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The Westminster Shorter Catechism A.D. 1647

Questions 39-57

Question 39. What is the duty which God requireth of man?

Answer. The duty which God requireth of man is obedience to his revealed will.

Question 40. What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience?

Answer. The rule which God at first revealed to man, for his obedience, was the moral law.

Question 41. Wherein is the moral law summarily comprehended?

Answer. The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments.

Question 42. What is the sum of the ten commandments?

Answer. The sum of the ten commandments is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.

Question 43. What is the preface to the ten commandments?

Answer. The preface to the ten commandments is in these words: I am the Lord the God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Question 44. What doth the preface to the ten commandments teach us?

Answer. The preface to the ten commandments teacheth us, that because God is the Lord, and our God and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments.

Question 45. Which is the first commandment?

Answer. The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Question 46. What is required in the first commandment?

Answer. The first commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God, to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly.

Question 47. What is forbidden in the first commandment?

Answer. The first commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshiping and glorifying the true God, as God, and our God; and the giving that worship and glory to any other which is due to him alone.

Question 48. What are we specially taught by these words, “before me,” in the first commandment?

Answer. These words. “before me,” in the first commandment, teach us that God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God.

Question 49. Which is the second commandment?

Answer. The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Question 50. What is required in the second commandment?

Answer. The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in his Word.

Question 51. What is forbidden in the second commandment?

Answer. The second commandment forbiddeth the worshiping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his Word.

Question 52. What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment?

Answer. The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us, his propriety in us, and the zeal he hath to his own worship.

Question 53. Which is the third commandment?

Answer. The third commandment is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Question 54. What is required in the third commandment?

Answer. The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.

Question 55. What is forbidden the third commandment?

Answer. The third commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing of any thing whereby God maketh himself known.

Question 56. What is the reason annexed to the third commandment?

Answer. The reason annexed to the third commandment is, that however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from. men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment.

Question 57. Which is the fourth commandment?

Answer. The fourth commandment is, Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it.

Questions 58-82