lodged; and that where the magistrates of Jerusalem assembled.

ACRABATENE, a district of Judæa, extend. ing between Shechem (now Napolose) and Jericho, inclining east. It was about twelve miles in length. The Acrabatene had its name from a place called Akrabbim, about nine miles from Shechem, eastward. This was also the name of another district of Judea on the frontier of Idumea, toward the northern extremity of the Dead Sea.

but the best critics think, that these subscrip tions, which are also affixed to other books of the New Testament, deserve but little weight; and in this case they are not supported by any ancient authority.

pointed out in the clearest manner the compre. hensive nature of the redemption which he pur chased by his death.

5. It must have been of the utmost import ance in the early times of the Gospel, and certainly not of less importance to every subsequent age, to have an authentic account of the promised descent of the Holy Ghost, and of the success which attended the first preachers of ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. This book, the Gospel both among the Jews and Genin the very beginning, professes itself to be a tiles. These great events completed the evicontinuation of the Gospel of St. Luke; and its dence of the divine mission of Christ, establishstyle bespeaks it to be written by the same per-ed the truth of the religion which he taught, and son. The external evidence is also very satis. factory; for besides allusions in earlier authors, and particularly in Clement of Rome, Polycarp, and Justin Martyr, the Acts of the Apostles are not only quoted by Irenæus, as written by Luke the evangelist, but there are few things recorded in this book which are not mentioned by that ancient father. This strong testimony | in favour of the genuineness of the Acts of the Apostles is supported by Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Jerome, Eusebius, Theodoret, and most of the later fathers. It may be added, that the name of St. Luke is prefixed to this book in several ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and also in the old Syriac

version.

2. This is the only inspired work which gives us any historical account of the progress of Christianity after our Saviour's ascension. It comprehends a period of about thirty years, but it by no means contains a general history of the church during that time. The principal facts recorded in it are, the choice of Matthias to be an Apostle in the room of the traitor Judas; the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of pentecost; the preaching, miracles, and sufferings of the Apostles at Jerusalem; the death of Stephen, the first martyr; the persecution and dispersion of the Christians; the preaching of the Gospel in different parts of Palestine, especially in Samaria; the conversion of St. Paul; the call of Cornelius, the first Gentile convert; the persecution of the Christians by Herod Agrippa; the preaching of Paul and Barnabas to the Gentiles, by the express command of the Holy Ghost; the decree made at Jerusalem, declaring that circumcision, and a conformity to other Jewish rites and ceremonies, were not necessary in Gentile converts; and the latter part of the book is confined to the history of St. Paul, of whom St. Luke was the constant companion for several years.

3. As this account of St. Paul is not continued beyond his two years' imprisonment at Rome, it is probable that this book was written soon after his release, which happened in the year 63; we may therefore consider the Acts of the Apostles as written about the year 64.

4. The place of its publication is more doubt. ful. The probability appears to be in favour of Greece, though some contend for Alexandria in Egypt. This latter opinion rests upon the subscriptions at the end of some Greek manuscripts, and of the copies of the Syriac version;

Ecumenius calls the Acts, the "Gospel of the Holy Ghost;" and St. Chrysostom, the "Gos. pel of our Saviour's resurrection," or the Gospel of Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Here, in the lives and preaching of the Apostles, we have the most miraculous instances of the power of the Holy Ghost; and in the account of those who were the first believers, we have received the most excellent pattern of the true Christian life.

ADAM, the name given to man in general, both male and female in the Hebrew Scrip. tures, Gen. i, 26, 27; v, 1, 2; xi, 5; Josh. xiv, 15; 2 Sam. vii, 19; Eccl. iii, 21; Jer. xxxii, 20; Hosea vi, 7; Zech. xiii, 7: in all which places mankind is understood; but particularly it is the name of the first man and father of the human race, created by God himself out of the dust of the earth. Josephus thinks that he was called Adam by reason of the reddish colour of the earth out of which he was formed, for Adam in Hebrew signifies red. God having made man out of the dust of the earth, breathed into him the breath of life, and gave him dominion over all the creatures of this world, Gen. i, 26, 27; ii, 7. He created him after his own image and resemblance; and having blessed him, he placed him in a delicious garden, in Eden, that he might cultivate it, and feed upon its fruits, Gen. ii, 8; but under the following injunction: "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." The first thing that Adam did after his introduction into paradise, was to give names to all the beasts and birds which presented themselves before him, Gen. ii, 19, 20.

But man was without a fellow creature of his own species; wherefore God said, "It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a help meet for him." And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and while he slept, he took one of his ribs, "and closed up the flesh instead thereof;" and of that substance which he took from man made he a woman, whom he presented to him. Then said Adam, "This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man," Gen. ii, 21, &c.

The woman was seduced by the tempter;

and she seduced her husband to eat of the for- | lord of the whole and therefore himself accountbidden fruit. When called to judgment for this able to the original proprietor; and was to be transgression before God, Adam attempted to the subject of another species of government, a cast the blame upon his wife, and the woman moral administration; and to be constituted an upon the serpent tempter. But God declared image of the intellectual and moral perfections, them all guilty, and punished the serpent by and of the immortality, of the common Maker. degradation; the woman by painful childbear. Every thing therefore, as to man's creation, is ing and subjection; and the man by agricul- given in a solemn and deliberative form, and contural labour and toil; of which punishments tains also an intimation of a Trinity of Persons every day witnesses the fulfilment. As their in the Godhead, all equally possessed of creative natural passions now became irregular, and power, and therefore Divine, to each of whom their exposure to accidents was great, God made man was to stand in relations the most sacred a covering of skins for Adam and for his wife; and intimate:-" And God said, Let us make and expelled them from the garden, to the man in our image, after our likeness; and let country without; placing at the east of the gar. them have dominion," &c. den cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. It is not known how long Adam and his wife continued in paradise: some say, many years; others, not many days; others, not many hours. Adam called his wife's name Eve, which signifies "the mother of all living." Shortly after, Eve brought forth Cain, Gen. iv, 1, 2. It is believed that she had a girl at the time, and that, generally, she had twins. The Scriptures notice only three sons of Adam: Cain, Abel, and Seth; and omits daughters; except that Moses tells us, "Adain begat sons and daughters;" no doubt many. He died, aged nine hundred and thirty, B. C. 3074.

Upon this history, so interesting to all Adam's descendants, some remarks may be offered.

1. It is disputed whether the name Adam is derived from red earth. Sir W. Jones thinks it may be from Adim, which in Sanscrit signifies, the first. The Persians, however, denomninate him Adamah, which signifies, according to Sale, red earth. The term for woman is Aisha, the feminine of Aish, man, and signifies, therefore, maness or female man.

2. The manner in which the creation of Adam is narrated indicates something peculiar and eminent in the being to be formed. Among the heavenly bodies the earth, and above all the various productions of its surface, vegetable and animal, however perfect in their kinds, and beautiful and excellent in their respective natures, not one being was found to whom the rest could minister instruction; inspire with moral delight; or lead up to the Creator himself. There was, properly speaking, no intellectual being; none to whom the whole frame and furniture of material nature could minister knowledge; no on who could employ upon them the generalizing faculty, and make them the basis of inductive knowledge. If, then, it was not wholly for himself that the world was created by God; and if angels were not so immediately connected with this system, as to lead us to suppose that it was made for them; a rational inhabitant was obviously still wanting to complete the work, and to constitute a perfect whole. The formation of such a being was marked, therefore, by a manner of proceeding which serves to impress us with a sense of the greatness of the work. Not that it could be a matter of more difficulty to Omnipotence to create man than any thing beside; but principally, it is probable, because he was to be the

3. It may be next inquired in what that image of God in which man was made consists.

"And

It is manifest from the history of Moses, that human nature has two essential constituent parts, the BODY formed out of preexisting matter, the earth; and a LIVING SOUL, breathed into the body by an inspiration from God. the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils (or face) the breath of life, (lires,) and man became a living soul." Whatever was thus imparted to the body of man, already "formed," and perfectly finished in all its parts, was the only cause of life; and the whole tenor of Scripture shows that this was the rational spirit itself, which, by a law of its Creator, was incapable of death, even after the body had fallen under that penalty.

The "image" or likeness of God in which man was made has, by some, been assigned to the body; by others, to the soul. It has, also, been placed in the circumstance of his having "dominion" over the other creatures. As to the body, it is not necessary to prove that in no sense can it bear the image of God; that is, be "like" God. An upright form has no more likeness to God than a prone or reptile one; God is incorporeal, and cannot be the antitype of any thing material.

Equally unfounded is the notion that the image of God in man consisted in the "dominion" which was granted to him over this lower world. Limited dominion may, it is true, be an image of large and absolute dominion; but man is not said to have been made in the image of God's dominion, which is an accident merely, for, before creatures existed, God himself could have no dominion :-he was made in the image and likeness of God himself. Still farther, it is evident that man, according to the history, was made in the image of God in order to his having dominion, as the Hebrew particle imports; and, therefore, his dominion was conse. quent upon his formation in the "image" and "likeness" of God, and could not be that image itself.

The notion that the original resemblance of man to God must be placed in some one essential quality, is not consistent with holy writ, from which alone we can derive our information on this subject. We shall, it is true, find that the Bible partly places it in what is essential to human nature; but that it should comprehend nothing else, or consist in one quality only, has

To these we are to add the intellectual pow ers, and we have what divines, in perfect ac. cordance with the Scriptures, have called, “the NATURAL image of God in his creatures," which is essential and ineffaceable. Man was made capable of knowledge, and he was endowed with liberty of will.

This natural image of God was the foundation of that MORAL image by which also man was distinguished. Unless he had been a spiritual, knowing, and willing being, he would have been wholly incapable of moral qualities. That he had such qualities eminently, and that in them consisted the image of God, as well as in the natural attributes just stated, we have also the express testimony of Scripture: “Lo this only have I found, that God made man UPRIGHT; but they have sought out many inventions." There is also an express allusion to the moral image of God, in which man was at first created, in Colossians iii, 10: “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of Him that cre. ated him;" and in Ephesians iv, 24: "Put on the new man, which after God is created in

passages the Apostle represents the change produced in true Christians by the Gospel, as a "renewal of the image of God in man; as a new or second creation in that image ;" and he explicitly declares, that that image consists in "knowledge," in "righteousness," and in "true holiness."

no proof or reason; and we are, in fact, taught that it comprises also what is so far from being essential that it may be both lost and regained. When God is called "the Father of spirits," a likeness is suggested between man and God in the spirituality of their nature. This is also implied in the striking argument of St. Paul with the Athenians: "Forasmuch, then, as we are the OFFSPRING of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device;" plainly referring to the idolatrous statues by which God was represented among Heathens. If likeness to God in man consisted in bodily shape, this would not have been an argument against human representations of the Deity; but it imports, as Howe well expresses it, that "we are to understand that our resemblance to him, as we are his offspring, lies in some higher, more noble, and more excellent thing, of which there can be no figure; as who can tell how to give the figure or image of a thought, or of the mind or thinking power?" In spirituality, and, consequently, immateriality, this image of God in man, then, in the first instance, consists. Nor is it any valid objection to say, that "im-righteousness and true holiness." In these materiality is not peculiar to the soul of man; for we have reason to believe that the inferior animals are actuated by an immaterial principle." This is as certain as analogy can make it: but though we allow a spiritual principle to animals, its kind is obviously inferior; for that spirit which is incapable of induction and moral knowledge, must be of an inferior order to the spirit which possesses these capabilities; and this is the kind of spirit which is peculiar to man. The sentiment expressed in Wisdom ii, 23, is an evidence that, in the opinion of the an cient Jews, the image of God in man comprised immortality also. "For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity:" and though other creatures were made capable of immortality, and at least the material human frame, whatever we may think of the case of animals, would have escaped death, had not sin entered the world; yet, without admitting the absurdity of the "natural immortality" of the human soul, that essence must have been constituted immortal in a high and peculiar sense which has ever retained its prerogative of continued duration amidst the universal death not only of animals, but of the bodies of all human beings. There appears also a manifest allusion to man's immortality, as being included in the image of God, in the reason which is given in Genesis for the law which inflicts death on murderers: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." The essence of the crime of homicide is not confined here to the putting to death the mere animal part of man; and it must, therefore, lie in the peculiar value of life to an immortal being, accountable in another state for the actions done in this, and whose life ought to be specially guarded for this very reason, that death introduces him into changeless and eternal relations, which were not to be left to the mercy of human passions.

This also may be finally argued from the satisfaction with which the historian of the creation represents the Creator as viewing the works of his hands as "rery good," which was pronounced with reference to each of them individually, as well as to the whole: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good." But, as to man, this goodness must necessarily imply moral as well as physical qualities. Without them he would have been imperfect as man; and had they, in their first exercises, been perverted and sinful, he must have been an exception, and could not have been pronounced "very good." The goodness of man, as a rational being, must lie in devotedness and consecration to God; consequently, man was at first holy. A rational creature, as such, is capable of knowing, loving, serving, and living in communion with the Most Holy One. Adam, at first, did or did not exert this capacity; if he did not, he was not very good,-not good at all.

4. On the intellectual and moral endow. ments of the progenitor of the human race, erring views appear to have been taken on both sides.

In knowledge, some have thought him little inferior to the angels; others, as furnished with but the simple elements of science and of language. The truth seems to be that, as to capacity, his intellect must have been vigorous beyond that of any of his fallen descendants; which itself gives us very high views of the strength of his understanding, although we should allow him to have been created "lower than the angels." As to his actual knowledge,

that would depend upon the time and opportu- | which knowledge, when spoken of morally, is nity he had for observing the nature and laws always understood in the Scriptures. We inay of the objects around him; and the degree in not be disposed to allow, with some, that Adam which he was favoured with revelations from understood the deep philosophy of nature, and God on moral and religious subjects. could comprehend and explain the sublime mysteries of religion. The circumstance of his giving names to the animals, is certainly no sufficient proof of his having attained to a philosophical acquaintance with their qualities and distinguishing habits, although we should allow their names to be still retained in the Hebrew, and to be as expressive of their peculiarities as some expositors have stated. Sufficient time appears not to have been afforded him for the study of the properties of animals, as this event took place previous to the forma tion of Eve; and as for the notion of his acquir. ing knowledge by intuition, this is contradicted by the revealed fact, that angels themselves acquire their knowledge by observation and study, though no doubt, with great rapidity and certainty. The whole of this transaction was super

On the degree of moral excellence also in the first man, much license has been given to a warm imagination, and to rhetorical embel. lishment; and Adam's perfection has sometimes been fixed at an elevation which renders it exceedingly difficult to conceive how he could fall into sin at all. On the other hand, those who either deny or hold very slightly the doctrine of our hereditary depravity, delight to represent Adam as little superior in moral perfection and capability to his descendants. But, if we attend to the passages of holy writ above quoted, we shall be able, on this subject, to ascertain, if not the exact degree of his moral endowments, yet that there is a certain stand. ard below which they cannot be placed. Generally, he was made in the image of God, which, we have already proved, is to be under-natural; the beasts were "brought" to Adam, stood morally as well as naturally. Now, and it is probable that he named them under a however the image of any thing may be limited Divine suggestion. He has been also supposed in extent, it must still be an accurate repre- to be the inventor of language, but his history sentation as far as it goes. Every thing good shows that he was never without speech. From in the creation must always be a miniature the first he was able to converse with God; and representation of the excellence of the Creator; we may, therefore, infer that language was in but, in this case, the "goodness," that is, the him a supernatural and miraculous endowment. perfection, of every creature, according to the That his understanding was, as to its capacity, part it was designed to act in the general as- deep and large beyond any of his posterity, semblage of beings collected into our system, must follow from the perfection in which he wholly forbids us to suppose that the image of was created; and his acquisitions of knowledge God's moral perfections in man was a blurred would, therefore, be rapid and easy. It was, and dim representation. To whatever extent however, in moral and religious truth, as being it went, it necessarily excluded all that from of the first concern to him, that we are to supman which did not resemble God; it was a pose the excellency of his knowledge to have likeness to God in "righteousness and true consisted. "His reason would be clear, his holiness," whatever the degree of each might judgment uncorrupted, and his conscience upbe, and excluded all admixture of unrighteous. right and sensible." The best knowledge would, ness and unholiness. Man, therefore, in his in him, be placed first, and that of every other original state, was sinless, both in act and in kind be made subservient to it, according to its principle. Hence it is said that "God made relation to that. The Apostle adds to know. man UPRIGHT." That this signifies moral recti-ledge, "righteousness and true holiness;" terms tude cannot be doubted; but the import of the word is very extensive. It expresses, by an easy figure, the exactness of truth, justice, and Sober as these views of man's primitive state obedience; and it comprehends the state and are, it is not, perhaps, possible for us fully to habit both of the heart and the life. Such, conceive of so exalted a condition as even this. then, was the condition of primitive man; Below this standard it could not fall; and that there was no obliquity in his moral principles, it implied a glory, and dignity, and moral greathis mind, or affections; none in his conduct. ness of a very exalted kind, is made sufficiently He was perfectly sincere and exactly just, ren-apparent from the degree of guilt charged upon dering from the heart all that was due to God and to the creature. Tried by the exactest plummet, he was upright; by the most perfect rule, he was straight.

The "knowledge" in which the Apostle Paul, in the passage quoted above from Colossians iii, 10, places "the image of God" after which man was created, does not merely imply the faculty of understanding, which is a part of the natural image of God; but that which might be lost, because it is that in which we may be "renewed." It is, therefore, to be understood of the faculty of knowledge in right exercise; and of that willing reception, and firm retain. ing, and hearty approval, of religious truth, in

which express, not merely freedom from sin, but positive and active virtue.

Adam when he fell for the aggravating circumstances of his offence may well be deduced from the tremendous consequences which followed.

5. The salvation of Adam has been disputed; for what reason does not appear, except that the silence of Scripture, as to his after life, has given bold men occasion to obtrude their speculations upon a subject which called for no such expression of opinion. As nothing to the contrary appears, the charitable inference is, that as he was the first to receive the promise of redemption, so he was the first to prove its virtue. It is another presumption, that as Adam and Eve were clothed with skins of beasts, which