Westminster Larger Catechism
The 1647 companion catechism, fuller in both doctrine and duty.
Q. 1 — What is the chief and highest end of man?Q. 2 — How doth it appear that there is a God?Q. 3 — What is the word of God?Q. 4 — How doth it appear that the scriptures are the word of God?Q. 5 — What do the scriptures principally teach?Q. 6 — What do the scriptures make known of God?Q. 7 — What is God?Q. 8 — Are there more Gods than one?Q. 9 — How many persons are there in the Godhead?Q. 10 — What are the personal properties of the three persons in the Godhead?Q. 11 — How doth it appear that the Son and the Holy Ghost are God equal with the Father?Q. 12 — What are the decrees of God?Q. 13 — What hath God especially decreed concerning angels and men?Q. 14 — How doth God execute his decrees?Q. 15 — What is the work of creation?Q. 16 — How did God create angels?Q. 17 — How did God create man?Q. 18 — What are God's works of providence?Q. 19 — What is God's providence towards the angels?Q. 20 — What was the providence of God toward man in the estate in which he was created?Q. 21 — Did man continue in that estate wherein God at first created him?Q. 22 — Did all mankind fall in that first transgression ?Q. 23 — Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?Q. 24 — What is sin?Q. 25 — Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?Q. 26 — How is original sin conveyed from our first parents unto their posterity?Q. 27 — What misery did the fall bring upon mankind?Q. 28 — What are the punishments of sin in this world?Q. 29 — What are the punishments of sin in the world to come?Q. 30 — Doth God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?Q. 31 — With whom was the covenant of grace made?Q. 32 — How is the grace of God manifested in the second covenant?Q. 33 — Was the covenant of grace always administered after one and the same manner?Q. 34 — How was the covenant of grace administered under the Old Testament?Q. 35 — How is the covenant of grace administered under the New Testament?Q. 36 — Who is the Mediator of the covenant of grace?Q. 37 — How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?Q. 38 — Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be God?Q. 39 — Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be man?Q. 40 — Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be God and man in one person ?Q. 41 — Why was our Mediator called Jesus?Q. 42 — Why was our Mediator called Christ?Q. 43 — How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?Q. 44 — How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?Q. 45 — How doth Christ execute the office of a king?Q. 46 — What was the estate of Christ's humiliation?Q. 47 — How did Christ humble himself in his conception and birth?Q. 48 — How did Christ humble himself in his life?Q. 49 — How did Christ humble himself in his death?Q. 50 — Wherein consisted Christ's humiliation after his death?Q. 51 — What was the estate of Christ's exaltation?Q. 52 — How was Christ exalted in his resurrection?Q. 53 — How was Christ exalted in his ascension?Q. 54 — How is Christ exalted in his sitting at the right hand of God?Q. 55 — How doth Christ make intercession?Q. 56 — How is Christ to be exalted in his coming again to judge the world?Q. 57 — What benefits hath Christ procured by his mediation?Q. 58 — How do we come to be made partakers of the benefits which Christ hath procured?Q. 59 — Who are made partakers of redemption through Christ?Q. 60 — Can they who have never heard the gospel, and so know not Jesus Christ, nor believe in him, be saved by their living according to the light of nature?Q. 61 — Are all they saved who hear the gospel, and live in the church?Q. 62 — What is the visible church?Q. 63 — What are the special privileges of the visible church?Q. 64 — What is the invisible church?Q. 65 — What special benefits do the members of the invisible church enjoy by Christ?Q. 66 — What is that union which the elect have with Christ?Q. 67 — What is effectual calling?Q. 68 — Are the elect only effectually called?Q. 69 — What is the communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ?Q. 70 — What is justification?Q. 71 — How is justification an act of God's free grace?Q. 72 — What is justifying faith?Q. 73 — How doth faith justify a sinner in the sight of God?Q. 74 — What is adoption?Q. 75 — What is sanctification?Q. 76 — What is repentance unto life?Q. 77 — Wherein do justification and sanctification differ?Q. 78 — Whence ariseth the imperfection of sanctification in believers?Q. 79 — May not true believers, by reason of their imperfections, and the many temptations and sins they are overtaken with, fall away from the state of grace ?Q. 80 — Can true believers be infallibly assured that they are in the estate of grace, and that they shall persevere therein unto salvation?Q. 81 — Are all true believers at all times assured of their present being in the estate of grace, and that they shall be saved?Q. 82 — What is the communion in glory which the members of the invisible church have with Christ?Q. 83 — What is the communion in glory with Christ which the members of the invisible church enjoy in this life?Q. 84 — Shall all men die?Q. 85 — Death, being the wages of sin, why are not the righteous delivered from death, seeing all their sins are forgiven in Christ?Q. 86 — What is the communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death?Q. 87 — What are we to believe concerning the resurrection?Q. 88 — What shall immediately follow after the resurrection?Q. 89 — What shall be done to the wicked at the day of judgment?Q. 90 — What shall be done to the righteous at the day of judgment?Q. 91 — What is the duty which God requireth of man?Q. 92 — What did God at first reveal unto man as the rule of his obedience?Q. 93 — What is the moral law?Q. 94 — Is there any use of the moral law to man since the fall?Q. 95 — Of what use is the moral law to all men?Q. 96 — What particular use is there of the moral law to unregenerate men?Q. 97 — What special use is there of the moral law to the regenerate?Q. 98 — Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?Q. 99 — What rules are to be observed for the right understanding of the ten commandments?Q. 100 — What special things are we to consider in the ten commandments?Q. 101 — What is the preface to the ten commandments?Q. 102 — What is the sum of the four commandments which contain our duty to God?Q. 103 — Which is the first commandment?Q. 104 — What are the duties required in the first commandment?Q. 105 — What are the sins forbidden in the first commandment?Q. 106 — What are we specially taught by these words "before me" in the first commandment?Q. 107 — Which is the second commandment?Q. 108 — What are the duties required in the second commandment?Q. 109 — What are the sins forbidden in the second commandment?Q. 110 — What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment, the more to enforce it?Q. 111 — Which is the third commandment?Q. 112 — What is required in the third commandment?Q. 113 — What are the sins forbidden in the third commandment?Q. 114 — What reasons are annexed to the third commandment?Q. 115 — Which is the fourth commandment?Q. 116 — What is required in the fourth commandment?Q. 117 — How is the sabbath or the Lord's day to be sanctified?Q. 118 — Why is the charge of keeping the sabbath more specially directed to governors of families, and other superiors?Q. 119 — What are the sins forbidden in the fourth commandment?Q. 120 — What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment, the more to enforce it?Q. 121 — Why is the word Remember set in the beginning of the fourth commandment?Q. 122 — What is the sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man?Q. 123 — Which is the fifth commandment?Q. 124 — Who are meant by father and mother in the fifth commandment?Q. 125 — Why are superiors styled Father and Mother?Q. 126 — What is the general scope of the fifth commandment?Q. 127 — What is the honor that inferiors owe to their superiors?Q. 128 — What are the sins of inferiors against their superiors?Q. 129 — What is required of superiors towards their inferiors?Q. 130 — What are the sins of superiors?Q. 131 — What are the duties of equals?Q. 132 — What are the sins of equals?Q. 133 — What is the reason annexed to the fifth commandment, the more to enforce it?Q. 134 — Which is the sixth commandment?Q. 135 — What are the duties required in the sixth commandment?Q. 136 — What are the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment?Q. 137 — Which is the seventh commandment?Q. 138 — What are the duties required in the seventh commandment?Q. 139 — What are the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment?Q. 140 — Which is the eighth commandment?Q. 141 — What are the duties required in the eighth commandment?Q. 142 — What are the sins forbidden in the eighth commandment?Q. 143 — Which is the ninth commandment?Q. 144 — What are the duties required in the ninth commandment?Q. 145 — What are the sins forbidden in the ninth commandment?Q. 146 — Which is the tenth commandment?Q. 147 — What are the duties required in the tenth commandment?Q. 148 — What are the sins forbidden in the tenth commandment?Q. 149 — Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?Q. 150 — Are all transgressions of the law of God equally heinous in themselves, and in the sight of God?Q. 151 — What are those aggravations that make some sins more heinous than others?Q. 152 — What doth every sin deserve at the hands of God?Q. 153 — What doth God require of us, that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us by reason of the transgression of the law?Q. 154 — What are the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of his mediation?Q. 155 — How is the word made effectual to salvation?Q. 156 — Is the word of God to be read by all?Q. 157 — How is the word of God to be read?Q. 158 — By whom is the word of God to be preached?Q. 159 — How is the word of God to be preached by those that are called thereunto?Q. 160 — What is required of those that hear the word preached?Q. 161 — How do the sacraments become effectual means of salvation?Q. 162 — What is a sacrament?Q. 163 — What are the parts of a sacrament?Q. 164 — How many sacraments hath Christ instituted in his church under the New Testament?Q. 165 — What is Baptism?Q. 166 — Unto whom is Baptism to be administered?Q. 167 — How is our Baptism to be improved by us?Q. 168 — What is the Lord's supper?Q. 169 — How hath Christ appointed bread and wine to be given and received in the sacrament of the Lord's supper?Q. 170 — How do they that worthily communicate in the Lord's supper feed upon the body and blood of Christ therein?Q. 171 — How are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper to prepare themselves before they come unto it?Q. 172 — May one who doubteth of his being in Christ, or of his due preparation, come to the Lord's supper?Q. 173 — May any who profess the faith, and desire to come to the Lord's supper, be kept from it?Q. 174 — What is required of them that receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper in the time of the administration of it?Q. 175 — What is the duty of Christians, after they have received the sacrament of the Lord's supper?Q. 176 — Wherein do the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper agree?Q. 177 — Wherein do the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper differ?Q. 178 — What is prayer?Q. 179 — Are we to pray unto God only?Q. 180 — What is it to pray in the name of Christ?Q. 181 — Why are we to pray in the name of Christ?Q. 182 — How doth the Spirit help us to pray?Q. 183 — For whom are we to pray?Q. 184 — For what things are we to pray?Q. 185 — How are we to pray?Q. 186 — What rule hath God given for our direction in the duty of prayer?Q. 187 — How is the Lord's prayer to be used?Q. 188 — Of how many parts doth the Lord's prayer consist?Q. 189 — What doth the preface of the Lord's prayer teach us?Q. 190 — What do we pray for in the first petition?Q. 191 — What do we pray for in the second petition?Q. 192 — What do we pray for in the third petition?Q. 193 — What do we pray for in the fourth petition?Q. 194 — What do we pray for in the fifth petition?Q. 195 — What do we pray for in the sixth petition?Q. 196 — What doth the conclusion of the Lord's prayer teach us?