prehenfion of Things; which tho' it may not happen to answer to what might have been the Refult of Man's Obedience, and his not departing from his primitive Purity; yet we may hereby obferve, that it is poffible to frame an Anfwer from Phyfical Reasoning, how fuch. a State might have answer'd the Command of God without Man's Tranfgreffion to have difordered the Course of Nature, to render the whole subject to Viciffitudes of the Earth, &c. Vanities, and Deaths of all the Inhabitants of it.

Thus much in Anfwer to fome Objections that my former Discourse on this Subject appears to render it liable to.

I have, in my Divine Authority of the Scriptures Philofophically proved, fpoke pretty largely of Man's Fall and Redemption from the third Chapter of Genefis, to which I refer you, who defire to see what I have faid upon it: And fhall now proceed to take notice of what Mofes has recorded of the Antediluvian State in the 4th, 5th, and Part of the 6th Chapters of Genefis.

§. 1. I

CHA P. III.

Have, in my Survey of the Six Days Works of the Creation, obferved, Chap. 2. Sect. 7. That Adam and Eve's being drove out of Paradife, tho' it was a Punishment for their Difobedience, yet it was an in

finitely

finitely greater Mercy to execute it than to have reverfed the Sentence, because healed with the Promise of a Redeemer, and the Sting of Death taken away.

And this Promife being made to them before they had begun to multiply their Species, all that should hereafter defcend from them, tho' they would partake of their corrupt Natures, yet they fhould all be entitled to this promifed> Redemption: Adam and Eve were therefore preferved from prefent Death, to answer God's Command and Permiffion to be fruitful and multiply: In Answer to which, Mofes tells us, Chap. iv. ver. 1. That Adam knew Eve his Wife; that he conceived and bare Cain, and faid, I have gotten a Man from the LORD. Ver. 2. And the again bare his Brother Abel ; And Abel was a Keeper of Sheep, but Cain was a Tiller of the Ground." The Account of whom he continues to ver. 16.

This Account of the Births of Cain and Abel, Mofes gives us from their being the first of the lineal Defcendants of the human Race; and by this Account it appears that they were Twins, and the Product of one Conception.

Now, he had no fooner given the Account of their Births, but he immediately proceeds to their Manhood, and tells us their different Manners of Life, viz. That Abel was a Keeper of Sheep, and Cain was a Tiller of the Ground: And as he takes no notice of their juvenile Years, neither does he take notice of theirs or of Adam and Eve's Pofterity, which they had between

between their Births, and of Cain's flaying his Brother Abel. But the next Son born to Adam after that heinous Crime of Cain, being that from whom Noab the Patriarch of the Poftdiluvian World defcended, fo from him he traces his Line down to Noah, with very little notice of the Tranfactions of the Antediluvians, except of their almoft univerfal Degeneracy and Wickednefs, which occafioned their difmal Overthrow.

1

But, as before premifed, in the Accounts: Mofes has given us of the Genealogy of Adam to Noah, it is faid of all the Patriarchs, that after the Son they happen'd to have in that Line (tho' none of the Children they had before that Son are mention'd) they lived fo many hundred Years, and begot Sons and Daughters; fo that, as I obferved, it cannot be doubted, that from the Time that Cain flew Abel, which was about the 130th Year of their Age, their and their Father and Mother's Pofterity would be very much encreased, and numerous Families would be then upon the Earth, fo that it would then be neceffary for them to fpread themfelves into diftant Plantations, and which Cain was obliged to foon after the Murder of his Brother Abel..

And it appears very probable, that many Families had fpread themselves before; fince, when God pronounced this Punishment againft Cain, that he was curfed from the Earth, and fhould be a Fugitive and a Vagabond in it; of, that his Fact would drive him from the peace

peaceable Converfation of his old Acquaintance, and therefore from the then habitable Parts of the Earth; and that he fhould thenceforth have no Affiftance from the reft of Mankind to procure for him such natural Products that the Earth afforded for the Support of Man's Life and comfortable Subfiftence, but that he fhould be left to toil for himself till he should raife a future Race of his own to affift him.

This Punishment, which God foretold Cain would be the natural Refult of his heinous Crime, ftrikes him with Terror, and made him cry out, What have I done? the Punishment is greater than I can bear, or intolerable, fince for the future all Men will either avoid my Company, or if they fhould happen upon it accidentally, they will avenge my Brother's Blood and flay me; I must therefore betake myself to fome uninhabited Place, and spend the reft of my Time in uncomfortable Terrors and fruitless Withes that I had had more deliberate Reflections upon the fad Confequences of fo rafh, fo vile, and fo damnable an Act.

Upon fuch like Reflections he became felfcondemned, and experienced an afflicting Punishment working upon the inward Faculties of his guilty Confcience; upon which Regret and Self-Condemnation, God mitigates and fufpends his outward Apprehenfion of Punishment, and tells him, That his Acknowledgement of his Guilt, and his Remorse attending him for it, fhould be a Mark in his Countenance to deter any one from flaying him, fo

far,

far, that whofoever fhould do it should have Vengeance taken of him seven-fold. For this Mark, which is faid to be fet upon Cain, I take to be an uncommon Countenance from a guilty, terrified, and, I hope, a penitent Mind; for God always in punishing of Sin, does it with a View to reclaim the Sinner; and I am far from fuppofing that Cain was of any Seed but Adam's, or that he did not belong to the Covenant of Mercy in Chrift Jefus.

§. 2. David was guilty both of Adultery and Murder, and yet our Predeftinarians will allow him to be pardon'd; and why? It must be because he repented heartily: And according to the fhort Account of Cain's Murder, &c. we have fufficient Reafon to believe he did the fame, and with as much Regret and Concern as David did, nay, and moft probably more; for he left the Converfation of Mankind, and went into Exile to the Land of Nod, be-. cause he was ashamed to appear in the peopled World, fince he had no Plea to make for himfelf in committing fo open and odious an Act of Murder; but tho' David repented, and fecretly watered his Couch with Tears, yet it never drove him from the Converfation of Men, nor from the publick Tranfactions of his Power and Authority in his Kingdom.

And if God's infinite Mercies might be extended to David, fhall we not conclude that they would, upon the fame Conditions, be extended to Cain? fince we have no reason to

imagine