Human Nature in its Fourfold
State
Thomas Boston (1676 - 1732)
I. The State of Innocence
"Lo, this only have I found, that God has made man
upright; but they have sought out many inventions." Eccl. 7:29
There are four things very necessary to be known by all
who would see heaven:
1. What man was in the state of innocence, as God made
him.
2. What he is in the state of corrupt nature, as he has
unmade himself.
3. What he must be in the state of grace, as created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, if ever he be made a partaker of the
inheritance of the saints in light.
4. What he will be in his eternal state, as made by the
Judge of all, either perfectly happy, or completely miserable, and that
forever.
These are weighty points, which touch the vitals of
practical godliness, from which most men, and even many professors, in these
dregs of time, are quite estranged. I design, therefore, under the divine
conduct, to open up these things, and apply them.
I begin with the first of them, namely, the State of
Innocence: that beholding man polished after the similitude of a palace, the
ruins may the more affect us; we may the more prize that matchless Person
whom the Father has appointed the repairer of the breach; and that we may,
with fixed resolves, betake ourselves to that way which leads to the city
which has immoveable foundations.
In the text we have three things:
1. The state of innocence wherein man was created.
"God has made man upright." By "man" here we are to understand our first
parents; the archetypal pair, the root of mankind, and the fountain from
whence all generations have streamed; as may appear by comparing Gen. 5:1,
2, "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him:
male and female created he them; and blessed them," as the root of mankind,
"and called their name Adam." The original word is the same in our text. In
this sense, man was made upright (agreeable to the nature of God,
whose work is perfect), without any imperfection, corruption, or principle
of corruption, in his body or soul. He was made "upright," that is, straight
with the will and law of God, without any irregularity in his soul. By the
set it got in its creation, it directly pointed towards God, as his chief
end; which straight inclination was represented, 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 gospel sense, 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 righteousness was
created with him; so that in the same moment he was a man, he was a
righteous man, morally good; with the same breath that God breathed into him
a living soul, he breathed into him a righteous soul.
2. Here is man's fallen state: "But they have sought
out many inventions." They fell off from their rest in God, and fell upon
seeking inventions of their own, to mend their case; and they quite marred
it. Their ruin was from their own proper motion: they would not abide as God
had made them; but they sought out inventions, to deform and undo
themselves.
3. Observe here the certainty and importance of these
things: "Lo, this only have I found," etc. Believe them, they are the
result of a narrow search, and a serious inquiry, performed by the wisest of
men. In the two preceding verses, Solomon represents himself as in quest of
goodness in the world; but the issue of it was, he could find no satisfying
end of his search after it; though it was not for lack of pains, for he
"counted one by one, to find out the account." "Behold, this have I found,
says the preacher," namely, "That," as the same word is read in our text,
"yet my soul seeks—but I find not." He could make no satisfying discovery of
it, which might end his inquiry. He found the good very rare, one as it were
among a thousand. But could that satisfy the grand query, "Where shall
wisdom be found?" No it could not—and if the experience of others in this
point, run counter to Solomon's, as it is no reflection on his discernment,
it can as little decide the question, which will remain undetermined until
the last day. But, amidst all this uncertainty there is one point found out
and fixed—"This have I found." You may depend upon it as a most certain
truth, and be fully satisfied in it; "Lo this;" fix your eyes upon it, as a
matter worthy of most deep and serious regard, namely, that man's nature is
now depraved—but that depravity was not from God, for he "made man upright;"
but from themselves, "they have sought out many inventions."
Doctrine. God made man altogether righteous.
This is that state of innocence in which God placed man
in the world. It is described in the holy Scripture with a running pen, in
comparison of the following states; for it was of no continuance—but passed
away as a flying shadow, by man's abusing the freedom of his will. I shall,
I. Inquire into the righteousness of this state wherein
man was created.
II. Lay before you some of the happy attendants and
consequences thereof.
III. Applying the whole.
I. Of Man's Original Righteousness.
As to the righteousness of this state, consider, that as
uncreated righteousness, the righteousness of God is the supreme
rule; so all created righteousness, whether of men or angels, has respect to
a law as its rule, and is a conformity thereto. A creature can no more be
morally independent of God in its actions and powers, than it can be
naturally independent of him. A creature, as a creature, must acknowledge
the Creator's will as its supreme law; for as it cannot exist without him,
so it must not be but for him, and according to his will; yet no law
obliges, until it is revealed. And hence it follows, that there was a law,
which man, as a rational creature, was subjected to in his creation; and
that this law was revealed to him.
"God made man upright," says the text. This supposes a
law to which he was conformed in his creation; as when anything is made
regular, or according to rule, of necessity the rule itself is presupposed.
Whence we may gather, that this law was no other than the eternal,
indispensable law of righteousness, observed in all points by the second
Adam, opposed by the carnal mind, and some notions of which remain yet among
the Pagans, who, "having not the law, are a law unto themselves," Romans
2:14. In a word, this law is the very same which was afterwards summed up in
the ten commandments, and promulgated, on mount Sinai, to the Israelites,
called by us the moral law, and man's righteousness consisted in conformity
to this law or rule.
More particularly, there is a twofold conformity required
of a man—a conformity of the powers of his soul to the law, which you may
call habitual righteousness; and a conformity of all his actions to it,
which is actual righteousness. Now, God made man habitually righteous; man
was to make himself actually righteous—the former was the stock which God
put into his hand; the latter was the improvement he should have made of it.
The sum of what I have said is, that the righteousness wherein man was
created, was the conformity of all the faculties and powers of his soul to
the moral law. This is what we call Original Righteousness, which man was
originally endued with. We may take it up in these three things:
1. 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 consequently could not lack knowledge, which is a
part thereof, Col. 3:10, "The new man is renewed in knowledge, after the
image of him who created him." And indeed, this was necessary to fit him for
universal obedience; seeing no obedience can be according to the law, unless
it proceed from a sense of the commandment of God requiring it. It is true,
Adam had not the law written upon tables of stone; but it was written upon
his mind, the knowledge thereof being created with him. God impressed it
upon his soul, and made him a law to himself, as the remains of it among the
heathens do testify, Romans 2:14, 15. And seeing 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 exquisite knowledge of the works of God. We have
a proof of this in Adam's giving names to the beasts of the field, and the
fowls of the air, and those such as express their nature. "Whatever Adam
called every living creature, that was the name thereof," Gen. 2:19. The
dominion which God gave him over the creatures, soberly to use and dispose
of them according to his will (still in subordination to the will of God),
seems to require no less than a knowledge of their natures. And, besides all
this, his perfect knowledge of the law proves his knowledge in the
management of civil affairs, which, in respect of the law of God, "a good
man will guide with discretion," Psalm 112:5.
2. His WILL in all things was agreeable with the will of
God,
Eph. 4:24. There was no corruption in his will, no
inclination to evil; for that is sin, properly and truly so called—hence the
apostle says, Rom 7:7, "I had not known sin—but by the law; for I had not
known lust, except the law had said, You shall 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 mutable. 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, any 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 in the mind, denoting the knowledge
of it.
(2.) Writing it in the heart, denoting inclinations in
the will, answerable to the commands of the law, Heb. 8:10. So that as the
will, when we consider it as renewed by grace, is by that grace naturally
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 everything 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. 1:4; and if this divine nature can import no
less than the inclination of the heart to holiness, then surely Adam's will
could not lack this inclination; for in him the image of God was perfect. It
is true it is said, Romans 2:14, 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 promises, 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 a bent and bias quite
contrary to that law; 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
inclined to what he knew.
3. 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. 3:5, "The Lord direct your hearts into 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 that man was made
straight. "The new man is created in righteousness and true holiness," Eph.
4:24. Now this holiness, as it is distinguished from righteousness, may
import the purity and good order of the affections. Thus the apostle, 1 Tim.
2:8, 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 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. 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 would 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 was inclined to do, even
to fulfill the whole law of God. If it had not been so, God would have
required of him perfect obedience; for to say that "the Lord gathers where
he has not sown," is but the blasphemy of a wicked heart against so good and
bountiful a God, Matt. 25:24-26.
From what has been said, it may be gathered, that the
original righteousness explained was universal and natural—yet mutable.
1. 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, which leavened the whole lump. There was not a 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 clean and undefiled; the members of
the body were consecrated vessels, and instruments of righteousness. A
combat between flesh and spirit, reason and appetite, nay, the least
inclination to sin, or 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 much like the language of fallen
Adam, laying his own sin at his Maker's door, Gen. 3:12, "The woman whom you
gave 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, though sin has now set him at odds with it; his soul was
shaped out in length and breadth to the commandment, though exceeding broad;
so that his original righteousness was not only perfect in its parts—but in
degrees.
2. 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 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 his
being placed in a state of integrity. Yet,
3. 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 and evil; God set it towards good only—yet he
did not so 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 with God's works in this; for if Adam had been unchangeably
righteous, he must have been so either by nature or by free gift—by nature
he could not be so, for that is proper to God, and incommunicable to any
creature; if by free gift, then no wrong was done to him in withholding 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 account of the
merits of Christ, who "was obedient even unto 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. 1:27, which consists in the positive qualities of
"knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness," Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24. "All
that God made was very good," according to their several natures, Gen. 1:31.
And so was man morally good, being made after the image of him who is "good
and upright," Psalm 25:8. 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 must either 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.
II. I shall lay before you some of those things which
accompanied or flowed from the righteousness of man's primitive state.
Happiness is the result of holiness; and as this was a holy, so
it was a happy state.
1. 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. 15:11, surely that spiritual
loveliness which the Lord put upon man at his creation, made him a very
glorious creature. O, how did light shine in his holy life, 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 place. 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."
2. He was the favorite 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 were 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 favor 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 whatever God revealed, and should do whatever he
commanded; 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. 2:16, 17, the matter whereof was so very easy! And
indeed, it 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 favor 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 fit to transport him into the
upper paradise. This promise of life was included in the threatening of
death, mentioned, Gen. 2:17. For while God says, "In the day you eat
thereof, you shall surely die;" it is, in effect, "If you do not eat of it,
you shall 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. 3:22, 23, "Lest he put forth his hand, and
take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore the Lord
God sent him forth from the garden of Eden."
Yet it is not to be thought that man's life and death did
hang only on this matter of the forbidden fruit—but on the whole law; for so
says the apostle, Gal. 3:10, "It is written, Cursed is everyone that
continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them." That of the forbidden fruit was a revealed part of Adam's religion,
and so was necessary expressly to be laid before him; but as to the natural
law, he naturally knew death to be the wages of disobedience, for the very
heathens were not ignorant of this, "knowing the judgment of God, that they
which commit such things are worthy of death," Romans 1:32. Moreover, the
promise included in the threatening, secured Adam's life, according to the
covenant, as long as he obeyed the natural law, with the addition of that
positive command; so that he needed nothing to be expressed to him in the
covenant but what concerned the eating of the forbidden fruit.
That eternal life in heaven was promised in this
covenant, is plain from this, that the threatening was of eternal death in
hell, to which, when man had made himself liable, Christ was promised, by
his death to purchase eternal life. And Christ himself expounds the promise
of the covenant of works, of eternal life, while he proposes the condition
of that covenant to a proud young man, who, though he had not Adam's
stock—yet would needs enter into life in the way of working, as Adam was to
have done under this covenant, Matt. 19:17, "If you will enter into life"
(namely, eternal life, by doing, ver. 16), "keep the commandments."
The penalty was death, Gen. 2:17, "In the day that you
eat thereof, you shall surely die." The death threatened was such as the
life promised was, and that most justly; namely, temporal, spiritual, and
eternal death. The event is a commentary on this; for that very day he did
eat thereof he was a dead man in law—but the execution was stopped because
of his posterity, then in his loins, and another covenant was
prepared—however, that day his body got its death-wound, and became mortal.
Death also seized his soul; he lost his original righteousness, and the
favor of God; witness the pangs of conscience which made him hide himself
from God. And he became liable to eternal death, which would have actually
followed of course, if the Mediator had not been provided, who found him
bound with the cords of death, as a malefactor ready to be led to execution.
Thus you have a short description of the covenant into which the Lord
brought man in the state of innocence.
And does it seem a small thing unto you, that earth was
thus confederate with heaven? This could have been done to none but him whom
the King of Heaven delighted to honor. It was an act of grace, worthy of the
gracious God whose favorite he was; for there was grace and free favor in
the first covenant, though the exceeding riches of grace, as the apostle
calls it, Eph. 2:7, were reserved for the second. It was certainly an act of
grace, favor, and admirable condescension in God, to enter into a covenant,
and such a covenant, with his own creature. Man was not at his own—but at
God's disposal, nor had he anything to work with but what he had received
from God. There was no proportion between the work and the promised reward.
Before that covenant, man was bound to perfect obedience, in virtue of his
natural dependence on God; and death was naturally the wages of sin, which
the justice of God could and would have required, though there had never
been any covenant between God and man—but God was free; man could never have
required eternal life as the reward of his work, if there had not been such
a covenant. God was free to have disposed of his creatures as he saw fit—if
he had stood in his integrity to the end of time, and there had been no
covenant promising eternal life to him upon his obedience, God might have
withdrawn his supporting hand at last and so have made him creep back into
nothing, whence almighty power had drawn him forth. And, what wrong could
have been in this, for God would have only 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 this
dignity, have given him this salutation—"Hail! you who is highly favored,
the Lord is with you."
3. God made him lord of the world, prince of the inferior
creatures, universal Lord and emperor of the whole earth.
His
creator gave him dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, over all the earth, yes, and every living thing that moves on the
earth; he "put all things under his feet," Psalm 8:6-8. He gave him a power,
soberly to use and dispose of the creatures in the earth, sea, and air. Thus
man was God's deputy governor in the lower world, and this his dominion was
an image of God's sovereignty. This was common to the man and to the
woman—but the man had one thing peculiar to him, namely, that he had
dominion over the woman also, 1 Cor. 11:7. Behold how the creatures came
unto him, to own their subjection, and to do him homage as their Lord, and
quietly stood before him until he put names on them as his own, Gen. 2:19.
Man's face struck an awe upon them; the stoutest creatures stood astonished,
tamely and quietly owning him as their Lord and ruler. Thus was man "crowned
with glory and honor," Psalm 8:5. The Lord dealt most liberally and
bountifully with him, "put all things under his feet;" only he kept one
thing, one tree in the garden, out of his hands, even the tree of knowledge
of good and evil.
But you may say, and did he grudge him this? I answer,
Nay; but when he had made him thus holy and happy, he graciously gave him
this restriction, which was in its own nature a prop and stay to keep him
from falling. And this I say upon these three grounds:
(1.) As it was most proper for the honor of God, who had
made man Lord of the lower world, to assert his sovereign dominion over all,
by some particular visible sign; so it was most proper for man's safety. Man
being set down in a beautiful paradise, it was an act of infinite wisdom,
and of grace too, to keep him from one single tree, as a visible testimony
that he must hold all of his Creator, as his great 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 to
him from heaven, to be laid up by him for his greater 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 watchword 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 his
chief end. He set him, like Moses, on the top of the hill, holding up his
hands to heaven—and as Aaron and Hur held up Moses' hands, Exodus 17:10-12,
so God gave man an erect figure of body, and forbade 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 show that their
satisfaction might be brought from thence; and accordingly it does afford
them what is suited to their appetite—but the erect figure of man's body,
which looks upward, showed 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 lack 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 the
inscription, "This is not your rest."
4. As he had a perfect tranquility within his own bosom,
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. 2:25. And
their beautiful bodies were not capable of injuries from the air—so they had
no need of clothes, which are originally 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.
5. Man had a life of pure delight, and unalloyed
pleasure, in this state.
Rivers of pure pleasure ran 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 placed him, 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 favorite. When God made the other living
creatures, he said, Let the water bring forth the moving creature," Gen.
1:29, and, Let the earth bring forth the living creature," verse 24. But
when man was to be made, he said; "Let us make man," verse 18. 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," etc., verse 11. But of
paradise it is said, "God planted it," Gen. 2:8, which cannot but denote a
singular excellence in that garden, beyond all other parts of the then
beautiful earth.
He was provided with everything necessary and delightful;
for there was "every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food,"
verse 9. He knew not those delights which luxury has invented for the
gratification of lust—but his delights were such as came out of the hand of
God; without passing through sinful hands, which always leave marks of
impurity on what they touch. So his delights were pure—his pleasures
refined.
Yet may I show 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
those 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 had certainly fitted him for the work! But, above all, his
knowledge of God, and that as his God, and the communion which 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 those views of the glory of God, which their souls are sometimes let
into, while they are compassed about with many infirmities—and much may well
be allowed to sinless Adam; who no doubt had a peculiar relish of those
pleasures.
6. He was immortal.
He would never have
died—if he had not sinned; it was in case of sin that death was threatened,
Gen. 2:17, which shows it to be the consequence 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, Phil. 3:21, and those who have sinned,
Job 24:19. And God's special care of his innocent creature, secured him
against outward violence. The apostle's testimony is express, Romans 5:12,
"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 until he got it opened,
and so death entered; therefore, is he said to have been "a murderer from
the beginning," John 8:44.
Thus have I shown you the holiness and happiness of men
in this state. If any should say, What is all this to us, who never tasted
of that holy and happy state? they must know, it nearly concerns us, 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 to convey it to them. The Lord put all mankind's stock, as it
were, in one ship; and, as we ourselves would 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 quarreled with the
representation.
III. The Doctrine of the State of Innocence APPLIED.
Use 1. For INFORMATION.
This shows 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 woeful choice? or did heaven deal so sparingly with him, that his
pressing needs 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 sown. 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
has 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 freedom, and freely makes offer of it again to us
, Hos. 13:9,
and that with the advantage of everlasting security, and that it can never
be altogether lost any more, John 10:28, 29. Free grace will fix those,
whom free will shook down into the gulf of misery.
Use 2. This conveys 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
in their lusts. Surely such men are far from righteousness—they are haters
of God, Romans 1:30, for they are haters of his image. Upright Adam in
paradise would have been a great eyesore 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 who made them, and can in a moment
crush them, that they ridicule piety, and make a mock of seriousness.
"Against whom do you sport yourselves? against whom make you a wide mouth,
and draw out the tongue?" Isaiah 57:4. Is it not against God himself, whose
image, in some measure restored to some of his creatures, makes them fools
in your eyes? But, "be not mockers, lest your bands be made strong," Isaiah
28:22. Holiness was the glory which God put on man when he made him; but now
the 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 neighbor-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 scoffing
jeer, out of a profane mouth, is to many an unanswerable argument against
piety and seriousness; for, in the cause of religion, they are as silly
doves without heart. O, that such would consider that weighty sentence,
"Whoever 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 comes in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels,"
Mark 8:38.
3. It reproves the proud self-conceited professor, who
admires himself in a garment of rags which he has patched together. There
are many who, when once they have gathered some scraps of knowledge of
religion, and have attained to some reformation of life, 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 15:17. They
have eyes behind, to see their attainments; but no eyes within, no eyes
before, to see their wants, which would surely humble them—for true
knowledge makes men to see, both what once they were, and what they are at
present; and so is humbling, and will not allow them to be content with any
measure of grace attained; but inclines them to press forward, "forgetting
the things that are behind," Phil. 3:13. But those men are such a spectacle
of commiseration, as one would be who had set his palace on fire, and was
glorying in a cottage which he had built for himself out of the rubbish,
though so very weak, that it could not stand against a storm.
Use 3. 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 lamentation. Could we avoid weeping, if we saw our country ruined, and
turned by the enemy into a wilderness? if we saw our houses on fire, and our
property perishing in the flames? But all this comes far short of the dismal
sight; man fallen as a star from heaven! Ah, may we not now say, "O that we
were as in months past!" when there was no stain in our nature, no cloud on
our minds, no pollution in our hearts! Had we never been in better case, the
matter had been less; but those who were brought up in scarlet—do now
embrace dunghills! Where is our primitive glory now? Once no darkness in the
mind, no rebellion in the will, no disorder in the affections. But ah! "How
is the faithful city become an harlot! Righteousness lodged in it; but now
murderers. Our silver is become dross, our wine mixed with water." That
heart which was once the temple of God, is now turned into a den of thieves.
Let our name be Ichabod, for the glory is departed!
Happy were you, O man! who was like unto you? No pain nor
sickness could affect you, no death could approach you, no sigh was heard
from you—until these bitter fruits were plucked from the forbidden tree!
Heaven shone upon you, and earth smiled—you were the companion of angels,
and the envy of devils. But how low is he now laid, who was created for
dominion, and made lord of the world! "The crown is fallen from our head—woe
unto us that we have sinned." The creatures that waited to do him service,
are now, since the fall, set in battle-array against him, and the least of
them, having commission, proves too hard for him. Waters overflow the old
world; fire consumes Sodom; the stars in their courses fight against Sisera;
frogs, flies, lice, etc., become executioners to Pharaoh and his Egyptians;
worms eat up Herod—yes, man needs a league with the beasts; yes, with the
very stones of the field, Job 5:23, having reason to fear, that everyone who
finds him will slay him. Alas! how are we fallen! how are we plunged into a
gulf of misery! The sun has gone down on us, death has come in at our
windows; our enemies have put out our two eyes, and sport themselves with
our miseries.
Let us, then, lie down in the dust, let shame and
confusion cover us. Nevertheless, there is hope in Israel concerning this
thing. Come then, O sinner, look to Jesus Christ, the second Adam—leave the
first Adam and his covenant; come over to the Mediator and Surety of the new
and better covenant; and let your hearts say, "Be you our ruler, and let
this breach be under your hand." Let your "eye trickle down, and cease not,
without any intermission, until the Lord looks down, and beholds from
heaven," Lam. 3:49, 50.