The Fourfold State of Human Nature: Innocence (State 1)

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Editor’s note: This is part one of a four-part series introducing Scottish theologian Thomas Boston’s book, The Fourfold State of Human Nature.

Thomas Boston (1676-1732) was a minister and theologian in the Church of Scotland, whose preaching and writings continue to encourage Christians around the world to this day. His book, Human Nature in Its Fourfold State, was second in popularity only to the Bible in Scotland in the eighteenth century. Such an influential book should not be overlooked by Christians today, as Boston has much to teach us about God’s redemptive plan from Genesis to Revelation.

The book is divided into four main parts, covering creation, the fall of man, redemption in Christ, and the consummation of the kingdom of God. Boston writes,

There are four things very necessary to be known by all that would see Heaven: First, What Man was in the state of innocence, as GOD made him. Secondly, What he is in the state of corrupt nature, as he hath unmade himself. Thirdly, What he must be in the state of grace, as created in Christ Jesus unto good works, if ever he be made a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light And, Lastly, What he shall be in his eternal state, as made by the Judge of all, either perfectly happy, or compleatly miserable, and that forever. These are weighty points, that touch the vitals of practical godliness, from which most men, and even many professors, in these dregs of time, are quite estranged. I design therefore, under the divine conduct, to open up these things, and apply them.[1]

Here is a brief introduction to the first state of man, innocence, in Boston’s own words (all quotations are from the uncopyrighted version in the University of Michigan Digital Collection:

The State of Innocence; or Primitive integrity, in Which Man Was Created:

Man had perfect knowledge of God’s law.

Man’s understanding was a lamp of light. He had perfect knowledge of the law, and of his duty accordingly: he was made after God’s image, and consequently could not want knowledge, which is a part thereof, Col. iii. 10. (p. 19)

Man’s righteousness was set toward good but was still moveable to evil.

[Man’s righteousness] was mutable; it was a righteousness that might be lost, as is manifested by the doleful event: His will was not absolutely indifferent to good or evil; God set it towards good only; yet he did not so fix and confirm it’s inclinations, that it could not alter. No, it was moveable to evil: and that only by man himself, God having given him a sufficient power to stand in this integrity, if he had pleased. (p. 22)

Man was glorious, and he had communion and fellowship with God.

Man was then a very glorious creature. We have reason to suppose, that as Moses’ face shone when he came down from the mount, so man had a very lightsome and pleasant countenance, and beautiful body, while as yet there was no darkness of sin in him at all. (p. 23)

[Man] was the favorite of Heaven: He shone brightly in the image of God. who cannot but love his own image, wherever it appears. While he was alone in the world, he was not alone, for God was with him: His communion and fellowship was with his Creator, and that immediately; for as yet there was nothing to turn away the face of God from the work of his own hands; seeing sin had not as yet entered, which alone could make the breach. (p. 23)

God made a conditional covenant with man, with life being the reward for obedience and death being the penalty for disobedience.

By the favor of God, [man] was advanced to be confederate with Heaven, in the first Covenant, called, The Covenant of Works. God reduced the Law, which he gave in his creation, into the form of a Covenant, whereof perfect obedience was the condition: life was the thing promised, and death the penalty. As for the condition, one great branch of the natural Law was, that man believe whatsoever God shall reveal, and do whatsoever he shall command: Accordingly God making this Covenant with man, extended his duty to the not eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; and the law thus extended, was the rule of man’s covenant-obedience. (pp. 23-24)

In this conditional covenant of works, God promised man life if he kept God’s law in this trial of obedience.

Now, upon this condition, God promised him life, the continuance of natural life in the union of soul and body; and of spiritual life in the favour of his Creator: he promised him also eternal life in heaven, to have been entered into, when he should have passed the time of his trial upon earth, and the Lord should see meet to transport him into the upper Paradise. This promise of life was included in the threatening of death mentioned, Gen. ii. l7. For while God says, In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die; it is in effect, If thou do not eat of it, thou shalt surely live: And this was sacramentally confirmed by another tree in the garden, called therefore, the Tree of Life, which he was debarred from, when he had sinned, Gen. iii. 22, 23. (p. 24)

Without God’s stay of execution and his providing the Mediator, Jesus Christ, Adam and all his posterity would face eternal death.

The penalty was death, Gen. ii. 17 In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die: The death threatned was such, as the life promised was; and that most justly, to wit, temporal, spiritual, and eternal death. The event is a commentary on this: for that very day he did eat thereof, he was a dead man in law; but the execution was stopped, because of his posterity then in his loins; and another Covenant was prepared; however, that day his body got it’s death-wound, and became mortal. Death also seized his soul: he lost his original righteousness and the favour of God; witness the gripes and throws of conscience, which made him hide himself from God. And he became liable to eternal death, which would have actually followed of course, if a Mediator had not been provided, who found him bound with the cords of death, as a malefactor ready to be led to execution. Thus you have a short description of the Covenant into which the Lord brought man, in the estate of innocence.

God made man his deputy-governor, giving him dominion over all the earth.

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. (p. 26)

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Readers can purchase Boston’s The Fourfold State of Human Nature online or access the book for free at Christianebooks.com)

Related Articles:

• Why Did Adam Name His Wife Eve?
• Two Gardens, Two Adams, and the Forgiveness of Your Sins
• Who Is Representing You—Adam or Jesus?
• 6 Reasons Why Adam and Eve’s Eating of the Forbidden Fruit Was a Terrible Transgression against God
• How Do People Try to Cover Up Their Sins with Fig Leaves Like Adam and Eve Did?

Notes:

[1] All quotations from Thomas Boston’s Human Nature in Its Fourfold State are sourced from the University of Michigan Digital Collection; some minor updates in spelling have been made to modernize the text from the original version.