London Baptist Confession of 1689 – Study Guide for Article 2

Here is a portion of a sermon delivered on Sabbath Morning, January 7th, 1855, by the REV. C. H. Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

“I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”—Malachi 3:6.   It has been said by some one that “the proper study of mankind is man.” I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.” But when we come to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought, that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s colt; and with the solemn exclamation, “I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.” No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God. We shall be obliged to feel—  “Great God, how infinite art thou,  What worthless worms are we!”  But while the subject humbles the mind it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe. He may be a naturalist, boasting of his ability to dissect a beetle, anatomize a fly, or arrange insects and animals in classes with well nigh unutterable names; he may be a geologist, able to discourse of the megatherium and the plesiosaurus, and all kinds of extinct animals; he may imagine that his science, whatever it is, ennobles and enlarges his mind. I dare say it does, but after all, the most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatary. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrows? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of grief and sorrow; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning. (Read the whole sermon here) (HT)

Article II.1 – Study Guide

1. There is only one God.  Read Deut. 6:4; 1Corinthians 8:4; Jeremiah 10:10.  How does monotheism differ from animism, polytheism, and henotheism?
2. What does “subsistence” mean?  The phrase “whose subsistence is in and of himself” is not in the Westminster Confession (WCF).  Why do you think it is important to have this truth in the LBC?
3. What does “infinite in being and perfection” mean?
4. What does “whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself” mean?  This truth is also not in the WCF, so why do you think the Baptist Reformers placed it in the LBC?
5. What does “without body” mean?
6. What does “without parts” mean?
7. What does “without passions” mean?
8. What does it mean that God is “immutable”?
9. Read Ephesians 1:9-11 and consider the fact that God is most holy, most wise, most free; most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will for his own glory.

Article II.2

1. Read Job 22:2-3 and Romans 11:34-36 and consider what the Scriptures reveal about the self-sufficiency of God.
2. What does it mean that “nothing is to God contingent or uncertain”?
3. What does mean that “as creatures they owe unto the Creator, and whatever he is further pleased to require of them”?
4. Can an Arminian agree with the Confession’s statements about the attributes of God and his relations to his creatures?

Article II.3

1. In what ways do we see the unity of the Godhead and at the same time the distictions of each member of the Godhead in this paragraph?
2. What does “subsistences” mean?
3. What does the phrase “eternal generation of the Son” mean and how does the Confession help with this issue?