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Q. 17. How is his manifold wisdom difplayed in this work?

A. In the vast variety of creatures, great and finall, which he has made; the order and harmony of them all; and their fubferviency one to another, Pfalm civ. 24.

Q. 18. Why is it faid that he made all things [very good:]

A. Because God, upon a furvey of his works, declared them to be fo, Gen. i. 31. God faw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

Q19. Wherein confits the goodness of the creatures of God?

A. In the perfection of their nature, their being fit to anfwer the end of their creation; and their usefulness to man, being both profitable and pleafant to him.

Q 20. Are not many creatures hurtful unto man?

A. They were not fo at their firft creation, and while man continued in his allegiance to God: but through his finning against God, he has brought a curfe on himself, and the whole creation, Gen. iii. 17. Curfed is the ground for thy fake.

Q. 21. Is not God faid to create evil, Ifa. xlv. 7. ? A. Not the evil of fin: but of punishment, as a just judge, Rom. iii. 5, 6. Amos iii, 6.

Q 22. How then came fin and death into the world? A. Man is the parent of fin, and fin opened the door to death: By one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin, Rom. v. 12.

223. Upon what day did God reft from creating the 'world?

A Upon the feventh day, Gen. ii. 2, 3. ; which was therefore appointed to be the weekly Sabbath, till the refurrection of Christ.

Q 24. Doth this refting, on the feventh day, fay that he was weary with working?

A. No the everlafting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, lfa, xl 28.

Q:25. What then is meant by his refting?

A. It is fpoken after the manner of men ; and the meaning is, that God ceafed to create any other forts of creatures, than he had already made.

Q. 26. Is not the fame power that created all things exerted in fuftaining them in their being?

A. Yes; for he, by whom the worlds were made, is faid to uphold all things by the word of his power, Heb. i, 2, 3. 227 Do not the feriptures fpeak of a new creation, as well as of the old?

A. Yes, the Spirit of God, in feripture, fpeaks of a new world of grace, under the name of new heavens and a new earth, Ifa. Ixvi. 22. Rev. xxi 1.

28. What is to be understood by this new creation,

or new world of grace?

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A. The true church of Chrift, particularly under the New Teftament, not excluding the church triumphant in heaven.

Q. 29. By whom is this new world created?

A. By the fame God that made the old world; Behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth, lía.lxv. 17.

Q30. Who are the inhabitants of this new world? A. They are all new creatures, taken out of the old world, 2 Cor. v. 17.

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Q: 31. How came they out of this material, into that fpiritual world?

A. By the new birth: for, except a man be born again, he cannot enter into it, John iii. 3.; flesh and blood, or corrupted nature, continuing fuch, cannot inherit it, I Cor. xv. 50.

32. Is there any difference of nations, fexes, or perfons in this new world?

A. No; for there is neither Greek nor Jews, circumcifion nor uncircumcifion, Barbarian, Scythian, bond' nor free; but Chrift is all, and in all, Col, iii. 1.

Q33. By what door do men enter into this new world of grace?

A. Chrift fays, I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he fhall be faved, and fhall go in and out, and find pafture, John x. 9; and chap. xiv, 6. I am the way,-!!0 man cometh unto the Father but by me.

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34. Wherein lies the happiness of the inhabitants of this new world of grace!

A. None fo happy as they, because they dwell in God, and God dwells in them as in a temple, 1 Cor. iii. 16. ; and walks in them as in his garden of pleasure, 2 Cor. vi. 16. and, at death, they are transported by the ministry of angels, to the world of glory above, Luke xvi. 22.

Q. 35. What may we learn from the doctrine of the creation?

A. That we ought to contemplate God in all his creatures, Pfalm xix. I.; acknowledge him as the rightful proprietor and fovereign difpofer of them all, Chron. xxix. 11.; and believe that the fame almighty power of God, which was put forth in creating of all things, fhall be exerted in defence and fupport of his church and people, in the time of their need, Ffalm cxxi. 2.

10. QUEST. How did God create man?

ANSW. God created man, male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteoufnefs, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

Q. 1. Upon which day of creation was [man] made? A. Upon the fixth day, Gen. i. 26. and 31. compared. Q. 2. Why was the creation of man delayed, or put off, to the fixth day?

A. To difcover the great regard God had to man's hap. piness and welfare, in that he would firft plenish the great houfe of the creation for him, before he brought him into it, Pfalm viii. 6, 7, 8.

Q3. Was there any more folemnity obferved in the creation of man, than in making the rest of the creatures? A. Yes: for, as to the rest of the creatures, he just commanded them into being; but when man is to be created, a counsel of the Trinity is held about his forma tion, Gen. i, 26. Let us make man.

Q4. Why fo much folemnity about man's formation beyond other creatures ?

A. Because man was to be God's viceroy in this lower world, the only image of his Creator in his formal perfections; and it was the purpose of God, though not then revealed, that the second perfon of the Godhead was to be

come man.

Q. 5. What is it that constitutes the human nature, or nature of man?

4 A. A true body and a reasonable foul united together, Q6. Whereof was the body of man formed?

A. Of the duft of the ground, Gen, ii, 7.: hence, God is refembled unto a potter, and man unto the clay, and a potherd, Ifa. Ixiv. 8. and xlv. 9.

Q7 What thould this teach us?

A To remember we are duft. Eccl. iii. zc.; to admire the condefcenfion of the Son of God in coming into our tribe, and affuming a human body, I Tim. ii. 16; to confider that we are in God's hand, as the clay is in the band of the potter Jer. xviii. 6.; and that, in this our fallen ftate, we are to return to the dust again, Gen. iii. 19

Q8. How was the first woman formed?

A. Of a rib taken from the man's fide Gen. ii. 21, 22. Q.9 Whercot was this a figure?

A. Of Chrift and the church. Eph. v. 31, 3 2.

Qin what refpect was the formation of the woman a figure of thofe ?

A. In as much as the church was, as it were, taken out of the pierced fide of Chrift, when the Lord God caufed the deep fleep of death to fall upon him: first, typically, in the facrifices; and then actually, in his decease which he accomplished at Jerufalem.

Q. Why was marriage inftituted of God before the fall?

A. To fhew that it belongs to the law of nature; and that mankind, as fuch, have a title thereunto, Heb. xiii. 4. Marriage is honourable in all.

Q. 12. What is the other part of man's nature?

A. A reasonable foul

Q 13. How was the foul of man made?

A. God breathed into his noftrils the breath of life, and ke became a living foul, Gen. ii. 7. :

Q. 14. Why is the creation of the foul of man thus expreffed?

A. To fhew, that as the Lord is the God of the Spirits of all flefh, Num. xxvii. 16. who creates them immediately, and by himself, without the intervention of fecond caufes, Zech xi : fo he has an abfolute dominion over them, and can call them back to himself when he pleases, Lcci.

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Q15. Wherein doth the foul of man differ from the body?

A. The body is a corporeal, but the foul is a spiritual and immaterial fubftance.

2. 16. Wherein doth the foul of man differ from the fpirit or life of a beaft?

A. The spirit or life of a beaft goeth downward to the earth, and perifheth at its death, Eccl iii 21.; but the foul of man, being rational and immortal, returns to God who gave it, Eccl. xii. 7.

Q. 17. How do you prove the immortality of the foul of man?

4. (1.) From the great price paid for the redemption of the foul, which had ceased for ever, without a ransom of infinite value, Pfal. xlix. 8. (2.) From the promises of eternal life, and the threatenings of eternal death, Mark xvi. 16 (3.) Chrift tells us, that they who kill the body cannot kill the foul, Mat. x. 28. (4) Chrift, and his dying faints, commit their fpirits, or fouls, into the hand of God, Pfalm xxxi 5 Luke xxiii. 46. Acts vii 59.; and the foul of the thief went to paradife, with the foul of Christ, that day they died, Luke xxiii. 43. In a word, if the foul perifhed with the body, the faints of God would be of all men the most miserable, 1 Cor. xv. 19,

Q. 18. What should this teach us?

A. To be more concerned for the falvation of our fouls than for all things in the world; For, fays Christ, what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own foul? Mat. xvi 26.

19. Why did God create man [male and female] ? A. For the propagation of mankind, Gen. i. 28.; and mutual helpfulness to each other, chap. ii. 18.

Q. 20. Why were both the man and the woman called Adam, Gen, v. 2. ?

A. To intimate that their original was of the earth; that they were both of the fame nature; that the promises and threatenings concerned them both equally, Rom. v. 12, ; and to teach us, that notwithstanding hereof, the man was the reprefenting head of the covenant, 1 Cor. xv. 22. Q21. After whose image did God create man ? A. After his own image]. Gen. i. 26, 27.

Q22. Did this image of God lie in any outward shape of man's body?

A. By no means: for God is a pure Spirit, without all bodily parts, John iv. 24.

223. What then was the proper feat thereof?

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