destroy thy power; and thou shalt persecute the woman's seed, but shalt not be able to destroy. In these views, we gain an insight into the religion of Adam and Eve, after their fall-assuming as it did, in consequence of this incident, a new complexion and character. The first emotion of their hearts, was sorrow-was contrition-a sorrow producing works meet for repentance.” And, struck by the majesty of that God, which was never more to be approached without a Mediator—terrified by the heinousness of that sin which could not be pardoned without an atoner;-how awefully mysterious to their minds must have appeared this new connexion between infinite Justice and human error-between Omnipotence and frail mortality.

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To love his wife even as his own flesh, was still the duty of Adam: It was still his truest interest. The MesIsiah that was to come" the seed of the woman" must have united the offending pair in closer bonds, as one "body and one soul." His wife's infidelity in seducing him from God and involving him in the same guilt and calamity with herself, might have occasioned even a separation (if possible) between them; had not the very promise of Salvation been made to rest, for its sole support, on the union of Adam with his wife;-from whom He was to descend-the great healer of "the

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"breach"*-the Reconciler of God to man, and of man to himself. It is, likewise, worthy of observation, that the circumstance of Eve's having drawn her husband into sin, was decidedly marked in the sentence of her Judge. Thy husband shall rule over thee." Nor is her inferiority noticed in milder terms, where St. Paul speaks of the woman, as if she alone had been "in the transgression." It is certain, that Eve, who had forfeited the confidence of her husband, and reduced herself to a situation which required on his part, the most unremitting vigilance, would have acted becomingly and discreetly in throwing herself on his generous feelings for forgiveness, and in submitting her inclinations to those of Adam with perfect resignation. Such a conduct was more likely to conciliate his regard and re-establish their intercourse on a footing at once satisfactory and rational, than a disingenuousness averse from the acknowlegment of error, an irritating repugnance to his wishes, and a proud contempt of his authority. Besides, fallen as they both were, from their elevated station with respect to God;-this further humiliation of Eve with respect to her husband, was probably the best safeguard of amity and peace. Had they continued on a footing of equality, their minds would have been incessantly disturbed by mutual charges and recrimina

* Isaiah XXX. 26.

1 Tim. ii, 14.

tions and disputes, on numerous points of opinion and of practice.*

But their cares began to multiply. "In sorrow," did Eve" bring forth children." And, to train up those children "in the way wherein they should go," was a new duty of incalculable moment.

For the duties of children to their parents-we are at once presented with a dreadful instance of disobedience and alienation of mind;-rejoicing that we have an opportunity of contrasting it at the same instant with an amiable humility of heart and with filial reverenco and affection.

Abel was now no more. from the house of his father.

And Cain was a fugitive
Yet Seth was destined to

repair, in some measure, the loss of the parents, and particularly to re-animate the faith and revive the hopes of Eve. For " God (said she) hath appointed me ano

* I have enlarged on the original connexion and duties of the husband and wife, in the case of Adam and Eve, (as I shall on the married state of Isaac and Rebecca,) more perhaps than the subject requires. But, I think, after clear views of the first simple marriages as Divine Institutions-as sacred religious compacts, we may be enabled to mark, with more accuracy and precision, the nature of Adultery and settle the law and doctrine of Divorce.

ther seed, instead of Abel."

"To Seth, also, was born

❝a Son, whose name was Enos; and afterwards, sops “and daughters."

We here pause, for an instant, to observe the first husband and wife relinquishing their earthly habitations. They were still united. They were ONE, after the Fall, as before. Notwithstanding the lapse from their first estate, they were inseparable. As they had shared the blessings of innocence, they shared the penalties of guilt. They shared the feelings of compunction and of penitence, and they shared the consolations of pardon and peace. They had been one in life, and now were one in death.

In the mean time, Cain who had gone out from "the presence of God, built," it appears, 66 a city." And in Lamech, his offspring, we view the first polygamists in history.* And "Lamech took unto him two "wives: The name of the one, was Adah; and the name of the other, Zillah." According to a tradition of the Jews and Arabs, Seth had adjured his children, by the blood of Abel, "not to mix with the race of Cain, lest "God should destroy them." Yet, when "men began "to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters "were born unto them; the sons of God saw the daugh

Gen. iv. 19.

1

"ters of men that they were fair: And they took them "wives of all which they chose."* It was the personal attraction of the woman occasioned these precipitate alliances And the connexion thus formed, was probably polygamous, if not promiscuous. The contempt of marriage, as ordained by the Creator, was, assuredly, one cause of the Deluge: " It repented God, that He "had made man upon the earth." But Noah was "perfect in his generations." And "Noah and all his House went into the ark"-" Shem, Ham, and Japhet, the Sons of Noah, and Noah's Wife, and the three wives of his sons." Noah and his three sons had, each, a wife, and one wife only. This particularity of information is something more than incidental.

How inviolable the marriage-compact was generally esteemed in the days of the Patriarchs, Pharaoh's treatment of Abram and Sarai, cannot fail to suggest to us. Abram had imposed his wife on the King of Egypt, as his sister. And the King is represented as calling Abram and saying: "What is this thou hast done unto "me? Why didst thou not tell me, that she was thy wife? Now, therefore, behold thy wife: Take her and So thy way." +

Of the unhappy effects of concubinage, we have a

* Gen. vi. 1, 2.

+ Gen. vii. 13.

Gen. xii. 18, 19.