ANSWER
3. Begin your work by taking an account of what they have learned of the words of the catechism, and receiving their answer to each question; and, if
they are able to repeat but little or none of it, try whether they can
rehearse the creed and the decalogue.
4. Then choose out some of the weightiest points, and try, by further questions, how far they understand them. And therein be careful of the following things:
(1) That you do not begin with less necessary points, but with those which they themselves may perceive most nearly concern them. For example: ‘What do you think becomes of men when they die? What shall become of us after the end of the world? Do you believe that you have any sin; or that you were born with sin? What doth every sin deserve? What remedy hath God provided for the saving of sinful, miserable souls? Hath any one suffered for our sins in our stead; or must we suffer for them ourselves? Who are they that God will pardon; and who shall be saved by the blood of Christ? What change must be made on all who shall be saved; and how is this change effected? Wherein lies our chief happiness? And what is it that our hearts must be most set upon?’ And such like other questions.
(2) Beware of asking them nice, or needless, or doubtful, or very difficult questions, though about those matters that are of greatest weight in themselves. Some self-conceited persons will be as busy with such questions which they cannot answer themselves, and as
censorious of the poor people that cannot answer them, as if life and death depended on them.
You will ask them perhaps, ‘What is God?’: and how defective an answer must you make yourselves! You may tell what he is not sooner than what he is. If you ask, ‘What is repentance, what faith, or what is forgiveness of
sin’?, how many ministers may you ask before you have a right answer, or else they would not be so disagreed in the point! Likewise if you ask them what regeneration is, what sanctification is. But you will perhaps say, ‘If men know not what God is, what repentance, faith, conversion,
justification, and sanctification are, how can they be true Christians and be saved?’. I answer, It is one thing to know exactly what they are, and another thing to know them in their nature and effects, though with a more general and indistinct knowledge; and it is one thing to know, and another thing to tell what this or that is. The very name as commonly used doth signify to them, and express from them the thing without a definition; and they partly understand what that name signifieth, when they cannot tell it you in other words; as they know what it is to repent, to believe, to be forgiven. By custom of speech they know what these mean, and yet cannot define them, but perhaps put you off with the country answer: ‘To repent is to repent; and to be forgiven is to be forgiven’; or if they can say,
‘It is to be pardoned,’ it is fair. Yet do I not absolutely dissuade you from the use of such questions; but do it cautiously, in case you suspect some gross ignorance in the point; especially about God himself.
(3) So contrive your questions, that they may perceive what you mean, and that it is not a nice definition, but simply a solution, that you expect; and look not after words, but things, and even leave them to a bare Yes, or No, or the mere election of one of the two
descriptions which you yourself may have propounded. For example:
‘What is God? Is he made of flesh and blood, as we are; or is he an invisible Spirit? Is he a man, or is he not? Had he any beginning? Can he die? What is faith? Is it a believing all the Word of God? What is it to believe in Christ? Is it all one as to become a true Christian or to believe that Christ is the Savior of sinners, and to trust in him, as your Savior, to pardon, sanctify, govern, and glorify you? What is
repentance? Is it only to be sorry for sin or is it the change of the mind from sin to God, and a forsaking of it? or does it include both?’
(4) When you perceive that they do not understand the meaning of your question, you must draw out their answer by an equivalent, or expository question; or, if that will not do, you must frame the answer into your question, and require in reply, but Yes, or No. I have often asked some very ignorant people, ‘How do you think that your sins,
which are so many and so great, can be pardoned?’ And they tell me,
‘By their repenting, and amending their lives,” and never mention Jesus Christ. I ask them further, ‘But do you think that your amendment can make God any amends or satisfaction for the sin that is past ‘ They will answer, ‘We hope so, or else we know not what will?’ One would now think that these men had no knowledge of Christ at all, since they make no mention of him; and some I indeed find have no knowledge of him; and when I tell them the history of Christ, and what he is, and did, and suffered, they stand wondering at it as a strange thing; and some say, They never heard this much before, nor knew it, though they came to church every Lord’s day. But some, I perceive, give such answers, because they understand not the scope of my question; but suppose that I take Christ’s death for granted, and that I only ask them, ‘What shall make God satisfaction, as their part under Christ?’ – though in this, also, they reveal sad ignorance. And when I ask them,
‘Whether their good deeds can merit any thing from God?’ they answer, ‘No; but they hope God will accept them.’ And if I ask further, ‘Can you be saved without the death of Christ?’ they say,
‘No.’ And if I ask, still further, ‘What hath he done or suffered for you?’ they will say, ‘He died for us; or he shed his blood for us,” and will profess that they place their confidence in that for salvation.
Many men have that in their minds which is not ripe for utterance;
and, through an imperfect education and disuse, they are strangers to the expression of those things of which they yet have some
conception. And, by the way, you may here see reason why you should deal very tenderly with the common people for matter of knowledge and defect of expression, if they are teachable and tractable, and willing to use the means; for many, even ancient godly persons, cannot express themselves with any tolerable propriety, nor yet learn when expressions are put into their mouths. Some of the most pious, experienced, approved Christians that I know (aged people), complain to me, with tears, that they cannot learn the words of the catechism;
and when I consider their advantages – that they have enjoyed the most excellent helps, in constant duty, and in the best company, for forty, fifty, or sixty years together – it teacheth me what to expect from poor ignorant people, who never had such company and converse for one year or week; and not to reject them so hastily as some hot and
too high professors would have us do. (5) If you find them at a loss, and unable to answer your questions, do not drive them too hard, or too long, with question after question, lest they conceive you intend only to puzzle them, and disgrace them; but when you perceive that they cannot answer, step in yourself, and take the burden off them, and answer the question yourselves; and do it thoroughly and plainly, and give a full explanation of the whole truth to them, that, by your teaching, they may be brought to understand it before you leave them.
And herein it is commonly necessary that you fetch up the matter from the beginning, and take it in order, till you come to the point in question.
5. When you have done what you see cause in the trial of their knowledge,