effecteth his own righteous ends.—2 Sam. xii. 11, xvi. 10; 1 Kings xi. 31, xxii. 22; Job i. 21; Prov. xxii. 14; Isa. x. 6, 7; Ezek. xxi. 19-21; Amos vii. 17; Acts iv. 27, 28; Rom. i. 24, ix. 22; 1 Pet. ii. 8; Rev. xvii. 17. Q. 5. Doth the providence of God extend itself to every small thing? A. The least grass of the field, hair of our heads, or worm of the earth, is not exempted from his knowledge and care.-Job xxxix.; Ps. civ. 21, cxlv. 15; Jonah iv. 7; Matt. vi. 26–29, x. 29, 30. : CHAP. VII. —OF THE LAW OF GOD. Q. 1. Which is the law that God gave man at first to fulfil? A. The same which was afterwards1 written with the finger of God in two tables of stone on Mount Horeb, called the Ten Commandments.-Rom. ii. 14, 15. 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. iii. 31; James ii. 8-10; Gal. iii. Q. 3. Are we able of ourselves to perform it? A. No, in no wise; the law is spiritual, but we are carnal.-1 Kings viii. 46; Gen. vi. 5; John xv. 5; Rom. vii. 14, viii. 7; 1 John i. 8. 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 we have lost in Adam.-Gen. i. 26; Eph. iv. 19; Rom. v. 12. Q. 5. Whereto, then, doth the law now serve? a b A. For two general ends; first, to be a rule of our duty, or to discover to us the obedience of God required; secondly, to drive us unto Christ.—a Ps. xix. 7–11; 1 Tim. i. 8, 9.—3 Gal. iii. 24. Q. 6. How doth the law drive us unto Christ? b b A. Divers ways; as, first, aby laying open unto us the utter disability of our nature to do any good; secondly, by charging the wrath and curse of God, due to sin, upon the conscience; thirdly, "by bringing the whole soul under bondage to sin, death, Satan, and hell, so making us long and seek for a Saviour.-"Rom. vii. 7-9; Gal. iii. 19.———3 Rom. iii. 19, 20, iv. 15, v. 20; Gal. iii. 10.— Gal. iii. 22; Heb. ii. 15. 1 This law of God bindeth us now, not because delivered to the Jews on Mount Horeb, but because written in the hearts of all by the finger of God at the first. 2 After the fall, the law ceased to be a rule of justification, and became a rule for sanctification only. 3 It is of free grace that God giveth power to yield any obedience, and accepteth of any obedience that is not perfect. 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 с 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.a 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.- Gen. vi. 5; Eph. ii. 1; Jer. vi. 16, xiii. 23; Rom. viii. 7.- Gen. iii. 17; Gal. iii. 10. e e с 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.-aGen. 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? a b 3 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. b 1 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. 2 All that a natural man hath on this side hell is free mercy. 3 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 Son1 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. 2 Q. 1. What doth the Scripture teach us of Jesus Christ? A. Chiefly two things; first, his person, or what he is in himself; secondly, his offices, or what he is unto us. 1 Q. 2. What doth it teach of his person? 1 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. 2 1. 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. CHAP. XI.-OF THE OFFICES OF CHRIST; AND, FIRST, OF HIS KINGLY. Q. 1. How many are the offices of Jesus Christ? a "a 1 2 A. Three; first, of a a King; secondly, a12 Priest; thirdly, a Pro- a с Q. 2. Hath he these offices peculiar by nature? A. No; he only received them for the present dispensation, until Q. 3. Wherein doth the kingly office of Christ consist? A. In a two-fold power; first, his power of ruling in and over Q. 4. What is his ruling power in and over his people? 34 A. That supreme authority which, for their everlasting good, he b Q. 5. How many are the acts of his kingly power towards his а 5 A. Two also; first, internal, by the mighty working of his Word, b 1 In the exercise of these offices, Christ is also the sole head, husband, and first- 2 Papal usurpation upon these offices of Christ manifests the pope to be the Man 3 Christ's subjects are all born rebels, and are stubborn, until he make them * Christ hath not delegated his kingly power of law-making for his church to 5 The end of Christ in exercising his kingly power over his enemies, is the glory |