or any thing but a literal history, several of the above allusions would
have no meaning; but the matter is put beyond all possible doubt in the
New Testament, unless the same culpable liberties be taken with the
interpretation of the words of our Lord and of St. Paul as with those of
the Jewish lawgiver. Our Lord says, “Have ye not read, that he which
made them at the beginning, made them male and female; and said, For
this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his
wife; and they twain shall be one flesh?” Matt. xix, 4, 5. This is an
argument on the subject of divorces, and its foundation rests upon two
of the facts recorded by Moses: (1.) That God made at first but two
human beings, from whom all the rest have sprung. (2.) That the intimacy
and indissolubility of the marriage relation rests upon the formation of
the woman from the man; for our Lord quotes the words in Genesis, where
the obligation of man to cleave to his wife is immediately connected
with that circumstance: “And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones,
and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken
out of man. _Therefore_ shall a man leave his father and his mother, and
shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.” This is
sufficiently in proof that both our Lord and the Pharisees considered
this early part of the history of Moses as a narrative; for, otherwise,
it would neither have been a reason, on his part, for the doctrine which
he was inculcating, nor have had any force of conviction as to them. “In
Adam,” says the Apostle Paul, “all die;” “by one man sin entered into
the world.” “But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve
through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ.” In the last passage, the instrument of
the temptation is said to be a serpent, ὄφις, which is a sufficient
answer to those who would make it any other animal; and Eve is
represented as being first seduced, according to the account in Genesis.
This St. Paul repeats in 1 Tim. ii, 13, 14: “Adam was first formed, then
Eve. And Adam was not deceived,” first or immediately, “but the woman
being deceived was in the transgression.” And he offers this as the
reason of an injunction, “Let the woman learn in silence with all
subjection.” When, therefore, it is considered, that these passages are
introduced, not for rhetorical illustration, or in the way of classical
quotation, but are made the basis of grave and important reasonings,
which embody some of the most important doctrines of the Christian
revelation, and of important social duties and points of Christian order
and decorum; it would be to charge the writers of the New Testament with
the grossest absurdity, nay, with even culpable and unworthy trifling,
to suppose them to argue from the history of the fall as a narrative,
when they knew it to be an allegory. And if we are, therefore, compelled
to allow that it was understood as a real history by our Lord and his
inspired Apostles, those speculations of modern critics, which convert
it into a parable, stand branded with their true character of infidel
and semi-infidel temerity.
7. The effect of the sin or lapse of Adam was to bring him under the
wrath of God; to render him liable to pain, disease, and death; to
deprive him of primeval holiness; to separate him from communion with
God and that spiritual life which was before imparted by God, and on
which his holiness alone depended, from the loss of which a total moral
disorder and depravation of his soul resulted; and finally to render him
liable to everlasting misery. See ORIGINAL SIN. For the effect of the
fall of Adam upon his posterity, see JUSTIFICATION.
FASTING has been practised in all ages, and among all nations, in times
of mourning, sorrow, and affliction. We see no example of fasting,
properly so called, before Moses. Since the time of Moses, examples of
fasting have been very common among the Jews. Joshua and the elders of
Israel remained prostrate before the ark from morning till evening,
without eating, after Israel was defeated at Ai, Joshua vii, 6. The
eleven tribes which fought against that of Benjamin, fell down on their
faces before the ark, and so continued till evening without eating,
Judges xx, 26. David fasted while the first child he had by Bathsheba
was sick, 2 Sam. xii, 16. The Heathens sometimes fasted: the king of
Nineveh, terrified by Jonah’s preaching, ordered that not only men, but
also beasts, should continue without eating or drinking; should be
covered with sackcloth, and each after their manner should cry to the
Lord, Jonah iii, 5, 6. The Jews, in times of public calamity, appointed
extraordinary fasts, and made even the children at the breast fast, Joel
ii, 16. Moses fasted forty days upon Mount Horeb, Exod. xxiv, 18. Elijah
passed as many days without eating, 1 Kings xix, 8. Our Saviour fasted
forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, Matt. iv, 2. These fasts
were miraculous, and out of the common rules of nature.
2. Beside the solemn fast of expiation instituted by divine authority,
the Jews appointed certain days of humiliation, called the fasts of the
congregation. The calamities for which these were enjoined, were a
siege, pestilence, diseases, famine, &c. They were observed on the
second and fifth days of the week: they began at sunset, and continued
till midnight of the following day. On these days they wore sackcloth
next the skin, and rent their clothes; they sprinkled ashes on their
heads, and neither washed their hands, nor anointed their heads with
oil. The synagogues were filled with suppliants, whose prayers were long
and mournful, and their countenances dejected with all the marks of
sorrow and repentance.
3. As to the fasts observed by Christians, it does not appear by his own
practice, or by his commands to his disciples, that our Lord instituted
any particular fast. But when the Pharisees reproached him, that his
disciples did not fast so often as theirs, or as John the Baptist’s, he
replied, “Can ye make the children of the bride-chamber fast while the
bride-groom is with them? But the days will come when the bride-groom
shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days,”
Luke v, 34, 35. Fasting is also recommended by our Saviour in his sermon
on the mount; not as a stated, but as an occasional, duty of Christians,
for the purpose of humbling their minds under the afflicting hand of
God; and he requires that this duty be performed in sincerity, and not
for the sake of ostentation, Matt. vi, 16.
4. Although Christians, says Dr. Neander, did not by any means retire
from the business of life, yet they were accustomed to devote many
separate days entirely to examining their own hearts, and pouring them
out before God, while they dedicated their life anew to him with
uninterrupted prayers, in order that they might again return to their
ordinary occupations with a renovated spirit of zeal and seriousness,
and with renewed powers of sanctification. These days of holy devotion,
days of prayer and penitence, which individual Christians appointed for
themselves, according to their individual necessities, were often a kind
of fast-days. In order that their sensual feelings might less distract
and impede the occupation of their heart with its holy contemplations,
they were accustomed on these days to limit their corporeal wants more
than usual, or to fast entirely. In the consideration of this, we must
not overlook the peculiar nature of that hot climate in which
Christianity was first promulgated. That which was spared by their
abstinence on these days was applied to the support of the poorer
brethren.
FAT. God forbade the Hebrews to eat the fat of beasts: “All the fat is
the Lord’s. It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations,
throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood,” Lev.
iii, 17. Some interpreters understand these words literally, and suppose
fat as well as blood to be forbidden. Josephus says Moses forbids only
the fat of oxen, goats, sheep, and their species. This agrees with Lev.
vii, 23: “Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of
goat.” This is observed by the modern Jews, who think that the fat of
other sorts of clean creatures is allowed them, even that of beasts
which have died of themselves, conformably to Lev. vii, 24: “And the fat
of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn
with beasts, may be used in any other use; but ye shall in nowise eat of
it.” Others maintain that the law which forbids the use of fat, should
be restrained to fat separated from the flesh, such as that which covers
the kidneys and the intestines; and this only in the case of its being
offered in sacrifice. This is confirmed by Lev. vii, 25: “Whosoever
eateth of the fat of the beast of which men offer an offering made by
fire unto the Lord, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from
his people.” In the Hebrew style, fat signifies not only that of beasts,
but also the richer or prime part of other things: “He should have fed
them with the finest” (in Hebrew the fat) “of the wheat.” Fat denotes
abundance of good things: “I will satiate the souls of the priests with
fatness,” Jer. xxxi, 14. “My soul shall be satisfied with marrow and
fatness,” Psalm lxiii, 5. The fat of the earth implies its fruitfulness:
“God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and
plenty of corn and wine,” Gen. xxvii, 28.
FATHER. This word, beside its common acceptation, is taken in Scripture
for grandfather, great-grandfather, or the founder of a family, how
remote soever. So the Jews in our Saviour’s time called Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, their fathers. Jesus Christ is called the Son of David,
though David was many generations distant from him. By father is
likewise understood the institutor of a certain profession. Jabal “was
father of such as dwell in tents, and such as have cattle.” Jubal “was
father of all such as handle the harp and organ,” or flute, &c, Gen. iv,
20, 21. Huram is called father of the king of Tyre, 2 Chron. ii, 13;
and, 2 Chron. iv, 16, even of Solomon, because he was the principal
workman, and chief director of their undertakings. The principal
prophets were considered as fathers of the younger, who were their
disciples, and are called sons of the prophets, 2 Kings ii, 12. Father
is a term of respect given by inferiors to superiors. “My father,” said
Naaman’s attendants to him, “if the prophet had bid thee do some great
thing,” 2 Kings v, 13; and so the king of Israel addresses the prophet
Elisha, 2 Kings vi, 21. Rechab, the founder of the Rechabites, is called
their father, Jer. xxxv, 6. A man is said to be a father to the poor and
orphans, when he supplies their necessities, and sympathizes with their
miseries, as a father would do toward them: “I was a father to the
poor,” says Job, xxix, 16. God declares himself to be the “Father of the
fatherless, and Judge of the widow,” Psalm lxviii, 5. God is frequently
called our heavenly Father, and simply our Father; eminently the Father,
Preserver, and Protector of all, especially of those who invoke him, and
serve him: “Is he not thy Father that bought thee?” says Moses, Deut.
xxxii, 6. Since the coming of Jesus Christ, we have a new right to call
God our Father, by reason of the adoption which our Saviour has merited
for us, by clothing himself in our humanity, and purchasing us by his
death: “Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are
the children of God,” Romans viii, 15. Job entitles God “the Father of
rain,” Job xxxviii, 28; he produces it, and causes it to fall. The devil
is called the father of the wicked and the father of lies, John viii,
44. He deceived Eve and Adam; he introduced sin and falsehood; he
inspires his followers with his spirit and sentiments. The father of
Sichem, the father of Tekoah, the father of Bethlehem, &c, signify the
chief persons who inhabited these cities; he who built or rebuilt them.
Adam is the first father, the father of the living; Abraham is the
father of the faithful, the father of the circumcision; called also the
“father of many nations,” because many people sprung from him; as the
Jews, Ishmaelites, Arabs, &c. God is called “the Father of spirits,”
Heb. xii, 9. He not only creates them, but he justifies, sanctifies, and
glorifies them, and thus confers upon them eternal happiness.
FATHERS, a term of honour applied to the first and most eminent writers
of the Christian church. Those of the first century are called
Apostolical fathers; those of the first three centuries, and till the
council of Nice, Ante-Nicene; and those later than that council,
Post-Nicene. Learned men are not unanimous concerning the degree of
esteem which is due to these ancient fathers. Some represent them as the
most excellent guides, while others place them in the very lowest rank
of moral writers, and treat their precepts and decisions as perfectly
insipid, and, in many respects, pernicious. It appears, however,
incontestable, that, in the writings of the primitive fathers are many
sublime sentiments, judicious thoughts, and several things well adapted
to form a religious temper, and to excite pious and virtuous affections.
At the same time, it must be confessed, that, after the earliest age,
they abound still more with precepts of an excessive and unreasonable
austerity, with stoical and academical dictates, with vague and
indeterminate notions, and, what is still worse, with decisions
absolutely false, and in evident opposition to the commands of Christ.
Though the judgment of antiquity in some disputable points may certainly
be useful, yet we ought never to consider the writings of the fathers as
of equal authority with the Scriptures. In many cases they may be deemed
competent witnesses, but we must not confide in their verdict as judges.
As Biblical critics they are often fanciful and injudicious, and their
principal value consists in this, that the succession of their writings
enables us to prove the existence and authenticity of the sacred books,
up to the age of the Apostles.
The following is a list of the entire fathers: Contemporaries of the
Apostles, Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp.
Papias, A. D. 116; Justin Martyr, 140; Dionysius of Corinth, 170;
Tatian, 172; Hegesippus, 173; Melito, 177; Irenæus, 178; Athenagoras,
178; Miltiades, 180; Theophilus, 181; Clement of Alexandria, 194;
Tertullian, 200; Minutius Felix, 210; Ammonius, 220; Origen, 230;
Firmilian, 233; Dionysius of Alexandria, 247; Cyprian, 248; Novatus, or
Novatian, 251; Arnobius, 306; Lactantius, 306; Alexander of Alexandria,
313; Eusebius, 315; Athanasius, 326; Cyril of Jerusalem, 348; Hilary,
354; Epiphanius, 368; Basil, 370; Gregory of Nazianzum, 370; Gregory of
Nyssa, 370; Optatus, 370; Ambrose, 374; Philaster, 380; Jerome, 392;
Theodore of Mopsuestia, 394; Ruffin, 397; Augustine, 398; Chrysostom,
398; Sulpitius Severus, 401; Cyril of Alexandria, 412; Theodoret, 423;
and Gennadius, 494.
Archbishop Wake, in his _Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of
England_ has very satisfactorily shown, that the deference paid by
Protestants to the Christian fathers of the first three ages, is neither
of such an idolatrous description as is generally represented, nor is
their authority ever extolled to an equality with that of the Holy
Scriptures. “Though we have appealed,” he says, “to the churches of the
first ages for new proofs of the truth of our doctrine, it is not that
we think that the doctors of those times had more right to judge of our
faith than those had that followed them; but it is because after a
serious examination we have found, that, as for what concerns _the
common belief_ that is among us, they have believed and practised the
same things without adding other opinions or superstitions that destroy
them,--wherein they have acted conformably to their and our rule, THE
WORD OF GOD: notwithstanding, it cannot be denied, but that they
effectually fell into some wrong opinions, as that of the Millenaries
and infant communion,” &c. The usefulness and necessity of studying the
ancient fathers have been defended by many persons eminent for their
learning and piety. Archbishop Usher was one who beyond all men then
living knew the vast importance of these studies, and had derived the
greatest benefits from them. The following brief advice, in the language
of Dr. Parr, his erudite biographer, will convey his sentiments on this
very interesting subject: “Indeed he had so great an esteem of the
ANCIENT AUTHORS, for the acquiring any solid learning, whether sacred or
profane, that his advice to young students, either in divinity or
antiquity, was, not to spend too much time in epitomes, but to set
themselves to read the ancient authors themselves; as, to begin with the
FATHERS, and to read them according to the ages in which they lived,
(which was the method he had taken himself,) and, together with them,
carefully to peruse the CHURCH HISTORIANS that treated of that age in
which those fathers lived: by which means the student would be better
able to perceive the reason and meaning of divers passages in their
writings, (which otherwise would be obscure,) when he knew the original
and growth of those heresies and heterodox opinions against which they
wrote, and may also better judge what doctrines, ceremonies, and
opinions prevailed in the church in every age, and by what means
introduced.”
FEAR, a painful apprehension of danger. It is sometimes used for the
object of fear; as, “the fear of Isaac,” that is, the God whom Isaac
feared, Gen. xxxi, 42. God says that he will send his fear before his
people, to terrify and destroy the inhabitants of Canaan. Job speaks of
the terrors of God, as set in array against him, Job vi, 4; the
Psalmist, that he had suffered the terrors of the Lord with a troubled
mind, Psalm lxxxviii, 15. Fear is used, also, for reverence: “God is
greatly to be _feared_” in the assembly of his saints. This kind of
fear, being compatible with confidence and love, is sometimes called
filial fear; while “the fear which hath torment,” being the result of
conscious guilt, and the anticipation of punishment, is removed by that
“love” to God which results from a consciousness of our reconciliation
to him.
The filial fear of God is a holy affection, or gracious habit, wrought
in the soul by God, Jer. xxxii, 40, whereby it is inclined and enabled
to obey all God’s commandments, even the most difficult, Gen. xxii, 12;
Eccl. xii, 13; and to hate and avoid evil, Nehemiah v, 15; Prov. viii,
13; xv, 6. Slavish fear is the consequence of guilt; it is a judicial
impression from the sad thoughts of the provoked majesty of the heaven;
it is an alarm within that disturbs the rest of a sinner. Fear is put
for the whole worship of God: “I will teach you the fear of the Lord,”
Psalm xxxiv, 11; I will teach you the true way of worshipping and
serving God. It is likewise put for the law and word of God: “The fear
of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever,” Psalm xix, 9. The law is so
called, because it is the object, the cause, and the rule of the grace
of holy fear.
FEASTS. God appointed several festivals among the Jews. 1. To perpetuate
the memory of great events; so, the Sabbath commemorated the creation of
the world; the passover, the departure out of Egypt; the pentecost, the
law given at Sinai, &c. 2. To keep them under the influence of religion,
and by the majesty of that service which he instituted among them, and
which abounded in mystical symbols or types of evangelical things, to
convey spiritual instruction, and to keep alive the expectation of the
Messiah, and his more perfect dispensation. 3. To secure to them certain
times of rest and rejoicings. 4. To render them familiar with the law;
for, in their religious assemblies, the law of God was read and
explained. 5. To renew the acquaintance, correspondence, and friendship
of their tribes and families, coming from the several towns in the
country, and meeting three times a year in the holy city.
The first and most ancient festival, the Sabbath, or seventh day,
commemorated the creation. “The Lord blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it,” says Moses, “because that in it he had rested from all
his work,” Gen. ii, 3. See SABBATH.
The passover was instituted in memory of the Israelites’ departure out
of Egypt, and of the favour which God showed his people in sparing their
first-born, when he destroyed the first-born of the Egyptians, Exod.
xii, 14, &c. See PASSOVER.
The feast of pentecost was celebrated on the fiftieth day after the
passover, in memory of the law being given to Moses on Mount Sinai,
fifty days after the departure out of Egypt. They reckoned seven weeks
from the passover to pentecost, beginning at the day after the passover.
The Hebrews call it the feast of weeks, and the Christians, pentecost,
which signifies the fiftieth day.
The feast of trumpets was celebrated on the first day of the civil year;
on which the trumpets sounded, proclaiming the beginning of the year,
which was in the month Tisri, answering to our September, O. S. We know
no religious cause of its establishment. Moses commands it to be
observed as a day of rest, and that particular sacrifices should be
offered at that time.
The new moons, or first days of every month, were, in some sort, a
consequence of the feasts of trumpets. The law did not oblige people to
rest upon this day, but ordained only some particular sacrifices. It
appears that, on these days, also, the trumpet was sounded, and
entertainments were made, 1 Sam. xx, 5–18.
The feast of expiation or atonement was celebrated on the tenth day of
Tisri, which was the first day of the civil year. It was instituted for
a general expiation of sins, irreverences, and pollutions of all the
Israelites, from the high priest to the lowest of the people, committed
by them throughout the year, Lev. xxiii, 27, 28; Num. xxix, 7. See
EXPIATION, _Day of_.
The feast of tents, or tabernacles, on which all Israel were obliged to
attend the temple, and to dwell eight days under tents of branches, in
memory of their fathers dwelling forty years in tents, as travellers in
the wilderness. It was kept on the fifteenth of the month Tisri, the
first of the civil year. The first and seventh day of this feast were
very solemn. But during the other days of the octave they might work,
Lev. xxiii, 34, 35; Num. xxix, 12, 13. At the beginning of the feast,
two vessels of silver were carried in a ceremonious manner to the
temple, one full of water, the other of wine, which were poured at the
foot of the altar of burnt offerings, always on the seventh day of this
festival.
Of the three great feasts of the year, the passover, pentecost, and that
of the tabernacles, the octave, or seventh day after these feasts, was a
day of rest as much as the festival itself; and all the males of the
nation were obliged to visit the temple at these three feasts. But the
law did not require them to continue there during the whole octave,
except in the feast of tabernacles, when they seem obliged to be present
for the whole seven days.
Beside these feasts, we find the feast of lots, or _purim_, instituted
on occasion of the deliverance of the Jews from Haman’s plot, in the
reign of Ahasuerus. See PURIM.
The feast of the dedication of the temple, or rather of the restoration
of the temple, which had been profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes, 1 Mac.
iv, 52, &c, was celebrated in winter, and is supposed to be the feast of
dedication mentioned in John x, 22. Josephus says, that it was called
the feast of lights, probably because this happiness befel them when
least expected, and they considered it as a new light risen on them.
In the Christian church, no festival appears to have been expressly
instituted by Jesus Christ, or his Apostles. Yet, as we commemorate the
passion of Christ as often as we celebrate his Supper, he seems by this
to have instituted a perpetual feast. Christians have always celebrated
the memory of his resurrection, and observe this feast on every Sunday,
which was commonly called the Lord’s day, Rev. i, 10. By inference we
may conclude this festival to have been instituted by Apostolic
authority.