Days Works of the Creation, Chap. 20. Sect. 3. That the first Inftitution of Marriage was defign'd to be a perpetual Obligation of Truth, Fidelity, and Conftancy between one Male and one Female, without Polygamy, or promifcuous Acts of Generation; and that our bleffed Saviour reproved all Deviations therefrom, and commanded an Obfervation of its firft Inftitution.

Therefore Lamecb's having two Wives must be then an uncommon Act; and his other Acts of laying a Man to his Wounding, and a young Man to his Hurt, most likely was, fome way or other, an Effect relating to his having two Wives.

For if we confider the Nature of his boafting of it, and to whom he directed his Speech, "Hear my Voice, ye Wives of Lamech, hear"ken unto my Speech," I think we may reafonably conclude, that he had done it in Defence of that Right, which he imagined he had gain'd in and over them both; which they, whom he had flain, might have judged an Ufurpation of what he could not lawfully. defend, in having more than one Wife; but as he had, contrary to the then common Method, taken two, thefe Men might, upon that Occafion, claim as much Right to one or both of them as himself: For he having two, they might difpute his having any Right to either, and therefore contend to take them both from him by Force, and each enjoy one of them themselves; which would appear

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more

more reasonable in them, than his Arrog nce could do in him, to take two to himself, thereby to enflave both: For fuppofing both to be wholly confined to him, they must naturally undergo more Pain than Pleasure, by being both his Wives; fince they, perhaps, might have been as capable to have pleafed two Hufbands, as he was to pleafe two Wives*: I fay, this might be reafon'd by fuch, who might have an Inclination to rival Lamech out of his two Wives; and they might also, upon this Account, have a fair Pretence, hereby to release these his two Wives from that Bondage, that one Man's Pretenfions or Claimi to them both, had enflaved them to.

And we muft in Reafon allow, that any Men, who would give themselves the Liberty of Mind to covet other Mens Wives, might be encouraged to expect that they could fooner prevail upon fuch Women, that had only one Part of a Hufband's Affections and Endearments, than upon any that had folely the Affections and Endearments ofan Hufband to herself. EN

So that it could be no Wonder, that fome. officious Sparks fhould chufe to offer their Affiftance to one or both of his Wives, to deliver them from their prefent Subjection and un-: common Bondage of two to one.

I

And

* The Act of Polygamy was always an unreafonableAct, and was never defigned in the Order of Nature, but only gain'd in the World thro' the vicious Inclinations of the corrupt and depraved Nature of Men.

And that this was the Cafe between Lamech and the two Men whom he flew, appears: moft probable, if we obferve, as before noted, from his Application to his two Wives,, after he had flain them..

"Hear my Voice, ye Wives of Lamech,, "hearken unto my Speech; for I have flain at "Man to my Wounding, and a young Man "to my Hurt." Now this Speech being. only made to his two Wives, in all Likeli hood, it might be because those two Men whom Lamech had flain, had been making fome Attempts to rival him in the Enjoyment of one or both of them, fince his Excefs, in arrogating two to himself, was lefs excufable in him, than it could be in them to attempt to deliver his two Wives from their Bondage and Slaveries, which his pretended Right to them both had laid them under; which muft be an Ufurpation on the one, and an Abuse upon both. Thefe Pretenfions of Lamech's two Rivals, I fay, moft probably was the Caufe of the Quarrel that arofe between him and them.

And tho' their firft Defigns herein might for fome Time remain unobferved by him, yet before they could compleat them, their Attempts must grow more obvious; fo that Lamech at last discovers the Intrigue, and beingrefolved to vindicate himself in what he had affumed, and to maintain his Right in both his Wives, refolves to do it against all Oppofition, and, either by open Force or Stratagem,

to hazard his Caufe: And this alfo his Rivals refolved to try, rather than to give up their Refolutions to oppofe his Arrogance and Ufurpation, (juft as fome of our modern hot-brain'd Men will, in the Phrenfy of their Humours, expofe their Lives for their Miftreffes) fo that hereupon a furious and deadly Duel entues between Lamech and his two Rivals, in whichLamech, either thro' a fuperior Strength, or a more artful and premeditatedly contrived Stratagem, probably unawares to them from the Concealment of his Knowledge of their Intentions, overcomes them both, to his only receiving a Wound from the one, and a flight Hurt from the other.

Now this Application, or Speech to his two Wives, will naturally bear this Construction. "Hear my Voice, ye Wives of Lamech, hear"ken unto my Speech; for I have flain a "Man to my Wounding, and a young Man

to my Hurt." Therefore now be convinced of my Valour, and of my extraordinary Love to you, which has raised that extraordinary Courage and Refolution in me to maintain my Right to you both against a double Oppofition.

If Cain fhall be avenged feven-fold, truly "Lamech seventy and feven-fold: " For my Act, of flaying these two Men, can never be accounted of fo heinous a Nature, by a tenth Part, as Cain's flaying his Brother Abel, because these gave me not only a Provocation to enflame my Rage against them, but also at

tempted

tempted to have overcome and flain me; but as they have not prevailed, and I have flain them, if Cain fhall be avenged feven-fold upon any that shall flay him for the flaying of his Brother, truly then, as my Act of flaying these two Men, in my own Defence, cannot be of fo heinous a Nature, by a tenth Part as Cain's was; therefore if Cain fhall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech, if any fhall flay him for this Act, Vengeance fhall be taken on him, or them, seventy and seven-fold, or ten Times

more.

§. 7. That Conftruction, which fome Commentators have put upon Lamech's flaying of two Men, viz. that one of them was Cain, on whom Vengeance fhould be executed by his seventh Defcendant, does not in the leaft agree with the Account we have thereof, there not appearing therein any Tendency to frame fuch a Suppofition therefrom, but the quite Reverse seems demonftrable from the very Ac count we have of it: For if this Act had been only an Act for executing Vengeance upon Cain for the Murder of his Brother Abel, what other young Man could be concerned to have fuffered for it befides himself?

Alfo let it be confidered, that when Cain acknowledged his Guilt, and expreffed his Terror of every one that met him would flay him, God's Anfwer to him was, "Whofoever flays Cain, Vengeance shall be taken of him feven-fold;" which could not fignify lefs than a full Pardon from being flain at all

for