Adam had by tranfgreffión fallen, and was fent forth to the hitherto uncultivated parts of the earth, with pain and labour to exercise his faculties, in procuring even the neceffaries of life;-one of the first things we find is:

That having reared two fons, Cain, and Abel,-the elder, the firft-born, a man of mere earthly purfuits, did, through furious rage, and envy, flay his humble, devout, and contemplative brother-and when Cain, by the juft judgement of God, was driven from the DIVINE PRESENCE, to wander, with all the terrors of a guilty confcience, upon the face of the earth; that he was in the first place afraid that every one who found him should Jay him.

And, when Almighty God had vouchfafed to give him a fign and token, that he should not be fo flain, or, (as the words are I think improperly tranflated,) had fet a mark upon him; then, almoft directly, we find him departing,

* Genefis, ch. iv. ver. 8. + Chap. iv. ver. 14. The words are, Genefis, ch. iv. ver. 15.

Καὶ ἔθετο Κύριος Ο ΘΕΟΣ σημεῖον τῳ Κάϊν, τὸ μὴ ἀνελεῖν αὐτὸν πάντα τὸν ἑυρίσκοντα αὐτόν.

Which may moft literally be tranflated,

And THE LORD GOD placed before Cain A TOKEN, (or fet before Cain a token,) that whoever met Cain, (or found Cain,) fhould not flay him.

The

and leaving his Father Adam, and his Mother, and taking his Wife with him.

And we then immediately read*, that bis wife bare him a fon named Enoch.

The meaning of which expreffion may be ftill better understood, by comparing it with that ufed in the demand. of the Jews to our Blaffed Lord, concerning His Divine Million:

John, chap. ii. ver. 18.

Τί σημεῖον δεικνύεις ἡμῖν ;

What fign fewest thou unto us?

It would be ridiculous to fuppofe that they wanted a mark to be visible upon our Lord. What they afked for, by using the word onusov, plainly was fome fign, or tokenfome miracle, or extraordinary appearance, or found, as a proof of His Divine Authority.

And therefore, in the inftance of Cain, the word onusïor feems evidently to mean fome extraordinary appearance vouchfafed to Cain, as a confirmation of the promife, that he fhould not be killed.

Juft as it is faid, (Genefis, chap. ix. ver. 13.) the Bow was fet in the cloud, as a token—a fign—a mark, to Noah, that there should be no more univerfal deluge; in which paffage the LXX ufe exactly the fame mode of expreffion :

Τὸ τόξον μου τίθημι ἐν τῇ νεφέλη,—καὶ ἔται εἰς σημεῖον διαθήκης ἀνὰ μέσον ἐμὲ καὶ τῆς γῆς.

I plase my bow in the cloud, and it shall be (a token) a fign of the covenant between me and the earth.

We fhould moft juftly think it very odd, to have the interpretation, that Almighty God fet the bow in the clouds, as a mark upon Noah.

* Genetis, ch. iv. ver. 17.

And not only fo; but that he went forth into the land of Nod, on the caft of Eden, and builded a city*, (an undertaking that would require no small number of perfons, of whatever conftruction that city was;)-and that he called the name of the city, after the name of his fon, Enoch.

have had

any

Now, if there were no other perfons on the face of the earth, except Adam and Eve, and their family,-(even fuppofing them to other intermediate children; for which fuppofition there is no fort of autho rity in Scripture ;)--where could Cain have met with his wife?-or where could he have met with perfons to affift him in building a city? or to inhabit it?-Or who could the perfons be, whom he might be afraid would unexpectedly meet with him, after he had Jeft Adam and his family, and flay him?

These are questions which plain common fense not only may afk, but ought to ask.

And the words ufed in the tranflation of the LXX, render the queftion ftill more proper; for they imply, not merely that Cain built a city after Enoch was born; but that

* Genefis, ch. iv. ver. 16, 17.

Cain was actually building a City, at the time

Enoch was born.

The words are:

Chap. iv.

Ver. 16. Εξῆλθεν δὲ Κάϊν ἀπὸ προ σώπε τᾶ ΘΕΟΥ, καὶ ὤκησεν ἐν γῇ Ναίδ κατέναντι Ἐδέν·

Ver. 17. Καὶ ἔγνω Κάϊν τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτῶ, καὶ συλλαβᾶσα ἔτεκεν τὸν Ἐνώχ· καὶ ἦν οἰκοδομῶν πόλιν, καὶ ἐπωνόμασεν τὴν πόλιν ἐπὶ τω ὀνόματι τῇ ὑιᾶ αὐτὲ Ενώχ.

And may moft literally be tranflated:

Ver. 16. And Cain went forth from the prefence of GOD, and dwelt in the land of Naid, oppofite to Eden.

Ver. 17. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceiving bare Enoch;-and he was building a city, and he named the city after the name of his fon,--Enoch.

To fuppofe that Adam had by this time a numerous progeny,-when Holy Scripture is totally filent about any fuch matter, and even

names

names Seth as the next born,-is much more prefumptuous, and is a taking much greater liberty of conjecture in the interpretation of Holy Writ, than to conclude that there were other races of men created, and exifting:concerning which Scripture is not totally filent, but gives ftrong and plain intima

tions.

And befides, if the wife of Cain, and those who accompanied him, and aided him to build his city, were fons and daughters of Adam and of Eve;-what muft we think of them, or of any fuch perfons ?-who could leave their Father, and Mother, so juftly, forrowing?— who could defert them, fo unfeelingly?—and go forth, from them, with the murderer; to aid and affift that murderer, in preference to any attendance on them, to folace their forrows?

The only juft, and fair, and indeed almost the only rational conclufion must be,-that Cain bad debafed his defcent from Adam,and had already married into an inferior caft, or fpecies of mankind,-and had joined him

felf to them.

And, if fo;-they, and theirs, might be ready enough, and even ambitious to join him, and to go forth with him.

They