ing with absolute power what he judges equitable; as good himself, or the chief good, promising communion with himself, in which man's principal happiness lies, to him being obedient, and doing what is well pleasing to him: as self righteous, or sovereignly just, threatening death to the rebel. Adam sustained a twofold relation. 1. As man. 2. As the head and representative of mankind. In the former relation he was, a rational creature, under the law to God, upright, created after the image of God, and furnished with sufficient powers to fufil all righteousness. All these things are presupposed in man, to render him a fit object for God to enter into covenant with.

IV. Man therefore just dropt from the hands of his Creator, had a soul illuminated with rays of divine light, and adorned with the brightest wisdom; whereby he was not only perfectly master of the nature of created things, but delighted himself in the contemplation of the supreme and uncreated truth, having the eyes of his understanding continually directed to the perfections of his God; from the consideration of which he gathered, by the most discreet reasoning, what was just and equitable, what worthy of God and of himself. To this was added the purest holiness of will, acquiescing in God as the supreme truth, revering him as the most dread majesty, loving him as the chief and only good, and, for the sake of him, holding dear whatever his mind divinely taught dictated to him to be acceptable, like to, and expressive of his perfections, in fine, whatever con tributed to the acquiring an intimate and immediate union with him; delighting in the fellowship of his God, which was now allowed him; panting after further communion, raifing himself thereto by the creatures, as so many steps; and finally, celebrating the most unspotted holiness of God as the most perfect transcript of him, according to which he was to strive with his utmost might to frame himself and his actions as exactly as possible. This is, as Elihu emphatically expressed it, to delight himself with God,

or to will with God. This was attended with a most regular temperature of the whole body, all whose members, as instruments of righteousness, presented themselves ready and alert at the intimation of his holy will. For it did not become the Deity to form a rational creature for any other purpose than his own glory. This no rational creature, but what is wise and holy, could either perceive or celebrate, as shining in the other works of God. If it was destitute of this light, and deprived of this endowment, what could it have proved but the reproach of its creator, and most unfit to answer the end of his creation? All these particulars the wisest of kings has expressed with the most striking simplicity, Lo, this only have I found, that God has made man upright.†

V. What I have just said of the wisdom of the first man, ought, I think, to be extended so far, as that, in the state of innocence, the mystery of the Trinity was not unknown to him. For it is, above all. things, necessary for the perfection of the human. understanding, to be well acquainted with what it ought to know and believe, concerning its God. And it may be justly doubted, whether he does not worship a God entirely unknown, nay, whether he at all worships the true God, who does not know and worship him, as subsisting in three persons. He who represents God to himself in any other light, represents not God to himself, but a phantom and idol of his own brain. Epiphaniust seems to have had this argument in view when he thus wrote of Adam: "He was no idolater; for he knew God the Father, and the Son, and Holy Spirit. And he was a prophet, and knew that the Father said to the Son, let us make man."

VI. These words furnish a new argument. For since God, in the work of creation, manifested himself three, the Father made the world by the Son ;§ the Holy Spirit cherished the waters by brooding upon them; and so the whole Trinity, by mutual consultation, addressed themselves to the creation of man; it * Job xxxiv. 9. † Eccl. vii. 29. InPanario, p. 9. § Heb. i.2.

is not credible that the Trinity was entirely unknown to the first man; unless we can suppose him ignorant of his Creator, who verily was both the Son and the Holy Spirit. It cannot certainly be without design, that the Scripture when speaking of man's Creator, so often uses the plural number, as Is. liv. 5. KI BONGALAICH NGOSAICH, which literally signifies, thy husbands thy makers. Psal. cxlix. 2. ISMACH ISRAEL BENGOS AV, Let Israel rejoice in his makers. Nay, he requires man to attend to this, and engrave it on his mind, Eccl. xii. 1. UDSECHOR ÆTH BORÆCHA Remember thy Creators. It is criminal when man neglects it, and says not, AJEH ELOAH NGOSAI, Where is God my Makers? Job xxxv. 10.

Which

phrases, unless they be referred to a trinity of persons, might appear to be dangerous. But it is absurd to suppose Adam ignorant concerning his Creator, of that which God does not suffer his posterity to be ignorant of at this time; and this the rather, that God created man for this end, to be the herald of his being and perfections in the new world. But it undoubtedly tends to the glory of God, that he should particularly celebrate, not only the perfections of God, but also how they display themselves in the distict persons of the Deity, and in the manner and order of their operation. Excellently to this purpose speaks Basil of Seleucia: "You take particular notice of this expression, Let us make man. Again, this word used plurally hints at the persons of the Godhead, and presents a Trinity to our knowledge. The knowledge of it therefore is coeval with the creation. Nor should it seem strange, that afterwards it should be taught; since it is one of those things, of which mention was made in the very first creation."

VII. I confess, Adam could not, from the sole contemplation of nature, discover this mystery without revelation. But this I am fully persuaded of, that God revealed some things to man, which nature did not dictate of herself. For whence did he know * Serm. ii.

the command about the tree of knowledge, and whence the meaning of the tree of life, but by God's declaring it to him? whence the knowledge of such a creation of his wife, as to pronounce her flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, but from divine revelation? Seeing then God hath revealed to man many things, and those indeed not of such importance, why should we believe that he concealed from him that very thing, the knowledge of which was eminently conducive to the perfection of man, and the honor of God? Therefore a learned man did not think rightly, who insists, that the knowledge of the Trinity exceeded the happiness of Adam's state, which was merely natural. For it was not so merely natural, as if Adam knew nothing but what the consideration of nature only could suggest. The contrary we have just shewn. And it must be deemed to have been natural to that state, that man being upright, and enjoying familiar converse with his God, should learn from his own mouth what might render him fitter to celebrate his praises. The very learned Zanchius* observes, that most of the fathers were of that opin ion, that Adam, being such and so great a friend of God before his fall, several times saw God in a bodily appearance, and heard him speak. He adds, But this was "always the Son of God." And a little after, "Christ therefore is that Jehovah, who took Adam and placed him in paradise, and spoke to him." Thus the ancients believed, that the Son of God did then also reveal himself to Adam, and conversed with him.

VIII. And this saying appears a little too bold: "That the œconomy subsisting between the Three persons, is so principally employed in procuring the salvation of the human race, that the knowledge thereof could not belong to the state of innocence, in which there was no place for salvation or redemption." For Moses declares the economy of divine persons at the very creation. And the gospel, while * De creat, hom. 1. i. c. 1. § 120 H

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it explains that admirable economy, as taken up in procuring the salvation of mankind, at the same time raises our thoughts to that economy, which was manifested in the first creation of the world. If now it is profitable and pleasant for us to think, that the Son of God our Saviour is the beginning of the creation of God,* by whom were created thrones and dominions, things visible and invisible, that he might have the preeminence in all things, chief as well in the works of nature as grace; and that the Holy Spirit, now fitting up a new world of grace in our hearts, did at first brood on the waters, and made them pregnant with so many noble creatures; and thus to ascend to the consideration of the same economy in the works of creation and nature, which is now revealed to us in the work of salvation and grace; who then can refuse that upright Adam had the same knowledge of God in three persons, though he might be ignorant what each person, in his order, was to perform in saving sinners? Add to this, that though, in that state of Adam, there was no room for redemption, yet there was for salvation, and eternal life: the symbol of which was the tree of life, which even then bore the image of the Son of God. See Rev. ii. 7. For in him was life, John i. 4; which symbol had been in vain, if the meaning thereof had been unknown to Adam.

IX. In this rectitude of man principally consists that image of God which the scripture so often recommends; and which Paul expressly places in knowledge, in righteousness and true holiness.§ In which places he so describes the image of God, which is renewed in us by the Spirit of grace, as at the same time to hint, that it is the same with that af ter which man was originally created. And there cannot be different images of God. For as God cannot but be wise and holy, and, as such, be a pattern to the rational creature; it follows, that a creature wise and holy is the expression of God in these his. * Rev. iii. 14. † Col. i. 16. 18. Col. iii. 1o. Eph. iv. 24.