ii. 26, respecting David, "how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest." "In the days," simply signifies, in the life time of Abiathar; not by any means implying that Abiathar was then, (at that particular time,) high priest. An author now writing a history of America, and alluding to the battle at New Orleans, might say, it was fought, in the days of Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, without intending thereby to signify that Jackson was, at the time of the battle, president; but that he is, or was president when the historian was writing. Accordingly, we find by referring to 1 Sam. xxi. 1, that Abiathar was not at that particular time high priest, though he was shortly afterwards so: Abimelech having been, when that circumstance occurred, the high priest. See "Cyrénius."

ABEL, the second son of Adam. His offering accepted by his Creator because he offered it "through faith," (Gen. iv. 4,) even through that promise of the Messiah, made by God to his parents, (Gen. iii. 15.) who should bruise the serpent's head, and re-open the communication between the sons of men and their God, which had been broken off by the violation of God's command. He believed his Creator to be the God of Truth, which Satan had, a short time before, induced his parents to doubt. (Gen. iii. 4.) His offering or approach to God being through faith, as the inspired Apostle tells us, (Heb. xi. 4,) it must have had the same foundation as the Publican's prayer had, (Luke xviii. 13,) the naked mercy of Jehovah through which faith, or hope, or reliance, no man ever yet appealed to his Creator in vain. See Cain.

ABRAHAM was born A. M. 2008 years, only two years after the death of Noah, though there were nine genera

tions between them. He was the founder of the Jewish nation, who are termed Israel after the flesh and is also called the father of spiritual Israel, composed of both Jews and Gentiles, even all the faithful. That he often acted very ungratefully towards his God, no one pretends to deny, much less to justify. Divine wisdom sees fit sometimes to leave the most devoted friends of God to themselves, in order either to humble them, by convincing them of their own weakness, and inability of themselves to withstand the lusts of the flesh and the temptations of Satan, or to teach a practical lesson to the other children of God, of the necessity of looking to HIM COnstantly to keep them from falling. But what an incontrovertible proof of the divine origin of the Sacred Scriptures, and of the candour, honesty, and faithfulness of the inspired writers themselves, does this impartial exhibition of the faults and abominable crimes of themselves, present! If the Bible were a mere human production, got up either to promote the interests of certain individuals, or to flatter the pride or ambition of a nation, those marks of divine impartiality would not be found in it. That which we know to be human and natural, viz. a desire to conceal our vices, and extol our virtues, we certainly would discover in it, as in all human productions: therefore not finding in it these characteristics of human nature, but the very y reverse, we must conclude it has not emanated from mah, but from that which is above man, even from him who made man―Jehovah. See Character.

ADAM. The name originally given by the Creator to the first parents of the human race, male and female. (Gen. v. 2.) After the fall it was restricted to the man alone. We are told, "God made man upright, (per

fect,) but he hath sought out many inventions." Hereby evidently implying, to all intents and purposes, perfect liberty free to stand and free to fall. His fall is attributable solely and entirely to himself, to his own voluntary act, done in direct opposition to his Maker's command. It is not attributable to any imperfection in his formation, but to that which constitutes the greatest perfection in his creation, viz. free agency, liberty. Therefore in no wise attributable to God except we can think that God is censurable for making man free, for giving him liberty. Absurd! See Mankind, origin of.

Adam and Eve having been, as to experience and knowledge, mere children when their Creator enjoined on them obedience to his will, no test of that obedience could possibly have been better suited and adapted to their infancy, and childish understandings, than the prohibition respecting the fruit of a particular tree. Not that the evil consisted in the act of taking and eating any particular fruit, as too many generally suppose, but the spirit of contempt and disobedience to the authority of their Creator thereby exhibited; as well as their virtually pronouncing him to be, not a God of Truth, by believing what the Tempter said unto them, "Ye shall not surely die." (Gen. iii. 4.) This was so diametrically the reverse of what their Creator had previously declared, "Thou shalt surely die," (Gen. ii. 17,) that one or the other, must have pronounced a falsehood. They believed what Satan said, they consequently disbelieved what God had said: the inference is manifest. Therefore the crime of our first parents consisted not in the eating of a fruit, this was the mere test, but was of a threefold nature: 1st, disobedience to the Omnipotent will; 2dly, virtually pronouncing their Creator to be a liar; and 3dly, pride, or ambition, to be equal unto God-“ Ye

shall be as gods," (omnipotent ones,) saith Satan. (Gen. iii. 5.) See Serpent.

The penalty denounced by the Almighty, for this disobedience, is daily fulfilling before our eyes-" Thou shalt surely become mortal in the day thou eatest thereof," saith the Lord God. (Gen. ii. 17.) The original word for "die" signifying "mortal:" and our first parents having been previous to their fall, incorruptible or immortal, were by this, rendered corruptible and mortal. This penalty then, as well as those additional ones pronounced in Gen. iii. 16, 19, we behold executing to the letter all around us. The young and the aged, the healthy and unhealthy, the infant of a day old, and the man of a hundred years, all pay this penalty, death. And the troubles, difficulties and anxieties of this life too well testify the execution of "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.""In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.” Gen. iii. 16, 19. But if any one should say, "Oh we die of natural causes, of disease," &c. let me (as one who has either himself performed, or has been present at the post mortem examination of the bodies of thousands,) inform such a person, that it is in one case out of hundreds, (deaths from mechanical violence necessarily excepted) that we can, after the most minute investigation, discover any disorganization or alteration in the animal machine, sufficient to account for the death of the individual! Does not then the fulfilment of these penalties constitute an undeniable proof that sin, or rebellion against the most high God, shall not go unpunished? What is this mortality or death of the body, as the penalty of Adam's transgression, but a type or earnest of the death

or punishment of the soul hereafter, for actual and personal transgression.

Again, the declaration of God as recorded by Moses, without any explanation, in Gen. ii. 17, "For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," and then Moses, in the fifth chapter and fifth verse of the same book, stating that " Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years," prove incontrovertibly that he, like all the other sacred writers, cared not how much their statements appeared contradictory, or absurd; or what use scoffers then or afterwards might make of them, provided they stated facts therefore they recorded facts as the spirit of God dictated, and as they were authorised by Hıм, even Jehovah, whose servants they were. What could appear to persons then, and now, more contradictory than these statements, viz. that Adam should die in the day he violated God's command, and yet Adam lived hundreds of years afterwards. The further development of God's mind in the Sacred Scriptures, and the literal meaning of the expression, "thou shalt die," when put in connection with Adam's previous immortality or incorruptibility, at once banish the apparent inconsistency. See Hide, Sin, Devil, Evil.

ADULTERY, positively prohibited by the seventh commandment; and although the crime has been committed by Jews as well as Gentiles, and even by, in some instances, the servants of God; yet He was so far from authorizing or even sanctioning this or any other crime, that he delivered the most unequivocal denunciations against all crime: and in many cases punished the transgressors even in this world, particularly if they had professed themselves to be His servants, to make manifest that such was contrary to His will. In no other way, then,