An Help for the Ignorant, WSC Question 17
By John Brown of Haddington
Exposition of the Westminster Shorter Catechism
QUEST. 17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
ANSW. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.
Q. Why is man’s apostasy from God called the fall?
A. Because man is debased, bruised, and ruined by it.
Q. From what have all mankind fallen in Adam?
A. From a state of perfect holiness and happiness.
Q. Into what have they fallen?
A. Into an estate of sin and misery, Ephesians 2:1-3; Romans 5:12-19.
Q. Why is man’s fallen condition called an estate of sin and misery?
A. Because sin and misery are bound with him, and he is fixed [set hard] in both, Zechariah 9:11.
Q. How are men fixed in actual sins?
A. The guilt and stain they leave behind them is abiding.
Q. What fixes man in this estate of sin and misery?
A. The threatening of the broken covenant of works, and the nature of sin, Galatians 3:10; Ephesians 2:1.
Q. How does the threatening of the broken covenant of works fix men in an estate of sin and mifery?
A. It engages the justice of God to lay them under the three-fold death threatened in that covenant, Ezekiel 18:4.
Q. How does the nature of sin fix men in that estate?
A. Whereever it reigns, it renders the person altogether incapable of delivering himself, and unwilling to be delivered by another, Romans 8:7; Ephesians 2:1-2.
Q. How is our fallen estate described in scripture?
A. As a state of distance from God, of condemnation, pollution, bondage, darkness, and death, Ephesians 2:12.
Q. Whether is our sin or misery worst?
A. Sin [is worst], for it immediately strikes against God, and is the cause of misery; whereas misery only strikes against sinners.
Q. Is not sin a misery to man, as well as an offence to God?
A. Yes; to be under the reigning power of sin is the greatest misery, Ephesians 2.