But you may say, And did he grudge him this? I answer, Nay; but when he had made him thus holy and happy, he graciously gave him this restriction, which was in it's own nature, a prop and stay to keep him from falling. And this I say, upon these three grounds. (1) As it was most proper for the honour of God, who had made man lord of the lower world, to assert his sovereign dominion over all, by some particular visible sign; so it was most proper for man's safety. Man being set down in a beautiful paradise, it was an act of infinite wisdom, and of grace too, to keep from him one single tree, as a visible testimony, that he must hold all of his Creator, as his great Landlord; that so, while he saw himself lord of the creatures, he might not forget that he was still God's subject. (2.) This was a memorial of his mutable state given in to him from heaven, to be laid up by him for his great caution: For man was created with a free will to good, which the Tree of Life was an evidence of: but his will was also free to evil, and the Forbidden Tree was to him a memorial thereof. It was, in a manner, a continual watch-word to him against evil, a beacon set up before him, to bid him beware of dashing himself to pieces, on the rock of sin. (3.) God made man upright, directed towards God as the chief end. He set him like Moses, on the top of the hill, holding up his hands to heaven: and as Aaron and ••r stayed up Moses' hands, Exod. xv. 10, 11, 12. so God gave man an erect figure of body, and forbid him the eating of this tree; to keep him in that posture of uprightness, wherein he was created. God made the beasts looking down towards the earth, to ⟨p. 27⟩show that their satisfaction might be brought from thence; and accordingly it does afford them what is commensurable to their appetite: but the erect figure of man's body, which looketh upward, showed him, that his happiness lay above him in God; and that he was to expect it from heaven, and not from earth. Now this fair Tree, of which he was forbidden to eat, taught him the same lesson; that his happiness lay not in enjoyment of the creatures, for there was a want even in Paradise: so that the forbidden Tree was in effect the hand of all the creatures, pointing man away from themselves to God for happiness: It was a sign of emptiness hung before the door of the creation, with that inscription, This is not your rest.
But you may say, And did he grudge him this? I answer, Nay; but when he had made him thus holy and happy, he graciously gave him this restriction, which was in it's own nature, a prop and stay to keep him from falling. And this I say, upon these three grounds. (1) As it was most proper for the honour of God, who had made man lord of the lower world, to assert his sovereign dominion over all, by some particular visible sign; so it was most proper for man's safety. Man being set down in a beautiful paradise, it was an act of infinite wisdom, and of grace too, to keep from him one single tree, as a visible testimony, that he must hold all of his Creator, as his great Landlord; that so, while he saw himself lord of the creatures, he might not forget that he was still God's subject. (2.) This was a memorial of his mutable state given in to him from heaven, to be laid up by him for his great caution: For man was created with a free will to good, which the Tree of Life was an evidence of: but his will was also free to evil, and the Forbidden Tree was to him a memorial thereof. It was, in a manner, a continual watch-word to him against evil, a beacon set up before him, to bid him beware of dashing himself to pieces, on the rock of sin. (3.) God made man upright, directed towards God as the chief end. He set him like Moses, on the top of the hill, holding up his hands to heaven: and as Aaron and ••r stayed up Moses' hands, Exod. xv. 10, 11, 12. so God gave man an erect figure of body, and forbid him the eating of this tree; to keep him in that posture of uprightness, wherein he was created. God made the beasts looking down towards the earth, to ⟨p. 27⟩shew that their satisfaction might be brought from thence; and accordingly it does afford them what is commensurable to their appetite: but the erect figure of man's body, which looketh upward, shewed him, that his happiness lay above him in God; and that he was to expect it from heaven, and not from earth. Now this fair Tree, of which he was forbidden to eat, taught him the same lesson; that his happiness lay not in enjoyment of the creatures, for there was a want even in Paradise: so that the forbidden Tree was in effect the hand of all the creatures, pointing man away from themselves to God for happiness: It was a sign of emptiness hung before the door of the creation, with that inscription, This is not your rest.
