' " Bene et composite Cnesar .... disseruit, falsa, credo, cxistimans, quae de irifcrnis memorantur ; diverso itinero nialos a bonis loca tctra, inculta, fceda atque formidolosa, habere." — Cato, apud Sallust. Bell. Catilin. 52.
588 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^.
To close this whole discourse, I shall present Mr B/s catechumens with a shorter catechism than either of his, collected out of their master's questions, with some few inferences naturally flowing from them; and it is as follows: —
Ques. 1. What is God?
Ans. God is a spirit, that hath a bodily shape, eyes, ears, hands, feet, hke to us.
Q. 2. Where is this God f
A. In a certain place in heaven, upon a throne, where a man may see from hia right hand to his left.
Q. 3. Doth he ever move out of that place?
A. I cannot tell what he doth ordinarily, but he hath formerly come down sometimes upon the earth.
Q. 4. What doth he do there in that place ?
A. Among other things, he conjectures at what men will do here below.
Q. 5. Doth he, then, not knoiv ivhat we do ?
A. He doth know what we have done, but not what we will do.
Q. 6. What frame is he in upon his knowledge and conjecture ?
A. Sometimes he is afraid, sometimes grieved, sometimes joj'ful, and sometimes troubled.
Q. 7. What peace and comfort can I have in committing myself to his provi- dence, if he knows not what will befall me to-morrow ?
A. What is that to me? see you to that.
Q. 8. Is Jesus Christ God ?
A. He is dignified with the title of God, but he is not God.
Q. 9. Whi/, then, was he called the only-hegotten son of God f
A. Because he was born of the Virgin Mary.
Q. 10. Was he Christ the Lord then when he was born?
A. No ; he became the Lord afterward.
Q. 11. Hath he still in heaven a human body?
A. No; but he is made a spirit: so that being not God, but man, he was made a god, and being made a god, he is a spirit, and not a man.
Q. 12. What is the Holy Ghost?
A. A principal angel.
Q. 13. Did death enter by sin, or was mortality actually caused by sin ?
A. No.
Q. 14. Why is Christ called a saviour?
A. Because at the resurrection he shall change our vile bodies.
Q. 15. On what other account ?
A. None that I know of.
Q. 16. How then shall I be saved from sin and wrath?
A. Keep the commandments, that thou mayst have a right to eternal life.
Q. 17. Was Christ the eternal son of God in his bosom., revealing his mind from thence, or was he taken up into heaven, and there taught the truths of God, as Mohammed pretended ?
A. He ascended into heaven, and talked with God before he came and showed himself to the world.
Q. 18. What did Christ do as a prophet?
A. He gave a new law.
Q. 19. Wherein?
A. He corrected the law of Moses.
Q. 20. Who ivas it that said of old, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy ? "
A. God, in the law of Moses, which Christ corrects.
CONCLUSION. 589
Q. 21. Is Christ to be luorshipped because he is God?
A. No, but because he redeemed us.
Q. 22. May one that is a mere creature be ivorshipped with divine or religious Worship?
A. Yes.
Q. 23. How can Christ, being a mere m,an, and now so far removed from the earth, understand and hear all the prayers and desires of the hearts of men that are put up to him all the world over?
A. I cannot tell, for God himself doth not know that there are such actions as our free actions are but upon inquiry.
Q. 24. Did Christ give himself for an offering and sacrifice to God in his death ?
A. No ; for he was not then a priest.
Q. 25. Did Chr-ist by his death make reconciliation for our sins, the sins of his people, and bear their iniquities, that they might have peace with God?
A. No, but only died that they might turn themselves to Grod.
Q. 26. Did he so undergo the curse of the law, and was he so made sin for zes, were our iniquities so laid on him, that he made satisfaction to God for our sins?
A. No ; tliere is no such thing in the Scripture.
Q. 27. Did he merit or procure eternal life for us by his obedience and suffer- ing ?
A. No; this is a fiction of the generality of Christians.
Q. 28. Did he redeem us properly with the price of his blood, that we should ba saved from wrath, death, and hell?
A. No; there is no such use or fruit of his death and blood-shedding.
Q. 29. If he neither suffered in our stead, nor underwent the curse of the law for us, nor satisfied justice by making reconciliation for our sins, nor redeemed us by the price of his blood, what did he do for us, — on ivhat account is he our saviour?
A. He taught us the way to heaven, and died to leave us an example.