Religion & morality > Human nature in its fourfold state

Of Man's Original Happinefs.
eternal life by doing, ver 16 ) keep the cemmancfm<?nts.
The penalty was death, Gen. ii. j 7. In th: day that
then eatejl thereof, thou foa.lt furely die. The death
threatened was fuch, as the life promifed was ; and
that ir.oft judiy, viz. 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, becaufe of his pofterlty
I then in his loins •, and another covenant was prepare ! y
I However, that day his body got its death’s-wound,and
i became mortal. Death alfo feized his foul; He loll
| his original righteoufntfs and the fav ur of God ;
witnefs the gripes and throes of confcience, which
! made him hide himfelf from God And he became
liable to eternal death, which would have atlua’ly
I followed of courft, if a Mediator had not been provid-
1 ed who found him bound' with the cords of dc uh,
| as a malefadlor ready to be led to execution. Thus
j|j you have a flaort defeription of the covenant, into
n which the Lord brought naan, in the flute of innocence.
Ij And feemeth it a fmail-thing unto you, that earth
|i was thus confederate with- heaven ? This could have
I been done to none but him,-whom the King of hr ’ n
I delighted to honour. It was an a<fl of grace wortny
| of the gracious God whofe favourite he was ; for tlv rc
I was grace and free favour in the firfl covenant, the ;h
the exceeding riches of grace (as the apoAF cal's it,
I Eph ii. 7 ) was referred for the ftcotad. It was c r-
I tainly an a£I of grace, favour and admirable con-te-
1 fceufion in God, to enter into a covenant ; and fa Jr
I a covenant with his own creature Man was no: at
t| his owu but at God’s difpofal Nor had he anv t.Ung-
Ito work with, but what fie had-receive 1 from God.
There , was no proportion bet" ixt the work at. tlic
promTed reward. Before that covenant, man was
bound to per feel obedience, in virtue of his natural
dependence on Gcand death w^as naturally the wages
r f fm ; which the j uflice of God could and would.have
required,, though there had never been any coven- rt
betwixt God and man ; but God was free; man could
£ never