You said that your godfathers and godmothers did promise for you that you should keep God's commandments, tell me how many there be?

Ten.

Which be they?

The same which God spake in the twentieth chapter of Exodus, saying, I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

1. Thou shalt have none other Gods but me.

2. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shew mercy unto thousands in them that love me, and keep my commandments.

and now sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, whence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe that all true and sincere Christians, of whatever communion, or particular opinion, will be objects of God's mercy. I believe it to be my duty to live in charity and peace with all men, especially with the followers of Christ. I believe that by deep repentance, and the atonement of the Redeemer, my sins will be forgiven; that after death the body will rise again, and be capable of receiving that everlasting life which our Saviour Christ died to obtain for us.

What commandments are those which you say your Godfathers and Godmothers promised that you should keep, and how many are there?

There are ten commandments, and they are the same that were delivered by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, as recorded in the 20th chapter of Exodus, when he said, "I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the bondage in which you were, under the Egyptian kings."

T. Thou shalt neither acknowledge, nor worship any thing as God, but me.

2. Thou shalt not make any image as the likeness or representation of any thing in heaven, or in the earth, or in the water under the earth, to bow down before it, or adore it. For I the Lord am thy God, and will punish the sins of "fathers, and of children, and of all who hate me, and I will pour down my blessings upon thousands who love me, and keep my commandments."†- Bellamy's Translation of the Bible.

* The expression the right hand of God is a scriptural expression; and merely used in conformity to our limited ideas, and is not intended to imply any distinction of part, but merely the idea of pre-eminence.-Gilpin.

+"Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto

3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain ; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his name in vain.

4. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: In it thou shalt do no manner of work, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man servant, and thy maid servant, thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days

3. Thou shalt not lightly or irreverently use the name of the Lord thy God, nor swear by it to that which is false, for the Lord will not deem him guiltless who profanes his sacred name.

4. Forget not to sanctify the sabbath day. Six days are allowed thee for the necessary occupations of life; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; on that day neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy maid servant, nor thy man servant, nor the stranger who dwells with thee, shall pursue their usual callings, because that in six

This

the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." law is not to be understood as an arbitrary decree, passed on innocent children, for the transgressions of their guilty parents, but rather as expressing a natural or usual consequence in the ordinary course of God's providence. Who has not witnessed the effects of vice and impiety, descending from the father to the son? When those set a bad example, who are bound to set a good one, we often see poverty instead of competence, idleness instead of industry, wretched servitude instead of honourable independence, profligacy and ignorance instead of virtue and wisdom.

These are usual consequences: but the rule is neither absolute nor irreversible, though the Jews, and some modern commentators seem to understand it so.-See Dr. Hey's Lectures.

The word 'visiting,' implies signal punishment. That this punishment was only to supply the want of a future state in the Mosaic dispensation is evident from hence. Towards the conclusion of this extraordinary economy, when God by the latter prophets reveals his purpose of giving them a new dispensation, in which a future state of reward and punishment was to be brought to light, it is then declared in the most express manner, that He will abrogate the law of punishing children for their parents' sins. Bp. Warburton.

We are not to understand by this threatening, that God will ever, on account of the sins of parents, punish children, in the strict sense of the word, punish when they deserve it not. But in the course of things, established by his providence, it comes to pass that the sins of one person or one generation, lead those who come after into the same, or perhaps greater sins, and so bring upon them double suffering, partly the fruits of their predecessors' faults, partly of their own. Abp. Secker.

C

the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed

it.

5. Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

6. Thou shalt do no murder.

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

8. Thou shalt not steal.

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour..

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his any thing that is his.

ass, nor What dost thou chiefly learn by these commandments?

I learn two things: my duty towards God, and my duty towards my neighbour.

What is thy duty towards God?

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.

What is thy duty towards thy neighbour?