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05 - Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son, on the Bible and Its Teachings by John Quincy Adams · Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son, on the Bible and Its Teachings

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  Speaker 1: Section four of letters of John Quincy Adams to his
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  Speaker 1: son on the Bible in its teachings. This LibriVox recording
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  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Read by Dale Barklay Letter four.
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  Speaker 1: We were considering the Bible in its historical character and
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  Speaker 1: as the history of a family. From the moment when
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  Speaker 1: the universal history finishes, that of Abraham begins, and thenceforth
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  Speaker 1: it is the history of a family, of which Abraham
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  Speaker 1: is the first and Jesus Christ the last person. And
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  Speaker 1: from the first appearance of Abraham the whole history appears
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  Speaker 1: to have been ordered from age to age expressly to
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  Speaker 1: prepare for the appearance of Christ upon earth. The history
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  Speaker 1: begins with the first and mildest trials of Abraham's obedience,
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  Speaker 1: and the promise is a reward of his fidelity, that
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  Speaker 1: in him all the families of the earth should be blessed.
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  Speaker 1: The second trial, which required the sacrifice of his son,
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  Speaker 1: was many years afterward, and the promise was more explicit
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  Speaker 1: and more precisely assigned as the reward of his obedience.
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  Speaker 1: There were between these periods two intermediate occasions recorded in
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  Speaker 1: the fifteenth and eighteenth chapters of Genesis, on the first
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  Speaker 1: of which the word of the Lord came to Abraham
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  Speaker 1: in a vision and promised him he should have a
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  Speaker 1: child from whom a great and mighty nation should proceed, which,
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  Speaker 1: after being in servitude four hundred years in a strange land,
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  Speaker 1: should become the possessors of the land of Canaan, from
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  Speaker 1: that of Egypt to the river Euphrates. On the second
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  Speaker 1: the Lord appeared to him and his wife repeated the
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  Speaker 1: promise that they should have a child, that Abraham should
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  Speaker 1: surely become a great nation, and that all the nations
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  Speaker 1: of the earth should be blessed in him. For I
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  Speaker 1: know him, saith the Lord, that he will command his
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  Speaker 1: household after him, and that they will keep the way
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord to do justice and judgment, that the
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  Speaker 1: Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken
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  Speaker 1: of him. From all which it is obvious that the
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  Speaker 1: first of the promises was made as subservient an instrumental
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  Speaker 1: to the second, that the great and mighty nation was
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  Speaker 1: to be raised as the means in the ways of
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  Speaker 1: God's providence for producing the sacred person of Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: through whom the perfect sacrifice of atonement for the original
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  Speaker 1: transgression of man should be consummated and by which all
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  Speaker 1: the families of the earth should be blessed. I am
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  Speaker 1: so little versed in controversial divinity that I know not
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  Speaker 1: whither this eighteenth chapter of Genesis has ever been adduced
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  Speaker 1: in support of the doctrine of trinity. There is at
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  Speaker 1: least in it an alteration of those divine persons, and
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  Speaker 1: of one not a little remarkable, which I know not
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  Speaker 1: how to explain. If taken in connection with the nineteenth,
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  Speaker 1: it would seem that one of the men entertained by
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  Speaker 1: Abraham was God himself, and the other two were angels
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  Speaker 1: sent to destroy Sodom. Leaving this, however, let me ask
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  Speaker 1: your particular attention to the reason assigned by God for
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  Speaker 1: bestowing such extraordinary blessings upon Abraham. It unfolds to us
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  Speaker 1: the first and most important part of the superstructure of
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  Speaker 1: moral principle, erected upon the foundation of obedience to the
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  Speaker 1: will of God. The rigorous trials of Abraham's obedience mentioned
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  Speaker 1: in this and my last letter were only tests to
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  Speaker 1: ascertain his character in reference to the single and I
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  Speaker 1: may say, abstract point of obedience. Here we have a
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  Speaker 1: precious gleam of light disclosing what the nature of this
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  Speaker 1: will of God was that he should command his children
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  Speaker 1: and his household after him, by which the parental authority
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  Speaker 1: to instruct and direct his descendants in the way of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord was given him as an authority and enjoined
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  Speaker 1: upon him as a duty. And the lessons which he
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  Speaker 1: was then empowered and required to teach his posterity were
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  Speaker 1: to do justice and judgment. Thus, as obedience to the
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  Speaker 1: will of God is the first and all comprehensive virtue
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  Speaker 1: taught in the Bible, so the second is justice and
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  Speaker 1: judgment towards mankind, and this is exhibited as the result
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  Speaker 1: naturally following from the other. This the same chapter is
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  Speaker 1: related the intercession of Abraham with God for the preservation
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  Speaker 1: of Sodom from destruction. The city was destroyed for its crimes,
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  Speaker 1: but the Lord promised Abraham it should be spared if
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  Speaker 1: only ten righteous should be found in it. The principle
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  Speaker 1: of mercy was therefore sanctioned in immediate connection with that
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  Speaker 1: of justice. Abraham had several children, but the great promise
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  Speaker 1: of God was to be performed through Isaac alone, And
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  Speaker 1: of the two sons of Isaac, Jacob, the youngest, was
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  Speaker 1: selected for the foundation of the second family and nation.
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  Speaker 1: It was from Jacob that the multiplication of the family began,
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  Speaker 1: and his twelve sons were all included in the genealogy
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  Speaker 1: of the tribes, which afterward constituted the Jewish people. Ishmaeo.
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  Speaker 1: The children of Keturah and Esau, the eldest son of Isaac,
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  Speaker 1: were all the parents of considerable families which afterwards bred
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  Speaker 1: into nations. But they formed no part of the Chosen people,
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  Speaker 1: and their history with that of the neighboring nations is
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  Speaker 1: only incidentally noticed in the Bible, as far as they
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  Speaker 1: had relations of intercourse or hostility with the people of God.
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  Speaker 1: The history of Abraham and his descendants to the close
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  Speaker 1: of the Book of Genesis is a biography of individuals.
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  Speaker 1: The incidents related of them are all of the class
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  Speaker 1: belonging to domestic life. Joseph, indeed became a highly distinguished
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  Speaker 1: public character in the land of Egypt, and it was
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  Speaker 1: through him that his father and all his brothers were
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  Speaker 1: finally settled there, which was necessary to prepare for the
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  Speaker 1: existence of their posterity as a nation, and to fulfill
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  Speaker 1: the purpose which God had announced to Abraham, that they
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  Speaker 1: should be four hundred years dwellers in a strange Land.
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  Speaker 1: In the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, many
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  Speaker 1: miraculous events are recorded, but all those which are spoken
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  Speaker 1: of as happening in the ordinary course of human affairs
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  Speaker 1: have an air of reality about them which no invention
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  Speaker 1: could imitate. In some of the transactions related, the conduct
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  Speaker 1: of the patriarchs is highly blameable. Circumstances of deep depravity
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  Speaker 1: are particularly told of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, upon
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  Speaker 1: which it is necessary to remark that their actions are
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  Speaker 1: never spoken of with approbation, but always with strong marks
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  Speaker 1: of censure, and generally with a minute account of the
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  Speaker 1: punishment which followed upon their transgression. The vices and crimes
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  Speaker 1: of the patriarchs are sometimes alleged as objections against the
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  Speaker 1: belief that persons guilty of them should ever have been
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  Speaker 1: especially favored by God. But vicious as they were, there
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  Speaker 1: is every reason to be convinced that they were less
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  Speaker 1: so than their contemporaries. Their vices appear to us at
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  Speaker 1: this day gross, disgusting and atrocious. But the written law
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  Speaker 1: was not then given. The boundaries between right and wrong
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  Speaker 1: were not defined with the same precision as in the
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  Speaker 1: tables given afterward to Moses. The law of nature was
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  Speaker 1: the only rule of morality by which they could be governed,
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  Speaker 1: and the sins of intemperance of every kind recorded in
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  Speaker 1: Holy writ were at that period less aggravated than they
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  Speaker 1: have been in after ages, because they were in great
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  Speaker 1: measure sins of ignorance. From the time when the sons
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  Speaker 1: of Jacob were settled in Egypt until the completion of
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  Speaker 1: the four hundred years during which God had foretold Abraham
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  Speaker 1: that his family should dwell, there there is a chasm.
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  Speaker 1: In the Sacred history. We are expressly told that all
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  Speaker 1: the house of Jacob which came into Egypt were threescore
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  Speaker 1: and ten. It is said then that Joseph died, as
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  Speaker 1: did all that generation, after which nothing further is related
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  Speaker 1: of their posterity than that they were faithful and multiplied
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  Speaker 1: abundantly in waxed, exceeding mighty, and the land was filled
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  Speaker 1: with them until there arose a new king who knew
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  Speaker 1: not Joseph. On his first arrival in Egypt, Jacob had
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  Speaker 1: obtained a grant from Pharaoh of the land of Goshen,
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  Speaker 1: a place particularly suited to the pasturage of flocks Jacob
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  Speaker 1: and his family were shepherds, and this circumstance was, in
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  Speaker 1: the first instance, the occasion upon which that separate spot
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  Speaker 1: was assigned to them, and secondarily was the means provided
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  Speaker 1: by God for keeping separate two nations. Thus residing together,
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  Speaker 1: every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians, and the
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  Speaker 1: Israelites were shepherds, although dwelling in the land of Egypt. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: the Israelites were sojourners and strangers, and by mutual antipathy
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  Speaker 1: toward each other originating in their respective conditions, they were
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  Speaker 1: prevented from intermingling by marriage and losing their distinctive characters.
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  Speaker 1: This was the cause which had been reserved by the
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  Speaker 1: Supreme Creator during the space of three generations and more
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  Speaker 1: than four centuries, as the occasion for eventually bringing them
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  Speaker 1: out of the land, for in proportion as they multiplied,
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  Speaker 1: it had the tendency to excite the jealousies and fears
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  Speaker 1: of the Egyptian king. As actually happened, these jealousies and
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  Speaker 1: fears suggested to him a policy of the most intolerable
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  Speaker 1: oppression and the most execrable cruelty toward the Israelites, not
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  Speaker 1: contented with reducing them to the most degraded condition of servitude,
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  Speaker 1: and making their lives bitter with hard bondage. He conceived
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  Speaker 1: the project of destroying the whole race by ordering all
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  Speaker 1: the male children to be murdered as soon as they
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  Speaker 1: were born. In the wisdom of Providence, this very command
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  Speaker 1: was the means of preparing this family, when they had
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  Speaker 1: multiplied into a nation, for their issue from Egypt and
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  Speaker 1: for their conquest of the land which had been promised
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  Speaker 1: to Abraham. And it was at the same time the
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  Speaker 1: immediate occasion of raising up the great warrior, legislator, and prophet,
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  Speaker 1: who is to be their deliverer and leader. Thenceforth the
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  Speaker 1: are to be considered as a people, and their history
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  Speaker 1: as that of a nation during a period of more
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  Speaker 1: than a thousand years. The Bible gives us a particular
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  Speaker 1: account of their destinies. An outline of their constitution, civil, military,
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  Speaker 1: and religious, with the code of laws presented to them
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  Speaker 1: by the Deity, is contained in the Books of Moses,
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  Speaker 1: and will afford as copious materials for future consideration. Their
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  Speaker 1: subsequent revolutions of government under Joshua, fifteen successive chiefs denominated judges,
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  Speaker 1: and a succession of kings until they were first dismembered
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  Speaker 1: into two separate kingdoms, and, after a lapse of some centuries,
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  Speaker 1: both conquered by the Assyrians and Babylonians, and at the
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  Speaker 1: end of seventy years partially restored to their country and
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  Speaker 1: their temple. Constitute the remaining historical books of the Old Testament,
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  Speaker 1: every part of which is full of instruction. But my
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  Speaker 1: present purpose is only to point your attention to their
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  Speaker 1: general historical character. My next will contain a few remarks
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  Speaker 1: on the Bible as a system of morals. In the meantime,
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  Speaker 1: I remain your affectionate father, John Quincy Adams