eternal life in heaven, to them that repent and believe in him.

4. He threatened the eternal punishment of hell to all wilful and obstinate sinners, particularly to hypocrites and unbelievers.

5. He sometimes declared and maintained his own commission, that he was sent from God to be the Saviour of men.

6. He foretold the destruction of the Jews, and his own second coming in glory, to raise the dead, and to judge the world.

1

22. What were the chief miracles that he wrought to prove that he was sent from God?

A. Such as these:

1. He fed many thousand persons twice, with a very few loaves and fishes.

2. He gave sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf, he made the dumb to speak, the lame to walk, and healed all manner of diseases by a word.

3. He commanded evil spirits to depart out of the bodies of many, whom they had possessed.

4. He raised several persons from the dead, and one (namely Lazarus) out of the grave.

23. Q. How did he train up his apostles, for their public service?

A. These four ways:

1. He explained to them in private, what he taught the people by parables and similitudes in public.

2 He told them more plainly, that he was the Messiah, the Saviour of the world; and that he should die as a ransom for sinners, and rise again the third day.

3. He prayed with them often, and taught them to pray, first without his name, and then in his name.

4. He promised them to send the Spirit of God, after his departure, to fit them for their public service.

24. Q. What were the two ordinances, which Christ appointed in his church?

A. He appointed baptism and the Lord's supper, to continue to the end of the world.

25. Q. Thus we have heard how Jesus lived; let the hear now, in what manner did be die ?

A. He was meek and patient and resigned to the wil of God, in suffering and dying.

26. Q. What were his sharpest sufferings ?

A. The anguish which he endured in his soul in the garden, just before his death, which made him sweat drops of blood.

27. Q. What kind of death did he die ?

A. He was crucified; that is, his hands and feet were nailed to a wooden cross, and there he hung till he died in extreme pain.

28. Q. When Jesus Christ had honoured God so much in his life, how came he to die so shameful and painful a death?

A. He was appointed of God to be a sacrifice, to take away the sins of men, who had deserved to die.

29. Q But what reason had men to kill him?

A. No just reason at all; but the teachers and the rul ers of the Jews hated his doctrine and reproofs, and were much enraged to see the people follow him.

30. Q. How did they lay hold of Jesus?

A. They bribed Judas, one of his apostles, to betray him into the hands of their officers, and he led them to his master by night, and shewed which was he by kissing him.

31. Q. Did none of the disciples defend their Lord and Master?

A. Peter at first defended him with the sword, but af terwards his courage failed him so far as to deny that he knew him.

32. Q. Did Peter continue in this sin, or did he repent? A. Jesus cast his eye upon him, and he repented, and wept bitterly.

33. Q. Who condemned Christ to die ?

A. Caiaphas, the high-priest, condemned him as worthy of death; and Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, at the desire of the Jews, gave him up to be nailed to the

cross.

34. Q. Was he crucified immediately, or did he suffer other injuries before his death?

A. He was mocked, he was spit upon, he was crowned with thorns, he was scourged, and wickedly abused.

35. Q. In what company was he crucified ?

A. He was crucified in a most shameful manner be tween two thieves, as if he had been the chief of sin

ners.

36. Q. What miracles attended his death?

A. The sun was darkened at noon for three hours together; there was an earthquake, which opened many graves; and the veil of the temple was rent in two pie

ces.

37. Q. Who took care of his burial?

A. Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, and one of his disciples, buried him in his own new tomb, and Pilate and the Jews set a guard of soldiers about it.

38. Q. When did he rise from the dead?

A. On the first day of the week, after he had lain three days in the grave; that is, part of three days.

39 Q To whom did he appear, after his rising again ? A. He appeared many times to his disciples, he ate and drank, and talked with them, and gave them most certain proofs of his resurrection.

40. Q. How long did he tarry on earth, after his rising from the dead?

A. He tarried forty days, conversing with his apostles, and instructing them further in the gospel and the doctrines and rules of his kingdom.

41. Q. How did he go up to heaven?

A. When he had given his apostles their commission to preach the gospel to all nations, and blessed them, they saw him carried up to heaven in a bright cloud.

42. Q. What did the disciples do, when their Lord had left them?

A. They returned to Jerusalem, and waited for the Spirit of God to come upon them, according to the promise of Christ.

43. Q. What was the first thing they did towards their public work?

A. They chose Matthias, by prayer and by lot, to be an apostle in the room of Judas the traitor.

44. Q. What became of Judas ?

A. When he saw that Christ was condemned, he

went and hanged himself; and falling down, his bowels gushed out.

45. Q. When did the Spirit of God come upon the apostles and other disciples ?

A. At the feast of Pentecost, which was about ten days after Christ went to heaven.

46. Q. In what manner did the Spirit of God come upon them?

A. A noise, like a rushing wind, filled the house where they were met, and cloven tongues of fire sat upon them.

47. Q. What was the first remarkable effect of the Spirit of God coming upon them?

A. Each of them was enabled to preach the gospel in strange languages.

48. Q. What was the doctrine they preached?

A. That Jesus, who was crucified, was the Messiah; that is, the Christ, the Son of God, and the Saviour of men; and that sinners, who repent and believe in his name, should be saved.

49. Q. What success had their preaching ?

A. Three thousand were converted and baptized in one day, and five thousand in another.

50. Q. What miracles did they work, to confirm their doctrine ?

A. Some, that were cripples, had the use of their limbs given them; multitudes of sick were healed by them; some persons were struck dead, and others raised to life.

51. Q. Had not other believers in Christ power of working miracles also ?

A. Yes, Jesus Christ communicated very great gifts and powers to them, by laying on of the hands of the apostles.

52. Q. Were not the apostles greatly persecuted?

A. Yes, they were put in prison by the high-priest, they were beaten by order of the Council, James, the brother of John, was slain by Herod, and Peter was put in prison again, in order to be put to death.

53. Q. Did God give them any miraculous deliveran, cts ?

A. Several times, when the apostles were imprisoned, they were released by angels.

54. Q. Who was one of the chief persecutors of the Christians at this time?

A. Saul, a young man, a zealous Pharisee, who was afterwards called Paul.

55. Q. Did he live and die a persecutor ?

A. No, he was struck down to the ground by a blaze of light, as he was going to Damascus to imprison the Christians, and Jesus Christ called him with a voice from heaven.

56. Q. What is afterwards related of him?

A. That he became a zealous preacher of the gospel, he was made the apostle of the Gentiles, and spent his days in travelling, to convert the heathen nations.

57. Q. What became of Paul at last?

A. After he had done more service for Christ, by preaching and writing, than the other apostles, and endured more sufferings in his life, he was put to death at Rome as a martyr for Christ.

58. Q. Is there any further account given of Peter? A. When he had laid out his life in preaching the gospel, and had written letters to the Christians, he was crucified in his old age, as Christ foretold him.

59. Q. What is recorded concerning John the apostle ? A. After many labours in the ministry, he was banished to the Isle of Patmos, where Jesus Christ appeared to him in visions, and instructed him by his angel to write the book of the Revelations.

60. Q. What became of the other apostles ?

A. Ancient histories give us some uncertain account of their travels and their sufferings, but there is very little written in scripture concerning them.

END.