SECONDLY, His will lay straight with the will of God, Eph. iv. 24. There was no corruption in his will, no bent nor inclination to evil; for that is sin properly and truly so called: hence the apostle says, Rom. vii. 7. I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. An inclination to evil, is really a fountain of sin, and therefore inconsistent with that rectitude and uprightness which the text expressly says he was endued with at his creation. The will of man then was directed, and naturally inclined to God and goodness, tho' mutably. It was disposed, by its original make, to follow the Creator's will, as the shadow does the body; and was not left in an equal balance to good and evil: for at that rate he had not been upright, nor habitually conform to the law, which in no moment can allow the creature not to be inclined towards God as his chief end, more than it can allow man to be a god to himself. The law was impressed upon Adam's soul: now this according to the new covenant, by which the image of God is repaired, consists in two things: 1. Putting the law into the mind, denoting the knowledge of it: 2. Writing it in the heart, denoting inclinations in the will, answerable to the commands of the law, Heb. viii. 10. So that, as the will, when we consider it as renewed by grace, is by that grace natively inclined to the same holiness in all it's parts which the law requires; so was the will of man (when we consider him as God made him at first) endued with natural inclinations to every thing commanded by the law. For if the regenerate are partakers of the divine nature, as undoubtedly they are, for so says the Scripture, 2 Pet. i. 4. And if this divine nature can import no less than inclinations of the heart to holiness; then, surely Adam's will could not want this inclination; for in him the image of God was perfect. It is true, 'tis said, Rom. ii• •5. That the Gentiles show the work of the law written in their hearts ▪ but this denotes only their knowledge of that law, such as it […]; that the ⟨p. 21⟩Apostle to the Hebrews, in the text cited, takes the word heart, in another sense, distinguishing it plainly from the mind. And it must be granted, that, when God promiseth in the new covenant, to write his law in the hearts of his people, it imports quite another thing than what Heathens have:
SECONDLY, His will lay straight with the will of God, Eph. iv. 24. There was no corruption in his will, no bent nor inclination to evil; for that is sin properly and truly so called: hence the apostle says, Rom. vii. 7. I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. An inclination to evil, is really a fountain of sin, and therefore inconsistent with that rectitude and uprightness which the text expresly says he was endued with at his creation. The will of man then was directed, and naturally inclined to God and goodness, tho' mutably. It was disposed, by its original make, to follow the Creator's will, as the shadow does the body; and was not left in an equal ballance to good and evil: for at that rate he had not been upright, nor habitually conform to the law, which in no moment can allow the creature not to be inclined towards God as his chief end, more than it can allow man to be a god to himself. The law was impressed upon Adam's soul: now this according to the new covenant, by which the image of God is repaired, consists in two things: 1. Putting the law into the mind, denoting the knowledge of it: 2. Writing it in the heart, denoting inclinations in the will, answerable to the commands of the law, Heb. viii. 10. So that, as the will, when we consider it as renewed by grace, is by that grace natively inclined to the same holiness in all it's parts which the law requires; so was the will of man (when we consider him as God made him at first) endued with natural inclinations to every thing commanded by the law. For if the regenerate are partakers of the divine nature, as undoubtedly they are, for so says the Scripture, 2 Pet. i. 4. And if this divine nature can import no less than inclinations of the heart to holiness; then, surely Adam's will could not want this inclination; for in him the image of God was perfect. It is true, 'tis said, Rom. ii• •5. That the Gentiles shew the work of the law written in their hearts ▪ but this denotes only their knowledge of that law, such as it 〈…〉; that the ⟨p. 21⟩Apostle to the Hebrews, in the text cited, takes the word heart, in another sense, distinguishing it plainly from the mind. And it must be granted, that, when God promiseth in the new covenant, to write his law in the hearts of his people, it imports quite another thing than what Heathens have:
