The Original State of Man, and the Covenant of Works
J. Guyse, D. D Ecclesiastes 7:29 See, this only have I found, that God has made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. I. THE NATURAL FORM OR CONSTITUTION OF MAN, AS MAN. The primitive bodies of our first parents were not subject to the deformities and infirmities, the fatigues of labour, and the injuries of climates, or seasons, nor to distempers, violence and death which we are now exposed to; and no doubt but they. were built with various beauties of due proportions, colour and form vastly superior to all that now appear in the ruins of human nature. But the chief glory of the natural form of man lies in his soul, which is an incorporeal, invisible and immortal, intelligent, free and active being, and so bears the natural image of God, as He is a Spirit. The bands of union between soul and body, and the way of their influencing and impressing one ,another, lie among the unsearchable mysteries of nature of which we have no ideas. But this we know, that by their union with each other to constitute a human person, the glories of the upper and lower worlds are in a sort epitomized and shadowed out in man. II. HIS MORAL STATE OR CONDITION AS AN UPRIGHT MAN. 1. With respect to his rectitude. (1) His understanding was full of light. (2) His will was perfectly holy and free. (3) His affections and appetites were all pure and regular. 2. With respect to his happiness. (1) He was a happy creature in the very constitution of his being as an innocent, upright man. (2) He was a happy creature in his communion with God and sense of His favour. (3) He was a happy creature in the pleasure of his situation, with the free use and government of all the creatures round about him. III. THE TENURE BY WHICH OR THE TERMS UPON WHICH HE WAS TO HOLD THIS MORAL STATE. It was not entailed upon him by any absolute promise that he should continue in it; nor was it put upon a mere act of Divine sovereignty whether he should hold or lose it; the first would have left no room for a trial of his obedience, and the last would have taken away a grand article of his encouragement to that obedience and of his pleasure in it. But he was to hold it by a covenant of works, upon condition of perfect obedience to the end of that state of probation in which it became the wisdom of God to place him. IV. THE CONCERN THAT ALL MANKIND HAD THEREIN. He whom God created after His own image is to be considered as a public person, who was to hold or lose that happy state, not only for himself, but for all his natural offspring. Had he creed, we had all been blessed and confirmed in blessedness with him, as upon his fall, Scripture and experience assure us, we lost it with him. Use: — 1. This shows what dreadful work sin has made in the world. 2. This shows that all good is from God, and all evil from ourselves. 3. Let us be deeply affected with the present state of human nature. 4. Let us turn our eyes to the better covenant and the better Head which God has provided for our recovery. (J. Guyse, D. D) Parallel Verses KJV: Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. WEB: Behold, this only have I found: that God made man upright; but they search for many schemes."