The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: How many persons are there in the Godhead?

Answer: There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

Question: Whence is it, that this article of our holy religion has been so much opposed by adversaries, in every period of the church?

Answer: The devil and his instruments have warmly opposed it because they know it is the primary object of our faith and worship; it not being enough for us to know what God is, as to his essential attributes, without knowing who he is, as to his personality, according as he has revealed himself in his word, to be Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 1 John 2:23, - "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father."

Question: Is this doctrine of the Trinity, then; a fundamental article, upon the belief of which our salvation depends?

Answer: Beyond all doubt it is: because without the knowledge and belief of the Trinity of persons, we would remain ignorant of the love of the Father, the merit of the Son, and the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost, in the purchase and application of redemption; without which there could be no salvation, John 17:3, - "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent."

Question: Can the Trinity of persons be proved from the Old Testament?

Answer: Yes; not only from the history of man's creation, where God speaks of himself in the plural number, "Let us make man," Gen. 1:26; but likewise from such passages, as expressly restrict this plurality to three persons, such as, Psalm 33:6, - "By the word of the Lord, or JEHOVAH, were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath, or spirit, of his mouth;" where there is mention made of JEHOVAH, the Word, and the Spirit, as concurring in the creation of all things: accordingly, we are told that all things were made by the Word, John 1:3, and that the Spirit garnished the heavens, Job 26:13. The same truth is also evident from Isaiah 63:7, 9, 10; where we read of the loving-kindness of JEHOVAH; Of the Angel of his presence saving them; and of their vexing his Holy Spirit. A plain discovery of a Trinity of persons.

Question: What is the meaning of the word Trinity, so commonly used in expressing this doctrine?

Answer: It signifies the same with Tri-unity, or three in one; that is, three distinct persons, in one and the same individual or numerical15 essence, 1 John 5:7.

Question: Is not a Trinity of persons, in the divine Essence, an unsearchable mystery?

Answer: Yes; and so is every perfection of God, which infinitely transcends our thoughts, and finite capacities, Col. 2:2; Job 11:6, 7.

Question: Is it not unreasonable to require a belief of what we cannot understand?

Answer: It is not at all unreasonable in matters that are entirely supernatural; but, on the contrary, it is the highest reason we should believe what God says of himself, and of the manner of his own subsistence, John 20:31; besides, it is the peculiar office of faith to subject our reason to divine revelation, Heb. 11:1.

Question: How has God revealed this mystery in his word?

Answer: He :as in it told us, that "there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one," 1 John 5:7. Or, as our Confession expresses it, "In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost," Matt. 3:16, 17 and 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14.

Question: What is meant by the word Godhead?

Answer: The divine nature or essence; Rom. 1:20, compared with Gal. 4:8.

Question: What is meant by a person in the Godhead?

Answer: A complete, intelligent, and individual subsistence, which is neither a part of, nor sustained by any other; but is distinguished by an incommunicable property in the same undivided essence.

Question: Has each person then a distinct nature, or essence of his own?

Answer: No; but the same divine nature, or essence, is common to all the three glorious persons, 1 John 5:7, - "These three are one;" not only united in will and affection, but in one and the same common nature, or essence: it being the transcendent and incommunicable property of the divine nature, to reside in more persons than one.

Question: What was the heresy of the Sabellians, and Tritheists, in opposition to this fundamental doctrine of the Trinity?

Answer: The Sabellians maintained that there is but one person in the Trinity under three different names; the Tritheists, that the three persons are three Gods.

Question: Is the word Person, as applied to this mystery, made use of in scripture?

Answer: Yes; for the Son is said to be the "express image of the Father's person," Heb. 1:3.

Question: How do you prove that there are three persons in the Godhead?

Answer: From the institution of baptism, Matt. 28:19; from the apostolical blessing, 2 Cor. 13:14; from John's salutation to the seven churches, Rev. 1:4, 5; and from the baptism of Christ, Matt. 3:16, 17; where the Father is manifested by a voice from heaven; the Son, by his bodily appearance on earth; and the Holy Ghost, by his lighting on him in the shape of a dove.

Question: How is it farther evident that they are three distinct persons?

Answer: From the distinct capacities in which they are represented to act; for, in the work of redemption, we find in scripture, the Father "ordaining," the Son "purchasing," and the Holy Ghost "applying it," 1 Pet. 1:2.

Question: How are the persons in the Godhead distinguished from each other?

Answer: By their personal properties, which are incommunicable to each other.

Question: What is the personal property of the Father?

Answer: To beget the Son, and that from all eternity, Psalm 2:7.

Question: What is the personal property of the Son?

Answer: To be eternally begotten of the Father, John 1:14, - "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father."

Question: What is the personal property of the Holy Ghost?

Answer: To proceed eternally from the Father and the Son, John 15:26 - "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me."

Question: How does it appear that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son, as well as from the Father, when it is not expressly affirmed that he does so, in the above text?

Answer: Because he is called "the Spirit of the Son," Gal. 4:6 - "the Spirit of Christ," Rom. 8:9; the Spirit is said to receive all things from Christ, John 16:14, 15; to be sent by him, John 15:26; and the Father is said to send him in Christ's name, John 14:26; from all which, it may be safely gathered, that he proceeds from the Son, as well as from the Father.

Question: What is the difference between a personal and an essential property?

Answer: A personal property is peculiar to one of the persons only, but an essential property is common to them all.

Question: Why are the personal properties called incommunicable?

Answer: Because each of them is so proper to one of the persons in the Trinity, that it cannot be affirmed of any of the other two.

Question: Is it the divine essence that begets, is begotten, or proceeds?

Answer: No; for these are not essential, but personal acts. It is the Father who begets the Son; the Son who is begotten of the Father; and the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from both.

Question: Are the terms necessary existence, supreme Deity, and the title of the only true God, essential or personal properties?

Answer: They are essential properties of the divine nature, and so common to all the persons of the adorable Trinity, who have all the same essence, wholly, equally, and eternally.

Question: May the above terms be taken, or are they, by sound authors, taken in a sense that includes the personal property of the Father, and so not belonging to the Son and Holy Ghost?

Answer: They may not be, and never are, by sound authors, taken in that sense; for this would be to make the Son and Holy Ghost inferior to, and dependent upon, the Father, for being or existence, which is the very soul of Arianism.

Question: Does not the Father, being called the first; the Son, the second; and the Holy Ghost, the third person in the Godhead, imply an inequality, or preference of one person to another?

Answer: These are only terms of mere order, and imply no preference or priority, either of nature, excellency, or duration; and therefore we find in scripture, that sometimes the Son is named before the Father, as in 2 Cor. 13:14, Gal. 1:1; and sometimes the Spirit before the Son, as in Rev. 1:4, 5.

Question: Is not each of these glorious persons truly and properly God?

Answer: Each of these persons is God, in the true and proper sense of the word; though none of them can be called the Deity, exclusively of the rest, in regard the Deity, being the same with the divine nature, or essence, is common to them all.

Question: But does not our Lord say, that the Father is the "only true God," John 17:3 - "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God?"

Answer: Our Lord does not say, that the Father only, is the true God, exclusive of the other persons of the Trinity; but that He is the only true God (as each of the other persons is) in opposition to idols, or gods falsely so called.

Question: How does it appear that the Father is God?

Answer: From his being expressly so called every where in scripture: particularly, 1 Cor. 8:6; and 15:24; Gal. 1:1, 3, &c.

Question: Is it proper to say, that the Father is the fountain of the Deity?

Answer: The expression is dangerous, and now used by adversaries in an unsound sense, to exclude self-existence and independency from the Son and Holy Ghost, and therefore is to be avoided.

Question: How does it appear from scripture, that Christ, the Son, is truly and properly the supreme God, equal with the Father?

Answer: From the same names, attributes, works, and worship being ascribed to him in scripture as are ascribed to the Father, and in as full and ample a sense.16

Question: What are the names ascribed to Christ, that prove him to be equal with the Father?

Answer: He is expressly called "God," John 1:1 - "the great God," Titus 2:13 - "the mighty God," Isaiah 9:6 - "the true God," 1 John 5:20 - "the only wise God," Jude ver. 25; and JEHOVAH, which is a name never ascribed to any, in scripture, but the living and true God, Jer. 23:6; Psalm 83:18.

Question: What are the divine attributes ascribed to Christ, that prove him to be the supreme God?

Answer: Eternity, in the strict and proper sense of the word, Micah. 5:2; unchangeableness, Heb. 13:8; omniscience, John 21:17; omnipotence, for he calls himself "the Almighty," Rev. 1:8; omnipresence; "Lo," says he, "I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," Matt. 28:20; and supremacy, Rom. 9:5.

Question: What are those works which manifest Christ to be the true God?

Answer: The creating and preserving of all things, Col. 1:16, 17; the obtaining eternal redemption for us, Heb. 9:12; the working of miracles by his own power, Mark 5:41; the forgiving of sins, Mark 2:5; the raising of the dead at the last day, John 5:28, 29; and his judging the world, Rom. 14:10.

Question: What is that worship ascribed to Christ which proves him to be the supreme God?

Answer: The same divine worship and adoration that is given to the Father, John 5:23; we are commanded to believe in him equally with the Father, John 14:1; and we are baptised in his name, as well as in the name of the Father, Matt. 28:19.

Question: In what sense does Christ say, John 14:28 - "My Father is greater than I?"

Answer: He does not speak in that place of his nature, as God, but of his office, as Mediator; in which respect he is the Father's servant, Isaiah 42:1.

Question: How do you prove the supreme Deity of the Holy Ghost?

Answer: From the same arguments, by which the Deity of the Son was proved; for, (1.) He is expressly called God, Acts 5:3, 4. (2.) Attributes, which are peculiar only to God, are ascribed to him, Heb. 9:14; 1 Cor. 2:10; Luke 2:26; Psalm 139:7. (3.) Works which can be accomplished by none but God, are performed by him, Psalm 33:6; Job 26:13; Luke 1:35; 2 Pet. 1:21; John 16:13; Rom. 15:16. (4.) The same divine worship is paid to him, as to the Father and the Son, Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14.

Question: Could the Trinity of persons, in the unity of essence, have been discovered by the light of nature?

Answer: By no means: for then it would be no mystery, seeing divine mysteries are such secrets, as the wisdom of man could never have found out, Matt. 11:27; 1 Cor. 2:9, 10, 14.

Question: Is it lawful to explain this mystery by natural similitudes?

Answer: No; for there is no similitude amongst all the creatures, that has the remotest resemblance to this adorable mystery of the three one God. By making similes or comparisons of this kind, men have become vain in their imaginations, and their foolish minds have been darkened, Rom. 1:21-26; and therefore, as this doctrine is entirely a matter of faith, it becomes us to adore it, without prying curiously into what is not revealed.

Question: Does the asserting of three persons in the Godhead, with distinct personal properties, infer any separation, or division, in the divine essence?

Answer: No; for the persons in the Godhead are not separated, but distinguished from one another, by their personal properties. As the unity of the essence does not confound the persons, so neither does the distinction of persons imply any division of the essence, 1 John 5:7.

Question: Can any worship God aright, without the faith of this mystery of the Trinity?

Answer: No; "for he that cometh to God, must believe that he is," Heb. 11:6; namely, that he is God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Question: How is our worship to be directed to this three-one God?

Answer: We are to worship the Father, in Christ the Son, by the Spirit; and thus, when we pray, we are to ask the Father, in the name of the Son, by the Holy Ghost, Eph. 2:18 and 5:20.

Question: Will not this mystery be more fully known and displayed in heaven?

Answer: Yes; for, says Christ, "at that day ye shall know, that I am in my Father," John 14:20; See also 1 Cor. 13:12; 1 John 3:2.

Question: What comfortable instruction may we learn from this doctrine of the Trinity?

Answer: That the gift of eternal life, in the promise and offer of the gospel, to sinners of mankind, is attested by the three famous witnesses in heaven, who are above all exception, 1 John 5:7, 11; and consequently, that a portion infinitely rich, is insured by the covenant of grace to all those who believe, when it makes over all the three persons to them, as their God, Jer. 31:33.

Question: What is the duty of the judicatures of the church with reference to Arians, Socinians, and Deists, who deny this fundamental doctrine of the Trinity?

Answer: It is their duty after the first and second admonition, to reject them as heretics, Titus 3:10.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What are the decrees of God?

Answer: The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Question: What does the word counsel as ascribed to God import?

Answer: Not the receiving the knowledge of things from another, or in the way of study and advisement, as among men; but the eternity, wisdom, and immutability of his determinations, Psalm 33:11; Proverbs 19:21.

Question: Does the scripture speak expressly of God's decrees?

Answer: Yes; in many places; such as, Psalm 2:7; Job. 28:26 and 38:10; Isaiah 10:22; Jer. 5:22, &c.

Question: Are we by the decrees of God, to understand the things decreed, or the act decreeing?

Answer: The act decreeing or discerning.

Question: Is the decreeing act of God one simple act only?

Answer: Yes; because of the perfect oneness or simplicity of his nature, on account of which he could not but decree all things at once; because all things are naked and opened unto his omniscient eye, Heb. 4:13; and because of his immutability, Mal. 3:6.

Question: Why then do we speak of the divine decrees as various, or many?

Answer: Because of the many objects which the decreeing act of God respects: the things decreed are many, but the act decreeing is but one only.

Question: What are the properties of the divine decrees?

Answer: That they are eternal, most wise, absolute, and unchangeable.

Question: How do you prove the decrees of God to be eternal?

Answer: The decrees of election, and publishing the gospel, are eternal, as is evident from Eph. 1:4; and 1 Cor. 2:7; and therefore, all other decrees must be eternal likewise, because he decreed all things at once, by one simple act, Acts 15:18.

Question: In what does the wisdom of God's decrees appear?

Answer: In the beautiful order in which they are executed, Mark 7:37 - "He hath done all things well"

Question: Why are the divine decrees said to be absolute?

Answer: Because they depend upon no condition without God himself, but entirely and solely upon his own sovereign will and pleasure, Eph. 1:11.

Question: Are there not certain means by which the decrees of God are executed?

Answer: Yes; but these means are decreed as well as the end, 2 Thess. 2:13.

Question: How does it appear from scripture, that the means and the end are connected in the decree?

Answer: Fro: the preservation of Paul, and those who were with him in the ship; God had decreed to preserve them all, Acts 27:24; yet lawful means were to be used; the shipmen must not get leave to flee out of the ship, otherwise the rest cannot be saved, as Paul tells the centurion and the soldiers, ver. 31.

Question: What is the difference between the means of execution, and decreeing conditionally?

Answer: The means of execution are stated in the decree; but to decree a thing conditionally, is to decree it upon an uncertain event, which may, or may never take place.

Question: What is the absurdity of conditional decrees?

Answer: They make the will of God, which is the first cause, to depend upon the will of the creature: and they plainly suppose, that either God is ignorant of the event, or incapable to accomplish it, or that he has determined nothing certainly about it; all which are blasphemously absurd.

Question: Are all the decrees of God then unchangeable?

Answer: Yes; "from all eternity he hath, for his own glory, unchangeably foreordained whatsoever comes to pass in time," Eph. 1:11.17

Question: How do you prove the decrees of God to be unchangeable?

Answer: From scripture and from reason.

Question: How is it proved from scripture?

Answer: From Job 23:13 - "He is in one mind, and who can turn him?" Isaiah 46:10 - "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure."

Question: How do you prove from reason, that the divine decrees are unchangeable?

Answer: From this one argument - That there is in God no defect of wisdom, power, or faithfulness, from whence any change of his will may flow; as is the case among men, when they alter their resolutions.

Question: Does the immutability of God's decree destroy the liberty of man's will, or the contingency of second causes?

Answer: No; there is in it no "violence offered to the will of the creature, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established," Matt. 17:12; Acts 2:23.18

Question: Whence is it, that the absolute or unchangeable decree does not take away the liberty of the will?

Answer: Because God, in the execution of his decree, does not change the nature of things, but suffers rational agents to act freely and voluntarily, as being under no more constraint or compulsion, than though there had been no such decree.

Question: How is this made clear from scripture?

Answer: By the instance of Pilate and the Jews, when they crucified the Lord of glory: what they did was with full freedom of their will, and yet they did nothing but what God's "hand and counsel determined before to be done," Acts 4:27, 28.

Question: Does any thing come to pass in time, but what was decreed from eternity?

Answer: No; for the very reason why any thing comes to pass in time, is because God decreed it, Eph. 1:11; Acts 15:18.

Question: Are things that are casual or accidental, positively decreed?

Answer: Yes; as is evident from the instances of Joseph's advancement in Egypt; and the not breaking a bone of Christ; and many others.

Question: What has the decree of God fixed with respect to man's continuance in this world?

Answer: It has immovably fixed the precise moment of every one's life and death, with every particular circumstance thereof.

Question: How may it be proved that the precise moment of every one's death is unalterably fixed in the decree?

Answer: From express scripture testimony, Job 14:5; Psalm 39:4; from the reason given why the Jews could not lay hands on Christ; namely, "because his hour was not yet come," John 7:30; and from God's numbering the hairs of our head, Matt. 10:30; much more the days and moments of our life.

Question: Were there not fifteen years added to Hezekiah's days, after the prophet said to him, "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live," Isaiah 38:1, 5?

Answer: The sentence of death, by the prophet, was not an intimation of the decree of God, that Hezekiah was presently to die; but of the nature of his disease, which, according to the ordinary course of second causes, was mortal, if the power of God had not miraculously interposed.

Question: How does the decree of God extend to things naturally and morally good?

Answer: Effectively: because God is the author and efficient cause of all good, Phil. 2:13.

Question: How does it extend to things morally evil?

Answer: Permissively and directively only, Acts 14:16.

Question: Is the permissive decree a bare inactive permitting of evil?

Answer: No; it determines the event of the evil permitted, and overrules it to a good end, contrary to the intention both of the work and worker.

Question: What scripture example is there of this?

Answer: God permits Joseph's brethren to sell him into Egypt, and Potiphar to throw him unjustly into prison, and yet overrules both these evils, and makes them means, contrary to the intention both of the work and workers, for executing the decree of his advancement to the greatest honour, Gen. 45:5-8; and 50:20 - "Ye thought evil against me, (says Joseph to his brethren,) but God meant it unto good."

Question: How can the decree of God be permissive and efficacious at the same time?

Answer: It is permissive, with respect to the sinfulness of the action as a moral evil; and efficacious, with respect to the matter of it as a natural act.

Question: How do you prove that God cannot be the author of sin?

Answer: From the contrariety of it to his holy nature and law, and the indication he has manifested against it, in what Christ suffered on account of it; for he can never be the author of that of which he is the avenger.

Question: What is the great end of all God's decrees?

Answer: His own glory, Proverbs 16:4 - "The Lord hath made all things for himself;" and particularly the glory of his mercy and justice, Rom. 9:22, 23, and, next to his own glory, the good of the elect, both here and hereafter, Rom. 8:28.

Question: Who are the special objects of God's decrees?

Answer: Angels and men.

Question: What is God's decree concerning angels and men, commonly called?

Answer: His predestinating of them.

Question: What is meant by predestination?

Answer: It is God's unchangeable purpose or decree, concerning the last end, and eternal state, of angels and men, 1 Tim. 5:21; Jude ver. 6; Ex. 33:19; Rom. 9:11, 13, 18.

Question: Is the precise number of angels and men, thus predestinated, particularly and unchangeably defined?

Answer: Yes; "their number is so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished," 2 Tim. 2:19; John 13:18.19

Question: How is the decree of predestination usually divided?

Answer: Into the decree of election and reprobation.

Question: What is God's decree of election, as it respects men?

Answer: It is his choosing a certain number of mankind, in Christ, to eternal life, and the means of it, to the praise of his glorious grace, Eph. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13, 14.

Question: Was it the foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing whatsoever in the creature, that moved God to make choice of some men, and not of others?

Answer: By no means; but his mere free grace and love Eph. 1:6, 12.

Question: What is God's decree of reprobation, as it respects men?

Answer: It is his passing by, and ordaining all the rest of mankind whom he has not chosen, to dishonour and wrath, to be for their sins inflicted, to the praise of the glory of his justice, Rom. 9:17, 18, 22; 1 Pet. 2:8; Jude verse 4.

Question: Since God has appointed the elect to glory, has he not also foreordained all the means?

Answer: Yes; for "they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ," 1 Thess. 5:9, 10;20 and free grace reigns, through his righteousness, to their eternal life, Rom. 5:21.

Question: Do the decrees of election and reprobation import any partiality, or, injustice in God?

Answer: No more than a potter is esteemed partial, or unjust, in making, out of the same lump, one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour, Rom. 9:20, 21.

Question: Is sin in the reprobate the cause of their damnation, or of their reprobation?

Answer: Their sin is indeed the cause of their damnation, Rom. 6:23 - "The wages of sin is death;" but the sovereign will and pleasure of God is the cause of their reprobation, Matt. 11:25, 26; Rom. 9:18.

Question: Are the secret decrees of God, concerning the eternal state of men, the rule of faith and practice?

Answer: No; but the revealed will of God only, Deut. 29:29.

Question: Does not this doctrine of particular election and reprobation limit the general call of the gospel?

Answer: No; for Christ commissions to go "into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," Mark 16:15; not as they are elect or reprobate, but as they are lost sinners of Adam's family, Matt. 9:13; therefore, all that hear the gospel have an equal warrant to believe, 1 John 3:23.

Question: Has it a tendency to make men careless in the use of the means of salvation?

Answer: No; because God has chosen us to salvation, "through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth," 2 Thess. 2:13.

Question: Ought we then to improve the means of salvation, without regard to the decree?

Answer: We ought no more to regard the decree in the matter of believing to the salvation of our souls, than in eating, drinking, buying, selling, or any other common action of life; because "the secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed, belong unto us, and to our children for ever," Deut. 29:29.

Question: What improvement ought we to make of the doctrine of absolute election?

Answer: We ought to be encouraged to believe in Christ: considering that electing love pitches on the chief of sinners, Ezek. 16:6; that it flows not from, nor is rounded upon, any condition to be performed by men, Rom. 9:11; and that it contains in it all things pertaining to life and godliness, 2 Pet. 1:3.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: How does God execute his decrees?

Answer: God executes his decrees, in the works of creation and providence.

Question: What is it for God to execute his decrees?

Answer: It is to bring them to pass; or, give an actual being in time, to what he purposed from eternity, Isaiah 46:10.

Question: Does not God leave the execution of his decrees to second causes?

Answer: Whatever use God may make of second causes, in the execution of his decrees, yet they are merely tools in his over-ruling hand, to bring about his glorious designs; they are his servants, and must do all his pleasure, Acts 4:27, 28.

Question: What difference is there between the decree and the execution of it?

Answer: The decree is an immanent or inherent act in God, and is nothing else but God decreeing; but the execution is a transient or passing act of his infinite power, bringing the thing decreed into actual existence, 2 Pet. 1:3.

Question: Is there an exact harmony, or correspondence, between God's decree and the execution of it?

Answer: When the thing decreed is brought actually into being, it exactly corresponds to the idea or platform of it in the infinite mind of God, Psalm 139:16; as the tabernacle of Moses answered the pattern given of it in the Mount, Ex. 25:40.

Question: Can none of the decrees of God be defeated, or fail of execution?

Answer: By no means; the counsel of the Lord shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure, Isaiah 46:10. "Who hath resisted his will?" Rom. 9:19. "None can stay his hand, or say unto him, What dost thou?" Dan. 4:35.

Question: What are the works of God, in which his decrees are executed?

Answer: They are the works of creation and providence.

Question: To which of these works of God does redemption belong?

Answer: To the providence of God, as the most glorious part of it towards men.

Question: What then is the first external work of God?

Answer: It is creation: which is therefore called, "The beginning of his ways," Proverbs 8:22.

Question: What is the difference between God's executing the work of creation, and that of providence?

Answer: He executed the work of creation entirely without means, by the word of his power; but he executes the work of providence, ordinarily, in the use of them.

Question: What may we learn from God's executing his decrees?

Answer: That all his promises shall be punctually accomplished, and not one of them fall to the ground, Mark 13:31.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is the work of creation?

Answer: The work of creation is, God's making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.

Question: How do you know that the world had a beginning?

Answer: The light of nature teaches, that there must be a first cause; besides, "through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God," Heb. 11:3.

Question: Might not this world have existed from eternity?

Answer: No; it is impossible: this supposition is not only contrary to scripture, but to common sense and reason, which tells us, that what is created; and has a duration by succession of time, must have had a beginning.

Question: From whom did this world receive its being and beginning?

Answer: From God only, who is being itself, and gives being to all things, Neh. 9:6.

Question: What is it for God to create?

Answer: It is his making all things of nothing.

Question: When did God create this world?

Answer: In the beginning of time, Gen. 1:1.

Question: Was there any pre-existent matter out of which God created the world?

Answer: No; for, by his powerful word, he called "those things which be not, as though they were," Rom. 4:17; "so that things which are seen, were not made of things which do appear," that is, of any pre-existent matter, Heb. 11:3.

Question: In what time did God create all things?

Answer: In the space of six days, Ex. 20:11.

Question: Could he not have created all things in a moment of time?

Answer: Yes; but he saw it more for his own glory, and the good of mankind, to set them an example of working six days, and resting the seventh.

Question: On which of the six days, is it reckoned, that the angels were created?

Answer: It is probable they were created upon the first day, as would seem from Job 38:4, 7 - "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth, - when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

Question: Can creating power be imparted to any creature?

Answer: No; it implies a contradiction for a creature to create, because this would vest a finite creature with infinite power, Isaiah 14:12.

Question: Is it not then a clear proof of the supreme Deity of the Son of God, that all things were made by him?

Answer: No doubt it is: for, none but he, who is truly and properly God, can command things that are not into being, Isaiah 44:24.

Question: Is creation a work common to all the persons of the Trinity?

Answer: Yes; for all the external works of God are common to each person; every one of the three adorable persons being the same in substance, equal in power and glory, 1 John 5:7 - "These three are one."

Question: For what end did God make all things?

Answer: He made all things for himself, or for the display of his matchless excellencies, Proverbs 16:4.

Question: What are those excellencies or perfections of God which are more especially displayed in the work of creation?

Answer: His infinite power, extensive goodness, and manifold wisdom, Rom. 1:20.

Question: How does the infinite power of God shine forth in creating the world?

Answer: In bringing all things, of a sudden, out of nothing, by his bare word, Psalm 33:6.

Question: What was that bare word?

Answer: Let such a thing be, Gen. 1:3.

Question: How is his manifold wisdom displayed in this work?

Answer: In the vast variety of creatures, great and small, which he has made; the order and harmony of them all; and their subserviency one to another, Psalm 104:24.

Question: Why is it said that he made all things very good?

Answer: Because God, upon a survey of his works, declared them to be so, Gen. 1:31 - "God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good."

Question: In what consists the goodness of the creatures of God?

Answer: In the perfection of their nature, their being fit to answer the end of their creation; and their usefulness to man, being both profitable and pleasant to him.

Question: Are not many creatures hurtful to man?

Answer: They were not so at their first creation, and while man continued in his allegiance to God: but through his sinning against God he has brought a curse on himself, and the whole creation, Gen. 3:17 - "Cursed is the ground for thy sake."

Question: Is not God said to create evil, Isaiah 45:7?

Answer: Not the evil of sin; but of punishment, as a just judge, Rom. 3:5, 6; Amos 3:6.

Question: How then came sin and death into the world?

Answer: Man is the parent of sin, and sin opened the door to death: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin," Rom. 5:12.

Question: Upon what day did God rest from creating the world?

Answer: Upon the seventh day, Gen. 2:2, 3; which was therefore appointed to be the weekly Sabbath, till the resurrection of Christ.

Question: Does this resting, on the seventh day, say that he was weary with working?

Answer: No; "The everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary," Isaiah 40:28.

Question: What then is meant by his resting?

Answer: It is spoken after the manner of men; and the meaning is, that God ceased to create any other sorts of creatures than he had already made.

Question: Is not the same power that created all things, exerted in sustaining them in their being?

Answer: Yes; for he, by whom the worlds were made, is said to uphold all things by the word of his power, Heb. 1:2, 3.

Question: Do not the scriptures speak of a new creation, as well as of the old?

Answer: Yes; the Spirit of God, in scripture, speaks of a new world of grace, under the name of "new heavens" and a "new earth," Isaiah 66:22; Rev. 21:1.

Question: What is to be understood by this new creation, or new world of grace?

Answer: The true church of Christ, particularly under the New Testament, not excluding the church triumphant in heaven.

Question: By whom is this new world created?

Answer: By the same God that made the old world; "Behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth," Isaiah 65:17.

Question: Who are the inhabitants of this new world?

Answer: They are all new creatures, taken out of the old world, 2 Cor. 5:17.

Question: How came they out of this material, into that spiritual world?

Answer: By the new birth; for, except a man be born again, he cannot enter into it, John 3; flesh and blood, or corrupted nature, continuing such, cannot inherit it, 1 Cor. 15:50.

Question: Is there any difference of nations, sexes, or persons, in this new world?

Answer: No; for "there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision, nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all," Col. 3:11.

Question: By what door do men enter into this new world of grace?

Answer: Christ says, "I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture," John 10:9, and chap. 14:6 - "I am the way - no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Question: In what lies the happiness of the inhabitants of this new world of grace?

Answer: None so happy as they, because they dwell in God, and God dwells in them as in a temple, 1 Cor. 3:16; and walks in them as in his garden of pleasure, 2 Cor. 6:16; and, at death, they are transported by the ministry of angels, to the world of glory above, Luke 16:22.

Question: What may we learn from the doctrine of the creation?

Answer: That we ought to contemplate God in all his creatures, Psalm 104; acknowledge him as the rightful proprietor and sovereign disposer of them all, 1 Chron. 29:11; and believe that the same almighty power of God, which was put forth in creating of all things, shall be exerted in defence and support of his church and people, in the time of their need, Psalm 121:2.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: How did God create man?

Answer: God created man, male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

Question: Upon which day of creation was man made?

Answer: Upon the sixth day, Gen. 1:26, and 31, compared.

Question: Why was the creation of man delayed, or put off, to the sixth day?

Answer: To discover the great regard God had to man's happiness and welfare, in that he would first furnish the great house of the creation for him, before he brought him into it, Psalm 8:6-8.

Question: Was there any more solemnity observed in the creation of man, than in making the rest of the creatures?

Answer: Yes; for as to the rest of the creatures, he just commanded them into being; but when man is to be created, a council of the Trinity is held about his formation. Gen. 1:26 - "Let us make man."

Question: Why so much solemnity about man's formation beyond other creatures?

Answer: Because man was to be God's viceroy in this lower world, the only image of his Creator, in his formal perfections; and it was the purpose of God, though not then revealed, that the second person of the Godhead was to become man.

Question: What is it that constitutes the human nature, or nature of man?

Answer: A true body and a reasonable soul united together.

Question: Of what was the body of man formed?

Answer: "Of the dust of the ground," Gen. 2:7; hence God is resembled to a potter, and man to the clay, and a potsherd, Isaiah 64:8, and 45:9.

Question: What should this teach us?

Answer: To remember we are dust, Eccl. 3:20; to admire the condescension of the son of God in coming into our tribe, and assuming a human body, 1 Tim. 3:16; to consider that we are in God's hand, as the clay is in the hand of the potter, Jer. 18:6; and that, in this our fallen state, we are to return to the dust again, Gen. 3:19.

Question: How was the first woman formed?

Answer: Of a rib taken from the man's side, Gen. 2:21, 22.

Question: Of what was this a figure?

Answer: Of Christ and the church, Eph. 5:31, 32.

Question: In what respect was the formation of the woman a figure of these?

Answer: In as much as the church was, as it were, taken out of the pierced side of Christ, when the Lord God caused the deep sleep of death to fall upon him; first, typically, in the sacrifice; and then actually, in his decease which he accomplished at Jerusalem.

Question: Why was marriage instituted of God before the fall?

Answer: To show that it belongs to the law of nature; and that mankind, as such, have a title to it. Heb. 13:4 - "Marriage is honourable in all."

Question: What is the other part of man's nature?

Answer: A reasonable soul.

Question: How was the soul of man made?

Answer: God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul," Gen. 2:7.

Question: Why is the creation of the soul of man thus expressed?

Answer: To show, that as the Lord is "the God of the spirits of all flesh," Num. 27:16; who creates them immediately, and by himself, without the intervention of second causes, Zech. 12:1; so he has an absolute dominion over them, and can call them back to himself when he pleases, Eccl. 12:7.

Question: In what does the soul of man differ from the body?

Answer: The body is a corporeal, but the soul is a spiritual and immaterial substance.

Question: In what does the soul of man differ from the spirit or life of a beast?

Answer: The spirit or life of a beast goes downward to the earth, and perishes at its death, Eccl. 3:21; but the soul of man, being rational and immortal, "returns to God who gave it," Eccl. 12:7.

Question: How do you prove the immortality of the soul of man?

Answer: (1.) From the great price paid for the redemption of the soul, which had ceased for ever, without a ransom of infinite value, Psalm 49:8. (2.) From the promises of eternal life, and the threatenings of eternal death, Mark 16:16. (3.) Christ tells us, that they who kill the body cannot kill the soul, Matt. 10:28. (4.) Christ, and his dying saints, commit their spirits, or souls, into the hand of God, Psalm 31:5; Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59; and the soul of the thief went to paradise, with the soul of Christ, that day they died, Luke 23:43. In a word, if the soul perishes with the body, the saints of God would be of all men the most miserable, 1 Cor. 15:19.

Question: What should this teach us?

Answer: To be more concerned for the salvation of our souls than for all things in the world: "For," says Christ, "what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Matt. 16:26.

Question: Why did God create man male and female?

Answer: For the propagation of mankind, Gen. 1:28; and mutual helpfulness to each other, chap. 2:18.

Question: Why were both the man and the woman called Adam, Gen. 5:2?

Answer: To intimate that their original was of the earth; that they were both of the same nature; that the promises and threatenings concerned them both equally, Rom. 5:12; and to teach us, that notwithstanding this, the man was the representing head of the covenant, 1 Cor. 15:22.

Question: After whose image did God create man?

Answer: After his own image, Gen. 1:26, 27.

Question: Did this image of God lie in any outward shape of man's body?

Answer: By no means: for God is a pure Spirit, without bodily parts, John 4:24.

Question: What then was the proper seat of it?

Answer: The soul of man was the painting table, on which this image of God was expressed and delineated, Gen. 2:7; James 3:9.

Question: In what did the soul of man bear a likeness to God?

Answer: In its spiritual and immortal nature; and in the faculties of the understanding and the will, with which it was endued.

Question: In what did the image of God, which was drawn on man's soul, chiefly consist?

Answer: In knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24.

Question: What knowledge was man endued with at his creation?

Answer: A perfect knowledge of God, of his will, and works, so far as was necessary to render him happy, and fit for universal obedience.

Question: What righteousness had man at his creation?

Answer: Not an imputed, but an inherent righteousness; which consisted in a perfect conformity of all the powers and faculties of his soul, to the pure nature of God, and the moral law written upon his heart, Eccl. 7:29.

Question: In what consisted his holiness?

Answer: In the lustre and beauty of his perfect knowledge and inherent righteousness, shining both in his heart and life.

Question: Was the will of man, in a state of innocence, absolutely indifferent to good and evil?

Answer: No; God set man's will only towards good; yet it was movable to evil, and that only by man himself; to whom God gave a sufficient power to stand in his integrity, if he had pleased, Eccl. 7:29.

Question: What was the necessary consequence of this image of God drawn upon our first parents?

Answer: The immortality of the whole man, and dominion over the creatures.

Question: Would they have been immortal if they had not sinned?

Answer: Yes; for it was only in case of sin that death was threatened, Gen. 2:17.

Question: How could their bodies have been immortal, when made of the dust?

Answer: The perfect purity or holiness of their souls, would have preserved their bodies from sickness, death, and corruption, Rom. 5:12 and 6:23.

Question: In what did man's dominion over the creatures consist?

Answer: In his princely power over the inferior creatures, by which he could rule and use them as be pleased, for God's glory and his own good, without any injustice, Gen. 1:28, and 2:19, 20.

Question: Where did God put the man when he had formed him after his own image?

Answer: In the garden of Eden; a place eminent for pleasantness, wherein nothing was wanting, either for necessity or delight, Gen. 2:8, 9.

Question: What may we learn from the holy and happy state in which man was created?

Answer: The unspeakable difference between man's former and present condition: formerly, in a state of innocence, man's understanding was a lamp of light, his will lay straight with the will of God, and his affections were pure and holy, free from all disorder and distemper; but now, the very reverse: so that we may say, "How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed!" Lam. 4:1. "The crown is fallen from our head! wo unto us that we have sinned!" chap. 5:16.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What are God's works of providence?

Answer: God's works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.

Question: How does it appear that there is a providence?

Answer: From scripture, and by reason.

Question: How does the scripture evidence that there is a providence?

Answer: It tells us, that the Lord preserves man and beast, Psalm 36:6; that he gives "rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness," Acts 14:17; that "he giveth to all, life, and breath, and all things," Acts 17:25.

Question: How may providence be proved by reason?

Answer: The admirable order and harmony among such a vast variety of creatures in the world, continuing for so many ages, notwithstanding of their different and opposite natures; the accomplishment of future events, exactly according to the predictions of them long before; the revolutions of kingdoms; the orderly returns of seed-time and harvest; and the preservation of a church on earth, against the fury of hell and wicked men: all these plainly evince, to the rational world, that there is a providence.

Question: Can providence be denied without denying the being of God?

Answer: No; for the same arguments that prove the one, prove the other: to deny that God governs the world, is to deny that God exists, Isaiah 41:23.

Question: What is the object of God's providence, or to what does it extend?

Answer: To all his creatures, and all their actions.

Question: What is God's providence towards the angels?

Answer: He permitted some of them to fall wilfully and irrecoverably into sin and damnation, Jude verse 6; and established the rest in holiness and happiness, 1 Tim. 5:21.

Question: Are the smallest and meanest of the creatures the objects of God's providence, as well as the greatest and most considerable?

Answer: God's providence disdains not the meanest worm, more than the mightiest prince: he counts the hairs of our head, Matt. 10:30, as well as the number of the stars, Psalm 147:4.

Question: Does it reflect any dishonour upon the providence of God to take care of the meanest creatures?

Answer: It can reflect no dishonour upon divine providence, to preserve what infinite wisdom saw meet to create, be it ever so mean in our view, Neh. 9:6.

Question: Does providence extend to all the actions of the creatures, as well as to the creatures themselves?

Answer: Yes; otherwise the creatures would be independent in their actions; and God would not be in all things the first cause, Gen. 45:7.

Question: Are casual or contingent actions subject to divine providence?

Answer: What is casual to us, is ordained by God: nothing can be more casual than a lot, yet "the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord," Proverbs 16:33.

Question: Are voluntary or free actions subject to it likewise?

Answer: Yes; for, though "there are many devices in a man's heart, nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand," Proverbs 19:21.

Question: How is the providence of God conversant about good actions?

Answer: Not by compelling, but sweetly inclining and determining the will, both to the action and the right manner of performing it. Phil. 2:13 - "It is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure."

Question: How is it conversant about sinful actions?

Answer: In permitting them to be done, Acts 14:16; and in limiting and directing them to good and holy ends, contrary both to the nature of sin, and the intention of the sinner, 2 Kings 19:28.

Question: What scripture instance may be given, of God's over-ruling the sinful actions of men to holy ends?

Answer: The worst action that ever was committed, the crucifying the Lord of glory, was ordered and directed by God, for bringing about the greatest mercy, the redemption of a lost world, Acts 2:23, and 4:28.

Question: What are the works of providence about the creatures and their actions?

Answer: They are two; God's preserving them, and his governing them.

Question: What is God's preserving work of providence?

Answer: It is his upholding all the creatures in their being and operation, by the same power by which he made them at first, Heb. 1:3 - "Upholding all things, by the word of his power."

Question: What would be the consequence of God's withholding from the creatures his preserving providence?

Answer: They would presently sink into their original nothing, Psalm 104:29 - "Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust."

Question: What is God's governing work of providence?

Answer: His:directing and leading all his creatures to the proper ends, which he has prescribed and appointed, Proverbs 16:9 - "A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps."

Question: How do you prove that God governs as well as preserves his creatures?

Answer: From their dependence upon him for operation, as well as for being; for in him they live and move, as well as have their being, Acts 17:28; and it is expressly said, that "God ruleth by his power for ever," Psalm 66:7.

Question: Does God's governing providence include in it his immediate concurrence with every action of the creature?

Answer: Yes; God not only efficaciously concurs in producing the action, as to the matter of it; but likewise predetermines the creature to such or such an action, and not to another, Isaiah 10:6, 7; shutting up all other ways of acting, and leaving that only open, which he had determined to be done, Ezek. 21:21, 22.

Question: How can God concur with the sinful actions of men, without sin, of which he cannot be the author?

Answer: Although God not only preserves and supports the faculties with which a man sins, but likewise previously, immediately, and efficaciously concurs to the substance, matter, or entity of the action, yet he by no means concurs to the sinfulness or wickedness of the act, Isaiah 10:6, 7.

Question: In what does the sinfulness of an action properly consist?

Answer: Not in the matter of the action, but in the form of it; that is, not in the action itself, considered as an act, but in the deficiency or swerving of that act from the rule of the law, 1 John 3:4 - "Sin is the transgression of the law."

Question: How may the difference between the matter and form of an action be illustrated by an example?

Answer: In the stoning of Achan and Naboth; the matter of the action was the same, namely, the throwing of stones; but the form of the action, in point of conformity or disconformity to the law, was vastly different: the stoning of Achan, condemned by God, and all Israel, was an act of just punishment, agreeable to the law; but the stoning of Naboth, an innocent man, was an act of unjust murder, quite contrary to the law, Ex. 20:13.

Question: From whence then does the sinfulness or viciousness of actions proceed?

Answer: Although the power of acting be from God, yet the viciousness or malignity of the action is entirely from the inherent corruption of our own nature, James 1:13, 14.

Question: Does not God present the object which is the occasion of sinning?

Answer: Sin does not arise from the object which God, in his providence, presents to us, but from our own inward depravity, called, "the corruption that is in the world through lust," 2 Pet. 1:4. God delivered Christ to the Jews; he presented him to them; but neither infused that malice in them, by which they crucified him, nor did excite it, but it was entirely of themselves, Acts 2:23.

Question: What are the properties of God's providence?

Answer: It is most holy, wise, and powerful.

Question: Why is the providence of God called most holy?

Answer: Because of the infinite holiness and purity that shines in all his administrations, Psalm 145:17.

Question: In what does the holiness of God's providence appear?

Answer: In bringing glory to his mercy and justice out of sin.

Question: How does he bring glory to his mercy out of sin?

Answer: In making the worst of sinners become the choicest of saints, as in the instance of Paul, 1 Tim. 1:12, 13, and others.

Question: How does he bring glory to his justice out of sin?

Answer: By the judgments which he executes upon sinners, even in this life, Psalm 9:16.

Question: Why is the providence of God said to be wise?

Answer: Because it makes all things subservient to the end which God had fixed for himself, Rom. 8:28.

Question: How is the wisdom of providence manifested?

Answer: In the exact harmony of all the motions thereof with the word, Hos. 14:9.

Question: Why is God's providence called powerful?

Answer: Because it cannot be resisted, Dan. 4:35 - "He doth according to his will, in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: none can stay his hand, or say unto him, what dost thou?"

Question: How does the power of providence discover itself?

Answer: In bringing about great events, by small and apparently contemptible means: thus, he makes worm Jacob to thresh the mountains, Isaiah 41:15; and by the foolishness of preaching saves them that believe, 1 Cor. 1:21.

Question: How is the providence of God usually distinguished?

Answer: Into ordinary and extraordinary, common and special.

Question: What is the ordinary providence of God?

Answer: It is his observing the order of things, which he appointed from the beginning, Hos. 2:21, 22.

Question: What is the extraordinary providence of God?

Answer: It is his going beyond, or contrary to the natural order of things; and such events are called miraculous.

Question: What is a miracle?

Answer: It is such an astonishing and surprising effect, contrary to the ordinary course of nature, as surpasses the power of all created beings, and can be produced by divine omnipotence only; such as, dividing the waters of the Red Sea and Jordan, making the sun to stand still, raising the dead, giving eye-sight to the born blind, curing all manner of diseases by a word, and the like.

Question: What is common providence?

Answer: It is that which is exercised about all the creatures in general, Acts 17:28, called God's natural government.

Question: What is special providence?

Answer: It is that which is exercised about rational creatures in particular, Deut. 30:1518, called his moral government.

Question: What is the special providence which God exercises about his church and people?

Answer: His "eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him," 2 Chron. 16:9; and he makes all things work together for their good, Rom. 8:28.

Question: Are not all the dispensations of providence, prosperous or adverse, to be carefully observed?

Answer: Yes; for "whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord," Psalm 107:43.

Question: How are the providences of God to be observed?

Answer: With humility and reverence, under a sense of our weakness to penetrate into them, Rom. 11:34; and with gratitude and thankfulness, because there is always some mixture of mercy with judgment in this life, Psalm 101:1.

Question: Is it not dangerous to overlook the operations of divine providence?

Answer: Yes; for it is said, Psalm 28:5 - "Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up."

Question: Are not some dispensations of providence very dark and mysterious?

Answer: Yes; his ways are many times in the sea, and his paths in the great waters, and his footsteps are not known, Psalm 77:19.

Question: In what does the mystery of providence appear?

Answer: In the mysterious tract, and mysterious outward appearance of it.

Question: How is providence mysterious in the tract of it?

Answer: In attaining its end by seemingly contrary means; such as making Joseph's imprisonment the step to his being second in the kingdom, and the casting of Daniel into the lions' den, the path to his higher preferment.

Question: In what is providence mysterious in the outward appearance of it?

Answer: In that "all things come alike unto all;" there being one event to the righteous and to the wicked: and no man knowing love or hatred, by all that is before him in this life, Eccl. 9:1, 2.

Question: How do you prove that love or hatred cannot be known by the outward dispensations of providence in this life?

Answer: From the parable of the rich man and Lazarus; the rich man, in his lifetime, received good things, and Lazarus evil things; and yet, after death, Lazarus is comforted, and the other tormented, Luke 16:19-28.

Question: Is this seemingly unequal appearance of providence in this life, any reflection upon the wisdom and righteousness of it?

Answer: No; for, though good men may be sometimes put to a stand by the outward prosperity of the wicked, and the straits and wants of the godly, as Jeremiah was, chap. 12:1 - "wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?" yet, if the enjoyments of the one, and wants of the other, are laid in the balance, it would be found, that a "little that the righteous man hath, is better than the riches of many wicked," Psalm 37:16.

Question: What is our duty when providence seems to run contrary to the promise?

Answer: It is to believe the promise, and that providence is running in a direct line to the accomplishment of it, though we cannot see it at the time, as Abraham did, "who against hope believed in hope, and staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief," Rom. 4:18, 20.

Question: Will not dark providences be opened to the saints some time or other?

Answer: Yes; for, says Christ, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter," John 13:7.

Question: When will the mystery of providence be opened to the saints?

Answer: It shall be fully unveiled at the end of the day, when the mystery of it shall be finished, and all the labyrinths, in which the saints were led, fully unwinded, Rev. 10:6, 7.

Question: What will be the language of the saints, when the whole mystery of providence shall be explained?

Answer: They will say, "He hath done all things well," Mark 7:37 - "Not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord spake; - all are come to pass, - not one thing hath failed thereof," Josh. 23:14.

Question: What improvement ought we to make of this doctrine of providence?

Answer: To commit our way to the Lord; to "trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass," Psalm 37:5.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What special act of providence did God exercise towards man, in the estate wherein he was created?

Answer: When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death.

Question: Was there any thing special in God's government of man, when he was created, above the other creatures?

Answer: Yes; for God gave man a moral law, which the other creatures, not endued with reason, were not capable of: Job 35:10, 11 - "None saith, Where is God my maker? - Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven."

Question: What call you a moral law?

Answer: A moral law signifies a law of right manners, or good and suitable behaviour towards God and man, and adapted to man's rational nature, Rom 7:12.

Question: How was this law first given to man?

Answer: It was written upon the table of his heart, the moment that God created him in his own image, Gen. 1:27.

Question: What do you understand by God's writing the law upon the table of his heart?

Answer: God's inlaying a principle of obedience in his heart, disposing him to obey out of love to God, and a supreme regard to his authority, Eccl. 7:29.

Question: What was the peculiar favour which God manifested to man in a state of innocence, besides writing the law upon his heart?

Answer: The reducing that law to the form of a covenant, by which man became confederate with heaven.

Question: What is a covenant?

Answer: A mutual free compact and agreement between two parties, upon express terms or conditions.

Question: How many covenants are there, relating to the life and happiness of man?

Answer: Two: the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace, Gal. 4:24 - "These are the two covenants."

Question: Which of these was the covenant which God entered into with man, when he was created?

Answer: The covenant of works, or of life.

Question: Why called a covenant of works?

Answer: From the condition of it.

Question: Why called a covenant of life?

Answer: From the promise of it.

Question: How does it appear that God entered into a covenant with man in innocence?

Answer: From the condition and penalty that were in the first covenant, Gen. 2:16, 17, and from express mention in scripture of Adam's breach of that covenant. Hos. 6:7 - "But they, like men, (margin, like Adam,) have transgressed the covenant."

Question: How does it appear that Adam gave that consent, which was necessary in a mutual covenant?

Answer: His silent acquiescence to the will of his sovereign Creator, implied a consent; and his consent could not be withheld, by a creature made after the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.

Question: What was the condition of the covenant of works?

Answer: Perfect obedience to the whole law of God, in heart and life.

Question: What was the sum of that law, which was the rule of man's covenant obedience?

Answer: That man believe whatever God shall reveal, and do whatever he shall command, Rom. 10:5; and, in testimony of it, not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Gen. 2:17.

Question: Was this prohibition, of not eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, a moral or a positive precept?

Answer: It was a positive precept, founded in the sovereign will of God.

Question: Was it then a thing in itself indifferent to eat, or not to eat, of that tree?

Answer: There could be no moral evil in eating of that tree, more than any other, antecedently to the command of God forbidding it; but after that, it was no more indifferent, but highly sinful to do so.

Question: Why did God extend the rule and matter of man's covenant obedience, to a thing in itself indifferent?

Answer: That man's obedience might turn upon the precise point of the will of God, which is the plainest evidence of true obedience, Psalm 40:8.

Question: Did man's life and death hang upon this positive precept about the forbidden fruit?

Answer: Not upon this only, but likewise on the whole law, Gal. 3:10. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them."

Question: Was there any mercy or favour in restricting man from eating of this tree?

Answer: Much every way; for this restriction taught him, that though he was lord of the creatures, yet he was God's subject: it was a beacon set up before him to beware of sin; and it pointed him away from the creatures to God himself for happiness.

Question: What was the penalty in case of disobedience?

Answer: It was the pain of death: - "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," Gen. 2:17.

Question: What kind of death was this which was threatened upon disobedience?

Answer: It was death temporal, spiritual, and eternal.

Question: Did Adam die a temporal or natural death, that day he sinned?

Answer: No; but he became a dead man in law, and his body got its death-wound, and became mortal, Rom. 5:12.

Question: Why was the immediate execution of natural death suspended?

Answer: Because of his posterity then in his loins; and because of another covenant that was prepared, Job 33:24.

Question: What was the spiritual death threatened?

Answer: The loss of his original righteousness, and the favour of God, Gen. 3:8, 10, 24.

Question: What is meant by eternal death?

Answer: The enduring of the wrath of God, in soul and body, in a state of separation from him for ever, Matt. 25:46.

Question: What was the promise in this covenant, in case of obedience?

Answer: It was life.

Question: How does it appear that life was promised, when the promise of it is not expressly mentioned?

Answer: The promise of life is included in the threatening of death; "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die:" which necessarily implies, If thou dost not eat thereof, thou shalt surely live, Gal. 3:12.

Question: What kind of life was it that was promised to man in the covenant of works?

Answer: The continuance of his natural life, consisting in the union of his soul and body; the continuance also of his spiritual life, consisting in the favour of God, Lev. 18:5; and his entering upon eternal life in heaven, after he had passed through the time of his trial upon earth, Rom. 7:10.

Question: How do you prove that eternal life in heaven was included in the promise of this covenant?

Answer: From eternal death in hell being included in the threatening of it, as the natural wages of sin; and from Christ himself expounding the promise of the covenant of works of eternal life, Matt. 19:16. When one puts the question to him, "What shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?" he answers, ver. 17 - "If thou wilt enter into life, (namely, eternal life, by doing,) keep the commandments."

Question: Was there any proportion between Adam's obedience, though sinless, and the life that was promised?

Answer: There can be no proportion between the obedience of a finite creature, however perfect, and the enjoyment of the infinite God, Job 22:2, 3 - "Can a man be profitable to God? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or, is it gain to him, that thou makest thy way perfect?"

Question: Why could not Adam's perfect obedience be meritorious of eternal life?

Answer: Because perfect obedience was no more than what he was bound to, by virtue of his natural dependence on God, as a reasonable creature made after his image.

Question: Could he have claimed the reward as a debt, in case he had continued in his obedience?

Answer: He could have claimed it only as a pactional21 debt, in virtue of the covenant promise, by which God became debtor to his own faithfulness, but not in virtue of any intrinsic merit of his obedience, Luke 17:10.

Question: What then was the grace and condescension of God that shined in the covenant of works?

Answer: In that he entered into a covenant, at all, with his own creature; and promised eternal life as a reward of his work, though he had nothing to work with, but what he received from God, 1 Cor. 4:7.

Question: Did the covenant of works oblige man to seek life upon the account of his obedience?

Answer: It left man to expect it upon his obedience, but did not oblige him to seek it on that score; but only on account of the faithfulness of God in his promise, graciously annexing life to man's sinless obedience, Matt. 19:16.

Question: Did the covenant of works oblige man to make his own life and happiness the chief end of his obedience?

Answer: By no means: the promise of life was an encouragement to his obedience, but the glory of God was to be the chief end in it; to which any view of his own happiness was to be subordinate, otherwise his obedience had not been perfect.

Question: Was the covenant of works a law, as well as a covenant?

Answer: Yes; it was both the one and the other.

Question: In what respect was it a law?

Answer: As it was not between equals, but enjoined by the sovereign Lawgiver.

Question: In what respect was it a covenant?

Answer: As it contained a promise of reward, graciously annexed to the precept, Gal. 3:12.

Question: Is this covenant abrogated, or still in force?

Answer: It was never abrogated, but is still binding upon all that are under it, Matt. 5:18, and 19:17.

Question: Did not man's sin abrogate this covenant?

Answer: No; his sin bound him under the curse of it, Gal. 3:10.

Question: Did not Christ's doing and dying abrogate this covenant of works?

Answer: No; it fulfilled both the precept and penalty of it, Rom. 10:4.

Question: Does not the law of faith abrogate the law of works?

Answer: No; "Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law," Rom. 3:31.

Question: Are sinners, that live under the gospel dispensation, under the same obligation to obedience, as the condition of life, that Adam was under?

Answer: While they remain in unbelief, rejecting the surety of the better testament, they keep themselves under an obligation to do the whole law, and so are under the curse of it, Gal. 5:3, 4.

Question: What may we learn from this doctrine?

Answer: It teaches us, that eternal death comes by the breach of the covenant of works in the first Adam; and that eternal life comes only by the fulfilling of the same covenant by the second Adam, Rom. 5:19.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Did our first parents continue in the estate in which they were created?

Answer: Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate in which they were created, by sinning against God.

Question: What mean you by the estate in which man was created?

Answer: His state of innocence, in which he had his standing under God, as his great Lord and Creator.

Question: What standing had he under God in a state of innocence?

Answer: Perfect conformity to him; intimate fellowship and communion with him; and an ample dominion over all the work of his hands, in this lower world; the tree of knowledge of good and evil only excepted.

Question: By what charter did man hold this state of his great Creator?

Answer: By the charter of the covenant of works.

Question: What remarkable and significant circumstances appertained to this charter?

Answer: The tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life.

Question: What did the tree of knowledge of good and evil signify?

Answer: It signified, that, as Adam knew much of his Creator's goodness, by what he had done for him, so he was to know much of his displeasure and indignation, if he tasted the fruit of that tree.

Question: What did the tree of life signify to man?

Answer: That upon his fulfilling the condition of the covenant, by a course of obedience, he was to live forever.

Question: What do you understand by the course of obedience, which Adam had to go through, in order to found his covenant title to eternal life?

Answer: A continuance in perfect obedience, during the time which God had appointed for his state of probation.

Question: When was a state of probation only applicable to man?

Answer: It was only applicable to man while in innocence, before the breach of the covenant of works; and by no means applicable to man in any other state since the fall.

Question: Why is it that no man, since the fall, can justly be said to be in a state of probation in this world?

Answer: Because the covenant of works being broken, all the children of men are either in a natural state, in the first Adam, or in a gracious state in the second; and consequently under a dispensation either of divine Justice or mercy.

Question: Are not men to have rewards given them according to their good or evil works, and consequently may be said to be in a state of probation, as well as Adam was?

Answer: The consequence will not hold; because these rewards are of another kind than could have taken place under the covenant of works, though it had been fulfilled; for now, they are either rewards of impartial justice, for evil works, the wages of sin being death; or rewards of free mercy to the doing persons; not for their good works, but according to them, 2 Cor. 5:10.

Question: What is it for God to dispense rewards of free mercy to his people, not for their good works, but according to them?

Answer: It is to bestow these rewards, not on account of any worth or merit that is in their good works, in themselves considered, but as they are evidences of union with Christ, in whom their persons and performances are accepted, and through whom the rewards of grace are freely conferred; for, "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," Rom. 6:23.

Question: Is there any danger in asserting, that men are not now in a state of probation, as Adam was?

Answer: No; because though they cannot now be in that state, yet God still deals with them as rational creatures, under a moral government, and capable of rewards, whether of justice or mercy, of debt or grace, according to their state and works: hence men are judged at the great day, according to their state, as sheep or goats, separated from one another, and then according to their works, Matt. 25:32-46.

Question: What then is the dangerous consequence of asserting, that fallen man is still in a state of probation in this life?

Answer: This dangerous consequence would follow, that mankind are hereby supposed to be still under a covenant of works that can justify the doer; or under a law that can give life, besides the law of faith, mentioned Rom. 3:27, which is false: for, if there had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law, Gal. 3:21.

Question: What improvement ought we to make of this doctrine respecting the state of probation?

Answer: To be restless in the use of all appointed means till we get in to Christ; that, in the way of believing and walking in him, we may share of the sure reward, promised, through grace, "to him that soweth righteousness," Proverbs 11:18.

Question: How did our first parents fall from the state in which they were created?

Answer: By sinning against God, Gen. 3:6, 7.

Question: Were they not sufficiently furnished with every thing necessary, for yielding perfect obedience to the will of God?

Answer: Yes; for they had perfect knowledge in their understanding, freedom and inclination to good in their will, and spotless holiness in their hearts and affections, Eccl. 7:29 - "God made man upright."

Question: How then did man's sin and apostasy come about?

Answer: Though he was a perfect, yet he was but a mutable creature, left to the freedom of his own will, which was subject to change.

Question: In what did the freedom of man's will, in a state of innocence, consist?

Answer: In a perfect liberty and "power to will and to do that which is good and well pleasing to God; but yet mutable, so as that he might fall from it, Eccl. 7:29; Gen. 2:16, 17, and 3:6."22

Question: Why did not God make man immutable?

Answer: Because immutability, or unchangeableness of nature, is the essential property of God alone, Mal. 3:6. - "I am the Lord, I change not;" James 1:17.

Question: Are not elect angels and saints made immutably good?

Answer: The elect angels are confirmed in a state of immutable happiness; and the saints, in virtue of union with Christ, are fixed in an unchangeable state of grace here, and glory hereafter; but the unchangeable state of the one and the other, is not owing to any thing in their own natures, but to the free love and favour of God, Eph. 1:10.

Question: What freedom of will has man, since the fall, to any spiritual good?

Answer: He "has wholly lost all freedom and ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation," so as that he can neither "convert himself, nor prepare himself thereunto," John 6:44, 65.23

Question: What freedom of will have they who are regenerated?

Answer: They are enabled by grace alone, freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good, Rom. 6:18; yet so as that by reason of remaining corruption, they do not perfectly, and only, that which is good, but likewise frequently that which is evil, Rom. 7:15, 19, 21.24

Question: When is the will of man made perfectly and immutably free to that only which is good?

Answer: In the state of glory only, Eph. 4:13. 1 John 3:2.

Question: What was it for man to be left to the freedom of his own will?

Answer: It was God's leaving him with a sufficient stock in his hand, without any promise of supernatural aid, or further assistance to improve the stock of grace already received.

Question: How was he left to abuse the freedom of his will?

Answer: God did not incline him to abuse it, but only withheld that further grace, which he was no way obliged to give, for preventing his will from yielding to the temptation; and was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit this abuse, having purposed to order it to his own glory, Rom. 11:32.

Question: At whose door then must the fall be laid?

Answer: Only at man's own door, who willingly yielded to the temptation of the devil, James 1:14.

Question: What was the devil's agency in the fall of man?

Answer: He entered into a serpent, and therein, by seducing words, enticed the woman to take and eat the forbidden fruit; and she gave to her husband, and he did eat likewise, Gen. 3:5, 6.

Question: Why did Satan make use of the serpent, as his instrument to seduce the woman?

Answer: Because "the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field," Gen. 3:1, and so the most fit tool, of any other, to serve his subtle and murderous designs, John 8:44.

Question: Why was not Eve afraid to entertain converse with a serpent, lest it might be actuated by some evil spirit?

Answer: It is supposed, that Adam and Eve knew nothing as yet of the fall of the angels; and sin not having then entered into this lower world, they were not afraid of hurt from any of the good creatures of God.

Question: Why was there no confirmatory clause annexed to the covenant of works, to secure man's standing in the state in which he was created?

Answer: Because it so pleased God; and, no doubt, infinite wisdom had another scene to open, through the occasion of man's fall, by his breaking the first covenant.

Question: What was that scene?

Answer: A scene of redeeming love and grace, which will be matter of hallelujahs, or praises, to the Lord God and the Lamb for ever and ever, Rev. 5:8.

Question: Was then the covenant of works a scaffold erected for carrying on a more glorious fabric?

Answer: Yes, it was; for God had said, and purposed from eternity, that mercy should be built up for ever, Psalm 89:2.

Question: What improvement ought we to make of this doctrine of the fall of Adam?

Answer: To be persuaded that the best of creatures, if left to themselves, cannot be in safety one moment, Psalm 49:12; that since man could not be his own keeper, much less can he be his own saviour, 2 Cor. 3:5; to see how dangerous it is to parley with sin and Satan; and how much we need an interest in the second Adam, to get the loss we sustained by the first repaired with advantage; for he has restored that which he took not away, Psalm 69:4.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is sin?

Answer: Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

Question: In what consisted man's apostasy from God?

Answer: In sinning against him, Lam. 5:16.

Question: How does it appear that there is such a thing as sin in the world?

Answer: The God of truth declares, that all have sinned, Rom. 3:23; the broken law cries for vengeance against transgressors, and by it is the knowledge of sin, Gal. 3:10; Rom. 3:20; conscience, God's deputy in every man's bosom, tells him he is guilty, Jer. 14:7; the reign of death, and the groans of the creatures round about us, Rom. 8:22, all bear testimony that there is such a thing as sin in the world.

Question: Can there be any sin, where there is no law?

Answer: No; "for where there is no law there is no transgression," Rom. 4:15.

Question: Of whose law is sin a transgression?

Answer: Of the law of God.

Question: What may be understood by the law of God?

Answer: All the precepts, or commandments, God has given to man as a rule of his obedience.

Question: Where is this law of God to be found?

Answer: There was a bright and fair copy of it written upon the heart of man in innocence; but that being, in a great measure, lost by the fall, God has written again to us the great things of his law, in the scriptures of truth, Psalm 147:19, 20.

Question: Are all the laws of God mentioned in scripture, of binding force now under the New Testament?

Answer: No; the ceremonial law, which was a shadow of good things to come, is now abrogated since the coming of Christ in the flesh; and many of the judicial laws, in so far as they had a particular relation to the state of the Jewish nation, are laid aside; but the moral law is perpetually binding on all mankind, in all ages and periods of the world, Psalm 119:160.

Question: Does God require a perfect conformity to this law?

Answer: Yes; for there is a curse pronounced against every one that continues not in all things written in the book of the law to do them, Gal. 3:10.

Question: Why is the nature of sin expressed by a want of conformity to the law?

Answer: To let us know that our very natures, since the fall, are sinful, Isaiah 1:5, 6; that we are now quite destitute of that original righteousness and holiness, which we had at our creation, Gen. 6:5; and that every swerving from the holy law, even in omitting what it commands is sin, as well as in committing what it forbids, Isaiah 43:22.

Question: Why is sin called a transgression of the law?

Answer: Because the law is the boundary of all our actions; and whenever we sin, we break the boundary and limit that God has set us, and so are exposed to the curse of the law, Eccl. 10:8; Gal. 3:10.

Question: Does the law of God extend to the first motions of sin in the heart?

Answer: Yes; for, says the apostle, Rom. 7:7 - "I had not known lust, except the law had said, 'Thou shalt not covet,'"

Question: How many kinds of sin are there?

Answer: Two kinds; original and actual.

Question: What do you understand by original sin?

Answer: The sin of our nature, which is called original sin, because we were "shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin," Psalm 51:5; and because it was the first sin of man, and is the original and fountain of all actual sin, Matt, 15:19.

Question: What do you understand by actual sin?

Answer: Every thing that is inconsistent with, and contrary to the law, in thought, word, or deed, 1 John 3:4.

Question: How are actual sins divided?

Answer: Into sins of omission and commission.

Question: What is a sin of omission?

Answer: It is a neglecting, or forgetting to do that good which the law commands, James 4:17.

Question: What is a sin of commission?

Answer: It is a doing of what the law of God forbids, Psalm 51:4.

Question: Is every sin mortal or deadly?

Answer: Yes; in its own nature, Rom. 6:16, 21, 23 - "The wages of sin is death." See also: 1 Cor. 15:56; Gal. 3:10.

Question: Are all sins pardonable through grace?

Answer: There is pardon through the blood of Christ, for all sins, except one, namely, the sin against the Holy Ghost Matt. 12:31, 32; Mark 3:28, 29.

Question: What is the sin against the Holy Ghost?

Answer: It is a wilful, malicious, and avowed rejection of Christ and salvation through him, by a blaspheming apostate, after manifest conviction of the truth of the gospelreport, and some kind of approbation of it, by the common influence or operation of the Spirit, Heb. 6:4-6; and 10:26, 27; 1 John 5:16; Mark 3:29, 30.

Question: Why is this sin called blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, Matt. 12:31?

Answer: Because it is an opprobrious25 and reproachful speaking of, and against the testimony of the Holy Ghost, in the word concerning Christ; with a direct intention to disparage his glory, and to disgrace his truth and way; hence called, "a putting him to an open shame," Heb. 6:6.

Question: What is the object of this sin, against which it is directly levelled?

Answer: It is Christ, and salvation through him, as held out in the gospel revelation; for, it is a "treading under foot the Son of God, and accounting the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing," Heb. 10:29.

Question: What are the acts of this dreadful sin?

Answer: A wilful rejecting, and obstinate opposing of the truth of the gospel: a spiteful scoffing at Christianity, and the professors of it, joined sometimes with a malicious persecution of them; and all these as fruits and concomitants of a total and final apostasy from the faith.

Question: What are the aggravations of this sin?

Answer: Its being committed after a person has "received the knowledge of the truth, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come," Heb. 6:5.

Question: Why is it said, that "the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men, Matt. 12:31?

Answer: Not because it is above the virtue of the blood of Jesus to cleanse from it, but because it despises the only sacrifice for sin, and means of pardon; there being "no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved," but that of Jesus, Acts 4:12, who is contemptuously rejected by it, Heb. 2:2, 3.

Question: How may a person be assured that he is not guilty of this sin?

Answer: He may well be assured that this sin is not charged on him, if he is afraid that he is guilty of it; or in the least concerned about his unbelief; or has any desire after salvation through Christ, and is content to be a debtor to the riches of his grace.

Question: What may we learn from the nature of sin in general?

Answer: That it is exceedingly sinful, the greatest of all evils, Rom. 7:13; and, consequently, that it must be the severest judgment in this world to be given up to it, Ezek. 24:13; and the greatest mercy to be delivered from it, Matt. 1:21.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?

Answer: The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.

Question: Why is the fruit called forbidden fruit?

Answer: Because the eating of it was forbidden, under the severest penalty, Gen. 2:17 - "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."

Question: Why did God forbid the eating of this fruit?

Answer: To try the obedience of our first parents, and to manifest his dominion over them as Lord of all.

Question: Were not our first parents guilty of sin before eating of the forbidden fruit?

Answer: Yes; they were guilty in hearkening to the devil, and believing him, before they actually eat it.

Question: Why then is their eating of it called their first sin?

Answer: Because it was the first sin finished, James 1:15, and an express violation of the positive precept, Gen. 3:11.

Question: Where was this first sin committed?

Answer: In Paradise, where God had placed the man, and created the woman, Gen. 2:8, 22, and 3:6.

Question: Was there any aggravation of this sin, arising from the place where it was committed?

Answer: Yes; for, in Paradise, our first parents had abundance of other fruit, and of every thing necessary and delightful: and, that place being a type of heaven, should have even put them on their guard against this, and all other sins.

Question: When did our first parents eat the forbidden fruit?

Answer: It is certain from Psalm 49:12, that it was done very soon after they were created: "Man being in honour, abideth not."

Question: Why did the devil make such haste in tempting man to sin?

Answer: Because he did not know how soon man might be confirmed in a holy and happy state; and, in that case, become impregnable against all his temptations.

Question: How did Satan lay his train for enticing our first parents to eat the forbidden fruit?

Answer: He attacked the woman, in the absence of her husband; endeavoured to make her doubt of the truth of God's threatening; presented the object, fruit pleasant to the eye; pretended a greater regard and concern for them, than God himself; and laboured to persuade them, that they should be like God, in the largeness of their knowledge, upon their eating: all which may be gathered from Gen. 3:1-6.

Question: Did the enemy prevail by this stratagem?

Answer: Yes; "the woman took of the fruit, and did eat: and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat," Gen. 3:6.

Question: What was the nature of this first sin?

Answer: However light and trivial it may appear in the carnal eye, to eat of a little fruit; yet, if weighed in God's balance, it will be found to be a most heinous sin, and to incorporate many other sins, against the law of God, Hos. 6:7 - "They like Adam, (margin,) have transgressed the covenant."

Question: How does that appear?

Answer: From our first parents being guilty of manifest unbelief, the highest ingratitude, the most intolerable pride and ambition, unaccountable inadvertency, most unnatural rebellion, and most cruel murder, in their eating the forbidden fruit.

Question: How is unbelief included in that sin?

Answer: In their giving more credit to the devil, than to God, respecting the truth of the threatening, Gen. 2:17; 3:4.

Question: How were they guilty of ingratitude?

Answer: In contradicting the orders of their bountiful Lord and Creator, who had allowed them the use of all the other trees of the garden besides, Gen. 2:16.

Question: What pride and ambition was there in the first sin?

Answer: In aspiring to equality with God in his inimitable attributes, particularly in infinite knowledge, Gen. 3:5, 6 - "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And the woman saw that the tree was good, - and a tree to be desired to make one wise."

Question: What inadvertency were our first parents guilty of in eating the forbidden fruit?

Answer: In entering into communication with a creature of any kind, and however much disguised, about violating the express inhibition of their Creator.

Question: How were they guilty of rebellion in the commission of this sin?

Answer: By entering into a confederacy with Satan against God, and thus virtually choosing him for their god and sovereign, instead of the true God, who made them, and all other creatures besides.

Question: What murder were they guilty of in eating of this fruit?

Answer: They were guilty of their own death, and the death of all their posterity, Rom. 5:12.

Question: How was this Sin, of eating the forbidden fruit, aggravated?

Answer: In being committed when man had full light in his understanding; a clear copy of the law in his heart; when he had no vicious bias in his will, but enjoying perfect liberty; and when he had a sufficient stock of grace in his hand, to withstand the tempting enemy; in being committed after God had made a covenant of life with him, and given him express warning of the danger of eating this fruit.

Question: What may we learn from our first parents being seduced by Satan to eat the forbidden fruit?

Answer: To resist the first motions of sin in the heart, and the temptations of Satan to it, Psalm 66:18; James 4:7; that since man, in innocence, fell before the temptation, how easy a prey must fallen man be, if not kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation! Psalm 39:5, 1 Pet. 1:5; and therefore to be strong only "in the Lord, and in the power of his might," Eph. 6:10.