Question 1: What is the chief and highest end of
man?
Answer: Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully
to enjoy him forever.
Question 2: How does it appear that there is
a God?
Answer: The very light of nature in man, and the works of God,
declare plainly that there is a God; but his Word and Spirit only
do sufficiently and effectually reveal him unto men for their salvation.
Question 3: What is the Word of God?
Answer: The holy Scriptures of
the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, the only rule of faith
and obedience.
Question 4: How does it appear that the Scriptures
are the Word of God?
Answer: The Scriptures manifest themselves to
be the Word of God, by their majesty and purity; by the consent of
all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory
to God; by their light and power to convince and convert sinners,
to comfort and build up believers unto salvation: but the Spirit of
God bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man,
is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very Word of
God.
Question 5: What do the Scriptures principally teach?
Answer:
The Scriptures principally teach,: What man is to believe concerning
God, and: What duty God requires of man.
Question 6: What do the Scriptures
make known of God?
Answer: The Scriptures make known: What God is,
the persons in the Godhead, his decrees, and the execution of his
decrees.
Question 7: What is God?
Answer: God is a Spirit, in and of
himself infinite in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection; all-sufficient,
eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, everywhere present, almighty,
knowing all things, most wise, most holy, most just, most merciful
and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.
Question 8: Are there more Gods than one?
Answer: There is but one
only, the living and true God.
Question 9: How many persons are there
in the Godhead?
Answer: There be three persons in the Godhead, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one true,
eternal God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory; although
distinguished by their personal properties.
Question 10: What are
the personal properties of the three persons in the Godhead?
Answer:
It is proper to the Father to beget the Son, and to the Son to be
begotten of the Father, and to the Holy Ghost to proceed from the
Father and the Son from all eternity.
Question 11: How does it appear
that the Son and the Holy Ghost are God equal with the Father?
Answer:
The Scriptures manifest that the Son and the Holy Ghost are God equal
with the Father, ascribing unto them such names, attributes, works,
and worship, as are proper to God only.
Question 12: What are the
decrees of God?
Answer: God's decrees are the wise, free, and holy
acts of the counsel of his will, whereby, from all eternity, he has,
for his own glory, unchangeably foreordained: Whatsoever comes to
pass in time, especially concerning angels and men.
Question 13: What
has God especially decreed concerning angels and men?
Answer: God,
by an eternal and immutable decree, out of his mere love, for the
praise of his glorious grace, to be manifested in due time, has elected
some angels to glory; and in Christ has chosen some men to eternal
life, and the means thereof: and also, according to his sovereign
power, and the unsearchable counsel of his own will (whereby he extends
or withholds favor as he pleases), has passed by and foreordained
the rest to dishonor and wrath, to be for their sin inflicted, to
the praise of the glory of his justice.
Question 14: How does God
execute his decrees?
Answer: God executes his decrees in the works
of creation and providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge,
and the free and immutable counsel of his own will.
Question 15: What
is the work of creation?
Answer: The work of creation is that wherein
God did in the beginning, by the word of his power, make of nothing
the world, and all things therein, for himself, within the space of
six days, and all very good.
Question 16: How did God create angels?
Answer:
God created all the angels spirits, immortal, holy, excelling in knowledge,
mighty in power, to execute his commandments, and to praise his name,
yet subject to change.
Question 17: How did God create man?
Answer:
After God had made all other creatures, he created man male and female;
formed the body of the man of the dust of the ground, and the woman
of the rib of the man, endued them with living, reasonable, and immortal
souls; made them after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness,and
holiness; having the law of God written in their hearts, and power
to fulfil it, and dominion over the creatures; yet subject to fall.
Question 18: What are God's works of providence?
Answer: God's works
of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and
governing all his creatures; ordering them, and all their actions,
to his own glory.
Question 19: What is God's providence towards the
angels?
Answer: God by his providence permitted some of the angels,
wilfully and irrecoverably, to fall into sin and damnation, limiting
and ordering that, and all their sins, to his own glory; and established
the rest in holiness and happiness; employing them all, at his pleasure,
in the administrations of his power, mercy, and justice.
Question
20: What was the providence of God toward man in the estate in which
he was created?
Answer: The providence of God toward man in the estate
in which he was created, was the placing him in paradise, appointing
him to dress it, giving him liberty to eat of the fruit of the earth;
putting the creatures under his dominion, and ordaining marriage for
his help; affording him communion with himself; instituting the sabbath;
entering into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of personal,
perfect, and perpetual obedience, of which the tree of life was a
pledge; and forbidding to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, upon the pain of death.
Question 21: Did man continue in
that estate wherein God at first created him?
Answer: Our first parents
being left to the freedom of their own will, through the temptation
of Satan, transgressed the commandment of God in eating the forbidden
fruit; and thereby fell from the estate of innocency wherein they
were created.
Question 22: Did all mankind fall in that first transgression
?
Answer: The covenant being made with Adam as a public person, not
for himself only, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from
him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in that
first transgression.
Question 23: Into what estate did the fall bring
mankind?
Answer: The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and
misery.
Question 24: What is sin?
Answer: Sin is any want of conformity
unto, or transgression of, any law of God, given as a rule to the
reasonable creature.
Question 25: Wherein consists the sinfulness
of that estate whereinto man fell?
Answer: The sinfulness of that estate
whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the
want of that righteousness wherein he was created, and the corruption
of his nature, whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made
opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to
all evil, and that continually; which is commonly called original
sin, and from which do proceed all actual transgressions.
Question
26: How is original sin conveyed from our first parents unto their
posterity?
Answer: Original sin is conveyed from our first parents
unto their posterity by natural generation, so as all that proceed
from them in that way are conceived and born in sin.
Question 27:
What misery did the fall bring upon mankind?
Answer: The fall brought
upon mankind the loss of communion with God, his displeasure and curse;
so as we are by nature children of wrath, bond slaves to Satan, and
justly liable to all punishments in this world, and that which is
to come.
Question 28: What are the punishments of sin in this world?
Answer:
The punishments of sin in this world are either inward, as blindness
of mind, a reprobate sense, strong delusions, hardness of heart, horror
of conscience, and vile affections; or outward, as the curse of God
upon the creatures for our sakes, and all other evils that befall
us in our bodies,names, estates, relations, and employments; together
with death itself.
Question 29: What are the punishments of sin in
the world to come?
Answer: The punishments of sin in the world to
come, are everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of
God, and most grievous torments in soul and body, without intermission,
in hell fire forever.
Question 30: Does God leave all mankind to perish
in the estate of sin and misery ?
Answer: God does not leave all men
to perish in the estate of sin and misery,into which they fell by
the breach of the first covenant, commonly called the covenant of
works; but of his mere love and mercy delivers his elect out of it,
and brings them into an estate of salvation by the second covenant,commonly
called the covenant of grace.
Question 31: With whom was the covenant
of grace made?
Answer: The covenant of grace was made with Christ as
the second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his seed.
Question
32: How is the grace of God manifested in the second covenant?
Answer:
The grace of God is manifested in the second covenant, in that he
freely provides and offers to sinners a Mediator, and life and salvation
by him; and requiring faith as the condition to interest them in him,
promises and gives his Holy Spirit to all his elect, to work in them
that faith, with all other saving graces; and to enable them unto
all holy obedience, as the evidence of the truth of their faith and
thankfulness to God, and as the way which he has appointed them to
salvation.
Question 33: Was the covenant of grace always administered
after one and the same manner?
Answer: The covenant of grace was not
always administered after the same manner, but the administrations
of it under the Old Testament were different from those under the
New.
Question 34: How was the covenant of grace administered under
the Old Testament?
Answer: The covenant of grace was administered under
the Old Testament, by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision,
the passover, and other types and ordinances, which did all foresignify
Christ then to come, and were for that time sufficient to build up
the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they then had
full remission of sin, and eternal salvation.
Question 35: How is
the covenant of grace administered under the New Testament?
Answer:
Under the New Testament, when Christ the substance was exhibited,
the same covenant of grace was and still is to be administered in
the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments
of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; in which grace and salvation are
held forth in more fulness, evidence, and efficacy, to all nations.
Question 36: Who is the Mediator of the covenant of grace?
Answer:
The only Mediator of the covenant of grace is the Lord Jesus Christ,
who, being the eternal Son of God, of one substance and equal with
the Father, in the fulness of time became man, and so was and continues
to be God and man, in two entire distinct natures, and one person,
forever.
Question 37: How did Christ, being the Son of God, become
man?
Answer: Christ the Son of God became man, by taking to himself
a true body, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of
the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin Mary, of her substance, and
born of her, yet without sin.
Question 38: Why was it requisite that
the Mediator should be God?
Answer: It was requisite that the Mediator
should be God, that he might sustain and keep the human nature from
sinking under the infinite wrath of God, and the power of death; give
worth and efficacy to his sufferings, obedience, and intercession;
and to satisfy God's justice, procure his favor, purchase a peculiar
people, give his Spirit to them, conquer all their enemies, and bring
them to everlasting salvation.
Question 39: Why was it requisite that
the Mediator should be man?
Answer: It was requisite that the Mediator
should be man, that he might advance our nature, perform obedience
to the law, suffer and make intercession for us in our nature, have
a fellow feeling of our infirmities; that we might receive the adoption
of sons, and have comfort and access with boldness unto the throne
of grace.
Question 40: Why was it requisite that the Mediator should
be God and man in one person ?
Answer: It was requisite that the Mediator,
who was to reconcile God and man, should himself be both God and man,
and this in one person, that the proper works of each nature might
be accepted of God for us, and relied on by us, as the works of the
whole person.
Question 41: Why was our Mediator called Jesus?
Answer:
Our Mediator was called Jesus, because he saves his people from their
sins.
Question 42: Why was our Mediator called Christ?
Answer: Our
Mediator was called Christ, because he was anointed with the Holy
Ghost above measure; and so set apart, and fully furnished with all
authority and ability, to execute the offices of prophet, priest,
and king of his church, in the estate both of his humiliation and
exaltation.
Question 43: How does Christ execute the office of a prophet?
Answer: Christ executes the office of a prophet, in his revealing
to the church, in all ages, by his Spirit and Word, in divers ways
of administration, the whole will of God, in all things concerning
their edification and salvation.
Question 44: How does Christ execute
the office of a priest?
Answer: Christ executes the office of a priest,
in his once offering himself a sacrifice without spot to God, to be
a reconciliation for the sins of his people; and in making continual
intercession for them.
Question 45: How does Christ execute the office
of a king?
Answer: Christ executes the office of a king, in calling
out of the world a people to himself, and giving them officers, laws,
and censures, by which he visibly governs them; in bestowing saving
grace upon his elect, rewarding their obedience, and correcting them
for their sins, preserving and supporting them under all their temptations
and sufferings, restraining and overcoming all their enemies, and
powerfully ordering all things for his own glory, and their good;
and also in taking vengeance on the rest, who know not God, and obey
not the gospel.
Question 46: What was the estate of Christ's humiliation?
Answer: The estate of Christ's humiliation was that low condition,
wherein he for our sakes, emptying himself of his glory, took upon
him the form of a servant, in his conception and birth, life, death,
and after his death, until his resurrection.
Question 47: How did
Christ humble himself in his conception and birth?
Answer: Christ humbled
himself in his conception and birth, in that, being from all eternity
the Son of God, in the bosom of the Father, he was pleased in the
fulness of time to become the son of man, made of a woman of low estate,
and to be born of her; with divers circumstances of more than ordinary
abasement.
Question 48: How did Christ humble himself in his life?
Answer:
Christ humbled himself in his life, by subjecting himself to the law,
which he perfectly fulfilled; and by conflicting with the indignities
of the world, temptations of Satan, and infirmities in his flesh,
whether common to the nature of man, or particularly accompanying
that his low condition.
Question 49: How did Christ humble himself
in his death?
Answer: Christ humbled himself in his death, in that
having been betrayed by Judas, forsaken by his disciples, scorned
and rejected by the world,condemned by Pilate, and tormented by his
persecutors; having also conflicted with the terrors of death, and
the powers of darkness, felt and borne the weight of God's wrath,
he laid down his life an offering for sin, enduring the painful, shameful,
and cursed death of the cross.
Question 50: Wherein consisted Christ's
humiliation after his death?
Answer: Christ's humiliation after his
death consisted in his being buried, and continuing in the state of
the dead, and under the power of death till the third day; which has
been otherwise expressed in these words, he descended into hell.
Question
51: What was the estate of Christ's exaltation?
Answer: The estate
of Christ's exaltation comprehends his resurrection, ascension, sitting
at the right hand of the Father, and his coming again to judge the
world.
Question 52: How was Christ exalted in his resurrection?
Answer:
Christ was exalted in his resurrection, in that, not having seen corruption
in death (of which it was not possible for him to be held), and having
the very same body in which he suffered, with the essential properties
thereof (but without mortality, and other common infirmities belonging
to this life), really united to his soul, he rose again from the dead
the third day by his own power; whereby he declared himself to be
the Son of God, to have satisfied divine justice, to have vanquished
death, and him that had the power of it, and to be Lord of quick and
dead: all which he did as a public person, the head of his church,
for their justification, quickening in grace, support against enemies,
and to assure them of their resurrection from the dead at the last
day.
Question 53: How was Christ exalted in his ascension?
Answer:
Christ was exalted in his ascension, in that having after his resurrection
often appeared unto and conversed with his apostles, speaking to them
of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and giving them commission
to preach the gospel to all nations, forty days after his resurrection,
he, in our nature, and as our head, triumphing over enemies, visibly
went up into the highest heavens, there to receive gifts for men,
to raise up our affections thither, and to prepare a place for us,
where himself is, and shall continue till his second coming at the
end of the world.
Question 54: How is Christ exalted in his sitting
at the right hand of God?
Answer: Christ is exalted in his sitting
at the right hand of God, in that as God-man he is advanced to the
highest favor with God the Father, with all fulness of joy, glory,
and power over all things in heaven and earth; and does gather and
defend his church, and subdue their enemies; furnishes his ministers
and people with gifts and graces, and makes intercession for them.
Question 55: How does Christ make intercession?
Answer: Christ makes
intercession, by his appearing in our nature continually before the
Father in heaven, in the merit of his obedience and sacrifice on earth,
declaring his will to have it applied to all believers;
Answering
all accusations against them, and procuring for them quiet of conscience,
notwithstanding daily failings, access with boldness to the throne
of grace, and acceptance of their persons and services.
Question 56:
How is Christ to be exalted in his coming again to judge the world?
Answer:
Christ is to be exalted in his coming again to judge the world, in
that he, who was unjustly judged and condemned by wicked men, shall
come again at the last day in great power, and in the full manifestation
of his own glory, and of his Father's, with all his holy angels, with
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of
God, to judge the world in righteousness.
Question 57: What benefits
has Christ procured by his mediation?
Answer: Christ, by his mediation,
has procured redemption, with all other benefits of the covenant of
grace.
Question 58: How do we come to be made partakers of the benefits
which Christ has procured?
Answer: We are made partakers of the benefits
which Christ has procured, by the application of them unto us, which
is the work especially of God the Holy Ghost.
Question 59: Who are
made partakers of redemption through Christ?
Answer: Redemption is
certainly applied, and effectually communicated, to all those for
whom Christ has purchased it; who are in time by the Holy Ghost enabled
to believe in Christ according to the gospel.
Question 60: Can they
who have never heard the gospel, and so know not Jesus Christ, nor
believe in him, be saved by their living according to the light of
nature?
Answer: They who, having never heard the gospel, know not Jesus
Christ, and believe not in him, cannot be saved, be they never so
diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, or
the laws of that religion which they profess; neither is there salvation
in any other, but in Christ alone, who is the Savior only of his body
the church.
Question 61: Are all they saved who hear the gospel, and
live in the church?
Answer: All that hear the gospel, and live in the
visible church, are not saved; but they only who are true members
of the church invisible.
Question 62: What is the visible church?
Answer:
The visible church is a society made up of all such as in all ages
and places of the world do profess the true religion, and of their
children.
Question 63: What are the special privileges of the visible
church?
Answer: The visible church has the privilege of being under
God's special care and government; of being protected and preserved
in all ages, not withstanding the opposition of all enemies; and of
enjoying the communion of saints, the ordinary means of salvation,
and offers of grace by Christ to all the members of it in the ministry
of the gospel, testifying, that whosoever believes in him shall be
saved, and excluding none that will come unto him.
Question 64: What
is the invisible church?
Answer: The invisible church is the whole
number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into
one under Christ the head.
Question 65: What special benefits do the
members of the invisible church enjoy by Christ?
Answer: The members
of the invisible church by Christ enjoy union and communion with him
in grace and glory.
Question 66: What is that union which the elect
have with Christ?
Answer: The union which the elect have with Christ
is the work of God's grace, whereby they are spiritually and mystically,
yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband;
which is done in their effectual calling.
Question 67: What is effectual
calling?
Answer: Effectual calling is the work of God's almighty power
and grace, whereby (out of his free and special love to his elect,
and from nothing in them moving him thereunto) he does, in his accepted
time, invite and draw them to Jesus Christ, by his Word and Spirit;
savingly enlightening their minds, renewing and powerfully determining
their wills, so as they (although in themselves dead in sin) are hereby
made willing and able freely to
Answer: his call, and to accept and
embrace the grace offered and conveyed therein.
Question 68: Are the
elect only effectually called?
Answer: All the elect, and they only,
are effectually called; although others may be, and often are, outwardly
called by the ministry of the Word, and have some common operations
of the Spirit; who, for their wilful neglect and contempt of the grace
offered to them, being justly left in their unbelief, do never truly
come to Jesus Christ.
Question 69: What is the communion in grace
which the members of the invisible church have with Christ?
Answer:
The communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have
with Christ, is their partaking of the virtue of his mediation, in
their justification, adoption, sanctification, and: Whatever else,
in this life, manifests their union with him.
Question 70: What is
justification?
Answer: Justification is an act of God's free grace
unto sinners, in which he pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts
their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in
them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full
satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith
alone.
Question 71: How is justification an act of God's free grace?
Answer: Although Christ, by his obedience and death, did make a proper,
real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in the behalf of them
that are justified; yet inasmuch as God accepts the satisfaction from
a surety, which he might have demanded of them, and did provide this
surety, his own only Son, imputing his righteousness to them, and
requiring nothing of them for their justification but faith, which
also is his gift, their justification is to them of free grace.
Question
72: What is justifying faith?
Answer: Justifying faith is a saving
grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of
God, whereby he, being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the
disability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of
his lost condition, not only assents to the truth of the promise of
the gospel, but receives and rests upon Christ and his righteousness,
therein held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting
of his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation.
Question
73: How does faith justify a sinner in the sight of God?
Answer: Faith
justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of those other
graces which do always accompany it, or of good works that are the
fruits of it, nor as if the grace of faith, or any act thereof, were
imputed to him for his justification; but only as it is an instrument
by which he receives and applies Christ and his righteousness.
Question
74: What is adoption?
Answer: Adoption is an act of the free grace
of God, in and for his only Son Jesus Christ, whereby all those that
are justified are received into the number of his children, have his
name put upon them, the Spirit of his Son given to them, are under
his fatherly care and dispensations, admitted to all the liberties
and privileges of the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises,
and fellow heirs with Christ in glory.
Question 75: What is sanctification?
Answer:
Sanctification is a work of God's grace, whereby they whom God has,
before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in time,
through the powerful operation of his Spirit applying the death and
resurrection of Christ unto them, renewed in their whole man after
the image of God; having the seeds of repentance unto life, and all
other saving graces, put into their hearts, and those graces so stirred
up, increased, and strengthened, as that they more and more die unto
sin, and rise unto newness of life.
Question 76: What is repentance
unto life?
Answer: Repentance unto life is a saving grace, wrought
in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God, whereby, out
of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness
and odiousness of his sins, and upon the apprehension of God's mercy
in Christ to such as are penitent, he so grieves for and hates his
sins, as that he turns from them all to God, purposing and endeavoring
constantly to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience.
Question
77: Wherein do justification and sanctification differ?
Answer: Although
sanctification be inseparably joined with justification, yet they
differ, in that God in justification imputes the righteousness of
Christ;in sanctification his Spirit infuses grace, and enables to
the exercise thereof; in the former, sin is pardoned; in the other,
it is subdued:the one does equally free all believers from the revenging
wrath of God, and that perfectly in this life, that they never fall
into condemnation; the other is neither equal in all, nor in this
life perfect in any, but growing up to perfection.
Question 78: Whence
arises the imperfection of sanctification in believers?
Answer: The
imperfection of sanctification in believers arises from the remnants
of sin abiding in every part of them, and the perpetual lustings of
the flesh against the spirit; whereby they are often foiled with temptations,
and fall into many sins, are hindered in all their spiritual services,
and their best works are imperfect and defiled in the sight of God.
Question 79: May not true believers, by reason of their imperfections,
and the many temptations and sins they are overtaken with, fall away
from the state of grace ?
Answer: True believers, by reason of the
unchangeable love of God, and his decree and covenant to give them
perseverance, their inseparable union with Christ, his continual intercession
for them, and the Spirit and seed of God abiding in them, can neither
totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
Question 80: Can
true believers be infallibly assured that they are in the estate of
grace, and that they shall persevere therein unto salvation?
Answer:
Such as truly believe in Christ, and endeavor to walk in all good
conscience before him, may, without extraordinary revelation, by faith
grounded upon the truth of God's promises, and by the Spirit enabling
them to discern in themselves those graces to which the promises of
life are made, and bearing witness with their spirits that they are
the children of God, be infallibly assured that they are in the estate
of grace, and shall persevere therein unto salvation.
Question 81:
Are all true believers at all times assured of their present being
in the estate of grace, and that they shall be saved?
Answer: Assurance
of grace and salvation not being of the essence of faith, true believers
may wait long before they obtain it; and, after the enjoyment thereof,
may have it weakened and intermitted, through manifold distempers,
sins, temptations, and desertions; yet are they never left without
such a presence and support of the Spirit of God as keeps them from
sinking into utter despair.
Question 82: What is the communion in
glory which the members of the invisible church have with Christ?
Answer:
The communion in glory which the members of the invisible church have
with Christ, is in this life, immediately after death, and at last
perfected at the resurrection and day of judgment.
Question 83: What
is the communion in glory with Christ which the members of the invisible
church enjoy in this life?
Answer: The members of the invisible church
have communicated to them in this life the firstfruits of glory with
Christ, as they are members of him their head, and so in him are interested
in that glory which he is fully possessed of; and, as an earnest thereof,
enjoy the sense of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy
Ghost, and hope of glory; as, on the contrary, sense of God's revenging
wrath, horror of conscience, and a fearful expectation of judgment,
are to the wicked the beginning of their torments which they shall
endure after death.
Question 84: Shall all men die?
Answer: Death being
threatened as the wages of sin, it is appointed unto all men once
to die; for that all have sinned.
Question 85: Death, being the wages
of sin, why are not the righteous delivered from death, seeing all
their sins are forgiven in Christ?
Answer: The righteous shall be delivered
from death itself at the last day, and even in death are delivered
from the sting and curse of it; so that, although they die, yet it
is out of God's love, to free them perfectly from sin and misery,
and to make them capable of further communion with Christ in glory,
which they then enter upon.
Question 86: What is the communion in
glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy
immediately after death ?
Answer: The communion in glory with Christ,
which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after
death, is, in that their souls are then made perfect in holiness,
and received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face
of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their
bodies, which even in death continue united to Christ, and rest in
their graves as in their beds, till at the last day they be again
united to their souls. Whereas the souls of the wicked are at their
death cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness,
and their bodies kept in their graves, as in their prisons, till the
resurrection and judgment of the great day.
Question 87: What are
we to believe concerning the resurrection?
Answer: We are to believe,
that at the last day there shall be a general resurrection of the
dead, both of the just and unjust: when they that are then found alive
shall in a moment be changed; and the selfsame bodies of the dead
which were laid in the grave, being then again united to their souls
forever, shall be raised up by the power of Christ. The bodies of
the just, by the Spirit of Christ, and by virtue of his resurrection
as their head, shall be raised in power, spiritual, incorruptible,
and made like to his glorious body; and the bodies of the wicked shall
be raised up in dishonor by him, as an offended judge.
Question 88:
What shall immediately follow after the resurrection?
Answer: Immediately
after the resurrection shall follow the general and final judgment
of angels and men; the day and hour whereof no man knows, that all
may watch and pray, and be ever ready for the coming of the Lord.
Question 89: What shall be done to the wicked at the day of judgment?
Answer:
At the day of judgment, the wicked shall be set on Christ's left hand,
and, upon clear evidence, and full conviction of their own consciences,
shall have the fearful but just sentence of condemnation pronounced
against them; and thereupon shall be cast out from the favorable presence
of God, and the glorious fellowship with Christ, his saints, and all
his holy angels, into hell, to be punished with unspeakable torments,
both of body and soul, with the devil and his angels forever.
Question
90: What shall be done to the righteous at the day of judgment?
Answer:
At the day of judgment, the righteous, being caught up to Christ in
the clouds, shall be set on his right hand, and there openly acknowledged
and acquitted, shall join with him in the judging of reprobate angels
and men, and shall be received into heaven, where they shall be fully
and forever freed from all sin and misery; filled with inconceivable
joys, made perfectly holy and happy both in body and soul, in the
company of innumerable saints and holy angels, but especially in the
immediate vision and fruition of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity. And this is the perfect
and full communion, which the members of the invisible church shall
enjoy with Christ in glory, at the resurrection and day of judgment.
Question 91: What is the duty which God requires of man?
Answer: The
duty which God requires of man, is obedience to his revealed will.
Question 92: What did God at first reveal unto man as the rule of
his obedience?
Answer: The rule of obedience revealed to Adam in the
estate of innocence, and to all mankind in him, besides a special
command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, was the moral law.
Question 93: What is the moral law?
Answer:
The moral law is the declaration of the will of God to mankind, directing
and binding everyone to personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity
and obedience thereunto, in the frame and disposition of the whole
man, soul and body, and in performance of all those duties of holiness
and righteousness which he owes to God and man: promising life upon
the fulfilling, and threatening death upon the breach of it.
Question
94: Is there any use of the moral law to man since the fall?
Answer:
Although no man, since the fall, can attain to righteousness and life
by the moral law; yet there is great use thereof, as well common to
all men, as peculiar either to the unregenerate, or the regenerate.
Question 95: Of what use is the moral law to all men?
Answer: The moral
law is of use to all men, to inform them of the holy nature and will
of God, and of their duty, binding them to walk accordingly;to convince
them of their disability to keep it, and of the sinful pollution of
their nature, hearts, and lives; to humble them in the sense of their
sin and misery, and thereby help them to a clearer sight of the need
they have of Christ, and of the perfection of his obedience.
Question
96: What particular use is there of the moral law to unregenerate
men?
Answer: The moral law is of use to unregenerate men, to awaken
their consciences to flee from wrath to come, and to drive them to
Christ; or, upon their continuance in the estate and way of sin, to
leave them inexcusable, and under the curse thereof.
Question 97:
What special use is there of the moral law to the regenerate?
Answer:
Although they that are regenerate, and believe in Christ, be delivered
from the moral law as a covenant of works, so as thereby they are
neither justified nor condemned; yet, besides the general uses thereof
common to them with all men, it is of special use, to show them: How
much they are bound to Christ for his fulfilling it, and enduring
the curse thereof in their stead, and for their good; and thereby
to provoke them to more thankfulness, and to express the same in their
greater care to conform themselves thereunto as the rule of their
obedience.
Question 98: Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?
Answer:
The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments, which
were delivered by the voice of God upon Mount Sinai, and written by
him in two tables of stone; and are recorded in the twentieth chapter
of Exodus. The four first commandments containing our duty to God,
and the other six our duty to man.
Question 99: What rules are to
be observed for the right understanding of the ten commandments?
Answer:
For the right understanding of the ten commandments, these rules are
to be observed: That the law is perfect, and binds everyone to full
conformity in the whole man unto the righteousness thereof, and unto
entire obedience forever; so as to require the utmost perfection of
every duty, and to forbid the least degree of every sin. That it is
spiritual, and so reaches the understanding, will, affections, and
all other powers of the soul; as well as words, works, and gestures.
That one and the same thing, in divers respects, is required or forbidden
in several commandments. That as, where a duty is commanded, the contrary
sin is forbidden; and, where a sin is forbidden, the contrary duty
is commanded: so, where a promise is annexed, the contrary threatening
is included; and, where a threatening is annexed, the contrary promise
is included. That: What God forbids, is at no time to be done;: What
he commands, is always our duty; and yet every particular duty is
not to be done at all times. That under one sin or duty, all of the
same kind are forbidden or commanded; together with all the causes,
means, occasions, and appearances thereof, and provocations thereunto.
That: What is forbidden or commanded to ourselves, we are bound, according
to our places, to endeavor that it may be avoided or performed by
others, according to the duty of their places. That in: What is commanded
to others, we are bound, according to our places and callings, to
be helpful to them; and to take heed of partaking with others in:
What is forbidden them.
Question 100: What special things are we to
consider in the ten commandments?
Answer: We are to consider, in the
ten commandments, the preface, the substance of the commandments themselves,
and several reasons annexed to some of them, the more to enforce them.
Question 101: What is the preface to the ten commandments?
Answer:
The preface to the ten commandments is contained in these words, I
am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage. Wherein God manifests his sovereignty,
as being JEHOVAH, the eternal, immutable, and almighty God; having
his being in and of himself, and giving being to all his words and
works: and that he is a God in covenant, as with Israel of old, so
with all his people; who, as he brought them out of their bondage
in Egypt, so he delivers us from our spiritual thraldom; and that
therefore we are bound to take him for our God alone, and to keep
all his commandments.
Question 102: What is the sum of the four commandments
which contain our duty to God?
Answer: The sum of the four commandments
containing our duty to God is, to love the Lord our God with all our
heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with
all our mind.
Question 103: Which is the first commandment?
Answer:
The first commandment is, Thou shall have no other gods before me.
Question 104: What are the duties required in the first commandment?
Answer:
The duties required in the first commandment are, the knowing and
acknowledging of God to be the only true God, and our God; and to
worship and glorify him accordingly, by thinking, meditating, remembering,
highly esteeming, honoring, adoring, choosing, loving, desiring, fearing
of him; believing him; trusting, hoping, delighting, rejoicing in
him; being zealous for him; calling upon him, giving all praise and
thanks, and yielding all obedience and submission to him with the
whole man; being careful in all things to please him, and sorrowful
when in anything he is offended; and walking humbly with him.
Question
105: What are the sins forbidden in the first commandment?
Answer:
The sins forbidden in the first commandment are, atheism, in denying
or not having a God; idolatry, in having or worshiping more gods than
one, or any with or instead of the true God; the not having and avouching
him for God, and our God; the omission or neglect of anything due
to him, required in this commandment; ignorance, forgetfulness, misapprehensions,
false opinions, unworthy and wicked thoughts of him; bold and curious
searching into his secrets; all profaneness, hatred of God; self-love,
self-seeking, and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our
mind, will, or affections upon other things, and taking them off from
him in whole or in part; vain credulity, unbelief, heresy, misbelief,
distrust, despair, incorrigibleness, and insensibleness under judgments,
hardness of heart, pride, presumption, carnal security, tempting of
God; using unlawful means, and trusting in lawful means; carnal delights
and joys; corrupt, blind, and indiscreet zeal; lukewarmness, and deadness
in the things of God; estranging ourselves, and apostatizing from
God; praying, or giving any religious worship, to saints, angels,
or any other creatures; all compacts and consulting with the devil,
and hearkening to his suggestions; making men the lords of our faith
and conscience; slighting and despising God and his commands; resisting
and grieving of his Spirit, discontent and impatience at his dispensations,
charging him foolishly for the evils he inflicts on us; and ascribing
the praise of any good we either are, have, or can do, to fortune,
idols, ourselves, or any other creature.
Question 106: What are we
specially taught by these words before me in the first commandment?
Answer:
These words before me, or before my face, in the first commandment,
teach us, that God, who sees all things, takes special notice of,
and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God: that
so it may be an argument to dissuade from it, and to aggravate it
as a most impudent provocation: as also to persuade us to do as in
his sight,: Whatever we do in his service.
Question 107: Which is
the second commandment?
Answer: The second commandment is, Thou shalt
not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that
is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them,
nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands
of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Question 108: What
are the duties required in the second commandment?
Answer: The duties
required in the second commandment are, the receiving, observing,
and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances
as God has instituted in his Word; particularly prayer and thanksgiving
in the name of Christ; the reading, preaching, and hearing of the
Word; the administration and receiving of the sacraments; church government
and discipline; the ministry and maintenance thereof; religious fasting;
swearing by the name of God, and vowing unto him: as also the disapproving,
detesting, opposing, all false worship; and, according to each one's
place and calling, removing it, and all monuments of idolatry.
Question
109: What are the sins forbidden in the second commandment?
Answer:
The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counseling,
commanding, using, and anywise approving, any religious worship not
instituted by God himself; tolerating a false religion; the making
any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons,
either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or
likeness of any creature: Whatsoever; all worshiping of it, or God
in it or by it; the making of any representation of feigned deities,
and all worship of them, or service belonging to them; all superstitious
devices, corrupting the worship of God, adding to it, or taking from
it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves, or received by tradition
from others, though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion,
good intent, or any other pretense: Whatsoever; simony; sacrilege;
all neglect, contempt, hindering, and opposing the worship and ordinances
which God has appointed.
Question 110: What are the reasons annexed
to the second commandment, the more to enforce it?
Answer: The reasons
annexed to the second commandment, the more to enforce it, contained
in these words, For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands
of them that love me, and keep my commandments; are, besides God's
sovereignty over us, and propriety in us, his fervent zeal for his
own worship, and his revengeful indignation against all false worship,
as being a spiritual whoredom; accounting the breakers of this commandment
such as hate him, and threatening to punish them unto divers generations;
and esteeming the observers of it such as love him and keep his commandments,
and promising mercy to them unto many generations.
Question 111: Which
is the third commandment?
Answer: The third commandment is, Thou shalt
not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not
hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.
Question 112: What
is required in the third commandment?
Answer: The third commandment
requires, That the name of God, his titles, attributes, ordinances,
the Word, sacraments, prayer, oaths, vows, lots, his works, and: Whatsoever
else there is whereby he makes himself known, be holily and reverently
used in thought, meditation, word, and writing; by an holy profession,
and
Answerable conversation, to the glory of God, and the good of
ourselves, and others.
Question 113: What are the sins forbidden in
the third commandment?
Answer: The sins forbidden in the third commandment
are, the not using of God's name as is required; and the abuse of
it in an ignorant, vain, irreverent, profane, superstitious, or wicked
mentioning, or otherwise using his titles, attributes, ordinances,
or works, by blasphemy, perjury; all sinful cursings, oaths, vows,
and lots; violating of our oaths and vows, if lawful; and fulfilling
them, if of things unlawful; murmuring and quarreling at, curious
prying into, and misapplying of God's decrees and providences; misinterpreting,
misapplying, or any way perverting the Word, or any part of it, to
profane jests, curious or unprofitable
Questions, vain janglings, or the maintaining of false doctrines; abusing it, the creatures, or anything contained under the name of God, to charms, or sinful lusts and practices; the maligning, scorning, reviling, or anywise opposing of God's truth, grace, and ways; making profession of religion in hypocrisy, or for sinister ends; being ashamed of it, or a shame to it, by unconformable, unwise, unfruitful, and offensive walking, or backsliding from it.
Question 114: What reasons are annexed to
the third commandment?
Answer: The reasons annexed to the third commandment,
in these words, The Lord thy God, and, For the Lord will not hold
him guiltless that takes his name in vain, are, because he is the
Lord and our God, therefore his name is not to be profaned, or any
way abused by us; especially because he will be so far from acquitting
and sparing the transgressors of this commandment, as that he will
not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment, albeit many such
escape the censures and punishments of men.
Question 115: Which is
the fourth commandment?
Answer: The fourth commandment is, Remember
the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do
all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God:
in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger
that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day:
wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Question
116: What is required in the fourth commandment?
Answer: The fourth
commandment requires of all men the sanctifying or keeping holy to
God such set times as he has appointed in his Word, expressly one
whole day in seven; which was the seventh from the beginning of the
world to the resurrection of Christ, and the first day of the week
ever since, and so to continue to the end of the world; which is the
Christian sabbath, and in the New Testament called the Lord's day.
Question 117: How is the sabbath or the Lord's day to be sanctified?
Answer:
The sabbath or Lord's day is to be sanctified by an holy resting all
the day, not only from such works as are at all times sinful, but
even from such worldly employments and recreations as are on other
days lawful; and making it our delight to spend the whole time (except
so much of it as is to betaken up in works of necessity and mercy)
in the public and private exercises of God's worship: and, to that
end, we are to prepare our hearts, and with such foresight, diligence,
and moderation, to dispose and seasonably dispatch our worldly business,
that we may be the more free and fit for the duties of that day.
Question
118: Why is the charge of keeping the sabbath more specially directed
to governors of families, and other superiors?
Answer: The charge of
keeping the sabbath is more specially directed to governors of families,
and other superiors, because they are bound not only to keep it themselves,
but to see that it be observed by all those that are under their charge;
and because they are prone ofttimes to hinder them by employments
of their own.
Question 119: What are the sins forbidden in the fourth
commandment?
Answer: The sins forbidden in the fourth commandment are,
all omissions of the duties required, all careless, negligent, and
unprofitable performing of them, and being weary of them; all profaning
the day by idleness, and doing that which is in itself sinful; and
by all needless works, words, and thoughts, about our worldly employments
and recreations.
Question 120: What are the reasons annexed to the
fourth commandment, the more to enforce it?
Answer: The reasons annexed
to the fourth commandment, the more to enforce it, are taken from
the equity of it, God allowing us six days of seven for our own affairs,
and reserving but one for himself, in these words, Six days shalt
thou labor, and do all thy work: from God's challenging a special
propriety in that day, The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord
thy God: from the example of God, who in six days made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day:
and from that blessing which God put upon that day, not only in sanctifying
it to be a day for his service, but in ordaining it to be a means
of blessing to us in our sanctifying it;Wherefore the Lord blessed
the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Question 121: Why is the word Remember
set in the beginning of the fourth commandment?
Answer: The word Remember
is set in the beginning of the fourth commandment, partly, because
of the great benefit of remembering it, we being thereby helped in
our preparation to keep it, and, in keeping it, better to keep all
the rest of the commandments, and to continue a thankful remembrance
of the two great benefits of creation and redemption, which contain
a short abridgment of religion; and partly, because we are very ready
to forget it, for that there is less light of nature for it, and yet
it restrains our natural liberty in things at other times lawful;
that it comes but once in seven days, and many worldly businesses
come between, and too often take off our minds from thinking of it,
either to prepare for it, or to sanctify it;and that Satan with his
instruments much labor to blot out the glory, and even the memory
of it, to bring in all irreligion and impiety.
Question 122: What
is the sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man?
Answer:
The sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man is,
to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to do to others: What we would
have them to do to us.
Question 123: Which is the fifth commandment?
Answer:
The fifth commandment is, Honor thy father and thy mother; that thy
days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God gives thee.
Question 124: Who are meant by father and mother in the fifth commandment?
Answer:
By father and mother, in the fifth commandment, are meant, not only
natural parents, but all superiors in age and gifts; and especially
such as, by God's ordinance, are over us in place of authority, whether
in family, church, or commonwealth.
Question 125: Why are superiors
styled father and mother?
Answer: Superiors are styled father and mother,
both to teach them in all duties toward their inferiors, like natural
parents, to express love and tenderness to them, according to their
several relations; and to work inferiors to a greater willingness
and cheerfulness in performing their duties to their superiors, as
to their parents.
Question 126: What is the general scope of the fifth
commandment?
Answer: The general scope of the fifth commandment is,
the performance of those duties which we mutually owe in our several
relations, as inferiors, superiors, or equals.
Question 127: What
is the honor that inferiors owe to their superiors.?
Answer: The honor
which inferiors owe to their superiors is, all due reverence in heart,
word, and behavior; prayer and thanksgiving for them; imitation of
their virtues and graces; willing obedience to their lawful commands
and counsels; due submission to their corrections; fidelity to, defense
and maintenance of their persons and authority, according to their
several ranks, and the nature of their places; bearing with their
infirmities, and covering them in love, that so they may be an honor
to them and to their government.
Question 128: What are the sins of
inferiors against their superiors?
Answer: The sins of inferiors against
their superiors are, all neglect of the duties required toward them;
envying at, contempt of, and rebellion against, their persons and
places, in their lawful counsels, commands, and corrections; cursing,
mocking, and all such refractory and scandalous carriage, as proves
a shame and dishonor to them and their government.
Question 129: What
is required of superiors towards their inferiors?
Answer: It is required
of superiors, according to that power they receive from God, and that
relation wherein they stand, to love, pray for, and bless their inferiors;
to instruct, counsel, and admonish them; countenancing, commending,
and rewarding such as do well; and discountenancing, reproving, and
chastising such as do ill; protecting, and providing for them all
things necessary for soul and body: and by grave, wise, holy, and
exemplary carriage, to procure glory to God, honor to themselves,
and so to preserve that authority which God has put upon them.
Question
130: What are the sins of superiors?
Answer: The sins of superiors
are, besides the neglect of the duties required of them, an inordinate
seeking of themselves, their own glory, ease, profit, or pleasure;
commanding things unlawful, or not in the power of inferiors to perform;
counseling, encouraging, or favoring them in that which is evil; dissuading,
discouraging, or discountenancing them in that which is good; correcting
them unduly; careless exposing, or leaving them to wrong, temptation,
and danger; provoking them to wrath; or any way dishonoring themselves,
or lessening their authority, by an unjust, indiscreet, rigorous,
or remiss behavior.
Question 131: What are the duties of equals?
Answer:
The duties of equals are, to regard the dignity and worth of each
other, in giving honor to go one before another; and to rejoice in
each other's gifts and advancement, as their own.
Question 132: What
are the sins of equals?
Answer: The sins of equals are, besides the
neglect of the duties required, the undervaluing of the worth, envying
the gifts, grieving at the advancement of prosperity one of another;
and usurping preeminence one over another.
Question 133: What is the
reason annexed to the fifth commandment, the more to enforce it?
Answer:
The reason annexed to the fifth commandment, in these words, That
thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God gives thee,
is an express promise of long life and prosperity, as far as it shall
serve for God's glory and their own good, to all such as keep this
commandment.
Question 134: Which is the sixth commandment?
Answer:
The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill.
Question 135: What
are the duties required in the sixth commandment?
Answer: The duties
required in the sixth commandment are, all careful studies, and lawful
endeavors, to preserve the life of ourselves and others by resisting
all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all
occasions, temptations, and practices, which tend to the unjust taking
away the life of any; by just defense thereof against violence, patient
bearing of the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit;
a sober use of meat, drink, physic, sleep, labor, and recreations;
by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness;
peaceable, mild and courteous speeches and behavior; forbearance,
readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries,
and requiting good for evil; comforting and succoring the distressed,
and protecting and defending the innocent.
Question 136: What are
the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment?
Answer: The sins forbidden
in the sixth commandment are, all taking away the life of ourselves,
or of others, except in case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary
defense; the neglecting or withdrawing the lawful and necessary means
of preservation of life; sinful anger, hatred, envy, desire of revenge;all
excessive passions, distracting cares; immoderate use of meat, drink,
labor, and recreations; provoking words, oppression, quarreling, striking,
wounding, and: Whatsoever else tends to the destruction of the life
of any.
Question 137: Which is the seventh commandment?
Answer: The
seventh commandment is, Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Question 138:
What are the duties required in the seventh commandment?
Answer: The
duties required in the seventh commandment are, chastity in body,
mind, affections, words, and behavior; and the preservation of it
in ourselves and others; watchfulness over the eyes and all the senses;
temperance, keeping of chaste company, modesty in apparel; marriage
by those that have not the gift of continency, conjugal love, and
cohabitation; diligent labor in our callings; shunning all occasions
of uncleanness, and resisting temptations thereunto.
Question 139:
What are the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment?
Answer: The
sins forbidden in the seventh commandment, besides the neglect of
the duties required, are, adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy,
and all unnatural lusts; all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes,
and affections;all corrupt or filthy communications, or listening
thereunto; wanton looks, impudent or light behavior, immodest apparel;
prohibiting of lawful, and dispensing with unlawful marriages; allowing,
tolerating, keeping of stews, and resorting to them; entangling vows
of single life, undue delay of marriage; having more wives or husbands
than one at the same time; unjust divorce, or desertion; idleness,
gluttony, drunkenness, unchaste company; lascivious songs, books,
pictures, dancings, stage plays; and all other provocations to, or
acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others.
Question 140:
Which is the eighth commandment?
Answer: The eighth commandment is,
Thou shalt not steal.
Question 141: What are the duties required in
the eighth commandment?
Answer: The duties required in the eighth commandment
are, truth, faithfulness, and justice in contracts and commerce between
man and man; rendering to everyone his due; restitution of goods unlawfully
detained from the right owners thereof; giving and lending freely,
according to our abilities, and the necessities of others; moderation
of our judgments, wills, and affections concerning worldly goods;
a provident care and study to get, keep, use, and dispose these things
which are necessary and convenient for the sustentation of our nature,
and suitable to our condition; a lawful calling, and diligence in
it; frugality; avoiding unnecessary lawsuits and suretyship, or other
like engagements; and an endeavor, by all just and lawful means, to
procure, preserve, and further the wealth and outward estate of others,
as well as our own.
Question 142: What are the sins forbidden in the
eighth commandment?
Answer: The sins forbidden in the eighth commandment,
besides the neglect of the duties required, are, theft, robbery, man_stealing,
and receiving anything that is stolen; fraudulent dealing, false weights
and measures, removing land marks, injustice and unfaithfulness in
contracts between man and man, or in matters of trust; oppression,
extortion, usury, bribery, vexatious lawsuits, unjust enclosures and
depopulations; engrossing commodities to enhance the price; unlawful
callings, and all other unjust or sinful ways of taking or withholding
from our neighbor: What belongs to him, or of enriching ourselves;
covetousness; inordinate prizing and affecting worldly goods; distrustful
and distracting cares and studies in getting, keeping, and using them;
envying at the prosperity of others; as likewise idleness, prodigality,
wasteful gaming; and all other ways whereby we do unduly prejudice
our own outward estate, and defrauding ourselves of the due use and
comfort of that estate which God has given us.
Question 143: Which
is the ninth commandment?
Answer: The ninth commandment is, Thou shalt
not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Question 144: What are
the duties required in the ninth commandment?
Answer: The duties required
in the ninth commandment are, the preserving and promoting of truth
between man and man, and the good name of our neighbor, as well as
our own; appearing and standing for the truth; and from the heart,
sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth, and only
the truth, in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things:
Whatsoever; a charitable esteem of our neighbors; loving, desiring,
and rejoicing in their good name; sorrowing for, and covering of their
infirmities; freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces, defending
their innocency; a ready receiving of a good report, and unwillingness
to admit of an evil report, concerning them; discouraging talebearers,
flatterers, and slanderers; love and care of our own good name, and
defending it when need requires; keeping of lawful promises; studying
and practicing of: Whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and
of good report.
Question 145: What are the sins forbidden in the ninth
commandment?
Answer: The sins forbidden in the ninth commandment are,
all prejudicing the truth, and the good name of our neighbors, as
well as our own, especially in public judicature; giving false evidence,
suborning false witnesses, wittingly appearing and pleading for an
evil cause, outfacing and overbearing the truth; passing unjust sentence,
calling evil good, and good evil; rewarding the wicked according to
the work of the righteous, and the righteous according to the work
of the wicked; forgery, concealing the truth, undue silence in a just
cause, and holding our peace when iniquity calls for either a reproof
from ourselves, or complaint to others; speaking the truth unseasonably,
or maliciously to a wrong end, or perverting it to a wrong meaning,
or in doubtful and equivocal expressions, to the prejudice of truth
or justice;speaking untruth, lying, slandering, backbiting, detracting,
tale bearing, whispering, scoffing, reviling, rash, harsh, and partial
censuring; misconstructing intentions, words, and actions; flattering,
vainglorious boasting, thinking or speaking too highly or too meanly
of ourselves or others; denying the gifts and graces of God; aggravating
smaller faults;hiding, excusing, or extenuating of sins, when called
to a free confession;unnecessary discovering of infirmities; raising
false rumors, receiving and countenancing evil reports, and stopping
our ears against just defense; evil suspicion; envying or grieving
at the deserved credit of any, endeavoring or desiring to impair it,
rejoicing in their disgrace and infamy; scornful contempt, fond admiration;
breach of lawful promises; neglecting such things as are of good report,
and practicing, or not avoiding ourselves, or not hindering: What
we can in others, such things as procure an ill name.
Question 146:
Which is the tenth commandment?
Answer: The tenth commandment is, Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his
ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.
Question 147: What are
the duties required in the tenth commandment?
Answer: The duties required
in the tenth commandment are, such a full contentment with our own
condition, and such a charitable frame of the whole soul toward our
neighbor, as that all our inward motions and affections touching him,
tend unto, and further all that good which is his.
Question 148: What
are the sins forbidden in the tenth commandment?
Answer: The sins forbidden
in the tenth commandment are, discontentment with our own estate;
envying and grieving at the good of our neighbor, together with all
inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his.
Question
149: Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?
Answer:
No man is able, either of himself, or by any grace received in this
life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God; but does daily break
them in thought, word, and deed.
Question 150: Are all transgressions
of the law of God equally heinous in themselves, and in the sight
of God?
Answer: All transgressions of the law of God are not equally
heinous; but some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations,
are more heinous in the sight of God than others.
Question 151: What
are those aggravations that make some sins more heinous than others?
Answer: Sins receive their aggravations, From the persons offending:
if they be of riper age, greater experience or grace, eminent for
profession, gifts, place, office, guides to others, and whose example
is likely to be followed by others. From the parties offended: if
immediately against God, his attributes, and worship; against Christ,
and his grace; the Holy Spirit, his witness, and workings; against
superiors, men of eminency, and such as we stand especially related
and engaged unto; against any of the saints, particularly weak brethren,
the souls of them, or any other, and the common good of all or many.
From the nature and quality of the offense: if it be against the express
letter of the law, break many commandments, contain in it many sins:
if not only conceived in the heart, but breaks forth in words and
actions, scandalize others, and admit of no reparation: if against
means, mercies, judgments, light of nature, conviction of conscience,
public or private admonition, censures of the church, civil punishments;
and our prayers, purposes, promises, vows, covenants, and engagements
to God or men: if done deliberately, wilfully, presumptuously, impudently,
boastingly, maliciously, frequently, obstinately, with delight, continuance,
or relapsing after repentance. From circumstances of time and place:
if on the Lord's day, or other times of divine worship; or immediately
before or after these, or other helps to prevent or remedy such miscarriages:
if in public, or in the presence of others, who are thereby likely
to be provoked or defiled.
Question 152: What does every sin deserve
at the hands of God?
Answer: Every sin, even the least, being against
the sovereignty, goodness, and holiness of God, and against his righteous
law, deserves his wrath and curse, both in this life, and that which
is to come; and cannot be expiated but by the blood of Christ.
Question
153: What does God require of us, that we may escape his wrath and
curse due to us by reason of the transgression of the law?
Answer:
That we may escape the wrath and curse of God due to us by reason
of the transgression of the law, he requires of us repentance toward
God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and the diligent use
of the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits
of his mediation.
Question 154: What are the outward means whereby
Christ communicates to us the benefits of his mediation?
Answer: The
outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to his church
the benefits of his mediation, are all his ordinances; especially
the Word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to
the elect for their salvation.
Question 155: How is the Word made
effectual to salvation?
Answer: The Spirit of God makes the reading,
but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of enlightening,
convincing, and humbling sinners; of driving them out of themselves,
and drawing them unto Christ; of conforming them to his image, and
subduing them to his will; of strengthening them against temptations
and corruptions; of building them up in grace, and establishing their
hearts in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.
Question
156: Is the Word of God to be read by all?
Answer: Although all are
not to be permitted to read the Word publicly to the congregation,
yet all sorts of people are bound to read it apart by themselves,
and with their families: to which end, the holy Scriptures are to
be translated out of the original into vulgar languages.
Question
157: How is the Word of God to be read?
Answer: The holy Scriptures
are to be read with an high and reverent esteem of them; with a firm
persuasion that they are the very Word of God, and that he only can
enable us to understand them; with desire to know, believe, and obey
the will of God revealed in them; with diligence, and attention to
the matter and scope of them; with meditation, application, self_denial,
and prayer.
Question 158: By whom is the Word of God to be preached?
Answer: The Word of God is to be preached only by such as are sufficiently
gifted, and also duly approved and called to that office.
Question
159: How is the Word of God to be preached by those that are called
thereunto?
Answer: They that are called to labor in the ministry of
the Word, are to preach sound doctrine, diligently, in season and
out of season; plainly, not in the enticing words of man's wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power; faithfully, making
known the whole counsel of God; wisely, applying themselves to the
necessities and capacities of the hearers; zealously, with fervent
love to God and the souls of his people; sincerely, aiming at his
glory, and their conversion, edification, and salvation.
Question
160: What is required of those that hear the Word preached?
Answer:
It is required of those that hear the Word preached, that they attend
upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer; examine: What they
hear by the Scriptures; receive the truth with faith, love, meekness,
and readiness of mind, as the Word of God; meditate, and confer of
it; hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their
lives.
Question 161: How do the sacraments become effectual means
of salvation?
Answer: The sacraments become effectual means of salvation,
not by any power in themselves, or any virtue derived from the piety
or intention of him by whom they are administered, but only by the
working of the Holy Ghost, and the blessing of Christ, by whom they
are instituted.
Question 162: What is a sacrament?
Answer: A sacrament
is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ in his church, to signify,
seal, and exhibit unto those that are within the covenant of grace,
the benefits of his mediation; to strengthen and increase their faith,
and all other graces; to oblige them to obedience; to testify and
cherish their love and communion one with another; and to distinguish
them from those that are without.
Question 163: What are the parts
of a sacrament?
Answer: The parts of a sacrament are two; the one
an outward and sensible sign, used according to Christ's own appointment;
the other an inward and spiritual grace thereby signified.
Question
164: How many sacraments has Christ instituted in his church under
the New Testament?
Answer: Under the New Testament Christ has instituted
in his church only two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
Question 165: What is Baptism?
Answer: Baptism is a sacrament of the
New Testament, wherein Christ has ordained the washing with water
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
to be a sign and seal of ingrafting into himself, of remission of
sins by his blood, and regeneration by his Spirit; of adoption, and
resurrection unto everlasting life; and whereby the parties baptized
are solemnly admitted into the visible church, and enter into an open
and professed engagement to be wholly and only the Lord's.
Question
166: Unto whom is Baptism to be administered?
Answer: Baptism is not
to be administered to any that are out of the visible church, and
so strangers from the covenant of promise, till they profess their
faith in Christ, and obedience to him, but infants descending from
parents, either both, or but one of them, professing faith in Christ,
and obedience to him, are in that respect within the covenant, and
to be baptized.
Question 167: How is our Baptism to be improved by
us?
Answer: The needful but much neglected duty of improving our Baptism,
is to be performed by us all our life long, especially in the time
of temptation, and when we are present at the administration of it
to others; by serious and thankful consideration of the nature of
it, and of the ends for which Christ instituted it, the privileges
and benefits conferred and sealed thereby, and our solemn vow made
therein; by being humbled for our sinful defilement, our falling short
of, and walking contrary to, the grace of baptism, and our engagements;
by growing up to assurance of pardon of sin, and of all other blessings
sealed to us in that sacrament; by drawing strength from the death
and resurrection of Christ, into whom we are baptized, for the mortifying
of sin, and quickening of grace; and by endeavoring to live by faith,
to have our conversation in holiness and righteousness, as those that
have therein given up their names to Christ; and to walk in brotherly
love, as being baptized by the same Spirit into one body.
Question
168: What is the Lord's Supper?
Answer: The Lord's Supper is a sacrament
of the New Testament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine
according to the appointment of Jesus Christ, his death is showed
forth; and they that worthily communicate feed upon his body and blood,
to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace; have their union
and communion with him confirmed; testify and renew their thankfulness,
and engagement to God, and their mutual love and fellowship each with
other, as members of the same mystical body.
Question 169: How has
Christ appointed bread and wine to be given and received in the sacrament
of the Lord's Supper?
Answer: Christ has appointed the ministers of
his Word, in the administration of this sacrament of the Lord's Supper,
to set apart the bread and wine from common use, by the word of institution,
thanksgiving, and prayer; to take and break the bread, and to give
both the bread and the wine to the communicants: who are, by the same
appointment, to take and eat the bread, and to drink the wine, in
thankful remembrance that the body of Christ was broken and given,
and his blood shed, for them.
Question 170: How do they that worthily
communicate in the Lord's Supper feed upon the body and blood of Christ
therein?
Answer: As the body and blood of Christ are not corporally
or carnally present in, with, or under the bread and wine in the Lord's
Supper, and yet are spiritually present to the faith of the receiver,
no less truly and really than the elements themselves are to their
outward senses; so they that worthily communicate in the sacrament
of the Lord's Supper, do therein feed upon the body and blood of Christ,
not after a corporal and carnal, but in a spiritual manner; yet truly
and really, while by faith they receive and apply unto themselves
Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death.
Question 171:
How are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to prepare
themselves before they come unto it?
Answer: They that receive the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper are, before they come, to prepare themselves
thereunto, by examining themselves of their being in Christ, of their
sins and wants; of the truth and measure of their knowledge, faith,
repentance; love to God and the brethren, charity to all men, forgiving
those that have done them wrong; of their desires after Christ, and
of their new obedience; and by renewing the exercise of these graces,
by serious meditation, and fervent prayer.
Question 172: May one who
doubts of his being in Christ, or of his due preparation, come to
the Lord's Supper?
Answer: One who doubts of his being in Christ,
or of his due preparation to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, may
have true interest in Christ, though he be not yet assured thereof;
and in God's account has it, if he be duly affected with the apprehension
of the want of it, and unfeignedly desires to be found in Christ,
and to depart from iniquity: in which case (because promises are made,
and this sacrament is appointed, for the relief even of weak and doubting
Christians) he is to bewail his unbelief, and labor to have his doubts
resolved; and, so doing, he may and ought to come to the Lord's Supper,
that he may be further strengthened.
Question 173: May any who profess
the faith, and desire to come to the Lord's Supper, be kept from it?
Answer: Such as are found to be ignorant or scandalous, notwithstanding
their profession of the faith, and desire to come to the Lord's Supper,
may and ought to be kept from that sacrament, by the power which Christ
has left in his church, until they receive instruction, and manifest
their reformation.
Question 174: What is required of them that receive
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in the time of the administration
of it?
Answer: It is required of them that receive the sacrament of
the Lord's Supper, that, during the time of the administration of
it, with all holy reverence and attention they wait upon God in that
ordinance, diligently observe the sacramental elements and actions,
heedfully discern the Lord's body, and affectionately meditate on
his death and sufferings, and thereby stir up themselves to a vigorous
exercise of their graces; in judging themselves, and sorrowing for
sin; in earnest hungering and thirsting after Christ, feeding on him
by faith, receiving of his fulness, trusting in his merits, rejoicing
in his love, giving thanks for his grace; in renewing of their covenant
with God, and love to all the saints.
Question 175: What is the duty
of Christians, after they have received the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper?
Answer: The duty of Christians, after they have received the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper, is seriously to consider: How they
have behaved themselves therein, and with: What success; if they find
quickening and comfort, to bless God for it, beg the continuance of
it, watch against relapses, fulfil their vows, and encourage themselves
to a frequent attendance on that ordinance: but if they find no present
benefit, more exactly to review their preparation to, and carriage
at, the sacrament; in both which, if they can approve themselves to
God and their own consciences, they are to wait for the fruit of it
in due time: but, if they see they have failed in either, they are
to be humbled, and to attend upon it afterwards with more care and
diligence.
Question 176: Wherein do the sacraments of Baptism and
the Lord's Supper agree?
Answer: The sacraments of Baptism and the
Lord's Supper agree, in that the author of both is God; the spiritual
part of both is Christ and his benefits; both are seals of the same
covenant, are to be dispensed by ministers of the gospel, and by none
other; and to be continued in the church of Christ until his second
coming.
Question 177: Wherein do the sacraments of Baptism and the
Lord's Supper differ?
Answer: The sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's
Supper differ, in that Baptism is to be administered but once, with
water, to be a sign and seal of our regeneration and ingrafting into
Christ, and that even to infants; whereas the Lord's Supper is to
be administered often, in the elements of bread and wine, to represent
and exhibit Christ as spiritual nourishment to the soul, and to confirm
our continuance and growth in him, and that only to such as are of
years and ability to examine themselves.
Question 178: What is prayer?
Answer: Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, in the name
of Christ, by the help of his Spirit; with confession of our sins,
and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.
Question 179: Are we to
pray unto God only?
Answer: God only being able to search the hearts,
hear the requests, pardon the sins, and fulfil the desires of all;
and only to be believed in, and worshiped with religious worship;
prayer, which is a special part thereof, is to be made by all to him
alone, and to none other.
Question 180: What is it to pray in the
name of Christ?
Answer: To pray in the name of Christ is, in obedience
to his command, and in confidence on his promises, to ask mercy for
his sake; not by bare mentioning of his name, but by drawing our encouragement
to pray, and our boldness, strength, and hope of acceptance in prayer,
from Christ and his mediation.
Question 181: Why are we to pray in
the name of Christ?
Answer: The sinfulness of man, and his distance
from God by reason thereof, being so great, as that we can have no
access into his presence without a mediator; and there being none
in heaven or earth appointed to, or fit for, that glorious work but
Christ alone, we are to pray in no other name but his only.
Question
182: How does the Spirit help us to pray?
Answer: We not knowing:
What to pray for as we ought, the Spirit helps our infirmities, by
enabling us to understand both for whom, and: What, and: How prayer
is to be made; and by working and quickening in our hearts (although
not in all persons, nor at all times, in the same measure) those apprehensions,
affections, and graces which are requisite for the right performance
of that duty.
Question 183: For whom are we to pray?
Answer: We are
to pray for the whole church of Christ upon earth; for magistrates,
and ministers; for ourselves, our brethren, yea, our enemies; and
for all sorts of men living, or that shall live hereafter; but not
for the dead, nor for those that are known to have sinned the sin
unto death.
Question 184: For what things are we to pray?
Answer:
We are to pray for all things tending to the glory of God, the welfare
of the church, our own or others good; but not for anything that is
unlawful.
Question 185: How are we to pray.?
Answer: We are to pray
with an awful apprehension of the majesty of God, and deep sense of
our own unworthiness, necessities, and sins; with penitent, thankful,
and enlarged hearts; with understanding, faith, sincerity, fervency,
love, and perseverance, waiting upon him, with humble submission to
his will.
Question 186: What rule has God given for our direction
in the duty of prayer?
Answer: The whole Word of God is of use to
direct us in the duty of prayer; but the special rule of direction
is that form of prayer which our Savior Christ taught his disciples,
commonly called the Lord's Prayer.
Question 187: How is the Lord's
Prayer to be used?
Answer: The Lord's Prayer is not only for direction,
as a pattern, according to which we are to make other prayers; but
may also be used as a prayer, so that it be done with understanding,
faith, reverence, and other graces necessary to the right performance
of the duty of prayer.
Question 188: Of how many parts does the Lord's
Prayer consist?
Answer: The Lord's Prayer consists of three parts;
a preface, petitions, and a conclusion.
Question 189: What does the
preface of the Lord's Prayer teach us?
Answer: The preface of the
Lord's Prayer (contained in these words, Our Father which art in heaven),
teaches us, when we pray, to draw near to God with confidence of his
fatherly goodness, and our interest therein; with reverence, and all
other childlike dispositions, heavenly affections, and due apprehensions
of his sovereign power, majesty, and gracious condescension: as also,
to pray with and for others.
Question 190: What do we pray for in
the first petition?
Answer: In the first petition (which is, Hallowed
be thy name), acknowledging the utter inability and indisposition
that is in ourselves and all men to honor God aright, we pray, that
God would by his grace enable and incline us and others to know, to
acknowledge, and highly to esteem him, his titles, attributes, ordinances,
Word, works, and: Whatsoever he is pleased to make himself known by;
and to glorify him in thought, word, and deed: that he would prevent
and remove atheism, ignorance, idolatry, profaneness, and: Whatsoever
is dishonorable to him; and, by his overruling providence, direct
and dispose of all things to his own glory.
Question 191: What do
we pray for in the second petition.?
Answer: In the second petition
(which is, Thy kingdom come), acknowledging ourselves and all mankind
to be by nature under the dominion of sin and Satan, we pray, that
the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the gospel propagated
throughout the world, the Jews called, the fulness of the Gentiles
brought in; the church furnished with all gospel officers and ordinances,
purged from corruption, countenanced and maintained by the civil magistrate:
that the ordinances of Christ may be purely dispensed, and made effectual
to the converting of those that are yet in their sins, and the confirming,
comforting, and building up of those that are already converted: that
Christ would rule in our hearts here, and hasten the time of his second
coming, and our reigning with him forever: and that he would be pleased
so to exercise the kingdom of his power in all the world, as may best
conduce to these ends.
Question 192: What do we pray for in the third
petition?
Answer: In the third petition (which is, Thy will be done
in earth, as it is in heaven), acknowledging, that by nature we and
all men are not only utterly unable and unwilling to know and do the
will of God, but prone to rebel against his Word, to repine and murmur
against his providence, and wholly inclined to do the will of the
flesh, and of the devil: we pray, that God would by his Spirit take
away from ourselves and others all blindness, weakness, indisposedness,
and perverseness of heart; and by his grace make us able and willing
to know, do, and submit to his will in all things, with the like humility,
cheerfulness, faithfulness, diligence, zeal, sincerity, and constancy,
as the angels do in heaven.
Question 193: What do we pray for in the
fourth petition?
Answer: In the fourth petition (which is, Give us
this day our daily bread), acknowledging, that in Adam, and by our
own sin, we have forfeited our right to all the outward blessings
of this life, and deserve to be wholly deprived of them by God, and
to have them cursed to us in the use of them; and that neither they
of themselves are able to sustain us, nor we to merit, or by our own
industry to procure them; but prone to desire, get, and use them unlawfully:
we pray for ourselves and others, that both they and we, waiting upon
the providence of God from day to day in the use of lawful means,
may, of his free gift, and as to his fatherly wisdom shall seem best,
enjoy a competent portion of them; and have the same continued and
blessed unto us in our holy and comfortable use of them, and contentment
in them; and be kept from all things that are contrary to our temporal
support and comfort.
Question 194: What do we pray for in the fifth
petition?
Answer: In the fifth petition (which is, Forgive us our
debts, as we forgive our debtors), acknowledging, that we and all
others are guilty both of original and actual sin, and thereby become
debtors to the justice of God; and that neither we, nor any other
creature, can make the least satisfaction for that debt: we pray for
ourselves and others, that God of his free grace would, through the
obedience and satisfaction of Christ, apprehended and applied by faith,
acquit us both from the guilt and punishment of sin, accept us in
his Beloved; continue his favor and grace to us, pardon our daily
failings, and fill us with peace and joy, in giving us daily more
and more assurance of forgiveness; which we are the rather emboldened
to ask, and encouraged to expect, when we have this testimony in ourselves,
that we from the heart forgive others their offenses.
Question 195:
What do we pray for in the sixth petition?
Answer: In the sixth petition
(which is, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil),
acknowledging, that the most wise, righteous, and gracious God, for
divers holy and just ends, may so order things, that we may be assaulted,
foiled, and for a time led captive by temptations; that Satan, the
world, and the flesh, are ready powerfully to draw us aside, and ensnare
us; and that we, even after the pardon of our sins, by reason of our
corruption, weakness, and want of watchfulness, are not only subject
to be tempted, and forward to expose ourselves unto temptations, but
also of ourselves unable and unwilling to resist them, to recover
out of them, and to improve them; and worthy to be left under the
power of them: we pray, that God would so overrule the world and all
in it, subdue the flesh, and restrain Satan, order all things, bestow
and bless all means of grace, and quicken us to watchfulness in the
use of them, that we and all his people may by his providence be kept
from being tempted to sin; or, if tempted, that by his Spirit we may
be powerfully supported and enabled to stand in the hour of temptation:
or when fallen, raised again and recovered out of it, and have a sanctified
use and improvement thereof: that our sanctification and salvation
may be perfected, Satan trodden under our feet, and we fully freed
from sin, temptation, and all evil, forever.
Question 196: What does
the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer teach us?
Answer: The conclusion
of the Lord's Prayer (which is, For thine is the kingdom, and the
power, and the glory, forever. Amen.), teaches us to enforce our petitions
with arguments, which are to be taken, not from any worthiness in
ourselves, or in any other creature, but from God; and with our prayers
to join praises, ascribing to God alone eternal sovereignty, omnipotency,
and glorious excellency; in regard whereof, as he is able and willing
to help us, so we by faith are emboldened to plead with him that he
would, and quietly to rely upon him, that he will fulfil our requests.
And, to testify this our desire and assurance, we say, Amen.