4. Yes, because Christ, in passing the sentence, gives them what was their own former wish and desire. Q. What was that? A. The absence of God; as they said to God here, Depart from us; so Christ saith to them then, Depart from me. Q. Will not the saints after their sentence enter immediately upon perfect happiness? A. Yes. Q. What will be their happiness after the judgment is over? A. They shall be made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity." " Q. What is included in perfect bliss? A. Perfect freedom from all evil, and full enjoyment of all good. Q. What evils will believers be freed from in heaven? " A. From all manner of sin, guilt, or pollution; from all inclinations or temptations to sin; and from all the bitter fruits and effects of sin, such as complaints, fears, or trouble of any kind. Q. When is it that a man enjoys all that is good? A When he attains to the full enjoyment of God. Q. Can we attain to that here upon earth? A. No; for though God may be enjoyed by his people in some measure here, when th they attain to communion with him in his ordinances; yet the full enjoyment of God is reserved for heaven hereafter. Q. Wherein doth the full enjoyment of God in heaven consist? A. 1. In being admitted to his glorious presence. 2. In having the immediate beatific vision of his face. 3. In having the full persuasion and sense of his love. 4. In being made like him. 5. In having fulness of delight and satisfaction in God as our everlasting portion. QIs it possible that any creature can fully enjoy God? 4. No creature can enjoy God fully, as God enjoys himself; but believers have such enjoyment of God in heaven, as fills them, in the measure they are capable of. Q How can any man see his face, when he is the invisible God? A. He is invisible to the eye of the body, but not to the eye of the mind. Q. How can a creature be made like to him that is infinite? A. The holiness and purity of the rational creature is some shadow or picture of the infinite holiness of God. Q. How long shall believers be blest with the full enjoyment of God in heaven? A. Not for days or years, but for all eternity; and this is the ingredient that will exceedingly sweeten their happiness above, that it is without end, and they shall be ever with the Lord, 1 Thess. iv. 17. Q. How is God said to be all in all in heaven? A It imports these things; 1. That saints will be satisfied there from God alone. 2. That there will be no need there of these subordinate things, out of which they used formerly to bring comfort. 3. That every thing they before have found comfortable. will all be eminently found and enjoyed in God. Q. Will not the saints be continually employed in adoring, praising, and worshipping God in heaven? A. Yes. Q Will not their worship and adoration above far transcend the most refined worship upon earth? A. Yes, in regard there will be no mixture of sin, no wandering, no hypocrisy, no imperfection in the worship above they will act above with the highest delight and con. stancy, without any weariness or intermission. Quest. 39. What is the duty which God requireth of man? Ans. The duty which God requireth of man, is obedience to his revealed will. Q. Doth this question begin the second part of the Cate Q. What is the difference between the first and the second part of the Catechism? A. The first part doth treat of matters of faith, and what man is to believe concerning God; the second part doth handle matters of practice, and what is man's duty towards God. Q. Are not these the two great lessons which the scriptures principally teach us? A. Yes; and as we have heard the first, so we ought to be attentive to the second: for man has something to do, as well as something to believe. Q. What do you mean by duty here ? A. That which a man oweth to God, or ought to do for God. Q. What do you mean by obedience? A. A man's going in with the will of God, either in what he commands or forbids. Q. What is the rule of our duty and obedience? A. The revealed will of God. Q. What do you mean by God's revealed will ? A. God's mind discovered and made known to us in the scriptures Q Why may not the traditions or inventions of men be our rule ? A. Because God doth reject all will-worship and superstitious performances, saying, "Who hath required this at your hand?" Isa. i. 12. Q. Hath God any other will besides his revealed will? Q. What is the difference between God's secret and revealed will? A. God's secret will is his eternal counsel and decrees concerning all events whatsoever, which is not known till they come to pass: but God's revealed will is that which he declares and lays before us as our duty, that we may practise and follow it. Q. Is God's secret will no part of our duty? A. No; for "secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children," Deut. xxix. 29. Q. Upon what account is our obedience and service due to God? A. Because God is our creator, our preserver, our benefactor, and our supreme lord and lawgiver. Q. Is there not obedience due to others besides God? A. Yes; servants must obey their masters, children their parents, and subjects their magistrates, but not as they are bound to obey God. Q. What is the difference between the obedience we owe to God, and that we owe to man? › A. We must obey God for his own sake, and because of his supreme authority; but we must obey men our superiors, chiefly because God enjoins it, and because their commands are agreeable to his will. Q. What is to be done when the commands of God and of men are opposite to one another? A. In that case we are to obey God rather than man, Acts iv. 29. Q. What sort of obedience is it that is acceptable to God? A. It must be sincere, universal, and constant; it must proceed from right principles, namely, from a renewed heart, from faith, and from the love of God, and of Jesus Christ; and it must be directed to right ends, namely, to advance the honour and glory of God. Q. Can we merit any thing at God's hands by our obedience? A. No, but must count ourselves unprofitable servants after we have done our best. Our best performances are imperfect, so that it is by Christ's obedience, not our own, that we must be saved. Q. Is it our duty notwithstanding to study to obey God in the best manner que can? A. Yes; because God commands it. Q. Will not God accept of our obedience if sincere, though attended with imperfection? A. Yes, upon the account of Christ's merits and intercession. Q. Is it not a yoke for men to be bound to constant obedience and service to God all the days of their lives? 4. No; for these who know God, and love him, count his service their greatest freedom, Psalm cxix. 45. Q. Will they be free from his service in heaven? A. No; for there his servants shall serve him, and count this their greatest happiness, Rey. xxii. 3. Q. Will not their service in heaven differ much from what it is now ? A. Yes; for there they will serve God without sin or weariness. Quest, 40. What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience? Ans. The rule which God at first revealed to man, for his obedience, was the moral law. Q. Is man appointed to be under the obligation and direction of a law? A. Yes. Q. Why so? 4. Because, being made with rational faculties for the service of his Creator, he must needs be accountable to God for his actions. QWhat is the use of a law to men? A. To shew them what is sin, and what is duty. Q. What do you mean by the moral law ? 4. That law which is the perpetually binding rule of our manners and practice, being the unalterable declaration of the will of God concerning the duties of righteousness, which all men do owe to God and their neighbours, in all ages of the world; which law is briefly summed up in the ten commandments. ! Q. Why is it called moral? A. Because it is a perpetual rule for regulating our manners and conversation both towards God and man. Q. How can the moral law be said to be the first rule revealed to man, seeing the ten sommandments were only given at Sinai, above two thousand years after man was created? A. The moral law notwithstanding was the first rule, seeing it was written on the heart of man at his first creation, he being made after the image of God. Q. Doth this law still remain written upon man's heart? A. The moral law being agreeable to the light of nature, though it be sadly obscured by the fall, yet some relics of it are to be found on the hearts of all mankind. Q. Is the moral law binding upon the heathen world, who have not the scriptures to make it known to them? A. Yes; it is binding upon all mankind, seeing it was fully. made known to man at his first creation, and which knowledge he lost by his own fault. And though the heathen want the benefit of scripture light, yet so much of the moral law is made known to them by the light of nature, as is sufficient to leave them without excuse for their disobedience, Rom. ii. 14, 15. Q. If the moral law be natural, what need was there fo writing it to us in the Bible? A. 1. Because the fall of man had wofully darkened our minds, and obscured the knowledge of this law. 2. God would hereby shew that he is the author of the law and light of nature. 3. He designed to leave sinners the more inex cusable. Q. Can any man obtain salvation by his obedience to the moral law? A. No. Q. Can any man now obey this law perfectly? A. No. Q. Is it just for God to require perfect obedience to the law, when no man is able to give it? A. Yes; for God may justly demand what he hath a right to, though we have lost it by our own fault. God gave man at his creation power to obey perfectly, which he squandered away; now, though a debtor do disable himself for paying his debt, the creditor doth not thereby lose his right to ask it. Q. Why is the law given to men, seeing none can obtain life by it? A. To be a restraint to sin, and a rule of righteousness; and particularly, the law is given to be a school master to bring men to Christ, Gal. iii. 24. |