The poor man's catechism Author:John Mannock Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Qf the Obligations of a Christian. Q. T7"HAT is a christian obliged to by his pro- VV fession ? A. He is obliged inwardly to believe, and outwardly to confess... more » the faith and law of Christ: With the heart we believe unto justification, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Rom.x. 10. , Instiiuc.—A chrisitian must believe in his heart all that Christ has taught, and his church professes, with a sincere and unfeigned faith: God must be served with sincerity and truth ; no deceit, dissimulation, or hypocrisy, must harbour therein ; since all things, even our most secret thoughts, are open to him, and nothing is hidden but shall be revealed at the last day. A christian must also profess the faith and law of Christ outwardly and openly, for God's honour : thus, if called before kings and princes, enemies of your faith, and if demanded by ihem, what religion you profess, you must boldly confess yourself a christian, a Catholic, and if by your confession of it you are to suffer, you must' rather undergo death, as the apostles and holy martyrs did, than deny your faith : God must ever be obeyed before men, Acts v. 29. and the reward of this obedience will be, He who confesseth nie before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in heaven, St. Matt. x. 32. whereas the reverse will follow disobedience: He who denieth me before men, him will I deny before my Father who is in heaven.—A christian must profess his faith outwardly, for his own good, by often repeating his belief.—He must again profess it outwardly, for his neighbour's good, thereby to bring him from his error, to the" true faith and church of Christ. Exhor.—Give thanks to God for your vocation to the true faith, for having: made you a christian, a catholic. See how far you have concurred with you...« less