An Help for the Ignorant, WSC Question 13
By John Brown of Haddington
QUEST. 13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?
Answ. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.
Q. Did the making of the covenant of works with Adam infallibly secure him in the favour of God?
A. No; it left him in a state of probation.
Q. What mean you by Adam’s estate of probation?
A. His being left to the freedom of his own will, and having it in his own power to lose or gain happiness.
Q. Is any man since the fall properly in a state of probation or trial?
A. No.
Q. How prove you believers are not in such a state of trial?
A. Because their happy estate is infallibly secured in Christ, Romans 8:1. Jude 1.
Q. How then are believers’ good works rewarded?
A. That reward is entirely of free grace, Romans 5.
Q. How prove you that unbelievers are not in it [a state of probation]?
A. Because they have destroyed themselves, and can do nothing for their own relief, Ephesians 2:1.
Q. How then are unbelievers punished for their sin?
A. Because though in our fallen estate sin is our necessary plague, yet we make it the object of our choice and delight, Romans 3:12-15.
Q. What understand you by freedom of will?
A. A power to act or not act, to choose or refuse, without force from any other, Deuteronomy 30:19.
Q. How many kinds of freedom of will are there?
A. Three; freedom only to good, freedom only to evil, and freedom to both good and evil.
Q. Whose will is freely inclined only to good?
A. The will of God is necessarily inclined to good; and the will of holy angels and glorified saints is infallibly determined to good, by the will of God.
Q. Whose will is free only to evil?
A. The will of devils and unregenerate men.
Q. What freedom of will have believers in this world?
A. Their new nature is free only to good, and their old nature only to evil, Romans 7.
Q. Whose will was free both to good and evil?
A. The will of Adam before the fall.
Q. Was Adam’s will then equally inclined to good and evil?
A. No; it was inclined only to good.
Q. How then was his will free to evil?
A. Its inclination to good was not confirmed.
Q. Why might not God have made man by nature immutably good?
A. Because immutable goodness is contrary to the very nature of a creature.
Q. Why might not God have confirmed Adam’s will, that he could not have biassed it to evil?
A. Because that would have been inconsistent with his estate of probation, and the nature of the covenant made with him.
Q. How so?
A. That covenant required, that Adam’s right improvement [proving, confirming] of his original righteousness should be the condition of his confirmation in holiness and happiness, Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:12.
Q. Did God give Adam full ability to keep this covenant?
A. Yes; he made him upright, and wrote his most perfect law in his heart.
Q. How long did God continue this ability with Adam?
A. Until Adam, by abusing the freedom of his will, did forfeit it, Genesis 3:6; Psalm 49:12.
Q. Did God any way influence Adam to abuse the freedom of his will?
A. No, not in the least.
Q. What then is meant by God’s leaving man to the freedom of his own will?
A. His withholding what further grace would have confirmed him in holiness.
Q. How did Adam abuse the freedom of his will?
A. By sinning against God.