Q50. What is required in the second commandment?
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.
Q1. What is the opinion of the Papists respecting this commandment?
A. They allege that it is not a distinct precept from the first, but only an appendix, or supplement to it, by way of illustration.
Q2. What is their practice, in consequence of this opinion?
A. They constantly leave it out in their mass books and other liturgies of their church, lest the people should observe the manifest contrariety of their image worship, to what is here so expressly forbidden.
Q3. In what then does the Second Commandment differ from the first?
A. The First Commandment respects the object, and requires that we worship the true God for our God, and no other: the second respects the means of worship, and requires that the true God be worshipped in such a way only, and by such ordinances as he has appointed in his word, in opposition to all human inventions.
Q4. What is meant by religious worship?
A. That homage and respect we owe to a gracious God, as a God of infinite perfection; by which we profess subjection to, and confidence in him, as our God in Christ, for the supply of all our wants; and ascribe the praise and glory that is due to him, as our chief good, and only happiness, Psalm 95:6, 7.
Q5. What are these religious ordinances, which God has appointed in his word?
A. They are "prayer and thanksgiving in the name of Christ; the reading, preaching, and hearing of the word, the administration and receiving of the sacraments; church government and discipline; the ministry and maintenance thereof; religious fasting; swearing by the name of God; and vowing to him."
Q6. Is prayer a moral duty founded in the law of nature?
A. It certainly is; the necessary dependence of the rational creature upon its Creator, plainly proves it to be so. Hence we find the very Heathens practising it, when reduced to straits, Jonah 1:14.
Q7. How does it appear to be an instituted means of worship?
A. From a variety of scripture texts enjoining the practice of it, in all cases and circumstances, Psalm 50:15; Phil. 4:6; 1 Thess. 5:17.
Q8. What is acceptable prayer?
A. It is an asking in Christ's name, what God has promised to give, John 14:13; with a full persuasion that he hears, and will answer, Mark 11:24; James 1:6.
Q9. How manifold is religious thanksgiving?
A. TWOFOLD; stated and occasional.
Q10. What is stated thanksgiving?
A. It is not only the thankful acknowledgment of mercies daily received, which is a branch of prayer; but likewise the singing the praises of God with the voice, which is a stated act of worship, distinct from prayer, though ejaculatory prayer ought always to be joined with it, Psalm 57:7.
Q11. How do you prove that singing with the voice is a stated act of worship appointed under the New Testament?
A. From the example of Christ and his apostles, who, after the first supper, sang a hymn, (or psalm, as on the margin,) Matt. 26:30; and from the injunction laid upon all Christians to be employed in this exercise, as a stated duty, Eph. 5:18, 19; James 5:13.
Q12. What should be the subject matter of our praises to God?
A. The psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, which are dictated by the Spirit of God in scripture; and not any human composure whatever, Eph. 5:19.
Q13. In what manner should these be sung?
A. "With grace in our hearts to the Lord," Col. 3:16.
Q14. What is it to sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord?
A. It is to have our hearts going along with our voice, in suitable acts of faith, and elevated affections, Psalm 57:7.
Q15. Are not the Psalms of David, as we sing them in our language, of human composure?
A. The translation in metre is human, but the sense and meaning are the same as the original.
Q16. What is occasional thanksgiving?
A. It is the setting some time apart for giving thanks to God, on account of some remarkable mercy and deliverance, respecting either churches and nations in general, Neh. 12:27; or ourselves and families in particular, Eph. 5:20.
Q17. How ought we to engage in this duty?
A. With an humble sense of our utter unworthiness of the least of all God's favours, 2 Sam. 7:18.
Q18. Are reading, hearing, and preaching of the word, acts of worship?
A. Although they are not acts of such immediate worship as prayer and praise, in which God is immediately addressed; yet being the instituted and ordinary means of salvation, they ought to be practised and attended with that reverence and regard which is due to the great God our Saviour, who is present in them, Matt. 28:20; Acts 10:33.
Q19. How are the administration and receiving of the sacraments acts of worship?
A. As in them, by the sensible signs of divine appointment, Christ, and his benefits, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers, Gal. 3:26; 1 Cor. 11:26.
Q20. In what sense are church government and discipline to be ranked among the ordinances of divine worship?
A. In as far as they are exercised in the name of the Lord Jesus, the alone head of the church, according to the rule of his word, by church judicatories lawfully constituted, Matt. 18:20.
Q21. Why are the ministry and the maintenance of it placed among religious ordinances?
A. Because, as a standing ministry in the church, till the end of time, is of express divine institution, Eph. 4:11-13; so the suitable and comfortable maintenance of it, is as expressly appointed, not only in the Old Testament, Num. 18:21, 24; but likewise in the New, 1 Cor. 9:13, 14 - "Do ye not know, that they which minister about holy things, live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar, are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel."
Q22. What is religious fasting?
A. "A religious fast requires total abstinence, not only from all food, (unless bodily weakness do manifestly disable from holding out, till the fast be ended,) but also from all worldly labour, discourses, and thoughts, and from all bodily delights."64 Josh. 7:6; Judges 20:26.
Q23. Is bodily fasting, or bare abstinence from food, any part of religious worship?
A. Not properly in itself; but as it is a mean of divine appointment, for fitting and disposing us for more spiritual and solemn exercises.
Q24. How does fasting appear to be a mean of divine appointment?
A. From the practice of the saints under the Old Testament, Esth. 4:16; Dan. 10:2, 3; from the testimony of Christ, Matt. 6:17, 18, and 17:21; and the example of his apostles under the New, Acts 13:3; and 14:23.
Q25. What are those spiritual and solemn exercises for which fasting is designed to dispose us?
A. Deep humiliation of soul before the Lord on account of sin, Ezra 9:6; free confession of it, Dan. 9:20, and turning from it, Joel 2:12, as the genuine fruits of our taking hold of God's covenant, Jer. 50:4, 5; together with an importunate requesting of our gracious God, for that which is the particular occasion of the fast, Psalm 35:13.
Q26. Is religious fasting an occasional or a stated duty?
A. It is merely occasional and extraordinary, to be observed as the call of Providence may require and direct.
Q27. What are the occurrences in providence, which are a call to this extraordinary duty?
A. "When some great and notable judgments are either inflicted upon a people," Dan. 9:3, 12-14, "or apparently imminent," 2 Chron. 20:2-4; "or, by some extraordinary provocations notoriously deserved," 1 Sam. 7:3, 6; "as also when some special blessing is to be sought and obtained,"65 ver. 5, 8, 10.
Q28. Is swearing by the name of God an act of immediate and instituted worship?
A. It is undoubtedly: and that either when we devote ourselves to God in a covenant of duties, Deut. 6:13, or declare the truth upon oath, when called thereto: because, in both cases the name of God is solemnly interposed and invoked, Jer. 4:2.
Q29. To whom are vows to be made?
A. To God alone, as the only party and witness in the making and performing of them, Psalm 76:11 - "Vow and pay unto the LORD your GOD."
Q30. What should be the subject matter of our vows to God?
A. Nothing except what may tend either to promote the practice of commanded duty, Psalm 119:57, or prevent the commission of any sin to which we are more ordinarily inclined and addicted, verse 106.
Q31. What does this commandment require, with respect to all those ordinances, and parts of worship, which God has appointed in his word?
A. The receiving and observing them; and keeping them pure and entire.
Q32. What is it to receive God's ordinances?
A. It is to approve of, and embrace them, as bearing the stamp of his authority upon them, Psalm 84:1, 2.
Q33. What is it to observe them?
A. It is to set about the practice of them, or to be actually employed in them, Psalm 55:17, and 119:164; Luke 2:37.
Q34. What is it to keep the ordinances of God pure?
A. It is to contribute our utmost endeavour to preserve them from all mixture of human invention, Deut. 12:32.
Q35. What is it to keep them entire?
A. It is, in the exercise of faith, to attend upon each of them in its proper season, so as that one duty may not jostle out another, Luke 1:6.
Q36. What does God require of us in this command, with reference to all false worship?
A. He requires "the disapproving, detesting, opposing all false worship, Psalm 16:4; and according to each one's place and calling, removing it, and all monuments of idolatry, Deut. 7:5."66:
Q1. Is it our duty solemnly to worship God?
A. Yes: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, Matt 4:10.
Q2. Do we thereby honour him?
A. Yes: We give unto him the glory due unto his name, Ps. 29:2.
Q3. Does the light of nature teach us to worship God?
A. Yes: They cried every man unto his god, Jonah 1:5.
Q4. But does it teach us sufficiently how to worship him?
A. No: Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Acts 17:23.
Q5. Has God in his word appointed us in what way to worship him?
A. Yes: For this was ordained in Joseph for a testimony, Ps. 81:5.
Q6. And must we worship him in the appointed way?
A. Yes: See thou make all things according to the pattern showed thee, Heb. 8:5.
Q7. Are we to receive such ordinances as God has appointed?
A. Yes: The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey, Josh. 24:24.
Q8. Should we labour to understand them?
A. Yes: What mean ye by this service? Exod. 12:26.
Q9. And are we to observe them?
A. Yes: Observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, Matt. 28:20.
Q10. And to observe them duly?
A. Yes: As the duty of every day requires, Ezra 3:4.
Q11. Are we to keep God's ordinances?
A. Yes: That good thing which was committed to thee, keep, 2 Tim. 1:14.
Q12. Are we to keep them carefully?
A. Yes: Keep them as the apple of thine eye, Prov. 7:2.
Q13. Must we keep them pure without corruption?
A. Yes: Add thou not to his words, Prov. 30:6.
Q14. And entire, without diminution?
A. Yes: We must walk in all the ordinances of the Lord, Luke 1:6.
Q15. May we neither add nor diminish?
A. No: Thou shalt neither add thereto nor diminish from it, Deut. 12:32.
Q16. Must we worship God in the spirit?
A. Yes: We are the circumcision that worship God in the spirit, Phil. 3:3.
Q17. Must we be inward with God in every service?
A. Yes: For bodily exercise profiteth little, 1 Tim 4:8.
Q18. Is ignorance the mother of devotion?
A. No: For if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? Mal. 1:8.
Q19. Is it the mother of destruction?
A. Yes: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, Hos. 4:6.
Q20. Ought we to have an eye to the word of God in our religious worship?
A. Yes: For whatsoever is not of faith is sin, Rom. 1:23.
Q21. And to glorify God in it?
A. Yes; I will be sanctified in them that come nigh unto me, Lev. 10:3.
Q22. And ought we to shun all idolatrous worship?
A. Yes: For I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils, 1 Cor 10:20.
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The Ten Commandments
The moral law and what God requires of man
Q39. What is the duty which God requireth of man?
A. The duty which God requireth of man, is obedience to his revealed will.
Q40. What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience?
A. The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience, was the moral law.
Q41. Wherein is the moral law summarily comprehended?
A. The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments.
Q42. What is the sum of the ten commandments?
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 neighbour as ourselves.
Q43. What is the preface to the ten commandments?
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.
Q44. What doth the preface to the ten commandments teach us?
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.
Q45. Which is the first commandment?
A. The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Q46. What is required in the first commandment?
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.
Q47. What is forbidden in the first commandment?
A. The first commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshipping 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.
Q48. What are we specially taught by these words, 'before me', in the first commandment?
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.
Q49. Which is the second commandment?
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 thy self 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.
Q50. What is required in the second commandment?
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.
Q51. What is forbidden in the second commandment?
A. The second commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his Word.
Q52. What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment?
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.
Q53. Which is the third commandment?
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.
Q54. What is required in the third commandment?
A. The third commandment requireth the holy and reverend use of God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, Word, and works.
Q55. What is forbidden in the third commandment?
A. The third commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God maketh himself known.
Q56. What is the reason annexed to the third commandment?
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.
Q57. Which is the fourth commandment?
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.
Q58. What is required in the fourth commandment?
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.
Q59. Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly sabbath?
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.
Q60. How is the sabbath to be sanctified?
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.
Q61. What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?
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.
Q62. What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment?
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.
Q63. Which is the fifth commandment?
A. The fifth commandment is, Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Q64. What is required in the fifth commandment?
A. The fifth commandment requireth the preserving the honor, and performing the duties, belonging to everyone in their several places and relations, as superiors, inferiors, or equals.
Q65. What is forbidden in the fifth commandment?
A. The fifth commandment forbiddeth the neglecting of, or doing anything against, the honor and duty which belongeth to everyone in their several places and relations.
Q66. What is the reason annexed to the fifth commandment?
A. The reason annexed to the fifth commandment is, a promise of long life and prosperity (as far as it shall serve for God's glory and their own good) to all such as keep this commandment.
Q67. Which is the sixth commandment?
A. The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill.
Q68. What is required in the sixth commandment?
A. The sixth commandment requireth all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life, and the life of others.
Q69. What is forbidden in the sixth commandment?
A. The sixth commandment forbiddeth the taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbour, unjustly, or whatsoever tendeth thereunto.
Q70. Which is the seventh commandment?
A. The seventh commandment is, Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Q71. What is required in the seventh commandment?
A. The seventh commandment requireth the preservation of our own and our neighbour's chastity, in heart, speech, and behavior.
Q72. What is forbidden in the seventh commandment?
A. The seventh commandment forbiddeth all unchaste thoughts, words, and actions.
Q73. Which is the eighth commandment?
A. The eighth commandment is, Thou shalt not steal.
Q74. What is required in the eighth commandment?
A. The eighth commandment requireth the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.
Q75. What is forbidden in the eighth commandment?
A. The eighth commandment forbiddeth whatsoever doth, or may, unjustly hinder our own, or our neighbour's, wealth or outward estate.
Q76. Which is the ninth commandment?
A. The ninth commandment is, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Q77. What is required in the ninth commandment?
A. The ninth commandment requireth the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man, and of our own and our neighbour's good name, especially in witness bearing.
Q78. What is forbidden in the ninth commandment?
A. The ninth commandment forbiddeth whatsoever is prejudicial to truth, or injurious to our own, or our neighbour's, good name.
Q79. Which is the tenth commandment?
A. The tenth commandment is, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's.
Q80. What is required in the tenth commandment?
A. The tenth commandment requireth full contentment with our own condition, with a right and charitable frame of spirit toward our neighbour, and all that is his.
Q81. What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?
A. The tenth commandment forbiddeth all discontentment with our own estate, envying or grieving at the good of our neighbour, and all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his.
Q82. Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?
A. No mere man, since the fall, is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed.
Q83. Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous?
A. Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.
Q84. What doth every sin deserve?
A. Every sin deserveth God's wrath and curse, both in this life, and that which is to come.