The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

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

Answer: From the beginning of the world, to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and the first day of the week, ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Answer: To the end of the world.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question: Why called the eighth day?

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

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

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

Question: What is the moving cause of this change.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question: Why did God change his day of rest?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question: What was the day of Pentecost?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?

Answer: The Sabbath is to be sanctified, by a holy resting on that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.

Question: In what sense is the Sabbath to be sanctified?

Answer: As it is dedicated by God, for man's sake and use that he may keep it holy to God.

Question: In what manner should he keep it holy to God?

Answer: By a holy resting, and by holy exercises.

Question: What should we rest from on the Sabbath?

Answer: Even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; or, which is the same thing, from all servile work, Neh. 13:15-23.

Question: What is it that makes a work servile?

Answer: If it is done for our worldly gain, profit, and livelihood; or if, by prudent management, it might have been done the week before; or, if it be of such a kind as may be delayed till after the Sabbath, Ex. 34:21 - "Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh thou shalt rest: in shearing time,75 and in harvest thou shalt rest."

Question: Why does God enjoin rest on the Sabbath so peremptorily and particularly, in the time of ploughing and harvest?

Answer: Because in these seasons men are most keenly set upon their labour; and may be in the greatest hazard of grudging the time of the Sabbath for rest.

Question: If the weather is unseasonable through the week, do not reaping and ingathering, in that case become works of necessity on the Sabbath?

Answer: By no means; because any unseasonableness of the weather that may happen, being common and general, proceeds only from the course of God's ordinary providence, which we ought not to distrust, in regard of his promise, that, "While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest - shall not cease," Gen. 8:22.

Question: If a field of corn is in hazard of being carried away by the unexpected inundation of a river, is it lawful to endeavour the preservation of them upon the Sabbath?

Answer: Yes: because the dispensation is extraordinary; the case not common nor general; and the damage likewise in an ordinary way, irrecoverable.

Question: Are Christians, under the New Testament, obliged to as strict an abstinence from worldly labour, as the Jews were under the Old?

Answer: Yes, surely; for moral duties being of unchangeable obligation, Christians must be bound to as strict a performance of them now, as the Jews were then, Psalm 19:9.

Question: Were not the Jews prohibited to dress meat on the Sabbath? Ex. 16:23.

Answer: They were prohibited such servile work as was requisite in preparing manna for food: such as the grinding of it in mills, beating it in mortars, and baking it in pans, Num. 11:8; but not all dressing of meat, for the comfortable nourishment of their bodies, any more than we.

Question: How does it appear that they were allowed to dress meat on the Sabbath, for the comfortable nourishment of their bodies?

Answer: From our Lord's being present at a meal on the Sabbath day, to which there were several guests bidden, and consequently meat behoved to be prepared and dressed for their entertainment, Luke 14:1, 7.

Question: Were not the Jews forbidden to kindle fire in their habitations upon the Sabbath day? Ex. 35:3.

Answer: Yes, for any servile work, though it were even making materials for the tabernacle, (which is the work spoken of through the following part of that chapter;) but they were not forbidden to kindle fires for works of necessity or mercy, any more than Christians are.

Question: Were they not ordered to abide every man in his place, and not to go out of his place on the seventh day? Ex. 16:29.

Answer: The prohibition only respects their going abroad about the unnecessary and servile work of gathering manna upon the Sabbath; otherwise, they were allowed to go out about works of necessity and mercy: and it appears from Acts 1:12, that they were allowed to travel a Sabbath-day's journey.

Question: What was a Sabbath-day's journey?

Answer: Whatever was the tradition of the Pharisees about it, it appears to have been the distance of their respective dwellings, from the place where they ordinarily attended public ordinances, 2 Kings 4:23.

Question: Are we not to rest on the Lord's day from lawful recreations, as well as from lawful worldly employments?

Answer: Yes; because we are expressly required, on this holy day, to abstain from doing our own ways, finding our own pleasure, and speaking our own words, Isaiah 58:13.

Question: What are these recreations that are lawful on other days?

Answer: Innocent pastimes, visiting friends, walking in the fields talking of the news or common affairs, and the like.

Question: Why are these recreations unlawful on the Lord's day?

Answer: Because they tend to divert the mind from the duties of the Sabbath, as much as, if not more than, worldly employments.

Question: Is not the Sabbath a festival, or feast day; and consequently may not our conversation on it be cheerful and diverting?

Answer: It is, indeed, properly a feast day, but of a spiritual, not of a carnal nature: we may refresh our bodies moderately, but not sumptuously; and our conversation ought to turn wholly upon spiritual and heavenly subjects, or such as have that tendency, after the example of our Lord, Luke 14:1-25.

Question: What should be the principal end of our six days' labour?

Answer: That it be so managed as in no way to discompose or unfit us for a holy resting on the Sabbath, or meeting with God on his own day.

Question: What is a holy resting?

Answer: Not only an abstaining from our own work, or labour, but an entering by faith (in the use of appointed means,) into the presence and enjoyment of God in Christ, as the only rest of our souls, Heb. 4:3; that having no work of our own to mind or do, we may be wholly taken up with the works of God.

Question: Why called a holy resting?

Answer: Because we should rest from worldly labour, in order to be employed in the holy exercises, which the Lord requires on this day; otherwise, as to bare cessation, our cattle rest from outward labour as well as we.

Question: What are the holy EXERCISES in which we ought to be employed on the Lord's day?

Answer: In the public and private exercises of God's worship.

Question: What are the public exercises of God's worship in which we should be employed?

Answer: Hearing the word preached, Rom. 10:17; joining in public prayers and praises, Luke 24:53; and partaking of the sacraments, Acts 20:7.

Question: What is included under the private exercises of God's worship?

Answer: Family and secret duties.

Question: What are the duties incumbent on us in a family capacity on the Lord's day?

Answer: Family worship, and family catechising, together with Christian conference, as there is occasion, Lev. 23:3. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your DWELLINGS, or private families; and therefore God is to he worshipped in them on that day.

Question: What is family worship?

Answer: It is the daily joining of all that are united in a domestic relation, or who are dwelling together in the same house and family, in singing God's praises, Acts 2:47 reading his word, Deut. 6:7, and praying to him, Jer. 10:25.

Question: How do you prove family worship to be a duty daily incumbent upon those who have families?

Answer: From scripture precept, and from scripture example.

Question: How is family worship evinced from scripture precept?

Answer: Besides that this commandment enjoins every master of a family to sanctify the Sabbath within his gates, that is, to worship God in his family; there are also other scriptures, inculcating the same thing, by necessary consequence; such as, Eph. 6:18 - "Praying always, with ALL prayer and supplication;" 1 Tim. 2:8 - "I will therefore that men pray EVERY WHERE. "If with all prayer, then surely with family prayer; if EVERY WHERE, then certainly in our families.

Question: What are the examples of family worship recorded in scripture for our imitation?

Answer: Among others, there are the examples of Abraham, Gen. 18:19; of Joshua, chap. 24:15 - "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord;" of David, 2 Sam. 6:20; or Cornelius, Acts 10:2; and especially the example of our blessed Lord, whom we find singing psalms, Matt. 26:30, and praying with his disciples, who were his family, Luke 9:18.

Question: What should be the subject matter of family catechising?

Answer: What they have been hearing through the day, together with the principles of our religion, as laid out in the Shorter Catechism, with the helps that are published upon the same, which masters of families ought to use for their assistance in this work.

Question: What are the proper seasons of Christian conference on the Sabbath?

Answer: At meals, and in the interval of duties: our speech should he always, but especially on the Lord's day, "seasoned with salt," Col. 4:6.

Question: What are the secret duties in which we ought to he exercised on the Lord's day?

Answer: Secret prayer, reading the scriptures, and other soul-edifying books, meditation upon divine subjects, and self-examination.

Question: With what frame and disposition of soul should we engage in the public and private exercises of God's worship?

Answer: With a spiritual frame and disposition, Rev. 1:10 - "I was IN THE SPIRIT on the Lord's day."

Question: What is it to be in the Spirit on the Lord's day?

Answer: It is not only to have the actual inhabitation of the Spirit, which is the privilege of believers "every day," Ezek. 36:27; but to have the influences and operations of the Spirit "more liberally let out," Luke 4:31, 32, and his graces in "more lively exercise," than at other times, Acts 2:41.

Question: What moral argument have we from the ceremonial law, for offering a greater plenty of spiritual sacrifices to God on the Sabbath, than upon other days?

Answer: The daily sacrifice, or continual burnt offering, was to be doubled on the Sabbath, Num. 28:9; intimating, that they were bound to double their devotions on that day, which was consecrated to God to be spent in his service.

Question: How much of the Sabbath is to be spent in the public and private exercises of God's worship?

Answer: The WHOLE of it, from the ordinary time of rising on other days, to the ordinary time of going to rest; "except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy."

Question: What is to be understood by works of necessity?

Answer: Such as could not be foreseen, nor provided against the day before, nor delayed till the day after the Sabbath.

Question: What instances may be given of such works of necessity on the Lord's day?

Answer: Flying from, and defending ourselves against an enemy; quenching of fire, accidentally or wilfully kindled; standing by the helm, or working a ship at sea, (provided they do not weigh anchor, nor hoist sail from harbours or firths, on the Lord's day,) and the like.

Question: What are the works of mercy which may be done on the Sabbath?

Answer: The moderate refreshment of our bodies, Luke 6:1; visiting the sick, preparing and administering remedies to them, Luke 13:16; feeding our cattle, ver. 15; and preserving their lives, if in danger, chap, 14:5; and making collections for the poor, 1 Cor. 16:2.

Question: What cautions are requisite about works of necessity and mercy?

Answer: That these works be real, and not pretended; that we spend as little time about them as possible; and that we endeavour to attain a holy frame of spirit while about them.

Question: How does it appear that works of necessity and mercy are lawful on the Lord's day?

Answer: Because, though God rested from his work of creation on the seventh day, yet he did not rest on it from preserving what he had made.

Question: "Why is the charge of keeping the Sabbath more especially directed to governors of families, and other superiors?"

Answer: "Because they are bound not only to keep it themselves, but to see that it be observed by all those that are under their charge: and because they are prone oftentimes to hinder them by employments of their own."76

Question: Ought not magistrates to punish those who are guilty of the open and presumptuous breach of the Sabbath?

Answer: Undoubtedly they should; and they have the example of Nehemiah for a precedent, worthy of their imitation in this matter, chap. 13:21.

Question: What is the most effectual way for the civil magistrate to suppress Sabbath profanation?

Answer: To be impartial in the execution of the laws against Sabbath breaking, especially upon those who are of a more eminent rank and station, because they ought to be exemplary to others, Neh. 13:17 - "Then I contended with the NOBLES of Judah; and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath day?"

Question: "Why is the word REMEMBER set in the beginning of the Fourth Commandment?"

Answer: "Partly, because we are very ready to forget it; and partly, because in keeping it, we are helped better to keep all the rest of the commandments."77


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is forbidden in the Fourth Commandment?

Answer: The Fourth Commandment forbiddeth the omission, or careless performance, of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments and recreations.

Question: How are the sins ranked that are forbidden in this commandment?

Answer: The: are ranked into sins of omission, and sins of commission.78

Question: What are the sins of omission here forbidden?

Answer: Both the total neglect of the duties required, and the neglect of the careful performance of these, when essayed.

Question: Of what is the total neglect of the duties required on the Sabbath an evidence?

Answer: It is a plain evidence of the neglect of all religious duties through the week; and, consequently, an evidence of atheism, profaneness, and apostasy.

Question: When are persons guilty of the careless performance of the duties required on the Sabbath?

Answer: When they go about them in a partial, formal and lifeless way, Matt. 15:8.

Question: What is it to go about duties in a partial way?

Answer: It is to perform some of them, and omit others equally necessary; such as, attending the public, and neglecting the private exercises of God's Worship; or the contrary.

Question: What is formality in duty?

Answer: It is the bare outward performance of it, without regarding the manner in which it ought to be done, or the vital principle from whence it should flow, 2 Tim. 3:5.

Question: What are the ordinary causes of the dead and lifeless performance of religious duties?

Answer: Wandering thoughts, weariness, and drowsiness, are among none of the least.

Question: What is the best antidote against wandering thoughts?

Answer: Faith in exercise: for this will fix the attention to what we are presently engaged in, whether hearing, praying, or praising, Psalm 57:7.

Question: Whence arises weariness in duty?

Answer: From the natural bias of the heart and affections to worldly things, rather than religious exercises, Amos 8:5 - "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?"

Question: What is the evil of drowsiness, particularly in hearing the word, or joining in prayer and praise?

Answer: If it be voluntary and customary, it is a manifest contempt of the word and presence of the great God, and paying less regard to him, than we even do to our fellow creatures.

Question: What are the sins of COMMISSION forbidden in this commandment?

Answer: The profaning the day by idleness or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments and recreations.

Question: What is the idleness here prohibited.

Answer: It is a loitering away the Sabbath, in a slothful, indolent, and inactive manner, without any real benefit or advantage, either to soul or body, Matt. 20:3.

Question: Why is there a prohibition of doing that which is in itself sinful on the Lord's day, when it is unlawful on every other day?

Answer: Because whatever the sinful action be, there is a greater aggravation of guilt in committing it on the Sabbath, which ought to be kept holy to God, than upon any other day, Jer. 17:27.

Question: What are these thoughts, words, or works, that are here called unnecessary?

Answer: They are such as are about our worldly employments and recreations; or, they are all such thoughts, words, or works, as are not inevitably used about the works of necessity and mercy, which are lawful on this day.

Question: Why is the day said to be profaned by the sins here forbidden?

Answer: Because these sins are each of them the reverse of that holiness, which should shine in all our duties, public and private, on the Lord's day, Isaiah 58:13, 14.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

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

Answer: The reasons annexed to the Fourth Commandment are God's allowing us six days of the week for our own employments, his challenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, and his blessing the Sabbath day.

Question: How many reasons are there annexed to this commandment?

Answer: FOUR; which are more than to any of the rest.

Question: Why are more reasons annexed to this command than to any of the rest?

Answer: Because of the proneness of men to break it; and likewise that the violation of it may be rendered the more inexcusable.

Question: Which is the first reason?

Answer: It is God's allowing us six days of the week for our own employments; in these words, Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work.

Question: In what lies the strength of this reason?

Answer: It lies in this, that it would be most highly unreasonable and ungrateful to grudge a seventh part of our time in the more immediate service and worship of God; when he has been so liberal as to allow us six parts of it for our own secular and worldly affairs.

Question: What similar instance of ingratitude may be given for the illustration of this?

Answer: The sin of our first parents in refusing to abstain from one tree, when they were allowed the free use of all the rest of the garden, Gen. 3:2, 3, 6.

Question: Is working six days in our own employments a precept properly belonging to this commandment?

Answer: No; it is properly a branch of the Eighth Commandment, but it is brought in here incidentally, to enforce the sacred observance of a seventh day, when God has been so bountiful as to allow us six for our own occasions.

Question: Which is the second reason annexed to this commandment?

Answer: It is his challenging a special propriety in the seventh; in these words, "but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God."

Question: What is the force of this reason?

Answer: The force of it is this: - As that gracious God, who makes a grant of himself to us in the covenant of promise, claims this day as his own, so it is our greatest privilege or happiness to have access to, and communion with him on it, Isaiah 58:14.

Question: In what lies the privilege or happiness of communion with God on his own day?

Answer: In having a foretaste in grace here of what shall be more fully enjoyed in glory hereafter, 1 Cor. 13:12.

Question: Which is the third reason?

Answer: It is his own example; in these words, "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day."

Question: Could not God have made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, in less time than the space of six days?

Answer: No doubt, he could have made all things, in the same beauty and perfection, in which ever they appeared, in an instant of time, if he had pleased.

Question: Why then did he take six days?

Answer: To fix the morality of six days for worldly labour, and of a seventh for holy rest; and both these by his own example.

Question: But does not the example of God's resting the seventh day, oblige us still to observe the seventh day, in order from the creation, as a Sabbath?

Answer: No; because, though moral examples bind always to the kind of action, yet not always to every particular circumstance of it.

Question: What is the kind of action to which God's example binds us?

Answer: It is to observe one day in seven as a holy rest, either the last or first, as he shall appoint.

Question: How can God's example of resting on the seventh day be an argument for our resting on the first?

Answer: Though the observance of a particular day in seven be MUTABLE yet the duty of observing a seventh part of weekly time is MORAL, both by God's precept and example.

Question: Which is the fourth reason annexed to this commandment?

Answer: It is his blessing the Sabbath day; in these words: "Wherefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."

Question: In what sense may the Sabbath be said to be blessed?

Answer: Not only by God's consecrating the day itself to a holy use; but by his blessing it to the true observers of it, and by his blessing them in it.

Question: How does God bless the Sabbath to the true observers of it?

Answer: By ordering it so in his providence, that the religious observance of the Sabbath shall be no detriment to, but rather a furtherance of their lawful employments through the week; even as the profanation of it draws a train of all miseries and woes after it, Neh. 13:18.

Question: How does he bless them in it, or upon it?

Answer: By making it the happy season of a more plenteous communication of all spiritual blessings to them, Isaiah 58:14.

Question: What does the illative79 particle WHEREFORE teach us?

Answer: That God's resting on the Sabbath was the great reason of his setting it apart to be a day of holy rest to us, that we might contemplate the works of God, both of creation and redemption, upon it.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Which is the Fifth Commandment?

Answer: The Fifth Commandment is, Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is required in the Fifth Commandment?

Answer: The Fifth Commandment requireth the preserving the honour, and performing the duties, belonging to every one in their several places and relations, as superiors, inferiors, or equals.

Question: "Who are meant by father and mother in the Fifth Commandment?"

Answer: "Not only natural parents, but all superiors in age and gifts; and especially such as, by God's ordinance, are over us in place of authority, whether in family, church, or commonwealth."80

Question: "Why are superiors styled father and mother?"

Answer: "To teach them in all duties towards their inferiors, like natural parents, to express love and tenderness to them according to their several relations; and to work inferiors to a greater willingness and cheerfulness, in performing their duties to their superiors, as to their parents."81

Question: "What is the general scope of the Fifth Commandment?"

Answer: It "is the performance of those duties we mutually owe in our several relations."82

Question: What are the RELATIONS in which we stand to each other?

Answer: All mankind stand related to each other, either as superiors, inferiors, or equals.

Question: Who are our superiors?

Answer: All that are above us in office, place, or dignity.

Question: Who are meant by inferiors?

Answer: Such as are subject to others, or below them in station or gifts.

Question: Whom do you understand by equals?

Answer: Such as are of like age and condition in the world.

Question: What is the general duty required in this commandment?

Answer: It is HONOUR: Honour thy father and thy mother.

Question: What is meant by the honour here required?

Answer: All inward regard and esteem, manifested by outward tokens of respect, Rom. 12:10, reverence, chap. 13:7, and obedience, Heb. 13:17.

Question: What is the rule and measure of that obedience and submission, which is due from inferiors to their superiors?

Answer: The law of God; for, when any thing is enjoined contrary to it, the fixed rule is, "to obey God rather than men," Acts 4:19, and 5:29.

Question: What is it that procures honour from one person to another?

Answer: It is something of eminence, excellency, or worth, that is discernible in them, Acts 10:25.

Question: Are there not different degrees of external honour due to some beyond others?

Answer: Yes; according to the different office and stations in which God places them in the world, 1 Tim. 5:1, 2.

Question: What is that degree of honour which the meanest and lowest part of mankind are entitled to from the greatest and highest?

Answer: It is to be esteemed and regarded by them, in proportion as they are necessary and useful, Eph. 6:9.

Question: Why are we commanded to honour all men? 1 Pet. 2:17.

Answer: Because there are few or none, in whom we may not observe some gift or other in which they are superior to us, if we were to judge ourselves humbly and impartially, Phil. 2:3.

Question: Are men to be honoured according to their riches.

Answer: No; but according as they employ their riches, in some measure, for the good of others, either in the church or commonwealth, 1 Tim. 6:17, 18.

Question: What are the several relations in which duties are mutually to be performed, according to this commandment?

Answer: They are such as subsist between parents and children; magistrates and subjects; ministers and people; husbands and wives; masters and servants; and likewise between those who have a greater or less degree of gifts and graces.

Question: Who are they that have the first and natural right to honour and respect

Answer: NATURAL PARENTS; fathers and mothers.

Question: Is equal honour and regard due from children to their mother as to their father?

Answer: Yes, surely; and therefore, to prevent any difference, in respect of esteem, reverence, and obedience, she is named before the father, in Lev. 19:3 - "Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father."

Question: What are the duties of parents to their children?

Answer: To train them up for God, Proverbs 22:6, in the knowledge and profession of the true religion, Deut. 6:7; to teach them by example as well as precept Psalm 101:2, 3; to be careful in applying suitable and seasonable correction to their faults, Proverbs 13:24, and 19:18, and 23:13, 14; to provide for them according to their ability, 2 Cor. 12:14; and to be earnest in prayer to God for a blessing upon them, Gen. 48:15, 16.

Question: What are the duties of children to their parents?

Answer: To love them dearly, Gen. 46:29; to esteem and think highly of them in their minds, Lev. 19:3; Mal. 1:6; to hearken to their counsels; Proverbs 4:1, and obey their lawful commands, Eph. 6:1; to submit patiently to their corrections, Heb. 12:9; and to succour and relieve them in case of poverty and want, Gen. 47:12, especially in old age, Ruth 4:15.

Question: May children dispose of themselves in marriage without the knowledge or consent of their parents?

Answer: No; as appears from the charge given by Abraham, concerning his son Isaac, Gen. 24:3, 4, and that of Isaac to Jacob, chap. 28:1, 2; but if children should dispose of themselves without the knowledge and consent of their parents, they act contrary to the honour, deference, and gratitude they owe to them, as Esau did, Gen. 26:34, 35.

Question: What are the duties of magistrates towards their subjects?

Answer: To establish good laws, 2 Kings 18:4, and see them impartially executed, Rom. 13:3, 4; to protect their subjects in their religion, lives, and liberties, 1 Pet. 2:14; and to be nursing fathers to the church, Isaiah 49:23.

Question: What is the duty of the magistrate with reference to the church of Christ?

Answer: Although he "may not assume to himself the administration of word and sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, yet he hath authority, and it is his duty to take order, that unity and peace be preserved in the church, - that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, - that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, - all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented and reformed, - and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed."83

Question: What are the duties of subjects towards their magistrates?

Answer: To honour and reverence them, 2 Sam. 9:6; to obey their just laws, Eccl. 8:2; to pay them the tribute that is due to them, Rom. 13:7; to pray for them, 1 Tim. 2:1, 2; and to support and defend their persons and authority, 1 Sam. 26:15, 16; Esth. 6:2.

Question: Are subjects bound to be obsequious to the lawful commands of magistrates, who are of a different religion from them?

Answer: "Infidelity, or difference in religion, doth not make void the magistrate's just and legal authority, nor free the people from their due obedience to him."84

Question: What are the duties of ministers to their people?

Answer: Diligently to study, 1 Tim. 4:15; and faithfully to preach the gospel, 2 Tim. 4:2; not shunning to declare to them all the counsel of God, Acts 20:27; to evidence their own belief of their doctrine, by a holy and exemplary walk, 1 Tim. 4:12; to watch for their souls as they that must give account, Heb. 13:17; and to pray much for them, Rom. 1:9. All which duties require their ordinary residence among them, 1 Pet. 5:2.

Question: What are the duties of people to their ministers?

Answer: To "esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake," 1 Thess. 5:13; to "strive together" in their prayers to God for them, Rom. 15:30, that they may be enabled to "give them their portion of meat in due season," Luke 12:42; to attend diligently upon the ordinances dispensed by them, Heb. 10:25; to defend their character and doctrine against unjust calumnies and reproaches, 1 Tim. 5:19; and to make a competent and comfortable provision for them, Gal. 6:6.

Question: What are the duties mutually incumbent upon husband and wife.

Answer: The most tender and affectionate love, on both sides, Eph. 5:28-33; the strictest fidelity to the marriage-bed and covenant, Matt. 5:28; and the promoting the temporal and spiritual welfare of each other, 1 Tim. 5:8; 1 Pet. 3:7.

Question: What are the duties of masters to their servants?

Answer: To be meek and gentle towards them, forbearing threatening, Eph. 6:9; to instruct them in the principles of religion, Gen. 18:19; to see to their external observance of the Sabbath, Ex. 20:10; and to pay them punctually their wages, Deut. 24:15.

Question: What are the duties of servants to their masters?

Answer: To be diligent and faithful in their master's work, "not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but - with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men," Eph. 6:6, 7; to "obey in all things their masters according to the flesh," Col. 3:22; and to "please them well in all things, not answering again," Titus 2:9.

Question: Are masters and servants on earth, subject to one common Lord and Master in heaven?

Answer: Yes; and therefore they ought to behave towards one another, as in his sight; for there is "no respect of persons with him," Eph. 6:9.

Question: What are the duties of those who have a larger measure of gifts and graces conferred upon them, towards such as have a less share of the same?

Answer: To be exemplary in humility and self-denial, Gen. 32:10, as having nothing but what they have received, 1 Cor. 4:7; to be communicative of what the Lord has freely given them, Matt. 10:8; and improve their talents for the benefit of themselves and others, chap. 25:16.

Question: What are the duties of such as are weaker in gifts and graces, towards those who are stronger?

Answer: To be followers of them in so far as they are of Christ, 1 Cor. 11:1; to be willing to learn from their experiences, Heb. 6:12; and to "covet earnestly the best gifts," 1 Cor. 12:31.

Question: What is the duty of the younger towards the aged?

Answer: To honour and respect them, especially if the hoary head be found in the way of righteousness, Proverbs 16:31; "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man," Lev. 19:32.

Question: What are the duties of equals to one another?

Answer: To provoke each other "unto love and good works," Heb. 10:24; to "be kindly affectioned one to another, in honour preferring one another," Rom. 12:10.

Question: What is the fruit and consequence of the conscientious performance of these relative duties?

Answer: Hereby outward peace and concord will be better maintained between man and man, 1 Pet. 3:10, 11; and likewise the members of Christ's body will be knit more closely to one another in love, 1 John 4:7.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is forbidden in the Fifth Commandment?

Answer: The Fifth Commandment forbiddeth the neglecting of, or doing any thing against, the honour and duty, which belong to every one in their several places and relations.

Question: What is it to neglect the honour and duty which belong to every one in their several places and relations?

Answer: It is not only to omit the performance of such relative duties altogether, but even when they are performed, to do them without any regard to the command and authority of God enjoining them, Isaiah 29:13.

Question: What is it to do any thing against the honour and duty which belong to every one?

Answer: It is to commit those sins which are the very opposite of the relative duties incumbent on us, Rom. 2:22.

Question: "What are the sins of inferiors against their superiors?"

Answer: "Envying at, contempt of, and rebellion against their persons and places, in their lawful counsels, commands, and corrections."85

Question: "What are the sins of superiors?"

Answer: "- Commanding things unlawful, or not in the power of inferiors to perform; counselling, encouraging, or favouring them in that which is evil;" and "dissuading, discouraging, or discountenancing them in that which is good - "86

Question: "What are the sins of equals?"

Answer: "- Envying the gifts, grieving at the advancement of prosperity one of another, and usurping the pre-eminence one over another."87

Question: What punishment did the law of Moses inflict upon children, for smiting or cursing their parents?

Answer: DEATH, Ex. 21:15 - "He that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to DEATH." And verse 17 - "He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to DEATH."

Question: Why was so severe a punishment inflicted for these crimes?

Answer: Because either beating or cursing of parents is a sin directly opposite to the light and law of nature, and a pregnant evidence, not only of the worst kind of ingratitude, but of incurable disobedience; and therefore the equity of this punishment seems to be approved by our Lord under the New Testament, Matt. 15:4.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

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

Answer: The reason annexed to the Fifth Commandment is a promise of long life and prosperity (as far as it shall serve for God's glory, and their own good) to all such as keep this commandment.

Question: Does the promise annexed to this commandment, respect temporal or spiritual good?

Answer: It respects temporal good, to show that "godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come," 1 Tim. 4:8.

Question: What is the temporal good here promised?

Answer: It is long life; in these words, "That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

Question: Is it long life merely that is promised, without anything else?

Answer: No; it is long life and prosperity, or the blessings and comforts of life; without which, long life would be a grievous burden, Rev. 9:6.

Question: Has not this promise a particular reference to obedient children among the Jews, their living long in the land of Judea, which God gave to them?

Answer: Any reference it had to them, is not exclusive of a reference or relation to children that shall honour their parents, in any other part of the earth, to the end of the world; for so the apostle explains it, Eph. 6:2, 3 - "Honour thy father and thy mother - that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth."

Question: What is the difference between the promise of long life in this commandment, and the promise of mercy in the second?

Answer: The promise of showing mercy in the Second Commandment extends to all such as love God, and keep his commandments in general; but the promise of long life here, extends only to the keepers of this commandment in particular.

Question: Has this promise always a literal accomplishment; or, do godly and obedient children always live long on earth?

Answer: If any of them are removed by death, in their younger years, it is either to take them "away from the evil to come," Isaiah 57:1; or to transplant them so much sooner "to a better country, that is, a heavenly," Heb. 11:16.

Question: What are the things which tend to make a long life a happy and comfortable one?

Answer: They are these three, among others; growth in grace and holiness, in proportion to our advancing in years, Psalm 92:13, 14; retaining the entire exercise of reason, and some vigour of body, in old age, Deut. 34:7; and continuing useful to others, in our generation, to the end, Josh. 24:25, compared with ver. 29.

Question: Why is the Fifth Commandment called the First Commandment with promise? Eph. 6:2.

Answer: Because it is the First Commandment of the second table, and the only commandment in it, that has an express promise annexed to it.

Question: Why is there a special and express promise annexed to this commandment, when it is so strongly enforced by the light of nature?

Answer: To show the great regard that God has to the lawful authority of parents, Deut. 21:18-22; and to engage children to behave dutifully and obsequiously towards them, Proverbs 4:10.

Question: Is the promise of long life, in this commandment, absolute or limited?

Answer: It is limited, and that in the most comfortable manner.

Question: What is the comfortable limitation?

Answer: Long life, with prosperity, is promised as far as it shall serve for God's glory and their own good.

Question: Could any wish for long life and prosperity upon other terms?

Answer: No child of God will desire any temporal blessing, but as it is for God's glory and their good, Proverbs 30:8.

Question: What advantage have the godly, with respect to temporal blessings, above the wicked?

Answer: They are warranted by promise, which the wicked are not, to expect as many temporal good things, as are needful and necessary for them, Psalm 34:10; Isaiah 33:16; and God's blessing upon what they enjoy, however small their portion of temporal comforts may be, Psalm 37:16 - "A little that a righteous man hath, is better than the riches of many wicked."


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Which is the Sixth Commandment?

Answer: The Sixth Commandment is, Thou shalt not kill.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is required in the Sixth Commandment?

Answer: The Sixth Commandment requireth all lawful endeavours to preserve our own life, and the life of others.

Question: What does this commandment chiefly respect?

Answer: The LIFE of man, which is the nearest and most valuable of all his temporal concerns, Job 2:4 - "Skin for skin; yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life."

Question: What makes the life of man valuable?

Answer: His being "made in the image of God," Gen. 9:6.

Question: What does this commandment require with reference to man's life?

Answer: All lawful endeavours to preserve it in ourselves and others.

Question: What lawful endeavours should we use for the preservation of our own life?

Answer: The "just defence thereof against violence: - a sober use of meat, drink, physic, sleep, labour, and recreation."88

Question: By what means should we endeavour to preserve the life of others?

Answer: "By resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices, which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any."89

Question: Why are we restricted by the answer to lawful endeavours?

Answer: To caution and guard us against the unlawful means which some have used, for the preservation of their lives.

Question: What are the unlawful means which some have used for this end?

Answer: Denying the truth, 1 Tim. 1:19, 20, and lying, Gen. 12:12, 13.

Question: What will be the consequence of denying the truth, for preserving of natural life?

Answer: The losing of a better life than that which we thus intend to preserve, Matt. 16:25, 26.

Question: May not a lie be told at a time, for preserving life, especially if its preservation be for the public good?

Answer: At no time, and on no occasion whatever, are we to "do evil that good may come," Rom, 3:8.

Question: Are we restricted, by this commandment, to the preservation of bodily life only?

Answer: No; we are also required to consult the welfare of our own souls, and the souls of others.

Question: What is required of us for the welfare of our own souls?

Answer: A careful avoiding of all sin, Proverbs 11:19; and a diligent use of all the means of grace, 1 Pet. 2:2.

Question: What is required of us for promoting the welfare of the souls of others?

Answer: That we be communicative of our knowledge and experiences to them as occasion offers, Psalm 66:16; that we pray for them, James 5:16; and that we set an example of holy walking before them, Matt. 5:16.

Question: What are those Christian virtues or graces which this commandment requires, in order to the preservation of life?

Answer: It requires for this end, "love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness - and comforting, and succouring the distressed."90

Question: Why should we bear a love to mankind in general?

Answer: Because they are partakers of the same nature, and possessed of the same rational faculties with us, Acts 17:26, 28.

Question: How does love contribute to the preservation of life?

Answer: It covers all those infirmities, and buries all those quarrels which tend to raise strife and variance among men, Proverbs 10:12.

Question: What influence has compassion, upon the duty here required?

Answer: It affects us so deeply with the calamities and miseries of our fellow creatures, that it inclines us to relieve them according to our ability, Luke 10:33, 34.

Question: How does meekness tend to preserve life?

Answer: As it governs our passions, Proverbs 14:29, and prevents our being easily disturbed at the unkind and unmannerly treatment of others, Col. 3:13.

Question: How does gentleness contribute to the duty here mentioned?

Answer: As it excites to an affable and courteous behaviour towards all with whom we are conversant, 1 Pet. 3:8, and disposes us to put the most favourable construction upon any of their actions that may appear doubtful, 1 Cor. 13:5.

Question: What influence has kindness upon preserving life?

Answer: As it excites us to the performance of all good offices in our power, both to the souls and bodies of men, Rom. 13:10, 12.

Question: What should engage us to comfort and succour the distressed?

Answer: A desire to honour the Lord with our substance, Proverbs 3:9; and to lend to him, who will surely pay us again, chap. 19:17.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is forbidden in the Sixth Commandment?

Answer: The Sixth Commandment forbiddeth the taking away of our own life or the life of our neighbour unjustly, and whatsoever tendeth thereunto.

Question: Does this precept, Thou shalt not kill, prohibit the killing of beasts?

Answer: No; God made a grant of them to man for food, and other uses, Gen. 9:3, and 3:21; nevertheless, the exercising cruelty upon beasts (as Balaam did, Num. 22:29,) is very unbecoming all sober men; for "a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast," Proverbs 12:10.

Question: Were not the Jews prohibited to seethe a kid in his mother's milk, Deut. 14:21, and to kill the dam when they took the young? chap. 22:6, 7.

Answer: As the doing either of these was an evidence of the savage disposition and temper of some men; so the reason of the prohibition, was to curb and restrain all cruelty to the brute creatures, in order to prevent any inlet to the horrid sin of murder, or the barbarous usage of one another.

Question: What are the general sins here forbidden?

Answer: The taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbour unjustly, or whatever has a tendency to either of the two.

Question: Is it lawful, in any case, to take away our own life?

Answer: No; it is absolutely unlawful, in any case whatever, to desert our station, or leave the word, without the permission and allowance of the sovereign Lord of our life, Job 14:14.

Question: Is there any instance in scripture of a good man being suffered to lay violent hands on himself?

Answer: No; any instances the scripture gives of self-murder, are in men of the most infamous character; such as Saul, Ahithophel, Judas, and others of the like stamp.

Question: Was not Samson (who was a good man, Heb. 11:32,) guilty of this heinous crime? Judges 16:30

Answer: When Samson pulled down the house upon himself and upon all the lords of the Philistines with about three thousand men and women that were in it, he did not intend his own death any farther than as an inevitable consequence of destroying so many of the church's enemies, to which he was called and strengthened in an extraordinary manner by God, as the Lord of life and death, who he also supplicated for this extraordinary strength, Judges 16:28; and herein he was an eminent type of Christ, who, "through death, destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil," Heb. 2:14.

Question: What are the aggravations of the crime of self-murder?

Answer: It is directly opposed to the natural principle of self-preservation implanted in us, Job 2:4; it argues the highest impatience, and rooted discontent with our lot in the present world, ver. 10; it is an impious invasion of the prerogative of God, as the sole author and disposer of life, 1 Sam. 2:6; and a most daring and presumptuous rushing upon death, and an awful eternity, chap. 31:4, 5.

Question: What is meant in the answer, by taking away the life of our neighbour unjustly?

Answer: The taking it away in any event, "except in case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defence."91

Question: What is it to take away life in case of public justice?

Answer: It is to inflict capital punishment upon notorious criminals, by a lawful magistrate, who is ordained of God for that purpose, Rom. 13:2, 4.

Question: What warrant has the civil magistrate to take away the life of a wilful murderer?

Answer: The express command of God, Gen. 9:6 - "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."

Question: Is it lawful for a magistrate to spare, pardon, or reprieve a convicted murderer?

Answer: It is expressly forbidden as a land-defiling sin, Num. 35:31, 33 - "Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death. For blood defileth the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it."

Question: What other crimes are punishable with death by the laws of God and man?

Answer: Among several others there are those following: Deliberate blasphemy, Lev. 24:16; notorious adultery, Lev. 20:10; incest, ver. 11, 12; sodomy, ver 13; bestiality, ver. 15; and witchcraft.

Question: Is it warrantable in a Christian magistrate to repeal or disable penal laws against witchcraft?

Answer: By no means; for God has expressly said, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," Exod. 22:18.

Question: Is it lawful to wage war under the New Testament?

Answer: Yes; as appears from John the Baptist's prescribing rules for a military life, Luke 3:14; and Christ's commending the faith of the centurion, and finding no fault with his office, Matt. 8:10.

Question: What makes war lawful, and the shedding of blood in it warrantable?

Answer: When it is undertaken in defence of civil or religious liberties, after all due means have been rejected, for obtaining redress of the unjust invasions made upon them, Judges 11:12-34.

Question: When is the killing of another to be sustained as done in necessary defence?

Answer: When there is no way of flying from the aggressor, (which is rather to be chosen, if it can be done with safety,) but we must either lose our own life, or take away his, Ex. 22:2.

Question: What if one kill another at unawares, or unwillingly?

Answer: If it is not through any culpable neglect, or careless oversight it is not reputed murder, either by the law of God or man, and therefore cities of refuge were of old appointed for such, Josh. 20:9.

Question: How are men lavish and prodigal of their lives on points of honour?

Answer: By duelling.

Question: What is a DUEL?

Answer: It is a combat or fight between two private persons, upon a challenge given and accepted; in which each party aims at the life or maiming of the other.

Question: In what lies the sinfulness of such a practice?

Answer: It flows from passion, pride, and insatiable revenge, as the springs of it; and is a bold invasion of God's right of vengeance, together with a desperate contempt of death, judgment, and eternity, Rom. 12:19.

Question: Did not David fight a duel with Goliath?

Answer: No; he fought by a peculiar divine impulse, under the sanction of lawful authority, for the public good, and not from any private or personal revenge, 1 Sam. 17:37-53.

Question: Who was the first murderer of souls?

Answer: The devil, who is therefore called a murderer from the beginning, John 8:44.

Question: Who was the first murderer of the body?

Answer: Cain, who slew his brother, Gen. 4:8.

Question: Wherefore did he slay him?

Answer: Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous, 1 John 3:12.

Question: Why was he not put to death?

Answer: Because God set a peculiar mark of his displeasure upon him, Gen. 4:15, (worse, in some sort, than natural death,) by protracting his miserable life, to be a fugitive, and a vagabond in the earth, and a visible monument of an intolerable load of guilt, and hopeless despair, ver. 11, 12.

Question: What is the dismal effect of this sin upon murderers themselves, even though they escape capital punishment from men?

Answer: God frequently gives them up to the terror of a guilty conscience, which is their continual tormentor, Gen. 4:13, 14.

Question: How has God testified his displeasure against this sin?

Answer: Ordinarily, by shortening the lives of murderers, Psalm 55:23 - "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days." And sometimes by transmitting temporal judgments to their posterity; as Saul's murder of the Gibeonites was punished in the death of seven of his sons, 2 Sam. 21:6, 8, 9.

Question: How may murder be aggravated?

Answer: If committed under pretence of religion, as Jezebel murdered Naboth, 1 Kings 21:9, 10; and as the Papists perpetrate their massacres; or, if done under the disguise and mask of friendship, as Joab killed Amasa, 2 Sam. 20:9, 10; or, which is unspeakably worse, as Judas betrayed our Lord, Matt. 26:48, 49.

Question: Does this command forbid only the taking away of our own life, and the life of our neighbour unjustly?

Answer: It forbids also whatsoever tends thereto.

Question: What are those things which tend to the taking away of our own life?

Answer: "Neglecting or withdrawing the lawful and necessary means of preserving it: - all excessive passions, distracting cares, and immoderate use of meat, drink, labour, and recreation."92

Question: How may we be guilty before God, of taking away the life of our neighbour, though we do not actually imbrue our hands in his blood?

Answer: We may be guilty this way in our hearts, with our tongues, and by our actions.

Question: How may we be guilty of murder in our hearts?

Answer: By harbouring "sinful anger, hatred, envy, and a desire of revenge."93

Question: May there be anger which is not sinful?

Answer: Yes; when there is a detestation of the sin, and yet no dislike of the person; in which sense the apostle says, "Be ye angry and sin not," Eph. 4:26.

Question: What is the hazard of sinful anger?

Answer: "Whosoever is angry with his brother, without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment," Matt. 5:22.

Question: What is it to be in danger of the judgment?

Answer: It is to be in danger of eternal punishment in the other world, for the breach of this commandment, if rich and sovereign grace prevent it not, Proverbs 19:19.

Question: How does hatred tend to take away the life of our neighbour?

Answer: It has such a tendency to it, that whosoever hateth his brother is accounted a murderer, 1 John 3:15.

Question: What tendency has envy to the taking away of life?

Answer: As it is grieved at the good of another, or takes a secret pleasure in his death, Proverbs 27:4.

Question: How does desire of revenge tend to take away life?

Answer: As it is accompanied with an inward habitual imprecation of some visible or remarkable judgment upon the person who is the object of it, quite contrary to the command of God, Rom. 12:19 - "Avenge not yourselves: - for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."

Question: How may we be guilty of what tends to take away the life of our neighbour with our tongues?

Answer: By bitter and provoking words, Proverbs 12:18; or threatening, reviling and deriding speeches, Matt. 5:22.

Question: How may we be guilty, this way, by our actions?

Answer: By oppression, Ezek. 18:18; quarrelling, Gal. 5:15; striking or wounding, Num. 35:21, and the like.

Question: What may we learn from this commandment?

Answer: That however innocent we may be of the actual blood-shedding of others, yet we are still chargeable with the worst kind of murder, even that of our own souls, while we will not come to Christ, that we might have life, John 5:40, he being the only living and true way, chap. 14:6; and "no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved," Acts 4:12.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is the Seventh Commandment?

Answer: The Seventh Commandment is, Thou shalt not commit adultery.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is required in the Seventh Commandment?

Answer: The Seventh Commandment requireth the preservation of our own and our neighbour's chastity, in heart, speech, and behaviour.

Question: What is chastity?

Answer: It is an abhorrence of all uncleanness, whether in the body, or in the mind and affections, Job 31:1.

Question: What does this commandment require with reference to such chastity?

Answer: The preservation of it, both in ourselves, and in our neighbours.

Question: What is the best means for preserving our own and our neighbour's chastity?

Answer: The cherishing in our minds and consciences a continual regard, reverence, and awe of the divine Majesty, and a fear of displeasing him, Proverbs 5:20, 21.

Question: What influence will this have upon the preservation of chastity?

Answer: It will make us boldly resist all assaults or attacks that may be made upon it; as in the instance of Joseph, when solicited by his master's wife to lie with her, he refused; and said - "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" Gen. 39:7-9.

Question: Wherein are we to preserve our own and our neighbour's chastity?

Answer: In heart, speech, and behaviour.

Question: How ought we in heart to preserve our own chastity?

Answer: By resisting the very first emotions of lust in the soul, Proverbs 4:23; by repelling all wanton imaginations, Matt. 5:28; and by essaying both these in the way of praying to God that he would turn away our hearts and eyes from beholding vanity, Ps 119:37.

Question: How ought we to preserve our neighbour's chastity in our hearts?

Answer: Not only by ardently desiring the preservation of it, but by loving one another with a pure heart fervently; 1 Pet. 1:22.

Question: How ought we to preserve our own and our neighbours chastity in our speech?.

Answer: By "letting no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouth, but that which is good, to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers," Eph. 4:29.

Question: How should we do this in our behaviour?

Answer: By such a uniform modesty in our conduct and deportment, as may evidence that every one of us possesses his vessel, (that is, his body,) in sanctification and honour, 1 Thess. 4:4.

Question: Why should we be so careful to preserve our chastity?

Answer: Because we should study to have our bodies to be the temples of the Holy Ghost, and therefore should keep them free from those pollutions which are so provoking to a holy God, 1 Cor. 6:19.

Question: What is the ordinary mean of divine appointment for the preservation of chastity?

Answer: Lawful wedlock or marriage, 1 Cor. 7:2 - "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."

Question: When was marriage first instituted?

Answer: Before the fall, in paradise, Gen. 2:24.

Question: For what end was it instituted?

Answer: For the mutual help of husband and wife, Gen. 2:18; for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and of the church with a holy seed, Mal. 2:15; and for preventing of uncleanness," 1 Cor. 7:2.94

Question: What is necessary to constitute marriage?

Answer: The voluntary and mutual consent of both parties, Gen. 24:58, 67.

Question: Who may be lawfully married?

Answer: "All sorts of people; who are able, with judgment, to give their consent," Heb. 13:4 - "Marriage is honourable in all."95

Question: What is the duty of Christians with reference to marriage?

Answer: It is to marry "only in the Lord," 1 Cor. 7:39.

Question: What is the native import of marrying "only in the Lord"?

Answer: It plainly imports, that "such as profess the true reformed religion should not marry with infidels, Papists, or other idolaters: neither should such as are godly be unequally yoked, by marrying with such as are notoriously wicked in their life, or maintain damnable heresies."96

Question: What is an incestuous marriage?

Answer: It is that which is within the degrees of consanguinity, or affinity, forbidden in the word, Lev. 18:6-18.

Question: What is the meaning of the words consanguinity and affinity?

Answer: CONSANGUINITY is a relation by blood, being between persons descended from the same family: AFFINITY is an alliance by marriage, between persons who were not blood relations before.

Question: What is the general rule for preventing incestuous marriages?

Answer: The man may not marry any of his wife's kindred nearer in blood than he may of his own: nor the woman of her husband's kindred nearer in blood than of her own."97

Question: Is it proper to call marriage a HOLY state?

Answer: No; because they who are without the visible church, such as Heathens, Turks, and Jews, may marry as well as the professed members of it; Heb. 13:4.

Question: Was marriage instituted to signify the "mystical union that is between Christ and his church," as the Book of Common Prayer affirms?

Answer: No; because this borders too near upon making marriage a sacrament, as the Papists do; in as much as an outward visible sign, of divine institution, and a spiritual benefit signified by it, would make it partake of the nature of a sacrament.

Question: Does not the apostle make it a significant sign, when he says, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church?" Eph. 5:25.

Answer: He exhorts husbands to have such a love to their wives, as may bear a faint resemblance in some respects, to the love of Christ; but does not make the one a sign significant of the other.

Question: Is not marriage called a great mystery? ver. 32.

Answer: It is not marriage that is called a great mystery, but the union that is between Christ and the members of his mystical body; as will appear by reading the whole verse, "This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning CHRIST and the CHURCH."


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is forbidden in the Seventh Commandment?

Answer: The Seventh Commandment forbiddeth all unchaste thoughts, words, and actions.

Question: What is forbidden in this commandment under the name of ADULTERY?

Answer: All sorts of unchastity or uncleanness, of what kind, or in what manner soever committed, Eph. 5:3.

Question: In what respects may persons be guilty of unchastity or uncleanness?

Answer: They may be guilty this way, in their thoughts, words, and actions.

Question: When are persons chargeable before God with unchaste thoughts?

Answer: When lustful desires are entertained and gratified in the mind; and, as it were, acted in the imagination; Proverbs 6:18; Matt. 5:28.

Question: What are the usual incentives to unchaste thoughts?

Answer: "Lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stage-plays, and the like."98

Question: What influence have stage-plays upon fomenting unchaste thoughts?

Answer: They are generally stuffed with such amorous adventures, many of them of a most criminal nature, that they have a native tendency to debauch and defile the mind. If "no corrupt communication" is to "proceed out of our mouth," according to Eph. 4:29; neither ought we to listen to it with our ears, as is done by those who attend the profane diversions of the stage.

Question: What is meant by unchaste words?

Answer: All filthy, obscene, or smutty discourse; than which, nothing can be more grating and disagreeable to modest ears, Eph. 5:4.

Question: What are the unchaste actions that are forbidden in this commandment?

Answer: Besides several others, that ought not to be named among Heathens, far less Christians, there are these following: polygamy, unjust divorce, fornication, and adultery, properly so called.

Question: What is POLYGAMY?

Answer: It is the having more wives or husbands than one at the same time, Mal. 2:14.

Question: Is this a sin contrary to the law of nature?

Answer: Yes; for it is contrary to the first institution of marriage; God having created but one woman, as a help meet for man; Gen. 2:22-25, compared with Matt. 19:5, 6.

Question: Is it a sin prohibited in scripture?

Answer: Yes; Lev 18:18 - "Thou shalt not take a wife to her sister, to vex her - in her lifetime."

Question: What is the meaning of taking a wife to her sister?

Answer: The meaning is, (according to the marginal reading,) Thou shalt not take one wife to another; that is, thou shalt not have more wives than one at a time.

Question: But may not this be a prohibition of incest, namely, of marrying the wife's sister?.

Answer: No; because it is said, Thou shalt not do it in her lifetime; whereas it would be incestuous in a man to marry his sister-in-law after his wife's death, as well as to do it in her lifetime; so that the meaning is, Thou shalt not take another wife to her whom thou hast married, by which means they would become sisters.

Question: Who was the first polygamist we read of in scripture?

Answer: Lamech, of the posterity of Cain, who had two wives, Gen. 4:19.

Question: Were not several of the godly likewise guilty in this matter, as Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon, and others?

Answer: Yes; but though these and other bad actions of good men are recorded in scripture, they are not approved of, nor proposed for our imitation; but rather set up as beacons, to prevent our making shipwreck on the same rocks.

Question: Has not God even testified his displeasure at the sin of polygamy, in the godly, though we do not read of his reproving them for it in express words?

Answer: Yes; he has testified his displeasure in the course of his providence, by the emulations, quarrels, and disturbances, that were thus occasioned in their families; as in the instances of Sarah and Hagar, in Abraham's family, Gen. 21:10, 11; of Leah and Rachel, in Jacob's, Gen. 30:1, 15; and of Hannah and Peninnah, in Elkanah's family, 1 Sam. 1:6.

Question: Does not God seem to approve of polygamy, when he says to David, "I gave thee thy master's wives into thy bosom?" 2 Sam. 12:8.

Answer: It being the custom of those times, for succeeding kings to take possession of all that belonged to their predecessors, the meaning is, I have made thee king, in room of Saul, and have given thee the property of all that appertained to him: but we do not read of David taking any of Saul's wives into his bed.

Question: What is an unjust DIVORCE?

Answer: It is the prosecuting and obtaining a dissolution of marriage, upon other grounds than such as are warranted in the word of God, and by right reason.

Question: What are the grounds upon which a divorce may be sued for, and obtained, according to the word of God and right reason?

Answer: "Although the corruption of man be such as is apt to study arguments, unduly to put asunder those whom God hath joined together in marriage; yet nothing but adultery, or such wilful desertion, as can no way be remedied by the church, or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage, Matt. 19:8, 9; 1 Cor. 7:15."99

Question: Did not Moses suffer the Israelites to put away their wives, upon slighter grounds than that of adultery as may be alleged from Deut. 24:1?

Answer: Moses, in the text cited, gives no positive command about divorces in such cases; but only, in order to restrain the licentious freedom of the Israelites, in turning off their wives, at their own hand, upon every trivial occasion, he enjoins that none put away his wife, but upon a legal process or a bill of divorce, obtained in the ordinary course of law; which is the true meaning of the place.

Question: Why then does our Lord tell the Pharisees, Matt. 19:8, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives?"

Answer: The meaning is, Moses, because of the wicked and malicious disposition of the Jews, and in order to prevent a greater evil, namely, the ill usage, or even killing of their hated wives, (if they could not be separated from them) permitted processes of divorce to be legally commenced.

Question: Why is it added, "but from the beginning it was not so?"

Answer: Because, according to the original institution of marriage, nothing could dissolve it but the death of one of the parties, Matt. 19:6 - "Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."

Question: Is it lawful to marry after a divorce is obtained?

Answer: "It is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce, and after the divorce, to marry another as if the offending party were dead."100

Question: Is the innocent party obliged, from Matt. 5:32, to sue for a divorce?

Answer: No; divorces are not enjoined as a precept, but allowed as a privilege, which the innocent party may claim, or not, as they please.

Question: What if the adultery be on both sides?

Answer: In that case the right of divorce seems to be taken away from each of them.

Question: What is FORNICATION?

Answer: It is uncleanness committed between a man and a woman, both of them being unmarried; as it would seem Shechem and Dinah were, when guilty this way, Gen. 34:2.

Question: Was this esteemed a sin among the Heathens?

Answer: No they made light of it, (as too many professed Christians have always done ) hence the synod of Jerusalem enjoined the converted Gentiles to "abstain from fornication," Acts 15:29.

Question: In what lies the evil of this sin?

Answer: It defiles the body, 1 Cor. 6:18; stupefies the conscience, Hos. 4:11; and exposes to eternal wrath and damnation, 1 Cor. 6:9.

Question: What is ADULTERY properly so called?

Answer: It is uncleanness committed between a man and a woman, either both or one of them at least, in a married relation.

Question: What is it commonly called when both the guilty persons are married?

Answer: It is called double adultery, as was the case between David and Bathsheba, 2 Sam. 11:3, 4.

Question: Whether are the consequences to families worse, when the man is married and the woman free; or when the woman is married and the man free?

Answer: The consequences to families seem to be worse when the woman is married; because a man's offspring is thus corrupted, and his inheritance is alienated to a spurious issue.

Question: What are the aggravations of this heinous sin?

Answer: It is a breach of the marriage oath, Mal. 2:14; an involving of two at once in the same guilt, 1 Cor. 6:16; and is a crime committed after obtaining the remedy which God has provided against it, chap. 7:2.

Question: What are the fatal effects of adultery in this life?

Answer: It consumes the body, Proverbs 5:11; wastes a man's estate, bringing him "to a piece of bread," chap. 6:26; and leaves an indelible blot upon his name: "His reproach shall not be wiped away," ver. 33.

Question: What will be the effect of it in the life to come?

Answer: Eternal wrath and damnation, if rich mercy and grace prevent it not, Eph. 5:5.

Question: How does God testify his abhorrence of this sin?

Answer: By declaring that he will reserve the punishment of it, in his own hand, to be inflicted in a very peculiar manner, upon such as are guilty of it, Heb. 13:4 - "Whore-mongers and adulterers God will judge."

Question: What are the usual incentives to this and other acts of uncleanness?

Answer: Drunkenness, Gen. 19:33; "fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness," Ezek. 16:49.

Question: What is the evil of idleness?

Answer: It is a deliberate wasting of precious time, to the manifest detriment both of soul and body, Eccl. 10:18; and is a fit season for temptations to lust, Proverbs 7:7, 8.

Question: In what consists the evil of gluttony?

Answer: It indisposes for all duty, both religious and civil, Proverbs 23:21; and is making a god of our belly, Phil. 3:19.

Question: What is the evil of drunkenness?

Answer: It deforms the image of God in the soul, by divesting a man of the right use of his reason; and leaves him defenceless against all temptations, Proverbs 23:29, 30.

Question: What are the proper remedies against lust, and all the incentives to it?

Answer: A serious reflection upon the all-seeing eye of an infinitely holy God, Gen. 39:9; walking "in the Spirit," which will preserve us from fulfilling "the lusts of the flesh," Gal. 5:16; keeping a strict watch over our hearts, Proverbs 4:23; studying to shun all occasions of this sin by the external senses, Job 31:1; and fervent prayer to God to be kept from it, and all temptations to it, Psalm 119:37.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Which is the Eighth Commandment?

Answer: The Eighth Commandment is Thou shalt not steal.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is required in the Eighth Commandment?

Answer: The Eighth Commandment requireth the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.

Question: What is the subject matter of this commandment?

Answer: The wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.

Question: What does it require with reference to these?

Answer: The procuring and furthering of them.

Question: In what manner does it enjoin us to procure and further them?

Answer: Only in a lawful manner; for it requires the LAWFUL procuring and furthering of them.

Question: Whose wealth is it we should procure and further?

Answer: Our own wealth, and that of others.

Question: By what lawful means should we procure and further OUR OWN wealth?

Answer: By labour and industry in some honest calling, Eph. 4:28.

Question: What is included in the labour and industry we should exercise in our respective stations and callings?

Answer: Frugality in managing the affairs of our calling, and a moderate endeavour to recover our own when wrongfully detained from us.

Question: What is to be understood by frugality in managing the affairs of our calling?

Answer: Prudence and moderation in our expenses, so as to be sure always to spend within our incomes, Proverbs 31:16.

Question: Is it warrantable to go to law, for recovering our own, when wrongfully detained?

Answer: Yes, surely; provided other means have been previously tried without success.

Question: How do you prove that it is warrantable for Christians to go to law with one another, when urged by necessity?

Answer: From the lawfulness of magistracy, which is the ordinance of God, Rom. 13:2, "for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well," 1 Pet. 2:14.

Question: Does not our Lord find fault with this method, when he says, "If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also?" Matt. 5:40.

Answer: The meaning is, that we should rather part with a little of our right, than run ourselves into unnecessary charges at law, perhaps vastly beyond the value of what we are seeking to regain; and thus discover a contentious and quarrelsome spirit, unbecoming Christianity.

Question: Does not the apostle also blame Christians for this practice, when he says, "Ye go to law one with another; why do ye not rather take wrong?" 1 Cor. 6:7.

Answer: The apostle is there speaking of bringing pleas unnecessarily before Heathen magistrates; and his meaning is, that Christians should make up differences among themselves, by submitting to arbitration; or even by suffering some wrong, rather than by vexatious law-suits, (especially about lesser matters) thus bringing a scandal upon the religion which they profess.

Question: How is the necessity of labouring in an honest calling enforced in scripture?

Answer: From the necessity of eating: the apostle argues from the natural necessity of the one, to the moral necessity of the other, 2 Thess. 3:10 - "This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat."

Question: Can we procure and further our wealth and outward estate, merely by our own labour and industry?

Answer: Our own industry is necessary; but without the Lord's blessing upon it, it will not be successful; "for it is the blessing of the Lord that maketh rich," Proverbs 10:22.

Question: What ends should we propose to ourselves, in endeavouring to further, or increase, our own outward estate?

Answer: That we may honour the Lord, with our substance, Proverbs 3:9; live comfortably ourselves, Eccl. 5:19; and be useful to others, Eph. 4:28.

Question: By what means should we procure and further the wealth and outward estate of OTHERS?

Answer: By exercising justice and righteousness towards all, Psalm 15:2; and by relieving the wants and necessities of those who stand in need of our charity, 1 John 3:17.

Question: What is the rule and standard of that justice and righteousness we should exercise towards all men?

Answer: That we so deal with others, as we would have them deal with us, if we were in their place or condition; or, that we should never do that to another, which, if we were in the other's place or circumstances, we would reckon to be unjust, Matt. 7:12.

Question: In what cases is this rule to be particularly applied, according to the scope of this commandment?

Answer: In all contracts, or matters of traffic and commerce between man and man; and likewise in making satisfaction for injuries.

Question: How is it to be applied in contracts, or matters of traffic between man and man?

Answer: It is to be applied thus: that in buying and selling, there be always a just proportion between the price and the thing sold; or, that the sale be according to the worth or value of the goods; without taking the advantage of ignorance or poverty on either side, Gen. 23:15, 16.

Question: How may the worth and value of goods be known?

Answer: By this general maxim, That every thing is worth as much as it may be currently sold for.

Question: May not the price of the same commodity vary and change at different times?

Answer: Yes; according to the plenty or scarcity of the commodity at the time of sale.

Question: What satisfaction should be made to others, for taking or detaining what belongs to them, or in any manner defrauding them?

Answer: No other satisfaction is agreeable to God's will of precept, or will gain the approbation of men, but RESTITUTION, if the injuring party is ever capable to make it, Lev. 6:2-6; 1 Sam. 12:3.

Question: What if the person to whom the restitution should be made, or his nearest of kin, cannot be found?

Answer: In that case, what has been unjustly detained ought to be given to the poor, or some pious use, Num. 5:8.

Question: Is relieving the necessities of the poor a duty required in this commandment?

Answer: Yes; because it is a furthering the outward estate of our neighbour who is in want.

Question: Why should we relieve the necessities of the poor?

Answer: Because, "He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth to the Lord; and that which he hath given, will he pay him again," Proverbs 19:17.

Question: Who are the proper objects of Charity?

Answer: All who are in real poverty and want, and are not able to work; especially those "who are of the household of faith," Gal. 6:10.

Question: How should our acts of charity be managed?

Answer: They should be conducted with prudence, namely, as our own circumstances will permit, and the necessity of the object requires, 1 John 3:17.

Question: When should we perform acts of charity?

Answer: Presently, if the necessities of those whom we are bound to relieve, call for present assistance, Proverbs 3:28.

Question: What should we shun or avoid, in our acts of charity?

Answer: All ostentation, or a desire to be seen of men, and commended by them, Matt. 6:2-5.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is forbidden in the Eighth Commandment?

Answer: The Eighth Commandment forbiddeth whatsoever doth or may unjustly hinder our own or our neighbour's wealth or outward estate.

Question: What does the forbidding of THEFT necessarily suppose?

Answer: That there are distinct rights and properties among men, which cannot be justly invaded or encroached upon, Lev. 6:4.

Question: What would be the necessary consequences of a community of goods among men?

Answer: It would destroy traffic and commerce; abolish all acts of charity; encourage sloth and idleness; and if there were no right and property there could be no encroachment upon it by theft or stealing.

Question: From whom are we forbidden to steal?

Answer: Both from ourselves and others.

Question: How may we be said to steal from OURSELVES?

Answer: By idleness, niggardliness, and prodigality.

Question: How do we steal from ourselves, or impair our own estates, by idleness?

Answer: When we either live without a lawful calling, Proverbs 19:15; or neglect it, if we have any, chap. 18:9.

Question: How may a person be said to steal from himself by niggardliness?

Answer: When he defrauds himself of the due use and comfort of that estate which God has given him, Eccl. 6:2.

Question: How do persons on the other hand, steal from themselves, by prodigality?

Answer: By being lavish and profuse in spending above their income, Proverbs 23:20, 21.

Question: What is the sin which is more directly pointed at in this commandment?

Answer: It is stealing from OTHERS; or laying hands upon, and taking away unjustly, that which is the right and property of another.

Question: How many ways may persons be said to steal from others, or unjustly hinder their neighbour's wealth or outward estate?

Answer: Several ways; particularly, by theft, robbery, resetting, defrauding, monopolising, and taking unlawful usury.

Question: What is theft?

Answer: It is the taking away clandestinely, or privily from another, that which is his, Lev. 19:11.

Question: How is theft commonly distinguished?

Answer: Into private and public.

Question: What is private theft?

Answer: It is the taking away less or more of any private person's property, without their knowledge or consent, Obadiah ver. 5.

Question: Against whom is public theft committed?

Answer: Both against the church and commonwealth.

Question: How is public theft called, as committed against the church?

Answer: Either Simony or sacrilege.

Question: What is Simony?

Answer: It is the buying and selling of ecclesiastical places and offices for money, or other good deeds; so called, from the wicked practice of Simon Magus, who offered the apostles "money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost," Acts 8:18, 19.

Question: What is sacrilege?

Answer: It is the taking away or alienating of any thing which has been dedicated to a sacred use, Proverbs 20:25; Mal. 3:8.

Question: Why are these called public theft, when, for the most part, they are privately committed?

Answer: Because they very much affect the public interest and welfare of the church; nothing having a greater tendency to her ruin, than Simoniacal compacts and sacrilegious usurpations.

Question: In what consists public theft, as committed against the commonwealth?

Answer: In embezzling the current coin, or doing detriment to the public for private advantage, Rom. 13:7; Phil. 2:4.

Question: What is robbery or rapine?

Answer: It is the taking away the goods of another by violence and open force, Job 20:19.

Question: In what lies the aggravation of this crime?

Answer: In its being an avowed pillaging or plundering of our neighbour; and in being ordinarily accompanied with a threatening to take away his life, if he ventures to make the least resistance, Judges 9:25.

Question: What is the evil of resetting101, or receiving of what is taken away, whether by stealth or violence?

Answer: It is a manifest encouragement of, and participation with thieves and robbers in their sins, Psalm 50:18; and consequently, a coming under the same guilt and condemnation with them, Proverbs 29:24.

Question: How do men commonly defraud one another?

Answer: In buying, selling and borrowing.

Question: How do they defraud in buying?

Answer: By depreciating and vilifying what they intend to buy, that they may have it cheaper than the value, Proverbs 20:14.

Question: How do they defraud one another in selling?

Answer: By taking an unreasonable price, 1 Thess. 4:6; or, cheating by false weights and measures, Deut. 25:13-15.

Question: How do they defraud in borrowing?

Answer: When they borrow what they know they can never be able, in the ordinary course of providence, to pay, Psalm 37:21.

Question: If a man's creditors compound with him for less than he owes, is he therefore discharged of the whole debt?

Answer: Though his creditors, for fear of losing all, may compound and discharge for a part, so that there can be no action in law for the remainder; yet, in the court of conscience, and before God, he is bound, if ever he is able, to pay every farthing: and, if he is an honest man, he will never reckon his substance his own, till he do it, Rom. 13:8.

Question: How may servants defraud their masters?

Answer: By wasting their masters' goods, which they may have in their hands; and not working faithfully for their wages, Titus 2:9, 10.

Question: How may masters defraud their servants?

Answer: By detaining from, or tricking them out of their wages, Lev. 19:13; or by exacting of them too rigorous labour, Ex. 5:9.

Question: What is it to monopolise?

Answer: It is to engross commodities, in order to enhance the price of them.

Question: What is the worst kind of monopolising or forestalling?

Answer: It is the buying up grain, or other provisions, in large quantities, in order to exact a higher price for them afterwards.

Question: In what consists the evil of this sin?

Answer: They who are guilty of it enrich themselves upon the spoils of others, Ezek. 22:29; they "grind the faces of the poor," Isaiah 3:15; and bring upon themselves the curse of the people, Proverbs 11:26 - "He that withholdeth corn, the people shall CURSE him; but blessings shall be upon the head of him that selleth it."

Question: What is it to take USURY, according to the proper signification of the word?

Answer: It is to take gain, profit, or interest, for the loan of money.

Question: What kind of usury or interest is lawful?

Answer: That which is moderate, easy, and no way oppressive, Deut. 23:20, compared with Ex. 22:21.

Question: How do you prove that moderate usury is lawful?

Answer: From the very light of nature, which teaches, that since the borrower proposes to gain by the loan, the lender should have a reasonable share of his profit, as a recompense for the use of his money, which he might otherwise have disposed of to his own advantage, 2 Cor. 8:13.

Question: What is the usury condemned in scripture, and by right reason?

Answer: It is the exacting of more interest or gain for the loan of money, than is settled by universal consent, and the laws of the land, Proverbs 28:8 - "He that by usury, and unjust gain, increaseth his substance, shall gather it for him that will pity the poor."

Question: How do you prove from scripture, that moderate usury, or common interest, is not oppression in itself?

Answer: From the express command laid upon the Israelites not to "oppress a stranger," Ex. 23:9; and yet their being allowed to take usury from him, Deut. 23:20; which they would not have been permitted to do, if there had been an intrinsic evil in the thing itself.

Question: Is it warrantable to take interest from the poor?

Answer: By no means; for, if such as are honest, and in needy circumstances, borrow a small sum towards a livelihood, and repay it in due time, it is all that can be expected of them; and therefore the demanding of any profit or interest, or even taking any of their necessaries of life in pledge, for the sum, seems to be plainly contrary to the law of charity, Ex. 22:25-28; Psalm 15:5.

Question: Were not the Israelites forbidden to take usury from their brethren, whether poor or rich? Deut. 23:19 - "Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother."

Answer: This text is to be restricted to their poor brethren, as it is explained, Ex. 22:25, and Lev. 25:25, 35; or, if it respects the Israelites indifferently, then it is one of the judicial laws peculiar to that people, and of no binding force now.

Question: What is the spring of all these different ways by which men defraud and injure one another in their outward estate?

Answer: Covetousness, Luke 12:15, or an inordinate prizing and loving of worldly goods, Psalm 62:10.

Question: What should affright and deter every one from such wicked practices?

Answer: The consideration of the curse that shall enter into the house of the thief, Zech. 5:3, 4; and of the vengeance that shall light upon such as go beyond and defraud their neighbour: for, "the Lord is the avenger of all such," 1 Thess. 4:6.