GEN. 1. vers. 14. to the 25.14 And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heauen, to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signes and for seasons, and for dayes and yeeres, &c.
Christian religion: substantially, methodicalli[e,] [pla]inlie, and profitablie treatised
About this Item
- Title
- Christian religion: substantially, methodicalli[e,] [pla]inlie, and profitablie treatised
- Author
- Cartwright, Thomas, 1535-1603.
- Publication
- London :: Printed by Felix Kingston for Thomas Man,
- 1611.
- Rights/Permissions
-
To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
- Subject terms
- Catechisms, English.
- Link to this Item
-
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A69075.0001.001
- Cite this Item
-
"Christian religion: substantially, methodicalli[e,] [pla]inlie, and profitablie treatised." In the digital collection Early English Books Online 2. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A69075.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 17, 2024.
Pages
Page 21
WHat is generall in the creation of the compound bodies?
First, that prouision is made for his inhabitants of the earth ere they be made, as grasse for the beasts, and light for all liuing and mouing creatures, and all for man.
What learne you from hence?
Not to be carking for the things of this life: nor to surfet with the cares thereof, seeing God prouided for the necessitie and comfort of the beasts ere hee would bring them into the world.
What is generall in all the earthly creatures?
That God proceedeth from the things that be more imperfect to those that are perfecter, vntill hee come to the perfectest, as from the trees, corne, herbs, &c. which haue but one life, that is, whereby they increase and are vegetatiue, vnto the beasts which haue both an increasing, and feeling or sen∣sitiue life, as fishes, fowles, beasts, &c. and from them to man, which hath besides both them a reasonable soule.
What learne you from thence?
That wee should therein follow the example of the Lord to goe from good to better, vntill we come to be perfect.
What else is generall?
To haue power and vertue giuen them to bring foorth the like vnto themselues for the continuance of their kinde, is generally giuen to all those that are expressed in the creation here, albeit there be crea∣tures, as stones and minerals, that bring not forth the like. And this blessing of multiplication is principall in the things that haue the life of sense, beside the
Page 22
life of increase. And therefore the Lord is brought in to speake to them in the second person: which he did not to the grosse corne and trees, Gen. 1.22.
What learne you from hence?
That the chiefe and speciall cause of the conti∣nuance of euery kinde of creatures to the worlds end, is this will & word of God: without the which, they, or sundrie of them, would haue perished ere this, by so many meanes as are to consume them.
What is the first creation of the compound bodies?
God hauing caused the waters to retire into their vessels the third night, in the third day, which fol∣lowed that night, hee clad the earth with grasse for the vse of beasts only, corne and trees for the vse of man.
Seeing that the growth of these is from the influence of the heauenly bodies, how commeth it to passe that he first maketh the grasse, corne, and trees, ere hee made the heauenly bodies of the Sunne, Moone, and Starres?
To correct our error, which tie the increase of these so to the influence of the heauenly bodies, euen to the worshipping of them, therein forgetting the Lord, who hereby sheweth, that all hangeth vpon him, and not on them: for as much as he made them when the heauenly bodies were not.
What else?
That the fruitfulnes of the earth standeth not so much in the labour of the husbandman, as in the po∣wer which God hath giuen to the earth to bring foorth fruite.
What was made the fourth day?
Lights: all which, although they be great in them∣selues,
Page 23
to the end they might giue light to the darke earth, that is, farre remoued from them: yet are they distinguished into
- great,
- Sunne,
- Moone,
- small,
- the Stars,
Why doth Moses call the Sunne and Moone the grea∣test lights, when there are Starres that exceed the Moone by many degrees?
Because they are greatest first in their vse and ver∣tue that they exercise vpon the terrestriall bodies. Se∣condly, for that they seeme so to vs: it being the pur∣pose of the holy Ghost by Moses to applie himselfe to the capacitie of the vnlearned.
What is the vse of them?
First, to distinguish the times, Spring, Summer, Autumne, and Winter, from whence their work and naturall effect vpon the earthly creatures is gathered: also to distinguish the night from the day, the day from the moneth, the moneth from the yeere: last of of all, to giue light to the inhabitants of the earrh.
Haue they not operation also in the extraordinarie euents of singular things and persons for their good and euill estate?
No verely, there is no such vse taught of them in the Scriptures.
What was the worke of the fifth day and night?
To create the
- Fishes and
- Birds.
What were the fishes made of?
Page 24
Of all foure elements, but more (as seemeth) of the waters then other liuing things.
VVhat were the birds made of?
* 1.1Of all foure elements, yet haue more of the earth, and therefore that they are so light, and that their de∣light is in the aire, it is so much the more maruellous.
What is the worke of the sixth night and day?
* 1.2In the night thereof he made the beasts of ye earth,
- going,
- tame, or home-beasts.
- wilde, or field-beasts.
- creeping.
Notes
-
* 1.1
Gen. 2.19.
-
* 1.2
Probable.