thid "·crc. offererl do not 11ppC1nr to have originated in any express command of God though lie ma~• hitve intimated to Adam himself, ae to Abel, his acceptnnce of sue!~ olforing-s. Abel's offering was nccepted na the expression of his faith; but there is 11othing- to prove thnt the offering of Cain, thoup;h rejected in consequence of his want of faith, was contrary to any law. The murder of Abel by his brother's hn11d wns not punished by rleath, and the very fonguage of the murderer, in which ho com- plains of the severity of his punishment, points to a general state of luwlossnesA beyond the immediate "presence of the Lord." Indeed the general description of the world from the Fall to Noah re-presents a scene of unrestrained disorder nnd vi0lcnce. The brief but very significant history of one of the most eminent d11scen<l- ants of Cain iR representative of the period. The primeval ordinnnce of marriage was by him first forsaken. The personal right of the strongest and most powedul to avenge himseif to the utmost for every injury is asserted 11s the only law.1 The industry anrl ingenuity and skill of nun were highly developed ; woman was famous for her beauty; "there were giants in the earth in those days," and "mighty men, men of mnown;" but man without law became utterly and hopelessly corrupt, '' the wicked- ness of man was great on the earth," and the disorganised, g·odless world was destroyed. It was the age of o.ll but universal dominion of the. flesh, ending in dis- solution and death. At the same time it must be noticed that while ungodliness and irreligion reigned supreme, yet there are no evidences either of idolatry, or of those sins against nature, to which, o.s the .Apostle Pnul teaches, God subsequently gave men over as the punishment of idolatry. 18. The world after the Flood began with, what we may call, a new dispensation. Noah, on coming out of the ark, offered burnt sacrifices of every clean beast and c,cry clean fowl-the distinction was probably natural and not ceremonial-his offer• ings were accepted, a covenant of mercy was established between God and man, and now for the first time in the history of mankind we have some express indication of Divine law revealed for the direction of man. There was first of all a prohibition of eating :flesh "with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof," which prohibition (evidently, we may say, when the language is compared with that of the Mosaical law 2) had reference to the use of the blood in those sacrifices, which had now received express and emphatic sanction from God as an acceptable method of worshipping him. 3 A second law was also given, which springs from the very first duty of man to his brother man-"Whoeo sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." But although these two commandments had in many respects the character of law, we do not find the word torah used of them; they were rather isolated commands,' the first elements and germs of a system of Divine law in which the whole duty of man to God and his neighbour should be comprehended. 19. Yet this beginning of Divine law on earth was, without doubt, of no small value for that which, the sacred history informs us, soon succeeded in this post-dilu- Yian world; namely, the development of national life, of which in tho long and dreary n:;e of lawlessness before the Flood there are no signs whatever. The due protection of the person from violence is the first and most important object of that civil law, which is the bond of national order; and it may be well supposed that the conscious- Less of the necessity of such law, which the Divine command awakened, and of which the past history of the antediluvian world must have supplied abundant evidence, 1 Gen. 'iv. 19-24. The interpretation here given to the language of Lamech i, cel"tainly the rr..ost probable. : Cf. Levit. xvii. 11. 8 <kn. viii. 21.
' !)ip,uru;. Cf. lllaiuc'o 'Ancient Law,' p. 4. INTRODUC'flON TO THE PENTATEUCH. xv
gave thnt strong nnd general impulso in the direction of national organisation which we find described in the tenth chapter of the Book of Genesis. Of this remarkahlo movemont, so characteristic of this period of the w orld'e history, the ambitious anrl godless attempt to build !I mighty capital of a universal empire, whi~h was frustrated !Ind turned to confusion by Divine interposition, is a signal and instructive instance. If the hypothesis suggested is correct-and certainly it has mnch appearance of probability-it is Bleo n proof hovr soon n law given by God for man's benefit may be pervortccl and turned to evil by the sinful heart of mM. And the same may be said of the other law, of ll ceremonial nature, given to Noah and his sons. For if it referred to the law of sacrifice, as can hardly be doubted, it must have been the first element of a definite and orderly system of religious worship among the nations tlwt were descended from Noah. And among them religion soon became perverted, and the worship of other gods, and idolatrous practices, of which before there had been no mention, appeared in a few generations after the Flood. 1 And this new development of man's life and man's ungodliness was also followed by tb_ose sins which brought God's judgments on Sodom and Gomorrah. It became sufficiently evident, therefore, that although even the first beginnings of law were a benefit to man aa regards his present life, yet, to restrain transgressions, a merely rudimentary law was of no avail whatever. 20. The calling of Abram out of this world of idolatry and sin to be the father of a chosen nation, with the promise that in him and his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed, was the most important epoch in the spiritual history of man between Adam and Moses. The covenant made with Abram, however, as St. Paul has pointed out, 2 was a covenant not of law but of promise, and was established four 'Jr five centuries before the giving of the law. And although circumcision, the seal of that covenant, was an ordinance anticipating.the law, and so distinctly embod);ng its spirit that it became ultimately the most significant emblem of the law; yet, as the apostle reminds the Romans,3 the father of the faithful received the promises, while yet in uncircumcision, through faith only. However, speaking generally, we may say that with the rite of circumcision, which was in all respects a law, and with the restriction of the covenant to the seed of Abraham in the line of Isaac, the dis- pensation of the law, properly so called, began. And so far as our argument relates to that dispensation, we might pass over the intervening period between Abraham and Moses, and proceed at once to the consideration of that which is in the fullest and strictest sense the Torah, the law of God given by his chosen servant to the nation of Israel. DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN LAW WITIIOUT REVELATION.