Milk for Babes

A CATECHISM FOR Children, thorough the chief points of the Body of Divinity, to prepare them for the Lords Supper.

1 Question.

WHo made thee?

A. God the Father.

2 Q. Who redeemed thee?

A. Jesus Christ.

3 Q. Who sanctified thee?

A. The Holy Ghost.

4 Q. How many Gods are there?

A. There are three persons, and to us Christians but one God.

5 Q. What is God?

A. He is that Almighty one, who made and governeth all things.

6 Q. Wherefore did God make thee?

A. To do him service.

7 Q. How oughtest thou to serve him?

A. As he hath commanded in his lawes?

8 Q. Which are these lawes?

A. Those tenne words, which God wrote in two Tables of stone, and are set down in Exodus and Deuteronomy.

9 Q. What is the first Commandement?

A. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.

10 Q. What is the second?

A. Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image, nor any likenesse of things, that are in heaven above, nor in the earth beneath, nor in the waters under the earth; thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them. For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children, unto the third, and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy to thousands of them that love me, and keep my Commandements.

11 Q. What is the third Commandement?

A. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltlesse that taketh his name in vain.

12 Q. What is the fourth Commandement?

A. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy: six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy sonne, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six dayes the Lord made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

13 Q. What is the fift Commandement?

A. Honour thy Father, and Mother: that thy dayes may be long upon the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

14 Q. What is the sixt?

A. Thou shalt not kill.

15 Q. What is the seventh?

A. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

16 Q. What is the eight?

A. Thou shalt not steal.

17 Q. What is the ninth?

A. Thou shalt not bear false witnesse against thy neighbour.

18 Q. What is the tenth Commandement?

A. Thou shalt not covet thy neighhours house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his oxe, nor his asse, nor any thing that is thy neighbours.

19 Q. Art thou able to keep these commandements?

A. No: let me do what I can, yet I break them every day, more then I can expresse.

20 Q. What punishment is appointed for the breakers of Gods commandements?

A. Gods curse, which is the everlasting destruction of body, and soul.

21 Q. How shalt thou escape this curse?

A. Onely by Jesus Christ our Lord.

22 Q. What is Jesus Christ?

A. He is the eternall sonne of God, made man.

23 Q. What hath Christ Jesus done for thee?

A. He suffered the pains of death for me.

24 Q. Seeing Christ was God, how could he dye?

A. He was God, and man: as he was God he died not, but as man he died for my sinnes, and rose again for my justification.

25 Q. Are all men saved by Christs death?

A. No, onely they are saved, who have a true faith.

26 Q. What is this true faith?

A. It is the resting of the soul upon Christ for salvation.

27 Q. How must this faith be wrought in thee?

A. The Holy Ghost must work it in my heart, by the preaching of the Gospell.

28 Q. How is this faith confirmed in thee?

A. By hearing the same Gospell preached, and using the Sacraments.

29 Q. What are Sacraments?

A. They are signes, and seals, of the righteousnesse of faith.

30 Q. How many Sacraments are there?

A. Two onely: Baptisme, and the supper of the Lord.

Q. What benefit hast thou by Baptisme?

A. A new estate in Christ, and so, the forgivenesse of my sinnes, if I, repenting, do believe according to the Covenant of Baptisme.

32 Q. What benefit hast thou by the Lords supper?

A. The body, and bloud of Christ, verily, and indeed taken, and received by my believing soul.

33 Q. How must thou reverently prepare for this Sacrament?

A. I must examine my self, whether I have desire, repentance, faith, thankfulnesse, and charity, fit for the Lords table.

34 Q. Is not prayer an excellent means also to make thy faith grow?

A. Yes: it is a speciall means appointed by God.

36 Q. What is prayer?

A. A religious moving of our souls to God, to draw us into communion with him, against sin, for grace, and all blessings.

37 Q. Where canst thou more fully learn the matter of prayer?

A. In that which is commonly called the Lords prayer.

38 Q. What is the enterance into this prayer?

A. Our Father which art in heaven.

39 Q. What is the first petition?

A. Hallowed be thy Name.

40 Q. What is the second?

A. Thy Kingdome come.

41 Q. What is the third petition?

A. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

42 Q. What is the fourth Petition?

A. Give us this day our daily bread.

43 Q. What is the fift petition?