'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'—Hosea 4:6
INSTRUCTION FOR THE IGNORANT
Quest. How many gods are there?—Answer. To the Christians, there is but one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we of him (1 Cor 8:6).
Q. Why is not the God of the Christians the God of them that are not Christians?—A. He is their maker and preserver, but they have not chosen him to be their God (Acts 17:24; Psa 36:6; Ju 10:14).
Q. Are there then other gods besides the God of the Christians?—A. There is none other true God but HE; but because they want the grace of Christians, therefore they choose not him, but such gods as will suit with and countenance their lusts (John 8:44).
Q. What gods are they that countenance the lusts of wicked men?—A. The devil, who is the god of this world; the belly, that god of gluttons, drunkards, and riotous persons; and idle pleasures and vanities, which are, for the most part, the gods of the youth (Job 8:4; 2 Cor 4:4; Phil 3:19; Exo 32:6; 1 Cor 10:7; 2 Tim 2:2; 1 John 5:21).
Q. Who is a Christian?—A. One that is born again, a new creature; one that sits at Jesus' feet to hear his word; one that hath his heart purified and sanctified by faith,[3] which is in Christ (John 3:3,5,7; Acts 11:24, 15:9, 26:18; 2 Cor 5:17).
Q. How do you distinguish the God of the Christians from the gods of other people?—A. He is a Spirit (John 4:24).
Q. Is there no other spirit but the true God?—A. Yes, there are many spirits (1 John 4:1).
Q. What spirits are they?—A. The good angels are spirits; the bad angels are spirits; and the souls of men are spirits (Heb 1:7,14; 1 Kings 22:21,22; Rev 16:13,14; Acts 7:59; Heb 12:23).
Q. How then is the true God distinguished from other spirits?—A. Thus: No Spirit is eternal but HE, no Spirit is almighty but HE, no Spirit is incomprehensible and unsearchable but HE: HE is also most merciful, most just, most holy (Deut 33:27; Gen 17:1; Psa 145:3; Micah 7:18; Job 34:17; 1 Sam 2:2).
Q. Is this God, being a Spirit, to be known?—A. Yes, and that by his works of creation, by his providences, by the judgments that he executeth, and by his word.
Q. Do you understand him by the works of creation?—A. 'The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork' (Psa 19:1). 'For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead' (Rom 1:20).
Q. Do his works of providence also declare him?—A. They must needs do it, since through his providence the whole creation is kept in such harmony as it is, and that in spite of sin and devils; also, if you consider that from an angel to a sparrow, nothing falls to the ground without the providence of our heavenly Father (Matt 10:29).
Q. Is he known by his judgments?—A. 'The Lord is known by the judgments which he executeth; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands' (Psa 9:16).
Q. Is he known by his word?—A. Yes, most clearly: for by that he revealeth his attributes, his decrees, his promises, his way of worship, and how he is to be pleased by us.
Q. Of what did God make the world?—A. 'Things which are seen were not made of things which do appear' (Heb 11:3).
Q. How long was he in making the world?—A. 'In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is' (Exo 20:11). 'And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made' (Gen 2:2).
Q. Of what did God make man?—A. 'The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul' (Gen 2:7).
Q. Why doth it say, God breathed into him the breath of life; is man's soul of the very nature of the Godhead?—A. This doth not teach that the soul is of the nature of the Godhead, but sheweth that it is not of the same matter as his body, which is dust (Gen 18:27).
Q. Is not the soul then of the nature of the Godhead?—A. No, for God cannot sin, but the soul doth; God cannot be destroyed in hell, but the souls of the impenitent shall (Eze 18:4; Matt 10:28).
Q. How did God make man in the day of his first creation?—A. God made man upright (Eccl 7:29). 'In the image of God created he him' (Gen 1:27).
Q. Did God, when he made man, leave him without a rule to walk by?—A. No: he gave him a law in his nature, and imposed upon him a positive precept, but he offered violence to them, and broke them both (Gen 3:3,6).
Q. What was the due desert of that transgression?—A. Spiritual death in the day he did it, temporal death afterwards, and everlasting death last of all (Gen 2:17, 3:19; Matt 25:46).
Q. What is it to be spiritually dead?—A. To be alienated from God, and to live without him in the world, through the ignorance that is in man, and through the power of their sins (Eph 4:18,19).
Q. Wherein doth this alienation from God appear?—A. In the love they have to their sins, in their being loath to come to him, in their pleading idle excuses for their sins, and in their ignorance of the excellent mysteries of his blessed gospel (Eph 2:2,3,11,12, 4:18,19; Rom 1:28).
Q. What is temporal death?—A. To have body and soul separated asunder, the body returning to the dust as it was, and the spirit to God that gave it (Gen 3:19; Eccl 12:7).
Q. What is everlasting death?—A. For body and soul to be separate forever from God, and to be cast into hellfire (Luke 13:27; Mark 9:43).
Q. Do men go body and soul to hell so soon as they die?—A. The body abideth in the grave till the sound of the last trump; but the soul, if the man dies wicked, goes presently from the face of God into hell, as into a prison, there to be kept till the day of judgment (1 Cor 15:52; Isa 24:22; Luke 12:20).
Q. Do we come into the world as upright as did our first parent?—A. No: he came into the world sinless, being made so of God Almighty, but we came into the world sinners, being made so by his pollution.[4]
Q. How doth it appear that we came into the world polluted?—A.
We are the fruit of an unclean thing, are defiled in our very
conception, and are by nature the children of wrath (Job 14:4;
Psa 51:5; Eph 2:3).
Q. Can you provide further proof of this?—A. Yes, it is said that by one man came sin, death, judgment, and condemnation upon all men (Rom 5:12-19).
Q. Do we then come sinners into the world?—A. Yes, we are transgressors from the womb, and go astray as soon as we are born, speaking lies (Isa 48:8; Psa 58:3).
Q. But as Adam fell with us in him, so did he not by faith rise with us in him? for he had no seed until he had the promise.—A. He fell as a public person,[5] but believed the promise as a single person. Adam's faith saved not the world, though Adam's sin overthrew it.
Q. But do not some hold that we are sinners only by imitation?—A. Yes, they are being deceived. But God's word saith, we are children of wrath by nature, that is, by birth and generation.
Q. Can you bring further proof of this?—A. Yes: on the day that we were born, we were polluted in our own blood, and cast out to the loathing of our persons. Again, the children of old that were dedicated unto the Lord, a sacrifice was offered for them at a month old, which was before they were sinners by imitation (Eze 16:4-9; Num 18:14-16).
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