FIRST PART.

Q. What mean the words, Of one substance with the Father?

A. They mean that the Son of God is of one and the same Divine substance with God the Father.

Q. How does holy Scripture speak of this?

A. Jesus Christ Himself speaks of Himself and of God the Father thus: I and the Father are one. John x. 30.

Q. What is shewn by the next words in the Creed, By Whom all things were made?

A. This; that God the Father created all things by His Son, as by His eternal Wisdom and His eternal Word.

All things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made which was made. John i. 3.

ON THE THIRD ARTICLE.

Q. Of whom is it said in the Creed, that He came down from heaven?

A. Of the Son of God.

Q. How came He down from heaven, seeing that as God He is every where?

A. It is true that He is every where; and so He is always in heaven, and always on earth: but on earth He was before invisible; afterwards He appeared in the flesh: in this sense it is said that He came down from heaven.

Q. How does holy Scripture speak of this?

A. I will repeat Jesus Christ's own words: No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven. John iii. 13.

Q. Wherefore did the Son of God come down from heaven? A. For us men, and for our salvation, as it is said in the Creed.

Q. In what sense is it said that the Son of God came down from heaven for us men?

A. In this sense, that He came upon earth not for one
nation nor for some men only, but for us men universally.
Q. To save men from what did He come upon earth?
A. From sin, the curse, and death.

Q. What is sin?

A. Trangression of the law. Sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John iii. 4.

Q. Whence is sin in men, seeing that they were created in the image of God, and God cannot sin?

A. From the devil. He that committeth sin, is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. 1 John iii. 8. Q. How did sin pass from the devil to men?

A. The devil deceived Eve and Adam, and induced them to transgress God's commandment.

Q. What commandment?

A. God commanded Adam in Paradise not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and withal told him, that so soon as he ate thereof he should surely die. Q. Why did it bring death to man to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

A. Because it involved disobedience to God's will, and so separated man from God and His grace, and alienated him from the life of God.

Q. What propriety is there in the name of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

A. Man through this tree came to know by the act itself what good there is in obeying the will of God, and what evil in disobeying it.

Q. How could Adam and Eve listen to the devil against the will of God?

A. God of His goodness, at the creation of man, gave him a will naturally disposed to love God, but still free; and man used this freedom for evil.

Q. How did the devil deceive Adam and Eve?

A. Eve saw in Paradise a serpent, which assured her that if men ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would know good and evil, and would become as gods. Eve was deceived by this promise, and by the fairness of the fruit, and ate of it. Adam ate after her example. Q: What came of Adam's sin?

A. The curse, and death.

ON

FAITH.

FIRST Q. What is the curse?

PART.

A. The condemnation of sin by God's just judgment, and the evil which from sin came upon the earth for the punishment of men. God said to Adam, Cursed is the ground for thy sake. Gen. iii. 17.

Q. What is the death which came from the sin of Adam?
A. It is twofold: bodily, when the body loses the soul which
quickened it; and spiritual, when the soul loses the grace of
God, which quickened it with the higher and spiritual life.
Q. Can the soul then die, as well as the body?

A. It can die, but not so as the body. The body, when it dies, loses sense, and is dissolved; the soul, when it dies by sin, loses spiritual light, joy, and happiness, but is not dissolved nor annihilated, but remains in a state of darkness, anguish, and suffering.

Q. Why did not the first man only die, and not all as now? A. Because all have come of Adam since his infection by sin, and all sin themselves. As from an infected source there naturally flows an infected stream, so from a father infected with sin, and consequently mortal, there naturally proceeds a posterity infected like him with sin, and like him mortal1o. Q. How is this spoken of in holy Scripture?

A. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Rom. v. 12.

Q. Had man any benefit from the fruit of the tree of life

after he had sinned?

A. After he had sinned he could no more eat of it, for he was driven out of Paradise.

Q. Had men then any hope left of salvation?

A. When our first parents had confessed before God their sin, God, of His mercy, gave them a hope of salvation. Q. In what consisted this hope?

A. God promised, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. Gen. iii. 15.

Q. What did that mean?

A. This, that Jesus Christ should overcome the devil who

had deceived men, and deliver them from sin, the curse, and
death.

Q. Why is Jesus Christ called the seed of the woman?
A. Because He was born on earth without man, from the
Most Holy Virgin Mary.

Q. What benefit was there in this promise?

A. This, that from the time of the promise men could believe savingly in the Saviour that was to come, even as we now believe in the Saviour that has come".

Q. Did people in fact in old time believe in the Saviour that was to come?

A. Some did, but the greater part forgot God's promise of a Saviour.

Q. Did not God repeat this promise?

A. More than once. For instance, He made to Abraham the promise of a Saviour in the following words: In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Gen. xxii. 18. The same promise He repeated afterwards to David in the following words: I will set up thy seed after thee, and I will establish His throne for ever. 2 Kings vii. 12, 13.

Q. What do we understand by the word Incarnation?
A. That the Son of God took to Himself human flesh
without sin, and was made man, without ceasing to be God.
Q. Whence is taken the word Incarnation?

A. From the words of the Evangelist John; The Word was made flesh. John i. 14. .

Q. Why in the Creed, after it has been said of the Son of God that He was incarnate, is it further added that He was made man?

A. To the end that none should imagine that the Son of
God took only flesh or a body, but should acknowledge in
Him a perfect man consisting of body and soul.

Q. Have we for this any testimony of holy Scripture?
A. The Apostle Paul writes: There is one Mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Tim. ii. 5.

Q.. And so is there only one nature in Jesus Christ?
A. No: there are in Him without separation and without

ON

FAITH.

FIRST confusion two natures, the Divine and the human, and answering to these natures two wills.

PART.

Q. Are there not therefore also two persons?

A. No: One person, God and man together; in one word, a God-man.

Q. What says holy Scripture of the incarnation of the Son of God by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary?

A. The Evangelist Luke relates that when the Virgin Mary had asked the Angel, who announced to her the conception of Jesus, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? the Angel replied to her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Luke i. 34, 35.

Q. Who was the Virgin Mary?

A. A holy virgin of the lineage of Abraham and David, from whose lineage the Saviour, by God's promise, was to come; betrothed to Joseph, a man of the same lineage, in order that he might be her guardian; for she was dedicated to God with a vow of perpetual virginity.

Q. Did the Most Holy Mary remain in fact ever a virgin?

A. She remained and remains a virgin before the birth, during the birth, and after the birth of the Saviour; and therefore is called ever-virgin 12.

Q. What other great title is there, with which the Orthodox Church honours the Most Holy Virgin Mary?

A. That of Mother of God 13.

Q. Can you shew the origin of this title in holy Scripture? A. It is taken from the following words of the Prophet Isaiah: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which being interpreted, is, God with us. Isaiah vii. 14; Mat. i. 23.

So also the righteous Elizabeth calls the Most Holy Virgin The Mother of the Lord; which title is all one with that of Mother of God. Whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? Luke i. 43.