The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is required in the Second Commandment?

Answer: 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.

Question: What is the opinion of the Papists respecting this commandment?

Answer: They allege that it is not a distinct precept from the first, but only an appendix, or supplement to it, by way of illustration.

Question: What is their practice, in consequence of this opinion?

Answer: 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.

Question: In what then does the Second Commandment differ from the first?

Answer: 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.

Question: What is meant by religious worship?

Answer: 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.

Question: What are these religious ordinances, which God has appointed in his word?

Answer: 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."

Question: Is prayer a moral duty founded in the law of nature?

Answer: 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.

Question: How does it appear to be an instituted means of worship?

Answer: 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.

Question: What is acceptable prayer?

Answer: 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.

Question: How manifold is religious thanksgiving?

Answer: TWOFOLD; stated and occasional.

Question: What is stated thanksgiving?

Answer: 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.

Question: How do you prove that singing with the voice is a stated act of worship appointed under the New Testament?

Answer: 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.

Question: What should be the subject matter of our praises to God?

Answer: 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.

Question: In what manner should these be sung?

Answer: "With grace in our hearts to the Lord," Col. 3:16.

Question: What is it to sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord?

Answer: It is to have our hearts going along with our voice, in suitable acts of faith, and elevated affections, Psalm 57:7.

Question: Are not the Psalms of David, as we sing them in our language, of human composure?

Answer: The translation in metre is human, but the sense and meaning are the same as the original.

Question: What is occasional thanksgiving?

Answer: 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.

Question: How ought we to engage in this duty?

Answer: With an humble sense of our utter unworthiness of the least of all God's favours, 2 Sam. 7:18.

Question: Are reading, hearing, and preaching of the word, acts of worship?

Answer: 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.

Question: How are the administration and receiving of the sacraments acts of worship?

Answer: 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.

Question: In what sense are church government and discipline to be ranked among the ordinances of divine worship?

Answer: 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.

Question: Why are the ministry and the maintenance of it placed among religious ordinances?

Answer: 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."

Question: What is religious fasting?

Answer: "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.

Question: Is bodily fasting, or bare abstinence from food, any part of religious worship?

Answer: Not properly in itself; but as it is a mean of divine appointment, for fitting and disposing us for more spiritual and solemn exercises.

Question: How does fasting appear to be a mean of divine appointment?

Answer: 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.

Question: What are those spiritual and solemn exercises for which fasting is designed to dispose us?

Answer: 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.

Question: Is religious fasting an occasional or a stated duty?

Answer: It is merely occasional and extraordinary, to be observed as the call of Providence may require and direct.

Question: What are the occurrences in providence, which are a call to this extraordinary duty?

Answer: "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.

Question: Is swearing by the name of God an act of immediate and instituted worship?

Answer: 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.

Question: To whom are vows to be made?

Answer: 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."

Question: What should be the subject matter of our vows to God?

Answer: 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.

Question: What does this commandment require, with respect to all those ordinances, and parts of worship, which God has appointed in his word?

Answer: The receiving and observing them; and keeping them pure and entire.

Question: What is it to receive God's ordinances?

Answer: It is to approve of, and embrace them, as bearing the stamp of his authority upon them, Psalm 84:1, 2.

Question: What is it to observe them?

Answer: 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.

Question: What is it to keep the ordinances of God pure?

Answer: It is to contribute our utmost endeavour to preserve them from all mixture of human invention, Deut. 12:32.

Question: What is it to keep them entire?

Answer: 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.

Question: What does God require of us in this command, with reference to all false worship?

Answer: 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:


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is forbidden in the Second Commandment?

Answer: The Second Commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his word.

Question: What are the leading sins forbidden in this commandment?

Answer: Idolatry and will-worship.

Question: What is the idolatry here condemned?

Answer: The worshipping of God by images: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image," &c.

Question: What is an image?

Answer: It is a statue, picture, or likeness of any creature whatever.

Question: Is it lawful to have images or pictures of mere creatures?

Answer: Yes, provided they be only for ornament; or the design be merely historical, to transmit the memory of persons and their actions to posterity.

Question: Can any image or representation be made of God?

Answer: No; it is absolutely impossible; he being an infinite, incomprehensible Spirit, Isaiah 40:18 - "To whom will ye liken God? or, what likeness will ye compare unto him?" If we cannot delineate our own souls, much less the infinite God; Acts 17:29 - "We ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."

Question: What judgment should we form of those who have devised images of God, or of the persons of the adorable Trinity?

Answer: We should adjudge their practice to be both unlawful and abominable.

Question: Why unlawful?

Answer: Because directly contrary to the express letter of the law in this commandment, and many other scriptures, such as, Jer. 10:14, 15; Hos. 13:2, and particularly Deut. 4:15-19, 23 - "Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, (for ye saw NO MANNER of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb, out of the midst of the fire,) lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female," &c.

Question: How is it abominable?

Answer: As debasing the Creator of heaven and earth to the rank of his own creatures; and a practical denial of all his infinite perfections, Psalm 50:21.

Question: May we not have a picture of Christ, who has a true body?

Answer: By no means; because, though he has a true body and a reasonable soul, John 1:14, yet his human nature subsists in his divine person, which no picture can represent, Psalm 45:2.

Question: Why ought all pictures of Christ to be abominated by Christians?

Answer: Because they are downright lies, representing no more than the picture of a mere man: whereas, the true Christ is God-man; "Immanuel, God with us," 1 Tim. 3:16; Matt. 1:23.

Question: Is it lawful to form any inward representation of God, or of Christ, upon our fancy, bearing a resemblance to any creature whatever?

Answer: By no means; because this is the very inlet to gross outward idolatry: for, when once the Heathens "became vain in their imaginations, they presently changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things," Rom. 1:21, 23.

Question: What is it to worship God by images, according to the idolatrous practice of Papists?

Answer: It is either to make use of images, as pretended helps to devotion; or, to worship God before the images of saints, as intercessors with him.

Question: Can any feigned image of God, or of Christ, be helpful in devotion?

Answer: No; it is the Spirit only who helpeth our infirmities in all acts of spiritual devotion, Rom. 8:26; and that faith which is necessary for acceptance in duty, fixes upon the word of the living God, as its sole foundation, and not upon dead images, Luke 16:31.

Question: Will it excuse any from the charge of idolatry, that they pretend to worship the true God before images, or by them, as means of worship, and not the very images themselves?

Answer: Not at all; because this is a mean of worship expressly forbidden in this commandment, which prohibits all bowing down before images, upon whatever pretext it be - "Thou shalt not BOW DOWN thyself to them, nor serve them."

Question: Do they worship images who bow down before them, even though it be the true God they intend to worship by them?

Answer: In scripture reckoning they do; Isaiah 2:8, 9 - "Their land is full of idols: they worship the work of their own hands. The mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself."

Question: Was it the ultimate intention of the Israelites in the wilderness to pay divine worship to the golden calf itself; or, to JEHOVAH, by it, and before it?

Answer: It was undoubtedly their ultimate intention to worship JEHOVAH, the true God, before that image; as appears from Ex. 32:5 - "When Aaron saw it, he built an altar BEFORE IT; - and said, "To-morrow is a feast to the Lord," (or JEHOVAH, as it is in the original.) And yet, because they did this, so directly contrary to the very letter of this commandment, they are charged with worshipping the image itself, verse 8:- "They have made them a golden calf, and have worshipped IT," &c.

Question: Do not they who honour the picture of a prince, honour the prince himself?

Answer: If the prince forbid the making of his picture, it is a contempt of his authority to have it. God has strictly prohibited all images for religious purposes, and therefore it is impious to have or use them for these ends, Lev. 26:1, 30.

Question: May images be worshipped at all, upon their own account?

Answer: No; because they are the work of man's hands: far inferior in dignity to man himself, Isaiah 45:9-18.

Question: May they be worshipped on account of their ORIGINALS; or those whom they are designed to represent?

Answer: They may not; whether designed to represent God, or the saints.

Question: Why may they not be worshipped as they are designed to represent God?

Answer: Because he never put his name in them; but declares his greatest hatred and detestation of them, Jer. 44:2-9.

Question: Why may they not be worshipped as they are designed to represent eminent saints?

Answer: Because saints, however eminent, are only mere creatures; and therefore cannot be the objects of worship, either in themselves, or by their images, Acts 14:14, 15.

Question: Can saints in heaven be intercessors for sinners on earth?

Answer: No; because intercession being founded on satisfaction, none but CHRIST can be the intercessor, as none but he is the propitiation for our sins, 1 John 2:1, 2.

Question: Is it lawful, as some plead, to have images or pictures in churches, though not for worship, yet for instruction, and raising the affections?

Answer: No; because God has expressly prohibited not only the worshipping but the MAKING of any image whatever on a religious account; and the setting them up in churches, cannot but have a natural tendency to beget a sacred veneration for them; and therefore ought to be abstained from, as having at least an "appearance of evil," Isaiah 45:9-18. 1 Thess. 5:22.

Question: May they not be placed in churches for beauty and ornament?

Answer: No; the proper ornament of churches is the sound preaching of the gospel, and the pure dispensation of the sacraments, and other ordinances of divine institution.

Question: Were not the images of the cherubims placed in the tabernacle and temple, by the command of God himself?

Answer: Yes; but out of all hazard of any abuse, being placed in the holy of holies, where none of the people ever came: they were instituted by God himself, which images are not; and they belonged to the typical and ceremonial worship, which is now quite abolished.

Question: Are our forefathers to be blamed for pulling down altars, images, and other monuments of idolatry, from places of public worship at the Reformation?

Answer: No; they had Scripture precept and warrant for what they did, Num. 33:52, and Deut. 7:5 - "Ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire."

Question: What do you understand by will-worship, the other leading sin forbidden in this command?

Answer: It is the worshipping God in any other way not appointed in his word.

Question: Should there be an express appointment in the word for every part of divine worship in which we engage?

Answer: Undoubtedly there should; otherwise we are guilty of innovating upon the worship of God, and prescribing rules to the Almighty, which is both displeasing to him, and unprofitable to ourselves, Matt. 15:9.

Question: Who are they that are guilty of innovating upon the worship of God?

Answer: All they who presumptuously annex their own superstitious inventions to the divine institutions, under pretence of their being teaching significant ceremonies; as they of the Popish and Episcopal persuasions do.

Question: What are these significant ceremonies which they add to the instituted ordinances of God's worship?

Answer: The sign of the cross in baptism; kneeling at receiving the sacrament of the supper; erecting altars in churches; and bowing at the name of Jesus, are a few of many.

Question: Why may not such ceremonies be used, when they are designed for exciting devotion, and beautifying the worship of God?

Answer: Because God has expressly forbidden the least addition to or abatement from the order and directions he himself has given in his word concerning his own worship, Deut. 12:30-32 - "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not ADD thereunto, nor DIMINISH from it."

Question: Were there not significant ceremonies in the Jewish worship, under the Old Testament?

Answer: Yes; but they were of express divine appointment; and by the same appointment abolished in the death and resurrection of Christ, Heb. 9:1-15.

Question: May not significant ceremonies be founded on 1 Cor. 14:40 - "Let all things be done decently and in order?"

Answer: No; because that text speaks only of the decent and orderly observance of the ordinances of God already instituted, and not in the least of any thing new to be added as a part of worship.

Question: Is reading of sermons or discourses from the pulpit an ordinance of God appointed in his word?

Answer: So far from it, that we find the contrary practised by our Lord while he was here upon earth, Luke 4:16, 23; where, after reading his text out of the prophet Esaias, it is said, he CLOSED the book, and "began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears," &c.

Question: How may we be further guilty of a breach of his commandment, than by idolatry and will-worship?

Answer: When we neglect, Heb. 10:25, contemn, Matt. 22:5, hinder, chap. 23:13, or oppose the worship and ordinances which God has appointed in his word, 1 Thess. 2:16; or tolerate those who publish and maintain erroneous opinions or practices, Rev. 2:14, 15, 20.

Question: What is the doctrine of our Confession concerning the tolerating of those who publish and maintain erroneous opinions or practices?

Answer: Tha: "for their publishing of such opinions, or maintaining of such practices, as are contrary to the light of nature, or the known principles of Christianity, whether concerning faith, worship, or conversation, or to the power of godliness, they may lawfully be called to account, and proceeded against by the censures of the church, and by the power of the civil magistrates."67


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What are the reasons annexed to the Second Commandment?

Answer: 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.

Question: Why does our Catechism make mention of REASONS ANNEXED to this and the three following commandments?

Answer: Because God himself has been pleased to subjoin to each of these precepts, the reasons, arguments, or motives, that should influence our obedience to them.

Question: How many reasons are annexed to this Second Commandment?

Answer: THREE; contained in these words, "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God."

Question: Which is the first of these reasons?

Answer: It is God's sovereignty over us, in these words I THE LORD; or, I JEHOVAH.

Question: What do you understand by God's sovereignty over us?

Answer: It is his absolute supreme power, or right of dominion over us, as his creatures, Rom. 9:20, 21, by which he can dispose of, ver. 22, 23, and prescribe to us as seems to him good, Deut 6:17.

Question: In what lies the strength of this first reason for worshipping God by means of his own appointment?

Answer: It lies in this, that being our sovereign Lord, it must be his sole prerogative to prescribe to us the means of his own worship; and, consequently, that it must be our duty to make his pleasure in this, both the rule and reason of our punctual observance of what he enjoins, Psalm 95:2, 3.

Question: What is the SECOND reason annexed to this commandment?

Answer: It is his propriety in us, in these words, THY God.

Question: What other propriety has God in us than by right of creation.

Answer: He has a propriety likewise by right of redemption, intimated in the preface to the commands, "I am the Lord THY God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage," Ex. 20:2.

Question: Is it his propriety by right of creation, or by right of redemption, that constitutes the federal relation between him and us?

Answer: It is his propriety by right of redemption, Isaiah 43:1 - "I have REDEEMED thee; I have called thee by thy name: thou art MINE."

Question: What influence should his propriety in us, as his people, have upon our receiving and observing the ordinances of his worship?

Answer: If we are his people: we are ransomed by the blood of his only begotten Son, and so under the strongest ties of duty and gratitude, to cleave to the precise manner of worship prescribed in his word, rejecting all other modes and forms whatever, Josh. 24:24.

Question: What is the THIRD reason annexed to this commandment?

Answer: It is the zeal he hath to his own worship, in these words, - I AM A JEALOUS GOD.

Question: In what sense is God said to be a jealous God?

Answer: Jealousy is ascribed to him (after the manner of men,) to denote that he puts no confidence in his creatures, Deut. 5:29 that he has his eye upon them; and is highly offended when they slight him and bestow that love upon any other, which is due to him alone, chap. 32:15-26.

Question: What is it for God to have zeal for his own worship?

Answer: It is to have Such a regard for the ordinances of his own institution, as highly to resent or revenge any addition to, or alteration of them; of which there is an awful instance in Nadab and Abihu, who offered strange fire before the Lord, Lev. 10:1-4.

Question: In what does God manifest his zeal for his worship?

Answer: Both by way of threatening, and by way of promise.

Question: What does God threaten as a testimony of his zeal for his worship?

Answer: To visit "the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation of them that hate" him.

Question: What is it to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children?

Answer: It is to inflict punishment upon the children for the faults and offences of their fathers.

Question: Are there any scripture examples of God's doing so?

Answer: As to temporal punishments there are: Seven of Saul's sons were hanged before the Lord, for his offence in slaying the Gibeonites, 2 Sam. 21:8, 9; and for the sins of Jeroboam, his whole house was utterly extinguished, 1 Kings 15:29, 30.

Question: Is this thought just and equal among men?

Answer: Yes; as appears by the common practice of disinheriting the children of traitors and rebels for the treasonable practices of their fathers, in order to create a greater detestation of these crimes in others.

Question: Whether are temporal judgments only, or spiritual and eternal plagues also, intended in this threatening?

Answer: Spiritual and eternal plagues are also intended, Matt. 25:41.

Question: How does it appear that spiritual and eternal judgments are included in this threatening?

Answer: It appears from this, that the punishment threatened should bear some proportion to the mercy promised; so that if the mercy promised be of a spiritual and eternal nature, the judgments threatened must be of the same kind.

Question: How does the scripture illustrate this?

Answer: By the issue of the final sentence at the great day, which is, that the wicked "go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal," Matt. 25:46.

Question: How does it consist with the justice of God, to inflict spiritual and eternal judgments upon children for the sins of their parents?

Answer: It is entirely consistent with it; because the children punished with spiritual and eternal judgments, are only such as have shown themselves heirs to their fathers' sins, either by copying them, Jer. 31:29, 30, or not disapproving of and mourning for them; by which means their fathers' sins become their own, Psalm 49:13.

Question: How can the visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children be reconciled with Ezek. 18:20 - "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father.

Answer: This passage in Ezekiel is to be understood of the son who does not tread in the steps of his wicked father; as is evident from ver. 14, 17 - "If he beget a son that seeth all his father's sins, and doth not such like, he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live;" whereas the threatening in this commandment respects wicked children, who copy after the example of their graceless parents, as Nadab the son of Jeroboam did, who "walked in the way of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to Sin" I Kings 15:26.

Question: How does it appear from the threatening itself, that this is the meaning?

Answer: Because the children on whom God visits the iniquity of their fathers are expressly said to be "the third and fourth generation of them that HATE him."

Question: Why does God threaten to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation only, of them that hate him; and not to all succeeding generations of such children?

Answer: Not but that the haters of God to all generations shall meet with deserved punishment; but the threatening is limited to the third and fourth generation, for a greater judgment upon wicked parents, some of whom may live to see their posterity of these generations, and to read their own sin in the punishment of their offspring whom they have seduced; as Zedekiah, for his wickedness, saw his sons, and the princes of Judah, slain before his eyes, Jer. 52:3, 10.

Question: What if such wicked parents should die, before they see their third and fourth generations?

Answer: In that case, if their consciences are not quite seared, they will die under the dread and fear of the judgments here threatened, befalling their children, Hos. 2:4; as well as of the fiery indignation which shall devour themselves, Heb. 10:27.

Question: May not God sometimes visit the iniquities of the breakers of this commandment upon their godly children?

Answer: He will never visit the iniquities of the fathers upon their godly children with spiritual and eternal judgments, though sometimes he may do it with temporal calamities: as no doubt many pious Israelites were carried captive to Babylon for the sins of their fathers, Lam. 5:7; which, nevertheless, was for their real good, Jer. 24:5.

Question: What may we learn from this threatening to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children?

Answer: That as nothing can be more cruel than for parents to set a bad example before their children, Jer. 9:14, 15; so the example of forefathers will not vindicate their posterity in the way of sin, particularly in the practice of any corrupt or false worship, Ezek. 20:18, 21.

Question: What is it, on the other hand, that God promises as an evidence of his zeal for his worship?

Answer: To show mercy to thousands of them that love him, and keep his commandments.

Question: Who are they that truly love God?

Answer: They who, from a faith of his own operation, have complacency and delight in him as their own God and portion, Psalm 5:11.

Question: What is it to keep his commandments?

Answer: It is to essay a uniform and self-denied obedience to the law as a rule, because Christ has fulfilled it as a covenant, Rom. 7:4.

Question: What mercy does God show to them that love him, and keep his commandments?

Answer: He shows strengthening, Psalm 94:18, comforting, Psalm 31:7, directing, Ex. 15:13, and persevering mercy to them, 2 Sam. 7:15.

Question: Does God show mercy to children because they are the offspring of godly parents?

Answer: No; but merely because so it pleases him, Rom, 9:15 - "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy."

Question: What benefit then have the children of godly parents beyond others?

Answer: They have the privilege of a religious education, Gen. 18:19; are the children of many prayers, Job 1:5; and may plead the promise, "I WILL be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee," Gen. 17:7.

Question: Why does the threatening run only to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him, and yet the promise to thousands of them that love him?

Answer: To show that God has far greater pleasure in the exercise of mercy, than in the venting of wrath, Ezek. 33:11; and likewise for an encouragement, both to parents and children, to aim at "walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless," Luke 1:6.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Which is the Third Commandment?

Answer: 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.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is required in the Third Commandment?

Answer: The Third Commandment requireth the holy and reverend use of God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.

Question: What does this commandment require in general?

Answer: That the instituted means of God's worship be used in a right MANNER, becoming the majesty of him with whom we have to do, Psalm 5:7.

Question: What is the duty directly opposite to the sin of taking God's name in vain?

Answer: It is the sanctifying of his name, Isaiah 8:13 - "Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear and your dread."

Question: What do you understand by the NAME of God?

Answer: Every thing by which he is pleased to make himself known.

Question: By what does God make himself known?

Answer: By his names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.

Question: Does God need any name to distinguish him from all others?

Answer: No; because he is a most singular Being, quite well distinguished from all others, by the infinity and absolute perfection of his nature, Isaiah 44:6.

Question: Why then are names ascribed to him in scripture?

Answer: That some knowledge of his nature and perfections may be conveyed to us, Acts 9:15.

Question: What are the names by which he conveys the knowledge of himself to us?

Answer: He conveys the knowledge of his absolute, eternal, and immutable essence by the names of JEHOVAH, Ex. 6:3; JAH, Psalm 68:4; and, I AM, Ex. 3:14; the knowledge of his excellency and sovereignty, by the names GOD and LORD, Deut. 6:4; and the knowledge of the essential relation of the three divine persons among themselves, by the names of FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST, Matt. 28:19.

Question: Is there any difference between God's names and his titles?

Answer: His names set forth what he is in himself; his titles, what he is to others.

Question: How are God's titles commonly distinguished?

Answer: Into those that belong to him as the God of nature, and those which are ascribed to him as the God of grace.

Question: What are the titles that belong to him as the God of nature?

Answer: They are such as these, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Isaiah 40:28; the Preserver of men, Job 7:20; King of nations, Jer. 10:7; and Lord of hosts, Isaiah 1:9.

Question: What are the titles that are ascribed to him as the God of grace?

Answer: They are the following among others: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Ex. 3:6; the Holy One of Israel, Isaiah 48:17; King of saints, Rev. 15:3; the Father of mercies, 2 Cor. 1:3; the hearer of prayer, Psalm 65:2; and the God of salvation, Psalm 68:20.

Question: Which is the most common and ordinary title ascribed to God under the New Testament?

Answer: It is the infinitely amiable and encouraging title of "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," Eph. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:3.

Question: What comfortable views may we take of God, as he is the God and Father of our Lord. Jesus Christ?

Answer: In this light we may view him as a reconciled God, 2 Cor. 5:19; a pardoning and accepting God through Christ, Eph. 1:6, 7; and as our God and Father in him, John 20:17, - "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God."

Question: What is to be understood by God's attributes?

Answer: The perfections and excellencies which are ascribed to him as the essential properties of his nature.

Question: What are God's ordinances?

Answer: The reading, preaching, and hearing of the word; the administration of the Sacraments; prayer and praise; religious fasting and thanksgiving.69

Question: What are the ordinances in which the name of God is more immediately interposed?

Answer: The name of God is more immediately interposed in oaths, vows, and lots.

Question: What is an OATH?

Answer: It is an act of religious worship, in which God is solemnly invoked, or called upon, as a witness for the Confirmation of some matter in doubt.

Question: Why is it said to be an act of religious worship?

Answer: Because there is, or ought to be in every formal oath, a solemn invocation of the name of God, Deut. 6:13 - "Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God - and shalt swear by his name."

Question: What is imported in calling upon God as a witness in an oath?

Answer: It imports, that we acknowledge him to be the infallible searcher of our hearts; the powerful avenger of all perjury and falsehood; and at the same time to be infinitely superior to us; "for men verily Swear by the greater," Heb. 6:16.

Question: In what cases should an oath be required?

Answer: Only in cases that are doubtful, when the truth of things cannot be known with certainty any other way.

Question: What is the end of an oath in a lawful judicature?

Answer: It is for confirmation of the truth formerly doubtful; and for terminating strife and contradiction among men. "An oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife," Heb. 6:16.

Question: What are the necessary qualifications of a lawful oath?

Answer: That we swear - "in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness," Jer. 6:2.

Question: What is it to swear in truth?

Answer: It is to take special care, that what is sworn be strictly agreeable to truth; and that there be an exact agreement between the sentiments of our minds, and the words of our mouth, without the least equivocation, or mental reservation.

Question: What is it to equivocate, or dissemble in an oath?

Answer: It is to have an inward reserved meaning and sense of words, contrary to the common and ordinary acceptation of them, and that with a design to deceive.

Question: In what consists the evil and sinfulness of this practice?

Answer: It destroys the nature and end of an oath, which is to bring forth nothing but the truth: it opens a wide door to all falsehood and lying, contrary to Eph. 4:25 - "Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour;" and it unhinges the firmest bonds of society, that none can put confidence in another.

Question: What is it to swear in judgment?

Answer: It is to swear with knowledge and deliberation; seriously pondering in our mind, what it is we are about to swear, and the solemn appeal we make to God in the oath, together with the dangerous risk we run, if we swear either falsely or ignorantly.

Question: What is it to swear in righteousness?

Answer: It is to give our oath only in things lawful, or such as are consistent with piety towards God, and equity towards man; and likewise to give it on a lawful occasion.

Question: When is a civil oath taken upon a lawful occasion?

Answer: When it is required by a lawful magistrate, for the ending of strife and debate, and the impartial administration of justice.

Question: How do you prove that it is warrantable for Christians under the New Testament, to declare the truth upon oath, when called to it?

Answer: From this, that an oath, being no part of the ceremonial law, there can be no reason given why it was lawful to swear under the Old Testament, which will not apply in the like circumstances NOW; especially as there are approved examples of the use of an oath under the New Testament, 2 Cor. 1:23; Rev. 10:6; Heb. 6:16.

Question: Does not our Lord say, Matt. 5:34, - "Swear not at all;" and the apostle James, chap. 5:12, "Above all things, swear not"?

Answer: These texts manifestly condemn profane swearing in ordinary conversation, and not lawful swearing in judgment, when called to do it; as appears from the injunction subjoined in both places, "Let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay."

Question: What is the ordinary outward form or sign, in scripture, of appealing to God in an oath?

Answer: It is the lifting up of the hand; as appears from Gen. 14:22; Dan. 12:7; Rev. 10:5, 6.

Question: What are we to think of that mode of swearing, by touching and kissing the gospel?

Answer: It is evidently superstitious, if not idolatrous, and borrowed by the Papists from the heathens, who worshipped their idols in this manner, Job 31:27; Hos. 13:2.

Question: How are oaths commonly distinguished as to their kinds?

Answer: Into assertory and promissory oaths.

Question: What is an assertory oath?

Answer: It is an invoking God as a witness to the truth of what we declare about things past or present.

Question: Why called assertory?

Answer: Because the party swearing, without any promise for the future, only asserts the things to have been, or to be at present, as he then swears.

Question: What is the chief use of assertory oaths?

Answer: It is to determine suits and processes in human courts about matters of fact.

Question: What is a promissory oath

Answer: It is the invoking God as a witness to the performance of a thing for the time to come, either absolutely or conditionally.

Question: Why called promissory?

Answer: Because the party swearing promises or engages to do something hereafter.

Question: What should be the subject matter of assertory oaths?

Answer: Such things as are both true and weighty, and which we know to be so.

Question: What should be the subject matter of promissory oaths?

Answer: Such things as to our knowledge, are lawful, possible, and in our power to perform.

Question: How may promissory oaths be subdivided?

Answer: Into civil and religious.

Question: To what has a civil promissory oath a respect?

Answer: To :ontracts and engagements among men, whether of a more private or public nature.

Question: May not the supreme magistrate require an allegiance of his subjects, or an oath of fidelity to obey his just and lawful commands?

Answer: It appears evidently from scripture that he may, Eccl. 8:2 - "I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God," 1 Chron. 29:24.

Question: To what has a religious promissory oath a respect.

Answer: It respects the duties and services we owe more immediately to God, and the interests of religion.70

Question: In what lies the obligation of an oath?

Answer: In the strong tie or bond that the party swearing comes under, to the performance of some duty engaged to.

Question: How many fold is the obligation of a promissory oath?

Answer: TWOFOLD: one to the person to whom the oath is made, as a party; the other to God, by whom the oath is made, as a witness and avenger.

Question: What is the difference between the obligation of a promise, and the obligation of an oath?

Answer: A man is bound to perform his promise as well as his oath: but an oath being an immediate invocation of the name of God as a witness and judge, it is, on this account, of a stronger obligation, and the breach of it a more heinous sin, than the breach of a simple promise.

Question: Does not all obligation to duty respect a future time in which it is to be performed?

Answer: It necessarily does so, in the nature of the thing; although, in some cases, the time of performance may be very short after the obligation is contracted.

Question: Under what obligation does a person come in an assertory oath, which respects the time past or present?

Answer: He comes under an obligation to declare the truth, and nothing but the truth, in what he is about to say; or, that his words shall exactly agree with his mind.

Question: Under what obligation does a person come in a promissory oath, which respects the time to come?

Answer: He comes under an obligation to endeavour, as far as in him lies, to fulfil that which he has sworn; or, to perform all that he has promised by oath, Num. 30:2 - "If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth."

Question: Is an oath about a thing lawful and possible obligatory, even though it be extorted by force or fear?

Answer: Undoubtedly it is: because of the reverence due to God, by whom the oath is made a witness and judge, Lev. 19:12 - "Ye shall not swear by my name falsely; neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord."Matt. 5:33 - "Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths."

Question: Is a person bound to pay such a sum to a robber as he has promised by his oath, for the ransom of his life?

Answer: He is certainly bound to pay it; because, of TWO PENAL evils, he voluntarily made choice of the least; to part with his money, rather than his life; accordingly, the righteous man, "sweareth to his OWN HURT, and changeth not," Psalm 15:4.

Question: Is an oath, which is lawful as to the matter of it, though sinful as to the manner, and even obtained by, deceit, or rashly made binding and obligatory upon the person who has sworn it?

Answer: Yes; as is evident from the instance of the Gibeonites, who deceived Israel into a league with them by oath, and yet their oath was binding, Josh. 9:14-20.

Question: Are oaths and contracts to be kept with Heathens and heretics?

Answer: No doubt they should, as well as with others. Zedekiah, king of Judah, was severely punished for his breach of oath to the king of Babylon, 2 Chron. 36:13; Ezek. 17:16. Besides, if infidelity and heresy do not nullify the marriage oath, neither ought they to make void any other lawful contract.

Question: What is a vow?

Answer: It is a voluntary and deliberate engagement to God only as party, and that respecting matters of a sacred or religious character, Psalm 132:2-6.

Question: What is the difference between an oath and a vow?

Answer: In an oath, man is generally the party, and God is brought in as the witness: but in a vow, God himself is always the sole party, besides his being a witness, Psalm 50:14. Isaiah 19:21.

Question: What is the subject matter of vows?

Answer: Only things religious; or such as relate immediately to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Question: How ought vows to be entered into?

Answer: In the exercise of faith; or, in the strength of the grace that is in Christ Jesus, John 15:5; without which there can be no performance, Phil. 4:13.

Question: How many kinds of vows are there?

Answer: Two; personal and social.

Question: What is a personal vow?

Answer: It is the act of an individual, or single person, taking hold of God's covenant of grace, or acquiescing in it as made with Christ, who is the all of it and thus engaging to be the Lord's, and to essay the practice of all duty in his strength. Is. 44:5 - "One shall say, I am the Lord's," Psalm 119:106 - "I have sworn, and will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments."71

Question: What is a social vow?

Answer: It is the joint concurrence of several individuals in the same exercise as in a personal one, openly avouching the Lord to be their God, Deut. 26:17; where Moses, speaking of all Israel, says, "Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, to walk in his ways," &c.

Question: When doth such a social vow commonly get the name of a NATIONAL COVENANT?

Answer: When the representatives of a nation, or the better part of them, concur in a covenant of duties, as ingrafted upon the covenant of grace, Jer. 50:4, 5 - "The children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, - saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten." See also Neh. 9:33, and 10:1, 30.

Question: How do you prove that national covenanting is a warrantable duty under the New Testament?

Answer: From its being promised in the Old Testament that this shall be a duty performed under the New, Isaiah 19:21 - "The Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and - they shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and shall perform it." Besides, if it was a moral duty upon special occasions, under the Old Testament (as appears from 2 Chron 15:12, and 34:31, 32; Neh. 9:38), it must remain to be the same, upon the like occasions, still; because Christ came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil them, Matt 5:17.

Question: Is our obligation to moral duties increased, by our vowing or engaging to perform them?

Answer: Although it is impossible that our obligation to moral duty can he increased by any deed of ours, beyond what it is already by the law of God, which is of the highest authority; yet by reason of our own voluntary and superadded engagement, this obligation from the law may make a deeper impression than before, Psalm 44:17, 18, and our sins receive a higher aggravation, if we either omit the duty engaged to, or commit the evil opposite to it, Deut. 23:21, 22.

Question: What is a LOT, or lotting?

Answer: It is the laying aside the use of all means or second causes, and appealing directly to God, that he may, by his immediate providence, give a present decision respecting any matter in question "for the lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord," Proverbs 16:33.

Question: Why are lots said to be an appeal to God?

Answer: Because, by casting of lots between two or more persons, or things, we, as it were, require him immediately to declare his mind by the event, which way the decision shall go, Acts 1:24, 26 - "Show whether of these two thou hast chosen. And the lot felt on Matthias."

Question: In what cases may a decision be put upon the event of a lot?

Answer: Only in cases of great weight and absolute necessity, Josh. 7:13, 14.

Question: Why should a lot be used only in cases of great weight and moment?

Answer: Because a lot being a material or implicit invoking of God to give a decision, it would be a wicked profanation of his name, to call him to determine in trifles, or things of little or no value.

Question: Why should it be used only in cases of absolute necessity?

Answer: Because, where human prudence can determine, it would be a tempting of God, to require his decision.

Question: What then is the end of lots?

Answer: It is the same as of oaths, to determine finally in momentous controversies, that which can be decided in no other way, Proverbs 18:18 - "The lot causeth contention to cease, and parteth between the mighty."

Question: In what manner ought lots to be used?

Answer: In : most reverential manner, as in the presence of God, who pronounces the sentence; and in whose decision all parties ought cheerfully to acquiesce, Acts 1:24, 26 - "And they PRAYED - and gave forth their lots."

Question: What is the word in which the name of God is declared?

Answer: The scriptures of the Old and New Testament.

Question: What is meant by God's works in this answer?

Answer: His works of creation and providence; which last includes redemption.

Question: What does this commandment REQUIRE, with reference to God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.

Answer: The holy and reverend use of them.

Question: What is it to make a holy and reverend use of these?

Answer: It is, in all our meditations, speeches, and writings, to have the most profound respect and regard for every thing, by which God manifests his name and glory, Deut. 28:58.

Question: When do we essay to make a reverend use of God's names, titles, and attributes?

Answer: When we view them as in Christ, and in this light draw virtue from them, for the increase of our faith and holiness, Ex. 23:21 - "Obey his voice - for my name is in him."

Question: When do we endeavour a holy and reverend use of the ordinances?

Answer: When we view God as present in them, Matt. 28:20; and attend or perform them with a single eye to his glory, Psalm 86:9.

Question: When do we use the word in a holy and reverend manner?

Answer: When we search and believe the scriptures, as testifying of Christ, John 5:39; and are directed by them as a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path, Psalm 119:105.

Question: When do we essay to make a holy and reverend use of the works of God.

Answer: When we are enabled to make suitable improvement of the bright displays he has made of his glorious excellencies, in creation, providence, and redemption, so as to walk humbly and thankfully before him, Rev. 15:3, 4 - "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord! and glorify thy name for thou only art holy."


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is forbidden in the Third Commandment?

Answer: The Third Commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing of any thing whereby God maketh himself known.

Question: What do you understand by profaning or abusing of any thing whereby God makes himself known?

Answer: It :s the using of his names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works, in a rash, irreverent, and unbecoming manner.

Question: How are God's names, titles, and attributes, profaned or abused by men?

Answer: Many ways: particularly, by blasphemy, perjury, sinful cursings, oaths, vows, and lots."72

Question: :hat is blasphemy?

Answer: It is speaking in a reproachful, reviling, and under-valuing manner of God, Isaiah 36:20; of his word, Acts 13:45; or of any of his providential dispensations, Ezek. 18:25.

Question: What is the aggravation of this sin?

Answer: It is an atheistical contempt of the most high God; - the greatest affront that can be done him by his creatures, Ex. 5:2.

Question: May not persons be guilty of blasphemy in their hearts though never uttered in words?

Answer: Yes, undoubtedly they may; either when atheistical thoughts of him are harboured, Psalm 14:1; or, disparaging and unbecoming conceptions of him entertained, Psalm 10:11 and 50:21.

Question: What was the punishment of blasphemy, at the hand of man, by the law of God?

Answer: It was death, Lev. 24:16 - "He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death."

Question: What is perjury?

Answer: It is a breach or violation of any solemn oath or vow we have entered into or come under, Matt. 5:33 - "Thou shalt not forswear thyself."

Question: When are persons guilty of perjury in assertory oaths?

Answer: When they assert such a thing, upon oath to be true, which yet they know to be false, like the witness against Naboth, 1 Kings 21:13; or even when they are doubtful and uncertain about the truth of what they are swearing; like the witnesses against Christ, whose witnessing did "not agree together," Mark 14:58, 59.

Question: When are persons guilty of perjury in promissory oaths?

Answer: When they promise upon oath what they have no mind to perform; or when, without any insuperable impediment laid in their way, or any just and relevant excuse, they fail in the performance: as in the perjury of Zedekiah king of Judah, who broke his oath to the king of Babylon, Ezek. 17:16.

Question: Is a person guilty of perjury, if he swears to do a thing impossible or unlawful?

Answer: Surely he is: for, if he swear to a thing impossible, he swears to a manifest lie; if he swear to do a thing unlawful, he is doubly perjured; both in making such an oath, and in fulfilling it, as was the case with Herod, Matt. 14:9, 10.

Question: What is the aggravation of the sin of perjury?

Answer: It not only breaks all the bonds of society among men, but impeaches the omniscience of God himself, calling him to attest what conscience knows to be an untruth; and therefore God threatens, that his "curse shall enter into the house of him that sweareth falsely - and shall consume it, with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof," Zech. 5:3, 4.

Question: How is God's name profaned by sinful cursings?

Answer: When God's wrath and vengeance are imprecated upon ourselves or others: or when the devil is in any manner invoked for harm.

Question: For what do wicked persons wish, when they imprecate the wrath and vengeance of God upon themselves?

Answer: They do, in effect, pray, that God would hasten their everlasting destruction, and that their damnation may not slumber, but be speedily inflicted; 2 Pet. 2:3.

Question: Do the devils themselves venture to wish for this?

Answer: No; they believe that there is farther wrath awaiting them at the judgment of the great day; and they tremble at the forethoughts of it, James 2:19; Jude verse 6.

Question: What is the evil of imprecating divine vengeance upon others?

Answer: It is a piece of the most profane, presumptuous, and impudent freedom with the Majesty of heaven; as if he were bound to empty the vials of his wrath upon our fellow creatures, at our pleasure, and that in order to gratify our passionate revenge upon them, 2 Sam. 16:5, 8.

Question: Is it not a most horrid and abominable wickedness to call or invoke the evil to TAKE ourselves or others?

Answer: Surely it is for it is a putting the devil in God's stead, or an employing of him to do God's work for him, even when he is delaying to do it himself; which is no less than devil-worship, and we ought not to "have fellowship with devils," 1 Cor. 10:20.

Question: How is the name of God abused by sinful oaths?

Answer: When men take unlawful oaths that may be imposed upon them, and when, in their ordinary conversation, they swear by God, or by any thing by which he makes himself known; contrary to Matt. 5:37 - "Let your communications be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil:" or of the evil one.

Question: In what lies the heinousness of swearing in common discourse?

Answer: It is a most heaven-daring wickedness, even an insulting of the great God, our maker, to his face; a crime, which we dare not, without danger, be guilty of against our fellow creatures; and which is neither attended with the allurements of pleasure nor temptations of profit.

Question: Is it a taking of God's name in vain, to swear by the creatures; such as, by heaven, by our life, soul, conscience, or the like?

Answer: Yes; because swearing by any of his creatures, is interpretatively a swearing by God the Creator and Preserver of all things, Matt. 23:22 - "He that sweareth by HEAVEN, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon."

Question: Did not Joseph, who was a good man, swear repeatedly "by the life of Pharaoh"? Gen. 42:15, 16.

Answer: The goodness of the man did not excuse the sinfulness of the action: we are not to "do evil, that good may come," Rom. 3:8. For, though it may be alleged, that to say, "By the life of Pharaoh," is no more than to say, "As sure as Pharaoh lives;" yet the words themselves being in the form of an unlawful oath, which it would seem was commonly used by the Egyptians, they ought not, for this reason, to have been uttered.

Question: Is swearing by faith, or troth, a formal profaning of God's name?

Answer: No doubt it is; for when a person swears in this manner, he tacitly invokes God to bear witness, that he is speaking faithfully and truly, and to punish him, if he is doing otherwise; which, in ordinary conversation, is undoubtedly sinful, and a falling "into condemnation," James 5:12.

Question: Will a habit or custom of swearing in common discourse, be an excuse for it?

Answer: By no means; any more than a habit or custom of killing men, can be an excuse for wilful murder.

Question: How is the name of God profaned by sinful vows?

Answer: Either when we solemnly enter into a resolution to do what is absolutely unlawful as Jezebel did, 1 Kings 19:2; or when we come under engagements to duty, and against sin, in our own strength, without a due dependence on the grace of God, as the greater part of the Israelites did, Deut. 5:27, 29; or, when we vow, and are not resolved to perform, as Johanan and his confederates did, Jer. 42:5, compared with verse 20.

Question: When is the name of God profaned or abused by lots?

Answer: When God is appealed to by way of diversion, as in playing at cards, and dice, where the great God is most presumptuously invoked to determine who shall be the gainer. Lots are also unlawful, when there is an appeal by them to God in matters of small moment, which might be otherwise easily decided; this being too like the practice of the soldiers, who, after they had crucified Christ, did "cast lots for his vesture," John 19:23, 24.

Question: How do men profane the name of God in their outward walk?

Answer: By making profession of religion in hypocrisy, and backsliding from it, Heb. 6:6; or, by committing such enormities and immoralities, as reflect dishonour upon it, and make the name of God to be evil spoken of, Rom, 2:24.

Question: How are the ordinances of God profaned and abused?

Answer: Either when they are quite neglected, Acts 7:42, 43, or when they are attended in a formal, superficial, and customary manner, without seeking to meet with God in them, or to have spiritual food and nourishment to our souls by them, Isaiah 29:13, 14.

Question: How is the word profaned and abused?

Answer: "By misinterpreting, misapplying, or perverting any part of it, to profane jests, curious and unprofitable questions, vain janglings, or the maintaining of false doctrines; abusing it, - or any thing, contained under the name of God, to charms, - or any way opposing God's truth, grace, and ways."73

Question: How are the works of God abused?

Answer: When "the creatures" are prostituted to "sinful lusts and practices; and when there is a murmuring and quarrelling at God's providences."74


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is the reason annexed to the Third Commandment?

Answer: 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.

Question: Are there any arguments against taking God's name in vain, couched in the preceptive part of this commandment?

Answer: Yes; he whose name we are forbidden to take in vain, is the LORD OUR GOD; "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy GOD in vain."

Question: What is the force of the argument taken from his being the Lord or JEHOVAH?

Answer: That his infinite essential glory and excellency should fill us with the greatest reverence and humility, when we think or speak of any thing by which he makes himself known, Psalm 83:18.

Question: What is the force of the argument taken from his being our God?

Answer: That his making himself over to us in the covenant of promise, as our reconciled God and Father in Christ, should lay us under the strongest obligation to a holy and reverential use of his name, Ex. 15:2.

Question: What is the particular reason expressly subjoined or annexed to this commandment?

Answer: It is in these words, by way of threatening: For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Question: What is the import of the threatening, "the Lord will not hold him guiltless?"

Answer: It imports, that he will surely hold him guilty in a peculiar manner, who presumes to profane or abuse his name, so that divine vengeance shall be infallibly certain against him, Zech. 5:3.

Question: In what light does the scripture represent those who take God's name in vain?

Answer: It represents them as his open and avowed enemies, Psalm 139:20 - "Thine ENEMIES take thy name in vain."

Question: How does it appear that divine vengeance is infallibly certain against the profaners of God's name?

Answer: It appears from the very terms of the threatening, The Lord WILL NOT hold him guiltless; that is, as sure as there will be a judgment seat, before which sinners must appear; so sure it is, that this sin shall then be taken particular notice of, as a main article of the indictment, Mal. 3:5.

Question: Why do the breakers of this commandment escape punishment from men?

Answer: Because many of those to whom the administration of justice is committed, being themselves guilty, do therefore show no concern for vindicating the honour of God's name in punishing the profaners of it.

Question: Why will not the Lord our God suffer them to escape his righteous judgment?

Answer: Because, if heathens are highly punishable for this crime, as contrary to one of the first dictates of nature's light, Rom. 1:32, much more, among Christians; the manifestation of God's name in Christ being the greatest blessing, John 15:22, their profaning or abusing of it, must be the greatest sin, Amos 3:2.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Which is the Fourth Commandment?

Answer: The Fourth Commandment is, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour 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 maid-servant, 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.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is required in the Fourth Commandment?

Answer: 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 unto himself.

Question: To what about the Worship of God has this command a reference?

Answer: It refers to the special TIME of God's worship.

Question: Is the TIME of God's worship left arbitrary to the will of man?

Answer: No; we are to keep holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his word.

Question: Why should such set times be kept holy, and no other?

Answer: Because God is the sovereign Lord of our time, and has the sole power and authority to direct how it should be improved.

Question: What is meant by the set times mentioned in the answer?

Answer: The stated feasts, and holy convocations for religious worship, instituted under the ceremonial law, which the church of the Jews was obliged to observe during that dispensation, Lev. 23.

Question: Is there any warrant for anniversary, or stated holidays, now, under the New Testament?

Answer: No;:these under the Old, being abrogated by the death and resurrection of Christ, there is neither precept nor example in scripture, for any of the yearly holidays observed by Papists, and others: on the contrary, all such days are condemned, Gal. 4:10; Col. 2:16, 17.

Question: What crimes does the observance of them import?

Answer: The observance of them imports no less than an impeachment of the institutions of God, concerning his worship, as if they were imperfect; and an encroachment upon the liberty wherewith Christ has made his church and people free, Col. 2:20.

Question: What is the special and stated time, which God has expressly, appointed in his word, to be kept holy?

Answer: One whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself.

Question: What is meant by a whole day?

Answer: A whole natural day, consisting of twenty-four hours.

Question: What do you understand by one whole day in seven?

Answer: A seventh part of our weekly time; or one complete day, either, after or before six days' labour.

Question: When should we begin and end this day?

Answer: We should measure it just as we do other days, from midnight to midnight, without alienating any part of it to our own works.

Question: Are not sleeping and eating on the Sabbath day our own works?

Answer: If these refreshments of nature are in moderation, and to the glory of God on the Sabbath, they are not properly our own works, because they are necessary to strengthen our bodies for religious exercises.

Question: What is the significance of the word Sabbath?

Answer: It is a Hebrew word, signifying REST; as it is interpreted, Heb. 4:9 - "There remaineth therefore a REST," (margin, keeping of a Sabbath) "to the people of God."

Question: Is Sunday a proper or fit name for this day?

Answer: Although it cannot charitably be supposed that many who use this term have any knowledge of, or pay the smallest regard to the idolatrous rise of this name, or the names, assigned to the other days of the week; yet it were to be wished, that all Christians would call this holy day by one or other of its scripture designations.

Question: May it not continue to be called Sabbath NOW, as well as under the Old Testament?

Answer: Yes; in regard our Lord himself calls it by this name, Matt 24:20 - "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter neither on the Sabbath day."

Question: But is not our Lord speaking there of the Jewish, not of the Christian Sabbath?

Answer: He evidently means the Christian Sabbath only; for he is speaking of the flight which should happen at the destruction of Jerusalem; which did not take place till about forty years after the Jewish Sabbath was abolished, and the Christian Sabbath had come in its room.

Question: Why is it called a holy Sabbath?

Answer: Because it was consecrated and set apart by God himself, for his own worship and service.

Question: Is there any other day holy beside the Sabbath?

Answer: Other days may be occasionally employed in the worship of God, according to providential calls to it; yet there is no other day, except the Sabbath, morally and perpetually holy.

Question: Is the Sabbath instrumentally holy, or is the time itself of the Sabbath an instrument and means (as the word and sacraments are) of conveying spiritual grace?

Answer: Not at all: for the time of the Sabbath is only a holy SEASON in which God is pleased to bless his people, more ordinarily than at other times, John 20:19-24; still reserving to himself the prerogative of communicating his grace at other times likewise, as he shall see meet, chap. 21:15-18.

Question: Is the Fourth Commandment founded on the light of nature, or upon positive institution?

Answer: It is founded partly on both.

Question: What part of this commandment is it, that is founded entirely on nature's light; or is what they call moral-natural?

Answer: The substance of it; namely, that as God is to be worshipped, so some stated time should be set apart for that end.

Question: What part of it is founded on positive institution: or is what they call moral-positive?

Answer: That one proportion of time should be observed for God's worship and service rather than another; namely, that it should be a seventh, rather than a third, fourth, fifth, or sixth part of our weekly time.

Question: Why do you call this a POSITIVE institution?

Answer: Because the observance of one day in seven, for a Sabbath, flows from the sovereign will of God in appointing it; and could never have been observed, more than any other part of time, merely by the force of nature's light.

Question: Why do you call it MORAL-positive?

Answer: Because, though the law appointing the precise time of the Sabbath be positive, yet the reason of the law (plainly implied in the law itself, namely, that divine wisdom saw it most equal and meet, that man having six, God should have a seventh day to himself) is MORAL.

Question: In what, then, consists the morality of the Fourth Commandment?

Answer: In keeping holy to God any seventh day he shall be pleased to appoint.

Question: What is meant by the SEVENTH day mentioned in the commandment?

Answer: Not only the seventh in order from the creation, but any other seventh part of our weekly time, as God shall determine.

Question: How does this appear from the words of the command itself?

Answer: In the beginning of the commandment, it is not said, Remember the seventh day, (namely, in order from the creation,) but "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy."Just so, in the end of this command, the, words are not, The Lord blessed the seventh day; but, "the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it."

Question: How do you prove the observance of one whole day in seven for a holy Sabbath to the Lord, to be of moral and perpetual obligation?

Answer: From the time of the first institution of the Sabbath; from its being placed in the DECALOGUE, or summary of moral precepts; and from there being nothing originally ceremonial, or typical, in the scope or substance of it.

Question: When was the Sabbath, first instituted?

Answer: The will of God, that some stated time should be set apart for his worship was written with the rest of the commandments, upon man's heart at his first creation; and God's resting from all his works on the first seventh day; his blessing and sanctifying it, Gen. 2:1-3, were sufficient evidences of his will to mankind, that they should observe every seventh day thereafter, till God should be pleased to alter it.

Question: How is the morality of the Sabbath evinced from the FIRST INSTITUTION of it?

Answer: Being instituted while Adam was in innocency, and consequently before all types and ceremonies respecting an atonement for sin, and being appointed him upon a moral ground, without any particular reference to an innocent state more than any other, it must therefore be of perpetual obligation.

Question: What was the moral, ground upon which the Sabbath was appointed to Adam?

Answer: It was this, that infinite wisdom saw it meet, for God's glory, and needful for man's good, that man have one day in the week for more immediate and special converse with God.

Question: What need was there for Adam in innocence, being perfectly holy, to have one day set apart from the others, for more immediate converse with God?

Answer: That in this respect he might be like God, who set him an example of holy working six days, and of a holy resting on the seventh.

Question: Could Adam's mind be equally intent upon the immediate worship of God, when about his ordinary employment in dressing the garden, as on a day set apart for that purpose?

Answer: No; for though there could be no interruption of his happiness and fellowship with God, when dressing the garden, as he was a perfect creature; yet being at the same time a finite creature, his mind, while he was about that employment, could not be so intent upon the immediate worship of God, as it would be on a day set apart for that purpose; therefore it was fit he should have such a day, that he might thus have an uninterrupted freedom in the immediate contemplation and enjoyment of his Maker, without any avocation from worldly things.

Question: What may be inferred from this, in favour of the morality of the Sabbath?

Answer: That if Adam in innocence needed a Sabbath, for the more immediate service and solemn worship of God, much more do we, who are sinful creatures, and so immersed in worldly cares, need such a day.

Question: Did the religious observance of the Sabbath take place immediately after the creation, or not till the publishing of the law at Mount Sinai?

Answer: It took place at, and from the first seventh day after the creation for God's blessing and sanctifying of the Sabbath is related as a thing actually done at that time, and not as a thing to be done upwards of two thousand years afterwards, Gen. 2:3.

Question: How can the observance of the Sabbath be said to have taken place immediately after the creation, when the scripture is wholly silent about the observance of it till the time of Moses?

Answer: It might as well be argued, that the Sabbath was not observed after Moses' time, during the government of the Judges (which, according to Acts 13:20, was "about the space of four hundred and fifty years"), there being no mention of the church observing a Sabbath during the whole of that long period: and yet it cannot be supposed, that such godly men as the Judges were, would suffer the observance of the Sabbath to go into entire disuse.

Question: Is there any evidence from scripture, that the Israelites knew the observance of the Sabbath to be a moral duty, before the publication of the law, from Mount Sinai?

Answer: Yes; for when the manna was first given them, before they came to Mount Sinai, Moses speaks of the Sabbath, as a day well known to them, Ex. 16:23 - "Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord."

Question: How may the morality of the Sabbath be demonstrated from its SITUATION in the decalogue, or Ten Commandments?

Answer: It is placed in the midst of moral precepts, and must therefore be of the same nature and kind with them. It has the same dignity and honour put upon it, that the other nine commandments have; for it was, with them, proclaimed by the mouth of God, in the hearing of all Israel; twice written upon tables of stone, by the finger of God; and with them lodged within the ark: none of which privileges were conferred upon the ceremonial law: and, consequently, the Fourth Commandment must be of the same perpetual obligation as the other moral precepts, James 2:10.

Question: Was there any thing TYPICAL of Christ in the original institution of the Sabbath?

Answer: It is impossible there could: for Adam, in innocence, being under a covenant of works, had no need of Christ, or the revelation of him by types; no, not to confirm him in that covenant, Gal. 3:12.

Question: What would have been the consequence, if the Sabbath had been originally and essentially typical.

Answer: If so, then it would have been abolished, upon the death of Christ, and there would be no more remembrance of it than of the new moons and jubilees: which is, indeed, what they who argue against the morality of the Sabbath seem much to desire.

Question: Were not the Israelites commanded to keep the Sabbath day in memory of their deliverance out of Egypt, which was typical of our redemption by Christ?

Answer: Yes; their deliverance out of Egypt was annexed, at Mount Sinai, as a superadded ground for the observance of that particular seventh day, which God appointed to be kept immediately after the creation, Deut. 5:15. For which reason, this particular seventh day was abolished at the resurrection of Christ: but still the seventh part of weekly time fixed by God at the beginning, as the substance of this commandment, remained unchangeably moral.

Question: Will it follow that the substance of this commandment is ceremonial, because it is said of Christ, Matt. 12:8, that he is "Lord even of the Sabbath day?"

Answer: By no means: the very contrary will follow; namely, that such a seventh part of weekly time, as is now observed, is moral, because he who is the Lord of the Sabbath, has appointed it to be so; and, consequently, has power to order the work of it for his own service.

Question: Is it any argument against the morality of the Sabbath, that it "was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath"?

Answer: No; but rather an argument for it: the meaning doubtless is that resting on the Sabbath was appointed for man's good, that it might be a means to a further and better end, even the true sanctification of it, in the exercise of the duties of piety and mercy required on the day.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath?

Answer: 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.

Question: When did God appoint the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath?

Answer: From the beginning of the world, Gen. 2:2, 3.

Question: Why is it said to be from the beginning of the world, when it was not done till after man was created on the sixth day?

Answer: Because the world, as to its perfection of parts, did not properly begin till the creation was completely finished; which was not till man was made, who was to "have dominion over all the earth," Gen. 1:26.

Question: How long was this seventh or last day of the week appointed to be the weekly Sabbath?

Answer: To the resurrection of Christ, Matt. 28:1.

Question: Which day of the week did God appoint for the Sabbath ever since that time?

Answer: The first day of the week, Acts 20:7.

Question: For how long time is the first day of the week appointed to be the weekly Sabbath?

Answer: To the end of the world.

Question: How are we sure that it is appointed to continue to the end of the world?

Answer: Because the canon of scripture is concluded, and therefore no new revelations and institutions are to be expected, Rev. 22:18, 19.

Question: Why is the first day of the week called the Christian Sabbath?

Answer: Because it was instituted by CHRIST, and uniformly observed by Christians ever since his resurrection.

Question: Are not all divine institutions observed in virtue of some moral precept?

Answer: Yes; otherwise the law of the Lord would not be perfect, as it is declared to be, Psalm 19:7.

Question: In virtue of what moral precept has the first day of the week been observed by Christians.

Answer: In virtue of the Fourth Commandment; even as the means of worship, instituted under the New Testament, have been observed in virtue of the second.

Question: How can the first day of the week be observed in virtue of the Fourth Commandment, when it is not in it particularly mentioned?

Answer: The morality of the Sabbath does not lie in observing the seventh day in order from the creation; but in observing such a seventh day as is determined and appointed by God; which may be either the first or last of the seven days, as he shall see meet.

Question: Under what name or designation is the Christian Sabbath foretold in the Old Testament?

Answer: Under the name of the EIGHTH DAY, Ezek. 43:27 - "And when these days are expired, it shall be that upon the EIGHTH DAY, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings: and I will accept you, Saith the Lord."

Question: Why called the eighth day?

Answer: Because the first day of the week now, is the eighth in order from the creation.

Question: What is the efficient cause of the change of the Sabbath.

Answer: The sovereign will and pleasure of him who is "Lord of the Sabbath," Mark 2:28.

Question: What is the moving cause of this change.

Answer: The resurrection of Christ from the dead, which was "early on the first day of the week," Mark 16:9.

Question: Why is the day of Christ's resurrection appointed to be the Sabbath?

Answer: Because his resurrection was a demonstrative evidence that he had completely finished the glorious work of redemption, Rom. 1:4; and therefore it was his RESTING DAY, Heb. 4:10 - "He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his."

Question: Why might not the day of Christ's incarnation or the day of his passion, have been consecrated to be our Sabbath day?

Answer: Because they were both of them days of Christ's labour and sorrow, which he had to go through before he came to his rest, Luke 24:26. In his incarnation, and birth, he entered upon his work, Gal. 4:4, 5. In his passion, he was under the sorest part of his labour, even the exquisite and unspeakable agonies of his soul, Matt. 26:38.

Question: Why might not the day of his ascension be made the Sabbath, as well as the day of his resurrection?

Answer: Because on the day of his ascension he entered only into his PLACE of rest, the third heavens; whereas he had entered before into his STATE of rest on the day of his resurrection; and the place is but a circumstance, when compared with the state.

Question: Why did God change his day of rest?

Answer: Because his rest in the work of creation was marred and spoiled by man's sin, Gen. 6:6; whereas his rest in the work of redemption, entered into at the resurrection of Christ, is that in which he will have eternal and unchangeable pleasure, John 17:23. Besides, redemption is a far greater and more excellent work than even that of creation.

Question: How may the change of the Sabbath from the last to the first day of the week be evinced from scripture?

Answer: If our Lord Jesus, after his resurrection, met ordinarily with his disciples on the first day of the week; if, after his ascension, he poured out his Spirit in an extraordinary manner on that day; if, by the example and practice of the apostles and primitive Christians, recorded in the New Testament, the first day of the week was honoured above any other for the public exercises of God's worship; if, by apostolic precept, the observance of this day, rather than any other, was enjoined for Sabbath services; and if this day is peculiarly dignified with the title of the LORD'S DAY - then it must undoubtedly be the Christian Sabbath by divine institution.

Question: How does it appear that our Lord, after his resurrection, met ordinarily with his disciples on the first day of the week?

Answer: From two instances of it; expressly recorded, John 20:19, 26; where it is affirmed, that he met with them on the evening of the same day on which he arose from the dead, being the first day of the week: and that Thomas was not with them when Jesus came, ver. 24. Likewise, on that same day, eight days, he appeared to them again, when they "were within, and Thomas was with them," ver. 26. From whence it would seem, that he met with them ordinarily on that day, during his forty days' abode on the earth, after his resurrection.

Question: How is it evident that Christ, after his ascension, poured out his Spirit in an extraordinary manner on this day?

Answer: From Acts 2:1-5 - "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord, in one place; and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, - and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost," &c.

Question: What was the day of Pentecost?

Answer: It was the fiftieth day after the passover, when the "new meat offering" was brought unto the Lord, Num. 28:26.

Question: How do you prove that this was the first day of the week?

Answer: From Lev. 23:16; where it is said, that the morrow after the seventh Sabbath is the fiftieth day, (or Pentecost). And it is certain that the morrow after the Jewish Sabbath must be the first day of the week.

Question: How does it appear, from the example and practice of the apostles and primitive Christians, that the first day of the week was honoured above any other, for the public exercise of God's worship?

Answer: From Acts 20:7 - "And on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them:" where it is obvious that the disciples met ordinarily upon the first day of the week, to hear the word, and celebrate the sacrament of the supper: for it is not said, the apostle called them, but that they CAME together to break bread; and Paul, on that occasion, preached unto them.

Question: How may it be proved from the context, that the disciples met ordinarily for the public exercises of God's worship, on the first day of the week?

Answer: That they did so may be proved from this, that "Paul abode with them seven days," as is evident from ver. 6, and yet upon none of the seven did they meet for communicating, or breaking of bread, but on the first day of the week only: which plainly says that they held it for the Christian Sabbath, and not the seventh or last day, which is not even mentioned.

Question: But do we not read, Acts 13:14, that Paul preached in a synagogue on the Sabbath day, which certainly behoved to be the Jewish Sabbath or last day of the week?

Answer: He only preached occasionally on the Jewish Sabbath, as the fittest time, when the Jews were assembled together, to dispense gospel truth among them; but did not honour this day as a stated time for public worship.

Question: What apostolic precept is there, for the observance of the first day of the week, rather than any other, for Sabbath services?

Answer: It is in 1 Cor. 16:1, 2 - "Now, concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him."

Question: What is the argument from this text, to prove an apostolic precept, for observing the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath?

Answer: It may run thus: That if collections for the poor are expressly commanded to be made on the first day of the week, it plainly follows, that Christians must meet together on that day, for this and other Sabbath services.

Question: But may not this be a temporary precept, binding for a time, upon the church of Corinth only?

Answer: As the words of the text expressly affirm that it was binding also upon the churches of Galatia, so the apostle directs his epistle not to the church of Corinth only, but to "all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ," chap. 1:2; and consequently it must be binding upon all the churches to the end of the world.

Question: In what place of the New Testament is there mention made of a day dignified with the title of the LORD'S DAY?

Answer: In Rev. 1:10 - "I was in the Spirit," says John, "on the LORD'S DAY."

Question: How may it be proved, that what is here called the Lord's day, is the first day of the week?

Answer: By these two arguments: That no other day of the week but the first can justly be called the Lord's day; and that the first day of the week is so called in virtue of Christ's sanctifying it, above any other day, for his own honour and service.

Question: Why can no other day of the week, but the first, be justly called the Lord's day?

Answer: Because there is no action or work of Christ (save healing on the Sabbath) mentioned or recorded as done upon any one day of the week by another, except that of his resurrection, which is unanimously affirmed by the evangelists, to be on the first day of the week.

Question: How does it appear that the first day of the week is called the Lord's day, in virtue of his sanctifying it for his own honour and service?

Answer: As the seventh day Sabbath was called the Sabbath of the Lord, because instituted by him as God-creator; so the first day of the week is called the Lord's day, because instituted by him as God-redeemer; or, as the sacrament of bread and wine is called the Lord's table, and the Lord's Supper, 1 Cor. 10:21, and 11:20, because it is an ordinance of his institution; so, the first day of the week is called the Lord's day, for the very same reason.

Question: Would the apostles have observed and recommended the first day of the week for the Christian Sabbath, if they had not been particularly instructed in this by Christ himself?

Answer: No, surely: for, after his passion, he spoke of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, Acts 1:3; among which the change of the Sabbath from the last to the first day of the week was none of the least; and it is certain that the apostles delivered nothing to the churches, as a rule of faith or practice, but what they received of the Lord, 1 Cor. 11:23.