An Help for the Ignorant, WSC Question 1

QUEST 1. What is the chief end of man?

Answ. Man’s chief end is, to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.

Q. Do not all men propose an end [purpose] in their action?

A. Yes.

Q. What do you mean by that end?

A. That which they seek to obtain in and by their actions.

Q. What ought man to make his chief or highest end?

A. The glorifying and enjoying of God.

Q. Why ought man to make the glory of God his chief end?

A. Because it was God’s chief end in making, preserving, and redeeming man.

Q. May man have no other end in any of his actions?

A. Yes; but it must be a subordinate end, that tends to obtain the chief end.

Q What may be some of mens’ subordinate ends?

A. To provide food and raiment, and procure health, peace, liberty, and safety to themſelves or others.

Q. How many parts does man’s chief end consist of?

A. Two; his chief duty, and chief happiness.

Q. What is man’s chief duty?

A. To glorify God.

Q. What is man’s chief happiness?

A. To enjoy God.

Q. How is the glory of God usually distinguished?

A. Into his essential and declarative glory.

Q. What is the essential glory of God?

A. That which he is and has in himself.

Q. What is God’s declarative glory?

A. The showing forth of his glory in and by the creatures.

Q. Can we add anything to that glory God has in himself?

A. No; for it is infinite.

Q. How then do creatures glorify God?

A. By showing or declaring that he is glorious.

Q. How do beasts and lifeless creatures glorify God?

A. God shows forth his glory in and by them.

Q. How do devils and wicked men glorify God?

A. Not willingly; but God over-rules their works, however sinful, to his own glory, Psalm 76:10.

Q. How ought angels and men to glorify God?

A. By doing all things with a view to shew forth and declare his glory, Psalm 96:7.

Q. Wherewith [with what] ought we to glorify God?

A. With our hearts, lips, and lives, Psalm 103:1.

Q. How should we glorify God with our hearts?

A. By knowing, trusting in, loving, adoring, and remembering him.

Q. How should we glorify him with our lips?

A. By praying to, praising, and commending him.

Q. How should we glorify him with our lives?

A. By doing every thing he commands out of love to him, Deuteronomy 10:12.

Q. How did Adam in innocency glorify God?

A. By giving perfect obedience to his law.

Q. Do men still answer their chief end in glorifying God?

A. No: all men have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23.

Q. Has God then lost his end in making man?

A. No: he will glorify his justice in damning some men, and his mercy in saving others.

Q. Who has most eminently glorified God?

A. Christ.

Q. Where has Christ glorified God?

A. Both on earth and in heaven, Hebrews 1:3.

Q. How did Christ glorify Gad on earth?

A. By obeying his law, and suffering his wrath, in the room [place] of elect sinners, John 17:4.

Q. How does Christ glorify God in heaven?

A. By pleading for his elect, and sending his Spirit to apply his purchased redemption to them.

Q. When does a sinner begin to glorify God aright?

A. When he first believes in Christ, 1 John 5:10.

Q. How does faith or believing glorify God?

A. It credits his word, unites us to Christ; and so is fruitful in good works, John 15:5.

Q. What is a good work?

A. A work commanded by God’s law, performed in his strength, out of love to, and with a view of glorifying him.

Q. does faith make us glorify God in all our works?

A. Yes, 1 Corinthians 10:31; Psalm 15:1-2.

Q. How does faith make us glorify God in our natural actions, as eating or drinking, etc.?

A. By making us seek and receive a covenant-right to, and thank God for our food and raiment [clothes]; and use them to fit our bodies for the service of God, Romans 8:32; Deuteronomy 8:10.

Q. How does faith make us glorify God in our civil business?

A. By making us diligent in our trades and callings, out of regard to God’s command; and causing us use the gains of them to his glory.

Q. How does faith make us glorify God in religious services?

A. It makes us perform them in the strength of Christ’s Spirit, and look for acceptance of them only through his merit and intercession.

Q. What should we aim at next to the glorifying of God?

A. The enjoying of him, Psalm 43:4.

Q. What is meant by the enjoying of God?

A. The receiving, living on, and rejoicing in him as our portion, Psalm 16:5-6.

Q. Why should we seek to enjoy God?

A. Because he only is a suitable and sufficient portion for our souls, Habbakuk 3:17-18.

Q. Why cannot the riches, honours, and pleasures of this world, be a satisfying portion to our souls?

A. Because they are vain and empty, unsuited to the spiritual nature, and disproportionate to the boundless desires of our immortal souls, Matthew 16:26.

Q. How did Adam in innocency enjoy God?

A. By perfect friendship and fellowship.

Q. What broke up that friendship and fellowship?

A. Sin, Isaiah 59:2.

Q. What do all men now by nature enjoy instead of God?

A. Sin, Satan, and the world.

Q. How do they enjoy these?

A. They have sin as their pleasure, Satan as their prince and father, and the world as their portion, Hebrews 11:25.

Q. Can we enjoy God in our natural estate?

A. No; for what communion has light with darkness, or Christ with Belial? 2 Corinthians 6:14-15.

Q. Is there any way to recover the loft enjoyment of God?

A. Yes, by Christ alone, Acts 4:12.

Q. When does a sinner first begin to enjoy God?

A. When he first receives Christ, and rests on him.

Q. In what means and ordinances is God to be enjoyed?

A. In prayer, reading or hearing God’s word, meditation, fasting, receiving the sacraments, etc.

Q. Do the saints often enjoy God in these ordinances?

A. Yes; for these are their great delight, and they are much engaged in them, Psalm 27:4.

Q. What satisfaction does a soul find in the enjoyment of God?

A. Unspeakably more than in the abundance of all worldly good things, Psalm 4.

Q. Where and when do the saints enjoy God?

A. On earth in this life, and in heaven hereafter.

Q. How is God enjoyed in this life on earth?

A. By our receiving the influences of his grace, and having his love shed abroad in our hearts.

Q How is God enjoyed in heaven?

A. By our being ever with him, and receiving that fulness of joy, which is at his right hand, Psalm 16:11.

Q. Wherein does the enjoyment of God on earth, and that in heaven agree?

A. It is the same God who humbles and satisfies the heart as that in heaven.

Q. Wherein do they differ?

A. In the manner and measure of enjoyment.

Q. How do they differ in the manner of enjoyment?

A. Here God often hides himself, and we enjoy him through means and ordinances as through a glass darkly; but in heaven we will enjoy him uninterrupredly and immediately, and see him face to face.

Q. How do they differ in the measure of enjoyment?

A. Here we enjoy God only in part; but hereafter we shall enjoy him fully, 1 Corinthians 13:12.

Q. Shall the saints in heaven receive into their souls all the infinite fulness and sweetness that is in God?

A. No; but their finite souls shall be filled with as much of it as they can hold, Ephesians 3:19.

Q. What is the sure pledge and earnest of our enjoying God in heaven?

A. Our enjoyment of him here.

Q. Why is the gloriſying of God placed before the enjoyment of him?

A. Because the glory of God is of more value than our happiness, Isaiah 40:17.

Q. Whether is our glorifying or enjoying of God first in order?

A. We must first enjoy God in his gracious influences, and then glorify him; and this leads on to further enjoyment of him.

Q. Is our delight in the glory or glorious excellencies of God as satisfying to us, to be our chief end or motive in our actions, religious or moral?

A. No; but our showing forth the honour of these glorious excellencies, Isaiah 2:11.

Q. Why may we not make our own delight in the glory of God as satisfying to our desires, our chief end and motive?

A. Because this would be a setting up our own happiness above the glory of God.

Q. Who alone may expect to enjoy God in heaven?

A. Only such as glorify him on earth, Hebrews 12:14.

Q. Why are the glorifying and enjoying of God joined as one chief end?

A. Because none can obtain or rightly seek the one without the other.

Q. How do we most highly glorify God?

A. By receiving and enjoying him most fully.

Q. What chiefly secures our enjoyment of God?

A. The concern of the glory of God in it.

Q. How is the glory of God concerned in our enjoyment of him?

A. All his attributes are in Christ engaged for our enjoyment of him, and their glory shines brightly in fulfilling these engagements, Isaiah 30:18.

Q. How long shall the saints glorify and enjoy God?

A. To all eternity: for we shall be ever with the Lord, 1 Thessalonians 4:17; Isaiah 60:19-20.

Q. What are the grounds which secure the eternal enjoyment of God to believer?

A. The infinite and eternal love of God; the extent of his promise; and the infinite merit, and eternal intercession of Christ.