GEN. II. Ver. 16, 17. And the Lord God commanded the Man, faying, Of every Tree of the Garden thou mayft freely eat. But of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil thou fhalt not eat of it: For in the Day that thou eateft thereof, thou fhalt furely die. D AILY Experience fhews us that there is much Ignorance, Folly and Mifery amongst Men; that we have a profpect of these as foon as we begin to think; and that nothing more imbitters Life than that View. The Beafts are fick, and want and die as well as Men; but yet are not fo miserable, because they fee no farther than the prefent, and therefore are not tormented with the Remembrance of what is paft, or the fear of what is to come. Whereas Men are apprized that Pains and Diseases, Difappointments and Death are before them, and have not the like certainty of one fingle Act of Pleasure to ballance the difmal Confideration. This fhould make us fenfible that we are not in the State in which Nature placed us, fince a Good God can hardly be fupposed to have made a Creature with less Views of Happiness than of Mifery. From whence we may conclude that our present Estate is not that wherein God created us, but that we are fome way or other fallen from it. The Text gives us the occafion of that Fall, and there is no other Account to be given of our present Condition, but what we receive here from the Holy Scriptures for although all confidering Men have seen and bemoaned our Mifery, yet none could ever discover any other rational ground for it, or give any tolerable Reason how it came to be fo. It is furely of great moment to us to be acquainted with it, because it is one Step to the Cure to discover the Difease. It is a Subject not commonly handled, and requires Atten Attention in You, as well as Diligence and Care in Me to inform you in the following Particulars. Ift. Of the State of Circumstances of Man, when this Command in the Text was given. 2dly. The Command itself forbidding Adam to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 3dly. How Man was feduced to break this Command. 4thly. The Confequences of this Difobedience. As to the State and Circumstances of Man when this Command was given. ift. It is manifeft, that he was then immediately created, and being just come out of the hands of God, he was in a ftate proper to his Nature, pure and innocent, without any Stain or Corruption. He had no Law but that of his Mind, or what he received by immediate Revelation from God; nor any defect, but that which is unavoidably incident to every thing created, which may be perfect in its kind, but cannot be abfolutely fo; that being proper to God. For to fay a thing was created is to confefs that it depends on the Will and Power of him that made it; and therefore it cannot be felf-fufficient, but needs the continual fupport of its Creator, and the affiftance of fuch of its fellow Creatures as God has been pleased to appoint as neceffary helpers for its fubfiftence. All the Perfection therefore to which Creatures can pretend, is to answer the defign for which they were created. This is that Goodness God faw in them, This undoutedly Man had, and in this fenfe he was very good. If therefore God did not defign that Man fhould be felf-fufficient, but have a Communion with the bodies that are about him, and as a portion of the Universe depend on their Affiftance and Influence as to his Material part; it will be no Imperfection in him that he owes his Food to the Earth, his Warmth to the Sun, and his Breath to the Air. For fince God has made all these neceffary to his Subfiftance, he answers the defign of Providence, whilft he uses them to the purposes, to which God. has appointed them, 2dly. We must remember that if Man's Understanding at first was never fo clear, and his fenfes and faculties never fo fo ftrong; yet having made no Obfervations, and being abfolutely without Experience, he could know no more of any thing, than what was revealed by God to him. And there was no neceffity that God fhould reveal more Knowledge to him than was at prefent to be used by him. You may obferve in the 19th Verse of this Chapter, that out of the Ground the Lord God form'd every Beaft of the Field, and every Fowl of the Air, and brought them to Adam, to fee what he would call them, and whatfoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. This was the way by which God taught him Language; and you fee it went no farther than the Names of the Beafts of the Earth, and Fowls of the Air amongst whom he lived, and over whom he was to exercise Dominion. Nor was it any Imperfection in the firft Man, that he was ignorant of the Nature of things, if we fuppofe that he had a certain way to come to that Knowledge, when he had occafion for it. For the defign of Knowledge is not to amufe us or fill our heads with Notions, but to ferve and direct us in the Affairs of Life. It is only this fort of Knowledge that is truly valuable: And he that has most of it and best applies it, is to be accounted most wife. If therefore Adam had a certain way of knowing the nature of every Thing, when he was to employ that Knowledge; though he was actually without it, yet he was in a better State than any of his Pofterity, who have made many Obfervations and are furnished with many actual Notions, but have no certain way of coming to fuch Knowledge as upon every Occafion is neceffary for their Direction. 3dly. Therefore we muft conceive that Adam was under the immediate conduct and direction of God, and was not to judge for himself, but was to leave himself entirely to be guided and directed by his Maker. You fee he was not left to determine for himself what he fhould eat: But God by Revelation affigned him his Food and provided it for him. So Chap. 1. v. 29. And God faid, Behold I have given you every herb bearing feed which is upon the face of all the Earth. And every Tree in which is the fruit of a Tree yielding feed, to you it shall be for Meat. And in the Text, |