From these things we may, by a just analogy, collect wherein life and death spiritual do consist. And to that end some things must be previously observed; as, — 1. That Adam in the state of innocency, besides his natural life, whereby he was a living soul, had likewise a supernatural life with respect unto its end, whereby he lived unto God. This is called the " life of God," Eph. iv. 18, which men now in the state of nature are alienated from ; — the life which God re- quires, and which hath God for its object and end. And this life was in him supernatural : for although it Avas concreated in and with the rational soul, as a perfection due unto it, in the state wherein
^ EKcil, bi-ouglit into actual existence.
2 Imperate, done by the direction of the mind. — Ed.
CHAP. IV.] NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL, COMPARED. 285
and with respect unto the end for which it was made, yet it did not naturally flow from the principles of the rational soul ; nor were the principles, faculties, or abilities of it, inseparable fi-oni those of the soul itself, being only accidental perfections of them, inlaid in them by especial grace. This life was necessary unto him with respect unto the state wherein and the end for which he was made. He was made to live unto the living God, and that in a peculiar manner; — • to live unto his glory in this world, by the discharge of the rational and moral obedience required of him ; and to live afterward in his glory and the eternal enjoyment of him, as his chiefest good and highest reward. That whereby he was enabled hereunto was that life of God, which we are alienated from in the state of nature. 2. In this life, as in life in general, three things are to be considered : — (1.) Its principle; (2.) Its operation; (3.) Its virtue; or habit, act, and power.
(1.) There was a quickening pinnciple belonging unto it; for every life is an act of a quickening principle. This in Adam Avas the image of God, or an habitual conformity unto God, his mind and will, wherein the holiness and righteousness of God himself was repre- sented, Gen. i. 26, 27. In this image he was created, or it was con- created with him, as a perfection due to his nature in the condition wherein he was made. This gave him an habitual disposition unto all duties of that obedience that was required of him; it was the rectitude of all the faculties of his soul with respect unto his super- natural end, Eccles. vii. 29.
(2.) There belonged unto it continual actings from, or by virtue of, and suitable unto, this principle. All the acts of Adam's life should have been subordinate unto his great moral end. In all that he did he should have lived unto God, according unto the law of that covenant wherein he walked before him. And an acting in all things suitably unto the light in his mind, unto the righteousness and holi- ness in his will and affections, that uprightness, or integrity, or order, that was in his soul, was his living unto God.
(3.) He had herewithal poiuer or ability to continue the principle of life in suitable acts of it, with respect unto the whole obedience required of him ; that is, he had a sufficiency of ability for the per- formance of any duty, or of all, that the covenant required.
And in these three [things] did the supernatural life of Adam in innocency consist; and it is that which the life whereunto Ave are restored by Christ doth answer. It answers unto it, I say, and sup- plies its absence with respect unto the end of living unto God accord- ing unto the new covenant that we are taken into ; for neither would the hfe of Adam be sufficient for us to live unto God according to the terms of the new covenant, nor is the life of grace we now enjoy suited to the covenant wherein Adam stood before God. Wlierefore,
286 LIFE AND DEATH, [BOOK III.
some differences there are between them, the principal whereof may be reduced into two heads: —
1. The principle of this life was wholly and entirely in man himself. It was the effect of another cause, of that which was with- out ]iim, — namely, the good -will and power of God; but it was left to grow on no other root but what was in man himself. It was wholly implanted in his nature, and therein did its springs lie. Ac- tual excitations, by influence of power from God, it should have had; for no principle of operation can subsist in an independence of God, nor apply itself unto operation without his concurrence. But in the life where unto we are renewed by Jesus Christ, the fountain and principle of it is not in ourselves, but in him, as one common head unto all that are made partakers of him. He is " our life;'' and our life (as to the spring and fountain of it) is hid with him in God, Col. iii. 3, 4; for he quickeneth us by his Spirit, Rom. viii. 11. And our spiritual life, as in us, consists in the vital actings of this Spirit of his in us; for "without him we can do nothing," John xv. 5. By virtue hereof we " walk in newness of life," Rom. vi. 4. We live, there- fore, hereby; yet not so much we, as " Christ liveth in us," Gal. ii. 20