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A. He is a compound being, made up of body and soul. He possesses a completely organized body, formed of the dust of the earth with the senses of feeling, tasting, smelling, hearing, and seeing; and a rational soul, a pure, uncompounded, spiritual, created substance or essence, having understanding, affections, and will.(c)

Q. 4. What is the duration of man's existence? A. His body is mortal, and is of short continuance; but his soul is immortal, endless in its existence.(d)

Q. 5.

What relation does man sustain to this lower world?

A. He sustains the relation of its constituted head and lord.(e)

Q. 6. Where were the first human Pair placed at their creation?

A. They were placed in the garden of Eden, or the earthly paradise, in the enjoyment of every terrestrial good, that heart could wish.(f)

(c) Gen. 2. 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Eccl. 12. 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

(d) Ps. 90. 10. The days of our years are three score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be four score years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Matt. 10. 28. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

(e) Gen. 1. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Ps. 8. 6. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.

(f) Gen. 2. 8, 9. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree, that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Q. 7. In what did the chief happiness of man consist in his primitive state?

A. In knowing, loving, serving, and enjoying God his Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor.

Q. 8. Were our first Parents put upon probation, as it respects their moral conduct, immediately after their creation?

A. They were. As soon as life commenced, their moral trial commenced.(g)

Q. 9. In what relation did Adam our first Progenitor stand to his posterity?

A. He stood in relation to them, not only as their natural head, (they descending from him by ordinary generation,) but also as their federal or representative head, as it respects their moral state. He was to be, in both senses, the head of millions and millions of immortal beings.(h)

(g) Gen. 2. 15-17. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

(h) Rom. 5. 18, 19. Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous.

CHAPTER X.

Rule of obedience and life to man in his primitive state.

Q. 1. What rule of obedience and life did God give to our first Parents, in the state, in which they were created?

A. He gave them what is usually denominated the moral law, which has its foundation in the nature and relation of beings, discoverable by the light of nature. It arises solely from the character of God and mankind, and the relations He sustains to them, and they sustain to Him, and to one another.

Q. 2. What is the nature or character of this law? A. It is spiritual and perfect;-extends to all the thoughts, affections, desires, purposes, words, and actions of men;-can never be abated, altered, or repealed; but is wholly immutable, and as durable as the existence of God and man.(a)

Q. 3. How was the moral law, at first, delivered to mankind?

A. It was written on their hearts-impressed upon their consciences. By the proper use of their rational and moral faculties, they could attain to a knowledge of their duties. The Creator may also have particularly instructed our first Parents in this respect.(b)

(a) Ps. 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfection; but thy commandment is exceeding broad.

(b) Rom. 2. 14, 15. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law,

Q. 4. What obedience to this law does God require?

A. He requires universal, perfect, perpetual and personal obedience.(c)

Q. 5. What are the sanctions of this law?

This

A. They are eternal happiness to the obedient, and eternal misery to the disobedient. The tenour of the law is, obey and live, disobey and die. penalty was necessary in order to give force and efficacy to the law.(d)

Q. 6. Is every deviation from this rule of obedience and life sin?

A. It is. Whatsoever is transgression of this law, either in thought, word, or action, is sin, and exposes the transgressor to its penalty or threatnings.(*)

Q. 7. Does sin consist in the external action, or in the state of the heart, whence the action proceeds? A. All sin proceeds from the heart. A person is good or bad, as is his heart. The reason, why wicked men and devils are criminal in their actions, is, that they flow from a sinful heart.(f)

Q. 8.

Are all sins equally heinous or criminal?

these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one another.

(c) Gal. 3. 10. For 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. Ezek. 18. 4. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

(d) Rom. 6. 23. For the wages of sin is death. Matt. 25. 46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.

(e) 1 John 3. 4. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law. Ezek. 18.4. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

(f) 1 Sam. 16. 7. For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Matt. 15, 19. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

A. They are not.

Some sins are more aggravated than others from their nature, from the character of the person offending or offended, and from other circumstances.

Q. 9. In what is the moral law summarily comprehended?

A. It is briefly comprised in the ten commandments, written by the finger of God upon two tables of stone, and delivered to Moses on mount Sinai with awful majesty, and solemnity, and glory.(5)

(g) Ex. 19. 18, 19. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake and God answered him by a voice. Ex. 31. 18. And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him, upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Ex. 20. 3-17.

I. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my command

ments.

III. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

IV. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

V. Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. VI. Thou shalt not kill.

VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

VIII.

Thou shalt not steal.

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