Puslapio vaizdai
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VIII. Q. How did God make all things?
A. God made all things very good.
IX. Q. How did God make Mankind?

a Gen. i. 26, 27. b Gen. iii. 22. The tree of life was

a

A. He made Mankind in his own likeness a, and to live

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pledge of man's living for ever.

X. Q. Wherein was Mankind made like God?

a Col. iii. 10.

b Eph. iv. 24.

e Gen. i. 26.

A. In knowledge a and righteoufnefs b, and in dominion over all other living creatures in this world c.

XI. Q. How then came mankind and the devils

to be as now they are?

47

Gea. i 31

A. Mankind and the devils fell from their first Gen. iii. estate by fin.

Rom. V.12,

XII. Q. What do you believe in the fecond Arti- 18. 2 Pet. cle, concerning Jefus Christ?

Chrift

* Jefus fignifies a Saviour: he is therefore called Jefus, because he is our Saviour. Matth.j. 21. fignifies Anointed, that is, Preferred or Exalted, whether oyl be used or not. Pf. cv. 15. He is therefore called Chrift, because he was Preferred by God to be our Lord. As ii. 36. Now Anointed fignifies Preferred, because it was the highest expreffion of respect in entertainments; (Luke vii. 46.) and because it was us'd in the making of Kings (1 Sam. 10. 1.) and Priefts. Levit. viii. 12. Inftead of oyl Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghoft. Ats x. 38. a Jobn xx. 31. Matth. xxviii. 18, 19, 20. b John xiv. 1, 15.

A. I believe that Jefus
Chrift is God's only Son,
and our Lord a: and I truft
in him, and obey him b.

XIII. Q. How is Jefus Chrift God's only Son?
A. He is God's only Son by nature a, and by

being conceiv'd by the Holy Ghost b.

2.4

a John i
1. 14.

ch. v. 17.

18. Heb. i.

2.

XVI. Q. What do you learn by bis being God's b Luke i

nly Son by nature ?

35.

A. I learn

.

John i. 1.

ch. v. 17, 18. Phil. ii. 6.

John xii.

A. I learn that he is God equal with the Father.
XV. Q. How can that be, when there is but one

God?

Rev. i. 18, 11, 17.

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Heb. i. 6. compar'd
with Pf.97.7. Heb. i.
10, compar'd with P.
102. 25. It is God

A. God the Father and Jefus Chrift are, in a wonderful manner, one God from everlafting.

the Father that is made known in the old Teftament, Acts iii. 13But because the three Holy Perfons are one God, and do join in all things that concern their creatures; (See 50 2.) therefore that which is faid of the Father, is fometimes attributed to the Son; as in the places now cited: and fometimes to the Holy Ghoft; as A&ts xxviii. 25. compar'd with Ifai. 6. 8, 9. Heb. x. 15, 16. compar'd with ch. viii. 10. and Jer. xxxi. 33.

XVI. What Lord is Jefus Chrift to us?

a As iii. 22, 23.

b, Heb. 2,17.c. Lukei.
32, 33. * Ats he is

our Prophet, High

A. He is our Prophet a, and our High Prieft b, and our King c.

Prieft, and King, he is our Mediator; that is, one that ftands between God and us, obtain of God all good, and to give the fame to us.

XVII. Q. How is Jefus Christ our Prophet? A. He taught us the Will of God, as we read Ats iii. in his Gofpel.

49, 50.

22, 23.

XVIII. Q. How is be our High Priest?

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a Heb. vii. 26, 27.
*That is, he fuffer'd
the punishment due to
our fins, (ch. ix. 28.)
that God may forgive

us. ver. xxvi. b Heb.

A. He offer'd himself upon the Crofs a Sacrifice for our fins a And he prays to God for us b. +

vii. 25, 26, + In this he is our Advocate, that is, one that prays and pleads for us.

XIX. Q. How is be our King?

A. He

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XX. Q. Why must you trust also in Chrift?

a Col. i. 2, 16, 17.

6 Ver. 14, 20. Upon

A. Because God does all

things for us by him a, and for

his fake b.

the account of the for-
giveness of our fins,
and our being reconcil'd to
God does all things for us.

God by Chrift's Death, it is that
See 44, 53 Q

XXI. Q. What do you believe in the third Article, concerning Chrift's Birth?

A. I believe that he was Conceived by the Mattb. i. Holy Ghoft, and born of the Virgin Mary.

18,20,22,

XXII. Q. What do you learn by bis being con-23.1John ceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of a Virgin?

a John i. 14. b Heb. iv. 15. That being a Man, he may

be a merciful Media

A. I learn that he who is
God the Son of God, is alfo a
Man a, but without fin b†

tor to God for man, (Heb. ii. 17) and being without fin, he
might by his Death make Satisfaction, that is fuffer a fufficient
punishment for the fins of men. 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. ch. 2, 22, 24.
See 26 Q

XXIII. Q. What do you believe in the fourth Article, concerning Chrift's Death?

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iv. 2, 3.

Luke xxiv.

XXIV. Q. What was his Crucifying?

A. He was ftretch'd out upon the Crofs, and nail'd to it by his hands and feet; and fo he John xx. hanged till he was Dead.

39, 40.

20, 25, 27

XXV. Q. What is meant by He defcended into Hell?

That is, notwithstanding he rofe again fo foon, he was perfectly Dead, and Bu

A. He went down into the ftate of the dead in the

grave.

ried in the perfect ftate or condition of the dead; which state or condition was, to lie in his grave without his Soul until his Refurrection. So being perfectly dead, he suffer'd the punishment of our fins, which is Death. Gen. ii. 17. Rom. 6. 23.

This is that which St. John requires us to believe, by his fo earnest testifying that he faw water and blood come out of Christ's fide, when one of the Soldiers pierced it after they faw that he was dead. John 19. 33, 34, 35. For the water came from the pericardium; which is skin inclofing the whole heart, with water in it that increafes much after death. And fo the water was a certain proof that he was perfectly Dead; because he was wounded at the heart.

Now that his Burial in perfect Death is meant by He defcended into Hell, will appear by what follows. Hell in the Original of the Creed and of the new Teftament, "Adus, in the Original of the old Teftament, Sheól, fignifies all place under the earth; Job. xi. 8. Pf. 139. 8. Amos 9. 2.) as all above the earth and water is heaven. Gen. i. 6, 7, 8. So to be in hell, is to be either in the place of torment, as Luke xvi. 23, or in the grave, as Rev. xx. i3. And lower than the grave good men do not go when they die.

The Scripture meaning of He defcended into Hell, is to be seen in the words of Jacob, Gen. xxxvii. 35. I will go down into bell unto my fon; and ch. xlii. 38, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with forrow to bell. For in both places the word in the Original for the grave, is the word for hell. And the word grave is truly fet in both places. For altho' ch. xxxvii, Jacob did not think his fon to be in a grave, because he believ'd him to be devour'd by an evil beaft: Yet he knew that if he had fo died, he would return unto the ground, and unto dust. ch. 3. 19. And to go down into hell, or the grave, would be no other then to return unto the ground, and unto duff, and fo to go unto his fon. And fo by hell he might mean the ground, as that which receives

out

out of fight all that die; which receives them, either in the grave, or through the bodies of beafts, or fouls, or fifhes. And the fame ground is meant by bell, Pf. 89. 47, in the old Tranflation.

Now Jacob's going down to bell, and his being brought down to bell, certainly fignifies his going down into the grave, to be there in the perfect ftate of the dead. And the fame is the true and natural meaning of Chrift's defcending or going down into Hell: as his and the thiefs being in Paradife (Luke xxiii. 43.) was their being there in the perfect ftate of happy Souls. For in the Prophety, Thou wilt not leave my foul in Hell, Pf. xvi. 10, applied to Chrift, As ii. 27, 31, my foul does not fignify my Spirit, but me, or my life; as Pf. 49, 15. 56, 13. 89, 48. 116, 4, 8. 142, 7. Our finging Pfalms truly fay, Thou wilt not leave my foul in the grave: that is, Thou wilt not leave me in the fate of the dead in the grave. Defcendit ad inferos, id elt, ad locum & conditionem inferorum in fepulchris.

It is not to be found in the Scripture that his Spirit went into the place of torment, altho' not to fuffer there; nor into any paradife, which heathens, and others alfo have imagin'd to be in hell

As to the opinion of his defcending into the place of torment: The Deep, which Rom. x. 7, Chrift is fuppos'd to have been in, has no need to fignify that place. For the words, Who fball defcend into the Deep? are inftead of Whe ball go over the Sea? Deut. xxx. 13. And Bus, the word in the Original for the deep, is used to fignify the deep of the fea; as in the Greek of Pf. 106. 9. fat. 51. 10. And Chrift may be fuppofed to be buried in the fea, as Jonas was.

But the Apoftle alters the words of Mofes to his own purpofe; and fpeaks not as the words of Mofes, v. 5, but as the words of the righteousness which is of faith. So the grave wherein Christ was buried, is truly fignified by the deep, as part of the deep of the earth: as hell is here proved to fignify the grave, as part of hell the whole deep of the earth. For abuar, the word in the Original for the deep, may as well fignify the whole deep of the earth, as of the waters, Gen. i. 2. And ch. 49. 25. tehóm ; the Hebrew word for ßu, does fignify the whole deep of the earth. For the bleffings of the deep there are the bleffings of the earth, namely fprings of waters, and all things that grow, or are digg'd out of the earth. The words in the Greek are ευλογίαν γής σχέσης πάντα. the blefing of the earth that bath all things Jab. 28. 14, the depth (tekom. aßua, diftinguifh'd from the fea, fignifies the whole depth of the earth. And Pf. 71. 20, the depths tebomóth, aßuaros, of the earth are the graves David was in danger to be buried in,

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