AN

EXAMPLE

O F

PLAIN CATECHISING

UPON THE

ASSEMBLY'S SHORTER CATECHISM,

Quest.

FOR INSTRUCTING

THE YOUNG AND IGNORANT, &c.

QUESTION I.

WHAT is the chief End of Man?

Anf. Man's chief End is, to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.

Q. What do you mean by man's chief end?

A. The main thing which a man should intend and aim at in his living in the world, and look upon as the great design of his creation.

Q. What is that great and chief end?

A. In the anfwer, it is branched out into two parts, the principal end being to glorify God, and the lefs principal to enjoy him for ever.

Q. Can man add any thing to God's effential glory?

A. No; for, that being infinite, no addition can be made to it.

Q. How then can we glorify God?

4. By declaring and fhewing forth his glory before the world.

Q. How may we do that?

A. By acknowledging God's perfections; by adoring and trufting in him; by praifing him with our lips, and ordering our converfation according to his word, Pfalm 1. 23.

Q. How are we faid to give glory to God by confeffing our fins? as in Joh. vii. 19.

A. Because, by fo doing, we own God to be infinite in knowledge, from whom no fecrets can be hid, and in justice, though he should proceed to punish us for our fins.

Q. Wherefore fhould we make it our chief end to glorify

God?

A. Because of the infinite obligations we are under to God, as being our almighty Creator, our gracious Preferver, and merciful Redeemer.

Q. When is it that we eat and drink for the glory of God? as the apofile directs, 1 Cor. x. 31.

A. When we do it in obedience to God's command, for preferving life and health, that we may be capable to honour and ferve God here below.

Q. May not other creatures declare the glory of God, as well as man?

A. Yes, the heavens do it, Pfalm xix. 1. as they fhew forth the glory of God's wifdom and power in an objective and paffive manner; but none can do it actively, but rational

creatures.

Q Do all men make it their chief end to glorify God? A. No; for many men, instead of glorifying God, do wo fully difhonour him.

Q. Who are these?

A. Thefe who forget God, or difobey his laws.

Q. Who are they that forget God?

4. They who do not pray to God, nor praife him for his mercies; and they who are formal in his worship, and do not remember his word.

Q. What will become of thefe who forget God?.

A. It is faid, Pfal. ix. 17. They shall be turned into hell.. Q. Did God make all things for his own glory? A. Yes. Q. If men do not make this their end, will God lofe his end of making them?

A. No; for, if God be not glorified by them, he will glo. rify himself upon them, even his justice in their destruction, Prov. xvi. 4.

Q. Is it not lawful to aim at lower ends than God's glory,

as for a man to be diligent in his calling, for the end that he may provide for himself and his family?

A. Yes; but thefe lower ends must be intended in fubordination to man's chief and ultimate end, the glory of God. Q. Do we not promote our own happiness, by making God's glory our chief end?

A. Yes; and therefore glorifying God, and enjoying him for ever, are connected in the answer.

Q. Muft we fudy to glorify God on earth, if we would enjoy him in heaven? A. Yes.

Q. Are we able of ourselves to glorify God?

A. No, the fall hath difabled us; but by Christ and his grace we may be strengthened to do it in fome measure. Q. What is it to enjoy God?

A. It is to poffefs God's love and favour, or to be bleffed with his gracious prefence.

Q. And doth man's true happiness lie in this?

Q. May not a man thus enjoy God upon earth?

A. Yes.

A. Yes; the faints have God's gracious prefence in fome measure in his ordinances here below, but they will enjoy God in another manner in heaven.

Q. What is the difference betwixt our enjoying God here, and hereafter?

A. Our enjoyment of God here is very short and imperfect; but in heaven it will be everlasting, full and immediate. It is there the faints fhall fee him as be is, and be like him, and be ever with the Lord, I John iii. 2. 1 Theff. iv. 17.

Q. Why doth our chief happiness lie in the enjoying of God? A. Because God being the chiefelt good, and infinite in his perfections, can only fatisfy the boundless defires of our immortal fouls. He is a portion that fuits both their spiritual nature, and perpetual duration, Pfalm lxxiii. 25, 26.

Q. How shall we attain to the enjoyment of God?

A. We must receive Chrift the Mediator, live the life of faith and felf-denial, ftudy purity of heart and life, and be much in the exercife of prayer and praife.

Q. What is the chief end or defign of wicked men?

A. To gratify their fenfual appetites, and to enjoy the best things this world affords.

Q Can the enjoyment of the world's good things make us happy?

A No; for, as they fuit not the foul's demands, fo they

are too fhort and uncertain to afford us any folid fatisfaction. Q. Can wicked men expect to enjoy God hereafter?

A. No; for they who shall enjoy God above, must be made meet for it here below.

Q. Who are meet to enjoy God?

A. These who are fanctified.

Q. What will become of thefe who miss the enjoyment of God in heaven?

A. Their portion will be in hell with hypocrites and unbelievers.

Q. When Thould a man begin to think feriously of his chief

end?

A. In the days of youth, Eccl. xii. 1.

Q. May we not delay it until fome convenient time after

wards.

A. No; for there is no time fo convenient; and the timewhich we propofe may never come, feeing death furpriseth very many, Luke xii. 20.

Q. When must we have done glorifying God?
Q. Will that ever be thought a tedious task?

A. Never.

A. No; for it is the delight of gracious fouls to do the will of God; and therefore in the most happy place, it is faid, There his fervants fhall ferve him, Pfal. xl. 8. Rev. xxii. 3.

QUESTION II.

Q. What Rule hath God given to direct us, how we may glorify and enjoy him?

A. The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Teftament, is the only Rule to direct us, how we may glorify and enjoy him.

Q. How is this question connected with the preceeding?. A. As the former fhews the end of our creation, fo this points out the rule or means for attaining to that end, to wit, the fcriptures.

Q. Why do we call the word of God the fcriptures?

A. We call God's word, the fcriptures, that is, writings, by way of eminence; because they are the most valuable and ufeful writings in the world.

Why are thefe writings called the word of God?

A. Because God either spake them himself, or ordered men

to write them.

Q. Is not Chrift called the word likewife?

A. Yes; but Chrift is the effential word of God, and the Bible is only the written word of God.

Q. Why is Chrift called the word of God?

A. Because he is the exprefs image of the Father, as our words are the image or picture of our hearts.

Q. Seeing the Bible is mostly spoken and written by men, is it not more properly the words of men, than of God?

A. No; for though it be fpoken and written by holy men, yet they did it, not according to their own will or wifdom, but as they were infpired and moved thereto by the Holy Ghoft, 2 Pet. i. 21.

Q. Who was the first penman of the holy scriptures?

A. Mofes.

Q. What part of them did he write?

A. The first five books, to wit, Genefis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Q. What remarkable things doth his firft book contain?

A. The hiftory of the creation of the world, of man's fall, of the world's deftruction by the flood, and many fignal tranfactions with refpect to the church for above two thousand years before Mofes was born.

Q. If there were no writings before him, how could he be certified of the truth of these things?

A. By divine revelation, as well as human tradition.
Q. Why did God order his word to be written?

A. That his church might have a fixed and standing rule of faith and practice for all future ages, and might not be impofed on by uncertain traditions,

Q. How could the church fubfift, and religion be kept pure for fo long a time before Mafes, when there was no written word?

A. By reafon of the few families to which the church was then confined, the long lives of the godly patriarchs, and the frequent appearances of God unto them in dreams, visions, and audible voices; and alfo by fending his angels unto them.

Q. By what arguments do you prove that the fcriptures are the word of God, and that they were written by divine inSpiration?

4. By the holiness of the matter of them, the heavenliness