A34242:882
The Confession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter Catechism
The confession of faith ; and, The larger and shorter catechism first agreed upon by the Westminster Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and now approved by the General Assembly of the kirk of Scotland to be a part of uniformity in religion between the kirks of Christ in the three kingdoms.
Edinbourg: printed by George Swinton and Thomas Brown, 1671
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Here the Lord teacheth these two things.
1. That the fountain of all our miscarriage and actual sinning against God is in the heart, which comprehendeth the mind, will, affections and all the powers of the soul, as they are corrupted and defiled with original sin: the mind being not only ignorant and uncapable of saving truth; but also full of error and enmity against God▪ and the will and affections being obstinately disobedient unto all Gods directions▪ and bent toward that only which is evil▪ The heart, saith he, is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; yea, and unsearchably wicked: so that no man can know it, and Gen. 6.5. Every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart is only evil continually (saith the Lord) whose testimony we must trust in this and all other matters: and experience also may teach us, that till God make us deny our selves, we ⟨image 105⟩•ever look to God in any thing▪ but fleshly •elf interest alone doth rule us and move all the wheels of our actions.
2. That the Lord bringeth our original sin •r wicked inclination, withal the actual fruits •hereof, unto reckoning before his Judgment •eat, for he searcheth the heart and trieth the eins, to give every man according to his ways, nd according to the fruit of his doings.