The Fifth Principle Expounded.

Q. What outward means must we use to obtain faith, and all the blessings of God which come by faith?
A. The preaching of God's word, and the administration of the Sacraments, and prayer. ¹

Q. Where is the word of God to be found?
A. The whole word of God, needful to salvation, is set down in the holy Scriptures.

Q. How know you that the Scriptures are the word of God, and not men's policies?
A. I am assured of it: first because the Holy Ghost persuadeth my conscience that it is so. ² Secondly, I see it by experience: for the preaching of the Scriptures have the power of God in them to humble a man, when they are preached, and to cast him down to hell, and afterward to restore and raise him up again. ³

Q. What is the use of the word of God preached?
A. First, it breedeth, and then it increaseth faith in them which are chosen to salvation; but unto them that perish, it is by reason of their corruption an occasion of their further damnation. ⁴

Q. How must we hear God's word, that it may be effectual to our salvation?
A. We must come unto it with hunger-bitten hearts, having an appetite to the word; we must mark it with attention, receive it by faith, submit ourselves unto it with fear and trembling, even when our faults are reproved: Lastly, we must hide it in the corners of our hearts, that we may frame our lives and conversations by it. ⁵

Q. What is a Sacrament?
A. A sign to represent, a seal to confirm, an instrument to convey Christ and all his benefits to them that do believe in him. ⁶

Q. Why must a Sacrament represent the mercies of God before our eyes?
A. Because we are dull to conceive and to remember them.

Q. Why do the Sacraments seal unto us the mercies of God?
A. Because we are full of unbelief, and doubting of them.

Q. Why is the Sacrament the instrument of the spirit to convey the mercies of God into our hearts?
A. Because we are like Thomas; we will not believe till we feel them in some measure in our hearts.

Q. How many Sacraments are there?
A. Two and no more: Baptism, by which we have our admission into the true Church of God, and the Lord's Supper, by which we are nourished and preserved in the true Church after our admission. ⁷

Q. What is done in Baptism?
A. In the assembly of the Church the covenant of grace between God and the party baptized is solemnly confirmed and sealed. ⁸

Q. In this covenant, what doth God promise to the party baptized?
A. Christ, with all blessings that come by him. ⁹

Q. To what condition is the party baptized bound?
A. To receive Christ, and to repent his sin. ¹⁰

Q. What meaneth the sprinkling or dipping in water?
A. It seals unto us remission of sins, and sanctification by the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ. ¹¹

Q. How cometh it to pass, that many after their baptism for a long time feel not the effect and fruit of it, and some never?
A. The fault is not in God, who keeps his covenants, but the fault is in themselves, in that they do not keep the condition of the covenant, to receive Christ by faith, and to repent of all their sins.

Q. When shall a man then see the effect of his baptism?
A. At what time soever he doth receive Christ by faith, though it be many years after, he shall then feel the power of God to regenerate him, and to work all things in him, which he offered in baptism. ¹²

Q. How if a man never keep the condition to which he bound himself in baptism?
A. His damnation shall be the greater, because he breaketh his vow made to God. ¹³

Q. What is done in the Lord's Supper?
A. The former covenant, solemnly ratified in baptism, is renewed in the Lord's Supper, between the Lord himself and the receiver. ¹⁴

Q. Who is the receiver?
A. Every one that hath been baptized, and after his baptism hath truly believed in Christ, and repented of his sins from his heart. ¹⁵

Q. What meaneth the bread and wine, the eating of the bread and drinking of the wine?
A. These outward actions are a second seal, set by the Lord's own hand unto his covenant. ¹⁶ And they do give every receiver to understand that as God doth bless the bread and wine, to preserve and strengthen the body of the receiver, so Christ apprehended and received by faith shall nourish him, and preserve both body and soul unto eternal life.

Q. What shall a true receiver feel in himself after the receiving of the Sacrament?
A. The increase of his faith in Christ, the increase of sanctification, a greater measure of dying to sin, a greater care to live in newness of life. ¹⁷

Q. What if a man after the receiving of the sacrament, never find any such thing in himself?
A. He may well suspect himself whether he did ever repent or not: and thereupon is to use means to come to sound faith and repentance.

Q. What is another means of increasing faith?
A. Prayer.

Q. What is prayer?
A. A familiar speech with God in the name of Christ, ¹⁸ in which either we crave things needful, or give thanks for things received. ¹⁹

Q. In asking things needful, what is required?
A. Two things, an earnest desire, and faith.

Q. What things must a Christian man's heart desire? ²⁰
A. Six things especially.

Q. What are they?
A.

1. That he may glorify God. ²¹
2. That God may reign in his heart, and not sin. ²²
3. That he may do God's will, and not the lusts of his flesh. ²³
4. That he may rely himself on God's providence for all the means of this temporal life. ²⁴
5. That he may be justified, and be at peace with God. ²⁵
6. That by the power of God he may be strengthened against all temptations. ²⁶

Q. What is faith?
A. A persuasion that those things which we truly desire, God will grant them for Christ's sake. ²⁷