The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?

Answer: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.

Question: :ow many public persons, representing mankind before God, do we read of in scripture?

Answer: Of two; the first and the last Adam, 1 Cor. 15:45.

Question: Of what covenant was the first Adam the head?

Answer: Of the covenant of works, Gen. 2:16, 17.

Question: Of what covenant was the last Adam the head?

Answer: Of the covenant of grace and promise, Psalm 89:3, 28.

Question: Whom did the first Adam represent in the covenant of works?

Answer: He represented all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, Rom. 5:12, 14.

Question: Whom did the last Adam represent in the covenant of grace?

Answer: All his spiritual seed given him of the Father, John 17:6.

Question: Is there any similitude between the first and last Adam?

Answer: Yes; the first Adam was the "figure of him that was to come," Rom. 5:14.

Question: In what did that figure, or similitude, consist?

Answer: It consisted chiefly in their being, each of them, a representing head of their respective seed, 1 Cor. 15:22.

Question: In what consists the dissimilarity, or disparity, between these two public persons?

Answer: It is infinitely great beyond all conception: the "first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit: the first man is of the earth, earthy, a mere man; the second man is the Lord from heaven," "Immanuel, God with us," 1 Cor. 15:45, 47; Matt. 1:23. The first Adam, in his best estate, was only a mutable creature; the last Adam, is the unchangeable God, Heb. 13:8.

Question: What relation has the first Adam to all mankind?

Answer: A twofold relation; that of a covenant head, and of a natural root.

Question: How does it appear that he was a covenant head; or, that the covenant of works was made with him, not only for himself, but for his posterity?

Answer: From the imputation of his first sin to his posterity, Rom. 5:12; and the sentence of death passed upon all mankind on that account, ver. 17.

Question: Was it reasonable, that Adam should represent his posterity in the covenant of works?

Answer: Nothing could be more reasonable, seeing he was to be the common parent of all mankind, and was created perfectly holy, with full power to fulfil the condition of the covenant, and thus to entail happiness upon himself and his posterity.

Question: What happiness would Adam have entailed upon himself and his posterity, if he had stood?

Answer: Eternal life would have become due to him and them, by pactional debt.

Question: Would not the title of every one of his posterity to life, in that case, have been founded upon their own perfect and personal obedience?

Answer: No; their title to eternal life would have been founded upon the perfect obedience of their covenant head; and their own personal obedience would have been the fruit of the promise of the covenant.

Question: How does this appear?

Answer: Since Adam's disobedience is imputed to his posterity for their condemnation, Rom. 5:18, it necessarily follows, that his obedience would have been imputed to them for their justification and life.

Question: Why is the first Adam called the natural root of his posterity?

Answer: Because all of them, descending from him by ordinary generation, are as so many branches sprung out of him, as their root and stock.

Question: Did all Adam's natural offspring fall in his first sin?

Answer: Yes; "death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned," Rom. 5:12.

Question: How could Adam's posterity, being then unborn, fall in his first sin?

Answer: Because they were considered as IN HIM, 1 Cor. 15:2 2 - "In Adam all die."

Question: How were they in him when he first sinned?

Answer: They were in him virtually, as a natural root; and representatively, as a covenant head.

Question: Why is it said, all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression?

Answer: That Christ might be excepted, who descended, as to his human body, from Adam; but not by ordinary generation.

Question: What was there extraordinary in the generation of Christ's body?

Answer: It was conceived in the womb of a virgin, by the power of the Highest overshadowing her, Luke 1:35; on which account she is said to be "found with child of the Holy Ghost," Matt. 1:18.

Question: What was the reason of this extraordinary generation?

Answer: That the human nature of Christ might not be stained or tainted with original sin which is conveyed from Adam to his posterity, by the way of ordinary generation; hence, what was born of the virgin, is called "that holy thing," Luke 1:35.

Question: Was ever the human nature of Christ represented in the first Adam as a federal head?

Answer: By no means: Christ's human nature was never in Adam as its representative, but he derived it legally, after Adam ceased to be a public person.

Question: How did he derive it legally?

Answer: In virtue of his being considered as one in law with his spiritual seed, whom he represented as their surety, according to his undertaking from eternity, Proverbs 8:23; and therefore behoved to assume the same nature with them, Heb. 2:11, 14.

Question: Was ever any exempted from Adam's first sin, except Christ?

Answer: No; for all others descended from Adam by ordinary generation, and were represented by him, as their covenant head; and therefore sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression, Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:22.

Question: What may all this teach us?

Answer: That "as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous," Rom. 5:19; and that as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Adam, 1 Cor. 15:49.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?

Answer: The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

Question: Why is man's apostasy from God called the fall?

Answer: Because man is not now where God set him at his creation, but is fallen by his iniquity, Hos. 14:1.

Question: Where did God set man at his creation?

Answer: Upon the high pinnacle of holiness and happiness, Eccl. 7:29.

Question: Where is he now?

Answer: He is fallen into the depths of sin and misery, called in scripture, a "horrible pit," and "miry clay," Psalm 40:2, and "the pit wherein is no water," Zech. 9:11.

Question: Why is man's state, by the fall, called an estate of sin?

Answer: Because he is now under the guilt of sin, Rom. 3:19, which has dominion over him, chap. 6:14.

Question: Why is it called an estate of misery?

Answer: Because, according to the penalty of the law, death and the curse involve him in all manner of misery, Rom. 5:12.

Question: Why is the state of sin put before the state of misery?

Answer: Because there could be no misery, if there were no sin; sin being the procuring cause of all misery, Rom. 6:23.

Question: How came man into this state of sin and misery?

Answer: By the abuse of his free will; hence mankind sinners are called self-destroyers, Hos. 13:9 - "O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself."

Question: How does the Spirit of God, in scripture, express man's state of sin and misery, into which he is fallen?

Answer: By a state of darkness, Eph. 5:8; a state of distance, Eph. 2:13; a state of condemnation and wrath, John 3:18, 36; a state of bondage, or captivity, Isaiah 49:24, 25; and a state of death, both spiritual and legal, Eph. 2:1.

Question: Is man in any capacity to help himself out of this sinful and miserable state?

Answer: No more than a new-born infant, cast out in the open field, which, of all creatures, is the most helpless, Ezek. 16:4, 5.

Question: Has he a desire and will to be helped out of a state of sin and misery, when help is offered?

Answer: No; his nature is become "enmity against God," and the way of salvation proposed in the gospel, Rom. 8:7, Psalm 81:11; and therefore rejects the only help of God's appointment, John 5:40.

Question: What may we learn from this?

Answer: That the whole world being guilty before God, every mouth had been for ever stopped, though he had left all mankind to perish eternally with the fallen angels, with whom they said, a Confederacy, Rom. 3:19; and therefore to admire the infinite love of God, in sending his only begotten Son, to save us from sin, as the only way of being saved from misery, Heb. 2:14, 16.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?

Answer: The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin, together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

Question: What do you understand by original sin?

Answer: The sin we have from our original; that is, when the soul is united to the body, or the human nature completed, Psalm 51:5.

Question: How is original sin usually distinguished?

Answer: Into original sin imputed, and original sin inherent.

Question: What is original sin imputed?

Answer: The guilt of Adam's first sin.

Question: What is original sin inherent?

Answer: The want of original righteousness and the corruption of the whole nature.

Question: What do you understand by the guilt of sin?

Answer: An obligation to punishment on account of sin, Rom, 6:23.

Question: How are all mankind guilty of Adam's first sin?

Answer: By imputation, Rom. 5:19 - "By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners."

Question: Upon what account is Adam's first sin imputed to his posterity?

Answer: On account of the legal union between him and them, he being their legal head and representative, and the covenant made with him, not for himself only, but for his posterity likewise, 1 Cor. 15:22 - "In Adam all die."

Question: Why was Adam's first sin imputed, and none of his after sins?

Answer: Bec:use the covenant being broken by his first sin, his federal headship ceased; for being then legally dead, and his posterity in him and with him, he stood afterwards merely as a single person for himself, and no longer in the capacity of their public representative in that covenant of life, which, by that first sin, brought him and them under the sentence of death, Rom. 5:12, 13.

Question: When Adam ceased to be the federal head, by breaking the covenant of works, did that covenant cease likewise?

Answer: No; that covenant, though broken, stands binding, so as the obligation to pay the debt of obedience to the precept, and satisfaction now to its penalty, remains upon every one of his posterity, while in a natural state, under the law as a covenant of works, Gal. 3:10.

Question: How does it appear from scripture, that all Adam's posterity had his first sin imputed to them?

Answer: From their being said to be "made sinners, by one man's disobedience," Rom. 5:19; and to have the judgment, or sentence, by one to condemnation, ver. 16; and surely there can be no condemnation, passed by a righteous judge, where there is no crime, Rom. 4:15.

Question: Is it not said, Ezek. 18:20, "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father?"

Answer: The prophet is there speaking of particular private parents, not of Adam as a federal head; he is speaking of adult children, who were preserved from some grosser violations of the law, of which their parents were guilty, and who did not imitate them; not of the posterity of Adam in general, as exempting them from his first sin, with which the scriptures quoted in answer to the former question, plainly prove them chargeable.

Question: What is meant by the want of original righteousness?

Answer: The want of that rectitude and purity of nature, which Adam had at his creation; consisting in a perfect conformity of all the powers and faculties of his soul to the holy nature of God, and to the law which was written on his heart, Eccl. 7:29.

Question: How does it appear that all mankind are now destitute of this original righteousness?

Answer: From the express testimony of God, that among all Adam's race, there is none righteous, no, not one; and that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, Rom. 3:10-12, 20.

Question: What follows upon this want of original righteousness?

Answer: That all mankind are naked before God; and that their fig-leaf coverings will stand them in no stead before his omniscient eye, nor answer the demands of his holy law, Rev. 3:17; Isaiah 64:6.

Question: Does the law of God demand original righteousness from mankind sinners, though they now want it?

Answer: Yes; their want of it can never derogate from the right of the law to demand it, because God endowed man with this part of his image, at his creation; and his want of it was owing to his own voluntary apostasy from God.

Question: Under what penalty does the law demand this original righteousness?

Answer: Under the penalty of death and the curse, Rom. 6:23; Gal. 3:10.

Question: Is there no help for a sinner in this deplorable state?

Answer: None in heaven or in earth, but in Christ, the last Adam, the Lord our righteousness, Jer. 23:6, on whom our help is completely laid, Psalm 89:19.

Question: Does original sin consist in a mere privation, or want of righteousness?

Answer: It consists also in the corruption of the whole nature, Titus 1:15; Rom. 3:10- 19.

Question: What is meant by the corruption of the whole nature?

Answer: The universal depravation both of soul and body, in all the faculties of the one, and members of the other, Isaiah 1:5, 6.

Question: How does this corruption of the whole nature appear?

Answer: In an utter impotency, and bitter enmity to what is spiritually good, Rom. 8:7, and, in the strongest inclination and bias to what is evil, and to that only and continually, Gen. 6:5.

Question: How may we be certain that our whole nature is corrupted?

Answer: From the word of God, and from experience and observation.

Question: How does the word of God assure us of the universal corruption of our nature?

Answer: It tells us, that the image after which man was at first made, and the image after which he is now begotten, are quite opposite the one to the other. Adam was at first made "in the likeness of God," but having fallen, he "begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image," Gen. 5:1, 3. The scripture assures us, that none "can bring a clean thing out of an unclean," Job 14:4; that we are shapen in iniquity, and that in sin did our mothers conceive us, Psalm 51:5; that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," John 3:6; and that we are by "nature children of wrath," Eph. 2:3.

Question: How may we know the corruption of our nature by the experience and observation of things without us?

Answer: The flood of miseries which overflow the world; the manifold gross outbreakings of sin in it; and the necessity of human laws, fenced with penalties, are clear outward evidences of the corruption of our nature.

Question: What inward evidences may every one of us experience within ourselves, of the corruption of our nature?

Answer: Each of us may sadly experience a natural disposition to hearken to the instruction that causes us to err, Proverbs 19:27; a caring for the concerns of the body more than those of the soul, Matt. 16:26; a discontentment with some one thing or other in our lot in the present world, 2 Kings 6:33; an aversion from being debtors to free grace, and an inclination to rest upon something in ourselves as the ground of our hope, Rom. 10:3; every one of which may be an evidence to ourselves, that our nature is wholly corrupted.

Question: How is the corruption of nature propagated since the fall?

Answer: By natural generation, Job 15:14 - "What is man that he should be clean? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?"

Question: How can this corruption be propagated to the soul, seeing it is created immediately by God, and not generated with the body?

Answer: As the creating and infusing of the soul are precisely at one and the same time, so the very moment the soul is united to the body, we become children of fallen Adam, not only as our natural, but as our federal head, Rom. 5:19.

Question: What is the consequence of becoming the children of fallen Adam, as our federal head?

Answer: The consequence is, that, the moment we are so, his first sin is imputed to us, and we thus become legally and spiritually dead, under the curse; not only wanting original righteousness, but having our whole nature corrupted and depraved, 1 Cor. 15:22 - "In Adam all die."

Question: Since, then, the soul of every one is a part of that person, which is cursed in Adam, does God, in the creating it, infuse any sin or impurity into it?

Answer: By no means; but only, as a righteous judge, in creating the soul, he denies or withholds that original righteousness which it once had in Adam; and this he does as a just punishment of Adam's first sin.

Question: What follows upon God's withholding original righteousness from the soul, in its creation?

Answer: The soul being united to the body, in the moment of its creation, the universal corruption of the whole man follows as naturally upon that union, as darkness follows upon the setting of the sun.

Question: Can it follow, then, from this doctrine, that God is the author of our sin?

Answer: So far from it, that, on the contrary, it evidently follows, that our state, both of sin and misery, is the bitter fruit of our own voluntary apostasy in the first Adam, as our covenant head, having sinned in him, and fallen with him in his first transgression.

Question: Does the holiness of the parents prevent the propagation of original corruption to their children?

Answer: By no means: the saints are holy but in part, and that by grace, not by nature: wherefore, as after the purest grain is sown, we reap corn with the chaff; so the holiest parents beget unholy children, and cannot communicate their grace to them, as they do their nature, Gen. 5:3.

Question: Has this poison of corruption run through the whole man?

Answer: Yes; "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint; from the sole of the foot to the head, there is no soundness in it," &c. Isaiah 1:5, 6.

Question: How is the understanding corrupted?

Answer: With darkness and blindness, so that we cannot know and receive the things of the Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 2:14.

Question: How is the will corrupted?

Answer: With enmity and rebellion against God; with opposition to his law and gospel; with aversion from the chief good; and inclination to all evil, Rom. 8:7.

Question: How are the affections corrupted?

Answer: By being displaced and disordered, set upon trifling vanities and sinful pleasures, instead of God the supreme good, Psalm 4:2, 6. Isaiah 55:2.

Question: How is the conscience corrupted?

Answer: By not discharging its office faithfully according to the law, in accusing or excusing, but many times calling "evil good, and good evil," &c. Isaiah 5:20.

Question: How is the memory corrupted?

Answer: It is like the riddle, or sieve, that lets through the pure grain and keeps the refuse; it retains what is vain and unprofitable, and forgets what is spiritual and truly advantageous, Psalm 106:13, 21.

Question: How is the body corrupted?

Answer: All the members of it are become instruments, or weapons of "unrighteousness unto sin," Rom. 6:13.

Question: Is original sin of its own nature damning?

Answer: Beyond all doubt it is; because it is in a state of sin and spiritual uncleanness we are born, Psalm 51:5. And "there shall in no wise enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, any thing that defileth," Rev. 21:27. The blood of Christ is necessary to cleanse from it, as well as from actual sin; for Christ is "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world," both original and actual, John 1:29.

Question: How may we know the being of original sin, antecedently to the commission of any actual transgression?

Answer: From the severe troubles and distresses to which infants are liable, and from death passing upon them before they are capable of sinning, after the similitude of Adam's transgression; that is, of committing actual sin, Rom. 5:14.

Question: What do you understand by actual transgression or sin?

Answer: Every deviation from the law of God in our actions, whether internal or external.

Question: How may actual sin be distinguished from original?

Answer: As the act is distinguished from the habit; or a fault of the person, from a fault of the nature.

Question: Is omission of what is required an actual sin, as well as the commission of what is forbidden?

Answer: Yes; because all omissions are either accompanied with some act of the will consenting, directly or indirectly, to it; or they flow from some antecedent act, which is either the cause, occasion, or impediment, of the duty omitted; as excess in eating and drinking is frequently the cause or occasion of omitting the public or private duties of God's worship.

Question: From whence do all actual transgressions flow?

Answer: They all proceed from original sin, or the corruption of nature, as impure streams from a corrupt fountain, Eph. 2:3; James 3:11.

Question: What may we learn from the doctrine of original sin?

Answer: That it is no wonder the grave opens its devouring mouth for us, as soon as we come into the world, seeing we are all, in a spiritual sense, dead born, Eph. 2:1; that as every thing acts agreeably to its own nature, so corrupt man acts corruptly, Matt. 7:17, 18; and, consequently, we may learn the necessity of regeneration, and ingraftment in the second Adam, without which it is impossible we can enter into the kingdom of heaven, John 3:3.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?

Answer: All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

Question: What are the branches of man's misery expressed in this answer, as the effects of the fall?

Answer: They are these three: the happiness man has lost; the evil he lies presently under; and the future misery and punishment to which he is liable.

Question: Is the loss which man has sustained by the fall, great and grievous?

Answer: Yes; it is so great, that we have all reason to cry out with the church, "Wo unto us that we have sinned!" Lam. 5:16. "How is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold changed!" chap. 4:1.

Question: What is that great loss which man has sustained by the fall?

Answer: He has lost all that good which was promised him in the covenant of works, upon condition of his perfect obedience.

Question: What was the good promised?

Answer: Life in its fullest latitude and extent; or all the happiness man was capable of, either in this world, or that which is to come.

Question: What was man's chief happiness in that state in which he was created?

Answer: His chief happiness lay in his enjoyment of fellowship and communion with God.

Question: In what did that fellowship and communion consist?

Answer: In :he most agreeable intimacy and familiarity that man had with God, in the uninterrupted enjoyment of his gracious presence.

Question: How does it appear that man has lost this by the fall?

Answer: It appears from his being "without God in the world," Eph. 2:12; and "alienated from the life of God," chap. 4:18.

Question: Did this breach of fellowship between God and man immediately follow upon the first sin?

Answer: Yes; for we find that our first parents immediately essayed to fly from the presence of God, and to hide themselves from him among the trees of the garden, Gen. 3:8.

Question: Upon what footing had man fellowship with God before the fall?

Answer: Upon a law footing, namely, his continuing in his integrity of nature, and yielding perfect obedience to the holy law.

Question: Is that door of access to God, and fellowship with him, closed and shut against all mankind?

Answer: Yes; because "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," Rom. 3:23; the broken law, and its curse, stand as an insuperable bar in our way to God and glory, upon the footing of the first covenant, Gal. 3:10.

Question: What is the second branch of man's misery?

Answer: His being under the wrath and curse of God.

Question: What is it to be under the wrath of God?

Answer: It is to be under his anger, in the sad and dismal effects of it, whether in a more visible, or more secret way, Psalm 11:6, and 50.21.

Question: What is it to be under his curse?

Answer: It is to be under the sentence of his law, denouncing all evil upon the transgressor, Gal. 3:10.

Question: How does it appear that man is now under the wrath and curse of God?

Answer: From those passages of scripture, where God is said to be "angry with the wicked every day," Psalm 7:11; that his "wrath is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men," Rom. 1:18; that "he who believes not is condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him," John 3:18, 36.

Question: Is the wrath of an infinite God tolerable by a finite creature?

Answer: Oh! No; "Who shall dwell with devouring fire! who shall dwell with everlasting burnings!" Isaiah 33:14. "Who knows the power of his anger!" Psalm 90:11. It makes the whole creation groan, Rom. 8:22; and when it lighted upon the Son of God for our iniquities, it crushed his human body down to the dust of death, and melted his soul like wax in the midst of his bowels, Psalm 22:14, 15.

Question: Can any man hide himself from the presence of an angry God?

Answer: No; there is no flying from the presence of that God who is every where, Psalm 139:7-13.

Question: What is the third branch of man's misery by the fall?

Answer: He is liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever.

Question: What are these miseries which man is liable to in this life?

Answer: They are such as extend both to his soul and body.

Question: What are these soul miseries and maladies that sin has entailed upon us?

Answer: The precious soul is quite defaced, deformed, and debased, from its original beauty and excellency, being stricken with "blindness of mind, Eph. 4:18; hardness of heart, Rom. 2:5; a reprobate sense, Rom. 1:28; strong delusions, 2 Thess. 2:11; horror of conscience, Isaiah 33:14; vile affections, Rom. 1:26;"26 and the thralldom and bondage of Satan, Eph. 2:2.

Question: Is there no medicine against these soul maladies and miseries?

Answer: Yes; there is "balm in Gilead, and a Physician there," Jer. 8:22; who is "able to save to the uttermost," Heb. 7:25; and who says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," Isaiah 45:22.

Question: What are those external miseries we are liable to in this life?

Answer: They are either more public, such as sword, famine, pestilence, desolation by fire and water, captivity, persecution, and the like, Ezek. 5:17; or more private and personal, such as diseases of all sorts, reproach and calumny, toil and labour, poverty, and crosses of all kinds, Deut. 28:16, 17, &c.

Question: Do not all these external miseries come alike to all, both godly and wicked?

Answer: Yes, as to the external conduct of providence, Eccl. 9:2; but to the godly they are only fatherly chastisements, and work together for their good, Rom. 8:28; whereas to the wicked, they come in a way of vindictive anger, and are but the beginnings of sorrows, unless the goodness of God do lead them to repentance, Rom. 2:5.

Question: Has sin any other retinue attending it than what has been already mentioned?

Answer: Yes; for like the pale horse, Rev. 6:8, it has death, and then hell following after.

Question: What death is here intended?

Answer: A corporeal or bodily death, which lies in the separation of soul and body.

Question: Is sin the cause of death?

Answer: It is both the cause of death, Rom. 5:12, and the sting of it, 1 Cor. 15:55, 56.

Question: Is the connexion between sin and death inseparable?

Answer: Yes; they are inseparable by the appointment of the righteous God, who has said, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," Ezek. 18:4; and, "It is appointed unto men once to die," Heb. 9:27.

Question: How did this appointment of heaven hold, in the case of Enoch and Elijah?

Answer: They underwent what was equivalent to death in their translation to heaven; it fared with them as it will with the saints that shall be alive at Christ's second coming, concerning whom it is said, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," 1 Cor. 15:51.

Question: What is the difference between the death of believers and the death of the wicked?

Answer: To the wicked it comes as standing under a covenant of works, but to believers as standing under a covenant of grace; to the one, in the hand of Christ, saying, "Death is yours;" to the other in the hand of Satan, as God's executioner, having the power of death: to the one without, but to the other as armed with a fearful sting: to the one as an everlasting and irreparable loss; to the other as eternal and unspeakable gain: to the one as a conqueror, dragging the sinner to the prison of hell; to the other as a vanquished enemy, paving the way to heaven and glory.

Question: What will be the believer's language when he views death approaching in this light?

Answer: Faith will cry out, "O death! where is thy sting?" 1 Cor. 15:55.

Question: What will be the language of the wicked when they see death approaching as the king of terrors?

Answer: It will be like that of Ahab to Elijah, 1 Kings 21:20, - "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy!"

Question: What misery has sin made us liable to after death?

Answer: To the pains of hell for ever.

Question: What do you understand by hell?

Answer: A state and place of torment, prepared for the devil and his angels, Matt. 25:41.

Question: If it was prepared for the devil and his angels, what concern have any of mankind with it?

Answer: Though it was prepared for the devil and his angels, yet the wicked of the world shall be turned into it also, and all the nations that forget God, Psalm 9:17.

Question: Why must the wicked and ungodly world be turned into hell, with the devil and his angels?

Answer: Because they served and obeyed the devil as their god, and were in a confederacy with him against the living and true God, Isaiah 28:15; Eph. 2:2.

Question: How many fold are the punishments of the damned in hell?

Answer: Twofold; the punishment of loss, and the punishment of sense.

Question: What loss shall the damned in hell sustain?

Answer: They shall lose God, the chief good, Matt. 25:41; they shall lose the vision and fruition of the glorious Immanuel, Matt. 7:23; they shall lose their own souls, Matt. 16:26, and all the pleasures of sin and sense, in which they placed their happiness in this world, Luke 16:25.

Question: What will be the punishment of sense which the wicked shall suffer in hell?

Answer: It is represented in scripture by their being shut up in outer darkness, Matt. 8:12; in a lake of fire and brimstone, Rev. 20:10, where the smoke of their torment shall ascend up for ever and ever, Rev. 14:11; which is called the second death, chap. 21:8, the worm that never dies, and the fire that shall never be quenched, Mark 9:44.

Question: How do you prove, from scripture, that the pains of hell shall be for ever, or everlasting?

Answer: The wicked are said to be "cast into everlasting fire," Matt. 18:8; to "go away into everlasting punishment," Matt. 25:46; to be "punished with everlasting destruction," 2 Thess. 1:9; to have the "mist of darkness" reserved for them for ever, 2 Pet. 2:17; to be "tormented day and night, for ever and ever," Rev. 20:10; and by several other expressions of the like nature.

Question: Is eternity of punishment essential to the threatening, or penal sanction of the law?

Answer: No; else there never had been a satisfaction for sin.

Question: Whence then arises the eternity of punishment?

Answer: From the nature of the creature, which being finite, can never be capable of enduring the uttermost of infinite wrath; Psalm 90:11 - "Who knoweth the power of thine anger?"

Question: How can it consist with the justice of God, to inflict eternal punishment for temporal sinning?

Answer: Because sin, objectively considered, is an infinite evil, as being committed against an infinitely holy God; and therefore nothing can expiate it, but a satisfaction of infinite worth, which mere creatures can never yield, 1 Pet. 1:18, 19.

Question: What sort of sinners shall undergo the most dreadful degree of punishment in hell?

Answer: The despisers of Christ and the gospel: it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, for Tyre and Sidon, who never heard of Christ, than for Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and other cities, nations, and persons, to whom Christ, and his great salvation, have been offered, and yet rejected through unbelief, Matt. 11:21-25; Heb. 2:3.

Question: What should all this teach us?

Answer: That however sweet sin be in the mouth, it will be bitter in the belly, even lamentation, mourning, and wo, in the latter end, Ezek. 2:10; it should teach us to fly from the wrath to come, to the horns of the New Testament altar, the satisfaction and intercession of Christ; there being no name by which we can be saved from sin and wrath, except the name of Jesus only, Acts 4:12.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

Answer: God having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.

Question: What became of the angels that fell, by their sinning against God?

Answer: God left them without remedy, in that state of sin and misery into which they plunged themselves; and hath "delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment," 2 Pet. 2:4.

Question: When man joined with the devil in a conspiracy against God, did God treat him the same way?

Answer: No; he had a purpose of grace and love towards some of Adam's race; and therefore, immediately after the fall, declares his fixed intention of assuming the human nature, in the person of the Son, that he might redeem lost man, and bruise the head of the old serpent, that had ruined him, Gen. 3:15.

Question: When did God's purpose of grace and love, to wards any of Adam's family, commence or begin?

Answer: It never had a beginning; for he loved them from everlasting, Jer. 31:3; Eph. 1:4.

Question: Can any reason be given why God has elected fallen man, rather than fallen angels, and why he elected some of Adam's race, and not others of them?

Answer: It is dangerous to search into the reasons of holy and adorable sovereignty; it becomes us to acquiesce in this, that God did it out of his mere good pleasure, Eph. 1:5; Matt. 11:26.

Question: To what happiness did God ordain his elect from among men?

Answer: He ordained them to everlasting life, Acts 13:48 - "As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed."

Question: Did God make choice of any to eternal life, because of their foreseen faith and holiness?

Answer: No; because faith and holiness are the fruits and effects, and therefore can never be the cause of election, Eph. 1:4-6.

Question: Is Christ the cause of election?

Answer: No; the free love of God sent Christ to redeem the elect, and therefore he could not be the cause of electing love, John 3:16.

Question: Did not Christ procure God's love to an elect world?

Answer: No; the Father himself loved them, John 16:27.

Question: If Christ is not the cause of election, why are the elect said to be chosen in him?

Answer: Because in one and the same decree of election, the love of God lighted both upon the head, and upon the members, considered as in him, Eph. 1:4.

Question: By whom is it that God brings any of Adam's race to eternal life?

Answer: By a Redeemer, Rom. 11:26.

Question: How are sinners of mankind to be viewed in relation to a Redeemer?

Answer: As lawful captives, Isaiah 49:24.

Question: What is it to redeem the lawful captives?

Answer: It is to pay down a sufficient ransom to offended justice for their deliverance, and to rescue them by mere force and power out of the hands of Satan, Isaiah 49:25.

Question: What ransom is laid down to offended justice for their deliverance?

Answer: Nothing less than "the precious blood of Christ," or his obedience unto death, 1 Pet. 1:19.

Question: What right and title has the Redeemer, to take the captives by force out of the hands of Satan?

Answer: The demands of law and justice being satisfied, he has a lawful right, both by donation and purchase, to rescue his captives out of the hands of Satan by his divine power, John 17:2.

Question: Why did the Redeemer, in dealing with justice, lay down a price; but in dealing with Satan, act by way of power?

Answer: Because God, being the creditor, had a right to demand a price, but Satan being only the jailer, has no law right to detain the prisoner, after the creditor is satisfied; and yet, refusing to quit hold of his captives, the Redeemer's power must be put forth for their deliverance, Luke 11:22.

Question: Was there a covenant transaction entered into for their deliverance, by price and power?

Answer: Yes; Psalm 89:3 - "I have made a covenant with my Chosen."

Question: How is that covenant called?

Answer: A covenant of grace.

Question: Why called a covenant of grace?

Answer: Because it is a covenant of eternal life and salvation to sinners, to be given them in a way of free grace and mercy, Jer. 31:33, 34.

Question: Are not heaven and earth both concerned in this covenant?

Answer: Yes; because it is a covenant of peace between them, Isaiah 54:9, 10.

Question: Who is the party contractor on Heaven's side?

Answer: It is God himself, the proposer of the covenant, and the offended party, Psalm 89:3.

Question: Whether is it God essentially considered, or as in the person of the Father, that is the party-contractor on Heaven's side?

Answer: God essentially considered is the party-contractor on Heaven's side, in the person of the Father.

Question: Who is the party-contractor on man's side?

Answer: It is Christ, the chosen of God, as he is called, Luke 23:35.

Question: In what does this covenant consist?

Answer: In the mutual agreement between God and his chosen One.

Question: When was this covenant made?

Answer: From all eternity, or before the world began, Titus 1:2.

Question: "With whom was the covenant of grace made?"

Answer: "With Christ as the second or last Adam; and in him with all the elect as his seed, Gal. 3:16."27

Question: Why is Christ called the last Adam? 1 Cor. 15:45?

Answer: Because as the first Adam was the federal head of all his natural offspring, in the covenant of works, so Christ is the last Adam, because he was the federal head of his spiritual seed in the covenant of grace; the last covenant that ever will be made about man's eternal happiness.

Question: How was the covenant of grace made with Christ as the second or last Adam?

Answer: The Father purposed that a remnant of lost mankind should be the members of Christ's body, and gave them to him for that end; and Christ, standing as second Adam, accepted the gift, John 17:6; as also, the Father proposed to him, as the last Adam, the covenant of grace in the full tenor, condition, and promises of it, to which he consented; and thus the covenant of rich grace was concluded between them; Zech. 6:13 - "The counsel of peace shall be between them both."

Question: How are we to conceive of the covenant of grace, in respect of order and being?

Answer: Although the covenant of grace was the second covenant, in respect of order and manifestation to the world, yet it was first in respect of being, because it was actually made with Christ from eternity, Titus 1:2.

Question: How do you prove from scripture, that there was such a covenant made with Christ?

Answer: From Isaiah 42:6 - "I will give thee for a covenant of the people;" and Heb. 8:6, where Christ is called "the Mediator of a better covenant;" and from Heb. 13:20, where we read of "the blood of the everlasting covenant."

Question: What was the ancient usage in making of covenants?

Answer: It was to cut a beast in twain, and to pass between the parts of it, Jer. 34:18.

Question: What does this usage import, as applied to God's making a covenant with his Chosen?

Answer: It imports, that it was a "covenant by sacrifice," Psalm 50:5.

Question: What was the sacrifice in this covenant?

Answer: It was Christ himself, the party contractor on man's side, Heb. 9:26.

Question: What was the sword that cut this sacrifice asunder?

Answer: It was divine justice, Zech. 13:7.

Question: How is Christ the party contractor on man's side, to be considered in this covenant?

Answer: He is to be considered as the head and representative of his spiritual seed, Isaiah 59:21.

Question: How does it appear that Christ is the head and representative of his spiritual seed in this covenant?

Answer: From the making of the promises originally to him and from his being the surety of the covenant.

Question: When were the promises made to him?

Answer: Before the world began; which, in scripture style, is the same as from eternity, Titus 1:2 - "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." And there was none before the world began, to whom the promise of eternal life could be made personally, but to Christ as the head and representative of his seed.

Question: How do you prove, from scripture, that Christ was surety for his spiritual seed in this covenant?

Answer: From Heb. 7:22 - "By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament."

Question: In what sense was he surety for them?

Answer: He was their surety in a way of satisfaction for all their debt of obedience and punishment, by taking it wholly on himself, as for persons utterly insolvent.

Question: How is Christ's being the surety of the covenant, an evidence of its being made with him as the representative of his seed?

Answer: Because by his being surety for them, he became one with them in the eye of the law: hence is Christ said, not only to be made sin for us, but we are said to be "made the righteousness of God in him," 2 Cor. 5:21.

Question: Why was the covenant of grace made with Christ as the head and representative of his spiritual seed?

Answer: That the love of God, and the covenant of grace, might be of the same eternal date; for, as the love of God is an everlasting love, Jer. 31:3, so the covenant of grace is an everlasting covenant, Heb. 13:20.

Question: Who is the party represented and contracted for in the covenant of grace?

Answer: The elect of mankind.

Question: What do you understand by the elect of mankind?

Answer: A certain number of mankind chosen, from eternity, to everlasting life.

Question: How does it appear, that the elect were the party represented and contracted for?

Answer: Because the party with whom the covenant was made is called God's CHOSEN, Psalm 89:3 - "I have made a covenant with my Chosen;" that is, with Christ, as contracting for all the chosen, or elect of God.

Question: Why are the elect called Christ's seed? Psalm 89:4?

Answer: Because he begets them with the word of truth, James 1:18; and they are born again to him in their regeneration, John 3:3.

Question: Why is Christ said to take on him the seed of Abraham, Heb. 2:16, and not rather the seed of Adam?

Answer: To show that it was the elect only, whom he represented; in as much as the seed of Abraham are but a part of Adam's seed, which includes all mankind.

Question: How are the elect of God to be considered in this covenant and federal representation?

Answer: They are to be considered as lost sinners, and as utterly unable to help themselves in whole or in part, Hos. 13:9; and yet withal as given to Christ by the Father, as objects of eternal, sovereign, and free love, John 17:6, 9.

Question: How does the freedom of this electing love appear?

Answer: In pitching upon objects altogether unlovely, Ezek. 16:6.

Question: How does the sovereignty of it appear?

Answer: In pitching on some such unlovely objects, and passing by others in the same condition, Rom. 9:21.

Question: Was it any disparagement to the federal representation of the second Adam, that he represented only some of mankind, whereas the first Adam represented the whole of his race?

Answer: No; because it was unspeakably more for Christ to undertake and contract for one sinner, than for Adam to contract for a whole righteous world.

Question: Is what is called by some divines, the covenant of redemption, a distinct covenant from the covenant of grace?

Answer: Although Christ alone engaged from eternity to pay the price of our redemption, on which account the covenant is wholly of free grace to us; yet there is no warrant from scripture, to suppose a covenant of redemption distinct from the covenant of grace.

Question: How many covenants are there for life and happiness to man in scripture reckoning?

Answer: They are but two in number: of which the covenant of works is one, and consequently the covenant of grace must be the other.

Question: How do you prove from scripture, that there are only two covenants, of which the covenant of works is one?

Answer: From Gal. 4:24, where it is said - "These are the two covenants, the one from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage."

Question: How does it appear that the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, is the covenant of works?

Answer: Because the generating of bond children, excluded from the inheritance, Gal. 4:30, is a distinguishing character of the covenant of works, which cannot agree to the covenant of grace under any dispensation of it.

Question: Was then the covenant at Mount Sinai a covenant of works?

Answer: The covenant of works was only repeated at Mount Sinai, together with the covenant of grace; to show to all Israel, that the clearing of both the principal and penalty of the covenant of works was laid on Christ, as the condition of the covenant of grace.

Question: Does the scripture make mention of the blood of any more than one covenant?

Answer: The scripture makes mention of the blood of the Covenant, in the singular number four several times, namely, Ex. 24:8; Zech. 9:11; Heb. 10:29 and 13:20; but nowhere speaks of the blood of the covenants, in the plural number.

Question: What is the native consequence of the scripture's mentioning the blood of the covenant, in the singular number, and not the blood of the covenants in the plural number?

Answer: The consequence is, that the covenant, the blood of which the scripture mentions, and upon which our salvation depends, is but ONE covenant, and not TWO.

Question: What is the received doctrine in our standards upon this head?

Answer: Our standards make no distinction between a covenant of redemption, and a covenant of grace.28

Question: Is the covenant of grace conditional, or absolutely free?

Answer: It was strictly conditional to the Surety, Isaiah 49:3, but is absolutely free to the sinner, Jer. 31:33, 34.

Question: What is the proper condition of the covenant of grace?

Answer: It is Christ, as representative and surety, his fulfilling all righteousness, owing to God by his spiritual seed, in virtue of the broken covenant of works, Matt. 3:15.

Question: In what consists that righteousness which Christ had to fulfil, as the condition of the covenant of grace?

Answer: In the holiness of his human nature, perfect conformity to the law in his life, and satisfaction for sin in his death.

Question: Why was holiness of nature necessary as a conditionary article of the covenant?

Answer: Because nothing being so opposite to God as an unholy nature, and yet the elect having their natures wholly corrupted, it was therefore necessary, that Christ, their representative, should have a human nature perfectly pure and holy, fully answering for them the holiness and perfection of nature required by the law, Heb. 7:26.

Question: Why was righteousness of life, or perfect conformity to the law, necessary as a conditionary article of the covenant?

Answer: Because Adam, as a public head, having failed in his obedience, there could be no entering into life for him, or any of his natural seed, without keeping the commandments by the Surety, Matt. 19:17 - "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."

Question: Has Christ fulfilled this part of the condition?

Answer: Yes; for, "he became obedient unto death," Phil. 2:8.

Question: Was satisfaction for sin any part of the condition of Adam's covenant?

Answer: No; holiness of nature, and righteousness of life, were the sole condition of it.

Question: How then came satisfaction for sin to be a conditionary article in the new covenant?

Answer: Because the covenant of works being broken, and the penalty of it incurred, the holiness, justice, and veracity of God insisted, that without shedding of blood, there should be no remission, Heb. 9:22.

Question: What was the conditionary article of the covenant relative to satisfaction for sin?

Answer: That all the sins of an elect world, being summed up as so many branches of the law, or covenant of works, Christ, as a public person, should satisfy publicly and completely for them all, Isaiah 53:5, 6.

Question: How was he to make this satisfaction?

Answer: By suffering, Luke 24:26 - "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things?"

Question: What was it that he had to suffer?

Answer: The very same punishment the elect would have undergone, for the breach of the covenant of works; that is, death, in its fullest latitude and extent, Gen. 2:17, compared with 2 Cor. 5:14.

Question: What is that death in the fullest latitude and extent which Christ had to endure, in satisfaction for sin?

Answer: It was both the curse, or sentence, of the broken law, binding him over, as the Surety, to suffer all that avenging wrath which sin deserved; and likewise the actual execution of this sentence upon him to the uttermost, for the full satisfaction of justice, Gal. 3:10; Ezek. 18:4.

Question: Has Christ fulfilled this part of the condition?

Answer: Yes; he was "made a curse for us," Gal. 3:13; "and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour," Eph. 5:2.

Question: How does it appear, that this righteousness of Christ is the condition of the covenant of grace?

Answer: Because his fulfilling all righteousness is the only ground of a sinner's right and title to eternal life, Rom. 5:21; and the sole foundation of his plea before God, Phil. 3:8, 9.

Question: Why may not faith, or believing, be the condition of the covenant of grace?

Answer: Because faith is promised in the covenant itself, Zech. 12:10, and therefore cannot be the condition of it.

Question: May not faith be the condition, when the scripture says, that Abraham's faith "was counted unto him for righteousness?" Rom. 4:3?

Answer: It was the object upon which Abraham's faith terminated, namely, Christ and his righteousness, and not his faith itself, or his act of believing, that was counted to him for righteousness.

Question: What place then has faith in the covenants?

Answer: It has the place of an instrument and gift; and is necessary, as such, savingly to interest us in Christ,29 John 1:12; and to determine us to acquiesce in his fulfilling the condition of the covenant for us, Isaiah 45:24.

Question: What may we learn from the conditionary part of the covenant, as fulfilled by Christ?

Answer: That the redemption of the soul is precious, being ransomed at no less a sum than the holy birth, righteous life, and satisfactory death of the Son of God, 1 Pet. 1:19; and that the law is so far from being made void through faith, that it is established by it, Rom. 3:31.

Question: Seeing in every covenant there is a promise, what are the promises of the covenant of grace?

Answer: They are such as have either their direct and immediate effect upon Christ himself, as the Head; or such as have their direct and immediate effect on the elect, comprehended with him in the covenant.

Question: What are these promises that have their direct and immediate effect on Christ himself, as the head of the covenant?

Answer: The promise of assistance in his work, Psalm 89:21; of the acceptance of it, Isaiah 42:21; and of a glorious reward to be conferred upon him, as the proper merit of his work done, Isaiah 52:13.

Question: What are those promises that have their direct and immediate effect upon the elect?

Answer: They are all the promises pertaining to life and godliness; the promises of grace and glory, and of every good thing; which may all be comprehended in this one, to wit, the promise of eternal life, mentioned, Titus 1:2 - "In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, hath promised before the world began;" and 1 John 2:25 - "This is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life."

Question: What is meant by the promise of eternal life?

Answer: It comprehends in it all true happiness, and its everlasting continuance.

Question: How is it evident, that all true and eternal happiness is comprehended in the meaning of the promise of eternal life?

Answer: In as much as the death threatened in the covenant of works, included all misery in this world, and the world to come: so the life promised in the covenant of grace must needs comprehend all happiness in time and eternity, with all the means by which it is effected, Rom. 6:23.

Question: To whom was this promise of eternal life made?

Answer: To Christ primarily, and to the elect secondarily in and through him: as is evident from Titus 1:2, compared with 1 John 2:25.

Question: To whom are the promises of the covenant endorsed or directed?

Answer: To all who hear the gospel, with their seed, Acts 2:39 - "The promise is to you, and to your children."

Question: What right to the promises have all the hearers of the gospel, by this general endorsement of them?

Answer: A right of access to the promises, and all the good that is in them, so as to be rendered inexcusable if they believe not, John 3:18.

Question: What right does faith, or believing, give to the promises?

Answer: A r:ght of possession, in virtue of union with Christ, in whom all the promises are yea, and amen; John 3:36 - "He that believeth - HATH everlasting life."

Question: What may we learn from the promissory part of the covenant?

Answer: That all the benefits of it are the free gifts of grace, running in the channel of the obedience and death of Christ; and are in him perfectly sure to the elect seed, Isaiah 55:3.

Question: Was there any penalty in the covenant of grace, as there was in the covenant of works?

Answer: Although there was a penalty in the covenant of works, because Adam, with whom it was made was a fallible creature; yet there could be none in the covenant of grace, because Christ, the party contracting on man's side, was absolutely infallible, and could not fail, Isaiah 42:4.

Question: Are not the elect, the party contracted for, fallible, even after they are brought to believe?

Answer: It is certain, that believers are fallible, in respect of their actions, as long as they are in this world, Eccl. 7:20, but not in respect of their state, Job 17:9; they can no more fail from their state of grace, than the saints in heaven can, John 13:1.

Question: Can fatherly chastisements be called a penalty in the covenant of grace, with respect to believers?

Answer: No; because they are not vindictive, but medicinal, and really belong to the promissory part of the covenant, as is evident from Psalm 89:30-35; Isaiah 27:9; Heb. 12:6, 7.

Question: What security have believers against any proper penalty in this covenant?

Answer: They have the security of Christ's performing the condition of it for them; and his doing so legally sustained in their favour, 2 Cor. 5:21.

Question: On whom is the administration of the covenant of grace devolved?

Answer: On Christ the second Adam, alone, and that, as a reward of his work, Isaiah 49:8.

Question: What do you understand by the administration of the covenant?

Answer: The entire management of it, by which it may be rendered effectual to the end for which it was made, Psalm 89:28.

Question: Who are the objects of this administration?

Answer: Sinners of mankind indefinitely, or any of the family of Adam, without exception, John 3:14, 15.

Question: How does he administer the covenant to sinners of mankind indefinitely?

Answer: In the general offer of the gospel, which is "good tidings to ALL PEOPLE," Luke 2:10; in which all, without exception, are declared welcome, Proverbs 8:4; Mark 16:15.

Question: What is the foundation of the unlimited administration of the covenant, in the gospel offer?

Answer: It is not rounded on election, but on the intrinsic sufficiency of Christ's obedience and death for the salvation of all, John 1:29.

Question: For what end does he thus administer the covenant to sinners of mankind?

Answer: To deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation, Gal. 3:21, 22.

Question: How does he bring them into a state of salvation?

Answer: By bringing them personally and savingly into the "bond of the covenant," Ezek. 20:37, in the day of his power; when "one shall say, I am the Lord's - and another subscribe with his hand unto the Lord," Isaiah 44:5.

Question: How long will he continue to be the administrator of the covenant?

Answer: As he dispenses all the blessings of the covenant here, John 3:35, so he will complete the happiness of the saints, in the other world, by a perfect accomplishment of all its promises to them, Eph. 5:27.

Question: How does it appear that he will be the administrator of the covenant through eternity?

Answer: Because he is to remain the eternal bond of union, Heb. 7:25, and medium of communication, between God and the saints for ever, Rev. 7:17.

Question: What is the first and fundamental act of his administration?

Answer: It is his disposing the all things, which he has in his hand, as the appointed trustee of the covenant, to poor sinners, by way of a TESTAMENT, Luke 22:29 - "I appoint (or dispose) unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me."

Question: What is the difference between a federal and a testamentary30 disposition?

Answer: A federal disposition is made upon a weighty cause, or proper condition; but a testamentary disposition is a deed, or conveyance, of grace and bounty, without all conditions, properly so called.

Question: How is this applied to the Father's disposition and to Christ's?

Answer: The Father's federal disposition of all covenant-benefits to Christ, was on condition of his making "his soul an offering for sin," Isaiah 53:10; but Christ's testamentary disposition to sinners, who have nothing, is "without money and without price," chap. 55:1.

Question: Is Christ's testament of the same date with the covenant that was made with him?

Answer: The covenant of grace was made with him from eternity; but it is obvious, that his commencing testator of this covenant, being an act of his administration of it, could not take place till the covenant of works was broken.

Question: At what time, then, did he make his testaments?

Answer: The very day in which Adam fell - in the first promise, Gen. 3:15.

Question: How could his testament be of force, (according to Heb. 9:17,) so long before his actual death?

Answer: He died typically, in all the sacrifices of the Old Testament; hence he is called, "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," Rev. 13:8.

Question: Who are the legatees,31 or parties in whose favour the testament was made?

Answer: Since Christ is authorised by the Father, to administer the covenant to mankind sinners indefinitely, John 6:37, none of these can be excepted out of his testament, as to the external revelation and exhibition of it, any more than they are out of his administration, Rev. 22:17.

Question: Who is the executor of his testament?

Answer: Although in testaments among men, the testator and executor are always different persons, because the testator dying, cannot live again to see his will executed; yet here the testator, who was dead, is alive for evermore, as the executor of his own testament, by his Spirit, Rev. 1:18; Rom. 4:25.

Question: What are the legacies left in his testament?

Answer: They are all the benefits of the covenant, even HIMSELF, and ALL THINGS in and with him, Rom. 8:32; Rev 21:7.

Question: By what means is it that sinners are possessed of these rich legacies?

Answer: By faith, or believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, Acts 16:31.

Question: Why is believing on Christ the appointed means of instating sinners in the covenant and legacies thereof?

Answer: Because the grace of the covenant is thus preserved entire, "to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed," Rom. 4:16.

Question: How may persons know, if they are savingly and personally within the covenant of grace?

Answer: If they have found themselves unable to dwell any longer within the boundaries of the covenant of works, and "have fled for refuge," from that covenant, "to lay hold upon the hope set before them," Heb. 6:18.

Question: In what respects do the covenants of works and of grace DIFFER from one another?

Answer: They differ in their nature, parties, contractors, properties, conditions, promises, the order of obedience, in their end and design, the manner of their administration, and in their effects.

Question: How do these two covenants of works and grace differ in their nature?

Answer: The covenant of works was a covenant of friendship, and supposed the parties to be in a perfect amity; but the covenant of grace is a covenant of reconciliation, and supposes man to be at variance with God, and enmity against him, 2 Cor. 5:19.

Question: How do they differ as to the parties contractors?

Answer: In the covenant of works, the parties contractors were, God and innocent Adam, representing all his natural seed; but in the covenant of grace, the parties are, God, and CHRIST the second Adam, representing all his spiritual seed, Psalm 89:3, 4.

Question: How do they differ in their properties?

Answer: The covenant of works, as standing with the first Adam, was but short-lived; but the covenant of grace, which stands fast with the second Adam, is an everlasting covenant, Heb. 13:20; the covenant of works denounced nothing but wrath and curse upon the transgressor; but the covenant of grace is full of blessings to the sinner, in Christ, Eph. 1:3.

Question: How do they differ in their conditions?

Answer: The condition of the covenant of works was only the perfect obedience of a mere man, bearing no proportion to the life promised; but the condition of the covenant of grace is the perfect righteousness of God-man, which is the promised reward, Jer. 23:6.

Question: How do they differ in their promises?

Answer: The promises of the covenant of works were strictly conditional; but the promises of the covenant of grace, as respecting us, are absolutely free, Jer. 31:33, 34.

Question: In what respect do they differ in the order of obedience?

Answer: In the covenant of works, duty, or obedience, was the foundation of privilege; acceptance first began at the work, and then went on to the person, if the work was perfectly right; but, in the covenant of grace, this order is quite inverted; for in it privilege is the foundation of duty; and acceptance first begins at the person, and then goes on to the work, because flowing from a principle of faith: Gen. 4:4, compared with Heb. 11:4.

Question: How do they differ in their end and design?

Answer: The end of the covenant of works was to show man what he was to do towards God; but the end of the covenant of grace, is to show man what God is to do for him, and in him, Isaiah 26:12.

Question: How do they differ in the manner of their administration?

Answer: The covenant of works was dispensed by God, absolutely considered; but the covenant of grace is dispensed by a Mediator, who is himself the ALL of the covenant, Isaiah 42:6.

Question: How do these two covenants differ in their effects?

Answer: The covenant of works wounds and terrifies a guilty sinner; but the covenant of grace heals and comforts a wounded soul, Isaiah 42:3; the covenant of works shuts up to hell and wrath; but the covenant of grace casts open a door of escape, John 10:9 and 14:6.

Question: What may we learn from this whole doctrine of the covenant of grace?

Answer: That it is our duty to believe that JESUS CHRIST is the Saviour of the world, and our Saviour in particular, by his Father's appointment, and his own offer; and that by the same appointment and offer, his righteousness, which is the condition of the covenant, and eternal life, which is the promise of it, are OURS in respect of right to it, so as that we may lawfully and warrantably take possession of the same, and use them as our own, to all the intents and purposes of salvation: John 4:42 - "We know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world;" Luke 1:47 - "My spirit hath rejoiced in GOD, MY SAVIOUR."


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Who is the Redeemer of God's elect?

Answer: The only Redeemer of God's elect, is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever.

Question: What is the greatest wonder the world has ever beheld?

Answer: The incarnation of the Son of God, John 1:14; Jer. 31:22.

Question: What makes this the greatest wonder?

Answer: Because by it two natures, infinitely distant, are united in one person; hence called "a great mystery," 1 Tim. 3:16.

Question: Was this great event foretold before it came to pass?

Answer: Yes: God spake of it "by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began," Luke 1:70.

Question: By what names did they speak of his coming?

Answer: By a variety of names, such as Shiloh, Gen. 49:10; Messiah, Dan. 9:25; Immanuel, Isaiah 7:14; the Branch, Zech. 6:12; the Messenger of the covenant, Mal. 3:1; and several others.

Question: Is he now actually come into the world?

Answer: Yes, long since: and "it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world," 1 Tim. 1:15, "not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved," John 3:17.

Question: How do you prove, that our Lord Jesus Christ is the true promised Messiah?

Answer: By this one argument: that "all things which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms," concerning the Messiah, are literally fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, Luke 24:44.

Question: How does this appear?

Answer: By comparing every prophecy and promise concerning him in the Old Testament, with the exact accomplishment of it in the New, Acts 3:18.

Question: What silencing questions may be put to the Jews, who assert that the Messiah is not yet come in the flesh?

Answer: They may be asked, Where is the sceptre of civil government, which was not to depart from Judah until Shiloh came, according to Gen. 49:10? Where is the second temple, into which the Messiah was to come, and to make the glory of it greater than the glory of the former, by his personal appearance in it, according to Hag. 2:9? Where is the sacrifice and oblation now offered? has it not long since ceased, according to Dan. 9:27? And where is the family of David, out of which Christ was to spring, according to Isaiah 11:1? is it not now quite extinct? They are utterly incapable of answering any of these.

Question: What does the title of a Redeemer suppose with reference to the redeemed?

Answer: Bondage and captivity to sin, Satan, the world, death, and hell, through the breach of the first covenant; hence called lawful captives, Isaiah 49:24.

Question: Are all mankind, the elect of God as well as others, by nature under this bondage and captivity?

Answer: Yes; as is evident from Eph. 2:1-3.

Question: Why is Christ called the only Redeemer of God's elect?

Answer: Because there was none capable of the vast undertaking but himself, Isaiah 53:5.

Question: How does Christ redeem the elect from their spiritual bondage and captivity?

Answer: By price and power; or by ransom, 1 Pet. 1:19, and conquest, Isaiah 49:25.

Question: What ransom or price did he lay down?

Answer: His own life, Matt. 20:28 - "The Son of man came, to give his life a ransom for many."

Question: How does Christ redeem by power or conquest?

Answer: When, by his word and Spirit, he breaks the bonds of the captives, and says "to the prisoners, Go forth; and to them that sit in darkness, Show yourselves," Isaiah 49:9; and thus spoils principalities and powers, Col. 2:15.

Question: Why is the Redeemer called Lord?

Answer: Because, as God, he "whose name alone is JEHOVAH, is most high over all the earth," Psalm 83:18; and, as Mediator, "all power in heaven and earth is given unto him," Matt. 28:18.

Question: Why is he called Jesus?

Answer: Because he saves his people from their sins, Matt. 1:21.

Question: Why is he called Christ?

Answer: Christ in the Greek, and Messiah in the Hebrew language, signify one and the same thing, John 1:41, to wit, the Anointed, Acts 10:38; which implies his designation to, and his being fully qualified for his mediatory office.

Question: Upon what is Christ's sufficiency for the great work of our redemption founded?

Answer: Upon the infinite dignity of his person, as being the eternal Son of God, 1 John 5:20.

Question: Is Christ the Son of God by nature, or only by office?

Answer: Christ is the eternal Son of God by nature; his Sonship is equally natural and necessary with the Paternity of the Father, Matt. 28:19; 2 John ver. 3.

Question: What would be the danger of asserting, that Christ is called the Son of God only with respect to his mediatory office?

Answer: This would make his personality depend upon the divine will and good pleasure, as it is certain his mediatory office did, John 3:16; and, consequently, he would not be the self-existent God.

Question: Might not the Sonship of Christ be the result of the divine will, though his personality is not?

Answer: No; because his Sonship is his proper personality, and therefore to make his Sonship the result of the divine will, is to overturn the personal properties of the Father and Son, and, consequently, to deny both, 1 John 2:23.

Question: How do you prove, from scripture, that Christ's Sonship is distinguished from his office?

Answer: From John 7:29; where Christ, speaking of his Father, says, "I know him, for I am FROM him, and he hath SENT me." Where it is evident, that his being FROM the Father, as to his eternal generation, is distinguished from his being SENT by him, as to his office.

Question: What did this glorious person, the eternal Son of God, become, that he might be our Redeemer?

Answer: He became Man, John 1:14; Gal. 4:4.

Question: When he became man did he cease to be God?

Answer: No; but he became Immanuel, God-man, Matt. 1:23.

Question: What is the import of the name Immanuel?

Answer: It imports, that God is in our nature; and that a God in our nature is not against us, but a God with us, and for us, to save us from the hands of all our enemies, Luke 1:71.

Question: What moved God to become man, in the person of the Son?

Answer: Nothing but matchless and undeserved grace and love, 1 John 4:10.

Question: How many natures has Christ?

Answer: Two: namely, the nature of God, and the nature of man, 1 Tim. 3:16.

Question: Why are they called two distinct natures?

Answer: In opposition to the error of the Eutychians of old, who maintained, that the two natures were mixed or blended together, so as to make but one nature.

Question: Why is he said to have but one person?

Answer: In opposition to the error of the Nestorians, who maintained, that each nature was a person; or, that he had two persons.

Question: How does it appear, that the two natures of God and man are united in the person of the Son?

Answer: From Isaiah 9:6 - "Unto us a child is born - and his name shall be called - The mighty God." It neither being possible nor true, that he who is the child born, could be the mighty God, except by union of the divine and human natures in one person, Rom. 9:5; 1 Tim. 3:16.

Question: Will ever the union between the two natures be dissolved?

Answer: By no means: for he is, and will continue to be our Kinsman, Priest, and Representative, in both natures for ever, Heb. 7:24, 25.

Question: Does not each nature, notwithstanding of this union, still retain its own essential properties?

Answer: Yes; the divine nature is not made finite, subject to suffering or change; nor is the human nature rendered omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, as the Lutherans, contrary to scripture and reason, affirm.

Question: Are not the acts and works of either of the two natures, to be ascribed to the person of Christ?

Answer: Yes; because all he did and suffered, or continues to do, as Mediator, must be considered as personal acts, and from thence they derive their value and efficacy, Acts 20:28.

Question: Why is the union of the two natures called a hypostatical or personal union?

Answer: Because the human nature is united to, and subsists in the person of the Son of God, Luke 1:35.

Question: What is the difference between the hypostatical union, and the union that takes place among the persons of the adorable Trinity?

Answer: The union that takes place among the persons of the adorable Trinity, is a union of three persons in one and the same numerical nature and essence; but the hypostatical is a union of two natures in one person.

Question: What is the difference between the hypostatical union, and the union that takes place between the soul and body?

Answer: Dea:h dissolves the union that is between the soul and the body; but though the soul was separated from the body of Christ, when it was in the grave, yet both soul and body were, even then, united to the person of the Son as much as ever.

Question: What is the difference between the hypostatical union, and the mystical union that is between Christ and believers?

Answer: Both natures in the hypostatical union are still but one person; whereas, though believers are said to be in Christ, and Christ in them, yet they are not one person with him.

Question: Why was it requisite that our Redeemer should be man?

Answer: That being our kinsman and blood relation, the right of redemption might devolve upon him; and that he might be capable of obeying and suffering in our nature, Heb. 2:14.32

Question: Why was it requisite that our Mediator should be God?

Answer: That his obedience and sufferings in our nature and room, might be of infinite value for our redemption, Acts 20:28; and that the human nature might be supported under the infinite load of divine wrath; which he had to bear for our sins, Rom. 1:4.33

Question: "Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be God and man in one person?"

Answer: "That the proper works of each nature might be accepted of God for us, and relied on by us, as the works of the whole person, Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 2:6."33

Question: What may we learn from the indissoluble union of the two natures in the person of Christ?

Answer: That this union shall be an everlasting security for the perpetuity of the union between Christ and believers: that the one shall never be dissolved more than the other; for he has said, "Because I live ye shall live also," John 14:19.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?

Answer: Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.

Question: Did Christ assume the person of a man?

Answer: No; he assumed the human nature, but not a human person, Heb. 2:16.

Question: Had ever the human nature of Christ a distinct personality of its own?

Answer: No; it never subsisted one moment by itself, Luke 1:35.

Question: What is the reason that the human nature of Christ never subsisted by itself?

Answer: Because it was formed and assumed at once; for the moment the soul was united to the body, both soul and body subsisted in the person of the Son of God.

Question: How came the human nature to subsist in the person of the Son?

Answer: The whole Trinity adapted and fitted the human nature to him; but the assumption of it, into a personal subsistence with himself, was the peculiar act of the Son, Heb. 2:14, 16.

Question: Since the human nature of Christ has no personality of its own, is it not more imperfect than in other men, when all other men are human persons?

Answer: The human nature of Christ is so far from being imperfect, by the want of a personality of its own, that it is unspeakably more perfect and excellent than in all other men, because to subsist in God, or in a divine person, is incomparably more noble and excellent than to subsist by itself.

Question: In what lies the matchless and peculiar dignity of the human nature of Christ?

Answer: That it subsists in the second person of the Godhead, by a personal and indissoluble union.

Question: What is the difference between the human nature and a human person?

Answer: A human person subsists by itself; but the human nature subsists in a person.

Question: When Christ became man, did he become another person than he was before?

Answer: No; there was no change in his person; for he assumed our nature with his former personality, which he had from eternity.

Question: What is the reason that the assumption of the human nature made no change in the divine person of the Son?

Answer: Because the human nature was assumed by Christ without a human personality.

Question: Whether is it more proper to say, that the human nature subsists in the divine nature, or in the divine person of Christ?

Answer: It is more proper to say, that it subsists in the divine person of Christ, because the natures are DISTINCT, but the person is ONE; and it was the divine nature only, as it terminates in the second person, which assumed the human nature into personal union.

Question: Can we not say, consistently with truth, that the man Christ Jesus is God?

Answer: We assuredly may; because in this case, we speak of the person, which includes the human nature.

Question: But can we say, in consistency with truth, that Christ Jesus, as man, is God?

Answer: No; because in this case, we speak only of the human nature, which does not include his divine person.

Question: What is the human nature, or in what does it consist?

Answer: It consists in a true body and a reasonable soul, of which the first Adam, and every man and woman descending from him, are possessed.

Question: Had our Redeemer always a true body and a reasonable soul, subsisting in his divine person?

Answer: No; until he came in the fulness of time, and then took to himself a true body and a reasonable soul.

Question: How do you prove that he took this human nature to himself?

Answer: From Heb. 2:14, 16 - "Verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham."

Question: Why is Christ said to take to himself a true body?

Answer: To show that he had real flesh and bones, as we have, Luke 24:39; and that it was not, as some ancient heretics alleged, only the mere shape and appearance of a human body.

Question: How does it appear that he had a true and real body, as other men have?

Answer: He is called Man, and the Son of man, Psalm 80:17; he was conceived and born, Matt. 1:20, 25; he was subject to hunger, thirst, and weariness, like other men; he was crucified, dead, buried, and rose again: none of which could be affirmed of him, if he had not had a true body.

Question: Had not he a reasonable soul, as well as a true body?

Answer: Yes; otherwise he had wanted the principal constituent part of the human nature: accordingly, we read, that his "soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," Matt. 26:38.

Question: Why was not the human body created immediately out of nothing, or out of the dust of the earth, as Adam's body was?

Answer: Because, in that case, though he would have had a true body, yet it would not have been akin to us, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh.

Question: Did Christ bring his human nature from heaven with him?

Answer: No; for he was the "seed of the woman," Gen. 3:15.

Question: How then is it said, 1 Cor. 15:47 - "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man, is the Lord from heaven?"

Answer: The plain meaning is, the first man had his original from the earth; but the second man, as to his divine nature, is the eternal, independent, and sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, equally with the Father; and as to his human nature, there was a more glorious concurrence of the adorable Trinity, in the formation of it, than in making of the first Adam.

Question: What was the peculiar agency of each person of the adorable Trinity in this wonderful work?

Answer: The Father prepares a body, or human nature for him, Heb. 10:5; the Holy Ghost forms it, by his overshadowing power, out of the substance of the virgin, Luke 1:35; and the Son assumes the entire human nature to himself, Heb. 2:14, 16.

Question: Why was Christ born of a virgin?

Answer: That the human nature might be found again in its primitive purity, and presented to God as spotless as it was at its creation, free from the contagion of original sin, which is conveyed to all Adam's posterity by natural generation.

Question: Was it necessary that Christ should be conceived and born without sin?

Answer: It was absolutely necessary; both because the human nature was to subsist in union with the person of the Son of God, and likewise because it was to be a sacrifice for sin, and therefore behoved to be without blemish, Heb. 7:26.

Question: What benefit or advantage accrues to us by the spotless holiness of the human nature of Christ?

Answer: The:spotless holiness of his human nature is imputed to us as a part of his righteousness, 1 Cor. 1:30; and it is a sure earnest of our perfect sanctification at last, Col. 2:9, 10.

Question: Was not the virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord, a sinner as well as others?

Answer: Yes; for she descended from Adam by ordinary generation; Christ rebuked her for going beyond her sphere, John 2:4; and she needed a Saviour as much as others; and believed in him for salvation from sin, Luke 1:47.

Question: What necessarily follows upon the union of the two natures?

Answer: A communication of the properties of each nature to the whole person.

Question: How does the scripture apply this communication of properties to his person?

Answer: By ascribing that to his person, which properly belongs to one of his natures.

Question: How is this illustrated in scripture?

Answer: It is illustrated thus: though it was only the human nature that suffered, yet God is said to purchase his church with his own blood, Acts 20:28; and though it was only the human nature that ascended to heaven, yet, by reason of the personal union, God is said to go up with a shout, Psalm 47:5.

Question: Can an imaginary idea of Christ, as man, be any way helpful to the faith of his being God-man?

Answer: So far is it from being any way helpful, that it is every way hurtful; because it diverts the mind from the object of faith to an object of sense; by means of which we cannot believe any truth whatever, divine or human; all faith being founded solely and entirely upon a testimony.

Question: How then is the person of Christ, God-man, to be conceived of?

Answer: It can be conceived of no other way, than by faith and spiritual understanding; or, by "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him," Eph. 1:17.

Question: What improvement ought we to make of Christ's incarnation?

Answer: To claim him as our own, in virtue of his wearing our nature, saying, "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given," Isaiah 9:6; or, which is the same thing, to follow the practice of Ruth, in lying down at the feet of our blessed Boaz, saying, "Spread thy skirt over me;" that is, take me, a poor bankrupt sinner, into a marriage relation with thee, "for thou art my near kinsman," Ruth 3:9.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What offices does Christ execute as our Redeemer?

Answer: Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.

Question: What is the general office of Christ, which respects the whole of his undertaking, and runs through the whole of the covenant made with him?

Answer: It is his being the only Mediator between God and man, 1 Tim. 2:5 - "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

Question: What does the office of a Mediator between God and men suppose?

Answer: It supposes a breach between them, occasioned by sin on man's part, Isaiah 59:2.

Question: Could a mere verbal intercession make up this breach?

Answer: By no means; nothing less than a full reparation for all the damages which sin had done to the honour of God, and his law, could do it away, Isaiah 53:10.

Question: Was none but Christ fit for being Mediator in this respect?

Answer: None else: because there was no other who stood related to the two families of heaven and earth, which were at variance, in such a manner as he did.

Question: How did he stand related to these two families?

Answer: By being, from eternity, God equal with the Father, he stood naturally and essentially related to heaven, John 10:30; and by consenting to become man, he stood voluntarily and freely related to earth, Phil. 2:6, 7.

Question: What are the branches of Christ's mediatory office; or the particular offices included in it?

Answer: They are three; namely, his office of a prophet, Deut. 18:15; of a priest, Psalm 110:4; and of a king, Psalm 2:6.

Question: Have each of these offices the same relation to the covenant of which he is the Mediator?

Answer: His priestly office, as to the sacrificing part of it, respecting the condition of the covenant, belongs to the MAKING of it; but his prophetical and kingly offices, with the intercessory part of his priestly office, respecting the promises of the covenant, belong to the ADMINISTRATION of it.

Question: What respect have these offices to our misery by sin?

Answer: The prophetical office respects our ignorance; the priestly office our guilt; and the kingly office our pollution or defilement.

Question: What is Christ made of God to us, in virtue of these offices, for the removal of these miseries?

Answer: As a Prophet, he is made of God to us wisdom; as a Priest, righteousness; and as a King, sanctification; and as vested with ALL these offices, he is made of God to us complete redemption, 1 Cor. 1:30.

Question: Was he ordained or appointed to these offices?

Answer: Yes, from all eternity; 1 Pet. 1:20 - "Who, verily, was foreordained before the foundation of the world."

Question: What were the necessary consequences of this eternal designation?

Answer: His mission and call.

Question: In what consisted his mission?

Answer: In his being promised, Isaiah 7:14, and typified under the Old Testament, John 3:14; and in his being actually sent, in the fulness of time, to assume our nature, and finish the work which was given him to do, Gal. 4:4, 5.

Question: Was he formally called to his mediatory office?

Answer: Yes; he did not take this honour unto himself, but was called of God, as was Aaron, Heb. 5. 4, 5.

Question: Of what parts did his call consist?

Answer: Of his unction and inauguration.

Question: What do you understand by his unction?

Answer: The consecration of him to all his mediatory offices, John 10:36; and the giving of the Spirit, with all his gifts and graces, without measure to him, that he might be fully furnished for the execution of these offices, John 3:34.

Question: In which nature is Christ anointed with the Spirit?

Answer: The person of Christ was anointed in the human nature, which was the immediate receptacle of all gifts and graces, Psalm 68:18:- "Thou hast received gifts for men:" Margin, in the man; that is, in the human nature.

Question: When was he inaugurated into his mediatory offices?

Answer: Although, in virtue of his assuming the human nature, he was born to the execution of them, yet he was not solemnly installed into the public exercise of these offices, till his baptism.

Question: What was the solemnity of his inauguration or instalment at that time?

Answer: "The heavens were opened, the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and lighted upon him: and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," Matt. 3:16, 17.

Question: Why was Christ vested with this threefold office?

Answer: The nature of our salvation required that it should be revealed by him as a Prophet; purchased by him as a Priest; and applied by him as a King.

Question: Did ever ALL these offices centre in any ONE person except Christ alone?

Answer: No; for, in order to set forth the vast importance of these offices, as united in the person of Christ, none of those who were typical of him under the Old Testament were ever clothed with all the three: this honour was reserved for himself, as his peculiar dignity and prerogative; John 14:6 - "I am the way, and the truth, and the life;" that is, the WAY in my death, as a Priest; the TRUTH in my word, as a Prophet; and the LIFE in my Spirit, as a King.

Question: In what states does Christ execute all these offices?

Answer: Both in his estate of humiliation on earth, and in his state of exaltation in heaven.

Question: What do you understand by Christ's executing of his offices?

Answer: His doing or fulfilling what was incumbent upon him, in virtue of each of these offices, Matt. 3:15.

Question: Are the offices of Christ the proper fountain from whence the promises flow?

Answer: No; the proper fountain and spring of all the promises, is the sovereign will and good pleasure of God: hence the sovereign will of God is set in the front of all the promises, - "I WILL put my law in their inward parts, and I WILL be their God; I WILL forgive their iniquity; and I WILL remember their sin no more," Jer. 31:33, 34; "I WILL take away the stony heart out of your flesh; and I WILL give you a heart of flesh," &c. Ezek. 36:26, 27.

Question: What connexion then have the promises with the offices of Christ?

Answer: They are revealed to us by Christ as a Prophet, Heb. 1:2; confirmed by his blood, as a Priest, Heb. 9:16; and effectually applied by his power, as a King, Psalm 110:3.

Question: Is the order in which the offices of Christ are here laid down, the very order in which they are executed?

Answer: Yes; for it is the order laid down in scripture, 1 Cor. 1:30.

Question: By whom is this order inverted?

Answer: By the Arminians and other legalists, who make Christ's kingly office the first which he executes, in the application of redemption.

Question: How do they make Christ's kingly office the first which he executes?

Answer: By alleging that Christ, as a King, has, in the gospel, given out a new preceptive law, of faith and repentance, by obedience to which we come to be entitled to Christ and his righteousness.

Question: What is the danger of this scheme of doctrine?

Answer: It confounds the law and gospel; and brings works into the matter and cause of a sinner's justification before God, contrary to Rom. 5:19, and Gal. 2:16.

Question: When faith closes with Christ, does it not close with him in all his offices?

Answer: Yes; for Christ is never divided: we must have him wholly or none of him, John 8:24.

Question: Which of his offices does faith act upon for justification?

Answer: Upon his priestly office only: for the great thing a guilty sinner wants is righteousness, to answer the charge of the law; and the enlightened sinner sees that Christ, in his priestly office, is "the end of the law for righteousness," Rom. 10:4.

Question: What may we learn for encouragement from Christ's being clothed with this three-fold office?

Answer: That since all these offices have a relation to us, we may warrantably employ him in every one of them; that in like manner as he is made over of God unto us, so we may actually have him for our "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," 1 Cor. 1:30.