vessels, and as joint heirs of the grace of [eternal] life." 1 Pet. iii. 7 *. Adam's sentence comes last. And unto Adam He said, “ Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the It is undoubtedly Christianity," says Professor Robinson, "that has set woman on her throne, making her in every respect the equal of man, bound to the same duties, and candidate for the same happiness." Mark how woman is described by a Christian poet: "Yet when I approach Her loveliness, so absolute she seems, "Neither her outside form'd so fair,- "And to consummate all Greatness of mind, and nobleness, their seat Built in her loveliest, and create an awe About her, as a guard angelic plac'd.”—MILTON. This is really moral painting without any diminution of female charms. This is the natural consequence of that purity of heart so much insisted on in the Christian morality, as an indispensable duty, and enforced by many arguments peculiar to itself. —— "Look into the works of the Greek and Latin poets, and the writings of antiquity :I can find very little, indeed, where woman is treated with respect. What does Ovid, the great panegyrist of the sex, say for his beloved daughter, whom he praised for her attractions, in various places of his Tristia, and other compositions? He is writing her epitaph, and the only thing he can say of her as a rational creature, is, that she is a domisida, [“ stay-at-home,"] not a "gad-about.”—“ Chastity, modesty, sobermindedness," are all considered as of importance, merely in respect of economy or domestic quiet. Recollect the famous speech of Metellus Numidicus to the Roman people, when, as Censor, he was recommending marriage : Si sine uxore possemus Quirites esse, omnes eâ modestia careremus: Sed quoniam ita Natura tradidit, ut nec cum illis commodè, nec sine illis ullo modo, vivi posset, saluti perpetuæ potius quam brevi voluptati consulendum.-Aulus Gell. Noct. Att. 1, 6. Here the grave censor considers a wife as a necessary evil, and a “lasting union with a modest" woman, preferable to "transient enjoyment" with a harlot, merely upon "prudential considerations!" And yet, women ranked higher at Rome than elsewhere in the ancient world. See his Proofs of a Conspiracy, p. 263–271. ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee: and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return *." Here it was consolatory + to observe, that no positive curse was pronounced on Adam, as on the wicked serpent, and that the penalty of death was not to be immediately inflicted; but a respite graciously granted to the frail offenders to repent and amend. The ground, indeed, was "cursed for their sake," [rather, "transgression,"] or the culture of it rendered more laborious and troublesome, by "thorns and thistles," which were unknown in Paradise, where his easy employment was only to dress the garden, and keep it in order; and instead of its delicious fruits, he was now doomed to eat of the herb of the field. The venerable book of Job, which in all probability is considerably the oldest in the Sacred Canon, (as will be proved in the sequel,) notices the circumstance of Adam's hiding himself after his transgression, xxxi. 33: and in another passage seems to have recorded an oracular saying, omitted by Moses, which may thus be more correctly rendered, xxviii. 28. "And unto Adam HE said: Behold, the fear of THE LORD, this is wisdom, The word Adam here, should not be rendered man, in general, as in our public translation; but Adam, our first parent, as it is rendered in the former passage. "Whether it was spoken to him before or after his fall, is not easy to determine. If after the fall, as seems rather more probable, the words carry with them a reproof as well as an instruction highly seasonable, and suited to the circumstances of his unhappy change. As if God had said: You, who in defiance of the prohibition I had given you, have been seeking after another sort of wisdom and knowledge than was proper for you; go learn from sure experience, that your truest wisdom is to fear ME, and to pay an implicit obedience to MY commands.-Peters on Job, p. 460. + Milton thus beautifully represents Adam consoling Eve: "Remember with what mild And gracious temper HE both heard and judg'd, Immediate dissolution, which we thought Was meant by 'death that day;' when lo, to thee Pains only in child-bearing were foretold, And bringing forth, (soon recompens'd with joy,) And by a wholesome necessity*, he was for the future to procure his livelihood by the sweat of his brow, until his death, or dissolution of the body. The final salvation of our first parents, upon their repentance and obedience in future, was the doctrine of the primitive Jewish and Christian Churches. The author of the book of Wisdom, declares: "WISDOM preserved the first-formed father of the world, who was created alone, and brought him out of his fall; and gave him power to rule all things," Wisd. x. 1, 2. Here, WISDOM denotes the ORACLE, or personified WORD OF GOD, as in Prov. viii. 22-25; Matt. xi. 19; Luke xi. 49; or JESUS CHRIST, Matt. xxiii. 34. And Adam was brought out of his fall, or from the punishment due thereto, when a remedy was promised by the blessed Seed of the woman; through whom he was to be reinstated in his original privileges of dominion, &c. To this very passage St. Paul appears to allude, in his extension of redemption to Ere also: "For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived; but the woman being deceived, was in the transgression. Nevertheless she [also] shall be saved, by means of the child-bearing; if they [both] remained [for the rest of their lives] in faith, and love, and holiness, with sobriety †," 1 Tim. ii. 14, 15. THE INSTITUTION OF SACRIFICES. It is very probable, that sacrifice was instituted immediately after GOD had revealed the covenant of grace, by means of the promised "seed of the woman" in his denunciation to the serpent, Gen. iii. 15. That promise was the first stone that was laid toward the erection of this glorious building, the work of Virgil well expresses it : PATER IPSE, colendi Haud facilem esse viam voluit, primusque per artem GEORGIC. In this difficult and much contested passage, we may, with the judicious Hammond, understand dia τNG TEKνoyovias to refer to the bearing the promised Seed, or CHRIST: the salvation of Eve, ownσerat, to include the salvation of Adam, a fortiori; which will account for the plural aorist, ɛav μɛivwoiv, “if they remained," both Adam and Eve, in the observance of their several duties of faith or trust in the divine promise, of love, or gratitude, and holiness of life, with sobriety, or moderation in the indulgence of their appetites. Redemption, through JESUS CHRIST, "the chief corner stone," to crown and complete the whole, at the consummation of all things, Ephes. ii. 20. And the next stone that was laid upon that, was the institution of sacrifice, to be a type or significant emblem of the great atonement, or all-sufficient sacrifice of " the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the repentant and believing world," John i. 29, thus "slain for us, from the foundation of the world," Rev. xiii. 8. After God had pronounced sentence on all the offending parties, we are next told, that "the Lord God made to Adam and his wife, coats of skins, and clothed them*." Instead of the slight and imperfect covering they had made for themselves, God now taught them to make more substantial, to protect them from the inclemency of the weather in their new abode, when excluded from Paradise. These coats are supposed, by the generality of divines, to have been made of the skins of beasts slain in sacrifice, by the Divine appointment. They could not have been slain for food: because in Paradise, man was only allowed to eat of its "fruits;" and after his expulsion, of " the herb of the field:" the grant of flesh-meat was not given till after the deluge, to Noah and his family, Gen. ix. 3. For sacrifice, therefore, no other reasonable cause can be assigned. What temptation could have induced our first parents to shed the blood of unoffending animals? a deed so revolting to their feelings and to their reason; to which, nothing short of a divine injunction would naturally have compelled them. In animal sacrifices, the blood, in which was the principle of life, was devoted to GOD, as an atonement for the forfeited life of the sacrificer, Levit. xvii. 11. But this symbolical atonement could only have been appointed by Him with whom are "the issues of life and death," GOD himself; whose sole prerogative it is "to kill and to make alive, to wound and to heal," Deut. xxxii. 39. The death of the victim was also wisely appointed to be a mournful presage to our first parents, as often as they were required to sacrifice, of that death which they had incurred by their transgression, and to be inflicted on them • This is beautifully expressed by Milton, and expanded, "Nor HE their outward only with the skins Of beasts, but inward nakedness, (much more Opprobrious) with his robe of righteousness Arraying, covered from his FATHER's sight." P. L. B. x. shew that all men may have constant and easy access to it. Farther, its leaves are said to be for the healing of the nations ; that is, of the hurt they had received by Adam's eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And when they are represented as healed, it is immediately added, that there should be no more curse, Rev. xxii. 3, as there had been on [the ground, for] Adam and Eve's [transgression] after their being placed in the garden. And it is likewise added, that there shall be no more night, ver. 5, which there was in Paradise when the evening and the morning made every day, Gen. i. 5—31. The night being then as well as now, made for rest, and the day for labour. Finally, it is said, ver. 14, Blessed are they that do his commandments; for they shall have a right to eat of the tree of life, i. e. shall be entitled to immortality. "All these observations plainly shew that relation which the tree of life in the Revelation bears to the original tree of life in Eden; and the allusion to it as a tree preserving life, Gen. ii. 9. This meaning of the tree of life is the more probable, because it makes the history of the fall appear a real history, and not a parable; which it must seem unnatural to suppose an account to be, which is related by an historian who gives us an account of facts, not parables, in all the rest of his writings: and above all, that is the foundation of all the rest of his history, and indeed of all future revelation; for such every one must allow the history of the fall to be." Though Adam was expelled from the garden of Eden, it is highly probable that he took up his residence in its vicinity; and that he offered the sacrifices prescribed to him by God, especially that of expiation or atonement, in the presence of the Lord, or before the SHECHINAH, at the stated seasons. CAIN AND ABEL. The first transaction noticed after the expulsion of Adam and his wife from Paradise, is the birth of their first son, Cain; which probably happened about a year after, and about the 130th year of the world. See Vol. I. p. 280. His name Cain signifies "acquisition," from his mother's declaration, "I have gotten ( Kanithi) a man [from *] the Lord,” Gen. iv. 1. The particle N, (eth,)" the," is put elliptically for N, (meth,) "from the," as understood Gen. xlix. 25; and expressed, Gen. xix. 24, Josh. xi. 20, Ezek. xxxii. |