08 June 2020

The Douai Catechism, 1649 - CHAPTER III. - The Creed Expounded - The Second Article

The Second Article
    
Q. SAY the second article.
    A. And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord.
    
Q. Of what treats this article?
    A. Of the second person of the blessed Trinity, in whom we also believe and put our trust.
    
Q. What is the second Person?
    A. He is true God, and true Man, in one Person.
    
Q. How prove you that?
    A. Out of St. John's Gospel, chap. i. 1. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, &c. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.'
    
Q. What other proof have you?
    A. Out of Phil. ii. 6, 7, where St. Paul saith, 'That Christ when he was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but he hath lessened himself, taking the form of a servant, made unto the likeness of men; and found in habit as a man.
    
Q. Why should God be man man?
    A. To redeem and save lost man.
    
Q. Was his incarnation necessary for that end?
    A. In the manner it was; because our offences against God were in some sort infinite; as being against his infinite goodness; and therefore required an infinite satisfaction; which no one could make but God and therefore he was made man.
    
Q. What other proof have you for the necessity of the Incarnation?
    A. Because God is in himself so spiritual, sublime, and abstract a thing, that if he had not in his mercy adapted his own inscrutable greatness to the littleness of our sensible capacity, by being made man, scarce on of a thousand would ever have been able to know anything to the purpose of him; or consequently to love and serve him as they ought, (which is the necessary means of our salvation) since nothing is efficaciously willed which is not first well understood.
    
Q. What benefit have we by the knowledge of God made man?
    A. It much inflames us with the love of God, who could not more have dignified men's nature, or shown more love to the world, then to send down his only Son to redeem it in our flesh.
    
Q. What signifies the name of Jesus?
    A. It signifies a Saviour, St. Matt. i. 21.
    
Q. Is any special honour due to that name?
    A. There is, because it is the highest title of God made man.
    
Q. How prove you that?
    A. Out of Phil. ii. 8, 9, 10, where we read, 'God hath given unto Christ because he hath humbled himself unto the death of the cross, a name which is above all names, the name of Jesus.'
    
Q. What other proof have you?
    A. Because there is no other name under heaven given to man, in which we must be saved. Acts iv. 12.
    
Q. How prove you that we must bow at this name?
    A. Out of Phil. ii. 10. That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those that are in heaven, on earth and in hell.
    
Q. What signifies the name Christ?
    A. It signifies anointed.
    
Q. Why was he called anointed?
    A. Because he was a priest, a prophet, and a king to all which unction pertains.
    
Q. With what was Christ anointed?
    A. With all the plenitude of divine grace.
    
Q. What mean the words, his only Son our Lord?
    A. They mean that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God the Father, begotten, as he is God, and of the same Father from all eternity, without a mother; and therefore is coequal and consubstantial to his Father; and consequently infinite, omnipotent Creator, and so Lord of us and all things, as the Father is.

Next - The Douai Catechism, 1649 - CHAPTER III. - The Creed Expounded - The Third Article

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