THE

SHORTER CATECHISM.

Agreed upon by the Reverend Assembly of Divines, at Westminster.

HAT is the chief end of man?

? WHAT

A. Man's chief end is to glorify

God, and enjoy him for ever.

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

A. The word of God which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

Q. What doth the scriptures principally teach?

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

Q. What is God?

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

Q. Are there more Gods than one ?

A. There is bi one only, the living and true God.

Q. How many persons are there in the Godhead ?

A. 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. 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 hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Q. How does God execute his decrees ?

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

Q. What is the work of creation?

A. 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. Q. How did God create man ?

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

Q. What are God's works of providence?

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

Q. What special act of providence did God exercise towards 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, forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Q. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?

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

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

A. 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 transgressions which proceed from it.

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

A. All mankind by the 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 for ever.

Q. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the state of sin 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 state of sin and misery, and to bring them into a state of salvation by a Redeemer.

Q. 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, and continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever.

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 and a reasonabie soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her, and yet without sin.

Q. What ofice doth Christ execute as our Redeemer ?

A. Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the office of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation. Q. How doth Christ execute the office of a Prophet?

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

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

A. Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up himself a sacrifice to

satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us. Q. How doth Christ execute the office of a king?

A. 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.

Q. Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist? A. Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a 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.

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

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 by his Holy Spirit.

Q. How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?

A. The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Q. What is effectual calling?

A. Effectual calling is the work of God's