1. The state of innocence wherein man was created. "God hath made man upright." By man here we are to understand our first parents; the archetypal pair, the root of mankind, the compendized world, and the fountain from whence all generations have streamed; as may appear by comparing Gen. v. 1, 2. "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him, male and female created he them, and blessed them, (as the root of mankind) and called their name Adam." The original word is the same in our text. In this sense, man was made right (agreeably to the nature of God, whose work is perfect) without any imperfection, corruption, or principle of corruption, in his body or soul. He was made upright, that is, straight with the will and law of God, without any irregularity in his soul. By the set it got in its creation, it directly pointed towards God, as his chief end; which straight inclination was represented, as an emblem, by the erect figure of his body, a figure that no other living creature partakes of. What David was in a gospel sense, that was he in a legal sense; one according to God's own heart, altogether righteous, pure, and holy. God made him thus. He did not first make him, and then make him righteous: but in the very making of him, he made him righteous. Original righteousness was concreated with him; so that in the same moment he was a man, he was a righteous man, morally good; with the same breath that God breathed in him a living soul, he breathed in him a righteous soul.

2. Here is man's fallen state; "but they have sought out many inventions." They fell from their rest in God, and fell upon seeking inventions of their own, to mend their case; and they quite marred it. Their ruin was from their own proper motion; they would not abide as God had made them; but they sought out inventions, to deform and undo themselves.

3. Observe here the certainty and importance of these things, "Lo, this only have I found," &c. Believe them, they are the result of a narrow search, and a serious inquiry, performed by the wisest of men. In

the two preceding verses, Solomon represents himself as in quest of goodness in the world: but the issue of it was, he could find no satisfying issue of his search after it; though it was not for want of pains; for he counted one by one to find out the account. Behold, this have I found, (saith the preacher)---to wit, That (as the same word is read in our text) yet my soul seeketh, but I find not. He could make no satisfying discovery of it, which might stay his inquiry. He found good men very rare, one, as it were, among a thousand; good women more rare, not one good among his thousand wives and concubines, 1 Kings xi. 3. But could that satisfy the grand query, Where shall wisdom be found? No, it could not and if the experience of others in this point run counter to Solomon's, as it is no reflection on his discerning, it can as little decide the question, which will remain undetermined till the last day but amidst all this uncertainty, there is one point found out and fixed: This have I found. Ye may depend upon it as a most certain truth, and be fully satisfied in it: Lo, this; fix your eyes upon it, as a matter worthy of most deep and serious regard; to wit, That man's nature is now depraved; but that depravation was not from God, for he" made man upright," but from themselves, "they have sought out many inventons."

Doctrine. God made man altogether righteous.

This is that state of innocence in which God set man down in the world. It is described in the holy scriptures with a running pen in comparison of the following states; for it was of no continuance, but passed as a flying shadow by man's abusing the freedom of his own will. I shall,

First, Inquire into the righteousness of this state wherein man was created...

Secondly, Lay before you some of the happy concom➡ itants and consequents thereof.

Lastly, Apply the whole.

OF MAN'S ORIGINAL RIGHTEOUSNESS

FIRST, AS to the righteousness of this state, consider, that as uncreated righteousness, the righteousness of God, is the supreme rule, so all created righteousness, whether of men or angels, hath respect to a law as its rule, and is a conformity thereunto. A creature can no more be morally independent on God, in its actions and powers, than it can be naturally independent on him. A creature, as a creature, must acknowledge the Creator's will as its supreme law; for as it cannot be without him, so it must not be but for him, and according to his will: yet no law obliges, until it be revealed. And hence it follows, that there was a law which man, as a rational creature, was subjected to in his creation; and that this law was revealed to him. God made man upright, says the text. This presupposeth a law, to which he was con"formed in his creation; as when any thing is made regular, or according to rule, of necessity the rule itself is presupposed. Whence we may gather, that this law was no other than the eternal, indispensible law of righteousness, observed in all points by the second Adam; opposed by the carnal mind; some notions of which remain yet among the Pagans, who, "having not the law, are a law unto themselves," Rom. ii. 15. In a word, this law is the very same which was afterwards summed up in the ten commandments, and promulgated on mount Sinai to the Israelites; called by us the moral law: and man's righteousness consisted in conformity to this law or rule. More particularly, there is a twofold conformity required of man; a conformity of the powers of his soul to the law, which you may call habitual righteousness; and a conformity of all his actions to it, which is actual righteousness. Now God made man habitually righteous; man was to make himself actually righteous: the former was the stock of God put into his hand; the latter the improvement he should have made of it. The sum of what I have

said is, that the righteousness wherein man was created, was the conformity of all the faculties and powers of his soul to the noral law. This is what we call original righteousness, which man was originally endowed with. We may take it up in these three things.

First, Man's understanding was a lamp of light. He had perfect knowledge of the law, and of his duty accordingly he was made after God's image, and consequently could not want knowledge, which is a part thereof, Col. iii. 10. "The new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." And indeed this was necessary, to fit him for universal obedience; seeing no obedience can be according to the law, unless it proceed from a sense of the commandment of God requiring it. It is true, Adam had not the law written upon tables of stone; but it was written upon his mind, the knowledge thereof being concreated with him. God impressed upon his soul, and made him a law to himself, as the remains of it among the heathen do testify, Rom. ii. 14, 15. And seeing man was made to be the mouth of the creation, to glorify God in his works, we have ground to believe he had naturally an exquisite knowledge of the works of God. We have a proof of this in his giving names to the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and these such as express their nature. "Whatsoever Ádam called every living creature, that was the name thereof," Gen. ii. 19. And the dominion which God gave them over the creatures, soberly to use and dispose of them according to his will, (still in subordination to the will of God,) seems to require no less than a knowledge of their natures. And, besides all this, his perfect knowledge of the law proves his knowledge in the management of civil affairs, which, in respect of the law of God, a good man a good man will guide with discretions Psal. cxii. 5.

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Secondly, His will lay straight with the will of God, Eph. iv. 24. There was no corruption in his will, no bent or inclination to evil; for that is sin, properly and truly so called: hence the apostle says, Rom. vii. 7. “ I

had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known Just, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." An inclination to evil is really a fountain of sin, and therefore inconsistent with that rectitude and uprightness which, the text expressly says, he was endued with at his creation. The will of man then was directed, and naturally inclined, to God and goodness, though mutably. It was disposed, by its original make, to follow the Creator's will, as the shadow does the body; and 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 himself. The law was impressed upon Adam's soul: now this, according to the new covenant, by which the image of God is repaired, consists in two things; (1) Putting the law into the mind, denoting the knowledge of it. (2.) Writing it in the heart, denoting inclinations in the will, answerable to the commands of the law, Heb. viii, 10. So that as the will, when we consider it as renewed by grace, is, by that grace, natively inclined to the same holiness, in all its parts, which the law requires; so was the will of man, when we consider him as God made him at first, endowed with natural inclinations to every thing commanded by the law. For if the regenerate are partakers of the divine nature, as undoubtedly they are; for so says the scripture, 2 Pet. 1. 4. and if this divine nature can import no less than inclinations of the heart to holiness: then surely Adam's will could not want this inclination; for in him the image of God was perfect. It is true, it is said, Rom. ii. 13, 14. "That the Gentiles-shew the work of the law written in their hearts:" but it denotes only their knowledge of that law, such as it is; but the apostle to the Hebrews, in the text cited, takes the word heart in another sense, distinguishing it plainly from the mind. And it must be granted, that when God promiseth, in the new covenant, to write his law in the hearts of his people, it imports quite another thing than what heathens have; for though