Sion's prospect in it's first view.: Presented in a summary of divine truths, consenting with the faith profess'd by the Church of England, confirmed from scripture and reason: illustrated by instance and allusion. Compos'd and publish'd to be an help for the prevention of apostacy, conviction of heresy, confutation of error, and establishing in the truth, by a minister of Christ, and son of the church, R.M. quondam è Coll ̊S.P.C.

CHAP. X. Concerning the estate of Man before his Fall.

§. 1. THATa efficient vertue whereby the world was made, and which in theb world as in its effect is manifested and declared, doth not relate to the subsistence and Per∣sons, but to the essence andc will of the Deity; there∣fore though by the common work of creation is maded known Gods eternal power and Godhead, yete not the mystery of the Trinity. But when God doth form man, to denote the excellency of his creature, and to declare somwhat of the Mystery of the Trinity in the plurality of the persons) he cals a councel (as it were) for mans creation, and propo∣seth himself as the pattern of his Being: Let us (saith God,f even Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; thereby imprinting in man a conformity to the Divine na∣ture; yea some resemblance of the Personal subsi∣stences.

§. 2. This conformity unto the Divine Nature wherein man was created as the image of God, did appear most of all in the Soul, much in the body, in the person, and in the state of man before his fall. Mans Soul in its nature did (in some proportion or analogy) represent God in his essence; as being a substancea spiritual andb immortal, as God is; endued and adorned in his understanding withc per∣fect knowledg, in his will withd liberty, in his affe∣ctions with purity, and in all his faculties withe ho∣liness and righteousness.

§. 3. That conformity in man to Divine Nature in respect of his body, did consist in aa secret harmo∣ny (not visible shape) of the parts, and in anb excel∣lent

beauty (not external figure) of the whole; such was the beauty of the body from the vertuous lu∣stre of the soul, as is the light of the lantern from the bright shining of the candle. Yea, the members of mans body represent unto us the attributes of Gods nature; and therefore as the parts of the Jews Tabernacle didc bear the image of heavenly myste∣ries, so do the parts of mans body bear the image of the divine attributes; so that we say thed Eye of God, to denote his wisdom and knowledg; thee arm of God, to intimate his power and strength; thef hand of God, to signifie his protection and providence.

§. 4. That part of Gods image in man which relates unto his person, doth consist in that Sove∣naignty and dominion givena him of God over the creatures, beingb placed in Paradice as his royal seat, thec beasts of the Earth there made subject to him. And such is the excellency of this re∣presentation of God in Soveraignty and Dominion, thatd Kings and Judges of the earth are therefore called Gods. And this part of Gods image is peculiar to mane above the woman, who in all particulars else is equal to the man, having her Original being correspondent to her Conjugal con∣dition, beingf taken out of man, not from the head, or feet, but the side; and so to be, not his Mistris, or his Hand-maid, but hisg Asso∣ciate,h neer in relation, and dear in affection each to other.

§. 5. Thus man who was spiritual and immor∣tal in his soul, who had knowledg and wisdom in his understanding, liberty and uprightness in his will, integrity and moderation in his affections, an harmony and soundness in his members, Soveraign∣ty and dominion in his person, must needs have a felicity and blessedness of estate, and so be (in his

proportion and measure) a compleata image of God, who could not know miseryb till he knew sin, and so not cease to be happy, till he did cease to be holy.

§. 6. Besides this Image of God in a conformity to his divine nature, there is in man some likeness of the Trinity in a resemblance of the personal sub∣sistences; Which may be found, either in those three faculties of the Soul, the Understanding, Me¦mory and Will, which three faculties have but one soul, and the soul is one and the same in all the three faculties: or else, in the frame and order of mans intellectual nature and operation, for that in one and the same spiritual Being, the understan∣ding doth beget the Word of the minde, the image of it self, in which it knows; and from both issues a Dilection in the Will, whereby it loves: which is some likeness, though no perfect Image of the Trinity.

§. 7. Wherefore, when God saith, a Let us make man in our own image after our likeness; those words, After our likeness, we understand aright (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) by way of exposition to those words, In our Image; and so, they intimate unto us what this image is; not of identity, but of analogy; not of essence, but of quality; that beingb proper unto Christ, this common untoc Angels andd Man. Man (then) being made in Gods image, and after his likeness, doth denote a distance of diversity, as well as declare a nearness of similitude. Indeed Christ, and Christ alone, is the perfect and equal image of God, being coessential, and coeternal with the Fa∣ther; so that, Gods image is in Christ, as that of the King in his connatural Son, by generation; but in man, as that of the King in his publick Coyne, by impression.

§. 8. It is an inseparable property of Mans soul,

in its analogical conformity to Gods nature, to be immortal; which could not be lost by the fall; for that, in man degenerated by Sin, as in man regenerated by Grace, the change is real, but not essential; it is ina qualities, but not in substance; it is in the gifts and habits of the minde, and thereby in the excellency, not in the essence of the soul; And as not in the souls essence, so nor in its essential powers and properties; man by his fall doth become indeedb brutish, but not a brute.c Like the beasts in sensuality, but not a beast in real truth.

§. 9. The soul then in all men continuing to be immaterial, it must needs be immortal, which otherwise could not be capable of ana eternal reward in the godly, or anb eternal punishment in the wicked: and needs must the soul be immor∣tal, which is spiritually begotten ofc immortal seed, and nourished byd incorruptible food; which, together with our whole Christian faith, would becomee vain, yea perish in the souls mortali∣ty: So that we cannot profess the Religion of Christ, if we deny the immortality of the soul.

§. 10. The soul is nota pre-existent in its self before it is united unto the body by inspiration from God; but as in theb primitive being of the soul in Adam, so in the successive beings of souls in all men; Thec soul is then infused by Creation, and created by infusion when the body is prepared by a fit organization of the parts, made capable to receive it. Whose Royal seat is ind the heart, and by its (analogically) omnipresent power and infi¦nite essence in its little world, it actuatese the whole body, and each member according to the several dispositions of the Organs. And the soul thus in∣spired or infused, it is not (de Deo) of God in his

essence; butf (a Deo) from God in his power, and so it isg his off-spring by way of efficiency, in a con∣formity of divine habits in its qualification, not by an identity of divine substance in its Consti∣tution.

§. 11. In mans primitive integrity, Reason being subordinate unto God, and the inferior faculties sub∣ordinate unto Reason, Man was in a proportion possest of all vertues; some in habit, though not in act, some both in act and in habit. Those vertues which did imply an imperfection in mans estate, were in him onely according to their habits, and not their acts, as mercy and repentance, which implies misery and sin. Those vertues which did imply no∣thing repugnant to mans created perfection, were in him both according to their habits and their acts as Faith, Hope, and Charity; Justice, Temperance and Chastity; and the like.

§. 12. Seeing the soul doth receive its being bya creation, it cannot be (extraduced) propagated by generation; as if the soul were from the soul as light is from light, or the body from the body; for then sure, Adam would have saidb of Eve, that she was spirit of his spirit, as well as flesh of his flesh; neither can that be by natural generation, which is incor∣ruptible in its nature; yea, simple and indivisible in its substance; now such is thec soul of man.

§. 13. Yea, the soul being an immaterial and immortal substance, subsisting in its self, and so,a having the operations of life without the body, it cannot be by Generation, but must have its being by Creation; otherwise, as it begins its being with the Body generated, it should cease to be with the Body corrupted, and thereby could not be immor∣tal. Wherefore to say the soul is propagated by carnal Generation, were to deny its immortality, and therewith overthow the Faith, and destroy our Christianity.

§. 14. Besides the immortality of the soul in its spiritual substance, man in his primitive estate had an immortality of humane nature, not where∣by he had no power to dye, but whereby he had a power not to dye, from his Original righteous∣ness he had a power not to sin, and from thence did flow that his primitive immortality in a power not to dye, a death being a punishment, and so a conse∣quent of sin.

§. 15. Yea some Bodies we acknowledg in∣corruptible, either in respect of their Matter, or of their Form, or of their Efficient; amongst which were the bodies of our first Parents. The Heaven of Heavens was created incorruptible, in respect of its Matter, as having no capacity of, nor propension to any other Form then what it al∣ready hath. The Bodies of the blessed shall be rai∣seda incorruptible in respect of their form, as ha∣ving thereby conveyed to them such an endowment of immortality, as shall preserve from all corrup∣tion. And the Bodies of our first Parents were kept incorruptible in respect of the efficient, God com∣municating to them a preservative power by effe∣ctual means, the Tree of life appointed for the pre∣venting of corruption, whilst they continued in their innocency.

§. 16. That man should not sin, God gave him aa cleer knowledg, and anb upright Will; he gave him ac firm law, fenc'd with a gracious promise upon obedience, and a dreadful threatning upon transgression; and he gave him a visibled sacra∣ment to signifie and seal what was promised, and what was threatned. All this God did, that man should not sin; and had not man sinned, more would God have done, that he should not dy: he would have preserved him from outward violence, bye divine protection and thef Ministry of An∣gels;

he would have supply'd him with continual food from the wholsomg fruit of a pleasant Para∣dise; he would have prevented all distemper, decay and dissolution, from sickness, age, and death, by the vertue of temperance and theh tree of life; yea after his temporal estate of an earthly hap∣piness, God would havei translated him to an Heavenly habitation of eternal blessed∣ness.

§. 17. Original righteousness was not such, as that thereby man had no power to sin, for thea event shews the contrary; but such, as that there∣by manb had a power not to sin; which Original righteousness was a con-natural endowment, no supernatural gift, and therefore had it been trans∣mitted from Adam in his standing, as the privation thereof is propagated in his fall, unto his whole po∣sterity; For that, being the righteousness of mans nature, not Adams person, it did belong to an equal right unto his Posterity as to himself; and so should have been transmitted (not by vertue of any semi∣nal power, but ofc divine ordination) to all after generations.

§. 18. Wherefore seeing Original righteousness was to have been propagated with the human nature if man had not fallen, it could not be any supernatu∣ral gift; and seeing Original righteousness is wholly lost, and yet mans specifical nature retain'd in his fal, it could not be from any natural principle; therefore we say it is betwixt both, a con natural en∣dowment. It did not flow from any principles of mans nature, but was given to man with his nature to be a natural principle of Actual righteousness; And (seeing opposita sunt unius generis) Original sin being opposite to Original righteousness; as Original sin is become a natural deformity, so was Original righteousness a natural integrity, and

with mans nature, to have been transmitted by pro∣pagation to Adams posterity.

§. 19. The inseparable property of the will (the chief seat of Original righteousness) is this, that it act freely without constraint, either in choosing or in refusing what is presented unto it by the under∣standing. And this is the liberty, which is so es∣sential to the will, as that without it it were no will. And therefore it is to be found in God and in Christ, in the Angels and in Devils; yea in man whether it be in his estate of innocency, of sin, of grace, or of glory. The liberty then which is essential to the will, doth not consist in a liberty of contrariety, which implies an indifferency to objects specifical∣ly different, asa good and evil, for then should not the will of God, nor of Christ, no, nor the will of Angels, or of the blessed, have its liberty, seeing they cannot will what is evil, beingb perfectly con∣firmed in good.

§. 20. Yea, it is not absolutely necessary to the freedom of the will, that it have a liberty of contra∣diction, being indifferent in the exercise of the act, to will or not to will; for that the blessed Angels and Saints in heaven do freely love and praise God, yet can they nota forbear or suspend the acts of lo∣ving and of praising him; sure, the will, as in the desire, so much more in the enjoyment of its last end, it necessarily wils; and yet freely too. It cannot but will, yet without any external force, or internal coaction, beingb wholly possest with a delightful complacency in its object. That the will then be free in a liberty of contradiction, is necessary onely in the use of means, which admit of deliberations; not in the desire or enjoyment of the last end and chief good, to which the will is carried by a natural pro∣pension, not a voluntary election, and so excludes all preceding deliberation.

§. 21. Such a liberty of will then as is free onely to good, is ina God, and in Christ, in the Angels, and in the Blessed; such a liberty of will, as is free onely to evil, is in the Devils, andb in the wic∣ked; and such a liberty of will as is free both to good and evil, was in man in his state of innocency, and is in him inc his state of grace. In Adam then before his fall, there was not any thing of coaction from within, or of enforcement from without, to compel him to will or do what was good, or what was evil, whether it were in things Natural, Civil, Moral, or Divine.

Notes

• By the common works of crea∣tion is manife∣sted the will and power of the God-head.
• a

  Jer. 51.15.
• b

  Psal. 19.1.
• c

  Rev. 4.11.
• d

  Rom. 1.20.
• e

  Mat 16.16, 17
• Not the mystery of the Trinity.
• That clearly manifested, this darkly presented in mans creati∣on.
• f

  Gen 1.26, 27.
• Created in Gods image.
• Wherein the I∣mage of God in man did consist.
• 1. In respect of his soul.
• a

  Gen. 2.7. Luke 23.46. Acts 7.59.
• b

  Psal. 49.15. Mat. 10.28. & 22.32. Phil. 1.23. 1 Pet. 3.19.
• c

  Col. 3.10.
• d

  Eccles. 7.29.
• e

  Eph. 4.24. Luke 3.38.
• 2. In respect of his body.
• a

  Rom. 5.13.
• b

  Gen. 2.25.
• c

  Heb 8.5. & 9.23, 24.
• d

  2 Chro. 16.9. Psal. 11.4. Jer. 32.19.
• e

  Deu. 33.27. Exod. 6 6.
• f

  Psal. 139.10. & 145 16.
• 3. In res••ct of his person.
• a

  Gen. 1.26. 1 Cor. 11.7.
• b

  G••n. 2.8.
• c

  Gen. 2.19.
• d

  Psal. 82.6.
• This pecular to man above the woman.
• e

  2 Cor. 11.8, 9
• Woman othe wise equal to the man.
• f

  Gen 2 22. 1 Cor. 11.8.
• g

  Gen. 2.18. Eph 5 22, 23.
• h

  Gen. 2.23, 24 Eph 5.28.33.
• 4. In respect of his estate.
• a

  Gen. 9.6.
• In all man a compleat image of God.
• b

  Gen 2.17. Rom 6.23.
• What the resem∣blance of the Trinity in man
• What most pro∣perly meant by those words of God is the creati¦on of man, After our likeness.
• a

  Gen. 2.26.
• b

  2 Cor. 4.4. Col. 1.15. H b 1.3. John 14.9. 1 Tim. 3.16.
• c

  Job 1.6. Mat. 22.30.
• d

  Gen. 9.6. 1. Cor. 11.7.
• The souls im∣mortality not lost by the fall.
• What the change in man by his fal.
• a

  Col. 3 10. Eph. 4 24.
• b

  Jer. 10.14.
• c

  Psa. 49 12, 20
• Why the soul is immortal.
• a

  2 Cor. 5.1. Rom. 2, 7. 1 Pet. 1.4.
• b

  Mat. 25.4. Mark 9.43, 44.
• c

  1 Pet. 1.4.
• d

  John 6.51.
• e

  1 Cor. 15.13, 14
• When the soul is created and in∣fused into the body.
• a

  Rom. 9.11.
• b

  Gen. 2.7.
• c

  Num. 16.22. Zech. 12.1. Col. 1.17. Job. 5.17.
• Exod. 21.22.
• What its princi∣pal seat, and how it informs the body.
• d

  Deu. 5.29. & 65. & 30.14. Prov. 23.26. Heb. 8.10.
• e

  1 Cor. 12.14, &c.
• f

  Rom. 11.36.
• How the soul is the off-spring of God.
• g

  Acts 17.28. Heb. 12.9.
• How possest of all vertues in its integrity.
• The souls of men not propa∣gated.
• a

  Eccles. 12.7. Isa. 57.16. 1 Pet. 4.9.
• b

  Gen. 2 23.
• And why.
• c

  Luke 23.46. H••b. 12 9.
• Especially pro∣ved from their immortality.
• a

  Heb. 12.23. Rev. 6.10.
• What the im∣mortality of hu∣mane nature.
• and from whence.
• and how lost.
• a

  Gen. 1.17. Rom 6.23.
• How some bo∣dies said to be incorruptible.
• a

  1 Cor. 15.42, 53.
• and how the bodies of our first Pa∣rents.
• What and how great things God did that Man should not sin.
• a

  Col. 3.10.
• b

  Eccles. 7.29.
• c

  Gen. 2.17.
• d

  Gen. 2.9.
• and what he would have done that Man should not dye.
• e

  Psa. 91.1. & 121. 34, &c.
• f

  Psal. 34.7. & 91.11, 12.
• g

  Gen. 1.29. & 2.16.
• h

  Gen 3 22.
• i

  Gen. 5.24. Heb 11.5. 1 Cor. 15.51.
• What original righteousness was,
• a

  Gen. 3.6, 11.12, 17.
• b

  Gen 1.27. & 2.17.
• Gen. 1.26. Eccles. 7.29.
• and how to h••ve bin transmitted to Adams poste∣rity.
• c

  Exod. 20 6.
• Why said to be a con-natural endowment.
• The will the chief seat of ori∣ginal righteous∣ness.
• What its essenti∣al liberty is.
• What the liber∣ty of contrari∣ety is, and why not essential to the will.
• a

  Deut. 30.19.
• b

  Heb. 12.23. Rev. 14.13.
• What that of contradiction is, and why not es∣sential to the will.
• a

  1 Cor. 13 8, 12. Rev. 4 8. & 7.15.
• b

  Psal. 16.27. & 11.15. & 36.8.
• In what it is ne∣cessary that the will have a li∣berty of contra∣diction.
• What's the liber∣ty of wil in God, in Christ, in the Angels, and in the blessed.

  What in the Devils, and in the wicked. What in man in the state of innocence, and of grace.
• a

  2 Cor. 3.17.
• b

  Gen 6.5. Job 15.16.
• c

  Gal. 5 17. Phil. 2.13.