Scripture doth not ascribe this to any extraordinary Knowledge or Sagacity in Adam, it seems most reasonable to suppose, that the Lord God told him either before or after the Operation (for under it he was in a deep Sleep) that he either would take, or had taken, the Woman out of his Side.

THE 24th Verfe; Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, &c. are the Words, not of Adam, but of God. So our Saviour tells us, Mat. xix. 4, 5. Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female? and faid, [he that made them faid] For this Caufe fhall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife they twain fhall be one flesh.

and

THE next Act of Adam recorded in facred Hiftory is, his eating the forbidden Fruit: Which was a Violation of the exprefs Command and Covenant of God, whereby he knew he made himself liable to the Punishment of Death, if the Word of his Creator was worthy of any Regard. And furely this is no Evidence of fuperior moral Abilities; but of the contrary. What his fpecial Temptation was we do not know. The Scripture only faith, The woman gave alfo unto her bufband with her, and he did eat, Gen. iii. 6. But if his Temptation was of the fame de

gree

gree with that of Eve, or even fuppofing it had fome additional Force beyond her's; I leave you to judge, whether fome, if not many, of his Pofterity, have not overcome Temptations more violent than his? And whether, for inftance, Jofeph's refifting the Solicitations of his Miftrefs; Mofes his refufing to be called the fon of Pharaoh's daughter, and chufing rather to fuffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of fin for a feafon, Heb. xi. 24. and esteeming the reproach of true Religion greater riches than the treasures of Egypt? Whether the brave and bold Refufal of the three young Men, Dan. iii. to worship Nebuchadnezzar's golden Image, when they knew they fhould in a dreadful manner be burnt alive in a fiery Furnace if they did not? Or whether Daniel's refolving rather to be torn in Pieces by fierce Lions, than to forbear or even conceal the Worship of God for one Month of his Life? Dan. vi. 7. I leave you, I fay, to confider, whether thefe Men, and many others, have not exhibited a Virtue, a Faith in God, and fteady Adherence to him, far fuperior to any thing we read or know of Adam, even in his most perfect State?

You will fay, the Grace of God ftrengthened and affifted thefe Men. I reply, that all the Faculties and Helps that Adam had, and that we have, are wholly from the Grace or

Good

Goodness of God. He had no Powers nor Advantages from himself any more than we: And therefore this doth not alter the State of the Argument; but it will ftill be true, that if God hath furnished any Powers to any of Adam's Pofterity to perform a Holiness fuperior to his, even though he did not favour Adam with thofe Powers; it will, I fay, be true, that the fpiritual Strength of fuch of Adam's Pofterity is fuperior to his; and for this very Reason too, because God hath given them larger Communications of his Grace than he gave to him.

THESE are all the Acts of Adam by which we can form any Idea of his natural Capacities, or moral Abilities before his Tranfgreffion. And now let any Man foberly weigh and fee, whether there be really in Revelation any Ground for exalting his Nature to fuch an extraordinary Degree of Purity and Strength as that to which Divines have raised it: who have affirmed, all his Faculties were eminently perfect, and entirely fet to the Love and Obedience of his Creator; his Knowledge exceeding clear and extenfive his Will in full Power and Inclination to do God's Will, and his Affections perfectly tuned to the Love of that which is fupreme-. ly good; with fuch like Encomiums. As if he were of a much nobler, and more exalted Kind than we; and as if we, compared to

;

him, were a Race of forry, diminitive Wretches. And yet these fame Men, which is very odd, all of a fudden, while they are afcribing fuch great Things to Adam, fuppofe him immediately, in Contradiction to the exprefs Prohibition of his Maker, guilty of the vileft Act that ever was committed under the Sun; being, according to their Schemes, the Root, Caufe, and Reafon of all the Sin, Tranfgreffion, Apoftacy, Rebellion, and Corruption, that ever hath yet been, or fhall hereafter be in the World.

OBJECT. II, But the Affembly of Divines affirm, and quote the Texts under-mentioned to prove, that Adam was created after God's own Image, in Knowledge, Righteoufnefs, and Holinefs, having the Law of God written in his Heart, and Power to fulfil it. And will you fay, that his Pofterity are made in the fame Image of God?. the Affembly's larger Catechism.

-See

• Ephef. iv. 24.

ANSW. That Adam was created after God's own Image, is truly proved from Gen. i. 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him. But whatever be the Meaning of the Image of God in this Place, no Reason can be given why it should not have the fame Senfe in Gen. ix. 6. Whofo

hed

fheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be fhed for in the image of God made he man : or, he hath made Man. And if this, that God made Man in his Image, was in Noah's Day's, when the World had stood 1656 Years, a good Reason for punishing Murder with the Death of the Murderer, and will continue a good and true Reason to the End of the World; then it followeth, that Men in Noah's Days, as well as Adam, were made in the Image of God, and also that they were to be made in the fame Image to the End of the World. Otherwife; if Men were not in Noah's Time, and in all Generations, made in the Image of God, this would neither then, nor in any future Time, have been any Reafon at all for punishing the Murderer with Death; feeing it would hold good only in Adam's Cafe, who alone was made in the Image of God: But would not hold good in the Cafe of any of his Pofterity, upon Suppofition they were not made in the Image of God. Therefore if Gen. i. 27. proveth that Adam was made in the Image of God, Gen. ix. 6. proveth that his Pofterity also are made in the fame Image, whatever that Image be. Accordingly 'tis faid, Gen. v. 3. That Adam begat a Son in his likeness, after his image, i. e. He begat a Man like himself, having the fame Nature, which God had given him. Our Tranflators add, in his own likeness; and it hath been understood to refer N

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