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Question 1

Q. 39. What is the duty which God requireth of man?

Answer 1

A. The duty which God requireth of man is obedience to his revealed will.

Question 2

Q. 40. What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience?

Answer 2

A. The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience was the moral law.

Question 3

Q. 41. Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?

Answer 3

A. The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments.

Question 4

Q. 42. What is the sum of the ten commandments?

Answer 4

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 neighbor as ourselves.

Question 5

Q. 43. What is the preface to the ten commandments?

Answer 5

A. The preface to the ten commandments is in these words, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Question 6

Q. 44. What doth the preface to the ten commandments teach us?

Answer 6

A. The preface to the ten commandments teacheth us that because God is the Lord, and our God, and redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments.

Question 7

Q. 45. Which is the first commandment?

Answer 7

A. The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Question 8

Q. 46. What is required in the first commandment?

Answer 8

A. The first commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly.

Question 9

Q. 47. What is forbidden in the first commandment?

Answer 9

A. The first commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshiping and glorifying the true God as God, and our God; and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to him alone.

Question 10

Q. 48. What are we specially taught by these words before me in the first commandment?

Answer 10

A. These words before me in the first commandment teach us that God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other god.

Question 11

Q. 49. Which is the second commandment?

Answer 11

A. The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything 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 showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Question 12

Q. 50. What is required in the second commandment?

Answer 12

A. The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in his word.

Question 13

Q. 51. What is forbidden in the second commandment?

Answer 13

A. The second commandment forbiddeth the worshiping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his word.

Question 14

Q. 52. What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment?

Answer 14

A. The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us, his propriety in us, and the zeal he hath to his own worship.

Question 15

Q. 53. Which is the third commandment?

Answer 15

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 taketh his name in vain.

Question 16

Q. 54. What is required in the third commandment?

Answer 16

A. The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word and works.

Question 17

Q. 55. What is forbidden in the third commandment?

Answer 17

A. The third commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God maketh himself known.

Question 18

Q. 56. What is the reason annexed to the third commandment?

Answer 18

A. The reason annexed to the third commandment is that however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment.

Question 19

Q. 57. Which is the fourth commandment?

Answer 19

A. The fourth commandment is, Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, 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 thy 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.

Question 20

Q. 58. What is required in the fourth commandment?

Answer 20

A. The fourth commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his word; expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy sabbath to himself.

Question 21

Q. 59. Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly sabbath?

Answer 21

A. From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed 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 of the world, which is the Christian sabbath.

Question 22

Q. 60. How is the sabbath to be sanctified?

Answer 22

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; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.

Question 23

Q. 61. What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?

Answer 23

A. The fourth commandment forbiddeth the omission or careless performance of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words or works, about our worldly employments or recreations.

Question 24

Q. 62. What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment?

Answer 24

A. The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment are, God’s allowing us six days of the week for our own employments, his challenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, and his blessing the sabbath day.

Question 25

Q. 100. What doth the preface of the Lord’s prayer teach us?

Answer 25

A. The preface of the Lord’s prayer, which is, Our Father which art in heaven, teacheth us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others.

Question 26

Q. 101. What do we pray for in the first petition?

Answer 26

A. In the first petition, which is, Hallowed be thy name, we pray that God would enable us and others to glorify him in all that whereby he maketh himself known; and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.

Question 27

Q. 102. What do we pray for in the second petition?

Answer 27

A. In the second petition, which is, Thy kingdom come, we pray that Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed; and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it; and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.

Question 28

Q. 103. What do we pray for in the third petition?

Answer 28

A. In the third petition, which is, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven, we pray that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.

Question 29

Q. 104. What do we pray for in the fourth petition?

Answer 29

A. In the fourth petition, which is, Give us this day our daily bread, we pray that of God’s free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them.

Question 30

Q. 105. What do we pray for in the fifth petition?

Answer 30

A. In the fifth petition, which is, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, we pray that God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by his grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.

Question 31

Q. 106. What do we pray for in the sixth petition?

Answer 31

A. In the sixth petition, which is, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

Question 32

Q. 107. What doth the conclusion of the Lord’s prayer teach us?

Answer 32

A. The conclusion of the Lord’s prayer, which is, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen, teacheth us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power and glory to him. And in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.