Here's a delightful set of texts called the Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th centuries in English translation.

It is in four volumes and the very last catacism or confession that is included in this

four volume set is the Baptist catacism of 1693.

We are a few generations removed from Luther.

The reformation at this point is firmly established.

We have the Lutherans, we have the Reformed Church, we have the Presbyterians, and as this

catechism attests, we have the Baptist.

In this addition, and in this presentation of the Baptist cacism, there's a brief introduction.

And the first line is simply this.

Mystery surrounds the origin of this catacism.

That's a great line.

The mystery is this. There is no first edition that doesn't exist.

This is a sense and an awareness and a general scholarly consensus that it was first published in 1693, but the oldest copy comes to us from 1695.

Secondly, we think of this mystery around the author.

This catechism was called at one point Ketch's

catacism and that of course was named for a person for a man named Keach,

Benjamin Keach to be exact, who lived from 1640 to 1704.

But there's also a sense that another writer participated in this, and perhaps maybe

was the main author of it.

His name is William Collins. He died in 1702.

So it's a little tricky to figure out exactly where this came from, exactly who wrote it,

but what we do have is it. We have this Baptist catacism. This

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