"He doth according

most powerful. Dan iv. 25. to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand." Psal. lxvi. 7. "He ruleth by his power for ever."

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 knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.

Q. 1. What is a covenant?

A. A covenant is a mutual agreement and engagement between two or more parties to give or to do something.

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Q. 2. What is God's covenant with man?

A. God's covenant with man is his engagement, by promise of giving something with a stipulation, or requiring something to be done on man's part. Q. 3. How many covenants has God made with man?

A. There are two covenants which God has made with man: 1. A covenant of works. 2. A cove

nant of grace.

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

A. God entered into a covenant of works with man immediately after his creation, when he was yet in a state of innocency, and had committed no sin. 6*

Q. 5. What was the promise of the covenant of works, which God made with man?

A. The promise of the covenant of works was a promise of life; for God's threatening death upon man's disobedience, Gen. ii. 17. implies his promise of life upon man's obedience.

Q. 6. What life was it that God promised 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 aud spiritual life, and the donation of eternal life. Q. 7. Wherein do natural, spiritual, and eternal life consist?

A. 1. Natural life consists, in the union of the soul and body. 2. Spiritual life consists in the union of God and the soul. 3. Eternal life consists in the perfect, immutable and eternal happiness, both of soul and body, through a perfect likeness to, and an immediate vision and frutition 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. iii. 12. "The law is not of faith, but the man that doth them shall live by them," compared with the 10. verse, "As many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed 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 respect was this obedience (required of man in the first covenant) to be perfect? A. The obedience required of man in the first

covenant was to be perfect, 1. in respect of the matter of it. All the powers, and faculties of the soul, all the parts and members of the body were to be employed in God's service, and made use of as instruments of righteousness. 2. It was to be perfect in respect of the principle, namely, habitual righteousness, and natural disposition and inclination to do anything God required, without any indisposition or reluctance, as the angels do obey in heaven. 3. It was to be perfect in respect of the end, which was chiefly to be God's glory swaying in all actions. 4. It was to be perfect in respect of the manner; it was to be with perfect love and delight, and exactly with all the circumstances required in obedience. 5. It was to be perfect in respect of the time; it was to be constant and perpetual.

Q. 10. What is the prohibition, or the thing for bidden 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, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest 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?

A. Because man, by eating the fruit of this tree, knew experimentally what good he had fallen from, and had lost, namely, the image and favour of God; and what evil he was fallen into, namely, the evil of sin and misery.

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 eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Rom. vi. 23. "The wages of sin is death." Q. 13. What death was it that God threatened as the punishment of sin?

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

Q. 14. Wherein do temporal, spiritual, and eternal death consist?

A. 1. Temporal death consists in the separation of the soul from the body. This man was liable to, in the day that he ate of the forbidden fruit, and not before. 2. Spiritual death consists in the separation of the soul from God, and the loss of God's image. This death seized upon man in the moment of his first sin. 3. Eternal death consists in the exclusion of man from the comfortable and beatifical presence of God in glory for ever, together with immediate impressions of God's wrath, effecting most horrible anguish in the soul, and in the extreme tortures in every part of the body eternally in hell.

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.

Q. 1. What is meant by the freedom of the will? A. By the freedom of the will, is meant a lib

erty in the will of its own accord to choose or refuse, to do or not to do, to do this, or to do that, without any constraint or force from any one.

Q. 2. How many ways may the will be said to be free?

A. The will may be said to be free three ways. 1. When the will is free only to good; when the will is not compelled or forced, but freely chooses only such things as are good. Thus the will of God (to speak after the manner of men) is free only to good; he can neither do nor will anything that is evil. Such also is the freedom of the wills of angels, and such will be the freedom of all the glorified saints in heaven. There neither is nor will be any inclination of the will to any evil thing for ever, and yet good will be of free choice. 2. The will may be said to be free only to evil, when the will is not constrained, but freely chooses such things as are evil and sinful. Thus the will of the devil is free only to sin; and thus the wills of all the children of men in the world, while in a state of nature, are free only to sin. 3. The will may be said to be free both to good and evil, when it sometimes chooses that which is good, sometimes chooses that which is evil. Such is the freedom of the wills of all regenerate persons, who have in some measure recovered the image of God. They choose good freely, through a principle of grace wrought in them by the Spirit; yet through the remainder of corruption, at some times their wills are inclined to that which is sinful.

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,