been fuch a Covenant. God was free to have difpofed of his creature as he faw meet and if he had stood in his integrity as long as the world fhould ftand, and there had been no Covenant promifing eternal life to him upon his obedience: God might. have withdrawn his fupporting hand at laft, and fo made him creep back into the womb of nothing, whence almighty power had drawn him out: And what wrong could there have been in this, while God fhould have taken back what he freely gave But now the covenant being made, God becomes debtor to his own faithfulness: if man will work, he may crave the reward on the ground of the Covenant: Well might the Angels then, upon his being raised to his dignity, have given him that falutation, Hail thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee.. Thirdly. God made him lord of the world, prince of the inferior creature, univerfal lord and emperor of the whole earth His Creator gave him dominion over the fish of the fea, and over. the fowls of the air, over all the earth, yea, and every living thing that liveth upon the earth: "He put all things under his feet," Pfal. viii. 6, 7, 8. He gave him a power foberly to use and difpofe of the creatures in the earth, ica, and air. Thus man was God's depute governor in the lower world; and this his dominion was an image of God's fovereignty. This was common to the man and the woman; but the man had one thing peculiar to him, to wit, that he had dominion over the woman alfo, I Cor. xi. 7. Behold how the creatures came to him, to own their fubjection, and to do him homage as their lord; and quietly stood before him, till he put names on them as his own, Gen..19. Man's face ftruck an awe upon them; the ftouteft creatures flood aftonished, tamely and quietly adoring him as their lord and ruler. Thus was man crowned with glory and honour," Pfalm. viii. 5. The Lord dealt moft liberally and bountifully with him, “ put all things under his feet;" only he kept one thing, one tree in the garden, cut of his hands, even the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Bu you may fay, And did he grudge him this? I answer, Nay; but when he had made him thus holy and happy, he graciously gave him this reftriction, which was in its own nature, a prop and stay to keep him from falling. And this I fay upon these three grou ds. (1.) As it was most proper for the honour of God, who had made man lord of the lower world, to affert Lis fovereign dominion over all, by fome particular vifible figa; fo it was moft proper for man's fatety. Man being fet down in a beautiful paradife, it was ao act of infinite wifdom, aud of grace too, to keep from him one fingle tree, as a visible tellimony that

he muft hold all of his Creator, as his great Landlord: that fo while he faw himfelf lord of the creature, he might not forget that he was ftill God's fubject. (2.) This was a memorial of his mutable state, given in to him from Heaven, to be laid up by him for his great caution: For man was created with a free will to good, which the Tree of Life was an evidence of: but his will was alfo free to evil, and the Forbidden Tree was to him a memorial thereof. It was in a manner, a continual watch-word to him against evil, a beacon fet up before him, to bid him beware of dafhing himself to pieces, on the rock of fin. (3) God. made man upright, directed towards God as the chief end. He fet him like Mofes, on the top of the hill, holding up his hands to heavens and as Aaron and Hur ftayed up Mofes's hands, Exod. xv. 10, 11, 12. fo God gave man an erect figure of body, and forbid him the eating of this tree; to keep him in that pof. ture of uprightnefs, wherein he was created. God made the beafts looking down towards the earth, to fhew that their fatisfaction might be brought from thence; and accordingly it does. afford them what is commenfurable to their appetite: but the erea figure of man's body, which looketh upward, fhewed him that his happiness lay above him in God; and that he was to expect it from heaven, and not from earth: Now this fair Tree, of which he was forbidden to eat, taught him the fame leffon; that his happiness lay not in enjoyment of the creatures, for there was a want even in Paradife: fo that the forbidden tree was in effect the hand of all creatures, pointing man away from themfelves to God for happiness; It was a fign of emptinefs hung before the door of the creation, with that infcription; This is not your reft.

Fourthly. As he had a perfect tranquillity within his own. breath, fo he had a perfect calm without; his heart had nothing to reproach him with; confcience then bad nothing to do, but to direct, approve and feast him; and without, there was nothing to annoy him; The happy pair lived in perfect amity; and tho their knowledge was vaft, true and clear, they knew no shame; Tho' they were naked, there were no blufhes in their faces; for fin, the feed of fhame, was not yet fown, Gen. ii. 25. and their beautiful bodies were not capable of injuries from the air; fo they had no need of cloaths, which are originally the badges of our fhame; They were liable to no difeafes, nor pains; and tho' they were not to live idle; yet toil, wearinefs, and fweat of the brows, were not known in this ftate.

Fifthly. Man had a life of pure delight, and undreggy pleafure in this ftate; Rivers of pure pleasures run through it: The arth with the product thereof, was now in its glory; nothing

had

God fet

had yet come in to mar the beauty of the creatures. him down, not in a common place of the earth, but in Eden, a place eminent for pleafantnefs, as the name of it imports; nay, not only in Eden, but in the garden of Eden; the most pleafant fpot of that pleafant place: a garden planted by God himself, to be the manfion-house of this his favourite: As, when God made the other living creatures, he faid, "Let the water bring forth the moving creature," Gen. i. 20. And, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature," ver, 24. But when man was to be made, he faid, "Let us make man," ver, 26. So, when the rest of the earth was to be furnished with herbs and trees, God faid,, " Let the earth bring forth grafs, and the fruittree," &c. Gen. i. 11. But of Paradife it is faid, God planted it, chap. ii. 8. which cannot but denote a fingular excellency in that garden, beyond all other parts of the then beautiful earth a There he wanted neither for neceffity nor delight; for there vas, every tree that is pleasant to the fight, and good for food," ver. 9. He knew not thefe delights which luxury has invented for the gratifying of lufts; but his delights were fuch as came out of the hand of God, without paffing thro finful hands, which readily leave marks of impurity on what they touch: So his delights were pure, his pleasures refined: And yet may I fhew you a more excellent way; wildom had entered into his heart: Surely then knowledge was pleasant unto his foul. What delight do fome find in their difcoveries of the works of nature, by the fcraps of knowledge they have gathered! but how much more exquifite pleasure had Adam, while his piercing eyes read the book of God's works; which God laid before him, to the end he might glorify him in the fame; and therefore he had furely fitted him for the work! but above all, his knowledge of God, and that as his God, and the communion he had with him, could not but afford him the most refined and exquifite pleasure in the innerinoft receffes of his heart. Great is that delight which the faints find in these views of the glory of God, that their fouls are fometimes let into, while they are compaffed about with many infirmities; but much more may well be allowed to finlefs Adam; no doubt he relished thefe pleasures at another rate.

Laftly, He was immortal: He would never have died, if he had not finned; it was in cafe of fin that death was threatened, Gen. ii. 17. which fhews it to be the confequent of fin, and not of the finlefs human nature; The perfect constitution of his body, which came out of God's hand very good; and the righte

C 3

oufnefs

.

oufnefs and holiness of his foul, removed all inward caufes of death; nothing being prepared for the grave's devouring_mouth but the vile body, Philip. iii. 21. and "those who have finned," Job. xxiv. 19. And God's fpecial care of his innocent creature, fecured him against outward violence. The Apoftle's teftimony is exprefs, Rom. v. 12. "By one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin.” Behold the door by which death came in! Satan wrought with his fies, till he got it opened, and fo death entered; and therefore is he faid to have been "a murderer from the beginning," Jahn viii. 44.

Thus have I fhown you the holiness and happiness of man in this ftate. If any fhall fay, What's all this to us, who never tafted of that holy and happy ftate? They must know it nearly concerns us, in fo far as Adam was the root of all mankind, our common head and reprefentative; who received from God our inheritance and flock to keep it for himself and his children, and to convey it to them; The Lord put all mankind's stock (as it were) in one ship; and, as we ourfelves fhould have done, he made our common father the pilot. He put a bleffing in the root, to have been, if rightly managed, diffufed into all the branches; According to our text, making Adam upright, he made man upright; and all mankind bad that uprightness in him; for, if the root be holy, fo are the branches;" But more of this afterwards; Had Adam ftood, none would have quarrelled the representation.

Ufe 1. For Information. This fhews us, (1.) That not God, but man himself was the cause of his ruin: God made. him upright; his Creator fet him up, but he threw himself down Was the Lord's directing and inclining him to good, the reafon of his woful choice? Or did Heaven deal fo.fparingly with him, that his preffing wants fent him to hell to feek fupply? Nay, man was, and is, the caufe of his own ruin. (2.) God may moft juftly require of men perfect obedience to his law, and condemn them for their not obeying it perfectly, tho' now they have no ability to keep it: In fo doing, he gathers but where he has firewed: He gave man ability to keep the whole law: Man has loft it by his own fault; but his fin could never take away that right which God hath to exact perfect obedience of his creature, and to punish in cafe of difobedience. (3) Behold here the infinite obligation we ly under to Jefus Chrift, the fecond Adam, who with his own preious blood has bought our efcheat, and freely makes offer of it

again to us, Hof. xiii. 9. and that with the advantage of everlafting fecurity, that it can never be altogether loft any more. John x. 28, 29. Free grace will fix thofe, whom free will hook down into a gulf of nifery.

USE II. This reacheth a reproof to three forts of perfons. (1.) To thofe who hate religion in the power of it, where-ever it appears; and can take pleasure in nothing but in the world and their lufts. Surely thofe men are far from righteousness; they are haters of God, Rom. i. 30. for they are haters of his image. Upright Adam in Paradife, would have been a great. eye-fore to all fuch perfons, as he was to the Serpent. whofe. feed they prove themselves to be, by their malignity. (2.) It reproves those who put religion to fhame, and those who are afhamed of religion, before a gracelefs world. There is a generation who make fo bold with the God that made them, and can in a moment crush them, that they ridicule piety, and make a mock of ferioufnefs. " Against whom do ye fport yourselves? Against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue?" Ifa. lvii. 4. Is it not against God himself whofe image, in fome measure repaired on fome of his creatures, makes them fools in your eyes? Be not mockers, left your "bands be made ftrong," Ifa. xxviii. 22. Holiness was s the glory God put on man, when he made him; but now fons of men turn that glory into fhame, because they themselves glory in their shame. There are others that fecretly approve of religion, and in religious company will profefs it; who, at other times, to be neighbour-like, are ashamed to own it! fo weak are they, that they are blown over with the wind of the wicked's mouth. A broad laughter, an impious jeft, a filly gibe out of a prophane mouth, is to many an unanswerable argument against religion and ferioufnefs; for, in the caufe of religion, they are as filly doves without heart." O that fuch would confider that weighty word, Mark viii. 38. Whofoever, therefore, will be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and finful generation; of him alfo fhall the Son of man be afhamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels." (3.) It reproves the proud felf-conceited profeffor, who admires himself in a garment he hath patched together of rags. There are many, who, when once they have gathered fome fcraps of knowledge of religion, and have attained to fome reformation of life, do fwell big with conceit of themselves; a fad fign that the effects of the fall ly fo heavy upon them, that they have not as yet come to themselves.

Luke