eyes and heart to heaven, call God to your assistance, and then you need not fear the most violent assaults of the tempter. As God has given the good angels charge of you, be devout to them, especially to your angel-guardian, and say every day, morning and night, O angel of God, to whose holy care I am committed, enlighten, defend, and govern me this day, this night, from all sin and danger.

As there are several degrees of glory among those blessed spirits, so will there be to the happy of mankind, according to their works and devotion in serving God: blessed encouragement to good! Persevere then with all your might in virtue, that you may be crowned with them in everlasting glory.

૨.

WE

SECT. VI.

Creation and end of man.

HEN was man created? A. On the sixth day. Q. How was he created? A. His body was made of clay; his soul was created of nothing, and made to the image and likeness of God. Q. Wherein did the likeness consist? A. In this, that man, as to his soul, is spiritual and immortal, made never to die, and capable of glory and everlasting bliss, in the enjoyment of God, which is also the end for which he was created.

INSTRUC.-God having framed heaven and earth, and all things therein, he proceeded to the creation of man, as the last and finishing work of his hands. On the sixth day he made him, as to his body, of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face a breath of life; that is, he gave him a spiritual and immortal soul, and then gave him dominion over all other living creatures.

By a special privilege he was made immortal, never to die or suffer, unless he sinned; and endowed with original justice, whereby all the motions of sense were perfectly obedient to reason, and reason perfectly subject to God; in which happy state, he was enabled by grace to persevere as long as he would.

God having cast Adam into a profound sleep, took out one of his ribs, and of it made the women to be a companion to him. They were both naked, but not ashamed, being quite innocent, and insensible of evil. God walked and conversed with them in paradise, a most delightful abode, where they had every thing that could concur to happiness, and all living creatures were made subservient to them; they were made to love and glorify the Creator there for a time, and then to be transfated into heaven, without tasting of death; and the same was to be the happy lot of all their posterity.

SECT. VII.

Of the fall of Man.

OW did Adam fall? A. By eating the forbidden fruit. Q. What was the consequence ? A. He was banished out of Paradise, with all his posterity, made subject to all the miseries of this life, and liable to death. Q. Who tempted him to sin? A. The devil, in the shape of a serpent. Q. How did he tempt him? A. By prompting and pursuading Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit, assuring them, that by eating thereof they should not die, but be like Gods.

INSTRUC.-Alas! this blessed state of man in Paradise was of short continuance: for God having given them leave to eat of all the delicious fruits, except one which stood in the midst of Paradise, called the tree of knowledge, the fruit whereof he forbid them to touch under pain of death, and this to try their obedience; the devil, transformed and disguised in the shape of a serpent, came and spoke to Eve, and flattered her with an assurance, that if they would eat the fruit which God had forbidden, they should not die, but be as Gods, knowing good and evil. The woman then seeing it delightful to the eye, and sweet to the taste, she took and eat, and gave it to Adam, who did the like. Immediately their eyes were opened, and they perceived themselves naked, and exposed to shame; they were seized with re, morse of conscience, and a dread of God's Judgments

and therefore hearing his voice they fled from him, and strove to hide themselves in the woods of Paradise ; but they were soon found out, arraigned, and condemned to die with many woes both to man and woman, and an eternal curse was laid upon the serpent, that is, the Devil, who seduced Eve. They were expelled out of Paradise, and all the miseries on earth attended them.

Thus did our first parents lose Paradise, as the rebel angels lost heaven. See the dismal effects of sin! Man, before sin, was entirely happy; after sin he was entirely miserable. Before sin, he lived and conversed with God; after sin he could not bear to appear in his presence. Before sin he was exempt from death; after sin, he was doomed to die, and every moment threatened with the terror of it. Before sin, he lived at ease; after sin he was bound to labour, and to gain his bread through the sweat of his brow. Before sin, he was entitled to heaven; after sin, he was destined to hell.

EXHOR-Adore and worship God for the great and wonderful work of your creation; render him that obedience, homage and duty, which is due from man to his Creator. Answer the end of your creation, and remember you were made to live with God for ever in glory. Every thing in nature is subservient to its end but man. Be ashamed of yourself and amend for the future: your happiness hereafter depends upon your well governing your life here. Value not yourself for any thing that is of this world: neither for beauty, nor riches, nor power, nor nobility; all these belong to earth, and will soon have an end; but value yourself rather for what you carry in your body, your immortal soul, the image and likeness of God. See you keep it unspotted, and, if blemished by sin, purify it again, and this by tears of sincere confession and sorrow. O let not the glory of heaven bend to earth, or the beauty of angels become worse than the brute, and this by your offences.

2. Behold in Adam the beginning and unhappy end of man; his happiness in the beginning, his misery in the end; let the example of the first man deter you from evil: if for one sin God was so severe to him, what will become of you after your almost innumerable transgres

sions? As you see the due effects of sin, look better to your last end than Adam did. Be careful to fulfil all the commandments of God, and to shun forbidden pleasures. You have great helps to encourage you, the grace of God given you abundantly in the sacraments. Beware of temptation, and the snares of Satan: all the allurements of this world are as the forbidden fruit in Paradise; fair to the sight, sweet to sense, but deceitful and bitter in the end. No one ever enjoyed them, but was forced, with Solomon, to confess that all was vanity, misery, and vexation of spirit. As you are made for another world, think not to find your happiness in this. As you are made for God, without him you will never be happy. Look on yourself as a stranger upon earth; you have no permanent abode here, your abode is heaven; which made St. Paul so often remind us, to seek things above, and not the things below. Col. iii. 1, 2.

Walk as in the presence of God always, and do not lose him as Adam did, by sin. Accept of the temporal. punishments, which are the effects of original sin, with patience and resignation; they are what all the posterity of Adam is doomed to. With many miseries art thou born; submit to them all, because it is the will of heaven: and as you are born to die, when the hour is approaching, humble yourself under the Almighty hand that strikes you, and recommend your soul, with your most blessed Saviour, into the hands of your heavenly Father.

ART. II. SECT. I.

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord.

HAT means this article? A. It means that

Q. WHAT

we believe and put our trust in Jesus Christ, true God and man, the second person of the blessed Trinity. Q. What is the signification of the name Jesus? A. A Saviour. Q. Why are we to honour his name? A. Because we owe all good to it. Q. What is the signification of the name Christ? A. The anointed.. Q. What mean those words, His only Son our Lord? A. That he is by nature the only Son of God the Father,

born of him from all eternity; and that he is our Lord and our God.

INSTRUC.-As the first article of the creed relates to God the Father, the first person of the blessed Trinity, and to the work of the creation; so the second, and some of the following articles, relate to God the Son, the second person of the blessed Trinity, and to the great work of our redemption. To believe in Jesus Christ, is to believe that God the Son, the second person of the blessed Trinity, was made man to save us, and that he is both God and man; true God, born of his Father from all eternity; and true man, not in figure, but in substance, having human nature, a body, and a soul, with all its powers complete.

The holy name Jesus was given to him not by man, but by the angel Gabriel, and this by God's appointment, before he was conceived in the womb of his mother. It is a name above all other names, to which all creatures must bow; the angels above, the devils below, and man upon earth. The holy name Jesus is interpreted Saviour, because he came to save his people from their sins, and from hell, the punishment of them. All the good we have received, is through his name. Through Jesus was received our faith and religion; through him we hope for remission of sins, and life everlasting; through him we love God, and are in his favour and friendship. All the merit we reap by our prayers, fasting, good works, and virtues, is through the name of Jesus; For there is no other name under heaven given to men, in which we must look for salvation. Great is

the power of his holy name, in putting the devils to flight; by it many miracles have been wrought; In the name of Jesus, said Peter to the blind man, arise and walk. No doubt it has still the same virtue, if need required it: as then it puts us in mind of our redemption, which we cannot too often think of; it is just, that as often as we hear or speak it, we should pay honour and glory to it, as well by interior adoration in our hearts, as by outward respect. In the name of Jesus let every knee bend. Phil. ii. 10.

2. As we read in scripture, that kings, priests and