ration and praise and love of those that will consider it with due seriousness and attention.

For first, (give me leave to enlarge a little upon so comfortable an argument,) there was no age of the world wherein he did not affectionately call and invite them to embrace that which was their true and great interest, and give them sufficient direction and encouragement to pursue it heartily, and effectually to attain it. He had no sooner created man, and formed a creature of great excellency after his own image and likeness, but he took care to make him as good and as happy as that his excellent nature was capable of being; to preserve that his image and likeness entire, unsullied, and undefaced, that he might always look with delight upon that noble reflection of himself, and always, as at first, pronounce it very good.

And in order to this, (knowing the fatal consequence of idleness and sloth,) he found out betimes a suitable employment for him; and not only placed him in a delightful paradise, to dress it, and to keep it1, as a means to preserve his body in perfect health and vigour, but filled his soul with excellent endowments and all useful knowledge; and writ upon his heart a law that was holy, just, and good, and most agreeable to his nature; to which he expected he should pay obedience, (as well as to the positive command he gave him, of not eating the forbidden fruit ;) and which obedience, by his all-wise and good contrivance, should in all respects tend directly to his happiness. The recompense of his duty here was as great as this world could afford

i Gen. ii. 8, 15.

and as to

what hopes God might give him of a future reward in the celestial paradise above, though the scripture indeed is silent, yet innocence, although no express promises were made, could not but have glorious expectations. And how delightful soever that earthly paradise might be, yet the pleasures of it must needs be so far short of what a rational soul is capable of enjoying, that it must leave it still empty, and desirous of something beyond it, as we see Eve was, when she coveted the forbidden fruit, which she was told would open her eyes and make her like to God. And those clear, bright notions of Heaven, which we may suppose Adam had before he fell, and which were much improved and enlarged by the converse he had with its blessed inhabitants, could not but make him, even amidst all the delights of his paradise below, full of longing, ardent aspirations after that infinitely more glorious and blissful state, in the constant presence and enjoyment of his Maker. And therefore, unless God had promised him, or at least given him some hopes of that happiness likewise in due time, (and which indeed is his only true happiness,) as the reward of his faithful and entire obedience here, he would have been uneasy and dissatisfied even in the state of innocence; which can by no means be supposed. But if, together with such a delightful life here, as, had he not fallen, he would have lived, he had a promise of a full and endless felicity above; this must needs have made him a happy creature indeed, and such as God seems to have at first designed he should be.

For no doubt but he designed him for all that happiness of which he had made him capable, and so earnestly desirous of enjoying; and therefore we

may well suppose, that during his state of innocence he did not only enjoy the height of earthly pleasure, but likewise had good ground to hope, upon condition of his constant obedience, that he should at length exchange paradise for heaven. And what greater encouragement could there possibly be for a most exact and entire duty than this!

Thus did God call our first parents into his vineyard, and engage them early in his service; and one would think so firmly too, that nothing could ever have seduced them from it. And how happy would it have been for their posterity, had they not forfeited that blessed condition in which their good Creator placed them!

But, alas! how soon was the case sadly altered! and the hopes of heaven, the favour of God, and the chief comforts of this life too, all lost in one dire instant! Instead of the unspeakable joys and tranquillity of innocence, their souls were filled with the remorse, the shame, the confusion, and horrors of guilt; instead of almost angelical knowledge, ignorance and error and delusion; and instead of perfect health in a most delightful paradise, from which they should have been translated into heaven without dying, diseases and sorrow in a forlorn, cursed world, overrun with briers and thorns, and then a painful death, which, without infinite mercy, would have been the entrance into death eternal! And all this too they entailed upon their wretched offspring. What a dismal alteration was here, as the just punishment of ingratitude and disobedience to so good a God!

But see how great the divine mercy is; there was an early, though mysterious, promise made of a re

covery; and many advances towards it in the succeeding ages of the world; divers gracious calls did God make of labourers into his vineyard; or, in other words, divers revelations did he give to mankind of his will, and the way to regain his favour, and sufficient encouragement all along to incline them to observe it. And because the mind of man was so darkened by a long course of wickedness, and the law that God had written upon his heart, as the rule of his religious and moral actions, thereby so obliterated, and as it were blotted out, that it was of very little use; therefore God saw it needful to make those revelations more plain and express, as we find he did to the patriarchs and to Moses, and subjoin to them such promises of reward to the obedient, as would strike home upon the senses, (which then were all in all,) and so by degrees to win them over entirely to his service by arguments that were then most prevalent, and at the same time enlighten their understandings by little and little, with the noblest and most beneficial knowledge. And thus the great design of man's redemption was carried on from one step to another, till the prophets spoke still more expressly of it as then near approaching, and made known its true nature, and by whom it should be effected; and thereby prepared the way for its reception, and invited all men to embrace it when it should be offered; and that upon more spiritual regards than before, as became the spiritual kingdom of the Messias, who was to be the Mediator of a better covenant than was made with the fathers, and that established upon better promisesTM.

k Gen. iii. 15.

1 Rom. ii.

m Heb. viii. 6.

And when that blessed time was come, then were the arms of the divine mercy spread wide open to receive all the world; then appeared that wonderful grace of God, which brought salvation to all men that would accept it, and comply with those reasonable and easy terms upon which it was offered to them. This was that gracious call which was made at the eleventh hour, when we poor Gentiles, that had so long before sat in darkness and the shadow of death, were taken pity on, and hired, and sent into the vineyard, to work the works of evangelical righteousness, and had the promise of equal reward with others upon our diligent and faithful service, though we began so late.

Then were we called from the most fatal idleness, and neglect of our best interest, and put in a way to work out our own salvation; we were taken from the market, and sent into the vineyard; from the world, and received into the church: we were delivered from our former vain and vicious and filthy conversation, and all the miserable consequences of it; and restored to quiet and peace of mind, true comfort and pleasure here, and entitled to heaven hereafter. O what a blessed, happy change is this! that we who were strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, should be made fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the houshold of Godo.

Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men! For he gathered them out of all lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south; when Eph. ii. 12.

n

o Ver. 19.