- Q. What is the chief end
of man?
A. Man's chief end is to glorify God (1 Cor. 10:31), and to enjoy
him for ever (Ps. 73:25-26).
- Q. What rule has God given
to direct us how we may glorify him?
A. The Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the
Old and New Testaments (Eph. 2:20; 2 Tim. 3:16) is the only rule
to direct us how we may glorify God and enjoy him (1 Jn. 1:3).
- Q. What do the Scriptures
principally teach?
A. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning
God, and what duty God requires of man (2 Tim. 1:13; Eccl. 12:13).
- Q. What is God?
A. God is Spirit (Jn. 4:24), infinite (Job 11:7), eternal (Ps.
90:2; 1 Tim. 1:17), and unchangeable (Jas. 1:17) in his being (Exod.
3:14), wisdom, power (Ps. 147:5), holiness (Rev. 4:8), justice,
goodness and truth (Exod. 34:6-7).
- Q. Are there more Gods than
one?
A. There is but one only (Deut. 6:4), the living and true God
(Jer. 10:10).
- Q. How many persons are
there in the Godhead?
A. There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God, the same in essence,
equal in power and glory (1 Jn. 5:7; Matt. 28:19).
- Q. What are the decrees
of God?
A. The decrees of God are his eternal purpose according to the
counsel of his own will, whereby for his own glory he has foreordained
whatever comes to pass (Eph. 1:11-12).
- Q. How does God execute
his decrees?
A. God executes his decrees in the works of creation (Rev. 4:11),
and providence (Dan. 4:35).
- Q. What is the work of creation?
A. The work of creation is God's making all things (Gen. 1:1)
of nothing, by the Word of his power (Heb. 11:3), in six normal
consecutive days (Exod. 20:11), and all very good (Gen. 1:31).
- Q. How did God create man?
A. God created man, male and female, after his own image (Gen.
1:27), in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (Col 3:10; Eph.
4:24) with dominion over the creatures (Gen. 1:28).
- Q. What are God's works
of providence?
A. God's works of providence are his most holy (Ps. 145:17), wise,
(Isa. 28:29) and powerful (Heb. 1:3), preserving and governing all
his creatures, and all their actions (Ps. 103:19; Matt. 10:29).
- Q. What special act of
providence did God exercise toward man in the state wherein he was
created?
A. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life
with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; (Gal. 3:12) forbidding
him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain
of death. (Gen. 2:17)
- Q. Did our first parents
continue in the state wherein they were created?
A. Our first parents being left to the freedom of their own will,
fell from the state wherein they were created, by sinning against
God, (Eccl. 7:29) by eating the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:6-8).
- Q. What is sin?
A. Sin is any want of conformity to, or transgression of the law
of God (1 Jn. 3:4).
- Q. Did all mankind fall
in Adam's first transgression?
A. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself but
for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation,
sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression (1 Cor.
15:22; Rom. 5:12).
- Q. Into what estate did
the fall bring mankind?
A. The fall brought mankind into a state of sin and misery (Rom.
5:18).
- Q. Wherein consists the
sinfulness of that state whereinto man fell?
A. The sinfulness of that state whereinto man fell, consists in
the guilt of Adam's first sin (Rom. 5:19), the want of original
righteousness, (Rom. 3:10) and the corruption of his whole nature,
which is commonly called original sin (Eph. 2:1; Ps. 51:5), together
with all actual transgressions which proceed from it (Matt. 15:19).
- Q. What is the misery of
that state whereinto man fell?
A. All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God (Gen. 3:8,
24), are under his wrath and curse (Eph. 2:3; Gal. 3:10), and so
made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and
to the pains of hell for ever (Rom. 6:23; Matt. 25:41).
- Q. Did God leave all mankind
to perish in the state of sin and misery?
A. God having, out of his good pleasure from all eternity, elected
some to everlasting life (2 Thess. 2:13), did enter into a covenant
of grace to deliver them out of the state of sin and misery, and
to bring them into a state of salvation by a Redeemer (Rom. 5:21).
- Q. Who is the Redeemer
of God's elect?
A. The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ (1
Tim. 2:5), who being the eternal Son of God, became man (Jn. 1:14),
and so was and continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures
and one person for ever (1 Tim. 3:16; Col. 2:9).
- Q. How did Christ, being
the Son of God, become man?
A. Christ, the son of God, became man by taking to himself a true
body (Heb. 2:14), and a reasonable soul (Matt. 26:38; Heb. 4:15),
being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary,
and born of her (Lk. 1:31, 35), yet without sin (Heb. 7:26).
- Q. What offices does Christ
execute as our Redeemer?
A. Christ as our Redeemer executes the offices of a prophet (Acts
3:22), of a priest (Heb. 5:6), and of a king (Ps. 2:6), both in
his state of humiliation and exaltation.
- Q. How does Christ execute
the office of a prophet?
A. Christ executes the office of a prophet, in revealing to us
(Jn. 1:18), by his Word (Jn. 20:31), and Spirit (Jn. 14:26), the
will of God for our salvation.
- Q. How does Christ execute
the office of a priest?
A. Christ executes the office of a priest, in his once offering
up himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice (Heb. 9:28), and
to reconcile us to God (Heb. 2:17), and in making continual intercession
for us (Heb. 7:25).
- Q. How does Christ execute
the office of a king?
A. Christ executes the office of a king in subduing us to himself,
(Ps. 110:3) in ruling and defending us (Matt. 2:6; 1 Cor. 15:25),
and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.
- Q. Wherein did Christ's
humiliation consist?
A. Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born, and that
in a low condition (Lk. 2:7), made under the law (Gal. 4:4), undergoing
the miseries of this life (Isa. 53:3), the wrath of God (Matt. 27:46),
and the cursed death of the cross; (Phil. 2:8) in being buried,
and continuing under the power of death for a time (Matt. 12:40).
- Q. Wherein consists Christ's
exaltation?
A. Christ's exaltation consists in his rising again from the dead
on the third day (1 Cor. 15:4), in ascending up into heaven, and
sitting at the right hand of God the Father (Mk. 16:19), and in
coming to judge the world at the last day (Acts 17:31).
- Q. How are we made partakers
of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ,
by the effectual application of it to us (Jn. 1:12) by his Holy
Spirit. (Tit. 3:5-6)
- Q. How does the Spirit
apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ,
by working faith in us (Eph. 2:8), and by it uniting us to Christ
in our effectual calling (Eph. 3:17).
- Q. What is effectual calling?
A. Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit (2 Tim. 1:9)
whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery (Acts 2:37), enlightening
our minds in the knowledge of Christ (Acts 26:18), and renewing
our wills (Ezek. 36:26), he does persuade and enable us to embrace
Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel (Jn. 6:44-45).
- Q. What benefits do they
who are effectually called, partake of in this life?
A. They who are effectually called, do in this life partake of
justification (Rom. 8:30), adoption (Eph. 1:5), sanctification,
and the various benefits which in this life do either accompany,
or flow from them (1 Cor. 1:30).
- Q. What is justification?
A. Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardons
all our sins (Rom. 3:24; Eph. 1:7), and accepts us as righteous
in his sight (2 Cor. 5:21) only for the righteousness of Christ
imputed to us (Rom. 5:19), and received by faith alone (Gal. 2:16;
Phil. 3:9).
- Q. What is adoption?
A. Adoption is an act of God's free grace (1 Jn. 3:1), whereby
we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges
of the sons of God (Jn. 1:12; Rom. 8:17).
- Q. What is sanctification?
A. Sanctification is the work of God's Spirit (2 Thess. 2:13),
whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God (Eph.
4:24), and are enabled more and more to die to sin, and live to
righteousness (Rom. 6:11).
- Q. What are the benefits
which in this life do either accompany or flow from justification,
adoption, and sanctification?
A. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification
(Rom. 5:1-2, 5), are assurance of God's love, peace of conscience,
joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17), increase of grace, perseverance
in it to the end (Prov. 4:18; 1 Jn. 5:13; 1 Pet. 1:5).
- Q. What benefits do believers
receive from Christ at their death?
A. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness
(Heb. 12:23 and do immediately pass into glory, (Phil. 1:23; 2 Cor.
5:8; Lk. 23:43), and their bodies, being still united to Christ
(1 Thess. 4:14), do rest in their graves (Isa. 57:2) till the resurrection
(Job 19:26).
- Q. What benefits do believers
receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A. At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory (1
Cor. 15:43), shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day
of judgment (Matt. 10:32), and made perfectly blessed both in soul
and body in the full enjoying of God (1 Jn. 3:2) to all eternity
(1 Thess. 4:17).
- Q. What shall be done to
the wicked at their death?
A. The souls of the wicked shall at their death be cast into the
torments of hell (Lk. 16:22-24), and their bodies lie in their graves
till the resurrection, and judgement of the great day (Ps. 49:14).
- Q. What shall be done to
the wicked at the day of judgment?
A. At the day of judgment the bodies of the wicked being raised
out of their graves, shall be sentenced, together with their souls,
to unspeakable torments with the devil and his angels for ever (Dan.
12:2; Jn. 5:28-29; 2 Thess. 1:9; Matt. 25:41).
- Q. What did God reveal
to man for the rule of his obedience?
A. The rule which God first revealed to man for his obedience,
is the moral law (Deut. 10:4; Matt. 19:17), which is summarised
in the ten commandments.
- Q. What is the sum of the
ten commandments?
A. The sum of the ten commandments is to love the Lord our God
with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and
with all our mind; and our neighbour as ourselves (Matt. 22:37-40).
- Q. Which is the first commandment?
A. The first commandment is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before
me."
- Q. What is required in
the first commandment?
A. The first commandment requires us to know (1 Chron. 28:9) and
acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God (Deut. 26:17),
and to worship and glorify him accordingly (Matt. 4:10).
- Q. Which is the second
commandment?
A. The second commandment is, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image, or any likeness of any thing 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 shewing mercy unto thousands of them that
love me, and keep my commandments."
- Q. What is required in
the second commandment?
A. The second commandment requires the receiving, observing (Deut.
32:46; Matt. 28:20), and keeping pure and entire all such religious
worship and ordinances as God has appointed in his Word (Deut. 12:32).
- Q. What is forbidden in
the second commandment?
A. The second commandment forbids the worshipping of God by images,
(Deut. 4:15-16) or any other way not appointed in his Word (Col.
2:18).
- Q. Which is the third commandment?
A. 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."
- Q. What is required in
the third commandment?
A. The third commandment requires the holy and reverent use of
God's names (Ps. 29:2), titles, attributes (Rev. 15:3-4), ordinances
(Eccl. 5:1), Word (Ps. 138:2), and works (Job 36:24; Deut. 28:58-59).
- Q. Which is the fourth
commandment?
A. The fourth commandment is, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep
it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, 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 they 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."
- Q. What is required in
the fourth commandment?
A. The fourth commandment requires the keeping holy to God such
set times as he has appointed in his Word, expressly one whole day
in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself (Lev. 19:30; Deut. 5:12).
- Q. How is the Sabbath to
be sanctified?
A. The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that
day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful
on other days (Lev. 23:3), and spending the whole time in the public
and private exercises of God's worship (Ps. 92:1-2; Isa. 58:13-14),
except so much as is taken up in the works of necessity and mercy
(Matt. 12:11-12).
- Q. Which is the fifth commandment?
A. The fifth commandment is, "Honour thy father and thy mother:
that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth
thee."
- Q. What is required in
the fifth commandment?
A. The fifth commandment requires the preserving the honour, and
performing the duties belonging to every one in their various positions
and relationships as superiors (Eph. 5:21-22; Eph. 6:1, 5; Rom.
13:1), inferiors (Eph. 6:9), or equals (Rom. 12:10).
- Q. What is the reason annexed
to the fifth commandment?
A. The reason annexed to the fifth commandment is, a 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
(Eph. 6:2-3).
- Q. Which is the sixth commandment?
A. The sixth commandment is, "Thou shalt not kill."
- Q. What is forbidden in
the sixth commandment?
A. The sixth commandment forbids the taking away of our own life
(Acts 16:28), or the life of our neighbour unjustly (Gen. 9:6),
or whatever tends to it (Prov. 24:11-12).
- Q. Which is the seventh
commandment?
A. The seventh commandment is, "Thou shalt not commit adultery."
- Q. What is forbidden in
the seventh commandment?
A. The seventh commandment forbids all unchaste thoughts (Matt.
5:28; Col. 4:6), words (Eph. 5:4; 2 Tim. 2:22), and actions (Eph.
5:3).
- Q. Which is the eighth
commandment?
A. The eighth commandment is, "Thou shalt not steal."
- Q. What is forbidden in
the eighth commandment?
A. The eighth commandment forbids whatever does or may unjustly
hinder our own (1 Tim. 5:8; Prov. 28:19; Prov. 21:6), or our neighbour's
wealth, or outward estate (Eph. 4:28).
- Q. Which is the ninth commandment?
A. The ninth commandment is, "Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbour."
- Q. What is required in
the ninth commandment?
A. The ninth commandment requires the maintaining and promoting
of truth between man and man (Zech. 8:16), and of our own (1 Pet.
3:16; Acts 25:10), and our neighbour's good name (3 Jn. 1:12), especially
in witness-bearing (Prov. 14:5, 25).
- Q. What is the tenth commandment?
A. The tenth commandment is, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's
house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant,
or his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is
thy neighbour's."
- Q. What is forbidden in
the tenth commandment?
A. The tenth commandment forbids all discontentment with our own
estate (1 Cor. 10:10), envying or grieving at the good of our neighbour,
(Gal. 5:26) and all inordinate emotions and affections to anything
that is his (Col. 3:5).
- Q. Is any man able perfectly
to keep the commandments of God?
A. No mere man, since the fall, is able in his life perfectly
to keep the commandments of God (Eccl. 7:20), but does daily break
them in thought, (Gen. 8:21) word (Jas. 3:8), and deed (Jas. 3:2).
- Q. Are all transgressions
of the law equally heinous?
A. Some sins in themselves, and by reason of various aggravations,
are more heinous in the sight of God than others (Jn. 19:11; 1 Jn.
5:15).
- Q. What does every sin
deserve?
A. Every sin deserves God's wrath and curse, both in this life
and that which is to come (Eph. 5:6; Ps. 11:6).
- Q. How may we escape his
wrath and curse due to us for sin?
A. To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, we
must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (Jn. 3:16), trusting alone
to his blood and righteousness. This faith is attended by repentance
for the past (Acts 20:21) and leads to holiness in the future.
- Q. What is faith in Jesus
Christ?
A. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace (Heb. 10:39), whereby
we receive (Jn. 1:12), and rest upon him alone for salvation (Phil.
3:9), as he is set forth in the gospel (Isa. 33:22).
- Q. What is repentance to
life?
A. Repentance to life is a saving grace (Acts 11:18), whereby
a sinner, out of a true sense of his sins (Acts 2:37), and apprehension
of the mercy of God in Christ (Joel 2:13), does with grief and hatred
of his sin turn from it to God (Jer. 31:18-19), with full purpose
to strive after new obedience (Ps. 119:59).
- Q. What are the outward
means whereby the Holy Spirit communicates to us the benefits of redemption?
A. The outward and ordinary means whereby the Holy Spirit communicates
to us the benefits of Christ's redemption, are the Word, by which
souls are begotten to spiritual life; Baptism, the Lord's Supper,
Prayer, and Meditation, by all which believers are further edified
in their most holy faith (Acts 2:41-42; Jas. 1:18).
- Q. How is the Word made
effectual to salvation?
A. The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching
of the Word, an effectual means of convicting and converting sinners,
(Ps. 19:7) and of building them up in holiness and comfort (1 Thess.
1:6), through faith to salvation (Rom. 1:16).
- Q. How is the Word to be
read and heard that it may become effectual to salvation?
A. That the Word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend
to it with diligence (Prov. 8:34), preparation (1 Pet. 2:1-2), and
prayer (Ps 119:18), receive it with faith (Heb. 4:2), and love (2
Thess. 2:10), lay it up into our hearts (Ps. 119:11), and practise
it in our lives (Jas. 1:25).
- Q. How do Baptism and the
Lord's Supper become spiritually helpful?
A. Baptism and the Lord's Supper become spiritually helpful, not
from any virtue in them, or in him who does administer them (1 Cor.
3:7; 1 Pet. 3:21), but only by the blessing of Christ (1 Cor. 3:6),
and the working of the Spirit in those who by faith receive them
(1 Cor. 12:13).
- Q. What is Baptism?
A. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, instituted by
Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:19), to be to the person baptised a sign
of his fellowship with him, in his death, and burial, and resurrection
(Rom. 6:3; Col. 2:12), of his being ingrafted into him (Gal. 3:27),
of remission of sins (Mk. 1:4; Acts 22:16), and of his giving up
himself to God through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness
of life (Rom. 6:4-5).
- Q. To whom is Baptism to
be administered?
A. Baptism is to be administered to all those who actually profess
repentance towards God (Acts 2:38; Matt. 3:6; Mk. 16:16; Acts 8:12,
36-37; Acts 10:47-48), and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and to
none other.
- Q. Are the infants of such
as are professing to be baptised?
A. The infants of such as are professing believers are not to
be baptised, because there is neither command nor example in the
Holy Scriptures for their baptism (Exod. 23:13; Prov. 30:6).
- Q. How is baptism rightly
administered?
A. Baptism is rightly administered by immersion, or dipping the
whole body of the person in water (Matt. 3:16; Jn. 3:23), in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, according
to Christ's institution, and the practice of the apostles (Matt.
28:19-20), and not by sprinkling or pouring of water, or dipping
some part of the body, after the tradition of men (Jn. 4:1-2; Acts
8:38-39).
- Q. What is the duty of
such as are rightly baptized?
A. It is the duty of such as are rightly baptized, to give up
themselves to some particular and orderly Church of Jesus Christ
(Acts 2:47; 9:26; 1 Pet. 2:5), that they may walk in all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord blameless (Lk. 1:6).
- Q. What is the Lord's Supper?
A. The Lord's Supper is an ordinance of the New Testament, instituted
by Jesus Christ; wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine,
according to his appointment, his death is shown forth (1 Cor. 11:23-26),
and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporeal and carnal manner,
but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his
benefits, to their spiritual nourishment, and growth in grace (1
Cor. 10:16).
- Q. What is required to
the worthy receiving of the Lord's Supper?
A. It is required of them who would worthily partake of the Lord's
Supper, that they examine themselves of their knowledge to discern
the Lord's body (1 Cor. 11:28-29), of their faith to feed upon him
(2 Cor. 13:5), of their repentance (1 Cor. 11:31), love (1 Cor.
11:18-20), and new obedience, (1 Cor. 5:8) lest coming unworthily,
they eat and drink judgment to themselves (1 Cor. 11:27-29).
- Q. What is meant by the
words, "until he come," which are used by the apostle Paul in reference
to the Lord's Supper?
A. They plainly teach us that our Lord Jesus Christ will come
a second time; which is the joy and hope of all believers (Acts
1:11 1 Thess. 4:16).
