iv. 16. 4. Obedience.--Those who are adopted into a family must obey the laws of that family; so believers prove themselves adopted by their obedience to the word and ordinances of God. "Ye are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you." John xv. 14. "Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk even as he walked." 1 John ii. 4, 5. 5. Patient, yet joyful expectation, of the inheritance. In civil adoption, indeed, an inheritance is not always certain; but in spiritual adoption it is. "To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life." Rom. ii. 7. "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Cor. iv. 18. Rom. vi. 23. Heb. xi. 26, 27. From the consideration of the whole of this doctrine, we may learn that adoption is an act of free grace through Jesus Christ. Eph. i. 5. Applied to believers by the Holy Spirit. Gal. iv. 6. Rom. viii. 15, 16. A blessing of the greatest importance, 1 John iii. 1, and lays us under an inviolable obligation of submission, Heb. xii. 9; imitation, Eph. v. 1; and dependence, Matt. vi. 32. See Ridgley's and Gill's Body of Div. art. Adoption; Charnock's Works, vol. ii. p. 32-72; Flavel's Works, vol. ii. p. 601; Brown's System of Nat. and Rev. Religion, p. 442; Witsii Econ. Foed. p. 165. ADORATION, the act of rendering divine honours, including in it reverence, esteem, and love: this is called supreme, or absolute. The word is compounded of ad, "to," and os, oris, "mouth;" and literally signifies to apply the hand to the mouth, "to kiss the hand;" this being, in the eastern countries, one of the great marks of respect and submission. See Job. xxxi. 26, 27. The attitude of adoration, however, we find has not been confined to this mode; standing, kneeling, uncovering the head, prostration, bowing, lifting up the eyes to heaven, or sometimes fixing them upon the earth, with the body bending forward; sitting with the under parts of the thighs resting on the heels, have all been used as expressive of veneration and esteem. Whatever be the form, however, it must be remembered that adoration, as an act of wor ship, is due to God alone. Matt. iv. 10. Acts x. 25, 26. Rev. xix. 10. There is, 2. what may be called human, or paying homage or respect to persons of great rank and dignity. This has been performed by bowing, bending the knee, falling on the face. The practice of adoration may be said to be still subsisting in England, in the ceremony of kissing the king's or queen's hand, and in serving them at table, both being performed kneeling on one knee. There is also, 3. adoration relative, which consists in worship paid to an object as belonging to or representative of another. In this sense the Romanists profess to adore the cross, not simply or immediately, but in respect of Jesus Christ, whom they suppose to be on it. This is, however, considered by Protestants as coming little short of idolatry. See IDOLATRY. ADULTERY, an unlawful commerce between one married person and another, or between a married and unmarried person. 2. It is also used in Scripture for idolatry, or departing from the true God. Jer. iii. 9. 3. Also for any species of impurity or crime against the virtue of chastity. Matt. v. 28. 4. It is also used in ecclesiastical writers for a person's invading or intruding into a bishoprick during the former bishop's life. 5. The word is also used in ancient canons for the punishment or fine imposed for that offence, or the privilege of prosecuting for it. Although adultery is prohibited by the law of God, yet some have endeavoured to explain away the moral turpitude of it; but it is evident, observes Paley, that, on the part of the man who solicits the chastity of a married woman, it certainly includes the crime of seduction, and is attended with mischief still more extensive and complicated; it creates a new sufferer-the injured husband,-upon whose affection is inflicted a wound the most painful and incurable that human nature knows. The infidelity of the woman is aggravated by cruelty to her children, who are generally involved in their parents' shame, and always made unhappy by their quarrel. The marriage vow is witnessed before God, and accompanied with circumstances of solemnity and religion, which approach to the nature of an oath. The married offender, therefore, incurs a crime little short of perjury; and the se duction of a married woman is little less than subornation of perjury. But the strongest apology for adultery is, the prior transgression of the other party; ing, castrating, or cutting off the nose and so far, indeed, as the bad effects of or ears. The punishment assigned by adultery are anticipated by the conduct the lex Julia de adulteris, instituted by of the husband or wife who offends first, Augustus, was banishment, or a heavy the guilt of the second offender is exte- fine. It was decreed by Antoninus, that nuated. But this can never amount to to sustain a charge of adultery against a a justification, unless it could be shown wife, the husband who brought it must that the obligation of the marriage vow be innocent himself. Under Macrinus, depends upon the condition of reciprocal adulterers were burnt at the stake. Unfidelity; a construction which appears der Constantius and Constans, they were founded neither in expediency nor in burned, or sewed up in sacks and thrown terms of the vow, nor in the design of into the sea. But the punishment was the legislature which prescribed the mar- mitigated, under Leo and Marcian, to riage rite. To consider the offence perpetual banishment or cutting off the upon the footing of provocation, there- nose; and, under Justinian, the wife fore, can by no means vindicate retalia- was only to be scourged, lose her dower, tion. "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and be shut up in a monastery; or, at it must ever be remembered, was an ab- the expiration of two years, the husband solute interdict delivered by God himself. might take her back again: if he reMankind, in all ages, and in all civilized fused, she was shaven, and made a nun countries, have regarded the violation of for life. Theodosius instituted the the marriage-bed with abhorrence. It has shocking practice of public constuprabeen punished in various ways, and with tion, which, however, he soon abolished. different degrees of severity, according In Crete, adulterers were covered with to the general manners and morals of wool, as an emblem of their effeminacy, the country; sometimes with extreme and carried in that dress to the magisrigour, and in other instances with ca- trate's house, where a fine was imposed pricious and ridiculous penalties. By on them, and they were deprived of all the divine law, given to the Jews, it was their privileges and their share in public punished with death in both parties, business. The punishment in use among where either the woman was married, the Mingrelians is the forfeiture of a or both. Strabo says, the same was the hog, which is usually eaten very amicacase in Arabia Felix. Among the an- bly by the woman, the gallant, and the cient Egyptians, it was not common; cuckold. In some parts of India, it is but when it did occur, a thousand lashes said that any woman may prostitute herwere inflicted on the man, and the wo- self for an elephant, and it is reputed no man was deprived of her nose. In small glory to have been rated so high. Greece, the laws against it were severe. Adultery is stated to be extremely freThe rich, however, were sometimes al- quent in Ceylon, although punishable lowed to redeem themselves by pay- with death. Among the Japanese, and ing a fine, in which case the woman's some other nations, it is punishable only father returned the dowry which he had in the woman. Among the Abyssinians, received from the husband. Some sup- the crime of the husband is punished pose it was refunded by the adulterer. on the innocent wife. On the contrary, A frequent punishment there was putting in the Marian Islands, the woman is not out the eyes. According to Homer, punishable, but the man is; and the adulterers were stoned to death. By the wife and her relations waste his lands, laws of Draco and Solon, when caught burn him out of his house, &c. Among in the act, they were at the mercy of the the Chinese, adultery is not capital: painjured party. Adultresses were pro- rents will even make a contract with the hibited, in Greece, from appearing in future husbands of their daughters, to fine garments, and entering the tem- allow them the indulgence. In Portuples. Some suppose that this offence gal, an adultress is condemned to the was made capital by Romulus, and again flames; but the sentence is seldom exeby the twelve tables; others, that it was cuted. By the ancient laws of France, first made capital by Augustus; and this crime was punishable with death. others, not till the time of Constantine. Before the revolution, the adultress was The fact is, that the punishment was usually condemned to a convent, where left to the discretion of the husband and the husband could visit her during two parents of the adultress. The most usual years, and take her back if he saw fit. mode of taking revenge was by mutilat If he did not choose to receive her again by the expiration of this time, her hair was shaven, she took the habit of the convent, and remained there for life. Where the parties were poor, she might be shut up in an hospital instead of a convent. The Code Napoleon does not allow the husband to proceed against his wife in case he has been condemned for the same crime. The wife can bring an action against the husband only in case he has introduced his paramour into the house where she resides. An adultress can be imprisoned from three months to two years; but the husband may prevent the execution of the sentence by taking her back. Her partner in guilt is liable to the same punishment. Castration was the punishment in Spain. In Poland, previous to the establishment of Christianity, the criminal was carried to the market-place, and there fastened by the testicles with a nail; a razor was laid within his reach, and he had the option to execute justice on himself, or remain where he was and die. The Saxons consigned the adultress to the flames, and over her ashes erected a gibbet, on which her paramour was hanged. King Edmund the Saxon ordered adultery to be punished in the same manner as homicide; and Canute the Dane ordered that the man should be banished, and the woman have her ears and nose cut off. In the time of Henry I., it was punished with the loss of the eyes and genitals. Adultery is in England considered as a spiritual offence, cognizable by the spiritual courts, where it is punished by fine and penance. The common law allows the party aggrieved only an action and damages. In the United States, the punishment of adultery has varied materially at different times. In the State of Massachusetts, an adulterer or adultress may be set on the gallows for one hour, be publicly whipped, and imprisoned or fined. All or any of these punishments may be inflicted, according to the circumstances of the offence. Adultery is, moreover, very seldom punished criminally in the United States. The Mohammedan code pronounces it a capital offence. It is one of the three crimes which the prophet directs to be expiated by the blood of a Mussulman.-Encyc. Amer. ADVENT, a term used in reference to the Incarnation, and also to the appearance of Christ to judge the world. The one is called the First, and the other the Second Advent. In ecclesias tical use, it signifies a festival which includes the four Sundays, or weeks, before Christmas, which season the Roman Catholics spend in fasting and humiliation. It is first mentioned in this sense by Maximus Laurinensis, in one of his homilies, written in the middle of the fifth century. No nuptials were allowed to be celebrated in Advent after the council held at Lerida, in the sixth century. "ADVERSARY, one who sets himself in opposition to another; one of the names of Satan.-See SATAN. ADVERSITY, a state which is opposite to our wishes, and the cause of sorrow. It stands opposed to prosperity.— See AFFLICTION. ADVOCATE, one who pleads or defends the cause of another, or interposes on his behalf with a judge. It is used 1. Of our Saviour, and never of any created being in its biblical sense. 1 John, ii. 1. 2. Of a species of officers appointed to defend the rights and revenues of a church or religious house. They were first appointed under the consulship of Stilico, and were divided according to their several offices into defensores, causidici, actores, pastores laici, &c. These offices were first entrusted to canons, but afterwards were held even by monarchs. The advocates set over single churches administered justice in secular affairs in the name of the bishops and abbots, and had jurisdiction over their whole dioceses. In case of necessity they defended the property of the clergy by force of arms. In the courts of justice they pleaded the cause of the churches with which they were connected. They superintended the collection of the tithes and other revenues of the church, and enjoyed, on the part of the convents, many benefices and considerable revenues. After a time, these advocates and their assistants becoming a burthen to the clergy, and the people under their charge, who began to suffer severely from their avarice, the churches began to get rid of them. Urban III. laboured to deliver the church from these oppressors, but found, in 1186, the German prelates, in connexion with the Emperor Frederic I., opposed to it. Under the Emperor Frederic II., however, most of the German churches succeeded in abolishing these offices by the grant of large sums of money and of various immuni ties. 3. Of the advowee, or patron, who has the right of presentation to a living in his own name. Females having the same right were called advocatissa. ADVOCATE, DEVIL'S, the person appointed at Rome to raise doubts against the genuineness of the miracles of a candidate for canonization, to expose any want of formality in the investigation of the miracles, and to assail the general merits of the candidate. After everything is said pro and con., and three papal advocates of the consistory have found the whole course of proceeding legal and formal, the canonization follows. It is said that in the beginning of the seventeenth century the canonization of Cardinal Boromeo was almost prevented by the accusations of the devil's advocate. ADVOWEE, a term employed to denote the ecclesiastical orders of advocates, and the patrons of churches, &c. ADVOWSON, in English law, a right of presentation to a vacant benefice, or, in other words, a right of nominating a person to officiate in a vacant church. The name is derived from advocatio, because the right was first obtained by such as were founders, benefactors, or strenuous defenders (advocates) of the church. Those who have this right are styled patrons. Advowsons are of three kinds, presentative, collative, and donative:-presentative when the patron presents his clerk to the bishop of the diocese to be instituted; collative when the bishop is the patron, and institutes or collates his clerk by a single act; and donative when a church is founded by the king, and assigned to the patron without being subject to the ordinary, so that the patron confers the benefice on his clerk without presentation, institution, or induction. EONS, (Alves,) AGES. The Valentinians, followers of the Gnostics, (who had corrupted the simplicity of the Christian doctrine, by mixing with it the fancies and conceits of the Jewish Cabbalists, of the schools of Pythagoras and Plato, and of the Chaldean Philosophy, more ancient than either,) invented a kind of theogony or genealogy of gods (not unlike that of Hesiod,) whom they called by several glorious names, and all by the general appellation of EONS; among which they reckoned Zún, Life, Aoyos, Word, Movoyevns, Onlybegotten, Пangua, Fulness; and many other divine powers and emanations, amounting in number to thirty, which they fancied to be successively derived from one another, and all from one selforiginated deity, named Bythus, i. e. profound, or unfathomable; whom they called likewise the most high and ineffable Father.-See VALENTINIANS. ÆRA, a fixed point of time, from which chronologers reckon. Eras are either Christian, Jewish, Heathen, or Mahometan. Christian æras are deduced either from the birth of Christ, from the emperor Dioclesian, or the beginning of the world. Chronologers differ as to the true point of time in which Christ was born: some place it two years, others four, and some five, before the vulgar æra, which by general consent is placed in the year of the world 4000,-of the Julian period, 4714. This æra is that in general use among the Christians. The ancient Jews made use of several æras in their computations: sometimes they reckoned from the deluge, sometimes from the division of tongues, sometimes from their departure out of Egypt, at other times from the building of the temple, and sometimes from their restoration after the Babylonish captivity; but their vulgar æra was from the creation of the world, which falls in with the year of the Julian Period 953; and consequently they supposed the world created 249 years sooner than according to our computations. But when the Jews became subject to the Syro-Macedonian kings, they were obliged to make use of the Era of the Seleucidæ in all their contracts, which from thence was called the Era of Contracts. This æra begins with the year of the world 3692, of the Julian period,4403, before Christ, 308. The Pagan Æras, as having little or no relation to matters of religion, we shall omit. The Mohammedan Era is computed from the Hegira, or flight of the false prophet Mohammed from Mecca to Medina, and is from thence called The Hegira. It began in the year of the world 4622,-of the Julian period, 5335, and after Christ, 622. AERIANS, a branch of Arians in the reign of Constantine, who held that there was no difference between bishops and priests; a doctrine maintained by many modern divines, particularly of the presbyterian and reformed churches, on account of which they have been accused of Aërianism by the Catholics. The sect received its denomination from Aërius, an Arian monk of Sebaste, in Armenia, who founded his doctrine on 1 Tim. iv. 14, and besides, declared prayers and offerings for the dead to be ineffectual and injurious; rejected the ordinance of fasting; and declared the practice of sacrificing a lamb at Easter to be contrary to the spirit of the Christian religion. Though guilty, in fact, only of opposing the abuses of the hierarchy, and the corruptions of superstition, the Aërians were condemned as heretics. See EPISCOPACY. AETIANS, those who maintained that the Son and Holy Ghost were in all things dissimilar to the Father. They received their name from Aëtius, one of the most zealous defenders of Arianism, who was born in Syria, and flourished about the year 336. Besides the opinions which the Aëtians held in common with the Arians, they maintained that faith without works was sufficient to salvation; and that no sin, however grievous, would be imputed to the faithful. Aëtius, moreover, affirmed that what God had concealed from the Apostles, he had revealed to him. AFFECTION, in a philosophical sense, refers to the manner in which we are affected by anything for a continuance, whether painful or pleasant; but in the most common sense, it may be defined to be a settled bent of mind towards a particular being or thing. It holds a middle place between disposition on the one hand, and passion on the other. It is distinguishable from disposition, which being a branch of one's nature originally, must exist before there can be any opportunity to exert it upon any particular object; whereas affection can never be original, because, having a special relation to a particular object, it cannot exist till the object have once, at least, been presented. It is also distinguishable from passion, which, depending on the real or ideal presence of its object, vanishes with its object; whereas affection is a lasting connexion, and, like other connexions, subsists even when we do not think of the object. [See DISPOSITION and PASSION.] The affections, as they respect religion, deserve in this place a little attention. They may be defined to be the "vigorous and sensible exercises of the inclination and will of the soul towards religious objects." Whatever extremes Stoics or enthusiasts have run into, it is evident that the exercise of the affections is es sential to the existence of true religion. It is true, indeed, "that all affectionate devotion is not wise and rational; but it is no less true, that all wise and rational devotion must be affectionate." The affections are the springs of action; they belong to our nature, so that with the highest perceptions of truth and religion, we should be inactive without them. They have considerable influence on men in the common concerns of life; how much more, then, should they operate in those important objects that relate to the Divine Being, the immortality of the soul, and the happiness or misery of a future state! The religion of the most eminent saints has always consisted in the exercise of holy affections. Jesus Christ himself affords us an example of the most lively and vigorous affections; and we have every reason to believe that the employment of heaven consists in the exercise of them. In addition to all which, the scriptures of truth teach us, that religion is nothing if it occupy not the affections. Deut. vi. 4 and 5. Deut. xxx. 6. Rom. xii. 11. 1 Cor. xiii. 13. Ps. xxvii. 14. A distinction, however, must be made between what may be merely natural, and what is truly spiritual. The affections may be excited in a natural way, under ordinances, by a natural impression, Ezek. xxxiii. 32; by a natural sympathy, or by the natural temperament of our constitution. It is no sign that our affections are spiritual because they are raised very high, produce great effects on the body, excite us to be very zealous in externals, to be always conversing about ourselves, &c. These things are often found in those who are only mere professors of religion. Matt. vii. 21, 22. Now, in order to ascertain whether our affections are excited in a spiritual manner, we must inquire whether that which moves our affections be truly spiritual; whether our consciences be alarmed, and our hearts impressed; whether the judgment be enlightened, and we have a perception of the moral excellency of divine things; and, lastly, whether our affections have a holy tendency, and produce the happy effects of obedience to God, humility in ourselves, and justice to our fellow-creatures. As this is a subject worthy of close at tention, the reader may consult Lord Kaims Elements of Criticism, vol. ii. p. 517; Edwards on the Affections; |