mane Bodies, and that the Heroes he speaks of were to be understood proportionably of Souls incarnate of a middle Nature, partly Humate the and partly Divine. That fame way of reckon ing the Egyptian Succeffion from Gods and Demi-gods, is followed by Manetho, who wa himfelf an Egyptian Prieft, and therefore mot perfectly verfed in thofe Records of his Nation which had been inacceffible to Strangers. And that the Greeks agreed in the fame opinion, t appears abundantly from their Genealogical T bles in many Examples. And thofe Genealo gies are among the firft of their Hiftorical Mo numents. Pindar generally traces his Vi from God's. And their antienteft Poets do the like with their Heroes. So far it was from be ing rare for Hecat aus and Herodotus himself Ap. Theoph. Ant. do fo. Thus Satyrus derived the Extraction Lii. ad Auto- of Ptolomy Philopator from Bacchus. Befor all thefe, Hefiod is one of the eldest Greek A thors now extant. And his Work of "Ery. Hues is most unquestionably his, as appear from Paufanias. Yet even be derived the fame Traditions from his Ancestors who lived near eft the Fountains of thefe Traditions. Imme diately before his own Age, which he reckons the Fifth from the beginning, he reckons the 1. v. 158. Heroes Ανδρῶν Ηρώων θεῖον λύθ Ημίθεοι, υ. 159. Ολβιος Ἥρωες. There are the Titles he calls them by. He has before them three Ranks, two of the Saiores movio, J. 12 122. and exóvior, v. 140. and a third which he feems to make mortal, v. 151, &c. Hence probably Philo might borrow his Opinion, that the Sons of God mentioned by Mofes, were the fame with thofe called Damons by the Phi tophers. Hefiod makes the first fort of thele επιχθόνιοι δαίμονες το be φύλακες της ανθρώποι

22. In all likelihood, the fame with the ane Genit and the Popular Deities. And Genit of the Emperors had, I think, as high ours given them as any God whatfoever, was then worshipped publickly. They had mples, Altars, Priefts, Incenfe, and Sacrifice. that whilft they were living, as well as r their deceafe. And therefore must be fupred equal with their popular Gods, with om they were thus equalled in their Wor.Thence that familiarity of their Gods ge. ally believed in this firft Age of Divine s. Then God himself is by Plato, believed have been at the Helm of the World. Afterrds the Philofophers make 'Arafen and Eice

to take place, when the Souls were corrup le and depended on Matter. But in that f Age, Virgil alfo places Gods and Heroes. od from a new cæleftial Seed, the fame which e Apoftle calls the Lord from Heaven, and Jude Stars. That he implies in thofe words: im nova progenies calo demittitur alto, Eclog. 10.7.. The other in thofe: lle deum vim accipiet, divifq; videbit Permixtos beroas, ipfe videbitur illis. This feems to fuppofe, ar Saloninus fhould have himfelf a Divine out of the higheft Dignity. But Heroes being fa mixt nature, there muft be fuppofed Daugh ers of Men as well as Sons of God, for their Procreation. And though the generality of thofe livine Souls were afterwards withdrawn, when hat diviner Principle was not fo commonly formerly, yet fome were believed to be given in thofe later Ages. Indeed, no great Genius but was thought to be acted by that higher Principle. Seneca fpeaks of it in the very Language of the New Teftament. That which he calls a God, he calls a Holy Spirit

rven a

alfo,

§. LXX.

alfo, and he makes him to be in us, Ep. xlii Thus it appears, that the Spirit of God, the It is probable heavenly Man, was granted to none but the that Cain and Pofterity of Seth at the time of these piacul his Pofterity never had the Marriages. Otherwife they could not have Divine Spirit. been called, in fo appropriated a fenfe, the

Sons of God, when their Wives were only Daugh ters of Men. Whether Cain ever received it or not, may very well be queftioned. He is faid to be of the evil one, I S. John iii. 12. in killing his Brother. That evil one in all likelihood was the Devil, who finned from the beginning, v. 8. The fame is called a murther er from the beginning, S. John viii. 44. By which we understand the hand he had in that very fin of Cain, which was the reafon why Cain is faid to be of the evil one. I have al ready produced the obfervation of the Auth of the Book of Wisdom, ii. 24. that Death came into the World through the envy of the Devil. This, if it be meant of actual Death, can hardly be referred to any thing but the Death of Abel by Cain, who is the firft Example of Death mentioned in the Scripture. Accord L. ii. ad Auto-ingly Theophilus Antiochenus understood it fo. He tells us, that the Devil feeing Adam and Eve not only live after their Fall, but having Chil dren allo, pov pre inftigated Cain to the murther of his Brother Abel. Here was the en

lyc.

vy

of the Devil against our First Parents. But there was alfo another envy acceffary to that fame murther. That was Cain's againft his Brother, on account of his Sacrifice, which was more acceptable to their common Creator. This envy alfo might have been ascribed to the De vil as well as his murther, as being raised in him by the Devil's Tentation. This there fore I take for a truer account of the meaning

1

of that Apocryphal Author than that which I mentioned before, because it was the cause of the first actual Death mentioned in our Scrip

tures.

And Theophilus might have this allo from fome Apocryphal Hellenistical Authorities, which might teach him the fenfe of the Jews of that Age, though they have fince miscarried. Thus it appears, that be fided with the Devil before the murther of his Brother. From that time forward the Devil had a farther title to him, on the account of the Piaculum contracted by that murther. That was a punishment allotted by Providence for the punishment of piacular Crimes, in cafes much more excufable than that of his Oreftes and Alcmeon, who were haunted by the Faries for revenging their Father's Death on their Mothers: Oreftes alfo was faid to be put upon it by the Oracle of Apollo. Yet fo favourable a cafe was not exempted from this part of the punishment. But Cain's Fact being the first of the kind, God feems to have taken that occafion of making the Law concerning piacular Offences, that they should be punished with Exile and a Frenzy, caufed by a guilt of Confcience or the infestation of thefe malignant Spirits, which the Heathens call Furies. The very earliest Monuments agree in thefe Notions, both that Murther was a piacular Crime, and that this haunting by Furies was a proper punishment of it, to be expected from God as an Author of the Law of Nations. Nor could any Reafonings bring them to such an unanimity concerning thefe Opinions, nor any commerce with the Jews in thofe early Ages, wherein we find them poffeffed of them. These therefore being pofitive Inftitutions of God, could not so probably be derived to those times by any other means

P

as that of an Oral Tradition rifing from a con tinued obfervation of the like punishments of fuch Crimes, as often as they were committed. That this was Cain's cafe, is very probable from the crying of his Brother Abel's Blood, and the continual fear he was in of being kil led himself by every one that should meet him. Henceforward therefore he feems to have been abandoned by God from whofe prefence he was driven, and given up to the Devil by whofe inftigation he had committed the Murther. This might be a juft occafion of thofe words of the Apostle, who fays, he was of the evil one. This being fo, made him unfit to receive the Divine Spirit when he was now poffefed by the evil one, as the Spirit of God, which had been given Saul to fit him for his Government, departed from him, when the evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him, 1 Sam. xvi. 14. That utterly difabled him to derive the Divine Spirit to his Pofterity when he had it not himfelf. So thefe Patriarchal Alts are to be underftood as involving themselves and their Pofterity in the confequences of them, whether they were Beneficial or Penal. Yet this Divine Spirit, when once given, feems to have had this effect on thofe to whom it was given, that it immortalized their Nature for punish ment even after it ceafed, to influence them by his gracious Inspirations. Thus it qualified the Angels of the Pofterity of Seth for that eternal imprisonment and punishment in Tartarus, and the blackness of darkness, which are never mentioned of the Daughters or Children of Men. This makes it rather probable, that this Spirit was not given to Cain, nor the other Sons of Adam befides Seth, than that it was token from them. This fuperior Divine Spirit

the