of their State by Creation. ( i fay) is Supematural, and is therefore calledGrace: As being :i free Gi(t ~ ovcr ·and above that which was nece!Tarily due to fuch a Creature. , 'Chap. 5· Now for the prefent, to clear this in General, by an Inftance; for God to -...ry--...., have for ever confirmed Man, whom he thus made, in that goodnefs, and tq have held him fa to himfelf, that he !hould not Sin or fall , this had been a Supernatttral Grace; becaufe it is more than is due to any Creature, as Rcaionable: For as 1t IS a Creature, 1t IS defecttble, and (and m1y ful , ).and It is Natural to the Creature of it fel f fa to be; God alo11e beingwithout /hadow of ttmzi11g: And therefore , though it was Mans due (if God would make him Reafonable) for God himfelf to become his Happincfs; J::et to keep him from failing, was above the Due tlut the Creature,as a Creature, could challenge: Yea rather , it might become God to leave dle Creature , to !hew it felfto be but a Creature, that would Fall. · . , The fecond Difference is, that That Knowledge and Enjoyment of God was Natural, which was fuited, fitted, and proportioned to the Natural way of Man in his knowledge of things. So as, that light that enabled him to know God, was fuited and made apt to clofe with the Natural way and his Un~ derftanding, only it did withal! fandifie it. But that knowledge ( oppo(itely )'is Supematttrat., which is by a light a– bove the way of Natute, and the way of Mans Underfianding things, as the Light of our Faith is. Now then, to bring down this Di(lindioti unto the thing in hand : I con– ceivethat the ordinary way of Adam's knowing and enjoying God lay, .(if not wholly, yet) for the moll part, wi.tbiA the Sphere and compafs of a Muural way; that is, {o far as was limply due to a Creafure reafonab!~, and was fuch as was alfo fui.ted to the Natuul way ofMan's Underllanding and Knowledge; though withal, fandifying of him. And accordingly, the Happinefs thence arifiog, was (com.paratively) but a N•tural kind of Happinefs; fo much ·~ was due to the fatisfying of Man's Underllanding and W ,11 in God, in their Natura\ Defires and Appetites, fo far as might become their Objed in fuch a Natural way. For the clearing of which, 1. You know that the!mag< of God, which confified in K11ow/edge and Holitufr, wherein Man was at firfi created, is by our Divines (in oppofition to the Roma11i{ls) argued to have bern Natural to him, than in that (\ate confi– dered : Natural; not that it fimply flowed from the Principles of Nature, (it being from God, who adorned Man's Nature with it); but Natrtral, in this refped, that it was a requitite and due, even in the order of Nature;that Man !hould be created with it: And fa, as you could not fuppofe him created by God reafonable, but he rn11fi withal know God as his chiefeft Good, and love God above all , and in that knowledge and love of him be happy. And this was the Law of Nature in his Creation; unto which, if he had not been fra– med, he had not had that Natural goodnefs in his Kind, which other Crea– tures had in their Kind, And fuch was the Image of God wherein he was created. This Point I will not now difpute, but may well take for grant~d, it being Fundamental to oil the Protefiant Opinions about Original Sin, C!ic. wherein we differ from the Papi!ls. . . . And 2ly, If thus the Image of God was Natftral to Adam, then· was it al· fa fuch as w~s fnited to that way o.f Man's Knowledge and Defires, running along therewith m the fame Cbanel and way that Man's Nature was to t9k~ , in knowing of other things: For otherwife, fa far as it had been carried above .its own way, it had been Supematur.al, · Now then, let us confider what is the Natural way of Man'sknow illg things; and fa, of hts knowing God. The way and progrefs ofMan's Knowledge Na" rurally heth thus: In having at fitft a glimmering Light, and comrrion, yet obfcure Ptincipfes and GIImpfes of the Notions of things fawn in the Mind by N•ture ; which theo by obfervation and laying things together, and fo gathering one thing G from
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=