Brief Method of Catechizing, Catechism 5
ANOTHER FAMILIAR manner of instruction, the most plaine and easie of all the rest, which parents and masters may with great fruit propound to their families, especially before the Communion.
Q. Rehearse the Commandements.
Law shewing mans miserie, and the rule of his life.A. I Am the Lord thy God, which hauehave brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
1 Thou shalt hauehave none other Gods but me.
2 Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen image, nor the likenes of any thing, that is in heauen aboue, or in the earth beneath, or in the water vnderunder the earth: Thou shalt not bow downe to them, nor worship them: For I the Lord thy God am a iealous God, and visit the sins of the fathers, vponupon the children, vntounto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shew merciemercy vntounto thousands in them that louelove mee and keepe my Commandements.
3 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vaine. For the Lord will not hold him guiltlesse, that taketh his name in vaine.
4 Remember that thou kéepe holy the Sabbath day. Six daies shalt thou labour, and do al that thou hast to do: but the seuenth day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt doe no manner of work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-seruant, and thy maid-seruant, thy cattell, and thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in sixe daies the Lord made heauen and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seuenth day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the seuenth day, and hallowed it.
5 Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy daies may bee long in the land, which the Lord thy God giueth thee.
6 Thou shalt doe no murther.
7 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8 Thou shalt not steale.
9 Thou shalt not beare false witnesse against thy neighbour.
10 Thou shalt not couet thy neighbours house, thou shalt not couet thy neighbours wife, nor his seruant, nor his maid, nor his oxe, nor his asse, nor any thing that is his.
Q. Can you keepe all these Commandements?
The command.A. No: I breake them daily, in thought, word, and déede.
Q. How so?
Rom. 7.14.A. Because the law of God is spirituall, and I am carnall, sold vnderunder sinne.
Q. What doe they deserue that keep not the law of God?
Deu 27.26A. The curse of God, with all the miseries of this life, and the punishment of hell fire euer after.
Q. By what meanes, or by whom may we hope to hauehave deliuerance from this curse?
A. OnelyOnly by Iesus Christ, the eternall Sonne of God.
Q. Shall all men hauehave deliuerance by him?The remedie.
1 Gal. 4.1. Acts 4.12.A. No: but onelyonly such as beléeue in him.
Q. What is it to beleeue in Christ?
A. To be truely perswaded in hart,Faith. that by him our sinnes are forgiuen, and we made the Children of God.
Q. Rehearse the summe of your beleefe.
A. I Beléeue in God the Father Almightie,Faith. maker of heauen and earth. And in Iesus Christ, his onelyonly son our Lord: which was conceiued by the holy Ghost; borne of the virgin Mary, suffered vnderunder Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, he descended into hell. The third day he rose againe from the dead. He ascended into heauen, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almightie. From thence he shall come to iudge the quicke and the dead. I beléeue in the holy Ghost. The holy Catholike Church. The communion of Saints. The forgiuenesse of sinnes. The resurrection of the bodie. And the life euerlasting. Amen.
Q. How doe men come by faith?
A. By the working of ye holy Ghost,Helpes. through the preaching of the word.
Q. How are they confirmed and strengthened in faith?
A. By the same word, and also by the Sacraments.
Q How many Sacraments be there?
Sacraments.A. Two: Baptisme, and the Lords Supper.
Q. What doth Baptisme teach and assure vsus of?
A. That our sins are forgiuen, and washed away by the sufferings and bloodshed of Iesus Christ: euen as the body is washed and clensed by water.
Q. What doth the Lords Supper teach and assure vsus of?
A. That, by the same Iesus Christ, our soules are nourished to eternall life: euen as the bodie is fed, by bread and wine, to a temporall life.
Q. What means must we vse besides?
Prayer.A. One speciall meanes that we are daily to vse, is faith and hearty prayer to God, in the name of Iesus Christ.
Q. Rehearse the prayer, that Iesus Christ hath taught vsus.
A. OVr Father which art in heauen, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdome come. Thy will bée done, in earth, as it is in heauen. GiueGive vsus this day our daily bread. And forgiue vsus our trespasses, as we forgiue them that trespasse against vsus. And leade vsus not into temptation: but deliuer vsus from euill. For thine is the kingdome, the power, and the glorie, for euer and euer. Amen.
Q. How many petitions be there in this prayer?
A. Sixe. The three first whereof concerne the glorie of God.
Q. What do the three last concerne?
A. The necessities of our owne soules and bodies.
Q. Why doe we pray first that God may be glorified?
A. To teach vsus, that we are to prefer the glorie of God, before our own saluation.