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Question 1

Q1. What is the chief end of man?

Answer 1

Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Question 2

Q2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?

Answer 2

The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

Question 3

Q3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?

Answer 3

The Scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

Question 4

Q89. How is the Word made effectual to salvation?

Answer 4

The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.

Question 5

Q90. How is the Word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual to salvation?

Answer 5

That the Word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.

Question 6

Q4. What is God?

Answer 6

God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

Question 7

Q5. Are there more Gods than one?

Answer 7

There is but one only, the living and true God.

Question 8

Q6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?

Answer 8

There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

Question 9

Q7. What are the decrees of God?

Answer 9

The decrees of God are, his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Question 10

Q8. How doth God execute his decrees?

Answer 10

God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence.

Question 11

Q9. What is the work of creation?

Answer 11

The work of creation is, God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.

Question 12

Q10. How did God create man?

Answer 12

God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

Question 13

Q11. What are God’s works of providence?

Answer 13

God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing of his creatures, and all their actions.

Question 14

Q12. What special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created?

Answer 14

When God had created man, he entered into a covenant 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.

Question 15

Q13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?

Answer 15

Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.

Question 16

Q14. What is sin?

Answer 16

Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

Question 17

Q15. What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?

Answer 17

The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.

Question 18

Q16. Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression?

Answer 18

The covenant being made in 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.

Question 19

Q17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?

Answer 19

The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

Question 20

Q18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?

Answer 20

The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgression which proceed from it.

Question 21

Q19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?

Answer 21

All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

Question 22

Q20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

Answer 22

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 them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.

Question 23

Q21. Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?

Answer 23

The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.

Question 24

Q22. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?

Answer 24

Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.

Question 25

Q23. What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer?

Answer 25

Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.

Question 26

Q24. How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?

Answer 26

Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.

Question 27

Q25. How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?

Answer 27

Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us.

Question 28

Q26. How doth Christ execute the office of a king?

Answer 28

Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

Question 29

Q27. Wherein did Christ’s humiliation consist?

Answer 29

Christ’s humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in low condition, 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.

Question 30

Q28. Wherein consisteth Christ’s exaltation?

Answer 30

Christ’s exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.