CHAPTER IV: Creation, Primitive State of Man, and his Fall.

Divine Government and Providence.

1. God exercises a providential care and superintendence over all his creatures, and governs the world in wisdom and mercy, according to the testimony of his Word.

2. God has endowed man with power of free choice, and governs him by moral laws and motives; and this power of free choice is the exact measure of his responsibility.

3. All events are present with God from everlasting to everlasting; but his knowledge of them, does not in any sense cause them, nor does he decree all events which he knows will occur.

Creation, Primitive State of Man, and his Fall.
SECTION I.--CREATION.

1. Of the world. God created the world, and all things that it contains, for his own pleasure and glory, and the enjoyment of his creatures.

2. Of the angels. The angels were created by God to glorify him, and obey his commandments. Those who have kept their first estate he employs in ministering blessings to the heirs of salvation, and in executing his judgments upon the world.

3. Of man. God created man, consisting of a material body and a thinking, rational soul. He was made in the image of God to glorify his Maker.

SECTION II.--PRIMITIl'E STATE OF MAN AND HIS FALL.

Our first parents, in their original state of probation, were upright; they naturally preferred and desired to obey their Creator, and had no preference or desire to transgress his will till they were influenced and inclined by the tempter to disobey God's commands. Previously to this the only tendency of their nature was to do righteousness. In consequence of the first transgression, the state under which the posterity of Adam came into the world is so far different from that of Adam that they have not that righteousness and purity which Adam had before the fall; they are not naturally willing to obey God, but are inclined to evil. Hence, none, by virtue of any natural goodness and mere work of their own, can become the children of God; but they are all dependent for salvation upon the redemption effected through the blood of Christ, and upon being created anew unto obedience through the operation of the Spirit; both of which are freely provided for every descendant of Adam.