Matthew Henry’s Westminster Shorter Catechism Commentary: 16

Are we concerned in our first parents’ disobedience? Yes: for by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation,

Rom. 5:18

. Were we in their loins when they ate the forbidden fruit? Yes : for Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living,

Gen. 3:20

. Was Adam a common father? Yes: for he was to be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,

Gen. 1:28

. Was he a public person? Yes: for he was the figure of him that was to come,

Rom. 5:14

. Was the covenant made with him, and his posterity? Yes: for God always established his covenant with men, and with their seed after them,

Gen. 9:9

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Was Adam’s sin our ruin then? Yes: for through the offence of one many are dead,

Rom. 5:15

. Was the honour of human nature thereby stained? Yes: for Adam begat a son in his own likeness,

Gen. 5:8

. Was the power of the human nature thereby weakened? Yes: for when we were without strength, Christ died for us,

Rom. 5:6

. Was the purity of it thereby corrupted? Yes: for in us, that is, in our flesh, there dwells no good thing,

Rom. 6:18

. Was Adam himself degenerated? Yes: for God said to him, Dust thou art,

Gen. 3:19

. And are we in like manner degenerated? Yes: for we have all borne the image of the earthy,

1 Cor. 15:49

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Is this degeneracy universal? Yes: for all flesh hath corrupted his way,

Gen. 6:12

. Did our Lord Jesus descend from Adam by ordinary generation? No: for he is the Lord from heaven

1 Cor. 15:47

. Did he then sin in Adam? No: for he is undefiled, separate from sinners,

Heb. 7:26

. Did all the rest of mankind sin in Adam? Yes: for how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

Job 25:4

. Are the ways of the Lord herein equal? Yes: but our ways are unequal,

Ezek. 18:29

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Matthew Henry’s Westminster Shorter Catechism Commentary on Question 16