The Order of Salvation and Damnation
Exposition of Principles
The Exposition of the Principles
by Dr. William Perkins
The First Principle
Expounded
Question: What is God?
Answer: God is a spirit,
or a spiritual substance most wise, most holy, eternal, infinite.
Q. How do you persuade
yourself there is a God?
A. By the testimony of
the Scriptures, plain reason will shew it.
Q. What is one reason?
A. When I consider
the wonderful frame of the world, methinks the simple creatures that are
in it could never make it; neither could it make itself, therefore
besides all these, the maker of it must needs be God.
Even as when a man comes into a strange country, and sees fair
and sumptuous buildings, and yet finds no living creatures there,
besides birds and beasts, he will not imagine that either birds or
beasts reared those buildings, but he presently conceives, that some men
either were, or have been there.
Q. What other reasons
have you?
A. A man that commits
any sin, as murder, fornication, adultery, blasphemy, &c. albeit he
doth so conceal the matter. That no man living know of it, yet
oftentimes he hath a gripping in his conscience, and feels the very
flashing of hell fire; which is a strong reason to shew that there is a
God, before whose judgment seat he must answer for his acts.
Q. How many Gods are
there?
A. No more but One.
Q. How do you conceive
this one God in your mind?
A. Not by framing any
image of Him in my mind
(as ignorant folks do, that think Him to be an old man sitting in
heaven) but I conceive Him by His properties and works.
Q. What be His choice
properties?
A. First, He is most
wise,
understanding all things aright, and knowing the reason of them.
Secondly, He is most holy
which appeareth in that He is most just and merciful unto His creatures.
Thirdly, He is eternal,
without either beginning or end of days.
Lastly, He is infinite,
both because He is present in all places, and because He is of power
sufficient to do whatever He will.
Q. What be the works of
God?
A. The creation of the
world
and everything therein, and the preservation of them being created by
His special providence.
Q. How do you know that
God governeth every particular thing in the world by His special
providence?
A. To omit the
Scriptures,
I see it by experience; Meat, drink and clothing,
being void of heat and life, could not preserve the life of man, unless
there were a special providence of God to give virtue unto them.
Q. How is this One God
distinguished?
A. Into the Father
which begetteth the Son,
into the Son who is begotten of the Father, into the Holy Ghost who
proceedeth
from the Father and the Son.
The Second Principle Expounded
Q. Let us now come to
ourselves, and first tell me what is the natural estate of man?
A. Every man is by
nature dead
in sin as a loathsome carrion, or as a dead corpse lieth rotting and
stinking in the grave, having in himself the seed of all sins.
Q. What is sin?
A. Any breach of the
Law of God,
if it be no more but the least want of that which the Law requireth.
Q. How many sorts of
sin are there?
A. Sin is either the
corruption of nature;
or any evil action which precede of it as fruits thereof.
Q. In whom is the
corruption of nature?
A. In all men,
none excepted.
Q. In what part of man
is it?
A. In every part
both of body and soul, like as a leprosy that runneth from the crown of
the head to the soul of the foot.
Q. Show me how every
part is corrupted with sin?
A. First, in the mind
there is nothing but ignorance and blindness concerning heavenly
matters. Secondly, the
conscience is defiled,
being always either benumbed with sin, or else turmoiled with inward
accusation and terrors. Thirdly,
the will of man only willeth and listeth after evil.
Fourthly, the affections of the heart,
as love, joy, hope, and desire &c., are moved and stirred to that
which is evil to embrace it, and they are never stirred unto that which
is good, unless it be to eschew it.
Lastly, the members of the body are the instruments and
tools of the mind for the execution of sin.
Q. What be those evil
actions that are fruits of this corruption?
A. Evil thoughts in the
mind,
which come either by a man’s own conceiving, or by the suggestion of
the devil,
evil motions and lusts stirring in the heart, and from these arise evil
words and deeds, when any occasion is given.
Q. How cometh to pass
that all men are thus defiled with sin?
A. By Adam’s
infidelity
and disobedience, in eating the forbidden fruit; even as we see great
personages by treason do not only hurt themselves, but also stain their
blood and hurt their posterity.
Q. What hurt comes to
man by his sin?
A. He is continually
subject to the curse of God in his lifetime, in the end of his life,
and after this life.
Q. What is the curse of
God in this life?
A. In the body,
diseases, aches, pains; in the soul, blindness, hardness of heart,
horror of conscience; in goods, hindrances, and losses; in name,
ignominy and reproach; lastly, in the whole man, bondage under Satan the
prince of darkness.
Q. What manner of
bondage is this?
A. This bondage is when
a man is the slave of the devil,
and hath him to reign in his heart as his god.
Q. How may a man know
if Satan be his god or not?
A. He may know it by
this, if he give obedience to him in his heart, and express it in his
conversation.
Q. And how may a man
perceive this obedience?
A. If he takes delight
in the evil motions that Satan put into his heart, and do fulfill the lusts
of the devil.
Q. What is the curse
due to man in the end of his life?
A. Death,
which is the separation of body and soul.
Q. What is the curse
after this life?
A. Eternal damnation in
hell fire,
whereof every man is guilty, and is in great danger of it, as the
traitor apprehended is in danger of hanging, drawing, and quartering.
The Third Principle Expounded
Q. If damnation be the
reward of sin then is a man of all creatures most miserable; a dog or
toad when they die, all their misery is ended, but when a man dies there
is the beginning of his woes.
A. It were so indeed,
if there were no means of deliverance, but God hath shewed His mercy in
giving a Savior to mankind.
Q. How is this Savior
called?
A. Jesus Christ.
Q. What is Jesus
Christ?
A. The eternal Son of
God
made man in all things, even in his infirmities like other men,
save only in sin.
Q. How was he, made
man, void of sin?
A. He was conceived in
the womb of a virgin,
and sanctified by the Holy Ghost at his conception.
Q. Why must our Savior
be both God and man?
A. He must be a man,
because man hath sinned, and therefore a man must die for sin to appease
God’s wrath; he must be God to sustain and uphold the manhood, to
overcome, and vanquish, death.
Q. What be the offices
of Christ to make him an all-sufficient Savior?
A. He is a Priest, a
Prophet, and a King.
Q. Why is he a Priest?
A. To work the means of
salvation in the behalf of mankind.
Q. How doth he work the
mean of salvation?
A. First, by making
satisfaction to his Father for the sin of man;
Secondly, by making intercession.
Q. How doth he make
satisfaction?
A. By two means: and
the first is by offering a sacrifice.
Q. What is this
sacrifice?
A. Christ himself, as
he is man, consisting of body and soul.
Q. What is the alter?
A. Christ, as he is
God, is the altar on which he sacrificed himself.
Q. Who was the Priest?
A. None but Christ,
and that as he is both God and man.
Q. How oft did he
sacrifice himself?
A. Never but once.
Q. What death did he
suffer when he sacrificed himself?
A. A death upon the
cross, peculiar to himself alone; for besides the separation of body and
soul,
he felt also the pangs of hell, in that the whole wrath of God due to
the sin of man, was poured forth upon him.
Q. What profit cometh
by his sacrifice?
A. God’s wrath is
appeased by it.
Q. Could the sufferings
of Christ, which was but for a short time, countervail everlasting
damnation and so appease God’s wrath?
A. Yea, for seeing
Christ suffered, God suffered,
though not in His Godhead; and that is more, then if all men in the
world suffered forever and ever.
Q. Now tell me the
other means of satisfaction?
A. It is the perfect
fulfilling of the Law.
Q. How did he fulfill
the Law?
A. By his perfect
righteousness
which consisteth of two parts; the first, the integrity and pureness of
his human nature; the other, his obedience in performing all that the
law required.
Q. You have shewed how
Christ doth make satisfaction, tell me likewise how he doth make
intercession?
A. He doth continually
appear before the Father in heaven,
making the faithful, and all their prayers, acceptable unto Him, by
applying of the merits of his own perfect satisfaction to them.
Q. Why is Christ a
prophet?
A. To reveal unto his
Church
the way and means of salvation, and this he doth outwardly by the
ministries of his Word, and inwardly by the teaching of his Spirit.
Q. Why is he also a
King?
A. That he might
bountifully bestow upon us,
and convey unto us all the aforesaid means of salvation.
Q. How doth he shew
himself to be a King?
A. In that being dead
and buried,
he rose from the grave, quickened his dead body, ascended into heaven,
and now sitteth at the right hand of the Father, with full power and
glory in heaven.
Q. How else?
A. In that he
continually inspire and direct his servants by the divine power of his
Holy Spirit, according to his holy Word.
Q. But to whom will
this blessed King communicate all these means of salvation?
A. He offereth them to
many,
and they are sufficient to save all mankind; but not shall all be saved
thereby, because by faith they will not receive them.
The Fourth Principle Expounded
Q. What is faith?
A. Faith is a wonderful
grace of God by which a man may apprehend and apply Christ, and all his
benefits unto himself.
Q. How doth a man may
apply Christ unto himself, seeing we are on earth, and Christ in heaven?
A. This applying is
done by assurance,
when a man is very persuaded by the Holy Spirit of God’s favor towards
himself particularly, and of the forgiveness of his own sins.
Q. How doth God bring
men truly to believe in Christ?
A. First, He prepareth
their hearts that they might be capable by faith; and then He worketh
faith in them.
Q. How doth God prepare
men’s hearts?
A. By bruising them,
as if one would break a hard stone to powder; and this is done by
humbling them.
Q. How doth God humble
a man?
A. By working in him a
sight of his sins and a sorrow for them.
Q. How is this sight of
sin wrought?
A. By the moral Law,
the sum thereof is the ten Commandments.
Q. What sins may I find
in myself by them?
A. Ten.
Q. What is the first?
A. To make something
thy God which is not God, by fearing it, loving it, and so trusting in
it more than in the true God.
Q. What is the second?
A. To worship false
gods, or the true God in a false manner.
Q. What is the third?
A. To dishonour God in
abusing his titles, words and works.
Q. What is the fourth?
A. To break the
Sabbath, in doing the works of their calling, and of the flesh, and in
leaving undone the works of the Spirit.
Q. What be the sixth
latter?
A. To do anything that
may hinder our neighbor’s dignity,
life,
chastity, wealth,
good name, though it be but in the
secret thoughts and motions of the heart,
unto which thou givest no liking or consent.
Q. What is sorrow for
sin?
A. It is when a man’s
conscience is touched with a lively feeling of God’s displeasure for
any of these sins;
in such wise, as he utterly despairs of
salvation, in regard of anything in himself, acknowledging that he hath
deserved shame and confusion eternally.
Q. How doth God work
this sorrow?
A. By the terrible
curse of the Law.
Q. What is that?
A. He which breaks but
one of the Commandments of God, though it be but once in all his
lifetime, and that only in one thought, is subject to, and in danger of
eternal damnation thereby.
Q. When men’s hearts
are thus prepared, how doth God engraft faith in them?
A. By working certain
inward motions in the heart, which are the seeds of faith, out of which
it breedeth.
Q. What is the first of
them?
A. When a man humbled
under the burden of his sins, doth acknowledge and feel that he stands
in great need of Christ.
Q. What is the second?
A. A hungering desire,
and a longing to be made partaker of Christ and all his merits.
Q. What is the third?
A. A flying to the
throne of grace, from the sentence of the Law pricking the conscience.
Q. How is it done?
A. By praying,
with sending up loud cries for God’s favor in Christ in the pardoning
of sin; and with fervent perseverance herein, till the desire of the
heart be granted.
Q. What followeth this?
A. God then, according
to His merciful promise,
lets the poor sinner feel the assurance of His love, wherewith He loveth
him in Christ, which assurance is a lively faith.
Q. Are there diverse
degrees and measures of true faith?
A. Yea.
Q. What is the least
measure of true faith that a man can have?
A. When a man of a
humble spirit by reason of the littleness of his faith, doth not yet feel the
assurance of the forgiveness of his sins, and yet he is persuaded that
they are pardonable, and therefore desireth that they should be
pardoned, and with his heart prayeth to God to pardon them.
Q. How do you know that
such a man hath faith?
A. These desires
and prayers are testimonies of the Spirit, whose property it is to stir
up a longing and a lusting after heavenly things with sighs and groans
for God’s favor and mercy in Christ. Now where the Spirit of Christ
is, there is Christ dwelling; and where Christ dwelleth,
there is true faith, how weak soever it be.
Q. What is the greatest
measure of faith?
A. When a man daily
increasing in faith comes to be fully persuaded of God’s love in
Christ towards himself particularly, and of the forgiveness of his own
sins.
Q. When shall a
Christian heart come to this full assurance?
A. Not at the first,
but in some continuance of time, when he hath been well practiced in
repentance, and hath had divers experiences of God’s love to him in
Christ; then after them will appear in his heart the fullness of
persuasion; which is the ripeness and strength of faith.
Q. What benefits doth a
man receive by his faith in Christ?
A. Hereby he is
justified before God and sanctified.
Q. What is this, to be
justified before God?
A. It comprehendeth two
things:
the first, to be cleared from the guiltiness and punishment of sin: the
second, to be accepted as perfectly righteous before God.
Q. How is a man cleared
from the guiltiness and punishment of his sin?
A. By Christ’s
sufferings and death upon the cross.
Q. How is he accepted
righteous before God?
A. By the righteousness
of Christ imputed to him.
Q. What profit comes by
being thus justified?
A. Hereby,
and by no other means in the world, the believer shall be accepted
before God’s judgment seat, as worthy of eternal life, by the merits
of the same righteousness of Christ.
Q. Do not good works
then make us worthy of eternal life?
A. No: for God who is
perfect righteousness Himself, will find in the best works we do, more
matter of damnation then of salvation; and therefore we must rather
condemn ourselves for our good works, then look to be justified by God
thereby.
Q. How may a man know
that he is justified before god?
A. He need not ascend
into heaven to search the secret counsel of God; but rather descend into
his own heart to search whether he be sanctified or not.
Q. What is it to be
sanctified?
A. It comprehendeth two
things: the first, to be purged from the corruption of his own nature:
the second, to be endued with inward righteousness.
Q. How is the
corruption of sin purged?
A. By the merits and
power of Christ’s death,
which being by faith applied is as a medicine to abate, consume, and
weaken the power of all sin.
Q. How is a man endued
with inherent righteousness?
A. Through the virtue
of Christ’s resurrection,
which being applied by faith, is as a restorative to revive a man that
is dead in sin to newness of life.
Q. In what part of a
man is sanctification wrought?
A. In every part, both
in the body and soul.
Q. In what time is it
wrought?
A. It is begun in this
life,
in which the faithful receive only the first fruits of the Spirit, and
it is not finished before the end of this life.
Q. What graces of the
Spirit do usually shew themselves in the heart of a man sanctified?
A. The hatred of sin,
and the love of righteousness.
Q. What proceeds of
them?
A. Repentance, which is
a settled purpose in the heart, with a careful endeavor to leave all his
ins, and live a Christian life, according to all God’s commandments.
Q. What goeth with
repentance?
A. A continual fighting
and struggling against the assaults of a man’s own flesh, against the
motions of the devil, and the enticements of the world.
Q. What followeth after
a man hath gotten the victory in any temptation or affliction?
A. Experience of
God’s love in Christ,
and so increase of peace and conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Q. What follows, if in
nay temptation he be overcome, and through infirmity fall?
A. After a while there
will arise a godly sorrow, which is, when a man is grieved for no other
cause in the world, but for this only, that by his sin he hath
displeased God, who hath been unto him a most merciful and loving
Father.
Q. What sign is there
of this sorrow?
A. The true sign of it
is this,
when a man can be grieved for the very disobedience to God in his evil
word or deed, though he should never be punished, and though there were
neither heaven nor hell.
Q. What follows after
this sorrow?
A. Repentance renewed
afresh.
Q. By what signs will
this repentance appear?
A. By seven: 1) A care
to leave the sin which he is fallen, 2) And utter condemning himself for
it, with a craving of pardon, 3) A great anger against himself for his
carelessness, 4) A fear that he should fall into the same sin again, 5)
A desire ever after to please God, 6) A zeal of the same, and 7) Revenge
upon himself for his former offense.
The Fifth Principle Expounded
Q. What outward means
must we use to obtain faith, and all the blessings of God which come by
faith?
A. The preaching of
God’s Word,
and the administration of the Sacraments, and prayer.
Q. Where is the Word of
God to be found?
A. The whole Word of
God needful to salvation, is set down in the Holy Scriptures.
Q. How know you that
the Scriptures are the Word of God, and not men’s policies?
A. I am assured of it.
First, because the Holy Ghost persuaded my conscience that it is
so.
Secondly, I see it by experience, for the preaching of the
Scriptures have the power of God in them to humble a man,
when they are preached, and to call him down to hell: and afterward to
restore and raise him up again.
Q. What is the use of
the Word of God preached?
A. First, it breedeth
and then it increaseth faith in them which are chosen to salvation: but
unto them that perish, it is by reason of their corruption, and occasion
of their further damnation.
Q. How must we hear
God’s Word that it may be effectual to salvation?
A. We must come unto it
with hunger-bitten hearts,
having an appetite to the Word, we must mark it with attention, receive
it by faith, submit ourselves it with fear and trembling, even when our
faults are reproved; lastly, we must hide it in the corners of our
hearts, that we may frame our lives and conversations by it.
Q. What is a Sacrament?
A. A sign to represent,
a seal to confirm, an instrument to convey Christ and all his
beneficiaries to them that do believe in him.
Q. Why must a Sacrament
represent the mercies of God before our eyes?
A. Because we are dull
to conceive and remember them.
Q. Why doth the
Sacrament seal unto us the mercies of God?
A. Because we are full
of unbelief, and doubting of them.
Q. Why is the Sacrament
the instrument of the Spirit, to convey the mercies of God into our
hearts?
A. Because we are like
Thomas, we will not believe till we feel them in some measure in our
hearts.
Q. How many Sacraments
are there?
A. Two, and no more;
Baptism by which we have our admission into the true Church of God, and
the Lord’s Supper, by which we are nourished and preferred in the
Church after our admission.
Q. What is done at
baptism?
A. In the assembly of
the Church the covenant of grace, between God and the party baptized, is
solemnly confirmed and sealed.
Q. In this covenant,
what doth God promise to the party baptized?
A. Christ, with all
blessings that come by him.
Q. To what condition is
the party baptized bound?
A. To receive Christ,
and to repent of his sin.
Q. What meaneth the
sprinkling or dipping in water?
A. It seals
unto us remission of sins and sanctification, by the obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Christ.
Q. How cometh it to
pass, that many after their baptism, for a long time feel not the effect
and fruit of it, and some never?
A. The fault is not in
God, who keepeth His covenants; but the fault is in themselves, in that
they do not keep the condition of the covenant, to receive Christ by
faith, and to repent of all their sins.
Q. When shall a man,
then, see the affect of his baptism?
A. At what time soever
he doth receive Christ by faith,
though it be many years after, he shall then feel the power of God to
regenerate him, and to work all things in him, which he offered in
baptism.
Q. How if a man never
keep the condition, to which he bound himself in baptism?
A. His damnation shall
be the greater,
because he breaketh his vow made to God.
Q. What is done in the
Lord’s Supper?
A. The former covenant
solemnly ratified in baptism, is renewed in the Lord’s Supper,
between the Lord Himself and the receiver.
Q. What is the
receiver?
A. Every one
that hath been baptized, and after his baptism hath truly believed in
Christ, and repented of his sins from his heart.
Q. What meaneth the
bread and the wine, the eating of the bread, and drinking of the wine?
A. These outward
actions
are a second seal, set by the Lord’s own hand unto His covenant.
And they do give every receiver to understand, that as God doth
bless the bread and wine, to preserve and strengthen the body of the
receiver; so Christ apprehended and received by faith, shall nourish
him, and preserve both body and soul unto eternal life.
Q. What shall a true
receiver feel in himself, after the receiving of the Sacraments?
A. The increase of his
faith in Christ,
the increase of sanctification, a greater measure of dying to sin, a
greater care to live in newness of life.
Q. What if a man after
the receiving of the Sacrament, never find any such thing in himself?
A. He may well suspect
himself, whether he did ever repent, or not; and thereupon is to use
means to come to sound faith and repentance.
Q. What is another
means of increasing faith?
A. Prayer.
Q. What is prayer?
A. A familiar speech
with God,
in the name of Christ; in which, we either crave things needful, or give
thanks for things received.
Q. What things must a
Christian man’s heart desire?
A. Six things
especially.
Q. What are they?
A. 1) That he may
glorify God,
2) That God may reign in his heart,
3) That he may do God’s will and not the lusts of his flesh,
4) That he may rely himself on God’s providence, for all the means of
his temporal life,
5) That he may be justified, and be at peace with God,
6) That by the power of God that he may strengthen against all
temptations.
Q. What is faith?
A. A persuasion,
that those things which we truly desire, God will grant them for
Christ’s sake.
The Sixth Principle Expounded
Q. After that a man
hath led a short life in this world, what followeth then?
A. Death, which is the
parting asunder of body and soul.
Q. Why do wicked men
and unbelievers die?
A. That their bodies
may go to the earth,
and their souls may be cast into hell fire.
Q. Why do the godly
die, seeing Christ by death hath overcome death?
A. They die for this
end, that their bodies may rest a while in the earth, and their souls may
enter into heaven immediately.
Q. What followeth after
death?
A. The day of judgment.
Q. What sign is there
to know this day from other days?
A. Heaven and earth
shall be consumed with fire immediately,
before the coming of the Judge.
Q. Who shall be the
Judge?
A. Jesus Christ, the
Son of God.
Q. What shall be the
coming to judgment?
A. He shall come in the
clouds in majesty and glory,
with an infinite company of angels.
Q. How shall all men be
cited to judgment?
A.
At the sound of a trumpet, the living shall be
changed in the twinkling of an eye, and the dead shall rise again, every
one with his own body,
and all shall be gathered together before Christ; and after this, the
good shall be severed from the bad; these standing on the left hand of
Christ, the other on the right.
Q. How will Christ try
and examine every man’s cause?
A. The books of all
men’s doings shall be laid open; men’s consciences shall be made
either to excuse them, or accuse them; and every man shall be tried by
the works which he did in his lifetime, because they are open and
manifest signs of faith and
unbelief.
Q. What sentence will
he give?
A. He will give
sentence
of salvation to the elect and godly, but he will pronounce sentence of
damnation against unbelievers and reprobates.
Q. What state shall the
godly be in after the day of judgment?
A. They shall continue
for ever in the highest heaven,
in the presence of God, having fellowship with Christ Jesus and reigning
with Him forever.
Q. What state shall the
wicked be in after the day of judgment?
A. In eternal perdition
and destruction in hell fire.
Q. What is that?
A. It stands in three
things especially.
First, a perpetual separation from God’s comfortable presence.
Secondly, fellowship with the devil and his angels.
Thirdly, a horrible pang and torment of both body and soul,
arising of the feeling of the whole wrath of God, poured forth on the
wicked, forever, world without end; and if the pain of one tooth, for
one day, be so great, endless shall be the pain of the whole man in body
and soul for ever.
Finis.
| 