TheWayLIBRARY

TheWay Library › An Essay towards an Easy, Plain, Practical, and Extensive Explication of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism › Question 16: Did All Mankind Fall in Adam's First Transgression?

by John Brown of Haddington

Question 16

Did All Mankind Fall in Adam's First Transgression?

Answ. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity 1, all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with hirudin his first transgression.

Q. What was the effect of Adam’s eating the forbidden fruit? A. He fell by it, Horn. v. 12, 19. 1 Cor. v. 22.

Qj, Who fell with him? A. Ail his natural posterity.

Q. Why fell they with him r A. Because they sinned in him in his iirst transgression, Rom. v. 12, — 19.

Q^ How were they in him when they sinned?

A. As their natural parent, and as their covenant-head.

Q. If Adam had stood, would all his natural posterity have stood with him? A. Yes, Rom. v. 12.

Q. Whether would Adam’s obedience, or their own, have founded their “jegal claim to eternal life?

A. Adam’s obedience j and their own obedience to the law as a rule, would have been part of their happiness.

Q. Why did not Christ as man, being a son of Adam, fall with him? A. Christ was none of Adam’s natural

seed, descending from him by ordinary generation, nor represented by him as his covenant-head, Isa. vii. 14.

Q. Wherein did the first Adam and Christ the second Adam agree? A. Both represented men in a cove*

riant with God, Rom. v. 12, — 19. 1 Cor. xv. 22, 45.

Q. Wherein did the first and second Adam dl-fer?

A. In dignity of person, the covenant they pertained to, and number and nature of those whom they represented.

Q. How did they differ in dignity of person?

A. The first Adam was a living soul, a mere man, and fallible creature, but the second Adam is a quickening head, a God-man, eternal, almighty, and unchangeable, 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22, 45, 47.

Q. How do they differ in the covenant to which they pertain?

A. Adam was representative in the covenant of works; but Christ is representative in the covenant of grace.

Q. How do they differ in the number they represented?

A. Adam represented all mere men; Christ represents only elect men, Rom. v. 12, 19.

Q. How do they differ as to the condition of those whom they represented? A. Adam engaged only for

innocent persons •, Christ engaged for dead and guilty sinners, Isa. liii. 6.

Open in the readerAn Essay towards an Easy, Plain, Practical, and Extensive Explication of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism

Restored from a scan of the 1812 edition, with page headers and numbers removed and words rejoined across line breaks. Scan-derived text, still being proofread; compare the original scan before quoting.