Q. 11. What are God's works of
providence?
A. God's works of providence are, his most holy,(1) wise,(2) and powerful
preserving(3) and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.(4)
(1) Ps. 145:17.
(2) Ps. 104:24; Isa. 28:29.
(3) Heb. 1:3.
(4) Ps. 103:19; Matt. 10:29-31.
Q. 12. What special act of providence
did God exercise towards man in the estate 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 the
knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death.(1)
(1) Gal. 3:12; Gen. 2:17.
Q. 13. Did our first parents continue
in the estate wherein they were created?
A. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from
the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.(1)
(1) Gen. 3:6-8, 13; Eccles.
7:29
.
Q. 14. What is sin?
A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.(1)
(1) I John 3:4.
Q. 15. What was the sin whereby our
first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
A. The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they
were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.(1)
(1) Gen. 3:6, 12.
Q. 16. Did all mankind fall in Adam's
first transgression?
A. 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.(1)
(1) Gen. 2:16-17; Rom. 5:12; I Cor.
15:21-22.
Q. 17. Into what estate did the fall
bring mankind?
A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.(1)
(1) Rom.
5:12
.
Q. 18. Wherein consists the sinfulness
of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. 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.(1)
(1) Rom. 5:12, 19; 5:10-20; Eph. 2:1-3;
James 1:14-15; Matt. 15:19.
Q. 19. What is the misery of that
estate whereinto man fell?
A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God,(1) are under his wrath
and curse,(2) and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death
itself, and to the pains of hell for ever.(3)
(1) Gen. 3:8, 10, 24.
(2) Eph. 2:2-3, Gal. 3:10.
(3) Lam.
3:39
; Rom.
6:23
, Matt.
25:41, 46.
Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to
perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected
some to everlasting life,(1) did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver
them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of
salvation by a Redeemer.(2)
(1) Eph. 1:4.
(2) Rom.
3:20
-22; Gal.
3:21-22.
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