Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes is a children's catechism by the minister John Cotton. [1] The 1656 catechism is the first known children's book published in America. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes is a children's catechism by the minister John Cotton. [1] The 1656 catechism is the first known children's book published in America. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
Cotton's catechism consisted of fifteen pages of 64 questions and answers relating to teachings of Puritanism and the Church. [10] It discussed morals, manners, religious life, the Ten Commandments, and the last judgment. [1] In the seventeenth century, many English catechisms had over 100 questions and answers for the student of Christianity to remember. [10] The 64 questions and answers in Cotton's catechism made reference to 203 passages from the Old and the New Testaments. [1] "Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes" and other similar catechisms encapsulate for children the good news of Jesus Christ. "Spiritual Milk" is a witness to the transformative work of Jesus and an encouragement to trust in the redeeming work of God.
Cotton's catechism was originally printed in London in 1646. The full title in Great Britain was Milk for Babes. Drawn out of the Breasts of Both Testaments. Chiefly, for the Spiritually Nourishment of Boston Babes in Either England: But May Be of Like Use for Any Children. It was printed in London, England, by J. Coe for bookseller Henry Overton. [11] The short title in Great Britain of the prior original work of 1646 is Milk for Babes. [12]
The New England full version was called Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in Either England. Drawn out of the Breasts of Both Testaments for Their Souls Nourishment but May Be of Like Use to Any Children. By John Cotton, B.D. late Teacher to the Church of Boston in New England. Cambridge. Printed by S. G. for Hezekiah Usher at Boston in New England, 1656. Samuel Green of Cambridge, Massachusetts, printed it in 1656 for bookseller Hezekiah Usher. [13] It was an octavo booklet. [14] A copy of this book was supposedly purchased by the Lenox Library of Massachusetts for $400 in 1895. [15] Cotton's catechism remained in print in both England and New England for some 200 years after the mid seventeenth century. [1] Eight known editions have been identified from the seventeenth century alone. [1]
Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes became part of The New England Primer in the mid of the eighteenth century and remained popular into the mid nineteenth century. [16] Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes was called "The Catechism of New England". [17]
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was an English Particular Baptist preacher.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1656.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1646.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, or simply the Westminster Confession, is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the "subordinate standard" of doctrine in the Church of Scotland and has been influential within Presbyterian churches worldwide.
A catechism is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult converts. Catechisms are doctrinal manuals – often in the form of questions followed by answers to be memorised – a format that has been used in non-religious or secular contexts as well. According to Norman DeWitt, the early Christians appropriated this practice from the Epicureans, a school whose founder Epicurus had instructed to keep summaries of the teachings for easy learning. The term catechumen refers to the designated recipient of the catechetical work or instruction. In the Catholic Church, catechumens are those who are preparing to receive the Sacrament of Baptism. Traditionally, they would be placed separately during Holy Mass from those who had been baptized, and would be dismissed from the liturgical assembly before the Profession of Faith and General Intercessions.
John Eliot was a Puritan missionary to the American Indians who some called "the apostle to the Indians" and the founder of Roxbury Latin School in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1645. In 1660 he completed the enormous task of translating the Eliot Indian Bible into the Massachusett Indian language, producing more than two thousand completed copies.
The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre, commonly called the Bay Psalm Book, is a metrical psalter first printed in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was the first book printed in British North America. The psalms in it are metrical translations into English. The translations are not particularly polished, and none have remained in use, although some of the tunes to which they were sung have survived ; however, its production, just 20 years after the Pilgrims' arrival at Plymouth, Massachusetts, represents a considerable achievement. It went through several editions and remained in use for well over a century.
John Cotton was a clergyman in England and the American colonies, and was considered the preeminent minister and theologian of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He studied for five years at Trinity College, Cambridge, and nine years at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He had already built a reputation as a scholar and outstanding preacher when he accepted the position of minister at St. Botolph's Church, Boston, in Lincolnshire, in 1612.
Michael Wigglesworth (1631–1705) was a Puritan minister, physician, and poet whose poem The Day of Doom was a bestseller in early New England.
Richard Mather was a New England Puritan minister in colonial Boston. He was father to Increase Mather and grandfather to Cotton Mather, both celebrated Boston theologians.
The reformed confessions of faith are the confessional documents of various Reformed churches. These express the doctrinal views of the churches adopting the confession. Confessions play a crucial part in the theological identity of reformed churches, either as standards to which ministers must subscribe, or more generally as accurate descriptions of their faith. Most confessions date to the 16th and 17th century.
Children's poetry is poetry written for, appropriate for, or enjoyed by children.
Catechesis is basic Christian religious education of children and adults, often from a catechism book. It started as education of converts to Christianity, but as the religion became institutionalized, catechesis was used for education of members who had been baptized as infants. As defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 5 :
Catechesis is an education in the faith of children, young people and adults which includes especially the teaching of Christian doctrine imparted, generally speaking, in an organic and systematic way, with a view to initiating the hearers into the fullness of Christian life.
The New England Primer was the first reading primer designed for the American colonies. It became the most successful educational textbook published in 17th-century colonial United States and it became the foundation of most schooling before the 1790s.
Benjamin Keach was an English Reformed Baptist preacher and author whose name was given to Keach's Catechism.
Samuel Green was an early American printer, the first of several printers from the Green family who followed in his footsteps. One of Green's major accomplishments as a printer was the Eliot Indian Bible, translated by the missionary John Eliot, typeset by James Printer, which became the first Bible to be printed in British America in 1663. Members of his family who also became printers include his sons Bartholomew, Bartholomew Green Jr. and Joseph Dennie. Throughout his adult life Green also served in the Massachusetts Bay Colonial Militia, advancing to the rank of captain later in life.
Psalm 8 is the eighth psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning and ending in English in the King James Version (KJV): "O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!". In Latin, it is known as "Domine Dominus noster". Its authorship is traditionally assigned to King David. Like Psalms 81 and 84, this psalm opens with a direction to the chief musician to perform upon the gittith, which either refers to a musical instrument, a style of performance, or alludes to persons and places in biblical history.
Psalm 72 is the 72nd psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son". In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate translations of the Bible, this psalm is Psalm 71. In Latin, it is known as "Deus iudicium tuum regi da". Traditionally seen as being written by King Solomon, its heading may be translated 'to or for Solomon'.
The Eliot Indian Bible was the first translation of the Christian Bible into an indigenous American language, as well as the first Bible published in British North America. It was prepared by English Puritan missionary John Eliot by translating the Geneva Bible into the Massachusett language. Printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the work first appeared in 1661 with only the New Testament. An edition including all 66 books of both the Old and New Testaments was printed in 1663.
Marmaduke Johnson was a London printer who was commissioned and sailed from England to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1660 to assist Samuel Green in the printing of The Indian Bible, which had been laboriously translated by John Eliot into the Massachusett Indian language, which became the first Bible printed in America. Johnson is considered the first master printer to emerge in America. When he attempted to operate his own privately owned printing house in Boston, without an official license from the Crown, the Massachusetts General Court interceded and censured his operation, which in turn started one of the first 'Freedom of the Press' issues in colonial America. After several appeals the Court conceded, where Johnson moved to Boston, set up and outfitted his printing shop, and ultimately became the first printer in America allowed to operate his own private printing press. During his printing career, Johnson printed several works for Eliot containing religious material translated for the Indian nations of Massachusetts.
The first children's book was John Cotton's catechism Milk for Babes, Drawn out of the Breasts of Both Testaments, Chiefly for the Spiritual Nourishment of Boston Babes in either England: But may be of like use for any children
John Cotton's catechism, Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in Either England, Drawn from the Breasts of Both Testaments for Their Souls' Nourishment, was originally published in England in 1646, and revised for American children in 1656, the first book written and printed for children in the American colonies.
