or in every respect, equal, and just, Ezek. xviii. 25. Q. 18. Whom should we resemble in our obedience? A. The holy angels: we should study to do the will of God [as the angels do in heaven]. Q. 19. Can we know and obey the will of God as perfectly on earth, as the angels do in heaven? A. No: but we should copy after them, as to the manner of their obedience. Q. 20. What is it to copy after them as to the manner of their obedience? "A. It is to essay obedience with the like humility, cheerfulness, faithfulness, diligence, zeal, sincerity, and constancy, as the angels do in heaven.”* QUEST. 104. What do we pray for in the fourth petition? ANSW. In the fourth petition, (which is, Give us this day our daily bread), we pray, That of God's free gift, we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them. Q. 1. What doth our Catechism mean by [bread] in this petition? A. It explains it to be [the good things of this life]? Q. 2. What do you understand by the good things of this life? A. Not only meat and drink; but clothes to cover us, houses to shelter us, sleep to refresh us, and the like; which are called things needful for the body, James ii. 16. Q. 3. May not spiritual mercies, or food to our souls, be intended by the bread here mentioned? A. No: the petition respects temporal mercies, or the good things of a present life. Q. 4. How do you prove, that the good things of this life, and not spiritual mercies, are intended in this petition? A. From the completeness, and compendiousness of the Lord's prayer; for, it cannot be supposed, that, in a prayer so complete, the good things of this life would be quite omitted; or, that in a prayer so compendious, spiritual mercies would, without necessity, be repeated in this petition, when the other petitions are so full of them. Q.5. Why are these good things called by the general name of BREAD? A. Because, though bread be the most common,-yet it is the most useful and necessary support of natural life: and therefore called the staff, or stay of bread, Isa. iii. 1. Q. 6. Why called [daily] bread? *Larger Cat. Quest. 192. the supports of nature recurs dai A. Yes: if God shall continue ly; and likewise to teach us con-us, or them, in life, then, in this tentment with our present allow-case, we may lawfully beg of him, ance in providence, Phil. iv. 11. Q. 7. What quantity of daily bread, or of the good things of this life, may we lawfully pray for? A. For a [competent portion] of them. Q. 8. What is meant by a competent portion? A. Such a measure of temporal comforts, as our necessities may require, or will tend to our good, Prov. xxx. 8.-" Give me neither poverty nor riches: feed me with food convenient for me." 99 Q. 9. What is imported in our praying, that God would [give] us this competent portion? A. It imports our desire to receive it [of God's free gift]. Q. 10. What do we acknowledge, when we pray to receive temporal comforts of God's free gift? A. We thereby acknowledge, "that in Adam, and by our own sin, we have forfeited our right to all the outward blessings of this life, and deserve to be wholly deprived of them by God."* Q. 11. How doth it appear, that we have, by sin, forfeited our right to outward blessings? A. It appears from this, that we have thereby forfeited our life itself, Gen. ii. 17; and therefore, by necessary consequence, all the supports of it, Jer. v. 25. Q. 12. Why do we say, [Give us THIS day]? A. Because if God shall be pleased to afford us the necessary supplies of each day, when it comes, we ought not to be anxiously solicitous about to-morrow, Matt. vii. 34. Q. 13. May we not lawfully pray for what respects the future condition of ourselves, or families, in this world? that neither we, nor they, may ever be destitute of what is necessary for our glorifying God, in the respective stations, wherein he has, or may place us while in it, Gen. xlvii. 20, 21, 22. Q. 14. Doth God's giving us our daily bread, exclude the use of means for the obtaining of it? A. No: for, "if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel," 1 Tim. v. 8. Q. 15. May we not then ascribe our daily bread to our own diligence and industry? A. No: because it is God who gives us ability to pursue our respective callings, and it is he who succeeds our lawful endeavours in them, Deut. vii. 17, 18-" Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God; for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth." Q. 16. Why do we say, Give us [our] daily bread? why do we call it OURS? A. Because whatever measure sings, God in his providence, or proportion of outward blesthinks fit we should receive, is properly ours, whether it be more or less, 1 Tim. vi. 8. Having food and raiment let us therewith be content." 66 Q. 17. Since both the godly and the wicked have their daily provision from God, what difference is there as to the manner in which the one and the other hold their outward comforts? A. There is a wide difference as to the manner in which the godly and the wicked hold their outward comforts, whether we consider their respective right and title; their present enjoyment; or their future expectation. * Larger Cat. Quest. 198. Q. 18. What is the difference | God necessary to all our outward as to their respective right and comforts? title? A. The wicked have only a civil and common right; but the godly have, besides this, a spiritual and covenant right also, 1 Tim. iv. 8. Q. 19. What is the difference as to their present enjoyment? A. The godly have God's blessing on what they presently enjoy; but the wicked his curse. In this respect, "a little that a righteous man hath, is better than the riches of many wicked," Psal. xxxvii. 16. Q. 20. What is the difference as to their future expectation? A. The godly have the good things of this world, as pledges of the far better things of another; but the wicked have them as their whole pay; for they have their portion in this life, Psal. xvii. 14. A. Because without this, none of them could reach the end for which they are used; our food could not nourish us, nor our clothes warm us, nor medicines, however skilfully applied, give any relief from our ailments, Job XX. 22, 23. Q. 23. Will God's blessing make the meanest fare answer the end of comfortable nourishment? A. Yes: as is evident from the example of Daniel, and the other three children of the captivity, who desired to be proven ten days, with no better cheer than pulse and water:-"And at the end of ten days, their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh, than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat," Dan. i. 12. 15. Q. 24. Why do we pray in the plural number, Give us? Q. 21. What should we pray for in order to have the comfortable use of the good things of this life, A. To express a concern for which God may confer upon us? the good things of this life to the A. That we may [enjoy his bless-rest of our fellow-creatures, as well ing with them]. as to ourselves, 1 Kings viii. 35— Q. 22. Why is the blessing of 40. QUEST. 105. What do we pray for in the fifth petition? : ANSW. In the fifth petition, (which is, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors), we pray, That God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because, by his grace, we are enabled, from the heart, to forgive others. Q. 1. Why is this petition connected with the former, by the copulative article [and]? A. To teach us, that we can have no outward comfort with God's blessing, unless our sins are pardoned, and our persons accepted in Christ, 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. Q. 2. What are we to understand by [debts] in this petition? A. By debts we are to understand our SINS, whether original or actual, of omission or commission, Luke xi. 4. Q. 3. Why are these called debts? A. Because of the debt of punishment we owe to the justice of God, on account of them, Rom. vi. 23. "The wages of sin is death." Q. 4. Can we pay any part of this debt to the justice of God? A. No: "neither we, nor any other creature, can make the least satisfaction for it, Psal. cxxx. | we expect that God will pardon 3" or pay the least farthing all our sins? thereof, Matt. xviii. 25. Q. 5. What other debt are we naturally owing, beside the debt of punishment as transgressors? A. We should expect that he will do it [freely], for his own name's sake, Psal. xxv. 11. Q. 15. How can God be said to pardon our sins freely, when he doth it on account of the surety A. We are likewise owing a debt of obedience to the law as a covenant; wherein we are also ut-righteousness imputed to us? terly insolvent; "being unto every good work reprobate," Tit. i. 16. Q. 6. What are we to pray for with reference to our sins or debts? A. [That God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon them all]. Q. 7. Whose prerogative is it to pardon? A. It is God's only, Micah vii. 18. Q. 8. From what spring or fountain in God doth pardon flow? A. From his own gracious nature, Psal. lxxxvi. 5. and sovereign will, Exod. xxxiii. 19. A. God's accepting of Christ as our Surety, and his fulfilling all righteousness in our room, were both of them acts of rich, free, and sovereign grace, Psal. lxxxix. 19. Luke xii. 50. Though the pardon of our sins be of debt to Christ, yet it is free to us. Eph. i. 7. Q. 16. When a believer prays for the forgiveness of his daily sins, does he pray for a new formal pardon of them? A. Whatever may be the believer's practice as to this matter, at some times, through the preva Q. 9. What is it for God to [par-lency of darkness and unbelief; don]? A. It is to "acquit us both from the guilt and punishment of sin, Rom. iii. 26."** Q. 10. For whose sake doth he pardon? A. Only [for Christ's sake]. Q. 11. What is it for God to pardon for Christ's sake? A. It is to vent his pardoning grace through the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, apprehended and applied by faith, Rom. iii. 25."* yet it is certain, that the pardon of sin, in justification, is one perfect act, completed at once, and never needs to be repeated, Micah vii. 19.-" Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Q. 17. If daily sins are already forgiven in justification, in so far as the not imputing of them is secured therein; why is the believer here directed to pray for the pardon of them. A. As the evidences of pardon Q. 12. Could God pardon sin, may be frequently eclipsed, and without any respect to the obedi-fatherly displeasure incurred, by ence and satisfaction of Christ? A. No: because justice behoved to be satisfied: for, "without shedding of blood is no remission," Heb. ix. 22. Q. 13. What is the extent of pardoning grace? A. It extends to [ALL our sins], Psal. ciii. 3. Q. 14. In what manner should our daily failings; it is therefore our duty to pray, that God's fatherly displeasure may be remov ed, and the joy of his salvation restored, by his "giving us daily more and more assurance of forgiveness, Psal. li. 8, 9, 10. 12."* Q. 18. Upon what ground may we be encouraged to ask and expect from God, the intimation of * Larger Cat. Quest. 194. the pardon of our daily sins and | pass over a transgression, Prov. failings? xix. 11. A. Because, by his grace, we are enabled, from the heart, to forgive others. Q. 19. What is it we forgive to others? A. Personal injuries; or injuries as committed against ourselves, Matt. xviii. 15. Q. 20. Have personal injuries an offence done to God in them? A. To be sure they have: and it is our duty to pray that God would forgive it, Psal. xxxv. 13. Q. 21. In what manner should we forgive personal injuries? A. We should do it [from the heart]. Q. 22. What is it to forgive our fellow-creatures from the heart? Q. 27. Can forgiving the person, infer an approbation of his crime? A. No: we may forgive the person, and yet charge his sin close home upon his conscience, as Joseph did to his brethren, Gen xlv. 4. and 1. 20. Q. 28. What if forgiveness embolden the offender in the like injuries for the future? A. The fear of this should not be an excuse of omitting the present duty of forgiving; because we should leave events to the Lord. Q. 29. When we say, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;" do we mean to state a comparison between our forgiv ing others, and God's forgiving A. It is not only to lay aside all resentment against them; but to wish and do them all offices of us? kindness that lie in our power, as if they had never done us any injury, Matt. v. 44. Q. 23. Have we such a disposition in us naturally? A. No: God enables us to it [by his grace]. Q. 24. What are we naturally inclined unto with reference to personal injuries? A. We are naturally inclined to harbour hatred and malice in our hearts on account of them, and to revenge them if we can; as was the case with Esau against his brother Jacob, Gen. xxvii. 41. Q. 25. What should excite us to the duty of forgiving personal injuries? A. The examples of this disposition recorded in scripture for our imitation; such as, the example of Joseph, Gen. 1. 17. 21; of Stephen, Acts vii. 60; and of our Lord himself, Luke xxiii. 34. Q. 26. Can it ever be dishonourable to forgive a personal injury? A. No: it is a man's glory to A. No: there is an infinite disproportion betwixt the one and the other; the injuries our fellow-creatures do us are but few and small, in comparison of the innumerable and aggravated crimes we are guilty of against God, Matt. xviii. verses 24th and 28th compared. Q. 30. Can we, in a consistency with the scope of this petition, make our forgiving of others, the ground and reason of God's forgiving us? A. No: for this would be to put our forgiving of others, in the room of Christ's righteousness, on the account of which alone it is that God forgives us. Q. 31. What then is the true meaning of these words [as we forgive our debtors]? A. The meaning is, that we take encouragement to hope, that God will forgive us the sins of our daily walk, from this evidence, or " testimony in ourselves, that we, from the heart, forgive others their offences, Matt. vi. 14, 15. |