Q. In what manner had all things their beginning?

A. In the beginning of time, when no creature had any being, God by his Word alone, in the space of six days created all things.

Q. Which are the principal creatures?

A. Angels and men.

Q. What is the nature of angels?

A. They are wholly spiritual, having no body at all. Q. What is the nature of man?

A. Mant consisteth of two divers parts; a body, and a soul.

Q. What is the body?

A. The" outward and earthly part of man: made at the beginning of the dust of the earth.

Q. What is the soul?

A. The inward and spiritual part of man; which is immortal, and never can die.

Q. How did God make man at the beginning?
A. According to his own likeness and image.

Q. Wherein was the image of God principally seen? A. In the perfection of the understanding; and the freedom, and holiness of the will.

Q. How many of mankind were created at the beginning?

A. Two; Adama the man, and Eve the woman: from both whom all mankind did afterwards proceed.

Q. What doth God after the creation?

A. By his providence he preserveth and governeth his creatures, with all things belonging unto them.

* Col. chap. 3. ver. 10. Eph. chap. 4. ver. 24. Eccl. chap. 7. ver. 31.

a Gen. chap. 1. ver. 37,

Acts, chap. 17, ver. 26.

38. and chap. 5. ver. 2. 1 Tim. chap. 2. ver.

b John, chap. 5. ver. 17. Neh. chap. 9. ver. 6. Psal. 119. ver. 91. Het

Q. What befel unto the angels after their creation? A. Some continued in that holy estate wherein they were created; some of them fell, and became devils.

Q. May the good angels fall hereafter?

A. Nod: but they shall always continue in their holiness and happiness.

Q. Shall the wicked angels ever recover their first

estate.

A. They shall not: but be tormented in Hell world without end.

Q. How did God deal with man after he made him? A. Hef made a covenant with Adam, and in him with all mankind.

Q. What was man bound to do by his covenant?

A. To continue as holy as God at the first made him, to keep all God's commandments, and never to break any of them.

Q. What did God promise unto man, if he did thus keep his commandments?

A. The continuance of his favour and everlasting life. Q. What did God threaten unto man, if he did sin and break his commandments?

A. His dreadful curse and everlasting death.

Q. Did man continue in that obedience which he did owe unto God?

1. ver. 3. Acts, chap. 17. ver. 26. 28. Matt. chap. 10. ver. 29, 30. Prov. chap. 16. ver. 33.

Matt. chap. 25. ver. 31. 41. Jude, ver. 6. John, chap. 8. ver. 44. 1 John, chap. 3. ver. 3. 8.

h Rom. chap. 7. ver. 10. and chap. 10. ver. 5. Luke, chap. 10. ver. 25. 28.

Gal. chap. 3. ver. 22.

iGen. chap. 2. ver. 17. Gal. chap. 3. ver. 10. Deut. chap. 28. ver. 15, 16. and chap. 29. ver. 19, 20.

Lev. chap. 26. ver. 14, 15.

A. No. Fork Adam and Eve obeying rather the persuasion of the Devil than the commandments of God, did eat of the forbidden fruit, and so fell away from God.

Q. Was this the sin of Adam and Eve alone; or are we also guilty of the same?

A. All we, that are their children, are guilty of the same sin for we all sinned in them.

Q. What followed upon this sin?

A. The loss of the perfection of the image of God, and the corruption of nature in man, called Original sin. Q. Wherein standeth the corruption of man's nature? A. In six things principally.

Q. What is the first?

A. The blindness of the understanding; which is not able to conceive the things of God.

Q. What is the second?

A. The forgetfulness of the memory; unfit to remember good things.

Q. What is the third?

A. The rebellion of the will; which is wholly bent to sin, and altogether disobedient unto the will of God. Q. What is the fourth?

A. Disorder of the affections, of joy, heaviness, love, anger, fear, and such like.

Q. What is the fifth?

A. Fear and confusion in the conscience; condemning where it should not, and excusing where it should condemn.

k Eccles. chap. 7. ver. 29. Gen. chap. 3. John, chap. 8. ver. 44. Rom. chap. 5. ver. 14, 15.

1 Rom. chap. 5. ver. 12. 14, 15, 16, &c.

Rom. chap. 5. ver. 12. 14. Gen. chap. 5. ver. 1. 3. and chap. 8. ver. 21. Psal. 51. ver. 5. Rom. chap. 7. ver. 14. 17, 18. 23.

n 1 Cor. chap. 2. ver. 14. Jer. chap. 24. ver. 7. Eph. chap. 4. ver. 17, 18.

2 Cor. chap. 3. ver. 5.

Psal. 119. ver. 6.

• Deut. chap. 32. ver. 18. Prov. chap. 3. ver. 1. P Rom. chap. 5. ver. 6. and chap. 8. ver. 7. Philipp. chap. 2. ver. 13. Ephes. chap. 4. ver. 19.

4 Rom. chap. 1. ver. 26. and chap. 3. ver. 12, 13. Gal. chap. 5. ver. 24. Tit. chap. 1. ver. 15. Heb. chap. 10. ver. 22. Rom. chap. 7. ver. 9. John, chap. 16. ver. 2.

Q. What is the sixth?

A. Every member of the body is become a ready instrument to put sin in execution.

Q. What are the fruits that proceed from this natural corruption?

A. Actual sins: whereby we break the commandments of God in the whole course of our life.

Q. How do we thus break God's commandments?

A. In" thought, word and deed: not doing that which we ought to do, and doing that which we ought not to do.

Q. What punishment is mankind subject unto, by reason of original and actual sin?

A. He is subject to all the plagues of God in this life, and endless torments in Hell after this life.

Q. Did God leave man in this woful estate?

A. No: buty of his free and undeserved mercy entered into a new covenant with mankind.

Q. What is offered unto man in this new covenant? A. Grace and life everlasting is freely offered by God unto all that be made partakers of his Son Jesus Christ; who alone is Mediator betwixt God and man.

Q. What are you to consider in Christ the Mediator of this covenant?

A. Two things: his nature, and his office.

Q. How many natures be there in Christ?

A. Two: the Godhead, and the Manhood, joined

Rom. chap. 6. ver. 19. Job, chap. 31. ver. 1. 2 l'eter, chap. 2. ver. 14. Psalm 119. ver. 37. Rom. chap. 3. ver. 13, 14, 15.

Rom. chap. 6. ver. 16, 17. and chap. 7. ver. 5. Gal, chap. 5. ver. 19, 20, 21. Matt. chap. 12. ver. 34, 35, 36. and chap. 15. ver. 19.

"Acts, chap. 8. ver. 22. Isaiah, chap. 1. ver. 16, 17.

James, chap. 3. ver. 2. Matt. chap. 25. ver. 42, 43.

* Deut. chap. 1. ver. 28. 45. Ezek. chap. 76. ver. 6. 60.

Luke, chap. 16. ver. 23. Matt. chap. 25. ver. 41.
Zach. chap. 9. ver. 11.

z Rom. chap. 1. ver. 24, 25, 26. and chap. 5. ver. 15, 16, 17. 19, 20, 21. Eph. chap. 2. ver. 7, 8. 9. John, chap. 1. ver. 12. Rom. chap. 5. ver. 17.

Heb. chap. 3. ver. 14. 1 Tim. chap. 2. ver. 5.

35.

a 1 Tim. chap. 3. ver. 16. John, chap. 1. ver. 1. 14. Luke, chap. 1. ver. Rom. chap. 1. ver. 3, 4. and chap. 9. ver. 5.

together in one person; which is no other but the second. person of the Trinity.

Q. Why must Christ be God?

A. That his obedience and suffering might be of infinite worth and value, as proceeding from such a person, as was God equal to the Father: that he might be able to overcome the sharpness of death (which himself was to undergo) and to raise us up from the death of sin, by sending his holy Spirit into our hearts.

Q. Why must Christ be man?

A. Because the Godhead could not suffer: and it was further requisite, that the same nature which had offended should suffer for the offence; and that our nature, which was corrupted in the first Adam, should be restored to his integrity in the second Adam, Christ Jesus our Lord. Q. What is the office of Christ?

A. To be a mediator betwixt God and man.

Q. What was required of Christ for making peace and reconciliation betwixt God and man?

A. That he should satisfy the first covenant whereunto man was tied.

Q. Wherein was Christ to make satisfaction to the first covenant.

A. Inf performing that righteousness which the law of God did require of man; and in bearing the punishment which was due unto man for breaking of the same law.

Q. How did Christ perform that righteousness which God's law requireth of man?

A. Ing that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost, with

b Gal, chap. 4. ver. 4. Heb. chap. 9. ver. 14. Acts, chap. 20. ver. 28.

chap. 1. ver. 4. and chap.

1 Peter, chap. 3. ver. 18. Eph. chap. 2. ver. 1.

Rom.

4. ver. 4. 25. and chap. 8. ver. 34. 1 Cor. chap. 15. 17. John, chap. 2. ver. 16. 21.

Col. chap. 2. ver. 13. John, chap. 5. ver. 25. and chap. 6. ver. 63. Rom. chap. 8. ver. 9. 1 John, chap. 4. ver. 13.

d Heb. chap. 12. ver. 24. 1 Tim. chap. 2. ver. 5. 1 John, chap. 2. ver. 1. e Rom. chap. 8. ver. 3, 4. and chap. 10. ver. 4. Gal. chap. 4. ver. 4, 5. Matt. chap. 5. ver. 17. Heb. chap. 5. ver. 8, 9, 10. and chap. 7. ver. 7. 9, 10. Philipp. chap. 2. ver. 7, 8. John, chap. 4. ver. 34. 1 Pet. chap. 2. ver. 22,

23, 24. Isaiah, chap. 53. ver. 9, 10.

Luke, chap. 1. ver. 35. 1 Pet. chap. 1. ver. 19. and chap. 2. ver. 22. and