in oppofition to all that rebellion against God which had then obtained in the world.

5. THE rule under which these covenanters were brought was the promise, in respect of faith ;-the law of nature, in refpect of obedience ;-and the inftitution of facrifices, in refpect of both. As to the rule of obedience, we may observe, That the law of nature was a monitor, as to good and evil, prior to the giving of the law from Sinai, and to fuch hints, concerning it, as were given to Noah and the rest of the patriarchs. If gentile finners, who are not enlightened by any promife, who have not the written law, do, by nature, the things contained in the law, and thus fhew the works of the law written in their hearts; much more may perfons favoured with divine promifes, and illuminated by the Holy Spirit, fhew the works of the law written in their hearts, by writing it out again in their lives and converfations. By this means, May they not demonftrate that he has delineated God's law of new on their confciences? The law written on man's heart in his ftate

ftate of primæval innocence, was greatly obfcured by the fall; but God preserved as much of it as is fufficient to leave men inexcufeable in every age; and, by the illumination of the Holy Ghoft, to guide in the paths of holiness in that one *. Accordingly, there were many evidences of fuch impreffions upon the minds of the antediluvians, in various parts of their conduct, whether by acting in conformity or in oppofition to them: Such as diftinction of property, and the pursuit of lawful callings, in obedience to the precepts of the fecond table of the moral law; faith in God, and love unto him, in agreeableness to thofe of the first. -Sacrifices, I have faid, refpected faith, as well as obedience; and their inftitution was the rule of both. They deserve more ample confideration

* See OWEN's Theologumena, lib. ii. cap. 1. Thef. 6, 7, 8. Should any fuppofe the Patriarchs had other hints of God's will, as to their duty, I should not be forward to deny it; though, after all, I cannot fee the neceffity of it: For, although the law of nature and the law from Sinai be the law of the covenant of works, materially confidered, yet it is not as the law of nature, or yet as the covenant of works; but, as inforced by evangelical motives, as obeyed in the ftrength of gofpel grace, and as delineated, DE NOVO, on the heart, by the infcription of the Spirit,-that it becomes a rule of Sanctification.

than

than I can, at prefent, undertake. We may attend for a moment, however, to their origin, their oblation,-and their ufe. They did not originate from the invention of men, but in the efpecial inftitution of God *. It is readily confeffed, the Mofaic history does not record their inftitution in fo many words; but it is neceffarily fuppofed even in that account, as well as many after revelations. The Sacred Hi

ftorian, the very first time he mentions facrifices, fpeaks alfo of their acceptance. Now, we have no reason to imagine that God ever accepted any thing, under the notion of worship, but what he had previously instituted. The divine inftitution of facrifices is alfo the only foundation of

* Dr SPENCER declares for the human origin of facrifices; and, in this particular, coincides with the greater part of Catholic writers, fome of whom, as Bellarmine,, carry them up before the fall. OUTRAM fpeaks with hefitancy, more than was becoming; but he candidly reprefented arguments on both fides. CoCCEIUS pleads in favours of their human original prior to the Mofaic Oeconomy at least. His arguments are fully anfwered, and his hypothefis overturned by LEIDEKKER Vis Veritatis, Lib. iv. Controv. 1.-See alfo CLOPPENBURG, Schol. Sacrific. cap. 2. The fubject is alfo confidered, with diftinguished abilities and remarkable perfpicuity, by Dr JENNINGS, in our language, Jewish Antiq. Vol. I. p. 305. et deinceps.

faith to the offerer. Faith without a foundation of God's laying, is no faith at all; of no avail, at leaft, unto the faving of the foul. But the primitive offerers had certainly a foundation of faith; for the Apostle affureth us, that, BY FAITH, Abel offered unto God a more excellent facrifice than Cain."In the antediluvian ftate there was no perfon, or order of perfons, invefted with an exclufive claim unto the priest's office. Some apprehend, that God conferred the office upon the first-born, indeed; but I can fee no reafon to perfuade us that this was the cafe, till God deftroyed Egypt's firft-born: Then he fet apart Ifrael's firft-born unto himself, and afterwards took the Levites in their ftead. But, under the antediluvian difpensation, Abel, who was a fecond fon, had as good a right to offer facrifice as Cain; and made a much better ufe of it*. The fact is, under that state the Churches

* Many excellent authors confidered the priesthood as a prerogative of the firft-born. CLOPPENBURG, ut fupra, p. 15. But the reafons of Dr OWEN and VITRINGA have determined me against that opinion. Dr OWEN, on Heb. Exercit. Vol. II. p. 136. VITRING. Ob. Sac. Lib. ii. cap. 2, 3.

*1

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were

1

were domeftic, and every head of a family was bound to offer facrifices for it; but not to the exclufion of individuals for themselves, on perfonal confiderations. The facrifices of Cain and Abel appear to have been perfonal ones, and that of Job a family one. Neither does it appear, that, under this ftate, there was any place confecrated to the purpose of offering facrifices; but every one offered WHERE he pleased. It behoved fomewhat, however, to be used for an altar. The creatures offered were both fruits and animals. The oblation of animals feems to have been efpecially defigned as a figure of the grand facrifice of our Lord Jefus Christ; and the oblation of fruits, to point out the evangelical obedience, and grateful fervices of the Church in every age, especially under the better œconomy. Nor was there any

time, fo far as we know, on which the patriarchs were obliged to facrifice. The Sabbath of the feventh day was the only holy time then known; and, being of a moral nature, and of moral and of moral obligation, they were bound to fill it up chiefly, if not wholly, with moral obedience. The feafon, as well as every thing else relative

to