dam, andits

Fall of a be finful at all, because that which is neceffary, or which we cannot help, is not fin. That we are weak and liable to coulequen- temptation, is the will of God holy and good, and for glorious purposes to ourselves; but if we are wicked, it muft be through our own fault, and cannot proceed from any constraint, or neceffity, or taint in our conftitution."

ces.

131

counte

nanced by

dition.

Thus have we given as full and comprehenfive a view as our limits will permit of the different opinions of the Calvinilts and Arminians refpecting the consequences of Adam's fall. If we have dwelt longer upon the scheme of the latter than of the former, it is becaufe every Arminian argument is built upon criticism, and appeals to the original text; whilft the Calvinifts reft their faith upon the plain words of fcripture The pini- as read in our tranflation. If we might hazard our own ons of mo- opinion, we should fay that the truth lies between them, derate men and that it has been found by the moderate men of both among the Calvinit's parties, who, while they make use of different language, feem and Armi- to us to have the fame fentiments. That all mankind really rians the finned in Adam, and are on that account liable to most fame, and grievous torments in foul and body, without intermiffion, in hell fire for ever, is a doctrine which cannot be reconciled general tra- to our natural notions of God. On the other hand, if human nature was not somehow debased by the fall of our first partents, it is not easy to account for the numberlefs phrafes in fcripture which certainly feem to fpeak that language, or for the very general opinion of the Pagan philofophers and poets refpecting the golden age and the degeneracy of man. Cicero, in a quotation preferved by St Auguftine from a work that is now loft, has thefe remarkable words, "Homo non ut a matre fed ut a noverca natura editus eft in vitam corpore nudo, et fragili, et infirmo: animo autem anxio ad moleftias, humili ad timores, molli ad labores, prono ad libidines; in quo tamen ineft tanquam obrutus quidam divinus ignis ingenii et mentis †." Nor do we readily perceive what should induce the more zealous Arminians to oppofe fo vehemently this general opinion of the Vide etiam corruption of human nature. 'T'heir defire to vindicate the juftice and goodness of God does them honour; but Cicer. Con- the doctrine of inherent corruption militates not against thefe attributes; for what we have loft in the first Adam has been amply supplied to us in the second; and we know from the highest authority that the duties required of us are in proportion to our ability, fince we are told, that "unto whomfoever much is given, of him fhall much be required."

+ Vide D.

Aug. lib.

iv. contra

Pelagium.

M. Tull.

SECT. IV. View of Theology from the fall of Adam to the coming of Chrift.

WE have dwelt long on the original ftate of man, his introduction into the terreftrial paradife, the privileges to which he was there admitted, his forfeiture of those privileges, and the ftate to which he was reduced by tranfgreffing the law of his Maker; but the importance of thefe events renders them worthy of all the attention that we have paid to them. They paved the way for the coming of Chrift and the preaching of the gofpel; and unless we thoroughly understand the origin of the gofpel, we cannot have an adequate conception of its defign. By contrafting the firft with the fecond Adam, St Paul gives us clearly to understand, that one purpose for which Chrift came into the world and fuffered death upon the crofs, was to restore to mankind that life which they had loft by the fall of their original progenitor. The preaching of the gofpel therefore commenced with the first hint of fuch a reftoration; and the promise given to Adam and Eve, that "the feed of the woman fhould bruise the head of the ferpent," was as truly evangelical as thefe words of the apoftle, by which we are Voc. XVIII. Part II.

15.

faid to have

commenced

Chriftianity therefore is indeed very near as old as the 132 creation; but its principles were at firft obfcurely revealed, Chriftianiand afterwards gradually developed under different forms as ty may be mankind became able to receive them, (fee PROPHECY, n° 5, &c.). All that appears to have been at first revealed to with the Adam and Eve was, that by fome means or other one of fall. their pofterity fhould in time redeem the whole race from the curfe of the fall; or if they had a diftinct view of the means by which that redemption was to be wrought, it was probably communicated to them at the inftitution of facrifices, (lee SACRIFICE). This promife of a future deliverer served to comfort them under their heavy fentence; and the inftitution of facrifices, whilft it impreffed upon their minds lively ideas of the punishment due to their tranfgreffion, was admirably calculated to prepare both them and their posterity for the great atonement which, in due time, was to take away the fins of the world.

133

Our firft parents, after their fall, were fo far from being Revelatione frequent in left to fabricate a mode of worship for themselves by thofe the early innate powers of the human mind of which we daily hear ages of the fo much and feel fo little, that God was graciously pleafed world, to manifeft himself to their fenfes, and vifibly to conduct them by the angel of his prefence in all the rites and duties of religion. This is evident from the different discourses which he held with Cain, as well as from the complaint of that murderer of being hid from his face, and from its being faid, that "he went out from the pretence of the Lord and dwelt on the east of Eden." Nor does it appear that God wholly withdrew his vifible prefence, and left mankind to their own inventions, till their wickednefs became fo very great that his fpirit could no longer ftrive with them. The infant ftate of the world flood in conftant need of his fupernatural guidance and protection. The early inhabitants of this globe cannot be fuppofed to have been able, with Mofes *, to look up to him who is invifible, and perform a * Heb. xi. worship purely rational and fpiritual. They were all tillers 23. of the ground, or keepers of cattle; employed in cultivating and replenishing this new world; and, through the curfe brought upon it by their forefather, forced, with him, to eat their bread" in the fweat of their brow." Man in fuch circumstances could have little leiture for fpeculation; nor has mere fpeculation, unless furnished with principles from another fource, ever generated in the human mind adequate notions of God's nature or providence, or of the means by which he can be acceptably worshipped. Frequent manifeftations, there'ore, of his prefence would be neceffary to keep up a tolerable fenfe of religion among them, and fecure obedience to the divine inftitutions; and that the Almighty did not exhibit fuch manifeftations, cannot be inferred from the filence of that very short history which we have of those early ages. Adam himielf continued 930 years a living monument of the juftice and mercy of God; of his extreme hatred and abhorrence of fin, as well as of his love and long-fuffering towards the finner. He was very fenfible how fin had entered into the world, and he could not but apprife his children of its author. He would at the fame time inform them of the unity of God, and his dominion over the evil one; of the means by which he had appointed himself to be worshipped; and of his promile of future deliverance from the curfe of the fall. Such information would produce a tolerable idea of the Divine Be3 M

ing,

fall of A

fall of A

for fome time be fafely propagated by tradition. But when Theology by degrees mankind corrupted that tradition in its molt ef. from the fential parts; when, inftead of the one Supreme God, they dam to the fet up feveral orders of inferior deities, and worshipped all coming of the hoft of heaven; when, at the fame time they were uni- Chrift. ting under one head, and forming a univerfal empire under 136 the patronage of the Sun their chief divinity (fee BABEL)Idolatry, God faw it neceffary to difperfe them into diftinct colonies, however, by caufing fuch difcord among them as rendered it impof- the caufe of fible for any one fpecies of idolatry to be at once univerfally the difper established.

Theology ing, and afford fufficient motives to obey his will. The from the effects of it accordingly were apparent in the righteous dam to the family of Seth, who foon diftinguithed themfelves from the coming of pofterity of Cain, and for their eminent piety were honourChrift. ed with the appellation of the fons of God. Of this family fprang a perfon fo remarkable for virtue and devotion, as to be exempted from Adam's fentence and the common lot of his fons for after he had walked with God 300 years, and prophecied to his brethren, he was tranflated that he fhould not fee death. Of this miraculous event there can be no doubt but that his contemporaries had fome visible demonftration; and as the fate of Abel was an argument to their reason, so the tranflation of Enoch was a proof to their fenses of another state of life after the prefent. To Adam himself, if he was then alive (s), it must have been a lively and affecting inftance of what he might have enjoyed, had he kept his innocence; it must have been a comfortable earneft of the promifed victory over the evil one; and have confirmed his hope, that when the head of the ferpent fhould be completely bruised, he and his pofterity would be restored to the favour of their Maker, and behold his prefence in blefs and immortality.

134

Yet vice,

foon became prevalent.

Nothwithstanding this watchful care of God over his faland proba- len creature man, vice, and probably idolatry, spread through bly idolany, the world with a rapid pace. The family of Seth married into that of Cain, and adopted the manners of their new relations. Rapine and violence, unbounded luft and impurity of every kind, prevailed univerfally; and when thofe giants in wickedness had filled the earth with tyranny, injustice, and oppreffion; when the whole race was become entirely carnal-God, after raifing up another prophet to give them frequent warnings of their fate for the pace of 120 years, was at length obliged, in mercy to themselves as well as to the fucceeding generations of men, to cut them off by a general deluge. See DELUGE.

135

Pure religion for

after the Good;

Thus did God, by the fpirit of prophecy, which is by some supposed to have been hereditary in the heads of famifome time lies; by frequent manifeftations of his own prefence; and by uninterrupted tradition-make ample provifion for the inftruction and improvement of the world for the first 1600 years. After the deluge he was pleased to converfe again with Noah, and make in his perton a new and extenfive covenant with mankind, (fee PROPHECY, n° 11.). Of his power, juttice, and goodnets; of his fupreme dominion over the earth and the heavens; of his abhorrence of fin, and his determination not to let it go unpunished-that patriarch and his family had been moft awfully convinced; nor could they or their children, for fome time, want any other argument to enforce obedience, fear, and worship. The fons of Noah were an 100 years old when the deluge overwhelm. ed the earth. They had long converfed with their ancestors of the old world, had frequented the religious affemblies, obferved every Sabbath day, and been instructed by thofe who had feen Adam. It is therefore impoffible that they could be ignorant of the creation of the world, of the fall of man, or of the promise of future deliverance from the conlequences of that fall; or that they could offer their facrifices, and perform the other rites of the inftituted worship, without looking forward with the eye of faith to that deliverance feen, perhaps obfcurely, through their typi

cal oblations.

In this ftate of things, with the awful remembrance of the deluge continually prefent to their minds, religion might

After this difperfion, there is reafon to believe that particular revelations were vouchfafed wherever men were difpofed to regard them. Peleg had his name prophetically gi ven him from the difperfion which was to happen in his days; and not only his father Eber, but all the heads of familics mentioned from Noah to Abraham, are with much plaufibility fuppofed to have had the fpirit of prophecy on many occafions. Noah was undoubtedly both prieft and prophet; and living till within two years of the birth of A. braham, or, according to others, till that patriarch was near 60 years old, he would furely be able to keep up a tolerable fenfe of true religion among fuch of his descendants as fojourned within the influence of his doctrine and example. His religious fon Shem, who lived till after the birth of Ifaac, could not but preserve in tolerable purity the faith and worship of the true God among fuch of his own defcendants as lived in his neighbourhood.

fion from Babel.

But though the remains of true religion were thus preferved among a few righteous men, idolatry, with its infeparable attendants, unnatural lufts and cruel superstition (T), had in a fhort time prevailed fo far among the fons of Noah, that God, in his infinite wisdom, faw it expedient not only to fhorten the lives of men, but also to withdraw his prefence from the generality, who had thus rendered themfelves unworthy of fuch communications; and to felect a particular family, in which his worship might be preserved pure amidst the various corruptions that were overspreading the world. With this view Abraham was called; and The call of after many remarkable trials of his faith and conftancy, admit- Abraham ted to a particular intimacy and friendship with his Maker, was God entered into a peculiar covenant with him, engaging to be his prefent guide, protector, and defender; to beltow all temporal bleflings upon him and his feed; and to make fome of thofe feed the inftruments of conveying bleffings of a higher kind to all the nations of the earth.

137

Jatry.

138 It was doubtless for his fingular piety that Abraham was To prevent fixed upon to be the parent of that people, who fhould pre the univer ferve the knowledge of the unity of God in the midst of an fal fpreadidolatrous and polytheistic world; but we are not to ima-ng of idogine that it was for his fake only that all this was done, or that his lefs worthy defcendants were by the equal Lord of all treated with partial fondnefs for the virtues of their anceftor; it was for the benefit of mankind in general that he was called from his country, and from his father's house, that he might preferve the doctrine of the Divine unity in his own family, and be an inftrument in the hand of Providence (and a fit one he was) to convey the fame faith to the nations around him. Accordingly, we find him distinguished among the neighbouring princes, and kings reproved for his fake; who being made acquainted with his prophetic cha racter, defire his interceffion with God. Hiftory tells us of his converfing on the fubject of religion with the moft learn.

ed

J.

fall of Adam to the coming of

That fuch perfons looked for “ a better country, even a Christ. heavenly one," in a future ftate, cannot be queftioned; for they knew well how fin and death had entered into the world, and they must have understood the promise made to their original progenitor, and repeatedly renewed to themfelves, to include in it a deliverance at foine period from every confequence of the first tranfgreffion. They were to all intents and purposes Chriftians as well as we. They in 142 deed placed their confidence in a Redeemer, who in the fulRedeemer, nefs of time was to appear upon earth, while we place ours in a Redeemer that has been already manifested; they expressed that confidence by one mode of worship, we exprefs it by another; but the patriarchal worship had the fame end in view with the Chriftian- the attainment of everlasting life in heaven.

Of a future

143 Such faith, however,

The generality of men, however, appear not, in the early hot general age of which we now write, to have extended their views "beyond the prefent life. From the confufed remains of ancient tradition, they acknowledged indeed fome fuperior power or powers, to whom they frequently applied for direction in their affairs; but in all probability it was only for direction in temporal affairs, fuch as the cultivation of the ground, or their tranfactions with each other. In the then ftate of things, when no part of the world was overstocked with inhabitants, and when luxury with its confequences were everywhere unknown, virtue and vice must have produced their natural effects; and the good man being happy here, and the wicked man miferable, reafon had no data from which to infer the reality of a future ftate of rewards and punishments. Those who were bleffed with the light of revelation undoubtedly looked forward to that ftate with a holy joy; but the reft worshipped fuperior powers from worldly motives. How many of thofe powers there might be, or how far their influence might reach, they knew not. Uncertain whether there be one Supreme Governor of the whole world, or many co-ordinate powers prefiding each over a particular country, climate, or place-gods of the hills and of the valleys, as they were afterwards diftinguish ed-they thought that the more of thefe they could engage in their intereft the better. Like the Samaritans therefore, in after times, they fought, wherever they came, the "manners of the god of the land," and ferved him, together with their own gods.

144 The purpofe for

Mraelites

Thus was the worl! ready to lofe all knowledge of the true God and his worship, had not he been graciously plea which the fed to interpofe, and take effectual care to preferve that knowwere made ledge in one nation, from which it might be conveyed to the to fojourn reft of mankind at different times, and in greater or lefs dein Egypt. grees, as they fhould be capable of receiving it. To this purpofe he made way for the removal of Jacob and his family to one of the most improved and polished countries of the world; and introduced them into it in a manner fo advantageous, as to give them an opportunity o imparting much religious knowledge to the natives. The natives, however, were grofs idolaters; and that his chofen people might be as far as poffible from the contagion of their example, he placed them upon the borders of Egypt, where, though they multiplied exceedingly, they were by their very ocGen. xlvi.cupation + fill kept a feparate people, and must have been rendered, by a long and levere oppreffion, in a great degree averfe from the manners and religion or their neighbours. This averfion, however, feems to have gradually become lefs and lefs; and before they were miraculously redeemed from their house of bondage, they had certainly loft all correct notions of the unity of God, and the nature of his worship,

33,34.

fall of A

145

ces of it.

* Lib. ii,

and had adopted the greater part of the fuperftitions of Theology their tafk-mafters. Of this we need no other proof than fom the what is implied in the words of Mofes, when he faid unto dam to the God, "Behold, when I come unto the children of Ifrael, coming of and fay unto them, the God of your fathers hath fent me Chrifì. unto you; and they fhall fay unto me, WHAT IS HIS NAME? * Exod. ii. what fhall I fay unto them? Had not the destined lawgiver of the Hebrews been aware that his countrymen had adopted a plurality of gods, this difficulty could not have occur Confequen red to him; for names are never thought of but to diftinguish from each other beings of the fame kind; and he must have remembered, that in Egypt, where the multitude of gods was marfhalled into various claffes, the knowledge of their names was deemed of great importance. This we learn likewife from Herodotus, who informs us, that the Pelafgi, after fettling in Greece, thought it neceffary to confult cap. 52, the oracle of Dodona, whether it would be proper to give 53. to their own gods the names of the Egyptian divinities? and that the oracle, as might have been fuppofed, affured them that it would. Indeed the Hebrews during their refidence in Egypt had acquired fuch an attachment to the idolatrous worship of the country, that it appears never to have left them entirely till many ages afterwards, when they were carried captive into Babylon, and feverely punished for their repeated apoftacies; and fo completely were they infat uated by these fuperftitions at the era of their exodus, that, as the prophet Ezekiel informs us*, they rebelled Ch. 11. againft God, and would not caft away their abominations, or forfake the idols of Egypt, even in the very day that the hand of Omnipotence was lifted up to bring them forth of that land in which they had been fo long and fo cruelly oppreffed. In such a state of things, to have suffered them to remain longer in Egypt, could have served no good purpofe; and therefore to fulfil the promise which he had given to Abraham, God determined to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians by means which fhould convince both them and their offspring of his own fupremacy over heaven and earth.

out of E

146 As Mofes was the perfon appointed to deliver God's mef Mofes apfage to Pharaoh, and to demand of him leave for the Ifrael-pointed to ites to go three days journey into the wilderness to ferve bring them the God of their fathers, it was neceffary that he should be endowed with the power of making miracles to evince the 8Pt. reality of his divine miffion. Without a conviction that his claims were well-founded, neither Pharaoh nor his own countrymen could reasonably have been expected to liften to the propofals of a man who, though bleffed in his youth with a princely education, had come directly on his embassy from the humble employment of a fhepherd, which he had for many years exercifed in the country of Midian. To prove that he was really fent by God, any visible and undoubted controul of the laws of nature would have been abundantly fufficient; but he was to prove not only this truth, but also the unity of the Divine nature; and the miracles which he was directed to work were executions of judgments against the very gods of Egypt *.

* Exod. xi.

12:

147

When Pharaoh firft turned a deaf ear to his request, tho' enforced by the converfion of a rod into a ferpent, at the command of Jehovah he fmote with the fame rod upon the waters in the river, which were inftantly converted into The ro blood, and occafioned the death of all the fifhes that (wamp riety of in them. To any people this miracle would have been a the miracles proof of Divine agency; but it was in a particular manner wrought. calculated to open the eyes of the blind and infatuated Egyptians, who confidered the Nile as one of their greateft gods, and all the fifhes that it contained as fubordinate divinities. They called that noble river fometimes Sirius, fometimes Ofiris, fometimes. Canobus (fee CANOBUS), and

not

which he

fall of AHam to the

Theology not unfrequently vs (x); and adored it as the parent from the of all their deities. What then must the people have thought when they found their moft revered god, at the command coming of of a fervant of Jehovah, converted into blood, and all his Chrit. facred offspring into ftinking carcafes? To conceive their confternation, if it can be conceived, the reader must remember, that the Egyptian priefs held blood in the utmoft abhorrence, as a thing of which the very touch would deep ly pollute them, and require immediate and folemn expiation. The fame facred river was a fecond time polluted, when it sent forth frogs, which covered all the land of Egypt, and died in the houses, in the villages, and in the fields; thus rendering it impoffible for the people to avoid the touch of dead bodies, though from every fuch contact they believed themselves to contract an impurity, which, in the cafe before us, muft have been the more grievous, that in the whole country there was not left a pool of uninfected water to wash away the ftain.

148 To evince the vanity of idol worthip.

The third plague inflicted upon the Egyptians was, the converting of the du of the land into lice, upon man and upon beaft, throughout the whole kingdom. To fee the propriety of this miracle as a judgment upon their idolatry, we must recollect their utter abhorrence of all kinds of vermin, and their extreme attention to external purity above every other people perhaps that has hitherto exifted on the face of the earth. Upon this head they were more particularly folicitous when about to enter the temples of their gods; for Herodotus informs us, that their priests wore linen raiment only, and fhaved off every hair from their heads and bodies, that there might be no loufe or other deteftable object upon them when performing their duty to the gods. This plague therefore, while it lafted, made it impoffible for them to perform their idolatrous worship, without giving fuch offence to their deities as they imagined could never be forgiven. Hence we find, that on the production of the lice, the priests and magicians perceived immediately from what hand the miracle had come, and exclaimed, "This is the finger of God!" The fourth plague feems to have been likewife acknowledged to be the finger of God, if not by the magicians, at least by Pharaoh; for in a fit of terror he agreed that the Ifraelites fhould go and ferve the Lord. That he was terrified at the fwarms of flies which infefted the whole country, except the land of Gofhen, will excite no wonder, when it is known that the worship of the fly originated in Egypt; whence it was carried by the Caphtorim to Palestine; by the Phoenicians to Sidon, Tyre, and Babylon; and from these regions to other parts of the world. The denunciation of this plague was delivered to Pharaoh early in the morning, when he was on the banks of the Nile, probably paying his accustomed devotion to his greatest god; and when he found himlelf and his people tormented by a fwarm of fubordinate divinities, who executed the judgment of Jehovah in defiance of the power of the fupreme numen of Egypt, he muft have been convinced, had any candour remained in his mind, that the whole fyftem of his fuperftition was a mass of abfurdities, and that his gods were only humble inftruments at the difpofal of a Superior Power. He was not, however, convinced; he was only alarmed, and quickly relapfed into his wonted obftinacy. The fifth plague therefore, the murrain among the cattle, brought death and deftruction upon his moft revered gods themselves. Neither Oliris, nor Ifis, nor Ammon, nor Pan, had power to fave his brute reprefentatives. The facred bull, and heifer, and ram, and goat, were

from the

carried off by the fame malady which fwept away all the Theology other herds of deities, thefe dii ftercorei, who lived on grafs of Aand hay. The impreffion of this punishment must have been awful upon the minds of the Egyptians, but perhaps coming of not equal to that which fucceeded it.

In Egypt there were feveral altars on which human facrifices were offered; and from the defcription of the perfons qualified to be victims, it appears that thofe unhappy beings must have been foreigners, as they were required to have bright hair and a particular complexion. The hair of the Ifraelites was much brighter than that of the Egyptians, and their complexions fairer; and therefore there can be little doubt but that, during their refidence in Egypt, they' were made to furnish the victims demanded by the bloody gods. Thefe victims being burnt alive on a high altar, and thus facrificed for the good of the nation, their afhes were gathered together by the priefts, and fcattered upwards in the air, that a bleffing might be entailed on every place to which an atom of this duft should be wafted. Mofes too, by the direction of the true God, took ashes of the furnace, probably of one of thofe very furnaces in which fome of his countrymen had been burnt, and sprinklingthem towards heaven in the fight of Pharaoh, brought boils and blains upon all the people, of fo malignant a na ture, that the magicians and the other minifters of the medical gods, with which Egypt abounded beyond all other countries, could not themselves efcape the infection.

The powers of darkness were thus foiled; but the heart of the monarch was ftill hardened. Deftruction was therefore next brought upon him and his country by the elements, which were among the earliest idol deities not only of the Egyptians, but of every other polytheistic nation. "The Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt; fo that there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, fuch as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt fince it became a nation. And the hail fmote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was. in the field, both man and beaft; and the hail fmote every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field." This was a dreadful calamity in itself; and the horror which it excited in the minds of the people must have been greatly aggravated by the well known fact, that Egypt is bleffed with a fky uncommonly ferene; that in the greatest part of it rain has never been feen at any other time fince the creation of the world; and that a flight and tranfient fhower is the utmoft that in the ordinary courfe of nature falls anywhere throughout the country. The mall quantity of vegetables which was left undestroyed by the fire and the hail was afterwards devoured by locufts, which by a ftrong east wind were brought in fuch numbers from Arabia, where they abound at all times, that they covered the who! face of the earth, and did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees, fo that there remained not any green thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field through all the land of Egypt.

The ninth plague which the obftimacy of Pharoah brought. upon his country, whilft it feverely punished the Egyptians for their cruelty to the Hebrews, ftruck at the very foundation. of all idolatry. We have eliewhere flown, that the first objects of idolatrous worship were the contending powers of light and darkness (fee POLYTHEISM); and that the benevolent principle, or the power of light, was everywhere believed to maintain a conftant fuperiority over the power of darkness. Such was the faith of the ancient Perfians; and fuch, as a very learned writer has lately proved, was like

dam to the

Chrift.