Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

2. USE. How dreadful is the consideration of this doctrine to all rebels against God. Can any man that hath brains in his head, imagine it an inconsiderable thing, to despise the sovereign of the World? It was the sole crime of disobedience to that positive Law, whereby God would have a visible memorial of his sovereignty preserved in the eye of Man, that showered down that deluge of misery, under which the World groans to this day. God had given Adam a Soul, whereby he might live as a rational Creature; and then gives him a Law, whereby he might live as a dutiful Subject: For God forbidding him to eat of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, declared his own supremacy over Adam, and his propriety in the pleasant World he had given him by his bounty; he let him know hereby, that man was not his own Lord, nor was to live after his own sentiments, but the directions of a superior.^* As when a great Lord builds a magnificent Palace, and brings in tanoher to inhabit it, he reserves a small duty to himself, not of an equal value with the House, but for an acknowledgement of his own right, that the Tenant may know, he is not the Lord of it, but hath his grant by the liberality of another. God hereby gave Adam matter for a pure Obedience, ⟨p. 767⟩that had no foundation in his own Nature by any implanted Law; he was only in it, to respect the will of his sovereign, and to understand, that he was to live under the power of a higher than himself. There was no more moral evil in the eating of this fruit, as considered distinct from the command, than in eating of any other fruit in the Garden. Had there been no prohibition, he might with as much safety have fed upon it as upon any other. No Law of nature was transgressed in the act of eating of it, but the sovereignty of God over him was denied by him; and for this the death threatened was inflicted on him and his posterity: For though Divines take notice of other sins in the fall of Adam, yet God in his trial chargeth him with none but this; and doth put upon his question an Emphasis of his own Authority. Gen. 3.11. Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee, that thou sho•ld'st not eat? This I am displeased with, that thou shouldest disown my dominion over thy self, and this Garden. This was the inlet to all the other sins;