Q.5. How doth God's providence reach finful actions ?
A. 1. God doth permit men to fin. Acts xiv. 16.

Who in time past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.' Pfal. 1. 21. These things haft thou done, and I kept filence.' 2. God doth limit and reftrain men in their fins. Pfal. lxxvi. 10. The remainder of wrath fhalt thou restrain.' 2 Kings xix. 28. Because thy rage against me is come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nofe, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back,' &c. 3. God doth direct and dispose men's fins to good ends, beyond their own intentions. Ifaiah x. 5, 6, 7. O Affyrian, the rod of mine anger, I will fend him against an hypocritical nation,' namely, to chastise it for their fin; 'howbeit he meaneth not fo, neither doth his heart think fo,' &c. Gen. 1. 20. But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to fave much people alive.

Q. 6. What are the properties of God's providence ?

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A. 1. God's providence is moft holy. Pfal. cxlv. 17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.' 2. God's providence is most wife. Pfal. civ. 24. O Lord, how manifold are thy works!' speaking of the works of providence, as well as creation, in wisdom haft thou made them all.' 3. God's providence is most powerful. Dan. iv. 35. 'He doth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand." Pfal. lxvi. 7. He ruleth by his power forever.'

XII. Quest. What special act of providence did God exercife towards man, in the estate wherein he was created?

Anfw. When God had created man, he entered into 2 covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obe dience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.

Q. 1. What is a covenant?

A. A covenent is a mutual agreement and engagement between two or more parties, to give or do fomething. Q.2. What is God's covenant with man?

A. God's covenant with man, is his engagement, by promife, of giving fomething, with a ftipulation, or requiring fomething to be done on man's part.

Q3. How many covenants hath Gad made with man ? A. There are two covenants which God hath made with man. 1. A covenant of works. 2. A covenant of

grace.

Q. 4. When did God enter into a covenant of works with

man ?

A. God did enter into a covenant of works with man immediately after his creation, when he was yet in a state of innocency, and had committed no fin.

Q5. What was the promise of the covenant of works, which God made with man?

A. The promise of the covenant of works was a promife of life; for God's threatening death upon man's dif obedience. Gen. ii. 17. implieth his promife of life upon man's obedience. :)

Q.6. What life was it that God › promifed to man in the covenant of works?

A. The life that God promised to man in the covenant of works, was the continuance of natural and fpiritual life, and the donation of eternal life.

Q.7. Wherein doth natural, spiritual, and eternal life confift? A. 1. Natural life doth confift in the union of the foul and body. 2. Spiritual life doth confift in the union of God and the foul. 3. Eternal life doth confist in the perfect, immutable, and eternal happiness, both of foul and body, through a perfect likenefs unto, and an immediate vifion and fruition of God the chief good.

Q. 8. What was the condition of the first covenant, and that which God required on man's part, in the covenant of works? A. The condition of, and that required by God on man's part, in the covenant of works, was perfect obedience. Gal. ii. 12... The law is not of faith; but the man that doth them fhall live in them,' compared with the 10th verfe, As many as are of the works of the law, are under the curfe; for it is written, Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.'

Q.9. In what refpect was this obedience (required of man in the first covenant) to be perfect?

14. The obedience required of man in the first covenant, was to be perfect 1. In refpect of the matter of it all the

powers and faculties of the foul, all the parts and members of the body, were to be employed in God's fervice, and made ufe of as inftruments of righteoufnefs. 2. It was to be perfect in refpect of the principle, namely, habitual righteoufnefs, and natural difpofition and inclination to do any thing God required, without any indifpofition or reluctance, as the angels do obey in heaven. 3. It was to be perfect in refpect of the end, which was chiefly to be God's glory, fwaying in all actions. 4. It was to be perfect in refpect of the manner; it was to be with perfect love and delight, and exactly with all the circumftances required in obedience. 5. It was to be perfect in refpect of the time, it was to be conftant and perpetual.

Q. 10. What is the prohibition, or the thing forbidden in the covenant of works?

A. The thing forbidden in the covenant of works, is the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Gen. ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God commanded, faying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayeft freely eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.'

Q. 11. Why was this tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

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A. Because man, by eating the fruit of this tree, did know experimentally what good he had fallen from, and had loft, namely, the image and favor of God; and what evil he was fallen into, namely, the evil of fin and mifery, Q. 12. What was the penalty or punishment threatened upon the breach of the covenant of works ?

A. The punishment threatened upon the breach of the covenant of works, was death. Gen. ii. 17. In the day thou eateft thereof, thou fhalt furely die.' Rom. vi. 23. The wages of fin is death.

Q. 13. What death was it that God threatened as the punishment of fin?

A. The death which God threatened as the punishment of man's fin, was temporal death, fpiritual death, and eternal death,

Q. 14. Wherein doth temporal, fpiritual, and eternal death confift?

A. 1. Temporal death doth confift in the separation of

the foul from the body: this man was liable unto, in the day that he did eat of the forbidden fruit, and not before. z. Spiritual death doth confift in the feparation of the foul from God, and the lofs of God's image: this death feized upon man in the moment of his firft fin. 3. Eternal death doth confift in the exclufion of man from the comfortable and beatifical prefence of God in glory forever, together with the immediate impreflions of God's wrath, effecting moft horrible anguifh in the foul, and in the extreme tortures in every part of the body eternally in hell.

XIII. Queft. Did our first parents continue in the eftate wherein they were created?

Anfw. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the eftate wherein they were created, by finning against God,

Q. What is meant by the freedom of the will?

A. By the freedom of the will is meant a liberty in the will, of its own accord, to chufe or refufe; to do or not to do; to do this or to do that, without any constraint or force from any one.

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Q. 2. How many ways may the will be faid to be free? A. The will may be faid to be free three ways. When the will is free only to good; when the will is not compelled or forced, but freely chufeth only fuch things as are good thus the will of God (to fpeak after the manner of men) is free only to good, he can neither do nor will any thing that is evil: fuch alfo is the freedom of the wills of angels, and fuch will be the freedom of all the glorified faints in heaven; there neither is, nor will be any inclination of the will unto any evil thing forever, and yet good will be of free choice. 2. The will may be faid to be free only unto evil, when the will is not conftrained, but freely chufeth fuch things as are evil and finful thus the will of the devil is free only unto fin; and thus the wills of all the children of men in the world, while in a state of nature, are free only untó fin. 3. The will may be faid to be free both unto good and evil, when it fometimes chufeth that which is good, fometimes chufeth that which is evil: fuch is the freedom of the wills of all regenerate perfons, who have in fome measure recov

ered the image of God; they chufe good freely, through a principle of grace wrought in them by the fpirit: yet through the remainder of corruption, at fome times their wills are inclined to that which is finful..

Q. 3. What freedom of will had man at his first creation ? A. The freedom of will which man had at his first creation, was a freedom both to good and evil: though the natural inclination and difpofition of his will was only to good; yet being mutable or changeable, through temptation it might be altered, and might become inclinable unto evil.

Q. 4. How avere our first parents left to the freedom of their own wills ?

A. Our first parents were left by God to the freedom of their own wills, when God withheld that further grace (which he was nowife bound to give unto them) which would have ftrengthened them against the temptation, and preferved them from falling into fin.

Q. 5. How did our first parents fall, when they were left to the freedom of their own wills?

A. Our first parents being left to the freedom of their own wills, through the temptation of the devil, who spake unto them in the ferpent; through the defirableness of the fruit of the forbidden tree to their fenfual appetite; and through the defirableness of being made wife, and. like unto God by eating thereof, unto their rational appetite; and through the hopes of escaping the punishment of death threatened by God; they did venture against the exprefs command of God, to eat of this tree: the woman being first beguiled and perverted by the devil, did eat; and then the man being perfuaded by his wife, and the devil too, did eat alfo. Gen. iii. 4, 5, 6. And the ferpent. faid unto the woman, ye fhall not furely die; for God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes fhall be opened, and ye fhall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman faw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be defired to make one wife, fhe took of the fruit thereof and did eat; and gave alfo unto her husband with: her, and he did eat. 2 Cor. xi. 3. The ferpent beguiled: Eve through his fnbtilty.' Tim. ii. 14. The woman being deceived, was in the tranfgreffion.