AN ABRIDGEMENT OF Christian Doctrine: WITH Proofs of SCRIPTURE for Points controverted. Catechistically explained, by way of Question and Answer.  Esa. ch. 30. v. 21. 
This is the way, walk ye in it.  1 Cor. ch. 14. v. 38. 
If any man know not, he shall not be known.  
Permissu Superiorum, Printed at DOUAI. M. DC. XLVIII.   

To the truly virtuous, and no less honourable Lady, the Lady E. B. Wife to Sir W. B. Baronet.  
THe deep sense, as well of my own proper, as of the common obligations of my poor friends unto your Ladyship's charitable Bounty, hath moved me to address this little Treatise of Christian Doctrine to your perusal and Patronage; partly for a Pledge of our respectful gratitude; and partly for a testimony of your exemplar & excelling virtues, which never have appeared more conspicuous, then in this dark and ftormy time of Persecution, in which they always yielded to yourself, a plentiful light to see and discern the Vta Lactea, or white way of Heaven, and the revealed verities of Christ, from the black way which leadeth unto Hell, and the fictirious Novelties of Antichrist, shining like a bright and steadfast landmark to all your wavering and weatherbeaten Neighbours, to guide them to the haven of Security.  
Nor can I doubt of your acceptance of it, who have so cheerfully exhibited yourself not only a religious Professor, but also an indefatigable Sufferer for all the Articles contained in it. Witness the many Robberies and plunders acted against you under that only notion since the late unnatur all war. Witness your own captivity at Cannon-Froome, a cruelty not usual to your sex. Witness the arbitrary and most illegal Sequestration of your whole estate. Witness your long deprivement and separation from your beloved Husband and dear Children; whose sole Malignity is Christianity; whose delinquency is nothing else but loyalty. All which notwithstanding have been by you embraced and sustained with such a Masculine Courage and Christian confidence; that you have caused much confusion to your enemies, and singular consolation to your friends, by turning that which was intended for your temporal depression, into the greatest improvement of. your Soul, and highest pitch of spiritual advancement both to your Name and Family.  
What shall I say of these your gallant trials? of these your stigmas received for the Faith? I will say only what S. Paul said in a like case, That in the same measure you are partaker of the passions, you shall be also of the consolations of Christ, 2 Cor ch. 1. v. 7.  
I will give only this Elogium to the whole catalogue of your pressures & perfections, That you are now truly a Christian, one that may worthily say with the Apostle, I am fastened with Christ unto the cross. One who have written on your life and actions in lively characters of selfdenying patience, that holy Doctrine, which I here present you impressed in characters of ink and paper.  
Accept it therefore as your own Epitome, that as the world hath seen your sufferings, so it may see in this for what you suffer.  
Do but deign it the protection of your Piety, and it will yield you the protection of its Sanctity.  
Do but persevere in the practice of it unto the end in the same measure that you have begun, and it will bring you safe to the fruition of the first Master and Teacher of it, JESUS; which is the constant wish, and daily Prayer, of  
Madam, Your Ladyship's humble Beadsman, and devoted Servant, H. T. April 1. 1648.   

An Address to the Reader.  
Courteous Reader,  
HAving lately compiled this little Catechism of Christian Doctrine for the use and instruction of some ignorant friends, I have been much pressed and importuned by some, whose age and judgement is of more maturity, to expose it to public view; from whose request, though I found at first, some motives to descent, as well by reason of the multiplicity of books already printed on this subject, by grave and learned Authors; as also for the slender apprehension I had framed of this draught of mine. Yet I was at length induced to acquiesse thereunto for these reasons.  
First, to give check to certain Pamphlets lately published in our Country under the same (though falsely pretended) Title: that so the verity and Antiquity of the Catholic Faith (according to the Rule of contraries) being compared with the falsehood and novelties of Heretics, might seem the more illustrious and refulgent.  
Secondly to increase a new supply of books for such as have been plundered of the old stock.  
Thirdly, to revive the memory of that which never ought to be forgotten, nor can be learned too often, the Law and Doctrine of Christ.  
And finally (which was indeed my principal design) to furnish the unlearned, with certain proofs of Scripture for points controverted, together with the Rudiments of Christianity: A thing already copiously done in many of our Books of Controversy: But in regard the purses of some, and the capacities of others cannot reach such Books, I deemed it a work well worth the labour, to make them also some provision out of that store in this Edition of a lower Key, and lesser cost.  
Wonder not at the plainness of the stile, for I purposely affected it, minding rather the profit of the ignorant, than the pleasure of word-affecting Critics.  
Peruse it therefore with such Charity as I have penned it. If thou art ignorant, accept it for thy benefit; if thou art knowing in the Law already, at least commend it to thy ignorant friends, and by so doing, thou shalt oblige him, who is, ever to remain  
Thy Friend and Servant, H. T.   
✚ IHS AN ABRIDGEMENT OF Christian Doctrine, Catechistically explained by way of Question and Answer.  

CAP. 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 a Christian.  
Q. Whom understand you by z Christian?  
A. Him that believeth and professeth the Faith and 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 our neighbours good requireth it.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Matth. Ch. 10. Ver. 32. where Christ saith, Every one therefore that shall confess me before Men, I will confess him also before my Father which is in Heaven. But he that shall deny me before Men, I also will deny him before my Father which 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 thereof?  
A. Doubtless we are, seeing the reward which we expect in Heaven doth infinitely exceed all the pleasures and punishments of this life.  
Q. What other reasons have you for it?  
A. Because Christ the Son of the living God hath suffered fare greater things for us, even to a disgraceful death upon 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.  
Q. In what doth the Faith and Law of Christ chief consist?  
A. In two principal Mysteries, namely, the Unity and Trinity of God, the Incarnation and death of our Saviour.  
Q. What meaneth the Unity and Trinity of God?  
A. It meaneth that in God there is but one only divine Nature or Essence, although there be three Persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  
Q. How show you that?  
A. Out of the 1. of S. John ch. 5. v. 7. there be three which give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three be one.  
Q. Why are there but three Persons only?  
A. Because the Father hath no beginning, nor proceedeth from any other Person: the Son proceedeth from the Father, the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son.  
Q. Why are these three Persons, but one God?  
A. Because they have but one and the same Essence, one and the same Power, one and the same Wisdom, one and the same Goodness.  
Q. What meaneth the Incarnation and death of our Saviour?  
A. It meaneth that the second Person of the Blessed Trinity was made man and died upon a Cross to save us.  
Q. In what are these two Mysteries contained?  
A. In the sign of the Cross, as it is made by Catholics.  
Q. How declare you that?  
A. Because 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 to die upon the Cross for us.   

CAP. II.  
Faith explicated.  
Q. WHat is Faith?  
A. It is the gift of God, or a supernatural quality, infused by God into the Soul, by which we firmly believe all those things, which he hath revealed any way unto us?  
Q. Why is Faith necessary to Salvation?  
A. Because without Faith it is impossible to please God, Heb. ch. 11. v. 6.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Because he that believeth and shall be baptised, he shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be condemned, S. Mark c. 16. v. the last.  
Q. Why must we believe matters of Faith so firmly?  
A. Because God hath revealed them, who neither can deceive, nor be deceived.  
Q. If a man should deny, or obstinately doubt of some one Point of Faith, would he thereby lose his whole Faith?  
A. Yes, he would; because true Faith must always be entire, and he that faileth 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 Apostolical Traditions?  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of 2 Thes. c. 2. v. 15. Therefore Brethren stand ye fast, (saith S. Paul) and hold ye the Traditions which ye have learned, whether by word or by our Epistle.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. The Apostles Creed, which all are bound to believe, although it be not in the Scripture.  
Q. Is Faith only (as excluding good works) sufficient to salvation?  
A. No it is not, according to S. James his Epist. c. 2. v. 24. you see then Brethren, how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. The 1 Cor. ch. 13. where S. Paul saith, If a man have all faith, so as to remove Mountains, and have not charity, he is nothing; and if he distribute his goods unto the poor, and give his body so that it burn, and have not charity, it profiteth nothing.  
Q. What faith will suffice to justify?  
A. A Faith working by Charity in Jesus Christ, Gal. ch. 5. v. 6.  
Q. What vice is opposite to Faith?  
A. Heresy.  
Q. What is Heresy?  
A. It is an obstinate Error in things that of Faith.  
Q. Is it a grievous sin?  
A. A very grievous one, because it wholly divides a man from God, and leads to infidelity.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 18. v. 18. where Christ saith, If he will not hear the Church, let him be unto thee, as a Heathen or a Publican.   

CHAP. III.  
The Creed Expounded.  
Q. WHat is the Creed?  
A. It is the sum of our Belief?  
Q. Who made it?  
A. The twelve Apostles.  
Q. At what time did they make i●?  
A. Before they divided themselves into the several Countries of the world.  
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 signifieth, I believe?  
A. It signifieth as much as, I most firmly and undoubtedly hold.  
Q. What means, I believe in God?  
A. It meaneth not only that there is a God, and that all is truth which he teacheth, but also that we move unto him by Faith, Hope and Charity.  
Q. What signifieth the word Father?  
A. It signifieth the first Person of the most Blessed Trinity, who is by nature the Father of but one only Son, who is by Adoption the Father of all Christians, who is by Creation the Father of all Creatures.  
Q. What meaneth the word Almighty?  
A. It meaneth, that God is able to do all things as he pleaseth, that he seethe all things, knoweth all things, and governeth all things.  
Q. Why is he called Almighty in this place?  
A. That we might doubt of nothing which followeth.  
Q. What signify those words, Creator of Heaven and Earth?  
A. They signify that God created Heaven and Earth, and all the creatures in them out of nothing by his sole Word, Gen. ch. 1.  
Q. What moved him 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. When he created Heaven which was on the first day, for he made that full of Angels.  
Q. For what end did he 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 S. Matth. ch. 18. v. 10. where Christ saith, See ye that ye destise not any one of these little ones; For their Angels which are in Heaven, always see the face of my Father which is in heaven.  
Q. Do the Angels know our necessities and hear our Prayers?  
A. Doubtless they do, since God hath deputed them to be our Guardians.  
Q. How else prove you it?  
A. Out of Zachary, ch. 1. where an Angel prayeth 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 m●rcy on the City of Judah and Jerusalem, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?  
Q. What Scripture have you for praying to Angels?  
A. The 48. ch. of Gen. v. 16. where Jacob on his deathbed prayed to an Angel for Ephraim and Manasses, saying, The Angel of the Lord that delivered me from all evil, bless these Children.  
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. With holy men.  
Q. When and to what likeness did God create man?  
A. On the sixth day, and to his own image and likeness, Gen. 1.  
Q. In what doth that similitude consist?  
A. In this, that man is in his Soul an incorporeal, intellectual and immortal Spirit, as God is.  
Q. In what besides?  
A. In this, that as in God there is but one most simple 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 of Will, Memory and Understanding.  
Q. How do you prove the Soul to be immortal?  
A. Out of S. Matth. C. 10. V 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 the 12. Ch. of Eccles. where we read, That at our death the dust returneth to the earth from whence it was, and the spirit to God who 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 own much to God for our creation?  
A. Very much, seeing he made us in such a 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 borne?  
A. In state of original sin, and prone to actual sin, subject to death.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Rom. ch. 6. v. 12. where we read, That by one man sin entered into this 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 conserved 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 treateth this Article?  
A. Of the second Person of the B. 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 S. john's Gospel, ch. 1. where we read, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, etc. And the Word was made Flesh, and dwelled in us.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Philip. C. 2. V 6, 7. where S. Paul saith, That Christ when he was in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal to 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 would God be made man?  
A. To redeeem and save lost man.  
Q. Was his Incarnation necessary for that end?  
A. 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 none could make but God, and he 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 attempered his own inscrutable greatness, unto the littleness of our sensible capacity, by being made man, scarce one of a thousand (and those great Clerks only) would ever have been able to know every thing to the purpose of him, or consequently to love and serve him, as they ought, (which is the necessary means of our salvation) seeing that 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 inflameth us with the love of God, who could not more have dignified man's nature, or shown more love unto the world, then to send down his only Son to redeem it in our flesh.  
Q. What signifieth the Name jesus?  
A. It signifieth a Saviour, S. Mat. C. 1. V 21.  
Q. Is any special honour due unto that Name?  
A. There is, because it is the highest Title of God, made man.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Philip. ch. 2. ver. 9 where we read, That God the Father hath given unto Christ, because he humbled himself unto the death of the Cross, a Name which is above all names, the Name Jesus.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Because there is no other name under Heaven given unto men, in which we must be saved, Act. 4. v. 12.  
Q. How do you prove that we must bow at this name?  
A. Out of the said Philip. ch. 2. v. 10. At the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow of celestials, terrestrials and Infernals.  
Q. What signifies the Name Christ?  
A. It signifieth Anointed.  
Q. Why was he called Anointed?  
A. Because he was a Priest, a Prophet, and a King, to all which unction appertaineth.  
Q. With what was Christ Anointed?  
A. With all the plenitude of divine grace.  
Q. What mean the words, his only Son?  
A. They mean, that God hath but one only Son by nature coequal to himself, begotten of himself without a Mother, though by Adoption he have many Sons, to wit all Christians.  
Q. What understand you by the word Our Lord?  
A. I understand that Christ hath all power given him in heaven and earth, and that he hath bought us with his precious blood, and therefore we are all his slaves.   

The third Article.  
Q. WHat is the third Article?  
A. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, borne of the Virgin Mary.  
A. What meaneth, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost?  
A. It meaneth, that the second Person of the Blessed Trinity took flesh of the Virgin Mary, not by humane generation, but by the work of the Holy Ghost.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Luke. Ch. 1. V 25. Behold (saith the Angel) thou shalt conceive and bear a Son, etc. the Holy Ghost shall come down upon thee, and the virtue of the Highest shall  thee.  
Q. What understand you by the words, borne of the Virgin Mary?  
A. I understand, that Christ was borne of her at midnight, and in a poor Stable at Bethlehem, betwixt 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 that was the head City of David's family, and Christ was born of the Race of David.  
Q. Why in a poor Stable?  
A. To teach us the love of poverty, and a contempt of this world.  
Q. Why betwixt an Ox and Ass?  
A. To fulfil that of the Prophet, Thou shalt be known O Lord betwixt two beasts.  
Q. What doth the birth of Christ avail us?  
A. It perfecteth in us Faith, Hope, and Charity.  
Q. What meaneth, borne of the Virgin Mary?  
A. It meaneth, 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, Suffered under Pontius Pilate?  
A. I understand, that Christ after a painful life of 33. years, suffered most bitter torments under that wicked Precedent Pontius Pilate.  
Q. Where did he begin those sufferings?  
A. In the garden of Gethsemane, that as sin began in a garden by the first Adam, so might grace also by the Second.  
Q. What were 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 of the Cross, and many others.  
Q. What understand you by the word, was crucified?  
A. I understand that he was nailed to a disgraceful Cross betwixt two Thiefs for our offences, and to save us.  
Q. Is it 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, S. Mat. ch. 24. v. 30.  
Q. What other reason have you?  
A. Because a Cross was the sacred Altar on which Christ offered his bloody Sacrifice.  
Q. What Scripture have you for it?  
A. The Gal. ch. 6. v. 13. God forbidden (saith S. Paul) that I should glory, but in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Philip. ch. 4. v. 18. many walk (saith S. Paul) whom I have often told you of, and now again weeping I tell you of them, enemies to the Cross of Christ, whose end is perdition.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of Ezek. ch. 9 v. 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 meaneth the word dead?  
A. It meaneth that Christ suffered a true and real death.  
Q. Why was it requisite that he should die?  
A. To free us from the death of sin.  
Q. Why died he crying out with a loud voice?  
A. To show that he had power of his own life, and that 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 meaneth was buried?  
A. It meaneth that his body was laid in a new Sepulchre, and buried with honour, as the Prophet had foretold, Esa. ch. 11. v. 10.   

The fifth Article.  
Q. WHat is the fifth Article?  
A. He descended into Hell, the third day he risen again from the dead.  
Q. What meaneth he descended into Hell?  
A. It meaneth, that as soon as Christ was dead, his blessed soul descended into Limbo to free the holy Fathers which were there.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of the Acts, ch. 2. v. 24, 25, 26, 27. where we read, that Christ being slain, God raised him up, losing the sorrows of hell, as it was foretold by the Prophet, Psa. 15. 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. Eph. ch. 4. v. 8. where we read, he ascending on high hath led captivity captive, he gave gifts unto men, and v. the 9 that he ascended; what is it, but that he first descended into the lower parts of the earth?  
Q. Did not he also descend to Purgatory, to free such as were there?  
A. He did, according to the 1. of S. Pet. ch. 3. v. 18, 19, 20. where we read, that Christ being dead came in Spirit, and preached to them also which 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 daey he risen again from the dead?  
A. I understand that when Christ had been dead part of three days, on the third day which was a Sunday, he raised up his blessed body from the dead.  
Q. Why did he rise again no sooner?  
A. To testify that he was truly dead, and to fulfil the figures of him.  
Q. Did he reassume all the parts of his body?  
A. He did, even to the least drop of his vital blood, and the very scattered hairs of his head.  
Q. Why did he retain the Stigmas and marks of his sacred wounds?  
A. To confound the incredulity of men, and to present them often to his Father, as a propitiation for our sins.  
Q. What benefit have we by the Resisrrection?  
A. It doth confirm our Faith and Hope, that we shall also rise again from death; for he which raised up Jesus, will raise us also up with Jesus, 2 Cor. ch. 4. v. 14.   

The sixth Article.  
Q. What is the sixth Article?  
A. He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  
Q. What meaneth, he ascended into heaven?  
A. It meaneth, that when Christ had conversed forty days on earth with his Disciples after his Resurrection teaching them heavenly things, than he ascended triumphant into heaven by his own power.  
Q. From what place did he ascend.  
A. From the top of Mount Olivet, where the print of his blessed feet are seen to this day.  
Q. Why from thence?  
A. That where 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 good Apostles and Disciples, Act. ch. 1.  
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. ch. 3.  
Q. What understand you by, sitteth at the right hand of God?  
A. I do not understand that God the Father hath any hands, for he is incorporeal and a Spirit; but that Christ is equal to his Father in Power and Majesty.   

The seventh Article.  
Q. What is the seventh Article?  
A. From thence he shall come to judge the Quick and the Dead.  
Q. What understand you by this Article?  
Q. I understand that Christ shall come at the last day from the right hand of his Father to judge all men according to their works.  
Q. Doth not every man receive a particular judgement at his death?  
A. He doth; but in the general Judgement 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 this Judgement all men shall receive according to their works?  
A. Out of 2 Cor. ch. 5. v. 10. We must all be manifested (saith S. 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.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 16. v. 27. The Son of Man (saith our 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. ch. 22. v. 12. Behold I come quickly (saith our Lord) and my reward is with me, to render to every man according to his works.  
Q. In what place shall this Judgement be made?  
A. In the valley of jehosaphat, betwixt Jerusalem and Mount Olivet.  
Q. What sign shall go before it?  
A. The Sun and Moon shall lose their light, there shall be Wars, Plagues, Famines and Earthquakes in many places.  
Q. In what manner shall Christ come unto it?  
A. In great power and Majesty, begirt 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, our own guilty consciences; and above all, the Books of life and death, in which all our actions are recorded, and shall be then 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, etc. S. Matth. ch. 25. v. 35, 36.  
Q. What shall be the sentence of the reprobate?  
A. Go ye accursed into eternal fire, which hath been prepared for the Devil and his Angels; for I was hungry, and ye gave me not to eat, I was thirsty and ye gave me not to drink, etc. the same chap. v. 41, 42, 43. You see of what weight good works will be at that day.  
Q. Why is it added, The quick 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 quick are understood Angels and Saints: by the dead the Devils and the damned souls.   

The eighth Article.  
Q. What is the eighth Article?  
A. I believe in the Holy Ghost.  
Q. Of what treateth this Article?  
A. Of the third Person of the B. Trinity, in whom we also believe and put our trust, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, and is the selfsame God with them, distinct in nothing but in person.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of 1 S. John, ch. 5. v. 7. There be three (saith he) which give testimony in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three be one.  
Q. Why is the Name of Holy Ghost appropriated to the third Person, since Angels are also Spirits and holy?  
A. Because he is such by excellency and by essence, they only by participation.  
Q. At lest 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 hath the Holy Ghost appeared unto men?  
A. In the form of a Dove, to signify the purity and innocence which he causeth in our souls; in a bright Cloud, and fiery Tongues; to signify the fire of Charity which he produceth 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 Article?  
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 unto Faith.  
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, that we believe in God, though we only believe the Church, but not in her.  
Q. What is the Church?  
A. It is the Congregation of all the faithful under Christ jesus, 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 the Laity.  
Q. How prove you that Bishops are of divine Institution?  
A. Out of Act. ch. 20. v. 28. where we read, take heed unto yourselves and to the 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 prove you S. Peter, and the Pope his Successor to be the visible Head of the Church?  
A. Out of S. John, ch. 21. v. 16, 17, & 18. where Christ (for a reward of his special faith and love) gave S. Peter absolute power to feed and govern his whole flock, saying, feed my Lambs, feed Lambs, feed my Sheep; therefore the rest of the Apostles were his sheep, and he their Head or Pastor.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. Mat. ch. 16. v. 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 as often as they are named in Scripture, S. Peter is still named first.  
Q. What are the marks of the true Church.  
A. Unity, Visibility, Sanctity, Universality, and Infallibility.  
Q. How declare you its Unity?  
A. Because all the members of it make but one mystical body, and are governed by one Supreme Head.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of 1 Cor. ch. 10. v. 18. being many (saith S. Paul) we are one bread, one body, all that participate of one bread,  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A Because all the members of it live under one Law, obey the same Magistrates, profess the same faith, even to the least Article, and use the same Sacraments and Sacrifice.  
Q. Why may not a well meaning man be saved in any Religion?  
A. Because there is but one God, one Faith, one Baptism, Eph. ch. 4. v. 5. And without that one Faith it is impossible to please God, Hebr. ch. 11. v. 6.  
Q. What other reason have you for it?  
A. Because, as in a natural body, that part which hath not a due connection to the heart or root, presently dieth for want of continuity: so in the Church (the mystical body of Christ) that member which hath not a due subordination and connection unto the head and Common Counsels thereof (that is the Pope and General Counsels, from whence under Christ, we have our spiritual life and motion, as we are Christians) must needs be dead, and not a living member of that body.  
Q. Who I beseech you are those dead members which you speak of?  
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.  
Q. What if a Protestant should tell you that the differences betwixt them and us, are not differences in fundamentals or in faith, but in opinion only, and therefore do not exclude them out of the unity of the Catholic Church.  
A. I would answer. That he contradicted his own Tenets, for they accuse us of Sacrilege, of robbing God of his honour, and committing Idolatry, because we believe Priestly absolution from sins, adore the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, and pray to Saints, which are no matters of indifferency, but high Fundamentals of the Catholic Faith.  
Q. How do you prove all obstinate novelists to be Heretics?  
A. Because they appeal from Masters to Scholars, and from the Pastors and General Counsels of the Church unto the laiety, for the decision of points controverted, which is the proper nature of Schism and Heresy.  
Q. What other reason have you?  
A. Because they wilfully stand out against the definitive sentence of the Church of God, and will not submit to any Judgement or Tribunal which Christ hath left on earth, for the deciding of such doubts as they themselves are pleased to move, but will be tried only by their own idle brain, and the dead letter of the Scripture.  
Q. Why may not the letter of the Scripture be a decisive Judge of Controversies?  
A. Because it never hath as yet been able from the first writing of it, to decide any one, as the whole world doth experience, all Heretics pretending equally unto it, for the defence of their Novelties and Heresies, and no one of them ever yielding to another.  
Q. What other reason have you?  
A. Because resting in the dead letter only, we can have no assurance or moral certainty of any one Text or Chapter of the whole Bible, that it hath come to us uncorrupted, or what the meaning of it is, or that it is the very word of Christ; so great are the corruptions which have crept into it, and so innumerable are the Languages, Translations and Copies through which the Bible hath passed, since the first writing of it.  
Q. How then are we assured of these things?  
A. By the infallible authority, definition, and proposition of the Catholic Church.  
Q. What other reason have you yet for this?  
A. Because the Scripture was never ordained for that purpose, all the Books thereof being either Poetical, as the Psalms; Historical, as the Gospels; Epistolarie, as the Epistles; or Allegorical, as the Apocalypse, and Prophets; and therefore, as appeareth by their very names, are no way fitting for the deciding of Controversies.  
Q. For what end then was the Scripture written?  
A. The writing or committing of it to dead letters, was only for superabundant consolations, and that by a sensible and common reading of it, without any critical or controversial libration of words, we might be able to know that God is, and what he is, as also that there is a heaven and a hell, rewards for virtue, and punishments for vice, with examples of both, all which we find in the Letter of the Scripture by a plain and ordinary reading of it.  
Q. How declare you the Church's visibility at all times?  
A. Because it consisteth essentially of a visible Hierarchy, which can never fail.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Ephes. ch. 4. v. 11, & 12. where we read, that 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.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. Mat. ch. 5. v. 14. & 15. where Christ saith of his Church, you are the light of the world; a City seated on a Mountain cannot be hid.  
Q. Why then would 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 it said the holy Church?  
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 it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle, but that it might be holy and unspotted, Ephes. ch. 5. v. 26. 27.  
Q. Why are we bound to believe the Church?  
A. Because she is the Pillar and ground of truth, 1 Tim. ch. 3. v. 15.  
Q. What other proof have you for her Infallibility?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 16. v. 18. where Christ saith, upon this Rock will I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of S. Joh. ch. 14. v. 16. But the Paraclete, (saith he) the Holy Ghost, he shall teach you all things whatsoever I shall say unto you: and ch. 13. v. 16. 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, be infallible in matters of Faith?  
A. Because such a Council is the Church Representative, and hath the same Infallibility that the Church diffused or spread over the world hath.  
Q. What other reason have you?  
A. Because the Definitions of such a Council are the Dictates of the Holy Ghost, according to that of the Apostles defineing in Council, it hath seemed good unto the Holy Ghost and to us, etc. Act. ch. 15. v. 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 or a Publican, S. Mat. ch. 18. v. 18.  
Q. What understand you by the word Catholic?  
A. I understand that the Church is Universal, both for time and place.  
Q. How for time?  
A. Because it hath been from Christ unto this time, and shall be from hence unto the end of the world.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 28. v. 20. Going therefore (saith our Lord) teach ye all Nations, and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.  
Q. What mean you by Universality of place?  
A. I mean that the Church shall be spread over all Nations.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Mat. , teach ye all Nations; and out of the 62. Psal. v. 2. where we read, All the earth shall remember and be converted to our Lord, and all Nations whatsoever thou hast made shall come and adore before thee o Lord.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of the Apoc. ch. 7. v. 9 where we read, that the Church shall be gathered out of all Nations, Peoples, Tribes, and Tongues.  
Q. Why do we call the Church the Roman Church?  
A. Because since the Translation of S. Peter's Chair from Antioch to Rome, the particular Roman Church hath been the Head of all Churches, and to her the Primacy hath been affixed.  
Q. What is the Rule of faith, by which the Church conserveth her Infallibility?  
A. Apostolical Tradition, or receipt of Doctrine by hand to hand from Christ and his Apostles.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Rom. ch. 16. v. 17. Therefore I beseech you Brethren, (saith S. 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 proof have you?  
A. Out of S. 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 that you have received, be he Anathema, Gal. ch. 1. v. 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 either conspire in a notorious lie to damn herself and her posterity, or else she must be ignorant what hath been taught her for faith by the Church of the precedent Age, which are both grand possibilities.  
Q. How prove you these to be impossibilities in nature?  
A. By the constancy and immutability which is found in the Universality of contingent causes, whose particulars may be defective, but the universals cannot.  
Q. Declare that a little?  
A. I explain it thus: because one man, or two, or three may be borne but with one arm, or one eye only, through the defect of their particular causes, but that all nature should fail at once, and all men should be so borne, is totally impossible in nature; so 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 fare break with the nature of man, (which is reason) to conspire in such a lie, or be so mistaken, is as impossible in nature, as it is for men to be no men.  
Q. Doth not the learned Richworth, alias Blackloe (out of whom you have borrowed both these and many other excellent convincing reasons) demonstrate the Church's infallibility a little plainer yet?  
A. Yes he doth, and chiefly by this argument, to move the whole Church to conspire at once in such a palpable and pernicious lie, such a force of hopes and fears is necessary, but it is totally impossible for such a force of hopes and fears to fall on the whole Church at once as is sufficient to make them break with nature, and contradict the very light of reason by such a lie; therefore it is totally impossible for the whole Church at once to conspire in such a lie, or consequently to err in Faith?  
Q. May not 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 humane 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 o● any strength of reason, but by the rule of Apostolical Tradition, and by enquiring of the whole Church of every Age, what hath been taught by our forefathers from Christ and his Apostles.  
Q. At least do not Heretics say and aver that the Church hath Apostatised and erred in Faith?  
A. They do indeed, but it will not serve their turn barely to say it, unless they were able also to prove it (which they neither are nor ever will be) by evident, convincing and undeniable proofs.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. First, because the presumption and possession of her integrity and infallibility is on the Church's side, and therefore ought not to be yeeded up without clear evidence of her prevarication.  
Q. What other reason have you?  
A. Because he that accuseth his neighbour's wife of Adultery without convincing and manifest proofs thereof, is not to be harkened unto, but to be hated of 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.  
Q. What other proof have you yet?  
A. Because if less than manifest and convincing evidence be sufficient to prove matters of this high nature, it is not possible but very false, and shall set dissension betwixt 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 meaneth, The Communion of Saints?  
A. It meaneth, 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. ch. 12. v. 25. where we read, 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.  
Q. What else meaneth it?  
A. It meaneth also, That the faithful on earth do communicate with the Angels and Saints in Heaven; we by praising and praying to them; they by praying for us.  
Q. How prove you this Communion?  
A. Out of S. Luke ch. 15. ver. 10. where we read, That there is joy before the Angels of God, upon one sinner that doth Penance.  
Q. How prove you that the Saints have any power to do us good?  
A. Out of the Apoc. ch. 2. v. 26, 27. where Christ hath promised them power above us; To him (saith he) that shall overcome, and keep my works unto the end, to him will I give power over Nations, and he shall rule them in an iron rod.  
Q. How prove you that it is lawful to pray to Angels?  
A. Out of the Apoc. ch. 1. ver. 4. where S. 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 which are in the sight of his Throne.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of the Apoc. ch. 8. ver. 4. where we read, That they present the Church's Prayers to God; the smoke (saith he) of the Incense of the Prayers of the Saints ascended from the hand of the Angel before God.  
Q. How prove you that we may pray to Saints?  
A. Out of Gen. ch. 48. v. 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 the Apoc. ch. 5. v. 8. where we read, Then the four and twenty Elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one Harps, and Viols full of Odours, which are the prayers of the Saints.  
Q. Is it no dishonour unto God, for us to pray to Saints, to pray for us?  
A. No it is not, yet to beg it of men; for S. Paul did it, we hope (saith he) that God will deliver us, you also helping in prayer for us, 2 Cor. ch. I. v. II.   

The tenth Article.  
Q. WHat is the tenth Article?  
A. The forgiveness of sins.  
Q. What understand you by this Article?  
A. I understand, that God is both able and willing to forgive us our sins, if we be hearty sorry for them, and confess them, and hath given power to his Church to remit them by Baptism and Penance.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 9 v. 8. where it is recorded by the Holy Ghost, That the multitude glorified God who had given such power unto men, as to forgive sins, (Christ having before proved the said power by a Miracle) v. 6, & 7.  
Q. Is any sin so great, that God cannot sorgive it?  
A. No, there is not; for his mercy is fare 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 remaineth in us any one 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 S. Paul) of any thing, but herein I am not justified, 1 Cor. ch. 4. v. 4.  
Q. What other poofe have you?  
A. Because the just man knoweth not whether he be worthy love or hatred.  
Q. Can we be certain of our final perseverance?  
A. Not without special revelation, and therefore S. Paul said, I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I preach to others I myself become a Reprobate, Cor. ch. 9 v. 27.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Phil. ch. 2. v. 12. where he exhorteh, 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 us by the due use of the Sacraments, which is enough for our security.   

The eleventh Article.  
Q. WHat is the eleventh Article?  
A. The Resurrection of the flesh.  
Q. What meaneth this Article?  
A. It meaneth that these very bodies in which we now live, shall at the day of Judgement 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 Thes. ch. 4. v. 16. where we read, 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 first.  
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 ch. 19 v. 26, 27. for I know (saith he) that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and I 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 dowries of a glorified body?  
A. Immortality, Agility, Clarity, Impassibility.  
Q. How prove you its Immortality?  
A. Out of 1 Cor. ch. 15. v. 52. For this Mortal (saith S. Paul) shall put on Immortality.  
Q. How prove you its Agility?  
A. Out of the same Chapter, v. 44. It is sowed a natural body, but it shall rise a spiritual body, (that is in motion and some operations equal to a Spirit.)  
Q. How prove you its Clarity?  
A. Out of the same Ch. v. 42. For star (saith he) differeth from star in glory, so also the Resurrection of the dead.  
Q. How prove you its Impassibility or incorruptibility?  
A. Out of the same Ch. v. 53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption?  
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, v. 51. 52.  
Q. At what age and stature shall men rise?  
A. At perfect age which is 33. and in that stature which they should have had at perfect age.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Ephes. ch. 4. v. 14. & 15. where we read, that the Church shall last until we all meet into a perfect man into the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ.  
Q. What example have you in nature for the Resurrection?  
A. A grain of Corn which first rotteth in the earth, and then springeth up and liveth again.  
Q. What benefit have we by the knowledge of the Resurrection?  
A. It imboldeneth us to suffer persecution and death itself in hope of future glory, according to that of S. Paul, for the sufferings of these times are not condign to that future glory which shall be revealed in us, Rom. ch. 8. v. 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 which we expect by Faith.  
Q. What understand you by this Article?  
A. junderstand, that such as keep the commandments and die in state of grace, shall live with God in bliss for ever.  
Q. How prove you, that keeping the Commandments is of necessity for the obtaining of it?  
A. Out of S. Mat. ch. 19 v. 17. where Christ said to the young man, ask what he should do to obtain it, if you will enter into life keep the Commandemen.  
Q. Is everlasting life given as a reward of our good works.  
A. It is, according to Rom. ch. 7. v. 6. & 7. where we read, that 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, etc.  
Q. Were all men created for everlasting life?  
A. They were; for God would have all men to be saved, 1 Tim. ch. 2. v. 4. he willeth not the death of any sinner, but rather that he be converted & live.  
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. Out of joh. ch. the 24. v. 23. God (saith he) hath given him place for Penance, but he abuseth it unto pride.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Hos. ch. 13. v. 9 Thy perdition is from thyself O Israel, in me only is thy aid.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of Rom. ch. 2. v. 4. The benignity of God calleth thee to repentance, but thou heapest to thyself wrath and indignation, according to thy own impenitent heart.  
Q. In what consisteth everlasting life?  
A. In the clear vision and fruition of God, according to that of our Saviour in S. Joh. ch. 17, v. 3. this is life everlasting, that they know thee the only true God, and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ.  
Q. Shall we see nothing else in Heaven but God?  
A. Yes; all the Attributes and Processions of God, and in him also as in a mirror or lookingglass, the natures and perfections of all Creatures, for he containeth all things in himself in a most eminent manner.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of the Apostle, saying, from whom all things, by whom all things, in whom all things.  
Q. What effect will follow out of the clear vision and fruition of God?  
A. Divine love, steadfast possession and ineffable joy, and out of that praise, jubilation and thanksgiving for ever.  
Q. What meaneth the word Amen?  
A. It meaneth that the whole Creed is divine truth, and therefore we must hearty assent unto it.    

CHAP. FOUR  
Hope and Prayer Explicated.  
Q. WHat is Hope?  
A. It is a Virtue infused by God into the soul, by which we have a confident expectation of Bliss and Glory to be obtained by the grace and merits of Christ, and our own merits proceeding from his Grace.  
Q. On what is that confidence chief grounded?  
A. On the merits and promises of Christ, who hath promised glory to such as hope in him, and do good 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. Out of S. Mark. ch. 9 v. 41. where we read, 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.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of 1 Cor. ch. 3. v. 9 where we read, and every one shall receive his own reward according to his own labour, for we are Gods coadjutors.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of S. Mat. ch. 5. v. 12. Blessed are ye (saith our Lord) when they shall revite and persecute you, for very great is your reward in heaven.  
Q. Is it lawful for us to do good works in hope of a reward?  
A. Not only lawful, but laudable, according to that, I have inclined my heart to do thy justications for ever for a reward, Psa. 118. v. 112.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of 1 S. Joh. ch. 3. v. 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 ch. 13. v. 15. Although he kill me. (saith Job) yet will I hope in him; and Psal. 55. v. 5. In God have I hoped, I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.  
Q. Is Hope available to the remission of sins?  
A. It is, according to that of the Psalmist, for him that hopeth in our Lord, mercy shall encompass. And again, Our Lord is well pleased in them that hope and trust in his mercy, Psa. 146. v. 11.  
Q. What is the principal Act of Hope?  
Devout and humble prayer.  
Q. What is Prayer?  
A. It is a lifting up of the mind to God, by which we beg for good things, and to be freed from evils, or by which we bless and praise God.  
Q. What are the conditions of good Prayer?  
A. That it be made with reverence, attention, humility, and perseverance.  
Q. What vices are opposite Hope?  
A. Despair and Presumption.  
Q. What is Despair?  
A. It is a diffidence in the power of God and merits of Christ, as if they were not of force enough to save us.  
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 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 are wont 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 betwixt these two extremes?  
A. By 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 S. Luke, Pray ye, that so ye may not fall into temptation, ch. 22. v. 40.  
Q. For what else availeth Prayer?  
A. For the avoiding of all evils, and the obtaining of all benefits.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Joh. ch. 16. v. 23. Whatsoever (saith our Saviour) ye shall ask my Father in my Name he will give it you; and in Luk. ch. 11. Ask and it shall be given to you, etc.  
Q. Is it lawful to pray in an unknown Tongue?  
A. It is; for he that speaketh in a Tongue (to wit unknown) speaketh not to men, but to God, 1 Cor. ch. 14. v. 2. and a Petition hath the same force, if it be understood by him that is petitioned, whether the Petitioner understand it or not.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of the same Ch. v. 16, 17. where S. Paul saith, but if thou bless in Spirit (that is in a Tongue unknown) he that supplieth the place of the vulgar, how shall he say Amen? etc. thou indeed givest thanks well, but the other is not edified; you see in itself the thing is good, for he giveth thanks well.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 21. v. 19 where it is recorded, that the Hebrew children's song of hosanna to the Son of David pleased God, although they understood it not.  
Q. What meaneth the Apostle, when he exhorteth us to pray always, 1 Thes. ch. 5.  
A. He meaneth, that we should daily spend some time in prayer, according to that, Pray for one another that you may be saved, for the daily prayer of a just man availeth much, S. I am. ch. 5. v. 17.  
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 those are places consecrated and deputed to prayer, and there our prayers are elevated by the common spirit of the Church, and the peculiar presence of God?  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Mat. ch. 18. v. 20. Where there be two or three gathered together in my Name (saith our Lord) there I am in the midst of them.  
Q. How prove you that material Churches are of God's appointment?  
A. Because God commanded Solomon to build him a Temple, and dedicate it to his service, 2 Par 〈…〉 lip. ch. 7.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. Luk. ch. 19 v. 45, 46. where Christ calleth the material Temple his house, casting the Buyers, and the Sellers out of it, My House (saith he) is the House of Prayer, but ye have made it a Den of Thiefs.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of S. Luk. ch. 18. v. 10. & 14. where the Publican is commended for ascending to the Temple to pray, and descended into his house justified.  
Q. How do you prove it lawful to dedicate or consecrate material Temples?  
A. Out of the 2. of Paralip. , ch. 7. and out of S. Joh. ch. 10. v. 22. where it is recorded, That Christ himself kept the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, instituted by judas Machabeus, Mac. ch. 4. v. 56. 59,  
Q. How do you prove it lawful to adorn Churches with Tapestry, Pictures and the like?  
A. Out of S. Mark. ch. 14. v. 15. Where Christ commanded a great Chamber adorned to be prepared for his last Supper.  
Q. What proof have you for the order and number of the Canonical hours?  
A. For Matins, laud's, and Prime, that of the 53. Psal. 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 hour?  
A. For the third out of Acts ch. 2. v. 16. where we read, that at the third hour the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles; for the sixth out of Acts ch. 10. v. 9 where we read, that Peter and john went up into the higher parts to pray about the sixth hour: and for the ninth out of Acts ch. 3. v. 1. where we read, and at the ninth hour Peter and john went up into the Temple to pray.  
Q. What for the Evensong and Complin?  
A. That of the Psalmist, Morning and Evening will I declare the works of our Lord; and again, The lifting up of my hands is as an Evening Sacrifice.  
Q. Is it good to use outward Ceremonies in time of Prayer, as kneeling, knocking of 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, S. Matth. ch. 26. v. 39 and the poor Publican beat his breast and cast down his eyes in that prayer by which he merited to descend justified, S. Luk. ch. 18. v. 13.  
Q. Why is the morning so fit a time for prayer?  
A. To open the windows of the soul unto the light of divine Grace, and offer up the works of the whole day unto 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 free from all evil; for so our Lord hath taught us by his Prayer.   

CHAP. V.  
The Pater Noster 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, S. Mat. ch. 6. v. 9, 10.  
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 way?  
A. That all men might be capable of it?  
Q. What doth it contain?  
A. All those chief things which we can ask or hope for of God.  
Q. How many Petitions hath it?  
A. Seven.  
Q. What understand you by those words which are prefixed to the Petitions, Our Father which art in Heaven?  
A. I understand, that God is our Father both by Creation and Adoption, and therefore we may confidently come unto him and beg all blessings of him.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of 1. S. Joh. ch. 3. v. 1. See (saith he) what manner of charity the Father hath given us, that we should be named and be the Sons of God.  
Q. Why do we 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 that, the Communion of Saints.  
Q. What understand you by the words, which art in heaven?  
A. I understand that God who filleth 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 in heaven, and keep them fixed upon heavenly things.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Jer. ch. 48. where we read, Cursed be he that doth the work of God negligently.  

The first Petition.  
Q. WHat is the first Petition?  
A. Hallowed be thy Name.  
Q. What do we beg by this Petition?  
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 gift of Grace.  
Q. Who are those that say this Petition ill?  
A. Such as dishonour and tear the Name of God by blaspheming, swearing, iying, cursing and scurrilous discourses.   

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 ended, and that we may be made partakers of his joyful and heavenly Kingdom.  
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 in earth as it is in heaven.  
Q. What do we beg by this Petition?  
A. That God would enable us by his holy Grace to keep his Commandments, and be obedient to his will in all things.  
Q. What mean you by the words in earth as it is in heaven?  
A. We beg by those, that we may be as ready and as 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 Petition?  
A. All food and sustenance 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 although we read in S. Luk. our daily bread, ch. 11. v. 3. in S. Matth. we read our supersubstantial bread, ch. 6. v. 11.  
Q. Why is the Eucharist called our daily bread?  
A. Because it is daily offered for our sins upon 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?  
Q. Who else?  
A. 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, (saith our Lord) neither will your Father forgive you your offences, S. Mat. ch. 6. v. 15.  
Q. Who are they which say this Petition ill?  
A. Such as bear malice against their neighbours, 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 Petition?  
A. That God would not permit us to be tempted above our strength.  
Q. Doth God tempt any man to sin?  
A No he doth not; for God is not the tempter of evils, he tempteth no man, S. Jam. ch. 1. v. 13.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of the 5. Psal. where we read, Thou art not a God willing iniquity, and out of Rom. ch. 9 v. 14. where we read, Is there iniquity with God? No; God forbidden.  
Q. By whom then are we tempted?  
A. By the Devil and our own concupiscence, S. jam. ch. 1. v. 14.  
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 temptation, job ch. 7.  
Q. Why then do we pray to be delivered from temptations?  
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. Out of Apoc. ch. 2. v. 10, & 11. Be thou faithful until death, saith our Lord, and I will give thee a Crown of life, he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Because Christ himself, who never sinned would be tempted, and the Tempter came unto him saying, etc. S. Mat. ch. 4. v. 3.  
Q. Are we never overcome but by our own default?  
A. Never, according to that answer which was given to S. Paul, desiring to be freed from a temptation, my grace is sufficient for thee.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. jam. ch. 4. v. 7. where we read, Resist ye the Devil and he will fly from you.  
Q. Who are they that say this Petition ill?  
A. Such as seek after occasions 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 been tempted in the same kind, to resist them valiantly at the first entrance, and to remember often our last things, Death, Judgement, 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 free us, and deliver us from all our evils both spiritual and temporal, and especially from the evils of sin past, present, and to come.  
Q. Who is the Author of all evil of sin?  
A. The Devil, for sin in God there is none, 1 S. joh. ch. 3. v. 5.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Wisdom, ch. 14. v. 9 where we read, hateful to God is the impious man and his impiety.  
Q. Who say this Petition ill?  
A. They which commit their evils before God, and multiply their sins without remorse.    

CHAP. VI  
The Hail Mary, or Angelical Salutation Expounded.  
Q. WHat is the Hail Mary?  
A. It is a most holy Prayer in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary.  
Q. How do you prove it lawful to honour and pray unto our Lady?  
A. Out of S. Luk. ch. 1. v. 48. where, by inspiration from God, she prophesied, saying, All Generations shall call me blessed.  
Q. How many parts hath the Hail Mary?  
A. It hath three parts.  
Q. What is the first part?  
A. Hail Marry full of gracè, our Lord is with thee.  
Q. Who made this part?  
A. The Holy Ghost, although it were delivered by the Angel Gabriel, S. Luk. ch. 1. v. 29.  
Q. What signifies the word Hail?  
A. It signifies Rejoice, be glad, O Mother of God.  
Q. Why do we invite her by this Prayer to rejoice.  
A. Because it reneweth 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 signifieth Star of the Sea.  
Q. Why is she fitly called Star of the Sea?  
A. Because she shineth unto us by her exemplar virtues 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 had a special fullness and prerogative of Grace caused in her by the conception of her Son.  
Q. What meaneth, Our Lord is with thee?  
A. It meaneth that the whole Trinity was with her at that time in a particular manner.  
Q. How declare you that?  
A. Because the Father was with her as with his Spouse, the Son was with her, as with his Mother, the Holy Ghost was with her, as with his choicest Tabernacle.  
Q. Are they now also 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 amongst women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.  
Q. Who made this part?  
A. S. Elizabeth, being inspired by the Holy Ghost, S. Luk. ch. 1. v. 42.  
Q. What understand you by blessed art thou amongst women?  
A. I understand, that she alone was chosen out amongst all women to be the mother of God, and therefore aught 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, for whom she also daily beggeth blessings.  
Q. Why by Virgins?  
A. Because she is their Queen, and chiefest Patroness, and doth obtain for them of her Son Jesus the gift of Chastity.  
Q. Why by Widows?  
A. Because she is their best example, and Advocate unto their Spouse her Son.  
Q. What meaneth, blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus?  
A. It meaneth, that Jesus is her true and natural Son, and that in him she is the Author of all our blessings, and to be blessed both by men and Angels.  
Q. Why are we 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 S. Paul exhorteth saying, all whatsoever ye do in word or work, do all in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father by him, Col. ch 3. v. 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 at 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 43 1. Pope Celestine presiding against Nestor the Heretic, who denied our Blessed Lady to be the Mother of God, and would have her only called the Mother of Christ. See Baronius, Tom. 5. An. 431.  
Q. What meaneth, Pray for us sinners now?  
A. It meaneth that we need divine assistance every moment.  
Q. What meaneth, and at the hour of our death?  
A. It meaneth that we then especially shall need the aid of blessed Mary and her Son Jesus, and therefore do now daily beg it: the word Amen signifieth, let it be done, or so be it.    

CHAP. 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 neighbour as ourselves.  
Q. Why is it called supernatural?  
A. Because it is not in the power of nature to obtain, but by the special grace and gift of God.  
Q. Is Charity imputed only as Protestants would have it, or is 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 loveth.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Rom. ch. 5. v. 5. where we read, the charity of God which is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Dan. ch. 6. v. 22. before him (i. God, saith he) justice hath been found in me.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of Eph. ch. 3. v. 17. & 18. where S. Paul prayeth for his Brothers, that Christ may dwell in their hearts by Faith rooted and founded in Charity.  
Q. What is it to love God above all things?  
A. To be willing to lose all things rather than the Grace and Love of God by mortal sin.  
Q. Who are they which have 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 of S. Joh. ch. 4. v. 20.  
Q. Hath not he charity then that breaketh any of the Commandments?  
A. He hath not, for he that saith, he knoweth God and doth not keep his Commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 1 of S. Joh. ch. 4. v. 20.  
Q. What is it to love our neighbour as ourselves?  
A. To wish him as much good as we wish unto ourselves, and to do him no wrong.  
Q. Who is our neighbour?  
A. All men, women, and children, and 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 obligation of loving our neighbour?  
A. Because God hath commanded it, and if any one shall say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar, 1 S. Joh. ch. 4. v. 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, S. Mat. ch. 5. v. 44.  
Q. What kind of love are we bound to show unto our enemies?  
A. We are bound to use a civil carriage towards them, to pray for them in general, and to be in preparation of mind to do any charitable office for them when their extreme or moral necessity shall require it.  
Q. What is the highest act of Charity?  
A. To give our life for God's honour, or the salvation of our neighbour.  
Q. Why is Charity the greatest and most excellent of virtues?  
A. Because it is the Queen and life of all the rest, Faith without Charity is dead, S. Jam. ch. 2. v. 22.  
Q. What state of life do you conceive to be of greatest perfection?  
A. That which of its own nature and proper institution obligeth to the highest and greatest Churity, for Charity is perfection; & such is the state not only of Bishops, but also of Pastors, which have the charge of souls.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Joh. ch. 15. where we read, 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, S. Joh. ch. 10. v. 11.  
Q. How prove you the necessity of Charity?  
A. Out of 1. S. joh. ch. 4. v. 17. where we read, He that remaineth in Charity remaineth in God, and God in him, and ch. 13. v. 14. He that loveth not, remaineth in death.  
Q. What are the effects of Charity?  
A. It remitteth all sin, charity covereth a multitude of sins, Rom. ch. 5. v. 5. and giveth spiritual life unto the soul. In this we know (saith S. john) that we are translated from death to life, because we love the Brethren, Ep. 1. ch. 3. v. 14.   

CHAP. VIII.  
Concerning 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 of our neighbour, he that hath loved hath fulfilled the Law, Rom. ch. 3. v. 9  
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 man at his 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 Sina in Thunder and Lightning, written in two Tables of stone, Exod. ch. 20.  
Q. Why in Thunder and Lightning?  
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 but only ten?  
A. Out of Deut. ch. 3. v. 13. where we read, And he shown you his Covenant which he commanded you to do, and the ten words which he wrote in the two Tables of stone.  
Q. By what kind of sins are the Commandments broken?  
A. By Mortal sins only; for Venial sins are not contrary to the end of the Commandments, which is Charity, and therefore not against (properly speaking) but beside the Commandments.  
Q. How declare you that?  
A. Because a Venial sin (for example, an idle word, an officious or jesting lie which hurteth no body, and the theft of a pin or an apple) is not of weight enough to break Charity betwixt man and man, much less betwixt 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 declare you that?  
A. Because God is no Tyrant, to command impossibilities under pain of eternal damnation, as he doth the keeping of his Commandments.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Exod. ch. 20. & 34. and out of Deut. c. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. where he often commandeth them to be kept, threatening grievous punishments to such as break them.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 5. v. 20. where we read, He therefore that shall break one of these least Commandments and teach men so to do, he shall be called least in the Kingdom of heaven; but he that shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the Kingdom of heaven.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 11. v. 30. Take up my yoke upon you, (saith our Lord) for my yoke is sweet, and my burden light.  
Q. Hath God ever promised to enable men 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. ch. 36. v. 27. where we read, I will put my Spirit in the middle of you, (saith our Lord) and I will make that ye walk in my Precepts, and keep my judgements and do them.  
Q. What other place have you?  
A. Out of Ezek. ch. 37. v. 24. They shall be my people, (saith the Lord) and I will be their God; there shall be one Pastor of them all, they shall walk in my judgements and keep my Commandments and do them.  
Q. How do you prove that any have ever kept them?  
A. Out of S. Luke, ch. 1. v. 6. where we read, That 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. Out of S. Mat. ch. 19 v. 17. If thou wilt enter into life (saith our Lord) keep the Commandments.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. Luke, ch. 10. v. 25. 28. where, when 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.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of Rom. ch. 2. v. 13. where we read, not hearers of the Law, but 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 thy Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any strange Gods before me, thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing to adore it.  
Q. What are we commanded by this Precept?  
A. To serve, love, adore, and worship but one only true living, and Eternal God, and no more.  
Q. What are we forbidden by this Precept?  
A. To worship any Creature for a God, or give it the Honour, which is due to God.  
Q. What is the Honour due to God?  
A. Supreme and Sovereign Honour, that which is called by Divines, LATRIA, We must honour him as the great master of Life and Death, as our Creator, Redeemer, Conserver, 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 Superstitions and Witchcraft.  
Q. How else?  
A. By going to Church with Infidels or Heretics, by believing Dreams etc.  
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, at least in our Country, where going to Church is by the Laws of the Land made a distinctive sign betwixt Catholics, and novelists.  
Q. What Scripture have you against it?  
A. Out of S. Luke, c. 17. v. 22. where Christ forbiddeth it, saying, And they will say to you, Lo here Christ, Lo there Christ, go ye not, neither do ye follow them.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Titus, c. 3. v. 10. & 11. A man that is an Heretic (saith he) 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. ch. 10. v. 10, 11. where we read, Let there not be found in thee any that demandeth of Soothsayers, and observeth dreams, neither let there be a Witch or Enchanter, or that consulteth with the Devil; for all these things our Lord abhorreth.  
Q. What understand you by those words, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing to adore it?  
A. I understand, that we must not make Idols nor Images, nor any graven thing whatsoever, to adore it as a God, or with God's honour.  
Q. Why are not these words expressed in many of our short Catechisms?  
A. Because they are sufficiently included in the precedent words, Thou shalt not have any strange (or other) Gods before me.  
Q. How declare you that?  
A. Because if we must have no other, but one only true, living, and uncreated God, who created heaven and earth, than it is clear to the reason of every child, that we must not have many Gods, or any graven Images for Gods.  
Q. Why do novelists instead of graven thing translate it graven Image?  
A. Because they have a will to corrupt the Text, in hope by so doing to scandalise the ignorant people with our honouring of Images.  
Q. How do you prove that they corrupt the Text?  
A. Because the Hebrew word is PESEL, which signifies a graven thing, the Greek word is IDOLON, an Idol, 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, in as much as they represent unto us heavenly things, but not God's honour, nor yet the honour due to Saints.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Exod. ch. 25. v. 18, 19 & 22. where God himself commanded 12. Cherubins 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 Cherubins; therefore it is lawful to make Images and pray before them.  
Q. Do not Catholics pray to Images and Relics?  
A. No by no means, we pray before them indeed, (to keep us from distractions, and help our memories in the expression and apprehension of celestial things) but not to them, for we know well, that they can neither see nor hear, nor help us.  
Q. What other proof have you for the lawful use of Images?  
A. Out of S. john, ch. 3. v. 14. where Christ approveth the making, and exalting of the Brazen Serpent, by which the Israelites were healed in the Desert, and owneth it to be an Image or Figure of himself, exalted on the Cross.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Because we read in Baronius that famous Church-Historian, in the year of Christ, 31. That Christ himself sent his own Image to King Abdagar, and made it also by miracle on the handkerchief of S. Veronica and on his own .  
Add unto this, because the second Nicene Council in the 7. of the Acts, doth Anathematise Image-breakers, and all such as allege the places of Scripture which are against Idols, against the sacred Images, and also those who say that Catholics do honour Images as Gods with Sovereign honour.  
Q. What benefit do we receive by Images?  
A. Very great; because they movingly represent unto us the mysteries of our Saviour's Passion, as also the martyrdoms and examples of his Saints.  
Q. Is there not some danger of Idolatry in the so frequent use of Images?  
A. Truly none at all; for it is not well possible, that any rational Man, who is but meanly instructed in Christianity, should conceive or think that a piece of painted Wood or Marble is that God and Man Christ jesus, who was borne of the Virgin Mary, died upon the Cross, arose from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and sitteth now at the right Hand of God.  
Q. But how if such inconveniences do happen, at least by accident?  
A. Let the abuse be mended, and not the good institution be taken away or blamed; For man's nature is subject to do itself hurt, 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 a pure Spirit, and hath no Body?  
A. Because he appeared to the Prophet Daniel in the shape of an old Man, Dan. ch. 7.  
Q. Is it lawful also to honour Angels and Saints?  
A. It is with DULIA, or inferior honour, proportioned to their Excellency; but not as God, nor with God's Honour.  
Q. What utility doth acerue to us, by our honouring and canonising of Saints.  
A. Very great; seeing it much conduceth to the breeding of virtue and the love of God, making us know that it is possible even for us ourselves, to come unto the like rewards.  
Q. How declare you that?  
A. Because the higher esteem we have of the Saints, and of 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. How prove you that?  
A. Out of joshua ch. v. 14. 15. where joshua did it: I am the Prince of the Host of our Lord, said the Angel to joshua, and joshua fell flat on the ground, and adoring said, what speaketh my Lord unto his servant?  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Apoc. ch. 22. v. 9 where S. john did it, (though the Angel had once before willed him not to do it, in regard of his apostolical dignity, ch. 19 v. 10.) And I fell down (saith he) to adore before the Feet of the Angel, who shown me these things.  
Q. Is it lawful to honour the Relics of Saints?  
A. With a relative Honour it is, but not with God's Honour.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Because a dead man was raised from death to life, by touching the bones of Elisaeus the Prophet, 4 Kings ch. 13. v. 21.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. Matth. c. 9 v. 20, 21. where we read, That the woman was healed of her Bloody Flux, by but touching the hem of our Saviour's Garment, and believing that it would heal her.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of Acts c. 19 v. 12. where we read, That the Handkerchiefs and Aprons which had but touched the Body of S. 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. Out of Iosh. ch. 5. v. 15. and out of Numb. ch. 22. v. 21. where the Angel saith to Moses & joshua, Lose the shoes from thy feet, for the ground whereon thou standest is holy ground.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 23. v. 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 the greater, the Gold, or the Temple that sanctifieth the Gold? The Gift, or the Altar that sanctifieth the Gift?  
Q. What other yet?  
Out of 1 Tim. ch. 4. v. 4, 5. where we read, That every creature of God is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer: And out of 2 S. Pet. ch. 1. v. 18. where he calleth 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) be laudable and pious practices?  
A. Out of Deut. ch. 16. v. 16. where God himself commanded, That thrice a year all the people should come up unto Jerusalem, to adore and make their Offerings to him.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. The example of Christ himself, our blessed Lady, and S. joseph, who went up unto Jerusalem at the solemn day of the Pasche, S. Luke ch. 2. v. 41, 42.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of Acts ch. 8. v. 29, & 38. where the Ethiopian Eunuch going on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, was in his return converted and baptised on the way by S. Philip: so pleasing was his Pilgrimage to God.  
Finally, because it was foretold by the Prophets, that those places which Christ sanctified by his Passion, should be places of great Pilgrimage and adoration. We will adore (saith David) in the place where his feet have stood, Psal. 131. And in Isa. ch. 11. v. 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 Pilgrimage to the Shrines of Saints?  
A. Because (as you have heard 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. Is there any power now in the Church to do Miracles?  
A. There is, according to that unlimited promise of Christ, Them that believe in me, these signs shall follow; in my name they shall cast out Devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall lay hands upon the sick, and they shall be whole, S. Mat. ch. 19 v. 17, 18.  
Q. Have these things been done in latter Ages?  
A. They have, and are, as you may see in the unquestionable Histories and Records of all Catholic Countries, where many great Miracles. wrought by the Servants of God, and especially at the Pilgrimages, and Shrines of Saints, are yearly registered under the Depositions of eye-witnesses, men above all exceptions, which cannot be denied; unless we may deny all History.  
Q. Why then do the pretended Reformers say, that Miracles are ceased?  
A. Because they and their Sect-Masters, have never yet been able to do any in confirmation of their Errors.  
Q. Why are so few done here in England  
A. By reason of the incredulity of Sectaries.  
Q. What necessity is there of the Belief of Miracles?  
A. Doubtless, very great: because the Belief of Miracles well grounded, makes men extremely apprehensive of the presence of God, and his immediate Government of humane affairs; so that he who absolutely denieth miracles, is to be suspected of not believing particular Providence, which is the main string, on which all Christianity dependeth?   

The second Commandment Expounded.  
Q. WHat is the second Commandment?  
A. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy 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 to 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 judgement, that we swear not vainly.  
Q. What is a just cause of an Oath?  
A. God's Honour, our own, or our neighbours lawful good, and defence.  
Q. If a man Swear to do that which is evil, is he bound to keep his Oath?  
A. No: He is bound not 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 S. Matth. ch. 5. v. 34. 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 S. james. ch. 5. v. 12. But above all things (saith he) swear ye not; neither by Heaven nor earth, nor any other Creature. But let your talk be yea, yea, no, no, that ye fall not under judgement.  
Q. What else is prohibited by this Precept?  
A. All cursing and blaspheming.  
Q. What is commanded by it?  
A. To speak always with reverence of God, and of his Saints.  
Q. How else do men sinne against this Precept?  
A. By breaking lawful Vows, and by making, or keeping unlawful ones.  
Q. What is a Vow?  
A. It is a diliberate and voluntary promise made to God, of some better good.  
Q. How do you prove it lawful to make Vows?  
A. Out of Esa. ch. 19 v. 21. They shall make Vows unto our Lord (saith he) and shall pay them.   

The third Commandment Expounded.  
Q. WHat is the third Commandment?  
A. Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day.  
Q. When began the Sabbath to be kept?  
A. From the very Creation of the world: For then God blessed it and rested on it, from all his works, Gen. 2. 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. ch. 20.  
Q. Why was the jewish Sabbath changed into the Sunday?  
A. Because Christ was borne upon a Sunday, risen from the dead upon a Sunday, and sent down the Holy Ghost upon a Sunday; works not inferior to the Creation of the world.  
Q. By whom was it changed?  
A. By the Church; by the Apostles, who also kept it, for S. john was in Spirit on a Sunday. Apoc. ch. 1. v. 10.  
Q. How prove you, that the Church hath power to command Feasts and Holy Days?  
A. By this very act of changing the Sabbath into the Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore fond contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday so strictly, and breaking most other Feasts, commanded by the same Church.  
Q. How declare 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 S. john ch. 10. ver. 22. where we read, That Christ himself was present, and kept the Dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, a Feast ordained by judas Machabaeus, 1 Machab. ch. 4.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of Acts ch. 2. v. 1. where the Apostles, keeping the Feast of Pentecost, were all filled with the Holy Ghost.  
Neither do Protestants as yet descent from this, though some have lately prohibited and profaned both it, and the most holy Feast of the Resurrection.  
Q. What command have you from God for obedience to the Church in things of this nature?  
A. Out of Acts ch. 15. v. 4. where we read, that S. Paul went about confirming the Churches, and commanding them to keep the precept of the Apostles, and the Ancients. And out of S. Luke c. 10. v. 16. He that heareth you beareth 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 that is an act of spiritual Jurisdiction.  
Q. For what end doth the Church ordain Holy Days?  
A. For the increase of piety, and in memory of special benefits received from God?  
Q. If keeping the Sunday be a Church-precept, why is it numbered in the Deealouge, which are the Commandments of God, and of the Law of Nature?  
A. Because the substance or chief part of it, namely, That a day be set apart for the service of God, is of divine Right, and of the Law of Nature, though the determinating of 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. Inasmuch as it belonged 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 the 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 the Sunday in Prayer and Divine Service.  
Q. What is the best means to sanctify the Sunday?  
A. By hearing of 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 cattles, etc. or such as appertain to Piety, and the Works of Mercy.  
Q. Who are they that 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 in lazy lying in bed, or vain attiring ourselves; by missing Divine Service when we may hear it; or spending the greatest 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 lover of God, then to do all things that are here commanded.    

The second Table of the Law.  

The fourth Commandment Expounded.  
Q. WHat is the fourth Commandment?  
A. Honour thy Father and thy 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 forth with much grief and pain, but also bring us up with much love, labour, and solicitude.  
Q. How are we bound to reverence them?  
A. Not only inwardly in our hearts, but also outwardly in our carriage and comportment.  
Q. Why to obey them?  
A. Because they are Gods 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 well pleasing unto God Col. c. 3. v. 21.  
Q. What is prohibited by this Precept?  
A. All sourness, stubbornness, and disobedience to Parents.  
Q. What is the reward of dutiful children?  
A. A long and happy life, good children (if they marry) and a good death.  
Q. What is the reward of undutiful ones?  
A. A short and sinful life, accompanied with an untimely death, witness the example of Absalon, 2 King. ch. 18. v. 14.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. That of the Proverbs, The eye which lours on parents shall be plucked out with Crows and Eagles.  
Q. What signifies the word Father?  
A. It signifies not only our corporal Parents, but also our Ghostly Fathers, and all lawful Superiors.  
Q. What do we owe to Ghostly Fathers?  
A. Love, reverence, obedience and sustenance.  
Q. Why love?  
A. Because they are the Fathers and Feeders of our souls, and under God and his Saints, the instrumental causes of all our spiritual goods: According to the flesh (saith S. Paul) you have many fathers, but in the Gospel I have begotten you.  
Q. Why reverence?  
A. Because they are Gods 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 and 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 S. Paul, The Priests that rule well, let them be deemed worthy of double honour, especially they that labour in the Word and Doctrine, 1 Tim. ch. 5. v. 17.  
Q. How may we sin against Priests and Ghostly Fathers?  
A. By disobeying, or detracting them, or believing slanderous reports against them, upon mere hear-say, or the testimony of insufficient witnesses, or without witness.  
Q. What testimony is sufficient against a Priest?  
A. I will tell you out of S. 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. ch. 5. v. 19 And v. the 21. I testify before God and jesus Christ, that thou keep these things without prejudice, and do nothing by declining to the one part.  
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. Out of S. Mark. ch. 10. v. 17. where Christ, laying his hands upon the Children, blessed them.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. The example of Melchizedek, blessing Abraham, upon which S. Paul saith, For without all contradiction that which is less is blessed of the better, Heb. ch. 7. v. 6.  
Q. What Scripture have you for obedience to Priests?  
A. Heb. the last ch. v. 17. where we read, Obey the Prelates and be subject to them; for they watch, as being to render an account for the souls: And in the old Law, disobedience to the Priest was punished with death, Deut. ch. 17. v. 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 Kingdom or Commonwealth.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Rom. ch. 13. v. 12. where we read, Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers, for there is no Power but of God; he therefore that resisteth Power, resisteth the Ordinance of God.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of 1 S. Pet. ch. 2. v. 14, 15. Be ye subject (saith he) 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 consciences?  
A. Then we must answer them with the Apostles, we must obey God rather than men, Act. ch. 5. v. 25.  
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 Col. ch. 3. v. 22. Servants (saith S. Paul) 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, etc.   

The fifth Commandment Expounded.  
Q. WHat is the fifth Commandment?  
A. Thou shalt not kill.  
Q. What is prohibited by this Precept?  
A. All murder, unjust shedding of blood, fight and quarrelling.  
Q. Is it lawful to kill in no case?  
A. Yes in a just War, or when public Justice requireth it; for the Magistrate beareth not the Sword without cause, Rom. ch. 13. v. 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 Puntilios 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 neither have Christian burial, nor be prayed for by the Church.  
Q. How prove you all fight and quarrelling to be unlawful?  
A. Out of S. Mat. ch. 5. v. 39 You have heard (saith Christ) that it was said of old, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you, not to resist evil, but if any one 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 chief Adultery, as also Fornication, and Pollution.  
Q. How prove you Fornication and Pollution to be mortals sins?  
A. Out of Col. ch. 3. v. 5. Mortify therefore (saith S. Paul) your members upon earth, fornication, uncleanness and Avarice, which are the service of Idols, for which the wrath of God cometh upon the Children of Infidelity.  
Q. In what case is it lawful for a man to dismiss his wife?  
A. In case of evident Adultery or Fornication.  
Q. Can he that hath so dismissed his wife, marry another during her life?  
A. He cannot; for he that dismisseth his wife, and marrieth another, he committeth Adultery, S. Mar. ch. 10. v. 11. and in S. Luk. ch. 16. v. 18. we read, be that marrieth her that is so dismissed committeth Adultery.  
Q. Why is Adultery a fare greater sin than Fornication?  
A. Because it is a great injury to our innocent neighbour; as also to 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. ch. 7. v. 10, 11. To those that are married (saith he) not I give commandment, but the Lord, that the wife depart not from her husband: and if she depart, to remain unmarried. And v. 39 A woman (saith he) is bound to the Law so long time as her husband liveth, but if her husband sleep (that is, be dead) she is at liberty, let her marry to whom she will.  
Q. What else is forbidden by this Precept?  
A. Whoredom, Incest, Sacrilege, and sin against Nature.  
Q. Why is lust hateful in the sight of God?  
A. Because it defileth in us the Image of God, the Member of Christ, and the Temple of the Holy Ghost.  
Q. What more is here prohibited?  
A. Unchaste touching of ourselves or others, with all delight in lustful thoughts and kisses.  
Q. What is the hire of unlawful lust?  
A. Death and damnation; For Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate (that is, such as defile themselves with voluntary pollution) shall possess the kingdom of God, 1. Cor. ch. 6. v. 10.   

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 of 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 of that which is another man's; Rapine, which is a violent open taking away, or keeping of that which is another man's; and Sacrilege, which is a 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 any notable hurt unto our neighbour.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of 1 Cor. ch. 6. v. 10. where we read, that neither Thiefs nor covetous men, nor Extortioners shall possess the Kingdom of God.  
Q. What doth a sin of Theft, oblige us to?  
A. To make restitution of the thing stolen to the right owner, if we be able, otherwise the sin will not be forgiven us.  
Q. What else is here prohibited?  
A. All Usury, Bribery, Cozenage in gaming, and unjust gain by buying or selling.  
Q. What is Usury?  
A. It is a studious will to receive something by a legal contract, above the principal, immediately out of the consideration of loan.  
Q. How prove you Usury and Bribery to be great sins?  
A. Out of the 14. Psal. where we read, O Lord, who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle? or who shall rest in thy holy Mountain? he that hath not given his money to use, nor taken Bribes upon the innocent man.  
Q. How are rich men soon brought to beggary?  
A. By mingling other men's goods amongst 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 weights and measures, or by exceeding the just price; Masters by defrauding Servants of their wages; and Servants by imbezelling their Master's goods.   

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 testimonies, rash judgements and lies.  
Q. Why is false witness so great a sin?  
A. Because it is against the justice of God, and our neighbour.  
Q. How prove you that corrupt judgement is a great sin?  
A. Out of Isa. ch. 5. where we read, Woe 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 judgement a great sin?  
A. Because it robbeth God of his Judgement, and our Neighbour of his good Name: Do not ye judge (saith S. Paul) and ye shall not be judged of our Lord, 1 Cor. ch. 11. v. 31.  
Q. Why is it a sin to lie?  
A. Because the Devil is a liar, and the Father of lies, S. Joh. ch. 8. v. 44.  
Q. What else is prohibited by this Precept?  
A. Backbiting, Flattery, and Detraction.  
Q. What is Backbiting?  
A. It is to break friendship betwixt 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 is not worthy praise.  
Q. What is Detraction?  
A. It is a secret staining and blotting of another's good name.  
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 all he may.  
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 then must we behave ourselves amongst detractors?  
A. If they be Inferiors, we must reprehend them; if Equals or Superiors, we must show ourselves at lest not pleased with that discourse.  
Q. What is rash Judgement?  
A. That which is grounded on mere hear-sayes, jealousies 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 jesting, it is but 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 neighbours-goods, nor any thing that is his.  
Q. What is prohibited by these Commandments?  
A. The inordinate will or desire of unlawful lust, especially Adultery, and of all Theft.  
Q. What else?  
A. Not only all deliberate desire, or consent; but likewise all voluntary delight and complacence in covetous or impure thoughts.  
Q. How prove you that unchaste desires are mortal sins?  
A. Out of S. Mat. ch. 5. v. 28. 29. where we read, It was said of old, thou shalt not commit Adultery, but I say unto you, that 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. ch. 6. v. 9 where we read, They that will be made rich fall into temptation and the sn●●e of the Devil, and many desires, unprofitable and hurtful, which drown men into destruction and perdition.  
Q. Is there any sin in those motions of concupiscence, which we fe●●e and suffer against our wills?  
A. There is not; for nothing is sin which is not voluntary and deliberate.  
Q. What think you now of this second Table of the Law, is here any thing that savoureth of impossibility to be kept?  
A. No certainly; for here is nothing commanded us which the very Law of nature and right reason doth not dictate to us: And therefore aught to be observed and done, although it were not commanded us.  
Q. Is here any thing but what every man expecteth and desireth to have done unto 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, S. Mat. ch. 7. v. 12.  
Q. Why then do novelists pretend and teach, 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, then humbly acknowledge and confess their sins with purpose to amend by an acceptance of the Law of God.     

CHAP. IX.  
The Commandments of the Church Expounded.  
Q. HOw many be the Commandments of the Church?  
A. There be six principal ones.  
Q. What is the first?  
A. To hear Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days, if we have opportunity to do it, and there be no just cause unto the contrary.  
Q. Why on all Sundays?  
A. In a Thanksgiving for the benefits of the week past, as also to sanctify the present day.  
Q. For what other reason?  
A. In memory that the same Christ which is offered upon the Altar in the blessed Sacrament for our sins, was borne, risen from the dead, and sent down the Holy Ghost upon a Sunday.  
Q. Why on all holy days?  
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. By the example of the Church in the Apostles time, which ordained the Feast of Christmas in honour of the Nativity of Christ; the Feast of Easter in honour of his Resurrection; Whitsuntide in honour of the coming of the Holy Ghost, in Tongues of Fire.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. Clement, the Disciple of S. Peter, in his eighth Book of Apostolical Constitutions, where he witnesseth, That the Apostles gave order for the celebrating of S. Stephens and some other of their fellow-Apostles days after their deaths.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of Col. ch. 3. v. 4. We have confidence of you in the Lord (saith S. Paul) that the things which we command, you both do and will do. And ver. 14. If any obey not our word, do not ye company with him, that he may be confounded.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of Thes. ch. 4. v. 8. where, speaking of the Precepts which he had given unto his Brethren, Paul saith, He that despiseth these things, despiseth not man, but God, who also hath given his holy Spirit in us. See what was said above in the third Commandment of God.  

The second Church-Commandement Expounded.  
Q. WHat is the 2d. Commandment of the Church?  
A. To fast Lent, Vigils commanded, Ember Days, and Fridays also, by custom of England, with abstinence from flesh on 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 that manner?  
A. We cannot: but we must do at lest 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 S. Luke ch. 2. v. 37. where we read, That Anne the Prophetess departed not from the Tempt, serving day and night by Fasting and Prayers.  
Q. How prove you Fasting to be meritorious?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 6. 16, 17, 18. Where we read, And when you fast, be not ye sad like the hypocrites; but when thou dost fast, anoint thy head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which is in secret will repay thee.  
Q. How prove you abstinence from certain meats?  
A. Because it was prescribed by an Angel to S. john, He shall be great (saith he) before the Lord, Win● and Cicer he shall not drink, S Luke ch. 1. v. 15. and in S. Matth. ch. 3. v. 4. we read, that His meat were Locusts and wild Honey.  
Q. For what is Fasting available?  
A. For the remission of sins, and the appeasing of the wrath of God, according to that, Be ye converted unto me in your whole heart, in fasting, weeping and mourning, joet ch. 2. v. 12.  
Q. For what else?  
A. To mortify the lustful desires of the flesh: and it hath also special force against the Devil; This kind of Devil (saith our Lord) can go out by nothing but by Prayer and Fasting, S. Mark ch. 9 v. 24.  
Q. Why Vigils?  
A. To prepare ourselves for a devout keeping of the Feasts that follow.  
Q. Why Ember Days?  
A. Because on those days the Church giveth holy Orders, and ordaineth Priests, and for that cause hath dedicated them to public Prayer and Fasting.  
Q. What ground have you for that?  
A. Out of Acts ch. 13. v. 2, & 3. where we read; And as they (the Apostles) were ministering unto our Lord, and fasting, the Holy Ghost said, separate ye me Saul and Barnab as unto the work whereto I have taken them, then fasting and praying, and imposing hands upon them, they dismissed them.  
Q. Why Friday's in England?  
A. In memory that Christ suffered for us upon a Friday, drinking gall and vinegar upon his Cross for our gluttonous excess, but specially by custom, which is as 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 Commandment 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 Commandment 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 on the Thursday before Easter day.  
Q. Why is it said, or there abouts?  
A. Because it will satisfy the Precept, if it be done any time betwixt 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 they feed us spiritually, and therefore it is fit that we should feed them corporally.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Gal. ch. 6. v. 6. Let him that is catechised in the word (saith S. Paul) communicate to him that catechizeth him in all his goods: And in another place, he that serveth the Altar, let him live of the Altar.   

The sixth Commandment of the Church expounded.  
Q. WHat is the sixth?  
A. Not to celebrate Marriages on times prohibited; that is, from the first Sunday of Advent, until Twelf-day be past, nor from Ash-Wednesday till Low-Sunday be past.  
Q. Why so?  
A. Because those are times of special piety and penance, therefore not to be spent in feast and carnal pleasures.  
Q. What sin is it to break any of these Church-Commandements?  
A. A mortal sin of disobedience, according to that, he that will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen, or a Publican, S. Matth. ch. 18. v. 18.    

CHAP. X.  
The Counsels of Christ and his Church Expounded.  
Q. HOw many Counsels be there?  
A. There be three principal ones.  
Q. What is the first of them?  
A. Voluntary Poverty, which is a willing leaving all things to follow Christ.  
Q. How prove you that to be a work of Perfection?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 19 v. 21. If thou wilt be perfect go and sell the things which 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. v. 28, 29. where when S. Peter had asked Christ, saying, Behold we have forsaken all things and followed thee, what therefore shall be our rewards? Our Lord answered him, Every one that hath left his house or his Lands, or his Brethren, or his Sisters for my Name sake, be shall receive a hundred fold commodity, and possess everlasting life.  

The second Council.  
Q. WHat is the second Council?  
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 counselleth Virginity, though he command it not.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Mat. ch. 19 v. 12. There be Eunuches (saith he) which have gelded themselves for the Kingdom of heaven, he that can take it let him take it.  
Q. How prove you that Virginity is a more perfect state than Marriage, or that it is lawful to vow Virginity?  
A. Out of 1 Cor. ch. 7. v. 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, and he that joineth her not doth better.  
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 S. Augustine in his book of Heresies, Heresy the 82. and in his second book of Retractations he calleth him a Monster for it, and saith, the Church stoutly resisted him, Chap. 22.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of 1 Tim. ch. 5. 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 obsecrations day and night: And. v. 11, 12. But the younger Widows avoid, for they when they shall be want on in Christ, they 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 on this place.   

The third Council.  
Q. WHat is the third Council?  
A. Obedience, which is a voluntary submission to another's will in all that is not sin.  
Q. What warrant have you for that?  
A. The example of Christ himself, who was obedient to our Lady, and S. joseph; And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, S. Luke ch. 2. v. 51.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Hebr. ch. last, v. 17. Obey your Prelates and be subject to them; for they watch, being to render an account for your souls.    

CHAP. XI.  
Of the Sacraments in general.  
Q. HOw many Sacraments be 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. Cannon 1.  
Q. How prove you the necessity of 7. Sacraments, neither more nor fewer?  
A. Out of the proportion, which is betwixt spiritual and corporal life.  
Q. In what consisteth that proportion?  
A. In this; that as in corporal and natural life there be seven principal or chief necessities, so be there likewise in spiritual, to which the seven Sacraments do correspond.  
Q. What is our first corporal necessity?  
A. To be born into this world; And to this Baptism correspondeth, by which we are regenerate to God, and borne the Heirs of God, Coheires 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: And to this answereth 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 B. Eucharist correspondeth, by which our souls are fed with divine grace, as often as we worthily receive it, or offer it with the Priest upon the Altar.  
Q. What is our fourth necessity of the Body?  
A. That we have Physic when we are sick and wounded: And to this answereth the Sacrament of Penance, by which our maladies and sores of sin are healed.  
Q. What is our fifth necessity of the Body?  
A. That we have Cordials and Restoratives against the agonizing fits and pangs of death: And to this correspondeth Extreme Unction, by which our soul is strengthened in her last agony, against the violent onsets of the Devil.  
Q. What is the sixth corporal necessity?  
A. That we be governed by Laws and Magistrates, so to avoid justice and confusion: And to this correspondeth holy Order, by which we are provided of 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 correspondeth Matrimony, by which we are not only multiplied in a natural, but in a holy and Sacramental way.  
Q. What is a Sacrament in general?  
A. It is a visible sign of invisible grace, divinely instituted by Christ, for our sanctification.  
Q. How do you prove, that Christ ordained them all?  
A. Because it is not in the power of any pure creature, to give infallible virtue, to cause 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 unto our Souls.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Rom. ch. 6. v. 3. Are you ignorant (saith S. Paul) that all we which are baptised in Christ jesus, in his death we are baptised?  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Rom, ch. 5. v. 9 Much more therefore now (saith he) being justified in his blood, shall we be saved from wrath in 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?  
Q. For what other end?  
A. 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. the. 7.  
Q. What is grace?  
A. It is a certain special participation of the divine Nature, by which we are made like to God, in some degree; as Iron is made like to fire by heat.  
Q. How many of the Sacraments give a Character?  
A. Three; Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Order.  
Q. What is a Sacramental Character?  
Q. It is a spiritual mark in the Soul, by which we are marked for the servants of God, which can never be blotted out.  
Q. In what manner do the Saoraments give and cause Grace?  
A. Instrumentally only, for God is always the principal cause thereof.  
Q. Who is the ordinary Minister of a Sacrament?  
A. A Priest, excepting Holy Order and Confirmation, which are reserved unto Bishops only.  
Q. Why did Christ tie the administrations of the Sacraments to the Hierarchy and to Priests only?  
A. To give them a supereminent Power, Credit and Authority with the people.  
Q. Why was that necessary?  
A. Because if the Clergy be not held in great reverence by the Laiety, it cannot cause that effect in them for which it chief was ordained, to wit, credulity in things above Nature, together with a prompt obedience, to hazard lives and fortunes, when they shall say the Law of God requires it. And if this be not done, the Law of Christ will not be kept, nor can Salvation be had.  
Q. Is the intention of the Minister to do what Christ ordained, a condition, without which the Sacrament subsisteth not?  
A. It is, as also the intention of the receiver, to receive what Christ ordained, if he be at years of understanding.  
Q. Why said you, If he be at years of understanding?  
A. Because for Infants in the Sacrament of Baptism, the intention of the Church, and of their Godfathers and Godmothers sufficeth.  

Baptism Expounded.  
Q. WHy is Baptism the first Sacrament?  
A. Because, before it, a man is not capable of any other.  
Q. What is Baptism?  
A. It is an exterior ablution, or 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 Baptise thee N. N. 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 Baptise) or any one of the three Persons?  
A. Then the Baptism is invalid.  
Q. Where did Christ express the form of Baptism, and give us a command to Baptise?  
A. In S. Math. ch. 28. v. 19 Going therefore (saith he) teach ye all Nations, baptising 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 actually, or in desire, with contrition, or be baptised in his own Blood, as the Holy Innocents' were, which suffered for Christ.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. john ch. 3. v. 5. Unless any one be borne again of Water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.  
Q. Can no man, but a Priest baptise?  
A. Yes, in case of necessity any Layman, or woman may do it, but not otherwise.  
Q. What is a case of 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 maketh us the children of God, and remitteth both original and actual sin, if he that is baptised be guilty of it.  
Q. What else?  
A. 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. ch. 3. v. 27. As many of you as are baptised in Christ have put on Christ.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of 1. Cor. ch. 6. v. 10. where (speaking of Fornicators, Idolaters, Thiefs, Adulterers, and Liars) These things (saith S. Paul) ye were, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justyfied, in the Name of our Lord jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of Titus ch. 3. v. 6. and 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 maketh 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 baptise a man twice?  
A. A mortal sin of sacrilege.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Heb. ch. 6. v. 4. 5. and 6. It is impossible for those who have been illuminated and made partakers of the Holy Ghost, (to wit, by Baptism) and are fallen, etc. To be renewed again unto Penance, etc. (viz. by a second Baptism.)  
Q. What if a man die for the Faith before he can be baptised?  
A. He is a true Martyr, and baptised 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 with death; they may instruct us in the Faith of Christ; which obligation lieth on them.  
Q. How many Godfathers may we have?  
A. But one Godfather and one Godmother, at the most, since the Council of Trent.  
Q. Why so few?  
A. To prevent the too great extent of spiritual affinity, which is contracted betwixt them, and their Godchilds, and his Father and Mother, which is an impediment, not only making Marriage unlawful, but also invalid, betwixt the parties.  
Q. How can infants be christened, which have but actual Faith?  
A. In the Faith of the Church, and of their Godfathers and Godmothers.  
Q. Why do we use so many Ceremonies in Baptism?  
A. To stir up reverence to the Sacrament, and signify the inward effects thereof.  
Q. What meaneth the Priests breathing on the child's face?  
A. It signifies, that by Baptism the evil spirit is cast out, and the Spirit of God is given to him.  
Q. Why is the child signed on his breast and forehead with the Sign of the Cross?  
A. To signify that he is there made the servant of Christ crucified.  
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 Pomp's?  
A. To signify, that he which will be the child of God, cannot be the child of the Devil.  
Q. What mean the several anointings of the child?  
A. They signify the interior Anointing, or Unction of divine Grace given to the Soul in Baptism.  
Q. What mean they in particular?  
A. He is anointed on the Head, to signify that by Baptism he is made partaker of the Kingly dignity of Christ; on the Shoulders, to signify that he must bear his Cross courageously; on the Breast, to signihe that the heart is there strengthened with grace to fight against the Devil.  
Q. What signifies the white Chrisom given to the child?  
A. The purity and innocence which he there receiveth. Q. What signifies the hallowed Light given to the child?  
A. The light of Faith, and fire of Charity, with which his soul is there inflamed.   

Confirmation Expounded.  
Q. WHat is the second Sacrament?  
A. Confirmation.  
Q. When did Christ ordain this Sacrament?  
A. At his last Supper.  
Q. What proof have you for that?  
A. An Apostolical Tradition.  
Q. What is the matter of this 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 Chrisom 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. 2 Cor. ch. 1. v. 22. And he that confirmeth us with you in Christ, and hath annoyled us, God who also hath sealed us (with the spiritual Character) and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.  
Q. What other place have you?  
A. Acts ch. 8. v. 14, 15, 16. where we read, that when Philip the Deacon had converted the City of Samaria to the Faith, the Apostles who were at Jerusalem, sent two Bishops, S. Peter and S. 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 baptised in the Name of our Lord Jesus, then did they impose their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of Act. ch. 19 v. 5, 6. where we read, that S. Paul baptised and confirmed twelve of S. John's Disciples: Hearing these things (saith the Text) they were baptised in the Name of our Lord Jesus: and when Paul had imposed hands upon 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 to make us strong and perfect Christians, men 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.  
Q. In what appeareth the force of Confirmation?  
A. In the undaunted confidence and suffering of the Apostles, Martyrs and Saints of God, after they had received it.  
Q. When were the Apostles confirmed?  
A. On Whit-sunday in an extraordinary manner, the Holy Ghost descending upon them in Tongues of Fire.  
Q. Doth Confirmation give a Character?  
A. It doth, according to 2 Cor. ch. 1. v. 22. above cited, where we read, who also hath sealed us, (that is to say, with a Character.)  
Q. Who is the Minister of this Sacrament?  
A. A Bishop only, as appeareth by Act. ch. 8. above cited, where two Bishops were sent unto Samaria to give it.  
Q. Is there any necessity of this Sacrament?  
A. There is a moral necessity of it, according to the Council of Laodieaea, Can. the 48. in these words, Those that have been baptised, must after Baptism receive the most holy Chrisom, and be made partakers of the heavenly Kingdom.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. The Authority of S. Thomas, who in the Sacrament of Confirmation affirmeth, that it is a dangerous thing to die without it.  
Add unto this, That without Confirmation (according to all the Fathers) we are not perfect Christians.  
Q. What think you then of those, who for particular and private ends, slight this Sacrament, and reach the Laity not to receive it, when they may have it.  
A. Truly, I think they slight the mission of the Holy Ghost, (for this Sacrament is a continuance of that mission unto us) and are great enemies of Christianity.  
Q. What sin is it not to receive it, when we may have it?  
A. Mortal sin, if it be done out of contempt, or any gross neglect, especially in a place of persecution, as England is.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Because by so doing, we expose ourselves to great danger of denying our 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 no sooner?  
A. That so we may be able to prepare ourselves for it, and remember that we have received it; for it cannot be twice given.  
Q. Why is a little blow given on the cheek to him that is confirmed?  
A. To signify, that he is there made the Soldier of Christ, and must be ready to suffer stripes, and buflets for his sake.  
Q. Must we have any Godfather in Confirmation?  
A. One Godfather, or one Godmother at the most.  
Q. Must it be received fasting?  
A. That is expedient, (for so the Apostles received it) 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, Melchisedek's Bread and Wine, the Paschall Lamb, the Heavenly Manna, and the Ark of the League.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Because all things happened unto them in a Figure, according to S. Paul.  
Q. Doth the Blessed Eucharist excel all these in dignity?  
A. It doth, as fare as a substantial body excels a shadow.  
Q. What signifies the name Eucharist?  
A. It signifieth good Grace, or Thanksgiving, because it containeth the Author and Fountain of all 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 it 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, whole Christ, under the outward forms of Bread and Wine.  
Q. In what manner is Christ present under those Forms?  
A. By the true and real presence of his divine and humane nature, not figuratively only, as some would have it.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 26. v. 26, 27, 28. where we read, that Christ at his last Supper took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his Disciples, saying, Take ye and eat, this is my Body, and he also blessed the cup saying, This is my blood of the New Testament which shall be shed for many to the remission of sins.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. Mark ch. 14, v. 22, 23, 24. were we read the selfe-san. words.  
Q. What besides?  
A. Out of S. Luke, ch. 22. v. 19 & 20. where we read, This is my body which is given for you, this is the Chalice the New Testament in my blood which shall be shed for you.  
Q. What other?  
A. S. Joh. c. 6. v. 52, 53, 55. The bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world, my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed, unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall have no life in you.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of 1 Cor. ch. 11. v. 23. where S. Paul tells us, that 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 for you; this Chalice is the New testament in my blood.  
Q. By what means is the whole substance of the Bread and Wine transubstantiated or changed into the whole substance of the body and blood of Christ?  
A. By the most holy and powerful words of Consecration, instituted by Christ, and spoken by the Priest.  
Q. What is the White which we see remaining after Consecration?  
A. The outward species or accidents of Bread, under which the body and blood of Christ is.  
Q. What mean you by those species or accidents?  
A. The colour, savour and quantity of bread.  
Q. Is the Body of Christ hurt or broken, when we divide or break the Sacrament?  
A. It is not, for he is now immortal and impassable, he cannot die, nor suffer any more, Rom. ch. 6. v. 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 wheresoever 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 a man, which is whole in the whole body, and whole in every part of the body, as learned Protestants do not, nor cannot 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 one and the same instant.  
Q. What example have you for that?  
A. A word, which being one, yet is in many hundred of ears at once.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Acts ch. 9 v. 4. and 5. Where we read, that Christ who is always sitting at the right hand of his Father in heaven (as we willingly admit with Protestants) appeared notwithstanding and discoursed with S. Paul on earth, saying, Saul, Saul, Why dost thou persecute me? and when S. Paul replied, who art thou Lord? he answered, I am Jesus whomthou dost persecute. Therefore, he was then in two places at once.  
Q. What is the necessary matter of the Eucharist?  
A. Wheaten and unleavened 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 this Sacrament.  
Q. What disposition is required in him, that will receive the Blessed Eucharist?  
A. That he hath first confessed his sins, and be in state of grace.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of 1 Cor. ch. 11 v. 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 and 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 in spiritual life; He that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever, S. joh. 6.  
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. Because there is no command in Scripture for the Laity to do it under both, although there be for Priests, in those words, Drink ye all of this, S. Math. ch. 26. v. 27. which was spoken to the Apostles only, and by them fulfilled: for it followeth in S. Mark ch. 14. v. 24. And they all drank.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. john, ch. 6. v. 58. He that eateth of this bread shall live for ever; therefore one kind sufficeth.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of Acts ch. 20. v. 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 S. Paul 1 Cor. ch. 11. v. 27. saith, Therefore whosoever shall eat this Bread, or drink the Chalice of our Lord unworthily, (you see by the word or, it might be received either in one or both kinds) he shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of our Lord.  
Q. What is the Mass?  
A. It is the unbloody Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of jesus Christ, which himself instituted at his last Supper.  
Q. For what is this Sacrifice available?  
A. It is propitiatory for the Remission of our sins, impetratory for the obtaining of all benefits; a peaceable offering of Thanksgiving to our God, and a sweet Holocaust of divine love.  
Q. Why are 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.  
Q. Is it divided so also in the Mass?  
A. In the manner of doing or signifying it is, but not by any real separation or division of the one from the other.  
Q. How explain you that?  
A. Because the species of Bread, as also the words by which it is consecrated, signify and represent as if the Body of Christ only were contained under it, whereas there is indeed whole Christ; and the species of Wine, as likewise the words by which it is consecrated signify and represent, as if there only were the Blood of Christ, although there be both Body and Blood, whole Christ.  
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 it; but it is now 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 morethen the pretended Reformers have under both, who receive only a bit of Baker's bread, with a poor sup of common Vintner's Wine.   

Penance Expounded.  
Q. What is the fourth Sacrament?  
A. Penance.  
Q. What warrant have you for doing acts of Penance?  
A. Out of Apoc. ch. 2. v. 4. Thou hast left thy first Charity, therefore be mindful from whence thou hast fallen and do Penance.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 5. v. 13. And jesus began to preach, and say, do ye penance, For the Kingdom of God is at hand.  
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. S. joh. c. 20. v. 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 thy 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 reconcileth us to God, and either restoreth or increaseth grace.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. john ch. 20. v. 23. above cited. And out of 1. S. john, ch. 1. v. 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, and joined with a firm purpose of amendment.  
Q. What is attrition?  
A. It is a true sorrow for our sins, proceeding immediately from the fear of Hell and punishment from God.  
Q. Will that suffice to the remission of fins?  
A. With Sacramental Confession, and Absolution it will, otherwise not.  
Q. What if a dying man be in mortal sin, and cannot have a Priest?  
A. Then nothing but contrition will suffice.  
Q. What is a firm purpose of amendment?  
A. It is a resolution, not only to shun sin, but also the occasion of sin.  
Q. How long hath confession been in use and practice?  
A. Ever since the very Apostles time, according to S. james ch. 5. v. 16. Confess therefore your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be saved.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Acts ch. 19 v. 18. And many of them that believed came, confessing and declaring their deeds.  
Q. What is Confession?  
A. It is a Sacramental opening of our sins unto a Priest, to obtain absolution.  
Q. Wherein consisteth the necessity of Confession?  
A. Because as to a mind laden with secret griefs, the best of comforts is, to disclose her case unto some faithful friend; so to a soul laden with secret sins, the best of remedies possible, is to have chosen and selected Persons ordained for that end by Christ himself, men of singular piety and learning, and not questionable by any Law, of what they are to hear in Confession, to whom she may confess her sins, with an assurance both of comfort, correction and direction for the amendment of her faults.  
Q. What are the necessary conditions of a good Confession?  
A. That it be short, diligent, humble, confounding, sincere and entire.  
Q. How short?  
A. By avoiding superfluous words and circumstances.  
Q. How diligent?  
A. By using a competent time and care in the examen of our conscience.  
Q. How humble?  
A. By making our Confession with humble hearts.  
Q. How confounding?  
A. By stirring up confusion 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 knowingly do leave out any one mortal sin in his Confession for fear or shame?  
A. He maketh his whole Confession to be void, and committeth 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 Saphira, who were struck dead at the feet of S. Peter, for daring to lie unto the Holy Ghost, Act. ch. 5. v. 5, & 10.  
Q. Is he that hath so done bound to confess all again?  
A. Yes, all that was mortal, together with that which he left out.  
Q. What is satisfaction?  
A. It is the Penance which is enjoined us by the Priest, or which we voluntarily impose upon ourselves, by fasting, prayer, and the like.  
Q. For what do we satisfy by that Penance?  
A. For such temporal punishments as remain due sometimes unto our sins, after the sins are forgiven us.  
Q. How do you prove that Priests have power to impose Penances?  
A. Out of 1 Cor. ch. 5. v. 3. where S. Paul excommunicated the incestuous Corinthian, I (saith he) absent in body, but present in spirit have already judged him that hath so done, etc. to deliver such an one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the soul may be saved.  
Q. How prove you that temporal punishments may remain due to our sins, after the sins themselves be forgiven us?  
A. 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, Genes. ch. 3. v. 24.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. 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 his sin, nevertheless thy son shall die.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Because whom our Lord loveth he chastiseth, Heb. ch. 12. v. 6.  
Q. By what other means are those temporal punishments released?  
A. By all works of piety, and above all by Indulgences.  
A. Not a pardon for sins to come or leave to commit sin, (as some do falsely and slanderously teach) but it is only a releasing of such temporal punishments, as remain due unto 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 applieth to our souls by the special grant of the Church.  
Q. When did Christ give his ●●urch power to grant Indulgences?  
A. When he said to S. 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 lose on earth, it shall be loosed in heaven, S. Matth. ch. 16. v. 19  
Q. How prove you that the Apostles ever used this power?  
A. Out of 2 Cor. ch. 2. v. 10. where S. Paul remitted part of the Corinthians penance; To him that is such an one (saith he) this rebuke sufficeth, etc. whom you have pardoned any thing, I also.  
Q. What is required for the gaining of an Indulgence.  
A. That we perform the works enjoined us, and that the last part of them be done in state of grace.  
Q. What are those Works?  
A. Fasting, Prayer, and Almsdeeds.   

Extreme Unction expounded.  
Q. WHat is the fifth Sacrament?  
A. Extreme Unction.  
Q. Where did Christ institute that?  
A. At his last Supper.  
Q. What warrant have you for that?  
A. An Apostolical Tradition.  
Q. By whom was this Sacrament promulgated?  
A. By S. james in his Epist. ch. 5. v. 13, 14, 15. Is any man sick amongst you, let him bring in the Priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, annoyling 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 sins, his sins shall be forgiven him.  
Q. Who is capable of this Sacrament?  
A. Every true and faithful Christian which is in moral danger of death by sickness, excepting Infants, Fools, and such as are always mad.  
Q. What is the matter of this Sacrament?  
A. Oil blessed by a Bishop.  
Q. What is the form of it?  
A. By that annoyling and his own most pious mercy, let our Lord pardon thee whatsoever thou hast sinned by thy seeing, etc. and so of all the other senses, repeating the same words.  
Q. What are the effects of Extreme Unction?  
A. It comforteth the soul in her last Agony against despair, it remitteth Venial sins, and the Relics of sin, and it restoreth corporal health, if it be expedient.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Mark. ch. 6. v. 13. where we read, That the Apostles anointed with Oil many sick and healed them.  
Q. Why then do so many die after receiving it?  
A. One reason may be, because out of cowardice they deferred it too long, as very many do.   

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 Subdeacons'.  
Q. What proof have you for Bishops, Priests and Deacons?  
A. For Bishops and Deacons out of Philip. ch. 1. v. 1. To all the Saints at Philippi (saith S. Paul) with the Bishops and Deacons: And for Priests out of S. james , Is any man sick amongst you, let him bring in the Priests of the Church, etc.  
Q. Where did Christ ordain this Sacrament?  
A. At his last Supper, when he made his Apostles, Priests, saying, This is my Body which is given for you, do ye this for a commemoration of me, S. Luk. ch. 22. v. 19  
Q. What did Christ give them power then to do?  
A. To offer the unbloudy 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 for a commemoration of me?  
A. Because the unbloudy Sacrifice of the Mass is a commemoration, or memorial of the Bloody Sacrifice, made on the Cross; nay more, it is a renovation of it in an unbloudy way.  
Q. What are the effects of Holy Order?  
A. It giveth a spiritual power to ordain Priests, to consecrate the body and blood of Christ, to administer the Sacraments, to serve the Altar, and to Preach.  
Q. What else?  
A. It giveth also special grace for the well doing of the foresaid Offices.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of 1 Tim. ch. 4. v. 14. Neglect not the grace which is in thee by Prophecy, with the Imposition of the hands of 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 the Acts ch. 8. above cited, where we read, That two Bishops were sent to confirm the Samaritans.  
Q. How prove you that Bishops are of Divine Right, and have Authority from God to rule the Church?  
A. Out of Acts ch. 20. v. 28. Take heed unto yourselves and to the flock wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you Bishops, to rule the Church of God.  
Q. How prove you that Bishops only can ordain Priests?  
A. Out of Tit. ch. 1. v. 5. For this cause left I thee in Crect, that thou shouldest reform the things that are wanting, and ordain Priests by Cities, (he was a Bishop.)  
Q. What sin is it therefore to oppose Hierarchy and Episcopacy, either in the whole Church, or in particular Cburches for private ends?  
A. It is sin of Rebellion and high Treason against the peace and safety of Christ's spiritual Commonwealth, the Church.  
Q. How declare you that?  
A. Because no Law can subsist without guards and lookers to 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 such great Revenues?  
A. Because they bear a considerable charge and office in the Commonwealth, therefore aught to have a competence for the performance of it; Secondly that they may give the Laity an example of the true use of riches; And finally that it may breed a due respect both of their persons & callings in such as they are set to govern, who cannot always judge of their internal qualities.  
Q. What is the office of a Priest?  
A. To offer Sacrifice, and administer the rest of the Sacraments, excepting Holy Order & Confirmation.  
Q. How prove you a Sacrifice in the new Law?  
A. Because there is a Priesthood, as you have heard, and an Altar, according to that; We have an Altar (saith S. Paul) whereof they have no power to eat, who serve the Tabernacle. Heb. ch. last v. 7.  
Q. What other proof have you for it?  
A. Out of Mal. ch. 1. v. 11. where he foretold the Sacrifice of the new Law saying; From the rising of the Sun even to the going down, great is my Name amongst the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrificing and there is offered to my Name a clean oblation, saith the Lord of Hosts.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of S. Luke ch. 22. v. 19 and 20. where Christ (who is high Priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech) offered the Sacrifice of his own Body and Blood under the forms of Bread and Wine, saying, this is my Body which is given for you (it was given for us you hear at his last Supper) this is the Chalice, the new Testament in my Blood, which Chalice (according to the Greek text) is shed for you.  
Q. Is it lawful for Priests to marry?  
A. It is not, there is a Precept of the Church against it, descending to us by Apostolical tradition, neither did any of the Apostles ever company with their wives, after their calling to the Apostleship.  
Q. What other reason have you?  
A. Because every one that is made a Priest taketh at his Ordination, a voluntary oath of perpetual Chastity.  
Q. Why is it requisite that Priests should live chaste and unmarried?  
A. Because of all pleasures the carnal most affecteth sensible nature, causing the greatest extremities in man, and is the greatest binder of man to earthly things; Wherefore it is an employment little beseeming those who are obliged by their very callings to draw the people from this clod of earth, and elevate their hearts to heavenly things.  
Q. What are the lesser Orders of the Church?  
A. Acolyte, Lector, Exorcist and Porter, according to the 4. Council of Carthage, Can. the 6.  
Q. Is it lawful for women to Preach or to be Priests?  
A. It is not, according to 1 Cor. ch. 14. v. 34. Let women hold their peace in Churches, for it is not permitted them to speak, but to be subject, as the Law saith.  
Q. Is it lawful for any man to usurp and take upon him Priestly power, without the Ordination of the Church?  
A. It is not, according to Heb. ch. 5. v. 1. and 4. For every high Priest taken from amongst men, is appointed for men etc. 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 Aaron.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of S. john ch. 10. v. 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, he 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 Priestly, Power?  
A. That of King Oza, who was struck dead in the place, for laying but his hand upon the Ark to save it from falling, the 2. of Kings ch. 6. v. 6. & 7.  
Q. What besides?  
A. The example of Core, Dathan and Abiram, who for usurping the Office of the High Priest, though they were Priests themselves, and true believers in all other points, were swallowed up alive by the earth, Numb. ch. 16. v. 32. and two hundred and fifty others who were offering Incense with them, were consumed with fire from heaven, v. 35. with fourteen thousand and seven hundred more which were also burnt with fire from heaven for only siding with them, v. 49.   

Matrimony Expounded.  
Q. WHat is the seventh Sacrament?  
A. Matrimony.  
Q. Where was that first ordained?  
A. In Paradise by Almighty God when he gave Eve to Adam for a wife, saying, Wherefore a man shall leave his Father and his Mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh, Gen. ch. 2. v. 22.  
Q. Where was it made a Sacrament of the new Law?  
A. Either at the Wedding of Cana in Galilee, where Christ was present, and wrought his first Miracle, by turning Water into Wine, S. john ch. 2. or else in S. Matth. ch. 19 v. 6. where he saith, Therefore now they are not two but one flesh, what God hath joined let not man separate.  
Q. Why was it requisite that Marriage should be made a Sacrament?  
A. Because it is the main hinge whereupon hangeth the chief happiness of a married life; and therefore aught to be ranked in the highest Order of those Actions which Christ hath sanctified for the use of man.  
Q. What other reason have you?  
A. Because on it dependeth both the restraint of sinful concupiscence, the good of posterity, the well-ordering of our Domestical affairs, and the education of our Children in the fear and service of God.  
Q. How prove you Marriage to be a Sacrament?  
A. Because, as you have heard, it is a conjunction made and sanctified by God himself, and not to be dissolved by any power of man.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Eph. ch. 5. v. 31, 32. They shall be two in one flesh, this is a 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 delivery of their bodies to one another.  
Q. What is the form of it?  
A. The words or signs which signify the said present consent and delivery of their bodies.  
Q. What are the effects of Matrimony?  
A. It giveth special grace unto the married couple, to love and bear with one another, as also to bring up their Children in the fear of God.  
Q. What is the principal 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 S. Mat. ch. 19  
Q. What are the Obligations of Man and Wife?  
A. To love, honour and comfort one another.  
Q. What else?  
A. To render mutually the Marriage debt, according to that, Let the Husband render his debt unto the Wife, and Wife also in like manner to her Husband: The woman now hath not power of her own Body, but the husband; and in like manner the man hath not power of his own Body, but the woman, 1 Cor. ch. 7. v. 3. and 4.  
Q. Is it 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 wills.  
Q. Why are many so 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 lewd before Marriage, or married for lust 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?  
B. Because that is called the heart finger, and hath (they say) a vein in it which reacheth to the heart, so to signify the hearty, and constant love which ought to be betwixt man and wife.  
Q. What signifieth the Ring itself?  
A. It is a Symbol of perfection, and eternity, being equal in all parts and Spherical in figure, without beginning or end, to intimate the perfect and perpetual love of man and wife.  
Q. What are the best means to obtain good children?  
A. Fasting, Prayer and Almsdeeds; For so S. joachim and Anne obtained the B. Virgin Mary, and so the B. Virgin became the mother of God.  
Q. What obligation have Parents to their children?  
A. To instruct them in the Faith of Christ, to give them good example, to feed and nourish, to provide for them in Marriage, and to correct their faults.  
Q. What are the chief and most common Impediments of Marriage?  
A. Collateral Consanguinity and Affinity to the fourth degree, inclusively. And in the right line all degrees are prohibited by the Law of Nature, and indispensable.  
Q. Can the Church dispense in those said collateral degrees?  
A. She can, excepting only the first collateral degree of Consanguinity, to wit betwixt Brother and Sister.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Genes. ch. 29. v. 29. Where we read, that Jacob, having first married Lea, took also Rachael her sister to wife, without scruple or reproof; which was the first Collateral degree of Affinity.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Genes. ch. 11. where we read, that Abraham took to wife Sara, his Brother Lot's Daughter, which is the second collateral degree of consanguinity.    

CHAP. XII.  
The Cardinal Virtues Expounded.  
Q. HOw many Cardinal Virtues be there?  
A. There be four; Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance.  
Q. Why are these called Cardinal Virtues?  
A. Because they are the fountains, and as it were, the hinges of all Moral Virtues.  
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 what is to be desired, and what to be eschewed by a man.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Eccles. ch. 3. v. 18. A wise heart that hath understanding will keep itself from sin, and in the works of justice it shall have success.  
Q. What is justice?  
A. It is a Virtue which giveth everyman his 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. ch. 13. v. 7.  
Q. What is Temperance?  
A. It is a Virtue which moderates the inordinate Appetites and pleasures of the flesh: He that is abstinent (saith the Wiseman) shall increase life, Eccles. ch. 37.  
Q. What is Fortitude?  
A. It is a Virtue by which the labours and dangers of death are constantly undertaken, and patiently sustained: The wicked man flieth (saith Solomon) when no man pursueth him, but the just man, as a confident Lion, shall be without fear, Prov. ch. 28. And in 1 S. Peter, ch. 3. v. 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, Psal. 36. v. 27.   

CHAP. XIII.  
The Gifts of the Holy Ghost Expounded.  
Q. HOw many be the Gifts of the Holy Ghost?  
A. Seven; Wisdom, Understanding, Council, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and the fear of our Lord.  
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 penetrate the high mysteries of our Faith.  
Q. What is Council?  
A. It is a gift of God by which we discover the frauds and the deceits of the Devil, and are not cheated with them.  
Q What is Fortitude?  
A. It is a gift of God, whereby we are enabled to undergo and to 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 maketh us devout and zealous in his service.  
Q. What is the fear of our Lord?  
A. It is a gift of God, which curbeth our rashness, withholdeth us from sin, and maketh us obedient to Gods Law.   

CHAP. XIIII.  
The twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost Expounded.  
Q. HOw many be the Fruits of the Holy Ghost?  
A. There be in number twelve, as you may see in Gal. ch. 5.  
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 keepeth us unmoved in our minds amidst the storms and tempests of this world.  
Q. What is the fourth?  
A. Patience, which enableth us to suffer all adversities for the love of God.  
Q. What is the fifth?  
A. Long animity, 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 maketh us hurt no man, and do good unto 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 allayeth in us all the motions of passion and anger.  
Q. What is the ninth?  
A. Fidelity, which maketh us punctual observers of our Covenants and Promises.  
Q. What is the tenth?  
A. Modesty, which suppresseth in us all pride, and haughtiness.  
Q. What is the eleventh?  
A. Continency, which maketh us not only abstemious in meat and drink, but in all other sensible delights.  
Q. What is the twelfth?  
A. Chastity, which keepeth 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. ch. 8. v. 14.   

CHAP. XV.  
The Works of Merey Expounded.  
Q. HOw many are the Works of Mercy Corporall?  
A. Seven: 1. To feed the hungry. 2. To give drink to the thirsty. 3. To  the naked. 4. To harbour the harbourless. 5. To visit the sick. 6. To visit the imprisoned: And 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, etc. for I was hungry and ye gave me to eat, etc. S. Mat. ch. 25. v. 35, 36.  
Q. When are we said to feed and cloth Christ?  
A. As often as we feed and  the poor in his Name; what ye have done (saith he) to one of my little ones that ye have done unto me, the same ch. v. 40.  
Q. Is the reward of these works a reward of Justice?  
A. It is, according to 2 Tim. ch. 4. v. 8. I have fought a good fight (saith S. Paul) there is a crown of Justice laid up for me, which our Lord will render to me at that day, a just judge.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Heb. ch. 6. v. 10. For God is not unjust that he should forget the work and love which you have showed in his Name, who have ministered unto the Saints and do minister.  
Q. How many be the Works of Mercy Spiritual?  
A. Seven also: 1. To give counsel to the doubtful. 2. To instruct the ignorant. 3. To admonish sinners. 4. To comfort the afflicted. 5. To for give offences. 6. To bear patiently the troublesome. 7. To pray for the quick and the dead.  
Q. How prove you prayer for the dead?  
A. First, out of of the places  for Purgatory. Secondly out of 1 S. John ch. 5. v. 16. He that knoweth his brother to sinne a sin not unto death, let him ask and life shall be given him, not sinning to death; (i. by final impenitence) therefore it is lawful to pray for all such as die penitent and confessing their sins. And in 2 Mach. ch. 12. we read, It is therefore a wholesome and holy cogitation 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. ch. 12. v. 2. They which instruct others unto Justice shall shine as stars for all eternity.   

CHAP. XVI.  
The eight Beatitudes.  
Q. WHat are the eight Beatitudes?  
A. The sum of them is: 1. Poverty of spirit. 2. Meekness. 3. Mourning. 4. To hunger and thirst after Justice. 5. mercifulness. 6. Cleannesses of heart. 7. To be Peacemakers.) 8. To suffer persecution for Justice sake. See S. Mat. ch. 5.  
Q. Whence ariseth the necessity of suffering Persecution?  
A. Because all that will live piously in jesus Christ, shall suffer Persecution.   

CHAP. XVII.  
The kinds of sin explicated.  
Q. WHy is it necessary for a Christian to know the natures and the kinds of sin?  
A. That so he may detest them, and avoid them.  
Q. How many kinds of sin be there?  
A. Two kinds, namely, Original and Actual sin.  
Q. What is Original sin?  
A. It is a privation of Original justice, which we inherit from our first Parent Adam, and are all born in that privation or Original sin.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Rom. ch. 5. 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 inclinations, proneness to sin, sickness and death.  
Q. How is Original sin taken away?  
A. By holy Baeptisme.  
Q. Whither go Infants which die without Baptism?  
A. To the upper part of hell, where they endure the pain of loss, (though not of sense) and shall never see the face of God.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. john ch. 3. v. 5. Unless any one be borne again of water and the Spirit, 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 a sin of Omission?  
A. To omit any thing willingly which is commanded by God, or by his Church.  
Q. Why is Actual sin so called?  
A. Because the material part of it is commonly some voluntary act of ours.  
Q. Is all sin voluntary and deliberate?  
A. It is; (speaking of Actual sin) for 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; then which nothing were more vain, if it be not in the free election and power of man, as assisted by God's grace to do, or not to do such things.  
Q. What Scripture have you for that?  
A. Out of Gen. ch. 4. v. 7. If thou do well, shalt not thou receive again? But if thou dost ill, shall not thy sin be forthwith present at the door? but the desire thereof (of sin) shall be under thee, and thou shalt have dominion over it.  
Q. What besides?  
A. Out of Deut. ch. 30. v. 19 & 20. I call to witness this day heaven and earth, (saith our Lord) that I have proposed to thee life and death, blessing and cursing, choose therefore life that thou mayst live.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of 1 Cor. ch. 7. v. 37. He that hath determined in his heart being settled, not having necessity, but having power of his own will, and hath judged in his heart to keep his Virgin, doth well; (you see man hath power of his own will) and in Phil. ch. 4. I can do all things (saith S. Paul) in him that strengtheneth me.  
Q. Doth not the efficacy of God's grace hinder and hurt the freedom of our will?  
A. No, it perfecteth it, according to 1 Cor. ch. 15. v. 10, & 11. I have laboured more abundantly (saith S. Paul) then all they, yet not I, but the grace of God with 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. Any great offence against the charity of God, or our neighbour: and it is so called, because it killeth the soul, and robbeth 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. Out of Rom. ch. 6. v. 23. For the stipend of sin is death. And v. 21. What fruit therefore had you then in those things for which now your are ashamed? For the end of them is death.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Wisdom ch. 16. v. 14. For a man by malice killeth his own soul. And out of Ezek. ch. 18. v. 4. The soul which sinneth she shall die.  
Q. How prove you that some sins are only venial?  
A. Out of 1 S. John ch. 1. v. 8. where speaking of such as walk in the light, and are cleansed from all mortal sin by the blood of Christ, he addeth, If we shall say we have no sin, we seduce ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. In many things we all offend, S. james ch. 3. v. 2. and in Prov. 24. v. 16. The just man falleth seven times, (not mortally, for than he were no longer just, therefore venially.)  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of S. Mat. ch. 12. v. 37. But I say unto you, every idle word which men shall speak, they shall render an account for at the day of Judgement, (now God forbidden that 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 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 also venial Sins.  
A. Because he that despiseth small things shall by little and little fall away, Eccles. ch. 19 v. 3.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Because no polluted thing shall enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, Apoc. ch. 21. v. 27. (be it with mortal or venial sin.)  
Q. How shall we be able to know when any sin is mortal, and when but venial?  
A. By this: Because to any mortal sin it is required, both that it be deliberate, and perfectly voluntary; and also that it be in a matter of weight against the Law of God; one or both of which conditions is 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, and the like.  
Q. Whether go such as die in Mortal Sin?  
A. To hell for all eternity, as you have heard in the Creed.  
Q. Whether 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 that there is Purgatory, or a penal place where souls are purged after death.  
A. Out of 1 S. Pet. ch. 3. v. 18. 19 20. where we read, That Christ being dead for our sins, came in spirit, and preached to them also that were in prison, which had been incredulous in the days of Noah when the Ark was a building.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of 1 Cor. ch. 3. v. 13, 14, 15. 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 any man's work abide (as theirs doth who have deserved no Purgatory) he shall receive a reward; if any man's work burn (as theirs doth who go to Purgatory) he shall suffer detriment, but himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.  
Q. What besides?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 4. v. 27. 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 repay the last farthing.  
Q. What other yet?  
A. Out of S. Mat. ch. 12. v. 32. where we read, That some Sins shal● 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 cooperate to the sins of other men?  
A. As often as he is an effectual cause of sin in others by any of these nine means following: 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.   

CHAP. XVIII.  
The seven deadly Sins Expounded.  
Q. HOw call you the seven deadly 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. Vainglory, Boasting, Hypocrisy, Ambition, Arrogancy, Presumption, and contempt of others.  
Q. What is Vainglory?  
A. An inordinate desire of humane praise.  
Q. What is Boasting?  
A. A foolish cracking of ourselves.  
Q. What is hypocrisy?  
A. A counterfeiting of more piety and virtue, than we have.  
Q. What is Ambition?  
A. An inordinate desire of honour.  
Q. What is Arrogancy?  
A. A high contempt of others joined with insolency, and rashness.  
Q. What is Presumption?  
A. An attempting of things above our strength.  
Q. What is contempt of others?  
A. A disdainful preferring of ourselves before others.  
Q. What other daughters hath Pride?  
A. Pertinacy, discord, disobedience, and in gratitude.  
Q. What is pertinacy?  
A. A wilful sticking to our own opinions, contrary to the judgement 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. A refractoriness to 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 resisteth the proud, and giveth his grace unto the humble, 1. of S. Pet. ch. 5. v. 5. And in Eccles. ch. 10. we read, that Pride is odious before God and men.  
Q. What are the remedies of Pride?  
A. To remember that Holy Lesson, learn ye of me that am mild and humble of heart. And to consider that we are sinful dust and shall return again to dust. And that whatsoever good we have or do is the mere gift of God.  
Q. What is the virtue opposite to Pride?  
A. Humility, which teacheth us a lowly conceit of ourselves. He that humbleth himself shallbe exalted, S. Mat. ch. 23.  
Q. What is covetousness?  
A. An inordinate desire of riches.  
Q. When is covetousness a mortal Sin?  
A. When, either we desire unjustly that which is another man's, of some considerable value, or else refuse to give of that which is our own, to such as are in any extreme, or moral necessity.  
Q. How prove you the first part?  
A. Out of 1 Tim. ch. 6. v. 9 where we read, that covetous desires drown men into destruction and perdition: for the root of all evils is covetousness.  
Q. How prove you the latter part?  
A. Out of 1 S. johu ch. 3. v. 17. He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother have necessity, and shall shut his bowels from him, How doth the charity of God abide in him?  
Q. What other proof have you for alms?  
A. Out of S. Luke ch. 11. v. 41. But yet that which remaineth, give alms, and behold all things are clean unto you. And out of Dan. ch. 4. v. 24. Redeem (saith he) thy sins with alms, and thy iniquity with the mercies of the poor.  
Q. What are the daughters of covetousness?  
A. Hardness of heart; Vnmercifullnesse to the poor; unquiet Solicitude; Neglect of heavenly things, and confidence in things of this world.  
Q. What else?  
A. Usury, Fraud, Rapine, Theft, etc.  
Q. What are the remedies of covetousness?  
A. To consider that it is a kind of Idolatry, according to Colos. ch. 3. v. 5. And that it is harder for a rich man to enter heaven, then for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, S. Matth. ch. 19 v. 24.  
Q. What are the virtues opposite to covetousness?  
A. Liberality, which maketh a man give freely to the poor. And justice, which rendereth unto all men, that which is theirs. It is a more blessed thing to give (saith our Lord) rather then to take, Acts ch. 20. v. 35. and in 2 Cor. ch. 9 v. 6. S. 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 loveth a cheerful giver.  

Lechery expounded.  
Q. What is Lechery?  
A. An inordinate desire of carnal sin, or delights of the flesh.  
Q. How prove you the gravity of this sin?  
A. Because the whole world was once drowned, and the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were burnt with fire from heaven for it, Gen. ch. 7. v. 21. and ch. 19 v. 25.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of Rom. ch. 8. v. 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 Sights and Touches, Wanton Kisses and Speeches.  
Q. How prove you voluntary pollution to be a mortal sin?  
A. Out of Genes. ch. 38. v. 7. and 9 where we read that Onan and Her were struck dead by God in the place, for shedding the seed of nature out of the due vessel to hinder generation.  
Q. Why are lust full kisses and touches mortal sins?  
A. Because they vehemently dispose to fornication and pollution.  
Q. Is kissing by way of civility, when we meet a stranger, 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 the member of Christ the member of a harlot, 1 Cor. ch. 6. v. 15. 16.  
Q. What else?  
A. To consider that God and his Angels are eye-witnesses of it, how ever private it may seem.  
Q. What is the virtue opposite to Lechery?  
A. Chastity, which maketh us abstain from carnal pleasures. Let us behave ourselves (saith S. Paul) as the ministers of God, in much patience, in watching, in fasting, in chastity, 2 Cor. ch. 6. v. 6.  
Q. How prove you the greatness of this virtue?  
Out of Apoc. ch. 14. v. 4. These are they which were not defiled with women for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb whither soever 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 seemeth to lessen our own excellency.  
Q. How prove you Envy to be mortal?  
A. Because by the Devil's envy death entered into the world, and envy was the cause of all sin, Wisdom ch. 3. v. 24.  
Q. What are the daughters of Envy?  
A. Hatred, Detraction, Rash Judgement, Strife, Reproach, Contempt, and Rejoicing at another's evil.  
Q. What are the remedies of Envy?  
A. To cousider that it robbeth us of Charity, and deformeth us to the likeness of the Devil.  
Q. What is the virtue opposite to Envy?  
A. Brotherly love, which is the chiefest badge of Christianity; In this (saith our Saviour) men shall know that you are my Disciples, if you love one another, S. john ch. 13. v. 34.   

Gluttony expounded.  
Q. WHat is Gluttony?  
A. An inordinate excess, or desire of excess in meat or drink.  
Q. How prove you Gluttony to be a mortal sin?  
A. Out of 1 Cor. ch. 6. v. 10. where we read, that drunkards shall not possess the kingdom of God. And out of S. Luke ch. 21. v. 34. Take heed unto yourselves, lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness.  
Q. What are the daughters of Gluttony?  
A. Babbling, Scurrility, spewing, stinking of drink, and dulness of soul and body.  
Q. What are the remedies of Gluttony?  
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. ch. 3. v. 19   

Anger Expounded  
Q. What is Anger?  
A. An inordinate desire of revenge.  
Q. How prove you Anger to be mortal?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 5. v. 22 Whosoever shall be angry, with his brother shall be guilty of judgement, etc. And whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be guilty of hell fire.  
Q. What are the Daughters of Anger?  
A. Hatred, Swelling, Fury, Clamour, Threats, Contumely, Cursing, Blasphemy and Murder.  
Q. What are the remedies of Anger?  
A. To remember that Holy Lesson of Christ, In your patience you shall possess your souls. And that of S. Paul, Be gentle one to another, pardoning one another, as also God in Christ hath pardoned you, Ephes. ch. 4. v. 32.  
Q. What virtue is 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. ch. 10. v. 36. Patience is necessary for you, that doing the will of God, you may partake the promise.   

Sloth expounded  
Q. WHat is Sloth?  
A. 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. ch. 3. v. 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 S. Matth. ch. 25. v. 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 the 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 jeremy the 48. Cursed be he that doth the work of God negligently. And to consider with what diligence men do worldly businesses.  
Q. What is the virtue opposite to Sloth?  
A. Diligence, which maketh us careful and zealous in performing our duties, both to God and man, Take heed (saith our Lord) watch and pray, for you know not when the time is; strive to enter by the narrow gate, for many I say to you, shall seek to enter and shall not enter. S. Mark ch. 19 v. 33. 35.    

CHAP. 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 & 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 that I can deserve pardon; Gen. ch. 4. v. 13. And of judas, when casting down the silver pieces in the temple, he went and hanged himself, S. Matth. ch. 26. v. 4. 5.  
Q. What is presumption of God's mercy?  
A. A foolish confidence of salvation, without good life, or any care to keep the Commandments; such as they have, who 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 pervert the way of our Lord by forgeing lies and slanders, as Heretics do, when they teach the ignorant people, that Catholics worship Images as Gods, and give Angels and Saints the honour which is due to God; or that the Pope for a little money giveth us pardons to commit what sins we please: Then all which greater falsehoods cannot he invented.  
Q. What is Envy at 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, Almsdeeds, Vows, and Religious Orders of the Catholic Church, calling them Superstitions 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 instruction and admonition.  
Q. How show you the gravity of this sin?  
A. Out of Heb. ch. 10. v. 26. If we sin willingly after the knowledge of the truth received, now there is not left an Host for sins, but a certain terrible expectation of judgement.  
Q. What other proof have you?  
A. Out of 2 S. Pet. ch. 2. v. 21. It was better for them (saith he) not to know the way of justice, then after the knowledge to turn back from that 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 ears, you have always resisted the Holy Ghost, Acts ch. 7. v. 51. And in the person of whom job speaketh, saying, Depart thou from us and we will not have the knowledge of thy ways, job ch. 21. v. 14.  
Q. Why is it said, that these sins shall never be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come?  
A. Not because there is not a 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 unto death, for that I say, not that any man ask, 1 S. joh, ch. 5. v. 16.) but because men very seldom do hearty penance for them.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of 1 S. joh. ch. 1. v. 2. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just for to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all iniquity.   

CHAP. 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 of another's life.  
Q. How show you the gravity of this sin?  
A. Out of Gen. ch. 4. v. 10. where it is said to Cain, What hast thou done? The voice of the blood of thy brother cryeth to me from the earth; now therefore shalt thou be cursed upon the earth. And out of S. Mat. ch. 26. v. 52. All that take the sword shall perish with the sword.  
Q. What is the second?  
A. 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 an undue Sex or kind.  
Q. What have you against this?  
A. Out of Gen. ch. 19 v. 13. where we read of the Sodomites & 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. Oppression of the poor, which is a cruel, tyrannical and unjust dealing with inferiors.  
Q. What have you against that?  
A. Out of Exod. ch. 22. v. 21. Ye shall not hurt the widow and the fatherless: if you do hurt them, they will cry unto me, and I will hear their cry, and my fury shall take indignation, and I will strike you with the sword. And out of Esa. ch. 10. v. 1. Woe to them that make unjust Laws, that they might oppress the poor in judgement, and do violence to the cause of the humble of my people.  
Q. What is the fourth?  
A. To defraud Workmen of their wages; which is, to lessen, or detain it from them.  
Q. What have you against that?  
A. Out of Eccles. ch. 34. v. 27. He that sheddeth blood, and he that defraudeth the hired man, are brethren. And out of S. james ch. 5. v. 4. Behold the hire of the workmen that have reaped your fields, which is defrauded by you, crieth, and the cry hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.   

CHAP. XXI.  
The four last Things expounded.  
Q. WHat are the Four Last Things?  
A. Death, judgement, Hell and Heaven, Eccles. ch. 7. v. 28.  
Q. What understand you by Death?  
A. That we are all mortal, and shall once die; how soon we are uncertain, and therefore must be always prepared for it.  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of Heb. ch. 9 v. 27. It is decreed for all men once to die. And out of S. Matth. ch. 25. v. 13. Watch ye therefore, because ye know not the day nor the hour.  
Q. What is the best preparative for death?  
A. A godly life, and to be often doing Penance for our sins, and saying with S. Paul; I do desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, Phil. ch. 1. v. 23.  
Q. What else?  
A. To remember often that of S. Matth. ch. 16. v. 26. 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 judgement?  
A. I understand that (besides the general judgement at the last day) our souls as soon as we are dead shall receive their particular judgement at the tribunal of Christ, according to that, Blessed are the dead that die in our Lord, from henceforth now saith the spirit, that they rest from their labours, for their works follow them, Apoc. 14. ch. v. 13.  
Q. What is the best preparative for this judgement?  
A. To remember often that of Heb. ch. 10. v. 21. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And that of 1 Cor. ch. 11. v. 31. For if we did judge ourselves, we should not be judged.  
Q. What understand you by hell?  
A. That such as die in mortal sin, and the disfavour of God, shall be tormented there both day and night for ever and ever. Apoc. ch. 20. v. 10. There shall be weeping, howling and gnashing of teeth, the worm of conscience shall always gnaw them, and the fire that tormenteth them shall never be extinguished, S. Matth. ch. 8. and S. Mark ch. 9  
Q. What understand you by heaven?  
A. That the elect and faithful servants of God shall reign with him for ever in his Kingdom, where he hath prepared such delights and comforts for them, as neither eye hath seen, or ear hath heard, neither hath it ascended into the heart of man, 1 Cor. ch. 2. v. 9  
Q. How prove you that?  
A. Out of S. Matth. ch. 7. v. 21. He that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven.  
Q. What utility is there in the frequent memory of these last things?  
A. Very great; according to that; In all thy works remember thy last things, and thou shalt never sin. Eccles. chap. 7. Which God of his great mercy give us grace to do. Amen.   

CHAP. XXII.  
The Ceremonies of the Mass Expounded.  
Q. WHo ordained the Ceremonies of the mass?  
A. The Church, directed by the Holy Ghost.  
Q. For what end did she 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 Militant, to make them apprehend 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 dirt and spittle to cure the blind, the deaf and dumb: he prostrated at his 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 at his last Supper, where he ordained the Sacrifice of the Mass?  
A. He did; for he washed the feet of his Disciples, he commanded a room to be prepared, covered with hang, or adorned, S. Mark. ch. 14. v. 15. He blessed the Bread and the Cup, and exhorted the Communicants.  
Q. What meaneth the Priests coming back three steps from the Altar, and humbling himself before he beginneth?  
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 met to commemorate) salvation may be had, if it be sought with a contrite and humble heart.  
Q. Why doth he beat his breast at MEA CULPA?  
A. To teach the people to return unto the heart, and signify that all sin is from the heart, and aught to be ascribed to the heart with hearty sorry.  
Q. Why doth the Priest ascending to the Altar, kiss the Altar 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 both to the Jews and Gentiles.  
Q. What signifies the INTROITE?  
A. The desires and groan of the ancient Fathers after the coming of Christ.  
Q. Why is the INTROITE repeated twice?  
A. To signify the frequent repetition of their desires and supplications.  
Q. Why do we add unto the INTROITE, GLORIA PATRI, etc. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, 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 Father, 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 desire to find mercy.  
Q. What means the GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO?  
A. It is the song, which the Angels sung at the birth of Christ, and used in this place to signify, that the mercy which we beg, was brought us by his birth and death.  
Q. What means the Collect?  
A. It is the Priest's Prayer, and is called a Collect, because it collecteth and gathereth together the supplications of the multitude, speaking them all with one voice; and because it is a collection or sum of the Epistle and Gospel of the Mass 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 they all concur with the Priest in his petition, or Prayer.  
Q. What meaneth the DOMINUS VOBISCUM?  
A. It signifies, Our Lord be with you, and is used to excite the people to join with the Priest in what he then doth.  
Q. Why is it answered by the Clerk, ET CUM SPIRITU TUO? And with thy Spirit?  
A. To signify, that the people do all concur with the Priest, and beg divine assistance for him.  
Q. Why are all the Prayers ended with PER DOMINUM NOSTRUM JESUM CHRISTUM, etc. Through our Lord Jesus Christ?  
A. To signify, that whatsoever 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 meaneth the Epistle?  
A. It signifies the Old Law, and is read before the Gospel to intimate that the Old Law being able to bring nothing to perfection, it was necessary that the New should follow it.  
Q. What means the Gradual?  
A. It signifies the Penance preached by S. John Baptist, and that we cannot partake or come unto the Salvation of Christ, but by the holy degrees of Penance.  
Q. What means the ALLELUIA?  
A. It is the voice of men rejoicing and aspiring to the joys of heaven.  
Q. Why is ALLELUIA repeated so often at the Feast of Easter?  
B. Because that is the joyful solemnity of our Saviour's Resurrection.  
Q. Why betwixt Septuagesima and Easter is the Tract read in place of the Gradual?  
A. Because that is a time of penance and mourning, and therefore the Tract is read with a sad and a slow voice, to signify the miseries and banishment of this life.  
Q. Why do we rise up at the reading of the Gospel?  
A. To signify, that we are ready to go and do whither and whatsoeever it commandeth us.  
Q. What is the Gospel?  
A. The happy Embassy or Message of Christ unto the world.  
Q. Why is the Gospel read at the North end of the Altar?  
A. To signify that by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, the Kingdom of the Devil was overthrown.  
Q. How declare you that?  
A. Because the Devil hath chosen the North for the seat of his malice, and all evil (saith the Prophet) shall be opened from the North.  
Q. Why doth the Priest before he begin the Gospel salute the people with DOMINUS VOBISCUM, Our Lord be with you?  
A. To prepare them for a devout hearing of it, and 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, etc. The Sequel of the Holy Gospel, & c.?  
A. To move attention, and signify what part of the Gospel he then readeth.  
Q. Why doth the Clerk answer, GLORIATIBI DOMINE, Glory be to thee O Lord?  
A. To give the glory of the Gospel to God, who hath of his mere 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 appertaineth to the Cross and Passion of Christ.  
Q. Why after this do both the Priest and people sign themselves with the Cross in three places?  
A. They sign themselves on their foreheads, to signify, that they are not ashamed to profess Christ crucified; on their mouths, to signify, that they will be ready with their mouths to confess unto salvation; and on their breasts, to signify, that with their hearts they do believe unto Justice.  
Q. Why at the end of the Gospel do they sign their breasts again with the Cross?  
A. That the Devil coming may not steal the seed of God's Word out of their hearts.  
Q. What meaneth the Creed?  
A. It is a public profession of our Faith, and the wholesome fruit of the preaching of the Gospel.  
Q. What meaneth the first Offertory, where we offer Bread and Wine mingled with Water.  
A. It signifies the freedom wherewith Christ offered himself unto his Passion, and the desire he had to suffer for our sins.  
Q. What signifies the mingling of water with the 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 doth the Priest wash the ends of his fingers?  
A. To admonish both himself & the people, to wash away the unclean thoughts of their hearts, that so they may partake of that holy Sacrifice; as also to signify, that the Priest is or aught to be clean from all mortal sin.  
Q. Why then after some silence doth he begin the Preface with a loud voice, saying, PEROMNIA SECULA SECULORUM.  
A. To signify the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem, after he had lain hid a little space, and therefore it is ended with OSANNA BENEDICTUS QUIVENIT, etc. which was the Hebrew children's Song.  
Q. Why at those words doth the Priest 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. Why is the Canon read with a low voice?  
A. To signify the sadness of our Saviour's Passion.  
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 for sin.  
Q. Why then doth he kiss the Altar in the middle?  
A. To signify that kiss of peace which Christ gave us by reconciling us to God in his own blood.  
Q. Why here doth he sign the Host and Chalice thrice with the sign of the Cross?  
A. To signify, that our Redemption made upon the Cross was done by the consent of the whole Trinity.  
Q. Why then doth he sign them again five times?  
A. To signify the mystery of those five days which were betwixt our Saviour's entering into Jerusalem and his Passion.  
Q. Why after he hath spoken the words of Consecration doth the Priest elevate or lift up the 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 up on the Cross, and his blood shed.  
Q. Why then after some prayers doth he again sign the offerings five times with the Cross?  
A. To signify the five wounds of Christ which he there tacitly representeth to his Father.  
Q. Why after this (some prayers interposed) doth he sign them again three other 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 an increase of glory; for those in Purgatory, to free them from their pains; and for those on Earth, to an increase of grace, and the remission of sins  
Q. Why after the MEMENTO or Commemoration for the dead, doth the Priest elevate his voice saying and to us sinners also, NOBIS QUOQUE PECCATORIBUS?  
A. In memory of the supplication of the good Thief, made to Christ upon his Cross; that so with him by virtue of this sacrifice, we may partake his heavenly Kingdom.  
Q. Why after this again doth he sign the Offerings thrice with the sign of the Cross?  
A. To signify the three hours which Christ hung living on the Cross, and all the griefs sustained in them.  
Q. Why then opening the Chalice doth he cross 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 rend asunder, the three Crosses made over the Chalice, signify the three hours which Christ hung dead upon the Cross. The two Crosses made at the lip of the Chalice, signify the Blood and Water flowing from his side.  
Q. Why is the PATER NOSTER said with a loud voice?  
A. To signify the mystical words, which Christ spoke upon the Cross with a loud voice?  
Q. What meaneth the Priest laying down of the Host upon the Corporal, and covering the Chalice again?  
A. It signifies the taking 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 after that doth he raise his voice again saying; PAX DOMINI SIT SEMPER VOBISCUM, The peace of our Lord, be always with you?  
A. To signify the joy of the resurrection, and that frequent voice of Christ to his Disciples, PAX VOBIS, peace be unto you.  
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 his Body was broken, or divided in three principal parts, namely, his hands, his side, and feet.  
Q. Why after this, doth he yet make the sign of the Cross saying, PAXDOMINI, etc. The peace of our Lord be always with you?  
A. To signify that triple peace which he hath purchased for us by his Cross, namely, Externall, Internal, and Eternal peace.  
Q. Why then is a particle of the Host put into the Chalice?  
A. 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 also partake of his cup of sufferings.  
Q. Why is the AGNUS DEI or Lamb of God, which takest away the sins of the world, said with a loud voice?  
A. To commemorate the glory of our Saviour's Ascension, and 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 charity which ought to be amongst the Faithful, who do all eat of one bread of the Eucharist, and are all members of one mystical body.  
Q. What means the DOMINE NON SUM DIGNUS, etc.  
A. It signifies, O Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof, etc. and is the poor Publicans prayer by which he descended justified into his house; and we are taught, not to approach unto this Sacrifice, but with an humble, and a contrite heart.  
Q. What mean the prayers after the Communion?  
A. They are a thanksgiving to God for having made us worthy to partake of this unbloody sacrifice of the Altar, and by it also of the bloody sacrifice of the Cross.  
Q. What mean the words, ITE MISSA EST?  
A. They signify that the Host or Offering is now sent to heaven for us, and represent 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 Galite, what stand you here looking up into heaven!  
Q. What meaneth the Priests lifting up his hands, and blessing the people?  
A. It signifies the blessing which Christ gave to his Apostles and Disciples, at his Ascension, with his hands lifted up.  
Q. What signifies the Gospel of S. john?  
A. It signifies the preaching of the Gospel to all Nations, made by the Apostles.   

CHAP. XXIII.  
The Office of our blessed Lady expounded  
Q. WHo composed the Office?  
A. The Church, directed by the Holy Ghost.  
Q. Why is the Primer so called?  
A. From the Latin word PRIMO, which signifieth 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 God, and all these things shall be given to you.  
Q. Why is the Office divided into Hymns, Psalms, Canticles, Antiphones, Versicles, Responsories and Prayers?  
A. For order, beauty and variety sake.  
Q. What warrant have you for that?  
A. Out of Col. ch. 3. Sing ye in your hearts unto our 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 Clerks; For a Petition hath the same force, whether it be delivered by a learned or an unlearned man: so hath also Prayer. 3. Because a Psalm is of the same value in the sight of God from the mouth of a child or a 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 also of the seven hours of our Saviour's Passion.  
Q. What ground have you for that?  
A. Out of Zach. ch. 12. 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 Law of grace, the New Law.  
Q. What meaneth he by the House of David, and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem?  
A. The Church of Christ.  
Q. What meaneth he by 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 mean those words, And they shall look up at him whom they have pierced?  
A. They signify, that the whole order, scope and object of the Office should be Christ crucified.  
Q. How show you that the seven hours are a memorial of the Passion of Christ?  
A. Because seven hours were consumed in his Passion; for three hours he hung living on the Cross, other three hours he hung dead upon the Cross, & the seventh hour was spent in nailing him to and taking him from the Cross.  
Q. What do we commemorate by the Matins and laud's?  
A. His bloody sweat and binding in the Garden, as also his dragging from thence unto Jerusalem.  
Q. What by the Prime or first hour?  
A. The scoffs and indignities which he sustained whilst they led him through the streets early in the morning unto the Princes of the Jews, as also the false accusations which were then 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 lo the man.  
Q. What by the sixth hour?  
A. His unjust condemnation to death, his carrying of 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 of his side with a spear.  
Q. What by the Evensong?  
A. His taking down from the Cross, and the darkness which was made upon the face of the earth.  
Q. What by the Compline?  
A. His Funeral or Burial. Briefly thus:  
The Matins and laud's, his Agony and binding in the Garden; the Prime, 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 of his side; the Evensong his taking from the Cross; and the Compline 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 to our Lady, and beg her aid for the devout performance of it to God's honour.  
Q. Why do we begin every Hour with, Incline unto mine aid O God, O Lord make haste to help me?  
A. To acknowledge our infirmity and misery, and the great need we have of divine assistance, not only in all other things, but also in our very prayers, according to that of the Apostle, 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 & equal glory to the most Blessed Trinity, and to invite all creatures to do the like: this is the principal 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 3. Tom, the year of Christ 325.  
Q. Why do we join unto the GLORIA PATRI, SICUT ERAT, As it was in the beginning, both now and always world without end?  
A. Because that was made by the Council of Nice against the Arrians, who denied Christ to be coequal and consubstantial to his Father, or to have been before the Virgin Mary.  
Q. Why after this, for a great part of the year, and especially betwixt Easter and Whitsuntide, do we say, ALLELUIA ALLELUIA?  
A. Because that is a time of joy, and ALLELUIA is an 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 very Blessed in heaven, according to Apoc. ch. 8. v. 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 ALLELUIA, Praise be to thee O Lord King of eternal glory?  
A. Because those are times of penance, and therefore God must be praised rather with tears, than exultation.  
Q. Why do we always say for the Invitatory; Hail ●ary full of grace, our Lord is with thee?  
A. To congratulate and renew the memory of our Blessed Ladies 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 those Versicles are said.  
Q. What mean the Hymns?  
A. They are a Poetical expression of the Prerogatives and Praises of our Lady.  
Q. Why are so many Psalms used in the Office?  
A. Because they were dictated 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 most of the hours?  
A. In honour of the most Blessed Trinity, to whom chief the whole Office is directed.  
Q. Why was the Office divided into so many Hours?  
A. I have told you the chief reason already, and one other reason was, that so there might be no hour either of 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 apiece, and therefore the Matins consist of three Psalms, and three Lessons.  
Q. What do the laud's correspond to?  
A. To the fourth Watch of the night.  
Q. What do the Prime, the third, the sixth, and ninth hours correspond to?  
A. To the first, the third, the sixth and ninth hours of the day.  
Q. What do the Evensong and Compline correspond to?  
A. To the Evening.  
Q. What mean the Benedictions, or Blessings, given before the Eessons?  
A. They are short Aspirations to beg divine assistance, and the first is in honour of the Father, the second in honour of the Son, the third in honour of the Holy Ghost.  
Q. What do the Lessons 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 on us?  
A. To beg, that the praises and virtues of our Lady which we have there read, may be deeply settled in our hearts, and that God would pardon our former negligence in both 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 mean the Responsories?  
A. They are so called, because they answer unto one another.  
Q. What are the Antiphones?  
A. The Verticles which are begun before the Psalms.  
Q. Why do we rise up and stand at the MAGNIFICAT BENEDICTUS, and NUNC DIMITTIS?  
A. To signify our reverence to the Gospel, out of which those are taken?  
Q. What is the Collect?  
A. It is the Prayer, and is so called, because it collecteth and gathereth together all the Petitions and supplications of the whole Office.  
Q. Why is the Collect always ended with those words, Through our Lord Jesus Christ, & c.?  
A. To signify, that he is our only Mediator of Redemption, and principal 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, (Psa. 150.) and to commend our felves to their merits and prayers.  
Q. Why end we every hour with those words, And let 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 Antiphone to our Lady?  
A. That by her it may be presented to her Son, and by him to his eternal Father.   
FINIS.   

A Table of the Chapters, and principal Contents of this Book.  

Chap. 1. WHat a Christian is. And of the Blessed Trinity. pag. 1  
Chap. 2. Faith explicated. 6  
Chap. 3. The Creed expounded. 9 

1. Article. 10  
2. Article. 17  
3. Article. 22  
4. Article. 24  
5. Article. 27  
6. Article. 30  
7. Article. 32  
8. Article. 37  
9 Article. 39  
10. Article. 62  
11. Article. 64  
12. Article. 68    
Chap. 4. Hope and Prayer explicated.  
Chap. 5. The Pater Noster expounded. 84  
Chap. 6. The Hail Mary, or Angelical Salutation expounded. 96  
Chap. 7. Charity expounded. 102  
Chap. 8. The X. Commandments expounded. 108 

1. Commandment. 114  
2. Commandment. 130  
3. Commandment. 133  
4. Commandment. 140  
5. Commandment. 147  
6. Commandment. 149  
7. Commandment. 152  
8. Commandment. 155  
9 & 10. Commandments. 159    
Chap. 9 The Commandments of the Church expounded. 162  
Chap. 10. The Counsels of Christ and his Church expounded. 172  
Chap. 11. An Exposition of the 7. Sacraments. 176 

1. Baptism. 184  
2. Confirmation. 192  
3. The Eucharist. 193  
4. Penance. 210  
5. Extreme Unction. 219  
6. Holy Order. 222  
7. Matrimony. 231    
Chap. 12. The cardinal Virtues expounded. 239  
Chap. 13. The Gifts of the Holy Ghost explicated. 241  
Chap. 14. The 12 Fruits of the Holy Ghost expounded. 243  
Chap. 15. The Works of Mercy. 246  
Chap. 16. The 8. Beatitudes. 249  
Chap. 17. Kind's of sin explicated. 250  
Chap. 18. The 7. Deadly Sins expounded. 261  
Chap. 19 The sins against the Holy Ghost. 276  
Chap. 20. The sins that cry to heaven for vengeance. 280  
Chap. 21. The four last Things. 283  
Chap. 22. The Ceremonies of the Mass expounded. 287  
Chap. 23. The Office of our B. Lady expounded. 307    

What faults the Printer (through his ignorance in this Language) hath committed, the courtesy of the Reader may correct; and chief these.  
Errata. Pag. 19 lin. 6. read any thing. p. 39 l. 2. deal in. p. 41. l. 1. r. feed my lamb● p. 47. l. 3. r. consolation. p. 58. l. 19 ● 20. r. every false tongue shall. p. 60. l. 8 r. over us. p. 103. l. 3. r. is it a. p. 119. ●. r. two Cherubins. p. 141. l. 1. r. bound p. 145. l. 15. r. your Prelates. & l. 17 your souls. p. 150. l. 1. r. mortal. p 159. l. 10. r. wife. Thou. p. 162. l. 6. ● help it. p. 173. l. 5. r. reward. p. 183. l. 〈…〉 r. administration. p. 189. l. 12. r. God● child. p. 217. l. 18. r. thy sin. p. 23 l. 10. r. Lia. p. 248. l. 10. deal of. p. 290 〈…〉 2. r. sorrow.