What Is Sin?

Answ. Sin is any want of .conformity, unto,
or transgression of, the law of God.

Q. How do you prove that there is any sin in the world?

A. The scriptures, our consciences, and the outward calamities of life, clearly prove it.

Q. How doth the scripture prove it? A. It declares that all men have sinned, Rom. iii. 10, 23.

Qj. How does our conscience prove it? A. By often filling us with shame and dread of God’s vengeance when we break his law, Gen. iii. and iv. Rom. ii. 14.

Q. How do the outward calamities of life prove it?

A. An infinitely good God would not afflict the work of his hands, if he was not offended by sin, Lam. iii. 33.

Q. By what rule and standard must we judge of the sinfulness of qualities and actions? A. By the law of God.

Q. Can irrational creatures, who are under no law, sin?

A. No-*, where no law is, there is no transgression.

Q. How many ways do rational creatures sin? ‘A. By want of conformity to, or transgression of God’s law.

Q. What mean you by want of conformity to God’s law? A. Our not having that purity of heart, and holiness of life, which the law requires, Rom. vii. 14. Isa. xliv. 6.

Q. What mean you by transgression of God’s law?

A. The doing what it forbids, 1 John iii. 4. Isa. lix. 13.

Q. Why is it called transgression of the law f A. Because hereby we pass over the limits which God hath fixed for our conduct in his law, Ezek. xx. Dan. ix.

Q. How many things are considerable in every sin?

A. Four; its filth, demerit, guilt, and strength.

Q. What is the filth of sin? A. Its contrariety to

the holiness of God’s nature and law, by which it renders the sinner ugly and abominable in his sight, Hab. i. 13.

Q. What is the demerit of sin? A. Its deserving

infinite wrath at the hand of God, Isa. iii. 11.

Q. Can the demerit and filth of sin ever be separated?

A. No *, the wages of sin is death, Rom. vi. 23.

Qj What is the guilt of sin? A. The chargeableness of it, in order to punishing one for it.

Qj. Are the filth and guilt of sin naturally connected?

A. Yes ■, every blot of sin naturally binds over to wrath, Ezek. xviii. 4. Rom. ii. 8, 9. and iii. 19, 20.

Q. Whence doth that proceed? A. From the justice of God, and sentence of his law, Psal. xi. 6, 7. Gal. iii. 10.

Q. Can the free grace of God separate the filth and guilt of sin? A. Yes •, with respect to the persons on

on whom they are found, Rom. viii. I. 2 Cor. v. 21.

Q. Who ever had guilt lying on him without being polluted? A. Christ, when our sins were laid on him.

Q^ Who are polluted with sin’s filth, without being bound over to punishment? A. Believers, Rom. viii. 1.

Q. Haw was this separation of sin’s filth and guilt effected? A. Christ and his elect being made one in law, all their guilt was laid over on him, Isa. liii. 4, 5, 6.

Q. For what end was this separation made?

A. For the speedy and full destruction of sin.

Q. How is sin destroyed by this means? A. In order of nature Christ taketh away the guilt of sin by his saticfaction in his own person, and then by his Spirit purgeth away its filth in us, Dan. ix. 24. 1 Cor. vi. 11.

Q. What is the strength of sin A. Though sin,

in respect of its guilt, hath a condemning strength -y yet the strength of sin most properly consists in that mightyforce which our indwelling lusts have to push us on to actual transgressions, notwithstanding great opposition from conscience, and the Spirit, word, and providence of God I

Q. To what issue doth this activity of sin tend?

A. To fix and bring forth more sin, and increase our bondage to it, Rom. vii. Psal. lxxxi. 12.

Q. What is the principal means of the strength of sin?

A. The pure and holy law of God, 1* Cor. xv. 56.

Q. How can the law be the means of sin’s defiling strength? A. Sin is irritated, and occasionally stirred

up by its precepts j but especially its curse fixes sinners under the dominion of sin, as the principal branch of their punishment, Rom. vii, 5, 8, — 13. 1 Cor. xv. 56.