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.

4. 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, and their beautiful bodies had no need of clothes, which were 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 pleasure in this state. Rivers of pure pleasures 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 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," and "Let the earth bring forth

the living creature.' "But when man was to be made, he said, "Let us make man." 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." But of paradise it is said, "God planted it," 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." He knew not those 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 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 them; and therefore 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 those 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.

Lastly, He was immortal. He would never have died if he had not sinned; it was in case of sin that death was threatened, 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, and those who have sinned. And God's special care of his innocent creature secured him against outward violence. The apostle's testimony is express, 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."

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Thus have I shown you the holiness and happiness of man in this state. If any shall say, What is 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, to keep it for himself and his children, and to convey it to them. 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." Had Adam stood, none would have quarrelled with the representation.

The Doctrine of the State of Innocence applied.

USE I. 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 woful choice? or did 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 strewed. 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 hath to exact perfect obedience from 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 inheritance, and freely makes offer of it again to us; and that with the advantage of everlasting security, that it can never be altogether lost any more. Free grace will fix those whom free will shook down into a gulf of misery.

USE II.-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 their lusts. Surely those men are far from righteousness: they are haters of God, for they are haters of his image. Upright Adam in paradise would have been a great eye-sore

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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 ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue?" 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 bands be made strong." Holiness was the glory 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 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 laugh, 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, "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,