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and prepared the world for the reception of the Christian doctrine."

Nor were these expectations peculiar to the providence of God had brought the the Jews. By their dispersions among so world, the joyful sound in a few years many nations, by their conversation with reached those remote corners of the earth the learned men among the heathens, and into which it could not otherwise have the translation of their inspired writings penetrated for many ages. Thus the Rointo a language almost universal, the priu-man ambiti n and bravery paved the way, ciples of their religion were spread all over the East; and it became the common belief that a Prince would arise at that time If we consider the state of the world in Judea, who should change the face of the with regard to morals, it evidently appears world, and extend its empire from one end that the coming of Christ was at the most of the earth to the other. Now, had appropriate time. The Romans," conChrist been manifested at a more early tinues our author, "by subduing the world, period, the world would not have been pre- tost their own liberty. Many vices, engenpared to meet him with the same fondnessdered or nourished by prosperity, delivered and zeal: had his appearance been put off them over to the vilest race of tyrants that for any considerable time, men's expecta-ever afflicted or disgraced human nature. tions would have begun to languish, and | The colours are not too strong which the the warmth of desire, from a delay of apostle employs in drawing the character gratification, might have cooled and died of that age. See Eph. iv. 17, 19. In this away. time of universal corruption did the wis"The birth of Christ was also in the ful-dom of God manifest the Christian reveness of time, if we consider the then polilation to the world. What the wisdom of tical s'ate of the world. The world, in the men could do for the encouragement of most early ages, was divided into small in-virtue in a corrupt world had been tried dependent states, differing from each other during several ages, and all human devices in language, manners, laws, and religion. were found by experience to be of very The shock of so many opposite interests, small avail; so that no juncture could be the interfering of so many contrary views, more proper for publishing a religion, which occasioned the most violent convulsions and independent of human laws and institutions, disorders: perpetual discord subsisted be- explains the principles of morals with adtween these rival states, and hostility and mirable perspicuity, and enforces the pracbloodshed never ceased. Commerce had tice of them by most persuasive argunot hitherto united mankind, and opened ments." the communication of one nation with another: voyages into remote countries were very rare men moved in a narrow circle, little acquainted with any thing beyond the limits of their own small territory. At last the Roman ambition undertook the arduous enterprise of conquering the world; They trod down the kingdoms, according to Daniel's prophetic description, by their exceeding strength; they devoured the whole earth, Dan. vii. 7, 23. However, by enslaving the world, they civilized it, and while they oppressed mankind, they unitedture rewards and punishments; so that bethem together: the same laws were every were established, and the same languages understood; men approached nearer to one another in sentiments and manners, and the intercourse between the most distant corners of the earth was rendered secure and agreeable. Satiated with victory, the first emperors abandoned all thoughts of new conquests; peace, an unknown blessing, was enjoyed through all that vast empire; or if a slight war was waged on an outly-perstitious. Stately temples, expensive saing and barbarous frontier, far from dis- crifices, pompous ceremonies, magnificent turbing the tranquillity, it scarcely drew festivals, with all the other circumstances the attention of mankind. The disciples of show and splendour, were the objects of Christ, thus favoured by the union and which false religion presented to its votapeace of the Roman empire, executed their ries: but just notions of God, obedience to Commission with great advantage. The his moral laws, purity. of heart, and sanctisuccess and rapidity with which they dif-ty of life, were not once mentioned as infused the knowledge of his name over the world are astonishing Nations were now accessible which formerly had been unknown. Under this situation, into which

The wisdom of God will still farther appear in the time of Christ's coming, if we consider the world with regard to its religious state. "The Jews seem to have been deeply tinctured with superstition. Delighted with the ceremonial prescriptions of the law, they utterly neglected the moral. ||While the Pharisees undermined religion, on the one hand, by their vain traditions and wretched interpretations of the law, the Sadducees denied the immortality of the soul, and overturned the doctrine of fu

tween them the knowledge and power of true religion were entirely destroyed. But the deplorable situation of the heathen world called still more loudly for an immediate interposal of the divine hand. The characters of their heathen deities were infamous, and their religious worship consisted frequently in the vilest and most shameful rites. According to the apostle's observation, they were in all things too su

gredients in religious service. Rome adopted the gods of almost every nation whom she had conquered, and opened her temples to the grossest superstitions of the most

barbarous people. Her foolish heart being if they be desirous of retaining God in their darkened, she changed the glory of the in mind. See RELIGION,—6. By the dictates corruptible God into an image made like of nature, with regard to right and wrong, to corruptible man, and to birds, and four- we understand those things which appear footed beasts, and creeping things, Rom. i. to the mind to be natural, fit, or reasona21, 23. No period, therefore, can be men-ble.-7. The state of nature is that, in tioned when instructions would have been which men have not by mutual engagemore seasonable and necessary;" and no ments, implicit or express, entered into comwonder that those who were looking for sal-munities. 8. Depraved nature is that corvation should joyfully exclaim, “Blessed be || rupt state in which all mankind are born, the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and which inclines them to evil. and redeemed his people."

works of the law, and who obstinately adhered to the practice of the Jewish ceremonies. The name of Nazarenes, at first, had nothing odious in it, and it was often given to the first Christians. The fathers frequently mention the Gospel of the Nazarenes, which differs nothing from that of St. Matthew, which was either in Hebrew or Syriac, for the use of the first converts, but was afterwards corrupted by the Ebionites. These Nazarenes preserved this first Gespel in its primitive purity. Some of them were still in being in the time of St. Jerome, who does not reproach them with any errors. They were very zealous observers of the law of Moses, but held the traditions of the Pharisees in very great contempt.

NAZARENES, Christians converted from The nativity of Christ is celebrated Judaism, whose chief error consisted in deamong us on the twenty-fifth day of Decem-fending the necessity or expediency of the ber, and divine service is performed in the church, and in many places of worship among dissenters; but alas! the day, we fear, is more generally profaned than im proved. Instead of being a season of real devotion, it is a season of great diversion. The luxury, extravagance, intemperance, obscene pleasures, and drunkenness that abound, are striking proofs of the immoralities of the age. "It is matter of just complaint," says a divine, "that such irregular and extravagant things are at this time commonly done by many who call themselves Christians; as if, because the Son of God was at this time made man, it were fit for men to make themselves beasts." Manne's Dissertation on the Birth of Christ. Lardner's Cred. page i. vol. ii. page 796, 963. Gill's Body of Divinity, on Incarnation. Bishop Law's Theory of Religion Dr. Robertson's admirable Sermon on the situation of the World at Christ's Appearance. Edwards' Redemption, 313, 316. Robinson's Claude, vol. i. page 276, 317. John Edwards' Survey of all the Dispensations and Methods of Religion, chap. xiii. vol. i.

The word Nazarene was given to Jesus Christ and his disciples; and is commonly taken in a sense of derision and contempt in such authors as have written against Christianity.

NAZARITES, those under the ancient law who made a vow of observing a more than ordinary degree of purity, as Samson and John the Baptist. The Nazarites engaged by a vow to abstain from wine and NATURE, the essential properties of a all intoxicating liquors: to let their hair thing, or that by which it is distinguished grow without cutting or shaving; not to enfrom all others. It is used also. for the ter into any house that was polluted, by system of the world, and the Creator of it; having a dead corpse in it; nor to be prethe aggregate powers of the human body, sent at any funeral. And if by chance any and common sense, Rom i. 26, 27. 1 Cor. one should have died in their presence, they xi. 14. The word is also used in reference began again the whole ceremony of their to a variety of other objects, which we consecration and Nazariteship.-This cereshall here enumerate. 1. The divine nature mony generally lasted eight days, someis not an external form or shape, but his gle- times a month, and sometimes their whole ry, excellency, and perfections, peculiar to lives. When the time of their Nazaritehimself -2. Human nature signifies the ship was accomplished, the priest brought state properties, and peculiarities of man. the person to the door of the temple, who -3. Good nature is a disposition to please, there offered to the Lord a he-lamb for a and is compounded of kindness, forbear-burnt-offering, a she-lamb for an expiatory ance, forgiveness, and self-denial.-4. The sacrifice, and a ram for a peace-offering. law of nature, is the will of God relating They offered likewise loaves and cakes, to human actions, grounded in the moral with wine necessary for the libations. After differences of things. Some understand it all this was sacrificed and offered to the in a more comprehensive sense, as signify-Lord, the priest or some other person, shaing those stated orders by which all the ved the head of the Nazarite at the door parts of the material world are governed of the tabernacle, and burnt his hair, throwin their several motions and operations-5.ing it upon the fire of the altar. Then the The light of nature does not consist merely in those ideas which heathens have actually attained, but those which are presented to men by the works of creation, and which, by the exertion of reason, they may obtain,

priest put into the hand of the Nazarite the shoulder of the ram, roasted, with a loaf and a cake, which the Nazarite returning into the hands of the priest, he of"fered them to the Lord, lifting them up in

the presence of the Nazarite. And from | Hartley, Priestly, Edwards, Crombie, Top this time he might again drink wine, his lady, and Belsham, have written on the Nazariteship being now accomplished. side of necessity; while Clarke, King, Law, Numb. vi. Amos ii. 11, 12. Reid, Butler, Price, Bryant, Wollaston, Those that made a vow of Nazariteship Horsley, Beattie, Gregory, and Butterworth, out of Palestine, and could not come to the have written against it. To state all their temple when their vow was expired, con- arguments in this place, would take up too tented themselves with observing the ab- much room; suffice it to say, that the Antistinence required by the law, and after that, necessarians suppose that the doctrine of cutting their hair in the place where they necessity charges God as the author of sin: were: as to the offerings and sacrifices pre- that it takes away the freedom of the will, scribed by Moses, which were to be of- renders man unaccountable, makes sin to fered at the temple by themselves, or by be no evil, and morality or virtue to be no others for them, they deferred this till they good; precludes the use of means, and is of could have a convenient opportunity. Hence the most gloomy tendency. The Necessariit was that St. Paul, being at Corinth, and ans deny these to be legitimate consequen having made a vow of a Nazarite, had his ces, and observe that the Deity acts no hair cut off at Cenchrea, and put off fulfill- more immorally in decreeing vicious actions, ing the rest of his vow till he should ar- than in permitting all those irregularities rive at Jerusalem, Acts xviii. 18. When which he could so easily have preventa person found that he was not in a condi- ed. The difficulty is the same on each tion to make a vow of Nazariteship, or hypothesis. All necessity, say they, doth had not leisure to perform the ceremonies not take away freedom. The actions of a belonging to it, he contented himself by con- man may be at one and the same time free tributing to the expence of the sacrifice and necessary too. It was infallibly certain and offerings of those that had made and that Judas would betray Christ, yet he did fulfilled this vow; and by this means heit voluntarily. Jesus Christ necessarily bebecame a partaker in the merit of such Nazariteship. When St. Paul came to Jerusalem, in the year of Christ 53, the apostle St. James the Less, with the other brethren, said to him (Acts xxi. 23, 24,) that to quiet the minds of the converted Jews, who had been informed that he every where preached up the entire abolition of the law of Moses, he ought to join himself to four of the faithful who had a vow of Nazariteship upon them, and contribute to the charge of the ceremony at the shaving of their heads; by which the new converts would perceive that he continued to keep the law, and that what they had heard of him was not true:

NECESSARIANS, an appellation which may be given to all who maintain that moral agents act from necessity. See next article. and MATERIALISTS.

came man, and died, yet he acted freely. A good man doth naturally and necessarily love his children, yet voluntarily. It is part of the happiness of the blessed to love God unchangeably, yet freely, for it would not be their happiness, if done by compulsion. Nor does it, says the Necessarian, render man unaccountable, since the Di vine Being does no injury to his rational faculties; and man, as his creature, is answerable to him; besides, he has a right to do what he will with his own. That necessity doth not render actions less morally good, is evident; for if necessary virtue be neither moral nor praise-worthy, it will follow that God himself is not a moral being, because he is a necessary one; and the obe dience of Christ cannot be good, because it was necessary. Farther, say they, necessity does not preclude the use of means; for NECESSITY, whatever is done by a means are no less appointed than the end. cause or power that is irresistible, in which It was ordained that Christ should be desense it is opposed to freedom. Man is a livered up to death; but he could not have necessary agent, if all his actions be so de-been betrayed without a betrayer, nor crucitermined by the causes preceding each fied without crucifiers. That it is not a action, that not one past action could possi- gloomy doctrine, they allege, because nobly not have come to pass, or have been thing can be more consolatory than to beotherwise than it hath been, nor one future lieve that all things are under the direction action, can possibly not come to pass, or be of an all-wise Being; that his kingdom ruotherwise than it shall be. On the other leth over all, and that he doth all things hand, it is asserted, that he is a free agent, well. So far from its being inimical to hapif he be able at any time, under the causes piness, they suppose there can be no solid and circumstances he then is, to do diffe- true happiness without the belief of it; that rent things; or, in other words, if he be not it inspires gratitude, excites confidence, unavoidably determined in every point of teaches resignation, produces humility, and time by the circumstances he is in, and the draws the soul to God. It is also observed, causes he is under, to do any one thing he that to deny necessity is to deny the foredoes, and not possibly to do any other thing. knowledge of God, and to wrest the scepWhether man is a necessary or a free tre from the hand of the Creator, and to agent, is a question which has been deba- place that capricious and undefinable printed by writers of the first eminence. ciple-the self-determining power of man, Hobbes, Collins, Hume, Leibnitz, Kaims," upon the throne of the universe. Beside.

TION.

NECROLOGY, formed of vɛzpos, dead, and hoyos, discourse, or enumeration, a book anciently kept in churches and monasteries, wherein avere registered the benefactors of the same, the time of their deaths, and the days of their commemoration: as also the deaths of the priors, abbots, religious canons, &c. This was otherwise called calendar and obituary.

NECROMANCY, the art of revealing future events by conversing with the dead.

See DIVINATION.

NEONOMIANS, so called from the Greek VEOs, new and vopos, law; signifying a new law, the condition whereof is imperfect, though sincere and persevering obedience. Neonomianism seems to be an essential part of the Arminian system. "The new Covenant of grace, which, through the medium of Christ's death, the Father made with men, consists, according to this system, not in our being justified by faith, as it apprehends the righteousness of Christ; but in this, that God, abrogating the exaction of perfect legal obedience, reputes or accepts of faith itself, and the imperfect obedience of faith, instead of the perfect obedience of the law, and graciously accounts them worthy of the reward of eternal life."-This opinion was examined at the synod of Dort, and has been canvassed between the Calvinists and Arminians on various occasions.

say they, the scripture places the doctrine || assuring men that if they believe, they shall beyond all doubt, Job xxiii. 13, 14. Job be justified; if they turn to God, they shall xxxiv, 29. Prov, xvi. 4. Is. xlv. 7. Acts live; if they repent, their sins shall be blotxiii. 48. Eph. i. 11. 1 Thess. iii. 3. Matt.ted out; and whilst they neglect these dux 29, 30. Matt. xviii. 7. Luke xxiv. 26. ties, they cannot have a personal interest in John vi. 37. See the works of the above these respective benefits.-5. It is by the mentioned writers on the subject; and ar- power of the Spirit of Christ freely exerted, ticles MATERIALISTS, and PREDESTINA- and not by the power of free-will, that the Gospel becomes effectual for the conversion of any soul to the obedience of faith.-6. When a man believes, yet is not that very faith, and much less any other work, the matter of that righteousness for which a sinner is justified; i. e entitled to pardon, acceptance as righteous, and eternal glory, before God; and it is the imputed righte ousness of Christ alone, for which the Gospel gives the believer a right to these and all saving blessings, who in this respect is justified by Christ's righteousness alone. By both this and the fifth head it appears that all boasting is excluded, and we are saved by free grace.-7. Faith alone receives the subject of this faith is a convinced, fienitent Lord Jesus and his righteousness, and the soul; hence we are justified by faith alone, and yet the impenitent are not forgiven8. God has freely promised that all whom savingly believe, but that he by his power he predestinated to salvation, shall not only shall preserve them from a total or a final apostacy.-9. Yet the believer, whilst he lives in this world, is to pass the time of his sojourning here with fear, because his warfare is not accomplished, and that it is true, that if he draw back, God will have no pleasure in him. Which with the like cautions, God blesseth as means to the saints' perseverance, and these by ministers, should be so urged.-10. The laws of innocence, or moral law, is so in force still, as that every precept thereof constitutes duty, even to the believer; every breach thereof is a sin deTowards the close of the seventeenth serving of death: this law binds death by century, a controversy was agitated amongst its curse on every unbeliever, and the righthe English Dissenters, in which the one teousness for or by which we are justified side. who were partial to the writings of before God, is a righteousness (at least) Dr. Crisp, were charged with Antinomian- adequate to that law which is Christ's alone, ism, and the other, who favoured Mr. Bax-righteousness: and this so imputed to the ter, were accused of Neonomianism. Dr. believer, as that God deals judicially with Daniel Williams, who was a principal wri-him according thereto.-11. Yet such is the ter on what was called the Neonomian side, after many things had been said, gives the following as a summary of his faith in reference to those subjects.-" 1. God has eternally elected a certain definite number of men, whom he will infallibly save by Christ, in that way prescribed by the Gospel.-2. These very elect are not personally justified until they receive Christ, and yield up themselves to him, but they remain condemned whilst unconverted to Christ.-3. By the ministry of the Gospel, there is a serious offer of pardon and glory, upon the terms of the Gospel, to all that hear it; and God thereby requires them to comply with the said terms. 4. Ministers ought to use these and other Gospel benefits as motives,"

grace of the Gospel, that it promiseth in and by Christ, a freedom from the curse, forgiveness of sin, and eternal life, to every sincere believer; which promise God will certainly perform, notwithstanding the threatening of the law."

Dr. Williams maintains the conditionality of the covenant of grace; but admits, with Dr. Owen, who also uses the term condition, that "Christ undertook that those who were to be taken into this covenant, should receive grace, enabling them to comply with the terms of it, fulfil its conditions, and yield the obedience which God required therein."

On this subject Dr. Williams further says,
The question is not whether first the (viz.

The following objection among others, was made by several ministers, in 1692, against Dr. Williams' Gospel Truth Stated, c.

To supply the room of the moral law, vacated by him, he turns the Gospel into a new law, in keeping of which we shall be justified for the sake of Christ's righteousness, making qualifications and acts of ours, a disposing subordinate righteousness, whereby we become capable of being justified by Christ's righteousness."

regenerating) grace, by which we are enabled || It does not appear to have been a questo perform the condition, be absolutely given. || tion in this controversy, whether God in his This I affirm, though that be dispensed or- word commands sinners to repent and bedinarily in a due use of means, and in a way lieve in Christ, nor whether he promises discountenancing idleness, and fit encourage-life to believers, and threatens death to unment given to the use of means." believers; but whether it be the Gospel under the form of a new law that thus commands or threatens, or the moral law on its behalf, and whether its promises to believing render such believing a condition of the things promised. In another controversy, however, which arose about forty years afterwards among the same description of people, it became a question whether God did by his word (call it law or Gospel) command unregenerate sinners to repent and believe in Christ, or to do any thing To this among other things he answers, which is spiritually good. Of those who "The difference is not, 1. Whether the took the affirmative side of this question, Gospel be a new law in e Socinian, Po- one party attempted to maintain it on the pish, or Arminian sense? This I deny. Nor, ground of the Gospel being a new law, con2. Is faith, or any other grace or act of ours, sisting of commands, promises, and threatany atonement for sin, satisfaction to justice, enings, the terms or conditions of which meriting qualification, or any part of that were repentance, faith, and sincere obedirighteousness for which we are justified at ence. But those who first engaged in the con. God our Creator's bar. This I deny introversy, though they allowed the encourplaces innumerable. Nor, 3. Whether the Gospel be a law more new than is implied in the first promise to fallen Adam, proposed to Cain, and obeyed by Abel, to the differencing him from his unbelieving brother? This I deny. 4. Nor whether the Gospel be a law that allows sin, when it accepts such graces as true, though short of perfec- || tion, to be the conditions of our personal interest in the benefits purchased by Christ? This I deny. 5. Nor whether the Gospel be a law, the promises whereof entitle the performers of its conditions to the benefits as of debt? This I deny.

agement to repent and believe, to arise merely from the grace of the Gospel, yet considered the formal obligation to do so as arising merely from the moral law, which, requiring supreme love to God, requires acquiscence in any revelation which he shall at any time make known. Witsius' Irenicum. Edwards on the Will, p. 220. William's Gospel Truth. Edwards' Crispianism unmasked. Chauncey's Neonomianism unmasked. Adams' View of Religions.

NESTORIANS, the followers of Nestorius, the bishop of Constantinople, who lived in the fifth century. They believed that in Christ there were not only two natures, but two persons, οι υποςτάσεις ! of which the one was divine, even the eternal word; and the other, which was human, was the man Jesus; that these two persons had only one aspect; that the union between the Son of God and the son of man was formed in the moment of the virgin's conception, and was never to be dissolved; that it was not, however, an union of nature or of person, but but only of will and affection; (Nestorius, however, it is said, denied the last position :) that Christ was therefore carefully distinguished from God, who dwelt in him as in his temple; and that Mary was to be called the mother of Christ, and not the mother of God.

"The difference is, 1. Is the Gospel a law in this sense; viz. God in Christ there by commandeth sinners to repent of sin, and receive Christ by a true operative faith, promising that thereupon they shall be united to him, justified by his righteousness, pardoned, and adopted; and that, persevering in faith and true holiness, they shall be finally saved: also threatening that if any shall die impenitent, unbelieving, ungodly, rejecters of his grace, they shall perish without relief, and endure sorer punishments than if these offers had not been made to them-2. Hath the Gospel a sanction, i. e. doth Christ therein enforce his commands of faith, repentance, and perseverance, by the aforesaid promises and threatenings, as motives of our obedience? Both these I af- One of the chief promoters of the Nestofirm, and they deny; saying the Gospel in rian cause was Barsumas, created bishop of the largest sense is an absolute promise | Nisibis, A. D. 435. Such was his zeal and without precepts and conditions, and a Gos-success, that the Nestorians who still remain pel threat is a bull.-3. Do the Gospel pro-in Chaldea, Persia, Assyria, and the adjamises of benefits to certain graces, and its threats that those benefits shall be withheld, and the contrary evils inflicted for the neglect of such graces, render those graces the condition of our personal title to those benefits? This they deny, and I affirm," &c.

cent countries, consider him alone as their parent and founder. By him Pherozes, the Persian monarch, was persuaded to expel those Christians who adopted the opinions of the Greeks, and to admit the Nestorians, in their place, putting them in possession of the principal seat of ecclesiastical authority

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