NAMELY, The State of INNOCENCE, or Primitive Integrity, in which Man was created. ECCLES. vii. 29. Lo! this only have I found, That GOD hath made Man upright: But they have fought out many Inventions. T HERE are four things very neceffary to be known by all that would fee Heaven: First, What Man was in the state of innocence, as GOD made him. Secondly, What he is in the fate of corrupt nature, as he hath unmade himself. Thirdly, What he must be in the state of grace, as created in Chrift Jefus unto good works, if ever he be made a partaker of the inheritance of the faints in light And, Laftly, What he fhall be in his eternal ftate, as made by the Judge of all, either perfectly happy, or compleatly miserable, and that for ever. Thefe are weighty points, that touch the vitals of practical godlinefs, from which most men, and even many profeffors, in thefe dregs of time, are quite eftranged. I defign therefore, under the divine conduct, to open up these things, and apply them. I begin with the firft of them, namely, The ftate of Innocence: that, beholding man polifhed after the fimilitude of a palace, the ruins may the more affect us; we may the more prize that matchlefs Perfon, whom the Father has appointed the repairer of the breach; and that we may, with fixed refolves, betake ourselves to that way which leadeth to the city that hath unmoveable foundations. In the text we have three things: 1. The state of Innocence wherein man was created, God hath made man upright. By Man here, we are to understand our first Parents; the archetypal pair, the root of mankind, the compendized world, and the fountain from whence all generations have streamed; as may appear by comparing Gen. v. 1, 2. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him, male and female created he them, ana bleffed them, (as the root of mankind,) and called their name Adam. The original words is the fame in our text, in this fenfe, man was made right, (agreeable to the nature of God, whofe work is perfect) without any imperfection, corruption, or principle of corruption in his edy or foul. He was made upright; that is, ftraight with the will and law of God, without any irregularity in his foul. By the fet it C got got in its creation, it directly pointed towards God, as his chief end; which straight inclination was reprefented, as in an emblem, by the erect figure of his body, a figure that no other living creature partakes of. What David was in a gofpel-fenfe, that was he in a legal sense, one according to God's own. heart, altogether righteous, pure and holy. God made him thus: he did not first make him, and then make him righteous; but in the very making of him, he made him righteous.Original righteoufnefs was concreated with him; fo that in the fame moment he was a man, he was a righteous man, morally good; with the fame breath that God breathed in him a living foul, he breathed in him a righteous foul. 2. Here is man's fallen ftate: But they have fought out many inventions. They fell off from their reft in God, and fell upon feeking inventions of their own, to mend their cafe; and they quite marred it. Their ruin was from their own proper motion; they would not abide as God had made them, but they fought out inventions to deform and undo themselves. 3. Obferve here the certainty, and importance of thofe things, Lo! this only have I found, &c. Believe them, they are the refult of a narrow fearch, and a ferious inquiry performed by the wifeft of men. In the two preceeding verfes, Solomon reprefents himself as in quéft of goodnefs in the world, but the iffue of it was he could find no fatisfying iffue of his fearch after it; though it was not for want of pains; for he counted one by one, to find out the account: Behold! this have I found, (faith the Preacher) to wit, That (as the fame word is read in our text) yet my foul feeketh, but I find not. He could make no fatisfying difcovery of it, which might stay his enquiry. He found good men very rare, one, as it were, among a thousand; good women more rare, not one good among his thousand wives and concubines, 1 Kings xi. 3. But could that fatisfy the grand query, Where shall Wifdom be found? No, it could not; (and if the experience of others in this point, run contrary to Solomon's, as 'tis no reflection on his difcerning. it can as little decide the queftion, which will remain undetermined till the laft day.) But, amidst all this uncertainty, there is one point found out, and fixed : This have I found. Ye may depend upon it as most certain truth, and be fully fatisfied in it: Lo this! fix your eyes upon it, as a matter worthy of moft deep and ferious regard; to wit, That man's nature is now depraved, but that depravation was not from God, for He made man upright; but from themfelves, They have fought out many inventions. THIS HIS is that ftate of innocence in which God fet man down in the world. "Tis defcribed in the holy Scriptures with a running pen, in comparison of the following ftates; for it was of no continuance, but paffed as a flying fhadow, by man's abufing the freedom of his own will. I fhall, First, First, Inquire into the Righteoufnefs of this State wherein man was created. Secondly, Lay before you fome of the happy concomitants, and confequents thereof. Laftly, Apply the whole. Of MAN'S Original Righteousness. FIRST, AS to the righteoufnefs of this ftate, confider, that as uncreated righteoufnefs, the righteousness of God is the fupreme rule; fo all created righteoufnefs, whether of men or angels, hath refpect to a law as its rule, and is a conformity thereunto A creature can no more be morally independent on God, in it's actions and powers, than it can be naturally independent on him. A creature, as a creature, must acknowledge the Creator's will as it's fupreme law; for as it cannot be without him, fo it must not be but for him, and according to his will: yet no law obliges, until it be revealed. And hence it follows, that there was a iaw which man, as a rational creature, was fubjected to in his creation; and that this law was revealed to him. God made man upright, fays the text.. This prefuppofeth a law to which he was conformed in his creation; as when any thing is made regular, or according to rule, of neceffity the rule itself is prefuppofed. Whence we may gather, that this law was no other than the eternal, indifpenfible law of righteoufnefs, obferved in all points by the second Adam, oppofed by the carnal mind, fome notions of which remain yet among the Pagans, who, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, Rom. ii. 15. In a word, this law is the very fame which was afterwards fummed up in the Ten Commandments, and promulgate on Mount Sinai to the Ifraelites, called by us the Moral Law and man's righteoufnefs confifted in conformity to this law or rule. More particularly, there is a two-fold conformity required of a man; a conformity of the powers of his foul to the law, which you may call habitual righteoufnefs; and a conformity of all his actions to it, which is actual righteoufnels. Now, God made man habitually righteous; man was to make himself actually righteous: the former was the ftock God put into his hand; the latter, the improvement he fhould have made of it. The fum of what I have faid, is, that he righteoufness wherein man was created, was the conformity of all the faculties and powers of his foul to the moral law. This is what we call original righteoufnefs, which man was originally endued with. We may take it up in these three things. FIRST, Man's understanding was a lamp of light. He had perfect knowledge of the law, and of his duty accordingly: he was made after God's image, and confequently could not want knowledge, which is a part thereof, Col. iii. 10. The new Man is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him. And indeed this was neceflary, to fit him for univerfal obedience, feeing no obedience can be according to the law, unless it proceed from a fenfe of the commandment of God requiring it. 'Tis true, Adam had not the : C 2 law law written upon tables of ftone, but it was written upon his mind, the knowledge thereof being concreated with him. God impreffed it upon his foul, and made him a law to himself, as the remains of it among the heathens do teftify, Rom. ii. 14, 15. And feeing man was made to be the mouth of the creation, to glorify God in his works; we have ground to believe he had naturally an exquifite knowledge of the works of God. We have a proof of this, in his giving names to the beafts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and thefe fuch as exprefs their nature: What foever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof, Gen ii. 19. And the dominion which God gave him over the creatures, foberly to use and difpofe of them according to his will still in fubordination to the will of God) feems to require no lefs than a knowledge of their natures. And befides all this, his perfect knowledge of the law, proves his knowledge in, the management of civil affairs, which, in refpect of the law of God, a good man will guide with difcretion, Pfal. cxii. 5. : SECONDLY, His will lay ftraight with the will of God, Eph. iv. 24. There was no corruption in his will, no bent nor inclination to evil; for that is fin properly and truly fo called: hence the apostle fays, Rom. vii. 7. I had not known fin, but by the law; for I had not known luft, except the law had faid, Thou shalt not covet. An inclination to evil, is really a fountain of fin, and therefore inconfiftent with that rectitude and uprightness which the text exprefly fays he was endued with at his creation. The will of man then was directed, and naturally inclined to God and goodness, tho' mutably. It was dif pofed, by its original make, to follow the Creator's will, as the fhadow does the body; and was not left in an equal ballance' to good and evil for at that rate he had not been upright, nor habitually conform to the law, which in no moment can allow the creature not to be inclined towards God as his chief end, more than it can allow man to be a god to himself. The law was impreffed upon Adam's foul: now this according to the new covenant, by which the image of God is repaired, confifts in two things: 1. Putting the law into the mind, denoting the knowledge of it: 2. Writing it in the heart, denoting inclinations in the will, anfwerable to the commands of the law, Heb. viii. 10. So that, as the will, when we confider it as renewed by grace, is by that grace natively inclined to the fame holinefs in all it's parts which the law requires; fo was the will of man (when we confider him as God made him at firft) endued with natural inclinations to every thing commanded by the law. For if the regenerate are partakers of the divine nature, as undoubtedly they are, for fo fays the Scripture, 2 Pet. i. 4. And if this divine nature can import no less than inclinations of the heart to holiness; then, furely Adam's will could not want this inclination; for in him the image of God was perfect. It is true, 'tis faid, Rom. ii. 14, 15. That the Gentiles fhew the work of the law written in their hearts: but this denotes only their knowledge of that law, fuch as it is; but the Apostle ! Apoftle to the Hebrews, in the text cited, takes the word heart, in another fenfe, distinguishing is plainly from the mind. And it muft be granted, that, when God promifeth in the new covenant, to write his law in the hearts of his people, it imports quite another thing than what Heathens have; for tho' they have notions of it in their minds, yet their hearts go another way; their will has got a fet and a biafs quite contrary to that law; and therefore, the expreffion fuitable to the prefent purpose, muft needs import, befides thefe notions of the mind, inclinations of the will going along therewith; which inclinations, tho' mixed with corruption in the regenerate, were pure and unmixed in upright Adam. In a word, as Adam knew his Master's pleafure in the matter of duty, fo his will flood inclined to what he knew. THIRDLY, His affections were orderly, pure and holy; which is a neceffary part of that uprightnefs wherein man was created. The Apostle has a petition, a Theff iii. 5. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God: that is, The Lord flraighten your hearts, or make them ly ftraight to the love of God, and our text tells us, man was thus made ftraight. The new man is created in righteousness and true bolinefs, Eph. iv. 24. Now this holiness as it is diftinguished from rightecufnefs, may import the purity and orderliness of the affections. And thus the Apoftle, 1 Tim. ii. 8. will have men to pray, Lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting: because, as troubled water is unfit to receive the image of the fun; fo the heart, filled with impure and diforderly affections, is not fit for divine communications. Map's fenfitive appetite was indeed naturally carried out towards objects grateful to the fenfes. For feeing man was made up of body and foul, and God made this man to glorify and enjoy him; and for this end to use his good creatures in fubordination to himself: it is plain that man was naturally inclined both to fpiritual and fenfible good; yet to fpiritual good, the chief good as his ultimate end. And there-fore his fenfitive motions and inclinations, were fubordinate to his reafon and will, which lay ftraight with the will of God, and were not, in the leaft, contrary to the fame. Otherwise he should have been made up of contradictions; his foul being naturally inclined to God as the chief end, in the fuperior part thereof, and the fame foul inclined to the creature as the chief end in the inferior part thereof, as they call it which is impoffible; for man, at the fame inftant, cannot have two chief ends. Man's affections then, in his primitive ftate, were pure from all defilement, free from all diforder and diftemper, because in all their motions they were duly fubjected to his clear reafon, and his holy will. He had alfo an executive power anfwerable to his will; a power to do the good which he knew thould be done, and which he inclined to do, even to fulfil the whole law of God. If it had not been fo, God would not have required of him perfect obedience; for to fay that the Lord gathereth where he hath not strawed, is but the blafphemy of a wicked heart, against a good and bountiful God, Mat. xxv. 24. From |