The RFPA blog editor, Rev. Martyn McGeown enjoys teaching the creeds in his capacity as pastor of Providence PRC. To that end, he has written a series of quizzes for our blog readers, to test readers' knowledge of the Canons of Dordt. Try them out, test yourselves and your friends and family, and may the questions spur you on to familiarize yourselves with the confessions. (Head One, Questions 1 to 25)
The duty that the Canons have in mind is the duty of preaching and the duty of listening and taking heed to the gospel with its admonitions (and never forget that the preaching comes also to the preacher; he not only preaches to the congregation, but he also preaches to himself). The word duty (officium) could be translated as office, but its meaning is wider than that.
The truth that “grace is conferred by means of admonitions” (Canons 3-4.17) is often misunderstood. How can grace, we wonder, be conferred? And how can it be conferred by means of admonitions? Is grace not the unmerited favor of God by which we are saved? And do we not all agree that “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9)?