A. It was pride, arising from the great beauty and sublime graces which God had bestowed upon them. For, seeing themselves such glorious beings, they fell in love with themselves, and forgetting the God that made them, wanted to be on an equality with their Creator.

Q. 9. What were the consequences of their crime?

A. They were immediately deprived of all their supernatural graces and heavenly beauty; they were changed from glorious angels into ugly devils; they were banished out of heaven, and condemned to the torments of hell, which was prepared to receive them.

Q. 10. Who was the chief of these fallen angels? A. He was called Lucifer before his fall, which signifies one that carries light along with him, from the exceeding great splendour with which God had adorned him before his fellows; and since his fall, he is called Satan, or the Adversary, because he is the enemy both of God and man; he is also called the Devil.

Q. 11. What account doth the Scripture give of all this?

A. It is as follows: In the prophet Ezekial, under the figure of the king of Tyre, the beauty and fall of the angels is thus described: "Thus saith the Lord God, Thou wast the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty: Thou wast in the pleasure of the paradise of God......Thou wast a cherub stretching out thy wings......Thout was perfect in thy ways from the day of thy creation until iniquity was found in thee. Thou wast filled with iniquity; thou hast sinned, and I cast thee out from the mountain of God, and destroyed thee, O covering cherub. And thy heart was filled up with thy beauty. I have cast thee to the ground," Ezek. xxviii. And the

prophet Isaiah thus speaks to Lucifer, the chief of the fallen angels, under the figure of the king of Babylon: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer......Thou saidst in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the height of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, into the depth of the pit," Isaiah xiv. 12. And, at the last day, the Judge will say to the wicked, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," Matth. xxv. Their fall is also thus described by St. John: "And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels. And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven: and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, wh is called the Devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world," Rev. xii.; for "God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes, to the lower hell into torments," 2 Pet. ii. 4. "And the angels who kept not their principality, but forsook their own habitation, he hath reserved under darkness, in everlasting chains, unto the judgment of the great day," Jude, verse 6. "And the devil who seduceth them was cast into the pool of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night, for ever and ever," Rev. xx. 9.

VOL. I.

1

CHAPTER V.

OF THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN.

Q. 1. WHAT kind of a being is man?
A. Man is a being composed of soul and body.
Q. 2. What is his body made of?

A. The dust of the earth.

Q. 3. What is his soul made of? A. It is created by God out of nothing. Q. 4. For what end did God create man? A. To know, love, and serve him during the short course of his pilgrimage in this world, and then to be taken up to heaven, and be happy in the possession and enjoyment of God himselffor all eternity.

Q..5. Is this possession of God in heaven due to the nature of man?

A. By no means; it was wholly an effect of the infinite goodness of God, to create man for such a glorious and supernatural end; to communicate to him the riches of his mercy, and make him supremely blest in the clear vision and enjoyment of himself for ever.

Q. 6. Who were the first of mankind that God created?

A. Adam and Eve, who are our first parents, and from whom all mankind are descended.

Q. 7. In what manner did God create them? A. He formed the body of Adam "out of the dust of the earth, and then breathed into him the breath of life," Gen. ii. 7.; that is, created his soul out of nothing, to animate that body, and Adam became a living soul," Ibid. "Then causing a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, he took out one of his ribs, filling up its place with flesh; and the

Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman, and brought her to Adam," Gen. ii. 21.

Q. 8. To whose image and likeness did he create man?

A. "God created man to his own image; to the image of Gou he created him; male and female he created them," Gen. i. 27.

Q. 9. In what does this likeness consist?

A. In several things; for (1.) As there is but one only God, and three persons in one God, so in man there is but one soul, and in this one soul there are three powers, the will, memory, and understanding, by which man, in some sense, resembles the ever-blessed Trinity. (2.) As God is a spirit and immortal, so the soul of man is a spirit, and will never die. (3.) As God is the sovereign Lord of all things, and does in all creatures whatever he pleases, so he endowed man with free will, and made him the visible sovereign over all the other creatures of this earth. "Let us make man," says God, "to our image and likeness; and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the whole earth, and every creeping thing that moveth upon the earth," Gen. i. 26.

Q. 10. In what state did God create our first parents ?

A. In the state of innocence, grace, and happiness.

Q. 11. What do you mean by the state of innocence?

A. That at their creation they were free from any the smallest pollution of sin, and pure and unspotted before God. "This I know, that God made man upright," Ecclus. vii. 30.

Q. 12. What do you mean by the state of grace?
A. That they were adorned with the grace of

God, called also original justice or righteousness, which God communicated to their souls, making them beautiful and truly holy before him. Thus St. Paul, exhorting us to be renewed in the spirit to that original justice in which our first parents were created, says, "Put on the new man, who, according to God, is created in justice and holiness of truth," Ephesians, iv. 24.

Q. 13. Was this original righteousness due to their nature?

A. By no means: it was a free gift of the goodness of God.

Q. 14. Why did he bestow it upon them?

A. Because, as he was pleased, out of his great goodness, to create them for a supernatural end, to wit, the enjoyment of himself in heaven; so out of the same goodness, he bestowed original justice upon them, as the necessary help to enable them to attain that end.

Q. 15. What benefit did they receive from this original justice?

A. First, it sanctified them, or made them truly holy before God, objects of this delight and complacency. 2. It subjected all their senses, appetites, and passions to reason. 3. It rendered their reason and their whole soul subject to the will of God; and, 4. It was the source and support of the happiness they enjoyed.

Q. 16. What do you mean by the state of happi

ness?

A. That, being free from all state of sin, and adorned with original justice, they were on that account free from all sufferings, and enjoyed a perfect happiness both in soul and body, suitable to their nature, and the state they were in..

Q. 17. In what did this happiness consist? A. Chiefly in the following particulars: 1. They' were endowed with great knowledge of every thing