Westminster Confession, week 31

Chapter 19: Of the Law of God

3: Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel, as a church under age, ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits;^[368] and partly, holding forth divers instructions of moral duties.^[369] All which ceremonial laws are now abrogated, under the New Testament.^[370]

4: To them also, as a body politic, He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the State of that people; not obliging under any now, further than the general equity thereof may require.^[371]

5: The moral law does forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof;^[372] and that, not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it.^[373] Neither does Christ, in the Gospel, any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation.^[374]

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]

Westminster Confession, week 29

Chapter 18: Of Assurance of Grace and Salvation

3: This infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be partaker of it:^[357] yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may, without extraordinary revelation in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto.^[358] And therefore it is the duty of every one to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure,^[359] that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience,^[360]the proper fruits of this assurance; so far is it from inclining men to looseness.^[361]

4: True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it, by falling into some special sin which wounds the conscience and grieves the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation, by God’s withdrawing the light of His countenance, and suffering even such as fear Him to walk in darkness and to have no light:^[362] yet are they never so utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart, and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may, in due time, be revived;^[363] and by the which, in the mean time, they are supported from utter despair.^[364]

Westminster Confession, week 28

Chapter 18: Of Assurance of Grace and Salvation

1: Although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God, and estate of salvation^[348] (which hope of theirs shall perish):^[349] yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love Him in sincerity, endeavouring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may, in this life, be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace,^[350] and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed.^[351]

2: This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion grounded upon a fallible hope;^[352] but an infallible assurance of faith founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation,^[353] the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made,^[354] the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God,^[355] which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.^[356]

Westminster Confession, week 27

Chapter 17: Of the Perseverance of the Saints

1: They, whom God has accepted in His Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.^[333]

2: This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father;^[334] upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ,^[335] the abiding of the Spirit, and of the seed of God within them,^[336] and the nature of the covenant of grace:^[337] from all which arises also the certainty and infallibility thereof.^[338]

3: Nevertheless, they may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins;^[339] and, for a time, continue therein:^[340] whereby they incur God’s displeasure,^[341] and grieve His Holy Spirit,^[342] come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts,^[343] have their hearts hardened,^[344] and their consciences wounded;^[345] hurt and scandalize others,^[346] and bring temporal judgments upon themselves.^[347]

Westminster Confession, week 52

Chapter 33: Of the Last Judgment

1: God has appointed a day, wherein He will judge the world, in righteousness, by Jesus Christ,^[572] to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father.^[573] In which day, not only the apostate angels shall be judged,^[574] but likewise all persons that have lived upon earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ, to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds; and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil.^[575]

2: The end of God’s appointing this day is for the manifestation of the glory of His mercy, in the eternal salvation of the elect; and of His justice, in the damnation of the reprobate, who are wicked and disobedient. For then shall the righteous go into everlasting life, and receive that fullness of joy and refreshing, which shall come from the presence of the Lord; but the wicked who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into eternal torments, and be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.^[576]

3: As Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin; and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity:^[577] so will He have that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all carnal security, and be always watchful, because they know not at what hour the Lord will come; and may be ever prepared to say, Come Lord Jesus, come quickly, Amen.^[578]

Westminster Confession, week 51

Chapter 32: Of the State of Men after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead

1: The bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption:^[565] but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them:^[566] the souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God, in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies.^[567] And the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day.^[568] Beside these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledges none.

2: At the last day, such as are found alive shall not die, but be changed:^[569] and all the dead shall be raised up, with the selfsame bodies, and none other (although with different qualities), which shall be united again to their souls forever.^[570]

3: The bodies of the unjust shall, by the power of Christ, be raised to dishonor: the bodies of the just, by His Spirit, unto honor; and be made conformable to His own glorious body.^[571]

Westminster Confession, week 50

Chapter 31: Of Synods and Councils

1: For the better government, and further edification of the Church, there ought to be such assemblies as are commonly called synods or councils.^[559] And it belongeth to the overseers and other rulers of the particular church, by virtue of their office, and the power which Christ hath given them for edification, and not for destruction, to appoint such assemblies;^[5591] and to convene together in them, as often as they shall judge it expedient for the good of the Church.^[5592]

2: It belongs to synods and councils, ministerially to determine controversies of faith, and cases of conscience; to set down rules and directions for the better ordering of the public worship of God, and government of his Church; to receive complaints in cases of maladministration, and authoritatively to determine the same; which decrees and determinations, if consonant to the Word of God, are to be received with reverence and submission; not only for their agreement with the Word, but also for the power whereby they are made, as being an ordinance of God appointed thereunto in His Word.^[562]

3: All synods or councils, since the apostles’ times, whether general or particular, may err; and many have erred. Therefore they are not to be made the rule of faith, or practice; but to be used as a help in both.^[563]

4: Synods and councils are to handle, or conclude nothing, but that which is ecclesiastical: and are not to intermeddle with civil affairs which concern the commonwealth, unless by way of humble petition in cases extraordinary; or, by way of advice, for satisfaction of conscience, if they be thereunto required by the civil magistrate.^[564]

Westminster Confession, week 49

Chapter 30: Of Church Censures

1: The Lord Jesus, as king and head of His Church, has therein appointed a government, in the hand of Church officers, distinct from the civil magistrate.^[555]

2: To these officers the keys of the kingdom of heaven are committed; by virtue whereof, they have power, respectively, to retain, and remit sins; to shut that kingdom against the impenitent, both by the Word, and censures; and to open it unto penitent sinners, by the ministry of the Gospel; and by absolution from censures, as occasion shall require.^[556]

3: Church censures are necessary, for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren, for deterring of others from the like offenses, for purging out of that leaven which might infect the whole lump, for vindicating the honor of Christ, and the holy profession of the Gospel, and for preventing the wrath of God, which might justly fall upon the Church, if they should suffer His covenant, and the seals thereof, to be profaned by notorious and obstinate offenders.^[557]

4: For the better attaining of these ends, the officers of the Church are to proceed by admonition; suspension from the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper for a season; and by excommunication from the Church; according to the nature of the crime, and demerit of the person.^[558]

Westminster Confession, week 48

Chapter 29: Of the Lord’s Supper

5: The outward elements in this sacrament, duly set apart to the uses ordained by Christ, have such relation to Him crucified, as that, truly, yet sacramentally only, they are sometimes called by the name of the things they represent, to wit, the body and blood of Christ;^[548] albeit, in substance and nature, they still remain truly and only bread and wine, as they were before.^[549]

6: That doctrine which maintains a change of the substance of bread and wine, into the substance of Christ’s body and blood (commonly called transubstantiation) by consecration of a priest, or by any other way, is repugnant, not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense, and reason; overthrows the nature of the sacrament, and has been, and is, the cause of manifold superstitions; yes, of gross idolatries.^[550]

7: Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements, in this sacrament,^[551] do then also, inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally but spiritually, receive and feed upon, Christ crucified, and all benefits of His death: the body and blood of Christ being then, not corporally or carnally, in, with, or under the bread and wine; yet, as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses.^[552]

8: Although ignorant and wicked men receive the outward elements in this sacrament; yet, they receive not the thing signified thereby; but, by their unworthy coming thereunto, are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, to their own damnation. Wherefore, all ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy communion with Him, so are they unworthy of the Lord’s table; and cannot, without great sin against Christ, while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries,^[553] or be admitted thereunto.^[554]