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confonant to that philanthropy, fo confpicuous in the Effay which has given rife to the production now before us. what time such a project shall become the object of public attention, it is impoffible to determine. But the period, we believe, is fufficiently remote, to diffipate the alarm given the Weft India planters by the author's former propofal. His humane endeavours, however, will not prove entirely abortive, fhould they only mitigate that rigorous treatment of the slaves, which he has defcribed with fo much fenfibility, and reprobated with fuch merited indignation.

Five Differtations on the Scripture Account of the Fall; and its Confequences. By Charles Chauncy, D. D. 8vo. 4s. in Boards. Dilly.

THE hiftory of the first man, as given by Mofes in the book of Genefis, is extremely concife, and yet being one of the most naturally interefting fubjects that could prefent itself to the curiofity of his defcendants, imagination and conjecture have perhaps gone as great lengths in filling up the outline of the facred hiftorian, as in the cafe of any hiftorical fupplement whatfoever. It is not, therefore, much to be wondered at, that the comments of fanciful or fuperftitious writers should have proved little better than idle reveries, fit only for the amufement of children. But we have the pleasure to except the prefent author from this clafs of commentators. In no part of facred history does the ardour of inveftigation more need the affiftance of cool judgment, and a temperate spirit of conjecture, than in this fhort but important ftory of our grand progenitor; and it is no more than juftice to Dr. Chauncy, to acknowledge that he has difplayed a confiderable share of these effential qualifications in the work now under infpection.

The fubject of the firft Differtation is The one Man, Adam, in his innocent State.

Our readers may form an idea of the fcope of this Differ. tation from our author's recapitulation.

The fum of what has been faid, under the foregoing obfervations, reprefenting the contents of the Mofaic account of the first man in his innocent ftate, to place it in one view, is this, that he was made male and female, the moft excellent creature in this lower world, poffeffing the highest and nobleft rank that he was made by an "immediate" exertion of almighty power, and not by God's agency, in concurrence with fecond caufes, operating according to an established courfe or order: that he was made in the image of God;" meaning hereby, not an actual, prefent, perfect likenefs to him, either in knowlege, wifdom, holiness, or happinefs, but with im

planted

planted powers, perfectly adjusted to each other, and as perfectly fitted for his gradually attaining to this likeness, in the highest measure proper to a being of his rank in the creation: that, upon being thus made, he was conftituted the "head" or "root" of the human race, from whom, as the fecondary inftrumental caufe, like effential powers with his own fhould, according to a divinely fettled order, be tranfmitted to others, and from those others, to others fill, throughout all generations; that is, powers inferring a capacity in nature of their being formed to a refemblace of the Deity in his moral glory, in confequence of which they would be individuais of the fame kind that he was, and diftinguished from all the other crea tures: in fine, that being made, not perfect at once in actual knowledge or holinefs, or any other intellectual or moral quality, but with implanted powers only rendering him capable of gradually attaining to this perfection, he was placed by his Maker under a "fpecial law or rule," principally defigned as a fuitable and powerful mean to guard him against danger in his prefent unimproved ftate, and to encourage, affift, and conduct his endeavours in the ufe of his faculties, fo as that he might gradually rife to as near a likenefs to God, in all intellectual and moral acquifitions, as was poflible for fuch a creature as he was, and in this way be prepared for complete and perfect happiness.

This account of the creation of the firft man, and of his ftate while innocent, is that which Mofes has communicated to us, either exprefsly, or in words that naturally and fairly import this fenfe. And it is the whole we can now know about him, as it is the whole that has, in an authentic way, been handed down to us.'

What our author, in a former part of his Differtation, has said in objection to the common opinion of man, in his original ftate, being under a covenant of works, requiring obedience to the whole moral or natural law of God, as a condition of life,' is rational and fatisfactory; but we want room to cite his arguments on this point, as well as o■ many others which equally deferve commendation. A fhort note, however, which he quotes from bishop Patrick, in confirmation of his fentiments on the above topic, is fo energetic and conclufive, that we cannot help giving it to our readers.

Those who afk, why was Adam's obedience tried in a merely pofitive inftance? do not confider," that an experiment of it could fcarce have been made in any of the moral precepts; which there was no occafion to violate. For what hould tempt him to idolatry, or to take God's name in vain, or to murder his wife? How was it poffible to cominit adultery, when there was no body but he and fhe in the world? How could he fteal, or what room was there then for coveting, when God had put him in poffeffion of all things? It had been in

vain to forbid that which could not be done; and it had not been virtue to abftain from that to which there was no temptation, but from that which invited him to trangrefs.'

Differtation II. confiders the one Man Adam, in his lapsed State, with the Temptation which brought him into it.

Dr. Chauncy, after fhewing it was in the body of a serpent that Satan, thence called the Old Serpent in other parts of Scripture, beguiled Eve, and, after mentioning fome ridiculous defcriptions, given by dreaming commentators, of the wings, the beautiful fining appearance, and erect figure, &c. of the ferpent in Eden, defcants upon the nature of the argument which, according to Mofes, he made ufe of; but the doctor does not allow himfelf any of thofe eloquent paraphrases upon it, in which the imaginations of fome authors he has alluded to, have fondly indulged themfelves. He then proceeds as follows.

It will poffibly be faid here, is it a thing credible, that the all-wife good God fhould permit the entrance of fin into the world, as occafioned in the manner that has been reprefented, by a temptation" begun, and carried into effect, by a " ferpent," actuated by an "evil fpirit?" Can it reasonably be fuppofed, that he would, when he had created man, have fuffered the devil, before he had made any confiderable advances in knowledge and experience of the world, to "tempt" him, fo as to draw him into fin; and, in this way, bring ruin upon himfelf? Is this a fit thought to entertain of that God, who, of his mere goodness, had given him exiflence, that he might be happy in the love, fervice, and enjoyment of the origina fource of all being, and of all good?

The anfwer is this: it is in fact true, that fin and forrow now are, and all along have been, in the world, however difficult it may be to account for their entrance. And difficult it really is, and vaftly fo, upon the principle of "reafon," as well as "revelation." The greateft philofophers, in all ages, have found it a depth they could not fathom. The question, therefore, remains unrefolved by them to this day, woler To naxov,

whence came evil?" It is not pretended, that the difficulty is removed by what is faid upon the matter in the facred books. It is a difficulty ftill; though not fo great an one as it was before. It is certainly leffened, and not increased.

The difficulty, as peculiar to the Mofaic hiftory, and as ftated in the above objection, lies in this, that fin, and ruin thereupon, fhould be occafioned by "temptation" from an "evil fpirit," and as practifed upon the first parents of men, before there had been time for their making any "confiderable improvements" in knowledge, experience, and good nefs.'

After much plaufible reafoning to remove this difficulty, Dr. Chauncy allows, that the queftion of the origin of evil

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ftill

fill recurs in full force. The folution of it, however, not being an object of his Differtation, he only obferves by the way, but with great propriety, that it becomes thofe to cease from clamouring againft revelation upon these points, who do not find themselves able, upon the foot of folid reason, to give a clear and fatisfactory folution of them. For it as truly belongs to them to do this, as to thofe who are believers in Mofes and the prophets, in Jefus Chrift and his apostles.'

The author now comes to the fecond leading topic of this Differtation, viz. The effect that was confequent upon the lapfe of our first parents, both natural and judicial.'

Dr. Chauncy's explanation of our first parents knowing. that they were naked, of their sewing fig-leaves together, and making themselves aprons,' is ingenious, and founded on probability. He thinks the nakedness they were now thus providing against, imports the fenfe or apprehenfion they felt upon their offence, of being expofed to the displeasure of the Almighty; and that they cafed themselves wholly in leaves, wreathed together, in hopes of efcaping from his fight. He infifls, that it was much more likely, with the limited notions they yet poffeffed of the nature of God, that they should thus hope to escape detection, (an idea fupported by what Mofes tells us of their hiding themfelves from the prefence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden) than that they fhould contrive a partial covering, merely to conceal a particular part of the body; a fuppofition which he deems unmeaning and ridiculous.

The author, in order to clear the way to his propofed con fideration of the judicial confequences of the lapfe, as they respect the first man and woman, previously takes notice of the remarkable intervening words of Mofes.

"And the Lord God faid unto the ferpent, because thou haft done this, thou art curfed above all cattle, and above every beaft of the field: upon thy belly fhalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy feed and her feed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruife his heel."

The curfe and degradation of the ferpent (in the prefence of Adam and Eve), as expreffed in the former of these verses, were intended, according to Dr. Chauncy, to be a vifible example of the difpleasure of God, and to ferve as a fanding. memento, to put them upon their guard against being drawn afide by temptation.

The words that follow, ver. 15. "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy feed and her

feed;

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feed, it fhall bruife thy head, and thou shalt bruife his heel:" These words, I fay, are a continuation of what God faid to the "devil," now prefent in the body of the ferpent; and principally relate to his " total overthrow," as the "tempter" and "deftroyer" of man, by "one" who fhould be of the feed of the woman:" though the mode of diction, conformably to that which had all along been used before, is fuch, that nei. ther Adam or Five may be thought to have had any other than a low and imperfect conception of what was hereby really meant. Not that they had reafon from these words then, or any of their pofterity fince, to imagine, that the conteft, here spoken of, between the ferpent and his feed," and the "woman's feed," lay in this, that ferpents would be apt to "bite men's heels, and men in return to break their heads." It would be a dishonour to Mofes's character, confidered only as an historian, to fuppofe he could intend any thing fo low and ridiculous; efpecially when writing upon matters of fuch interesting importance. And it would equally reflect upon the understandings of our firit parents, to think them capable of taking his words in fo contemptible a fenfe. If they did not, by this time, begin to fufpect, that fome fuperior agent might have ufed the ferpent in the temptation by which they were overcome; they, doubtless, understood what was now delivered by God as importing, that there fhould be a conteft, and victory thereupon, in relation to, and agreement with, the main thing in view, their having been "tempted" and "overcome" by the ferpent; that is to fay, they must have understood it as a contest with the ferpent in his character as a tempter" and "feducer," in which characters he fhould be conquered, as he had conquered them.'

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The prophetic meaning of the fifteenth verfe being afferted and explained at large by arguments, for which our readers must be referred to the book, the author at length proceeds to confider the account which Mofes has given us of the judicial confequences of the lapfe. And thefe, fays he, are diftinctly related, as they refpect both the man and the woman.' hiftory begins with the woman, to whom God judicially fays, ver. 16. "I will greatly multiply thy forrow and thy conception in forrow fhalt thou bring forth children, and thy defire fhall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

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The

The woman having received her "judicial fentence," God is now reprefented as pronouncing the man's; and he does it in the following words:

• Ver. 17. And unto Adam he faid, because thou haft hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and haft eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, faying, thou shalt not eat of it: curfed is the ground for thy fake; in forrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.