Religion & morality > Human nature in its fourfold state

•22 Of Nan's Original Right eon fnefs. State I.
An inclination to evil, is really a fountain of fin, and
therefore inconfiftent with that rectitude and upright-
refs which the text exprefsly fays, he was endued with
at his creation. The will of man then was diretled,
and naturally inclined to God and goodnefs, though
mutably It was difpofed, by its original make, to
follow the Creator’s will, as the lhadow does the body;
and that was not left in an equal balance to good and
evil : for at that rate he had not been upright, nor
habitually conform 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 himfelf. The law was impreiled upon Adam’s
foul: now this according to the new covenant, by which
the image of God is repaired, confifts in two things : |
i. Putting the law into the mind, denoting the know¬
ledge of it: 2. Writing it in the heart, denoting in¬
clinations in the will, anfwerable to the commands of
the law, Heb. viii 10 So that, as the will, when we
Confider it as renewed by grace, is by that grace na¬
tively inclined to the fame holinefs in all its parts
which the law requires ; fo was the will of man (when
we ccnlider him as God made him at firlll endued with
natural inclinations to every thing commanded by the
law. For if tlie regenerate are partakeis of the divine
nature, as undoubtedly they are ; for fo fays the ferip-
ture, 2 Pet. i. 4. And if this divine nature can im¬
port no lefs than inclinations of the heart to holinefs :
then furely Adam’s will could not want this inclina¬
tion ; for in him the image of God was perfetl. It is
true, ’tis fa id, Rom. ii. 14, 15. That the Gentiles Jhe\u
the uork of the law -written in their hearts : but this
denotes only their knowledge of that law, fuch as it is ;
but the apoitle to the Hebrews, in the text cited, takes
the vvoid hearty in another fenfe, dillinguiihing it
plainly from the mind. And it mud be granted, that,
when God promifeth in the new covenant, To write
his taio in the hearts of his people, it imports quite
another thing than what Heathens have: for tho’ they
have notions of it in their minds, yet their hearts go
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