Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

Thirdly, God made him lord of the world, prince of the inferior creatures, universal lord and emperor of the whole earth. His Creator gave him dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, over all the earth; yea, and every living thing that liveth upon the earth: He put all things under his feet, Psal. viii. 6, 7, 8. He gave him a power soberly to use and dispose of the creatures in the earth, sea, and air. Thus man was God's depute-governor in the lower world; and this his dominion was an image of God's sovereignty. This was common to the man and the woman; but the man had one thing peculiar to him, to wit, that he had dominion ever the woman also, 1 Cor. xi. 7. Behold how the creatures came to him, to own their subjection, and to do him homage as their lord; and quietly stood before him, till he put names on them as his own, Gen. ii. 10. Man's face struck an awe upon them; the stoutest creatures stood astonished, tamely and quietly adoring him as their lord and ruler. Thus was man crowned with glory and honour, Psal. viii. 5. The Lord dealt most liberally and bountifully with him, put all things under his feet; only he kept one thing, one tree in the garden out of his hands, even the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

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,