in union, with God, in flavery to the vileft of beings; to have the fouls, for whom Christ shed his blood, to deliver them from iniquity, to purify them into the Divine Image, and to prepare them for everlasting falvation; to have those fouls quite infenfible to all that is true and excellent, heavenly and divine, guided by the grand deceiver, in the power of the destroyer, and by him pushed on in the way of iniquity to eternal perdition, how frightful is the reflection; how dreadful must the state of fuch fouls be!

To prevent our falling into fuch a fad condition, and to fecure ourfelves from the encroachments of this wicked spirit, let us ever be mindful that we have fuch an enemy, and that, without due care and circumfpection, we shall fall under his power. Let us carefully guard our hearts, and obferve well the temper and frame of our minds, that we may seasonably restrain every inordinate affection, and immediately reject every evil thought and fuggeftion which starts up in our minds. Be fober, be vigilant. Nothing gives this adverfary greater advantage than fenfual indulgences. Mortify the flesh with the affections and lufts. Shun all intemperance and excefs; and never dare to venture, how little foever, into the way of temptation and fin. And let us be fure to keep close to God in prayer, and other exercises of religion. Thus we shall put ourselves under the banner of the Prince of Life, the Lord Jefus Chrift, and fhall be kept by the power of God, through faith, unto falva

tion.

W

CHA P.

XIII.

Of the Confequences of ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION.

Gen. ii. 7, to the End.

E are now come to a very grand point in Theology, the Fall of Man, or the Confequences of Adam's Tranfgreffion upon himfelf and his posterity. Which Confequences Divines, both Papift and Proteftant, have generally, and for a long tract of time, reprefented to be those that follow, namely, " the guilt of Adam's first fin "imputed to, or charged upon, all his pofterity a total defect of "that righteoufnefs, wherein he is fuppofed to have been created "the corruption of the human nature, whereby all mankind are utterly indifpofed, difabled, and made oppofite unto all that is fpiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually; which corruption of our nature is the fource of all wickedness that is com"mited in the world. Further, by Adam's Tranfgreffion all mankind 66 were deprived of communion with God- and all, as foon as ever they come into the world, under his difpleasure and curfe, being by. "nature the children of wrath, bond-flaves to Satan, juftly liable to all "punishments

"punishments in this world, and in the world to come, to an everlasting feparation from the comfortable prefence of God, the most grievous torments in foul and body without intermiffion in hell-fire for

ever.

This is an affair of the moft 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 ourfelves. Upon this article I have examined the Scriptures, with diligence and impartiality, in the treatife entitled The Scripture Doctrine of original Sin, propofed to free and candid Examination in the study of which this is a proper place to exercife your thoughts and judg

ments.

But

[* Adam having tranfgreffed the law, not only loft 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 exiftence at all. For, the covenant of innocence being broken, there was no covenant or conftitution fubfifting upon which Adam could have the least hope of the continuance of his own life, and confequently, could have no profpect of any pofterity. Thus in Adam all die. While things were in this state, under broken law, and before a promise of favor, or grace, in this interval, for any thing Adam could know, he, and the whole world in him, were utterly loft and undone for ever. our merciful God and Father had quite different views. He graciously intended to make Adam's fin, and his being expofed to eternal death, an occafion of erecting a new difpenfation, a difpenfation of grace in the hands of a Mediator. According to which, Adam was affured that he should not immediately die, but fhould 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.) Life, or Lifegiving, for joy that mankind were to be propagated from her, when he expected nothing but immediate death in confequence of his tranfgreffion]

[+ God gracioufly intended, after Adam's Tranfgreffion, to erect a difpenfation of grace, for the redemption of mankind. Which grace was declared, and, confequently, which difpenfation was established, "(Gen. iii. 15. And I will put enmity, &c.) before the fentence of death was pronounced upon Adam, (ver. 19. Duft thou art, and to duft thou fhalt return.) Death therefore, in that fentence, ftands under the new difpenfation, or the difpenfation of grace, and for that reafon cannot be Death in Law, or eternal death; but death in DISPENSATION, or death appointed for wife and good purpofes, and to be continued only fo long as God fhould think fit. And thus alfo 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, åt the paragraph, 1. Whereas Adum had before. &c.

Take this in, as a note, p. 66. cf Scripture Doctrine of original Sin, at No. Immediately upon the anulling 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 compleat obedience, fhould be invefted 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 alfo the refurrection 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 fo by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto juftification. For as by one man's difobedience the many were made finners; fo by the obedience of one fhall the many be made righteous. Rom. v. 18, 19.]

CHA P. XIV.

Of the Origin of SACRIFICES.

Gen. iv. I- -6.

XERE Cain and Abel perform an act of religious devotion, by H way of Oblation or Sacrifice. The question is, whether this xx kind of worship was of divine or human inftitution. 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 fome of his own “bleffings, and to acknowledge him the abfolute proprietor of all their << enjoyments; though they had no directions from him about it." Answer. This feems 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 refpect to, or fhewed his approbation of, both Abel and his offering; or in the Apoftle's words, he obtained witness, that himself was righteous, God teftifying of his gifts, that they were right, and offered in a right manner. On the other hand, he cenfured Cam as having prefented his Oblation in fuch a manner as was not pleafing to God. Which evidently fuppofes a previous inftitution, and a rule which Cain was, or might have been acquainted with. For had there not been fuch a rule given, how could he have been blamed for not obferving it? It is abfurd to fay, he tranfgreffed a rule of his own imagination and invention.

The inftitution not being mentioned in a hiftory fo concife argues nothing. Other things are alfo omited, as religious affemblies, Enoch's prophecy, Noah's preaching, the peopling of the world, or the increase of Adam's family. Things well known, or generally fuppofed, when

the

the hiftorian wrote, needed not to be mentioned, but might be taken for granted. The only proper and conclufive 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 neceffity of inventing fomething "of their own." But this is far from being the cafe. God, in fome vifible form, frequently appeared, and made his mind known to Adam, and to all the fucceeding Patriarchs, mentioned in the book of Genefis, for the fpace of 2315 years. Yea, he converfed and reasoned with and inftructed Cain himself. When therefore Adam, and all the other Patriarchs, had the fulleft opportunity of knowing from God himself, what kind of worship was moft acceptable to him, there was no need of their own invention; and it is abfurd to fuppofe 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 agreable to that difpenfation. Doubtless Adam was inftructed by God to facrifice. And it is not improbable that those beasts, with the fkins of which Adam and Eve were clothed, Gen. iii. 21. were flain as Sacrifices. God certainly inftructed our firft parents in the faith and worship, which the alteration in their circumftances required. Having made a moft gracious covenant with them (ver. 15.) it is not unreasonable to fuppofe, that he alfo fignified to them, that they should, for a perpetual ratification and affurance of it to their faith, offer to him Sacrifices. For by the blood of Sacrifices covenants were ratified in after times. The eating of the tree of life, was a covenanting action, (affuring immortality to their continued obedience) fuitable to a state of innocence. But the mactation of a living creature, (expreffing the deadly nature of fin, at the fame time that it affured them of eternal life through a facrificed Redeemer) was more fuitable to a state of guilt.

Ver. 3. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, &c. ver. 4. And Abel alfo brought of the firftlings of the flock, &c. "As there were fome "folemn times of making their devout acknowledgments to God; fo, "I doubt not, there was fome fet place, where they affembled for that " purpose. For the Hebrew word for brought, is never used in rela"tion to domeftic, or private Sacrifices; but always in relation to "thofe public Sacrifices, which were brought to the door of the taber"nacle of the congregation. As Lev. iv. 4. He shall bring

"the bullock to the door, &c. Which occurs all along, especially in the "ninth chapter of that book.

"And therefore, I fuppofe, 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 setled place, "where they [publicly] performed facred offices, it is most reasonable * to think it had, in thofe early days, respect to the Shechinah, or Di"vine prefence, as well as afterwards under the Mofaic difpenfation, "when the Divine Prefence refided] in the tabernacle and temple. "And therefore they are faid to appear before God, [Exod. xxiii. 17. ❝ xxxiv. 24.

“xxxiv. 24. Pfal. xlii. 2, &c. or to prefent themselves before the Lord, Job i. 6."*

*1

That fome visible token of the prefence of God appeared in their religious affemblies in those earliest days of the church, and fpake and con-verfed 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 fuch a manner as plainly fhews it was no extraordinary thing. And when the fons, or children, of God came together to prefent themselves before the Lord, the Lord is reprefented as difcourfing with Satan about the character and circumftances of Job. Job i. 6-12. ii. I-7.

While men were not fo numerous, but that they might all assemble together at one place, probably the Shechinah ftatedly appeared among them every fabbath. But when they were fo 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 ftill remain and appear as ufual in that original place, where Adam and his immediate defcendents had first attended upon divine fervice, and where the Patriarchs, in a right line defcended 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. 1-18. There Rebekah went to enquire of the Lord. Gen. xxv. 22, 23; and the received an answer, probably, from the Shechinah or Divine Presence.

I

From all this it seems not unlikely, that Cain and Abel's Offerings were performed before the whole affembly of Adam's family, (which then must have been confiderably increased,) and that the divine acceptance of the one, and rejection of the other, was fignified by fome vifible mark, which appeared and was obferved by the whole congregation. It would add very much to Cain's difguft to find himself fo openly disparaged, and funk so much in the favor 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 préferred before him.

The mark, by which the Lord God teftified his acceptance of Abel and his Sacrifice, was, probably, a ftream of fire iffuing from the Shechinah, which confumed his Sacrifice. So Gen. xv. 17. A fmoking furnace and burning lamp, i. e. the Shechinah, paffed between the pieces of the Sacrifice, and consumed them, in confirmation of the covenant. And we have many other examples of this kind in facred Hiftory; as when Mofes offered the firft great burnt-offering. Lev. ix. 24. When Gideon offered upon the rock. Judg. vi. 21. When David ftayed the plague. 1 Chron. xxi. 26. And Solomon confecrated the temple. 2 Chron. vii. 13. And when Elijah contended with the Baalites. 1 Kings xviii. 38, &c. whence the Ifraelites, Pfal. xx. 3, wifhing all profperity to their king, pray that God would accept [ turn into afhes] his burnt-offering Ver. 6, 7.

Bishop Patrick's Comment, in loco.