commentary

An Explicatory Catechism

1673 · 107 entries

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By

Thomas Vincent

Dates

first published 1673

Tradition

reformed, presbyterian

Also called

An Explanation of the Assemblies Shorter Catechism; Vincent’s Explicatory Catechism

Follows

An Explicatory Catechism, or, An Explanation of the Assemblies Shorter Catechism. Wherein all the Answers in the Assemblies Catechism are taken abroad in under-Questions and Answers, the truths explained, and proved by Reason and Scripture; several cases of Conscience resolved; some chief Controversies in Religion stated, with Arguments against divers Errors, the first edition, printed for George Calvert, Thomas Parkhurst, Samuel Sprint and D. Newman, 1673 (Burke Library, Union Theological Seminary) (London); Wing V432 · the scan (PDF) , from ProQuest

Transcribed

From the scanChecked against a copy at ProQuest: all, page by page, on ProQuest’s scan of the same film; and every proof against the words quoted after it, by Claude, for cco3, 2026-10-28Checked against a copy at archive.org: where the 1673 scan can’t be read, or plainly wants a word, by Claude, for cco3, 2026-10-28

License

Public domain

Notes

Thomas Vincent (1634–1678), ejected minister of St Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, takes every answer of the Shorter Catechism “abroad” in his own under-questions and answers, 808 of them, proving each by Scripture, with the words of the verses quoted after their references. He wrote it for his own congregation, and printed it sheet by sheet as they learned it, then whole, as his epistle to its young ones (in later printings) says. Its epistle to the reader (prose/) is signed by John Owen, Thomas Manton, Thomas Watson, Thomas Brooks and thirty-six other ministers. This filmed copy lacks Vincent’s own epistles, to the masters of families and to the young ones of his congregation, which later printings have. There is no EEBO-TCP transcription (A64986, catalogued as his, is the anonymous explicatory1675), so the text was typed from the scan, page by page, with the OCR of an 1806 New York printing (archive.org explicatorycatec00vinc) and of the scan itself as drafts to start from: the 1673 is the authority for every word, and the 1806, which modernizes it and changes words and references, only supplies what the scan can’t show. Each entry is one of the catechism’s questions as Vincent prints it, his under-questions the items under it, with the labels “Quest.”, “Q.” and “A.” left out. Each Scripture reference is a segment’s proofs, and the segment runs to the end of the words he quotes from it (italic in the printing, without quotation marks here). EMENDATIONS.md gives the conventions and each correction: misprinted letters and words, words wanting, and the references that can’t be what was meant, corrected to the verse whose words are quoted. The PDF is ProQuest’s scan of EEBO’s film, with ProQuest’s credit line taken off each page: the text was read on it, and it is sharper than archive.org’s free scan of the same film (bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_an-explicatory-catechism_vincent-thomas_1673).

On

Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647)

Download

vincent1673.json · 1.2 MB