An Help for the Ignorant, WSC Question 15
By John Brown of Haddington
QUEST. 15. What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
ANSW. The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.
Q. What was the cause of Adam’s abusing his freedom of will?
A. The temptation of Satan.
Q. Whom call you Satan?
A. The prince of the fallen angels or devils, Matthew 25:41.
Q. When did Satan tempt our first parents?
A. Soon after they were created, and perhaps that same day.
Q. Why did the devil tempt them so soon?
A. He is full of malice, set upon mischief, and will lose no opportunities of committing it, 1 Peter 5:8; Job 1 & 2.
Q. What moved Satan to tempt man?
A. His enmity against God, and envy at man’s happiness.
Q. Whether did he first tempt the man or the woman?
A. The woman, in her husband’s absence, Genesis 3:2.
Q. Why so?
A. Because she was the weaker vessel.
Q. By what instrument did Satan tempt the woman?
A. By a serpent, Genesis 3:1.
Q. Why made he use of a serpent as his instrument?
A. Because the serpent being naturally subtile, and perhaps beautiful, the woman might not suspect anything uncommon in its speech.
Q. To what did Satan tempt our first parents?
A. To eat of the forbidden fruit, Genesis 3.
Q. How did he tempt them to eat of this fruit?
A. He suggested there was reason to question God’s command; and promised safety and advantage in eating it, Genesis 3.
Q. What advantage did he promise to them in eating this fruit?
A. He said they should be as gods, knowing good and evil, Genesis 3:5.
Q. How did he confirm this false promise of advantage?
A. By declaring that God knew the truth of what he said, Genesis 3:5.
Q. What success had the devil in this temptation?
A. The woman coveted, took, and ate of this fruit; and gave to her husband also, and he did eat, Genesis 3:6.
Q. Was the eating of this fruit agreat sin?
A. Yes; for it broke all the commands of God, and was attended with many grievous aggravations.
Q. How did our first parents eating the forbidden fruit break the first command?
A. By unthankfulness, and unbelief, in distrusting and discrediting God, and believing the devil; by making a god of their belly; and by pride, in seeking to render themselves as wise as God.
Q. How did it break the second command?
A. God’s ordinance of abstaining from that fruit was not observed, and kept pure and entire.
Q. How did it break the third command?
A. God’s attributes were hereby profaned; his truth called a liar, his majesty and holiness affronted, his power and justice contemned, and Satan’s profane appeal to him approved of.
Q. How did this sin break the fourth command?
A. It corrupted all the powers of their nature, and rendered them incapable to keep holy the Sabbath.
Q. How did this sin break the fifth command?
A. The wife tempted her husband to sin, and he, by yielding, encouraged her in wickedness; both rebelled against their only parent God, and squandered away the eternal happiness of their children intrusted to them.
Q. How did the eating of this fruit break the sixth command?
A. Hereby our first parents murdered themselves and all their posterity, soul and body.
Q. How did it break the seventh command?
A. The luxurious desire of this fruit begot in our first parents every unclean lust.
Q. How did it break the eighth command?
A. It was a sacrilegious theft and robbery of what was the sole property of God, Genesis 3:11.
Q. How did it break the ninth command?
A. Their eating this fruit, to render themselves happy, falsely witnessed that God envied their happiness; and brought the infamous character of covenant-breakers upon themselves and all their pofterity.
Q. How did it break the tenth command?
A. They were discontent with their lot, and coveted what God had denied to them, Genesis 2:6, 11.
Q. How was this sin of eating the forbidden fruit highly aggravated?
A. It was committed upon a small temptation; by man lately [recently] made after the image of God, and endued with sufficient strength to resist temptations, expressly warned to avoid this sin, and honourably admitted into covenant with God; and in Paradise, where he had great abundance of pleasant fruits, and other delights, Genesis 1, 2 & 3.
Q. Wherein did man’s first sin begin?
A. In Eve’s listening to Satan as a teacher.
Q. What should this teach us?
A. To resist the first motions of lusts and temptations; and to go out a gainst them only in the strength of Christ, Ephesians 6.
Q. Did this sin of eating the forbidden fruit deserve the temporal, spiritual, and eternal death of Adam, and all his natural seed?
A. Yes; being infinitely evil, it well deserved infinite punishment, Romans 4:23.
Q. What makes sin infinitely evil?
A. Its being committed against an infinitely great and holy God.