Chapter 9. Of Man, and the Estate Of Innocence.
WILLIAM PERKINS
Chapter 9. Of Man, and the Estate Of Innocence.
Man, after he was created by God, was established in an excellent estate of innocence. In this estate, seven things are chiefly to be regarded.
I. The place: The garden of Eden, that most pleasant garden. Gen 2.15, Then the Lord took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden.
II. The integrity of man's nature, which was, Eph 4.24, created in righteousness and true holiness. This integrity has two parts.
The first is Wisdom, which is true and perfect knowledge of God, and of His will, inasmuch as it is to be performed by man — and indeed, by the counsel of God in all his creatures. Col 3.10, And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him. Gen 2.19, When the Lord God had formed on the earth every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heaven, He brought them to the man, to see how he would call them: for however the man called the living creature, so was the name of it.
The second is Justice, which is a conformity of the will, affections, and powers of the body, to the will of God.
III. Man's dignity, consisting of four parts.
First, his communion with God, by which, as God rejoiced in His own image, so likewise man was incensed to love God. This is apparent by God's familiar conference with Adam. Gen 1.29, And God said, Behold,
I have given you every herb-bearing seed, etc. that shall be food for you.
Secondly, his dominion over all the creatures of the earth. Gen 2.19. Psa 8.6, You have made him Lord over the works of your hands, and have set all things under his feet, etc.
A GOLDEN CHAIN
Thirdly, the decency and dignity of the body, in which, though naked, as nothing was unseemly, so there was imprinted in it, a princely majesty. Psa 8.5,
You have made him little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and worship. Gen 2.25, They were both naked, and neither was ashamed. 1Cor 12.23, Upon those members of the body which we think most unhonoured, we put more honour, and our unattractive parts have more attractiveness on them.
Fourthly, labor of the body, without pain or grief.
[by contrast] Gen 3.17, 19, Because you have obeyed the voice of your wife, etc., cursed is the earth for your sake; in sorrow shall you eat of it all the days of your life, etc.
IV. Subjection to God, by which man was bound to perform obedience to the commandments of God, which were two. The one was concerning trees; the other, the observation of the Sabbath.
God's commandment concerning the Trees was ordained to examine and test man's obedience. It consists of two parts:
The first is giving the Tree of Life, so that as a sign, it might confirm to man his perpetual abode in the garden of Eden — if he persisted in his obedience. Rev
2.7, To him that overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the mist of the Paradise of God. Prov
3.18, She
is a tree of life to those who lay hold on her, and blessed is he that retains her.
The second is the prohibition of eating of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, together with the commination
of temporal and eternal death after transgressing this commandment. Gen 2.17, Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die the death. This was a sign of death, and He named the event, because observing it would have brought perpetual happiness, just as violating it gave the experience of evil — that is, of all misery; namely, of punishment, and of the guiltiness of sin.
WILLIAM PERKINS
God's commandment concerning the observation of the Sabbath, is that by which God ordained the sanctification of the Sabbath. Gen 2.3, God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.
V. His calling, which is his service to God in the observation of His commandments, and tending the garden of Eden. Pro 16.4, God made all things for himself. Gen 2.15, He placed him in the garden of Eden, to tend and keep it.
VI. His diet was the herbs of the earth, and the fruit of every tree, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Gen 1.29, And God said, Behold, I have given to you every herb-bearing seed which is on all the earth, and every tree in which there is the fruit of a tree-bearing seed; that shall be food for you; and 3.17,
But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.
VII. His free choice, both to will and to perform the commandment concerning the two trees, and also to neglect and violate the same. By this we see that our first parents were indeed created perfect, but mutable.
For so it pleased God to prepare a way for the execution of His decree.