much was Cain affected with this fentence, that he faid, my punishment is greater than I can bear.

The divine approbation of virtue was fignified in the most emphatical manner in the tranflation of Enoch. Gen. v. 24. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. This would at the fame time give men to understand, that there was a reward for virtue in another ftate than this, into which men might be removed.

In the hiftory of the deluge we see in the strongest light the divine abhorrence of wickedness in general, when we are told that for that reafon alone he destroyed the whole human race. Gen. vi. 5. And God Jaw 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 the Lord faid, I will deftroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. At the fame time the Divine Being thewed how pleafing virtue was to him, when on that account he fpared Noah and his family. verfe 8. But Noah found grace in the

B 4

eyes of

the

the Lord. Noah was a juft man and perfect in his generation, and Noah walked with God, Accordingly, when the ark was built he says to him, "Come thou, and all thy house, into the ark; for thee have I feen righteous before me in this generation."

When after the flood, God gave permiffion to eat animal food, it was with a prohibition to cat the blood, as the feat of life, accompanied with a stronger prohibition to fhed the blood of man, flefh with the life thereof,

Gen. ix. 4. But

which is the blood And furely your

thereof, fhall ye not eat. blood of your lives will I require. At the band of a man's brother will I require the life of man. Whofo fheddeth man's blood, by man fhall his blood be fhed: For in the image of God made he man.

The deftruction of Sodom and Gomor rah by fire from heaven was an event hardly lefs inftructive than that of the old world by the deluge, as it was declared to be on account of the wickednefs of the inhabitants; becaufe, as God faid to Abraham, (Gen. xviii. 20.) the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah was great, and because their fin was

grievous,

grievous. Abraham pleading for Sodom, in which city Lot then refided, faid, Wilt thou alfo deftroy the righteous with the wicked? Far be it from thee to do after this manner; to flay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous fhould be as the wicked. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? By his interceffion he prevailed fo far that the place would have been spared, if so few as ten righteous had been in it; but that number not being found, it was devoted to deftruction,

The angels who had the commiffion to execute the fentence being entertained by Lot, fay to him, Gen. xix. 12. Whatsoever thou haft in the city bring out of this place, for we shall deftroy this place, because the cry of them is waxed great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord hath fent us to deftroy it. The next day Abraham, we read, ib. got up early in the morning, and looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and beheld, and lo, the Smoke of the country went up as the fmoke of a furpace. What a ftriking and inftructive leffon muft this have been to all who were ac¬ quainted

8

quainted with it, and so great an event as this muft have been remembered a long time.

Though it was the wife intention of the Divine Being to diftinguish one particular nation in which to preferve the knowledge and worship of himself, when mankind were univerfally falling into idolatry, not for the fake of that particular nation, but for the benefit of the whole world of mankind, who would derive the most impor tant advantages from that provifion, he made choice of a perfon of the most distingufhed virtue for the head of that nation; and to the virtue of Abraham, and other excellent characters in that nation, their pofterity are always referred when they were abandoned to vice.

Idolatry, which it appears to have been the first object of this scheme of revelation to guard against, was by no means, as I have shewn on another occafion, a system of erroneous opinions refpecting God, his works, or his providence, but confifted of rites of the most flagitious and horrid kind, which debafed human nature, and reduced man to a state worse than the brutes. Confequently

5

fequently the laws against idolatry, fevere as they were, are to be confidered as provifions against the fpreading of the worst of vices, the most inconfiftent with every idea of dignity and moral excellence.

That there must have been fomething in the religion of the patriarchs favourable to moral excellence, is evident from the his tory of Jofeph, (though the fame religion had not the fame effect on the generality of his brethren,) because it was from religious confiderations that he preferved his fidelity to his master in the hour of temptation, when he replied to the folicitations of his mistress, Gen. xxxix. 9. How can I do this great wickedness, and fin against God? He evidently confidered adultery as highly offenfive to God, as well as injurious to fociety. His generofity to his brethren, and the apology he made for their ill behaviour to him, discovers a mind deeply impreffed with a sense of the univerfal providence of God, and the duty of fubmiffion to his will, as always wife and good, when he repeatedly faid, Gen. xlv. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with your felves, that ye fold

me