A.A. Hodge on The Fall of Man, I

Commenting on WCF Chapter 6, Archibald Alexander Hodge writes the following,

"It appears to be God's general plan, and one eminently wise and righteous, to introduce all the new-created subjects of moral government into a state of probation for a time, in which he makes their permanent characer and destiny depend upon their own action.  He creates them holy, yet capable of falling.  In this state he subjects them to a moral test for a time.  If they stand the test, the reward is that their moral characters are confirmed and rendered infallible, and they are introduced into an inalienable blessedness for ever.  If they fail, they are judicially excluded from God's favour and communion for ever, and hence morally and eternally dead.  This certainly has been his method of dealing with new-created angels and men.  In the case of mankind the specific test to which our first parents were subjected was their abstaining from eating of the fruit of a single tree.  As this was a matter in itself morally indifferent, it was admirable adapted to be a test of their implicit allegiance to God, of their absolute faith and submission" (emphasis mine). 

 The Westminster Confession of Faith: A Commentary.  A.A. Hodge, pp. 105-106.