RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS. LECTURES ON THE EVIDENCES OF DIVINE REVELATION. No. X. THE ejection of Adam and Eve from Paradise, and the institution of Sacrifices. Gen. iii, 20, 24, and iv, 1-4. The subjects of consideration, contained in these passages of Scripture, I shall mention in the order observed by Moses. 1. Immediately after the Sentence, Adam, we are informed, called his wife's naine Eve; Chavah, Life or Living. This name, given to her instead of her former name, Woman, give. by the person, who gave the former name, and especially given on such an occasion, is certainly very remarkable. The Sentence declared, that both Adam, and Eve, should terminate a life of sorrow with death. In consequence of this sentence, Adam changed her former name Woman, for Eve, Life; and, as Moses informs us, for this reason: That she, though under the sentence of death, was the mother of all living. I am ready to believe, that God endowed Adam with common sense; and am, therefore, induced to look for something in the Sentence, which will reconcile with common sense his conduct, in giving his wife this appellation. The Sentence contains but one thing of this nature. It is this: God promised in the Sentence, that the Seed of the woman should bruise the head of the Serpent. This declaration, understood as Christians understand it, teaches us, and taught Adam, that some, at least, of his posterity, were to live in such a sense, as he was to have lived, if he had continued to be obedient; viz. with immortal life; and that all these should live by means of the Seed of the woman. In this view, she became the mother of all the living. Hence, with the strictest propriety, she was named Eve, or Chavah; or, as the Septuagint, Zwy. 2. At this time, also, God was pleased to clothe our first parents with the skins of beasts. These I consider as the skins of victims slain for sacrifice; and shall endeavor to shew, that sacrifices were now instituted. 3. To prevent our first parents from eating of the tree of life, and to teach them their alienation from himself, God sent them forth from Paradise, and commanded them to till the ground, whence they were taken. The Tree of Life may, on the principles of the soundest philosophy, have been, and not improbably was, designed to be the means of rendering man immortal. At the same time, it is unnecessary, that we should consider it as any other, than a sacramental pledge of immortality. For every purpose of these Lectures, indeed, it is sufficient, if it be regarded as a mere Symbol of immortality; and this mode of considering it, will probably be admitted even by Infidels. 4. We are told, that after Adam and Eve were banished from Para dise, God placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life. cess, but for the attainment, of man. In support of this explanation, beside the authority of the Paraphrasts, which is confessedly great, and to be considered as supported by the sense of the Jewish Church; it is acknowledged, that the words, translated flaming sword, are literally rendered fiery division, i. e. a dividing, or, as it is afterwards called by Ezekiel, an infolding, fire. If this interpretation be admitted; the passage declares, that after the fail God was pleased to dwell by his oracular presence in the east of Eden; as, during the ages of ne Jewish Church, he dwelt in the tabernacle, and in the temple. Here he gave oracles This part of the Mosaic history has been the ground of many objections; and must be acknowledged to contain some difficulties. They do not arise from what is said, but from what is not said. There is nothing said, which even those, who seek occasion, can reasonably object to; nothing, which impeaches, or in any degree lessens, the credibility of the history. As the whole account, however, is comprised in a single short sentence, its conciseness renders it difficult to be understood; and leaves thee antediluvian Church, and mind to wish, that additions, and received their worship. Here explanations, had been furnished to render it capable of being more satisfactorily comprehended. The interpretation of this passage, which has been most current among divines, is the obvious one: That the Cherubims and flaming sword were placed in the east of Eden, to prevent the access of man to the Tree of Life. This, however, is not the oldest, nor probably the original interpretation. The two oldest comments in the world are the two Jewish Targums; and these paraphrase the verse in this manner: "And he thrust out the man, and caused the glory of his presence to dwell of old at the east of the garden of Eden, above the two Cherubims:" i. e. After God had removed Adam out of Paradise, he caused the Shechinah, or glory of God, with the Cherubims, its attendants, to dwell in the east of Eden, to keep, or preserve, the way of the Tree of Life, not from the ac taught them the way to immortal life; and preserved it from being utterly lost by the degeneracy of man. It has been supposed by those, who have adopted the common interpretation, that the access of man to the Tree of Life was forbidden, to prevent him from looking for life to this original pledge of it, and to turn his future thoughts to Christ, its antitype, as the source of this great blessing. This is supposed to have been necessary, because of the almost necessary tendency of human nature, circumstanced as it then was, to seek for life, where alone it could have been originally obtained. The reality of this tendency, and the importance of checking it, I readily acknowledge; yet it may be difficult to prove, that the check, here supposed, was necessary; or that the end would be more effectually * See Bishop Horne's Letters answered by it, than by a series of oracular directions, given from the Shechinah by God himself. It will also be difficult to prove, that any thing could be more necessary, or useful, to man, than the presence and direction of God, to guide and influence him to repentance, reformation, and worship; and to encourage him to attempt, and pursue, the great business of reconciliation with his Maker. If we consider the height of enjoyment, and of privileges, from which man had just fallen, and the gloomy depression, into which he had sunk, the entire knowledge of his present situation, and the necessary igno. rance of the means of his recovery; if we call to mind his in ability, from the comparison of moral subjects, to form any but uncertain and distressing conclusions, and his natural, and almost unavoidable, tendency towards despair; if we recollect, that God thought it necessary to communicate to him, in the Sentence itself, the grounds of hope and recovery, and to interfere even in the inferior concern of clothing his body; we shall not, I believe, hesitate to acknowledge the interpretation of the Jewish Paraphrasts, as at least natural, rational, and probable. According to this interpretation, God, is exhibited as completing his merciful designs to our first parents, and their posterity, by appearing to them as a reconcilable God and teaching them, in a direct, indubitable manner, the several things, which were now become essential parts of their duty. After the removal of man from Paradise, two sons are declared to have been born to him, named Cain and Abel. When these children were grown up, Cain, being a tiller of the ground, brought unto God an offering of the fruit of the ground. Abel, being a keeper of sheep, presented, at the same time, an offering of the firstlings of his flock. These were the first formal oblations, mentioned in the history of mankind. On the interesting subject of sacrifices, I make the following remarks. First: Sacrifices have been common to all nations of antiquity, of whose religious history we have any account; and of most nations, comparatively moral. They were used in Japan, and in Mexico; in Lapland, and in the country of the Hottentots. Secondly: They were always, without an exception, a religious service. Thirdly: They were intended to be expressions of gratitude, symbols of supplication, and especially means of expiation, in every people, by whom they were used. Fourthly: Almost all nations appear to have sacrificed the same things, so far as they were in their possession; particularly oil, wine, water, cakes, meal, fruits,aromatics, and those, which, in the Scriptures, are styled clean beasts, and birds. Very few offered beasts of prey, or wild beasts of any kind; birds of prey, fishes, or reptiles. Fifthly: Human sacrifices have been customarily offered throughout the world. In Asia they were offered by the following nations: the Hindoos, Persians, Massagetæ, Scythians, Arabians, Ionians, people of Tenedos, Rhodians, Syrians, Chaldeans, Babylonians, Albanians, Sarmatians, nations of Canaan, Jews, in the latter times of their nation, people of Dumah, or Idumea, Phoenicians, Laodiceans, Blemyans, Taurians, and Neurians; In Europe by the ancient states of Greece; particularly Messene, the Pelasgi, the people of Lacedæmon, Attica, Phocea, Chios, Lesbos, Salamis, Crete, Cyprus; the Celta, who inhabited Britain, Gaul, Switzer land, the north of Italy, Spain, and the northern parts of Thrace; the Thracians, Tauric Chersonesians, Massilians, Germans, Romans, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, the Getæ, Scottish Islanders, Icelanders: In Africa, by the Egyptians, Carthaginians, inhabitants of the Canary Isles, nations of Guinea; and in America, by the Mexicans, and Peruvians. To these may be added, in several instances, the Islanders, discovered by Capt. Cooke. To this account I shall subjoin a few remarks. The writers, testifying to the fact of human sacrifices, are Cicero, Ennius, Livy, Pliny, Tacitus, Seneca, Lucan, Silius Italicus, Casar, Porphyry, Sunchoniathon, Manetho, the author of the Ayeen Akberry, &c. &c. king of Moab, to Balaam, recorded by the prophet Micah: Shall I give my first born for my transgression; the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? The general testimony of Hindoo, Persian, Roman, and Greek writers, on this subject, declares, that sacrifices were chiefly expiatory. The Scandinavians held, that it was essential to their prosperity to offer human sacrifices; and believed human victims to be more auspicious than any other; particularly victims of the blood royal Many nations selected their victims: as, the Egyptians, Phanicians, Romans, Scandinavians, Albanians, Britons, Carthaginians, &c. The Albanians chose the best men of their nation; and the Egyptians the handsomest. The Romans sacrificed, annually, a male and female Gaul, and a male and female Greek. The Tauric Chersonesians sacrificed to Diana every stranger, whom chance threw on their coast. The Lacedæmonians whipped their boys to death to Diana Orthia. Aristomenes, the Messenian, sacrificed 300 Lacedæmonians at once to Jupiter. The Carthaginians offered up in a single sacrifice 300 young noblemen. Pliny observes, that the people of Marseilles, when a distinct state, coincided in offering human sacrifices with the whole world,although unknown to them, and differing from them in other. The Peruvians offered the respects. same number in their yearly sacrifice. Sanchoniathon declares, that from the earliest times princes and magistrates offered human victims; particularly their own dearest children. This custom is directly recogaized in the question of Balak, The Mexicans annually sacrificed 20,000. The Hindoos, and Egyptians, had large and expensive cavern temples consecrated to this dread. ful service. The people of various parts of Guinea still offer human victims; as do also the Hindoos and several other nations. The origin of sacrifices has been ascribed to the Phanicians. As this opinion is loose and unsupported, it needs no consideration; but there are four others, which deserve some remarks. were 1. That of Porphyry; who attributes their origin to the Egyptians; and says, that they consisted, at first, of the first fruits of their grounds; which they burned upon an altar of turf to their gods. In the most ancient sacrifices he says there neither living creatures, nor myrrh, nor frankincense, nor any thing expensive or magnificent: but afterwards they began to burn perfumes; and at length, changing their diet from roots and herbs to living animals, they changed their sacrifices. On this opinion, it is sufficient to observe, that it cannot be true; because the Persians, Hindoos, and Chinese, sacrificed, long before they had any correspondence with the Egyptians; and there fore they and the Egyptians certainly derived the practice from a common source: a source, that cannot have been nearer than Noah. Noah also sacrificed animals, long before the Egyptians sacrificed fruits; as did, also, the Hindoos and Chinese. 2. Dr. Warburton supposes, that they were offered merely as a language of Symbols; because in the beginning human language was not furnished with words, proper to express gratitude, supplication, and peni tence. On this supposition I observe, First: Man was never unpossessed of a language, which would properly express every emotion, capable of being symbolically expressed by sacrifices. Dr. Warburton would undoubtedly admit arguments, adduced from the Scriptures. But in the Scriptures we are deci. sively informed, that Adam was endowed with language by his Maker; and, plainly, with religious language. Abel and Cain, educated in his family knew the same language. They therefore needed no symbols, much less these very artificial ones, to express their emotions. Secondly: It cannot be admitted, that Adam worshipped God in any manner, which was not instituted by God himself. God punished Nadab and Abihu for worshipping him in a manner, not instituted by him. After their death He declared it, as his own pleasure, that he would be worshipped in his own institutions only. It was, therefore, his pleasure in the days of Adam. That God was pleased with sacrifices is evident from the story of Abel's acceptance, as well as the story of Noah and of Abraham. Thirdly: It is incredible, that God should copy into his own institutions inventions of men. Yet God instituted sacrifices for the Jews in a very solemn and extensive manner. 3. Infidels have supposed, that sacrifices began among all nations, when they were in a state of ignorance and barbarity; or when they were mere savages. Sacrifices, they suppose these people thought, would appease the anger of their deities, and conciliate their favor. As the victims were their own most |