THE SECOND CATECHISM OF THE PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION. 1. Quest. DEAR child, do you know what you are ? Ans. I am a creature of God, for he made me, both body and soul. 2. Q. How do you know that you have a soul? A. Because I find something within me that can think and know, can wish and desire, can rejoice and be sorry, which my body cannot do. 3. Q. Wherein does your soul differ farther from your body? A. My body is made of flesh and blood, and it will die; but my soul is a spirit, and will live after my body is dead. 4. Q. For what purpose did God make you such a creature, with a body and soul? A. To know him and serve him here on earth, that I may dwell with him and be happy with him in heaven. 5. Q. How must you learn to know God and serve him ? A. By the holy scriptures of the old and new testament, which are the word of God. 6. Q. What do the scriptures teach you of the knowl-` edge of God? A. The scriptures teach me what God is, in himself; and what he is, in relation to us who are his creatures. 7. Q. Who is God, considered in himself, or in his ⚫wn nature? A. God, in his own nature, is a Spirit, every where present, without beginning and without end, most wise and powerful, most holy and merciful, most just and true. 8. Q. What is God in relation to us, who are his creatures? A. As the great God is our Maker, who gave us our being; so he continually preserves us, and does us good: He is our Lord and Ruler now, and he will be our Judge at last. 9. Q. And how do the scriptures teach us to serve God? A. I must serve God, by keeping all his commandments; that is, by doing every thing, that he requires of me, and avoiding every thing, that he forbids me. 10. Q. What commandments has God given to men? A. He gave the law of ten commandments to the Jews, in the old testament; and they are summed up in two commandments for us, in the new testament. 11. Q. Repeat the ten commandments of God in short, which he gave in the old testament. What is the first commandment? A. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 12. Q. What is the second commandment? A. Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, or the likeness of any thing in heaven or earth, to bow down and worship it. 13. Q. What is the third commandment? A. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 14. Q. What is the fourth commandment? A. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 15. Q. What is the fifth commandment? A. Honour thy father and mother, that thy days may be long. 16. Q. What is the sixth commandment ? A. Thou shalt do no murder. 17. Q. What is the seventh commandment ? 18. Q. What is the eighth commandment? A. Thou shalt not steal. 19. Q. What is the ninth commandment ? A. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 20. Q. What is the tenth commandment ? A. Thou shalt not covet any thing, that is thy neigh bour's. [See all these commandments at large, in the twen tieth chapter of Exodus, from the first verse to the eighteenth.] 21. Q. What is the sum of these ten commandments, which is given us in the new testament? A. The sum of the ten commandments is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart; and thou shalt love thy neighbour, as thyself. 22. Q. What do you mean by loving God with all your heart? A. To love God with all my heart, is, to have the highest and best thoughts of him; to desire his favour above all things; and to delight to please him always. 23. Q. How must you show your love to God? A. By paying him constantly the worship, that he requires of me; by doing heartily whatsoever else he commands me; by bearing patiently what he suffers to befal me. 24. Q. What worship doth God require of you ? A. I must hearken diligently to his holy word, and praise him for his greatness and goodness; I must pray to him daily for what mercies I want; and give him thanks for what I receive. 25. Q. And what do you mean by loving your neighbour as yourself? A. To love my neighbour as myself, is, to do to all other persons, as I could reasonably desire them to do to me, if I were in their place. 26.Q. How must you show your love to your neighbour? A. By honouring and obeying those who are set over me; by speaking the truth, and dealing honestly with all who are about me; by wishing well and doing good to all mankind, whether they be friends, strangers, or enemies. 27. Q. You have told me the duties,that you must do ; can you tell me also the sins, that you must avoid? A. I must avoid all the sins of the heart, the sins of the tongue, and the sinful actions of life: 28. Q. What are the sins of the heart ? A. The sins of the heart are these, a neglect of God; pride and stubbornness; malice and envy; with all other evil thoughts and unruly passions. 29. Q. What are the chief sins of the tongue ? A. The chief sins of the tongue are, swearing and cursing; abusing the name of God, or any thing that is holy; scoffing and calling ill names; lying and filthy speaking. 30. Q. What are those sinful actions, which you must avoid? A. Sinful actions are such as these, gluttony, drunkenness, and quarrelling; wanton carriage, and mispending of time, especially the Lord's day; doing dishonour to God, or injury to man. 31. Q. Have you never broken the commands of God, and sinned against him? A. My own heart and conscience tell me, that I have broken God's holy commandments, and sinned against him in thought, word, and deed. 32. Q. How do you know, that you have sinned in thought, word, and deed, against the blessed God? A. I have let evil thoughts run too much in my mind, and spoken too many evil words; I have too often done such deeds as are evil, and neglected what is good. 33. Q. Whence comes it to pass, that you have been such a sinner ? A. I was born into the world with inclinations to that which is evil, and I have too much followed these inclinations all my life. 34. Q. How came you to be born with such an inclination to evil? A. All mankind are born in sin, because they come from Adam, the first man who sinned against God. 35. Q. But why did you follow these evil inclinations ? Was it not your duty to resist them, when you knew they were evil? A. I ought to resist every sinful inclination, and therefore I have no sufficient excuse for myself before the great God. 36. Q. What do you deserve because of your sins ? A. My sins have deserved the wrath and curse of the Almighty God who made me. 37. Q. Is the wrath of God so terrible that you can not bear it? A. The wrath of God is terrible indeed, for he ca make sinners suffer all the miseries of this life, the pain of death, and the torments of hell forever. 38. Q. How do you expect to escape God's wrath A. God is merciful, and has sent Jesus Christ into this world, to become the Saviour of sinful creatures, as the gospel teaches us. 39. Q. What is the gospel ? A. The gospel is the glad tidings of the way of sal vation by Jesus Christ, which was foretold in the old tes tament, but is plainly revealed in the new. 40. Q. Who is Jesus Christ? A. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was with God before the world was made, but he became the son of man, and dwelt with men about eighteen hundred years ago. 41. Q. But is not Jesus Christ God as well as man? A. Though he be a man, yet he is God also; for he is a glorious person, in whom God and man are joined together, and his name is Emmanuel, or, God with us. 42. Q. What did Jesus Christ do on earth to save sinners ? A. He made known to men the will of God, by his preaching; he set them a pattern of holiness, by his own practice; he obtained pardon of sin and everlasting life for them, by his obedience unto death. 43. Q. How could Christ obtain pardon and life for us, by his doing or suffering? A. Our sins had deserved death, but Christ was the Son of God, and perfectly righteous; and God appointed him to suffer death, to take away our sins, and to bring us into his favour. 44. Q. Is Jesus Christ now among the dead? A. He is not; he arose from the dead on the third day, and afterward went up to heaven to dwell at the right hand of God. |