This penal threat also thus expressly added proves that it was a law, not an admonition, that was given to Adam. And it moreover shows that Adam was created in a state of innocence and righteousness. For as yet there was no sin in existence because God did not create sin. If Adam therefore had obeyed this command he would never have died, for death entered into the world by sin. All the rest of the trees of paradise therefore were created to the end that they might aid and preserve unto man his animal life, sound and whole, and without the least evil or inconvenience.

Now it naturally appears wonderful to us at this day, that there should have been an animal life without any death and without any evils or accidental causes of death, which now abound, such as diseases, boils and fetid redundancies, in bodies, etc., etc. The reason is that no part of the body in the state of innocency was foul or impure. There was no unpleasantness in the evacuations or secretions. There were no impurities whatever. Everything was most beautiful and delightful. There was no offense to any of the organs or senses. And yet the life was an animal life. Adam ate, digested, performed the functions of, and managed and regulated, his body. And had he continued in his innocence he would have done all these and other things the animal life does and requires, until he had been translated to the spiritual and eternal life.

For this deathless translation also we have lost by sin. And now, between this present and a future life, there exists that awful medium passage, death. That passage, in the state of innocence, would have been most delightful; and by it Adam would have been translated to the spiritual life, or as Christ calls it in the Gospel, the life "as the angels in heaven," Math. 12:25; in which state all animal actions cease. For in the resurrection we shall neither eat nor drink nor are given in marriage. So with respect to Adam, all animality would have ceased and a spiritual life in glory would have followed; even as we also believe it will be with us "in the resurrection" through Christ. So also Adam would have put off his childhood glory of innocence, if I may so term his natural life of innocency, and would have put on his heavenly glory. He would have done with all inferior actions, which however, in that childhood glory of innocency, would have been pure and unattended with that sorrow which mars all things since the fall; and would have been translated from his infantine glory of created innocence, to that manhood of glorious innocence, which angels enjoy; and which we also who believe shall enjoy in the life to come.

I call Adam's primitive, creative innocence the childhood of glorious innocency, because Adam, if I may so speak, was in a middle state, or a state of neutrality or liability; in a state where he could be deceived by Satan; and could fall into that awful calamity into which he did fall. But such a peril of falling will not exist in that state of perfect manhood of glorified innocency, which we shall enjoy in the future and spiritual life. And this indeed is that which is signified in this threat of punishment. "For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." As if the Lord had said, thou mayest remain indeed, if thou obey me, in this life, in which I have created thee; yet thou wilt not even then, be immortal, as the angels are. It is a life placed as it were in a middle, neutral or liable, state. Thou mayest remain in it by obedience, and afterwards be translated into an immortality, which cannot be lost. On the other hand if thou shalt not obey me, thou shalt fall into death and shalt lose that immortality.

There is a great difference therefore between the created spiritual state of angels and the created natural innocency of Adam. Angels as they now are cannot fall, but Adam could fall; for Adam was created in a state in which he might become immortal, that is, in which he might continue in his original innocency without death, for he was free from all sin and stood in a condition from which he might be translated out of the childhood glory of original innocency into the manhood glory of immortality, in which he could never sin afterwards. On the other hand, Adam could fall out of this childhood glory of natural innocence into sin, the curse and death, as indeed it sadly happened. Adam was in a state of natural immortality, or which might have been a natural immortality, because he had recourse to certain created trees, the virtue of whose fruits produced preservation of life. But this natural immortality was not so secured to him, as to render it impossible for him to fall into mortality.

Why God willed to create man in this middle, neutral or liable state is not for us to explain or curiously to inquire. Equally impossible is it for us to say and unlawful to ask, why man was so created that all mankind should be propagated from one man by generation, while angels were not so created. For angels generate not nor are propagated, because they live a spiritual life; but the counsel of God in the creation of man is worthy the highest admiration, in that he created him to an animal life and to corporeal actions, which also the other animals have, and gave him also a power of intellect, which indeed the angels also possess. So that man is a compound being, in whom are united the brute and the angelic natures.

Moreover, as we have here come to consider the nature of angels, we must not keep back the written opinions of some of the fathers, that there is a certain similarity between the creation of man and that of angels. This similarity however cannot be extended to the properties of generation, which in the spiritual nature has no existence, but to the imperfection that subsisted in each nature as to liability to fall. For since man, as I have shown, was created in a kind of a middle, or liable or pendent state, so also angels when first created were not so confirmed in their natural standing that they could not fall. Hence it is that Christ says concerning the devil, that he "abode not in the truth," John 8:44. On these grounds the holy fathers supposed that a battle or sedition arose between the angels, some of those beings taking the part of some very beautiful angel, who exalted himself above all the rest on account of certain superior gifts bestowed upon him. These things are very probable nor are they at variance with that which Christ here affirms by the Evangelist John, that the devil "abode not in the truth;" nor are they inconsistent with that which Jude also affirms in his epistle, that the angels "kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation," Jude 6.

In confirmation of these sentiments, the fathers adduce the passage, Is. 14:12, 13. But with reference to Isaiah, he is evidently speaking of the king of Babylon, who wished to sit in the throne of God, that is, to rule over his holy people and his temple.

Whether, therefore, there really was this dissension and war among the angels, or whether, which is more agreeable to my views, certain proud angels, filled with envy and taking offense at the humility of the Son of God, wished to exalt themselves above him, it is quite certain that the angels also like man were in such a state of innocence as could be altered. After the evil angels however had been judged and condemned, the good angels were so confirmed in their standing that they could not sin after that confirmation, for they were all elect angels, but the reprobate angels were cast out.

So also, if the great dragon, or the evil angels, mentioned in Revelations, had continued in their innocence, they also would afterwards have been confirmed therein and could never have fallen. The fathers, speaking on this subject, hold that the elect angels were created in righteousness and were afterwards confirmed therein; but that those who fell, "abode not in the truth," John 8:44. But we are not to think that the angels are few in number, for Christ affirms, Luke 11:18, that Satan has a kingdom, and that he is as the chief one among robbers and governs all things in his kingdom by his authority and counsels; and it is also said, in the same chapter that the devils or evil angels have their prince Beelzebub, who was at the head of this sedition in heaven.