they did the rather, to obviate that torrent of profaneness and impiety which by means of the sons of Cain they saw flowing in upon the world. This will be farther confirmed, if we take the words, as by some they are rendered, “then men began to be called by the name of the Lord;" that is, the difference and separation that was between the children of Seth and Cain every day ripening into a wider distance, the posterity of Seth began to take to themselves a distinctive title, that the world might the better distinguish between those who kept to the service of God, and those who threw off religion, and let loose the reins to disorder and impiety. And hereof we meet with clear intimation in the story of those times, when we read of “the sons of God," (who doubtless were the pious and devout posterity of Seth, calling themselves after the name of the Lord, whom they constantly and sincerely worshipped, notwithstanding the fancy of Josephus and the fathers that they were angels, or that of the Jewish paraphrasts that they were, "the sons of great men and princes;") in opposition to the ", “the sons of men," the impure and debauched posterity of Cain, who made light of religion, and were wholly governed by earthly and sensual inclinations. And the matching of these "sons of God" with the "daughters of men," that is, those of the family of Cain, and the fatal consequences of those unhappy marriages, was that which provoked God to destroy the world. I have no more to add concerning Enos, than that we are told, that dying he gave the same commands to his children which he had received of his father, that they should make religion their great care and business, and keep themselves pure from society and converse with the line of Cain. XIV. After Enos was his son Kenan, who, as the Arabian historian informs us," ruled the people committed to him by a wise and excellent government, and gave the same charge at his death that had been given to him. Next Kenan comes Mahalaleel," who carries devotion and piety in his very name, signifying, one that praises God," of whom they say, that he trained up the people in ways of justice and piety, blessed his children at his death, and, having charged them to separate from the Cainites, appointed his son Jared to be his successor; whose name denotes 66 • Gen. vi. 2. P Elmacin. ap. Hotting. Smeg. Orient. c. 8. P. 233. 66 a descent," probably either because of the notable decrease and declension of piety in his time, or because in his days some of the Sethites descended from the holy mountain to mix with the posterity of Cain. For so the Oriental writers inform us,' that a great noise and shout coming up from the valley, an hundred of the holy mountaineers agreed to go down to the sons of Cain, whom Jared endeavoured to hinder by all the arts of counsel and persuasion. But what can stop a mind bent upon an evil course? down they went, and being ravished with the beauty of the Cainite women, promiscuously committed folly and lewdness with them; from whence sprang a race of giants, men of vast and robust bodies, but of more vicious and ungovernable tempers, who made their will their law, and might the standard and rule of equity. Attempting to return back to the holy mount, heaven had shut up their way, the stones of the mountain burning like fire when they came upon them; which whether the reader will have faith enough to believe, I know not. Jared being near his death, advised his children to be wise by the folly of their brethren, and to have nothing to do with that profane generation. His son Enoch followed in his steps, a man of admirable strictness and piety, and peculiarly exemplary for his innocent and holy conversation, it being particularly noted of him, that "he walked with God." He set the divine majesty before him, as the guide and pattern, the spectator and rewarder of his actions; in all his ways endeavoured to approve himself to his all-seeing eye, by doing nothing but what was grateful and acceptable to him; he was the great instance of virtue and goodness in an evil age, and by the even tenor and constancy of a holy and religious life, shewed his firm belief and expectation of a future state, and his hearty dependence upon the divine goodness for the rewards of a better life. And God, who is never behindhand with his servants, crowned his extraordinary obedience with an uncommon reward. "By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him : for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." And what that faith was, is plain by what follows after, a belief of God's being and his bounty. "Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek r Elmac. et Patric. apud Hotting. c. 8. p. 235. t Heb. xi. 5, 6. s Gen. v. 24. him." What this translation was, and whither it was made, whether into that terrestrial paradise out of which Adam was expelled and banished, and whereunto Enoch had desired of God he might be translated, as some fancy; or whether placed among the stars, as others; or carried into the highest heavens, as others will have it, were nice and useless speculations. It is certain he was taken out of these mutable regions, and set beyond the reach of those miseries and misfortunes to which a present state of sin and mortality does betray us; translated, probably, both soul and body, that he might be a type and specimen of a future resurrection, and a sensible demonstration to the world that there is a reward for the righteous, and another state after this wherein good men shall be happy for ever. I pass by the fancy of the Jews, as vain and frivolous, that though Enoch was a good man, yet was he very mutable and inconstant and apt to be led aside, and that this was the reason why God translated him so soon, lest he should have been debauched by the charms and allurements of a wicked world. He was an eminent prophet, and a fragment of his prophecy is yet extant in St. Jude's epistle; by which it appears, that wickedness was then grown rampant, and the manners of men very corrupt and vicious, and that he as plainly told them of their faults, and that divine vengeance that would certainly overtake them. Of Methuselah his son nothing considerable is upon record but his great age, living full nine hundred and sixty-nine years, (the longest proportion which any of the patriarchs arrived to,) and died in that very year wherein the flood came upon the world. XV. From his son Lamech, concerning whom we find nothing memorable, we proceed to his grandchild Noah, by the very imposition of whose name his parents presaged that he would be a refreshment and comfort to the world, and highly instrumental to remove that curse which God by an universal deluge was bringing upon the earth: "He called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed: he was one in whom his parents did acquiesce and rest satisfied, that he would be eminently useful and serviceable to the world. Indeed, he proved a person of incomparable sanctity and integrity, "a preacher of righteousness" to others, and who as care u Gen. v. 29. X fully practised it himself. He" was a just man, and perfect in his generation, and he walked with God." He did not warp and decline with the humour of the age he lived in, but maintained his station and kept his line. "He was upright in his generation." It is no thanks to be religious, when it is the humour and fashion of the times: the great trial is, when we live in the midst of a corrupt generation. It is the crown of virtue to be good, when there are all manner of temptations to the contrary, when the greatest part of men go the other way, when virtue and honesty are laughed and drolled on, and censured as an over-wise and affected singularity; when lust and debauchery are accounted the modes of gallantry, and pride and oppression suffered to ride in prosperous triumphs without control. Thus it was with Noah; he contended with the vices of the age, and dared to own God and religion when almost all mankind besides himself had rejected and thrown them off. For in his time wickedness openly appeared with a brazen förehead, and violence had covered the face of the earth; the promiscuous mixtures of the children of Seth and Cain had produced giants and mighty men, men strong to do evil, and who had as much will as power, ὑβρισταὶ παῖδες, καὶ παντὸς ὑπερόπται καλοῦ διὰ τὴν δὲ τῇ δυνάμει πεποίθησιν, as Josephus describes them," "a race of men insolent and ungovernable, scornful and injurious, and who bearing up themselves in the confidence of their own strength, despised all justice and equity, and made every thing truckle under their extravagant lusts and appetites." The very same character does Lucian give of the men of this age, speaking of the times of Deucalion (their Noah) and the food; ὑβρισταὶ κάρτα ἐόντες (says he*) ἀθέμιστα ἔργα ἔπρασσον· οὔτε γὰρ ὅρκια ἐφύλασσον, οὔτε ξενίους ἐδέχοντο, οὔτε ἱκετέων ἠνείχοντο, ἀνθ' ὧν σφίσι ἡ μεγάλη συμφορὴ ἀπίκετο· αὐτίκα γὰρ ἡ γῆ πολλὸν ὕδωρ ἐκδιδοῖ, &c. "Men exceedingly scornful and contumelious, and guilty of the most unrighteous and enormous actions, violating all oaths and covenants, throwing off kindness and hospitality, and rejecting all addresses and supplications made to them." For which cause great miseries overtook them: for heaven and earth, seas and rivers, conspired together to pour out mighty floods upon the world; which swept all away, but Deucalion only, who for his y Antiq. Jud. 1. i. c. 4. z De Dea Syria. vol. ii. p. 882. * Gen. vi. 9. prudence and piety was left to repair mankind. And so he goes on with the relation consonant to the accounts of the sacred story. This infection had spread itself over all parts, and was become so general and epidemical, that "all flesh had corrupted their ways," and scarce any besides Noah left to keep up the face of a church, and the profession of religion. Things being come to this pass, quickly alarmed the divine justice, and made the world ripe for vengeance; the patience of God was now tired out, and he resolved to make mankind feel the just effects of his incensed severity. But yet in the midst of judgment he remembers mercy: he tells them, that though he would not suffer his patience to be eternally prostituted to the wanton humours of wicked men, yet that he would bear with them an hundred and twenty years longer,' in order to their reformation. So loth is God to take advantage of the sins of men, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come unto repentance." In the mean time righteous Noah found favour with heaven, (a good man hath a peculiar guardianship and protection in the worst of times,) and God orders him to "prepare an ark for the saving of his house." An hundred years was this ark in building, not but that it might have been finished in a far less time, but that God was willing to give them so long a space for wise and sober considerations, Noah preaching all the while, both by his doctrine and his practice, that they would break off their sins by repentance, and prevent their ruin. But "they that are filthy will be filthy still:" the hardened world persisted in their impieties, till the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost, and "destroyed the world of the ungodly." God shut up Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, into the ark, together with provisions, and so many creatures of every sort as were sufficient, not only for food, but for reparation of the kind, (miracles must not be expected where ordinary means may be had,) and then opened the windows of heaven, and broke up the fountains of the deep, and brought in the flood that swept all away. Twelve months Noah and his family continued in this floating habitation; when the waters being gone, and the earth dried, he came forth, and the first thing he did was to erect an altar, and offer up an eucharistical sacrifice to God for so remarkable a deliverance, (some of the Jews tell us, that coming out of the ark he was bitten by a lion, and rendered |