our lawful endeavours we may of Gods free gift receive a competent portion of the good things of this life Yes 2. And may enjoy Gods blessing with them Yes V. Petition § Are we not by our sins become debtors to the Justice of God and liable to Condemnation Yes § Can we or any other Creature make any satisfaction for that Debt No * Do we therefore in the fifth Petition pray That through the satisfaction of Christ we and others may be acquitted both from the guilt and punishment of Sin Yes § Can we expect forgiveness from God unless we from our heart forgive others their offences against us No VI. Petition § Are not Satan the World and the Flesh always ready by their Temptations to draw us to Sin Yes § Are we of our selves willing to resist or able to overcome them No * Do we therefore in the sixth Petition pray § That God would so subdue the Flesh over-rule the World and restrain Satan that we and others 1. May not be tempted to Sin Yes 2. However may not fall into it Yes 3. Especially not live impenitently in it Yes VII Petition § Can we hope to escape the evil of punishment if we so yield to temptation as to commit Sin or continue in it No * Do we therefore in the seventh Petition pray That we and others may not provoke God by our sinning and impenitence to punish us with Evils and miseries temporal spiritual or eternal Yes The Conclusion § Ought we in our Prayers to praise God Yes Ascribing to Him eternal Soveraignty over all Power to do all and Glory from all Yes § And should we take our encouragement in Prayer from these Attributes of God Yes Amen § Do you by the word Amen declare your belief that God can your hope that he will and desire that he may grant your requests Yes § Of the Sacraments Qu. 14. Of their Author number and necessity § Hath God besides prayer appointed his word and Sacraments to be the ordinary outwards means of grace Yes § Hath Christ ordained any more Sacraments in his Church besides Baptism and the Lords Supper No § Doth not the wilful neglect of these highly offend God and indanger our Salvation Yes Qu. 15 16. Of their nature use and parts § Hath not Christ ordained the outward parts of a Sacrament to be 1. Signs of inward and spiritual grace Yes 2. Means to convey grace to the soul Yes 3. Pledges to assure us that the graces signified shall be conveyed to believers Yes § Is there not then in every Sacrament 1. An outward part to be seen by the eye Yes 2. And an inward part to be discerned and received by faith Yes Qu. 17. Of the outward part of Baptism § Hath Christ instituted any outward matter besides water to be used in Baptism No OR any outward form but dipping or sprinkling In the Name c. No Qu. 18. Of the inward grace of Baptism § Are we not by nature guilty of Original Sin and liable to Gods wrath Yes § Is not the pardoning of this Original guilt the subduing our natural Corruption and the restoring us to Gods favour the inward grace of Baptism Yes Qu. 19 20. Of the Subject qualified for Baptism § May persons of riper years be admitted to Baptism till they profess their Repentance Faith in Christ and obedience to him No § Ought not Infants to be Baptised who are presented by such as profess and engage these things Yes § Will the profession and ingagement of your Sureties suffice for you any longer than till you come of age to take it upon your self No § Do not those who then live in impenitence and unbelief forfeit the benefits of their Baptism Yes Qu. 21. Of the end and use of the Lords Supper § Is no◠〈◊〉 Lords Supper often to be administred Yes § Is 〈…〉 theâ—ein offered up a sacrifice to his Father No § Is â—â—ere not in it a lively representation of that sacrifice of himself offered upon the Cross once for all Yes § AND was it ordained to revive in us the memory of Christ death and of the benefits purchased for us thereby Yes Qu. 22. Of the outward part of the Lords Supper § Are not both Bread and Wine the outward matter of the Lords Supper Yes § Is the substance of the Bread and Wine by consecration changed into the substance of the body and blood of Christ No § Will it suffice to look only on the Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper unless we also take eat and drink of them No Qu. 23. Of the Inward part of the Lords Supper § Doth not the bread broken in the Lords Supper signifie the body of Christ broken upon the Cross for us Yes § And doth not the wine poured out represent his blood shed for us Yes § Do Believers feed on the body and blood of Christ in the Lords Supper as truly and really as they do on the bread and wine Yes § Is this done after a Corporal and Carnal manner No § Or is it done after a Spiritual manner while by faith they apply to themselves the benefits of Christs death Yes Qu. 24. Of Benefits of the Lords Supper § Doth not this spirirual feeding on the body and blood of Christ in the Lords Supper 1. Nourish and strengthen our Souls Yes 2. And also comfort and refresh them Yes § Are our souls as truly and really hereby strengthened and refreshed as our bodies are by bread and wine Yes Qu. 25. Of Preparation to the Lords Supper § Can any expect to receive these benefits in the Lords Supper but those who come to it duly prepared and receive it worthily No § Can we prepare our selves aright unless we strictly examin our selves before we come No § Must we especially examin our selves of the truth of our 1. Repentance and new Obedience 2. Faith 3. Thankfulness 4. and Charity Yes 1. May notorious and customary Sinners presume to come without Repentance to this holy Sacrament No § Ought every one who would come duly prepared 1. To examin their hearts and lives by Gods Law Yes 2. To bewail and abhor confess and forsake all their Sins Yes 3. And stedfastly to purpose and constantly to endeavour after a holy life Yes 2 and 3. Can those who are ignorant unbelieving or unthankful partake of the comforts of this spiritual food No § Must every one that would spiritually feed on Christ in this Sacrament understand and believe 1. Their own Misery by sin Original and Actual Yes 2. The sufficiency of Christs death to satisfie Divine Justice for all their sins Yes 3. And Gods willingness for Christs sake to seal a pardon to all true Believers in this Sacrament Yes § And ought they also thankfully to commemorate the wonderful love of Christ in dying to purchase such great benefits Yes 4. Shall injurious malicious and uncharitable persons receive pardon or grace from God in this Sacrament No § Must every one who would be a welcom guest at this Feast of Charity 1. Be sorry for the injuries they have done to others and ready to make them satisfaction Yes 2. Forgive heartily and be willing to be reconciled to those who have offended them Yes 3. And also give according to their ability to those who are in necessity Yes The Conclusion § Is it a very heinous sin in any either to receive unworthily or not to receive at all upon pretence of unfitness while they never indeavour to prepare themselves Yes § Is it therefore the duty of every man that is of competent age and discretion 1. Seriously to prepare themselves for this Ordinance by self-examination sincere Repentance and fervent prayer Yes 2. Diligently upon every fit Opportunity to partake of it with due Reverence heedful Attention a lively Faith and devout Affections suitable thereto Yes 3. And carefully ever after to fulfil their Vows then made and renewed Yes FINIS Price stitcht 2 d.
Because they promise them both by their sureties which promise when they come to age themselves are bound to perform Question 21. Why was the Sacrament of the Lords Supper ordained Answer For the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ and of the benefits which we receive thereby Question 22. What is the outward part of sign of the Lords Supper Answer Bread and Wine which the Lord hath commanded to be received Question 23. What is the inward part or thing signified Answer The Body and Blood of Christ which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lords Supper Question 24. What are the benefits whereof we are partakers thereby Answer The strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the body and blood of Christ as our bodies are by the bread and wine Question 25. What is required of them who come to the Lords Supper Answer To examin themselves whether they repent them truly of their former sins stedfastly purposing to lead a new life have a lively faith in God's mercy through Christ with a thankful remembrance of his death and be in Charity with all men The end of the Catechism THE EXPLANATION Of the CATHECHISM Qu. 1 2. Of the Benefits of Baptism § OUght your name recâ—ived in Baptism to put you in mind of the Duties and Priviledges of the Covenant into which you did then enter Yes § Are not Infants by reason of their tender age uncapable of receiving any benefit by Baptism No § Were you in your infancy thereby made and solemnly admitted 1. A Member of Christ and of his Church Yes 2. A Child of God by Adoption Yes 3. And an Heir of the Kingdom of Heaven Yes Qu. 3. Of the Vow of Baptism § Were these great Benefits confer'd on you absolutely without any Conditions to be performed on your part No § Did not your Sureties who presented you to Baptism then solemnly promise in your name and behalf that you should 1. Renounce the Temptations of the Devil and the World and mortifie the evil desires of your own corrupt heart Yes 2. Believe the principles of the Christian Religion revealed by God in holy Scriptures and briefly comprized in the Creed Yes 3. Sincerely and constantly obey all Gods Commandments Yes Qu. 4. Of our Professing to own and promise to perform our Baptismal Vow § Do not you think your self ingaged in your own person to perform that Promise and Vow which your sureties did make for you Yes § And do you now promise and resolve according to your bounden duty to perform these your Baptismal ingagements Yes § Can you do this without Gods help and assistance No § Are you heartily thankful to God for bringing you into this Covenant of Faith and Repentance and so into a capacity of Salvation Yes § And will you daily pray to God for Grace to enable you ever to continue stedfast in this Covenant Yes § Shall those who perform these Conditions fail to reap the blessings of their Baptism No § Or shall those who wilfully break them escape the wrath and curse of God No Qu. 5. Of the Creed consisting of twelve Articles § Are not the twelve Articles of your belief contained in the Apostles Creed Yes § Is not that Creed a brief Summary of all the Articles of the Christian Faith necessary to Salvation Yes § Is there any Article therein which cannot be proved by Holy Scripture No § Can he be a true Christian who denies any of them No § Are you not in this Creed taught to believe and confess that there is one only living and true God Yes § And doth it also teach you to believe that in the unity of the God-head there be three persons of one Substance Power and Eternity Yes § And that these three Persons are God the Father our Creator God the Son our Redeemer and God the Holy Ghost our Sanctifier Yes Explicatory Questions on the several Articles See page 8 9 10 11. Art 1. Of God and his Attributes § Hath God a body parts or passions as men have No § Is he then a most pure invisible Spirit Yes § And is he not Infinite in Being and Perfection Yes § Is he Eternal without beginning ending or any change Yes § Is there any place where God is not present No § Is there any thing past present or to come which he doth not perfectly see and know No § Is there any person too strong or any thing too hard for him No § Is He so perfectly good that he cannot do cause or allow any thing that is evil or unjust Yes Particularly Of the Father his Works of Creation and Providence § Is not the work of Creation principally attributed to God the Father Yes § Did not He by his word alone make all things in heaven and earth of nothing And every thing very good Yes § Is there any Creature which can preserve it self without Gods Providence No § Is there and Person or thing which is not under Gods Rule and Government No § And doth not God order all things most wisely Yes § Did not God at first make Man after his own Image in a holy and happy condition Yes Art II. Of Jesus Christ his Divine Nature Person and Offices § Are not you and all Mankind since Adam's fall born in a very sinful and miserable condition Yes § Can any but He who is called Jesus save you out of it No § And was he also called Christ because he was anointed to Execute the Offices of a Prophet Priest and King Yes § Is not this Jesus Christ the Eternal only Son of God Yes § Could we have been redeemed unless the Son of God had taken mans Nature upon Him No § Is Jesus Christ then both God and Man in two distinct Natures and one Person Yes Art III. Of the manner of Christs Incarnation § Had Christ when he took our Nature any Father upon earth No § Was He as man conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary of her substance and born without Sin Yes § Was the birth of Christ stained with Original or his life with any Actual Sin No Art IV. Of the sufferings of Christ § Was Christ though innocent condemned to die by Pontius Pilate the Roman Governour of Judea Yes § Did Christ undergo for us the wrath of God and the cursed Death of the Cross Yes § Could nothing satisfie Gods Justice for our Sins but the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ No § Was He also buried and did he continue in the State of the dead for a time Yes Art V. of Christs Resurrection § Doth Christ still remain under the power of death No § Did He by his own power rise from the dead on the third day and become alive again Yes § And did He thereby declare himself to have fully satisfied Gods Justice Yes Art VI. Of Christs Ascension and Intercession § Was
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