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From what has been faid, it may be gathered, that the original righteoufnefs explained was univerfal and natural; yet mutable.

FIRST, It was univerfal; both with refpect to the fubject of it, the whole man; and the objet of it, the whole law. Univerfal I fay, with respect to the fubject of it; for this righteousness was diffused through the whole man; it was a bleffed leaven that leavened the whole lump. There was not one wrong pin in the tabernacle of human nature, when God fet it up, however fhattered it is now. Man was then holy in foul, body, and fpirit: while the foul remained untainted, it's lodging was kept pure and undefiled: the members of the body were confecrated veffels, and inftruments of righteousness, A combat betwixt flesh and fpirit, reafon and appetite; nay the leaft inclination to fin, luft of the flesh in the inferior part of the foul, was utterly inconfiftent with this uprightness, in which man was created: and has been invented to vail the corruption of man's nature, and to obfcure the grace of God in Jefus Chrift: it looks very like the language of fallen Adam, laying his own fin at his Maker's door, Gen. iii. 12. The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, he gave me of the tree, and I did eat: But as this righteoufnefs was univerfal in refpect of the fubject, because it spread through the whole man, fo alfo it was univerfal, in respect of the object, the holy law: There was nothing in the law, but what was agreeable to his reafon and will, as God made him tho' fin hath now fet him at odds with it: his foul was fhapen out, in length and breadth to the commandment, tho' exceeding broad: fo that this original righteousness was not only perfect in parts, but in degrees.

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SECONDLY, As it was univerfal, fo it was natural to him, and not fupernatural in that ftate. Not that it was effential to man, as man; for then he could not have loft it, without the lofs of his very being; but it was con-natural to him: He was created with it, and it was neceffary to the perfection of man, as he came out of the hand of God: neceffary to conftitute him in a state of integrity. Yet,

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THIRDLY, It was mutable; it was a righteoufnefs that might be loft, as is manifefted by the doleful event: His will was not abfolutely indifferent to good or evil: God fet it towards good only; yet he did not fo fix and confirm it's inclinations, that it could not alter. No, it was moveable to evil: and that only by man himself, God having given him a fufficient power to ftand in this integrity, if he had pleafed Let no man quarrel God's works in this; for if Adam had been unchangeably righteous, he behoved to have been fo either by nature, or by free gift: by nature he could not be fo, for that is proper to God, and incommunicable to any creature: if by free gift, then no wrong was done him, in with-holding of what he could not crave. Confirmation in a righteous ftate, is a reward of grace, given upon continuing righteous, thro' the ftate of trial; and would have been given to Adam, if he had ftood out the time appointed for probation by the Creator; and accordingly is given to the faints,

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upon the account of the merits of Chrift, 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 confifts in the politive qualities of knowledge, righteousness and holinefs, Col. iii. 10. Eph. iv. 24. All that God made was very good, according to their feveral natures, Gen. i. 31. And fo was man morally good, being made after the image of Him, who is good and upright, Pfal. xxv. 8. Without this, he could not have anfwered the great end of his creation, which was to know, love, and ferve his God, according to his will. Nay, he could not be created otherwife: for he behoved either to be conform to the law, in his powers, principles, and inclinations, or not: if he was, then he was righteous; and if not, he was a finner, which is abfurd and horrible to imagine.

of MAN's Original Happiness.

SECONDLY, I fhall lay before you fome of those things which did accompany or flow from the righteoutnefs of man's primitive ftate: Happiness is the refult of holiness; and as it was an holy, fo it was an happy ftate."

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First, Man was then a very glorious creature. to fuppofe, that as Mofes' face fhone when he came down from the mount, fo man had a very lightfome and pleafant countenance, and beautiful body, while as yet there was no darkness of fin in him at all. But feeing God himself is glorious in holiness, (Exod. XV. 11.) furely that fpiritual comelinefs the Lord put upon man at his creation, made him a very glorious creature. O! how did light fhine in his holy converfation, 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 fet up in his foul; 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 feen without; no fquint look in the eyes, after any unclean thing; the tongue fpoke nothing but the language of Heaven: And, in a word, The King's fon was all glorious within, and his clothing of wrought gold.

Secondly, He was the favourite of Heaven: He fhone brightly in the image of God, who cannot but love his own image, where-ever 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; feeing fin 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 firft Covenant, called, The Covenant of Works. God reduced the Law, which he gave in his creation, into the form

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of a Covenant, whereof perfect obedience was the condition: life was the thing promifed, and death the penalty. As for the condition, one great branch of the natural Law was, that man believe whatfoever God fhall reveal, and do what foever he fhall 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 eafy were these terms to him, who had the natural law written on his heart; and that inclining him to obey this pofitive Law, revealed to him, it feems, by an audible voice, (Gen. ii. 16.) the matter whereof was fo very eafy? And indeed it was highly reafonable that the rule and matter of his covenant-obedience fhould be thus extended that which was added, being a thing in itself indifferent, where his obedience was to turn upon the precife point of the will of God, the plaineft evidence of true obedience, and it being in an external thing, wherein his obedience or difobedience would be moft clear and confpicuous.

Now, upon this condition, God promifed him life, the continuance of natural life in the union of foul and body; and of fpiritual life in the favour of his Creator: he promised him alfo eternal life in heaven, to have been entered into, when he fhould have paffed the time of his trial upon earth, and the Lord fhould fee ricet to tranfport him to the upper Paradife. This promife of life was included in the threatning of death mentioned, Gen. ii. 17. For while God fays, In the day thou eateft thereof, thou shalt furely die; it is in effect, if thou do not eat of it, thou shalt furely live: And this was facramentally confirmed by another tree in the garden, called therefore, the Tree of Life, which he was debarred from, when he had finned, Gen. iii. 22, 23. Left he put forth his hand, and take alf of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever. Therefore the Lord God fent 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 fo fays the Apostle, Gal ii. 10 It is written, Curfed is every one that continueth 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 fo behoved exprefly to be laid before him but as to the natural Law, he naturally knew death to be the reward of difobedience; for the very Heathens were not ignorant of this: Knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit fuch things are worthy of death, Rom. i. 32. And moreover, the promife included in the threatning, fecured Adam's life according to the Covenant, as long as he obeyed the natural Law with the addition of that pofitive command; fo that he needed nothing to be expreffed to him in the Covenant, but what concerned the eating of the forbidden fruit: That eternal life in heaven was promifed in this Covenant, is plain from this, that the threatning was of eternal death in hell; to which when man had made himself liable, Chrift was promised, by his death to purchase

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eternal life and Chrift himself expounds the promife of the Covenant of Works of eternal life, while he promifeth the condition of that Covenant, to a proud young man, who tho' he had not Adam's stock, yet would needs enter into life in the way of working, as Adamı was to have done under this covenant, Matth. xix. 17. If thou wilt enter into life,(viz. eternal life, by doing, ver. 16.) keep the Commandments.. The penalty was death, Gen. ii. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt furely die: The death threatned was fuch, as the life promised was; and that moft juftly, to wit, temporal, fpiritual, 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 ftopped, because of his pofterity then in his loins; and another Covenant was prepared; however, that day his body got it's death-wound, and became mortal. Death also feized his foul: he loft his original righteoufnefs and the favour of God; witnefs 'the gripes and throws of confcience, which made him hide himfelf from God. And he became liable to eternal death, which would have actually followed of courfe, if a 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 fhort defcription of the Covenant, into which the Lord brought man, in the estate of innocence. And seemeth it a finall 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 honour. It was an act of grace worthy of the gracious God whofe favourite he was; for there was grace and free favour in the firft covenant, tho' the exceeding riches of grace, (as the Apoftle calls it, Eph. ii 7.) was referved for the fecond. It was certainly an act of grace, favour, and admirable condefcenfion in God, to enter into a covenant, and fuch a covenant with his own creature. Man was not at his own, but at God's difpofal: Nor had he any thing to work with, but what he had received from God. There was no proportion betwixt 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 fin; which the juftice of God could and would have required, tho' there had never been any covenant betwixt 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 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 should stand, 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 should 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

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crave the reward on the ground of the Covenant: Well might the angels then, upon his being raised to this dignity, have giyen 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 creatures, univerfal Ford 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 ufe and difpofe of the creatures in the earth, fea, 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, 1 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. ii. 19. Man's face ftruck an awe upon them; the ftouteft creatures stood aftonished, tamely and quietly adoring him as their lord and ruler. Thus was man crowned with glory and honour, Pfal. 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 out of his hands, even the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

But you may fay, And did he grudge him this? I answer, Nay; but when he had made him thus holy and happy, he gracioufly gave him this restriction, which was in it's own nature, a prop and stay to keep him from falling. And this I fay, upon these three grounds. (1) As it was most proper for the honour of God, who had made man lord of the lower world, to affert his fovereign dominion over all, by fome particular vifible fign; fo it was moft proper for man's fafety. Man being fet down in a beautiful paradise, it was an act of infinite wisdom, and of grace too, to keep from him one fingle tree, as a visible teftimony, that he must hold all of his Creator, as his great Landlord; that fo, while he faw himself lord of the creatures, 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 heaven and as Aaron and Hur stayed up Mofes' 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 posture of uprightnefs, wherein he was created. God made the beasts looking down towards the earth, to

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