Canons of Dordt, week 31

The Third and Fourth Heads of Doctrine: Human Corruption, Conversion to God, and the Way It Occurs

Article 15: Responses to God’s Grace

God does not owe this grace to anyone. For what could God owe to one who has nothing to give that can be paid back? Indeed, what could God owe to one who has nothing of his own to give but sin and falsehood? Therefore the person who receives this grace owes and gives eternal thanks to God alone; the person who does not receive it either does not care at all about these spiritual things and is satisfied with himself in his condition, or else in self-assurance foolishly boasts about having something which he lacks. Furthermore, following the example of the apostles, we are to think and to speak in the most favorable way about those who outwardly profess their faith and better their lives, for the inner chambers of the heart are unknown to us. But for others who have not yet been called, we are to pray to the God who calls things that do not exist as though they did. In no way, however, are we to pride ourselves as better than they, as though we had distinguished ourselves from them.

Article 16: Regeneration’s Effect

However, just as by the fall man did not cease to be man, endowed with intellect and will, and just as sin, which has spread through the whole human race, did not abolish the nature of the human race but distorted and spiritually killed it, so also this divine grace of regeneration does not act in people as if they were blocks and stones; nor does it abolish the will and its properties or coerce a reluctant will by force, but spiritually revives, heals, reforms, and — in a manner at once pleasing and powerful — bends it back. As a result, a ready and sincere obedience of the Spirit now begins to prevail where before the rebellion and resistance of the flesh were completely dominant. It is in this that the true and spiritual restoration and freedom of our will consists. Thus, if the marvelous Maker of every good thing were not dealing with us, man would have no hope of getting up from his fall by his free choice, by which he plunged himself into ruin when still standing upright.

Larger Catechism, week 31

Q. 127. What is the honour that inferiors owe to their superiors?
A. The honour which inferiors owe to their superiors is, all due reverence in heart,^[658] word, ^[659] and behaviour;^[660] prayer and thanksgiving for them;^[661] imitation of their virtues and graces;^[662] willing obedience to their lawful commands and counsels;^[663] due submission to their corrections;^[664] fidelity to,^[665] defence,^[666] and maintenance of their persons and authority, according to their several ranks, and the nature of their places;^[667] bearing with their infirmities, and covering them in love,^[668] that so they may be an honour to them and to their government.^[669]

Q. 128. What are the sins of inferiors against their superiors?
A. The sins of inferiors against their superiors are, all neglect of the duties required toward them;^[670] envying at,^[671] contempt of,^[672] and rebellion^[673] against, their persons^[674] and places,^[675] in their lawful counsels,^[676] commands, and corrections;^[677] cursing, mocking^[678] and all such refractory and scandalous carriage, as proves a shame and dishonour to them and their government.^[679]

Q. 129. What is required of superiors towards their inferiors?
A. It is required of superiors, according to that power they receive from God, and that relation wherein they stand, to love,^[680] pray for,^[681] and bless their inferiors;^[682] to instruct,^[683] counsel, and admonish them;^[684] countenancing,^[685] commending,^[686] and rewarding such as do well;^[687] and discountenancing,^[688] reproving, and chastising such as do ill;^[689] protecting,^[690] and providing for them all things necessary for soul^[691] and body:^[692] and by grave, wise, holy, and exemplary carriage, to procure glory to God,^[693] honour to themselves,^[694] and so to preserve that authority which God hath put upon them.^[695]

Q. 130. What are the sins of superiors?
A. The sins of superiors are, besides the neglect of the duties required of them,^[696] and inordinate seeking of themselves,^[697] their own glory,^[698] ease, profit, or pleasure;^[699] commanding things unlawful,^[700] or not in the power of inferiors to perform;^[701] counseling,^[702] encouraging,^[703] or favouring them in that which is evil;^[704] dissuading, discouraging, or discountenancing them in that which is good;^[705] correcting them unduly;^[706] careless exposing, or leaving them to wrong, temptation, and danger;^[707] provoking them to wrath;^[708] or any way dishonouring themselves, or lessening their authority, by an unjust, indiscreet, rigorous, or remiss behaviour.^[709]

Q. 131. What are the duties of equals?
A. The duties of equals are, to regard the dignity and worth of each other,^[710] in giving honour to go one before another;^[711] and to rejoice in each others’ gifts and advancement, as their own.^[712]

Q. 132. What are the sins of equals?
A. The sins of equals are, besides the neglect of the duties required,^[713] the undervaluing of the worth,^[714] envying the gifts,^[715] grieving at the advancement of prosperity one of another;^[716] and usurping pre-eminence one over another.^[717]

Q. 133. What is the reason annexed to the fifth commandment, the more to enforce it?
A. The reason annexed to the fifth commandment, in these words, That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,^[718] is an express promise of long life and prosperity, as far as it shall serve for God’s glory and their own good, to all such as keep this commandment.^[719]

Belgic Confession, week 4

Article 8: The Trinity

In keeping with this truth and Word of God we believe in one God, who is one single essence, in whom there are three persons, really, truly, and eternally distinct according to their incommunicable properties– namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is the cause, origin, and source of all things, visible as well as invisible. The Son is the Word, the Wisdom, and the image of the Father. The Holy Spirit is the eternal power and might, proceeding from the Father and the Son. Nevertheless, this distinction does not divide God into three, since Scripture teaches us that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each has his own subsistence distinguished by characteristics– yet in such a way that these three persons are only one God. It is evident then that the Father is not the Son and that the Son is not the Father, and that likewise the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. Nevertheless, these persons, thus distinct, are neither divided nor fused or mixed together. For the Father did not take on flesh, nor did the Spirit, but only the Son. The Father was never without his Son, nor without his Holy Spirit, since all these are equal from eternity, in one and the same essence. There is neither a first nor a last, for all three are one in truth and power, in goodness and mercy.

Shorter Catechism, week 30

Q. 45. Which is the first commandment?
A. The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.^[119]

Q. 46. What is required in the first commandment?
A. 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.^[120]

Q. 47. What is forbidden in the first commandment?
A. The first commandment forbiddeth the denying,^[121] or not worshiping and glorifying, the true God as God,^[122] and our God;^[123] and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to him alone.^[124]

Q. 48. What are we specially taught by these words before me in the first commandment?
A. 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.^[125]

Children’s Catechism, week 30

Q. 91. What is the fifth commandment?
A. The fifth commandment is, Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Q. 92. What does the fifth commandment teach me?
A. To love and obey our parents and teachers.

Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 30

30. Lord’s Day

Q. 80. What difference is there between the Lord’s supper and the popish mass?
A. The Lord’s supper testifies to us, that we have a full pardon of all sin by the only sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which he himself has once accomplished on the cross; [a] and, that we by the Holy Ghost are ingrafted into Christ, [b] who, according to his human nature is now not on earth, but in heaven, at the right hand of God his Father, [c] and will there be worshipped by us. [d] But the mass teaches, that the living and dead have not the pardon of sins through the sufferings of Christ, unless Christ is also daily offered for them by the priests; and further, that Christ is bodily under the form of bread and wine, and therefore is to be worshipped in them; so that the mass, at bottom, is nothing else than a denial of the one sacrifice and sufferings of Jesus Christ, and an accursed idolatry. [e]

Q. 81. For whom is the Lord’s supper instituted?
A. For those who are truly sorrowful for their sins, and yet trust that these are forgiven them for the sake of Christ; and that their remaining infirmities are covered by his passion and death; and who also earnestly desire to have their faith more and more strengthened, and their lives more holy; but hypocrites, and such as turn not to God with sincere hearts, eat and drink judgment to themselves. [a]

Q. 82. Are they also to be admitted to this supper, who, by confession and life, declare themselves unbelieving and ungodly?
A. No; for by this, the covenant of God would be profaned, and his wrath kindled against the whole congregation; [a] therefore it is the duty of the christian church, according to the appointment of Christ and his apostles, to exclude such persons, by the keys of the kingdom of heaven, till they show amendment of life.

Westminster Confession, week 30

Chapter 19: Of the Law of God

1: God gave to Adam a law, as a covenant of works, by which He bound him and all his posterity, to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience, promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it.^[365]

2: This law, after his fall, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness; and, as such, was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables:^[366] the first four commandments containing our duty towards God; and the other six, our duty to man.^[367]

Canons of Dordt, week 30

The Third and Fourth Heads of Doctrine: Human Corruption, Conversion to God, and the Way It Occurs

Article 13: The Incomprehensible Way of Regeneration

In this life believers cannot fully understand the way this work occurs; meanwhile, they rest content with knowing and experiencing that by this grace of God they do believe with the heart and love their Savior.

Article 14: The Way God Gives Faith

In this way, therefore, faith is a gift of God, not in the sense that it is offered by God for man to choose, but that it is in actual fact bestowed on man, breathed and infused into him. Nor is it a gift in the sense that God bestows only the potential to believe, but then awaits assent — the act of believing — from man’s choice; rather, it is a gift in the sense that he who works both willing and acting and, indeed, works all things in all people produces in man both the will to believe and the belief itself.

Larger Catechism, week 30

Q. 122. What is the sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man?
A. The sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man, is, to love our neighbour as ourselves,^[646] and to do to others what we would have them to do to us.^[647]

Q. 123. Which is the fifth commandment?
A. The fifth commandment is, Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.^[648]

Q. 124. Who are meant by father and mother in the fifth commandment?
A. By father and mother, in the fifth commandment, are meant, not only natural parents,^[649] but all superiors in age^[650] and gifts;^[651] and especially such as, by God’s ordinance, are over us in place of authority, whether in family,^[652] church,^[653] or commonwealth.^[654]

Q. 125. Why are superiors styled father and mother?
A. Superiors are styled father and mother, both to teach them in all duties toward their inferiors, like natural parents, to express love and tenderness to them, according to their several relations;^[655] and to work inferiors to a greater willingness and cheerfulness in performing their duties to their superiors, as to their parents.^[656]

Q. 126. What is the general scope of the fifth commandment?
A. The general scope of the fifth commandment is, the performance of those duties which we mutually owe in our several relations, as inferiors, superiors, or equals.^[657]

Belgic Confession, week 3

Article 7: The Sufficiency of Scripture

We believe that this Holy Scripture contains the will of God completely and that everything one must believe to be saved is sufficiently taught in it. For since the entire manner of service which God requires of us is described in it at great length, no one– even an apostle or an angel from heaven, as Paul says–[2] ought to teach other than what the Holy Scriptures have already taught us. For since it is forbidden to add to or subtract from the Word of God,[3] this plainly demonstrates that the teaching is perfect and complete in all respects. Therefore we must not consider human writings– no matter how holy their authors may have been– equal to the divine writings; nor may we put custom, nor the majority, nor age, nor the passage of time or persons, nor councils, decrees, or official decisions above the truth of God, for truth is above everything else. For all human beings are liars by nature and more vain than vanity itself. Therefore we reject with all our hearts everything that does not agree with this infallible rule, as we are taught to do by the apostles when they say, “Test the spirits to see if they are of God,”[4] and also, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house.”[5]