What Is the Sum of the Ten Commandments?
Answ. The sum of the ten commandments
is, To love the Lord our God with all our
heart, with all our soul, with all our strength,
and with all our mind, and our neighbour as
ourselves.
Q. What is the fulfilment of the moral law?
A. Love to God, to ourselves, and to our neighbourc
Q. How is love the fulfilment of the law?
A. As it must be the principal, motive, ar.d substance, of every act of our obedience to the law, 1 Tim. i. 5.
Q^. What is the sum of the first table of the law?
A. To love the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, Matth. xxii. 37. Luke x. 27.
£>. What do you mean by that? A. It is to love
him in the most ardent and judicious manner, to the utmost of our power, and far above all other things.
Q. What necessarily belongs to this superlative love to God? A.. Our loving him for himself, devoting
our whole man to his service, centering our soul in him as its only rest, and contemning all things in comparison of him, Psalm lxxiii. 25, 26. and cxvi. 7.
Q. Why should we thus love God? A. Because he
is infinitely lovely in himself, and good to us, 1 John iv.
£). By what marks is our superlative love to God ma* nife.-.ted?
A. By our hatred of all sin 3 carefulness to please God j readiness to suffer for him j grief for his dishonour 5 frequent thoughts of him j love to his people, word, and ordinances-, and constant study to be !:ke him.
Q^ What is the sum of the second table of God’s law?
A. To love our neighbour as ourselves, James 11. S.. Q. What do you mean by that? A. To love our
neighbours as truly and constantly as curselve.s; and to do them all the good we tvould wish them to dc to us in like circumstances, Rom. xii. 9, — 21. Matth. vii. 12.
Q. If one would wish others to give him an opportunity of sinning, as of drunkenness, &c. should they cin so to him? A. No y to promote sin is hatred, not love.
- Q. Who is our neighbour, whom we must love as ourselves? A. All men, even our enemies. Matth. ^.44.
Q. Should we love all men alike? A. No.
Q^ Whom should we chiefly love I A. The saints.
G. Why should we love the sainjt§ above ethers i
A. They are most like God, a: d dearest I him.
Q. How is our love to be exercised towards all men?
A. In esteeming, pleasing-, helping, syrnpa -vug with, and praying for all men, Rom. x.ii. 10, — £1.
Q. How is our love to be exercised towards the saints?
A. In delighting in them as our chic c companions.
Qj, How is our love to be exercised towards our enemies t
A. In forgiving, praying for, and. rendering thera good for evil, Luke vi. 27, 28, &c
Qj Why should we love our enemies? A. That we
may obey God, and be like him, who shews mercy to sinners, and makes his sun to rise on*the evil and unjust.
O. What things are considerable about the commands?
A*. Their preface, the commands themselves, and the reasons annexed to several of them.