Here we have the institution of the church before there was any domestic government (_oeconomia_) or civil government (_politia_). For Eve was not yet created. And the church is here instituted without any walls or any pomp; in a place all open and most delightful. After the church was instituted domestic government (_oeconomia_) is established, when Eve is brought to Adam as his life-companion. Thus we have at God's hand a church before a private house; the former of which indeed is greater and better than the latter. And as to civil government (_politia_); before sin there was none; nor was it needed. For civil government is a necessary remedy for corrupt nature. Because the lust of men must be curbed by the chains and penalties of the laws, that it transgress not all bounds. Wherefore we may properly term polity, or civil government, the established "kingdom over sin," just as Paul also calls Moses the minister and the law the "ministration of sin and of death," 2 Cor. 3:7, 8; Rom. 8:2. For the one and special object of civil government is to prevent sin. Hence Paul says, "that the power beareth the sword" and is "the avenger of evil doings," Rom. 13:4. If therefore, men had not become evil by sin there would have been no need of civil government; but Adam would have lived with his posterity in the greatest joy, peace and safety, and would have done more by the motion of one of his fingers than can now be effected by all the magistrates, all the swords and all the gallows of a kingdom. There would then have been no ravisher, no murderer, no thief, no slanderer, no liar. And therefore what need would there have been of civil government, which is as it were the sword, the caustic and the terrible medicine, which are necessary to cut off and burn out noxious members of the state, that its other members may be saved and preserved. After the establishment of the church therefore in paradise is committed unto Adam the government of his family. The church is thus first instituted by God, that he might show by this as a sign that man was created to another and a higher end than any of the other living creatures. And as the church is thus instituted by the Word of God, it is certain that Adam was created by an immortal and spiritual life to which he would assuredly have been translated and conveyed without death after he had lived in Eden and the other parts of the earth to his full satiety of life, yet without trouble or distress. And in that life there would have been none of that impure lust which now prevails. The love of sex for sex would have been uncontaminated and pure. Generation would have proceeded without any sin or impurity, in a holy obedience unto God. Mothers would have brought forth children without pain, and children themselves would have been brought up without any of that misery and labor and distress with which they are now always reared.