-- CHAPTER V: The practical improvements which we should make of these truths delivered.
prophet pretended he had a contrary revelation himself, having the reputation of a prophet as well as himself. He opposed not his bare word and authority to God's, as the devil in this, but pretended a new commission, bearing date since, from God himself.
3. There were jealousies engendered in their hearts, of unworthy designs and ends, that God had in prohibiting them; for so the devil suggested, 'God knows that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods;' as if he should have said, God knowing what virtue there is in the apple, hath purposely forbidden it, because he would not have you be so happy; which believed, must needs engender these thoughts, that God loved them not so well as they imagined, for he prevented their preferment, and so far hated his creature, in not only not wishing it, but keeping it from that good it was capable of; which must needs engender hatred of God in their hearts again, or that perhaps they should imagine he envied their happiness, which must argue that they thought that God feared to be equalled or matched by them if they should know as much as he, and be as God in the knowledge of good and evil. All which thoughts, or any one of them to entertain of God, what more dishonourable?
Whilst they seek to be as gods, they would make God as base as the devil, for malice and envy are his two sins.
4. He sinned against the sovereignty of God, for what was the thing that hooked him in? It was to be as gods; nothing else could have moved them; and so they thought to be independent of God, no longer under him; and though they should sin against him, that they should yet be able to make their party good with him. These to have been the thoughts that drew on the sin, is argued from the temptation which suggested these things, and did engender them, and in the issue prevailed.
CHAPTER V:
The practical improvements which we should make of these truths delivered.
That we should charge ourselves with the guilt of Adam's first sin, and be humbled in the sense of our guilt of it, as well as far the sins which us actually commit ourselves.—That since our first father failed in the trust committed to him, we should not put confidence in any creature, though most noble and excellent.—From Adam's example, who thus betrayed the trust placed in him, we should be awakened to be more watchful and more faithful to any trust reposed in us for ourselves and posterity.—If the state from which Adam fell was a state of holiness, then no man should be ashamed of being converted and regenerated, since it is but a returning to that primitive condition again.—Since Adam obtained mercy after having so highly and heinously sinned, the greatest sinners should be encouraged to hope, and to come to God for mercy
The first use you ought to make of this is, to take upon you the guilt of the first act, so far as you have heard it belonged unto you, that so you may be humbled before God for your share of guilt in it. And indeed till the guilt of Adam's sin be acknowledged as truly as any of your own, and your hearts rest satisfied in it, you will not be humbled before God, but will have something to plead; for still it will be said, How came I thus? who made me thus? And therefore the apostle, endeavouring to humble men, in this epistle to the Romans, convinceth them, in the first and second chapters, of evil works; then in the third chapter, of the evil of their natures; then of the first entrance of sin by Adam's sin, in the fifth chapter; the ignorance of which made the Gentiles complain of nature, that is, the God of nature, for bringing man into the world prone to evil, void of good.
And this likewise makes many people think God made no creatures to destroy them, and on that false principle hope to be saved; both these being alike ignorant how that this world of mankind was once righteous as it fell out of God's hands, and that God looking on you now can say, They are not as I made them. As therefore a potter
breaks a vessel that hath poison put into it by another, though it be his own vessel, so God justly destroys his own creature when corrupted by the devil. Let him therefore be justified, and the creature condemned, which cannot be but by the acknowledgment of this; for if we go from works to nature, it will be asked, How came my nature thus? I answer, by the guilt of this sin. So David, in acknowledging his sin, Ps. 51:4, 5, 'Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.' He hath recourse to this, and professedly to this end, that God might be justified. It is the speech of a godly divine, that the first step to the heavenly paradise is to see and acknowledge that which casts us out of the earthly, and that striking one of the last strokes is humbling the creature.
Now for this let me give you two directions.
1. If you cannot see reason for it, bring faith with you to believe it, for by faith we believe the world was made of nothing, which yet we see,
Heb. 11:3, 'By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh.' Why then we are to believe by the same reason that God made man righteous, and that he fell, and we all in him, for faith is the evidence of things not seen. And as one said on his deathbed, in acknowledging his sin,
The oldest man alive, that we use to bring to know landmarks, knows not of this; so we may say of Adam's sin, committed so many ages past. Now, to help your faith, resolve all into the wisdom, holiness, and justice of God, who therefore must needs make man holy, and justly impute his fall to all his posterity; and if his wisdom cannot clear it at the latter day, when this very thing shall be scanned the first of any thing; if God cannot make his party good against all the world in this, and stop all their mouths, so as you shall not be able to plead not guilty, he must shut up his books, and go no further.
Custom, indeed, will not carry it, unless the entrance was just,
though it doth so with tyrants, but God is none. And as in the believing Christ's righteousness to be ours, believers use to have recourse to inherent righteousness, which is the fruit of it, to help their faith, so have you to help in this, viz. as to that unrighteousness of nature you found in you from the beginning, think some or other cast poison in at the beginning, and that you are guilty of some sin or other, whereof this is the fruit.
2. Let not the commonness hinder your sensible acknowledgment of it. Men think because all are guilty it concerns them little; indeed, if the debt were so common as divided amongst you, then it might be slighted (if the least part of the guilt of a sin might be), but the whole resides upon every man, as if none else were guilty of it but he; Adam communicating his sin as genus communicat totam naturam cuilibet speciei, that is, as a general nature communicates the whole of its nature to all the kinds which are under it.
Use 2. Did Adam, who, as he was created and fell out of God's hands, was the most completely accomplished man with all habiliments of wisdom and righteousness that ever was, insomuch as God chose him, and thought him fully fit to be the sole burgess, head, and root of all mankind, yet did he (I say) thus perfect, so foully miscarry and overthrow himself and us, and that for so small a trifle, two toys, an apple and a woman? Then hence learn not to put confidence any more in men, or anything in man, be it never so excellent. For my part, would I ever have chosen a man (go through the bead-roll of them) since men were upon the face of the earth (Christ only excepted, that was more than man), to whom I would betrust my life, my goods, my portion in eternity, and into whose hands I would have put all the good I look for in this world or world to come, it should have been none but Adam; but by woful and lamentable experience we all find it, that he, when he had the lives and riches of all mankind ventured in him, yea, and himself, the greatest venturer of all the rest, a man judged able to have performed what was committed to him, to have steered and brought in safe this great cargo into the haven of life and happiness; yet he, even he, deceived us all, foully
and foolishly split himself upon a rock be might have avoided, and cast away himself and all. Hereafter trust not in any creature, much less in man; but trust only in the Lord, who is 'Jehovah, and changeth not,' for all the good you look for to you and yours. It is a meditation David hath, Ps. 62:7–9, 'In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, ye people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.' At ver. 9, he concludes that all men, high and low, are vain: 'men of low degree,' which for their multitude and number might be relied on, are yet vanity; 'men of high degree,' who have the government of states committed to their charge and trust for their wisdom and authority, yet they are a lie, deceitful if leaned on.
Remember Adam deceived you all; lay then all men in one balance, and vanity in the other; they are overswayed even by trifles, often moved this way and that way, as our first parents with an apple.
Therefore, saith David, ver. 7, 'In God is my salvation, the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God.' Trust to none but to him, to him only, ver. 6; and 'trust in him at all times,' ver. 8. Whatsoever your princes be, your great men, your parliaments,* all which, as Adam, are betrusted with your lives and liberties and the gospel, be they never so wise, never so holy, leave them not to themselves with these, no more than you would let out a brittle bark to sea that had all your lives and goods in her, and leave her to herself, to be carried whither every billow and wind would toss her, but go to God to be the pilot, pour out your hearts before him: 'God is a refuge for us,' ver. 8.
Desire him to have an hand upon the stern, to guide the hearts of princes; say not they are wise, and venturers themselves; remember
Adam, so was he, yet how miscarried he when left to himself! Oh see what need there is to pray for public persons, or any to whom public good is betrusted. As you are not to trust them, so not to trust to yourselves, your own graces, your hearts, go not in your own strength: Jer. 17:5, 'Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.' Tremble to put yourselves upon the
occasions of evil. Are you stronger than Adam, who had no inclination to evil, nothing but the contrary, and yet miscarried, held not out the first brunt? Thus Nehemiah argues in the ease of marrying strange wives, when he would dissuade the Jews from it, as being occasions of evil, Neh. 13:26, 'Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all
Israel; nevertheless, even him did outlandish women cause to sin.'
Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things? a man so wise, and one who was beloved of his God, nevertheless 'even him did outlandish women cause to sin.' Are you more holy than he? I add more; did not Adam transgress, whom God made king over all the world, and thought him fit to betrust all you had with? Yea he, even he, transgressed. See Eliphaz his collection: Job 15:15, 'Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.' God puts no trust in his saints; his angels whom he created righteous deceived him; so did man. How much less confidence is there to be put in vain man, which drinketh iniquity like water: Job
15:16, 'How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water!' Trust your own hearts no more than you would do the veriest thief or adulterer in the world.
Use 3. Did Adam, being betrusted with all our inheritances, thus foully and fearfully by one sinful act overthrow the world? Then learn we, whensoever we are betrusted with anything which concerns the good of succession and posterity (as Adam was), to be more faithful, more wary by this his example. How doth all the world rue that one act of his? Had God lengthened his days through all generations, what curses think we would he have had thrown at him by his offspring, made miserable by him, still as he rode through! There is none hero but will say, Were I to be in his case, I would never undo myself and them as he did. Why, my brethren, let me tell you, you that live in this kingdom have many things, yea, as great things committed to your trust for the good of your posterity as he had for his. If Ton ask me what? I answer, Besides many outward liberties and privileges, the glorious gospel; this book, which is all the
evidence you and yours have to anew for that glorious inheritance in heaven, and the only means to attain it, which is so rich a casket as it contains the revenues of Christ's blood. This, as to the Jews of old, is committed unto you as yet: Rom. 3:1, 2, What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.'
To them were committed the oracles of God, committed as a matter of trust to be transmitted to posterity; for whilst men walk in any measure answerable unto the light of it, they are not only converted by it, but they whet it on their own and their children's hearts: as Deut. 11:18–21, 'Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up; that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.' 'And as for God's part, see what a covenant he makes with them that truly turn in Jacob: Isa. 59:20, 'And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.' As for me, for my part, says he, this I will make good, if men turn in Jacob.
The gospel, my brethren, is as good as your freehold for you and yours, and God will not take it from you till you basely sell it, and carry yourselves unworthy of it: what else doth that place import,
Prov. 23:23, 'Buy the truth, and sell it not'? God takes it away from no people, or no man till he sell it, as Esau did his birthright, or as Adam did his primitive condition for an apple, till they lay it to pledge for base lusts. Why else doth he exhort them to buy and sell it not? See this in that example of the Jews, Acts 13:46, 'Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.' The Jews having been the pillar of the truth of God, that had kept it and preserved it for many ages, when the gospel came to be preached, and more grace and truth discovered, new
mines digged up which never saw light before, see what Paul and Barnabas say: Acts 13:46, 'It was necessary,' (mark it) 'necessary the word of God should first have been spoken to you'—necessary that it should have been first spoken to them in regard of covenant; but, say they, 'seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles,' and so their seed are left in darkness unto this day. God put them out of his will, and put the Gentiles in, and hath given them all. God doth as a good chapman doth with his old customers, they shall have the first offer of it; but if they refuse, and by their contempt of it shew themselves unworthy of it, he goes to some other market that will give more than they.
Consider also that one place, Rom. 11:20, 22, 'Well, because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou shalt be cut off.' 'Because of unbelief they are broken off.' Mark, if thou continue. My brethren, let me speak freely to you. The truth hath been purchased for you, and transmitted to you at a dear rate; it cost Christ his blood at first, and it hath cost your forefathers something. In Queen Mary's days they bought it with their dearest blood; since it hath cost many a preacher his best blood, spent, though not spilt for it; it cost many a prayer; it cost many a converted soul amongst us all their sins; it hath cost God himself much patience, the riches of his forbearance (notwithstanding our unworthiness), spent in great deliverances; and thus you have it yet for you and yours. Murderers, will you undo your children; will you sell it away from you by unbelief, by remaining still in your sins; by corrupting the doctrine of the church, bringing in this more corrupt tenet than that of Popery and Arminianism; sell it away as spendthrifts do their lands, now a piece and then a piece; ran so far behind-hand by unworthy walking in it, till it fall mortgaged, and then you and yours be undone? Do, cutthroats, do, and let your children's blood, that shall be starved for want of bread, lie upon your heads!
Use 4. Was the state of man, as he fell out of God's hands, an estate of holiness and righteousness? Then to turn from sin and become a saint again is not a thing men should be ashamed of, or mocked for, for it was your primitive and first condition, that which you were all created in; it is but a returning to that which all once were in Adam, and which we ought to be in still; and men are damned because they are not found to be so. Remember, holiness is older than sin: 'God made man righteous, but they sought out many inventions,' Eccles.
7:29. Sins are but new inventions and new fashions, which though universally received, and so have obtained, yet grace me holiness is the ancient fashion and apparel our forefather was arrayed with, which till he lost he never met with shame, and though he was naked he never knew what it was to be miserable. In Col. 3:10 the apostle useth this motive, and in a manner this resemblance, 'Put on the new man, which is created in knowledge, after the image of him that created him.' He calls it indeed a new man to be put on, in comparison of this sinful habit, and old rags of sin we are now apparelled with.
Use 5. Are all born into the world sinners and enemies to God? You we, then, that the devil's kingdom is aforehand provided for the maintaining of it; his faction is sure to be increased, his army to have fresh supplies in every age. Every one born into the world is enrolled into his band, and at first fight under his colours. But Christ hath none but who turn from the world, and separate from it. You, then, that are for Christ, and the advancement of his kingdom, had need bestir yourselves for the increasing of his kingdom, seeing all must be won off out of the companies which are in the devil's empire.
Suppose that, whereas there is in this kingdom a strict law that Jesuits should not come into the land, there were a statute that none else but such as are Jesuited should come over, were not this church in danger? Now, so is the case here. Every man that cometh into this world is for the devil: how, then, should we endeavour to continue a seed to God of his friends' children? Otherwise the world will naturally be overgrown with tares.
Use 6. You have heard what a fearful hideous sin this first sin was, on our father Adam's and Eve's part, who were the personal actors of it, and by which they overthrew all the world, which (as I then said) was a peculiar guilt residing in their persons. And if it was the aggravation of Jeroboam's sin, and stock by him as a brand, that he
'made all Israel to sin,' 1 Kings 14:16, then must it much more hold in Adam's sin, and lie heavy on them, as those that made all the world to sin. We would all be ready to think now, that for these two, of all men else, there should nothing remain but a certain looking for of vengeance and fiery indignation to devour them; nothing but damnation could certainly be the end of them, so abounding was their offence.
But yet, my brethren, behold and wonder, God offered these two mercy and pardon; yea, and when there was none to be a messenger and an ambassador to bring them the news of it, rather than they should want it, God came himself to tell them the news of it, and to preach the gospel to them: Gen. 3:8, 9, 'And they heard the voice of the Lord God, walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God, amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto
Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?' He calls them out when they ran away from him. He took the pains to examine them punctually, and all the partakers in it; was content to put up an affront given him by Adam to his face, that the woman that he gave him had ensnared him, for so far was he from asking mercy, as he obliquely, and afar off, chargeth God with his fall. Yet when their conscience was, for all their shifting, filled with terror for their sin, ver. 10, and he stood trembling by, and could not but look every minute when God should fly upon them in wrath, yet then God lets drop a word of promise of a second Adam, of whom he was a type, that should destroy the kingdom of sin, and cursed works of the devil: ver 15, 'And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall braise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.' Yea, and undoubtedly they laid hold upon it by faith, and were saved, notwithstanding this sin, which hath
abounded so in sinfulness. Of the woman it is expressly said that God put enmity between her and the devil, such as between wicked men, and Christ and his saints, and therefore she (who yet was first in the transgression, and is put in the greatest blame, 1 Tim. 2:14) was saved, and plucked out of the kingdom of Satan; and so likewise
Adam; for God preaching the gospel himself to them both, having first prepared them for mercy by examining their sin, surely this his first sermon was not in vain, himself being the preacher. And a church was to be called from the beginning of the world, and God's worship set up, and a kingdom erected in men's hearts through the preaching of man's fall, and the promise of a Mediator, which none but these two knew, and of which, therefore, it must be supposed that Adam, as a priest and prophet, instructed his children in, as appears from Gen. 4:3, 4. The first news we hear of his two children is their offerings to God, and God's accepting Abel's: so as they were instructed both in the knowledge of the true God, and of the second covenant, and Christ revealed therein, of whom sacrifice was a figure.
And in that Cain, a wicked man, was brought to it as well as Abel, it argues it was the force of his education, and his parents' authority and instruction brought him to it; yea, and when Abel was dead, the punishment God inflicted on Cain argues this, for it was an external excommunication and casting him out of the church, which was a real sign to him of God's casting him from his favour and kingdom, which filled his heart with terror, as it doth excommunicated persons often. I say, he was excommunicated out of the church, which could be no other than Adam's family, for so the 16th verse of chap. 4 evidently implies, for it is said, 'Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod.' And the opposition shews that he went from a communion wherein God manifested his presence, to another place where he did not. And the face and presence of God is taken in Scripture for the society of the church, where his ordinances are received: Psa. 42:1, 2, 'As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?' Now, there was no family in the world but Adam's, of which he was the head and guide.
Considering, then, with this the greatness of their sin, what use shall we make of all that hath been spoken, but even to admire at the greatness and goodness of God's grace, which is the next thing this scripture in Rom. 5:19, 20 suggests, 'Where sin hath abounded, grace did much more abound.' From the beginning of the world to this hour, there is not the like instance of the greatness and freeness of God's grace. For if you would go rifle the heap of human offences committed from the first to the last, search God's debt-book wherein all men's sins are registered,' you shall find none like to this, the sin against the Holy Ghost excepted; it being (besides other aggravations) the mother-sin of all sins, as truly as Eve was the mother of all the living, as Adam calls her: Gen. 3:20, 'And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.'
For, as lust conceived brings forth sin, so this sin thus conceived brought forth the mother of all lust: causa causæ est causa causati.
And yet, behold mercy and pardon offered by God to these two for this sin, and that unsought for by them. Kings use to hang up the general ringleader in a rebellion, even when they offer pardon to all the rest, as an example of their justice and terror to them all. No one would have thought that though God might have after published his extent* of saving others of mankind through Christ, to the rest of men his seed, as being but brought in by Adam to the guilt of this rebellion, that yet neither he nor Eve should ever have had the least hope of it; but behold, God, instead of making them an example of his justice that way, hath made them (as he did Paul) a pattern of the riches of his grace, to toll in the rest of the rebels, be their sins never so great.
That which discourageth many a poor soul from laying hold of mercy, and to put off the promise of grace, as not made to them, is the guilt of some great and hideous sin, which, if they themselves had never so and so committed, they would and do think that then they might have had mercy. It was the case of Cain, the next man to Adam, who, notwithstanding this instance of his father before him, yet when he had murdered his brother, he thought, Gen. 4:13, 'his sin greater than could be forgiven,' for so interpreters acknowledge it
may be read; and thus the Greek and Chaldee paraphrase translate it.
And yet compare but Cain's sin with theirs: Cain murdered but one man, his brother, and but his body was murdered by him, his soul he could not kill; but Adam and Eve murdered all men, who were their own children, and murdered not their bodies only, but their souls, these being born dead in trespasses and sins from their guilt, and the children of wrath by reason of that offence: Eph. 2:1–3, 'And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.'
And tell me now, what can there be in any of thy sins, whosoever thou art, that was not in this of our first parents, who yet found mercy at God's hands? If thou sayest thon hast not offended one of the little ones only (commandments I mean), but against the great things of the law, Adam did so in this, the law of the forbidden tree being the greatest commandment (as I formerly shewed) that God gave to man; yea, and his sin was more also, as some divines shew, even against all the commandments. If thou repliest again, that thou hast sinned against a great deal of light (which ingredient aggravates sin the most of anything), our first parents had the light of the law recollected wholly and fully, gathered together in them, as all light was in the body of the son. For Adam was the great and common taper God set up for us to light our candles at. And the mind of man is thus called, Prov. 20:27. He had also strength enough to have withstood it, had he used it, which we want often when we have light enough. And evident it is, that Eve did distinctly consider the law given to the contrary; for before she ate, she herself repeated the commandment, with the penalty annexed, to the serpent, Gen. 3:2, 3.
She did it therefore wittingly, and not out of ignorance; as Paul excuseth his great sins against the great things of the law, 1 Tim. 1:13,
'I was a persecutor, and a blasphemer, but I did it ignorantly;' so did
not she. The weak light of nature, not joined with strength to do what it enjoins, makes the Gentiles' sins so much more sinful, Rom. 1 throughout. And therefore so much more light, so much more sin; then how doth their light aggravate this of theirs, for disobedience against light is more than witchcraft.
If thou say, thou hast fallen into thy sin, since thou hast tasted of the good word of God, and hast been affected with it, and the ways of God, which is a higher aggravation of a sin than the former, as Peter makes it, 2 Pet. 2:21, 'It had been better not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.' He speaks of a tasting and affecting knowledge there. Consider, our first parents' was more; for they had enjoyed certainly sweeter communion and fellowship with God then, being created perfect in his image, and more near and intimate, than thou hast done; and, therefore, as David takes it heinously, and much more heinously, an injury done him from a familiar friend—Ps. 55:12, 'Had he been my enemy, &c., but thou my friend, that had took sweet counsel together,'—so might God much more resent it of Adam, who had tasted of his goodness, knew what comfort and happiness was to be had in him, and yet did forsake him. If thou thinkest thou hast turned the grace of God into wantonness, he did much more.
If thou sayest, thou hast sinned against abundance of kindness and mercy received from God, and yet that immediately after that some great favour received, thou hast fallen into some great sin; so did he, and much more, for God had obliged him to him by all the highest ties of friendship. God had made Adam his darling and especial favourite at his first creation; had raised him out of nothing but a little before, out of the same dust the rest of the creatures (which sprang forth of the earth) were taken out of; breathed into him an immortal soul, reasonable, which they want; set him next himself, over them all in his throne: 'Have dominion,' says he, 'and subdue them,' Gen. 1:28; so as God might say to him as he did to David, 2
Sam. 12:7, 8, 'Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king
over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel, and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.'
So God might have said to Adam: Did I not anoint thee king, gave thee a large dominion, and would have done much more also?
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, in doing evil in his sight? If thou sayest, thou hast in thy sin made others sin, and to fall with thee, and hast carried others into the same rebellion, which is a great aggravation, as appears in Jeroboam's case, the great aggravation of whose sin was, that he made others to sin, 1 Kings 14:16; why, the sin of Adam was much more, for he made men to sin, not only by his example, but he derived sin down to them; and he did what in him lay to condemn all the world; and thousands are gone to hell for his sin, which sinned not so much as after the similitude of his transgression, Rom. 5:14.
Wilt thou say, lastly, thou didst sin willingly and wilfully? which is a great aggravation of sin also; for as the more God's will is expressed against a sin, the greater it is; so the more our wills are expressed in it, and for it, the greater the sin is too, insomuch as many make it essential to sin, that it be voluntary, and therefore so much the more sin, by how much more voluntary. Consider that this sin of Adam's was most free, most voluntary, for the devil and his wife were but external means, could not have necessitated him to it; and the devil could not have necessitated them unto it; and so much the more free it must needs be, by how much he had no sin within to incline and sway his will to it, no principle for Satan to work on, as we all now have; so that as Paul, being a regenerate man, complains to the lessening of his sin, Rom. 7:17, it is 'not I, but sin that dwelleth in me,' Adam, on the contrary, might truly say, It was not sin dwelling in me moved me to it, but mine own will only.
And yet thou seest that, immediately after the commission of this great sin, God offered him mercy; and so he doth thee, if thou wilt lay hold on it, and turn to God, as indeed he did. Learn this, and
remember it, that as you must not think you shall be received to mercy the sooner for the small-ness of your sins, so neither be denied it the more for the greatness of them. They are not simply your sins, though aggravated with all these circumstances, that keep you from mercy, but your impenitency, hardness of heart, going on presumptuously, and saying in your hearts, as they in the beginning of the next chapter, Rom. 6:1, 'We may continue in sin, for grace will abound.' And let me now turn my speech, and work upon your hearts, since the mere guilt of your former sins shall not hinder you from believing, and repenting even after Adam's example. Let me expostulate the matter with your impenitence and unbelief, and aggravate it by the consideration of his example. you have gone on many years in hardness of heart, and a course of rebellion, but so did not he. He immediately, after he had entered into that rebellious course, upon a proclamation of pardon, relented and came in, and laid his weapons down. You have had thousands of precious promises of mercy (he had but one) to win your hearts; proclamation of pardon after proclamation, that he that runs may read and understand them, but so had not he. God let fall but one promise, and that an obscure one too; yet as Benhadad's servants, 1 Kings
20:33, watched when any word should fall from Ahab, that should give them intimation of the least of his inclination to pardon, they greedily catched at it, even so did he. Adam and Eve having but one promise, and hearing it but once, yet believed and repented, though they had no other of mankind before them that gave them example or hope that sinners should be received. Now great is the force of examples, which, as they illustrate rules, so they confirm precepts; non minus docent, quam præcepta. Therefore former examples help to draw in the heart, as well as promises, as in Paul's conversion; but now you have not only the example of your first parents', faith, but millions of examples of as great sinners as yourselves, hung out by God, as patterns and flags of mercy to toll you in. Neither need you go to fetch them from former ages; you have some walking in your streets who have been as great sinners as you, who yet have obtained mercy.