afterwards becaine a very good man, and prayed and prevailed for a blessing from God; Gen. xxxii. 26, 28.

26. Q. How many sons had Jacob or Israel? A. Twelve, who were called the twelve patriarchs, or fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel; Gen. xxxv. 22. Acts vii. 8.

27. Q. Who was the most famous of Israel's sons? A. Joseph, whom his brethren sold into Egypt, and he afterwards became the ruler of the land under Pharoah the king; Gen. xxxvii. 27. and xli. 40. Acts vii. 9, 10.

28. Q. Did not he then revenge himself upon his brethren? A. No, he sent for them and their families, together with his father in the time of famine, and fed them all in the land of Egypt; Gen. xlv. 4—7.

29. Q. Did the families of Israel continue to dwell in Egypt? A. Yes, till another Pharoah king of Egypt made slaves of them, and drowned their children, and then God delivered them by the hand of Moses; Ex. i. 11, 22, and iii. 7. and v. 1

30. Q. What was this Moses? A. He was one of the children of Israel who was wonderfully saved from drowning by Pharaoh's own daughter when he was a child; Ex. ii. 10.

31. Q. How did God appoint him to deliver Israel? A. God appeared to him in a burning bush as he was keeping sheep, and sent him to Pharaoh to bid him let Israel go; Ex. iii. 1-18.

32. Q, What did Moses do to prove that God had sent him? A. He wrought several miracles or signs and wonders in the sight of Pharaoh; Ex. iv. 1–10.

33. Q. How did Moses at last deliver the people from their slavery? A. When Pharoah refused to let the people go, God gave him power to smite Egypt with many plagues. See the vii. viii. ix. x. and xi. chapters of Ex.

34. Q. What was the last of these plagues which procured the release of Israel? A. An angel destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians in one night, but he passed over and did not hurt any of the families of Israel; Ex. xii. 27, 29.

35. Q. How was this deliverance of Israel kept in remembrance to following ages? A. God appointed the yearly sacrifice of a lamb in every family, which was called the feast of the passover? Ex. xii. 3, &c.

36. Q. When Pharaoh let Israel go out of Egypt how did they get over the red sea? A. Moses with his rod divided the waters of the sea asunder, and the people went through upon dry ground; Ex. xiv. 26, 21, 29.

37. Q. What became of the Egyptians that followed them? A. When Moses stetched his hand over the sea, the waters returned upon the Egyptians, and they were all drowned; Ex. xiv. 28.

A.

38. Q. Whither did the children of Israel go then? They went through the wilderness wheresoever God guided them, by a pillar of cloud in the day-time, and a pillar of fire in the night; Exod. xiii. 18, 21. Numb. ix. 15-23.

39. Q. How long was it before they came to the land of Canaan which God promised? A. They wandered forty years in the wilderness for their sins; Numb. xiv 32, 33.

40. Q. What did they eat all that time? A. God fed them with mamma or bread that came down every night from heaven; Ex. xvi. 4, 15, 35.

41. Q. What did they drink in the wilderness? A. Moses smote the rock with his rod, and waters gushed out in a river that followed them; Exod. xvii. 5, 6. 1 Cor. x. 4. Ps. cv. 41.

42. Q. What did they do for clothes during these forty years? A. Their garments waxed not old, nor did their shoes wear out; Deut. xxix. 5.

43. Q. What were the laws which God gave the Israelites when he chose them for his own people? A. Some general laws that related to their behaviour as men, some special rules relating to their religion as a churcl:, and others about their government as a nation*.

44. Q. What were the general laws which related to their behaviour as men? A. Those laws which are commonly called moral, and which belong to all mankind; these are chiefly contained in the ten commandments; Ex. xx. 1—17.

45. Q. In what manner was this moral law or ten commandments given them? A. God first spoke it them from mount Sinai with thunder and lightning, and then wrote it for them in two tables of stone; Ex. xix. 16-18, and xx. 1-18, and xxiv. 12. Deut. x. 1—5.

46. Q. What were the special laws which God gave them relating to their religion as a church? A. Many rules about their worship of God, their priests and sacrificest, about sprinkling of blood and washing with water, about holy times and holy places.

47. Q. What was the chief design of these ceremonies ?

*The laws of the Jews which relate to their behaviour as men, to their religion as a church, and to their government as a nation, are all intermingled in such a manner, that it is hard to say under which head some of them inest be ranked; even in the ten commands, which are usually called the moral law, there is something ceremonial and peculiar to the Jews; and indeed they are all properly but one body of laws given to that people whom God chose for his Yet for distinction sake they may be distributed into three kinds, as in this Catechism.

OWD.

The doctrine of the priesthood and sacrifices had a larger room in this Catechism, but I was constrained to ept this matter short, as well as many others, lest it should be thought tedious to children. See some few more hints about them in the Large Catalogues of Namnes, Sect. iii. viii, and xiii. See also the Short View of Scripture History, chap. v.

A. Partly to keep them from the idolatry and evil customs of other nations, and partly to figure out the blessings of Christ and the gospel; Levit. xviii. 3, 4, 5. Col. ii. 16, 17. Heb. ix. 1-14.

48. Q. What were their peculiar laws considered as a nation? A. Such as related to their peace and wars, to their houses and lands, to their wives and servants, to their life and limbs.

49. Q. Why did God himself give them such particular rules about these common things? A. To distinguish them from all other nations as God's own people, and to shew that he was their king as well as their God; Lev. xx. 22, 26. Lev. xxiv. 22. 1 Sam. xii. 12.

50. Q. Were the people of Israel obedient to God in their travels through the wilderness? A. No, they sinned grievously against him, and they were often punished by the hand of God, but he would not utterly destroy them; Ps. cv. 43, 45.

51. Q. Who brought them into the land of Canaan after their forty years wandering in the wilderness? A. Moses being dead, Joshua, whose name is the same with Jesus, brought them into the promised land; Josh. i. 5, 6, 11. Acts vii. 45.

52. Q. Did the Israelites behave themselves better when they came to Canaan? A. No, they frequently fell into idolatry, and worshipped the false gods of the nations round about them; Judges ii. 11, 12.

58. Q. In what manner did God shew his displeasure for this sin? A. He gave them up sometimes into the hands of their enemies who plundered them and made slaves of them? Judges ii. 14.

54. Q. How did God deliver them from the hand of their enemies? A. When they cried to the Lord he raised up judges who subdued their enemies, and delivered the people; Judges ii. 18. and iii. 9, 15.

55. Q. What were the names of some of the chief of these judges ?* A. Gideon and Jephthah, Samson, Eli and

Samuel.

56. Q. Who governed the people of Israel after the judges? A. They desired a king like other nations, and God bid Samuel anoint Saul to be the first of their kings; 1 Sam. ix. and x.

57. Q. How did Saul behave himself? A. He governed well for a little time, but afterwards he rebelled against God, and God removed him; Acts xiii. 20, 21.

58. Q. What became of Saul at last? A. Being forsaken of God, and being wounded in battle by the Philistines, he fell on his own sword and died; 1 Sam. xxviii. 6. and xxxi. 3, 4.

* See the Catalogue of Scripture Names.

59. Q. Who was the second king of Israel? A. David, who was raised to the kingdom from keeping of sheep; 1 Sam. xvi. 11, 13. Ps. lxxviii. 70, 71.

60. Q. What was David's character? A. He was a prophet, and a man after God's own heart, who delivered Israel from their enemies, and ruled them well; 1 Sam. xiii. 14. Acts ii. 30. and xiii. 22.

61. Q. But was not David guilty of some great sins? A. Yes, and God punished him for them in the great troubles he met in his family; 2 Sam. xii. 10.

62. Q. Who was the third king of Israel? A. Solomon the son of David, who was the wisest of men; 1 Kings iv. 29-31.

63. Q. What did Solomon do for God and for the people? A. He built a very glorious temple for the worship of God at Jerusalem, and he raised the nation of Israel to their highest glory; 1 Kings iv. 20, 21, 25. and vi. 1, 2-11-38. and x. 27.1

64. Q. What became of the people of Israel in following ages? A. They were divided into two kingdoms which were called the kingdom of Judah, and the kingdom of Israel; 1 Kings xii. 15-20.

65. How did they behave themselves toward God after thisdivision. A. Most of their kings, as well as the people, provoked God by their idols and their great wickedness; 2 Kings xvii. 7, 8.

66. Q. How did God punish them for these crimes? A. When they would not hearken to the prophets which God sent among them, they were carried away captive by their enemies into the land of Assyria; 2 Kings xvii. 6, 13, 18, 19, 20. and XXV. 8-11. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 14–21.

67. Q. Did they never return again to their own land? A. Yes, after seventy years captivity, the tribe of Judah returned, with many of Benjamin and Levi, and they were all called Jews; Ezra i. 5. Nehem. i. 2.

68. Q. What did they do at their return? A. They built the city of Jerusalem, and the temple again, and they set up the worship of the true God; Ezra v. 1. and vii. 6, 25.—— Nehem. ii. 17.

69. Q. Did they continue afterward to obey God and dwell in their own land? A. Though they were guilty of many sius, yet they never fell to the worship of idols again; Rom. ii. 22. Nor where they ever, wholly driven out of their owu land till after the coming of the Messiah the Saviour.

The History of the New Testament.

I. QUESTION.

WHO is the Messiah the Saviour of mankind*? A. Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was sent down from heaven to save sinners; Mat, xvi. 16. 1 John iv. 14.

2. Q. How did he come into the world? A. God prepared a body for him, and he took flesh and blood and was born of a woman; Heb. ii. 14. and x. 5. Gal. iv. 4.

3. Q. What notices were given of the coming of Christ the Saviour? A. Many promises had been given of him in former ages by the prophets, and more lately by an angel; Luke i. 35, 70.

4. Q. What did the prophets foretel concerning the coming of Christ? A. Among many other things they declared, that a Saviour should be born of the stock of Abraham, of the house of David, and in the town of Bethlehem; Gen. xii. 3. Gal. iii. 8, 16. 2 Sam. vii. 3, 3. Jer. xx. 5, 6. Acts xiii. 22, 23. Mat. ii. 5, 6.

5. Q. How did an angel give notice of his coming? A. The angel Gabriel foretold the birth of John the Baptist to prepare the way for Christ, and he told the mother of Jesus that she would bring forth the Son of God; Luke i. 17, 19, 35, 76.

6. Q. Who was the mother of Christ? A. Marý a virgin of the house of David; Luke i. 27, 31, 32.

7. Q. Who was the supposed father of Christ? A. Joseph the carpenter was supposed to be his father, because he married his mother Mary; Luke iii. 23. Mat. i. 20. 24. and xiii. 55.

8. Q. What further witness was given to Christ in his infancy A. By angels from heaven, by wise men from the east, and by Simeon in the temple.

9. Q. How did angels bear witness to him? A. They sung praise to God in the air at his birth, and told the shepherds that they should find the child Jesus in a manger at Bethlehem; Luke ii. 8-16.

10. Q. What Witness did the wise men of the east bear to Jesus? A. They saw a strange star in the east, which led them to the house where the infant lay, and they came and worshipped him; Mat. ii. 1, 2, 9, 11.

11. Q. What honour did Simeon do him in the temple? A. He was an old man, yet God assured him that he should see the Saviour before he died, and he took Jesus in his arms and acknowledged him to be the Saviour; Luke ii. 26-30.

12. Q. What is written concerning the childhood of Christ?

As the historical part of the Old Testament begins with this question, Who is the Maker of the world? so the historical part of the New Testament may properly begin, Who is the Saviour?