to be unaccountable § 9. The State and Condition of Man thus fallen is 〈◊〉 to be enquired into and that was midst miserable and dreadful for having after this maâ—â—ier broken Covenant with God by a wicked and wilful Transgression of his holy Law 1. He thereby utterly forfeited and lost all Covenant-Interest in God he could no more claim a Right in or hope for that Reward which was promised on Condition of his perfect Obedience to the Law of that Covenant which God had made with him but immediately fell under Guilt being by the Sentence of his own Conscience bound over to punishment under the just Wrath of the Almighty and therefore he dreaded nothing more then the Approach of God to him Gen. 3. 8 9 10. 2. He did not only forfeit his Right and present Relation to God by this Sin but moreover he was thereby rendred uncapable of true Happiness inasmuch as he was now apostatized from a Covenant of Friendship to a State of Enmity against God and Alienation from him which is the necessary Adjunct of Wickedness He fell under the Dominion of Sin and that Image of God wherein he was created was in a manner wholly defaced he sinned and fell short of the Glory of God Rom. 3. 23. And now instead of that original Righteousness wherewith he was at first beautifyed there was nothing to be found in him but abominable Filthiness and horrid Deformity his Mind was covered over yea possest with hellish Darkness Hatred of God reigned in his Heart and his Affections were no longer subject to right Reason but became vile and rebellious and in this State it is evident he must be utterly uncapable of Communion with God and of the Fruition of him wherein alone the true Happiness of a reasonable Creature doth consist 3. The Curse of the Law in its utmost Rigour and prime Intendment was immediately and only due to him and no less then the utmost Execution thereof was every Moment to be expected by him and that was Death even the worst of Deaths eternal Death which is An everlasting Punishment of Soul and Body under the wrathful Vengeance of a provoked Deity Now that this was the prime Intendment of the Threatning might be evinced by many Reasons but at present I shall content my self with the mention of two only 1. This Punishment will be inflicted on many of the ungodly Posterity of Adam who have been guilty of no other Transgression but that of the Light and Law of Nature such were those wicked Heathens that Paul speaks of Rom. 1. 20. c. and Chap. 2. 6 16. who tho' they never had the Law written or knew of any repeated Promulgation thereof and therefore we may conclude them much more unlikely to be acquainted with the new-Covenant and its Terms yet being a Law to themselves were for the Transgression of this Law lyable to this Punishment Now this Punishment must be the Fruit of that Curse which is the Sanction of that Law which they were under and which was transgressed by them which was the Law of Creation even the same Law that Adam was made under and if the Law be the same the same Penalty was incurred by the Transgression thereof and if they are liable to eternal Death for the Transgression of this Law there is no rational doubt but Adam was so 2. If the just Demerit and Wages of Sin was contained in the threatning as no doubt it was it could be no less than an eternal Punishment that was threatned for if that be not the Desert of every Sin it cannot be due to any Sin for the Reason why the Punishment of any Sin is eternal is that the Penalty inflicted on the Sinner may be adequate to the Offence the Punishment hath an Infinity in its Eternity because the Fault is infinitely aggravated and that can only be in regard of its Object there is nothing that can be an infinite Aggravation of Sin but its being committed against a God of infinite Greatness Glory and Goodness and this Aggravation attends every Sin as it is Sin against God and tho' other Circumstances may increase the Provocation and so intend the Degree of the Sinners Pain yet none but this can reach Infinity The Punishment therefore due to Adam for Sin against God could be no other or no less then eternal Death which is that intended in the Sanction of the Law given to him Fourthly The whole Creation of this visible World became lyable to Destruction with fallen Man as an Inheritance forfeited by his Treason against the Supream Majesty By the Sin of Man the Frame of Earth and the Heavens made for his Service and Delight was loosed and their Foundations so shaken as would have issued in an utter Ruin had not Christ interposed and upheld the Pillars thereof Psal 75. 3. with Heb. 1. 3. and if the Curse had been immediately executed in its Rigor with these Desolations following thereupon there had been an Hell ready prepared for Man for suppose I pray you all the Lights of Heaven to be put out the whole Order Symmetry and Beauty of the Creation to be destroyed and all reduced to a Chaos of Confusion and horrid Darkness about Man and the burning Wrath of God kindled upon him now cast into the Jaws of eternal Despair and tormented by a Worm that never dyes think I say of this and you will hardly be able to conceive of a state more dreadful and dismal than this that Man stood at the very Brink of Fifthly In this Condition Man was altogether helpless and without Strength being utterly disabled to stand before God upon Terms of a Covenant of Works and as uncapable to bring himself upon other Terms with God for he was not able to move one step towards a Reconciliation with God or the ransoming of himself out of these Miseries The Door of Repentance was not opened to him by the Covenant of Creation or if it had there was in him now neither Power nor Will to enter in thereat He was utterly disabled from obeying God acceptably upon any Terms until made a new Creature And therefore it was impossible not only that this Covenant now broken should be renewed with him or any of his Posterity for the same Ends and in the same manner as it was at first made with upright Man but moreover that ever any Covenant should be immediately stricken with him or them wherein fallen Man should have been the first and immediate Covenanter with God for himself as Adam was in his State of Integrity § 10. Thus miserable yea more than we have expressed or can express was the State of fallen Man Let us now see how the boundless Mercy of God was revealed unto him when he was thus lost and miserably ruined by his own Sin And for the better understanding of what is to follow I shall premise two things which are necessary to be kept in our Eye 1. That the infinitely Wise
and Gracious God who from Eternity foresaw the Fall of Man had also from Eternity a gracious Purpose in himself according to the Counsel of his own Will to redeem 2 Tim. 1. 9 10. Tit. 1. 1 2. and save a Remnant of lost Mankind from their lapsed and fallen State and by his All-powerful Grace thro' the Merits of Christ to recover them from Misery to the Inheritance of a Kingdom and Glory far greater than that set before Adam in his Integrity And these eternal Counsels that were hid with himself were transacted in a way of Covenant between the Father and the Son even in a Covenant of Redemption now revealed in the Scriptures of Truth And to this Covenant belong all the Promises of the Father to the Mediator and the restipulatory Engagements of the Redeemer about the Salvation of Sinners and the way and method of its Accomplishment And with respect to these Counsels the Son of God is said to be the Father's Delights and himself also to have his Delights in the habitable World when the Head of the Dust thereof was formed Prov. 8. 22 31. In which Context the mutual Acquiescence both of the Father and the Son in this admirable Contrivance of infinite Grace and Wisdom is not obscurely set forth 2. In pursuance of this Covenant of Redemption and the Suretiship of Christ taken therein upon the Fall of Man the Government of the World was actually put into the hands of the Son of God the designed Mediator who interposed himself for the Prevention of its present and utter Ruin And by him were all future Transactions managed for the Good of Man and all Discoveries of Grace and Mercy were made to the Children of Men in him and by him And all things in Heaven and Earth were brought into an order subservient to the Ends of the new Creation and the Redemption of lost Man to be accomplished in the fulness of time by the Son of God incarnate Fallen Man could have no more to do with God nor God with him in a way of Kindness but in a Mediator § 11. And from this Design of Love and Mercy it was that when the Lord God came unto fallen Man in the Garden in the cool of the Day and found him filled with Horror and Shame in the Conscience of his own Guilt he did not execute the Rigor of the Law upon him but held a Treaty with him which issued in a Discovery of Grace whereby a Door of Hope was opened to him in the laying of a new Foundation for his acceptance with God and walking unto well pleasing before him For 1. In the Sentence passed upon the Serpent which principally concerned the Devil whose Instrument he had been in tempting Man and who probably was made to abide in his Possession of the Serpent till he had received this Doom Gen. 3. 5. there was couched a blessed Promise of Redemption and Salvation unto Man which was to be wrought out by the Son of God made of a Woman and so her Seed which Salvation thus promised Man was to receive by Faith and to hope in it for in this implyed Promise was laid the first Foundation of the Church after the Fall of Man which was to be raised up out of the Ruines of the Devil's Kingdom by the Destruction of his Work by Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 3. 8. 2. In this Commination of the Serpent there is not only implyed a Promise of raising up a Saviour of the Seed of the Woman and sending him into the World for the breaking of the Serpents Head that is the perfect Conquest of Satan and the utter ruining of his Kingdom but also of propagating and preserving a Church in the World that should be Heirs of that Salvation and should maintain a spiritual War with Satan and his Kingdom which on their part should end in perfect Conquest and Victory The God of Peace bruising Satan under their Feet while he is nibling at their Heel and making them to be more than Conquerors thro' him that loved them for the Seed of the Woman is to be understood collectively of Christ and his members as the Seed of the Serpent includes all wicked Men tho' it hath a principal respect to Christ personal who alone hath obtained the Victory over the infernal Power and destroyed the Works of the Devil But altho' this was done by himself alone yet was it not for himself only but for his Body the Church of which every true Believer is a Member and shall certainly obtain Victory thro' the Faith of his Name And against this Church the Gates of Hell can never prevail but a Church there ever shall be in the World so long as the World continues and ever was since the first Promise tho' maligned and persecuted by the Devil and wicked Men as early appears in that Instance of Cain and Abel Gen. 4. compared with 1 Joh. 3. 12. And something of this nature is intimated in the Name of Seth and the Reason given by Eve of her imposing that Name Gen. 4. 25. 3. Hereupon there was a present Restraint and Modification of the Curse in the Sentence pronounced upon Adam and Eve Gen. 3. 16 19. whereby altho' they and their Offspring were necessarily subjected to many Evils and Miseries while they lived and Dissolution by a temporal Death at last yet they were not immediately laid under a Sentence of eternal Death which was the Punishment they had deserved And concerning this Sentence we may farther observe 1. That the Promise of breaking the Serpents Head which was revealed to our first Parents did not give them a Deliverance from all Misery but only an Exemption from eternal Death But notwithstanding this Promise and all that Christ hath now done for the full Accomplishment thereof it is the Will of God that all Men even Believers as well as others shall in this World be exercised with Miseries and remain subject to temporal Death or Dissolution of the Body into Dust 2. The Corruptibility of Man all the Miseries he is subject to while he lives and temporal Death at last are the Fruits of Sin and of the Curse due to it as they are natural Evils or Punishments but yet they are not the Fruit or Result of the Curse only nor the full Wages of Sin As they are evil they flow from the Curse but as temporal only the Evil of them is limited and thus modified by Mercy or compassionate Goodness at least The Position of temporal Death concludes indeed that Sin is in the World but this Limitation of Death doth also prove that there is Mercy reserved for some and that such as obtain not Mercy must be brought to an after reckoning inasmuch as the Fruit of their Doings hath not fully been repaid to them in this World And hence 3. There are none of these Evils but are capable of a Change as to their penal Nature together with the Change of that Man's State upon
of Works which must necessarily 〈…〉 Relation to God in such a Covenant at 〈◊〉 to which the Promise of such a 〈◊〉 did â—â—long and the Knowledg of these Covenant-Terms communicated to him together with the Law of his Creation 3. From the Sacramental Vse of that Tree in the Midst of the Garden of Eden which was called the Tree of Life because institute of God for a Sign and Pledg of that eternal Life which Adam should have obtained by his own personal and perfect Obedience to the Law of God had he continued therein and that this Tree was appointed by God unto such an Use and End is collected 1. From the Allusion that Christ makes thereunto in the New Testament 〈◊〉 2. 7. where he promiseth and eternal Reward to him that overcometh in there 〈◊〉 I will give him 〈◊〉 of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God The reason of which is taken from God's Appointment of this Tree to be an assurance of 〈◊〉 Life to Adam upon the Terms and Condition of a Covenant of Works and the Ana 〈…〉 of that Reward which Christ gives to his faithful ones upon Terms of another Covenant which Analogy consists in the general Nature of an eternal Reward promised tho' there be not an Identity or perfect Agreement in the Degree or particular Kind thereof I will not pretend exactly to determine the Mode or Degree of that Blessedness which was set before Adam by the Covenant made with him whether it was a Confirmation in his present State which was very happy or a Translation to a better when the Course of his Obedience in this was run out however it seems reasonable to conclude that it was in some respects short of that Glory we are called to by Jesus Christ but they both agree in the notion of an eternal and in its kind perfect Happiness and therefore the one is expressed by those Terms that relate to a former Assurance of the other 2. From the Method of God's dealing with Adam in reference to this Tree after he had sinned against him and the Reason thereof assigned by God himself Lest he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life and eat and live for ever You may read an account of the whole Gen. 3. from Verse 22th to the End We are not to suppose that Adam could indeed have obtained eternal Life by eating of the Fruit of that Tree after he had sinned against God but the whole Scheme of that Discourse is Ironical and as I take the foregoing Words * En 〈◊〉 promissam Behold the Man is become like one of us to be an holy upbraiding of the Folly of Man in aspiring to such a State by the Breach of God's Law upon the Credit of the Devil's Suggestion so I take these Words also to intimate a farther Delusion that fallen Man was in danger of by entertaining an Opinion that vain Man is on any pretence ready to nourish in himself of his being in a Capacity yet to recover his forfeited Happiness this way or by any other Work of his own howbeit they teach us what was the Vse and End that this Tree was at first designed to as also that Adam was not ignorant thereof tho' now he was to be taught the utter impossibility of obtaining Life by a broken Covenant by the guarding and prohibiting all access to that Tree by the Cherubins flaming Sword that turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life 3. This also must not be forgotten that as Moses's Law did some way include the Covenant of Creation and serve for a Memorial thereof on which account all Mankind was concerned in its Curse it had not only the Sanction of a Curse awfully denounced against the Disobedient but also a Promise of the Reward of Life to the Obedient now as the Law of Moses was the same as to the moral Precept with the Law of Creation so the Reward in this respect proposed was not a new Reward but the same that by Compact had been due to Adam in case of his perfect Obedience § 4. From what hath been said I conceive it is manifest that Adam was set in his way but not actually brought to his eternal Rest in that State wherein he was created being capable of and made for a greater Degree of Happiness then he immediately enjoyed which was set before him as the Reward of his Obedience by that Covenant wherein he was to walk with God and of this Reward thus set before him these things are farther to be observed 1. That altho' the Law of his Creation was attended both with a promise of Reward and a threatning of Punishment yet the reason of both is not the same nor alike necessary for the Reward is of meer Soveraign Bounty and Goodness and therefore might have been either less or more as it pleased God or not proposed at all and yet no Injury done but the Punishment threatned is a Debt to Justice and results immediately from the nature of Sin with reference to God without the Intevention of any Compact it is due to the Transgression of a Divine Law as such and therefore still due to every Transgrssion of it even by those that are already cut off from hope of Reward by former Breach of the Covenant and as it may not be more then the Offence deserves without Injury to Man so neither may it be less without a Diminution of the Glory of Justice by the strict Rule of which it is always measured that Death therefore which was threatned in the Curse is in a strict and proper Sence the wages of Sin Rom. 6. 23. 2. In the History of this Transaction as left upon record by the Holy Ghost for our Instruction we have a more particular and express Mention made of the Curse threatned than of the Reward promised and so a more distinct Notion of that conveyed to our Minds then of this altho' we have reason to think both were known to Adam with equal clearness and this may be because it more concerns us to be thro'ly humbled under a Sense of the present Misery of Mankind in their lapsed State then curiously to enquire after the particular Mode or Degree of that Blessedness which was once proposed but can never be obtained by us in the Interest of that Covenant which first gave Man a Right thereunto § 5. In this Transaction of God with Adam he is not to be considered in a private Capacity or as one concerned for himself alone but God treated with him as the common Root and Representative of all Mankind that were to spring from him according to the ordinary course of Nature and were then reckoned to be in him both as a natural and Foederal Root and therefore in his standing all Mankind stood and in his Fall * Nos omnes eramus ille unus homo they all sinned and fell in him for