How Is the Word to Be Read and Heard, That It May Become Effectual to Salvation?

Answ. That the word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer; receive it with faith and love; lay it up in our hearts, and practise it in our lives.

Qj Who ought to read and hear the word of God?

A. All men ought to read and hear it, John v. 39. Isaiah lv.

Q, How prove you, that all men should read God’s word? A. God commands us to read it, commends

for reading it, and caused it to be written in the language of his church in the time it was revealed,. Acts xvii. 11.

£). What is the fruit of ignorance of the scriptures?

A. Manifold errors, and eternal destruction.

Q. How often should we read the Scriptures?

A. Daily, both in secret, and in our families.

Q. Is it not enough if we read the scriptures only on Sabbath? A. No; this is a dismal token of Satan’s

still blinding our minds, that we see not the excellency of Christ, and wonders of his law, 2 Cor. iv. 4.

Q. Is it not very scandalous for gospel hearers to be unacquainted with the Scriptures? A. Yes; as scandalous in itself as gross immoralities of life, Isa. xxvii. 11.

Q. How are we to read and hear God’s word, that it may be effectual for our salvation? A. In preparing

for, receiving, and improving the word, read or heard.

Q. How should we prepare ourselves for reading or hearing the word of God?

A. By meditation, self-examination, and prayer, Psat. cxix. 18, 97. 2 Cor. xiii. 5.

Q. On what should we meditate before reading or hearing the word of God? A. On the greatness and goodness of God its author ) on its own excellency, stability,

Quest. 90. and hearing God’s Word. 313

and fulness*, on the excellency of Christ, the matter and confirmer of it •, and on our vileness, &c. Psal. xlv. 1.

Q. Why is this necessary?

A. To make us read and hear the word with faith, love, humility, and thankfulness.

Q. Concerning what are we to examine ourselves before reading and hearing the word of God?

A. Concerning our state, and our present condition, Lam. iii. 40.

Q. Why is this necessary? A. That we may, with knowledge and care, apply whatever suits our case.

Q. For what are we to pray before bearing the word?

A. That God would assist the minister, and by him send a fit message to us, applying it with power to ourselves and others, Col. iv. 3, 4. Psak cxix. 18.

Q. Why is prayer necessary before reading and hearing the word? A. To enlarge our hearts for, and bring

the promised blessings into them, Psalm lxxxi. 10.

Qj How ought we to receive the word while reading or hearing it? A. With great attention, reverence,

faith, and love, Psal. lxxxix. 7. 1 Thess. i. 5. ii. 13.

Q. How must we read and hear with great attention f

A. By careful listening to, and pondering every sentence as we read or hear it, Acts xvi. 14. Isa. Iv. 3.

Q. Why is such attention necessary? A. Because

what we read or hear is the truth of God, on which our eternal happiness or misery depends, Heb. ii. 1, 3.

Q. Why must we hear the word with great reverence f

A. Because God himself is present in his word.

Q. How must we read, hear, and receive the word with faith? A. By believing every divine truth, as, in

one respect or other, spoken by God to us, Heb- xi. 13.

Q. Is faith to be exercised in the very same manner towards all the parts of God’s word? A. No; its exercise is to be varied according to the matter read or heard, whether promises or threatenings, &c.

Qj How is our faith to receive the promises of God r A. In believing that all the blessings lodged in them are m°de over to us, and shall be given us in due time, Q. How is our faith to receive scripture threatenings? A, By believing, that the wrath contained in them is due to our sin, and shall overtake us if we continue in it. Q. How is our faith to receive scripture prophecies? t Dd

A. By crediting the accomplishment of the events foretold, and preparing for them, Luke i. 45.

Q. How is our faith to receive scripture doctrines?

A. In embracing them as true, wonderful, holy,, and full of grace and mercy to man, 2 Tim. i. 13, 15, 16.

>Q. How h our faith to receive scripture precepts?

A. In discerning their holiness and equity, and believing their obligation upon us, and our mournful defects in obedience, Psal. xix. ~, — 19. Isa. vi. 5. Rom. vii. 14.

Q. How is our faith to receive scripture histories?

A. In crediting them as true, and discerning them as evidences of the truth and holiness of the promises, threatcnings, doctrines, precepts, or prophecies; and as encouragements to improve them, Rom. xv« 4. Heb. xi. 13.

Q. Why is faith necessary in reading and hearing the word of God? A. Because without faith we constantly make God a liar, and render his word a savour of death to ourselves, 1 John v. 11. Heb. iv. 2.

Q^ With what love must we read and hear the word of God? A. With an ardent love to it as the word

f God, and mean of our salvation, Psal. cxix. 97.

O. How must our love to God’s word manifest itself?

A. In our esteeming, desiring, and delighting in it, more than in any worldly good thing, Psal. xix. and cxix.

Q. Why is love to the word of God necessary in reading and hearing it? A. Because of its author, excellencies, and usefulness, and that it may be kindly received into our heart, Acts xiii. 48. 1 Thess. ii. 13.

Q, How are we to improve the word of God when read cr heard? A. By laying it up in our hearts, and

practising it in our lives, Psal. cxix. 11, 34. Col. iii. 16.

Q. What is meant by laying up the word of God in our heart? A. The laying it up in our memory by remembering it, in our mind by the knowledge of it, and in our will and affections by the constant love of it, Col. iii. 16.

O. Why is it necessary to lay up God’s word in our Iwart? A. That we may practise it in our life.

Q. What is meant by practising GodTs word in our life?

A. The daily improvement of it for direction in, excitement and encouragement to our duty, Psalm cxix.

Q. How are scripture promises to be reduced to practice? A. In our drawing strength and encouragement continually from them, 2 Cor. vii. 1. Heb. xii. 28.

Quest. 90. and hearing God’s Word. §!§,

Q. How are scripture threatenings to be reduced to practice? A. In our standing in awe to sin because of

them; and loving Christ, for bearing, in our room, the wrath which they contain, Heb. xii. 25. 2 Cor. v. 14.

Q. How are scripture phophecies to be reduced to practise? A. In our looking, waiting, and preparing for the events therein foretold, 2 Pet. iii. Isa. vii, viii.

Q. How are scripture doctrines to be reduced to practice? A, In our being directed, excited, and encouraged to holiness by them, John xv. 3. and xvii. 17.

O. How are scripture precepts to be reduced to practice? A. In our performing the duties required, and abstaining from sins forbidden in them, Deut. xi. 32.

Q. How are scripture histories of common and temporal affairs to be reduced to practice?

A. In our improving them as motives to prudence, and diligence in our spiritual concerns, Luke xvi. 8.

Qj. How are scripture histories of holy examples to be. reduced to practice? A. In our study to imitate those.

patterns of good works, Heb. vi. 12. and xii. 1, 2.

Q^How is the scripture history of God’s mercies to be reduced to practice? A. In our thence taking encouragement boldly to ask, and firmly to expect mercies and blessings from him, Numb. xiv. 19. Psalm cv. cxlw.

O. How is the scripture history of God’s judgments to be reduced to practice? A. In our adoring the righteousness of God in them 5 and laying our account with the like, if we indulge ourselves in sin, Ezek. xvi, xx.

£). How is the scripture history of the failings of good men to be reduced to practice? A. In our learning to

distrust our heart, watch against temptations, pray for, and solely depend on. the grace that is in Christ, 1 Cor.x„