By Henry Tuberville, D.D.
AN ABRIDGMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE: WITH PROOFS OF SCRIPTURE ON POINTS
CONTROVERTED BY WAY OF QUESTION AND ANSWER. COMPOSED IN 1649, BY REV. HENRY
TUBERVILLE, D.D., OF THE ENGLISH COLLEGE OF DOUAY:
NOW APPROVED AND RECOMMENDED FOR HIS DIOCESE, BY THE RIGHT REV. BENEDICT
BISHOP OF BOSTON.
"This is the way, walk ye in it." - Isaiah xxx. 21
NEW YORK: P. J. KENEDY, EXCELSIOR CATHOLIC PUBLISHING HOUSE,5 BARCLAY STREET
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THE AUTHOR TO THE READER
THE principle part of the Catechism is an Abridgment of the Christian
Doctrine; defended and cleared by proofs of scripture, in points
controverted between Catholics and Sectaries; and explained by the familiar
way of question and answer.
To this, in the former impressions, was only adjoined a necessary
exposition of the Mass, our Lady's Office, and the festival days of the
year, but to this last edition is added, an Explanation of certain
ceremonies of the Church, which now renders it more complete for instructing
the ignorant, in the whole doctrine and discipline of the Catholic Church.
Besides I have corrected some false citations, and other errata, which by
the printer's negligence, occurred in the former impressions.
Peruse it, good reader, with such charity as I have penned it, and if by
it perusal thou shalt become more knowing in the law of Christ, and in
practice more dutiful to God, and thy neighbour, it will abundantly
recompense the labour of Thy well-wishing friend and servant in CHRIST.
- H T
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APPROBATION
CUM Liber inscriptus, An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, &c. authore
viro docto H. T. mihi probe note, intertia Editione, quam non indiligenter
perlegi, nihil contineat contra sanam Doctrinam vel bonos Mores; multa vero
partim scitu necessaria, partim valde utilia, dilucide & succincte, in Fide
Catholica instituen dis proponat, dignum censeo qui ob publicam utilitatem
Typis evulgetur.
Datum Duaci, Martii 11, 1649.
Gulielmus Hydeus, S. T. D., ac professor,
Colligii Anglorum Duacensis Pręses
& Librorum Censor.
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APPROBATION.
WE feel pleasure in recommending to the faithful of our Diocese this edition
of "An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, with proofs of Scripture on
points controverted," as we have found it essentially conformable to the
Dublin edition of 1820, of the correctness of which we entertain no doubt.
+ BENEDICT, Bp Bn.
Boston, April 24th, 1833
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CONTENTS
1. What a Christian is: and of the blessed Trinity
2. Faith explained
3. The Creed expounded in twelve Articles
4. Hope and Prayer explained
5. The Pater Noster, or our Lord's Prayer expounded
6. The Hail Mary, or Angelical Salutation expounded
7. Charity expounded
8. Of the Commandments in general,
The first Commandment expounded,
The second Commandment expounded,
The third Commandment expounded,
The fourth Commandment expounded,
The fifth Commandment expounded,
The sixth Commandment expounded,
The seventh Commandment expounded,
The eighth Commandment expounded,
The ninth and tenth Commandments expounded,
9. The Precepts of the Church expounded,
10. The Counsels of Christ and his Church expounded,
11. Of the Sacraments in general,
Baptism expounded,
Confirmation expounded,
The Eucharist expounded,
Penance expounded,
Extreme Unction expounded,
Holy Order expounded,
Matrimony expounded,
12. The Cardinal virtues expounded,
13. The Gifts of the Holy Ghost expounded,
14. The twelve fruits of the Holy Ghost expounded,
15. The Works of Mercy, (Corporal and Spiritual) expounded,
16. The eight Beatitudes,
17. The Kinds of Sin expounded,
18. The seven Deadly Sins expounded,
19. The Sins against the Holy Ghost expounded,
20. The Sins that cry to Heaven for Vengeance expounded,
21. The four last things expounded,
22. The substance of Essence, and Ceremonies of the Mass expounded,
23. The Primer, or Office of our blessed Lady expounded,
24. The Solemnities of Christ our Lord, and the Sundays of the Year
expounded,
25. Some Ceremonies of the Church expounded
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CHAPTER 1.
What a Christian is: And of the Blessed Trinity.
Question: CHILD, what religion are you of?
Answer: Sir, by the benefit and grace of God, I am Christian.
Q. Whom understand you by a Christian?
A. Him that inwardly believes and outwardly professes the law of Christ.
Q. When are we obliged to make an external profession of it?
A. As often as God's honour, our own, or neighbour's good requires it.
Q. How prove you that we are bound outwardly to profess our faith?
A. Out of St. Matt. x. 32, where Christ saith, Every one, therefore,
that shall confess me before men, I will confess him before my Father who is
in heaven. But he that shall deny me before men, I also will deny him before
my Father who is in heaven.
Q. Are we bound also to venture the ruin of our estates, the loss of our
friends, and to lay down our very lives for the profession and defence of
our faith?
A. Doubtless we are: seeing the reward we expect in heaven, infinitely
exceeds all the pleasures and punishments of this life. And because Christ
the Son of the living God, has suffered far greater things for us, even to a
disgraceful death on the cross? and therefore, it were base ingratitude in
us, not to be ready to give our lives for him as often as his honour shall
require it. Luke, xiv. 26, 33.
Q. In what doth the faith and law of Christ chiefly consist?
A. In two principle mysteries, namely, the unity and trinity of God, and
the incarnation and death of our Saviour.
Q. What means the unity and trinity of God?
A. It means, that in God there is but one only divine nature or essence,
and that in the same one and divine nature there are three persons, the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Q. How show you that?
A. Out of John, v. 7. There are three that give testimony in heaven, the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
Q. Why are there but three Persons only?
A. Because the Father had no beginning, nor proceeds from any other
person; the Son proceeds from the Father, and Holy Ghost proceeds from the
Father and the Son.
Q. What means the incarnation and death of our Saviour?
A. It means that the second person of the blessed Trinity was made man,
and died on the cross to save us.
Q. In what are these two mysteries signified?
A. In the sign of the cross, as it is made by Catholics, for when we put
our right hand to our head, saying, In the name we signify Unity; and when
we make the sign of the cross saying, Of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost, we signify Trinity.
Q. How doth the sign of the cross represent the incarnation and death of
our Saviour?
A. By putting us in mind that he was made man and died upon the cross
for us.
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CHAPTER II.
Faith Explained
Q. WHAT is faith?
A. It is a gift of God or a supernatural quality, infused by God into
the soul, by which we firmly believe all those things which he hath any way
revealed to us.
Q. Is faith necessary to salvation?
A. It is; St. Paul assuring that without faith it is impossible to
please God. Heb. xi. 6. and St. Mark, xvi. 16, saying, He that believeth not
shall be condemned.
Q. Why must we firmly believe matters of faith?
A. Because God hath revealed them, who can neither deceive, nor be
deceived.
A second reason is, because not only all points of faith, but also the
rule, or necessary and infallible means whereby to know them, to wit, the
church's oral and universal tradition, are absolutely certain, and cannot
lead us into error in faith; else we can never sufficiently be assured what
is faith, or what is not.
Q. If a man should deny, or obstinately doubt of some one point of
faith, would he be thereby lose his whole faith?
A. Yes, he would; because true faith must always be entire, and he that
fails in one, is made guilty of all, by discrediting the authority of God
revealing it.
Q. Is it not enough to believe all that is written in the Bible?
A. No, it is not: For we must also believe all apostolic tradition.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of 2 Thess. ii. 15. Therefore brethren (saith St. Paul) stand and
hold ye the traditions which ye have learned, whether by word, or by our
Epistle.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. The apostle's Creed, which all are bound to believe, although it be
not in Scripture.
Q. Is faith only, as excluding good works, sufficient to salvation?
A. No: it is not: St. James, ii. 24, saying, Do you see how that by
works a man is justified, and not by faith only? And St. Paul, saying, 1
Cor. xiii. 2. If I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains,
and not have charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods
to feed the poor, and if I should deliver by body to be burned, and have not
charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Q. What faith will suffice to justify?
A. Faith working by charity in Jesus Christ.
Q. What vice is opposite to faith?
A. Heresy.
Q. What is Heresy?
A. Is it an obstinate error in things that are of faith.
Q. Is it a grievous sin?
A. A very grievous one, because it wholly divides a man from God, and
leads to atheism, Christ saying, if he will not hear the church let him be
to thee as an heathen and a publican, Matt. xviii. 17.
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CHAPTER III.
The Creed Expounded
Q. WHAT is the creed?
A. It is the sum of belief.
Q. Who made it?
A. The twelve apostles.
Q. At what time did they make it?
A. Before they divided themselves into the several countries of the
world to preach the gospel.
Q. For what end did they make it?
A. That so they might be able to teach one and the same doctrine in all
places.
Q. What doth the creed contain?
A. All those chief things which we are bound to believe, concerning God
and his church.
Q. What is the first article of the creed?
A. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
Q. What signifies I believe?
A. It signifies as much as I most firmly and undoubtedly hold.
Q. What means, I believe in God?
A. It means that not only that I firmly believe there is a God, but also
that I am piously affected to him, as to say chiefest good and last end,
with confidence in him, or otherwise that I move unto him by faith, hope,
and charity.
Q. What signifies the word Father?
A. It signifies the first person of the most blessed Trinity, who by
nature is the Father of his own only begotten Son, the second Person of the
blessed Trinity; by adoption is the Father of all good Christians; and by
creations is the Father of all creatures.
Q. What means the word Almighty?
A. It means that God is able to do all things as he pleaseth; that he
sees all things, knows all things, and governs all things.
Q. Why is he called Almighty in this place?
A. That we might doubt of nothing which follows.
Q. What signify the words, Creator of heaven and earth?
A. They signify that God made heaven and earth, and all creatures in
them, of nothing, by his sole word, Gen. i.
Q. What moved God to make them?
A. His own mere goodness, that so he might communicate himself to
angels, and to men, for whom he made all other creatures.
Q. When did God create the angels?
A. On the first day when he created heaven and earth, Gen. i. where
Moses implies the creation of angels in the word heaven, and makes no other
mention of it. The Nicene creed, interpreting the Apostles' Creed, says,
that the words Creator of heaven and earth, mean all things visible and
invisible.
Q. For what end did God create them?
A. To be partakers of his glory, and our guardians.
Q. How prove you by Scripture, that they be our guardians?
A. Out of St. Matt. xviii. 10, where Christ saith 'See that you despise
not one of these little ones: For I day unto you, their angels in heaven
always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.'
Q. Do the angels know our necessities, and hear our prayers?
A. Doubtless they do, since God has deputed them to be our guardians;
which is also proved out of Zach. i 12. where an angel prays for two whole
cities; the words are 'Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord
of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on the cities of Juda and
Jerusalem, against which thou hast been angry these seventy years?'
Q. What Scripture have you for praying to angels?
A. Gen. xlviii. 16, where Jacob on his death bed prayed to an angel for
Ephraim and Manasses, saying, 'The angel of the Lord that delivered me from
all evils, bless these children.'
This place is cited for prayer to the angels in the notes of the Rhemish
Testament upon it, and is confirmed to signify a created angel by St. Basil,
lib. 3. cont. Dunon. sub initio: And St. Chrysosthom. 7. in laudem Sancti
Pauli.
Q. How did Lucifer and his fellow angels fall from their dignity in
heaven?
A. By a rebellious sin of pride.
Q. With what shall their ruins be repaired?
A. Will holy men.
Q. When and to what likeness did God create man?
A. On the sixth day, and to his own likeness: Gen. i. 27.
Q. In what doth the similitude consist?
A. In this, that man is in his soul an incorporeal, intellectual and
immortal spirit, as God is. And in this, that as in God there is but one
most divine nature or essence, and yet three distinct Persons; so in man
there is but one indivisible soul, and yet in that soul three distinct
powers, will, memory, and understanding.
Q. How do you prove the soul to be immortal?
A. Out of Matt. x. 28, where Christ saith, 'Fear not them that kill the
body, and cannot kill the soul.'
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Eccles. xii. 7. At our death the dust returns to the earth
from whence it was, and the spirit to God that gave it.
Q. In what state did God create man?
A. In the state of original justice, and perfection of all natural
gifts.
Q. Do we owe much to God for our creation?
A. Very much, seeing he made us in such perfect state, creating us for
himself, and all things else for us.
Q. How did we lose original justice?
A. By Adam's disobedience to God, in eating the forbidden fruit.
Q. In what state are we now born?
A. In the state of original sin, and prone to actual sin, subject to
death.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Rom. v. 12. 'By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin
death; and so unto all men death did pass, in whom all have sinned.'
Q. Had man ever died, if he had never sinned?
A. No, he had not, but had been converted by the tree of life, and been
translated alive into the fellowship of the angels.
The Second Article
Q. SAY the second article.
A. And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord.
Q. Of what treats this article?
A. Of the second person of the blessed Trinity, in whom we also believe
and put our trust.
Q. What is the second Person?
A. He is true God, and true Man, in one Person.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of St. John's Gospel, chap. i. 1. 'In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, &c. And the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us.'
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Phil. ii. 6, 7, where St. Paul saith, 'That Christ when he was
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but he hath
lessened himself, taking the form of a servant, made unto the likeness of
men; and found in habit as a man.
Q. Why should God be man man?
A. To redeem and save lost man.
Q. Was his incarnation necessary for that end?
A. In the manner it was; because our offences against God were in some
sort infinite; as being against his infinite goodness; and therefore
required an infinite satisfaction; which no one could make but God and
therefore he was made man.
Q. What other proof have you for the necessity of the Incarnation?
A. Because God is in himself so spiritual, sublime, and abstract a
thing, that if he had not in his mercy adapted his own inscrutable greatness
to the littleness of our sensible capacity, by being made man, scarce on of
a thousand would ever have been able to know anything to the purpose of him;
or consequently to love and serve him as they ought, (which is the necessary
means of our salvation) since nothing is efficaciously willed which is not
first well understood.
Q. What benefit have we by the knowledge of God made man?
A. It much inflames us with the love of God, who could not more have
dignified men's nature, or shown more love to the world, then to send down
his only Son to redeem it in our flesh.
Q. What signifies the name of Jesus?
A. It signifies a Saviour, St. Matt. i. 21.
Q. Is any special honour due to that name?
A. There is, because it is the highest title of God made man.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Phil. ii. 8, 9, 10, where we read, 'God hath given unto Christ
because he hath humbled himself unto the death of the cross, a name which is
above all names, the name of Jesus.'
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Because there is no other name under heaven given to man, in which we
must be saved. Acts iv. 12.
Q. How prove you that we must bow at this name?
A. Out of Phil. ii. 10. That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow
of those that are in heaven, on earth and in hell.
Q. What signifies the name Christ?
A. It signifies anointed.
Q. Why was he called anointed?
A. Because he was a priest, a prophet, and a king to all which unction
pertains.
Q. With what was Christ anointed?
A. With all the plenitude of divine grace.
Q. What mean the words, his only Son our Lord?
A. They mean that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God the Father,
begotten, as he is God, and of the same Father from all eternity, without a
mother; and therefore is coequal and consubstantial to his Father; and
consequently infinite, omnipotent Creator, and so Lord of us and all things,
as the Father is.
The Third Article
Q. WHAT is the third article?
A. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.
Q. What means, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost?
A. It means that the second Person of the blessed Trinity took flesh of
the Virgin Mary, not by a human generation, but by the work of the Holy
Ghost.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of St. Luke i. 31, 35. Behold (saith the angel) thou shalt
conceive and bear a Son, &c. the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
virtue of the Highest shall overshadow thee.
Q. What understand you by the words, born of the Virgin Mary?
A. I understand that Christ was born of her at midnight, in a poor
stable at Bethlehem, between an ox and an ass.
Q. Why at midnight?
A. To signify that he came to take away the darkness of our sins.
Q. Why in Bethlehem?
A. Because it was the head city of David's family, and Christ was of
David's race.
Q. Why in a poor stable?
A. To teach us to love poverty and contempt of this world.
Q. Why between an ox and an ass?
A. To fulfil that of the prophet, Thou shalt be known, O Lord, between
two beasts, Habacuc xii. juxta Sept.
Q. What doth the birth of Christ avail us?
A. It perfecteth in us faith, hope, and charity.
Q. What signifies, "born of the Virgin Mary?"
A. It signifies that Our Lady was a virgin not only before, but also in,
and after childbirth.
The Fourth Article.
Q. WHAT is the fourth article?
A. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried.
Q. What understand you by suffering under Pontius Pilate?
A. I understand that Christ, after a painful life of thirty-three years,
suffered most bitter torments under the wicked president Pontius Pilate.
Q. Where did he begin those sufferings?
A. In the garden of Gethsemani; that as sin began in the garden by the
first Adam, so might grace also, by the second.
Q. What are those torments?
A. His bloody sweat, his whipping at the pillar, his purple garment, his
crown of thorns, his Sceptre of a reed, his carrying the cross, and many
others.
Q. What understand you by the words, was crucified?
A. I understand, he was nailed to a disgraceful cross between two
thieves, for our offences, and to save us.
Q. Is is lawful to honour the cross?
A. Yes, with a relative honour it is, because it is a special memorial
of our Saviour's passion, and is called the sign of the Son of man, St.
Matt. xxiv. 30.
Q. What other reason have you?
A. Because the cross was the sacred altar, on which Christ offered his
bloody sacrifice.
Q. What scripture have you for it?
A. Gal. vi. 14. 'God forbid, (saith St. Paul,) that I should glory, but
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.'
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Phil. iii. 18. Many walk (saith St. Paul) of whom I have often
told you, and now again weeping, I tell you that they are enemies to the
cross of Christ, &c. whose end is perdition. And out of Ezek. ix. 4, where
we read, That such as were signed with the sign Tau, (which was a picture
and figure of the cross,) were saved from the exterminating angel, and only
such.
Q. What signifies the word dead?
A. It signifies that Christ suffered a true and real death.
Q. Why was it requisite he should die?
A. To free us from the death of sin.
Q. Why died he, crying with a loud voice?
A. To show he had power of his own life; and he freely gave it up for
us, being strong and vigorous.
Q. Why died he bowing down his head?
A. To signify his obedience to his Father, in the acceptance of his
disgraceful death.
Q. What means buried?
A. It means, that his body was laid in a new sepulchre, and buried with
honour, as the prophet had foretold, Isa. xi. 10.
The Fifth Article
Q. WHAT is the fifth article?
A. He descended into hell, the third day he arose again from the dead.
Q. What means, he descended into Hell?
A. It means, that as soon as Christ was dead, he descended into Limbo,
to free the holy fathers who were there.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Acts ii. 24, 27. 'Christ being slain, God raised him up
loosing the sorrows of hell, as it was foretold by the prophet,' Psalm xv.
10. 'Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt thou give thy Holy One to
see corruption.'
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Ephes. iv. 8, 9. 'He ascending on high, hath led captivity captive;
he gave gifts to men; and that he ascended,' what is it but because he
descended into the lower parts of the earth?
Q. Did he not descend to purgatory to free such as were there?
A. It is most probable he did according to 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20. 'Christ
being dead, came in spirit; and preached to them also that were in prison,
who had been incredulous in the days of Noah, when the ark was building.'
Q. What understand you by, on the third day he rose again from the dead?
A. I understand, when Christ had been dead part of three days, on the
third day, which was Sunday, he raised up his blessed body from the dead.
Q. Why did he not raise it again sooner?
A. To testify that he was truly dead, and to fulfil the prophecies.
Q. Did he reassume all the parts of his body?
A. He did, even to the last drop of his vital blood, and the very
scattered hairs of his head.
Q. Why did he retain the stigmas and marks of the sacred wounds?
A. To confound the incredulity of men, and to present them often to his
Father, as a propitiation of our sins.
Q. What benefit have we by the resurrection?
A. It confirms our faith and hope, that we shall rise again from death:
'For he who raised up Jesus will raise us also with Jesus.' 2 Cor. iv. 14.
The Sixth Article
Q. WHAT is the sixth article?
A. He ascended into heaven, sits on the right hand of God the Father
Almighty.
Q. What means, He ascended into heaven?
A. It means that when Christ had conversed forty days on earth with his
disciples, after his resurrection, teaching them heavenly things, then he
ascended triumphant into heaven, by his own power.
Q. From what place did he ascend?
A. From the top of the Mount of Olivet, where the print of his blessed
feet are seen to this day.
Q. Why from thence?
A. That were he began to be humbled by his passion, there he might also
begin to be exalted.
Q. Before whom did he ascend?
A. Before his mother, apostles and disciples, Acts 1. 9, &c.
Q. In what manner did he ascend?
A. Lifting up his hands, and blessing them.
Q. Why is it added, Into Heaven?
A. To draw our hearts to heaven after Him; 'If ye have risen with
Christ, seek ye the things which are above.' Col. iii. 1.
Q. What understand you by, Sits at the right hand of God?
A. I do not understand, that God the Father hath any hands, for he is
incorporated, and a spirit: but that Christ is equal to his Father in power
and majesty, as he is God; and that as man he is the highest created glory.
The Seventh Article
Q. WHAT is the seventh article?
A. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead.
Q. What understand you by this article?
A. I understand Christ will come at the last day from heaven, to judge
all men according to their work.
Q. Does every man receive a particular judgment at his death?
A. He doth, but in the general judgment we shall be judged not only in
our souls, as at our death, but also in our bodies.
Q. Why is that necessary?
A. That as Christ was openly rejected, so he may there be openly
acknowledged to the great joy and glory of his friends, as also to the
confusion of his enemies.
Q. How prove you that in the judgment all men shall receive according to
their works?
A. Out of 2 Cor. v. 10. 'We must all be manifested (saith St. Paul)
before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper
things of the body according as he hath done, whether good or evil.' And out
of St. Matt. xvi. 27. 'The Son of man (saith out Lord) shall come in the
glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he will render to every one
according to his works.'
Q. Is there any merit in our good works?
A. There is, according to Apoc. xxii. 12. Behold I come quickly (saith
the Lord) and my reward is with me; to render to every man according to his
works.'
Q. In what place shall this judgment be made?
A. In the Valley of Jehosaphat, as many suppose between Jerusalem and
Mount of Olivet.
Q. How prove you this?
A. By its conformity to that of the prophet. I will gather together all
nations, I will send them into the Valley of Jehosaphat, and there will I
plead with them upon my people, and my inheritance Israel,' Joel iii.
Q. What signs shall go before it?
A. The sun and moon shall lose their lights, there shall be wars,
plagues, famines, and earthquakes, in many places.
Q. In what manner will Christ come unto it?
A. In great power and majesty, attended with legions of angels.
Q. Who are they that shall be judged?
A. The whole race and progeny of man.
Q. What are the things that shall be judged?
A. Our thoughts, words, and works, even to the secrets of our souls.
Q. Who will accuse us?
A. The Devils, and our own guilty consciences: in which all our
thoughts, words and deeds shall presently appear, and be laid open to the
whole world.
Q. How shall the just and reprobate be placed?
A. The just shall be on the right; the reprobate on the left hand of the
Judge.
Q. What shall be the sentence of the just?
A. 'Come, O ye blessed of my Father, and receive ye the kingdom which is
prepared for you, for I was hungry and ye gave me to eat, I was thirsty, and
ye gave me to drink,' &c St. Matt. xxv. 35, 36.
Q. What shall be the sentence of the reprobate?
A. 'Go ye cursed into eternal fire, which hath been prepared for the
devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and ye gave me not to eat,' &c. the
same chap. v. 41, 42. You see of what weight good works will be at that day.
Q. Why is it added, the living and the dead?
A. To signify that Christ shall judge, not only such as are living at
the time of his coming, but likewise all such as have been dead, from the
creation of the world; as also by the living, are understood angels and
saints, by the dead, devils and damned souls.
The Eighth Article
Q. WHAT is the eight article?
A. I believe in the Holy Ghost.
Q. Of what treats this article?
A. Of the third Person of the blessed Trinity, in whom we also believe
and put our trust, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and is the
self-same God with them, distinct in nothing but in person.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 John v. 7. 'There are three that give testimony in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.'
Q. Why is the name of the Holy Ghost appropriated to the third Person,
since angels are all spirits and holy?
A. Because he is such by excellency and essence, they only by
participation.
Q. At least why should it not be common to the other two persons?
A. Because they are known by the proper names of Father and Son, but we
have not any proper name for the Holy Ghost.
Q. In what forms has the Holy Ghost appeared unto man?
A. In the form of a dove, to signify the purity and innocence which he
caused in our souls; and in the form of a bright cloud, and fiery tongue, to
signify the fire of charity, which he produced in our hearts, as also the
gift of tongues; and hence it is, he is painted in these forms.
The Ninth Article
Q. WHAT is the ninth article?
A. I believe in the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints.
Q. What understand you by this?
A. I understand that Christ hath a church upon earth which he
established in his own blood, and that he hath commanded us to believe that
church, in all things appertaining to faith, and morals, Matt. xviii. 17.
Q. What kind of faith must we believe her with?
A. With the same faith that we believe her Spouse the Son of God, that
is, with divine faith, but with this difference among other, that we believe
in God; but though we believe the church, yet we do not properly believe in
the church.
Q. What is the church?
A. It is the congregation of all the faithful under Jesus Christ, their
invisible head, and his vicar upon earth, the Pope.
Q. What are the essential parts of the church?
A. A Pope or supreme head, bishops, pastors, and laity.
Q. How prove you that bishops are of divine institution?
A. Out of Acts xx. 28. Take heed unto yourselves, and to the whole
flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the church of
God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Q. How believe you St. Peter, and the Pope his successor, to be the
visible head of the church?
A. First out of St. John xxi. 16, 17, and 18, where Christ gave St.
Peter (for a reward of his special faith and love) absolute power to feed
and govern his whole flock, saying, Feed my Lambs, feed my lambs, feed my
sheep; therefore the rest of the apostles were his sheep, and he their head
or pastor.
Secondly, out of St. Matt. xvi. 18, where Christ saith, Thou art Peter,
and upon this Rock will I build my church. Therefore the rest of the
apostles were built on him; and hence also it is, that in Scripture, St.
Peter is still named first.
Q. What are the marks of the true church?
A. Unity, sanctity, universality, and to be apostolical.
Q. What mean you by the church's unity?
A. That all her members live under one evangelical law, obey the same
supreme head, and his magistrates profess the same faith, even to the last
article, and use the same sacraments and sacrifices.
Q. How prove you out of Scripture that the church is one?
A. 1 Cor. x. 17. Being many (saith St. Paul) we are one bread, one body,
all who participate of one bread.
Q. Why may not a well-meaning person be saved in any religion?
A. Because there is but one Lord, one faith, one baptism, Ephes. iv. 5,
and without (that one) faith, it is impossible to please God. Heb. xi. 6.
Q. What other reason have you for it?
A. Because, as in a natural body, that part which has not a due
connection to the heart or root, presently dies for want of continuity; so
in the church (the mystical body of Christ) that man who has not a due
subordination and connection to the head and common councils thereof, (that
is, the Pope and general councils from whence under Christ we have our
spiritual life and motion, as we are Christians,) must needs be dead, nor
indeed can he be accounted a member of that mystical body.
Q. Who, I beseech you, are those who are not to be accounted members of
the Church?
A. All such as are not in the unity of the church, by a most firm belief
of her doctrine, and due obedience to her pastors; as Jews, Turks, Heretics,
&c.
Q. Why may not Heretics and Schismatics justly claim to be in the Unity
of the Church and Members of Christ's body?
A. Because Catholics can show to each sect of Heretics and Schismatics
the time they began; the date of their separation from the Church: the name
of the person or persons of their sect who first separated themselves, and
the cause of their condemnation; whilst the Catholic Church always was from
the beginning.
Q. What if a Protestant should tell you, that the difference between
them and us, are not differences in fundamentals, or in faith, but in
opinion only, and therefore do not exclude them out of unity of the Catholic
Church?
A. I should answer, they contradict themselves; for they accuse us of
robbing God of his honour, in holding priestly absolutions from sins; in
adoring Christ's body and blood, as really present in the eucharist, and
holding the Pope's supremacy in things belonging to the spiritual government
of the Church, also the infallibility of the Church and general councils, in
delivering and defining points of faith, which are no matters of
indifference, but high fundamentals.
Q. How do you prove all obstinate Innovators to be Heretics?
A. Because they wilfully stand out against the definitive sentence of
the Church of God, and submit not to any tribunal appointed by Christ to
decide religious controversies; but follow their own interpretation of the
dead letter of the scriptures.
Q. And is not this the reason also why Protestants and all other
sectarians are so divided in religious matters?
A. Yes, it is; for how is it possible that people who imagine that there
is no person or tribunal, or even the Church of God, infallible, for
expounding the bible; people, who expound it each according to his
respective fancy; people, who have no control over the erroneous
interpretation of each other; how it is possible that such people would have
the unity of faith, in the bond of peace; or that they be not tossed to and
fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine?
Q. Why may not the letter of the Scripture be a decisive judge of
controversies?
A. Because it has never been able from it[s] first publication, to
decide any one dispute; as the whole world knows from experience: all
heretics equally pretend to scripture authority in defence of their errors
and heresies.
Q. How then can we ascertain the truth amidst conflicting opinions?
A. By the infallible authority, definition, and proposition of the
Catholic Church.
Q. For what end, then, was the Scripture written, if not to be a decider
of controversies?
A. The writing of the Holy Scriptures was for the purpose of the better
preserving the revealed will of God, and that by a sensible and common
reading of it, without any critical or controversial disputes of words, we
might be able to know that God is, and what he is, and also that there is a
heaven and a hell, rewards for virtue and punishment for vice, with examples
of both, all which we find in the letter of the Scripture, by a plain and
ordinary reading.
Q. Is the church we speak of visible?
A. She is and must be visible at all times, as consisting of a hierarchy
of pastors, governing, teaching, administering sacraments to the world's
end, and of other people governed, taught and receiving sacraments at their
hands, all publicly professing the same faith, all which things are visible.
Q. How prove you that?
A. First, out of Eph. iv. 1, and 12. 'Christ gave some apostles, some
evangelists, some doctors, some pastors, to the consummation of the saints,
to the edifying of the body of Christ, and to the work of the ministry,
until we all meet in the unity of faith.'
Secondly, out of St. Matt. v. 14, where Christ saith of his church, "You
are the light of the world, a city seated on a high mountain cannot be hid."
Q. Why then would the Protestants have the church to be invisible?
A. Because we have convinced them, that there were no Protestants to be
seen or heard of in the world before Martin Luther.
Q. Why is the church said to be holy, or to have sanctity?
A. Because she hath a holy faith, a holy law, holy sacraments, and is
guided by the Holy Ghost, to all truth and holiness.
Q. How else prove you her sanctity?
A. Because Christ gave himself for his church that he might sanctify
her, cleansing her by the laver of water in the world, that he might present
her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, but that she
might be holy and unspotted. Eph. v. 26, 27.
Q. Notwithstanding the sanctity of the Catholic Church, are not some
Catholics as wicked as Protestants?
A. Yes, verily, and more wicked, for where sanctity is less, their
sacrilege cannot be so great. No man could damn his own posterity, but he
that had original justice to lose: nor any man to betray Christ, but he that
had eaten at his table. Protestants have not a holy faith, such sacraments,
nor a holy church to abuse, as Catholics have, and therefore no wonder, if
some Catholics be worse than any Protestants; yet Catholics have some
saints, but Protestants have none.
Q. Is the church infallible?
A. She is, and therefore to be believed, and all men may rest securely
on her judgment.
Q. How prove you that?
A. First, because she is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. iii. 15.
Secondly, out of St. Matt. xvi. 18, where Christ saith, "Upon this Rock
will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
her."
Thirdly, out of St. John, xiv. 26. But the Paraclete, (saith he,) the
Holy Ghost, shall teach you all things whatsoever I shall say to you. And
xvi. 13. But when the Spirit of truth cometh, he shall teach you all truth.
Q. How declare you that the definitions of a council perfectly
ecumenical, that is, a general council approved by the Pope, are infallible
in matters of faith?
A. Because such a council is the church representative, and has the same
infallibility that the church spread over the world hath.
Q. What other reason have you?
A. Because of the definitions of such a council are the dictates of the
Holy Ghost, according to that of the apostles, deciding in council, it hath
seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, Acts xv. 28.
Q. What think you then of such as accuse the church of errors in faith
and idolatry?
A. Truly I think them to be Heretics or Infidels, for our Lord saith, He
that will not hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen and a
publican, St. Matt. xviii. 17.
Q. Is not the church at least too severe in its censures and
excommunications against sectaries?
A. No, she is very reasonable and charitable in them for vicious,
passionate, and self-interested men some times are brought to reason for
fear of punishment and are forced to their own good, when no authority
ordained by Christ is able to persuade them to it.
Q. What understood you by the word catholic, or by the universality of
the church?
A. I understand the church is universal, both for time and place.
Q. How for time?
A. Because she hath been from Christ to this time, and shall be from
thence to the end of the world.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of St. Matt. xxviii. 20. Going therefore (saith our Lord) teach
ye all nations, &c. and behold I am with you all days, even to the
consummation of the world.
Q. What mean you by the universality of place?
A. First, out of St. Matt. above cited, Teach all nations.
Secondly out of Psalm lxxxv. 9. All Nations, whatsoever thou hast made,
shall come and adore before thee, O Lord.
Thirdly, out of Apoc. vii. 9, where we read, that the church shall be
gathered out of all nations, people, tribes, and tongues.
Q. Why do we call the church the Roman Church?
A. Because, since the transition of St. Peter's chair from Antioch to
Rome, the particular Roman Church has been head of all the churches, and to
her the primacy has been affixed.
Q. What is the rule by which the church preserves entire the deposit of
Faith and confounds all sectaries?
A. Apostolical traditions, or receipt of doctrine by hand to hand from
Christ and his apostles.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Rom. vi. 17. "Therefore I beseech you, brethren (saith St.
Paul) mark them which make dissensions and scandals, contrary to the
doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them, for such do not serve
Christ our Lord."
Q. What other proofs have you?
A. Out of St. Paul, saying, "But although we or an angel from heaven
evangelize to you, besides that which we have evangelized to you, be he
anathema, or besides, what you have received be he anathema." Gal. i. 8, 9.
Q. Can the church err in faith, standing to this rule, and admitting
nothing for faith, but what is consented by the whole church to have been so
received?
A. She cannot, otherwise the whole church must there conspire in a
notorious lie, to damn herself and her posterity, or else she must be
ignorant what hath been taught for her faith by the church of the precedent
age, which are both natural impossibilities.
Q. How prove you these to be impossibilities by nature?
A. By the constancy and immutability of contingent causes, whose
particulars may be defective, but the universals cannot.
Q. Explain that a little.
A. Because one man or two or three may be born but with one arm, or one
eye only, through defect of their particular causes; but that all nature
should fail at once, and all men be so born, is totally impossible in
nature; in like manner, one man or two may conspire in palpable lies to damn
themselves and their posterity, or be deceived in what hath been taught them
for faith, from their very cradles; but that the whole church should so far
break with the nature of man (which is reason) to conspire in such a lie, or
to be so mistaken, is as impossible in nature, as it is for men to be no
men.
Q. May some errors have been received for faith, and crept insensibly
over the whole church, no man perceiving or taking notice of them?
A. No, that is as impossible as that the plague or burning fever should
infect or spread itself over a whole kingdom for many years, no man
perceiving it, or seeking to prevent it; for nothing causes greater notice
to be taken, than any public or notorious change in matters of religion.
Q. May not the power of temporal princes, or the over prevalency of
human wit and reason, have introduced errors into the church?
A. Neither is that possible, seeing we are not regulated in things which
are of faith, either by power, or any strength of reason, but by the rule of
apostolical tradition, and by inquiring of the whole church of every age,
what hath been taught by our forefathers, from Christ and his apostles.
Q. Was not the Millenary heresy an apostolical tradition?
A. No, it was not; for there is no assurance or consent among those who
write of it, that it was ever preached or delivered by the apostles.
Q. Did not St. Austin and Innocentius, with their councils, hold the
communion of children a thing necessary to their salvation?
A. They speak not of sacramental communion, as is evident to all who
have read their works, but of the effect of it, that is, of their
incorporation into the mystical body of Christ, which is made in baptism,
and this only they affirmed to be necessary to their salvation.
Q. At least do not heretics say and aver, that the church hath
apostatized and erred in faith?
A. They do indeed, but it will not serve their turn barely to say it,
unless they were also able to prove it, (which they neither are or will be)
by evident and undeniable proofs.
Q. How prove you that?
A. First, because that presumption and possession of her integrity and
infallibility is on the church's side; and therefore ought not to be yielded
up, without clear evidence of her prevarication.
Secondly, because he that accuses his neighbour's wife of adultery,
without convincing proof thereof, is not to be hearkened unto, but to be
hated by all good men, as a most infamous slanderer; much more ought they
who shall accuse the church, the spouse of Christ, of errors and apostasy,
unless their proofs be evident and undeniable, to be detested as blasphemous
heretics.
Thirdly, because if less than manifest and convincing evidence be
sufficient to prove matters of this high nature, it is not impossible but
every false tongue shall set dissensions between man and wife, and stir up
the most faithful subjects in the world to a rebellion against their
princes, both spiritual and temporal.
Q. What other reason have you yet, why the church and law of Christ may
not fail and be utterly extinguished?
A. Because the causes of religion (to wit, the hope of good, and fear of
evil from God) are universal and necessary, always knocking at men's hearts,
and putting them in mind of some good or other, and therefore must needs
have perpetual and necessary effects, which in such as are convinced that
Christ is God, can be no other than the faith, hope and love of Christ, and
the observance of his law, and that for ever, speaking of the whole church,
although particular men may err and fall away.
Q. What is it for the church to be apostolical?
A. To have been begun and propagated by the apostles, and to have a
succession of pastors, and doctrines from them.
Q. What means the communion of saints?
A. It means first that the faithful do all communicate in the same faith
and sacraments, in the same sacrifice, and also in the merits of one
another.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 Cor. xii. 26. And if one member suffer any thing, all the
members suffer with it; or if one member do glory, all the members rejoice
with it, you are the body of Christ, and members of a member.
Secondly, It means that the faithful on earth communicate with the
angels and the saints in heaven; we by praising and praying to them, they by
praying for us.
Q. How do you prove this communion?
A. Out of Luke xv. 10. There is joy before the angels of God upon one
sinner that doth penance. And out of 1 John i. 3, That you also may have
fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father and with his
Son Jesus Christ.
Q. How prove you that the saints have any power to do us good?
A. Out of Apoc. ii. 26, 27, where Christ hath promised them power over
us: to him, said he, that shall overcome, and keep my works to the end, to
him will I give power over nations, and he shall rule them with an iron rod.
Q. How prove you that it is lawful to pray to angels?
A. Out of Apoc. i. 4, where St. John did it: Grace (saith he) to you,
and peace from him that is, that was, and that shall come, and from the
seven spirits that are in the sight of his throne.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Apoc. viii. 4, where we read, that they present the church's
prayers to God. The smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascend
from the hand of the angel before God.
Q. How prove you that we may pray to saints?
A. Out of Gen. xlvii, 16, where Jacob taught his children to do it,
saying, And let my name be invocated upon them, the names also of my
fathers, Abraham and Isaac.
Q. How prove you that they pray for us?
A. Out of Apoc. v. 8. The twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb,
having every one harps, and vials full of odours, which are the prayers of
the saints.
Q. Is it no dishonour to God, for us to pray to saints to pray for us?
A. No, it is not, nor yet to beg it of men; for St. Paul did it: We hope
(saith he) that God will deliver us, you also helping in prayer for us. 2
Cor. i. 11.
The Tenth Article.
Q. WHAT is the tenth article?
A. The forgiveness of sins.
Q. What do you understand by this?
A. I understand that God is both able and willing to forgive our sins,
if we be heartily sorry for them, and confess them; and have given power to
his church to remit them by baptism and penance.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Matt. ix. 8, where it is recorded by the Holy Ghost, that the
multitude glorified God, who hath given such power unto man, as to forgive
sins, (Christ having before proved the said power by a miracle) ver. 6, 7.
Q. Is any sin so great that God cannot forgive it?
A. No there is not; for his mercy is far above our malice.
Q. Can any one mortal sin be remitted without the rest?
A. It cannot, because the remission of mortal sin is a renewing of
friendship with God by his grace, which can never be effected, so long as
there remains in us any mortal sin.
Q. Can we have absolute certainty, that our sins are forgiven us?
A. Without special revelation we cannot: I am not guilty in conscience
(saith St. Paul) of any thing, but herein I am not justified. 1 Cor. iv. 4.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Because a man knows not whether he be worthy of love or hatred. Eccl.
i. 9.
Q. Can we be certain of our final perseverance?
A. Not without special revelation, and therefore St. Paul said, I
chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I preach to others
I myself become a reprobate, 1 Cor. ix. 27, and Phil. ii. 12. He exhorts,
saying, with fear and trembling, work out your salvation.
Q. How then shall we have peace of conscience?
A. Because we may have moral certainty and a most lively hope, that our
sins are forgiven by us by the due use of the sacraments, which is enough
for our peace.
The Eleventh Article.
Q. WHAT is the eleventh article?
A. The resurrection of the flesh.
Q. What means this article?
A. It means that these very bodies in which we now live, shall at the
day of judgment be all raised up from death to life.
Q. By what means shall this be done?
A. By the omnipotent command of God, and the ministry of angels.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 Thess. iv. 16. For our Lord in commandment, and in the voice
of an archangel, and in the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and
the dead that are in Christ shall rise again.
Q. Shall the same bodies rise again?
A. The same in substance, though different in qualities.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Job xix. 25, 26, 27. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and
in the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and shall be compassed again
with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see God, whom I myself shall see, and
mine eyes shall behold, and not another.
Q. What shall be the qualities or doweries of a glorified body?
A. Impassability, agility, clarity, subtility.
Q. How do you prove its impassability, or incorruptibility?
A. Out of 1 Cor. xv. 53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption,
and this mortal must put on immortality.
Q. How prove you its agility?
A. Out of the same chapter, ver. 43, 44. It is sown in infirmity, it
shall rise in power; it is sown a natural body, but it shall rise in a
spiritual body, (that is, in motion, and some operations equal to a spirit;)
which also proves its subtility.
Q. How prove you it clarity?
A. Out of the same chapter, ver. 24 "For star (said he) differs from
star in glory, so also the resurrection of the dead." And ver. 43. "It is
sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory."
Q. In what space of time shall the dead rise, and the elect be thus
changed?
A. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," 1 Cor. xv, 52.
Q. At what age and stature shall men rise?
A. At a perfect age, which is thirty-three, and in that stature which
they should have had at a perfect age, without deformity by defect or
excess.
Q. How prove you this?
A. Out of Ephes. iv. 13. "The church shall last until we all meet into a
perfect may, into the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ."
Q. What example have you in nature for the resurrection?
A. A grain of corn, which first rots in the earth and then springs up
and lives again.
Q. What benefit have we by the knowledge of the resurrection?
A. It emboldens us to suffer persecution and death itself, in hope of
future glory, according to that of St. Paul: "For sufferings of these times
are not comparable to that of future glory, which be revealed in us:" Rom.
viii. 18.
The Twelfth Article.
Q. WHAT is the twelfth article?
A. And life everlasting.
Q. Why is this the last article?
A. Because everlasting life is the last end of man, and the last reward
we expect by faith.
Q. What understand you by this article?
A. I understand that such as keep the commandments, and die in the state
of grace, shall live with God in bliss forever.
Q. How prove you that keeping the commandments is of necessity for
obtaining it?
A. Out of Matt. xix. 17, where Christ said to the young man, asking what
he should do to obtain it, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the
commandments."
Q. Is everlasting life given as a reward of our good works?
A. It is, according to Rom. ii. 6, 7. "God will render to every one
according to his works, to them truly, that according to patience in good
works, seek glory and honour, and incorruption life everlasting" &c.
Q. Were all men created for everlasting life?
A. They were, for God "would have all men to be saved," 1 Tim. ii. 4.
"He willeth not the death of any sinner, but rather that he be converted and
live." Ezek. xxxiii. 11.
Q. Why then are many damned?
A. By reason of their own wilful transgression of God's law, and final
impenitence.
Q. How prove you that man is the free cause of his own sin and
damnation?
A. First out of Job xi. 23. "God (saith he) hath given him place for
penance, but he abuseth it unto pride."
Secondly, out of Hos. xiii. 9. "The perdition is from thyself, O Israel;
in me only is thy aid."
Thirdly, out of Rom. ii. 4. "The benignity of God calls thee to
repentance, but thou heapest to thyself wrath and indignation, according to
thy own impenitent heart."
Q. In what consists everlasting life?
A. In the clear vision and fruition of God, according to that of our
Saviour, in John xvii. 3. "This is the life everlasting, that they know thee
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
Q. Shall we see nothing in Heaven but God?
A. Yes, all the attributes and perfections of God, and in him also, as
in a mirror or looking glass, the nature and perfections of all creatures;
for he contains all things in himself in the most eminent manner.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of the apostle, saying, "from whom all things by whom all things,
and in whom all things." Rom xi. 36.
Q. What effect will follow out the clear vision and fruition of God?
A. A divine love, steadfast possession and ineffable joy; and out of
that praise, jubilation, and thanksgiving for ever.
Q. What means the word Amen? A. It means that the whole creed is divine
truth, and therefore we most heartily assent to it.
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CHAPTER IV.
Hope and Prayer Explained.
Q. WHAT is Hope?
A. It is a virtue infused by God into the soul, by which we have a
confident expectation of glory to be obtained by the grace and merits of
Christ, and our own merits proceeding from his grace.
Q. On what is the confidence chiefly grounded?
A. On the merits and promises of Christ, who hath promised glory to such
as hope in him, and do his works, as also grace whereby to do them.
Q. Are our good works then meritorious of a reward of glory?
A. As proceeding from the grace of Christ, and built upon his promises,
they are.
Q. How prove you that?
A. First, out of Mark ix. 14. "For whosoever shall give you to drink a
cup of water in my name because you are Christ's, Amen, I say to you, he
shall not lose his reward."
Secondly, out of 1 Cor. iii. 8. "And every one shall receive his own
reward, according to his own labour, for we are God's coadjutors."
Thirdly, out of Matt. v. 11. "Blessed are ye (saith our Lord) when they
shall revile and persecute you; for very great is your reward in heaven."
Q. Is it lawful for us to do good works in the hope of a reward?
A. Not only lawful but laudable, according to that, I "have inclined by
heart, to do thy justifications for ever, for a reward." Psalm cxviii. 12.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of 1 John iii. 22. "Whatsoever (saith he) we shall ask of God, we
shall receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things
that are pleasing before him."
Q. How declare you the necessity of hope?
A. Because it produces in us obedience to the law of God, as also a
willingness to suffer for his sake, and final perseverance.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Job xiii. 15. "Although he kill me, yet will I hope in him."
And Psalm lv. 5. "In God have I hoped, I will not fear what flesh can do
unto me."
It is according to the Psalmist, "Him that hopeth in our Lord, merely shall
encompass." Psalm xxxi. 10. And, "Our Lord is well pleased in them that hope
in his mercy." Psalm cxlvi. 11.
Q. What other good doth Hope?
A. It moves us to devout and humble prayer.
Q. What is prayer?
A. It is the lifting up of the mind to God, by which we beg for good
things and to be free from evils, or by which we bless and praise God.
Q. What are the conditions of good prayer?
A. That it may be made with reverence, attention, humility, and
perseverance.
Q. What vices are opposite to hope?
A. Despair and presumption.
Q. What is despair?
A. It is a diffidence in the mercy of God, and merits of Christ, even to
death.
Q. What is presumption?
A. It is a foolish and desperate confidence of salvation, without
endeavouring to live well or keep the commandments.
Q. How is the despair the cause of sin?
A. Because despairing men are wont to say, if I shall be damned, I shall
be damned, and so use no endeavour to do good or avoid evil.
Q. How is presumption the cause of sin?
A. Because presumptuous men used to say, God is merciful and will
forgive our sins, how great soever, and at what time soever, we do penance;
and out of this take liberty to sin.
Q. How must our hope be balanced between these two extremes?
A. By a filial fear, and an humble distrust of our own works, as they
are ours.
Q. Is prayer good against both these?
A. It is, according to that of Luke xxii. 40, "pray ye that so ye may
not fall into temptation."
Q. For what else availeth prayer?
A. For the avoiding of evils and the obtaining all benefits.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of John xv 23. "Whatsoever (saith our Saviour) ye shall ask my
Father in my name, he will give it you." And Luke xi. 9. "Ask and it shall
be given you," &c.
Q. Is it lawful to pray in an unknown tongue?
A. It is, "for he that speaks in a tongue (unknown) speaks not to men
but to God." 1 Cor. xiv. 2. And a petition has the same force if it be
understood by him that is petitioned, whether the petitioner understood it
or not.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of the same chap. ver. 16, 17, where Paul saith, "but if thou
bless in spirit, (that is in a tongue not known) he that supplieth the place
of the vulgar, how shall he say Amen, &c. thou indeed givest thanks well,
but the other is not edified." You see in itself the thing is good, for he
gives thanks well.
Q. What means the apostle, when he exhorts us to pray always? Thess. v.
17.
A. He means we should daily spend some time to prayer, according to
James v. 16. "Pray for one another that you may be saved, for the continual
prayer of a just man availeth much."
Q. Is it possible to pray always?
A. In some sense it is: namely, by offering up all our actions to God's
honour.
Q. In what place is prayer best?
A. In churches: because these are places consecrated and devoted to
prayer, and there our prayers are elevated by the peculiar presence of God,
and his special assistance besought by the Church's pastors in the
consecration of those places.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Matt. xviii. 20. "Where there are two or three gathered
together in my name (saith the Lord) there I am in the midst of them."
Q. How prove you that material churches are of God's appointment?
A. First, Because God commanded Solomon to build him a temple, and
dedicate it to his service. 2 Paral vii. 12.
Secondly, out of Luke xix. 46, where Christ calls the material temple
his house, casing the buyers and sellers out of it. "My house, (saith he) is
the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves."
Thirdly, out of Luke xviii. 10, where the publican "ascended to the
temple to pray, and descended into his house justified."
Q. How do you prove it lawful to dedicate of consecrate material
temples?
A. Out of Paralip. above cited, chap. 7, and out of John x. 22, where it
is recorded that Christ
himself kept the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem, instituted by Judas
Maccabęus, 1 Mac. iv. 56, 59.
Q. How do you prove it lawful to adorn the churches with tapestry,
pictures, and the like?
A. Out of Mark, xiv. 15, where Christ commanded his last supper to be
prepared in a great chamber adorned.
Q. What proof have you for the order and number of the canonical hours?
A. For Matins, Lauds, and Prime, that of Psalm v. 4 "Early in the
morning will I stand up to thee, early in the morning wilt thou hear my
voice."
Q. What for the third, sixth and ninth hours?
A. For the third out of Acts ii. 16. "At the third hour the Holy Ghost
descended on the Apostles." For the sixth, out of Acts x. 9. "Peter and John
went up into the higher part to pray about the sixth hour:" and for the
ninth, out of Acts iii. 1. "And at the ninth hour Peter and John went up
into the temple to pray."
Q. What for the Even-song and Complin?
A. That of the Psalmist, "Morning and evening, will I declare the works
of our Lord," Psalm liv. 18. and again, "lifting up of my hands is as an
evening sacrifice," cxli 2.
Q. Is it good to use outward ceremonies in a time of prayer, as
kneeling, knocking the breast, and such like?
A. It is, for they declare the inward reverence and devotion of the
heart; and Christ himself prostrated, when he prayed in the garden, Matt.
xxvi. 39. And the poor publican beat his breast, and cast down his eyes in
that prayer by which he merited to descend justified, Luke xviii. 13, 14.
Q. Why is the morning so fit a time for prayer?
A. To open the windows of the soul to the light of divine grace and
offer up the works of the whole day to God's honour.
Q. Why is the evening also?
A. To shut the windows of the soul against the darkness of sin, and the
illusions of the devil; as also to render thanks for all the benefits of the
day past.
Q. What things ought we to pray for?
A. For all good things both spiritual and temporal, and to be freed from
evil; for so our Lord bath taught us by his prayer.
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CHAPTER V.
The Lord's Prayer Expounded
Q. WHAT is the Pater Noster?
A. It is the most holy prayer, that ever was.
Q. Who made it?
A. Christ our Lord, the eternal wisdom of his Father, Matt. vi. 9.
Q. Why did he make it?
A. To teach us a set form of prayer, and how we ought to pray.
Q. Why did he make it in so short and plain a manner?
A. That all persons might be able to understand and practise it.
Q. What doth it contain?
A. All those chief things which we can ask or hope for of God.
Q. How many petitions does it contain?
A. Seven.
Q. What understand you by these words, which are prefixed to the
petition, Our Father who art in Heaven?
A. I understand that God is our Father, both by creation and by
adoption: and if we be in the state of grace, we may confidently come to
him, and beg all blessings of him.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 John iii. 1. "See what manner of charity the Father hath
given us, that we should be named, and be the sons of God."
Q. Why do you say, our Father, and not my Father?
A. Because God is the common Father of all, and all good Christians must
pray for one another,
according to the article in the Creed. "I believe in the communion of
saints."
Q. What understand you by the words, Who art in heaven?
A. I understand that God who fills heaven and earth, and is in all
things, times, and places, is in heaven in a peculiar manner, declaring and
manifesting his glory to the blessed; and therefore when we pray, we must
lift up our minds to him, and keep them fixed upon heavenly things.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Jer. xlviii. 10. "Cursed be he that doth the word of God
negligently."
The First Petition.
Q. WHAT is the first petition?
A. Hallowed be thy name.
Q. What do we beg by this?
A. That God may be known by the whole world, and that he may be worthily
praised, served, and honoured by all his creatures, which cannot be effected
but by his grace.
Q. Who are these that say this petition ill?
A. Such as dishonour the name of God by blaspheming, swearing, lying,
cursing, and scurrilous disclosures.
The Second Petition.
Q. WHAT is the second petition?
A. Thy kingdom come.
Q. What do we beg of God by this petition?
A. We beg, that our miseries and afflictions in this life may be such,
as that we may be made partakers of his joyful and heavenly kingdom
hereafter.
Q. What else do we beg?
A. That Christ may reign in us in this life by grace, and in the next by
glory, presenting us a kingdom to his Father.
Q. Who say this petition ill?
A. Such as are willing slaves to sin, and to the devil.
The Third Petition.
Q. WHAT is the third petition?
A. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Q. What do we beg by this?
A. That God would enable us by his holy grace to keep his commandments,
and obey his will in all things.
Q. What mean you by the words, on earth as it is in heaven?
A. We beg by those, that we may be as ready and willing to do the will
of God on earth, as the blessed saints and angels are in heaven.
The Fourth Petition.
Q. WHAT is the fourth petition?
A. Give us this day our daily bread.
Q. What do we beg by this?
A. All food and nourishment for our souls and bodies.
Q. What is the food of the soul?
A. The word of God, the holy sacraments, especially the blessed
Eucharist, and divine grace.
Q. How prove you, that by this petition Christ intended the blessed
bread of the Eucharist?
A. Because in Matt. vi. 11, we read "our supersubstantial bread."
Q. Why is the Eucharist called our daily bread?
A. Because it is daily offered for our sins on the altar, and we ought
daily to receive it, at least in spirit and desire.
Q. Who say this petition ill?
A. Such as are cold and careless in coming to the sacraments, and in
hearing divine service, or exhortations; and such as ascribe their temporal
goods and blessings to their own industry and providence, and not to any
special bounty or gift of God.
The Fifth Petition.
Q. WHAT is the fifth petition?
A. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Q. What do we beg by this petition?
A. That God would pardon us the sins of our life past, as also the
punishments which are due unto them.
Q. Why are sins, and the penalties of sin, called debts?
A. Because they make us debtors to the justice of God, whom by sin we
rob of his due honour.
Q. Why is it added, As we forgive our debtors?
A. To signify that God will not forgive us, unless we also forgive our
brethren; "If you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you
your offences." Matt. vi. 15.
Q. Who say this petition ill?
A. Such as bear malice against their neighbour, and seek revenge.
The Sixth Petition.
Q. WHAT is the sixth petition?
A. And lead us not into temptation.
Q. What do we beg by this?
A. That God would not permit us to be tempted above our strength.
Q. Doth God tempt any man to sin?
A. No, "God is not a tempter of evils, he tempts no man." James i. 13.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Ps. v. 7 "Thou art not a God willing iniquity." And out of
Rom. ix. 14. "Is there iniquity with God? No, God forbid."
Q. By whom then are we tempted?
A. By the devil, and our own concupiscence.
Q. Can a man live in this world, and be free from all temptations?
A. Morally speaking he cannot: "for the whole life of man on earth is a
warfare." Job vii. 1.
Q. Why then do we pray to be delivered from temptation?
A. That we may not be overcome, or vanquished by them.
Q. Is temptation of itself a sin?
A. No, not without consent on our part; nay, it is a great occasion of
merit, if we resist it as we ought.
Q. How prove you that?
A. First, out of Apoc. ii. 10, 11. "Be thou faithful unto death (saith
our Lord) and I will give thee the crown of life: he that overcometh, shall
not be hurt by the second death."
Secondly, because Christ himself, who never sinned, would be tempted,
"and the tempter came unto him." &c. Matt. iv. 3.
Q. Are we never overcome by by our own default?
A. Never, according to that answer which was given to St. Paul, desiring
to be freed from a temptation "My grace is sufficient for thee."
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of James iv. 7. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
Q. Who are they that say this petition ill?
A. Such as seek after occasion of sin, and wilfully expose themselves
unto temptations.
Q. What are the best remedies against temptations?
A. To have recourse by humble prayer to God and to his saints, and to
such especially as have undergone temptations of the same kind; to resist
them valiantly at the first entrance, and to remember often the four last
things, death, judgment, hell, and heaven.
The Seventh Petition.
Q. WHAT is the seventh petition?
A. But deliver us from evil.
Q. What do we beg by this petition?
A. That God would deliver us from all our evils both spiritual and
temporal, especially from the evils of sin past, present, and to come.
Q. Who is the author of the evil sin?
A. The devil; for "Sin in God there is none." 1 John iii. 5.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Wisdom xiv. 9. "Hateful to God is the impious man and his
impiety."
Q. Who say this petition ill?
A. They who commit their evils before God, and multiply their sins
without remorse.
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CHAPTER VI.
The Hail Mary, or Angelical Salutation.
Q. WHAT is the Hail Mary?
A. It is a most honourable salutation to the blessed Virgin Mary, and
prayer to her.
Q. How do your prove it lawful to honour her?
A. Out of Luke i. 48, where (by inspirations from God; she prophesied,
saying, "All generations shall call me blessed."
Q. How may parts hath the Hail Mary?
A. It hath three parts.
Q. What is the first part?
A. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Q. Who made this part?
A. The Holy Ghost, though it was delivered by the angel Gabriel, Luke i.
28.
Q. What signifies the word Hail?
A. It signifies, Rejoice or be glad, O Mother of God.
Q. Why do we invite her by this prayer to rejoice?
A. Because it renews the memory of her blessed Son's conception, which
is an infinite cause of joy to her and the whole court of heaven.
Q. What signifies the word Mary?
A. It signifies star of the sea.
Q. Why is she properly called the star of the sea?
A. Because she shines on us by her exemplary virtue in this sea of
miseries, like a most glorious star.
Q. What mean you by the words, full of grace?
A. I mean that the Blessed Virgin hath a special fulness and prerogative
of grace for the conception of her Son.
Q. What means, The Lord is with thee?
A. It means that the whole Trinity was with her at the time in a
particular manner.
Q. How declare you that?
A. Because the Father was with her, as with his Spouse, the Son as with
his Mother, the Holy Ghost was with her, as with his choicest tabernacle.
Q. Are they also now with her?
A. They are in glory, and will be so for all eternity.
The Second Part of the Hail Mary.
Q. WHAT is the second part of it?
A. Blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
JESUS.
Q. Who made this part?
A. These words, Blessed art thou among women, were first delivered by
the angel; and after with the rest, uttered by St. Elizabeth, being inspired
by the Holy Ghost. Luke i. 28, 42.
Q. What understand you by Blessed art thou among women?
A. I understand, she alone was chosen out amongst all women to be the
Mother of God, and therefore ought to be blessed and praised by all women.
Q. Why by married women?
A. Because their children are made the sons of God by the nativity and
merits of her Son, of whom she daily also begs blessings for them.
Q. Why by virgins?
A. Because she is their queen and chiefest patroness, and obtains for
them of her Son Jesus, the gift of chastity.
Q. Why by widows?
A. Because she is their best example, and advocate to their Spouse, her
Son.
Q. What means, Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus?
A. It means, that Jesus is her true and natural Son, and in him she is
the author of all our blessings, and to be blessed both by men and angels.
Q. Why are Catholics such great honourers of the name Jesus.
A. Because it is a name above all names, as you have heard in the creed;
and as St. Paul exhorts, saying "all whatsoever you do in word or work, do
all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father by
him." Colos. iii. 17.
The Third Part of the Hail Mary.
Q. WHAT is the third part of the Hail Mary?
A. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and in the hour
of our death. Amen.
Q. Who made this part?
A. The holy Catholic Church in the Council of Ephesus, the year of our
Lord 431, (Pope Celestine presiding,) against Nestorius, the heretic, who
denied our blessed Lady to be the Mother of God, and would only have her
called the Mother of Christ. See Baronius, tom. 5. An. 4. 31.
Q. What means, Pray for us sinners now?
A. It means, that we need divine assistance every moment.
Q. What means, And at the hour of our death?
A. It meaneth that we then especially shall need the aid of the blessed
Mary, and her Son Jesus, and therefore do daily beg it. The word Amen,
signifies, let it be done, or be it so.
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CHAPTER VII.
Charity Expounded.
Q. WHAT is Charity?
A. It is the gift of God, or a supernatural quality infused by God into
the soul of man, by which we love God above all things, and our neighbours
as ourselves, for God's sake.
Q. Why is it called supernatural?
A. Because it is not in the power of nature to obtain it, but by the
special grace and gift of God.
Q. Is charity imputed as protestants would have it, or is it a quality
truly inherent in the soul.
A. It is truly inherent in the soul, as wisdom is inherent in a soul
that is wise, and love in a soul that loves.
Q. How prove you that?
A. First out of Rom. v. 5. "The charity of God which is poured forth in
our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, which is given us."
Secondly, out of Dan. vi, 22, "Before him (i.e. God) justice have been
found in me."
Thirdly, out of Ephes. iii. 17, 18, where St. Paul prays for his
brethren, "That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts: that, being rooted
and founded in charity, you may be able to comprehend, with all the saints,
what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth."
Q. What is it to love God above all things?
A. To be willing to lose all things, rather than the grace or love of
God by mortal sin.
Q. Who has this love?
A. They who keep the commandments of God, according to that, "This is
the charity of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are
not heavy." 1 John v. 3.
Q. Hath not he charity then, that breaks any of the commandments?
A. He hath not; for "he that saith, he knoweth God, and doth not keep
his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John ii. 4.
Q. What is it to love our neighbours as ourselves?
A. To wish him as much good as we wish ourselves, and to do him no
wrong.
Q. Who is our neighbour?
A. All men, women, and children, even those who injure us, or differ
from us in religion, but especially Catholics.
Q. Why so?
A. Because they are the images of God, and redeemed with the blood of
Christ.
Q. Why especially Catholics?
A. Because they are all members of the mystical body of Christ, which is
the church.
Q. Whence ariseth the obligations of loving our neighbour?
A. Because God hath commanded it: and 'if one shall say I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is a liar.' 1 John, iv. 20.
Q. Are we not also bound to love our enemies?
A. We are, according to that, "It was said of old, Thou shalt not kill:
but I say unto you, Love your enemies." Matt. v. 43, 44.
Q. What kind of love are we bound to show to our enemies?
A. We are bound to use a civil behaviour towards them, to pray for them
in general, and to be disposed to do any charitable office for them when
their necessity require it.
Q. What is the highest act of charity?
A. To give our life for God's honour, and the salvation of our
neighbour.
Q. Why is charity the greatest and most excellent of virtues?
A. Because it is the life of all the rest. "Faith without charity is
dead." James ii. 26.
Q. What state of life do we conceive to be of greatest perfection.
A. That which of its own nature and proper institution obligeth to the
highest and greatest charity, for charity is perfection, and such is the
state not only of bishops, but also, as many probably think, of pastors who
have the charge of souls.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 John xv. 13; "Greater charity than this no man hath, that a
man yield his life for his friends," which is the proper obligation of every
parish priest, according to that, "The good pastor giveth his life for his
sheep." John x. 12.
Q. How prove you the necessity of charity?
A. Out of John iv. 16. "He that remains in charity, remains in God, and
God in him," and chap. iii. ver 14, "He that loves not, remains in death."
Q. What are the effects of charity?
A. It destroys sin. "Charity covers a multitude of sins," James v. 20,
and gives spiritual life to the soul. "In this we know that we are
translated from death to life, because we love the brethren." 1 John iii.
14.
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CHAPTER VIII.
Of the Commandments in general.
Q. WHAT is the principal aim or end of the commandments?
A. To teach us the will and pleasure of the eternal God, or the love of
God, and our neighbour. "He that loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the
law." Rom. xiii. 8.
Q. Why are the commandments (excepting the determination of the sabbath
day) called the commandments of the law of nature?
A. Because God wrote them in the heart of men at the creation, being the
very dictates of natural reason.
Q. When did he renew them in the written law?
A. When he gave them to Moses on mount Sinai, in thunder and lightening,
written in two tables of stone Exod. xx.
Q. Why in thunder and lightening?
A. To move us to a careful observance of them.
Q. Are all men bound to know the commandments?
A. For the substance of them they are, because they are the rule of our
whole life and actions.
Q. How do you prove them to be only ten?
A. Out of Deut. iv. 13, "He shewed his covenant which he commanded you
to do, and the ten words which be wrote in two tables of stone."
Q. By what kind of sins are the commandments broken?
A. By mortal sins only; for venial sins are not strictly speaking
contrary to the end of the commandments, which is charity.
Q. How declare you that?
A. Because a venial sin, for example, a vain word, an officious or
jesting lie, which hurts nobody, the theft of a pin or an apple, is not of
weight enough to break charity between man and man, much less between God
and man.
Q. Is it possible for us to keep all the commandments?
A. Not only possible, but necessary and easy, by the assistance of God's
grace.
Q. How do you prove that?
A. Because God is not a tyrant to command impossibilities under pain of
eternal damnation, as he doth the keeping his commandments.
Q. How prove you that?
A. First out of Exod. xx. and Deut. xxviii. 15. where he often commands
them to be kept, threatening grievous punishments to such as break them.
Secondly, out of Matt. v. 19. "Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of
these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the
least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach the same
shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
Thirdly, out of Matt. xi. 29, 30. "Take up my yoke upon you (saith the
Lord) for my yoke is sweet, and my burden light." And again, 1 John v. 3.
"His commandments are not heavy."
Q. Hath God ever promised to enable man to keep them?
A. He hath, and also actually to make them keep and do them.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Ezek. xxxvi. 27. "I will put my spirit in the middle of you,
(said our Lord) and I will make ye walk in my precepts, and keep my
judgments and do them."
And again, chap. xxxvii. 23, 24. "They shall be my people, and I will be
their God, there shall be one pastor of them all, and they shall walk in my
judgments and keep my commandments and do them.
Q. How do you prove that any have kept them?
A. Out of Luke i. 6. "Zachary and Elizabeth were both just before God:
walking in all the commandments and justifications of our Lord without
reproof.
Q. How prove you the keeping of them to be necessary to salvation?
A. First, out of Matt. xix. 17. "If thou wilt enter into life (saith our
Lord) keep the commandments."
Secondly, out of Luke x. 25, 28, where the lawyer had asked, what he
should do to possess everlasting life, and had repeated the sum of the
commandments: Christ answered him saying, "Do this, and thou shalt live."
Thirdly, out of Rom. ii. 13, "Not hearers of the law are just with God,
but the doers of the law shall be justified."
OF THE COMMANDMENTS IN PARTICULAR.
The First Commandment Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the first commandment?
A. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and
out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.
Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing
that is in heaven above, or in the earth below, or of those things that are
in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore nor worship them; I am
the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the sins of the fathers upon
their children, to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and
showing mercy to thousands of those that love me, and keep my commandments.
Exod. xx.
Q. What are we commanded by this precept?
A. To serve, love, adore, and worship one only, true, living, and
eternal God, and no more.
Q. What are we forbidden by this precept?
A. Not to worship any creature for a God, or give to it the honour which
is due to God.
Q. What is the honour due to God?
A. A supreme and sovereign honour, which is called by divines Latria; by
which we honour him as the great master of life and death, as our creator,
redeemer, preserver, and last end.
Q. How do men sin against this commandment?
A. By worshipping idols and false gods, by erring or doubting in faith,
by superstition and witchcraft.
Q. How else?
A. By communicating with infidels or heretics, by believing dreams, &c.
Q. How do you prove it a great sin to go to church with heretics?
A. Because by so doing we outwardly deny our faith, and profess their
false faith.
Q. What scripture have you against it?
A. Out of Luke xvii. 23, 24, where Christ forbids it, saying, "And they
shall say unto you, Lo! here is Christ, Lo, there Christ; go ye not, neither
do you follow them."
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Tit. iii. 10, 11. "A man that is a heretic, after the first
and second admonition, avoid, knowing that he that is such an one is
subverted and sinneth."
Q. How do you prove it unlawful to go to witches and fortune-tellers?
A. Out of Deut. xviii. 10, 11. "There shall not be found among you any
one that shall expiate his son or daughter making them to pass through the
fire, or that useth divination, or any observer of times, or enchanter, or
witch, or a charmer, or a wizard, or necromancer, &c. For all these things
our Lord abhorreth."
Q. What understand you by these words. Thou shalt not make to thyself
any graven thing, &c. Thou shalt not adore them, &c.
A. I understand that we must not make idols or images, nor any graven
thing whatsoever, to adore it as a god, or with God's honour.
Q. Why are not these words expressed at length in many of our short
catechisms?
A. Because they are sufficiently included in the preceding words, "Thou
shalt not have strange (or other) gods before me."
Q. How declare you that?
A. Because if we must have no other but the only true God, who created
heaven and earth, then it is clear to the reason of every child, that we
must not have many gods, or any graven things for gods, or adore any other
things for God.
Q. Why do Protestants of those of new religions, instead of graven
things, translate graven images?
A. Because they have a will to corrupt the text, in hope by so doing to
persuade ignorant people, that Catholics are idolaters, and break the first
commandment by making and worshipping images.
Q. How do you prove they corrupt the text?
A. Because the Hebrew word is Pesel, which signifies a graven thing, the
Greek is Idolon, and the Latin is Sculptile, a graven thing; therefore the
word Image is a mere corruption.
Q. Is it lawful then to give any honour to the images of Christ and his
saints?
A. Yes, an inferior or relative honour, as much as they represent unto
us heavenly things, but not God's honour, nor yet the honour due the saints.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Exod. xxv. 18, 19, 22, where God himself commanded "two
cherubims to be made of beaten gold, and to be set on both sides of the ark
(before which the people were to pray) and promised that he would speak unto
them from the middle of the cherubims;" therefore it is lawful to make
images and pray before them.
Q. Do not Catholics pray to images and relics?
A. By no means; we pray before them, indeed, to excite our devotion, and
to keep our thoughts collected upon heavenly subjects; but we do not, at
all, pray to them; for we know well they can neither see, nor hear, nor help
us.
Q. What other proof have you for the lawful use of images?
A. First, out of John iii. 14, where Christ approves the making and
exalting the brazen serpent, by which the Israelites were healed in the
desert, and owns it to be an image or figure of himself, exalted on the
cross.
Secondly, because we read in Baronius, that the famous church historian,
in the year of Christ, 31, that Christ himself sent his own image to king
Abdagar, and made it also by the miracle on the handkerchief of St.
Veronica, and on his own shroud.
Add to this, the second Nicene council, Actio 4, anathematizes
image-breakers, that is such as shall break them in contempt or scorn, and
all such as allege the places in scripture, which are against idols, are
against the sacred images; and also those who say that Catholics honour
images as God, with sovereign honour.
Q. How could you further satisfy a Protestant, that should charge you
with idolatry, in giving sovereign honour to pictures and images?
A. I would for satisfaction herein, if necessary, break a crucifix, or
tear a picture of Jesus Christ in pieces, and throw the pieces into the
fire; and would show him the council of Trent, Sess. 25, which teaches thus,
"Images are not to be venerated for any virtue of divinity that is believed
to be in them, or for any trust or confidence that is to be put in them, as
the Gentiles did of old, who reposed their hope and trust in their idols;
but because the honour that is exhibited to them, is referred to the
prototypes represented by them" &c.
Q. What benefits do we receive by images?
A. Very great, because they movingly represent to us the mysteries of
our Saviour's passion, as also by martyrdoms and examples of his saints.
Q. Is there not some danger of Idolatry in the frequent use of idols?
A. Truely none at all; for it is not possible that any rational man, who
is instructed in Christianity, would conceive or think a piece of painted
wood or marble, is that God and man, Jesus Christ, who was born of the
Virgin Mary, died on the cross, arose from the dead, ascended into heaven,
and sits now on the right hand of God.
Q. But how, if such inconveniences happen, at least by accident?
A. Let the abuse be mended, and not the good institution taken away or
blamed; For man's nature is subject to hurt itself, even in the best things,
which must not therefore be given over.
Q. How do you prove it lawful to paint God the Father like an old man,
seeing he is pure spirit, and hath no body?
A. Because he appeared to the prophet Daniel in the shape of an old man,
Dan. 7, but this is to be understood, that the pictures we make, are not the
proper images of God the Father, but the shape wherein he appeared to
Daniel. And the like is to be understood of the pictures of angels, to wit,
that they are not proper images of them, according to their spiritual
substance, but of the shape they appear in to men.
Q. What utility doth accrue to us by our honouring and canonizing
Saints?
A. Very great, seeing it much conduceth to the imitation of their
virtues, and the love of God, making us know that it is possible even for
ourselves, to come to the like reward.
Q. How declare you that?
A. Because the higher esteem we have of the saints, and the excellency
of their state, the more ardent must needs be our desire, and the stronger
our courage, to do and undertake what they did and practised.
Q. Is it lawful to honour the angels and saints?
A. It is with Dulia, an inferior honour, proportioned to their
excellency, which they have from God; it is God we honour in them.
Q. How prove you that?
A. First, out of Josue v. 14, where the angel of the Lord said to Josue,
"I am the prince of the host of our Lord." Josue fell on his face to the
ground; and worshipping said, "What saith my Lord to his servant?'
Secondly, out of Apoc. xxii. 8, where John (though the angel had already
forbidden him so to do, because of his apostolical dignity, chap xix. 10.)
"fell down to adore before the feet of the angel, who shewed him these
things."
Q. Is it lawful to honour the relics of saints?
A. With a relative honour it is, referring it to God's honour.
Q. How prove you that?
A. First, because a dead man was raised from death to life by touching
the bones of Eliseus the prophet, 4 Kings xiii. 21.
Secondly, out of Matt. ix. 20, 21, where we read the woman was healed of
her bloody flux, but by the touching the hem of our Saviour's garment, and
believing it would heal her.
Thirdly, out of Acts xviii. 19. "The handkerchiefs and aprons which had
but touched the body of St. Paul, cast out devils, and cured all diseases."
Q. How prove you that dead and inanimate things, (for example, medals,
crosses, churches, bread, water and the like) are capable of sanctity and
honour?
A. First, out of Joshua iv. 16, and Exod. iii. 5, where the Angel saith
to Moses and Joshua, "Loose thy shoes from 'thy feet, for the ground whereon
thou standest is holy ground."
Secondly, out of Matt. xxiii. 17, 18, where we read, that the temple
sanctifieth the gold, and the altar the gift. "Ye fools and blind, (saith
our Lord,) whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the
gold? the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
Thirdly, out of Tim. iv. 4, 5. "Every creature of God is sanctified by
the word of God and prayer," and out of 2 Peter i. 18, where he calls the
mountain Tabor a holy hill, because Christ was transfigured upon it.
Q. How prove you that pilgrimages to holy places, as to mount Calvary,
mount Tabor, and the sepulchre of Christ, are laudable and pious practices?
A. First, out of Deut. xvi. 16, where God himself commanded, that thrice
a year all the people should come up into Jerusalem, to adore and make their
offerings to him."
Secondly, the example of Christ himself, our blessed Lady, and St.
Joseph, "who went up to Jerusalem, the solemn day of the Pasch." Luke ii.
41, 42.
Thirdly, out of Acts viii. where the Ethiopian eunuch, going on a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, was in his return converted and baptized by St.
Philip, so pleasing was his pilgrimage to God.
Finally, because it was foretold by the prophets that these places which
Christ sanctified by his passion should be of great pilgrimage and
adoration, "We will adore (saith David) in the place where his feet stood,"
Psalm cxxxi. 7. And in Isa. xi. 10, we read, "To him shall the Gentiles
pray, and his sepulchre shall be glorious."
Q. How do you prove it lawful to go on pilgrimages to the shrines of
Saints?
A. Because, as you have read already, their relics are holy and
venerable things, and God is pleased to work great cures and miracles by
them for such as are devout honourers of them.
Q. If there any power now in the church to do miracles?
A. There is according to that unlimited promise of Christ. "And these
signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast out devils;
they shall speak with new tongues: they shall lay their hands upon the sick,
and they shall recover." Mark xvi. 17.
Q. Have these things been done in latter ages?
A. They have, and are, as you may see in the unquestioned histories and
records of all Catholic countries; where many great miracles wrought by the
servants of God, especially at pilgrimages and shrines of Saints, are yearly
registered under the depositions of eye-witnesses, men above all exceptions,
which cannot be denied unless we deny all history.
Q. Why do the pretended reformers say miracles are ceased?
A. Because they have never yet been able to do any in confirmation of
their errors.
Q. Why are so few done here in our days?
A. By reason of incredulity of many bad Christians. Matt. xiii. 58.
Q. What necessity is there for the belief of miracles?
A. Doubtless very great; because the belief of miracles well grounded,
make men extremely apprehensive of the presence of God, and his immediate
government of human affairs; so that he who absolutely denies miracles, is
to be suspected of not believing particular providence, which is the main
string on which all Christianity depends.
The Second Commandment Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the second commandment?
A. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord by God in vain.
Q. What is forbidden by this precept.
A. All false, rash, and unnecessary oaths.
Q. What kind of sins are false and rash oaths?
A. Mortal sins, if they be voluntary and deliberate, because by such
oaths, we call God to witness a lie; or at least to that which is uncertain.
Q. What are the necessary conditions of a lawful oath?
A. Truth, that we hurt not God's honour; justice that we wrong not our
neighbour; and judgment, that we swear not vainly.
Q. What is the just cause of an oath?
A. God's honour, our own, or our neighbour's good and defence.
Q. If a man swears to do that which is evil, is he bound to keep his
oath?
A. No, he is not bound to keep it; for an oath is no bond of iniquity.
Q. How prove you a vain or jesting oath to be a sin?
A. Out of Matt. v. 33. "It was said of old (saith our Lord) Thou shalt
not commit perjury; but I say unto you, not to swear at all," that is
without just cause.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of James v. 12. "But above all things, my brethren, swear not,
neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any other oath. But let your speech
be: Yea, yea: no, no: that you fall not under judgment."
Q. What else is prohibited by this precept?
A. All cursing and blaspheming.
Q. How else do men sin against this precept?
A. By breaking lawful vows, and by making or keeping unlawful ones.
Q. What is a lawful vow?
A. It is a deliberate and voluntary promise made to God, of some better
good.
Q. How do you prove it lawful to make vows?
A. Out of Isa. xix. 21. "They shall make vows unto the Lord, and shall
pay them."
Q. What is commanded by this precept?
A. To speak always with reverence of God, and his saints.
The Third Commandment Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the third commandment?
A. Remember that thou keepest holy the sabbath day.
Q. When did the Sabbath begin to be kept?
A. From the very creation of the world; for then God blessed the seventh
day, and rested on it from all His works. Gen. ii. 2.
Q. When was this commandment renewed?
A. In the Old Law; when God gave the commandments to Moses on mount
Sinai, written with His own finger in two tables of stone, Exod. xx. 1, &c.
xxxi. 18.
Q. Why was the Jewish Sabbath changed into the Sunday?
A. Because Christ was born upon a Sunday, arose from the dead upon a
Sunday, and sent down the Holy Ghost on a Sunday: works not inferior to the
creation of the world.
Q. By whom was it changed?
A. By the Governors of the Church, the Apostles, who also kept it; for
St. John was in spirit on the Lord's day (which was Sunday.) Apoc. i. 10.
Q. How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and
holydays?
A. By the very act of changing the sabbath into Sunday, which
Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by
keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the
same Church.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the Church's power to
ordain feasts, and to command them under sin; and by not keeping the rest by
her commanded, they again deny, in fact, the same power.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of John x. 22, where we read that Christ himself was present, and
kept the Dedication of the temple in Jerusalem, a feast ordained by Judas
Maccabęus, 1 Macc. iv. 59.
And out of Acts ii. 1, 4, where the Apostles, keeping the feast of
Pentecost, "were all filled with the Holy Ghost." Neither do Protestants as
yet differ from this, though some have lately prohibited and profaned both
it and the holy feast of the Resurrection, and all the other feasts of the
Church.
Q. What commandment have you from God for obedience to the Church in
things of this nature?
A. Out of Acts xv. 41, where we read that "St. Paul went about
confirming the Churches, and commanding them to keep the precepts of the
Apostles and the ancients." And out of Luke x. 16, "He that heareth you,
heareth me; and he that despiseth you (the Church) despiseth me."
Q. May temporal princes and the laity make a holy day?
A. With consent and approbation of the Church, they may, otherwise not;
because this is an act of spiritual jurisdiction.
Q. For what end doth the Church ordain holydays?
A. For the increase of piety, and the memory of special benefits
received from God.
Q. If keeping the Sunday be a church precept, why is it numbered in the
decalogue, which are the Commandments of God, and the Law of Nature?
A. Because the substance or chief part of it, namely Divine Right, and
the Law of Nature; though the determinating this particular day, Sunday
rather than Saturday, be a Church ordinance and precept.
Q. Did not Christ, when he confirmed the rest, confirm also this
commandment?
A. In as much as it belongeth to the law of nature, he did: but not as
it belonged to the ceremonial law of the Jews, and was affixed to Saturday,
therefore, now we are not bound to keep Saturday.
Q. Why so, I pray you?
A. Because that particular day was a command of the ceremonial law of
the Jews, which was abrogated, and ceased to oblige after the death of
Christ.
Q. To what are we obliged by this precept?
A. To spend Sunday in prayer and divine service.
Q. What is the best means to sanctify the Sunday?
A. By hearing mass, confessing our sins, communicating, hearing sermons,
and reading good books.
Q. What is forbidden by this precept?
A. All profane employments, and servile labours, excepting such as are
of necessity, as dressing meat, serving cattle, &c. or such as appertain to
piety and works of mercy.
Q. Who break this commandment?
A. Such as without necessity spend any considerable part of the Sunday
in servile labours.
Q. How else is the Sunday profaned?
A. By spending all the morning slothfully in bed, or vainly dressing
ourselves; by missing divine service when we may hear it, or spending a part
of the day in drinking, gaming, dancing, or the like.
Q. Is there any thing now in this first table of the law impossible to
be observed?
A. No certainly; for nothing can be more easy and delightful to the true
servant of God, than the things that are here commanded.
Q. Why do you now divide the table of Moral law into three and seven,
whereas anciently some Fathers assigned four to the first table, and six to
the last?
A. Concerning the manner of limiting the number of commandments to each
table, the scripture says nothing, not so much as which is the third, which
is the fourth commandment, and therefore it is in itself indifferent: St.
Jerome divides them into four and six, which is no where condemned, St.
Augustine into three and seven, who is more generally followed; but indeed
the matter is of no great importance how we reckon them so we retain them in
our books, and keep them in our lives.
Q. But what reason can justify the omission of so great a part of the
text, when we transcribe the commandments into our catechisms?
A. Such books being composed principally for the unlearned, are by the
pastors of the church abridged into the shortest and easiest method they
can, prudently condescending to the weak memories and low capacities of the
people: nor can the church be accused of the least shadow of corrupting or
omitting any part of the commandments, or of God's word; since in no
Catholic Bible is there one syllable left out; and whether the first
commandment, after this account, be divided, and the two last united, or
contrawise the last divided and the first united, is not at all material,
the whole ten commandments being entirely contained in both, or either way.
THE SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW.
The Fourth Commandment Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the fourth commandment?
A. Honour thy father and mother.
Q. What are we commanded by this precept.
A. To love, reverence, obey, and relieve our parents in their wants.
Q. Why to love them?
A. Because, under God they are the chief causes of our very life and
being; and do not only bring us up with much love, labour, and solicitude.
Q. How are we bound to reverence them?
A. Not only inwardly in our heart, but also outwardly in our carriage
and comportment.
Q. Why to obey them?
A. Because they are God's vicegerents, and have received power from him
(from whom is all paternity in heaven and earth) both to direct us, instruct
us, and correct us.
Q. In what things are we bound to obey our parents?
A. In all that is not sin, according to that, "Children obey your
parents in all things, for that is pleasing unto God." Col. iii. 20.
Q. What is prohibited by the precept?
A. All sourness, stubborness, and disobedience to parents.
Q. What is the reward of dutiful children?
A. Long and happy life; "The blessing of heaven comes upon them, and
remains to the end of their days." Eccl. iii. 10.
Q. What is the reward of undutiful children?
A. A short and sinful life, accompanied with an untimely death witness
the example of Absalom,
2 Kings viii. 14.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. That of Prov. xxx. 17. "The eye that mocketh at his father, and that
despiseth the travail of his mother in bearing him, let the ravens of the
torrent pick it out and the young of the eagle eat it."
Q. What signifies the word Father?
A. It signifies not only our corporal parents, but also our Ghostly
Father, and all lawful superiors.
Q. What owe we to the Ghostly Father?
A. Love, reverence, obedience, and maintenance.
Q. Why love?
A. Because they are the fathers and feeders of our souls, and under God
and his saints, the instrumental causes of our spiritual good: "For in
Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel," (saith St. Paul) 1
Cor. iv. 15.
Q. Why reverence?
A. Because they are God's anointed, and represent the person of Christ.
Q. Why obedience?
A. Because God hath appointed them to be our spiritual pastors, guides,
and governors.
Q. In what are we bound to obey them?
A. In all things belonging to faith, doctrine, and the government of our
souls.
Q. Is any great honour due to priests and ghostly fathers?
A. There is, according to that of St. Paul. "Let the priests who rule
well be esteemed worthy of double honour; especially they who labour in the
word and doctrine." 1 Tim. v. 17.
Q. Have you any other place?
A. Yes, Eccle. vii. 13, 32, 33, "With all thy soul fear our Lord and
reverence his priests, with all thy strength, love them that made thee and
forsake not his master, honour God with all thy soul, and honour the
priests." And the reason is, for if we owe love, honour, and obedience to
our carnal parents, much more to our spiritual, by how much the soul
surpasseth the body. Again, as there is none greater than priests, who are
empowered to shut and open the gates of heaven, as also to convert the
substance of bread and wine, into the most precious body and blood of our
blessed Saviour: to no person is greater honour due, than to them who
personate Christ himself, so that he who despiseth them despiseth Christ
himself, and the disregard of them is the origin of impiety.
Q. How may we sin against priests and ghostly fathers?
A. By disobeying or detracting them, or believing slanderous reports
against them, upon mere hearsay, or the testimony of insufficient witnesses,
or without witnesses.
Q. What testimony is sufficient against a priest?
A. I will tell you out of St. Paul's mouth: "Against a priest (saith he
to Timothy the bishop of Ephesus) receive not an accusation under two or
three witnesses." 1 Tim. v. 19, and 21, "I charge thee before God, and
Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without
prejudice, doing nothing by declining to either side."
Q. Is it convenient to ask a blessing of priests?
A. It is, because they give it in the name and person of Christ.
Q. What warrant have you for it?
A. First out of Mark 14, 16, where "Christ laying his hands upon the
children, blessed them."
Secondly, the example of Melchisedech blessing Abraham; upon which St.
Paul saith, "without all contradiction, that which is less, is blessed of
the better." Heb. vii. 7.
Q. What scripture have you for obedience to priests?
A. Heb. xiii. 17. "Obey your prelates, and be subject to them; for they
watch, as being to render an account for your souls." And in the old law,
disobedience to the priests was punished with death,
Deut. xvii. 12.
Q. In what are we bound under sin to obey princes and temporal
magistrates?
A. In all things (which are not sin) belonging to the good and peace of
the commonwealth.
Q. How prove you that?
A. First, out of Rom. xiii. 1. "Let every soul be subject to the higher
powers, for there is no power but of God: he therefore that resists power,
resists the ordinance of God."
Secondly, out of 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14. "Be ye subject to every creature for
God, whether to the king as excelling, or to magistrates, as sent by him to
the revenge of malefactors.
Q. What if kings or magistrates command us to do sin, or things against
our conscience?
A. Then we must answer them with the apostles, 'we must obey God, rather
than men." Acts v. 29.
Q. In what are servants bound to obey their masters?
A. In all things that are not sin, belonging to their charge.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Coloss. iii. 22. "Servants, obey in all things your masters,
according to the flesh, not serving the eye, as pleasing men, but in
simplicity of heart, as pleasing God.
Q. How do servants sin against their masters?
A. By neglecting their commands, stealing or spoiling their goods, &c.
The Fifth Commandment Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the fifth commandment?
A. Thou shalt not kill.
Q. What is prohibited by this?
A. All murder, unjust shedding of blood, fighting and quarreling.
Q. Is it not lawful to kill in any cause?
A. Yes, in a just war, or when public justice requires it: "For the
magistrate beareth not the sword without cause." Rom. i. 4. As also in the
blameless defence of our own, or our innocent neighbour's life, against an
unjust invader.
Q. Is it lawful to fight duels, appointing a set time and place, for
private interest, or punctilios of honour?
A. No, by no means; for the church hath forbidden it under
excommunication, to be incurred ipso facto; and such as die in duels, can
be neither have Christian burial nor be prayed for the church.
Q. How prove you all fighting and quarreling to be unlawful?
A. Out of Matt. v. 39. "You have heard (saith Christ) it was said of
old, and eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you not to
resist evil, but if any other strike thee on the right cheek, turn to him
also the other."
Q. What else is forbidden by this precept?
A. To seek, wish, or desire our own, or any other man's death, out of
impatience or passion, or to cause women with child to miscarry.
The Sixth Commandment Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the sixth commandment?
A. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Q. What is prohibited by this precept?
A. All carnal sin with another man's wife, or another woman's husband,
and chiefly adultery; as also fornication and pollution.
Q. How prove you fornication and pollution to be mortal sins?
A. Out of Col. iii. 5, 6. "Mortify, therefore, (saith St. Paul,) your
members, which are upon earth: fornication, uncleaness, lust, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is the service of idols: for which
things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of unbelief."
Q. In what case is it lawful for a man to dismiss his wife?
A. Only in case of evident adultery.
Q. Can he that hath so dismissed his wife, marry another during her
life?
A. He cannot; for "he that dismisseth his wife and marries another,
committeth adultery." Matt. v. 32. And Luke xvi. 18. "He that marries her,
that is so dismissed, commits adultery."
Q. Why is adultery a far greater sin than fornication?
A. Because it is a greater injury to our innocent neighbour, as also to
the sacrament of matrimony.
Q. How prove you that a wife so dismissed from her husband, cannot marry
again during her husband's life?
A. Out of 1 Cor. vii. 10, 11. "But to them, that are married, not I, but
the Lord commandeth, that the wife depart not from her husband: and if she
depart, that she remain unmarried." And ver. 39. "A woman is bound to the
law, so long as her husband liveth; but if her husband sleep (that is be
dead) she is at liberty, let her marry whom she will."
Q. What else is forbidden by this precept?
A. Whoredom, incest, sacrilege, and sins against nature.
Q. Why is lust hateful in the sight of God?
A. Because it defiles in us the image of God, and the temple of the Holy
Ghost.
Q. What more is here prohibited?
A. Unchaste touching of ourselves or others, with delight in lustful
thoughts and kisses.
Q. What is the heir of unlawful lust?
A. Death and damnation; for, "neither fornicators nor adulterers, nor
effeminate," (that is such as defile themselves with voluntary pollution,)
"shall possess the kingdom of God." 1 Cor. vi. 9.
The Seventh Commandment Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the seventh commandment?
A. Thou shalt not steal.
Q. What is forbidden by this precept?
A. All unjust taking away, or detaining that which is another man's.
Q. How many kinds of theft be there?
A. Three kinds, simple theft, which is a secret taking away that which
is another man's; rapine, which is a taking away by open violence, or
keeping of that which is another man's; and sacrilege, which is stealing of
sacred things, or out of sacred places.
Q. When is theft a mortal sin?
A. When the thing stolen is of a considerable value, or causeth a
considerable hurt to our neighbour.
Q. How prove you that:
A. Out of 1 Cor. vi. 10. "Neither thieves, nor covetous men, nor
extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God."
Q. What doth the sin of theft oblige us to?
A. To make restitution of the things stolen to the right owner, if we be
able, else the sin will not be forgiven us.
Q. What else is here prohibited?
A. All usury, bribery, cozenage in gaming, or unjust gain by buying or
selling.
Q. What is usury?
A. It is to receive, or to hope for some money or moneys' worth, as
gain, above the principle, immediately out of the consideration of loan.
Q. How prove you usury and bribery to great sins?
A. Out of Psalm xiv. 1, 6. "O Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle,
or who shall rest in thy holy mountain? He that have not given his money to
use, nor taken bribes upon the innocent man." And from Ezek. xxii 12. "Thou
hast taken usury and increase, and hast covetously oppressed thy neighbours.
I will disperse thee in the nations, and will scatter thee among the
countries." Likewise from Luke vi. 35, where the Lord says, "Do good and
lend, hoping for nothing thereby." See on this the Catechism of the holy
council of Trent.
Q. How are rich men soonest brought to beggary?
A. By mingling other men's goods among their own.
Q. How do men generally sin against this precept?
A. Princes, by imposing unjust taxes on their subjects; subjects, by not
paying their due taxes to their princes: buyers and sellers, by deceitful
weight and measure, or by exceeding the just prices: masters by defrauding
servants of their wages: and servants, by embezzling their master's goods.
"And that no man over-reach or deceive his brother in business: because the
Lord is the avenger of all such things, as we have told you before, and have
testified." 1 Thess. iv. 6.
The Eighth Commandment Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the eighth commandment?
A. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Q. What is prohibited by this precept?
A. All false testimonials, rash judgment, and lies.
Q. Why is false testimony so great a sin?
A. Because it is against the justice of God, and our neighbour.
Q. How prove you that corrupt judgment is a great sin?
A. Out of Isa. v. 22, 23, 24. "Wo be to you that call evil good, that
justify the impious man for bribes and rob the just man of his justice; for
as fire devoureth the stubble, so shall the root of these men be ashes."
Q. Why is rash judgment a great sin?
A. Because it robs God of his judgment, and our neighbour of his good
name: "Do not ye judge, that you be not judged." Matt. vii. 1.
Q. Why is it a sin to lie?
A. Because "the devil is a liar, and the father of all lies." John viii.
44.
Q. What else is prohibited by the precept?
A. The crimes of whispering, flattery, detraction.
Q. What is whispering?
A. It is to break friendship between others, by speaking ill of one unto
the other behind his back.
Q. What is flattery?
A. to attribute to another some perfection which he hath not, or to
praise him for that which he deserves not.
Q. What is detraction?
A. Is is a secret staining and blotting another's good name.
Q. What is calumny?
A. It is telling a falsehood of our neighbour to his prejudice.
Q. Are lies, backbiting, flattery, afronts, detraction, and calumny,
grievous sins?
A. They are often very grievous sins. The scriptures saith, Prov. vi.
16, 19. "Six things there are which the Lord hateth; and the seventh his
soul destesteth. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent
blood, a heart that deviseth wicked plots, feet that are swift to run into
mischief, a deceitful witness that uttereth lies, and him that soweth
discord among the brethren.
Q. What is he bound to, that hath hurt his neighbour in any of these
kinds?
A. To make him satisfaction, and restore him his good name.
Q. How for example?
A. If he have told a hurtful lie of him, he is bound to unsay it; or if
he have revealed his secret sin, he is bound to speak well of the same
party, and to mitigate the matter as well as he can.
Q. Is it a sin to hearken to detraction?
A. To do it willingly, and with delight, or so as to encourage the
detractor, it is; for by so doing we cooperate with the detractor.
Q. How them must we behave ourselves among detractors?
A. If they be inferiors, we must reprehend them; if equals or superiors,
we must show ourselves at least not pleased with that discourse.
Q. What is rash judgment?
A. That which is grounded on mere hearsay, jealousy, and surmises
without any moral certainty, or great probability.
Q. When is a lie a mortal sin?
A. When it is any great dishonour to God or notable prejudice to our
neighbour: otherwise, if it be merely officious, or trifling, it is but a
venial sin.
The Ninth and Tenth Commandments Expounded.
Q. WHAT are the ninth and tenth commandments?
A. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour's goods.
Q. What is prohibited by these commandments?
A. The inordinate will or desire of unlawful lust, especially adultery,
and of all these.
Q. What else?
A. Not only deliberate desire or consent, but likewise all voluntary
delight and complacency, in covetous or impure thoughts and motions of the
flesh.
Q. How prove you that unchaste desires are mortal sins?
A. Out of Matt. v. 27, 28. "It was said of old, Thou shalt not commit
adultery; but I say unto you, whosoever shall see a woman to lust after her,
he hath already committed adultery in his heart."
Q. How prove you covetous desires to be great sins?
A. Out of 1 Tim. vi. 9. "For they who would become rich, fall into
temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and
hurtful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition."
Q. Is there any sin in those motions of concupiscence, which we feel an
suffer against our wills?
A. There is not, for nothing is sin, which is not voluntary and
deliberate. Nay, if resisted they become the occasion of merit to us. To
them were liable the most perfect saints, and even the apostles themselves;
for Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8, 9, writes, "And lest the greatness of the
revelations should puff me up, there was given me a sting of my flesh, and
angel of Satan, to buffet me. For which thing I thrice besought the Lord,
that it might depart from me: And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for
thee: for power is made perfect in infirmity.
Q. What think you now of this second table of the law, is there any
thing that favours of impossibility?
A. No certainly, for there is nothing commanded us, which the very law
of nature and right reason doth not dictate to us; and therefore ought to be
observed and done, although it were not commanded us.
Q. Is there any thing but what every man expects and desires to have
done to himself by others?
A. There is not, therefore we must do the same to others, according to
that, "All things whatsoever you will that men do unto you, do ye also to
them; for this is the law and the prophets." Matt. vii. 12.
Q. Why then do Protestants pretend and say, that the commandments are
impossible to be kept?
A. Because they are not willing to oblige themselves to the observance
of them, but had rather make God the author of sin, by commanding
impossibilities, (a most high blasphemy) and justify their own iniquities by
saying, they cannot help it; than humbly acknowledge and confess their sins,
with purpose to amend, by an acceptance of the law of God.
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CHAPTER IX.
The Precepts of the Church Expounded.
Q. HOW many are the commandments of the church?
A. There be six principle ones.
Q. What is the first?
A. "To hear mass on Sundays and holydays," if we have opportunity to do
it, and there be no just cause to the contrary.
Q. Why on all Sundays?
A. In thanksgiving for the benefits of the week past, as also to
sanctify the Lord's day.
Q. For what other reason?
A. In memory that the same Christ, who is offered upon the altar at the
mass for our sins, was born, rose from the dead, and sent down the Holy
Ghost on a Sunday.
Q. Why on all holydays?
A. Either in memory of some special benefit, or else for a commemoration
of some peculiar saint, so to move ourselves to imitate his example.
Q. How prove you that the church hath power to ordain and command
feasts?
A. First, by the example of the church in the apostle's time, which
ordained the feast of Christmas in honour of the Nativity of Christ; Easter
in honour of his resurrection; Whitsuntide, in honour of the coming of the
Holy Ghost, in tongues of fire.
Secondly, out of St. Clement, the disciple of St. Peter, in his eighth
book of apostolical constitutions, where he witnesseth. "That the apostles
gave order for the celebrating of St. Stephen's and some other of their
fellow apostles' days after their deaths."
Thirdly, out of 2 Thess. iii. 4. "And we have confidence concerning you
in the Lord, that the things which we command, you both do, and will do."
And ver. 14. "And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that
man, and do not keep company with him, he may be ashamed."
Fourthly, out of 1 Thess. iv. 8, where St. Paul, (speaking of the
precepts he had given his brethren,) saith, "He that despiseth these things,
despiseth not man, but God, who also hath given his Holy Spirit in us." See
what was said before in the third commandment of God.
The Second Precept of the Church Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the second commandment of the church?
A. To fast Lent, Vigils commanded, Ember days, and with abstinence from
flesh on Fridays and Saturdays.
Q. Why Lent?
A. In imitation of Christ our Lord, who fasted forty days and forty
nights in the desert for our sins, without once eating or drinking.
Q. Can we fast in this manner?
A. We cannot; but we must do at least what we are able.
Q. How prove you fasting to be a pious practice?
A. By the example of Christ and his Saints, and out of Luke ii. 37,
where we read, "That Anna the prophetess departed not from the temple
serving day and night by fasting and prayer."
Q. How prove you fasting to me meritorious?
A. Out of Matt. vi. 16, 17, 18. "And when you fast, be not sad, like the
hypocrites; but anoint thy head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not
unto men to fast, but to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father who
seeth in secret, will repay thee."
Q. How prove you abstinence from certain meats to be commendable?
A. Because it was proscribed by an angel to St. John. "He shall be great
before the Lord, wine and cider he shall not drink." Luke i. 15. And in
Matt. iii. 4, we read, "That his food was locusts and wild honey."
Q. For what is fasting available?
A. For the remission of sins and appeasing the wrath of God, according
to that, "Be ye converted unto me in your whole heart, in fasting, weeping,
and mourning," Joel ii. 12.
To mortify all the lustful desires of the flesh; and that it hath
special force against the Devil: "This kind of devil (saith our Lord) can go
out by nothing but by prayer and fasting," Mark ix. 29.
Q. Why Vigils?
A. To prepare ourselves for a devout keeping the feasts that follow.
Q. Why Ember-days?
A. Because on those days the church giveth Holy orders and ordained
priests; and for that cause hath dedicated them to public prayers and
fasting.
Q. What ground have you for that?
A. Out of Acts xiii. 2, 3. "And as they (the apostles) were ministering
to our Lord, and fasting, the Holy Ghost said, Separate ye unto me Saul and
Barnabas to the work whereto I have them. Then with fasting and praying, and
imposing hand on them, they dismissed them."
Q. Why abstinence on Fridays?
A. In memory that Christ suffered for us upon a Friday; drinking gall
and vinegar on the cross; but especially by custom, which is a good as law.
Q. Why abstinence on Saturdays?
A. To prepare ourselves for a devout keeping of the Sunday, as also in
honour of the blessed Virgin Mary, who stood firm in faith on that day, the
apostles themselves wavering.
The Third Precept of the Church Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the third commandment of the church?
A. To confess our sins at least once a year.
Q. Why was that commanded?
A. Because otherwise, libertines would not have done it once in many
years.
The Fourth Precept of the Church Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the fourth?
A. To receive the blessed Sacrament at least once a year, and that at
Easter, or thereabouts.
Q. Why at Easter?
A. Because Christ instituted the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist at
his last supper, the Thursday before Easter day.
Q. What said it, or thereabouts?
A. Because it will satisfy the precept, if it be done at any time
between Palm Sunday and Low-Sunday.
The Fifth Precept of the Church Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the fifth?
A. To pay tithes to our pastors.
Q. Why so?
A. Because as they feed us spiritually, it is fit we should feed them
corporally.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Gal. vi. 6. Let him that is catechised in the word communicate
to him that catechised him, in all his goods. And 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14. They
that serve the altar participate with the altar, and so the Lord ordained
that they who preach the gospel should live by the gospel.
The Sixth Precept of the Church Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the sixth?
A. Not to solemnize marriage on times prohibited that is, from the first
Sunday of Advent, until Twelfth day be past, nor from Ash-Wednesday, until
Low-Sunday be past.
Q. Why so?
A. Because those are times of special piety and penance, and should not
therefore be spent in feasting, or carnal pleasures.
Q. What sin is to break any of these church commandments?
A. A mortal sin of disobedience, according to that "He that will not
hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heather and a publican." Matt.
xvii. 17.
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CHAPTER X.
The Council of Christ and his Church Expounded.
Q. HOW many councils are there?
A. There be three principle ones.
Q. What is the first of them?
A. Voluntary poverty, which is observed by willingly leaving all things
to follow Christ.
Q. How prove you that to be a work of perfection?
A. Out of Matt. xix. 21. "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come
and follow me."
Q. How prove you this to be meritorious?
A. Out of the same chap. ver. 27, 28, 29, "When Peter, answering, said
to him: Behold, we have left all things, and have followed he: what,
therefore, shall we have? And Jesus said to them: Amen I say to you, that
you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall
sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging
the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath left house, or
brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or lands for my name's
sake, shall receive a hundred-fold and shall possess life everlasting."
The Second Counsel.
Q. WHAT is the second counsel?
A. Perpetual chastity; which is a voluntary abstaining from marriage,
and all carnal pleasures, for the love of God.
Q. Is this also a work of perfection?
A. It is, for Christ himself was born of a virgin, and counselled
virginity, though he commanded it not.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Matt. xix. 12. "There be eunuchs, (said he,) which have made
themselves so for the kingdom of heaven; he that can take let him take."
Q. How prove you that virginity is a more prefect state than marriage,
or that it is lawful to vow virginity?
A. Out of 1 Cor. vii. 37, 38. "He that hath determined in his heart,
being settled, not having any necessity, but having power of his own will to
keep his virgin, doth well; therefore he that joineth his virgin in marriage
doth well, but he that joineth her not, doth better"
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of 1 Tim. v. 5. "But she that is a widow indeed, (that is, a
vowed widow,) and desolate, let her hope in God, and continue in prayer and
supplications night and day." And ver. 11, 12. "But the younger widows
avoid, for they, when they shall be wanton in Christ, will marry, having
damnation, because they have made void their first faith, that is, their vow
of chastity, according to the fourth council of Carthage, Canon 104, and all
the Fathers."
Q. Who was the first that taught marriage to be better than virginity,
and persuaded priests and nuns to marry?
A. Jovinian, an old condemned Heretic, according to St. Augustin, in his
book Heresies, Her. 82, and in his 2d book of Retractions, he calls him a
monster for it, and saith the church stoutly resisted him, chap. 22.
The Third Counsel.
Q. WHAT is the third counsel?
A. Obedience, which is a voluntary submission to another's will, and in
all that is not sin.
Q. What warrant have you for that?
A. First the example of Christ himself, who was obedient to our Lady and
St. Joseph, "And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was
subject to them." Luke ii. 51.
Secondly, Heb. xiii. 17. "Obey your prelates, and be subject to them;
for they watch, being to render an account for your souls."
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CHAPTER XI.
Of the Sacraments in general.
Q. HOW many Sacraments are there?
A. Seven.
Q. How call you them?
A. Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy
Order, and Matrimony. See the Council of Trent, Sess. 7. Can. 1.
Q. Is there any cause why the number of Sacraments should be seven?
A. Yes; a probable cause is the proportion which is between spiritual
and corporal life.
Q. In what consists this proportion?
A. In this; that as in a corporal and nature life, there be seven
principle or chief necessities, so are there likewise seven spiritual, to
which the seven Sacraments correspond.
Q. What is our first corporal necessity?
A. To be born into this world: to this baptism corresponds, by which we
are regenerated unto God, and born the heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ.
Q. What is the second corporal necessity?
A. To be confirmed in our strength and growth, without which we can
never be made men: to this answers confirmation, by which we are made strong
and perfect Christians, able to profess our faith before our enemies.
Q. What is our third corporal necessity?
A. That (being now made men) we have a competence of daily food and
sustenance; to which the blessed Eucharist corresponds, by which our souls
are fed with divine grace as often as we worthily receive it, or offer it
with the priest on the altar.
Q. What is the fourth necessity of the body?
A. That we have physic when we are sick and wounded; to this the
sacrament of penance answers; by which our maladies and sores of sin are
healed.
Q. What is our fifth necessity of the body?
A. That we have the necessary helps against the agonizing pangs of
death; to this corresponds extreme unction, by which our soul is
strengthened in her last agony, against the violent assaults of the devil.
Q. What is the sixth corporal necessity?
A. "That we be governed by laws and magistrates, so to avoid injustice
and confusion:" to this Holy Order corresponds, by which we are provided
with spiritual magistrates to guide and govern us.
Q. What is the seventh corporal necessity?
A. That we be multiplied in a lawful manner; and to this matrimony
corresponds, by which we are not only multiplied in a natural, but in a holy
and sacramental way.
Q. What is a Sacramental in general?
A. It is a visible sign of invisible grace, divinely instituted by
Christ, for our sanctification.
Q. How prove you that Christ ordained them all?
A. Because it is not in the power of any pure creature to give
infallible virtue, causing grace, to sensible and material things, such as
the sacraments are; according to the council of Trent, Sess. 7. Can. 1.
Q. From what have the Sacraments their force and efficacy?
A. From the blood and passion of Christ, which they apply to our souls.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Rom. vi. 3. "Know you not that all that we who are baptized in Christ
Jesus, are baptized in his death?" Rom. v. 9. "Much more therefore, now
being justified in his blood, shall we be saved from wrath by him."
Q. For what end did Christ ordain the Sacraments?
A. To be external and visible marks and professions of his holy faith,
by which the faithful might be known from Infidels and Heretics; and also to
be effectual means of our salvation, and certain remedies against sin.
Q. What things are essential to a Sacrament?
A. Matter and form.
Q. Do all the seven Sacraments give grace?
A. They do, according to the council of Trent, Sess. 7.
Q. What is grace?
A. It is a supernatural quality produced in our souls and inherent in
them, by which we are made the adopted children of God, special partakers of
the divine nature, and like to God, in some degree; as iron is made like to
fire by heat.
Q. How many of these Sacraments give character?
A. Three: Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Order.
Q. What is a sacramental character?
A. It is a supernatural mark in the soul, whereby be are marked for
God's servants, which can never be blotted out.
Q. In what manner do the sacraments give and cause grace?
A. As a means or instruments only; for God is always the principal cause
thereof.
Q. Who is the ordinary minister of a Sacrament?
A. A priest; excepting Holy Orders and Confirmation, which are referred
to the Bishops alone.
Q. Why did Christ confine the administration of the Sacraments to the
Heirarchy and to the priests only?
A. "O the depth of the riches, of the wisdom and of the knowledge of
God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor?"
Rom. xi. And we know from St. Paul, Ephes. iv. 11, that "Christ gave indeed
some to be apostles, and some prophets, and others evangelists, and others
pastors and teachers. That we may not now be children, tossed to and fro,
and carried about with every wind of doctrine, in the wickedness of men, in
craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive." Hence, St. Paul, speaking
of the Sacraments, says, 1 Cor. iv. 1. "So let them consider us as the
ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God." "And we are (2
Cor. v. 20.) therefore ambassadors of Christ: God, as it were, exhorting by
us."
Q. Is the intention of the ministers to do what Christ ordained, a
condition, without which the Sacraments subsist not?
A. It is; also the intention of the receiver to receive what Christ
ordained, if he be at the years of understanding?
Q. Why say you, If he be at the years of understanding?
A. Because for infants in the Sacraments of baptism the intention of the
Church sufficeth.
Baptism Expounded.
Q. WHY is Baptism the first Sacrament?
A. Because by it we are born again, or created anew in Christ Jesus, and
therefore before it we are not capable of receiving any other.
Q. What is Baptism?
A. It is an exterior washing of the body, under a set form of words.
Q. What is the necessary matter of Baptism?
A. Natural water only; for artificial water will not suffice.
Q. What is the form of it?
A. I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost.
Q. What if a man leave out the word, (I baptize) or any of the three
persons?
A. Then the baptism is invalid.
Q. Where did Christ express the form of baptism and give a command to
baptize?
A. In Matt. xxvii. 29. "Go therefore, (saith he) teach ye all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost."
Q. Can a man be saved without baptism?
A. He cannot, unless he have it either actual or in desire, with
contrition, or to be baptized in his blood as the holy Innocents were, which
suffered for Christ.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of John iii. 5. "Unless a man be born again of water, and the
Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
Q. Can no man but a priest baptize?
A. Yes, in case of necessity, any layman or woman may do it, and not
otherwise.
Q. What is a chief necessity?
A. When a child is in danger of death, and a priest cannot be had.
Q. What are the effects of baptism?
A. It makes us the children of God, and remits both original and actual
sin, if he that is baptized be guilty of it.
Secondly, it infuseth justifying grace into the soul, with habits of
faith, hope, and charity, and all supernatural gifts and virtues.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Gal. iii. 27. "As many of you as are baptized in Christ, have
put on Christ."
Secondly, out of 1 Cor. vi. 10,11 where speaking of fornicators,
idolators, thieves, adulterers, and liars "These things, (saith St. Paul) ye
were, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the spirit of God."
Thirdly, out of Tit. v. 6, 7. "He hath saved us by the laver of
regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost, whom he hath abundantly
poured out upon us, by Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being justified by his
grace we may be heirs, according to the hope of life everlasting."
Q. What other effect hath baptism?
A. It makes a spiritual mark or character in the soul, which shall
remain for ever, either to our great joy in heaven, or our confusion in
hell.
Q. What sin is it to baptize a man twice?
A. A mortal sin of sacrilege.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. "It is impossible for those that have been
illuminated, and made partakers of the Holy Ghost, (to wit, by baptism) and
are fallen, &c. to be renewed again unto penance," &c. viz. by a second
baptism.
Q. What if a man die for the faith, before he can be baptized?
A. He is a true martyr, and baptized in his own blood.
Q. Why have we a Godfather and a Godmother in baptism?
A. That if our parents should neglect it, or be prevented by death, they
may instruct us in the faith of Christ, which obligation lies on them.
Q. How many godfathers may we have?
A. But one godfather and one godmother, since the council of Trent.
Q. Why so few?
A. To prevent the too great spread of spiritual affinity, which is
contracted between them and their godchild, and his father and mother, which
is an impediment, that makes the marriage not only unlawful, but also
invalid between the parties.
Q. How can infants be christened, which have no actual faith?
A. In the faith of the Church, and of their godfathers and godmothers.
Q. Who do we use so many ceremonies in baptism?
A. To stir up reverence to the sacrament, and signify its inward
effects.
Q. What meaneth the priest's breathing on the child's face, according to
the use of some rituals?
A. It signifies, that by baptism, the evil spirit is cast out, and the
spirit of God is given him.
Q. Why is the child signed on the breast and forehead with the sign of
the Cross?
A. To signify that he is there made the servant of Christ crucified.
Q. Why is salt put into the child's mouth?
A. To signify, that by baptism he receives grace and gifts to preserve
his soul from corruption of sin: and to warn Christians, that their actions
and words ought to be seasoned with prudence and discretion signified by
salt.
Q. Why doth the priest lay spittle on his ears and nostrils?
A. Because Christ by so doing, healed one that was both deaf and dumb;
as also to signify, that by baptism his ears are opened to the word of
faith, and his nostrils to the good odour of all Christian virtues.
Q. Why doth the priest ask the child, "If he renounce the Devil, and his
pomps?"
A. To signify, that he who will be the child of God, cannot be the child
of the Devil.
Q. What means the several anointing of the child?
A. They signify the interior anointings, or unction of divine grace,
given to the soul in baptism.
Q. What mean they in particular?
A. He anointed on the head to signify, "that by baptism he is made
partaker of the kingly dignity of Christ;" on the shoulders to signify, "he
must bear his Cross courageously," on the breast, to signify, "that the
heart is there strengthened with grace, to fight against the Devil."
Q. What signifies the white garment given to the child?
A. The purity and innocence which he there receives.
Q. What signifies the hallowed light given to the child?
A. The light of faith, and fire of charity with which his soul is endued
by baptism; and that he is bound to hold up through life the lamp of good
works, always burning, always shining before men, that they may glorify our
Father who is in Heaven.
Confirmation Expounded
Q. WHAT is the second Sacrament?
A. Confirmation.
Q. When did Christ ordain this Sacrament?
A. The time is not certain; but divines most probably hold, it was
instituted at Christ's last supper.
Q. What is the matter of the Sacrament?
A. Oil, mingled with balm, blessed by a bishop.
Q. What is the form of it?
A. I sign thee with the sign of the Cross, I confirm thee with the crism
of salvation, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost.
Q. What scripture have you for this Sacrament?
A. First, 2 Cor. i. 22. "And he that confirmeth us with you in Christ,
and hath anointed us, is God, who also hath sealed us (with the spiritual
character) and given the pledge of the spirit in our hearts.
Secondly, Acts viii. 14, 15, 16, where when Philip the deacon had
converted the city of Samaria to the faith, the apostles who were at
Jerusalem, sent to two bishops, St. Peter and St. John, to confirm them;
"who when they were come (saith the text) prayed for them, that they might
receive the Holy Ghost; for he was not yet come upon any of them, but they
were only baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus; then did they impose their
hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost."
Thirdly, Acts xix. 5,6, where we read that St. Paul baptized and
confirmed about twelve of St. John's disciples: "Hearing these things, they
were baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus; and when St. Paul had imposed
hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them."
Q. Why is oil used in this Sacrament?
A. To signify that the principal and proper effect of it, is the
interior unction of the Holy Ghost, which makes us perfect Christians, and
able to profess our faith before persecuting tyrants.
Q. Why is balm used in it?
A. To signify the good odour of a Christian name, according to that, "We
are a good odour of Christ to God." 2 Cor. ii. 15.
Q. In what appears the effects of confirmation?
A. In the undaunted confidence and sufferings of the apostles, martyrs,
and saints of God, after they had received it.
Q. When were the apostles confirmed?
A. On Whitsunday, in an extraordinary manner, the Holy Ghost descended
upon them in tongues of fire.
Q. Doth confirmation give a character?
A. It doth, according to 2 Cor. i. 22, above cited, where we read "who
also has sealed us," (that is, with a character.)
Q. Who is the minister of this Sacrament?
A. A bishop only, as appears by Acts viii, above cited, where two
bishops were sent into Samaria, to give it.
Q. Is there any necessity for this Sacrament?
A. There is a moral necessity for it, according to the council of
Laodicea, Can. 48: "Those that have been baptized, must after baptism
receive the most holy chrism, and be made partakers of the heavenly
kingdom."
Q. What authority of fathers and school divines have you for its
necessity?
A. First, the authority of St. Thomas, who in the Sacrament of
confirmation, 3P. Q.72, Art. 8, ad 4, affirms that it is a dangerous thing
to die without it.
Secondly, that of St. Jerome, in his epistles against the Luciferians.
"Dost thou not know also (saith he) that this is the custom of the churches,
that hands should be imposed on such as they have been baptized, and so the
Holy Ghost be invocated? Dost thou require to know where it is written? In
the acts of the apostles, and though there were no authority of scripture
for it, yet the consent of the whole world in this behalf, would be equal to
a precept; for many other things also which are observed in the churches by
tradition, do usurp unto themselves the authority of a written law." You see
he owns it to be commanded in the scripture; and tho it were not so, yet to
be equal to a precept, and have the authority of a written law, because it
is an apostolical tradition, that such as have been baptized, must also be
confirmed.
Q. What authority of Popes have you for it?
A. First, that of St. Clement, pope and martyr, in his epistle to
Julius, "All must make haste, (mark the word must) without delay to be
regenerated to God, and at length consigned (confirmed) by a bishop; that
is, to receive the same seven-fold grace of the Holy Ghost." His reason is,
first, "Because the end of every one's life is uncertain," secondly,
"Because otherwise he that is baptized, cannot be a perfect Christian, nor
have a seat among the perfect; if not by necessity, he shall remain and not
have that confirmation, which we have received from blessed Peter, and all
the rest of the apostles have taught, or Lord commanding," Secondly, that of
Pope Melchiades, teaching "That baptism and confirmation can by no means be
separated one from another, unless by death prevented, and that one of them
cannot rightly be perfected without the other. And moreover, that as
confirmation is given by greater men, so it is to be held in greater
veneration than baptism," see De Cons., Dist 5, Cap. De his.
Add to this, that without confirmation (according to all the fathers) we
are not perfect Christians.
Q. What then would you think of those, who for particular and private
ends, should slight this Sacrament, and teach the laity not to receive it,
when they might conveniently have it?
A. Truly I think they would slight the mission of the Holy Ghost, (for
this Sacrament is a continuance of that mission unto us) and would be great
enemies of Christianity.
Q. What sin is it not to receive it, when we may conveniently have it?
A. Mortal sin, if it be done out of contempt, or any gross neglect,
especially in a place of persecution.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Because by so doing we expose ourselves to great danger of denying
the faith, against which danger, it was peculiarly ordained by Christ our
Lord.
Q. At what age is confirmation now commonly received?
A. At seven years old.
Q. Why not sooner?
A. That so we may be able to prepare ourselves for it, and remember what
we have received it; for it can not be twice given.
Q. Why is a little blow given on the cheek to him that is confirmed?
A. To signify he is there made the soldier of Christ, and must be ready
to suffer stripes and buffets for his sake.
Q. Must we have any godfathers in confirmation?
A. Only one godfather or godmother.
Q. Must it be received fasting?
A. That is expedient, (for so the apostles received) but not necessary.
The Eucharist Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the third Sacrament?
A. The blessed Eucharist, or the Sacrament of the body and blood of
Christ.
Q. By what was this Sacrament prefigured in the old law?
A. By the tree of life, the burning bush, Mechisedech's bread and wine,
the Paschal Lamb, and the heavenly manna.
Q. Doth the blessed Eucharist excel all these in dignity?
A. It doth, as far as the substantial body excels a shadow.
Q. What signifies the name Eucharist?
A. It signifies good grace, or thanksgiving, because it contains the
author and fountain of grace, and the greatest gift of God to man.
Q. When did Christ ordain the blessed Eucharist?
A. At his last supper.
Q. Why so?
A. To leave to his church, as the last and greatest pledge of his love.
Q. What is the blessed Eucharist?
A. It is the body and blood of Jesus Christ, true God, and true man,
under the outward forms of bread and wine.
Q. In what manner is Christ present under these forms?
A. By the true and real presence of his divine and human nature.
Q. How prove you that?
A. First out of Matt. xxvi. 27, 28. Christ at his last supper, took
bread and blessed it, brake it and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take
eat, this is my body. And he blessed the cup saying, This is my blood of the
New Testament which shall be shed for many to the remission of sins," Mark
xiv. 22, 24.
Secondly, out of Luke xxii. 19, 20. "This is my body which is given for
you, this is the chalice of the New Testament in my blood, which shall be
shed for you."
Thirdly, out of John vi. 52, 53, 54. "The bread which I give is my
flesh, for the life of the world; by flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is
drink indeed; unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his
blood, you shall have no life in you."
Fourthly, out of 1 Cor. xi. 23, where St. Paul tells us, "He received
from our Lord," (viz. by special revelation) that at his last supper he
blessed bread, saying, "Take ye and eat, this is my body which shall be
delivered up for you; this chalice is the New Testament in my blood."
Q. By what means is the body and blood of Christ made under the outward
forms of bread and wine?
A. By the real conversion or change of the whole substance of the body
and blood of Christ; which conversion is wrought by the most holy and
powerful words of consecration, instituted by Christ, and spoken by the
priest, and is fitly called Transubstantiation, by the councils of Lateran
and Trent; which signifies a passage or conversion of one substance into
another.
Q. Is there any scripture for Transubstantiation?
A. The word Transubstantiation is not found in scripture, but for the
thing signified by it, there are those places in scripture, which prove a
real presence, because those words, This is my Body, spoken by Christ, after
he had taken bread into his hands, and signifying that to be his body, which
before was bread, cannot be true, without the change of of bread into his
body; which change is (as I have said already) the thing signified or meant
by Transubstantiation. Nor may the word be lawfully rejected for not being
found in scripture more than other words used by the church, to explain
mysteries of faith; as the word, Trinity or Consubstantiality of God the Son
with God the Father, which are not found in scripture.
Q. What mean you by these species or accidents which remain after the
substance of the bread is changed?
A. The colour, taste, and quality of bread.
Q. Is the body of Christ divided or broken, when we divide or break the
Sacrament?
A. It is not, for "he is now immortal and impassible, he cannot die nor
suffer any more." Rom.vi. 9.
Q. What other reason have you?
A. Because Christ is whole in the whole host, and whole in every
particle thereof, if you divide or break it; seeing that wherever there
would have been bread before consecration, there must needs be the whole
body and blood of Christ after consecration.
Q. What example have you for that?
A. The Soul of Man, which is whole in the whole body, and whole in every
part of the body, as learned Protestants neither do nor can deny.
Q. How can the same thing be in many several places at once?
A. By the omnipotent power of God, by which he himself is in all, and
every one of his creatures at the same instant.
Q. What example have you for that?
A. A word, which being one, yet is in many hundreds of places at once.
Q. Out of Acts ix. 4, 5, where we read, that Christ, who is always
sitting at the right hand of the Father in Heaven (as we willingly admit
with the Protestants) appeared notwithstanding, and discoursed with St. Paul
on earth, saying, "Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?" And when St.
Paul replied, "Who art thou, Lord? He answered, I am Jesus whom thou dost
persecute." Therefore, he was then in two places at once.
Q. What is the necessary matter of the Eucharist?
A. Wheaten bread and wine of the grape.
Q. What is the essential form of it?
A. THIS IS MY BODY, THIS IS MY BLOOD.
Q. Why is a little water mingled with the wine in the chalice?
A. To signify the blood and water flowing from the side of Christ; as
also, the union of the faithful with Christ, by virtue of the Sacrament.
Q. What dispositions is required in him that receives the Eucharist?
A. That he hath first confessed his sins, and be in the state of grace.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 Cor. xi. 28. "Let a man prove himself and so let him eat of
this bread and drink of this cup. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth an drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the body
of our Lord."
Q. What are the effects of the Eucharist?
A. It replenisheth the soul with grace, and nourisheth it in spiritual
life: "He that eateth of this bread, shall live for ever," John vi. 58.
Q. What other benefit have we by it?
A. It is a most moving and effectual commemoration of the incarnation,
nativity, passion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ.
Q. How do you prove it lawful for the laity, to communicate under one
kind only?
A. First, because there is no command in scripture for the laity to do
it under both, though there be for priests in those words, "Drink ye all of
this." Matt. xxvi. 27, which was spoken to the apostles only and by them
fulfilled; for it follows in Mark xiv. 23. "And they all drank." 2. Out of
John vi. 58, "He that eateth of this bread, shall live for ever," therefore,
one kind sufficeth. 3. Out of Acts xx. 7, where we read, "That the faithful
were assembled on the first of the sabbath to break bread," without any
mention of the cup; and the two disciples in Emmaus, "knew Christ in the
breaking of bread," where the cup is not mentioned. And St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi.
27. "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the
Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord."
Q. What is the exterior visible sacrifice?
A. It a most necessary act of religion whereby some sensible thing is
offered to God by a priest, in order to acknowledge his supreme dominion
over us, and our entire dependence on him. It is offered to God as an act of
pure adoration, or to render him thanks for his benefits received, or to
turn away his anger, or to obtain from him some new blessing, or for all
those purposes together.
Q. Is the blessed Eucharist a sacrifice?
A. It is a clean oblation, which the prophet Malachy i. 11, foretold
would be offered from the rising to the going down of the sun, in every
place among the Gentiles; which was prefigured by Melchisedech, priest of
the Most High (Gen. xiv. 18,) when he brought forth bread and wine; and
which was, in reality, instituted at the last supper by Jesus Christ, when
he took bread and wine, blessed them, and distributed them with his own
hands amongst the apostles, saying, THIS IS MY BODY; THIS IS MY BLOOD.
Christ Jesus is a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedech
(Heb. v. 8,) and so he instituted, according to his order; that is to say,
in bread and wine, this great sacrifice of the NEW LAW.
All the Holy Popes, and Fathers, and Councils of the primitive ages,
teach that the mass is the self same sacrifice of bread and wine that had
been instituted by our Saviour; whilst the histories and annals of all
countries, not excepting England herself, declare that the Holy Mass, but no
other sacrifice, came down to them as a part and parcel of Christianity,
from the apostolic age.
Q. Why are the priests obliged to receive under both kinds?
A. Because they offer sacrifice, and represent the bloody sacrifice made
upon the cross, where the blood was actually divided from the body, and
being offerers of the sacrifice, are bound to receive also the cup, by
Christ's command expressed. Matt. xxvi. 27. "Drink ye all of this."
Q. Did the laity ever communicate under both kinds?
A. They did sometimes in the primitive church, and may again, if holy
church shall so appoint; but now it is prohibited by the church, to prevent
the great danger of shedding the cup, neither are the laity in this
defrauded of any thing; for they receive whole Christ under one kind, which
is incomparably more than the pretended reformers have under both, who
receive only a bit of baker's bread, with a cup of common vintner's wine.
See "Holy Order expounded." See also, "The Mass expounded." ch. 22.
Penance Expounded
Q. WHAT is the fourth Sacrament?
A. Penance.
Q. What warrant have you for doing acts of penance?
A. First, out of Apoc. ii. 4. "Thou hast left thy first charity,
therefore be mindful from whence thou art fallen, and do penance?"
Secondly, "And JESUS began to preach, and say, do ye penance; for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matt. iv. 17.
Q. When did Christ ordain this Sacrament?
A. When he breathed on his disciples, saying, "Receive ye the Holy
Ghost, whose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven and whose sins ye
shall retain, they are retained." John xx. 22, 23.
Q. What is the matter of this Sacrament?
A. The sins and confession of the penitent.
Q. What is the form of it?
A. I absolve thee from they sins, in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Q. What are the effects of it?
A. It reconciles us to God, and either restores or increases grace?
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of John xx. 23, before cited. And out of John i. 9. "If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and
cleanse us from all iniquity."
Q. How many parts hath the Sacrament of penance?
A. It hath three parts; namely, contrition, confession, and
satisfaction.
Q. What is contrition?
A. It is a hearty sorrow for our sins, proceeding immediately from the
love of God above all things, and joined with a firm purpose of amendment.
Q. What is attrition?
A. It is imperfect contrition, arising from the consideration of the
turpitude of sin, or fear of punishment and if it contain a detestation of
sin, and hope of pardon, it is so far from being itself wicked, that though
alone it justify not, yet it prepares the way to justification; and disposes
it at least remotely towards obtaining God's grace in this Sacrament.
Q. What if a dying man be in mortal sin, and cannot have a priest.
A. Then nothing but perfect contrition will suffice, it being impossible
to be saved, without the love of God.
Q. What is a firm purpose of amendment?
A. It is a resolution not only to shun sin, but also the occasions of
it.
Q. How long has confession been in use and practice?
A. Ever since the Apostle's time, according to James, v. 16. "Confess
therefore your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may
be saved." And Acts xix. 18. "Many of them that believed came confessing and
declaring their deeds."
Q. What is confession?
A. It is a full, sincere, and humble declaration of our sins to a
priest, to obtain absolution.
Q. Is there any special good or comfort to man from confession?
A. Very great, because as to a mind laden with secret griefs, the best
of comforts is to disclose her case to some faithful friend; so to a soul
laded with secret sins one of the greatest comforts, and best remedies
possible, is to have selected persons ordained for that end by Christ
himself, men of singular piety and learning, and not questionable by any law
of what they hear in confession, to whom one may confess his sins, with an
assurance both of comfort, correction, and direction for the amendment of
his faults.
Q. What are the necessary conditions of a good confession?
A. That it be short, diligent, humble, sorrowful, sincere, and entire.
Q. How, short?
A. By avoiding superfluous words and circumlocutions.
Q. How, diligent?
A. By using a competent time and care in the examining of our
conscience.
Q. How, humble?
A. By making our confession with humble hearts.
Q. How, sorrowful?
A. By stirring up sorrow for our sins.
Q. How, sincere?
A. By confessing our sins plainly, without seeking to lessen or excuse
them.
Q. How, entire?
A. By confessing not only in what things we have sinned mortally, but
also how often, as near as we are able to remember.
Q. What if a man do knowingly leave out any mortal sin in his confession
for fear of shame?
A. He makes his whole confession void, and commits a great sacrilege by
lying to the Holy Ghost, and abusing the Sacrament.
Q. How prove you that?
A. By the example of Ananias and his wife Saphna, who were struck dead
at the feet of St. Peter, for daring to lie to the Holy Ghost. Acts v. 5,
10.
Q. Is he that hath so done bound to confess all again?
A. Yes, all that are mortal, together with that which he left out, and
the sacrilege he committed.
Q. What is satisfaction?
A. The sacramental penance, enjoined us by the priest at confession,
(which is considered a part of this sacrament,) besides which we may also
add more, for our own sins, by our voluntary prayers, fasting, or other good
works, or sufferings.
Q. For what do we satisfy by that penance?
A. For such temporal punishments as remain due sometimes for our sins,
after they are forgiven us.
Q. How do you prove that priests have power to impose penance?
A. Out of 1 Cor. vi. 3, where St. Paul excommunicated the incestuous
Corinthian; "I (saith he) absent in body, but present in spirit, have
already judged him that hath so done, &c. to deliver such a one to Satan for
the destruction of the flesh, that the soul may be saved." ver. 5.
Q. How prove you that temporal punishments may remain due for our sins,
after the sins themselves be forgiven us?
A. First, because Adam, after his sin was forgiven him, was
notwithstanding cast out of paradise for ever, and his whole posterity made
subject unto death and many miseries, in punishment of that sin. Gen. iii.
25.
Secondly, because David, after his sin of adultery was forgiven him, was
temporally punished for it with the death of his child: "Our Lord (saith
Nathan) hath taken away thy sin, nevertheless thy son shall die." 2 Kings
xii. 13, 14.
Thirdly, because "Whom our Lord loveth he chastiseth." Heb. xii. 6.
Q. By what other means are those temporal punishments released?
A. By indulgences.
Q. What is an indulgence?
A. No[t] a pardon for sins to come, or leave to commit sin, (as
Protestants do falsely and slanderously teach) but a releasing only of such
temporal punishments, as remain due to those sins, which have already been
forgiven us by penance and confession.
Q. How doth an indulgence release those punishments?
A. By the superabundant merits of Christ and his saints, which it
applies to our souls by the special grant of the church.
Q. When did Christ give his church power to grant indulgences?
A. When he said to St. Peter, "To thee will I give the keys of the
kingdom of Heaven, whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, it shall be bound in
Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in
Heaven." Matt. xvi. 19.
Q. How prove you that the apostles did ever use this power?
A. Out of 2 Cor. ii. 10, where St. Paul remitted part of the Corinthians
penance. "To him that is such a one (said he) this rebuke sufficeth, &c.
whom you have pardoned any thing, I also pardon."
Q. What is required for the gaining an indulgence"
A. That we perform the works enjoined us, and that the last part of them
be done in a state of grace.
Q. What are those works?
A. Fasting, prayer, and alms deeds; as also confession and communion.
Extreme Unction Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the fifth Sacrament?
A. Extreme unction.*
*Unction is twofold, exterior and interior; by the former is the body
anointed, and the latter the soul: there is an instance of the former in
James v. 14, and of the latter in the parable of the ten virgins, Matt. xxv.
The exterior anointing of the body is expressive of the interior unction or
invisible grace produced in the soul.Under the Old Law were the priests,
prophets and kings anointed: 1 Kings ix. 16; 2 Kings ii. 4; and 3 Kings xix.
15.Our Blessed Redeemer is called the Anointed, from the Greek verb Krio
which signifies to anoint, because God anointed hem with the Holy Ghost:
Acts x. 38. And we are called Christians because we profess the law and
doctrine of God, the Anointed; and because we are anointed with holy oil and
chrism. The child is anointed at baptism, the priest in receiving Holy
Orders, the king and queen at their coronation. That the Apostles anointed
the sick is clear from Mark vi. 13, and that they taught the practice is
clear from James v. 14. Would they teach or practise the rite if they had
not commission from their Divine Master so to do? It is indeed extremely
astonishing that the Protestants who pretend to be enamoured with the Bible
would discard a rite so sanctioned in both Testaments and the usage of all
antiquity. See Canons. Lib. i. cit. 15.
Q. When did Christ institute it?
A. The time is uncertain: some think it was instituted at his last
supper; others that it was done between his resurrection and ascension.
Q. By whom was this sacrament promulgated?
A. By James, v. 13, 14, 15. "Is any man sick among you, let him bring in
the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with
oil, in the name of our Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick
man, and our Lord will lift him up, and if he be in sin his sins shall be
forgiven him."
Q. Who is capable of this sacrament?
A. Every true and faithful Christian who is in mortal danger of death by
sickness, excepting infants, fools, and such as are always mad.
Q. What is the matter of it?
A. Oil blessed by a bishop.
Q. What is the form of it?
A. "By his own anointing, and his own most pious mercy, our Lord pardon
thee, whatsoever thou hast sinned by thy seeing," &c. And so of the
other senses, repeating the same words.
Q. What are the effects of extreme unction?
A. It comforts the soul in her last agony against despair, it remits
venial sins and removes the relics of sin and restores corporal health, if
it be expedient.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Mark vi. 13, where we read, That the apostles anointed with
oil many sick, and healed them. Which anointing is understood by many to
have been a previous sign of extreme unction, and consequently of its
effects.
Q. Why then do so few recover after it?
A. Either because the recovery of the body is not expedient for the
soul, or because the sick deferred the sacrament too long, as too many do,
or for the other indispositions in the receiver of it
Holy Order Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the sixth Sacrament?
A. Holy Order.
Q. To whom doth this appertain?
A. To the rulers and ministers of the church, as bishops, priests,
deacons, and sub-deacons.
Q. What proof have you for bishops, priests and deacons?
A. For bishops and deacons, out of Phil. i. 1. "To all the saints at
Philippi, (saith St. Paul) with the bishops and deacons," and for the
priests out of St. James above cited. "Is any man sick among you, let him
bring in the priests of the church." &c.
Q. Where did Christ ordain this Sacrament?
A. At his last supper, where he made his Apostles priests, saying, "This
is my body which is given for you; do ye this in commemoration of me." Luke
xxii. 19.
Q. What did Christ give them power to do?
A. To offer the unbloody sacrifice of his own body and blood, which he
himself had there ordained, and offered under the outward forms of bread and
wine.
Q. Why did he say, Do ye this in commemoration of me?
A. Because the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass is a commemoration or
memorial of the unbloody sacrifice made on the Cross; nay more, it is a
renewal of it in an unbloody manner.
Q. What are the effects of holy order?
A. It gives spiritual power, to ordain priests, to consecrate the body
and blood of Christ, to administer the sacraments, serve the altar, and to
preach.
Q. What else?
A. It gives also a spiritual grace, for the well-doing of these offices.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 Tim. iv. 14. "Neglect not the grace which is thine by
prophecy, with the imposition of the hands of the priesthood."
Q. What is the proper office of a bishop?
A. To give holy orders and confirmation, to preach and govern the
church.
Q. How prove you that?
A. To confirm, out of Acts viii. above cited, where we read, "Two
bishops were sent to confirm the Samaritans."
Q. How prove you that the bishops are of divine right and have authority
from God to rule the church?
A. Out of Acts xx. 28. "Take heed unto yourselves and to the whole
flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops to rule the church of
God."
Q. How prove you that the bishops only can ordain priests?
A. Out of Titus i. 5. "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou
shouldest order the things that were wanting, and ordain priests in every
city," (he was a bishop.)
Q. What sin is it therefore to oppose Hierarchy and Episcopacy either in
the whole church, or in particular churches?
A. It is a sin of rebellion and high treason against the peace and
safety of Christ's spiritual commonwealth, the church.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Because no law can subsist without guards and officers for it. Since
therefore Christ hath ordained bishops to be the guards and teachers of his
law, they who strike at bishops, strike also at the whole law of Christ, and
safety of the people.
Q. Why is it requisite that bishops and pastors should have revenues?
A. Because they bear a considerable charge and office in the
commonwealth, therefore, they ought to have a competence for the performance
of it. Secondly, to enable them, as good soldiers of Christ Jesus, to keep
clear of worldly cares: for "no man, being a soldier to God, entangleth
himself with worldly business; that he may please him to whom he hath
engaged himself." 2 Tim. ii. 4.
Q. What is the office of a priest?
A. To offer sacrifice, and administer the rest of the sacraments,
excepting holy order and confirmation.
Q. How prove you a sacrifice in the New Law?
A. First, because there is a priesthood, as you have heard, and an altar
according to that, "We have an altar (saith St. Paul) whereof they have not
power to eat, who serve in the tabernacle." Heb. xiii. 10.
Secondly, out of Mal. i. 11, where he foretold the sacrifice in the new
law, saying, "From the rising of the sun, even to the going down, great is
my name among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrificing, and
there is offered to my name a clean oblation, saith the Lord of Hosts."
Thirdly, out of Luke xxii. 19, 20, where Christ who is high priest for
ever (according to the order of Melchesedech) offered the sacrifice of his
own body and blood under the form of bread and wine, saying, "This is my
body which is given for you, (it is given for us, you find at his last
supper) this is the chalice of the New Testament in my blood, which chalice
(according to the great text) is shed for you."
Q. Is it lawful for priests to marry?
A. It is not; there being a precept of the church against it, descending
to us by tradition from the Apostles; neither did any of the Apostles ever
accompany their wives, after their calling to the apostleship; and a vow of
perpetual chastity being annexed to the holy orders, in the Latin or Western
church.
Q. Why is it requisite that priests should live chaste and unmarried?
A. Because, as by their ordination they are bound to teach and instruct
the faithful, their minds should be totally disengaged from the cares and
pleasures of the world, and wholly employed in the study and piety of
heavenly things, which is incompatible with the marriage state. 1 Cor. vii.
32.
Q. What are the lesser orders of the church?
A. Acolyte, lector, exorcist, and porter, according to the fourth
council of Carthage, can. 6.
Q. Is it lawful for women to preach, or to be priests?
A. It is not, according to 1 Cor. xiv. 34. "Let women keep silence in
the churches: for it is not permitted to them to speak, but to the subject,
as also the law saith."
Q. It is lawful for a man to usurp and take upon him priestly power,
without the ordination of the church?
A. It is not, according to Heb. v. 1, 4. "For every high priest taken
from among men, is appointed for men &c. that he may offer gifts and
sacrifices for sins neither doth any man take the honour to himself, but he
that is called of God, as was Aaron.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of John x. 1. "Amen I say unto you, he that entereth not by the
door (Holy Order) into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up another way, is
a thief and a robber."
Q. What if any man pretend an extraordinary calling?
A. He must prove it by miracles, or else be esteemed an impostor.
Q. What examples have you against the usurpation of the priestly power?
A. That the king Ozeas, who was presently struck by God with a leprosy
in his forehead, for usurping the priestly office of offering or burning
incense in the temple. 2 Paral. xxvi. 19.
Q. What besides?
A. The example of Core, Dathan, and Abriam, who for usurping the office
of priest, (though they were themselves true believers) were swallowed up
alive by the earth, Numb. xvi. 32. and two hundred and fifty others who were
offering incense with them, were consumed with fire from heaven, v. 34, with
fourteen thousand and seven hundred more, which were also burnt with fire
from heaven, for only joining with them, v. 49.
Matrimony Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the seventh Sacrament?
A. Matrimony.
Q. Where was matrimony first ordained?
A. In paradise by Almighty God, when he gave Eve as wife to Adam, who
presently said, "Therefore a man shall leaven his father and his mother, and
shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh." Gen. ii.
22, 24.
Q. Where was it made a sacrament of the new law?
A. Where and when Christ instituted this sacrament us uncertain; some
think it done, or at least insinuated at the wedding at Cana in Galilee,
where Christ was present, and wrought his first miracle, "by turning water
into wine." John ii. Others, more probably, say it was done, when Christ
declared the indissolubility of marriage, saying, "therefore now they are
not two, but one flesh: that therefore which God hath joined together, let
no man separate." Matt. xix. 6.
Q. Why was it requisite that marriage should be made a sacrament?
A. Because it is a contract whereon depends the chief happiness of a
married life; as being ordained for the restraint of sinful concupiscence,
the good of posterity, the well-ordering our domestic affairs, and the
education of our children in the fear and service of God, and therefore
ought to be ranked in the highest order of those actions, which Christ hath
sanctioned for the use of man.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Ephes. v. 31, 32. "They shall be two in one flesh; this is the
great sacrament. But I speak in Christ, and in the church."
Q. What is the matter of this sacrament?
A. The mutual consent of the parties, and giving themselves to one
another.
Q. What are the effects of matrimony?
A. It gives special grace to the married couple, to love and bear on
with another, as also to bring up their children in the fear and love of
God.
Q. What is the principle end of marriage?
A. To beget children, and bring them up in the service of God; and the
next to this is, that man may have a remedy against concupiscence, and a
helper in the way of salvation.
Q. How great is the tie of marriage?
A. So great that it can never be dissolved but by death, as you have
heard out of Matt. xix.
Q. What are the obligations of man and wife?
A. To love, honour, and comfort one another.
Q. What besides?
A. Husbands are obliged to cherish and comfort their wives; wives to be
subject, obey, and love their husbands.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Col. iii. 18, 19. "Women be subject to your own husbands, as
behooveth in our Lord. Men, love your wives, and be not bitter towards
them." And out of Ephes. iv. 22, 23. "Let women be subject to their
husbands, as to the Lord, because the man is head of the woman as Christ is
head of the church," v. 24. "But as the Church is subject to Christ, so also
women to their husbands in all things." And again, v. 33. "Let each man love
his wife as himself, and let the wife reverence her husband.
Q. What else?
A. To render mutually the marriage debt, and according to that, "Let the
husband render his debt unto his wife, and the wife also in like manner to
her husband. The women now hath no power of her own body, but the husband,
and in like manner the man hath no power of his own body, but the woman." 1
Cor. vii. 3, 4.
Q. It is lawful for children to marry without the consent of their
parents?
A. It is not; neither is it lawful for parents to force them to marry
against their will.
Q. Why are so many unhappy in their marriages?
A. Because they never consulted with God about them, nor sought to have
his blessing in them.
Q. For what other reason?
A. Because they were in the state of sin at their marriage, or married
for inordinate love or wealth, and not for the right end of marriage.
Q. What meaneth the blessing of the priest given in marriage?
A. It is to beg all blessings of God for the new married couple.
Q. Why is the ring put on the fourth finger?
A. Because that is called the heart finger and hath (they say) a vein in
it, with reacheth to the heart; so to signify the true and constant love
which ought to be between man and wife.
Q. What signifies the ring itself?
A. It is a symbol of perfection and eternity, being equal in all parts,
and round in figure, without beginning or end, to imitate the perfect and
perpetual love of man and wife.
Q. What are the spiritual means to obtain the blessing of good children?
A. Fasting, prayer, and alms-deeds, for so St. Joachim and St. Anne
obtained Blessed Virgin Mary; and so the Blessed Virgin became the mother of
God.
Q. What obligations have parents to their children?
A. To instruct them in the faith of Christ, to bring them up in the fear
of God, to give them good example, to keep them out of ill company and other
occasions of sin, to feed and nourish them, to provide for them in marriage,
and to correct their faults.
Q. What are the chief and most common impediments of marriage?
A. Consanguinity and affinity, to the fourth degree inclusively; and in
the right line all degrees are prohibited by the law of nature,
indispensable.
Q. Can the church dispense in these collateral degrees?
A. She can, excepting only the first collateral degrees of
consanguinity, but always sufficient motives must be given.
Q. How prove you that?
A. The Church having made these laws, for just reasons may dispense in
them; but when such dispensations are given, those who seek them ought to
consider, that they may deprive themselves of the blessings attending the
marriage state, if the motives alleged be not well founded.
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CHAPTER XII.
The Cardinal Virtues Expounded
Q. HOW many cardinal virtues are there?
A. There are four: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.
Q. Why are they called cardinal virtues?
A. Because they are the fountains and as it were the hinges of all good
works, from the word Cardo, which signifies a hinge.
Q. What is prudence?
A. It is a virtue which makes us wary in all our actions, that we may
neither deceive others, nor be deceived ourselves; or which (according to
the rule of honesty) prescribes us what to be desired, and what to be
avoided.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Eccles. iii. 32. "A wise heart that hath understanding, will
keep itself from all sin, and in the works of justice shall have success."
Q. What is justice?
A. It is a virtue which gives every man this own according to that,
"Render to all men their due, to whom tribute, tribute; to whom custom,
custom; to whom fear, fear; to whom honour, honour." Rom. xiii. 7.
Q. What is temperance?
A. It is a virtue which moderates our appetites and desires, that they
be according to reason, and not inordinate: "He that is abstinate, (saith
the wise man) shall increase in life." Eccl. xxxvii.
Q. What is fortitude?
A. It is a virtue, by which the labours and dangers even of death
itself, that are opposite unto virtue, are courageously undertaken and
patiently sustained, "The wicked fleeth (saith Soloman) when no man
pursueth; but the just man, as a confident lion, shall be without fear."
Prov. xxvii. 1. And in 1 Pet. iii. 14, we read, "The fear of them fear ye
not, and be not troubled, but sanctify our Lord Christ in your hearts."
Q. Is it necessary for a Christian to be exercised in these virtues?
A. It is; for "we must not only decline from evil, but do good," Psalm
xxxvi. 27.
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CHAPTER XIII.
The Gifts of the Holy Ghost Expounded.
Q. HOW many are the Gifts of the Holy Ghost?
A. Seven: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety,
and the fear of the Lord. Isa. xi. 2.
Q. What is wisdom?
A. It is a gift of God, which teacheth us to direct our whole lives and
actions to his honour, and the salvation of our souls.
Q. What is understanding?
A. It is a gift of God, by which we are enabled to comprehend the high
mysteries of our Faith.
Q. What is counsel?
A. It is a gift of God, by which we discover the frauds and deceits of
the Devil, and are not deceived by him.
Q. What is fortitude?
A. It is a gift of God, whereby we are enabled to undergo and despise
all dangers for his sake.
Q. What is knowledge?
A. It is a gift of God, by which we know and understand the will of God.
Q. What is piety?
A. It is a gift of God, which makes us devout and zealous in his
service.
Q. What is the fear of the Lord?
A. It is the gift of God, which curbs our rashness, withholds us from
sin, and makes us obedient to God's law.
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CHAPTER XIV.
The Twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost Expounded.
Q. HOW many are the fruits of the Holy Ghost?
A. There are twelve, as you may see, Gal. v. 22, 23.
Q. What is the first?
A. Charity, whose nature and effects you know already.
Q. What is the second?
A. Joy, by which we are enabled to serve God with cheerful hearts.
Q. What is the third?
A. Peace, which keeps us unmoved in our minds amidst the storms and
tempests of the world.
Q. What is the fourth?
A. Patience, which enables us to suffer all adversities for the love of
God.
Q. What is the fifth?
A. Longanimity, which is an untired confidence of mind, in expecting the
good things of the life to come.
Q. What is the sixth?
A. Goodness, which makes us hurt no man, and be good to all.
Q. What is the seventh?
A. Benignity, which causeth an affable sweetness in our manners and
conversation.
Q. What is the eighth?
A. Mildness, which allays in us all the [e]motions of passion and anger.
Q. What is the ninth?
A. Fidelity, which makes us punctual observers of our covenants and
promises.
Q. What is the tenth?
A. Modesty, which observes a becoming deportment in all our outward
actions.
Q. What is the eleventh?
A. Continency, which makes us not only abstemious in meat and drink, but
in all other sensible delights.
Q. What is the twelfth?
A. Chastity, which keeps a pure soul in a pure body.
Q. Who are they that have these fruits?
A. The children of God only; for "whosoever are led by the spirit of
God, they are the sons of God." Rom. viii. 14.
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CHAPTER XV.
The Works of Mercy (corporal and spiritual) Expounded.
Q. HOW many are the corporal works of mercy?
A. Seven. 1. To feed the hungry. 2. To give drink to the thirsty. 3. To
clothe the naked. 4. To harbour the harbourless. 5. To visit the sick. 6. To
visit the imprisoned. 7. To bury the dead.
Q. How prove you that these works are meritorious of a reward?
A. Because Christ hath promised the kingdom of Heaven as the reward of
them. "Come, O ye blessed of my Father (saith he) and possess ye the
kingdom, &c. for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat," &c. Matt. xxv. 35,
36.
Q. When are we said to feed and clothe Christ?
A. As often as we feed and clothe the poor, "What ye have done (saith
he) to one of my little ones, that ye have done unto me." ver. 40.
Q. Is the reward of these works a reward of justice?
A. It is; according to 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. "I have fought a good fight
(saith Paul) there is a crown of justice laid up for me, which our Lord will
render to me at that day as the just judge."
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Heb. vi. 10. "For God is not unjust, that he should forget the
work and love, which you have shown in his name, who have ministered unto
the Saints, and do minister.
Q. How many are the works of mercy, spiritual?
A. Seven also. 1. To give counsel to the doubtful. 2. To instruct the
ignorant. 3. To admonish the sinners. 4. To comfort the afflicted. 5. To
forgive offences. 6. To bear patiently the troublesome. 7. To pray for the
quick and the dead.
Q. How prove you your prayer for the dead?
A. First, out of the places before and after cited for purgatory.
Secondly, out of 1 John v. 16. "He that knoweth his brother to sin a sin not
unto death, let him ask, and life shall be given him, not sinning to death;
(i.e.) to final impenitence. Therefore it is lawful to pray for all such as
die penitent, confessing their sins." And in 2 Mac. xii. we read, "It is a
wholesome and holy thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed
from their sins."
Q. How show you these works to be meritorious?
A. Out of Dan. xii. 3. "They who instruct others to justice, shall shine
as stars to all eternity."
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CHAPTER XVI.
The Eight Beatitudes.
Q. WHAT are the eight Beatitudes?
A. Christ "opening his mouth he taught them, saying: 1. Blessed are the
poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 2. Blessed are the
meek, for they shall possess the land. 3. Blessed are they that mourn: for
they shall be comforted. 4. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
justice: for they shall be filled. 5. Blessed are the merciful: for they
shall obtain mercy. 6. Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see
God. 7. Blessed are the peace-makers: for they shall be called the children
of God. 8. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice sake: for
theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." Matt. v. 3, 10.
Q. Whence ariseth the necessity of suffering persecution?
A. Because all that will live piously in Jesus Christ shall suffer
persecution. 2 Tim. iii. 12.
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CHAPTER XVII.
The Kinds of Sin Expounded.
Q. WHY is it necessary for a Christian to know the nature and kinds of
sin?
A. That so he may detest and avoid them.
Q. How many kinds of sins are there?
A. Two, namely, Original and Actual.
Q. What is original sin?
A. It is a privation of original justice, which we inherit from our
first parent Adam, being all by course of nature, conceived and born in that
privation or original sin.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Rom. v. 12. "Therefore as by one man sin entered into the
world, and by sin death, and so unto all men death did pass, in whom all
have sinned."
Q. What are the effects of original sin?
A. Concupiscence, ignorance, evil inclination, proneness to sin,
sickness, and death.
Q. How is original sin taken away?
A. By holy baptism.
Q. Whither go infants that die without baptism?
A. To a part of hell, where they endure the pain of loss, but not of
sense, and shall never see the face of God.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of John iii. 5. "Unless a man be born again of water, and the
Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
Q. What is actual sin?
A. It is a thought, word or deed, contrary to the law of God.
Q. What is the sin of omission?
A. To omit any thing willing, which is commanded by God or his Church.
Q. Why is actual sin so called?
A. Because the material part of it is commonly some voluntary acts of
ours.
Q. Is all sin voluntary and deliberate?
A. It is, because (speaking of actual sin) no man sinneth in doing that
which is not in his power to avoid.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Because the whole gospel of Christ is nothing else but an exhortation
to do good, and avoid evil, than which nothing were more vain, if it be not
the free election and power of man, assisted by God's grace, to do, or not
to do such things.
Q. What scripture have you for that?
A. First out of Gen. iv. 7. "If thou dost well, shalt thou not receive?
But if ill, shall not thy sin be forthwith present at the door? But the lust
thereof shall be under thee, and thou shalt have dominion over it."
Secondly out of Deut. xxx. 19, 20. "I call heaven and earth to witness
this day, that I have proposed to thee life and death, blessing and cursing,
choose therefore life that thou mayest live."
Thirdly, out of 1 Cor. vii. 37. "He that hath determined in his heart
being settled not having necessity but having the power of his own will, and
hath judged in his heart to keep his virginity, doth well;" (you see man
hath power of his own will) and in Phil. iv. 13. "I can do all things (saith
Paul) in him who strengtheneth me."
Q. Doth not the efficacy of God's grace hinder, and hurt the freedom of
our will?
A. No, it perfects it according to 1 Cor. xv. 10, 11. "I have laboured
more abundantly (saith Paul) than all they, yet not I, but the grace of God
within me." You hear the grace of God did not hinder, but perfect his
working.
Q. How is actual sin divided?
A. Into mortal and venial.
Q. What is mortal sin?
A. A great offence against the love of God; and is so called because it
kills the soul, and robs it of the spiritual life of grace.
Q. What is venial sin?
A. A small, and very pardonable offence against God, or our neighbour.
Q. How prove you that some sins are mortal?
A. First, out of Rom. vi. 23. "For the wages of sin is death." And ver.
xxi. "What fruit therefore had you then in these things, for which ye are
now ashamed, for the end of them is death?"
Secondly, out of Wis. xvi. 14. "For man by malice, killeth his own
soul." And out of Ezek. xviii. 4. "The soul that sinneth, the same shall
die."
Q. How prove you that some sins are venial?
A. First, out of 1 John i. 8, where speaking of such as walk in the
light, and are cleansed from all mortal sin by the blood of Christ, he adds,
"if we stay we have no sin, we seduce ourselves, and the truth is not in
us."
Secondly, "In many things we all offend," James iii 2. And in Prov.
xxiv. 16. "The just man falleth seven times." Not mortally, for then he were
no longer just, therefore venially.
Thirdly, out of Matt. xii. 36. "But I say unto you, every idle word
which men shall speak, they shall render an account for it at the day of
judgment." Now God forbid every idle word should be a mortal sin.
Q. What are the effects of venial sin?
A. It doth not rob the soul of life, as mortal sin doth, but only
weakeneth the fervour of charity, and by degrees disposeth unto mortal.
Q. Why are we bound to shun not only mortal, but venial sins?
A. Because "he that contemneth small things, shall fall by little and
little." Eccles. xix. 1.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Because "no polluted thing shall enter into the heavenly Jerusalem."
Apoc. xxi. 27, be it polluted with mortal, or venial sin.
Q. How shall we be able to know when any sin is mortal, and when but
venial?
A. Because to any mortal sin it is required, both that it be deliberate,
and perfectly voluntary; and that it be a matter of weight against the law
of God; one or both of which conditions are always wanting in a venial sin.
Q. How is mortal sin remitted?
A. By hearty penance and contrition.
Q. How is venial sin remitted?
A. By all the sacraments, by holy water, devout prayer, alms-deeds, and
the like good works.
Q. Whither go such as die in venial sin, or not having fully satisfied
for the temporal punishments due to their mortal sins which are forgiven
them?
A. To purgatory till they have made full satisfaction for them, and then
to heaven.
Q. How prove you there is a purgatory, or a place of punishment, where
souls are purged after death?
Q. Out of 1 Pet. iii. 10. "Christ being dead for our sins, came in
spirit, and preached to them also that were in prison, who had been
incredulous in the days of Noah, when the Ark was building."
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of 1 Cor. iii. 13. "The work of every man shall be manifest, for
the day of our Lord will declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire;
and the work of every one of what kind it is, the fire shall try; If a man's
work abides," (as theirs doth who deserve no purgatory) he shall suffer
loss, but himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire."
Q. What besides?
A. Out of Matt. v. 25. "Be thou at agreement with thy adversary betimes
whilst thou art in the way with him (that is in this life) lest perhaps the
adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the
officer, and thou be cast into prison (Purgatory): Amen, I say unto thee,
thou shalt not go out from thence, till thou pay the last farthing."
Q. What other yet?
A. Out of Matt. xii. 32. "Some sins shall neither be forgiven in this
world, nor in the world to come." Therefore there is a place of purging and
pardoning sins after this life.
Q. How is a man made guilty, or said to co-operate to other men's sins?
A. As often as he is an actual cause of sin in others by any of these
nine means: 1. By counsel. 2. By command. 3. By consent. 4. By provocation.
5. By praise or flattery. 6. By silence. 7. By connivance. 8. By
participation; or 9. By defence of the ill done.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
The Seven Deadly Sins Expounded.
Q. HOW call you the seven deadly, or capital sins?
A. Pride, covetousness, lechery, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.
Q. What is pride?
A. It is an inordinate desire of our own excellency or esteem.
Q. Why is pride called a capital sin?
A. Because it is the head or fountain of many other sins.
Q. What for example?
A. Vain-glory, boasting, hypocrisy, ambition, arrogance, presumption,
and contempt of others.
Q. What is vain-glory?
A. And inordinate desire of human praise.
Q. What is boasting?
A. A foolish bragging of ourselves.
Q. What is hypocrisy?
A. Counterfeiting of more piety and virtue than we have.
Q. What is ambition?
A. An inordinate desire of honour.
Q. What is arrogance?
A. A high contempt of others, joined with insolence and rashness.
Q. What is presumption?
A. An attempting of things above our strength.
Q. What is contempt of others?
A. A disdainful preferring ourselves before others.
Q. What other daughters hath pride?
A. Pertinency, discord, disobedience, and ingratitude.
Q. What is pertinency?
A. A willful sticking to our own opinions, contrary to the judgment of
our betters.
Q. What is discord?
A. A wrangling in words, with such as we ought to assent and yield unto.
Q. What is disobedience?
A. An opposition to the will or commands of parents and superiors.
Q. What is ingratitude?
A. A forgetting or neglecting of benefits.
Q. How prove you pride to be a mortal sin?
A. Because we read, that "God resists the proud, and gives this grace to
the humble." 1 Pet. v. 5. And "pride is odious before God and men." Eccl. x.
7.
Q. What are the remedies of pride?
A. To remember that holy lesson of Christ, "learn of me, because I am
meek and humble of heart." Matt. xi. 29. And to consider that we are sinful
dust and shall return again to dust; and that whatsoever good we have to do,
is the free gift of God.
Q. What is the virtue opposite to pride?
A. Humility, which teaches us a lowly opinion of ourselves. "He that
humbleth himself shall be exalted." Matt. xxiii. 12.
Covetousness Expounded.
Q. WHAT is covetousness?
A. An inordinate desire of riches.
Q. When is covetousness a mortal sin?
A. When either we desire to get unjustly what which is another man's of
considerable value, or else refuse to give of that which is our own, to such
as are in any extreme or great necessity.
Q. How prove you the first part?
A. Out of 1 Tim. vi. 9. "They, who would become rich, fall into
temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and
hurtful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition: for
covetousness is the root of all evils."
Q. How prove you the latter part?
A. Out of 1 John iii. 17. "He that hath the substance of this world, and
shall see his brother in necessity, and shall shut up his bowels from him;
how doth the charity of God abide in him?"
Q. What other proof have you for alms?
A. Out of Luke xi. 41. "But yet that which remains, give alms, and
behold all things are clean unto you." And out of Dan. iv. 24. "Redeem thy
sins with alms and thy iniquity with the mercies of the poor."
Q. What are the daughters of covetousness?
A. Hardness of heart, unmercifulness to the poor unquiet solicitude,
neglect of heavenly things, and confidence in things of this world.
Q. What else?
A. Usury, fraud, rapine, theft, &c.
Q. What are the remedies of covetousness?
A. To consider "that it is a kind of idolatry," according to Col. iii.
5. And that "it is harder for a rich man to enter into heaven, that for a
camel to pass through the eye of a needle." Matt. xix. 24.
Q. What are the virtues opposite to covetousness?
A. Liberality, which makes a man give freely to the poor; and justice,
which renders to a men that which is theirs. "It is a more blessed thing
thing to give (saith our Lord) than to take." Acts xxvi. 35. And 2 Cor. ix.
6, St. Paul saith, "He that soweth sparingly, sparingly also shall he reap;
but he that soweth in blessings, of blessings also shall he reap; for God
loves the cheerful giver."
Lechery Expounded.
Q. WHAT is lechery, or lust?
A. An inordinate desire of carnal sin, or delights of the flesh.
Q. How prove you the malice of this sin?
A. Because the whole world was once drowned, and the cities of Sodom and
Gemorrah were burnt with fire from heaven for it. Gen. vii. 21, and xix. 24.
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Rom. viii. 13. "For if you live according to the flesh, you
shall die; but if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you
shall live."
Q. What are the degrees of lust?
A. Thought, delight, consent, and act.
Q. What are the daughters of lust?
A. Fornication, whoredom, adultery, voluntary pollution, unchaste signs
and touches, wanton kisses and speeches.
Q. How prove you voluntary pollution to be a mortal sin?
A. Out of Gen. xxxviii. 9, where we read, that Onan was struck dead by
God in the place, for shedding the seed of nature out of the due use of
marriage to hinder generation, which fact the holy text calls a destestable
thing. He also who was eldest brother to this Onan, was slain by God, as we
read in the same chapter, ver. 7. And it is generally thought by expositors,
that his sudden death was in punishment for the like sin of pollution.
Q. Why are the lustful kisses and touches mortal sins?
A. Because they vehemently dispose to fornication and pollution.
Q. Is kissing by way of civility, when we meet friend, any sin?
A. No, it is not.
Q. What are the remedies of lust?
A. To consider the beastliness of it, and that by it we make our bodies,
which are members of Christ, to be members of an harlot. 1 Cor. vi. 15.
Q. What else?
A. To consider that God and his angels are even witnesses of it, how
private soever it may seem.
Q. What if the virtue opposite to lechery?
A. Chastity, which makes us abstain from carnal pleasures. "Let us
behave ourselves (saith St. Paul) as the ministers of God, in much patience,
in watching, in fasting, in chastity." 2 Cor. vi. 4, 6.
Q. How prove you the greatness of this virtue?
A. Out of Apoc. xiv. 4. "These are they who were not defiled with women,
for they are virgins, these follow the Lamb withersoever he shall go."
Envy Expounded.
Q. WHAT is envy?
A. It is a sadness or repining at another's good, in as much as it seems
to lessen our own excellency.
Q. How prove you envy to be a mortal sin?
A. Because, by the "Devil's envy death entered into the world, and envy
was the cause of all sin." Wis. ii. 24.
Q. What are the daughters of envy?
A. Hatred, detraction, rash judgment, strife, reproach, contempt, and
rejoicing at another's evil.
Q. What are the remedies of envy?
A. To consider that it robs us of charity, and deforms us to the
likeness of the Devil.
Q. What is the opposite to envy?
A. Brotherly love, which is the chiefest badge of Christianity, "In this
all men should know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
John xiii. 35.
Gluttony Expounded
Q. WHAT is gluttony?
A. An inordinate excess, or desire of excess in meat or drink.
Q. How prove you that to be a mortal sin?
A. Out of Cor. vi. 10. "Drunkards shall not possess the kingdom of God."
And Luke xxi. 34. "Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be overcharged
with surfeiting and drunkenness."
Q. What are the daughters of gluttony?
A. Babbling scurrility, spewing, sickness, and dullness of soul and
body.
Q. What are the remedies of it.
A. To consider the abstinence of Christ and his Saints, and that
"gluttons are enemies to the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction."
Phil. iii. 19.
Anger Expounded.
Q. WHAT is anger?
A. An inordinate desire of revenge.
Q. How prove you anger to be mortal?
A. Out of Matt. ver. 22. "Whosoever shall be angry with his brother,
shall be guilty of judgment, &c. And whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall
be guilty of hell fire."
Q. What are the daughters of anger?
A. Hatred, passion, fury, clamour, threats, contumey, cursing,
blasphemy, and murder.
Q. What are the remedies of anger?
A. To remember the holy lesson of Christ, Luke xxi. 19. "In your
patience you shall possess your souls." And that of St. Paul. "Be gentle one
to another, pardoning one another, as also God in Christ hath pardoned you."
Ephes. iv. 32.
Q. What is the virtue opposite to anger?
A. Patience, which suppresseth in us all passion, and desire of revenge.
Q. How prove you the necessity and force of patience?
A. Out of Heb. x. 36. "Patience is necessary for you, that doing the
will of God, you may partake of the promise."
Sloth Expounded.
Q. WHAT is sloth?
A. Laziness of mind, neglecting to begin, or prosecute good things.
Q. How prove you sloth to be a deadly sin?
A. Out of Apoc. iii. 15. "Because thou art neither cold nor hot, but
lukewarm, I will begin to cast thee out of my mouth."
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Matt. xxv. 30. "And the unprofitable servant cast ye forth
into exterior darkness."
Q. When is sloth mortal?
A. As often as by it we break any commandment of God or his church.
Q. What are daughters of sloth?
A. Tepidity, pusillanimity, indevotion, weariness of life, aversion from
spiritual things, and distrust of God's mercy.
Q. What are the remedies of sloth?
A. To remember that of Jeremiah xlvii. 10. "Cursed be he that doth the
work of the Lord negligently." And to consider with what diligence men do
worldly business.
Q. What is the virtue opposite to sloth?
A. Diligence, which makes us careful and zealous to performing our duty
both to God and men. "Take heed, watch and pray, for you know not when the
time is," Matt. xiii. 33. "Strive to enter by the narrow gate, for many I
say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able." Luke xiii. 24.
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CHAPTER XIX.
The Sins against the Holy Ghost Expounded.
Q. HOW many are the sins against the Holy Ghost?
A. Six: despair of salvation, presumption of God's mercy, to impugn the
known truth, envy at another's spiritual good, obstinacy in sin, and final
impenitence.
Q. What is despair of salvation?
A. It is a diffidence in the mercies and power of God as also, in the
merits of Jesus Christ, as if they were not of force enough to save us. This
was the sin of Cain, when he said, "My sin is greater than I can deserve
pardon." Gen. iv. 13. And of Judas, "when casting down the silver pieces in
the temple, he went and hanged himself." Matt. xxvii. 4, 5.
Q. What is the presumption of God's mercy?
A. A foolish confidence of salvation, without leading a good life, or
any care to keep the commandments; such as they entertain who think they
will be saved by faith only, without good works.
Q. What is it to impugn the known truth?
A. To argue obstinately against known points of faith, or to prevent the
way of our Lord by forging lies and slander, as Heretics do, when they teach
the ignorant people, that Catholics worship images as God, and give Angels
and Saints the honour which is due to God; or that the Pope for money gives
us pardon to commit what sins we please; that all which, greater falsehoods
cannot be invented.
Q. What is the envy to another's spiritual good?
A. A sadness or repining at another's growth in virtue and perfection;
such as sectaries seem to have when they scoff and are troubled at the
frequent fasts, prayers, feasts, pilgrimages, alms-deeds, vows, and
religious orders of the Catholic Church, calling them superstitious and
fooleries, because they have not in their churches any such practices of
piety.
Q. What is obstinacy in sin?
A. A wilful persisting in wickedness, and running on from sin to sin,
after sufficient instructions and admonition.
Q. How show you the malice of this sin?
A. Out of Heb. x. 26, 27. "If we sin wilfully after having received the
knowledge of the truth, there is now left no sacrifice for sins, but a
certain dreadful expectation of judgment."
Q. What other proof have you?
A. Out of 2 Pet. ii. 21. "It was better for them not to know the way of
justice, than after the knowledge to turn back from the holy commandment
which was given them."
Q. What is final impenitence?
A. To die without either confession or contrition for our sins, as those
do of whom it is said, "With a hard neck, and with uncircumcised hearts and
ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost." Acts vii. 51. And in the person of
whom Job speaks, saying, "Depart thou from us, and we will not have the
knowledge of thy ways." Job xxi. 14.
Q. Why is it said that those sins should never be forgiven, neither in
this world, nor in the world to come?
A. Not because there is no power in God or in the sacraments to remit
them, if we confess them, and be sorry for them, (excepting only final
impenitence) of which we read, "There is a sin to death for that I say not
that any man ask." 1 John i. 9. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all iniquity."
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CHAPTER XX.
The Sins that cry to Heaven for Vengeance Expounded.
Q. HOW many such sins are there?
A. Four.
Q. What is the first of them?
A. Wilful murder, which is a voluntary and unjust taking away another's
life.
Q. How show you the pravity of this sin?
A. Out of Gen. iv. 10. Where it is said to Cain "What hast thou done?
the voice of the blood of thy brother crieth to me from the earth: now,
therefore shalt thou be cursed upon the earth." And Matt. xxvi 52, "All that
take the sword, shall perish with the sword."
Q. What is the second?
A. The sin of Sodom, or carnal sin against nature, which is a voluntary
shedding of the seed of nature, out of the due use of marriage, or lust with
a different sex.
Q. What is the scripture proof of this?
A. Out of Gen. xix. 13. where we read of the Sodomites, and their sin.
"We will destroy this place because the cry of them hath increased before
our Lord, who hath sent us to destroy them," (and they were burnt with fire
from heaven.)
Q. What is the third?
A. Oppressing of the poor, which is a cruel, tyrannical, and unjust
dealing with inferiors.
Q. What other proof have you of that?
A. Out of Exod. xxii. 21. "Ye shall not hurt the widow and the
fatherless: If you do hurt them, they will cry unto me, and I will hear them
cry, and my fury shall take indignation, and I will strike thee with the
sword." And out of Isa. x. 1, 2. "Wo to them that make unjust laws, that
they might oppress the poor in judgment, and do violence to the cause of the
humble of my people."
Q. What is the fourth?
A. To defraud working men of their wages, which is to lessen, or detain
it from them.
Q. What proof have you of it?
A. Out of Eccl. xxxiv. 37. "He that sheddeth blood and he that
defraudeth the hired man, are brethren," and out of James v. 4. "Behold the
hire of the workmen that have reaped your fields, which is defrauded by you,
crieth, and their cry hath entered into the ears of the Lord God of
Sabaoth."
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CHAPTER XXI.
The Four Last Things Expounded.
Q. WHAT are the four last things?
A. Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven.
Q. What understand you by death?
A. That we are mortal, and shall once die; how soon, we are uncertain,
and therefore we must be always prepared for it.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Heb. ix. 27. "It is decreed for all men once to die." And
Matt. xxv. 13. "Watch ye therefore, because ye know not the day nor the
hour."
Q. What is the best preparation for death?
A. A godly life, and to be often doing penance for our sins, and saying
with St. Paul, "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." Phil. i.
23.
Q. What else?
A. To remember often that of Matt. xvi. 25. "He that will save his life
shall lose it, and he that shall lose his life for me shall find it."
Q. What understand you by judgment?
A. I understand, that (besides the general judgment at the last day) our
souls as soon as we are dead, shall receive their particular judgment at the
tribunal of Christ, according to that, "Blessed are the dead that die in the
Lord, from henceforth now, saith the spirit, they rest from their labours,
for their works follow them." Apoc. xiv. 13.
Q. What is the best preparation from this judgment?
A. To remember often that of Heb. x. 31. It is a terrible thing to fall
into the hands of the living God." And that of 1 Cor. xi. 21. "For if we did
judge our selves, we should not be judged."
Q. What understand you by hell?
A. That such as die in mortal sin "shall be tormented there both day and
night, and for ever and ever." Apoc. xx. 21. "There shall be weeping,
howling, and gnashing of teeth; the worm of conscience shall always gnaw
them, and the fire that torments them, shall never be extinguished." Mark
viii. 44, 45.
Q. What understand you by heaven?
A. That the elect and faithful servants of God, shall for ever reign
with him in his kingdom, "where he hath such delights and comforts for them,
as neither eye hath seen or ear hath heard, neither hath it entered into the
heart of man." 1 Cor. ii. 9.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Out of Matt. vii. 21. "He hath doth the will of my Father who is in
heaven, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."
Q. What profit is there in the frequent memory of all those things?
A. Very great according to that, "In all thy works remember the last
things, and thou shalt never sin." Eccles. vii. 40. which God of his great
mercy give us grace to do. Amen.
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CHAPTER XXII.
The Substance or Essence, and Ceremonies of the Mass, Expounded.
Q. WHAT is the mass?
A. It is the unbloody sacrifice of Christ's body and blood, under the
forms of bread and wine. The word Mass, used in English, being derived from
Missa, Latin; and the word Missa, though it may have other derivations, may
be well taken from the Hebrew word Missach, which signifies a free voluntary
offering.
Q. Who instituted the substance or essence of the Mass?
A. Our Saviour Christ at his last supper, when he consecrated, i.e.
converted the substance of bread and wine into his own true body and blood,
and gave the same to his disciples, under the outward forms of bread and
wine, commanding them to do what he had done in commemoration of him. Luke
xxii. 19.
Q. Who ordained the ceremonies of the mass?
A. The church, directed by the Holy Ghost.
Q. For what end did the church ordain them?
A. To stir up devotion in the people, and reverence to the sacred
mysteries.
Q. For what other end?
A. To instruct the ignorant in spiritual and high things by sensible and
material signs; and by the glory of the church militant to make them
comprehend something of the glory of the triumphant church.
Q. What warrant hath the church to ordain ceremonies?
A. The authority of God himself in the old law, commanding many and most
stately ceremonies in things belonging to his service. See the whole book of
Leviticus.
Q. What besides?
A. The example of Christ in the new law using dust and spittle to cure
the blind, the deaf, and dumb. He prostrated himself at prayer in the garden
three times. He lifted up his eyes to heaven and groaned, when he was
raising Lazarus from the dead, which were all ceremonies.
Q. Did he use any ceremonies at the last supper, where he ordained the
sacrifice of the mass?
A. He did; for he washed the feet of his disciples, he blessed the bread
and the cup, and exhorted the communicants.
Q. What signify the several ornaments of the priest?
A. The Amict, or linen veil, which he first puts on, represents the veil
with which the Jews covered the face of Christ, when they buffeted him in
the house of Caiaphas, and bid him prophesy, "who it was that struck him."
2. The Alb signifies the white garment, which Herod put on him, to
intimate that he was a fool.
3. The Girdle signifies the cord that bound him in the garden.
4. The Maniple, the cord which bound him to the pillar.
5. The Stole, the cord by which they led him to the crucified.
6. The priest's upper, Vestment, represents both the seamless coat of
Christ, as also the purple garment with which they clothed him in derision
in the house of Pilate.
7. The Altar-stone, represents the cross on which he offered himself
unto the Father.
8. The Chalice, the sepulchre or grave of Christ.
9. The Paten, the stone which was rolled to the door of the sepulchre.
10. The Altar-cloths, with the corporal and Pall, the linen in which the
dead body of Christ was shrouded and buried. Finally, the candles on the
Altar puts us in mind of the light which Christ brought into the world by
his passion, as also of his immortal and ever shining divinity.
Q. What meaneth the priest's coming back three steps from the Altar, and
humbling himself before he begins?
A. It signifies the prostrating of Christ in the garden, when he began
his passion.
Q. Why doth the priest bow himself again at the Confiteor?
A. To move the people to humiliation; and to signify that by the merits
and passion of Christ, (which they are there to commemorate) salvation may
be had, if it be sought with a contrite and humble heart.
Q. Why doth he beat his breast as Mea Culpa?
A. To teach the people to return into the heart, and signifies that all
sin is from the heart, and ought to be discharged from the heart, with
hearty sorrow.
Q. Why doth the priest, ascending to the Altar, kiss it in the middle?
A. Because the Altar signifies the church, composed of divers people, as
of divers living stones, which Christ kissed in the middle, by giving a holy
kiss of peace and unity, both to the Jews and Gentiles.
Q. What signifies the Introit?
A. It is, as it were, the entrance into the office, or that which the
priest saith first after his coming to the Altar, and signifies the desires
and groanings of the ancient fathers longing for the coming Christ.
Q. Why is the Introit repeated twice?
A. To signify the frequent repetition of their desires and
supplications.
Q. Why do we add unto the Introit, Gloria Patri, &c. glory be to the
Father, &c. Amen?
A. To render thanks to the most Blessed Trinity for our redemption,
accomplished by the cross.
Q. What means the Kyrie Eleison?
A. It signifies, "Lord have mercy on us," and is repeated thrice in
honour of the Son, and thrice in honour of the Holy Ghost.
Q. Why so often?
A. To signify our great necessity, and earnest desires to find mercy.
Q. It signifies, "Glory be to God on high;" and is the song which the
angels sung at the birth of Christ, used in this place to signify, that the
mercy which we beg, was brought us by the birth and death of Christ.
Q. What means the Oremus?
A. It signifies, "Let us pray;" and is the priest's address to the
people, by which he invites them to join with him, both in his prayer and
intention.
Q. What means the Collect?
A. It is the priest's prayer, and is called a Collect, because it
collects and gathers together the supplications of the multitude, speaking
them all with one voice and also because it is a collection, or sum of the
Epistle and Gospel, for the most part of the year, especially of all the
Sundays.
Q. Why doth the clerk say, Amen.
A. He doth it in the name of the people, to signify, that all concur
with the priest, in his petition of prayer.
Q. What meaneth the Dominus Vobiscum?
A. It signifies, "Our Lord be with you," and is used to beg God's
presence and assistance to the people, in the performance of that work.
Q. Why is it answered Et cum Spiritu tuo, "and with thy spirit?"
A. To signify, that the people with one consent do beg the like for him.
Q. Why are all the prayers ended with Per Dominum nostrum Jesum
Christum, &c. "Through our Lord Jesus Christ?"
A. To signify, that whatsover we beg of God the Father, we must beg it
in the name of Jesus Christ, by whom he hath given us all things.
Q. What signifies the Epistle?
A. It signifies the old law; as also the preaching of the Prophets and
the Apostles, out of whom it is commonly taken: and it is read before the
Gospel, to intimate that the old law being able to bring nothing to
perfection, it was necessary the new should succeed it.
Q. What means the Gradual?
A. It signifies the penance preached by St. John Baptist, and that we
cannot obtain the salvation of Christ, but by the holy degrees of penance.
Q. What means the Alleluiah?
A. It is the voice of men rejoicing, and aspiring to the joys of heaven.
Q. Why is the Alleluiah repeated so often at the feast of Easter?
A. Because it is the joyful solemnity of our Saviour's resurrection.
Q. Why between the Septuagesima and Easter, is the Tract read in the
place of the Gradual?
A. Because it is a time of penance and mourning, and therefore the Tract
is read with a mournful and slow voice, to signify the miseries and
punishments of this life.
Q. What is the Tract?
A. Two or three versicles between the Epistle and the Gospel, sung with
a slow, long protracted tone.
Q. Why do we rise up at the reading of the Gospel?
A. To signify our readiness to go, and do, whither, and whatsoever it
commands us.
Q. What means the Gospel?
A. It signifies the preaching of Christ; and is the happy embassy or
message of Christ unto the world.
Q. Why is the Gospel read at the North end, or left side of the Altar?
A. To signify that by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, the kingdom
of the Devil was overthrown.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Because the Devil hath chosen the North (figuratively infidels, and
the wicked) for the seat of his malice. "From the North shall all evil be
opened upon all the inhabitants of the land." Jer. i. 14. and Zach. ii. 7.
Q. Why doth the priest before he begins the Gospel, salute the people
with Dominus vobiscum?
A. To prepare them for a devout hearing of it, and to beg of our Lord to
make them worthy hearers of his word, which can save their souls.
Q. Why then doth he say, Sequentia sancti Evangelii, &c. The sequel of
the Holy Gospel, &c.?
A. To move attention, and to signify what part of the Gospel he then
reads.
Q. Why doth the clerk answer, Gloria tibi Domine, Glory be to thee, O
Lord?
A. To give the glory of the gospel to God, who hath of his mercy made us
partakers of it.
Q. Why then doth the priest sign the book with the sign of the cross?
A. To signify that the doctrine there delivered, appertains to the cross
and passion of Christ.
Q. Why after this do both priest and people sign themselves with the
cross in three places?
A. They sign themselves on their foreheads, to signify they are not, nor
will be ashamed to profess Christ crucified: on their mouths to signify they
will be ready with their mouths, to confess unto salvation: and on their
breast to signify that with their hearts they believe unto justice.
Q. Why at the end of the Gospel, do they sign their breast again with
the sign of the cross?
A. That the Devil may not steal the seed of God's word out of their
hearts.
Q. What means the Creed?
A. It is a public profession of out faith, and the wholesome fruit of
preaching the Gospel.
Q. What means the first offertory, where the priest offers bread and
wine mingled with water?
A. It signifies the freedom wherewith Christ offered himself in his
whole life unto his passion, and the desire he had to suffer for our sins.
Q. What signifies the mingling of water with wine?
A. It signifies the blood and water flowing from the side of Christ; as
also the union of the faithful with Christ.
Q. Why then doth the priest wash the ends of his fingers?
A. To admonish both himself and the people to wash away the unclean
thoughts of their hearts, that so they may partake of that clean sacrifice:
As also to signify, that the priest is, ought to be clean from mortal sin.
Q. Why then after some silence, doth he begin the preface with an
elevated voice, saying Per omnia sęcula sęculorum?
A. To signify the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem, after he
had lain hid a little space; and therefore it is ended with Hosana,
benedictus qui venit, &c. which was the Hebrew children's song.
Q. What else meaneth the preface?
A. It is a preparation of the people, for the approaching action of the
sacrifice; and therefore the priest saith, Sursum corda, lift your hearts to
God; so to move them to lay aside all earthly thoughts, and to think only on
heavenly things.
Q. Why at these words, Benedictus qui venit, Blessed is he that cometh
in our Lord's name, doth he sign himself with the sign of the cross?
A. To signify that the entry of Christ into Jerusalem was not to a
kingdom of this world, but to a death upon the cross.
Q. What is the Canon?
A. It is a most sacred, essential, and substantial part of the mass,
because in it the sacrifice is effected.
Q. Why is the Canon read with a low voice?
A. To signify the sadness in our Saviour's passion, which is there
effectually represented.
Q. Why doth the priest begin the Canon bowing his head?
A. To signify the obedience of Christ unto his Father in making himself
a sacrifice to sin.
Q. What meaneth the Te-igitur, clementissime Pater, &c. Thee therefore,
O most clement Father, &c.?
A. It is a humble and devout supplication to God our heavenly Father,
made in the name of all the people, that he would vouchsafe to accept and
bless the sacrifice which we are offering unto him for the peace, unity and
conversation of the whole Catholic Church, and likewise for the Pope, our
prelate, and all the other the truly faithful.
Q. Why in the middle of this prayer doth the priest kiss the altar, and
sign the Host and Chalice thrice with the sign of the cross?
A. He kisseth the altar, to show the kiss of peace which Christ gave us,
by reconciling us to God in his own blood. He signeth the Host and Chalice
thrice to signify that our redemption made upon the Cross, was done by the
will of the Holy Trinity.
Q. What meaneth the Memento Domine famulorum famularumque tuarum:
Remember, O Lord, thy servants, men and women, &c.?
A. It is a commemoration of the living, in which the pries remembers by
name, such as he intends chiefly to say mass for, and then in general, all
present and all the faithful, beseeching God by virtue of the sacrifice, to
bless them, and be mercifully mindful of them.
Q. What means the Communicantes and memorum venerantes, &c.
Communicating and worshipping the memory, &c.?
A. It is an exercise of our communion with the saints in which having
recounted the names of the blessed virgin Mary, and many other glorious
saints, we beg of God by their merits and intercession, to grant us the
assistance of his protection in all things.
Q. What signifies the Hanc igitur oblationem, this offering therefore of
our servitude, &c. when the priest spreads his hands over the Host and
Chalice?
A. It is an earnest begging of God to accept the sacrifice that is
presented to be offered for the safety and peace of the whole church, and
salvation of all from eternal damnation.
Q. Why then doth he sign the offerings again five times?
A. To signify the mystery of those five days which were between our
Saviour's entry into Jerusalem and his passion.
Q. What meaneth Qui pridie quam pateretur, who the day before he
suffered, &c.
A. It is but a repetition and representation of what Christ did at his
last supper, where he took bread, blessed it, &c. and immediately precedes
the words of consecration spoken by the priest, by which he sacrificeth to
God.
Q. What are the words of consecration?
A. "Hoc est corpus meum. &c. This is my body; This is the cup of my
blood, of the New and eternal Testament; a mystery of faith, which shall be
shed for you, and for the many, to the remission of sins." Matt. xxvi. 27,
28.
Q. What meaneth these words?
A. They signify according to the letter, what they effect and cause,
viz. a change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ; and
in a mystery also they signify, unto us the incarnation, passion,
resurrection, and ascension of Christ.
Q. Why after consecration of the Host, doth the priest kneel and adore?
A. He kneels and adores, to give sovereign honour to Christ, and signify
the real presence of his body and blood in the blessed sacrament which he
then holds in his hand.
Q. Why after consecration of the wine, doth the priest kneel and adore,
saying, Hęc quotiescumque feceritis, &c. that is, "As often as you shall do
these things, you shall do them in remembrance of me." 1 Cor. xi. 25?
A. He kneels and adores, to give sovereign honour to Christ, and to
signify the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the chalice, then on
the altar, and he speaks these words to signify, that as often as we say, or
hear mass, and offer up this sacrifice, we must do it as Christ hath
commanded us, in memory of his passion, resurrection and ascension: and
therefore he goes on, beseeching God by all those mysteries, to look
propitiously upon our holy and immaculate host, as he did upon the
sacrifices of Abraham, Abel, and Melchisedech, and to replenish all that
partake thereof, with heavenly grace and benediction.
Q. Why after consecration of each, doth the priest elevate, or lift up
the consecrated host and chalice?
A. That all the people may adore the body and blood of Christ, as also
to signify, that for our sins his body was lifted on the Cross and his blood
shed.
Q. For what other end doth he elevate the host and chalice?
A. That he, with the whole multitude, may make oblations of Christ's
body and blood unto God, which after consecration, is one of the most
essential parts of the whole service of the mass, and signifies that
oblation, wherewith Christ offered himself unto God upon the altar of the
Cross.
Q. Why then doth he again sign the offerings five times with the sign of
the Cross?
A. To signify the five wounds of Christ, which he represents to the
eternal Father for us.
Q. What means the Momento?
A. It is a commemoration of the dead; in which the pries first nominates
those whom he intends especially to apply the sacrifice unto; and then prays
in general for all the faithful departed, beseeching God by virtue of that
sacrifice, to give them rest, refreshment, and everlasting life.
Q. Why after the Momento for the dead, doth the priest elevate or raise
his voice, saying, Nobis quoqueveccatoribus, "and to us sinners also," &c.?
A. In memory of the supplication of the penitent thief made to Christ on
the Cross; that so we also (though unworthy sinners) by the virtue of the
sacrifice, may with him and the holy saints, be made partakers of the
heavenly kingdom.
Q. Why then doth he again sign the Host and Chalice three times with the
sign of the Cross?
A. To signify, that this sacrifice is available for three sorts of men:
for those in heaven, to the increase or glory; for those in purgatory, to
free up them from their pains; and for those on earth, to an increase of
grace and remission of their sins; as also to signify the three hours which
Christ did hang living upon the Cross, and all the griefs he sustained in
them.
Q. Why then, uncovering the chalice, doth he sign it five times with the
Host?
A. His uncovering the chalice is to signify, that at the death of Christ
the veil of the temple was rent asunder. The three crosses made over the
chalice, signify the three hours which Christ hung dead on the cross; the
other two made at the brim of the chalice, signifying the blood and water
flowing from his side.
Q. Why is the Pater Noster said with a loud voice?
A. To signify, by the seven petitions thereof, the seven mystical words
which Christ spoke upon the Cross with a loud voice, viz. "Father, forgive
them, they know not what they do. 2. To day shalt thou be with me in
Paradise. 3. Behold thy mother; woman behold thy son. 4. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me. 5. I thirst. 6. Into thy hands I commend my spirit.
7. It is consummated."
Q. What means the priest laying down the Host upon the corporal, and
then covering the chalice again?
A. It signifies the taking of our Saviour down from the Cross, and his
burial.
Q. Why, then is the priest silent for a time?
A. To signify our Saviour's rest in the sepulchre on the Sabbath?
Q. Why is the Host divided into three parts?
A. To signify the division of our Saviour's soul and body made on the
Cross, and that the body was broken, and divided in three principle parts,
namely his hands, side, and feet.
Q. Why after this doth he sign the chalice three times with a particle
of the Host, and raise his voice saying, Pax Domini, &c., The peace of our
Lord be always with you?
A. To signify that the frequent voice of Christ to his disciples, Pax
vobis, Peace be to you; as also to signify the triple peace which he hath
purchased for us, by his Cross, namely, external, internal, and eternal.
Q. Why then is the particle of the Host put into the chalice?
A. To signify the reuniting of our Saviour's body, blood and soul, made
at his resurrection; as also to signify, that we cannot partake of the blood
and merits of Christ, unless we partake of his cup of sufferings.
Q. Why is the Agnus Dei, or Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of
the world, said with a loud voice?
A. To commemorate the glory of our Saviour's ascension, and to signify
that he was slain like an innocent lamb to take away our sins and give us
peace.
Q. Why is the Pax, or kiss of peace, given before communion?
A. To signify, that peace and mutual charity, which ought to be among
the faithful, who all eat of one bread and of the Eucharist and are all
members of one mystical body.
Q. What means the three prayers said by the priest before the communion?
A. They are said in honour of the blessed Trinity. In the first he begs
peace for the whole church, and perfect charity among all Christians. In the
second, he beseecheth God, by the body and blood of Christ, (which he is
there about to receive) to free him from all evil. In the third, that it may
not prove to his damnation and judgment, by an unworthy receiving of it, but
to the defence and safety of his soul and body. And this immediately
precedes the consummation of the Host and Chalice, which is another of the
most essential parts of the whole service of the mass.
Q. What signifies the consummation of communion?
A. It signifies Christ's burial, and the consummation of his passion.
Q. What means the Domine non sum dignus, &c.?
A. It signifies, "O Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter
under my roof; but only say the word," &c. And it was the Centurion's
prayer, by which he obtained health for the sick boy, Matt. viii. 8. And
teacheth us not to approach this sacrifice, but with an humble and contrite
heart.
Q. What means the prayers said by the priest after communion?
A. They are thanksgiving to God for having made us partakers of his
unbloody sacrifice of the Altar, and by it also of the bloody sacrifice of
the Cross.
Q. What means the words Ite Missa est?
A. They signify, that the Host is offered, Mass ended, and the people
dismissed; representing the voice of the angel dismissing the apostles and
disciples when they stood looking up after Christ ascended into heaven,
with, "O ye men of Galilee, why stand you here looking up into heaven?" Acts
i. 11.
Q. What means the priest lifting up his hands and blessing the people?
A. It signifies the blessing which Christ gave his apostles and
disciples at his ascension, with his hands lifted up.
Q. What signifies the Gospel of St. John?
A. It signifies the Apostles preaching the gospel to all nations. Luke
xxiv. 50.
Q. What is the missal?
A. It is the Mass book, wherein this holy service is contained.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
The Primer or Office of our Blessed Lady, Expounded.
Q. WHO composed this office?
A. The church, directed by the Holy Ghost.
Q. Why is the Primer so called?
A. From the Latin word Primo, which signifies, first of all, so to teach
us, that prayer should be the first work of the day, according to that,
"Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be given
you.
Q. Why is the office divided into Hymns, Psalms, Canticles, Antiphons,
Versicles, Responsories, and Prayers?
A. For order, beauty, and variety sake.
Q. What warrant have you for that?
A. Out of Col. iii. 16. "Sing ye in your hearts unto the Lord in
spiritual Psalms, Hymns, and Canticles."
Q. Why should the laity pray out of the Psalms, which they little
understand?
A. 1. Because, by so doing, they pray out of the mouth of the Holy
Ghost. 2. Because, if they do it with devout and humble hearts, it is as
meritorious in them, as in the greatest scholars; for a petition hath the
same force, whether it be delivered by a learned or unlearned man; so hath
also prayer. 3. Because a psalm is of the same value in the sight of God, in
the mouth of a child, or woman, as from the mouth of the most learned
doctor.
Q. Why is the office divided into seven several hours?
A. That so it might be a daily memorial of the seven principal parts,
and seven hours of our Saviour's passion.
Q. What ground have you for that?
A. Out of Zac. xii 10. "At that day I will pour out upon the house of
David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and prayer, and
they shall look up at him whom they have pierced."
Q. What meaneth at that day?
A. The day of grace, the new law.
Q. What means the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem?
A. The church of Christ.
Q. What means the spirit of grace and prayer?
A. The Holy Ghost which dictated the office, and poureth forth the grace
of God into our souls by virtue of it.
Q. What means, "And they shall look up at him whom they have pierced?"
A. It signifies that the whole order, scope, and object of the office
should be Christ crucified.
Q. How are the seven hours a memorial of the passion of Christ?
A. Because the seven hours were consumed in his passion; for three hours
he hung living on the Cross; other three hours he hung dead upon it; and the
seventh hour was spent in nailing him to and taking him from the cross.
Q. What do we commemorate by the Matins and Lauds?
A. His bloody sweat in the garden; as also his been dragged thence to
Jerusalem.
Q. What by the prime or first hour?
A. The scoffs and indignations which he sustained, whilst they led him
through the streets early in the morning to the princes of the Jews; as also
the false accusations which then were brought against him.
Q. What by the third hour?
A. His whipping at the pillar, his crowning with thorns, his clothing
with a purple garment, his sceptre of a reed, and showing to the people with
these words: Behold the man.
Q. What by the sixth hour?
A. His unjust condemnation to death, his carrying the Cross, his
stripping and nailing to the Cross.
Q. What by the ninth hour?
A. His drinking gall and vinegar, his dying on the Cross, and the
opening his side with a spear.
Q. What by the even-song?
A. His taking down from the Cross, and the darkness which was made upon
the face of the earth.
Q. What by the Complin?
A. His funeral and burial.
Briefly thus; The matins and lauds, his agony, and binding in the
garden; the crime, his scoffs, and false accusations; the third hour, his
clothing with purple, and crowning with thorns; the sixth hour, his
condemning and nailing to the Cross; the ninth hour, his yielding up the
ghost, and the opening his side; the even-song, his taking from the Cross;
and the complin, his burial.
The Particulars of the Office Expounded.
Q. WHY doth our Lady's office always begin with an Ave Maria?
A. To dedicate the office of our Lady, and to beg her aid for the devout
performance of it to God's honour.
Q. Why do we begin every hour with, Incline unto my aid, O God: O Lord,
make haste to help me?
A. To acknowledge our infirmity and misery, and out great need of divine
assistance, not only in all other things, but also in our very prayers;
according to that of the Apostles, "No man can say Lord Jesus, but in the
Holy Ghost."
Q. Why do we add to this, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to
the Holy Ghost?
A. To signify that the intention of the office is, in the first place,
to give one and equal glory to the most blessed Trinity, and to invite all
creatures to do the like, this is the principle aim of the whole office;
therefore we not only begin every hour, but also end every Psalm with the
same verse.
Q. Who ordained the Gloria Patri?
A. The Apostles, according to Baronius in his 3d Tome.
Q. Why do we join unto the Gloria Patri, Sicut erat, &c. As it was in
the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end?
A. Because it was made by the Council of Nice against the Arians, who
denied Christ to be coequal and consubstantial to his Father, or to have
been before the blessed Virgin Mary.
Q. Why after this, for a great part of the year, and especially between
Easter and Whitsuntide, do we say, Alleluia, Alleluia?
A. Because that is a time of joy, and Alleluia is a Hebrew word,
signifying, "Praise ye the Lord with all joy, and exultation of heart."
Q. Why were it not better changed into English?
A. Because it is the language of the blessed in heaven, according to
Apoc. viii. 6. Therefore the church hath forbidden it to be translated into
any other language.
Q. Why in Lent, and some other times, do we say, instead of Alleluiah,
"Praise be to thee, O Lord, King of eternal Glory?
A. Because those are times of penance; therefore God must be praised
rather with tears, than exaltation.
Q. Why then do we always say, for the invitatory Hail Mary, full of
grace, the Lord is with thee?
A. To congratulate and renew the memory of our blessed Lady's joy,
conceived at the conception of her Son Jesus; and to invite both men and
angels to do the like.
Q. What signify the five verses following the invitatory, which begin,
Come let us exult unto our Lord?
A. The five wounds of Christ, from which all our prayer hath its force
and merit, and in honour of which all those versions are said.
Q. What mean the Hymns?
A. They are a poetical expression of prerogatives and praises of the
Blessed Virgin.
Q. Why are so many Psalms used in the office?
A. Because they are directed by the Holy Ghost, and do contain in a most
moving manner, all the affections of piety and devotion.
Q. Why are there but three Psalms in the most of the hours?
A. In honour of the most blessed Trinity, to whom chiefly the whole
office is addressed.
Q. Why was the office divided into so many hours?
A. I have told you the chief reason already, and one other reason is,
that so there might be no hour either by day or night, to which some hour of
the office might not correspond.
Q. What do the matins correspond to?
A. To the first, second, and third watch of the night, consisting of
three hours each; and therefore the matins consist of three psalms, and
three lessons.
Q. What do the lauds correspond to?
A. To the fourth watch of the night.
Q. What do the prime, the third, sixth, and ninth hours correspond to?
A. To the third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day.
Q. What do the even-song and complin correspond to?
A. To the evening.
Q. What means the benedictions, or blessings given before the lesson?
A. They are short aspirations to beg divine assistance; and the first is
in honour of the Father, and the second in honour of the Son, the third in
honour of the Holy Ghost.
Q. What doth the lesson contain?
A. The mystical praises of our blessed Lady, taken out of the Prophets.
Q. Why do we end every lesson, saying, But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon
us?
A. To beg the praises and virtues of the blessed Virgin, which we have
there read, may be deeply settled in our hearts, and that God would pardon
our former negligence, both in his and her service.
Q. Why is it answered, Thanks be to God?
A. To render thanks to God for his mercy, in bestowing such a patroness
on us as the blessed Virgin Mary.
Q. What means the responsories?
A. They are so called, because they answer one another.
Q. What are the antiphons?
A. The versicles which are begun before the Psalms.
Q. Why do we stand up at the Magnificat, Benedictus, and Nunc dimittis?
A. To signify our reverence to the gospel whence they are taken.
Q. What is the collect?
A. It is a prayer, and is so called, because it collects and gathers
together all the petitions and supplications of the whole office.
Q. Why is the collect always ended with these words, Through our Lord
Jesus Christ, &c.?
A. To signify that he is our only mediator of redemption, and
principally mediator of intercession; and that we cannot merit any thing by
our prayers unless we make them in his name.
Q. Why make we a commemoration of the Saints?
A. To praise God in his Saints, according to the advice of the Psalmist,
Psalm cl., and to recommend ourselves to their merits and prayers.
Q. Why end we every prayer with these words, And may the souls of the
faithful, through the mercy of God, rest in peace?
A. That the poor souls in purgatory, may be partakers of all our prayers
and supplications.
Q. Why is the whole office ended with some hymn or antiphon to our Lady?
A. That by her it may be presented to her Son, and by him to his eternal
Father.
Q. Why are the nocturns in some offices so called?
A. Because those parts of the offices were wont to be said Nocturne
tempore, in the night time.
Q. Why are the fifteen gradual psalms so called?
A. From a custom the Jews observed of singing them, as they ascended up
fifteen steps or degrees (in Latin Gradus) towards Solomon's Temple, singing
one psalm on every step.
Q. Why are the penitential psalms so called?
A. Because they contain many deep expressions of inward sorrow and
penitence, or repentance of sins committed, and many cries or supplications
to God for mercy and forgiveness.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
The Solemnities of CHRIST our Lord,
(instituted for the most part by the Apostles)
and the Sundays of the Year, expounded.
Q. WHAT meaneth the nativity of Christ, or Christmas?
A. It is a solemn feast or mass yearly celebrated by the whole Catholic
Church from the Apostles' time to this day, in memory of the birth of Christ
at Bethlehem; and therefore is called the feast of the Nativity, and
Christmas from the mass of the birth of Christ.
Q. What meaneth the Circumcision or New-year's Day.
A. It is a feast in memory of the Circumcision of our Lord, which was
made on the eighth day from his nativity according to the prescript of the
old law, Gen. xviii. 12, when he was named Jesus according to what the angel
had foretold, Luke i. 14, and began to shed his infant blood by the stony
knife of Circumcision for the redemption of the world, presenting it to his
Father, as a New-year's gift in our behalf. And it is called New year's day
from the old Roman account, who began their computation of the year from the
first of January.
Q. What meaneth the Epiphany, or twelfth day?
A. It is a solemnity in memory and honour of Christ's manifestation or
apparition made to the Gentiles by a miraculous blazing star, by virtue
whereof he drew and conducted three kings out of the East to adore him in
the manager, where they presented him as on this day with gold, myrrh, and
frankincense, in testimony of his regality, humanity, and divinity. The word
Epiphany comes from the Greek, and signifies a manifestation, and is called
Twelfth-day, because it is celebrated the twelfth day after his nativity
exclusively.
Q. What meaneth purification or Candlemass-day?
A. It is a feast in memory and honour both of the presentation of our
blessed Lord, and of the purification of the blessed Virgin, made in the
Temple of Jerusalem the fortieth day after her happy child birth, according
to the law of Moses, Levit. xii. 6. And is called the Purification, from the
Latin word Purifico, to purify; not that our blessed Lady and contracted any
thing by her child-birth, which needed purifying, (being the mother of
purity itself) but because other mothers were by this ceremonial rite freed
from the legal impurity of their child-births.
And is also called Candlemass, or a Mass Candles; because before the
mass of that day, the church blesses her candles for the whole year, and
makes a procession with hallowed candles in the hands of the faithful, in
memory of divine light, wherewith Christ illuminated the whole church at his
presentation, where aged Simeon styled him, "A light to the Revelation of
the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel." Luke ii. 32.
Q. What meaneth the resurrection of our Lord, or Easter-day?
A. It is a solemnity in memory and honour of our Saviour's resurrection,
or rising from the dead on the third day, Matt. xxvii. 6. And is called
Easter, from Oriens, which signifies the East or Rising, which is one of the
titles of Christ, "And his name (saith the prophet) shall be called Oriens."
Zach. vi. 12, because as the material sun daily ariseth from the East, the
sun of justice, at this day, arose from the dead.
Q. What meaneth ascension-day?
A. If is from a feast in memory of Christ's ascension into heaven the
fortieth day after his resurrection, in the sight of his Apostles and
Disciples, Acts i. 9, 10, there to prepare a place for us, being preceded by
whole legions of Angels, and waited on by millions of Saints, whom he had
freed out of the prison of Limbo. Mich. ii. 13.
Q. What meaneth Pentecost or Whitsuntide?
A. It is a solemn feast in memory and honour of the coming of the Holy
Ghost upon the heads of the Apostles, in tongues as it were of fire, Acts
ii. 3. Pentecost in Greek signifieth the Fiftieth, it being the fiftieth day
after the resurrection. If is also called Whitsunday from the Catechumens,
who were clothed in white, and admitted on the eve of this feast to the
sacrament of baptism. It was anciently called Wied Sunday, (i.e.) Holy
Sunday, for wied or withed signifies Holy in the old Saxon language.
Q. What meaneth Trinity Sunday?
A. It is the octave of Whitsunday, and is so called in honour of the
Blessed Trinity, to signify that the works of our redemption and
sanctification then completed, are common to all the three persons.
Q. What meaneth Corpus Christi day?
A. It is a feast instituted by the church, in honour of the body and
blood of Christ, really present in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist;
during the octave of which feast, it is exposed to be adored by the faithful
in all the principle churches of the world, and great processions are made
in honour of it; and therefore is called Corpus Christi day, or the day of
the body of Christ.
Q. What meaneth the transfiguration of our Lord?
A. It is a feast in memory of our Saviour's transfiguring himself upon
Mount Tabor, and showing a glimpse of his glory to his Apostles, St. Peter,
St. James, and St. John. "And his face (saith the text) shown as the sun,
and his garment became white as snow," &c. Matt. xvii. 2. And in them also
unto us, for our encouragement to virtue, and perseverance in his holy faith
and love. The entymology is obvious from transfiguro, to transfigure, or to
change shape.
Q. What is Sunday, or the Lord's Day in general?
A. It is a day dedicated by the Apostles to the honour of the most holy
Trinity, and in memory that Christ our Lord arose from the dead upon
Sunday, sent down the holy Ghost on a Sunday, &c. and therefore is called
the Lord's Day. It is also called Sunday from the old Roman denomination of
Dies Solis, the day of the sun, to which it was sacred.
Q. What are the four Sundays of Advent?
A. They are the four Sundays preceding Christmas day, and were so called
by the church, in memory and honour of our Saviour's coming both to redeem
the world by his birth in the flesh, and to judge the quick and the dead;
from the Latin word Adventus, which signifies Advent, or coming.
Q. What are the four Sundays of Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesiam,
and Quadragesima?
A. Those days are appointed by the church for acts of penance and
mortification, and are a certain gradation or preparation for the passion
and resurrection of Christ, being so called, because the first is the
seventieth, the second the sixtieth, the third the fiftieth, the fourth the
fortieth day, or thereabouts, preceding the octave of the resurrection
according as their several names import.
Q. Why is the whole lent called Quadragesima?
A. Because it is a fast of forty days, in imitation of Christ's fasting
in the desert forty days and forty nights, and is begun the fortieth day
before Easter, which is therefore called Quadragesima, or the fortieth.
Q. What is Passion-Sunday?
A. That is a feast so called from the passion of Christ then drawing
nigh, and was ordained to prepare us for a worthy celebrating of it.
Q. Why is Palm-Sunday so called?
A. It is a day in memory and honour of the triumphant entry of our Lord
into Jerusalem, and is so called from the palm branches, which the Hebrew
children strewed under his feet, crying Hosanna to the Son of David, Matt.
xxi. 15. And hence it is that yearly, as on that day, the church blesseth
Palms, and makes a solemn procession in honour of the same triumph, all the
people bearing Palm branches in their hands.
Q. What is Dominica in albis, commonly called Low-Sunday?
A. It is the octave of Easter-day; and is so called from the
Catechumens, or Neophytes, who were on that day solemnly divested in the
church of their white garments.
The Feasts of our Blessed Lady, and the Saints, Expounded.
Q. WHAT means the conception, nativity, presentation, annunciation,
visitation, and assumption of our blessed Lady?
A. They are feasts instituted by the church in memory and honour of the
mother of God, but chiefly to the honour of God himself; and so are all the
other feasts of Saints.
Q. How explain you that answer?
A. The feast of the Conception is in memory of her miraculous
conception, who was conceived by her parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne, in
their old age, and sanctified from the first instant in the womb. The
Nativity is in the memory of her happy and glorious birth, by whom the
author of all life and salvation was born to the world. The Presentation, in
memory of her being present in the Temple at three years old, where she
vowed herself to God, both soul and body. The Annunciation is in memory of
that most happy embassy brought to her by the angel Gabriel from God, in
which she was declared to be the mother of God, Luke i. 31, 32. The
Visitation is in memory of her visiting St. Elizabeth, after she had
conceived the Son of God, at whose presence St. John the Baptist leaped in
his mother's womb, Luke i. 41. And her Assumption is in memory of her being
assumed or taken up into heaven, both soul and body, after her dissolution
or dormition; which is a pious and well-founded tradition in the church.
Q. For what end are the several solemnities of Saints?
A. They are instituted by our holy mother the church, to honour God in
his Saints, and to teach us to imitate their several kinds of martyrdoms and
sufferings for the faith of Christ, as also their several ways of virtue and
perfection: as the zeal, charity, and poverty of the Apostles and
Evangelists; the fortitude of the martyrs the constancy of the confessors;
the purity and humility of the virgins, &c.
Q. What meaneth the feast of St. Peter's installing and erecting his
apostolical chair in the city of Antioch?
A. It is kept in memory of St. Peter's installing and erecting his
apostolical chair in the city of Antioch.
Q. What is the feast of his chair at Rome?
A. It is a solemnity in honour of the translation of his chair from
Antioch to Rome.
Q. Why are St. Peter and St. Paul joined in one solemnity?
A. Because they are principle and joint co-operators under Christ in the
conversion of the world, St. Peter converting the Jews, and St. Paul, the
Gentiles; as also because both of them were martyred at he same place Rome,
and on the same day, June 29.
Q. What means the feast of St. Peter and Vincula, or St. Peter's Chains?
A. It in in honour of those chains wherewith Herod bound St. Peter in
Jerusalem, and from which he was freed by an angel of God, Acts xii. by only
the touch whereof great miracles were afterwards effected; to say nothing of
their miraculous joining together many years after into one chain, with
those iron fetters, with which they had been imprisoned in Rome.
Q. What meaneth the feast of Michaelmas?
A. It is a solemnity or solemn mass in honour of St. Michael, prince of
the heavenly host, and likewise of all the nine orders of holy angels; as
well to commemorate that famous battle fought by him and them in heaven,
against the dragon and his apostate angels, Apoc. xii. 7. in defence of
God's honour; as also to commend the whole church of God to their patronage
and prayers. And it is called the dedication of St. Michael, by reason of a
church in Rome, dedicated on that day to St. Michael, by Pope Boniface.
There is another feast called the apparition of St. Michael, and is in
memory of his miraculous apparition on Mount Garganus, where by his own
appointment, a temple was dedicated to him in Pope Gelasius' time.
Q. For what reason hath the holy church ordained a solemnity in memory
of all the Saints?
A. That so at least we might obtain the prayers and patronage of them
all, seeing the whole year is much too short to afford us a particular feast
for every Saint.
Q. What meaneth All Souls Day?
A. It is a day instituted by the church, in memory of all the faithful
departed, that by the prayers and suffrages of the living, they may be freed
out of their purgatory pains, and come to everlasting rest.
Q. What means Shrove-tide?
A. It signifies a time of confession; for our ancestors were used to
say, we will go to the shrift, instead of we will go to confession, and in
the more primitive times all good Christians went to confession, the better
to prepare themselves for a holy observation of Lent, and worthy receiving
the blessed sacrament at Easter.
Q. What signifies Ash-Wednesday?
A. It is a day of public penance and humiliation in the whole church of
God, and is so called from the ceremony of blessing ashes on that day,
wherewith the priest signeth the people, with a cross on their foreheads,
giving them this wholesome admonition, Memento homo, &c. Remember man that
thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return. So to prepare them for the
holy fast of Lent, and passion of Christ.
Q. What means Maundy Thursday?
A. That is a feast in memory of our Lord's last supper, where he
instituted the blessed Eucharist, or sacrament of his precious body and
blood, and washed his disciples' feet; and it is called Maundy Thursday, as
it were mandatum or mandat Thursday from the first word of the Antiphon,
mandatum novum de vobis, &c. John xiii. 34. "I give unto you a new command,
(or mandat) that you love one another, as I have loved you;" which is sing
on that day in the churches, when the prelates begin the ceremony of washing
their people's feet, in imitation of Christ's washing his disciple's feet,
before he instituted the blessed sacrament.
Q. What meaneth Good-Friday?
A. It is a most sacred and memorable day of which the great good work of
our redemption was consummated by Christ on his bloody cross.
Q. What means the three days of Tenebrę, before Easter?
A. It is a mournful solemnity, in which the church laments the death of
Christ; and is called Tenebrę or darkness, to signify the darkness which
overspread the face of the earth, at the time of his passion, for which end
also the church extinguisheth all her lights, and after some silence, at the
end of the whole office, maketh a great and sudden noise, to represent the
rending the veil of the Temple. The darkness also signifies the dark time of
the night wherein Christ was apprehended in the garden, and the noise made
by the soldiers and catch-poles at their seizing on our Saviour's person.
Q. What meaneth Rogation week, being the fifth after Easter?
A. It is a week of public prayer and confession for the temperateness of
the seasons of the year, and the fruitfulness of the earth, and it is called
Rogation from the verb Roga, to ask by reason of the petitions made to God
in that behalf.
Q. What means the Quatuor tempora, or four Ember weeks, or Ember Days?
A. Those are times also of public prayer, fasting, and processions
partly instituted for the successful ordination of the priest and ministers
of the church, and partly, both to beg and render thanks to God for the
fruits and blessings of the earth. And are called Ember days, or days of
Ashes, from the no less ancient than religious custom of using hair-cloth
and ashes, in time of public prayer and penance; or from the old custom of
eating nothing on those days till night, and then only a cake baked under
the embers or ashes, which was called, Panis, subcineritius, or Ember bread.
Q. What mean the two Holy Rood Days?
A. Those are two ancient feasts: the one in memory of the miraculous
invention, or finding out the holy cross by St. Helen, mother of Constantine
the great, after it had been hid and buried by the Infidels one hundred and
eighty years, who had erected a statue of Venus in the place of it. The
other in memory of the exaltation, or setting up the holy cross by Heraclius
the emperor, who having regained it a second time from the Persians, after
it had been lost fourteen years, carried it on his own shoulders to Mount
Calvary, and there exalted it with great solemnity; and it is called Holy
Rood, or Holy Cross, for the great sanctity which it received by touching
and bearing the oblation of the most precious body of Christ; the word Rood
in the old Saxon tongue, signifying Cross.
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CHAPTER XXV.
Some Ceremonies of the Church Expounded.
Q. WHAT is holy water?
A. A water sanctified by the word of God and prayer. 1 Tim. iv. 5, in
order to certain spiritual effects.
Q. what are those effects?
A. The chief are, 1. To make us mindful of our baptism, by which we
entered into Christ's mystical body, and therefore we are taught to sprinkle
ourselves with it as often as we enter the material Temple (which is a type
thereof to celebrate his praise.) 2. To fortify against the illusions of
evil spirits, against whom it hath great force as witnessed Theodoret, Eccl.
Hist. l. 5, c. 31. And hence arose the proverb, He loves it, (speaking of
things we hate) as the Devil loves holy water.
Q. How ancient is the use of Holy water?
A. Ever since the apostles' time; Pope Alexander I. who was but the
fourth Pope from St. Peter, makes mention of it in one of his epistles.
Exod. xxxvii. 8., 2 Par. iv. 6.; 4 Kings ii. 21.; Ps. I. 9.; Heb. ix. 19.;
x. 22; De Cons. Dist. iii. c. 20; B. Greg. Pastor, Pars ii. c. 5.
Q. Why is incense offered in the church?
A. To raise in the mind of the people an awe of the mysterious in the
action to which it is applied, and to beget a pious esteem of it, as also to
signify, that out prayers ought to ascend like a sweet perfume in the sight
of God. "Tis mentioned by St. Dionysius, Eccles Hierarch. c. 3.
Q. Why is the cross carried before us in procession?
A. To show that our pilgrimage in this life is nothing but a following
of Christ crucified.
Q. Why are our foreheads signed with holy ashes on Ash Wednesday?
A. To remind us of what we are made, and to admonish us to do penance
for our sins, as the Ninevites did in fasting, sackcloth, and ashes,
especially in the holy time of Lent.
Q. Who ordained the solemn fast of Lent?
A. The twelve Apostles, according to Heirom Epist. ad Marcel, in memory
and imitation of our Saviour's fasting forty days.
Q. Why are the crosses and holy images covered in time of Lent?
A. To signify that our sins (for which we then do penance) interpose
between God and us, and to express an ecclesiastical kind of mourning in
reference to our Saviour's passion.
Q. Why is a veil drawn between the altar-piece and the people in Lent
time?
A. To intimate, that, as our sins are as a veil which binder us from
seeing the beatific vision, or face of God; and as the veil of the Temple
was rent at the death of Christ, so is the veil of our sins by virtue of his
cross and passion, if we apply it by worthy fruits of penance.
Q. What means the fifteen lights set on the triangular figure on
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in holy-week?
A. The three upper lights signify Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; the twelve
lower, the twelve Apostles. The triangular figure signifies, that all light
of grace and glory is from the blessed Trinity; and fourteen of those lights
are extinguished on by one after every Psalm, to show how all their light of
spiritual comfort was extinguished for a time in those most Holy Saints, by
the passion and burial of Christ. The fifteenth light is put under the altar
to signify his being in the sepulchre, as also the darkness that overspread
the whole earth at his death.
Q. What signifies the noise made after a long silence, at the end of the
office of Tenebrę?
A. The silence signifies the horror of our Saviour's death; the noise,
the cleaving of the rocks and rending the veil of the Temple which then
happened.
Q. Why is the paschal candle hallowed and set up at Easter?
A. To signify the new light of the spiritual joy and comfort, which
Christ brought us at his resurrection; and it is lighted from the beginning
of the Gospel till after the communion, between Easter and Ascension, to
signify the apparitions which Christ made to his disciples during that
space.
Q. Why is the font hallowed?
A. Because the Apostles so ordered it, according to St. Dionysius, who
lived in their time. 1 Eccl. Hier. c. 2.
Q. Why is that ceremony performed at the feast of Easter and
Whitsuntide?
A. To show that, as in baptism we are buried with Christ, so by virtue
of his resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Ghost, we ought to rise
again, and walk with him in newness of life.
Q. Why is the material church or temple hallowed?
A. Because it bears a figure of the spiritual, viz. the mystical body of
Christ, which is holy and unspotted, Ephes. v. 27. as also to move us to
some special reverence and devotion in that place, and all things should be
holy in some measure, which appertain to the service of our most Holy God.
Q. Why is the altar consecrated?
A. Because if the altar in the old law was so holy that it sanctified
the gift, Matt. xxiii. 19. much more ought the altar of the new law to be
holy, which is the place of the body and blood of Christ, according to
Optatus, in his sixth book against Parmenian the Donatist. "We have an altar
(saith St. Paul) whereof they (the Jews) have no power to eat, who serve the
Tabernacle." Heb. xiii. 10.