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.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?

Answer: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.

Question: :ow many public persons, representing mankind before God, do we read of in scripture?

Answer: Of two; the first and the last Adam, 1 Cor. 15:45.

Question: Of what covenant was the first Adam the head?

Answer: Of the covenant of works, Gen. 2:16, 17.

Question: Of what covenant was the last Adam the head?

Answer: Of the covenant of grace and promise, Psalm 89:3, 28.

Question: Whom did the first Adam represent in the covenant of works?

Answer: He represented all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, Rom. 5:12, 14.

Question: Whom did the last Adam represent in the covenant of grace?

Answer: All his spiritual seed given him of the Father, John 17:6.

Question: Is there any similitude between the first and last Adam?

Answer: Yes; the first Adam was the "figure of him that was to come," Rom. 5:14.

Question: In what did that figure, or similitude, consist?

Answer: It consisted chiefly in their being, each of them, a representing head of their respective seed, 1 Cor. 15:22.

Question: In what consists the dissimilarity, or disparity, between these two public persons?

Answer: It is infinitely great beyond all conception: the "first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit: the first man is of the earth, earthy, a mere man; the second man is the Lord from heaven," "Immanuel, God with us," 1 Cor. 15:45, 47; Matt. 1:23. The first Adam, in his best estate, was only a mutable creature; the last Adam, is the unchangeable God, Heb. 13:8.

Question: What relation has the first Adam to all mankind?

Answer: A twofold relation; that of a covenant head, and of a natural root.

Question: How does it appear that he was a covenant head; or, that the covenant of works was made with him, not only for himself, but for his posterity?

Answer: From the imputation of his first sin to his posterity, Rom. 5:12; and the sentence of death passed upon all mankind on that account, ver. 17.

Question: Was it reasonable, that Adam should represent his posterity in the covenant of works?

Answer: Nothing could be more reasonable, seeing he was to be the common parent of all mankind, and was created perfectly holy, with full power to fulfil the condition of the covenant, and thus to entail happiness upon himself and his posterity.

Question: What happiness would Adam have entailed upon himself and his posterity, if he had stood?

Answer: Eternal life would have become due to him and them, by pactional debt.

Question: Would not the title of every one of his posterity to life, in that case, have been founded upon their own perfect and personal obedience?

Answer: No; their title to eternal life would have been founded upon the perfect obedience of their covenant head; and their own personal obedience would have been the fruit of the promise of the covenant.

Question: How does this appear?

Answer: Since Adam's disobedience is imputed to his posterity for their condemnation, Rom. 5:18, it necessarily follows, that his obedience would have been imputed to them for their justification and life.

Question: Why is the first Adam called the natural root of his posterity?

Answer: Because all of them, descending from him by ordinary generation, are as so many branches sprung out of him, as their root and stock.

Question: Did all Adam's natural offspring fall in his first sin?

Answer: Yes; "death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned," Rom. 5:12.

Question: How could Adam's posterity, being then unborn, fall in his first sin?

Answer: Because they were considered as IN HIM, 1 Cor. 15:2 2 - "In Adam all die."

Question: How were they in him when he first sinned?

Answer: They were in him virtually, as a natural root; and representatively, as a covenant head.

Question: Why is it said, all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression?

Answer: That Christ might be excepted, who descended, as to his human body, from Adam; but not by ordinary generation.

Question: What was there extraordinary in the generation of Christ's body?

Answer: It was conceived in the womb of a virgin, by the power of the Highest overshadowing her, Luke 1:35; on which account she is said to be "found with child of the Holy Ghost," Matt. 1:18.

Question: What was the reason of this extraordinary generation?

Answer: That the human nature of Christ might not be stained or tainted with original sin which is conveyed from Adam to his posterity, by the way of ordinary generation; hence, what was born of the virgin, is called "that holy thing," Luke 1:35.

Question: Was ever the human nature of Christ represented in the first Adam as a federal head?

Answer: By no means: Christ's human nature was never in Adam as its representative, but he derived it legally, after Adam ceased to be a public person.

Question: How did he derive it legally?

Answer: In virtue of his being considered as one in law with his spiritual seed, whom he represented as their surety, according to his undertaking from eternity, Proverbs 8:23; and therefore behoved to assume the same nature with them, Heb. 2:11, 14.

Question: Was ever any exempted from Adam's first sin, except Christ?

Answer: No; for all others descended from Adam by ordinary generation, and were represented by him, as their covenant head; and therefore sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression, Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:22.

Question: What may all this teach us?

Answer: That "as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous," Rom. 5:19; and that as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Adam, 1 Cor. 15:49.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?

Answer: The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

Question: Why is man's apostasy from God called the fall?

Answer: Because man is not now where God set him at his creation, but is fallen by his iniquity, Hos. 14:1.

Question: Where did God set man at his creation?

Answer: Upon the high pinnacle of holiness and happiness, Eccl. 7:29.

Question: Where is he now?

Answer: He is fallen into the depths of sin and misery, called in scripture, a "horrible pit," and "miry clay," Psalm 40:2, and "the pit wherein is no water," Zech. 9:11.

Question: Why is man's state, by the fall, called an estate of sin?

Answer: Because he is now under the guilt of sin, Rom. 3:19, which has dominion over him, chap. 6:14.

Question: Why is it called an estate of misery?

Answer: Because, according to the penalty of the law, death and the curse involve him in all manner of misery, Rom. 5:12.

Question: Why is the state of sin put before the state of misery?

Answer: Because there could be no misery, if there were no sin; sin being the procuring cause of all misery, Rom. 6:23.

Question: How came man into this state of sin and misery?

Answer: By the abuse of his free will; hence mankind sinners are called self-destroyers, Hos. 13:9 - "O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself."

Question: How does the Spirit of God, in scripture, express man's state of sin and misery, into which he is fallen?

Answer: By a state of darkness, Eph. 5:8; a state of distance, Eph. 2:13; a state of condemnation and wrath, John 3:18, 36; a state of bondage, or captivity, Isaiah 49:24, 25; and a state of death, both spiritual and legal, Eph. 2:1.

Question: Is man in any capacity to help himself out of this sinful and miserable state?

Answer: No more than a new-born infant, cast out in the open field, which, of all creatures, is the most helpless, Ezek. 16:4, 5.

Question: Has he a desire and will to be helped out of a state of sin and misery, when help is offered?

Answer: No; his nature is become "enmity against God," and the way of salvation proposed in the gospel, Rom. 8:7, Psalm 81:11; and therefore rejects the only help of God's appointment, John 5:40.

Question: What may we learn from this?

Answer: That the whole world being guilty before God, every mouth had been for ever stopped, though he had left all mankind to perish eternally with the fallen angels, with whom they said, a Confederacy, Rom. 3:19; and therefore to admire the infinite love of God, in sending his only begotten Son, to save us from sin, as the only way of being saved from misery, Heb. 2:14, 16.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?

Answer: The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin, together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

Question: What do you understand by original sin?

Answer: The sin we have from our original; that is, when the soul is united to the body, or the human nature completed, Psalm 51:5.

Question: How is original sin usually distinguished?

Answer: Into original sin imputed, and original sin inherent.

Question: What is original sin imputed?

Answer: The guilt of Adam's first sin.

Question: What is original sin inherent?

Answer: The want of original righteousness and the corruption of the whole nature.

Question: What do you understand by the guilt of sin?

Answer: An obligation to punishment on account of sin, Rom, 6:23.

Question: How are all mankind guilty of Adam's first sin?

Answer: By imputation, Rom. 5:19 - "By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners."

Question: Upon what account is Adam's first sin imputed to his posterity?

Answer: On account of the legal union between him and them, he being their legal head and representative, and the covenant made with him, not for himself only, but for his posterity likewise, 1 Cor. 15:22 - "In Adam all die."

Question: Why was Adam's first sin imputed, and none of his after sins?

Answer: Bec:use the covenant being broken by his first sin, his federal headship ceased; for being then legally dead, and his posterity in him and with him, he stood afterwards merely as a single person for himself, and no longer in the capacity of their public representative in that covenant of life, which, by that first sin, brought him and them under the sentence of death, Rom. 5:12, 13.

Question: When Adam ceased to be the federal head, by breaking the covenant of works, did that covenant cease likewise?

Answer: No; that covenant, though broken, stands binding, so as the obligation to pay the debt of obedience to the precept, and satisfaction now to its penalty, remains upon every one of his posterity, while in a natural state, under the law as a covenant of works, Gal. 3:10.

Question: How does it appear from scripture, that all Adam's posterity had his first sin imputed to them?

Answer: From their being said to be "made sinners, by one man's disobedience," Rom. 5:19; and to have the judgment, or sentence, by one to condemnation, ver. 16; and surely there can be no condemnation, passed by a righteous judge, where there is no crime, Rom. 4:15.

Question: Is it not said, Ezek. 18:20, "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father?"

Answer: The prophet is there speaking of particular private parents, not of Adam as a federal head; he is speaking of adult children, who were preserved from some grosser violations of the law, of which their parents were guilty, and who did not imitate them; not of the posterity of Adam in general, as exempting them from his first sin, with which the scriptures quoted in answer to the former question, plainly prove them chargeable.

Question: What is meant by the want of original righteousness?

Answer: The want of that rectitude and purity of nature, which Adam had at his creation; consisting in a perfect conformity of all the powers and faculties of his soul to the holy nature of God, and to the law which was written on his heart, Eccl. 7:29.

Question: How does it appear that all mankind are now destitute of this original righteousness?

Answer: From the express testimony of God, that among all Adam's race, there is none righteous, no, not one; and that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, Rom. 3:10-12, 20.

Question: What follows upon this want of original righteousness?

Answer: That all mankind are naked before God; and that their fig-leaf coverings will stand them in no stead before his omniscient eye, nor answer the demands of his holy law, Rev. 3:17; Isaiah 64:6.

Question: Does the law of God demand original righteousness from mankind sinners, though they now want it?

Answer: Yes; their want of it can never derogate from the right of the law to demand it, because God endowed man with this part of his image, at his creation; and his want of it was owing to his own voluntary apostasy from God.

Question: Under what penalty does the law demand this original righteousness?

Answer: Under the penalty of death and the curse, Rom. 6:23; Gal. 3:10.

Question: Is there no help for a sinner in this deplorable state?

Answer: None in heaven or in earth, but in Christ, the last Adam, the Lord our righteousness, Jer. 23:6, on whom our help is completely laid, Psalm 89:19.

Question: Does original sin consist in a mere privation, or want of righteousness?

Answer: It consists also in the corruption of the whole nature, Titus 1:15; Rom. 3:10- 19.

Question: What is meant by the corruption of the whole nature?

Answer: The universal depravation both of soul and body, in all the faculties of the one, and members of the other, Isaiah 1:5, 6.

Question: How does this corruption of the whole nature appear?

Answer: In an utter impotency, and bitter enmity to what is spiritually good, Rom. 8:7, and, in the strongest inclination and bias to what is evil, and to that only and continually, Gen. 6:5.

Question: How may we be certain that our whole nature is corrupted?

Answer: From the word of God, and from experience and observation.

Question: How does the word of God assure us of the universal corruption of our nature?

Answer: It tells us, that the image after which man was at first made, and the image after which he is now begotten, are quite opposite the one to the other. Adam was at first made "in the likeness of God," but having fallen, he "begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image," Gen. 5:1, 3. The scripture assures us, that none "can bring a clean thing out of an unclean," Job 14:4; that we are shapen in iniquity, and that in sin did our mothers conceive us, Psalm 51:5; that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," John 3:6; and that we are by "nature children of wrath," Eph. 2:3.

Question: How may we know the corruption of our nature by the experience and observation of things without us?

Answer: The flood of miseries which overflow the world; the manifold gross outbreakings of sin in it; and the necessity of human laws, fenced with penalties, are clear outward evidences of the corruption of our nature.

Question: What inward evidences may every one of us experience within ourselves, of the corruption of our nature?

Answer: Each of us may sadly experience a natural disposition to hearken to the instruction that causes us to err, Proverbs 19:27; a caring for the concerns of the body more than those of the soul, Matt. 16:26; a discontentment with some one thing or other in our lot in the present world, 2 Kings 6:33; an aversion from being debtors to free grace, and an inclination to rest upon something in ourselves as the ground of our hope, Rom. 10:3; every one of which may be an evidence to ourselves, that our nature is wholly corrupted.

Question: How is the corruption of nature propagated since the fall?

Answer: By natural generation, Job 15:14 - "What is man that he should be clean? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?"

Question: How can this corruption be propagated to the soul, seeing it is created immediately by God, and not generated with the body?

Answer: As the creating and infusing of the soul are precisely at one and the same time, so the very moment the soul is united to the body, we become children of fallen Adam, not only as our natural, but as our federal head, Rom. 5:19.

Question: What is the consequence of becoming the children of fallen Adam, as our federal head?

Answer: The consequence is, that, the moment we are so, his first sin is imputed to us, and we thus become legally and spiritually dead, under the curse; not only wanting original righteousness, but having our whole nature corrupted and depraved, 1 Cor. 15:22 - "In Adam all die."

Question: Since, then, the soul of every one is a part of that person, which is cursed in Adam, does God, in the creating it, infuse any sin or impurity into it?

Answer: By no means; but only, as a righteous judge, in creating the soul, he denies or withholds that original righteousness which it once had in Adam; and this he does as a just punishment of Adam's first sin.

Question: What follows upon God's withholding original righteousness from the soul, in its creation?

Answer: The soul being united to the body, in the moment of its creation, the universal corruption of the whole man follows as naturally upon that union, as darkness follows upon the setting of the sun.

Question: Can it follow, then, from this doctrine, that God is the author of our sin?

Answer: So far from it, that, on the contrary, it evidently follows, that our state, both of sin and misery, is the bitter fruit of our own voluntary apostasy in the first Adam, as our covenant head, having sinned in him, and fallen with him in his first transgression.

Question: Does the holiness of the parents prevent the propagation of original corruption to their children?

Answer: By no means: the saints are holy but in part, and that by grace, not by nature: wherefore, as after the purest grain is sown, we reap corn with the chaff; so the holiest parents beget unholy children, and cannot communicate their grace to them, as they do their nature, Gen. 5:3.

Question: Has this poison of corruption run through the whole man?

Answer: Yes; "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint; from the sole of the foot to the head, there is no soundness in it," &c. Isaiah 1:5, 6.

Question: How is the understanding corrupted?

Answer: With darkness and blindness, so that we cannot know and receive the things of the Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 2:14.

Question: How is the will corrupted?

Answer: With enmity and rebellion against God; with opposition to his law and gospel; with aversion from the chief good; and inclination to all evil, Rom. 8:7.

Question: How are the affections corrupted?

Answer: By being displaced and disordered, set upon trifling vanities and sinful pleasures, instead of God the supreme good, Psalm 4:2, 6. Isaiah 55:2.

Question: How is the conscience corrupted?

Answer: By not discharging its office faithfully according to the law, in accusing or excusing, but many times calling "evil good, and good evil," &c. Isaiah 5:20.

Question: How is the memory corrupted?

Answer: It is like the riddle, or sieve, that lets through the pure grain and keeps the refuse; it retains what is vain and unprofitable, and forgets what is spiritual and truly advantageous, Psalm 106:13, 21.

Question: How is the body corrupted?

Answer: All the members of it are become instruments, or weapons of "unrighteousness unto sin," Rom. 6:13.

Question: Is original sin of its own nature damning?

Answer: Beyond all doubt it is; because it is in a state of sin and spiritual uncleanness we are born, Psalm 51:5. And "there shall in no wise enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, any thing that defileth," Rev. 21:27. The blood of Christ is necessary to cleanse from it, as well as from actual sin; for Christ is "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world," both original and actual, John 1:29.

Question: How may we know the being of original sin, antecedently to the commission of any actual transgression?

Answer: From the severe troubles and distresses to which infants are liable, and from death passing upon them before they are capable of sinning, after the similitude of Adam's transgression; that is, of committing actual sin, Rom. 5:14.

Question: What do you understand by actual transgression or sin?

Answer: Every deviation from the law of God in our actions, whether internal or external.

Question: How may actual sin be distinguished from original?

Answer: As the act is distinguished from the habit; or a fault of the person, from a fault of the nature.

Question: Is omission of what is required an actual sin, as well as the commission of what is forbidden?

Answer: Yes; because all omissions are either accompanied with some act of the will consenting, directly or indirectly, to it; or they flow from some antecedent act, which is either the cause, occasion, or impediment, of the duty omitted; as excess in eating and drinking is frequently the cause or occasion of omitting the public or private duties of God's worship.

Question: From whence do all actual transgressions flow?

Answer: They all proceed from original sin, or the corruption of nature, as impure streams from a corrupt fountain, Eph. 2:3; James 3:11.

Question: What may we learn from the doctrine of original sin?

Answer: That it is no wonder the grave opens its devouring mouth for us, as soon as we come into the world, seeing we are all, in a spiritual sense, dead born, Eph. 2:1; that as every thing acts agreeably to its own nature, so corrupt man acts corruptly, Matt. 7:17, 18; and, consequently, we may learn the necessity of regeneration, and ingraftment in the second Adam, without which it is impossible we can enter into the kingdom of heaven, John 3:3.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?

Answer: All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

Question: What are the branches of man's misery expressed in this answer, as the effects of the fall?

Answer: They are these three: the happiness man has lost; the evil he lies presently under; and the future misery and punishment to which he is liable.

Question: Is the loss which man has sustained by the fall, great and grievous?

Answer: Yes; it is so great, that we have all reason to cry out with the church, "Wo unto us that we have sinned!" Lam. 5:16. "How is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold changed!" chap. 4:1.

Question: What is that great loss which man has sustained by the fall?

Answer: He has lost all that good which was promised him in the covenant of works, upon condition of his perfect obedience.

Question: What was the good promised?

Answer: Life in its fullest latitude and extent; or all the happiness man was capable of, either in this world, or that which is to come.

Question: What was man's chief happiness in that state in which he was created?

Answer: His chief happiness lay in his enjoyment of fellowship and communion with God.

Question: In what did that fellowship and communion consist?

Answer: In :he most agreeable intimacy and familiarity that man had with God, in the uninterrupted enjoyment of his gracious presence.

Question: How does it appear that man has lost this by the fall?

Answer: It appears from his being "without God in the world," Eph. 2:12; and "alienated from the life of God," chap. 4:18.

Question: Did this breach of fellowship between God and man immediately follow upon the first sin?

Answer: Yes; for we find that our first parents immediately essayed to fly from the presence of God, and to hide themselves from him among the trees of the garden, Gen. 3:8.

Question: Upon what footing had man fellowship with God before the fall?

Answer: Upon a law footing, namely, his continuing in his integrity of nature, and yielding perfect obedience to the holy law.

Question: Is that door of access to God, and fellowship with him, closed and shut against all mankind?

Answer: Yes; because "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," Rom. 3:23; the broken law, and its curse, stand as an insuperable bar in our way to God and glory, upon the footing of the first covenant, Gal. 3:10.

Question: What is the second branch of man's misery?

Answer: His being under the wrath and curse of God.

Question: What is it to be under the wrath of God?

Answer: It is to be under his anger, in the sad and dismal effects of it, whether in a more visible, or more secret way, Psalm 11:6, and 50.21.

Question: What is it to be under his curse?

Answer: It is to be under the sentence of his law, denouncing all evil upon the transgressor, Gal. 3:10.

Question: How does it appear that man is now under the wrath and curse of God?

Answer: From those passages of scripture, where God is said to be "angry with the wicked every day," Psalm 7:11; that his "wrath is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men," Rom. 1:18; that "he who believes not is condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him," John 3:18, 36.

Question: Is the wrath of an infinite God tolerable by a finite creature?

Answer: Oh! No; "Who shall dwell with devouring fire! who shall dwell with everlasting burnings!" Isaiah 33:14. "Who knows the power of his anger!" Psalm 90:11. It makes the whole creation groan, Rom. 8:22; and when it lighted upon the Son of God for our iniquities, it crushed his human body down to the dust of death, and melted his soul like wax in the midst of his bowels, Psalm 22:14, 15.

Question: Can any man hide himself from the presence of an angry God?

Answer: No; there is no flying from the presence of that God who is every where, Psalm 139:7-13.

Question: What is the third branch of man's misery by the fall?

Answer: He is liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever.

Question: What are these miseries which man is liable to in this life?

Answer: They are such as extend both to his soul and body.

Question: What are these soul miseries and maladies that sin has entailed upon us?

Answer: The precious soul is quite defaced, deformed, and debased, from its original beauty and excellency, being stricken with "blindness of mind, Eph. 4:18; hardness of heart, Rom. 2:5; a reprobate sense, Rom. 1:28; strong delusions, 2 Thess. 2:11; horror of conscience, Isaiah 33:14; vile affections, Rom. 1:26;"26 and the thralldom and bondage of Satan, Eph. 2:2.

Question: Is there no medicine against these soul maladies and miseries?

Answer: Yes; there is "balm in Gilead, and a Physician there," Jer. 8:22; who is "able to save to the uttermost," Heb. 7:25; and who says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," Isaiah 45:22.

Question: What are those external miseries we are liable to in this life?

Answer: They are either more public, such as sword, famine, pestilence, desolation by fire and water, captivity, persecution, and the like, Ezek. 5:17; or more private and personal, such as diseases of all sorts, reproach and calumny, toil and labour, poverty, and crosses of all kinds, Deut. 28:16, 17, &c.

Question: Do not all these external miseries come alike to all, both godly and wicked?

Answer: Yes, as to the external conduct of providence, Eccl. 9:2; but to the godly they are only fatherly chastisements, and work together for their good, Rom. 8:28; whereas to the wicked, they come in a way of vindictive anger, and are but the beginnings of sorrows, unless the goodness of God do lead them to repentance, Rom. 2:5.

Question: Has sin any other retinue attending it than what has been already mentioned?

Answer: Yes; for like the pale horse, Rev. 6:8, it has death, and then hell following after.

Question: What death is here intended?

Answer: A corporeal or bodily death, which lies in the separation of soul and body.

Question: Is sin the cause of death?

Answer: It is both the cause of death, Rom. 5:12, and the sting of it, 1 Cor. 15:55, 56.

Question: Is the connexion between sin and death inseparable?

Answer: Yes; they are inseparable by the appointment of the righteous God, who has said, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," Ezek. 18:4; and, "It is appointed unto men once to die," Heb. 9:27.

Question: How did this appointment of heaven hold, in the case of Enoch and Elijah?

Answer: They underwent what was equivalent to death in their translation to heaven; it fared with them as it will with the saints that shall be alive at Christ's second coming, concerning whom it is said, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," 1 Cor. 15:51.

Question: What is the difference between the death of believers and the death of the wicked?

Answer: To the wicked it comes as standing under a covenant of works, but to believers as standing under a covenant of grace; to the one, in the hand of Christ, saying, "Death is yours;" to the other in the hand of Satan, as God's executioner, having the power of death: to the one without, but to the other as armed with a fearful sting: to the one as an everlasting and irreparable loss; to the other as eternal and unspeakable gain: to the one as a conqueror, dragging the sinner to the prison of hell; to the other as a vanquished enemy, paving the way to heaven and glory.

Question: What will be the believer's language when he views death approaching in this light?

Answer: Faith will cry out, "O death! where is thy sting?" 1 Cor. 15:55.

Question: What will be the language of the wicked when they see death approaching as the king of terrors?

Answer: It will be like that of Ahab to Elijah, 1 Kings 21:20, - "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy!"

Question: What misery has sin made us liable to after death?

Answer: To the pains of hell for ever.

Question: What do you understand by hell?

Answer: A state and place of torment, prepared for the devil and his angels, Matt. 25:41.

Question: If it was prepared for the devil and his angels, what concern have any of mankind with it?

Answer: Though it was prepared for the devil and his angels, yet the wicked of the world shall be turned into it also, and all the nations that forget God, Psalm 9:17.

Question: Why must the wicked and ungodly world be turned into hell, with the devil and his angels?

Answer: Because they served and obeyed the devil as their god, and were in a confederacy with him against the living and true God, Isaiah 28:15; Eph. 2:2.

Question: How many fold are the punishments of the damned in hell?

Answer: Twofold; the punishment of loss, and the punishment of sense.

Question: What loss shall the damned in hell sustain?

Answer: They shall lose God, the chief good, Matt. 25:41; they shall lose the vision and fruition of the glorious Immanuel, Matt. 7:23; they shall lose their own souls, Matt. 16:26, and all the pleasures of sin and sense, in which they placed their happiness in this world, Luke 16:25.

Question: What will be the punishment of sense which the wicked shall suffer in hell?

Answer: It is represented in scripture by their being shut up in outer darkness, Matt. 8:12; in a lake of fire and brimstone, Rev. 20:10, where the smoke of their torment shall ascend up for ever and ever, Rev. 14:11; which is called the second death, chap. 21:8, the worm that never dies, and the fire that shall never be quenched, Mark 9:44.

Question: How do you prove, from scripture, that the pains of hell shall be for ever, or everlasting?

Answer: The wicked are said to be "cast into everlasting fire," Matt. 18:8; to "go away into everlasting punishment," Matt. 25:46; to be "punished with everlasting destruction," 2 Thess. 1:9; to have the "mist of darkness" reserved for them for ever, 2 Pet. 2:17; to be "tormented day and night, for ever and ever," Rev. 20:10; and by several other expressions of the like nature.

Question: Is eternity of punishment essential to the threatening, or penal sanction of the law?

Answer: No; else there never had been a satisfaction for sin.

Question: Whence then arises the eternity of punishment?

Answer: From the nature of the creature, which being finite, can never be capable of enduring the uttermost of infinite wrath; Psalm 90:11 - "Who knoweth the power of thine anger?"

Question: How can it consist with the justice of God, to inflict eternal punishment for temporal sinning?

Answer: Because sin, objectively considered, is an infinite evil, as being committed against an infinitely holy God; and therefore nothing can expiate it, but a satisfaction of infinite worth, which mere creatures can never yield, 1 Pet. 1:18, 19.

Question: What sort of sinners shall undergo the most dreadful degree of punishment in hell?

Answer: The despisers of Christ and the gospel: it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, for Tyre and Sidon, who never heard of Christ, than for Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and other cities, nations, and persons, to whom Christ, and his great salvation, have been offered, and yet rejected through unbelief, Matt. 11:21-25; Heb. 2:3.

Question: What should all this teach us?

Answer: That however sweet sin be in the mouth, it will be bitter in the belly, even lamentation, mourning, and wo, in the latter end, Ezek. 2:10; it should teach us to fly from the wrath to come, to the horns of the New Testament altar, the satisfaction and intercession of Christ; there being no name by which we can be saved from sin and wrath, except the name of Jesus only, Acts 4:12.