CHAP. II.

The principal heads of moral duty were made known to mankind from the beginning, and continued to be known and acknowledged in the patriarchal ages. When men fell from the right knowledge of God, they fell also in important instances from the right knowledge of moral duty. The law given to the people of Israel was designed to instruct and direct them in morals, as well as in the knowledge and worship of the one true God. A great deal was done in the methods of Divine Providence, to preserve the sense and knowledge of morals among the heathen nations: but they did not make a right use of the helps afforded

them.

Ir has been shown, in the former part of this work, that as the first man was formed in an adult state, and placed in a world ready prepared, and amply provided for his reception and entertainment, so there is great reason to think, that God communicated to him the knowledge of religion, in its main fundamental articles, especially relating to the existence and perfections of the Deity, and the creation of the world, that he might be in an immediate capacity of serving his Maker, and answering the great end of his being. And one of the first and most natural inquiries, when he was made acquainted with the existence of a God of infinite perfections, his Creator and Sovereign Lord, must have been what God would have him to do, and what was the duty required of him, in order to secure the Divine favour and approbation. For it cannot reasonably be supposed, that he was left absolutely to himself, and to his own will, to act as he thought fit, without any higher direction or law to govern him. He could have no human instructor to teach, or to advise him: he had no parents or progenitors, whose knowledge and experience might have been of use to him: and as he had no experience of his own, it is not probable that, in his circumstances, he was left to frame a rule of duty for himself, and to find out the will of God by profound disquisitions into the nature and relations of things. We may therefore justly suppose, that a wise and good God, who designed him to be governed by a law, gave him a law by which he should be

governed, and communicated his will to him in relation to the duty required of him. And that this was actually the case in fact, may be concluded from the short account given us by Moses of the primeval state of man. From that account it appears, that man was not left at his first formation merely to acquire ideas in the ordinary way, which would have been too tedious and slow as he was circumstanced, but was at once furnished with the knowledge that was then necessary for him. He was immediately endued with the gift of language, which necessarily supposes that he was furnished with a stock of ideas; a specimen of which he gave in giving names to the inferior animals, which were brought before him for that purpose. The same gift of language was imparted to the consort provided for him; and they both were admitted in several instances to a near intercourse with their Maker, and were immediately favoured with notions of several things which it concerned them to know. It pleased God to acquaint them with the dominion he had invested them with over the several creatures in this lower world: they had a divine allowance and directions as to the food it was proper for them to eat they were instructed that they were to be the parents of a numerous offspring, and that they were to replenish the earth. The institution and law of marriage, which was given them, shows that they were made acquainted with the duties of the conjugal relation; with which are nearly connected the duties required of them as parents towards the children which should proceed from them, and the duties which their children should render to them, and to one another. As God gave them the law of the Sabbath, we may well conclude that he directed them as to the proper way of sanctifying it by worshipping him the great Creator and Lord of the universe, and celebrating his glory as shining forth in the creation of the world, of which the Sabbath was designed to keep up a religious remembrance. The precept and injunction which was laid upon them not to eat the forbidden fruit, comprehended a considerable part of the moral law under it. It was designed to instruct them that they were not the absolute lords of this

lower world, but were under the dominion of a higher Lord, to whom they owed the most entire subjection, and unreserved obedience, in an implicit resignation to his supreme wisdom and goodness: that they were bound to exercise a government over their appetites and inclinations, and not to place their highest happiness in the gratification of them; and that they were not only to govern their bodily appetites, but to guard against an inordinate ambition, and to restrain their desires of knowledge within just bounds, without prying with an unwarrantable curiosity into things which God thought fit to conceal from them. Upon the whole, we may justly conclude, that the first parents of the human race had the knowledge of God, and of the main articles of their duty, divinely communicated to them, as far as was proper, and suited to the state and circumstances they were in.*

After the fall and disobedience of our first parents, new duties arose suited to the alteration of their circumstances. They were now to regard God as their offended Sovereign and Lord: discoveries were made to them both of his justice and righteous displeasure against sin, and of his placableness towards penitent sinners, and his pardoning mercy, without an assurance of which they might have sunk under those desponding fears which a consciousness of their guilt was apt to inspire. Repentance towards God, a submission to his justice in the punishment inflicted upon them for their disobedience, hope in his mercy, and a reliance on the pro mise he was graciously pleased to make to them, a fear of offending him for the future, and a desire of approving them

• Puffendorf, who must be acknowledged to be a very able judge in what relates to the law of nature, declares, in a passage I cited before, that “it is very "probable, that God taught the first men the chief heads of natural law, which "were afterwards preserved and spread among their descendants, by means of "education and custom." He adds, that this does not hinder, but that the knowledge of them may be called natural, inasmuch as the truth and certainty of them may be discovered in a way of reasoning.

Grotius also gives it as his opinion, that the law was originally promulgated to Adam, the father of mankind, and through him to the human race; and again to Noah, the second father of mankind, and by him transmitted to his descend.

selves to him by a new and dutiful obedience; these were dispositions which it was the will of God they should exercise. And as they stood in great need of a divine direction in those circumstances, it is reasonable to think that he signified his will to them in relation to their future conduct, and the religion required to fallen creatures. The history which Moses has given of the antediluvian world is very short: but in the account given of Cain and Abel it is plainly intimated, that there was in those early ages an intercourse between God and man, that he did not leave them without discoveries of his will, that a law had been given them with relation to the external worship of God, and particularly concerning the of fering of sacrifice. Accordingly they both observed it as an act of religion; but Abel, who was a better man, with a more pious disposition than Cain. He is said, by the sacred writer to the Hebrews, to have offered sacrifice by faith, which seems plainly to refer to a divine institution and appointment; and that he well knew it was a rite which God required, and would accept. And its having spread so universally, among all nations from the most ancient times, can scarce be accounted for but by supposing it to have been a part of religion transmitted from the first ages to the whole race of mankind.* What was said to Cain, and the curse inflicted upon him, supposed a divine law obliging to mutual love and benevolence, and of which the violence committed on his brother was a manifest breach. There were in the old world preachers of righteousness, who, we have reason to think, declared the will and law of God to men, and urged it upon them in his name, and by his authority. So Noah is called, 2 Pet. ii. 5. and such was that excellent person Enoch, and probably several others. To which it may

The reader may compare what is here said with the first chapter of the former volume, in which several of the things here mentioned are more fully insisted upon; but it was necessary to take some notice of them in this place, to show that God from the beginning made discoveries of his will to men concerning their duty.

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MORAL DUTY KNOWN

[PART 11. be added, that if God had not made express discoveries of his will to men, and given them laws bound upon them by his own divine authority, their guilt would not have been so highly aggravated as to draw down upon them so dreadful a ruin and condemnation. But they sinned presumptuously, and with a high hand: they allowed themselves in an unre strained indulgence of their lusts and appetites, and committed all sorts of violence, rapine, and wickedness, in the most manifest opposition to the divine law. They seem to have fallen into an atheistical neglect and contempt of all religion; and therefore are justly called “the world of the ungodly,” 2 Pet. ii. 5. And the prophecy of Enoch, mentioned by St. Jude, seems particularly to charge them with the most audacious profaneness, and open contempt of religion, both in their words and actions, for which the divine judgments were denounced against them.

Noah, with his family, who survived that destruction, was no doubt well acquainted with those divine laws, for the transgression of which the sinners of the old world were so severely punished; and a man of his excellent character, we may be sure, took care to transmit them to his children and descendants: and the awful proofs of the divine justice and displeasure against the wicked and disobedient, tended to give the instructions and admonitions delivered to them by this preacher of righteousness a peculiar force. It appears from the brief hints given by Moses, that God made renewed discoveries of his will after the flood to this second father of mankind, and gave laws and injunctions which were designed to be obligatory on the whole human race. relating to the precepts delivered to the sons of Noah is well The tradition of the Jews known. And though we have not sufficient proof, that they were precisely in number or order what they pretend, yet that the substance of those precepts was then given and promulgated to mankind by divine authority, there is good reason to believe. And considering the narrowness of the Jewish notions, their strong prejudices against the Gentiles, and the contempt they had for them, this tradition of theirs de