in union with God, in flavery to the vilest of beings; to have the To prevent our falling into such a fad condition, and to secure our CHAP. XIII. Of the Confequences of ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION, are now come to a very grand point in Theciom the Fut WE nor the Confequences of Adam's Tran Proteftant, have generally, and for a long track of be those that follow, namely, "the guilt of Asan's to, or charged upon, all his pofterity " tegusness wherein he is fuppofed to have been reption of the human nature, whereby supposed, disabled, and made opposite th and wholly incli all evil, "ruption of our Bren " in the world and that cor he fource of all wicem by A " punishments in this world, and in the world to come, to an ever" lasting separation from the comfortable presence of God, the most " grievous torments in foul and body without intermifion in hell-fire " for ever." This is an affair of the most dreadful importance, and requires to be examined with all poffible care and impartiality; for an error in this point will affect the whole scheme of Chriftianity, pervert and abuse our confciences, and give us very wrong notions of God and of ourselves. Upon this article I have examined the Scriptures, with diligence and impartiality, in the treatise entitled - The Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, proposed to free and candid Examination in the study of which this is a proper place to exercise your thoughts and judg ments. : [* Adam having transgressed the law, not only lost a claim to life, but became obnoxious to death, which was death in law, or eternal death. And had the law been immediately executed, his pofterity, then * included in his loins, must have been extinct, or could have had no existence at all; for, the covenant of innocence being broken, there was no covenant or constitution subsisting upon which Adam could have the least hope of the continuance of his own life, and consequently, could have no profpect of any posterity. Thus in Adam all die. While things were in this state, under broken law, and before a promise of favour, or grace, in this interval, for any thing Adam could know, he, and the whole world in him, were utterly lost and undone for ever. But our merciful God and Father had quite different views; he gracioufly intended to make Adam's fin, and his being exposed to eternal death, an occafion of erecting a new dispensation, a difpenfation of grace in the hands of a Mediator. According to which, Adam was assured that he should not immediately die, but should live to have a pofterity by his wife. So Adam understood what the Lord God faid, ver. 15. And upon this he gave his wife a new name, (ver. 20.( הוה Life, or Lifegiving, for joy that mankind were to be propagated from her, when he expected nothing but immediate death in consequence of his tranfgreffion.] ハ [† God. graciously intended, after Adam's Tranfgreffion, to erect a difpenfation of grace, for the redemption of mankind; which grace was declared, and, consequently, which dispensation was established, (Gen. iii. 15. And I will put enmity, &c.) before the sentence of death was pronounced upon Adam (ver. 19. Dust thou art, and to dust thou Shalt return). Death therefore, in that sentence, stands under the new difpenfation, or the difpenfation of grace, and for that reason cannot be Death in Law, or eternal death; but death in DISPENSATION, or death appointed for wife and good purposes, and to be continued only so long as God should think fit. And thus also all die in Adam; thus by man came death; thus by one man fin entered into the world, and death by, or in confe quence • Take this in, as a note, p. 18 of Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, at the paragraph, 1. Whereas Adam bad before, &c. + Take this in, as a note, p. 66 of Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, at No. Immediately upon the annulling the first covenant, &c. quence of, his fin. But it was the high and glorious purpose of God, that his beloved Son, the feed of the woman, having, in our flesh, performed the most perfect and complete obedience, should be invested with dominion and power to raise all men from the dead, and to give eternal life to all them that tread in the steps of his obedience. Thus, as by man came death, by man came also the resurrection from the dead; for, as in Adam all die, fo in Chrift shall all be made alive. 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22. Thus, 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 unto juftification. For as by one man's disobedience the many were made finners, so by the obedience of one shall the many be made righteous. Rom. v. 18, 19.] CHAP. XIV. Of the Origin of SACRIFICES. Gen. iv. 1-6. ERE Cain and Abel perform an act of religious devotion, by way of Oblation or Sacrifice. The question is, whether this kind of worship was of divine or human institution. They who are of the latter opinion alledge, "that we read of no command from "God for facrificing; therefore men did it of their own heads, out of a grateful inclination to return unto God some of his own blef-. "fings, and to acknowledge him the abfolute proprietor of all their enjoyments; though they had no directions from him about it." Answer. This seems highly improbable. For how came Abel to offer his Sacrifice in faith of God's acceptance, (Heb. xi. 4.) if his faith had nothing to warrant it but his own imagination? Human imagination, or opinion, never was, or ever can be, either the ground or object of faith. It is faid, Gen. iv. 4. that God had respect to, or shewed his approbation of, both Abel and his offering; or in the Apostle's words, he obtained witness, that himself was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, that they were right, and offered in a right manner. On the other hand, he censured Cain as having presented his Oblation in such a manner as was not pleasing to God; which evidently supposes a previous inftitution, and a rule which Cain was, or might have been, acquainted with. For, had there not been such a rule given, how could he have been blamed for not observing it? It is absurd to say, he tranfgreffed a rule of his own imagination and invention. The institution not being mentioned in a history so concise, argues nothing. Other things are alfo omitted, as religious assemblies, Enoch's prophecy, Noah's preaching, the peopling of the world, or the increase of Adam's family. Things well known, or generally supposed, when the the historian wrote, needed not to be mentioned, but might be taken for granted. The only proper and conclusive argument would be to prove, "that in those early days they had no communication with, or revela"tion from God; and therefore, having no way of knowing what the " mind of the Lord was, were under a necessity of inventing something " of their own." But this is far from being the case. God, in some visible form, frequently appeared, and made his mind known to Adam, and to all the fucceeding Patriarchs mentioned in the book of Genesis, for the space of 2315 years; yea, he conversed and reasoned with and instructed Cain himself. When therefore Adam, and all the other Patriarchs, had the fullest opportunity of knowing from God himself, what kind of worship was most acceptable to him, there was no need of their own invention; and it is absurd to suppose that they followed no other guide. In the infancy of the church they wanted direction, and without doubt were directed in every thing relating to religion especially, fo far as was agreeable to that dispensation. Doubtless Adam was instructed by God to facrifice; and it is not improbable that those beafts, with the skins of which Adam and Eve were clothed, Gen. iii. 21. were flain as Sacrifices. God certainly instructed our first parents in the faith and worship which the alteration in their circumstances required. Having made a most gracious covenant with them, (ver. 15) it is not unreasonable to suppose, that he also signified to them, that they should, for a perpetual ratification and assurance of it to their faith, offer to him Sacrifices.; for by the blood of Sacrifices covenants were ratified in aftertimes. The eating of the tree of life, was a covenanting action, (affuring immortality to their continued obedience) suitable to a state of innocence. But the mactation of a living creature, (expressing the deadly nature of fin, at the same time that it assured them of eternal life through a facrificed Redeemer) was more suitable to a state of guilt. Ver. 3. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, &c. ver. 4. And Abel also brought of the firstlings of the flock, &c. "As there were fome " folemn times of making their devout acknowledgments to God; so, " I doubt not, there was fome set place, where they assembled for that purpose. For the Hebrew word for brought, is never used in rela"tion to domestic, or private Sacrifices; but always in relation to " those public Sacrifices which were brought to the door of the taber-. "nacle of the congregation. As Lev. iv. 4. He shall bring הביא " the bullock to the door, &c. Which occurs all along, especially in "the ninth chapter of that book. " And therefore, I suppose, they brought these Sacrifices, here men" tioned, to fome fixed (public] place, where the Shechinah, or glorious " prefence of God appeared. For, as they must have some settled place, "where they [publicly) performed facred offices, it is most reasonable " to think it had, in those early days, respect to the Shechinah, or Di"vine prefence, as well as afterwards under the Mosaic dispensation, " (when the Divine Prefence refided) in the tabernacle and temple. " And therefore they are said to appear before God, [Exod. xxiii. 17. "xxxiv. 24. i " xxxiv. 24. Pfal. xlii. 2, &c. or to present themselves before the Lord, "Job. i. 6."*] That fome visible token of the presence of God appeared in their religious assemblies in those earliest days of the church, and spake and conversed with them, as occafion required, is evident enough. So the Lord God appeared frequently and familiarly to Adam. He held a conference with Cain in such a manner as plainly shews it was no extraordinary thing. And when the fons, or children, of God came together to present themselves before the Lord, the Lord is reprefented as difcourfing with Satan about the character and circumstances of Job. Jobi. 6-12. ii. 1-7. While men were not so numerous, but that they might all assemble together at one place, probably the Shechinah statedly appeared among them every fabbath. But when they were so numerous, that they could not ordinarily meet together once a week, and therefore were under a neceffity of performing their worship in separate and remote places; yet the Shechinah, or token of the Divine Prefence, might still remain and appear as ufual in that original place, where Adam and his immediate descendents had first attended upon divine service, and where the Patriarchs, in a right line descended from Adam, had their place of refidence. There, probably, Noah builded his altar, and there the Lord conversed with him. Gen. viii. 20, &c. ix. 118. There Rebekah went to inquire of the Lord, Gen. xxv. 22, 23; and she received an answer, probably, from the Shechinah or Divine Prefence. From all this it feems not unlikely, that Cain and Abel's Offerings were performed before the whole aflembly of Adam's family (which then must have been considerably increased), and that the divine acceptance of the one, and rejection of the other, was fignified by some visible mark, which appeared and was observed by the whole congregation. It would add very much to Gain's disgust to find himself so openly difparaged, and funk so much in the favour of God, and the esteem of the whole family, below his younger brother; over whom, on that fole account, as he was the first-born, he claimed pre-eminence, and expected, whatever his character was, pious or impious, to have been preferred before him. The mark by which the Lord God testified his acceptance of Abel and his Sacrifice, was, probably, a stream of fire issuing from the Shechinch, which confumed his Sacrifice. So Gen. xv. 17. A smoking furnace and burning lamp, i. e. the Shechinah, passed between the pieces of the Sacrifice, and confumed them, in confirmation of the covenant. And we have many other examples of this kind in sacred History; as when Mofes offered the first great burnt-offering, Lev. ix. 24; when Gideon offered upon the rock, Judg. vi. 21; when David stayed the plague, I Chron. xxi. 26; and Solomon confecrated the temple, 2 Chron. vii. 13; and when Elijah contended with the Baalites, Kings xviii. 38, &c. whence the Ifraelites, Pfal. xx. 3. wishing all profperity to their king, pray that God would accept ]ידשנה turn into ashes] his burnt-offering. • Bishop Patrick's Comment, in loco. Ver. 6, 7, |