CHAP. XX. "For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever.— Amen." Q. 1. WHAT is the meaning of this conclusion, and its scope? A. It is a form of praise to God, and helps to our belief of the hearing of our prayers. Q. 2. Why is it put last? A. Because the praise of God is the highest step next heaven.m' Q. 3. What is the meaning of kingdom, power, and glory here? A. By kingdom is meant that it belongeth only to God to rule all the creatures, dispose of all things; and by power is meant that, by his infinite perfection and sufficiency, he can do it; and therefore can give us all that we want, and deliver us from all that we fear. And by glory is meant that all things shall be ordered so as the glory of all his own perfections shall finally and everlastingly shine forth in all, and his glory be the end of all for ever." Q. 4. What is the reason of the order of these three here? A. I told you that the last part ascendeth from the lowest to the highest step. God's actual government is the cause of our deliverances and welfare. God's power and perfection is it that manageth that government. God's glory shining in the perfected form of the universe, and especially in heaven, is the ultimate end of all. Q. 5. But it seems there is no confession of sin, or thanksgiving, in this form of prayer? A. It is the symbol or directory to the will's desire: and when we know what we should desire, it is implied that we know what we want, and what we should bewail, and what we should be thankful for and praise includeth our thanksgiving. Q. 6. Why say we, "for ever?" A. For our comfort and God's honour, expressing the everlastingness of his kingdom, power, and glory. Psalm cxix.; clxiv.; lxxi. 6, 8, and lxxviii. 13. " Psalm ciii. xix., and cxlv, 12; Dan. iv. 3, 34; Matt. xvi. 28; Psalm cxlv. 11, 13; Heb. i. 8; Luke ii. 14; Matt. xvi. 27, and xxiv. 30; Acts xii. 23. • Psalm cxlv. 4, 10; cxlviii.; lxvi. 2, 8; cxlvii. i, 7, and cvi. 2, 47 ; Phil. iv 20; Jude 25: Rev. v. 13, and vii. 12; Rom. xi. 36, and xvi. 27. Q. 7. Why say we "Amen?" A. To express both our desire, and our faith and hope, that God will hear the desires which his Spirit giveth us through the mediation of Jesus Christ. CHAP. XXXII. Of the Ten Commandments in general. Q. 1. ARE the ten commandments a law to Christians, or are they abrogated with the rest of Moses's law? A. The ten commandments are considerable in three states: 1. As part of the primitive law of nature. 2. As the law given by Moses, for the peculiar government of the Jews' commonwealth. 3. As the law of Jesus Christ.P 1. The law of nature is not abrogate, though the terms of life and death are not the same as under the law of innocency. 2. The law of Moses to the Jews as such, never bound all other nations, nor now bindeth us, but is dead and done away. (2 Cor. iii. 7, 9, 10, 11; Rom. ii. 12, and xiv. 15; iii. 19, and vii. 1-3; Heb. vii. 12; 1 Cor. ix. 21.) But seeing it was God that was the Author of that law, and by it expressly told the Jews what the law of nature is, we are all bound still to take those two tables to be God's own transcript of his law of nature, and so are, by consequence, bound by them still. If God give a law to some one man, as that which belongs to the nature of all men, though it bind us not as a law to that man, it binds as God's exposition of the law of nature when notified to us. 3. As the law of Christ, it binds all Christians. Q. 2. How are the ten commandments the law of Christ? A. 1. Nature itself, and lapsed mankind, is delivered up to Christ as Redeemer, to be used in the government of his king, dom. And so the law of nature is become his law." 2. It was Christ, as God Redeemer, that gave the law of Moses, and as it is a transcript of the common law of nature, he doth not revoke it, but suppose it. P Exod. xx., and xxxiv. 28; Deut. v. 4 Luke i. 6. * Matt. v. 18, 19, and xxiv. 40; Mark x. 19, and xii. 29, 30; John xiv, 21. 1 Cor. vii. 19, and xiv. 37; 1 John ii. 4; iii. 24, and v. 3; John xv, 12. 3. Christ hath repeated and owned the matter of it in the gospel, and made it his command to his disciples. Q. 3. Is there nothing in the ten commandments proper to the Israelites ? A. Yes: 1.The preface, "hear, O Israel ;" and "that brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." 2. The stating the seventh day for the Sabbath, and the strict ceremonial rest commanded as part of the sanctifying of it. Q. 4. How doth Christ and his Apostles contract all the law into that of love? A. God, who as absolute Lord, owneth, moveth, and disposeth of all, doth, as sovereign Ruler, give us laws, and execute them, and, as Lord and Benefactor, giveth us all, and is the most amiable object and end of all so that as to love and give is more than to command, so to be loved is more than as a commander to be obeyed: but ever includeth it, though it be eminently, in its nature, above it. So that, 1. Objectively, love to God, ourselves, and others, in that measure that it is exercised wisely, is obedience eminently, and somewhat higher. 2. And love, as the principle in man, is the most powerful cause of obedience, supposing the reverence of authority and the fear of punishment, but is somewhat more excellent than they. A parent's love to a child makes him more constant and full in all that he can do for him, than the commands of a king alone will do. In that measure that you love God, you will heartily and delightfully do all your duty to him; and so far as you love parents or neighbours, you will gladly promote their honour, safety, chastity, estates, rights, and all that is theirs, and hate all that is against their good. And as parents will feed their children, though no fear of punishment should move them; so we shall be above the great necessity of the fear of punishment, so far as God and goodness is our delight." t Q. 5. How should one know the meaning and extent of the commandments? A. The words do plainly signify the sense and according to the reasonable use of words, God's laws being perfect, must be thus expounded.* 1. The commanding of duty includeth the forbidding of the contrary. Mark xii. 30, 33; Rom. xiii. 9, 10; 1 Cor. xiii.; Tit. iii.4; Rom. v. 5, and viii. 39; 1 John iv. 16; John xiv. 23. * Matt. vii. 12; Phil. ii. 14, and iii. 8; 1 Cor. xiv. 26. 2. Under general commands and prohibitions, the kinds and particulars are included which the general word extendeth to. 3. When one particular sin is forbidden, or duty commanded, all the branches of it, and all of the same kind and reason are forbidden or commanded. 4. Where the end is commanded or forbidden, it is implied that so are the true means as such. 5. Every commandment extendeth to the whole man, to our bodies and all the members, and to the soul and all its faculties respectively. 6. Commands bind us not to be always doing the thing commanded. Duties be not at all times duty: but prohibitions bind us at all times from every sin, when it is indeed a sin. 7. Every command implieth some reward or benefit to the obedient, and every sin of omission or commission is supposed to deserve punishment, though it be not named. 8. Every command supposeth the thing commanded to be no natural impossibility, (as to see spirits, or to dive into the heart of the earth, to know that which is not intelligible, &c.) But it doth not suppose us to be morally or holily disposed to keep it, or to be able to change our corrupt natures without God's grace. 9. So every command supposeth us to have that natural freedom of will which is a self-determining power, not necessitated or forced to sin by any but not to have a will that is free from vicious inclinations: nor from under God's disposing power.1 : 10. The breach of the same laws may have several sorts of punishment by parents, by masters, by magistrates, by the church; on body, on name, on soul, in this life, by God; and, finally, heavier punishment in the life to come. 11. The sins here forbidden, are not unpardonable, but by Christ's merits, sacrifice and intercession, are forgiven to all true penitent, converted believers. CHAP. XXXIII. Of the Preface to the Decalogue. Q. 1. WHAT are the parts of the Decalogue? A. 1. The constitution of the kingdom of God over men de y Mal. iii. 14. * Rom. vii. 6-8; Jer. xiii. 23. scribed. And, 2. The administration, or governing laws of his kingdom. Q. 2. What words express the constitution of God's kingdom? A. "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Q. 3. What is the constitution here expressed? A. 1. God, the Sovereign. 2. Man, the subject. 3. The work of God, which was the next foundation or reason of the mutual relation between God and man, as here intended.a Q. 4. What is included in the first part, of God's sove reignty? A. 1. That there is a God, and but one God in this special sense. 2. That the God of Israel is this one true God, who maketh these laws. 3. That we must all obey him. Q. 5. What is God, and what doth that word here mean? A. This was largely opened in the beginning. Briefly to be God is to be a Spirit, infinite in being, in vital power, knowledge, and goodness, of whom, as the efficient cause, and through whom as the Governor, and to whom as the end, are all things else; related to us as our Creator, and as our absolute Owner, our supreme Ruler, and our greatest Benefactor, Friend, and Father. Q. 6. What words mention man as the subject of the kingdom? A. "Hear, O Israel," and " Thy God that brought thee," &c. Q. 7. What relations are here included? A. That we, being God's creatures and redeemed ones, are, 1. His own. 2. His subjects, to be ruled by him. 3. His poor beneficiaries, that have all from him, and owe him all our love. Q. 8. What do the words signify "that brought thee out of the land of Egypt?" A. That besides the right of creation, God hath a second right to us as our Redeemer. The deliverance from Egypt was that typical one that founded the relation between him and the commonwealth of Israel. But as the Decalogue is the law of Christ, the meaning is, ' I am the Lord thy God, who redeemed thee from sin and misery by Jesus Christ." So that this signifieth the nearest right and reason of this relation between God and man. He giveth us his law now, not only as our Creator, Mal. ii. 10; Matt. xix. 17; Mark xii. 32; Jer. vii. 23; Jolin xx. 17. |