Q. 6. Do we stand in the same covenant still, and have we the same power to yield obedience unto God? b a c A. No; the covenant was1 broken by the sin of Adam, with whom it was made, our nature corrupted, and all power to do good utterly. lost. Gen. iii. 16–18; Gal. iii. 10, 11, 21; Heb. vii. 19, viii. 13. -Job xiv. 4; Ps. li. 5.— Gen. vi. 5; Jer. xiii. 23. с CHAP. VI.-OF GOD'S ACTUAL PROVIDENCE. Q. 1. What is God's actual providence? 2 3 4 A. The effectual working of his power, and almighty act of his will, whereby he sustaineth, governeth, and disposeth of all things, men and their actions, to the ends which he hath ordained for them. -Exod. iv. 11; Job v. 10-12, ix. 5, 6; Ps. cxlvii. 4; Prov. xv. 3; Isa. xlv. 6, 7; John v. 17; Acts xvii. 28; Heb. i. 3. Q. 2. How is this providence exercised towards mankind? a A. Two ways; first, peculiarly towards his church, or elect, in their generations, for whom are all things; secondly, towards all in a general manner, yet with various and divers dispensations.- Deut. xxxii. 10; Ps. xvii. 8; Zech. ii. 8; Matt. xvi. 18, xix. 2, 29; 1 Pet. v. 7. Gen ix. 5; Ps. lxxv. 6, 7; Isa. xlv. 6, 7; Matt. v. 45. b Q. 3. Wherein chiefly consists the outward providence of God towards his church? b A. In three things;-first, in causing all things to work together for their good; secondly, in ruling and disposing of kingdoms, nations, and persons, for their benefit; thirdly, in avenging them of their adversaries.- Matt. vi. 31-33; Rom. viii. 28; 1 Tim. vi. 17; 2 Pet. i. 3. Ps. cv. 14, 15; Isa. xliv. 28; Dan. ii. 44; Rom. ix. 17. - Isa. lx. 12; Zech. xii. 2–5; Luke xviii. 7; Rev. xvii. 14. a Q. 4. Doth God rule also in and over the sinful actions of wicked men? A. Yea, he willingly (according to his determinate counsel) suffereth them to be, for the manifestation of his glory, and by them 1 Though we have all lost our right unto the promise of the first covenant, yet all not restored by Christ are under the commination and curse thereof. To this providence is to be ascribed all the good we do enjoy, and all the afflictions we undergo. 3 Fortune, chance, and the like, are names without things, scarce fit to be used among Christians, seeing Providence certainly ruleth all to appointed ends. No free-will in man exempted either from the eternal decree or the overruling providence of God. Though the dispensations of God's providence towards his people be various, yet every issue and act of it tends to one certain end, their good in his glory. Almighty God knows how to bring light out of darkness, good out of evil, the salvation of his elect out of Judas's treachery, the Jews' cruelty, and Pilate's injustice. effecteth his own righteous ends.-2 Sam. xii. 11, xvi. 10; 1 Kings Q. 5. Doth the providence of God extend itself to every small A. The least grass of the field, hair of our heads, or worm of the CHAP. VII.-OF THE LAW OF GOD. Q. 1. Which is the law that God gave man at first to fulfil? Q. 2. Is the observation of this law still required of us? A. Yes, to the uttermost tittle.-Matt. v. 17; 1 John iii. 4; Rom. 23 Q. 3. Are we able of ourselves to13 perform it? A. No, in no wise; the law is spiritual, but we are carnal.—1 Kings Q. 4. Did, then, God give a law which could not be kept? A. No; when God gave it, we had power to keep it; which since b A. For two general ends; first, to be a rule of our duty, or to b A. Divers ways; as, first, by laying open unto us the utter dis- This law of God bindeth us now, not because delivered to the Jews on 2 After the fall, the law ceased to be a rule of justification, and became a rule 3 It is of free grace that God giveth power to yield any obedience, and accept- CHAP. VIII--OF THE STATE OF CORRUPTED NATURE. Q. 1. How came this weakness and disability upon us? A. By the sin and' shameful fall of our first parents.-Rom. v. 12, 14. Q. 2. Wherein did that hurt us, their posterity? d b A. Divers ways; first, in that we were all guilty of the same breach of covenant with Adam, being all in him; secondly, our souls with his were deprived of that holiness, innocency, and righteousness wherein they were at first created; thirdly, pollution and defilement of nature came upon us; with, fourthly, an extreme disability of doing any thing that is well-pleasing unto God; by all which we are made obnoxious to the curse.-John iii. 36; Rom. v. 12; Eph. ii. 3. -Gen. iii. 10; Eph. iv. 23, 24; Col. iii. 10.- Job xiv. 4; Ps. li. 7; John iii. 6; Rom. iii. 13.—aGen. vi. 5; Eph. ii. 1; Jer. vi. 16, xiii. 23; Rom. viii. 7.— Gen. iii. 17; Gal. iii. 10. e Q. 3. Wherein doth the curse of God consist? b 2 a A. In divers things; first, in the guilt of death, temporal and eternal; secondly, the loss of the grace and favour of God; thirdly, guilt and horror of conscience, despair and anguish here; with, fourthly, 'eternal damnation hereafter. Gen. ii. 17; Rom. i. 18, v. 12, 17; Eph. ii. 3.-Gen. iii. 24; Ezek. xvi. 3-5; Eph. ii. 13.'Gen. iii. 10; Isa. xlviii. 22; Rom. iii. 9, 19, Gal. iii. 22.-Gen. iii. 10, 13; John iii. 36. Q. 4. Are all men born in this estate? A. Every one without exception.-Ps. li. 5; Isa. liii. 6; Rom. iii. 9-12; Eph. ii. 3. Q. 5. And do they continue therein? 3 с A. Of themselves they cannot otherwise do, being able neither to know, nor will, nor do any thing that is spiritually good and pleasing unto God.- Acts viii. 31, xvi. 14; 1 Cor. ii. 14; Eph. v. 8; John i. 5.-Jer. vi. 16, xiii. 23; Luke iv. 18; Rom. vi. 16, viii. 7. -John vi. 44; 2 Cor. iii. 5. This is that which commonly is called original sin, which in general denoteth the whole misery and corruption of our nature; as,-1. The guilt of Adam's actual sin to us imputed; 2. Loss of God's glorious image, innocency and holiness; 3. Deriving by propagation a nature-(1.) Defiled with the pollution, (2.) Laden with the guilt, (3.) Subdued to the power of sin; 4. A being exposed to all temporal miseries, leading to and procuring death; 5. An alienation from God, with voluntary obedience to Satan and lust; 6. An utter disability to good, or to labour for mercy; 7. Eternal damnation of body and soul in hell. All that a natural man hath on this side hell is free mercy. The end of this is Jesus Christ, to all that fly for refuge to the hope set before them. Q. 6. Have they, then, no way of themselves to escape the curse and wrath of God? A. None at all; they can neither satisfy his justice, nor fulfil his law. CHAP. IX.-OF THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. Q. 1. Shall all mankind, then, everlastingly perish? A. No; God, of his free grace, hath prepared a way to redeem and save his elect.-John iii. 16; Isa. liii. 6. Q. 2. What way was this? A. By sending his own Son' Jesus Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemning sin in the flesh.-Rom. viii. 3. Q. 3. Who is this you call his own Son? A. The second person of the Trinity, co-eternal and of the same Deity with his Father.-John i. 14; Rom. i. 3; Gal. iv. 4; 1 John i. 1. Q. 4. How did God send him? A. By causing him to be made flesh of a pure virgin, and to dwell among us, that he might be obedient unto death, the death of the cross.--Isa. 1. 6; John i. 14; Luke i. 35; Phil. ii. 8; 1 Tim. iii. 16. CHAP. X.-OF THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. Q. 1. What doth the Scripture teach us of Jesus Christ? A. Chiefly two things; first, his secondly, his offices, or what he is unto us. person, or what he is in himself; Q. 2. What doth it teach of his person? This is that great mystery of godliness that the angels themselves admire;-the most transcendent expression of God's infinite love, the laying forth of all the treasure of his wisdom and goodness. 21. Though our Saviour Christ be one God with his Father, he is not one person with him. 2. Jesus Christ is God and man in one,-not a God and a man; God incarnate, not a man deified. 3. The essential properties of either nature remain in his person theirs still, not communicated unto the other; as of the Deity to be eternal, everywhere; of the humanity, to be born and die. 4. Whatever may be said of either nature may be said of his whole person; so God may be said to die, but not the Godhead; the man Christ to be everywhere, but not his humanity; for his one person is all this. 5. The monstrous figment of transubstantiation, or Christ's corporeal presence in the sacrament, fully overthrows our Saviour's human nature, and makes him a mere shadow. 6. All natural properties are double in Christ, as will, &c., still distinct; all personal, as subsistence, single. A. That he is truly God, and perfect man, partaker of the natures of God and man in one person, between whom he is a Mediator.-John i. 14; Heb. ii. 14, 15; Eph. iv. 5; 1 Tim ii. 5; 1 John i. 1. Q. 3. How prove you Jesus Christ to be truly God? A. Divers ways; first, by places of Scripture, speaking of the great God Jehovah in the Old Testament, applied to our Saviour in the New; as, Numb. xxi. 5, 6, in 1 Cor. x. 9; Ps. cii. 25-27, in Heb. i. 10; Isa. vi. 2-4, in John xii. 40, 41; Isa. viii. 13, 14, in Luke ii. 34, Rom. ix. 33; Isa. xl. 3, 4, in John i. 23; Isa. xlv. 22, 23, in Rom. xiv. 11, Phil. ii. 10, 11; Mal. iii. 1, in Matt. xi. 10. Secondly, By the works of the Deity ascribed unto him; as, first, of creation, John i. 3; 1 Cor. viii. 6; Heb. i. 2; secondly, of preservation in providence, Heb. i. 3; John v. 17; thirdly, miracles. Thirdly, By the essential attributes of God being ascribed unto him; as, first, immensity, Matt. xxviii. 20; John xiv. 23; Eph. iii. 17; secondly, eternity, John i. 1; Rev. i. 11; Mic. v. 2; thirdly, immutability, Heb. i. 11, 12; fourthly, omniscience, John xxi. 17; Rev. ii. 23; fifthly, majesty and glory equal to his Father, John v. 23; Rev. v. 13; Phil. i. 2, ii. 6, 9, 10. Fourthly, By the names given unto him; as, first, of God expressly, John i. 1, xx. 28; Acts xx. 28; Rom. ix. 5; Phil. ii. 6; Heb. i. 8;. 1 Tim. iii. 16; secondly, of the Son of God, John i. 18; Rom. viii. 3, &c. Q. 4. Was it necessary that our Redeemer should be God? A. Yes; that he might be able to save to the uttermost, and to satisfy the wrath of his Father, which no creature could perform.-Isa. xliii. 25, liii. 6; Dan. ix. 17, 19. Q. 5. How prove you that he was a perfect man? A. First, By the prophecies that went before, that so he should be. -Gen. iii. 15, xviii. 18. Secondly, By the relation of their accomplishment.—Matt. i. 1; Rom. i. 4; Gal. iv. 4. Thirdly, By the Scriptures assigning to him those things which are required to a perfect man; as, first, a body, Luke xxiv. 39; Heb. ii. 17, x. 5; 1 John i. 1; secondly, a soul, Matt. xxvi. 38; Mark xiv. 34; and therein, first, a will, Matt. xxvi. 39; secondly, affections, Mark iii. 5; Luke x. 21; thirdly, endowments, Luke ii. 52. Fourthly, General infirmities of nature.-Matt. iv. 2; John iv. 6; Heb. ii. 18. Q. 6. Wherefore was our Redeemer to be man? A. That the nature which had offended might suffer, and make satisfaction, and so he might be every way a fit and sufficient Saviour for men.-Heb. ii. 10-17. |