2 "Ista sapientia rerum divinarum, ct sanctimonia, quam Adamo ante lapsum tri- buit Franzius, una cum aliis, idea quaedam est, in cerebro ipsorum nata." — Smalc. ubi sup.
3 Socin. Ep. 5, ad Johan. Volkel., p. J 89.
OF man's condition before AlsD AFTER THE FALL. 157
righteousness, and holiness, is evident on the ensuing considera- tions : —
1. He who was made " very good" and "upright," in a moral con- sideration, had the original righteousness pleaded for; for moral goodness, integrity, and uprightness, is equivalent unto righteousness. So are the words used in the description of Job, chap. i. 1 ; and "righte- ous" and " upright" are terms equivalent, Ps. xxxiii. 1. Now, that man was made thus good and upright was manifested in the scriptures cited in answer to the question before proposed, concerning the con- dition wherein our first parents were created. And, indeed, this uprightness of man, this moral rectitude, was his formal aptitude and fitness for and unto that obedience which God required of him, and which was necessary for the end whereunto he was created.
2. He who was created perfect in his kind was created with the original righteousness pleaded for. This is evident from hence, be- cause righteousness and holiness is a perfection of a rational being made for the service of God. This in angels is called " the truth," or that orioinal holiness and rectitude which " the devil abode not in," John viii. 44. Now, as before, man was created "very good" and " upright," therefore perfect as to his state and condition; and what- ever is in him of imperfection flows from the corruption and depra- vation of nature.
8. He that was created m the image of God was created in a state of rigliteousness, holiness, and knowledge. That Adam was created in the image of God is plainly afiirmed in Scripture, and is not de- nied. That by the " image of God" is especially intended the qua- lities mentioned, is manifest from that farther description of the image of God which we have given us in the scriptures before pro- duced in answer to our first question. And what is recorded of the first man in his primitive condition will not suffer us to esteem him such a baby in knowledge as the Socinians would make him. His imposing of names on all creatures, his knowing of his wife on first view, etc., exempt him from that imputation. Yea, the very heathens could conclude that he was very wise indeed who first gave names to things.^
Secondly. For the disproving of that mortality which they ascribe to man in innocency the ensuing arguments may suffice : —
1. He that was created in the image of God, in righteousness and holiness, whilst he continued in that state and condition, was im- mortal. That man was so created lies under the demonstration of the foregoing arguments and testimonies. The assertion thereupon, or the inference of immortality from the image of God, appears on this double consideration: — (1.) In our renovation by Christ into
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158 VINDICIiE EVANGELIC^.
the image of God, we are renewed to a blessed immortality ; and our likeness to God consisted no less in that than in any other commu- nicable property of his nature. (2.) Wherever is natm-ally perfect righteousness, there is naturally perfect life; that is, immortality. This is included in the very tenor of the promise of the law: " If a man keep my statutes, he shall live in them," Lev. xviii. 5,
2. That which the first man contracted and drew upon himself by sin was not natural to him before he sinned: but that man con- tracted and drew death upon himself, or made himself liable and obnoxious unto it by sin, is proved by all the texts of Scripture that were produced above in answer to our second question; as Gen. ii. 17, iii. 19; Kom. v. 12, 15, 17-19, vi. 23, etc.
3. That which is beside and contrary to nature was not natural to the first man ; but death is beside and contrary to nature, as the voice of nature abundantly testifieth : therefore, to man in his pri- mitive condition it was not natural.
Unto these may sundry other arguments be added, from the pro- mise of the law, the end of man's obedience, his constitution and state, denying all proximate causes of death, etc. ; but these may suffice.
Thirdly. That the sin of Adam is not to be confined to the mere eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but had its rise in infidelity, and comprised universal apostasy from God, in disobedience to the law of his creation and dependence on God, I have elsewhere demonstrated, and shall not need here again to insist upon it.^ That it began in infidelity is evident from the beginning of the temptation wherewith he was overcome. It was to doubt of the truth or veracity of God to which the woman was at first solicited by Satan : Gen. iii. 1, " Hath God said so?" pressing that it should be otherwise than they seemed to have cause to apprehend from what God said ; and their acquiescence in that reply of Satan, without revolving to the truth and faithfulness of God, was plain unbelief. Now, as faith is the root of all righteousness and obe- dience, so is infidelity of all disobedience. Being overtaken, con- quered, deceived into infidelity, man gave up himself to act contrary to God and his will, shook off his sovereignty, rose up against his law, and manifested the frame of his heart in the pledge of his dis- obedience, eating the fruit that was sacramentally forbidden him.