The Precepts of the Church Expounded.
Q. HOW many are the commandments of the church?
A. There be six principle ones.
A. There be six principle ones.
Q. What is the first?
A. "To hear mass on Sundays and holydays," if we have opportunity to do it, and there be no just cause to the contrary.
A. "To hear mass on Sundays and holydays," if we have opportunity to do it, and there be no just cause to the contrary.
Q. Why on all Sundays?
A. In thanksgiving for the benefits of the week past, as also to sanctify the Lord's day.
Q. For what other reason?
A. In memory that the same Christ, who is offered upon the altar at the mass for our sins, was born, rose from the dead, and sent down the Holy Ghost on a Sunday.
Q. Why on all holydays?
A. Either in memory of some special benefit, or else for a commemoration of some peculiar saint, so to move ourselves to imitate his example.
A. Either in memory of some special benefit, or else for a commemoration of some peculiar saint, so to move ourselves to imitate his example.
Q. How prove you that the church hath power to ordain and command feasts?
A. First, by the example of the church in the apostle's time, which ordained the feast of Christmas in honour of the Nativity of Christ; Easter in honour of his resurrection; Whitsuntide, in honour of the coming of the Holy Ghost, in tongues of fire.
Secondly, out of St. Clement, the disciple of St. Peter, in his eighth book of apostolical constitutions, where he witnesseth. "That the apostles gave order for the celebrating of St. Stephen's and some other of their fellow apostles' days after their deaths."
Thirdly, out of 2 Thess. iii. 4. "And we have confidence concerning you in the Lord, that the things which we command, you both do, and will do." And ver. 14. "And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and do not keep company with him, he may be ashamed."
Fourthly, out of 1 Thess. iv. 8, where St. Paul, (speaking of the precepts he had given his brethren,) saith, "He that despiseth these things, despiseth not man, but God, who also hath given his Holy Spirit in us." See what was said before in the third commandment of God.
A. First, by the example of the church in the apostle's time, which ordained the feast of Christmas in honour of the Nativity of Christ; Easter in honour of his resurrection; Whitsuntide, in honour of the coming of the Holy Ghost, in tongues of fire.
Secondly, out of St. Clement, the disciple of St. Peter, in his eighth book of apostolical constitutions, where he witnesseth. "That the apostles gave order for the celebrating of St. Stephen's and some other of their fellow apostles' days after their deaths."
Thirdly, out of 2 Thess. iii. 4. "And we have confidence concerning you in the Lord, that the things which we command, you both do, and will do." And ver. 14. "And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and do not keep company with him, he may be ashamed."
Fourthly, out of 1 Thess. iv. 8, where St. Paul, (speaking of the precepts he had given his brethren,) saith, "He that despiseth these things, despiseth not man, but God, who also hath given his Holy Spirit in us." See what was said before in the third commandment of God.
Next - The Douai Catechism, 1649 - CHAPTER IX. The Second Precept of the Church Expounded.
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