Shorter Catechism. Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. Q. 2. What rule hath God given to direct us
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107TheWestminsterShorter CatechismQ. 1. What is the chief end of man?A. Man™s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.Q. 2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we mayglorify and enjoy him?A. The word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Oldand New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorifyand enjoy him.Q. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?A. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believeconcerning God, and what duty God requires of man.Q. 4. What is God?A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being,wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?A. There is but one only, the living and true God.Q. 6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?A. There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, andthe Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same insubstance, equal in power and glory.Q. 7. What are the decrees of God?A. The decrees of God are, his eternal purpose, according to thecounsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordainedwhatsoever comes to pass.Q. 8. How doth God execute his decrees?A. God executeth his decrees in the works of creation andprovidence.
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THE SHORTER CATECHISM108Q. 9. What is the work of creation?A. The work of creation is, God™s making all things of nothing, by theword of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.Q. 10. How did God create man?A. God created man male and female, after his own image, inknowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over thecreatures.Q. 11. What are God™s works of providence?A. God™s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerfulpreserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.Q. 12. What special act of providence did God exercisetowards man, in the estate wherein he was created?A. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of lifewith him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eatof the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain ofdeath.Q. 13. Did our first parents continue in the estate whereinthey were created?A. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fellfrom the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.Q. 14. What is sin?A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law ofGod.Q. 15. What was the sin whereby our first parents fell fromthe estate wherein they were created?A. The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein theywere created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.Q. 16. Did all mankind fall in Adam™s first transgression?A. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, butfor his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinarygeneration, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.
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THE SHORTER CATECHISM109Q. 17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.Q. 18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estatewhereinto man fell?A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in theguilt of Adam™s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and thecorruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called originalsin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.Q. 19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?A. All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God, are underhis wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, todeath itself, and to the pains of hell forever.Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate ofsin and misery?A. God, having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity,elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace,to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring theminto an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.Q. 21. Who is the Redeemer of God™s elect?A. The only Redeemer of God™s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who,being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, andcontinueth to be God and man, in two distinct natures, and oneperson, forever.Q. 22. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?A. Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a truebody, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of theHoly Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yetwithout sin.Q. 23. What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer?A. Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the office of a prophet, of apriest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.
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THE SHORTER CATECHISM110Q. 24. How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?A. Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by hisword and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.Q. 25. How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?A. Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up ofhimself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God;and in making continual intercession for us.Q. 26. How doth Christ execute the office of a king?A. Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, inruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all hisand our enemies.Q. 27. Wherein did Christ™s humiliation consist?A. Christ™s humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a lowcondition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life,the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried,and continuing under the power of death for a time. Q. 28. Wherein consisteth Christ™s exaltation?A. Christ™s exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead onthe third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the righthand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the lastday.Q. 29 How are we made partakers of the redemptionpurchased by Christ?A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, bythe effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.Q. 30 How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemptionpurchased by Christ?A. The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, byworking faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectualcalling.Q. 31. What is effectual calling?A. Effectual calling is the work of God™s Spirit, whereby, convincingus of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge
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THE SHORTER CATECHISM112Q. 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at theresurrection?A. At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory, shall beopenly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, andmade perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.Q. 39. What is the duty which God requireth of man?A. The duty which God requireth of man is obedience to hisrevealed will.Q. 40. What did God at first reveal to man for the rule ofhis obedience?A. The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience,was the moral law.Q. 41. Wherein is the moral law summarily comprehended?A. Themoral law is summarily comprehended in the tencommandments.Q. 42. What is the sum of the ten commandments?A. The sum of the ten commandments is, to love the Lord our Godwith all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with allour mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.Q. 43. What is the preface to the ten commandments?A. The preface to the ten commandments is in these words, l am theLord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, outof the house of bondage.Q. 44. What doth the preface to the ten commandmentsteach us?A. The preface to the ten commandments teacheth us, that becauseGod is the Lord, and our God, and Redeemer, therefore we arebound to keep all his commandments.Q. 45. Which is the first commandment?A. The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods beforeme.
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THE SHORTER CATECHISM113Q. 46. What is required in the first commandment?A. The first commandment requireth us to know and acknowledgeGod to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship andglorify him accordingly.Q. 47. What is forbidden in the first commandment?A. The first commandment forbiddeth the denying, or notworshiping and glorifying the true God as God, and our God; andthe giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due tohim alone.Q. 48. What are we especially taught by these words,fibefore mefl, in the first commandment?A. These words, before me, in the first commandment teach us, thatGod, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeasedwith, the sin of having any other God.Q. 49. Which is the second commandment?A. The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee anygraven 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 theLord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathersupon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them thathate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me,and keep my commandments.Q. 50. What is required in the second commandment?A. The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing,and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship andordinances as God hath appointed in his Word.Q. 51. What is forbidden in the second commandment?A. The second commandment forbiddeth the worshiping of God byimages, or any other way not appointed in his Word.
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THE SHORTER CATECHISM114Q. 52. What are the reasons annexed to the secondcommandment?A. The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God™ssovereignty over us, his propriety in us, and the zeal he hath to hisown worship.Q. 53. Which is the third commandment?A. The third commandment is, Thou shalt not take the name of theLord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless thattaketh his name in vain.Q. 54. What is required in the third commandment?A. The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use ofGod™s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.Q. 55. What is forbidden in the third commandment?A. The third commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing ofanything whereby God maketh himself known.Q. 56. What is the reason annexed to the thirdcommandment?A. The reason annexed to the third commandment is, that howeverthe breakers of this commandment may escape punishment frommen, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape hisrighteous judgment.Q. 57. Which is the fourth commandment?A. The fourth commandment is, Remember the Sabbath day, tokeep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but theseventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt notdo any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant,nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thygates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, andall that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lordblessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.Q. 58. What is required in the fourth commandment?A. The fourth commandment requireth the keeping holy to God suchset times as he hath appointed in his Word; expressly one whole dayin seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself.
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THE SHORTER CATECHISM115Q. 59. Which day of the seven hath God appointed to bethe weekly Sabbath?A. From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, Godappointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath;and the first day of the week, ever since, to continue to the end ofthe world, which is the Christian Sabbath.Q. 60. How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?A. The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, evenfrom such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful onother days; and spending the whole time in the public and privateexercises of God™s worship, except so much as is to be taken up inthe works of necessity and mercy.Q. 61. What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?A. The fourth commandment forbiddeth the omission, or carelessperformance of the duties required, and the profaning the day byidleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessarythoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments orrecreations.Q. 62. What are the reasons annexed to the fourthcommandment?A. The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment are, God™sallowing us six days of the week for our own employments, hischallenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, andhis blessing the Sabbath day.Q. 63. Which is the fifth commandment?A. The fifth commandment is, Honor thy father and thy mother: thatthy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveththee.Q. 64. What is required in the fifth commandment?A. The fifth commandment requireth the preserving the honor, andperforming the duties, belonging to everyone in their several placesand relations, as superiors, inferiors, or equals.
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