ADVERTISEMENT. More knowledge is commonly diffused, especially among the young and unlearned, by the exercise of one hour in the way of catechism, than by the continued discourses of many. This mode of instruction excites attention, and helps the understanding. For this reason it is recommended to all parents and masters of families. The design of the following publication is not to supersede that admirable form of sound words, that excellent summary of religion, which is in the hands of all, and is too well known to need a recommendation; but to furnish some introductory, more easy and concise forms of knowledge; to fix the doctrines and duties of Christianity upon the minds of children in a way more suited to their feeble capacities, and to prepare them better to understand, and more profitably to use the catechism of the Assembly of Divines. FIRST CATECHISM OF THE PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION. 1. Quest. Can you tell me, child, who made you? Ans. The great God, who made heaven and earth. 2. Q. What doth God do for you? A. He keeps me from harm by night and by day, and is always doing me good. 3. Q. And what must you do for this great God, who is so good to you? A. I must learn to know him first, and then I must do every thing to please him. 4. Q. Where doth God teach us to know him and to please him? A. In his holy word, which is contained in the Bible. 5. Q. Have you learned to know who God is? A. God is a Spirit; and though we cannot see him, yet he sees and knows all things, and he can do all things. 6. Q. What must you do to please God? A. I must do my duty both toward God and toward man. 7. Q. What is your duty to God? A. My duty to God is, to fear and honour him, to love and serve him, to pray to him, and to praise him. 8. Q. What is your duty to man? A. My duty to man is, to obey my parents, to speak the truth always, and to be honest and kind to all. 9. Q. What good do you hope for by seeking to please God? A. Then I shall be a child of God, and have God for my Father and Friend forever. 10. Q. And what if you do not fear God, nor love him, nor seek to please him? A. Then I shall be a wicked child, and the great God will be very angry with me. 1* 11. Q. Why are you afraid of God's anger? A. Because he can kill my body, and he can make my soul miserable after my body is dead. 12. Q. But have you never done any thing to make God angry with you already? A. I fear I have too often sinned against God, and deserved his anger. 13. Q. What do you mean by sinning against God?" A. To sin against God, is to do any thing that God forbids, or not to do what God commands me. 14. Q. And what must you do to be saved from the anger of God, which your sins have deserved? A. I must be sorry for my sins, I must pray to God to forgive me what is past, and serve him better for time to come. 15. Q. Will God forgive you, if you pray for it? A. I hope he will forgive me, if I trust in his mercy, for the sake of what Jesus Christ has done, and what he has suffered. 16. Q. Do you know who Jesus Christ is? A. He is God's own Son, who came from heaven to save us from our sins and from God's anger. 17. Q. What has Christ done towards the saving of men ? A. He obeyed the law of God himself, and has taught us to obey it also. 18. Q. And what has Christ suffered in order to save men? A. He died for sinners, who had broken the law of God, and had deserved to die themselves. 19. Q. Where is Jesus Christ now? A. He is alive again, and gone to heaven, to provide a place there for all who serve God, and love his Son Jesus. 20. Q. Can you of yourself love and serve God and Christ? A. I cannot do it of myself, but God will help me by his own Spirit, if I ask him for it. 21. Q. Will Jesus Christ ever come again? A. Christ will come again, and call me and all the world to an account for what we have done. |