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 cannot bear it?

A. The wrath of God is terrible indeed, for he can make sinners suffer all the miseries of this life, the pains of death, and the torments of hell forever.

38. Q. How do you hope 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 salvation by Jesus Christ, which was foretold in the Old Testament, 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.

45. Q. What is Christ now doing in heaven?

A. He pleads with God his Father, to bestow mercy on men; and he rules over all things, for the good of his people.

46. Q. What must you do to become one of his people, and to partake of this mercy?

A. I must repent of my sins, and confess them before God, and ask pardon for them; I must have faith in Christ as my Saviour, and obey him as my Lord and Ruler.

47. Q. What is it to repent of sin?

A To repent of my sins, is to be sorry at my heart that I have offended God; to hate every thing that displeases him; and to take heed that I offend him no

more.

48. Q. What is it, to have faith in Christ, as your Saviour?

A. To have faith in Christ, as my Saviour, is to believe that Christ is the Saviour of sinners; and to give myself up to him, and to trust in him, that he may save me in his own way.

49. Q. What reason have you to hope, that you shall then be delivered from the anger of God?

A. If we repent of sin, and trust in Christ, God hath told us in his word, that he will forgive our sins and save our souls.

50. Q. But is not your heart itself sinful, and have you power, of yourself, to repent of sin, and to trust in Christ and obey him?

A. We have sinful hearts, and cannot do these duties of ourselves; but God has promised his own Holy Spirit, if we pray for it, to renew our hearts to holiness, and help us to do his will.

51. Q. How must you offer up your prayers, so as to be accepted of God, and to obtain his Holy Spirit, or any blessings from him?

A. In all our prayers, and all our services, we must seek for acceptance from the mercy of God only, and for the sake of Christ; for we have sinned, and deserve no good thing.

52. Q. Hath God provided any other means for our help in the way to heaven?

A. God hath given his holy word both to Jews and Christians; he hath sent his ministers to help us to understand his word; and appointed some special signs and tokens of his mercy for our use.

53. Q. What are the special signs and tokens, which God hath appointed, to show forth his mercy among Christians?

A. There are two signs or tokens, which are commonly called sacraments of the New Testament, and these are Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

54. Q. What is baptism?

A. It is a washing with water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

55. Q. What is meant by this washing?

A. It signifies our being cleansed from sin, and our becoming new creatures, and the disciples of Christ. 56. Q. Why must we be baptized in the name of the Father?

A. Because it was God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who appointed this salvation; and he is our Father also, if we are true Christians.

57. Q. Why must we be baptized in the name of the Son of God?

A. Because this salvation was preached by the Son of God, as our great Prophet; he procured it for us, as our High Priest; and he bestows it on us, as our Lord and King.

58. Q. Why must it be done also in the name of the Holy Spirit?

A. Because the wondrous works of the Holy Spirit bore witness to this salvation heretofore, and this Holy Spirit enables us to obey the gospel now, and to hope and wait for this salvation.

59. Q. What doth this baptism, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit oblige you to do?

A. If I am baptized, I am given up to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that I may live as a new creature, and a Christian; and having been once wash ed, I must not defile myself again with sin.

60. Q. What is the Lord's Supper?

A. It is the eating of bread and drinking of wine in remembrance of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. 61. Q. What doth the bread signify?

A. The bread when it is broken signifies the body of Christ, which was wounded or broken on the cross for us.

62. Q. What doth the wine signify?

A. The wine poured out into the cup signifies the blood of Christ, which was poured out in his death to take away our sins.

63. Q. Why must the bread be eaten and the wine be drunk?

A. To signify our partaking of the blessings which Christ hath obtained for us by his death.

64. Q. What doth the Lord's Supper oblige us to? A. Those who partake of the Lord's Supper should thankfully remember the love of Christ, who died for them, and they should love and serve him to the end of their life.

65. Q. When you have done the will of God, and served Christ to the end of your life, what are your hopes after death?

A. When my body dies, and my soul goes into the world of spirits, I hope it shall dwell with God and Christ and be happy.

66. Q. And do you not expect some greater happiness afterwards?

A. Yes, I hope for complete happiness when my body shall rise again and be joined to my spirit at the day of judgment.

67. Q. But let us hear first, what is this world of spirits you speak of, whither the soul goes at death.

A. It is a very large world, though it is out of sight, in which there are different dwellings for angels and devils, and for the souls of men both good and bad. 68. Q. Who or what are angels?

A. They are good spirits, who wait on God, and worship him in heaven, but they are often sent down to do service here on earth,

69. Q. Who or what are devils?

A. They are evil spirits, who were at first angels of God; but having sinned against him, they were cast out of heaven, and now they are always tempting men to sin.

70. Q. But are not all these spirits, both good and evil, put under the dominion of Christ?

A. Yes, Christ is Lord over them all: He employs the angels for the good of his people; and the devils can do no mischief but when Christ suffers them.

71. Q. What will become of the devils at last? A. They are now kept as prisoners for some greater punishment after the judgment day.

72. Q. When will this day of judgment come, when you said your body shall rise from the dead?

A. At the end of the world Jesus Christ shall come down from heaven, to judge all mankind; and, for that purpose, he shall raise all, who are dead, to life again.

73. Q. What shall be done to mankind, when the dead are raised to life?

A. Christ shall call them all to appear before his seat of judgment, where both the righteous and the wicked must give an account to him of their behav iour in this world.

74. Q. How will the righteous appear in that day? A. The righteous shall appear with courage and joy, as the children of God, who have done the will of their heavenly Father, and are made like him in holiness.

75. Q. And how will the wicked then appear?

A. The wicked shall stand before the Judge with fear and shame, like children of the devil; for they have done his will, and are like him in sinful works. 76. Q. And how will Christ, the Judge, dispose of men, and deal with them in judgment?

A. He will place the righteous at his right hand, and the wicked on the left, and will pass a sentence on them both, according as their works have been.

77. Q. After the judgment, what shall become of the wicked?

A. The wicked shall be driven into hell-fire, both soul