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Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism

158410 min read

Ursinus’s lectures on the Heidelberg Catechism, of which he was principal author, compiled after his death by his student David Pareus and first published in 1584 - the standard sixteenth-century exposition of the catechism and Ursinus’s magnum opus. Translated by G. W. Willard (Columbus, Ohio, 1852); text from the Monergism compiled edition of that translation. One note per catechism question. Questions 33, 61, 84-85 and 95 carry no separate marker in this edition; their exposition stands within the neighbouring questions’ notes.

  1. Table of Contents
  2. The Translator’s Preface
  3. Introduction
  4. Commentary of Ursinus: Prolegomena
  5. Special Prolegomena
  6. Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?
  7. Question 2. How many things are necessary for thee to know, that thou, enjoying this comfo
  8. Question 3. Whence knowest thou thy misery?
  9. Question 4. What doth the law of God require of us?
  10. Question 5. Canst thou keep all these things perfectly?
  11. Question 6. Did God then create man so wicked and perverse?
  12. Question 7. Whence, then, proceeds this depravity of human nature?
  13. Question 8. Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inc

Concerning the Misery of Man

  1. Question 9. Doth not God then do injustice to man, by requiring from him, in his law, that
  2. Question 10. Will God suffer such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?
  3. Question 11. But is not God also merciful?
  4. Question 12. Since, then, by the righteous judgment of God, we deserve temporal and eterna

Of the Creation of Man

of the Image of God in Man

  1. Question 13. Can we ourselves then make this satisfaction?

Of the Fall, and First Sin of Man

of Sin in General

  1. Question 14. Can there be found anywhere one, who is a mere creature, able to satisfy for

Of Free Will

  1. Question 15. What sort of a mediator and deliverer, then, must we seek for?
  2. Question 16. Why must he be very man, and also perfectly righteous?
  3. Question 17. Why must he in one person be also very God?

Concerning Afflictions

Of the Deliverance of Man

  1. Question 18. Who, then, is that Mediator, who is, in one person, both very God, and a real
  2. Question 19. Whence knowest thou this?
  3. Question 20. Are all men, then, as they perished in Adam, saved by Christ?
  4. Question 21. What is true faith?
  5. Question 22. What is then necessary for a christian to believe?
  6. Question 23. What are these articles?
  7. Question 24. How are these articles divided?

Concerning the Mediator

of the Covenant of God

  1. Question 25. Since there is but one divine essence, why speakest thou of Father, Son, and

I. What Is the Gospel?

  1. Question 26. What believest thou when thou sayest, “I believe in God the Father Almighty,

Of Faith

  1. Question 27. What dost thou mean by the providence of God?
  2. Question 28. What advantage is it to us to know that God has created, and his providence d

The Apostles Creed

  1. Question 29. Why is the Son of God called Jesus, that is, a Saviour?
  2. Question 30. Do such then believe in Jesus the only Saviour, who seek their salvation and

The Trinity

  1. Question 31. Why is he called Christ, that is, anointed?

Of God the Father

  1. Question 32. But why art thou called a Christian?

of the Creation of the World

The Providence of God

  1. Question 34. Wherefore callest thou him our Lord?
  2. Question 35. What is the meaning of these words, “He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born

Of God the Son

  1. Question 36. What profit dost thou receive by Christ’s holy conception and nativity?
  2. Question 37. What dost thou understand by the words, “he suffered?”

Concerning the Name, Christ

  1. Question 38. Why did he suffer under Pontius Pilate, as his judge?
  2. Question 39. Is there any thing more in his being crucified, than if he had died some othe

The Only Begotten Son of God

of the Divinity of Christ

Concerning the Name, Lord

  1. Question 40. Why was it necessary for Christ to humble himself even unto death?

Of the Conception and Nativity of Christ

  1. Question 41. Why was he also “buried?”
  2. Question 42. Since then Christ died for us, why must we also die?

Of the Two Natures in Christ

The Sufferings of Christ

  1. Question 43. What further benefit do we receive from the sacrifice and death of Christ on
  2. Question 44. Why is there added, “he descended into hell?”

The Death and Burial of Christ

  1. Question 45. What doth the resurrection of Christ profit us?
  2. Question 46. How dost thou understand these words, “he ascended into heaven?”
  3. Question 47. Is not Christ then with us, even to the the end of the world, as he hath prom
  4. Question 48. But if his human nature is not present wherever his Godhead is, are then thes
  5. Question 49. Of what advantage to us is Christ’s ascension into heaven?

Christ’s Descent into Hell

  1. Question 50. Why is it added, “and sitteth at the right hand of God?”

The Resurrection of Christ

  1. Question 51. What profit is this glory of Christ, our head, unto us?

The Ascension of Christ

  1. Question 52. What comfort is it to thee, that “Christ shall come again to judge the quick
  2. Question 53. What dost thou believe concerning the Holy Ghost?
  3. Question 54. What believest thou concerning the “Holy Catholic Church” of Christ?
  4. Question 55. What do you understand by “the communion of saints?”

Christ’s Sitting at the Right Hand of the Father

  1. Question 56. What believest thou concerning “the forgiveness of sins?”
  2. Question 57. What comfort doth the “resurrection of the body” afford thee?

Christ’s Return to Judgment

  1. Question 58. What comfort takest thou from the article of “life everlasting?”

Of God, the Holy Ghost

  1. Question 59. But what doth it profit thee now, that thou believest all this?

The Church

  1. Question 60. How art thou righteous before God?

Of the Eternal Predestination of God

What Is the Communition of Saints

  1. Question 62. But why cannot our good works be the whole or part of our righteousness befor

The Forgiveness of Sins

  1. Question 63. What! do not our good works merit, which yet God will reward in this and a fu

The Resurrection of the Body

  1. Question 64. But doth not this doctrine make men careless and profane?

The Life Everlasting

  1. Question 65. Since then we are made partakers of Christ, and all his benefits, by faith on

The Doctrine of Justification?

  1. Question 66. What are the sacraments?
  2. Question 67. Are both word and sacraments then ordained and appointed for this end, that t
  3. Question 68. How many sacraments has Christ instituted in the new covenant or testament?
  4. Question 69. How art thou admonished and assured, by holy baptism, that the one sacrifice
  5. Question 70. What is it to be washed with the blood and Spirit of Christ?

Of the Sacraments

  1. Question 71. Where has Christ promised us that he will as certainly wash us by his blood a
  2. Question 72. Is then the external baptism with water, the washing away of sin itself?
  3. Question 73. Why then doth the Holy Ghost call baptism “the washing of regeneration,” and
  4. Question 74. Are infants also to be baptized?

Of Baptism

  1. Question 75. How art thou admonished and assured in the Lord’s supper, that thou art a par
  2. Question 76. What is it then to eat the crucified body, and drink the shed blood of Christ
  3. Question 77. Where has Christ promised, that he will as certainly feed and nourish believe
  4. Question 78. Do then the bread and wine become the very body and blood of Christ?
  5. Question 79. Why then doth Christ call the bread his body, and the cup his blood, or the n
  6. Question 80. What difference is there between the Lord’s supper and the Popish mass?

Of Circumcision

Of the Lord’s Supper

  1. Question 81. For whom is the Lord’s supper instituted?
  2. Question 82. Are they also to be admitted to this supper, who, by confession and life, dec
  3. Question 83. What are the keys of the kingdom of heaven?
  4. Question 86. Since then we are delivered from our misery, merely of grace through Christ,
  5. Question 87. Cannot they then be saved, who, continuing in their wicked and ungrateful liv
  6. Question 88. In how many parts doth the true conversion of man consist?
  7. Question 89. What is the mortification of the old man?
  8. Question 90. What is the quickening of the new man?

Of the Passover

The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven

  1. Question 91. But what are good works?

Of Thankfulness

  1. Question 92. What is the law of God?
  2. Question 93. How are these ten commandments divided?

Man’s Conversion to God

  1. Question 94. What doth God enjoin in the first command?
  2. Question 96. What does God require in the second command?
  3. Question 97. Are images then not at all to be made?

Concerning Good Works

  1. Question 98. But may not images be tolerated in the churches, as books to the laity?

Of the Ten Commandments

  1. Question 99. What is required in the third command?
  2. Question 100. Is then the profaning of God’s name by swearing and cursing, so heinous a si

The First Commandment

  1. Question 101. May we then swear religiously by the name of God?

The Second Commandment

  1. Question 102. May we also swear by saints, or any other creatures?
  2. Question 103. What doth God require in the fourth command?
  3. Question 104. What doth God require in the fifth command?

The Third Commandment

  1. Question 105. What doth God require in the sixth command?
  2. Question 106. But this command seems only to speak of murder

The Doctrine of the Oath

  1. Question 107. But is it enough that we do not kill any man in the manner mentioned above?
  2. Question 108. What doth the seventh command teach us?

The Fourth Commandment

  1. Question 109. Doth God forbid, in this command, only adultery, and such like gross sins?

Concerning the Ministry of the Church

concerning Ceremonies

The Fifth Commandment

  1. Question 110. What doth God forbid in the eighth command?

The Sixth Commandment

  1. Question 111. But what doth God require in this command?
  2. Question 112. What is required in the ninth command?
  3. Question 113. What doth the tenth commandment require of us?

The Seventh Commandment

  1. Question 114. But can those who are converted to God, perfectly keep these commands?
  2. Question 115. Why will God then have the ten commands so strictly preached, since no man i

concerning Marriage

The Eighth Commandment

  1. Question 116. Why is prayer necessary for Christians?
  2. Question 117. What are the requisites of that prayer, which is acceptable to God, and whic

The Ninth Commandment

  1. Question 118. What hath God commanded us to ask of him?

The Tenth Commandment

  1. Question 119. What are the words of that prayer?

The Possibility of Obedience to the Law

  1. Question 120. Why hath Christ commanded us to address God thus, “OUR FATHER?”

The Use of the Law

  1. Question 121. Why is here added, “WHICH ART IN HEAVEN?”

Of Prayer

  1. Question 122. Which is the first petition?
  2. Question 123. Which is the second petition?
  3. Question 124. Which is the third petition?
  4. Question 125. Which is the fourth petition?

The First Petition

  1. Question 126. What is the fifth petition?
  2. Question 127. Which is the sixth petition?
  3. Question 128. How dost thou conclude thy prayer?

The Second Petition

  1. Question 129. What doth the word “AMEN” signify?

Overlap with other editions

Same text elsewhere in this library

Two short booklets published separately from this Commentary are also held here: What is Catechism (from the Special Prolegomena) and What is the Gospel (from Q19).

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