the external and internal Actions of Heart and Life to every Command, of God Gal. iii. 10. Curfed is every One that continueth not in all Things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them; and that no Man can do fince the Fall, as appears from Gen. vi. 5, and viii. 21. The Imagination of Man's Heart is evil from bis Youth.

Q. What do you conclude from this Doctrine?

A. That this is the true and only Way to fhew the right Path to them who want a faving Comfort, being conformable to the Word of God, and his Order of working, to bring Sinners by his Grace to his Communion.

Q. What ufe do ye make of this Doctrine?

A. Ift, That we pray to God, Pf. cxxxix. 23,24. Search me, O God, and know my Heart; try me, and know my Thoughts; and fee if there be any wicked Way in me, and lead me in the Way everlasting; that we may know what miferable Sinners we are. 2d, How that Juftification by our own Works, is utterly impoffible to the most righteous Man, Gal. ii. 16. For Ly the Werks of the Law, fhall no Flesh be juftified. The Confideration of which, ought to make Chrift defirable in our Eyes, and caufe us to fly to him, who loveth Mercy, and not Sacrifice, and is not come to call the Righteous, but Sinners to Repentance, Mat. ix. 23.

The Sixth Question of the HEIDELBERG CATECHISM.

HAS

AS God then created Man fo wicked and perverfe? "A. No. On the Contrary, God created "Man good, and after his own Image; that is to fay, truly juft and holy, that he might have a true "Knowledge of his Creator, to love him with all "his Heart, to live with him, to praife and blefs "him in Happiness eternal.

D

Q. How

Q. How do you prove that God created him good?

A. Gen. i. 31. And God faw every Thing that he had made, and behold it was very good. Ecl. vii. 29. This only have I found, that God hath made Man upright.

Q. What doth the Scripture call the Goodness in which God created Man?

A. The Image of God, Gen. i. 27. So God created Man in his own Image; in the Image of God created he him; Male and Female created he them.

Q. What is meant by the Image of God?

A. Not the Refemblance of God in any bodily Shape or Figure, but in Holiness. Eph. iv. 24. And that ye put on the new Man, which, after God is created in Righteoufnefs, and true Holiness.

Q. In what Graces did Men refemble God?

A. In fuch a Knowledge of God himself, and the Creatures, which made him Happy. Col. iii. 10. And have put on the new Man, which is renewed in F Knowledge, after the Image of him, that created him.

Q. In what other Graces did this Image confift?

A. In Righteoufnefs as well as Holinefs. Eph. iv. 24. Yea, God created Man also, so that he had a Perfection of Knowledge to discern his true Intereft ; a Perfection of Holiness to capacitate him for Obedience, and a Perfection of Happiness difpofing him to Perfeverance.

The Seventh Question of the HEIDELBERG

CATECHISM.

Q. AS Man was thus created, from whence doth his natural Corruption proceed?

"A. From the Fall and Difobedience of our first "Parents, in the terreftrial Paradife, by which our "Nature hath been fo corrupted, that we are all conceived and born in Sin."

Q: Wha

Q. Who were thefe first Persons or Parents?
A. Adam and Eve.

Q. Where did God place them?

A. In the terreftrial Paradife. Gen. ii. 8.

Q. What fpecial Act did God exercife towards Man, in the State wherein he was created?

A. 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 Pain of Death. Q. Can you prove that there hath been fuch a Covenant?

A. Yes. Hos. vi. 7. But they like Adam have transgreffed the Covenant. Rom. iii. 27, 28. And this hath Mofes alfo fhewn evidently. Gen. ii. tho' fparingly, because his Intention in his writing is, to demonstrate the Grace of God.

Q. What was God's Covenant with Adam before the Fall.

A. It was to give Life and Happiness, upon Con-· dition of perfect perfonal Obedience. Gal. iii. 12. The Law is not of Faith, but the Man that doth them, fhall live in them.

Q. Did our firft Parents continue in the State where in they were created?

A. No. Our firft Parents being left to the Freedom of their own Will, fell from the State wherein they were created, by eating the forbidden Fruit, and fo finned against God. Gen. iii. 6, 7.

Q. What Evil was there in eating thereof?

A. There was a twofold Evil, namely, the Evil of Sin, and the Evil of Punishment; both very great Evils.

Q. What was the Evil of Sin?

A. A threefold Evil: ift, Against God, called Difobedience. Rom. v. 19. As by one Man's Difobedience the many were made Sinners. 2d, Against Himself, Soul, Body, and Estate. 3d, Against his Pofterity. Rom.v. 12.

D 2

Q. What

Q. What was the Evil of Punishment?

A. Ift, Lofs of God's Image. 2d, Horror of Confcience. 3d, Sorrow and Trouble on Mankind. 4th, Expulfion from Paradise. 5th, Death both of Body and Soul, and Curfe on the Earth and Creature, Q. Who made Man fall fo miferably?

A. Satan, in or by a Serpent, Gen. iii.

Q. How could fuch a wife Man fall, being created Upright?

A. By abufing the Liberty of Free-will.

Q. Hath God caufed or taught them to abuse the Liberty of Free-will?

A. No. Not in any wife inclining them thereto; but by with-holding that efficacious Grace to be Obedient, which God was in no wife obliged to give to them.

Q. Is not this Sin only upon the account of Adam?

A. No. The Covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his Pofterity, all Mankind defcending from him by ordinary Generation, finned in him, and fell with him in his firft Tranfgreffion. Q. How doth it appear that we are all tainted therewith?

A. By Scripture Teftimony, Rom. v. 12. As by one Man Sin entered into the World, and Death by Sin; and fo Death paffed upon all Men, for that all have finned, Rom. vii. 12.

Q. How came all Men to fall with Adam?

A. Because all were included in Adam's Covenant, as a Man's Covenant includes his Children before they are born; and even as the Father's Treafon affects his Pofterity.

Q. Into what State did the Fail bring Mankind?
A. Into a State of Sin and Mifery.

Q. Wherein doth the Sinfulness of that State confift, whereinto Man fell?

A. It confifts in the Guilt of Adam's firft Sin, the Want of original Righteousness, and the Corruption

of

of his whole Nature, which is commonly called Original Sin, together with all actual Tranfgreffions which proceed from it.

Q. Can you prove that Men are Guilty before God of original and actual Sin?

A. Yes. Pli. 5. Behold, I was shapen in Iniquity; and in Sin did my Mother conceive me. Eccl. vii. 20. There is not a juft Man upon Earth, that doeth Good, and finneth not.

Q: How can we be guilty of Adam's Tranfgreffion? A. We are guilty of it, because Adam finned not as a fingle or private Perfon, but as a publick Reprefentative of all Mankind. Rom. v. 15, 16, 17. But not as the Offence, fo alfo is the Free Gift. For if through the Offence of one, the many be dead; much more the Grace of God, and the Gift by Grace, which is by one Man, Jefus Chrift, hath abounded unto the many. And not as it was by one that finned, fo is the Gift; for the Judgment was by one unto Condemnation.

Q. Have we come under this Guilt any other Way? A. Yes, by Generation. For we were in his Loins, attainted with his Treason to all future Pofterity, as with the Effects of Parent's Leprofy on the Children, P. li. 5.

Q. Wherein doth it confift?

A. In two Things. I. In our Averfion and Enmityto that, which is Good. Rom. vii. 18. In me, that is, in my Flefh, dwelleth no good Thing. 2. In Pronefs to that, which is Evil, Rom. vii. 24. But I am Carnal, fold under Sin.

Q. Is this Corruption of Nature in all Mankind?

A. Yes, in all meer Men, none excepted. Rom. ii. 10, 23. There is none Righteous, no not one; for all have finned, &c.