LECTURE XIV.

THE DISPENSATION OF RELIGION.

Origin of our Religion-First Promise of a Saviour-Institution of Sacrifices-State of Religion in Patriarchal Times--Institution of the Jewish State-Its Codes-Design of the Ceremonial Law-Character of the Mosaic Dispensation.

ABOUT a hundred years ago, a book was published in England, by the celebrated infidel, Dr. Tindal, bearing this title, " Christianity as Old as the Creation;" the object of which was to show that the Gospel is a republication of the law of nature, and that there neither is, nor can be, any revelation distinct from what he calls the internal revelation of that law in the hearts of all mankind. In opposition to this bold and impious assertion, we maintain, with President Forbes in his Thoughts concerning Religion, Natural and Revealed, that Christianity is very near as old as the creation. We deny that it was the primitive religion of mankind; but we are ready to prove, that only a very short time elapsed before it became their religion; or in other words, that substantially the same system of religion which we at present profess, was made known to our first parents, and has been received and acted upon by the people of God in every subsequent age.

As, in consequence of the permanent relations in which man stands to God and his fellow-creatures, the moral law is immutable, and requires the same duties in every new period, and from every successive generation, so to man considered as in a state of guilt and pollution, there could at no time be any essential difference in the mode of intercourse with his Maker, and the only conceivable variety would be in the form. The same views of the divine character were necessary to relieve him from the disquietudes of conscience, and the same promises to encourage his confidence and hope. We are accustomed to give the designation of Christianity to the religion which was published to the world about eighteen hundred years ago, by our blessed Saviour and his apostles, and thus to distinguish it from the preceding revelations; but our design is not to signify that it was a new religion. The church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, holds the truths taught by both, and acknowledges as her Head the same divine Redeemer who is the subject of their united testimony.

Although God at first created the world in a state of perfection, he has since carried on its affairs by second causes, which produce their effect by a regular but gradual process. The full evolution of the human body, from the seminal principle in the womb of the parent, is the work of years, and so is the growth of plants and trees. Light increases slowly, from the faint dawn in the east, to the full splendour of noonday; and human reason, rising up amidst the instincts of childhood, developes itself by successive steps, till after a long course of experience and discipline, it attains maturity. Religion has advanced to its present state by a similar progress. At first it was like the seed which the husbandman throws into the soil, which, although containing the germ of the future plant, gave no promise to the eye of what it would become; but under the care, and by the renewed influences of Heaven, it has waxed greater and greater, and now it is presented to us in all its luxuriance and beauty.

In this lecture, I shall direct your attention to the dispensation of religion prior to the coming of Christ.

Immediately after the fall, God made known his gracious design to our first parents indirectly, and in figurative language, while he was pronouncing sentence upon the malignant being who had deceived them. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."* To suppose nothing more to be intended by these words, than that there should be henceforth war between the tribe of serpents and the human race, that serpents should sometimes bite men, and men should sometimes destroy serpents, is to interpret Scripture with as little regard to common sense as to piety, and seems designed to turn it into ridicule. There is no doubt that, although the serpent is mentioned, it was not against it that the curse was directed, but against the invisible agent, who used it as his instrument in the seduction of Eve, and appears to have been the prince of the apostate angels, who, in reference to this transaction, is said to have been a liar and murderer from the beginning; and in allusion to the character which he assumed, is called the old serpent.t The antagonist would be a descendant of the woman, and the nature and effects of the conflict are described in terms accommodated to the circumstances of both. The man would be wounded in the heel; the serpent would be bruised on the head. The heel is most exposed to the bite of a serpent, which creeps upon the ground, particularly when a person is attempting to crush it with his foot; and if the head of a serpent be trodden upon, it will inevitably die. The heel is the human nature of our Saviour, which alone could be injured by Satan, and which he contrived, by means of his agents upon earth, to nail to the cross; the head is the power of Satan over mankind, which our Lord abolished by his death. The event enables us to understand this prediction, and it seems clear in the light of its fulfilment; but how far its meaning was apprehended by our first parents, it is impossible to ascertain. It was unquestionably intelligible in some degree to Satan, as it was evidently intended that he should immediately know how miserably his scheme would terminate for himself; and it may be presumed that it was also, in some degree, intelligible to Adam and his wife. Being pronounced in their hearing, it was designed for their use, to relieve them from their fears, to awaken their hopes, to encourage them to return to their Maker, to lay the foundation of a new and friendly intercourse with him. They learned from it, that notwithstanding their great offence, God would be merciful to them, and would not doom them with their adversary to irremediable destruction. They learned that he would receive them again into favour, as is manifest from the declaration concerning the woman, from which, undoubtedly, the man was not excluded, that he would put enmity between her and the serpent, changing her heart by his grace, and uniting her in friendship with himself. They learned that their deliverance would be effected by one of their own offspring, the Seed of the woman in a peculiar sense, who, a.though a sufferer in the warfare with their enemy, should obtain the victory, and destroy the empire which he had established over them. From all this it follows, that the gospel was first preached to our progenitors in paradise; and the words which we have considered were the dawn of the dispensation of grace, the first rays of the Sun of righteousness which began to dispel the moral darkness that had overspread the earth.

That the revelation of a Saviour was accompanied with the institution of religious rites, and particularly of sacrifices, may be inferred from the use of them in the service of God. As he afterwards prohibited, in the most express terms, every species of will-worship, and regulated with the greatest minuteness all the forms of religion, it is incredible that our first parents were left to devise a ritual of their own; and particularly, that so important a rite as the offering of sacrifices, which were of indispensable obligation, and served the John viii. 44. Rev. xii. 9

• Gen. iii. 15.

high purpose of typifying the great redemption, was the fruit of human invention. It is indeed inconceivable, that the mind of man should of itself have contrived sacrifices as the means of propitiating the Deity, because reason can perceive no connexion between the slaying of an animal and the averting of his wrath; and it might rather seem to be a new offence to put an innocent creature to death, because we were doomed to die, and were desirous to make our escape. There is no doubt that our first parents were supernaturally guided to this mode of at once acknowledging their guilt and imploring the mercy of their Maker, with a reference to the future substitution and atonement of the seed of the women. Some have supposed that the coats of skin, with which God is said to have clothed Adam and Eve, because, by his direction, they used them as garments, were the skins of animals which had been offered on the altar. Be this as it may, we find their two sons, Abel and Cain, presenting their offerings, the one the firstlings of the flock, and the other the fruits of the ground. A remarkable difference in the reception of their oblations is pointed out by the sacred historian, when he says, "the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering; but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect;"* and it is thus explained in the epistle to the Hebrews: "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice, bu, than Cain." Much criticism has been employed about these words; but whether we translate them, more sacrifice, a greater sacrifice, or a fuller sacrifice, the result is the same, that the sacrifice of Abel, being of a propitiatory kind, and presented in the faith of God's mercy through the promised Redeemer, was accepted; while Cain, neglecting to bring such an oblation, and contenting himself with a sacrifice of thanksgiving, met with the doom which every sinner may expect who presumes to draw near to God without an atonement. The faith for which Abel is celebrated, implies that his sacrifice was founded on a divine institution accompanied with a promise of acceptance, and that it bore a typical relation to the great Redeemer, who, by dying, was to restore life and happiness to our guilty race.

The next fact in the history of the primeval religion occurs in the following words. "And to Seth also, there was born a son, and he called his name Enos; then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." There has been considerable discussion respecting the meaning of these words, and they have been explained in different, and even opposite senses. It has been supposed by some, that the proper translation is, "Then began men to profane in calling upon the name of the Lord," from which they have inferred, that at this time the practice of idolatry commenced. But although sin was in the world almost from the beginning, and the conduct of Cain is a proof that atrocious deeds were early committed, it is altogether improbable, that while the memory of the creation was fresh, and our first parents were living among their descendants, any of them should have erred so much against the clearest dictates of reason and religion, as to exalt any imaginary being to the throne of their Maker, or to assign to the works of his hands equal honour with himself. It is a confirmation of this reasoning, that although mention is made of the great wickedness of mankind, and of the violence with which the earth was filled, there is not a single hint in the Scriptures which would lead us to think that idolatry was one of the sins of the antediluvian generations. There are two ways in which the words have been understood in reference to the true worshippers of God. "Then began men to be called," or "to call themselves, by the name of the Lord;" that is, in the days of Enos, an open sepa ration took place between the pious and the profane; the former making a public profession of religion in opposition to the latter, who lived without God

* Gen. iv. 4.

† Heb. xi. 4.

+ Gen. iv. 26.

in the world. They seceded from the ungodly multitude, and formed themselves into societies dedicated to the worship and service of Jehovah. These separatists are the sons of God mentioned in the sacred history, who, in pro cess of time, relaxed their strictness, and lost their purity, by taking for wives the daughters of men, or by intermarriages with the corrupt race amidst which they lived. The other way in which the passage may be read, is adopted by our translators. "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord,” but the precise sense which should be affixed to these words is doubtful. To suppose them to mean, that at this time men began to hold public assemblies for the worship of God, is liable to this objection, that it is altogether improbable that, for a period of between two or three centuries, God had been worshipped only by individuals, or by families. Perhaps the words refer to some revival of religion; to some new and more vigorous efforts made by good men for the honour of God, and the more general observance of his institutions. At any rate, it is certain that a new epoch is marked in the history of religion.

The only thing which remains to be noticed prior to the flood, is what is related of Enoch, who was distinguished by his faith and piety, and was honoured with a miraculous testimony of the divine approbation." And Enoch walked with God, and he was not: for God took him."* Paul explains these words, by informing us, that he was translated to heaven. This was a personal favour to Enoch, who was exempted from the operation of the general law of mortality; but we have reason to think, that something farther was intended, and that the ultimate design was to give a public testimony to the truth of religion, before a sinful and incredulous race. In the antediluvian world, great corruption of manners prevailed; and as this state of things is the consequence of a disbelief of the doctrines of religion, we may conclude, that the principles of impiety were generally entertained. God and eternal things were disregarded; and with the exception of a few whom divine grace preserved pure and faithful, the rest were intent solely upon their gains and their pleasures. At this crisis, God was pleased to translate a good man to heaven, no doubt before competent witnesses, to remind those who were left behind that there is an invisible world, in which the righteous shall be rewarded, and consequently that there is a God who judges in the earth. As this extraordinary termination of his earthly course eminently contributed to uphold the authority and interests of religion, so the time which he spent among men was devoted to the same important purpose. He was a prophet and a preacher of righteousness, who instructed, and comforted, and established the people of God who were his contemporaries, testified against the conduct of the wickedand forewarned them of the day of vengeance and recompense. "And Enoch also," says Jude, "the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Be hold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." This is a plain prediction of the second coming of Christ and its circumstances; and it is worthy of attention, that that event was known and announced in this early age of the world. It is not Moses, but Jude, who informs us that it was delivered by Enoch; and had not the apostle been directed to record this prophecy, we might have doubted whether men were then apprized of the general judgment. One inference may be deduced from it, namely, that we are imperfectly acquainted with the degree of religious knowledge which the antediluvians possessed; and that it was greater than we should have supposed, from the few Jude 14, 15.

* Gen. v. 24.

† Heb. xi. 5.

particulars respecting them which Moses has transmitted to us. It is manifest that more was told to them than was contained in the first promise, or that other revelations were occasionally made to them, of which there is not a trace in the history, and by which their views were directed to the promised Redeemer and the life to come; so that believers among them rose superior to the world by the hope of immortality, and lived as strangers and pilgrims upon earth; and hence we see how rashly some have concluded, that the Jews were ignorant of a future life, because there is no express mention of it in their law.

After the flood, the dispensation of religion was carried on for a considerable time in the same manner as before it. There was no written record of the Divine will; but the faith of the people of God was sustained, and their practice was directed, by such occasional communications as infinite wisdom deemed it proper to make. The person by whom these were enjoyed in the greatest abundance, was Abraham, whom God had called from his native country to sojourn as a stranger in the land which was afterwards to be possessed by his posterity. While the hope was given him of a numerous offspring, and of their future settlement in Canaan, the promise of the Redeemer was repeatedly renewed to him, and he was informed that he should spring from his loins. "In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." It would be a perversion of this promise to suppose it simply to mean, that the world should be indebted to his posterity for the knowledge of the true God, which having been preserved among them when it was lost among other nations, should afterwards be communicated to the Gentiles. It relates to an individual who would be the Saviour of the human race, and we are assured by an apostle that the seed is Christ. It may be presumed, that Abraham had a much more distinct and extensive knowledge of his illustrious descendant than these few words would lead us to suppose. to suppose. Unless explanations had accompanied this and the first promise, both he and our first parents could have formed only a confused and general idea of some great thing to be done for our guilty race, which would have given but little satisfaction to their minds. There is no doubt, that the revelation was more ample than it is here expressed; so as to impart, not indeed the same views of the Messiah which we have attained by the Gospel, but such apprehensions of his character and work as laid the foundation of peace of conscience, and joy in God, and the exhilarating hope of eternal life. That this is not a mere conjecture, may be inferred from these words of our Lord to the Jews: "Your father Abraham rejoiced," or desired, "to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad" words which obviously import, that he was favoured with a discovery of the future redemption, which satisfied his earnest wish, and filled him with ineffable delight.

There is nothing farther to be noticed in the period between the deluge and the exodus, but the repetition of the promise of the Messiah to Isaac and Jacob; by the latter of whom, when in his last years he was blessing his sons, the advent of that illustrious person was foretold in the following terms: The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be."t As the time drew nearer, the information became more particular. The Redeemer had at first been announced as a man, and afterwards as a descendant of Abraham; but now the tribe, from which he should arise, is pointed out, and the era of his appearance is fixed, namely, while the civil polity of Judah should subsist, and the consequence is represented to be the gathering of the people to him, or the adoption of his religion by the nations of the world. The time at last arrived when God was to make a change in the dispensa John viii. 56. † Gen. xlix. 10.