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Landlord; that so while he saw himself lord of the creatures, he might not forget that he was still God's subject. (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 also 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 set up before him, to bid him beware of dashing himself to pieces, on the rock of sin. (3.) God made man upright, directed towards God, as the chief end. He set him, like Moses, on the top of the hill, holding up his hands to heaven; and as Aaron and Hur stayed up Moses' hand, (Exod. xvii. 10, 11, 12.) so God gave man an erect figure of body, and forbid him the eating of this tree, to keep him in that posture of uprightness wherein he was created. God made the beasts looking down towards the earth, to shew that their satisfaction might be brought from thence; and accordingly, it does afford them what is commensurable to their appetite: But the erect figure of man's body, which looketh upward, shewed 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 same lesson; that his happiness lay not in enjoyment of the creatures, for there was a want even in Paradise: So that the forbidden tree was, in effect, the hand of all the creatures, pointing man away from themselves to God for happiness. It was a sign of emptiness hung before the door of the creation, with that inscription, This is not your rest.

Fourthly, As he had a perfect tranquillity within his own breast, so he had a perfect calm without. His heart had nothing to reproach him with; conscience then had 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 though their knowledge was vast, true, and clear, they knew no shame. Though they were naked, there were no blushes in their faces; for sin, the seed of shame, was not yet sown, (Gen. ii. 25.) and their beautiful bodies were not capable of injuries from the air; so they had no need of clothes, which are origi

nally the badges of our shame. They were liable to no diseases, nor pains: And though they were not to live idle, yet toil, weariness, and sweat of the brows, were not known in this state.

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Fifthly, Man had a life of pure delight, and undreggy pleasure in this state. Rivers of pure pleasures run through it. The earth, with the product thereof, was now in its glory; nothing had yet come in, to mar the beauty of the creatures. God set him down, not in a common place of the earth, but in Eden: a place eminent for pleasantness, as the name of it imports: Nay, not only in Eden, but in the garden of Eden: the most pleasant spot of that pleasant place; a garden planted by God himself, to be the mansion house of this his favourite. As, when God made the other living creatures, he said, "Let the water bring forth the moving creature," Gen. i. 20. And, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature," ver. 24. when man was to be made, he said, "Let us make man,' ver. 26. So, when the rest of the earth was to be furnished with herbs and trees, God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass and the fruit tree," &c. Gen. i. 11. But of Paradise it is said, God planted it, chap. ii. 8. which cannot but denote a singular excellency in that garden, beyond all other parts of the then beautiful earth. There he wanted neither for necessity nor delight: For there was « every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food," ver. 9. He knew not these delights which luxury has invented for the gratifying of lusts: But his delights were such as came out of the hand of God: without passing through sinful hands, which readily leave marks of impurity on what they touch. So his delights were pure, his pleasures refined. And yet may I shew you a more excellent way, Wisdom had entered into his heart: Surely then knowledge was pleasant unto his soul! What delight do some find in their discoveries of the works of nature, by the scraps of knowledge they have gathered! But how much more exquisite 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 same! And therefore he had surely 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 exquisite pleasure in the innermost recesses of his heart. Great is that delight which the saints find in these views of the glory of God, that their souls are sometimes let into, while they are compassed about with many infirmities! But much more may well be allowed to sinless Adam! No doubt he relished these pleasures at another rate.

Lastly, He was immortal. He would never have died, if he had not sinned; it was in case of sin that death was threatened, Gen. ii. 17. Which shews it to be the consequent of sin, and not of the sinless human nature. The perfect constitution of his body, which came out of God's hand very good; and the righteousness and holiness of his soul, removed all inward causes of death; nothing being prepared for the grave's devouring mouth, but the vile body, Philip. iii. 21. and those who have sinned, Job xxiv. 19. And God's special care of his innocent creature secured him against outward violence. The apostle's testimony is express, Rom. v. 12. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." Behold the door by which death came in! Satan wrought with his lies till he got it opened, and so death entered; and therefore is he said to have been "a murderer from the beginning," John viii. 44.

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Thus have I shewn you the holiness and happiness of man in this state. If any say, What's all this to us, who never tasted of that holy and happy state? They must know it nearly concerns us, in so far as Adam was the root of all mankind, our common head and representative; who received from God our inheritance and stock to keep it for himself and his children, and convey it to them. Lord put all mankind's stock (as it were) in one ship: And, as we ourselves should have done, he made our common father the pilot. He put a blessing in the root, to have been, if rightly managed, diffused into all the branches. According to our text, making Adam upright, he made man upright; and all mankind had that uprightness in him; for, if the root be holy, so are the branches. But more of this afterwards. Had Adam stood, none would have quarrelled the representation.

USE I. For information. This shews us, (1.) That not, God, but man himself, was the cause of his ruin. God

made him upright: His Creator set him up, but he threw himself down. Was the Lord's directing and inclining him to good the reason of his woful choice? Ordid heaven deal so sparingly with him, that his pressing wants sent him to hell to seek supply? Nay, man was, and is the cause of his own ruin. (2.) God may most justly require of men perfect obedience to his law, and condemn them for their not obeying it perfectly, though now they have no ability to keep it. In so doing, he gathers but where he has strawed. He gave man ability to keep the whole law; man has lost it by his own fault; but his sin could never take away that right which God had to exact perfect obedience of his creature, and to punish in case of disobedience. (3.) Behold here the infinite obligation we lie under to Jesus Christ the second Adam; who with his own precious blood has bought our escheate, and freely makes offer of it again to us. Hos. xiii. 9. and that with the advantage of everlasting security, that it can never be. altogether lost any more, John x. 28, 29. Free grace will fix those whom free will shook down into a gulf of misery.

USE II. This teacheth a reproof to three sorts of persons. (1.) To those who hate religion in the power of it, wherever it appears; and can take pleasure in nothing but in the world and their lusts. Surely those men are far from righteousness; they are haters of God, Rom. i. 30. for they are haters of his image. Upright Adam in Paradise would have been a great eye-core to all such persons, as he was to the serpent, whose seed they prove themselves to be, by their malignity. (2.) It reproves those who put religion to shame, and those who are ashamed of religion before a graceless world. There is a generation who make so bold with the God that made them, and can in a moment crush them, that they ridicule piety, and make a mock of seriousness. "Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue ?" Isa. lvii. 4. Is it not against God himself, whose image, in some measure repaired on some of his creatures, makes them fools in your eyes? But "be ye not mockers, lest your hands be made strong," Isa. xxviii. 22. Holiness was the glory God put on man, when he made him: But now sons of men turn that glory into shame, because they themselves glory in their shame,

There are others that secretly approve of religion, and in religious company will profess it; who at other times, to be neighbour-like, are ashamed to own it; so weak are they, that they are blown over with the wind of the wicked's mouth. A broad laughter, an impious jest, a silly gibe out of a profane mouth, is to many an unanswerable argument against religion and seriousness; for in the cause of religion, they are as silly doves without heart. O that such would consider that weighty word! Mark viii. 38. “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." (3.) It reproves the proud self-conceited professor, who admires himself in a garment he hath patched together of rags. There are many, who, when once they have gathered some scraps of knowledge of religion, and have attained to some reformation of life, do swell big with conceit of themselves; a sad sign that the effects of the fall lie so heavy upon them, that they have not as yet come to themselves, Luke xv.17. They have eyes behind to see their attainments; but no eyes within, no eyes before, to see their wants, which would surely humble them; fortrue knowledge makes men to see, both what once they were, and what they are at present; and so is humbling, and will not suffer them to be content with any measure of grace attained; but puts them on to press forward," forgetting the things that are behind," Phil. iii. 13, 14. But those men are such a spectacle of commiseration, as one would be, that had set his palace on fire, and were glorying in a cottage he had built for himself out of the rubbish, though so very weak, that it could not stand against a storm.

USE III. Of lamentation. Here was a stately building, man, carved like a fair palace, but now lying in ashes; let us stand and look on the ruins, and drop a tear. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation. Could we chuse but to weep, if we saw our coury ruined, and turned by the enemy into a wilderness? we saw our houses on fire, and our households perishing in the flames? But all this comes far short of the dismal sight, man fallen as a star from heaven. Ah! may not we now say, O that we were as in months past, when there were no

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