inclination to evil; for that is sin properly and truly so called: hence the apostle says, Rom. vii. 7. I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.' An inclination to evil is really a fountain of sin, and therefore inconsistent with that rectitude and uprightness which the text expressly says he was endued with at his creation. The will of man then was directed and naturally inclined to God and goodness, though mutably. It was disposed, by its original make, to follow the Creator's will, as the shadow does the body; and was not left in an equal balance to good and evil: for at that rate he had not been upright, nor habitually conformed 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 impressed upon Adam's soul: now this, according to the new covenant, by which the image of God is repaired, consists in two things: 1. Putting the law into the mind, denoting the knowledge of it: 2. Writing in the heart, denoting inclinations in the will, answerable to the commands of the law, Heb. viii. 10. So that, as the will, when we consider it as renewed by grace, is by that grace natively inclined to the same holiness in all its parts which the law requires; so was the will of man (when we consider him as God made him at first) 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 so says the Scripture, 2 Pet. i. 4. and if this divine nature can import no less than inclinations of the heart to holiness: then surely Adam's will could not want this inclination; for in him the image of God was perfect. It is true, it is said, Rom. ii. 14, 15, 'That the Gentiles show the work of the law written in their hearts;' but this denotes only their knowledge of that law, such as it is; but the Apostle to the Hebrews, in the text cited, takes the word heart in another sense, distinguishing it plainly from the mind. And it must be granted, that, when God promiseth in the new covenant, To write his law in the hearts of his people,' it imports quite another thing than what Heathens have; for though they have notions of it in their minds, yet their hearts go another way; their will has got a set and a bias quite contrary to that law; and, therefore, the expression suitable to the present purpose, must needs import, besides these notions of the mind, inclinations of the will going along therewith; which inclinations, though mixed with corruption in the regenerate, were pure and unmixed in upright Adam.

In a word, as Adam knew his master's pleasure in the matter of duty, so his will stood inclined to what he knew.

6

6

THIRDLY, His affections were orderly, pure, and holy; which is a necessary part of that uprightness wherein man was created. The Apostle has a petition, 2 Thess. iii. 5. The Lord direct your hearts, unto the love of God:' that is, 'The Lord straighten your hearts, or make them lie straight to the love of God:' and our text tells us, man was thus made straight. "The new man is created in righteousness and true holiness,' Eph. iv. 24. Now this holiness, as it is distinguished from righteousness, may import the purity and orderliness of the affections. And thus the Apostle, 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 sun, so the heart, filled with impure and disorderly affections, is not fit for divine communications. Man's sensitive appetite was indeed naturally carried out towards objects grateful to the senses. For seeing man was made up of body and soul and God made this man to glorify and enjoy him; and for this end to use his good creatures in subordination to himself: it is plain that man was naturally inclined both to spiritual and sensible good; yet to spiritual good, the chief good as his ultimate end. And, therefore, his sensitive motions and inclinations, were subordinate to his reason and will, which lay straight with the will of God, and were not, in the least, contrary to the same. Otherwise he should have been made up of contradictions; his soul being naturally inclined to God as the chief end, in the superior part thereof; and the same soul inclined to the creature as the chief end in the inferior part thereof, as they call it: which is impossible; for man, at the same instant, cannot have two chief ends. Man's affections, then, in his primitive state, were pure from all defilement, free from all disorder and distemper, because, in all their motions, they were duly subjected to his clear reason, and his holy will. He had also an executive power answerable to his will; a power to do the good which he knew should be done, and which he inclined to do, even to fulfil the whole law of God. If it had not been so, God would not have required of him perfect obedience; for to say that The Lord gathereth where he hath not strawed,' is but the blasphemy of a wicked heart, against a good and bountiful God, Mat. xxv. 24.

From what has been said, it may be gathered, that the original righteousness explained, was universal and natural; yet mutable.

FIRST, It was universal; both with respect to the subject of

it, the whole man: and the object of it, the whole law. Universal I say, with respect to the subject of it; for this righteousness was diffused through the whole man; it was a blessed leaven that leavened the whole lump. There was not one wrong pin in the tabernacle of human nature, when God set it up, however shattered it is now. Man was then holy in soul, body, and spirit: while the soul remained untainted, its lodging was kept pure and undefiled: the members of the body were consecrated vessels, and instruments of righteousness. A combat betwixt flesh and spirit, reason and appetite; nay, the least inclination to sin, lust of the flesh in the inferior part of the soul, was utterly inconsistent with this uprightness, in which man was created: and has been invented to veil the corruption of man's nature, and to obscure the grace of God in Jesus Christ: it looks very like the language of fallen Adam, laying his own sin at his Maker's door, Gen. iii. 12. woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. But as this righteousness was universal in respect of the subject, because it spread through the whole man, so also it was universal, in respect of the object, the holy law: There was nothing in the law, but what was agreeable to his reason and will, as God made him: the son hath now set him at odds with it: his soul was shapen out, in length and breadth to the commandment, though exceeding broad: so that this original righteousness was not only perfect in parts, but in degrees.

"The

SECONDLY, As it was universal, so it was natural to him and not supernatural in that state. Not that it was essential to man, as man; for then he could not have lost it, without the loss of his very being; but it was con-natural to him: He was created with it, and it was necessary to the perfection of man, as he came out of the hand of God: necessary to constitute him in a state of integrity. Yet,

THIRDLY, It was mutable; it was a righteousness that might be lost, as is manifested by the doleful event: His will was not absolutely indifferent to good or evil; God set it towards good only; yet he did not fix and confirm its inclinations, that it could not alter. No, it was moveable to evil: and that only by man himself. God having given him a sufficient power to stand in this integrity, if he had pleased: Let no man quarrel God's works in this; for if Adam had been unchangeably righteous, he behoved to have been so either by nature, or by free gift; by nature he could not be so, far that is proper to God, and incommunicable to any creature: if by free gift, then no wrong was done him, in withholding of what he could not crave.

Confirmation in a righteous state, is a reward of grace, given upon continuing righteous through the state of trial; and would have been given to Adam, if he had stood out the time appointed for probation by the Creator; and accordingly is given to the saints, upon the account of the merits of Christ, who was obedient even to the death. And herein believers have the advantage of Adam, that they can never totally nor finally fall away from grace.

Thus was man made originally righteous, being created in God's own image. Gen. i. 27. which consists in the positive qualities of knowledge, righteousness and holiness, Col. iii. 10. Ephes. iv. 24. All that God made was very good, according to their several natures, Gen. i. 31. And so was man morally good, being made after the image of Him who is "good and upright," Psal. xxv. 8. Without this, he could not have answered the great end of his creation, which was to know, love, and serve his God, according to his will. Nay, he could not be created otherwise: for he behoved either to be conformed to the law, in his powers, principles, and inclinations, or not: if he was, then he was righteous; and if not, he was a sinner, which is absurd and horrible to imagine.

Of Man's Original Happiness.

SECONDLY, I shall lay before you some of those things which did accompany or flow from the righteousness of man's primitive state: Happiness is the result of holiness; and as it was a holy, so it was a happy state.

First, Man was then a very glorious creature. We have reason to suppose, that as Moses' face shone when he came down from the mount; so man had a very lightsome and pleasant countenance, and beautiful body, while as yet there was no darkness of sin in him at all. But seeing God himself is glorious in holiness, Exod. xv. 11. surely that spiritual comefiness the Lord put upon man at his creation, made him a very glorious creature. O how did light shine in his holy conversation, to the glory of the Creator! while every action was but the darting forth of a ray and beam of that glorious, unmixed light which God had set up in his soul; while that lamp of love, lighted from heaven, continued burning in his heart, as in the holy place; and the law of the Lord, put in his inward parts by the finger of God, was kept by him there, as in the most holy: There was no impurity to be seen without; no squint-look in the eyes, after any unclean thing; the tongue spoke nothing but the language of Heaven: And in a word,

"The King's Son was all glorious within, and his clothing of wrought gold.

Secondly, He was the favourite of Heaven: He shone brightly in the image of God, who cannot but love his own image, wherever it appears. While he was alone in the world he was not alone, for God was with him: his communion and fellowship was with his Creator, and that immediately: for as yet there was nothing to turn away the face of God from the work of his own hands; seeing sin had not as yet entered, which alone could make the breach.

By the favour of God, he was advanced to be confederate with Heaven, in the first covenant, called the Covenant of Works. God reduced the law, which he gave in his creation, into the form of a covenant, whereof perfect obedience was the condition: life was the thing promised, and death the penalty. As for the condition, one great branch of the natural law was, that man should believe whatsoever God should reveal, and do whatsoever he should command: accordingly, God making this covenant with man, extended his duty to the not eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; and the law thus extended, was the rule of man's covenant-obedience. How easy were these terms to him, who had the natural law written on his heart; and that inclining him to obey this positive law, revealed to him, it seems, by an audible voice, Gen. ii. 16. the matter whereof was so very easy. And indeed was highly reasonable that the rule and matter of his covenant-obedience should be thus extended: that which was added, being a thing in itself indifferent, where his obedience was to turn upon the precise point of the will of God, the plainest evidence of true obedience, and it being in an external thing, wherein his obedience or disobedience would be most clear and conspicuous.

Now, upon this condition, God promised him life; the continuance of natural life in the union of soul and body; and of spiritual life in the favour of his Creator: he promised him also eternal life in heaven, to have been entered into when he should have passed the time of his trial upon earth, and the Lord should see meet to transport him into the upper Paradise. This promise of life was included in the threatning of death mentioned, Gen. ii. 17. For while God says, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die:" it is in effect, "If thou doest not eat of it thou shalt surely live:" And this was sacramentally confirmed by another tree in the garden, called therefore, the Tree of Life, which he was debarred from, when he had sinned, Gen. iii. 22, 23. "Lest he put forth his hand,