catechism

Westminster Shorter Catechism

WSC · 1647 · 107 questions

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By

Westminster Assembly

Dates

written 1647; first published 1648; adopted by the Church of Scotland, 1648

Tradition

reformed, presbyterian

Also called

Shorter Catechism

Related

Adapted by The Baptist Catechism (1695); Parallel to Westminster Larger Catechism (1647); The same text as Westminster Shorter Catechism (modernized, 1647)

Follows

The Confession of Faith and Catechisms, Agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, together with their Humble Advice concerning Church Government and Ordination of Ministers, Robert Bostock’s printing, [1649] (British Library, Thomason E.1419[1]) (London); Wing C5760, ESTC R210325 · the scan (PDF) , from ProQuest

Transcribed

From a source not recordedChecked against EEBO-TCP A80320: the proofs of questions 42–107, and 26 and 38, by Claude, for cco3, 2026-10-28Checked against EEBO-TCP A74916: the proofs of questions 42–107, where A80320 is garbled, by Claude, for cco3, 2026-10-28Checked against the scan: all 107 questions and answers, word by word, and every proof, against the PDF (pages 153–176, the PDF’s 77–89), with the printings of [1646] (B03538), 1658 (A74916) and 1671 (A34242) where ours and the 1649 differ; the differences, and what was corrected, are in WITNESSES.md, by Claude, for cco3, 2026-10-28

License

Public domain

Notes

The text is not the 1649 printing’s respelled but the modern one American Presbyterian churches print, word for word the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s (https://opc.org/sc.html) but in “reverend” (54, the 1658 printing’s word) and “all miseries” (19, every printing’s); who made it, and from what, is unknown. Against the 1649 printing (The Confession of Faith and Catechisms, London, Robert Bostock, 1649; Wing C5760; EEBO-TCP A80320), 92 of the 107 questions have the same words, spelling, capitals and punctuation aside; in 7 ours has another printing’s reading (54 “reverend … Word”, 55 “maketh”, 57 “thy stranger”, 61 “our worldly”, 69 “or whatsoever”, 98 “unto God”, 103 “in earth”), in 7 the modern text’s (2 “Scriptures … Testaments”, 12 “the knowledge”, 32 “and sanctification”, 38 “the full enjoying”, 47 “giving of”, 58 “set times”, and “and ordinary” in 88’s question), and in 67 the 1649 misprints “shall”. On 2026-10-28 two slips of ours that no printing has were corrected (“Wherein” in 41’s question, “for the worthy receiving” in 97’s), and Ephesians 1:11 restored to 7. The proofs are the Assembly’s, under the 1649 printing’s letters: 1–41 as they came, 42–107 set from A80320 and corrected from the 1658 (A74916) where the transcription is garbled, as the commit that added them lists. Ours differs from the 1649 margin where it misprints (in 13 questions, a verse that doesn’t exist or the wrong book), and in 1 (Psalm 73:25–28, 1649 73:24–28), 27 (1 Corinthians 15:3–4, 1649 15:3), 56 (1 Samuel 2:24, 1649 2:29) and 74–75 (four references under 74, as in 1658, where 1649 has them under 75). catechisms/wsc/WITNESSES.md has it all. The witness is that printing, the nearest known, though not the text’s source. The PDF is EEBO’s film of Thomason’s copy (E.1419[1]), from ProQuest’s Early Modern Collection, with ProQuest’s credit line taken off each page, on which the text was checked; archive.org’s films of 1649 are other printings (Amsterdam, for Andrew Wilson of Edinburgh, Wing C5760A; Edinburgh, Gideon Lithgow, C5760C).

Spelling

As printed; modernized in wsc-modernized

Commentaries

An Explicatory Catechism (1675); John Flavel, An Exposition of the Assembly’s Catechism (1692); Thomas Vincent, An Explicatory Catechism (1673); Joseph Alleine, A Most Familiar Explanation of the Assemblies Shorter Catechism (1672); Thomas Lye, The Assemblies Shorter Catechism Drawn out into Distinct Propositions (1672); Alexander Whyte, A Commentary on the Shorter Catechism (1883); Matthew Henry, A Scripture Catechism (1703); Thomas Watson, A Body of Practical Divinity (1692); Hugh Binning, The Common Principles of the Christian Religion (1659), with each question

Side by side

The Shorter Catechism and the Baptist Catechism

Download

wsc.json · 109 kB