woman came not out of the hands of their Maker in this state of vanity and corruption in which we now see them. God formed them in a state of purity and innocence; but they wandered and lost themselves by departing from him. They sought out vain thoughts which ruined them, and which still ruin their posterity every day. This is what he teaches as the fruit of his researches. "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inven"tions." That which employed the meditations of the wisest of men, may justly engage ours. The subject of the original rectitude of man and his voluntary fall, is important in itself, and useful in various respects: we have, therefore, thought it worthy of occupying our labour and your attention. We had first entertained the design of explaining the whole verse, and exhibiting to your view, on one side the perfection of man at his creation, and on the other the misery of his rebellion and fall. These would have formed the two parts of our discourse, as they are the two truths contained in our text. But upon mature reflection, this subject appeared so copious and extensive, that in order to a more complete investigation and satisfactory development of it, we have preferred confining ourselves, at this time, to a consideration of the state of integrity; reserving to another opportunity, to address you, if the Lord permit, on the unhappy fall of our first parents. We proceed, therefore, to the discussion of this truth, "that God hath made man upright."-First, WE SHALL ATTEMPT TO GIVE YOU A JUST IDEA OF THE ORIGINAL RIGHTEOUSNESS OF ADAM, AND -- -Secondly, TO EXPLAIN IN WHAT IT CONSISTED.- GRITY.-Lastly, WE SHALL ADDUCE SOME ARGU- FOLLOWING HIM.-May it please God to guide us in what we are about to deliver, and bless our discourse and your attention. Amen. I. I shall not dwell on Solomon's preface to the truths he is inculcating: "Lo, this only have I "found." It is a kind of introduction, intended to impress a deep sense of the importance and certainty of what he designs to teach, as if he had said: After having reflected much on the origin of evil, I have arrived at this conclusion; the result of all my researches is comprized in these two indubitable truths.-This being premised, you easily perceive that when he tells us "God hath made man "upright," he speaks of the first man, of man at his creation, not of men as they are now born in a state of sin. It can no longer be affirmed, that we are upright, and that righteousness is natural to us: we are "conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity;" we are born polluted, "children of wrath ;"+"every imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth."‡ But the wise man leads us back to the garden of Eden, to the root and source of the human race, to + Ephes. ii. 3. * Psal. li. 5. Gen, vi, 5. viii, 21. our first parents: for of them in common, of Adam and Eve together, he intends to speak, when he says: "God hath made man upright;" man, that is, man and woman, or human nature in its original state, in the persons of Adam and his wife. Some translate the passage, "God hath made man "simple." But this interpretation may have a dangerous tendency, if by simplicity be understood nothing more than a quality similar to that of infants, who are without malice and artifice, but the weakness of whose faculties renders them very liable to deception. The Hebrew term imports more than this: it signifies right, good, just, equitable, sincere, upright; in a word, it denotes a moral rectitude. And the manner in which Solomon here places this uprightness in opposition to the errors, evasions, and obliquities of fallen man, and to the vain imaginations which hurried him into sin, sufficiently evinces his meaning to be, that God created man in a state of integrity and original righteousness. Man was invested with all the perfection necessary to a reasonable creature formed for the divine glory: not only with all the natural perfection essential to the constitution of his being, but with all the moral perfection requisite for the end to which he was destined. The Creator gave him a pure soul and a well regulated body; an understanding imbued with no prejudices, pre-occupied by no false principles, but capable of knowing and comprehending, truth of every kind when distinctly propounded. impressed on the soul of man the original ideas of things, and the first principles which serve as the basis and rule of all his judgments. He gave him He a will endued with liberty, of an extent almost infinite and an activity without bounds; inspired with a love of the sovereign good, and feeling towards it a vehement and invincible inclination; a will capable of embracing and loving whatever should be proposed by the understanding as good and true, without being constrained by any exterior force. It had a power of suspending its consent, till the understanding should have fully examined things and considered them on all sides. It was neither disposed nor required to yield, except to the force of conviction and to a good clearly ascertained. All the inclinations which God gave him, his natural motions, appetites, and passions, had none but good tendencies, and would only excite him to labour with more promptitude and certainty for the conservation and perfection of his being. All these inclinations were in subjection to reason. They advised without commanding. They roused the soul, without disturbing it. They excited its activity and energies, without carrying it beyond proper bounds. After having advised, they waited its orders without impatience; they obeyed its commands without exceeding them, or hurrying it beyond its design. His affections were neither too ardent, nor too cold; equally remote from excess and languor, from superfluity and defect. They uniformly pursued good objects, and in a fit and legitimate manner. They desired nothing that was not desirable, nor did they remain torpid and indifferent; they failed not to wish for whatever presented itself that was truly worthy of their choice. In this beautiful and perfect harmony of the faculties and affections of man the body also had its part, and contributed to the perfection of this masterpiece of the Almighty. It was necessary that it should be so; for man being composed of matter and spirit, and being capable of innumerable actions, sensations, and passions, resulting from the union of soul and body, could not be called upright, righteous, and well disposed, in a moral sense; if the body had not participated, as far as its nature would admit, in that rectitude and good disposition. A rebellious body, with movements and organs ill-disposed and badly regulated, would have been unfit to accord with the soul and aid in its functions. This would have been a perpetual source of conflict and disorder; whereas the state of innocence was a scene of perfect peace, in which the body and soul were in admirable harmony. The body possessed a conformation, health, and vigour, in all its parts, internal and external, well calculated for observing the laws of its union with the soul, and imparting to it none but regular and suitable passions and thoughts, I consider man in this state as a world in miniature, exhibiting innumerable graces; as a world newly formed, coming out of the hands of the Creator with all the freshness and beauty of a delightful spring. There was nothing impaired or debilitated, nothing unsuitable to his nature or foreign from his destination, He was a little world in perfect symmetry which nothing had yet disturbed. No vapours obscured the understanding, no whirlwinds or tempests agitated the soul. There were no com |