A. For Chrift's Sake. For the Punishment that Christ endured, he taketh off Man's Obligation to Eternal Punishment. Be it known unto you therefore, Men and Brethren, that through This Man is preached unto you Forgiveneß of Sins, Acts xiii. 38. Q. Who hath Power to forgive Sins? A. No one hath Power to forgive Sin but God only. Q. How may this be obtained of God in the Church of Chrift? A. First, Upon being baptized into Chrift's Church, and afterwards by Repentance, Faith, Sincere Obedience, and forgiving others their Trefpaffes. Q. Whence do you learn that Sins are forgiven in Baptifm? A. By what Ananias faid to Saul, As xxii. 16. Arife, and be baptized, and wash away thy Sins. 2. Whence do you learn that Sins may be forgiven after Baptifm? A. Because Our Saviour taught his Difciples thus to pray: Forgive us our Trefpaffes. And as this Prayer was to be used daily by them, after they believed in Chrift, we conclude that the Thing prayed for, the Forgiveness of Sins, is to be obtained after Baptifm or the Embracing Christianity." 2. What becomes the Duty of Christians upon the Belief of this Article? A. To repent of their Sins, fince they may be pardoned; and to lay hold on Eternal Life, feeing it is fo freely offered to them. nal. The Refurrection of the Body. WHAT do you understand by the Third Pri viledge of Chrift's Church? A That our Bodies may be raised to a Life Eter Q. What Q. What do you understand by the Resurrection of the Body? A. The Refurrection of the fame Flefb, and those other Parts of our Bodies of which they are compofed. 2. Do you then believe the Refurrection of the fame Body? A. Yes; I do firmly believe that the fame Body, and not any other, fhall be raised to Life again; the fame Flesh which was forfaken of the Soul at the Day of Death, shall be united to the Soul at the Laft Day. 2. What Reafon have you to believe this? A. I have Reason to believe it from the very Notion of a Refurrection: For as at the Death of Man, nothing falleth but his own Body; fo no other but that Body must rife to make a Refurrection. And fecondly, If this was not fo; then they which are in the Duft should not revive: Then neither the Grave, nor the Sea fhould give up their Dead: And then alfo there would be a Refurrection, and nothing raised. Q. Are there any Examples in Scripture of any Perfons that have rifen again with their Bodies? A. Yes many; and particularly, Our Saviour raised his own Body at his Refurrection: And it is written, The Graves were opened, and many Bodies of Saints which flept, arose, and came out of their Graves, Mat. xxvii. 52. 2. But is it not impoffible to raise the Dead? A. No; nothing is impoffible with God; and he that first made the Dry Ground, and then formed Man out of the Duft of it, may certainly, with as much Eafe, raise every particular Man's Body out of its own Duft. 2. But may not the Duft of our Bodies be fcattered over the Face of the Earth? And how then fhould God know and distinguish it from the Common Duft of the Ground, or that of other Men's Bodies? A. This A. This may feem very ftrange and impoffible to us Men; but is it not altogether impoffible that any thing fhould be unknown to an All-knowing God? Or, that the leaft Particle of Matter fhould be hid from an All-feeing Eye? Q. What Texts of Scripture have you to prove the Certainty of this Doctrine? A. The Refurrection of the Dead is reckoned among the Principles of the Doctrine of Chrift, Heb. vi. 2. Our Saviour tells us, John v. 28. The Hour is coming, when all that are in the Grave's fhall come forth; and St. Paul confeffes that he had Hope towards God that there fhould be a Refurrection of the Juft and the Unjult, Acts xxiv. 15. What Ule ought you to make of this Doctrine? To believe that I my felf fhall, at the End of the World, rife again with my own Body; and herein to exercise my felf that I may have a Confcience void of Offence towards God and towards Men: And to endeavour fo to live, as if I was always hearing the Laft Trumpet founding in my Ears; Arife ye Dead, and come to Judgment. 2. WE The Life Everlafting. WHAT Life is meant in the Laft Article? Happiness. 2. Why do you take this Article in this Senfe? A. Because it is to be confider'd as the Laft and Final Priviledge which Chrift purchased for his Church. Q. What then do you believe concerning it? A. I do believe, First, That after we have once fubmitted to the Law of Death, and are raised from our Graves, we fhall not then die any more; Death fhall have no more Dominion over us. I 2. What What Reafon have you to expe&t this? A. Because St. Paul tells us, we shall be all changed; That this Mortal fhall put on Immortality. 2. What will follow this Change? A. The Righteous having received that bleffed Sentence, Come ye Blefjed, &c. fhall go into Life Eternal, fhall be ever with the Lord; and fhine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father. 2. But is there not another State which may in fome Sense be called a Life Everlasting? A. Yes; the Wicked alfo fhall live for ever, but only to be for ever miserable, fuffering the Vengeance of Eternal Fire. And hence it is written, The Smoke of their Torment afcendeth for ever and ever, Rev. xiv. 11. And our Saviour hath forewarned us,That there the Worm dieth not, and the Fire is not quenched, Mat. ix. 44: Q. And fhall not fo much as one fingle Perfon be paffed by, in the Distribution of thefe everlasting Rewards and Punishments? A. No; for at the Laft and Great Day, all Nations fhall be gathered before the Judgment-Seat of Christ. And St. Paul hath affured us, That he will then render to every Man, and to every Soul of Man, according to his Deeds, Rom. ii. 6. 9, 10. 2. What Use ought we to make of this Doctrine? A. Moft firmly to believe, that after this Life is ended, we fhall be made Immortal Creatures; and therefore to prepare for this State of Immortality, that we may be happy in it. Having gone thro' the Articles of the Chriftian Faith; pray tell me, what do you chiefly learn from thence? A. I learn what no Man could have ever known, unless this Knowledge had been given him from above, That the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Gholt Ghost is God; altho' there are not Three Gods, but One God. And fecondly I learn, how these Three Perfons are related to us Men; the Firft being related to us as the Creator, the Second as the Redeemer, the Third as the Sanctifier of us. From what Part of the Creed do you learn, that God the Father made you and all the World? A. From the First Article,. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. For if he made the Heavens and the Earth, and all Things therein; he must have made nie and all the World. Q. What Articles are they which teach you God the Son redeemed you and all Mankind? that A. The Six next; from which I learn how the Son of God was conceived and born and made Man; under whom, and what Death he suffered, for the Redemption of Mankind: And lastly, how he triumphed over Death; and what were the Glories of his Afcenfion. 2. But does it not follow, that if you and all Mankind were redeemed, that therefore you and all Men must be faved by him? 4. No: For tho' Chrift, by tafting Death for every Man, gave himself a Ranfom for all, he forces no one to accept of this Redemption, it being offer'd upon certain Terms and Conditions. We may reje That and our Redeemer too, and continue Slaves to Sin and Satan, notwithstanding all that he hath done for us. The Laft Thing which you chiefly learn from the Articles of your Belief is, to believe in God the Holy Ghost, who fanctifieth you and all the Elect People of God: Who are the Elect People of God? And how doth he fanctify them? A. God's Elect People are all that truly believe in Christ Jesus: And thofe the Holy Ghoft fanctifieth by inciting them to, and affifting them in all the Works of Piety, Holiness, and Charity: And it is faid he fanctifieth I 2 |