for the Murder, and a Banishment only inflicted as his full Punishment: So that had Cain been one of those whom Lamech flew, the very Sentence of God would have been against him, that Vengeance fhould have been taken upon him for that Murder feven-fold greater than that was, which was inflicted upon Cain; and therefore for Lamech to have flain his four Times Great-Grand-Father, would have incurred a feven-fold Punishment upon himself, instead of being of a ten-fold lefs heinous Nature: So that there does not in the leaft appear, to me, that one of those whom Lamech flew could be his Ancestor Cain; but the Cafe rather appears to be as before furmised, because it carries in it a true Connection with the very Intent of the Relation; but the other, as plain a Contradiction to it.

This being all the particular Account Mofes has given us of the Pofterity of Cain, he returns to give us an Account of Adam's Line to Noah, in which tho' he is very concife, yet it is fo very well adjusted, that there is fufficient Room to judge of Caufes from mention'd Effects, and of Effects from mention'd Causes: And this ought to be our Guide, where we attempt to carry our Searches farther than the Object searched after lies plain to the View.

CHAP.

CHA P. IV.

$ 1. N the two laft Verfes of the 4th Chapter of Genefis, Mofes returns to give us an Account of the Genealogy of Adam's Line to Noah, but concludes this Chapter with only the Mention of his Son Seth, and that Son of Seth whom he named Enos, who continued the Line of Succeffion to Noah. As,

Ver. 25, and 26. And Adam knew his "Wife again" (as, no Doubt, he had done many a Time in 130 Years, between Cain and Abel, and Seth) and the bare (another) Son "and called his Name Seth: For God, faid fhe, hath appointed me another Seed instead

of Abel, whom Cain flew.-And to Seth, "to him alfo there was born a Son; and he "called his Name Enos: Then began Men "to call upon the Name of the LORD.

Now in the 3d Verfe of the fucceeding Chapter we have the particular Account of Adam's Age when he begat Seth, being, as before noted, 130 Years; and from the former Accounts I have obferved, that this Son Seth was the next Son Adam had after Cain's flaying his Brother Abel, and was therefore received by Eve as in his Stead, to whom it might moft probably be reveal'd, that from his Seed fhould come the Promifed Meffiah; as afterwards it might be in all the Line of Pa

triarchs

triarchs to Noah, as is most probable from having their lineal Descent only recorded.

§. 2. But hitherto we have no Account of religious Worship amongst either the Pofterity of Adam's, Cain's or Abel's, after the acceptable Sacrifice of Abel, and which rather feems by the Account of this last Verse that it had lain dormant and been neglected, than that there had been made any public Practice of it; because it is here obferved, that after Seth had begot a Son, whom he called Enos, that then began Men to call upon the Name of the LORD.

So that if it was then that Men began to call upon the Name of the LORD, it is plain that this Practice had been before neglected.

Indeed the Practice of Religion, in fome Shape or other, might have been made use of in the Interval between Cain's flaying Abel, and the Birth of Enes; but not to that Degree of Purity, to which Seth, upon the Birth of his Son Enos, did restore it; fince it was upon the Birth of his Son Enos, that then Men began upon the Name of the LORD.

to call

Now it may be eafy to conclude, that Seth was a Man of a religious Difpofition, and had been inftructed in the Knowledge of the Promife of a Meffias, who fhould deliver Mankind from the Effects that his Father and Mother's Difobedience had involved their Progeny in ; and that these Instructions had a powerful Influence upon him, and engaged him to a Conformity to fuch Duties which were enjoined

to

to Man fallen from his primitive Purity, whereby to qualify himself to be a Partaker of the Advantages of this Redemption: But this religious Difpofition was decay'd in the greatest Part of Mankind, whofe Views of long Lives had caused them to fet their Affections only on prefent Enjoyments, and to caft off their Thoughts of a future State. But Seth, who was the firft Son born to Adam and Eve after Abel was flain, his Mother received him as in Abel's Stead, and would therefore particularly inftruct him in the Uncertainty of the Affairs of human Life, and the Subjection we are here continually under to be difinherited of the prefent material Habitations of our Bodies; and that this was very obvious from Cain's bloody Act of Violence in feparating his Brother's Soul from his Body, even when his Body would have been a capable Habitation for it feveral hundred Years longer.

And Seth joyfully embracing this good Education, we may reasonably believe, that the Spirit of God would have a proportionate Influence upon him, and that, as in thofe Days there did not appear any Government, but what God himself was immediately concerned in; fo fuch a Man as Seth might be entrufted to have fome Secrets committed to him of God's Purposes, from his Forefight of an univerfal Degeneracy, to fend an univerfal Overthrow; and that God might, at the Time of this Son's Birth, infpire Seth with the Spirit of Prophecy, whereby to foretell to

his

his Friends and Acquaintance, who were af fembled to celebrate his Son's Birth, as a Feftival, that from this Son would proceed one of his Race, that, with a few of his own Family only, would efcape an otherwise univerfal Overthrow, which would come upon the World, for their univerfal Infidelity and Wic kedness; and that therefore, in this Child's Seed it would be, that the Meffias fhould appear to fave Mankind, from the Beginning to the End of it.

So that upon the Feffival, that this Son's Birth had occafioned, the Father then being influenced by the Spirit of Prophecy, as before premifed, he might thereby, not only attempt, but bring about fuch a Reformation in reli-gious Worship, as might have been long oneglected amongst the Generality of Mankind, from their Difregard and Forgetfulness of the Promife of a Redeemer indí

For as Seth was 105 Years old when he begat this Son, and had always been religiously inclined, fo we may conclude, that the World was not then fo corrupted as rot to have a Veneration, at leaft, for Men of virtuous and -religious Principles; and therefore as Seth was a Man of particular Notice and unblemished Character, he might thereby have fo great an Influence upon his Relations and Acquaintance, whom he had invited to celebrate the Festival of this Son's Birth, as to bring them to a Compliance to correct their former Difregard to the Exercise of pure Religion, and Practice

of