Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC) Q&A #14-19 (1647,1648)

 #14 Question: What is Sin?

        Answer: Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

 #15 Question: What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were first      created?

        Answer: The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created was their eating of the forbidden fruit.

 #16 Question: Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression?

        Answer: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.

#17 Question: Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
        Answer: The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

 #18 Question: Wherein Consists the sinfulness of that estate wherein man fell?

        Answer: The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgression which proceed from it.

 #19 Question: What is the misery whereinto man fell?

        Answer: All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable, to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.