Obedience, does not appear to have been pe-. culiarly severe and difficult, and yet they failed. Indeed, it is not easy to conceive how, at the early period of their existence, they could have. offended against any of the moral duties. From theft, extortion, fraud, intemperance, debauchery, their primitive situation totally exempted them. Falsehood and deceit, quarrels and contentions, are vices much too rude for the simplicity of their state, or the early endearments of social intercourse. Thus, in the very infancy of their being, it was scarcely possible for a natural; temptation, to exist. This peculiarity indicates to us the necessity of their being prohibited, from the performance of an act, which was not in itself immoral, as a test of their OBEDIENCE. By the commission of the offence they fully, manifested, that their sensual propensities were not restrained by motives of reason or of piety: They gave the reins either to a perverse appe-, tite, or to a culpable curiosity.*.

Better things could not be expected from their posterity. Without having recourse to vitiated; propensities, communicated by the fall of their parents from a state of primitive innocence, and

*See the Layman's letters to Mr. Wilberforce, upon Hereditary Depravity, for a more ample statement of this subject. First edit. p. 56, passim. Published by J. Johnson, 1799. .

admitting that the moral powers were, im every view, equal, it is natural to expect that the multiplication of the species, would be followed by a correspondent multiplication of temptations and desires. Oppositions of interests, and all the discordances incidental to the social intercourse, when the passions and propensities of numerous individuals were unrestrained either by reason, by a refined perception of social interests, or by the dictates of religion, must have given occasion to divers irregularities, immoral and destructive.

The second crime upon record is the murder of a brother; and this took place at a very early period. The crime we are informed, was perpetrated through envy; a vice which could not easily be propagated by the first parents in their Paradisaical state. This envy was excited by the tokens of respect paid unto Abel and his offering; "but unto Cain and his offering the Lord had not respect. And Cain was very wrath, and his countenance fell." The acceptance of the one, and the rejection of the other, manifestly arose from some moral cause, for it is added, "If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at thy door."

We are further told, that the third son of

Adam was named Seth; that the son of Seth was named Enos; "then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." This remarkable expression naturally conveys to us the idea, that impiety was prevalent even at so early a period; and a distinction between the pious and the impious was commencing. In In process of time, when "men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose." As mention is here made of the sons of God, in distinction from the daughters of men, and as it is said in the preceding passage, that men began to call upon the name of the Lord, these are intimations that the human race was divided into two separate moral characters; that large numbers of the inhabitants of the earth were totally destitute of true religion, or that they were gross idolaters; that a few were reserved, who for some time retained the prin ciples of genuine piety; but that these finally became corrupted, in consequence of the seductive alliances which were formed with the profligate and irreligious. The human race at length became totally depraved. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the

thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." And, according to the strong metaphorical language of Scripture, "it repented the Lord: that he had made man grieved him at his heart. will destroy man whom I have created from the: face of the earth.”

on the earth, and it And the Lord said, I

The representation given us of the state of morals before the deluge, and of the punishment, which followed, justifies and illustrates our assertion, that when human depravity is arrived:to a certain height, the mind will not make the: necessary efforts for its recovery. Hence it appears that either the destruction of whole gene rations, not to be reclaimed by the influenceof the usual Dispensations of Providence, or the exertion of a miraculous power, renovating the heart of man, by an immediate impulse upon every individual, were the only alternatives. To have followed the latter mode, would have been to repeal the important edict of man's free agency :: The former afforded a solemn and salutary warn-. ing to succeeding generations. The destruction of every individual of the human species, that, was not to be reclaimed by any natural process in moral discipline, appeared to the Divine wisdom the only effective method to clear the world of this moral pestilence. One family, which had

distinguished itself by its faith and piety, was saved from the general wreck; and this was constituted the medium of recovering the human race, by introducing a new era in the divine government of the world.

After the Deluge, a distinction of moral character in the sons of Noah, soon became manifest in the conduct of Ham, towards their aged father, surprised into ebriety, contrasted with that of his brethren Shem and Japheth. These distinctions of character were also conspicuous in their posterity. Canaan, and the other descendants of Ham, being abandoned to idolatrous practices, much earlier than those either of Shem or Japheth.

SECT. II.

THE SELECTION OF A PARTICULAR FAMILY IN ORDER TO PREVENT AN UNIVERSAL APOSTASY FROM MONOTHEISM, OR THE PRINCIPLES OF TRUE RELIGION; AND THE SUBSEQUENT DELIVERANCE OF THIS FAMILY FROM A STATE OF BONDAGE.

FROM the line of Shem was Abraham descended, whom the Governor of the Universe