Q. (7). What is therefore your duty with regard to Conscience? A. My duty with regard to Conscience is to see that it be well taught, and that it be not swayed by my own selfish desires or wicked passions. [Psalm xix. 12, 13, cxix. 6; Prov. iv. 23; Luke vi. 45; 2 Cor. i. 12; Heb. xiii. 18; Jas. i. 14.] Q. (8). What is the rule of Conscience to a Christian? A. The Christian's rule of Conscience is the Law of God revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ. [Luke vi. 46; Rom. xv. 4, 5; 1 Thess. ii. 12, iv. 1, 2; 1 Tim. vi. 3—5; Tit. ii. 11, 12.] Q. (9). Is that law clear and plain? A. Yes; so clear and plain that amidst the many minds on points of faith, all Christians are nearly agreed in matters of moral duty. [John xiii. 17.] Q. (10). To whom is your duty owing? A. I owe my first duty to God and my next duty to my neighbour: there are B 3 also duties which I owe to myself. [Eccles. xii. 13; Micah vi. 8.] Q. (11). What is your duty towards. God? A. My duty towards God is to believe in Him, to fear Him, and to love Him with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength; to worship Him, to give Him thanks, to put my whole trust in Him, to call upon Him, to honour his holy name, and his word; and to serve Him truly all the days of my life. Q. (12). What is your duty towards your neighbour? A. My duty towards my neighbour is to love him as myself, and to do to all men as I would they should do unto me; to love, honour and succour my Father and Mother; to honour and obey the Queen and all that are put in authority under her; to submit myself with reasonable and Christian humility to all my teachers, spiritual pastors and rightful governors; to order myself lowly and reverently to all that are wiser and better than myself, and to all to whom, on account of their relation to me, their station and their years, I ought to look up; to hurt nobody by word or deed; to be true and just in all my dealing; to bear no malice nor hatred in my heart; and to keep my hands from picking and stealing, and my tongue from evil-speaking, lying and slandering. [Rom. xiii. 8—10; James ii. 8.] Q. (13). What is your duty with regard to yourself? A. My duty with regard to myself is to keep my body in temperance, soberness and chastity; not to covet nor desire other men's goods; but to learn and labour truly to get mine own living, and to do my duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call me. [Q. (14). You have already told me part of your duty with regard to yourself; what other personal duty do you acknowledge? A. I own it to be my duty to govern my thoughts; to check idle wishes; to keep down impure desires; to think no evil that I can help of others; to bridle anger; to guard against vanity and the wish to draw notice to my person or raiment or any thing of mine that I may fancy that I shall be admired for possessing; and to keep myself from pride, from selfconceit, from the notion of my own worth and importance, and from disdain of my fellow-creatures. Psalm cxix. 9, 37, 113; Prov. vi. 16-19, xvi. 18, 19; Matt. xv. 18-20; Luke xviii. 14; Rom. xii. 16; 1 Cor. xiii. 4-7; 1 Pet. v. 5, 6.] Q. (15). Are you resolved, in reliance upon God's grace, to strive to fulfil the duty of self-government? A. I am; and I will make it my early and earnest prayer to my Heavenly Father that I may be able to keep innocence, and that my heart may not reproach me so |