Head 1. Our woful Condition by Nature.
Head 2. The Remedy provided in Christ Jesus.
Head 3. The Means provided in the Covenant of Grace.
Head 4. The Blessings conveyed by these Means.
1. For Convincing of Sin by the Law.
2.Of Righteousness by the Law.
3. Of Judgment by the Law.
For convincing of Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment by the Gospel.
Of Righteousness to be had only by Faith in Christ.
For strengthening a Man's Faith, &c.
1. God's hearty Invitation.
2. His earnest Request to be reconciled.
3. His Command, charging all to believe.
4. Much Assurance of Life given to Believers, &c.
1. Conviction of the Believer's Obligation to keep the Moral
Law.
2. That the Believer practise the Rules of Godliness and Righteousness.
3. That Obedience to the Law run in the right Channel of Faith in Christ.
4. The keeping of strait Communion with Christ the Fountain of all Grace and
good Works.
For strengthening the Believer in Faith and Obedience, by these Evidences.
In 1639 the Church of Scotland's General Assembly directed
that every minister should have
weekly catechizing in his parish, in addition to his sermons on the Lord's Day.
The General Assembly of 1649 instructed the ministers to make catechizing
an occasion to present "the chief heads of Saving Knowledge, in short
view."
In response to the Assembly's action, David Dickson and James Durham
composed and dictated this "Sum of Saving Knowledge" around 1650.
It came to be printed in Scottish editions of the Westminster Standards.
Robert Murray M'Cheyne acknowledged it as the work which
first brought him
to a clear understanding of the way of acceptance with God.
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