gracious desire; and infinite power must be able to destroy all that would impede.

Q. What was the character of man, as he came from the hand of his Creator?

A. It was "very good;" for man was created male and female, in the image of God. (Gen. i. 27, 31.)

Q. Did he continue in that state?

A. He fell by transgressing the law of his Maker. The woman was deceived by the serpent; and her husband willingly and knowingly joined in her offence. (Gen. iii. 6. 1 Tim. ii. 14.)

Q. What followed this transgression?

A. The sin of our first parents was followed by the sentence of God, which was sorrow and death. (Gen. iii. 17. 19.)

Q. What is the effect of the fall on the human race? A. In Adam all die; (1 Cor. xv. 22 ;) and men are by nature children of wrath. (Eph. ii. 3. Institutes b. 2. ch. 1.) Every one who has come to the knowledge of good and evil, knows that he is not only led away by the deceitfulness of sin, but that he often sins against the clearer light of his better judgment. (Rom. vii. 17, 18.)

Q. Does God leave man in this deplorable state, and give him no hope of redemption?

A. By no means, he hath not left himself without evidence of his good will to man, in the gifts of nature; (Acts xiv. 17;) and when our first parents transgressed, he promised that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. (Gen. iii. 15.)

Q. What is the special import of that promise?

A. That the evil which had entered into the world, should be totally destroyed.

Q. Hath that work of deliverance been accom. plished?

A. Christ, the promised seed, (Gal. iii. 16,) took on him our nature, or flesh and blood; and in that nature tasted death for every man ; (Heb. ii. 9;) that through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death; that is, the devil; and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Heb. ii. 14, 15.)

Q. How then is it, that we do not see every man freed from this bondage?

A. Christ hath indeed finished the work given him to do. (John xvii. 4.) When he hung on the cross, and had received the vinegar, he said "it is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. (John xix. 30.) Thus the atoning sacrifice was made, by his giv. ing his flesh for the life of the world. (John vi. 51.) But the effect of this sacrifice is progressive; for it was enjoined on the elders of the church, to take heed unto themselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers-to feed the church of God, which he had purchased with his own blood. (Acts xx. 28.)

Q. Is there further evidence, that the effect of Christ's atoning sacrifice is progressive?

A. There is; for it is written, that Christ gave gifts unto men; some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers: for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come

in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. (Eph. iv. 8. 11, 12.)

Q. What is the work of the ministry?

A. To preach the Gospel to every creature. (Mark xvi. 15.)

Q. What is the Gospel?

A. It is the promise God made to Abraham, and fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

Q. What was that promise?

A. In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; (Gen. xxii. 18;) and this seed is Christ. (Gal. iii. 16.)

Q. What is the blessing thus given?

A. Eternal life; for the record of God is, that he hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son. (1 John v. 11.)

Q. What is the body of Christ?

A. The head of every man is Christ. (1 Cor. xi.

3.) We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. (Eph. v. 30.)

Q. May we not be excusable, even if we should not believe that God hath given us this life in his Son?

A. We are utterly inexcusable: we treat God with indignity, we commit blasphemy, by charging him with falsehood; for he that believeth not God, hath made him a liar. (1 John v. 10.)

Q. What advantage is there enjoyed by the belief of this Gospel?

A. Present peace, and hope of future glory; for we which have believed do enter into rest; (Heb. iv. 3 ;) and though for the believer to live is Christ, (or the

joys of his salvation,) yet to die is gain; (Phil. i. 21;) it is to be with Christ, which is far better. (Phil. i. 23.)

Q. What disadvantage is there to the unbeliever?

A. While a man doubts of his salvation, we think he must fear, and we know that fear hath torment. (1 John iv. 18.) He is condemned already, because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Q. Does God require of us to believe without evidence?

A. Never; he invites us to come and reason with him, and promises, as the result, that though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Is. i. 18.)

Q. On what ground did Jesus condemn the Jews for rejecting him?

A. He appeals to his teaching and miracles, saying: If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin; and if I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. (John xv. 22, 24.)

Q. Will the Jew always remain under the divine displeasure?

A. No; for the blindness under which he now wan. ders is happened, in part, to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved. They are yet beloved for the fathers' sakes. (Rom. xi. 25, 26. 28.)

Q. Is the Gentile an inheritor of the promises made to the Jewish people?

A. He is; for Christ, who is our peace, hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of par. tition, and through him we both have access, by one spirit, unto the Father. (Eph. ii. 13-18.)

Q. Is the Gospel of salvation to be preached to unbelievers?

A. It is; and was so preached at Ephesus; for, after they had heard the word of truth, the Gospel of their salvation, they trusted in Christ. (Eph. i. 13.)

Q. If the object of Christ was, that he might reconcile both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body, by the cross, is not the ultimate result, that all are the saved of the Lord?

A. It is; for on this very account the apostles both laboured and suffered reproach, because they trusted in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. (1 Tim. iv. 10.)

Q. Can God be the Saviour of unbelievers ?

A. He can, and is; for surely the members of the Church of Ephesus were unbelievers before they heard the Gospel of their salvation; but, hearing the good news, and believing it to be true, they then trusted in Christ, even in that Saviour who had purchased them with his blood, when as yet they had no faith in him.

Q. If Christ is the Saviour of them that believe, how can he be the Saviour of all?

A. This text does not contradict itself. If God be the Saviour of all men, he is necessarily my Saviour; and I, believing that he is my Saviour, experience the special salvation as a necessary result of my faith in him as the Saviour of all, I have present peace and