And first we find that Adam was created in such a condition of life, as had he not broken the commandment of God, he had enjoyed it in the paradise of Eden everlastingly. For there was the _tree of life_, whereof he was so long allowed to eat, as he should forbear to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; which was not allowed him. And therefore as soon as he had eaten of it, God thrust him out of Paradise, (_Gen._ iii. 22) _lest he should put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life and live for ever_. By which it seemeth to me, (with submission nevertheless both in this, and in all questions whereof the determination dependeth on the Scriptures, to the interpretation of the Bible authorized by the commonwealth, whose subject I am), that Adam, if he had not sinned, had had an eternal life on earth, and that mortality entered upon himself and his posterity by his first sin. Not that actual death then entered; for Adam then could never have had children; whereas he lived long after, and saw a numerous posterity ere he died. But where it is said, (_Gen._ ii. 17) _In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die_, it must needs be meant of his mortality, and certitude of death. Seeing then eternal life was lost by Adam’s forfeiture in committing sin, he that should cancel that forfeiture, was to recover thereby that life again. Now Jesus Christ hath satisfied for the sins of all that believe in him; and therefore recovered to all believers, that eternal life which was lost by the sin of Adam. And in this sense it is that the comparison of St. Paul holdeth, (_Rom._ v. 18, 19) _As by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life_; which is again (_1 Cor._ xv. 21, 22) more perspicuously delivered in these words, _For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive._ [Sidenote: Texts concerning the place of life eternal, for believers.]