THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
	a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.

Subject: Westminster Larger Catechism 
                                      
                               Questions 1-97
                                      
   Question 1: What is the chief and highest end of man?
   Answer: Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to
   enjoy him forever.
   
   Question 2: How does it appear that there is a God?
   Answer: The very light of nature in man, and the works of God, declare
   plainly that there is a God; but his Word and Spirit only do
   sufficiently and effectually reveal him unto men for their salvation.
   
   Question 3: What is the Word of God?
   Answer: The holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word
   of God, the only rule of faith and obedience.
   
   Question 4: How does it appear that the Scriptures are the Word of
   God?
   Answer: The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the Word of God, by
   their majesty and purity; by the consent of all the parts, and the
   scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light
   and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up
   believers unto salvation: but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and
   with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to
   persuade it that they are the very Word of God.
   
   Question 5: What do the Scriptures principally teach?
   Answer: The Scriptures principally teach,: What man is to believe
   concerning God, and: What duty God requires of man.
   
   Question 6: What do the Scriptures make known of God?
   Answer: The Scriptures make known: What God is, the persons in the
   Godhead, his decrees, and the execution of his decrees.
   
   Question 7: What is God?
   Answer: God is a Spirit, in and of himself infinite in being, glory,
   blessedness, and perfection; all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable,
   incomprehensible, everywhere present, almighty, knowing all things,
   most wise, most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious,
   long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.
   
   Question 8: Are there more Gods than one?
   Answer: There is but one only, the living and true God.
   
   Question 9: How many persons are there in the Godhead?
   Answer: There be three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son,
   and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one true, eternal God, the
   same in substance, equal in power and glory; although distinguished by
   their personal properties.
   
   Question 10: What are the personal properties of the three persons in
   the Godhead?
   Answer: It is proper to the Father to beget the Son, and to the Son to
   be begotten of the Father, and to the Holy Ghost to proceed from the
   Father and the Son from all eternity.
   
   Question 11: How does it appear that the Son and the Holy Ghost are
   God equal with the Father?
   Answer: The Scriptures manifest that the Son and the Holy Ghost are
   God equal with the Father, ascribing unto them such names, attributes,
   works, and worship, as are proper to God only.
   
   Question 12: What are the decrees of God?
   Answer: God's decrees are the wise, free, and holy acts of the counsel
   of his will, whereby, from all eternity, he has, for his own glory,
   unchangeably foreordained: Whatsoever comes to pass in time,
   especially concerning angels and men.
   
   Question 13: What has God especially decreed concerning angels and
   men?
   Answer: God, by an eternal and immutable decree, out of his mere love,
   for the praise of his glorious grace, to be manifested in due time,
   has elected some angels to glory; and in Christ has chosen some men to
   eternal life, and the means thereof: and also, according to his
   sovereign power, and the unsearchable counsel of his own will (whereby
   he extends or withholds favor as he pleases), has passed by and
   foreordained the rest to dishonor and wrath, to be for their sin
   inflicted, to the praise of the glory of his justice.
   
   Question 14: How does God execute his decrees?
   Answer: God executes his decrees in the works of creation and
   providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free
   and immutable counsel of his own will.
   
   Question 15: What is the work of creation?
   Answer: The work of creation is that wherein God did in the beginning,
   by the word of his power, make of nothing the world, and all things
   therein, for himself, within the space of six days, and all very good.
   
   Question 16: How did God create angels?
   Answer: God created all the angels spirits, immortal, holy, excelling
   in knowledge, mighty in power, to execute his commandments, and to
   praise his name, yet subject to change.
   
   Question 17: How did God create man?
   Answer: After God had made all other creatures, he created man male
   and female; formed the body of the man of the dust of the ground, and
   the woman of the rib of the man, endued them with living, reasonable,
   and immortal souls; made them after his own image, in knowledge,
   righteousness,and holiness; having the law of God written in their
   hearts, and power to fulfil it, and dominion over the creatures; yet
   subject to fall.
   
   Question 18: What are God's works of providence?
   Answer: God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and
   powerful preserving and governing all his creatures; ordering them,
   and all their actions, to his own glory.
   
   Question 19: What is God's providence towards the angels?
   Answer: God by his providence permitted some of the angels, wilfully
   and irrecoverably, to fall into sin and damnation, limiting and
   ordering that, and all their sins, to his own glory; and established
   the rest in holiness and happiness; employing them all, at his
   pleasure, in the administrations of his power, mercy, and justice.
   
   Question 20: What was the providence of God toward man in the estate
   in which he was created?
   Answer: The providence of God toward man in the estate in which he was
   created, was the placing him in paradise, appointing him to dress it,
   giving him liberty to eat of the fruit of the earth; putting the
   creatures under his dominion, and ordaining marriage for his help;
   affording him communion with himself; instituting the sabbath;
   entering into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of personal,
   perfect, and perpetual obedience, of which the tree of life was a
   pledge; and forbidding to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and
   evil, upon the pain of death.
   
   Question 21: Did man continue in that estate wherein God at first
   created him?
   Answer: Our first parents being left to the freedom of their own will,
   through the temptation of Satan, transgressed the commandment of God
   in eating the forbidden fruit; and thereby fell from the estate of
   innocency wherein they were created.
   
   Question 22: Did all mankind fall in that first transgression ?
   Answer: The covenant being made with Adam as a public person, not for
   himself only, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him
   by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in that first
   transgression.
   
   Question 23: Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
   Answer: The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.
   
   Question 24: What is sin?
   Answer: Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, any
   law of God, given as a rule to the reasonable creature.
   
   Question 25: Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto
   man fell?
   Answer: The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in
   the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of that righteousness wherein
   he was created, and the corruption of his nature, whereby he is
   utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all that is
   spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that
   continually; which is commonly called original sin, and from which do
   proceed all actual transgressions.
   
   Question 26: How is original sin conveyed from our first parents unto
   their posterity?
   Answer: Original sin is conveyed from our first parents unto their
   posterity by natural generation, so as all that proceed from them in
   that way are conceived and born in sin.
   
   Question 27: What misery did the fall bring upon mankind?
   Answer: The fall brought upon mankind the loss of communion with God,
   his displeasure and curse; so as we are by nature children of wrath,
   bond slaves to Satan, and justly liable to all punishments in this
   world, and that which is to come.
   
   Question 28: What are the punishments of sin in this world?
   Answer: The punishments of sin in this world are either inward, as
   blindness of mind, a reprobate sense, strong delusions, hardness of
   heart, horror of conscience, and vile affections; or outward, as the
   curse of God upon the creatures for our sakes, and all other evils
   that befall us in our bodies,names, estates, relations, and
   employments; together with death itself.
   
   Question 29: What are the punishments of sin in the world to come?
   Answer: The punishments of sin in the world to come, are everlasting
   separation from the comfortable presence of God, and most grievous
   torments in soul and body, without intermission, in hell fire forever.
   
   Question 30: Does God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin
   and misery ?
   Answer: God does not leave all men to perish in the estate of sin and
   misery,into which they fell by the breach of the first covenant,
   commonly called the covenant of works; but of his mere love and mercy
   delivers his elect out of it, and brings them into an estate of
   salvation by the second covenant,commonly called the covenant of
   grace.
   
   Question 31: With whom was the covenant of grace made?
   Answer: The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam,
   and in him with all the elect as his seed.
   
   Question 32: How is the grace of God manifested in the second
   covenant?
   Answer: The grace of God is manifested in the second covenant, in that
   he freely provides and offers to sinners a Mediator, and life and
   salvation by him; and requiring faith as the condition to interest
   them in him, promises and gives his Holy Spirit to all his elect, to
   work in them that faith, with all other saving graces; and to enable
   them unto all holy obedience, as the evidence of the truth of their
   faith and thankfulness to God, and as the way which he has appointed
   them to salvation.
   
   Question 33: Was the covenant of grace always administered after one
   and the same manner?
   Answer: The covenant of grace was not always administered after the
   same manner, but the administrations of it under the Old Testament
   were different from those under the New.
   
   Question 34: How was the covenant of grace administered under the Old
   Testament?
   Answer: The covenant of grace was administered under the Old
   Testament, by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the
   passover, and other types and ordinances, which did all foresignify
   Christ then to come, and were for that time sufficient to build up the
   elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they then had full
   remission of sin, and eternal salvation.
   
   Question 35: How is the covenant of grace administered under the New
   Testament?
   Answer: Under the New Testament, when Christ the substance was
   exhibited, the same covenant of grace was and still is to be
   administered in the preaching of the Word, and the administration of
   the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; in which grace and
   salvation are held forth in more fulness, evidence, and efficacy, to
   all nations.
   
   Question 36: Who is the Mediator of the covenant of grace?
   Answer: The only Mediator of the covenant of grace is the Lord Jesus
   Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, of one substance and equal
   with the Father, in the fulness of time became man, and so was and
   continues to be God and man, in two entire distinct natures, and one
   person, forever.
   
   Question 37: How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
   Answer: 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, of her substance, and born of
   her, yet without sin.
   
   Question 38: Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be God?
   Answer: It was requisite that the Mediator should be God, that he
   might sustain and keep the human nature from sinking under the
   infinite wrath of God, and the power of death; give worth and efficacy
   to his sufferings, obedience, and intercession; and to satisfy God's
   justice, procure his favor, purchase a peculiar people, give his
   Spirit to them, conquer all their enemies, and bring them to
   everlasting salvation.
   
   Question 39: Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be man?
   Answer: It was requisite that the Mediator should be man, that he
   might advance our nature, perform obedience to the law, suffer and
   make intercession for us in our nature, have a fellow feeling of our
   infirmities; that we might receive the adoption of sons, and have
   comfort and access with boldness unto the throne of grace.
   
   Question 40: Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be God and
   man in one person ?
   Answer: It was requisite that the Mediator, who was to reconcile God
   and man, should himself be both God and man, and this in one person,
   that the proper works of each nature might be accepted of God for us,
   and relied on by us, as the works of the whole person.
   
   Question 41: Why was our Mediator called Jesus?
   Answer: Our Mediator was called Jesus, because he saves his people
   from their sins.
   
   Question 42: Why was our Mediator called Christ?
   Answer: Our Mediator was called Christ, because he was anointed with
   the Holy Ghost above measure; and so set apart, and fully furnished
   with all authority and ability, to execute the offices of prophet,
   priest, and king of his church, in the estate both of his humiliation
   and exaltation.
   
   Question 43: How does Christ execute the office of a prophet?
   Answer: Christ executes the office of a prophet, in his revealing to
   the church, in all ages, by his Spirit and Word, in divers ways of
   administration, the whole will of God, in all things concerning their
   edification and salvation.
   
   Question 44: How does Christ execute the office of a priest?
   Answer: Christ executes the office of a priest, in his once offering
   himself a sacrifice without spot to God, to be a reconciliation for
   the sins of his people; and in making continual intercession for them.
   
   Question 45: How does Christ execute the office of a king?
   Answer: Christ executes the office of a king, in calling out of the
   world a people to himself, and giving them officers, laws, and
   censures, by which he visibly governs them; in bestowing saving grace
   upon his elect, rewarding their obedience, and correcting them for
   their sins, preserving and supporting them under all their temptations
   and sufferings, restraining and overcoming all their enemies, and
   powerfully ordering all things for his own glory, and their good; and
   also in taking vengeance on the rest, who know not God, and obey not
   the gospel.
   
   Question 46: What was the estate of Christ's humiliation?
   Answer: The estate of Christ's humiliation was that low condition,
   wherein he for our sakes, emptying himself of his glory, took upon him
   the form of a servant, in his conception and birth, life, death, and
   after his death, until his resurrection.
   
   Question 47: How did Christ humble himself in his conception and
   birth?
   Answer: Christ humbled himself in his conception and birth, in that,
   being from all eternity the Son of God, in the bosom of the Father, he
   was pleased in the fulness of time to become the son of man, made of a
   woman of low estate, and to be born of her; with divers circumstances
   of more than ordinary abasement.
   
   Question 48: How did Christ humble himself in his life?
   Answer: Christ humbled himself in his life, by subjecting himself to
   the law, which he perfectly fulfilled; and by conflicting with the
   indignities of the world, temptations of Satan, and infirmities in his
   flesh, whether common to the nature of man, or particularly
   accompanying that his low condition.
   
   Question 49: How did Christ humble himself in his death?
   Answer: Christ humbled himself in his death, in that having been
   betrayed by Judas, forsaken by his disciples, scorned and rejected by
   the world,condemned by Pilate, and tormented by his persecutors;
   having also conflicted with the terrors of death, and the powers of
   darkness, felt and borne the weight of God's wrath, he laid down his
   life an offering for sin, enduring the painful, shameful, and cursed
   death of the cross.
   
   Question 50: Wherein consisted Christ's humiliation after his death?
   Answer: Christ's humiliation after his death consisted in his being
   buried, and continuing in the state of the dead, and under the power
   of death till the third day; which has been otherwise expressed in
   these words, he descended into hell.
   
   Question 51: What was the estate of Christ's exaltation?
   Answer: The estate of Christ's exaltation comprehends his
   resurrection, ascension, sitting at the right hand of the Father, and
   his coming again to judge the world.
   
   Question 52: How was Christ exalted in his resurrection?
   Answer: Christ was exalted in his resurrection, in that, not having
   seen corruption in death (of which it was not possible for him to be
   held), and having the very same body in which he suffered, with the
   essential properties thereof (but without mortality, and other common
   infirmities belonging to this life), really united to his soul, he
   rose again from the dead the third day by his own power; whereby he
   declared himself to be the Son of God, to have satisfied divine
   justice, to have vanquished death, and him that had the power of it,
   and to be Lord of quick and dead: all which he did as a public person,
   the head of his church, for their justification, quickening in grace,
   support against enemies, and to assure them of their resurrection from
   the dead at the last day.
   
   Question 53: How was Christ exalted in his ascension?
   Answer: Christ was exalted in his ascension, in that having after his
   resurrection often appeared unto and conversed with his apostles,
   speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and
   giving them commission to preach the gospel to all nations, forty days
   after his resurrection, he, in our nature, and as our head, triumphing
   over enemies, visibly went up into the highest heavens, there to
   receive gifts for men, to raise up our affections thither, and to
   prepare a place for us, where himself is, and shall continue till his
   second coming at the end of the world.
   
   Question 54: How is Christ exalted in his sitting at the right hand of
   God?
   Answer: Christ is exalted in his sitting at the right hand of God, in
   that as God-man he is advanced to the highest favor with God the
   Father, with all fulness of joy, glory, and power over all things in
   heaven and earth; and does gather and defend his church, and subdue
   their enemies; furnishes his ministers and people with gifts and
   graces, and makes intercession for them.
   
   Question 55: How does Christ make intercession?
   Answer: Christ makes intercession, by his appearing in our nature
   continually before the Father in heaven, in the merit of his obedience
   and sacrifice on earth, declaring his will to have it applied to all
   believers;
   Answering all accusations against them, and procuring for them quiet
   of conscience, notwithstanding daily failings, access with boldness to
   the throne of grace, and acceptance of their persons and services.
   
   Question 56: How is Christ to be exalted in his coming again to judge
   the world?
   Answer: Christ is to be exalted in his coming again to judge the
   world, in that he, who was unjustly judged and condemned by wicked
   men, shall come again at the last day in great power, and in the full
   manifestation of his own glory, and of his Father's, with all his holy
   angels, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
   trumpet of God, to judge the world in righteousness.
   
   Question 57: What benefits has Christ procured by his mediation?
   Answer: Christ, by his mediation, has procured redemption, with all
   other benefits of the covenant of grace.
   
   Question 58: How do we come to be made partakers of the benefits which
   Christ has procured?
   Answer: We are made partakers of the benefits which Christ has
   procured, by the application of them unto us, which is the work
   especially of God the Holy Ghost.
   
   Question 59: Who are made partakers of redemption through Christ?
   Answer: Redemption is certainly applied, and effectually communicated,
   to all those for whom Christ has purchased it; who are in time by the
   Holy Ghost enabled to believe in Christ according to the gospel.
   
   Question 60: Can they who have never heard the gospel, and so know not
   Jesus Christ, nor believe in him, be saved by their living according
   to the light of nature?
   Answer: They who, having never heard the gospel, know not Jesus
   Christ, and believe not in him, cannot be saved, be they never so
   diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, or the
   laws of that religion which they profess; neither is there salvation
   in any other, but in Christ alone, who is the Savior only of his body
   the church.
   
   Question 61: Are all they saved who hear the gospel, and live in the
   church?
   Answer: All that hear the gospel, and live in the visible church, are
   not saved; but they only who are true members of the church invisible.
   
   Question 62: What is the visible church?
   Answer: The visible church is a society made up of all such as in all
   ages and places of the world do profess the true religion, and of
   their children.
   
   Question 63: What are the special privileges of the visible church?
   Answer: The visible church has the privilege of being under God's
   special care and government; of being protected and preserved in all
   ages, not withstanding the opposition of all enemies; and of enjoying
   the communion of saints, the ordinary means of salvation, and offers
   of grace by Christ to all the members of it in the ministry of the
   gospel, testifying, that whosoever believes in him shall be saved, and
   excluding none that will come unto him.
   
   Question 64: What is the invisible church?
   Answer: The invisible church is the whole number of the elect, that
   have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ the head.
   
   Question 65: What special benefits do the members of the invisible
   church enjoy by Christ?
   Answer: The members of the invisible church by Christ enjoy union and
   communion with him in grace and glory.
   
   Question 66: What is that union which the elect have with Christ?
   Answer: The union which the elect have with Christ is the work of
   God's grace, whereby they are spiritually and mystically, yet really
   and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband; which is
   done in their effectual calling.
   
   Question 67: What is effectual calling?
   Answer: Effectual calling is the work of God's almighty power and
   grace, whereby (out of his free and special love to his elect, and
   from nothing in them moving him thereunto) he does, in his accepted
   time, invite and draw them to Jesus Christ, by his Word and Spirit;
   savingly enlightening their minds, renewing and powerfully determining
   their wills, so as they (although in themselves dead in sin) are
   hereby made willing and able freely to
   Answer: his call, and to accept and embrace the grace offered and
   conveyed therein.
   
   Question 68: Are the elect only effectually called?
   Answer: All the elect, and they only, are effectually called; although
   others may be, and often are, outwardly called by the ministry of the
   Word, and have some common operations of the Spirit; who, for their
   wilful neglect and contempt of the grace offered to them, being justly
   left in their unbelief, do never truly come to Jesus Christ.
   
   Question 69: What is the communion in grace which the members of the
   invisible church have with Christ?
   Answer: The communion in grace which the members of the invisible
   church have with Christ, is their partaking of the virtue of his
   mediation, in their justification, adoption, sanctification, and:
   Whatever else, in this life, manifests their union with him.
   
   Question 70: What is justification?
   Answer: Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in
   which he pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts their persons
   righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by
   them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of
   Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.
   
   Question 71: How is justification an act of God's free grace?
   Answer: Although Christ, by his obedience and death, did make a
   proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in the behalf of
   them that are justified; yet inasmuch as God accepts the satisfaction
   from a surety, which he might have demanded of them, and did provide
   this surety, his own only Son, imputing his righteousness to them, and
   requiring nothing of them for their justification but faith, which
   also is his gift, their justification is to them of free grace.
   
   Question 72: What is justifying faith?
   Answer: Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a
   sinner by the Spirit and Word of God, whereby he, being convinced of
   his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself and all other
   creatures to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assents
   to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receives and rests upon
   Christ and his righteousness, therein held forth, for pardon of sin,
   and for the accepting and accounting of his person righteous in the
   sight of God for salvation.
   
   Question 73: How does faith justify a sinner in the sight of God?
   Answer: Faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of
   those other graces which do always accompany it, or of good works that
   are the fruits of it, nor as if the grace of faith, or any act
   thereof, were imputed to him for his justification; but only as it is
   an instrument by which he receives and applies Christ and his
   righteousness.
   
   Question 74: What is adoption?
   Answer: Adoption is an act of the free grace of God, in and for his
   only Son Jesus Christ, whereby all those that are justified are
   received into the number of his children, have his name put upon them,
   the Spirit of his Son given to them, are under his fatherly care and
   dispensations, admitted to all the liberties and privileges of the
   sons of God, made heirs of all the promises, and fellow heirs with
   Christ in glory.
   
   Question 75: What is sanctification?
   Answer: Sanctification is a work of God's grace, whereby they whom God
   has, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in
   time, through the powerful operation of his Spirit applying the death
   and resurrection of Christ unto them, renewed in their whole man after
   the image of God; having the seeds of repentance unto life, and all
   other saving graces, put into their hearts, and those graces so
   stirred up, increased, and strengthened, as that they more and more
   die unto sin, and rise unto newness of life.
   
   Question 76: What is repentance unto life?
   Answer: Repentance unto life is a saving grace, wrought in the heart
   of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God, whereby, out of the sight
   and sense, not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and
   odiousness of his sins, and upon the apprehension of God's mercy in
   Christ to such as are penitent, he so grieves for and hates his sins,
   as that he turns from them all to God, purposing and endeavoring
   constantly to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience.
   
   Question 77: Wherein do justification and sanctification differ?
   Answer: Although sanctification be inseparably joined with
   justification, yet they differ, in that God in justification imputes
   the righteousness of Christ;in sanctification his Spirit infuses
   grace, and enables to the exercise thereof; in the former, sin is
   pardoned; in the other, it is subdued:the one does equally free all
   believers from the revenging wrath of God, and that perfectly in this
   life, that they never fall into condemnation; the other is neither
   equal in all, nor in this life perfect in any, but growing up to
   perfection.
   
   Question 78: Whence arises the imperfection of sanctification in
   believers?
   Answer: The imperfection of sanctification in believers arises from
   the remnants of sin abiding in every part of them, and the perpetual
   lustings of the flesh against the spirit; whereby they are often
   foiled with temptations, and fall into many sins, are hindered in all
   their spiritual services, and their best works are imperfect and
   defiled in the sight of God.
   
   Question 79: May not true believers, by reason of their imperfections,
   and the many temptations and sins they are overtaken with, fall away
   from the state of grace ?
   Answer: True believers, by reason of the unchangeable love of God, and
   his decree and covenant to give them perseverance, their inseparable
   union with Christ, his continual intercession for them, and the Spirit
   and seed of God abiding in them, can neither totally nor finally fall
   away from the state of grace, but are kept by the power of God through
   faith unto salvation.
   
   Question 80: Can true believers be infallibly assured that they are in
   the estate of grace, and that they shall persevere therein unto
   salvation?
   Answer: Such as truly believe in Christ, and endeavor to walk in all
   good conscience before him, may, without extraordinary revelation, by
   faith grounded upon the truth of God's promises, and by the Spirit
   enabling them to discern in themselves those graces to which the
   promises of life are made, and bearing witness with their spirits that
   they are the children of God, be infallibly assured that they are in
   the estate of grace, and shall persevere therein unto salvation.
   
   Question 81: Are all true believers at all times assured of their
   present being in the estate of grace, and that they shall be saved?
   Answer: Assurance of grace and salvation not being of the essence of
   faith, true believers may wait long before they obtain it; and, after
   the enjoyment thereof, may have it weakened and intermitted, through
   manifold distempers, sins, temptations, and desertions; yet are they
   never left without such a presence and support of the Spirit of God as
   keeps them from sinking into utter despair.
   
   Question 82: What is the communion in glory which the members of the
   invisible church have with Christ?
   Answer: The communion in glory which the members of the invisible
   church have with Christ, is in this life, immediately after death, and
   at last perfected at the resurrection and day of judgment.
   
   Question 83: What is the communion in glory with Christ which the
   members of the invisible church enjoy in this life?
   Answer: The members of the invisible church have communicated to them
   in this life the firstfruits of glory with Christ, as they are members
   of him their head, and so in him are interested in that glory which he
   is fully possessed of; and, as an earnest thereof, enjoy the sense of
   God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, and hope of
   glory; as, on the contrary, sense of God's revenging wrath, horror of
   conscience, and a fearful expectation of judgment, are to the wicked
   the beginning of their torments which they shall endure after death.
   
   Question 84: Shall all men die?
   Answer: Death being threatened as the wages of sin, it is appointed
   unto all men once to die; for that all have sinned.
   
   Question 85: Death, being the wages of sin, why are not the righteous
   delivered from death, seeing all their sins are forgiven in Christ?
   Answer: The righteous shall be delivered from death itself at the last
   day, and even in death are delivered from the sting and curse of it;
   so that, although they die, yet it is out of God's love, to free them
   perfectly from sin and misery, and to make them capable of further
   communion with Christ in glory, which they then enter upon.
   
   Question 86: What is the communion in glory with Christ, which the
   members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death ?
   Answer: The communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the
   invisible church enjoy immediately after death, is, in that their
   souls are then made perfect in holiness, and received into the highest
   heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting
   for the full redemption of their bodies, which even in death continue
   united to Christ, and rest in their graves as in their beds, till at
   the last day they be again united to their souls. Whereas the souls of
   the wicked are at their death cast into hell, where they remain in
   torments and utter darkness, and their bodies kept in their graves, as
   in their prisons, till the resurrection and judgment of the great day.
   
   Question 87: What are we to believe concerning the resurrection?
   Answer: We are to believe, that at the last day there shall be a
   general resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust: when
   they that are then found alive shall in a moment be changed; and the
   selfsame bodies of the dead which were laid in the grave, being then
   again united to their souls forever, shall be raised up by the power
   of Christ. The bodies of the just, by the Spirit of Christ, and by
   virtue of his resurrection as their head, shall be raised in power,
   spiritual, incorruptible, and made like to his glorious body; and the
   bodies of the wicked shall be raised up in dishonor by him, as an
   offended judge.
   
   Question 88: What shall immediately follow after the resurrection?
   Answer: Immediately after the resurrection shall follow the general
   and final judgment of angels and men; the day and hour whereof no man
   knows, that all may watch and pray, and be ever ready for the coming
   of the Lord.
   
   Question 89: What shall be done to the wicked at the day of judgment?
   Answer: At the day of judgment, the wicked shall be set on Christ's
   left hand, and, upon clear evidence, and full conviction of their own
   consciences, shall have the fearful but just sentence of condemnation
   pronounced against them; and thereupon shall be cast out from the
   favorable presence of God, and the glorious fellowship with Christ,
   his saints, and all his holy angels, into hell, to be punished with
   unspeakable torments, both of body and soul, with the devil and his
   angels forever.
   
   Question 90: What shall be done to the righteous at the day of
   judgment?
   Answer: At the day of judgment, the righteous, being caught up to
   Christ in the clouds, shall be set on his right hand, and there openly
   acknowledged and acquitted, shall join with him in the judging of
   reprobate angels and men, and shall be received into heaven, where
   they shall be fully and forever freed from all sin and misery; filled
   with inconceivable joys, made perfectly holy and happy both in body
   and soul, in the company of innumerable saints and holy angels, but
   especially in the immediate vision and fruition of God the Father, of
   our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity. And
   this is the perfect and full communion, which the members of the
   invisible church shall enjoy with Christ in glory, at the resurrection
   and day of judgment.
   
   Question 91: What is the duty which God requires of man?
   Answer: The duty which God requires of man, is obedience to his
   revealed will.
   
   Question 92: What did God at first reveal unto man as the rule of his
   obedience?
   Answer: The rule of obedience revealed to Adam in the estate of
   innocence, and to all mankind in him, besides a special command not to
   eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was
   the moral law.
   
   Question 93: What is the moral law?
   Answer: The moral law is the declaration of the will of God to
   mankind, directing and binding everyone to personal, perfect, and
   perpetual conformity and obedience thereunto, in the frame and
   disposition of the whole man, soul and body, and in performance of all
   those duties of holiness and righteousness which he owes to God and
   man: promising life upon the fulfilling, and threatening death upon
   the breach of it.
   
   Question 94: Is there any use of the moral law to man since the fall?
   Answer: Although no man, since the fall, can attain to righteousness
   and life by the moral law; yet there is great use thereof, as well
   common to all men, as peculiar either to the unregenerate, or the
   regenerate.
   
   Question 95: Of what use is the moral law to all men?
   Answer: The moral law is of use to all men, to inform them of the holy
   nature and will of God, and of their duty, binding them to walk
   accordingly;to convince them of their disability to keep it, and of
   the sinful pollution of their nature, hearts, and lives; to humble
   them in the sense of their sin and misery, and thereby help them to a
   clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and of the perfection
   of his obedience.
   
   Question 96: What particular use is there of the moral law to
   unregenerate men?
   Answer: The moral law is of use to unregenerate men, to awaken their
   consciences to flee from wrath to come, and to drive them to Christ;
   or, upon their continuance in the estate and way of sin, to leave them
   inexcusable, and under the curse thereof.
   
   Question 97: What special use is there of the moral law to the
   regenerate?
   Answer: Although they that are regenerate, and believe in Christ, be
   delivered from the moral law as a covenant of works, so as thereby
   they are neither justified nor condemned; yet, besides the general
   uses thereof common to them with all men, it is of special use, to
   show them: How much they are bound to Christ for his fulfilling it,
   and enduring the curse thereof in their stead, and for their good; and
   thereby to provoke them to more thankfulness, and to express the same
   in their greater care to conform themselves thereunto as the rule of
   their obedience.
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
   Press here to go to the next set of questions.
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
   This document (last modified December 19, 1996) from the Christian
   Classics Ethereal Library server, at Wheaton College