Religion & morality > Human nature in its four-fold state ... in several practical discourses

Happinefs. 19
he kept cue Thing, one Tree in the Garden out of
his Hands, even the Tree of Knowledge of Good
and Evil.
But you may fay, Sind did be grudge him this ?
I anfwer, Nay ; but when he had made him thus
boly and happy, he gracioufly gave him this Re-
ftriftion, which w'as in its own Nature, a Prop and
Stay to keep him from falling. And this I fay*
upon thele three Grounds, (x.) As it was moft
proper for the Honour ol God, who had made Man
Lord of the lower World, to affert his fovereign
Dominion over all, by fome particular vifible Sign;
fo it was moft proper for Man’s Safety. Man be¬
ing fet down in a beautiful Paradifc, ’twas an Aft
of infinite Wifdom, and of Grace too, to keep from
him one fingle Tree, as a vifible Teftimony that he
muft hold all of his Creator, as his great Landlord ;
that fo, while he faw himfelf Lord of the Creatures,
he might not forget that he was ftill God’s Subject.
(2.) This was a Memorial of his mutable State
given in to him from Heaven, to be laid up by him,
for his greater Caution. For Man was created
with a Free-will to Good, which the fret of Life
was an Evidence of: But his Will was alfo free to
Evil, and the forbidden ’free was to him a Memo¬
rial thereof. It was, in a Manner, a continual
Watch-word to him againft Evil, a Beacon fet up
before him, to bid him beware of dafhing himfelf
to Pieces, on the Rock of Sin. (3.) God made
Man upright, direfted towards God as his chief
End. He fet him like Mofes, on the Top of the
Hill, holding up his Hands to Heaven : And as
Aaron and Hur ftay’d up Mofes\ Hands, (Exod.
xvii. 10, 11, 12.) fo God gave Man anew# Ft-'
gure of Body, and forbid him the eat mg of this
B z Tree i