тн Е SHORTER CATECHISM, Agreed upon by the Asembly of Divines at Westminster: Examined and Approved anno 1648, by the General Afsembly of the CHURCH of SCOTLAND &c. Question 1. WHAT is the chief end of man? Answer. Man's chief end is, to glorify God a, and to enjoy Him for ever b. Q. 2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him? A. The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments c, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him d. 3. 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 e. Q. 4. I 1. « 1 Cor.x. 31. Whether there. all thy works. fore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever 2. 6 2 Tim. ii. 16. All fcripture ye do, do all to the glory of God, is given by inspiration of God, and is Rom. xi. 36. For ot him, and thro' profitable for do&rine, for reproof, bim, and to him are all things: to for correction, for instruction in righwhom be glory for ever. Amen. teousness, Eph. ii. 20. And are built b Pfal. Ixxii. 25. Whom have I in upon the foundation of the apostles heaven but thee? and there is none and prophets, Jesus Christ himself upon earth that I desire besides thee. being the chief corner-Itone. v. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth: di John .3. That which we have but God is the strength of my heart seen and heard, declare we unto you, and my portion for ever. v. 27. that ye also may have fellowship For lo, thay that are far from thee with us : and truly our fellowship is thall perish : thou haft destroyed all with the Father, and with his Son them that go a whoring from thee. Jesus Christ. v. 4. And these things V. 28. But it is good for me to draw write we unto you, that your joy near to God: I have put my trust may be full. in the Lord God, that I may declare 3. e 2 Tim.i, 13. Hold fast the for Q. 4. What is God? , in his being k, wisdom /, power m, holiness n, justice, goodness and truth o. 20. s: Are there more gods iban one? A. There is but one only, thic living and true God p. Q. 6. How many persons are there in the Godhead? A. There are three perfons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft; and these three are one God, the same in fubftantce, equal in power and glory q. Q. 7. What are the decrees of God? to form of found words, which thou had each of them fix wings about haft heard of me, in faith and love him, and they were full of eyes which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim. ij. within : and they reft not day and 16. (See in letter c.) night, faying, Holy, holy, holy, 4. John iv. 24. God is a spirit, Lord God Almighty, which was and they that worship him, must' and is, and is to come. worship him in spirit and in truth. n Rev. XV. 4. Who shall not fear & Job xi. 7. Canft thou by search thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name! ing find out God ? canlt thou find for thou only art holy; for all natiout the Almighty unto perfection? ons shall come and worship before 1. 8. It is as high as heaven, what thee; for thy judgments are made canf thou do? deeper than hell; manifest. what canst thou know ? v. 9. The o Exod. xxxiv. 6. And the Lord measure thereof is longer than the passed by before him, and proclaim. earth, and broader than the sea. ed, The Lord, the Lord God, mer. b Psal. xc. 2. Before the moun. ciful and gracious, long-suffering, tains were brought forth, or ever and abundant in goodness and truth, thou hadi formed the earth and the 1.7. Keeping mercy for thousands, world: even from everlasting to e. forgiving iniquity and tranfgreflion, verlasting thou art God. and fin, and that will by no means i Jamesi. 17. Every good gift and clear the guilty; visiting the inieváry perfect gift is from above, and quity of the father upon the chilcometh down from the Father of dren, and upon the childrens chil. lights, with whom is no variable. dren, unto the third and to the ness, neither shadow of turning. fourth generation. k Exod. iii. 14. And God said unto 5. p Deut. vi. 4. Heat, o Ifrael, Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and he the Lord our God is one Lord. Jer, said, Thus shalt thou say unto the x. jo. But the Lord is the true God, children of Israel, I AM hath fent he is the living God, and an ever. lafting King; at his wrath the earth Psal. cxlvii. 5. Great is our Lord; mall tremble, and the nations shall and of great power : his underttando not be able to abide his indignation. ing is infinite, 6. q 1 John v. 7. For there are me unto you. to the counfel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pafs . D. 8 How doth God execute his decrees? 1 A. God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence. Q. 9. What is the work of creation? A. The work of creation is, God's making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of fix days, and all very good Q. 10. How did God create man? A God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holinefs, with dominion ver the creatures-t. Q. 11. What are God's works of providence? and three that bear record in heaven, which do appear. the Father, the Word, and the ho- 10. Gen. i. 26. And God said, ly Ghost: and these three are one. Let us make man in our own image, Mat. xxviii. 19. Go ye therefore and after our likeness : and let then have teach all narions, baptizing them in dominion over the fish of the fea, and the name of the Father, and of the over the fowl of the air, and over the Son, and of the Holy Gholt. cattle, and over all the earth, and 7. Eph. i. 4. According as he over every creeping thing that creephath chosen os in him, before the eth upon the earth. v. 29. So God fošndation of the world, that we created man in his own image, in the should be holy, and without blame image of God created he him : male before him in love. v. II. In whoai and female created he them. v. 28. also we have obtained an inheritance, And God blessed them, and God said being predestinate according to the unto them, Be fruitful, and multipurpose of him who worketh all ply and replenish the earth, and fubthings after the counsel of his own due it: and have dominion over the will. Rom. ix. 22. What if God fish of the sea, and over the fowl of willing to thew his wrath, and to the air, and orei every living thing make his power known, endured that moveth upon the earth. Col. with much long-suffering the vessels iii. 10. and have put on the new man, of wrath fitted to del.ručtion ; v. 23. which is renewed in knowledge, after And that he might make known the the image of him that created him. riches of his glory on the vessels of Eph.iv.24. and that ye puton the neó mercy, which he had a fore prepare man, which after God is created ed unto glory. in righteousness, and trùe holiness. 9. Gen. i. throughout. Heb xi.. 11. v Pral, cxlv, 17. The Lord 3.' Through faith we understand is righteous in all his ways, aad hothat the worlds were framed by the Jy in all his works. word of God, so that things which w Pfal.civ. 24. O Lord, how maare seen were not made and powerful preserving *, and governing all his creatures, and all their actions y. Q. 12. What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created? A. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant X of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience: forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death z. Q. 13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created? A. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by finning against God a. Q. 14. What is fin? A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgreslion of, the law of God b, Q. 15. nifold are thy works! in wisdom haft it: for in the day that thou eatest thou made them all: the earth is full thereof, thou shalt surely die. of thy riches. Isa. xxviii. 29. This 13. a Gen. iii. 6. And when the also cometh forth from the Lord of woman faw that the tree was good hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, for food, and that it was pleasant to and excellent in working. the eyes, and a tree to be deGred to x Heb.i. 3. Who being the bright- make one wife; the took of the fruit nefs, of his glory, and the express in thereot and did eat, and gave also to mage of his person, and upholding her husband with her, and he did all things by the word of his power, eat. v. 7. And the eyes of them when he had by himself purged our both were opened, and they knew fins, sat down on the right hand of that they were naked; and they the majesty on high. fewed fig leaves together, and made y Psal. ciii. 19. The Lord hath themselves aprons. v. 8. And they prepared his throne in the heavens, heard the voice of the Lord God and his kingdom ruleth over all. walking in the garden in the cool of Mat. x, 29. Are not two sparrows the day: and Adam and his wife hid sold for a farthing ? and one of them themselves from the presence of the shall not fall on the ground without Lord God, amongst the trees of the your Father. v. 30. But the very garden. v. 13. and the Lord God hairs of your head are all numbered. faid, unto the woman, What is this V.31. Fear ye not therefore, ye are that thou hast done ? and the woof more value than many sparrows. man said. The serpent beguiled me, . iiiI . , Xnot of faith : but, the man that doth this only have I found, that God them, shall live in them. Gen. ii. 17. hath made man upright; but they But of the tree of the knowledge of have fought out many inventions. good and evil, thou shalt not eat of 14. b i Jobo iii. 4. Whosoerer com Q. 15. What was the fin whereby our firs parents fell from the estate wherein they were created? A The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit c. Q. 16. Did all mankind full in Adam's first transgression? A The covenant being made with Adam, not only for him X self, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, finned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression d. Q. 17.1 Into what estate did the fall bring mankind? Q 18. Wherein confijts the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell? A The sinfulness of that estate, whereinto min fell, con Gifts in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteoul- X ness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it f. 19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell? A. AU comitteth fin, tranfgrefseth also 17.6 Rom. v. 12. Wherefore, as the law; for fin is the transgression by one man sin entred into the world, of the law. and death by fin; and fo death pas15.cGen. iii. 6. (See in letter a.) fed upon all men, for that all have V. 12. The woman whom thou gav. lnned. elt to be with me, the gave me of 18. Rom. v. 12. Wherefore, as the tree, and I did eat. by one man fin entred into the world, X16. d Gen. ii. 16. And the Lord and death by fin; and so death pasGod commanded the man, saying, fed upon all men for that all have Of every tree of the garden thou finned. v, 19. For as by one man's mayest freely cat. v. 17. But of the disobedience many were made fintree of the knowledge of good and ners: so by the obedience of one, evil, thou thalt not cat of it: for in shall many be made righteous. Rom. the day that thou eatest thereof, thou v. rom ver. 10. to the 20. Eph. ii. shalt surely die. Rom. v. 12. Where- | And you bath he quickened who fore, as by one man lin entered into were dead in trespasses and lins. v. the world, and death by fin; and so 2. Wherein in times past ye walked death passed upon all men, for that according to the course of this world, all have linned. 1 Cor. xv. 21. For according to the prince of the powfince by man came death, by man er of the air, the spirit that now came also the returrection ofthe dead. worketh in the children of disobedie V.22. For as in Adam all die, fo in eace: Y. . 3. Among whom alio we Chrift shall all be made alive, Bb al |
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