments § Is it not the sum of our duty to God to love Him with all our heart with all our mind with all our soul and with all our strength Yes § Can we keep any of these Commandments aright unless we thus love God above all No Com. I. Of the right Object of our worship § Doth not the first Commandment enjoyn us 1. To take the true God for our only God Yes 2. And to worship and glorifie Him accordingly Yes †Do not they then break this Commandment 1. Who forsake and fall away from the true Religion Yes 2. Or who though they continue in it yet do not know the true God or not glorifie Him as God Yes § May we believe in fear or love any so much as God No § Or give Religious Worship to any but God alone No Com. II. Of the right means or matter of our Worship § Doth not the second Commandment require that we should Worship God with such Worship as He hath appointed in his word Yes § Hath not God there appointed us to worship Him by 1. Daily prayer and thanksgiving in the name of Christ Yes 2. Frequent reading hearing and meditating on his Word Yes 3. And by the due use of his Sacraments Yes †Do not they sin against this Commandment 1. Who worship God by Images or any other way contrary to his Word Yes 2. Or who corrupt neglect or oppose any of Gods Ordinances Yes § Is it unlawful for the Church to appoint decent Ceremonies No * Will not the Lord who is jealous for his own Worship punish those as haters of him who break this Commandment Yes Com. III. Of the right manner of our Worship § Doth not the third Commandment require us devoutly to perform every part of Divine Worship and reverently to use every thing which nearly relates to God Yes †Do not they break this Commandment who prophanely or irreverently use Gods Holy Name Titles Attributes Ordinances Word or Works Yes
THE Church-Catechism With a BRIEF and EASIE EXPLANATION THEREOF For the help of the meanest Capacities and weakest Memories By T. C. D. D. LONDON Printed by M. C. for Henry Brome and Robert Clavel in S. Pauls Church-yard MDCLXXXI An Advertisement THE end of this short Explication is to render the Principles of Christian Religion comprized in the Church Catechism plain and easie to the meanest capacities And the method thereof is this 1. The Catechism is printed in a different letter on the left hand page that it may be first learned by it self 2. The several Questions of the Catechism are put under a proper Title containing the Subject of each Question and the Answers to them are broken to pieces by a few brief and plain Explicatory Questions so that ignorant Learners may easily understand the full meaning of them And those who cannot read or cannot get long Answers by heart which want Instruction the most need not be discouraged by this method because they are not required hereby to Answer any more than Yes or No which will be no burthen to their memory and yet will exercise their Judgment and as well teach them to understand the sense of their Catechism as try whether they do so or no. Yet those of better capacity may exercise their memory also and by frequent reading the Explicatory Questions will be able to repeat them after the Catechist and turn them into an Affirmative or Negative Proposition thus Qu. Ought your name c. Answ Yes my name c. ought c. Qu. Are not Infants c. Answ No Infants are not c. Now this may be of use as well to Parents in private as to Ministers in Publick who may first ask the Learners so many Questions of the Church Catechism as they think fit for one time and then beginning again may first tell them the Title or Subject of each Question and then examine them by the Explicatory Questions belonging thereunto And if the Minister please to inlarge a little in a plain discourse upon every Explicatory Question and also to shew unto what part of the Answer in the Church Catechism it doth refer the Learner will better understand it which will make the necessary duty of Catechising still more profitable and will drop knowledg by degrees into those narrow mouthed Vessels for whose sake this method was contrived And the success it hath had on many very young Children and very ignorant Country people hath incouraged the Publication thereof in hopes it may be very serviceable not only for private Families but also for Country Congregations as well to invite the Learners to come in greater numbers by its easiness as to instruct them by its plainness And the whole is no other than the Church Catechism injoyned by Law briefly Explained and no more imposed to be gotten by heart than that which the Church requires the rest being only contrived to make that understood and try if it be so It is hoped the Right Reverend Governours of the Church to whose censure the whole is humbly submitted will not dislike the publication thereof in order to the sitting the more ignorant sort for those great Duties of Confirmation and the Lords Supper I need not here add any thing concerning the Divine Institution and Antiquity of Catechising the Excellency of our Church Catechism both for its agreeableness to Primitive forms and its exact Method nor shall I now enlarge upon the necessity and use of this Profitable and Pious Duty Having in a peculiar Discourse upon Catechising treated of these particulars and exhorted 1. Ministers to promote not only the learning the Catechism by rote but the understanding thereof 2. Parents and Masters both to instruct their Children and Servants in Private and to bring them to Church to be publickly Catechised 3. And excited the Younger and Ignorant people to come willingly To which Discourse I refer the Reader Companion to the Altar page 451 452 c. THE INTRODUCTION § ALmighty God having Created our first Parents after his own Image did condescend to enter into a Covenant with them wherein he promised life to them and their Posterity upon condition of perfect and perpetual obedience and threatned their disobedience with death § Our first Parents through the temptation of Satan wilfully transgressed the Commandment of God in eating the forbidden fruit and thereby brought themselves and all their posterity into an estate of sin and misery § God hath not left mankind to perish in the estate of Sin and Misery into which they fell by the breach of the first Covenant But hath been pleased of his meer love and mercy to make a second Covenant of Grace wherein he freely offereth pardon and salvation by Jesus Christ to all those who shall truly repent and believe in him § And seeing this Covenant is solemnly to be enter'd into in our infancy by Baptism which is the first benefit and favour we are capable of after we are born It seemed good to the excellent compilers of this Catechism to begin it where we begin our Christianity and by the mention of our name received in Baptism to take occasion to mind us of our Obligations and Priviledges thereby THE Church Catechism Question 1. WHat is your Name Answer N. or M. Question 2. Who gave you that Name Answer My Godfathers and Godmothers in my Baptism wherein I was made a member of Christ the Child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven Question 3. What did your Godfathers and Godmothers then for you Answer They did promise and vow three things in my Name First that I should renounce the Devil and all his works the pomps and vanity of this wicked World and all the sinful lusts of the flesh Secondly that I should believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith And Thirdly that I should keep Gods holy will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of my Life Question 4. Dost thou not think that thou art bound to believe and to do as they have promised for thee Answer Yes verily and by Gods help so I will And I heartily thank our heavenly Father that he hath called me to this state of salvation through Iesus Christ our Saviour And I pray unto God is give me his grace that I may continue in the same unto my lives end Question 5. Rehearse the Articles of thy Belief Answer I. I Believe in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth II. And in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord III. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost Born of the Virgin Mary IV. Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried He descended into Hell V. The third day he rose again from the dead VI. He ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty VII From thence he shall come to judg the quick and the dead VIII I believe in the Holy Ghost IX The Holy Catholick Church the