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husband, and doomed to bring forth children in sorrow; sentence of death was then passed on them both, and they were driven out of Paradise.

Q. Was any consolation administered to them under this great affliction ?

A. A Saviour was promised who should bruise the head of the serpent.

Q. What did the Lord place eastward in Eden?

A. The Cherubim, and a flaming sword, to keep the way of the tree of life.*

Q. How were Adam and Eve clothed?

A. With the skins of beasts sacrificed as types of the

atonement.

Q. What was implied in a bloody sacrifice?

A. The sacrificer confessed himself a sinner worthy

amply sufficient for the end designed, which was, to prove whether the moral being, thus bountifully endowed, acted with a due sense of his subjection; or whether he aimed to act in chief, and without respect to his Divine Sovereign and Benefactor. That slight and solitary privation was imposed upon the declared principle of the Divine judgment: "He who is faithful in that which is LEAST, is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in the LEAST, is unjust also in much." Under that trial, MAN failed; he was found "unfaithful in that which was LEAST;" he was, therefore, ejected from the state of happiness of which a perfect obedience was rendered the indispensable condition; he fell, and in his fall brought down a curse upon the new earth, from its offended Creator."-PENN'S Geology.

* It is more than probable that after the apostacy of mankind, the worship of animal forms was instituted as symbolical of the Cherubim. For a description of these angelic beings, consult Ezek. i. and x.

of death; approved God's method of salvation by a Mediator; and covenanted to be the Lord's.*

Q. What practice in the Christian church is analogous to sacrifice?

A. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

Q. Who were the first children of Adam and Eve ?
A. Cain and Abel.

Q. In what state are all the children of men born? A. In a depraved condition; deriving a corrupt nature from sinful parents.† Psalm li. 5. Rom. iii. 23. v. 12. Q. In what does this corruption consist?

A. In the subjection of the body to disease and death; and in the alienation of the soul from God. Q. What were Cain and Abel?

A. Cain was a husbandman, and Abel a shepherd. Q. What acts are recorded concerning them? A. "Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof."

Q. Were these offerings alike acceptable to Jehovah?

* Sacrifice was of Divine origin, else it had not been enjoined to the Jews. Besides, no man can rationally suppose that the slaughter of an innocent beast could wipe away moral defilement. “If evidence were wanting,” says Mr. Horne,“ to prove sacrifices of Divine institution, the declaration in Job xlii. 8. alone would be sufficient."

+ The golden, silver, brazen, and iron ages of the poets are supposed to represent the state of man before, and after his fall. The opening of Pandora's box, by which the world was deluged with evil, is also referred to the fall; and Hope, which alone remained at the bottom, to the promise.

A. No: "by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain," wherefore God rejected Cain's offering, but had respect unto Abel's.

Q. What was the consequence?

A. Cain, conceiving a dislike to Abel, fell upon him by surprise and murdered him.

Q. How was he punished for this heinous sin?

A. He was cut off from communion with God, and condemned to be a wanderer in the earth.

Q. How was Cain affected by his punishment?

A. He lamented it exceedingly, fearing to be slain for his crime; but the Lord set a mark upon him,* lest any finding him should slay him.

Q. To what society was he amenable for the offence? A. To the other members of Adam's family.t

Q. What is further memorable of Cain ?

A. He built the first city, of which we have any record, and called it Enoch, after his son.

Q. By whom was the loss of Abel supplied?
A. By Seth.

Q. How many generations are there between the creation and deluge in the line of Seth?

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The notices relative to the Antediluvians are remarkably brief: the line from Seth to Noah is preserved to complete the genealogy of Christ; but Cain's posterity are only mentioned to preserve a few memorable circumstances connected with their history. The names and history of the other members of Adam's family are consigned to oblivion.

No doubt a very simple enclosure, for protection against the wild beasts.

A. Ten: Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, and his sons.

Q. How many are recorded in the line of Cain ? A. Seven Cain, Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Methusael, Lamech, and his children.

Q. What is remarkable of Lamech, the fifth from Cain?

A. He had two wives, Adah and Zillah.

Q. How many children had he, and for what were they famous ?

A. He had four children: Jabal, an eminent shepherd; Jubal, the inventor of musical instruments; Tubal-Cain, famous as an artificer in metals; and Naamah, probably remarkable for her beauty.*

Q. For what was Lamech further remarkable?

A. For his speech to his wives, the oldest piece of verse in the world.†

Q. What practice was adopted in the days of Enos, son of Seth?

A. Men began to call themselves by the name of Jehovah. +

Q. Which of Seth's posterity was pre-eminently pious?

Jubal is considered the Apollo, Tubal-Cain the Vulcan, and Naamah the Venus of Pagan fable: the parallel is close and striking.

+ See Gen. iv. 23, 24. Professor Michaelis considers these verses as the substance of the speech of Lamech, reduced to numbers, for the sake of preserving it more easily in memory.

See Gen. iv. 26. The expression Kara-be Shem is thus rendered by Dr. Shuckford, who here finds the origin of the appellation given to the posterity of Seth-Sons of God.

A. Enoch.

Q. What events did he predict?

A. He seems to have predicted the deluge, by giving the name of Methuselah* to his son; and he prophesied of Christ's second coming.†

Q. How was his piety rewarded?

A. He was translated to heaven.‡
Q. Who was the oldest man?

A. Methuselah, son of Enoch: he lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years.

Q. How long was Lamech, Noah's father, contemporary with Adam?

A. Fifty-six years.§

Q. How does Moses describe the two principal lines of Adam's posterity?

A. He describes the posterity of Seth as sons of God; and the posterity of Cain as sons of men.

Q. Had these tribes any intercourse with each other?

A. They appear for some time to have kept apart, but at length they intermarried.

* Methuselah, he dieth, and then it is sent. He died in the year of the deluge.

† Jude 14, 15. This prophecy occurs in a MS. found by Mr. Bruce in Abyssinia; but was probably placed there, to give the other parts of the work an air of authenticity.

+ Heb. xi. 5.

How easy, at such a period, to transmit history from generation to generation, by oral tradition!-See Chronological Table, No. 1.

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