wards, perhaps, this Difference is to be dated between the attonements of involuntary and voluntary Murthers. That is, antienter than the firft written Monuments. However, it's certain, Cain was exiled. He was curfed from the Earth, Gen. iv. II. The Land was under a curfe and a contagion of punishment while he was in it. That was the meaning of that Ex preffion, in the fenfe of thofe Times. He was driven out from the face of the Earth, v.14 He was bid from the face of God in the place of his Exile, v. 14. He went out from the prefence of the Lord, v. 16. This can be underftood of nothing elfe but the Schechinah and pe culiar prefence of God in the place from whence he was exiled. That Schechinah, in the opini ons of thofe Times, was fufficient to confecrate the place where it appeared, as is clear in the inftances of Mofes and Fofhua. And indeed, I know no other Confecration of the Land of the Jewish Peculium, which notwithstanding for that reafon, is acknowledged to have been holy. Thus then it appears, that the Land poffeffed by the Pofterity of Seth, was holy: Otherwife, Cain's going out from thence would not have been a going out from the prefence of the Lord. And it appears alfo, that the Land poffeffed by him was not holy, where he was bid from the face of God. And the God spoken of in all this Hiftory, is no particular Tutelar, but Jehovah the Prefident of the true Peculium. I do not know what could have been faid more of Palefine, when the fame fupreme Being had chofen that for the place of his peculiar Refidence. And this was convenient enough for the Pofterity of Seth, whilft they kept together in one Body as one People. Then there was no difpa rity in that particular, between them and the Pe culium of Ifrael.

It

afterwards.

It was withal another property of the IS. LVIL aelitish Peculium, that Jehovah was called The Pofterity of Seth taken heir God, and that they were called his Peo- for the People le. And this feems alfo to have been granted of Jehovah, the Pofterity of Seth. This I gather from as the IfGen. iv. 26. as it is expreffed in LXXII. After raelites were he mention of Enos the Son of Seth, it is here added: Fr ἤλπισεν ἐπικεῖς τὸ ὄνομα κυ ide. Thus it is quoted by Philo, who generally agrees with the New Testament Ca- Quod det. pot. onical Authors, in places where the LXXII, infid. p. 180. of the Pentateuch differ from the prefent Hebrew, and is himself, perhaps, more antient than any which can be produced for the He brew Readings, where they are fingular, and differ from the Quotations of the Text of the Pentateuch of that Age of the Apoftles. Our English from the prefent Hebrew, is to another fenfe: Then began Men to call upon the Name of the Lord. As if the Author had defigned the time rather than the Perfons. But the Vulgar, though in many places corrected from the He brew, yet in this place favours the Greek Reading, as if the Author of it had been fenfible that the Greek in this place, was countenan ced by greater Authorities. Indeed, I cannot fee how the prefent Hebrew Reading could have been true. For, it was that very Lord Jehovah who is mentioned in all the Converfation with Adam. Nor was it any other to whom Cain and Abel are faid to have offered their Sacrifices. It muft certainly be another Reading of the Hebrew Copies of their Times, from which thefe Greek Interpreters gathered this fenfe. Not from the Hebrew

Inftead of אז הוחל לקרא : now received

Hamids" הוא יחל לקרא :found in their Copies

thefe words, thefe Interpreters feem to have

is

11.

iis הוחל

A

P

W

is the most common word by which the on der in other places. Befides, word not read elsewhere, nor are the Rabbi Go agreed in the Signification it fhould haveiron place. The Notion of prophaning the no of Jehovah, is as unlikely to be true as ththe ther. Neither do we find, that the Nam fo Fehovah was, by the Heathens, given to t Idol Gods. Nor is it likely, that the Cainitesa were driven out of the prefence and face of true Jehovah, perfifted thus long in the wo of him from whose prefence they were dr for that Piaculum of their Patriarchal Ance But the fenfe of the LXXII. is plain, and e and intelligible, and very agreeable to the tions of the Sacred Writer, and the Times by writes of. His way is, when he mentions a triarch's Name, to obferve fomething when Subject afforded it, for which that Patria was fingularly remarkable. I need not give i ftances from others of the Sacred Writers, na other Books of Mofes himself. This very Book this very Chapter, affords enough for our pur pofe. Upon the mention of Jabal, he adds: He was the Father of fuch as dwell in Tents, v. 20. So concerning Jubal: He was the Fr ther of all fuch as handle the Harp and Organ v. 21. The connexion is in neither place by Norm, as Monfieur le Clerk would have it here, but by the Particle N, of which we have foot-fteps in this very place, in the word mn, not elsewhere read, and for that very reafon fufpicious, because it is not fo. This therefore being the Author's cuftom, it was ve ry proper for him, to obferve here, the Time and Perfon from whom fo ftrange, and (to 0. ther Nations) incredible a Privilege had its original, that the God who had created all Na

H

t

ions fhould receive one particular Nation into is peculiar Patronage, fo as to be called their God in contradiftinction to all the other Nations created by him. This was a Privilege, 10 doubt, maligned by other Nations, and herefore very worthy of a remark in his Hitory of the firft Precedent of it. And it was very proper obfervation upon the mention of Patriarch, because I have fhewn, that those National Deities were firft appropriated by Covenants either explicite, or implicite, made with thofe Deities by fome of those first Pariarchs, for themselves and their Pofterity. And Seth or Enos were, either of them, fit Perfons to have this obfervation made of them by Mofes, because they were both of them his Ancestors, and the common Ancestors of his Nation. And the place where he mentions it, was a very likely one, because the very Circumtances were fuch as were likely to answer the Hope here mentioned. Seth's Mother Eve, at his Birth, had ominated his fubftitution in the in the place of his Brother Abel. That is, that his Sacrifices were to be more acceptable to God than thofe of his Brother Cain. And thefe omens, in thofe early Times, were real Prophecies, and thofe Patriarchal ones, fuch as were not to be confined to their Perfons, but were also to reach their Pofterity. And, even then, Cain's Exile for his Crime, had left Seth in the fole poffeffion of that Country, which was confecrated by the vifible Symbols of the prefence of the fupreme Deity, Jehovah, as has already been obferved. I do not know withal, whether the reafon why this appropriation of the Divine Care to the Pofterity of Seth, may not therefore have been afcribed to his Hope, because we read of no exprefs Covenant for

him

him and his Pofterity with Jehovah, as was in the cafe of Abraham. Nor does seem to have heen any need of it, as ther afterwards. Seth made no Innovation, bu his Pofterity ftedfaft to the fame Religion, he had received from his Father Adam Tradition more antient and more uninter ted than could be pretended for any other ligion that might have been fubftituted in of it. And whilft he did fo, he intitled his fterity alfo to the fame Favours that had ly been fhewn by God to his Worshippers out any exprefs Covenant. But this the P rity, if not of Cain, at least of Adam's Children, might plead as well as he, as def dent from their common Fore-father Adam well as he, till they had made themselves worthy of it, and forfeited it, by their gr and continued Impieties. And their doing generally, and God's thereupon withdrawing care from them as they denied their Duty him, feems to have been that which left S and his Pofterity only in poffeffion of this Righ of being the only peculiar care of their com mon Creatour: Which is the very thing I men by the notion of a Peculium. This was an ho nour that accrued to them, by the undutiful Behaviour of the other Patriarchs, which mig justly forfeit Favours for themselves, and the Pofterity; and was at this very time, in a like ly profpect, and therefore was very likely t have begun at this time, whilft the Pofterity of Seth were fo conftant, and the others fo profi gately bent on their begun Apoftafy. It might be fides, be afcribed to Hope, because the Pofteri ty of Seth alfo afterwards generally, excepting Noab and his Family, perifhed in the Deluge But, they were in a hopeful likely condition of proving