it; and tho' I think there is no Reafon to magnify Adam's Knowledge, as fome Writers have done, yet it muft furely be beyond all Queftion, that the Inhabitants of this first World were moft fenfibly convinced of God's being the Creator of all Things they needed no Deductions of Reason, or much Faith to lead them to this Truth: they were almoft Eye-witneffes of it: Methuselah died but a little before the Flood, and lived 245 Years with Adam; fo that, tho' the World had ftood above 1600 Years at the Deluge, yet the Tradition of the Creation had paffed but thro' two Hands. 2. They had a very remarkable Promise made them by God in the Judgment paffed upon the Serpent: I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman, and between her Seed and thy Seed, He fhall bruife thy Head, and thou shalt bruife his Heel. 3. God was more fenfibly prefent in the World then, than he now is. He appeared to them by Angels; he caufed them to hear Voices, or to dream Dreams; and by these, and fuch extraordinary ways and means as these were, he convinced them of their Duties, inftructed them in his Will, and gave them Directions for the Conduct of their Lives: And in this Senfe many good and virtuous Men in this first World, and for feveral Ages after the Flood, had the Happiness to D 3 walk walk with God; to have an Intercourfe with the Deity, by divers extraordinary Revelations of himself, which he was pleased to give them in all Parts of their Lives, if they took care to live up to their Duties: If indeed any of them ran into evil Courfes of Sin and Wickedness, then they are faid to be bid from the Face of the Lord; or God is faid to turn away his Face from them; or, to caft them away from his Prefence; by all which Expreffions is meant, that from that time the Intercourfe between God and them ceafed, and that God fo far left them, as to give them none of thofe Revelations and Directions about his Will and their Conduct, which they might otherwife have had from him. And as this was the State of the first World with regard to God's Prefence in it; So, 4thly, I believe from hence was derived the Religion of it, God himself teaching thofe Perfons he was pleafed to converfe with, what Sacrifices he would have offered, what religious Ceremonies they should use, and how they fhould order themfelves in his Worship. We do not meet any of God's exprefs Orders in thefe Matters before the Flood, for the History is very fhort; after the Flood we have a great many: but the very Nature of the Worship that was in Ufe, does fufficiently evidence, that it came into Ufe from divine Appointment, and and was not invented by the Wit of Man. Sacrifices were offered from the Fall of Adam; Cain and Abel, we are fure, used them: and the Method of worshipping by Sacrifices does in no wife appear to be an human Contrivance, invented by the natural Light or common Reafon of Men. If God had never appeared to the first Men at all, Reafon alone, if rightly used, would have induced them to think that there was a God, and that they were obliged to live in his Fear a virtuous Life, and it might have led them to have prayed to Him in their Wants, and to have praised and adored Him for his Favours; but I cannot fee upon what Thread or Train of Thinking, they could poffibly be led to make Atonement for their Sins, or Acknowledgments for the divine Favours, by the Oblations or Expiations of any forts of Sacrifice: It is much more reasonable to think that God himself appointed this Worship. All Nations in the World have used it. They that were fo happy as to walk with God, were instructed in it from Age to Age: The rest of Mankind, who had caufed God to turn his Face from them, and to leave them to themselves, continued the Method of Worship, they had before learned, and fo facrificed; but they invented in time new Rites and new Sacrifices, according to their Humours and Fancies, and by degrees D 4 grees departed from the true Worship, and at length from the true God. We meet with feveral Particulars about the Religion of the Antediluvians. 1. That they had ftated annual and weekly Sacrifices; that Cain and Abel, when they came to offer, came to one of thefe folemn and publick Acts of Worfhip. Thefe Things may perhaps be true, but we have no certain Evidence that they are fo. Ariftotle is quoted to confirm this Opinion, who fays that fuch stated Sacrifices were from the Beginning; but it fhould be confidered, that the Heathen Records commonly fall vaftly fhort of thefe Times, and when Ariftotle or any other fuch Writer fpeaks of a Thing as practifed from the Beginning, they can fairly be fuppofed to mean no more than that it was in ufe earlier than the Times of which they had any Hiftory; which it might eafily be, and at the fame time be much more modern than the Beginning of the World. Other Writers would prove this Opinion from fome Words of Scripture. Mikkets Famim, Gen. iv. ver. 3. fignify, fome fay, At the End of the Week, others fay, At the End of the Year; but thefe I think are precarious Criticisms. The Words fairly conftrued, are no more than, At the End of Days, or, as we render them, In process of Time, 2 Some 2. Some have thought that the firft Inftitution of publick Worship, was in the Days of Enos the Son of Seth; others, that not the publick Worship of Cod, but that Idolatry or falfe Worship took its Rife at that Time: both thefe Opinions are founded upon the Expreffion at the End of Gen. iv. Then began Men to call upon the Name of the Lord. The Defenders of the firft Opinion conftrue the Hebrew Words in the following manner, Then Men began to invoke the Name of the Lord, i. e. to fet up and join in publick Invocations of it; for as to private ones, they had without doubt ufed them from the Beginning. This Interpretation is more eafy and natural than that which follows it; bwa Nph [likra be Shem] seems pretty well to anfwer our English Expreffion, To call upon the Name, or invoke it, but P [Kara] is a Verb tranfitive, and N [Kara Shem] might fignify to invoke the Name, but Du NGP [Kara be Shem] has quite another Meaning. The Authors of the fecond Opinion, who would prove the Rife of Idolatry from thefe Words, think the Word 7 Hochal not to fignify They began, but They profaned: They make the Sentence run thus, Then they profaned in calling upon the Name of the Lord. The Verb n does indeed sometimes fignify to profane, and fometimes to begin; but then it ought to be |