Book II
Of the first estate of men and angels by their creation. What were the laws and rights of creation ; and what was equitably due between the Creator and
his creature. Of the state of the first man Adam in innocence, and what were his circumstances in that his primitive condition.
CHAPTER I.
What was the law of creation on God s part? It was but what became and was worthy of the great Creator to do all for his creatures that such a
religion* required. This consisted in two things : First, To endow them with the image of holiness, to qualify them to attain their designed end, which was to know, love, and enjoy him ; Secondly, To continue his goodness and
favour to them as long as they continued in their duty and obedience. The condition of both angels and men by the Law of their creation common and equal for substance.
MY design in this discourse is, in the end, to magnify the supercreation grace of God in election, and the glory of Christ as our head and a Saviour,
which was to be revealed upon our fallen condition, though ordained afore
all worlds. And I judged it greatly conducible to this end to begin next to
set out the right and true measure of our state and condition by virtue of our first creation, as we came forth out of God s hands first, with the dues and privileges belonging to it, and not of ours only, but of the angels by their first creation ; by the view and compare of which we shall be capaci tated and enabled to destroyf an infinite weight of that supercreation grace added by election, that was ordained us, as it were, over the head of mere natural or creation goodness. And we shall find that it is not only that we are sinful and fallen, that affords matter and occasion to exalt supernatural grace, but even our first original and best estate that preceded it.
This first estate I would term, upon many accounts, the estate of pure nature by creation-law ; and as rightly as our divines do call the covenant we were by creation brought into fcedus naturce, the covenant of nature, which is founded upon an equitable intercourse set up betwixt God the Creator and his intelligent unfallen creatures, by virtue of the law of his
creating them, and as by their creation they came forth of his hands ; God
dealing with the creature singly and simply upon the terms thereof, and the creature being bound to deal with God according to that bond and
obligation which God s having created him in his image, with sufficient power to stand, and having raised him up thereunto out of pure nothing, lays upon him.
* Qu. relation ? ED. | Qu. descry ? ED.
CHAP. I.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 23
And in the substance of it the law was one and the same in common to
us men, and the angels, in and by their creation.
Now, that estate of the angels the apostle Jude calls their first, or rather
original estate, which they were endowed with from their very beginning, and was by original justice their due, or their natural estate ; that is, which
they had from, by, or with their creation, and by the law thereof ; which
estate being alike common to the good angels as well as the bad, before
they left it, as the apostle Jude says, is one part of the distinction between
the estate which the angels, which are still good and standing, have by
election, as in Timothy, and this other part, of the original estate of good ness which in common they had by creation.
And according to the true intent and import of the same distinction, I
may style this goodness by creation man s original estate, and ours and Adam s first natural estate^ in that holiness and righteousness, as we did
come forth of God s hands. And if Adam had stood, and his children had
been begotten holy of him (which is supposable by the law of creation they
might have been), it might have been said of them, that they had been holy und righteous by nature, as truly as the apostle doth the contrary, speaking
of men now fallen, that they are children of wrath by nature ; yea, this
latter is founded upon the former. Now, what estate we his children
should have had (in that supposal) by generation, the same, and no other, Adam he had by creation. And as of us it would have been said, that we
had that holiness by our creation, although we had received it by natural
generation from him, yet it would have been the same every way, and no
other (as to the state itself), which we his children should have had ; only
the way of production should have differed, that his was by creation, ours
by birth. Yea, and it was given him by creation to convey it to us by
birth, and in that respect it might and should have been termed their
primitive, first, original, natural condition in him, and his children to be
begotten by him.
The first covenant of works under which Adam was created is termed by
divines fcedus naturce, the covenant of nature ; that is, of man s condition,
which from and by his creation was natural to him ; yet I would rather
call it the creation law, jus creationis, or of what was equitable between God considered merely as a Creator on one part, and his intelligent
creatures that were endued with understanding and will on the other,
simply considered as such creatures, whether angels or men, the measure
of which law, in general, lay in an equitable transaction between God and
them, a congruity, dueness, meetness on either part.
On God s part, I would call it a dueness, remembering how Paul prohi
bits the word recompence as any way challengeable by any or all the
creatures : Rom. xi. 35, Who hath first given to him, and it shall be
recompensed unto him again ? And he says it to exclude all recompence. So that this dueness imports only what it became God to do, and was
worthy of him, in such or such a case ; as he useth the word Heb. ii. 10,
For it became him, &c., so as the meaning is in this only respect, that
if God would please to create two such ranks of creatures, angels and man,
it became him to do to and for them what was worthy of such a relation,
of a bountiful Creator, to each in their kind, not yet exceeding what that
relation of a Creator, considered simply as such, required; so as if he did
exceed it, it was but what was an overplus, as his assisting them, in causing them to stand so long as they did ; otherwise God himself condescended to
make an equity the rule of his will in that covenant of works, condescend-
24 OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
ing to mitigate the absolute rigidity of it, and to moderate it unto the Jews (who clamoured him in Ezekiel), yielding from his Cursed is every one that obeys not in every thing. Upon this he answers the clamours of the Jews : Ezek. xviii. 17, 29, Are not my ways equal ? saith he ; when he offered that if one, who had been never so great a sinner, would turn from his evil ways, and the like, he would receive him, and abundantly pardon. As on the contrary, if, having been so righteous before* he begins to turn away from it, he must lose the benefit of all his former obedience. This was fair for God to offer, and his ways therein equal. Yet God knew that this was impracticable by them ; but to convince them, he tried them by that offer, as Christ did the young man in the Gospel, when he put him upon keeping the commandments, and there left him.
And such like equity may be considered in God s first founding the cove nant of creation : first, in what he would bestow in and by the act of crea tion itself, in them. He gave all that was due, or convenient and meet for the natures of such creatures, to attain their end of happiness in a propor tioned communion with himself. And although it was free for him, whether to have created them or not created them, yet, if he resolved so to create such, his will regulated itself by what was meet for their natures, as such, to receive from him, and for him as a Creator to give.
In every work of God s, he observeth a dueness or becomingness according to the kind of it. So in the work of redemption in its kind, in which he was yet at a far greater freedom than in this of the first creation. And in this sense the apostle is bold to use the phrase of what becomes God in such or such a sphere to do. Thus (Heb. ii. 10) It became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through suffer
ings. Now, in the work of creation in its kind, as in other works in their kind, God regulates himself by the measure of a dueness and becomingness between him and the creature. And although there could be no obligation, simply considered, in him that works all according to the counsel of his will freely, yet his will regulated itself by what that same counsel judged most becoming him to do, as that which his counsel judged so to be. And so in this work of creation, God would bestow such faculties and powers as the creature itself could any way judge requisite to his performing the work of a creature of an intelligent nature. Thus, in case God resolved to do such or such a thing, he would do it suitably to the matter of it, and what the nature of the thing required ; and worthy and like himself, and the relation he takes upon him, by doing such or such a work. The truth
is, he observes it as his rule in all things, as that text forementioned insi nuates ; and of all other works, let no man be offended to say, God set himself an equitable rule or law in this his first and bottom work of crea
tion, wherein yet he was most free to have begun it, or not begun it. Thus in general.
For the particular requisites on God s part, and but so far as is now enough to my present scope, I shall mention but two.
First, That if God would create intelligent natures out of nothing, it became him to endow them with his own image of holiness, &c., whereby they might be able to know, to love, and to enjoy a communion with him, and happiness from himself, as their chiefest good
: which, as it was God s bountiful gift to bestow, so the very nature of such a creature required it as convenient, meet, and suitable to its nature, and without which it had been imperfect, yea, miserable ; for otherwise those vast faculties of under-
CHAP. I.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 25
standing and will had been left empty, and like an hungry stomach (of a
giant, suppose) continually craving, when it hath only crumbs of food, and
drops of weak water. Nor could they otherwise have attained their main
end, or arrived at their convenient happiness, which the very natures of them were constituted and fitted for, which can be filled with nothing but
a communion with God. And all creatures, and creature comforts, if alone
vouchsafed without an intelligent communion with God himself, had been
but as a drop to a cistern. That whereas God had provided for every sen
sitive or other faculty in man himself, and other creatures, a meet object suited in nature to them ; and for man s bodily person, all comfort, a meet
help, &c., as the woman is termed, he had left men s souls, and in them
those noble powers of understanding and will, deprived of their chief object ;
they had been shut out from the communication of the life of God, in which
: which blessedness also must arise from a natural
their happiness lay
suitableness concreated in those faculties, and with them, whereby they
might be enabled to know, love, and delight in God. And in such a con
venient meetness to enjoy God must this holiness consist ; as also in an
inward principle, and divine disposition in every /acuity suited to, and
agreeing with every law God had, as a creator, commanded ; naturally car
rying, and wholly inclining them to fulfil it, which was the law of God
written in their hearts, in the full perfection of it, and as the due perfec tion of them ; and thereby it did become their natural perfection by this
creation law. And surely, if the things of the law are said, by nature, to
be written in man s heart, now fallen, this is but a shadow of that full and
perfect, exact copy of the whole and holy law, which was then man s
nature much more. These things, therefore, were to intelligent natures a
creation-due ; and in that respect natural to them, or which the nature of them required ; and it became God as a creator to give them when he would create them.
2. And, secondly, on God s part as a creator, it was requisite to con
tinue his favour and goodness to them, and that happy estate he had set them in, whilst he did continue their being, whether of Adam in paradise,
or the angels in the paradise above, the place of their creation, which they should enjoy, if they continued to keep their first estate of holiness, &c.
This was also a meet and equitable due, for God, as a faithful creator, to
give, and was correspondent to this their begun happy condition, and was
all the promise that I know of, made to such obedience.
That whereas God, in the view of his own heights of holiness and
sovereignty, might, after some time and experiment, have said, I see at
best you are but unprofitable servants, and so not have regarded their low
creatureservices, as anyway coming up to the immense desires and aims
of his great holiness, yet he would continue his love and favour at the same
height which he prosecuted them withal at their first creation, and so they should live in keeping his commandments.
And this alone was of itself a great promise, and an abundant reward,
though they had never been advanced to an higher glory or privilege. And
this was all the promise we read of, If thou do these things, thou shalt
live, namely, in doing of them; and this was their life, and yet suitably but creationdues, and an equity by creation-law. For if providence be a
continual creation, then a providential law from God, and the continuation
of our first parents, and so of us, in that first creation-life and happy estate,
whilst they continued obedient, was but an extension of that first creation
goodness out of which God first put them in that estate ; and so, but a
26 OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
continuation of the same law, and but a repeating, every moment they stood, that complacency he had at first in them when he made them ; and
it was but the like, in its proportion, unto what he continues to all his other creatures in their sphere, that keep his ordinances to this day. And
it is a dueness that in meetness and equitableness is to be dispensed to him that worketh and continueth therein, out of that justice that is in God, as a
creator, to his unsinning creature continuing holy.
This condition of angels by the law of their creation, and of man, for substance, is common to them both. However men and angels might and do differ in degrees of excellencies in respect of their mere creation-holi
ness, even as they differ in their strength (the excelling wherein is given to the angels), as also in their habitation proper to each, as Jude 6, the one created on earth, the other in some of the heavens, yet it is a difference but of rank or degree, such as between nobles and commons, in an higher and lower house. God made man a little lower than the angels ; that is, in respect of degrees, so far as that psalm is to be understood of Adam s or man s condition by creation. Though it hath an higher reference unto Christ Jesus as man, yet still this degree of lowness in the one, and
height in the other, had for the substratum of it, in either, the same common law of creation-perfections, and the rules thereof do take hold of both alike in their several ranks, and with their several degrees. I will not therefore now debate what differing excellencies each of these had proper to them selves in their several capacities and spheres ; or the differences of the
original condition of both these, angels and men, from what their now
present standing in grace, and hereafter in glory, do afford.
This we may safely say, that the difference of their condition was not so great, as that they should see God s face in that manner as Christ doth. The angels, though created in one of the heavens, by their creation did not so enjoy God. It is Christ s sole honour to bring that first up. Who hath seen God at any time ? No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him, John i. 18. This grace and truth came only by Jesus Christ, verse 17.
The law was the same for substance that ours [is]. That under a law they were made is evident, for else there had not been sin in them that
fell ; but it is express they did, 2 Pet. ii. 4 ; and sin is a transgression of not only a law, as Rom. v. 13, but of the law, as being one in common to all creatures : 1 John iii. 3, 4, And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever committeth sin
transgresseth also the law : for sin is the transgression of the law. That the first commandment duty is the common law to angels and men, as to love God, fear God, &c., this is so plain as none may deny it.
2. The third, Not to take God s name in vain. The devil is a blas phemer, and so breaks this command.
3. If there be superior and inferior ranks of angels, as Michael an arch
angel, thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, Col. i. 16, then a reverence from the inferior orders to all their superiors must be due ; and so the fifth commandment is an obligation upon them.
4. The sixth command, Thou shalt not kill, binds the angels as a law. For Satan is a murderer from the beginning ; which could not have been
said, if that command had not been violated by him in seeking man s de struction.
< Thou shalt not bear false witness, reaches
5. The ninth command,
CHAP. II.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 27
the angels themselves. For the devil, as a breaker of this law, is a liar from the beginning ; and Michael, in Jude 9, as obliged by this command,
* durst not bring a railing accusation against Satan.
* Thou shalt not lust, has a respect to the angels ; else why does Christ charge lust on the devil as his sin ? John viii. 44, You
6. The tenth,
are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. What are they but pride, envy, hatred, malice, &c. And the good angels, in obedience to this command, have a love to the saints. Daniel,
greatly beloved, says Gabriel to that prophet, Dan. x. 11. They have
also a zeal for the saints, and joy in their conversion, Luke xv. 7. But if
they should not have the same laws in all things that we men have, yet it must needs be said, that they are under very many laws that are given to us men.
Yet it is enough for what I intend, that their covenant by creation ran
upon the same terms that ours of works does ; the tenor or terms of the law is the same. So as, suppose they had not altogether the same law, yet they were under the same fundamental sanction of punishment and reward. Upon one sin, all their happiness was to be forfeited, as upon ours it was. Their estate was changed by sinning, as ours also was.
The same punishments take hold upon them, though not the same bodily, as death, unto which the angels are not obnoxious, for they can never die. But what death spirits are capable of, we and they undergo the same. We were both alike cast off from God ; we were expelled paradise, they were thrown down out of heaven into hell ; and at the last day, the same
sentence shall be pronounced against both, Go, you cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, Mat. xxv. 41. As in a state
there may be different laws, yea, variety of privileges to nobles and others
in a kingdom, and yet the fundamental maxims for life, death, and for
feiture, be the same to them all.
They had also the same mutability that was in our condition, and stood
upon the same grounds and terms that we did. It was their being made
out of nothing, and so mere creatures as well as we, that was the cause of
their fall ; so that we are sure they stood as ticklishly as we, no more
assistance in their state and proportion than Adam in his. We are sure
that God took the forfeiture upon one act of sin committed by the angels that sinned, for God spared not the angels that fell, but threw them im
mediately to hell, as well as he doth us men. Nor had they such an high way of knowing God or the enjoyment of him ; as it is the highest heavens
that might have kept them infallibly from sinning, for that Christ only hath brought up to behold God s face in such a perfection of righteousness, as to exclude all sin acted, or the possibility of it.