A SHORT CATECHISM
Drawn out of the
WORD OF GOD
_________________
BY SAMUEL STONE, MINISTER
of the WORD at HARTFORD,
on CONNECTICOT.
_________________________
BOSTON in NEW ENGLAND,
Printed by Samuel Green, for John Wadsworth
of Farminton, 1684.
Samuel Stone, A.M.. , [ Emmanuel College
Cambridge, England, 1627 ]
*****
[ The text of this and other superb works are available on-line from:
The Willison Politics and Philosophy Resource Center
Reprint and digital file January, 2000. ]
Editor’s Notes:
As one can imagine, transcribing accurately from a hand- printed document nearly 320 years old can be challenging, as in this particular case the original hand printing contained numerous faults which makes an exact interpretation of the text uncertain. Ink splashes, typographical errors, and what are possible mistakes in references given to Bible verses are some textual problems contained in the original document. In the main, rather than insert our ideas of what Rev. Stone originally penned, we copied this as is. If a verse does not exist according to the one shown, we leave it up to the reader to make a more appropriate choice.
Since the original did not have numbers with the questions, we added them as an aid to reference.
Also, separating each set are ***, to make distinction easier to the reader.
A Concise Biography of The Rev. Samuel Stone
Rev. Samuel Stone was a native of Hertford,
England, the son of John Stone, a freeholder of that place. Born in 1602 he was baptized on July 30th of that year in All Saints Church. Samuel probably received his early education at Hale's Grammar School , endowed and built in Hertford in 1617. He proceeded to Cambridge as a pensioner of Emmanuel College, matriculating there April 19, 1620.
This college had the not undeserved reputation
of being a "mere nursery" Of Puritanism. It had been founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay. Upon the founder's appearing at court shortly after that event, Queen Elizabeth said to him, "Sir Walter, I hear you have erected a Puritan foundation," to which he replied, "No madam, far be it from me to countenance anything contrary to your established laws, But I have set an acorn, which, when it becomes an oak, God alone knows what will be the fruit thereof.
Stone took his degrees of B.A. and M.A. in 1623 and 1627 respectively. Leaving the University he studied theology at Aspen in Essex under Richard Blackerby. Recommended by Thomas Shepard, Stone went in 1630 to Towchester in Northhamptonshire, as a Puritan lecturer to the church there, the pecuniary value of the Lectureship being about L30 per anumn.
Here he remained until chosen as assistant to Thomas Hooker, then preparing to set out for New England.
[ Reprinted from a Sketch of the life of Samuel Stone,
included in the 1899 re-issue of the Catechism]
A SHORT CATECHISM
Ques. 1. What is Divinity or religion?
A. A Doctrine of living well, Gal.. 2:19, I Thess. 4: 1,
2 Tim.3.12, 1 Tim. 6:3, Isaiah 54: 13.
Q. 2. What is it to live well ?
A. To will the good Will of God, Prov. 4: 23
And 23: 26, Psalm 90: 12, Rom. 12: 2
***
Q. 3. Which are the parts of Divinity ?
A. Faith in God, and Observance towards God,
Psalm 37:3, 1 Tim. 3:5, 19, 2 Tim. 1: 13
***
Q. 4. What is Faith in God ?
A. A confidence in trusting in the name of God
For life, Psalm 9: 10, Hos. 6: 2,--3, Amos 5: 4-6,
John 5: 40, and 20: 31.
***
Q. 5 What is the object of Faith, in whom we are to
Believe that we may live well ?
And the Efficient cause of life, Ex. 6:3,
Rom. 4: 17-21, 2 Cor. 9:8
***
Q. 6. What is the Sufficiency of God?
A. That whereby God having enough for Himself,
Has more than enough for us, Acts 17: 25,
Rom. 11: 35, 2 Cor. 9:8,
***
Q. 7. Wherein consists the sufficiency of God ?
A. In the Divine Essence, and Substance, or
Persons, Matt. 28:19, John 17:3, 1 John 5:7.
***
Q. 8. What is the Divine Essence ?
A. That whereby God is the most absolute first being,
Isaiah 41: 4, and 44:6.
***
Q. 9. What is the first Being ?
A. An Infinite Eternal Spirit, having Life in
himself, with a most blessed understanding and
Will, Psalm 90:1,2, and 145: 3, and 147: 5,
John 4: 24, and 5: 26, 1 Tim.1: 11
***
Q. 10. What is a Divine Person or Substance ?
A. The God-head, with a Relative individual Property
Matt. 28: 19, Heb. 1: 3,5.
***
Q. 11. How many are the Divine Persons of the God-head ?
A. Three, God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Ghost, Matt. 28: 19, 1 John 5: 7.
***
Q. 12. What is God the Father ?
A. A Divine Person begetting the Son, Psalm 2: 7,
Prov. 8: 22, 24, 25, Heb. 1: 3,5.
***
Q. 13. What is God the Son ?
A. A Divine Person conceived or begotten of the
Father, Prv. 8: 24, 31, John 1: 14, Heb. 1: 3,5.
***
Q. 14. What is God the Holy Ghost ?
A. A Divine Person, proceeding from the Father
And Son, Isaiah 63: 10, John 14: 26 and 15: 26.
***
Q. 15.What is the Efficiency of God ?
A. That whereby the Almighty works all in all,
According to his ancient Decree, Psalm 93:16,
Isaiah 25: 1, Rom.11:36, 1 Cor.12: 6, 2 Cor. 6:8.
***
Q. 16. What are the kinds of Efficiency , or the works Of God ?
A. Creation and Providence, Neh.. 9:6, Psalm 104.
***
Q. 17. What is Creation ?
A. That whereby God made the world out of
nothing very good in six days, Gen 1, Acts 17: 20-34.
***
Q. 18.Why was man made the last of all, upon the sixth day ?
A. Because man was to be served by the inferior creatures
And attended by the Angels, Gen. 1:26, to the end:
Job 37:7, Hosea 2:21-22, Hebrews 1:14, Jude 6.
***
Q. 19.What is the creation of man ?
A. That whereby God made him a Reasonable
Living Creature, Gen.2:7, Job 35:11, Psalm 91:10
***
Q. 20.What are the parts of which man was made?
A. A body made of the Earth, and a reasonable
immortal Soul, which is made immediately of
nothing, Gen. 2:7, Job 10:8-13, Hab. 12:3
***
Q. 21.What is the reasonable immortal Soul ?
A. A Spirit of life with a faculty of Reason and Will
Whereby a man is become a cause by counsel,
Deut. 30: 19, Gen. 2:7, Prov. 16:9, and 20:27,
Matt. 16:26, Hebrews 8:10.
***
Q.22. What is the special perfection in which man was created ?
God in a perfect manner, Gen. 1:16-31, Eccles. 7:29.
***
Q. 23. What is the Providence of God ?
A. His exact watch over all his Creatures, whereby they
are preserved and guided to their end,
1 Chron 29:11-12, Neh.. 9:6, Psalm 104: 21-27,
and 145: 15, 16, Isaiah 6:2, Matt. 10:29-31.
***
Q. 24. What is the special government of God over his
Reasonable Creatures ?
state of happiness or misery by his being pleased
or displeased, Gen. 3:22, Matt. 25:46, Rom. 10:5.
***
Q. 25.What is here to be considered ?
A. Mans Apostasie and Restitution, Gen. 3, Rom 5:12.
***
Q. 26.What are we to believe concerning mans Apostacie or
Fall from obedience to that government ?
Adam’s transgression, are wholly infected with sin,
And under the dominion of death, Gen 3:1-24,
And 5:3, Psalm 51:5, John 3: 6, 18-36,
Rom. 12: 15-20, Eph. 2: 1-3
***
Q. 27.What is sin ?
A. The Transgression of the Law, or any swerving
from the Law of God, Dan. 9:5-12, 1 John 3:4.
***
Q. 28.Which are the kinds of sin ?
A. Original, which is the swerving of man’s Nature,
or Actual, which is the swerving of his actions
from that rule, Psalm 14:1-3, Jer. 6:7,
Matt. 12:35, and 15:19
***
Q. 29.What is that death which is entered into the world by sin ?
A. A miserable privation or loss of the life of joy or
Comfort, Gen. 2:17, 1 Sam. 25:37, Rom. 5:17, 6:23.
***
Q. 30.What is the first death ?
A. The death of the outward man especially; the
perfection of which is the separation of soul
and body, Gen. 35:18, Deut. 28:15-27.
***
Q. 31.What is the second death ?
A. The death of the inward man especially:
the perfection of which, is the ejection of the
whole man from God into hell, Isaiah 33:14,
Matt. 25:41-46, and 13:41-42.
***
Q. 32.Wherein consists the Restitution of man ?
A. In Redemption and Application, John 3:5 and
3:14-19, and 6:27-63, Eph. 1:4-11
***
Freedom of man, Matt. 20:28, Acts 20: 28,
Rom. 3:24, 27, 1 Cor. 6:20, 1 Pet. :18-19
***
Q. 34.Who is the Redeemer of man ?
A. Jesus Christ God-Man, Matt. 1:23, Acts 20:28
1 Tim. 3:16
***
Q. 35.Why is the Redeemer called Jesus Christ ?
A. Because he is our Savior and Anointed
Mediator, Priest, and King, Matt. 1:23, Luke 4:18-19,
Acts 4:27, Heb. 1:9, and 7:1.
***
Q. 36.What is the Union of these two distinct Natures of Christ ?
A. That whereby the second person in the God-head takes
the humane Nature to submit for ever in his own person,
John 1:14, 1 Cor. 8: 6,, Gal. 4:4-5, Heb. 1:16.
***
Q. 37. Wherein consists the Redemption of Christ ?
A. In His Humiliation and Exaltation , Phil. 2: 6-11,
Luke 24:26.
***
Q. 38. What is the Humiliation of Christ ?
A. Subjection to the Law in his active and passive
Obedience, Dan. 9:24, Matt. 3: 15-17, Rom. 10: 5,
Gal. 3: 13, and 4: 4, Heb. 7:22
***
Q. 39.What is the brief Sum of the life of Christ ?
A. Christ being conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born
Of the Virgin Mary kept the charge of the Lord
performing his Will in a most perfect manner,
Matt. 1: 18, Luke 1: 35, John 8: 29, Heb. 10:5-10.
***
upon the Cross, Isaiah 53:9, Gal. 3: 13, Phil. 2:8.
***
The right hand of God; and return to Judge the quick
and the dead, Mark 16: 19, Rom. 8: 34, 2 Tim. 4:1.
***
Q. 42. What is the Application of that Redemption or Purchase ?
Christ, through the unresistable power of the Spirit
In the Word, Isaiah 53:10 and 59: 21, Acts 26: 18-28.
Eph. 5: 23.
***
Q.43. What is the brief Sum of Application ?
is justified before God, and also sanctified and blessed,
Isaiah 57: 14, Matt. 5: 3-9, John 12:13, and 3:6,
Acts 26:11, 1 Cor. 1:30, and 6:11, Gal. 2: 19-20.
***
Q. 44.What is the contrite or brokenness of heart ?
A. The cutting off the heart from sin, by a sight of it, as the
greatest evil, and a sorrow for it, John 16:8, Acts 2:37,
Rom. 11:24.
***
who is the end and chiefest good of the soul,
Psalm 73:25-28, Isaiah 43: 7-21 and 59:2.
***
sorrow for it ?
the sweetest object to him, Job 20:11-13, Eccl. 7:26
Mal. 3:1, Matt 13:44.
***
sorrow ?
and the greatest sweetness in Christ, Eccl 7:26,
Mal. 3:1, Matt. 13:44.
***
cross to his beloved sin, and that God should take
It away by any means, Job 24:32, Hos. 14:2,
John 3:20-21.
***
the compass of himself, or his own perfection,
Matt. 16:24, Rom. 2:17,-21, Gal. 2:19-20.
***
Luke 15: 17-19.
***
Q. 51.Which is the first part of this despair ?
A. That whereby the sinner refuses to rest in the shadow
of the best duties, as utterly unable to answer the Law,
Isaiah 64:6, Matt. 3:9, and 5:3, Gal. 3:10, Phil. 3:3.
***
sinner ?
A. A distrust in his own legs, finding no strength in himself
to move or go one step towards a Savior, Psalm 61:2
Jer. 31:18, John 16:8-9.
the carving, and to be moulded and acted by him,
Jer. 31:18, Luke 15: 17, Rom. 6:7
***
in him for life ?
sweetness of the boundless riches of his grace in Christ ?
Isaiah 43:1, John 6:44-45, Rom. 10:14-18, 2 Cor. 4:6.
***
to him, he is pronounced righteous and worthy of life,
Rom. 6:7-8, and 5:18-19, 2 Cor. 5:21, Phil. 3:9.
***
Q. 56. What is the righteousness of Christ ?
A. His active and passive obedience, Heb. 10:7, Phil. 2:8,
***
Q. 57. What is the imputation of the righteousness of Christ ?
A. The putting of the Righteousness upon the reckoning
and account of a Believer, Rom. 4:6, and 5:18-19,
2 Cor. 5:21.
***
Q, 58. What is the sanctification of a Believer ?
of Christ, whereby he is fitted for every good work,
2 Cor. 3:18, 1 Thess. 5:23, 2 Tim. 2:21.
***
Q. 59. When shall the saints be perfectly blessed ?
A. In soul at the point of death, and in the whole man
at the Resurrection at the last Judgement; when the
Wicked shall be damned with Devils for ever,
Matt. 25:31-46, 1 Cor. 31:12, and 15:22, Rev. 14:13.
***
Q. 60. What is Observance to God ?
A. The performance of duty to God, by a spirit of faith.,
Matt. 28:20, 2 Cor 4:13, Gal. 2:19-20.
***
Q. 61. Wherein consists Observance to God ?
A. In Obedience to the Law and the helps of
Obedience, which are Invocation of God, and
Celebration of Sacraments, Psalm 50:51,
Matt. 38: 19-20, James 1:5.
***
Q. 62. What is Obedience to the Law ?
A. That respect to the Law, whereby a man clothes with
the infinite fullness of goodness in God, or
with goodness itself, Deut. 6:4-15, Psalm 73:25,
and 119:6, Matt. 9:17.
***
Q. 63. Wherein consists Obedience to the Law ?
A. In the duty of Divine worship and Righteousness,
Matt. 22:37-39, Luke 1: 74-75, Ex. 31:18.
***
Q. 64. What is the Divine worship required in the first Table
Of the Law ?
A. That whereby we embrace God for himself: and
His goodness, Psalm 73:25, Matt. 19:17.
***
Q. 65. Which are the several Duties of Divine Worship, required
In the four Commandments of the first Table ?
A. Embracing the true God alone as our satisfying object,
2. In all his Divine Ordnance. 3. In a Reverant.
Matt 22: 37-38.
***
Q. 66. What is the Righteousness which is required in the Second
Table of the Law ?
sake, loves his neighbor as himself, Matt. 22:39,
Rom. 13:8-10, and 16:8.
***
Q. 67. Which are the duties of love to our neighbor, required
In the sixth Commandment of the Second Table ?
A. The due preservation of his Degree, life chastity,
good name , and prosperity, Exod. 20:12-18,
Rom. 13:8-10.
***
Q. 68. What is Invocation of God ?
A. A going to God, whereby we move him with things
according to his Will, Gen. 18:23,27,28, 32,
Psalm 50:15, Mark 6:9-14, Luke 11:5-14.
***
Q. 69. What is a Sacrament ?
A. A sign and seal of the Covenant between God and
His People, Gen. 17:7, 15, Exod. 12:3,
Luke 22:19-20, Rom. 4:11
***
Q. 70. Which are the parts of a Sacrament ?
A. The sign and thing signified, Matt 3:11, 26,
and 26:21-29.
***
Q. 71. How many Sacraments are their in the New Testament ?
A. Only two, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper: both
which must be dispensed by the Ministers of the Word,
Matt. 26:26-29, and 28:18-19, 1 Cor. 1: 16.
***
Q. 72. What is Baptism ?
A. A Seal of Admission into the Covenant with God and
His Church, and incorporation into Christ, which is
the portion of all Church members, Matt. 28:19,
Rev. 6:3-7, 1 Cor. 12:13, Acts 2:39, Col. 2:11-13
1 Pet. 3:11.
***
Q. 73. What is the sign in Baptism ?
A. The washing the flesh with water, in the name of the
Father, Son,, and Holy Ghost, Acts 3:11 and 28:19.
***
Q 74. What is the special thing signified ?
A. The blood of Christ shed for us, whereby we are
washed from sin, and saved, Mark 16:16,
Acts 2:38 and 22:16, 1 Pet. 3:21, Col. 2:11-13.
***
Q. 75. What is the Lord’s Supper ?
A. The seal of our continuance in Covenant with God,
and his Church, and growing up in Christ,
Matt. 26:26, 1 Cor. 11:20-30.
***
Q. 76. What is the sign ?
A. Bread and wine duly applied according to the
institution of Christ, Matt. 26:26-29, 1 Cor. 11:17-28.
***
Q. 77 What is the thing signified ?
A. A spiritual feast or banquet, nourishing the soul, and
increasing the assurance of eternal life, Matt 26:26-30,
1 Cor. 10:16-17, and 11:12-20, and 12:13.
***
Q. 78. What is signified by the Elements themselves, bread and
wine ?
spritual sense, and strength and gladness of our hearts,
Phil. 7:8, Heb. 5:14.
***
Q. 79. What is signified by taking, blessing, breaking, pouring
out, and giving the bread and wine ?
and is given to us by God, Psalm 2:4, Isaiah 53:4 &c,
Matt. 26:26-29, Luke 4:18, Heb. 5:4-5.
***
Q. 80. What is signified by our receiving and by our eating the
bread and drinking the wine ?
Matt 26:27,28, John 1:12.
***
Q. 81. Who are the guests invited to the Lord’s Table ?
A. Church members, who discern the Lord’s Body, and
examine themselves, finding no satisfaction but in
Christ himself, I Cor. 11:28,29
F I N I S
***
Editor’s Postscript to today’s young people:
May your generation be given the right to rebuild the liberty
once possessed by the people of Samuel Stone’s, achieved
only by their great sacrifice and dependence on the name of
Jehovah, not just for themselves, but also for all those who
would follow after them, if only they would keep it.
The Lord said,
See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms,
to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down,
to build, and to plant.
Jeremiah 1: 10