I
am persuaded that the use of a good Catechism in all our families will
be a great safeguard against the increasing errors of the times, and
therefore I have compiled this little manual from the Westminster
Assembly's and Baptist Catechisms, for the use of my own church and
congregation. Those who use it in their families or classes must labour
to explain the sense; but the words should be carefully learned by
heart, for they will be understood better as years pass.
May the Lord bless my dear friends and their families evermore, is the
prayer of their loving Pastor.
C.
H. Spurgeon
Questions
-
What is the chief end of man?
- What rule has God
given to direct us how we may glorify him?
- What do the
Scriptures principally teach?
- What is God?
- Are there more
Gods than one?
- How many persons
are there in the Godhead?
- What are the
decrees of God?
- How does God
execute his decrees?
- What is the work
of creation?
- How did God
create man?
- What are God's
works of providence?
- What special act
of providence did God exercise toward man in the state wherein he
was created?
- Did our parents
continue in the state wherein they were created?
- What is sin?
- Did all mankind
fall in Adam's first transgression?
- Into what estate
did the fall bring mankind?
- Wherein consists
the sinfulness of that state whereinto man fell?
- What is the
misery of that state whereinto man fell?
- Did God leave
all mankind to perish in the state of sin and misery?
- Who is the
Redeemer of God's elect?
- How did Christ,
being the Son of God, become man?
- What offices
does Christ execute as our Redeemer?
- How does Christ
execute the office of a prophet?
- How does Christ
execute the office of a priest?
- How does Christ
execute the office of a king?
- Wherein did
Christ's humiliation consist?
- Wherein consists
Christ's exaltation?
- How are we made
partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
- How does the
Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
- What is
effectual calling?
- What benefits do
they who are effectually called, partake of in this life?
- What is
justification?
- What is
adoption?
- What is
sanctification?
- What are the
benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from
justification, adoption, and sanctification?
- What benefits do
believers receive from Christ at their death?
- What benefits do
believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
- What shall be
done to the wicked at their death?
- What shall be
done to the wicked at the day of judgment?
- What did God
reveal to man for the rule of his obedience?
- What is the sum
of the ten commandments?
- Which is the
first commandment?
- What is required
in the first commandment?
- Which is the
second commandment?
- What is required
in the second commandment?
- What is
forbidden in the second commandment?
- Which is the
third commandment?
- What is required
in the third commandment?
- Which is the
fourth commandment?
- What is required
in the fourth commandment?
- How is the
Sabbath to be sanctified?
- Which is the
fifth commandment?
- What is required
in the fifth commandment?
- What is the
reason annexed to the fifth commandment?
- Which is the
sixth commandment?
- What is
forbidden in the sixth commandment?
- Which is the
seventh commandment?
- What is
forbidden in the seventh commandment?
- Which is the
eighth commandment?
- What is
forbidden in the eighth commandment?
- Which is the
ninth commandment?
- What is required
in the ninth commandment?
- Which is the
tenth commandment?
- What is
forbidden in the tenth commandment?
- Is any man able
perfectly to keep the commandments of God?
- Are all
transgressions of the law equally heinous?
- What does every
sin deserve?
- How may we
escape his wrath and curse due to us for sin?
- What is faith in
Jesus Christ?
- What is
repentance to life?
- What are the
outward means whereby the Holy Spirit communicates to us the
benefits of redemption?
- How is the Word
made effectual to salvation?
- How is the Word
to be read and heard that it may become effectual to salvation?
- How do Baptism
and the Lord's Supper become spiritually helpful?
- What is baptism?
- To whom is
Baptism to be administered?
- Are the infants
of such as are professing believers to be baptised?
- How is baptism
rightly administered?
- What is the duty
of such as are rightly baptised?
- What is the
Lord's Supper?
- What is required
to the worthy receiving of the Lord's Supper?
- What is meant by
the words, "until he come," which are used by the apostle Paul in
reference to the the Lord's Supper?
Questions and Answers (with proofs)
1.
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).
2.
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).
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).
4.
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).
5.
Q. Are there more Gods
than one?
A. There is but one
only (Deut. 6:4), the living and true God (Jer. 10:10).
6.
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).
7.
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).
8.
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).
9.
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).
10.
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).
11.
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).
12.
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)
13.
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).
14.
Q. What is sin?
A. Sin is any want
of conformity to, or transgression of the law of God (1 Jn. 3:4).
15.
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).
16.
Q. Into what estate did
the fall bring mankind?
A. The fall brought
mankind into a state of sin and misery (Rom. 5:18).
17.
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).
18.
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).
19.
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).
20.
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).
21.
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).
22.
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.
23.
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.
24.
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).
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.
26.
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).
27.
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).
28.
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)
29.
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).
30.
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).
31.
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).
32.
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).
33.
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).
34.
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).
35.
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).
36.
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).
37.
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).
38.
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).
39.
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).
40.
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.
41.
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).
42.
Q. Which is the first
commandment?
A. The first
commandment is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
43.
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).
44.
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."
45.
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).
46.
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).
47.
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."
48.
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).
49.
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."
50.
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).
51.
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).
52.
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."
53.
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).
54.
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).
55.
Q. Which is the sixth
commandment?
A. The sixth
commandment is, "Thou shalt not kill."
56.
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).
57.
Q. Which is the seventh
commandment?
A. The seventh
commandment is, "Thou shalt not commit adultery."
58.
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).
59.
Q. Which is the eighth
commandment?
A. The eighth
commandment is, "Thou shalt not steal."
60.
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).
61.
Q. Which is the ninth
commandment?
A. The ninth
commandment is, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbour."
62.
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).
63.
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."
64.
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).
65.
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).
66.
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).
67.
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).
68.
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.
69.
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).
70.
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).
71.
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).
72.
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).
73.
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).
74.
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).
75.
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).
76.
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.
77.
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).
78.
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).
79.
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).
80.
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).
81.
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).
82.
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).
