Church Catechilm. By the Right Reverend Father in God, The Third Edition Corrected, LONDON: Printed for RICHARD SARE, at GRAYS- To the Reverend the ARCHDEACONS, And the Reft of the CLERGY, OF THE DIOCESE of LINCOLN My Reverend Brethren, T HE following Catechifm, compo- now, at your Requeft, and by your Encouragement, Reprinted for the Be nefit of my Diocefe: "And I make no doubt but that, through the Bleffing of God up your pious Endeavours, it will help to propagate a more perfect Knowledge of the Doctrine of Chrift, in all the parts of it. It was with this fort of Inftruction that that great, and wife Minifter, the Lord Cromwel, began as the most likely means - See his Into bring on the Reformation, fo much defi- junctions, red by all Good Men: And though what Regs. Cran A 2 a An. 15 36. mer. fol. 97, he and 99. Injunctions, he required went no farther than to teach firft the Parents, and Mafters themselves, and by them their Children and Servants, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, yet was this a good Beginning, and even more than many of the Clergy themselves, in thofe Days, were very well able to expound to them. Hence it was, that about eleven Years after, Edw.VI. b King Edward the Sixth found it neceffaAn. 1547. ry to repeat the very fame Order in his Injunctions: "That every Holy-day when "there was no Sermon, the Parfons and "Vicars in their feveral Churches fhould, immediately after the Gospel, openly and "plainly recite to their Parishioners, the Pater-Nofter, the Creed, and the Ten "Commandments in English, to the Intent "the People might learn the fame; ex horting all Parents and Houfholders to "teach their Children and Servants the "fame, as they are bound by the Law of "God, and in Confcience, to do". For their better doing whereof, when the Service-Book was compiled about two Years after, a Catechifm was also inferted into it; Br. Burnet's and the Curate enjoyned, "every Sixth Hift. of the Week, at the leaft, to teach and declare "the Catechifm, according to the Book of pend. p.165. the fame". Reformat. Vol. ii. Ap See Hift. We are told, indeed, that "Archbishop Ibid. p.71. Cranmer had Himfelf, the Year before, An. 1548. drawn up a Catechism for the Instru e e Catechifmus &tion of young Perfons in the Grounds of the Chriftian Religion; and, in his Dedication of it to the King, complained very much of the Neglect of Catechizing in former times: But yet ftill this Work continued in the fame State; nor was any thing more done in it by Publick Authority, till about four Years after; when, together with the Articles of Religion, another Catechifm was compo- An. 1553. fed, and publifhed in Latin, and all School-brevis ChriMasters enjoyned by the King's Command fiana Difciplne fumto inftruct their Scholars in it. And here mam contiI take the complete Model of our Church-busLudi-MaCatechifm to have been firft laid: To the iris autoritate Regia Explication of the Creed, the Command- Commenda ments, and the Lord's Prayer, was added a fhort Account of the Two Sacraments; and to fome or other of thefe, whatsoever was moft neceffary to be known, or beleived by every Chriftian, was orderly, tho' briefly, reduced. tus. omni No fooner was the unhappy ftop of this Exercife, which follow'd under Queen Mary's Reign, removed by her Death, but Queen Elizabeth returned to An. 1559. the fame Order that her Brother, King Ed- Injunctions, Qu. Elizis ward the Sixth had established. She re- N. 5.44. quired the Parfons and Vicars, every Holyday, to Recite the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments in English, that their Parishioners might both learn Themfelves, and teach their Children the fame. And the enjoyn'd them every Holy-day A 3 and |