The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is adoption?

Answer: Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.

Question: What does the word adoption signify among men?

Answer: It signifies the taking of a stranger into a family, and dealing with him, as if he were a child or heir.

Question: What is the difference between adoption, as it is an act of God, and as it is a deed of men?

Answer: Men generally adopt only one into their family, and they do it on account of some amiable properties, or qualifications, discerned in the adopted; but God adopts many into his family, and that, not upon account of any thing commendable in them, but merely out of his own free and unmerited love, Eph. 1:5.

Question: Of how many kinds of adoption do the scriptures speak?

Answer: Two kinds; namely, general and special.

Question: What is meant by general adoption?

Answer: It is the erecting of a certain indefinite number of mankind into a visible church, and entitling them to all the privileges of it, Rom. 9:4.

Question: What is the outward seal, or badge, of this general adoption?

Answer: It is baptism; which comes in the room of circumcision under the Old Testament, Eph. 4:5.

Question: What is to be understood by special adoption?

Answer: It is a sovereign and free translation of a sinner of mankind, from the family of hell, or Satan, into the family of heaven, or household of God, Eph. 2:19; with an investiture into all the privileges of the sons of God, 1 John 3:1.

Question: By whose act and authority is this translation accomplished?

Answer: By the act and authority of God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Question: What is the act of the Father in this matter?

Answer: He has "predestinated us unto the adoption of children to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will," Eph. 1:5.

Question: What is the act of the Son in this special adoption?

Answer: In consequence of his purchasing the sinner by the price of his blood, he actually gives the power, right, or privilege, to become a child of God, in the day of believing, John 1:12.

Question: What is the act of the Holy Ghost?

Answer: He comes in Christ's name, takes possession of the person, and dwells in him, as a Spirit of adoption, teaching him to cry, Abba, Father, Rom. 8:15.

Question: Why is this translation into the family of God, called an act?

Answer: Because it is done at once, Jer. 3:19.

Question: Why called an act of God's free grace?

Answer: Because the adoption of any of mankind into the household of God, flows entirely from his own free love and favour, Eph. 1:5, they being, all of them, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, Rev. 3:17.

Question: What is the difference between good angels being called the sons of God, Job 38:7, and believers being so called? 1 John 3:1.

Answer: Good angels are called the sons God, because they were created immediately by him; but believers are so called, because they are adopted by him into his family, Rom. 8:15.

Question: Why are we said, in adoption, to be received into the number of the sons of GOD?

Answer: Because the family of God, from among men, consists of a certain definite number of mankind, which can neither be augmented nor diminished, John 17:2, 9, 12, and 6:39.

Question: By what means or instrument does God receive any of mankind into his family?

Answer: By the means and instrumentality of faith, Gal. 3:26 - "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."

Question: What connexion is there between faith in Christ Jesus, and our being the children of God?

Answer: Faith unites us to Christ, and acquiesces in the redemption purchased by him, as the meritorious cause of our adoption, Gal. 4:4, 5 - "God sent forth his Son - to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."

Question: Since adoption is an act of translation, from the family of Satan to the family of God, to whom is it intimated?

Answer: To the angels in heaven; and sometimes to the adopted themselves.

Question: How is it intimated to the angels in heaven?

Answer: It is probable that it is intimated to them by immediate revelation, Luke 15:10 - "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth."

Question: How is it intimated to the adopted themselves?

Answer: By the "Spirit itself bearing witness with their spirit that they are the children of God," Rom. 8:16.

Question: Is there any intimation of this made to Satan?

Answer: No; but he cannot miss to know, when he is spoiled of his goods, and the lawful captive delivered, Mark 9:26.

Question: When sinners of mankind are adopted, and enrolled into the family of heaven, is their NAME changed?

Answer: Yes; as the wife's name is sunk into her husband's, so the former name of the adopted is sunk into Christ's new name, Rev. 3:12 - "I will write upon him my new name."

Question: What was the former, and what is the present name of the adopted children of God?

Answer: Their former name was, "strangers and foreigners;" their present name is, "fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God," Eph. 2:19; their former name was, guilty and condemned; their present name is, "the Lord our righteousness," Jer. 33:16; their former name denoted, that they "were without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world," Eph. 2:12; their present name is Jehovah-shammah, The Lord is there, Ezek. 48:35.

Question: Why is Christ's name, put upon them, called his new name?

Answer: Because it is a name that shall never wax old, or vanish away, Heb. 8:13.

Question: Whence come they by this new name?

Answer: When Christ gives them the white stone of pardon he, at the same time, gives them, in that stone, the new name of being the sons of God; which name "no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it," Rev. 2:17.

Question: What are the privileges with which the sons of God are invested?

Answer: Among others, they are invested with great dignity, glorious liberty, a title to the whole inheritance, boldness of access to God as a father, and his fatherly chastisement, or correction.50

Question: What is the great dignity or honour to which they are advanced?

Answer: To the dignity of being "kings and priests unto God," Rev. 1:6, or "a royal priesthood," 1 Pet. 2:9; to feast on Christ their passover sacrificed for them, 1 Cor. 5:7.

Question: In what consists "the glorious liberty of the children of God," mentioned, Rom. 8:21?

Answer: Not only in a freedom from the guilt and dominion of sin, the curse of the law, the tyranny of Satan, and sting of death, John 8:36; but in a filial, and reverential obedience, flowing from a principle of faith and love inlaid in the soul, Gal. 5:6.

Question: Upon what is their title to the inheritance founded?

Answer: Upon their being Christ's - "and heirs according to the promise," Gal. 3:29.

Question: What is the inheritance which the adopted children of God are heirs of "according to the promise?"

Answer: They are "HEIRS of the righteousness which is by faith," Heb. 11:7; "heirs of the grace of life," 1 Pet. 3:7; "heirs of salvation," Heb. 1:14; and, which comprehends all, they are "heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ," Rom. 8:17.

Question: What does their boldness of access to God, as their Father, include in it?

Answer: A firm persuasion of the power, love, and faithfulness of a promising God, Rom. 4:20, 21, and an assured expectation of relief from him: "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us," 1 John 5:14.

Question: What are the grounds of this boldness?

Answer: The righteousness of Christ apprehended by faith, Psalm 84:9, and his prevalent intercession within the veil, 1 John 2:1.

Question: Why is it that God chastises his adopted children?

Answer: Because he loves them, Heb. 12:6 - "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth."

Question: With what does he chastise them?

Answer: Sometimes with the rod of outward affliction, of various kinds, Psalm 34:19; and sometimes with the rod of desertion, Psalm 30:7.

Question: For what end does he thus chastise them?

Answer: For their profit, that they may be "partakers of his holiness," Heb. 12:10.

Question: How ought the children to behave under the chastisement of their Father?

Answer: They ought neither to "despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when they are rebuked by him," Heb. 12:5.

Question: What are the marks or evidences of the adopted children of God?

Answer: They will resemble their Father, 1 John 3:2; they know their Father's voice, John 10:4; delight in their Father's company, Rom. 8:15; are deeply concerned for his absence, Job 23:3; and out of love to him that begat, they have great love to all them that are "begotten of him," 1 John 5:1.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is sanctification?

Answer: Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man, after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.

Question: What is it for one to be SANCTIFIED?

Answer: It is to be made a saint, or a holy person set apart for a holy use, 1 Thess. 5:23.

Question: Can any sinner sanctify himself?

Answer: No; we can defile, but cannot purify ourselves, Job 14:4.

Question: Whose work is it to sanctify?

Answer: It is the special work of the Spirit of God, 2 Thess. 2:13.

Question: Do any of mankind-sinners deserve that God should sanctify them?

Answer: No; there are none of them that can deserve any thing from God, but to be left to perish eternally in their sin and pollution, because "they are altogether become filthy; there is none of them that doeth good, no not one," Psalm 14:3; Rom. 3:10-13.

Question: What moves God to sanctify a sinner?

Answer: His own free grace and good pleasure, Phil. 2:13.

Question: Are not justification, adoption, and sanctification, inseparably linked together?

Answer: Yes; they that are justified, are adopted; and they that are justified and adopted, are sanctified and glorified, Rom. 8:30.

Question: In what respects are justification and sanctification inseparably joined and linked together?

Answer: In the decree of God, Rom. 8:30; in the promise of God, Psalm 110:3; in the end of Christ's death, Titus 2:14; in the offices of Christ, 1 Cor. 1:30; in the gospelcall and offer, 2 Tim. 1:9; 1 Thess. 4:7; and in the experience of all believers, Phil. 3:8, 12.

Question: Though inseparably linked together, are they not carefully to be distinguished?

Answer: Yes; for the confounding of justification and sanctification lays the foundation of many errors, both in principle and practice; and the want of a clear understanding of the difference between these two, contributes to depress and encumber the believer in his exercise; whereas the distinct knowledge of it would free him from that bondage, John 8:32.

Question: In what do justification and sanctification DIFFER?

Answer: They DIFFER in many respects; particularly in their matter, kind, form, properties, subjects, order, extent, ingredients, evidences; in their relation to the law; their relation to Christ's offices; and their use to believers.

Question: In what do they differ in their matter?

Answer: The matter of justification is the righteousness of Christ; but the matter of sanctification is the fulness of Christ communicated, or grace imparted from him, out of whose fulness we receive, "and grace for grace," John 1:16.

Question: How do they differ as to their kind?

Answer: Justification makes a relative, sanctification a real change: the first changes a man's state, the other changes his heart and life, Ezek. 36:26.

Question: How do they differ as to their form, or manner of conveyance?

Answer: Justification is effected by the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us; sanctification, by the implantation of his grace in us.

Question: How do they differ in their properties?

Answer: Justification is complete and perfect at first; but sanctification is carried on gradually, from less to more, until the soul be ripe for glory; the righteousness of justification is strictly and properly meritorious, being the righteousness of God, by which the law is not only fulfilled, but magnified; but the righteousness of sanctification is not so, being only the righteousness of a sinful creature, imperfect in degrees: justification is equal in all believers, but they are not all equally sanctified: hence, in God's family, there are little children, 1 John 2:12, and in his garden, trees of different tallness, or height, Psalm 92:12, compared with Zech. 1:8.

Question: How do they differ in their subjects?

Answer: Christ himself, and not the believer, is the subject of our justifying righteousness; it is inherently in him who wrought it out perfectly for us; but the believer himself is the subject of the righteousness of sanctification; it is implanted in him as a new nature; whereas his justifying righteousness is not in him as a nature, but on him as a robe; and hence it is said to be UPON all them that believe, Rom. 3:22.

Question: How do they differ in their order?

Answer: Although, as to time, they are simultaneous; yet, as to the order of nature, justification goes BEFORE sanctification, as the cause before the effect, or as fire is before light and heat.

Question: How do they differ as to their extent?

Answer: Alt:ough justification respects the whole person, yet, it immediately terminates upon conscience, God's deputy, purging it from dead works, and pacifying it with the sprinkling of the blood of Christ; nothing giving true peace to conscience, but that which gave full satisfaction to justice: but by sanctification we are renewed in the whole man, Eph. 4:23, 24.

Question: How do they differ as to their ingredients?

Answer: The main ingredient in justification is the grace and love of God towards us, manifested in pardoning and accepting us in Christ; whereas the main ingredient in sanctification is our gratitude and love to God, flowing from his love to us, and appearing in our obedience and keeping his commandments, by virtue of his "Spirit put within us, and causing us to walk in his statutes," Ezek. 36:27.

Question: How do they differ as to evidence?

Answer: Justification is evidenced by our sanctification; for none can warrantably conclude they are justified by the righteousness of Christ, if not students of true holiness, and groaning under a body of sin and death: but sanctification cannot be evidenced by our justification; which being the hidden root of holiness under ground, does not appear, except in lively actings of justifying faith, and other graces, which are internal branches of sanctification; sometimes inwardly discerned by the believer, and sometimes outwardly discovered to others by works, James 2:18.

Question: How do they differ in their relation to the law?

Answer: Justification has relation to the law, as a covenant, and frees the soul from it, Rom. 7:4; sanctification respects the law as a rule, and makes the soul breathe after conformity to it, and to delight in it after the inward man, Rom. 7:22; hence justification is a judicial sentence, absolving us from law-debt; sanctification, a spiritual change, fitting us for law-duty.

Question: How do they differ in their relation to the offices of Christ?

Answer: Justification springs from, and is grounded upon the priestly office of Christ, by which he satisfied law and justice, as our surety; but sanctification proceeds from his kingly office, by which he subdues us to his obedience, and writes his law in our hearts, Jer. 31:33.

Question: How do they differ in their use to believers?

Answer: Justification gives us a title to heaven and eternal life; sanctification gives a meetness for it: justification is God's act, pronouncing our persons righteous in Christ, and taking away the guilt of sin; sanctification is the Spirit's work, cleansing our nature, and taking away the filth of sin: by the former, we are instated into the favour of God; by the latter, adorned with the image of God.

Question: How may the work of sanctification be distinguished?

Answer: Into habitual and actual sanctification.

Question: What may be termed habitual sanctification?

Answer: It is that whereby we are renewed in the whole man, after the image of God, and so a renovation of the nature, Eph. 4:24.

Question: Can any have a sanctified life, who have not a renewed nature?

Answer: No; for a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, Matt. 7:18.

Question: What is to be understood by the whole man that must be renewed?

Answer: Both soul and body; in all the powers of the one, and members of the other, 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Thess. 5:23.

Question: What is the difference between the renewing of the whole man in sanctification, and the renewing mentioned in effectual calling?

Answer: The renovation in effectual calling is only begun; but this of sanctification, is carried on by degrees, till perfected in glory, Phil. 1:6; there, the seed of grace is sown; here, it is watered, in order to growth: there, the habit is implanted, John 1:13; here, it is strengthened for exercise, Eph. 2:10.

Question: After whose image is the whole man renewed?

Answer: After the image of God; consisting in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24.

Question: Whose image do we bear, before we are renewed in the whole man?

Answer: The image of the first Adam after the fall, having his nature corrupted, Gen. 5:3.

Question: Can any be renewed in the whole man, without being united to the second Adam?

Answer: No; for we are not sanctified, except by faith uniting us to Christ, Acts 15:9, and 26:18; 1 Cor. 1:2, - "Sanctified in Christ Jesus."

Question: Though the believer be renewed in the whole man, yet is any part of the new creature WHOLLY renewed?

Answer: The two contrary principles, grace and corruption, are in the sanctified; being together in such sort, that in every particular part, where the one is, the other is there also beside it: for, what we have of this gracious work of sanctification upon us while here, is but in part; it is not perfect, 1 Cor. 13:9, 10.

Question: What is the tendency of habitual sanctification?

Answer: The tendency of it is to actual sanctification, Eph. 2:10.

Question: In what consists ACTUAL sanctification?

Answer: In being enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness, Rom. 6:4, 6.

Question: In what does habitual sanctification differ from actual?

Answer: The first points at the renovation of our nature; the second at the renovation of our life: the first at the habit; the second at the exercise of grace, working inwardly in the heart, and outwardly in the walk, Eph. 2:10.

Question: What are the parts of actual sanctification, and how are they commonly termed?

Answer: Mortification; or, a dying unto sin; and vivification; or, a living unto righteousness.

Question: Can any die to sin, and live to righteousness, without being enabled by grace?

Answer: No; "We are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God," 2 Cor. 3:5. The strength of habitual grace will not be sufficient, without actual assistance.

Question: How does the grace of God enable us to die to sin, and live to righteousness?

Answer: It enables us more and more, 1 Thess. 4:1, or, by little and little, from time to time; for, "the path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," Proverbs 4:18; and "they go from strength to strength," Psalm 84:7.

Question: Does the work of actual sanctification go on constantly without interruption?

Answer: The sanctified person is subject to backsliding and decay; yet God never altogether takes his hand from the good work he has begun, but makes good use of backslidings for farther progress in it, Hos. 14:4, 7.

Question: Why is not actual sanctification perfected in this life, but still a remainder of corruption left in God's people?

Answer: To make them know from experience, the strength of sin, the necessity of mortifying grace, and of the abundance of pardoning grace, 2 Cor. 12:7-9; and to keep them exercised in prayer and humiliation, in the faith and hope of deliverance from a body of sin and death, through Christ, Rom. 7:24, 25.

Question: What is it to die to sin?

Answer: To have the power of sin, in our nature, so far destroyed as not to obey it, but to hate it in heart, and abstain from it in life, Rom. 6:6.

Question: What is it to live to righteousness?

Answer: To have our nature so quickened by the power of grace, as to love and obey the commands of righteousness in our life, Rom. 6:13.

Question: From whence is it that this death to sin, and life to righteousness spring?

Answer: They spring from the virtue that is in the death and resurrection of Christ, to render his mystical members conformable to him in them; "That, like as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life; for, if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection," Rom. 6:4, 5.

Question: Why have the death and resurrection of Christ such a conforming virtue?

Answer: Because he died and rose again as a public person. Eph. 2:5, 6, and merited this conformation or fashioning of his mystical members to his own image, Phil. 3:10.

Question: In what consists the excellency of sanctification?

Answer: It is the end and design of our election, Eph. 1:4; of our effectual calling, 2 Tim. 1:9; of our justification and deliverance from the law as a covenant, Rom. 6:14; and of our adoption, Eph. 1:4, 5; it is the end both of mercies and crosses, Rom. 2:4, Isaiah 27:9; and, in a word, it is the end and design of all the precepts of the law, the promises of the gospel, and the operation of the Spirit of God.

Question: Whence arises the necessity of holiness, or sanctification?

Answer: From the holy nature and will of God: for "it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy," 1 Pet. 1:16; and "this is the will of God, even our sanctification," 1 Thess. 4:3; and from the death of Christ, "who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works," Titus 2:14.

Question: For what good end and use is sanctification necessary?

Answer: Not for justification before God; but for evidencing our justification and faith, James. 2:18. It is necessary for glorifying God, Matt. 5:16, and showing forth his praise, 1 Pet. 2:19; for adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour, Titus 2:10; for proving our union to Christ, John 15:5, 6; for promoting inward peace and rejoicing, Psalm 119:165, 2 Cor. 1:12; for maintaining fellowship and communion with God, John 14:21, 23; for making us meet for heaven, because without holiness no man shall see the Lord, Heb. 12:14; for making us useful to men on earth, Titus 3:8; and for stopping the mouth of calumny when we are reproached as evil doers, 1 Pet. 3:16.

Question: What is the meritorious cause of our sanctification?

Answer: The blood of Christ, Heb. 13:12 - "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate."

Question: Whence flows the sanctifying or purifying virtue of the blood of Christ?

Answer: From the atoning virtue of it, Heb. 9:14.

Question: What is the instrumental cause of our sanctification?

Answer: The faith of the operation of God, Acts 15:9.

Question: What is the regulating or directing cause?

Answer: The law of God, Isaiah 8:20.

Question: What is the exemplary cause of sanctification?

Answer: The copy that Christ has set us by his obedience and sufferings, in so far as imitable by us, 1 Pet. 2:21, 22.

Question: What are the marks of sanctification?

Answer: A heart-respect to all God's commandments, and loving them because they are holy; a hatred of sin, and avoiding of all appearance of evil; a spirit of watchfulness and warfare against sin; a delight in doing good; a conversation becoming the gospel; and an habitual improvement of the blood of Christ by faith and prayer, for cleansing from the filth of sin, and of the precious promises for that end, 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Pet. 1:4.

Question: What are the chief motives and inducements to sanctification?

Answer: The will of God commanding, 1 Pet. 1:15; the love of Christ constraining, 1 Cor. 5:14; the dignity of thus resembling God, Lev. 19:2; and the indignity of resembling the devil by the want of it, John 8:44.

Question: What should we do to be sanctified?

Answer: We should fly to Christ by faith, touching the hem of his garment for healing and purification, for we "are sanctified in Christ Jesus," 1 Cor. 1:2; we should pray for the Spirit of sanctification, through whom alone the deeds of the body can be mortified, Rom. 8:13; we should associate with saints, for "he that walketh with the wise, shall be wise," Proverbs 13:20; association begets assimilation; and we should make a right use of God's word and rod, Sabbaths and sacraments.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What are the benefits which, in this life, do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?

Answer: The benefits which, in this life, do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.

Question: Are not justification, adoption, and sanctification, pregnant with many blessings?

Answer: Yes; their name may well be called GAD, (Gen. 30:11,) for troops of blessings attend them; some in this life, some at death, but the best of all in the life to come.

Question: What are the benefits which flow from them in this life?

Answer: There are five of them mentioned in the answer; namely, "assurance of God's love," Rom. 5:5; "peace of conscience," Rom. 5:1; "joy in the Holy Ghost," Rom. 14:17; "increase of grace," Proverbs 4:18; and "perseverance therein to the end," 1 Pet. 1:5.

Question: Which of these benefits flow from a sight and sense of justification, adoption, and sanctification?

Answer: Assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Question: Which of them belong to the being of a justified, adopted, and sanctified state?

Answer: Increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.

Question: Do all justified, adopted, and sanctified persons, enjoy assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost, at all times?

Answer: Though they have them radically in their justification, adoption, and sanctification, yet they are not always sensible of the possession of them, but are frequently filled with doubts and fears about their gracious state, Job 23:8, 9; Isaiah 49:14.

Question: Whence is it that they who have assurance, peace, and joy in the root, have not always the sensible possession of these benefits?

Answer: This flows sometimes from a sovereign cause in God, to keep down a spirit of pride after special manifestations, 2 Cor. 12:7; and sometimes from a sinful cause in believers; such as, untenderness in their walk, Isaiah 59:2; resting upon a manifestation, Luke 9:33, 34; or quenching the gracious motions and operations of the Spirit, Eph. 4:30.

Question: Is it the assurance of sense, or the assurance of faith, that is mentioned in this answer?

Answer: It is the assurance of sense, or the sensible assurance of God's love.

Question: What is the difference between the assurance of faith, and the assurance of sense?

Answer: The object of the assurance of faith is "Christ in the promise," James 2:23; but the object of the assurance of sense is "Christ formed in the soul," 2 Tim. 2:12; or, which is the same thing, the assurance of faith is founded on the infallible word of God, who cannot lie; but the assurance of sense upon the person's present experience of the communications of divine love.

Question: How may assurance of God's love be said to accompany or flow from justification?

Answer: Because in it we see his love to us, in pardoning our sins, and receiving us into his favour, Psalm 103:3, 4.

Question: How may it be said to accompany or flow from adoption?

Answer: Because we see in it his love to us, in bringing us into his family, and pitying us, "like as a father pitieth his children," Psalm 103:13.

Question: How may it be said to accompany or flow from sanctification?

Answer: Because in it we see his love to us, in killing our corruptions, and quickening his graces, Rom. 8:11, 14.

Question: How do you prove that the sensible assurance of God's love is attainable?

Answer: From the command to give diligence to attain it, 2 Pet. 1:10; and from its being actually attained, by many of the saints; such as, Job, Job 19:25, 26; David, Psalm 73:26; Paul, 2 Tim. 4:7, 8, and others.

Question: How are the saints brought to this privilege?

Answer: Sometimes by a course of holy and self-denied diligence in the way of commanded duty, Isaiah 32:17; and sometimes by the Spirit itself bearing witness with their spirits, that they are the children of God, Rom. 8:16.

Question: What may afford comfort to a believer, when at any time he loses this assurance?

Answer: That the covenant stands fast with Christ, Psalm 89:28; that the love of God is invariably the same, Zeph. 3:17; and that he will in his own time return with wonted loving-kindness, Isaiah 54:7, 8.

Question: What is incumbent on believers for recovering the assurance of God's love when they have lost the present sense of it?

Answer: To be humbled for sin, as the procuring cause of the Lord's departure, Psalm 40:12; to justify God, and to condemn themselves, Dan. 9:7, 8; and to wait in the exercise of prayer and fasting, for the returns of his love, Isaiah 8:17.

Question: Of what advantage to believers is the assurance of God's love?

Answer: It animates to the practice of every commanded duty, Psalm 119:32; it supports under all trials and afflictions, Psalm 23:4; and it fills the soul with the love of God, "because he first loved us," 1 John 4:19.

Question: How may we know if we have the well-rounded assurance of God's love?

Answer: If it flow from faith on Christ in the promise, Eph. 1:13; if it fill the soul with an humble and holy wondering at the condescending goodness of God, 2 Sam. 7:18; and if it beget ardent desires after nearer conformity to God here, and the full enjoyment of him hereafter, 1 John 3:2, 3.

Question: What is the difference between a true assurance of God's love and a false and presumptuous confidence?

Answer: True assurance makes a man more humble and self-denied, Gal. 2:19, 20; but presumptuous confidence puffs up with spiritual pride and self-conceit, 2 Kings 10:15, 16; the one excites to the practice of every commanded duty, Psalm 119:32; but the other encourages sloth and indolence, Luke 11:21; the man who has true assurance, wants to be searched and tried as to the reality thereof, Psalm 26:1, 2; but they who are stuffed with presumptuous confidence hate the light, "neither come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved," John 3:20.

Question: What is peace of conscience?

Answer: It is the inward quiet and tranquillity of the mind arising from the faith of being justified before God, Rom. 5:1.

Question: Why is peace of conscience said to accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?

Answer: Because none can have true peace of conscience who are not justified, adopted, and sanctified: there being "no peace to the wicked," Isaiah 57:21.

Question: When may we be said to have that peace of conscience which flows from justification.

Answer: When the conscience, being sprinkled with the blood of Christ, is set free from the fear of vindictive wrath, Heb. 10:22.

Question: When have we that peace which flows from adoption?

Answer: When we have soul-quiet and composure, through the faith of God's being our friend and father in Christ, Jer. 3:4, 19.

Question: When have we that peace which accompanies or flows from sanctification?

Answer: When we have the Spirit of God shining on us, in the exercise of grace, and assisting us in the performance of duty, Psalm 138:3.

Question: Whether is the peace of sanctification, or that of justification, most stable and permanent?

Answer: The peace of sanctification, having many imperfections cleaving to it, is more fluctuating and unstable than the peace of justification, which is founded upon a righteousness that is everlasting, and always the same, Isaiah 45:24, 25.

Question: Have all believers peace in their consciences at all times?

Answer: They have ground of peace, being in a state of peace; but have not always the sense of it, Job 6:4.

Question: What is it that hinders or mars the sense of peace in those who are in a state of peace?

Answer: Their not improving the promises by faith, for promoting their sanctification, Isaiah 40:27, 28; their sitting down upon present or former attainments, Psalm 30:6, 7; and their giving way to the temptations of Satan, who is an enemy both to their grace and comfort, Isaiah 56:11.

Question: What are the marks of true peace of conscience, which distinguish it from carnal security.

Answer: A continual warfare against all known sin, Psalm 119:104; and a sincere endeavour to please God, verse 165; with a constant fear of offending him, Gen. 39:9.

Question: What is joy in the Holy Ghost?

Answer: It is that inward elevation and enlargement of soul which flows from the lively exercise of faith, feasting on Christ in the promise, 1 Pet. 1:8 - "Believing, ye rejoice, with joy unspeakable, and full of glory."

Question: Why is this joy said to be in the Holy Ghost?

Answer: Because the Holy Ghost is the author of it; as personally inhabiting, or residing in the believer, John 14:16, 17.

Question: What is the matter or ground of this joy?

Answer: God in Christ as the everlasting portion of the believing soul, Psalm 16:5, 6.

Question: What are the properties of it?

Answer: It is a hidden joy, Proverbs 14:10; it is permanent, John 16:22; and it is unspeakable, 1 Pet. 1:8.

Question: What are the peculiar seasons of this joy?

Answer: The time of special manifestations after a dark night of desertion, Isaiah 54:7, 8; the time of tribulation for Christ's sake, Acts 16:25; the time of God's remarkable appearance for his church, Ex. 15:1; and sometimes in or about the time of death, Psalm 23:4.

Question: When may believers be said to have that joy in the Holy Ghost, which accompanies or flows from justification?

Answer: When they have "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus," Heb. 10:19.

Question: When may they be said to have that joy which flows from adoption?

Answer: When the "Spirit itself beareth witness with their spirit, that they are the children of God;" and enables them to "cry, Abba, Father," Rom. 8:15, 16.

Question: When may they be said to have the joy that flows from sanctification?

Answer: When they have the testimony of their conscience bearing witness to their sincerity, and to the uprightness of their aims and endeavours in all the duties of religion, 2 Cor. 1:12 - "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world."

Question: What are the signs and evidences of joy in the Holy Ghost, which distinguish it from that joy which temporary believers, or hypocrites, may sometimes have in the word? Matt. 13:20.

Answer: Joy in the Holy Ghost has an enlivening, Neh. 8:10; enlarging, Psalm 45:1; humbling, Job 42:5, 6; and sanctifying influence upon the soul, 2 Cor. 3:18; whereas the joy of hypocrites has no such effects.

Question: What do you understand by increase of grace?

Answer: The gradual advances which the saints are helped to make, in the exercise of grace, and experimental godliness, Psalm 92:12, 13.

Question: To what is the increase of grace compared in scripture?

Answer: To "the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," Proverbs 4:18.

Question: What is the spring or cause of the believer's growth?

Answer: Union with Christ, John 15:4; and participation of vital influences from him, Col. 2:19.

Question: Why is it ordered that believers shall grow in grace?

Answer: Because there is a particular stature, at which every member of the mystical body is appointed to arrive, even "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," Eph. 4:13.

Question: How does growth in grace flow from justification?

Answer: In as much as the justified person is delivered from a legal incapacity to grow, Psalm 116:16; and is made free and unfettered for the service of God, Gal. 5:1.

Question: How does it flow from adoption?

Answer: In as much as the sincere milk of the word is desired by the new-born babes, that they may grow thereby, 1 Pet. 2:2.

Question: How does it flow from sanctification?

Answer: In as much as the image of God, drawn upon the soul, is in sanctification, carried on to a nearer conformity, till we shall be perfectly like him, when we shall see him as he is, 1 John 3:2.

Question: Do believers grow in grace at all times?

Answer: They have a principle of growth, the seed of God remaining in them, 1 John 3:9; but they do not grow at all times; they have their winters, Song 2:11, in which the influences of grace, necessary for growth, are ceased, 5:2.

Question: Whence is it that the believer's growth ceases at any time?

Answer: Faith being like the pipe that received the oil from the bowl to each lamp in the candlestick, Zech. 4:2; if that pipe be stopped, or the saint's faith lie dormant and inactive, then all the rest of the graces will also languish and decay, Psalm 27:13.

Question: How is growth in grace revived, after the languishings and decays of it?

Answer: The pipe of faith remaining still at the Fountain, as a bond of union between Christ and the soul, the Lord Jesus clears this mean of conveyance, and then the influences for growth flow, and the believer's graces look fresh and green again, Hos. 14:7 - "They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine."

Question: Since the tares have their growth, as well as the wheat, Matt. 13:26, how shall we distinguish between the growth of hypocrites, and the growth of the true Christian?

Answer: The distinction lies in the nature of the growth: the growth of the true Christian is regular and proportionable in all the parts of the new man; it is a "growing up into him in all things who is the head," Eph. 4:15; whereas, hypocrites when they get more knowledge into their heads, and no more holiness into their hearts, may be more taken up with the externals of religion than formerly, and yet as great strangers to the power of godliness as ever, 2 Tim. 3:5.

Question: What are the several ways in which believers grow at once?

Answer: They grow inwardly and outwardly; upward and downward, Isaiah 37:31.

Question: How do believers grow inwardly?

Answer: By uniting more closely to Christ, and cleaving more firmly to him as the head of influences, which is the spring of all other true Christian growth, Eph. 4:15.

Question: How do they grow outwardly?

Answer: By being fruitful in good works in their life and conversation, Titus 3:8.

Question: How do they grow upward?

Answer: In heavenly-mindedness and contempt of the world, Phil. 3:20 - "Our conversation is in heaven."

Question: How do they grow downward?

Answer: In humility and self-abasement; the branches of the largest growth in Christ, are, in their own eyes, "less than the least of all saints," Eph. 3:8; yea, "the chief of sinners," 1 Tim. 1:15; they see that they can do nothing, 2 Cor. 3:5; that they deserve nothing, Gen. 32:10; and that they are nothing, 2 Cor. 12:11.

Question: May not Christians mistake their case, by measuring their growth in one of these ways, exclusively of the rest of them?

Answer: Yes; if, for instance, they measure it upwards, and not at all downwards; for, though a Christian may want the sweet consolations and flashes of affection, which he has sometimes had, yet, if he be growing in humility, self-denial, and a sense of needy dependence on the Lord Jesus, he is a growing Christian, Hos. 14:5 - "I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall - cast forth his roots as Lebanon."

Question: When believers cannot perceive their growth, how may they know if they have true grace at all, how ever weak?

Answer: If they have any measure of self-loathing on account of sin, Ezek. 36:31; if they have a desire for grace, Neh. 1:11; if they prize Christ above all things, Phil 3:8; and if they love his members for his sake, 1 John 5:1.

Question: What is meant by perseverance in grace?

Answer: A continuing still in the state of grace, and the habitual practice of godliness, to the end, John 10:28.

Question: Can none who are justified, adopted, and sanctified, fall totally and finally from grace?

Answer: No; they can neither fall totally from all grace nor finally without recovery; for, "those that thou gavest me," says Christ, "I have kept, and none of them is lost," John 17:12.

Question: How is the perseverance of the saints infallibly secured?

Answer: By the immutability of electing love, Jer. 31:3; by an indissoluble union with Christ, Rom. 8:38, 39; by the merit of his purchase, 1 Pet. 1:18, 19; by the prevalency of his intercession, Luke 22:32; by the inhabitation of the Spirit, John 14:16; and by the power of a promising God, 1 Pet. 1:5.

Question: What promise, among others, have believers for their perseverance in grace to the end?

Answer: They have that remarkable promise, in Jer. 32:40 - "I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me."

Question: What security have believers by this promise.

Answer: They are secured on every side; both that God will never cast them off, and that they shall never depart from him.

Question: What is the ground, in law, upon which believers are secured, that God will never cast them off, and that they shall never depart from him?

Answer: Christ's perseverance in obedience to the law for them, till the condition of the covenant was perfectly fulfilled, Phil. 2:8, by which their perseverance was purchased, and infallibly secured, Titus 2:14.

Question: Do all who make a zealous profession of religion persevere in it?

Answer: No; many of them afterwards fall away, John 6:66.

Question: What may we conclude about those who fall totally and finally from their profession?

Answer: That they were never in reality what they professed themselves to be, 1 John 2:19 - "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us."

Question: What are the chief branches of the promise of perseverance?

Answer: A promise of the continued influence of grace, Isaiah 27:3; and a promise of continued pardon for the sins of the believer's daily walk, Jer. 33:8.

Question: Why is the promise of the continued influences of grace necessary?

Answer: Because the stock of inherent grace would soon fail: of itself, it would wither away, and die out, if it were not fed, John 15:16.

Question: Why is the promise of continued pardon necessary to the perseverance of saints already justified?

Answer: Not as if there were any need of new pardons with respect to their state; because none of their sins can bring them afterwards under the guilt of eternal wrath, Rom. 8:1; but only with respect to the sins of their daily walk, which bring them under the guilt of fatherly anger, Psalm 89:30-32.

Question: How is the pardon of the sins of their daily walk granted to believers?

Answer: Upon their renewed actings of faith in Jesus Christ, and of repentance towards God; yet not FOR their believing and repenting, but for Christ's sake, 1 John 2:1, 2, even as the first pardon is given, chap. 1:7.

Question: Does repentance then go before the pardon of sin?

Answer: Although repentance does not go before, but follows after the pardon of sin in justification; yet not only faith but repentance also, goes before the pardons given to those who are already justified, 1 John 1:9 - "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."

Question: How does the perseverance of the saints flow from their justification?

Answer: In as much as they who are once justified, and accepted in the Beloved, are always so; for "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance," Rom. 11:29.

Question: How does their perseverance flow from adoption?

Answer: In as much as he who has adopted them as his children, is their everlasting Father, Isaiah 9:6; and therefore they shall abide in his house for ever, John 8:35.

Question: How does it flow from their sanctification?

Answer: In as much as the sanctifying Spirit is given them to abide with them for ever, John 14:16; and to be in them a well of water, springing up into everlasting life, John 4:14.

Question: What improvement should be made of this connexion of the benefits and blessings that accompany and flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?

Answer: It should excite in us a desire after the saving knowledge of the truth, as it is in Jesus, in whom all the lines of divine truth meet, as in their centre, Eph. 4:21; and to admire the infinite goodness and wisdom of God, who has so linked all the blessings of the covenant into one another, that they who are possessed of one, are possessed of all, 1 Cor. 3:22, 23.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?

Answer: The souls of believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.

Question: Why are the persons spoken of in the ANSWER, called believers?

Answer: Because they have been enabled, by grace, to credit the truth of God in his promise, and to embrace the good that is in it, Heb. 11:13.

Question: What is the difference between believers, and others, in their death?

Answer: Believers die in virtue of the promise of the covenant of grace, in which death is made over to them unstinged, as a part of Christ's legacy, 1 Cor. 3:22; whereas all others die in virtue of the threatening of the covenant of works, Gen. 2:17, having the sting of death sticking fast both in their souls and bodies.

Question: What is the sting of death?

Answer: The sting of death is sin, 1 Cor. 15:56; and the curse is the inseparable companion of sin, Gal. 3:10.

Question: What security in law have believers against the sting of death?

Answer: Christ's receiving it into his own soul and body, as their Surety, that they might be delivered from it: wherefore the promise of victory over death, made to him, Isaiah 25:8, secures the disarming of it to them, 1 Cor. 15:57.

Question: How many fold are the benefits which believers receive from Christ at their death?

Answer: They are twofold; such as respect their SOULS, and such as respect their BODIES.

Question: How does it appear that the souls of believers exist in a state of separation from their bodies?

Answer: From the Lord's calling himself the "God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," long after their death, as an evidence that their souls were living; for "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," Matt. 22:32; and from the death of believers being called a departure, 2 Tim. 4:6; intimating that the soul, upon its separation, departs only from the earthly house of this tabernacle, to a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, 2 Cor. 5:1.

Question: Are the souls of men absolutely and independently immortal?

Answer: No; God only is so, 1 Tim. 6:16 - "Who only hath immortality."

Question: In what sense then are souls immortal?

Answer: In that, as to their natural constitution, they are incorruptible, having no inward principle of corruption, but remaining in a state of activity after the death of the body, Heb. 12:23 - "The spirits of just men made perfect."

Question: How do you prove the immortality of the soul from the nature of it?

Answer: In its nature, it is a spiritual, immaterial, or incorporeal substance: and, therefore, where there is no composition of parts, there can be no dissolution of them, Luke 24:39 - "A spirit hath not flesh and bones."

Question: How are we sure that the soul shall never be annihilated?

Answer: From the promise of everlasting happiness to the righteous; and the threatening of everlasting misery to the wicked, Matt. 25:46 - "These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal."

Question: What are the benefits conferred upon the SOULS of believers, upon their separation from their bodies?

Answer: They are made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory, Heb. 12:23; Philip. 1:23.

Question: How does it appear, that the souls of believers are not made perfect in holiness, while united to their bodies in this life?

Answer: From the remains of corruption and indwelling sin which cleave to the best of the saints of God, while in an imbodied state, Rom. 7:23, 24.

Question: In what consists that perfect holiness which is conferred upon the souls of believers at their separation?

Answer: Not only in a perfect freedom from all sin, as to the very being of it, Rev. 21:4, but in a perfect likeness and conformity to God, 1 John 3:2.

Question: What comfort may the believer have, in the prospect of the separation of his soul from his body?

Answer: That as sin made its first entrance into him at the union of his soul and body, so it shall be for ever cast out at their separation; in which respect, among many others, death is great gain, Phil. 1:21.

Question: Why must the souls of believers be perfectly holy at their separation?

Answer: Because nothing that defileth can enter within the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, Rev. 21:27.

Question: What is the necessary concomitant of the soul's perfect holiness?

Answer: Perfect and uninterrupted communion with God, 1 John 3:2.

Question: Where is this perfect and uninterrupted communion to be enjoyed?

Answer: In glory, 1 Cor. 13:12.

Question: When do the souls of the saints pass into glory?

Answer: As they are made perfect in holiness immediately upon their separation, so do they likewise immediately pass into glory.

Question: Why is it said in the answer that they pass immediately into glory?

Answer: To show that the fiction of a middle state, between heaven and hell, invented by the papists, has no manner of warrant, or foundation in scripture.

Question: How do you prove from scripture, that the souls of believers, upon their separation from their bodies, pass immediately into glory?

Answer: The soul of that certain beggar, named Lazarus, was immediately, upon its separation, "carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom," Luke 16:22; in like manner the soul of the thief upon the cross was immediately glorified; for, says Christ to him, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise," Luke 23:43; and Stephen, among his last words, prays, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," Acts 7:59; plainly intimating, that he firmly believed his soul would be with Christ' in glory immediately after death.

Question: What is that glory into which the souls of believers immediately pass?

Answer: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him," 1 Cor. 2:9. However, since naked discoveries of the heavenly glory, divested of earthly resemblances, would be too bright for our weak eyes; such is the condescension of God, that he has been pleased to represent to us heaven's happiness, under similitudes taken from earthly things, glorious in the eyes of men.

Question: What are the similitudes by which this glory, into which the souls of believers immediately pass, is held forth in scripture?

Answer: It is compared to a kingdom, Luke 12:32; to a "house not made with hands," 2 Cor. 5:1; to an "inheritance incorruptible," 1 Pet. 1:4; and to a "better country," Heb. 11:16.

Question: Why is the heavenly glory compared to a kingdom?

Answer: Because of the fulness of all spiritual and eternal good, of which the saints are there possessed; and the glorious dignity to which they are advanced, Rev. 1:6 - "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father."

Question: Why is it called a house not made with hands?

Answer: To signify the unspeakable excellency of the heavenly mansions, above the most stately palaces built by the hands of men.

Question: Why is it said to be an incorruptible inheritance?

Answer: To intimate, that the happiness of the saints will be of an unfading nature for ever, 1 Pet. 5:4 - "Ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

Question: Why is it called a better country?

Answer: To show that there is no comparison between "the things which are seen, and are temporal, and the things which are not seen, and are eternal," 2 Cor 4:18.

Question: What benefits do believers receive from Christ, at death, with respect to their bodies?

Answer: Their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection, Isaiah 57:1, 2; Job 19:26.

Question: How does it appear that the bodies of believers in their graves remain still united to Christ?

Answer: The union was with the person of believers, of which their bodies are a part; and this union being indissoluble, it must still subsist with their bodies in the grave, as well as with their souls in heaven, Isaiah 26:19.

Question: How may believers be assured of this from the union between the two natures in the person of Christ?

Answer: Because, as at the death of Christ, though his soul was separated from his body, yet neither the one nor the other were separated from his divine person, but remained as firmly united to it as ever; so neither the soul nor body of the believer shall be separated from Christ by their separation from one another at death, but both of them remain indissolubly united to him for ever, Rom. 8:38, 39.

Question: What is the difference of the grave to the righteous and to the wicked?

Answer: To the one the grave is a resting-place; but to the other it is a prison-house, where they are kept in close custody for the judgment of the great day, Dan. 12:2.

Question: Why are the bodies of the saints said to REST in their graves?

Answer: Because their graves are like beds of ease, where their bodies lie in safety, till they shall be awakened in the morning of the resurrection, Isaiah 57:2.

Question: How is their resting in the grave expressed in scripture?

Answer: By "sleeping in Jesus," 1 Thess. 4:14; intimating, that they sleep in union with Jesus, and that his Spirit keeps possession of every particle of their dust, which he will quicken and rebuild as his temple at the last day, Rom. 8:11.

Question: How long will they rest in their graves?

Answer: Till the resurrection of all the dead at the great day, John 5:29.

Question: How may believers be assured of receiving these promised benefits from Christ at their death?

Answer: They may be assured of them, upon this ground, that the promises of these benefits to them are all ingrafted upon the promises made to him, as their glorious head, before the world began, 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2.

Question: Upon what promise made to Christ, is the promise of disarming death, to the dying believer, ingrafted? Hos. 13:14 - "O death, I will be thy plagues."

Answer: It is ingrafted upon the promise made to him, of complete victory over death, Isaiah 25:8 - "He will swallow up death in victory."

Question: Upon what ground may believers be assured that their souls, at death, shall immediately pass into glory?

Answer: The promise of transporting their souls into heaven, immediately upon the separation from their bodies, (Luke 23:43 - "Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise,") is ingrafted upon the promise made to Christ, that when he should make his soul an offering for sin, he should see his seed, Isaiah 53:10.

Question: Upon what promise made to Christ is the promise of destroying death, to the dead believer, ingrafted; Hos. 13:14 - "O grave! I will be thy destruction?"

Answer: It is ingrafted upon the promise made to him, of the resurrection of his mystical members, Isaiah 26:19 - "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust."


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?

Answer: At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.

Question: Will not all others of mankind be raised as well as believers?

Answer: Yes; "There shall be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust," Acts 24:15.

Question: How do you prove, that there will be a general resurrection of the dead?

Answer: From the power of God, which CAN raise them, and from the scriptures, which affirm that he WILL do it; by which two arguments, our Lord proves the doctrine of the resurrection, against the Sadducees, Matt. 22:29 - "Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err; not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God."

Question: How does it appear that God CAN raise the dead?

Answer: Since his power was able to speak the world into being out of nothing, surely the same power can as easily raise up the bodies of men out of their former dust, and put them into order after their dissolution, Rom. 4:17.

Question: What scripture instances has God given of his power in raising the dead?

Answer: In the Old Testament; the son of the widow of Sarepta was raised, when he was but newly dead, 1 Kings 17:22; the Shunamite's son, when he had lain dead a considerable time, 2 Kings 4:35; and the man cast into the sepulchre of Elisha, when they were burying him, chap. 13:21. In the New Testament; the daughter of Jairus, Mark 5:41, and Dorcas, Acts 9:40, were both raised to life, when lately dead; the widow's son in Nain, when they were carrying him out to bury him, Luke 7:12, 15; and Lazarus, when dead four days, John 11:39, 44.

Question: How can the dust of men's bodies be distinguished and separated, when the ashes of many generations are mingled together?

Answer: With men it is impossible, but not with God; for, whoever believes an infinite understanding, Psalm 147:5, must own, that no mass of dust can be so intermixed, but that God perfectly comprehends and infallibly knows how the most minute particle, and every one of them is to be matched; and therefore knows where the particles of each body are, and how to separate them one from another.

Question: How is it evident from the scriptures, that God WILL raise the dead?

Answer: From several passages therein, which expressly affirm that he will do so, such as, Dan. 12:2 - "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." John 5:28, 29 - "All that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth: they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." See also Job 19:26, 27; Acts 24:15.

Question: How did our Lord prove the resurrection against the Sadducees, who held only the five books of Moses as most authentic?

Answer: From Ex. 3:6 - "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." From whence he argues, Luke 20:37, 38 - "Now, that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: for he is not the God of the dead, but of the living."

Question: What is the force of this argument for proving the resurrection?

Answer: It amounts to this: he is the God of their persons, and not the God of their souls only; and therefore, though their souls, in a separate state, love, worship, and praise him; yet their bodies must also be raised out of the dust, and be restored to life by the soul's resuming its possession, that they may, as living persons, or men, having soul and body united, love, serve, and adore him; and have the full enjoyment of all the blessings contained in his being their God, Heb. 11:16.

Question: Will the self-same body that dies be raised again?

Answer: Yes; it will be, for substance, the same body that will be raised, though endued with other qualities. The very notion of a resurrection implies as much; since nothing can be said to rise again, but that which falls.

Question: How do you prove from scripture, that the self-same body that dies, shall be raised again?

Answer: Death, in scripture-language, is a sleep, and the resurrection, an awakening out of that sleep, Job 14:12; which shows the body rising up, to be the self-same that died; and the apostle tells us, that it is this mortal, which must put on immortality, 1 Cor. 15:53; and that Christ shall "change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body," Phil. 3:21.

Question: How do you prove this from the equity of the divine procedure?

Answer: Though the glorifying of the bodies of the saints cannot, in a strict sense, be said to be the reward of their services or sufferings on earth; yet it is not agreeable to the manner of the divine dispensation, that one body serve him, and another be glorified; that one fight, and another receive the crown.

Question: Will the same bodies of the wicked, which are laid in the dust, be also raised again?

Answer: Yes; that the same body which sinned may suffer: it being unsuitable, that one body be the instrument of sin here, and another suffer in hell for that sin.

Question: By what means will the dead be raised?

Answer: "The Lord Jesus himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God," 1 Thess. 4:16; and at his alarming voice, which shall be heard all the world over, the scattered dust of all the dead shall be gathered together, dust to its dust; and likewise every soul shall come again to its own body, never more to be separated.

Question: In what order will they be raised?

Answer: "The dead in Christ shall rise FIRST," 1 Thess. 4:16.

Question: What will become of those who shall be found alive at the second coming of Christ?

Answer: They shall not die, and soon after be raised again; but they shall be changed, in some such manner as Christ's body was on the mount, when transfigured; and they shall become like those bodies of the saints which are raised out of their graves, 1 Cor. 15:51.

Question: In what time will the dead be raised, and the living changed?

Answer: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump," 1 Cor. 15:52.

Question: What will be the difference between the resurrection of the godly, and that of the wicked?

Answer: The godly shall be raised by virtue of the SPIRIT of Christ, the blessed bond of their union with him, Rom. 8:11; and they shall come forth out of their graves with unspeakable joy, Isaiah 26:19 - "Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust:" but the wicked shall be raised by the POWER of Christ, as a just Judge; and they shall come forth with unspeakable horror and consternation, as so many malefactors, "to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power," 2 Thess. 1:9.

Question: In what state and condition will the bodies of believers be raised?

Answer: They shall be raised up in glory, 1 Cor. 15:43.

Question: What is meant by the glory in which they shall be raised?

Answer: That they shall be incorruptible, glorious, powerful, and spiritual bodies, 1 Cor. 15:42-44 - "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."

Question: What do you understand by the bodies of believers being raised incorruptible?

Answer: That they shall leave all the seeds of corruption behind them, in the grave; and be for ever incapable of any pain, sickness, or death: that they shall have an everlasting youth and vigour, no more subject to the decays which age produces in this life, Isaiah 33:24.

Question: Why are their bodies said to be glorious?

Answer: Because they shall "be fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body," Phil. 3:21; not only beautiful, comely, and well proportioned, but full of splendour and brightness; for they shall "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father," Matt. 13:43.

Question: Why are they said to be powerful or strong bodies?

Answer: Bec:use they shall be able to bear up, under an "exceeding and eternal weight of glory," 2 Cor. 4:17; and rest not day and night, but be, without intermission, for ever employed, in the heavenly temple, to sing and proclaim the praises of God, Rev. 4:8; weariness being a weakness incompetent to an immortal body.

Question: In what respect will they be spiritual bodies?

Answer: Not in respect of their being changed into spirits, (for they shall still retain the essential properties of bodies,) but in respect of their spirit-like qualities and endowments: they shall be nimble and active, and of a most refined constitution; for "they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more;" and they shall never sleep, "but serve him day and night in his temple," Rev. 7:15, 16.

Question: What will follow immediately upon the resurrection of the dead?

Answer: The day of judgment, Rev. 20:13.

Question: What kind of a day will the day of judgment be?

Answer: It will be a day of wrath and vengeance to the wicked, 2 Thess. 1:8, 9; but a day of complete redemption to the godly, Luke 21:28.

Question: What will be the privilege of believers in the day of judgment?

Answer: They shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted, Matt. 25:23.

Question: What is it to be acknowledged by Christ in that day?

Answer: It is to be owned by him, as the blessed of his Father, for whom the kingdom of heaven is prepared, Matt. 25:34 - "Then shall the King say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Question: What is it for believers to be acquitted in the day of judgment?

Answer: It is not only to be vindicated from all calumny and false aspersions cast upon them here, 1 Cor. 4:5, but to have all their sins declaratively pardoned, Acts 3:19.

Question: What is the difference between the acquitting of believers, when they are justified in this life, and the doing of it in the day of judgment?

Answer: In this life, believers are acquitted secretly, out of the sight of the world, and frequently without any intimation of it to themselves; but, then, the acquittal shall be pronounced in the most solemn and public manner.

Question: Is not this what is meant by their being openly acknowledged and acquitted?

Answer: Yes; for it shall be done before God, angels, and men, Rev. 3:5; Matt. 25:34- 41.

Question: Why will it be done so openly?

Answer: For the greater honour and comfort of the saints and the greater shame and confusion of their enemies, Isaiah 66:5 - "Your brethren that hated you, and cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified; but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed."

Question: On what account shall they be acquitted in that day?

Answer: On the very same account they are justified here; namely, for Christ's righteousness sake, imputed to them, and received by faith alone, Rom. 3:24.

Question: What benefits shall believers receive after the day of judgment in heaven?

Answer: They shall be made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity, 1 Thess. 4:17 - "So shall we be ever with the Lord."

Question: What is it to be perfectly blessed?

Answer: It is to be entirely free from all misery, and fully possessed of all happiness, Rev. 21:4, 7.

Question: In what does the highest pitch of happiness consist?

Answer: In the full enjoying of God, the chief good, Psalm 73:25.

Question: In what way and manner will God be fully enjoyed in heaven?

Answer: By such a perfect knowledge of him as shall have no measure set to it except what arises from the finite capacity of the creature, 1 Cor. 13:12; for otherwise a creature's comprehensive knowledge of an infinite being is impossible, Job 11:7.

Question: How many ways will God be perfectly and satisfactorily known?

Answer: Two ways; the one is by sight, which will satisfy the understanding; and the other is by experience, which will satisfy the will.

Question: What is it that will give the greatest satisfaction to the bodily eyes in heaven?

Answer: A beholding that glorious and blessed body, which is united to the person of the Son of God, Job 19:27.

Question: Will not the glory of the man Christ Jesus be unspeakably superior to the glory of all the saints?

Answer: Yes, surely; for, though the saints shall shine forth as the sun, yet not they, but the Lamb, shall be the light of the heavenly city, Rev. 21:23.

Question: What is it that will make the glory of the human nature of Christ, shine with a peculiar lustre, in the eyes of the saints?

Answer: It is the indissoluble subsistence of that nature in the person of the Son, as the everlasting bond of union between God and them, John 17:23 - "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one."

Question: Is not the blissful sight of God in heaven, something else than the sight of that glory, which we will see with our bodily eyes, in the man Christ, or in the saints, or any other splendour and refulgence51 from the Godhead whatsoever?

Answer: Yes; for no created thing can be our chief good and happiness, nor fully satisfy our souls; and as these things are somewhat different from God himself, so the scriptures assure us, that we shall see God, Matt. 5:8, and see him as he is, 1 John 3:2.

Question: How will the saints see God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in heaven?

Answer: Not with their bodily eyes, in respect of which, God is invisible 1 Tim. 1:17; but with the eye of the understanding, being blessed with the most perfect, full, and clear knowledge of God and divine things, of which the creature is capable, 1 Cor. 13:12.

Question: What is the difference between believers seeing God here, and their seeing him there?

Answer: Here they have only a sight, as it were, of his back parts: but there they shall see his face, Rev. 22:4; it is but a passing view they can have of him here, but there they shall eternally, without interruption, feed the eyes of their souls upon him, Psalm 17:15 - "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."

Question: What will the eyes of the saints be eternally fed upon?

Answer: They will be for ever contemplating his infinite love, his unchangeable truths, and wonderful works, with the utmost complacency and delight, Psalm 16:11 - "In thy presence is fulness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

Question: How will the saints in heaven contemplate the infinite love of God towards them?

Answer: They shall be admitted to look into his heart, and there have a clear, distinct, and assured view of the love he bore to them from eternity, and will bear to them for evermore; for he has said, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love," Jer. 31:3. "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord," Matt. 25:23.

Question: How will they contemplate God's unchangeable truths?

Answer: The light of glory will be a complete commentary on the Bible, and will disclose the whole treasure hid in that field, Psalm 36:9 - "In thy light shall we see light."

Question: Will there be any occasion for written or printed Bibles in heaven?

Answer: By no means, for the unchangeable truths of God, recorded in that holy book, will be indelibly stamped upon the minds of the redeemed company, as the subject of their everlasting song, Isaiah 59:21 - "My words - shall not depart - out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever." 1 Pet. 1:25 - "The word of the Lord endureth for ever."

Question: What comprehension will they have of the wonderful works of God, particularly of creation?

Answer: Their knowledge of all the creatures will then be brought to perfection, and they will see, that in wisdom he has made them all, Psalm 104:24.

Question: What views will they have of adorable providence?

Answer: They will see the checkered web of providence spread out at its full length, and that there was a necessity for all the trials and troubles they met with in time, 1 Pet. 1:6.

Question: How will the saints in heaven contemplate the glorious work of redemption?

Answer: It will be the matter of their eternal admiration; they shall for ever and alternately wonder and praise, and praise and wonder, at the mysteries of wisdom and love, goodness and holiness, mercy and justice, that shine through the whole of that glorious device, Rev. 1:5, 6.

Question: What is the experimental knowledge the saints shall enjoy of God in heaven?

Answer: It is the participation of the divine goodness in full measure, accompanied with a most lively sense of it in the innermost part of their souls, Rev. 7:17 - "The Lamb shall lead them to living fountains of water;" which are no other than God himself, "the fountain of living waters," Who will fully and freely communicate himself to them.

Question: In what respect will the communication of God, to the experience of the saints in heaven, be full?

Answer: In as much as they shall not be limited to any measure, but the enjoyment shall go as far as their most enlarged capacities can reach, Psalm 81:10.

Question: Will the capacities of the saints above be of equal size?

Answer: As there will be different degrees of glory, (the saints in heaven being compared to stars, which are of different magnitudes, Dan. 12:3;) so, some capacities will contain more, and others less, yet all shall be filled, and have what they can hold, Psalm 16:11.

Question: In what will consist the freedom of God's communicating himself to the experience of the saints in heaven?

Answer: In the unrestrained familiarity which he will there allow them with himself; he shall walk in them, 2 Cor. 6:16; his fulness shall ever stand open to them, there being no veil between him and them, to be drawn aside, for they shall see him face to face, 1 Cor. 13:12.

Question: What will be the result of the free communication, and full participation of the divine goodness in the upper sanctuary?

Answer: Perfect likeness to God, and unspeakable joy: hence says the Psalmist, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness: - In thy presence is fulness of joy," Psalm 17:15, and Psalm 16:11.

Question: Why will perfect likeness to God follow upon the beatific vision of him?

Answer: Because the seeing of God in all his matchless excellencies, no more "through a glass darkly, but face to face," cannot but be attended with a swallowing up of all the imperfections of the saints, into a glorious transformation to his blessed image, 1 John 3:2 - "We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

Question: Why is the communication, and participation of God in heaven, accompanied with unspeakable joy?

Answer: Because of the undoubted certainty, and full assurance which the saints have of the eternal duration of the same: the enjoyment of God being always fresh and new to them, through the ages of eternity; for they shall drink of living fountains of waters continually springing up in abundance, Rev. 7:17.

Question: Why will the saints in heaven have an undoubted certainty of their full enjoyment of God to all eternity?

Answer: Because the everlasting GOD himself will be their eternal life and happiness, 1 John 5:20 - "This is the true God and eternal life." Isaiah 60:19 - "The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." Hence it is said of heaven, that "the glory of God doth lighten it;" and that the Lamb is the light thereof, Rev. 21:23.

Question: What improvement ought we to make of these benefits which believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?

Answer: We should "be diligent, that we may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless," 2 Pet. 3:14; and occupy the talents he has given us, until he come, Luke 19:13; we should "judge ourselves, that we may not be judged," 1 Cor. 11:31; and because "the end of all things is at hand," we should "therefore be sober, and watch unto prayer," 1 Pet. 4:7; yea, we should "hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ," 1 Pet. 1:13.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is the duty which God requires of man?

Answer: The duty which God requires of man, is obedience to his revealed will.

Question: Why are the principles of faith, in the Shorter Catechism, treated of, before duties of obedience?

Answer: To show, that man's duty cannot be rightly performed, unless it flow from a belief of these principles, as the root and spring of it, Heb. 11:6.

Question: What do you understand by man's duty?

Answer: That which he owes to God, out of love and gratitude, Luke 17:10.

Question: What is it that man thus owes to God?

Answer: Constant and universal obedience, 1 Sam. 15:22.

Question: From whence does our obligation of obedience to God arise?

Answer: From his universal supremacy, and sovereign authority over us, as rational creatures, Lev. 18:5, who depend entirely upon him, for our "life, and breath, and all things," Acts 17:25.

Question: What motive or excitement have Christians, above others, to the duties of obedience?

Answer: They have the revelation of God's free love, mercy, and grace in Christ, bringing salvation to them, which should teach them to "live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world," Titus 2:12.

Question: What is the only rule and measure of our obedience?

Answer: The revealed will of God, Isaiah 8:20.

Question: Why is our obedience limited to God's revealed will?

Answer: Because it is necessary that God should signify to us, in what instances he will be obeyed, and the manner how our obedience is to be performed; otherwise, it would rather be a fulfilling of our own will than his, Micah. 6:8.

Question: Where has God revealed his will, as the rule and measure of our obedience?

Answer: In the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, 2 Tim. 3:16.

Question: What is the difference between God's secret and revealed will?

Answer: His secret will is reserved to himself, as the rule of his own procedure; but his revealed will is made known to us, as the rule of our faith and obedience, Deut. 29:29 - "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."

Question: Is it not agreeable to the revealed will of God that we give obedience to the just commands of our lawful superiors?

Answer: Yes; for thus we are commanded, 1 Pet. 2:13 - "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake."

Question: What is the difference between the obedience we should yield to God, and that which we should give to our lawful superiors?

Answer: We should obey God for himself, or out of regard to his own authority, as the very ground and reason of our obedience; but we should obey our superiors, only in the Lord; or, as their commands are agreeable to his will, Eph. 6:1 - "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."

Question: What is our duty, when the commands of superiors are contrary to the commands of God?

Answer: In that case we ought, without the least hesitation, "to obey God rather than men," Acts 5:29; Dan. 3:18.

Question: Why ought God to be obeyed rather than men, when their commands are opposite?

Answer: Because, "God alone is the Lord of the conscience, James, 4:12, and has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are in any thing contrary to his word," Acts 4:19.54

Question: What is the nature of that obedience which is acceptable to God?

Answer: It is such as flows from a vital union with Christ, and faith in him, as the principle of it, John 15:4, 5; is performed in a due manner, Psalm 5:7; and aims at the glory of God, as its highest and ultimate end, 1 Cor. 10:31.

Question: What encouragement does God give us to essay a universal obedience to his revealed will?

Answer: That he requires nothing of us in point of duty, but what he promises strength and furniture for the performance of, Ezek. 36:27 - "I will - cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."