[ecution," he went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod,” a vagabond flying from place to place, skulking in corners, shunning the haunts of men, pursued incessantly by the remorseful pangs, and tormenting apprehensions of an ill conscience. Though you remove all external danger, yet "the wicked is as the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt:" he is "majormissabib," a terror to himself. To live in perpetual fear, to live at discord with a man's self, is not to live at all.

The posterity of Cain are represented in scripture, as the first to build a city. The mutual fears and wants of men drive them into society; put them upon raising bulwarks, devising restraints, cultivating the arts which afford the means of defence against attacks from without, or which amuse and divert within. The invention of music, and of manufactures in brass and iron, are, accordingly, likewise ascribed to his descendants. When men are got together in great multitudes, as their different talents will naturally whet each other to the invention of new arts of life, and the cultivation of science; so their various passions, mingling with, and acting upon one another, will necessarily produce unheard-of disorders and irregulari ties. Hence, in Enoch, the city of Cain, and in Lamech, the sixth from Cain, we first read of that invasion of the rights of mankind, polygamy, or the marrying more wives than one. In a great city, as there will be many who omit doing their duty altogether, so there will be some, who will take upon them to do more than duty prescribes. The unvarying nearness, or equality which Providence has preserved from the creation of the world, of male and female births, is full demonstration, independent of all statute law, that the Governor of the world means every man to have his own wife, and every woman her own husband; that to neglect his intention in this matter, is an attempt to counteract his providence; and that to outrun it is an effort, equally vain, presumptuous, wicket., and absurd, to mend his work.

For, supposing them to have been married in the nineteenth year of the world, they might easily have had each of them eight children in the twenty-fifth year. In twenty-five years more, the fiftieth of the world, their descendants, in a direct line, would be sixtyfour persons. In the seventy-fifth year, at the same rate, they would amount to five hundred and twelve. In the one hundredth year, to four thousand and ninety-six: and in the one hundred and twenty-fifth year, to thirty-two thousand seven hundred and sixtyeight." Now, if to this calculation we add, the high degree of probability that Adam had many more sons, besides those mentioned in the record; that families were generally more numerous than the supposition states; that simple manners, rural employments, temperature of climate, and largeness of roon. are circumstances inconceivably more favourable to population, than modern facts and European customs give us any idea of, we shall have no reason to think it strange, that Cain, under the pressure of conscious guilt, and harrowed with fear, which always both multiplies and magnifies objects far beyond their real number and size, should be alarmed and intimidated at the numbers of mankind, who, he supposed, were ready, and were concerned to execute vengeance upon him. "He went out," the history informs us, "from the presence of the Lord." Some interpreters have, from this expression, concluded, that even after the fall, God continued to reside among men, in some sacred spot adjoining to Eden, and in some sensible tokens of his gracious presence: that thither gifts and sacrifices were brought, and were there offered up; and that from thence, Cain, for his heinous transgression, was banished and excluded from the society and privileges of the faithful. Whatever be in this, we know for certain that wicked men naturally shun God, and drive him as far from their thoughts as they can: and in the phrase of scripture, God is said to "hide his face" from wicked men, "to turn his back" upon them, "to give them up," to denote his displeasure with them. "And he dwelt," it is added, "in How long Cain lived, and when, or where, the land of Nod." It is the same word which and in what manner he died, we have no inis rendered in the twelfth and fourteenth formation. And little satisfaction can it yield, verses, a vagabond. Why our translators, to attend the footsteps of a wicked and unin the two former verses give the meaning, happy man, through a life of guilt and reor import of the word, and in the sixteenth morse, to a latter end of horror. Better for verse, the letters of it merely, is not easily him he had never been born, than to have comprehensible. Let it be translated through-lived a sorrow to her that bare him, detested out, the sense is perfectly clear, and all ground of idle inquiry taken away. In the twelfth verse, God denounces his punishment, Thou shalt not die, but be Nod, a vagabond in the earth. In the fourteenth verse, Cain recognizes the justice of his sentence, and bewails it; "I shall be Nod, a vagabond in the earth." And in the sixteenth, Moses gives us the history of its being put in ex

and shunned of all men, "a fugitive and a vagabond In the earth," a burthen and a terror to himself. Better for him his name had never been mentioned among posterity, than to have it transmitted to latest generations, stained with a brother's blood. But it is of high importance to know, that God, in his good time, supplied the place of righteous Abel, preserved alive the holy seed, and so

cured a succession, which should at length | murderous Cain? A female hand armed with terminate in that "promised seed," who was a sword, lifted up to slay, dipped in blood! "to bruise the serpent's head," who was "to No, she wields a more deadly weapon, she destroy the works of the devil." "And brandishes an envenomed tongue: poison Adam knew his wife again: and she bare a more fatal than that of asps is under her lips; son, and called his name Seth; for God, said it is not the body that suffers, when that unshe, hath appointed me another seed, instead ruly member moves; it is the spirit, it is the of Abel, whom Cain slew." spirit that bleeds: the man dies, and sees not who it was that hurt him; he perishes in the best part of himself, his good name is blasted; and what has he left worth possessing? The sight of a little material blood makes her faint: a dead corpse terrifies and shocks her, but she can calmly, and with delight, sit down to that horrid human sacrifice, a murdered, mangled reputation!

This wicked man's history is a loud admonition to all to watch over their spirits; and carefully to guard against the first emotions of envy, anger, hatred, contempt, malice, or revenge. And the words of Jesus Christ confirm and enforce the solemn warning, "I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say unto his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."*

Hold thy bloody hand, son, daughter of murderous Cain! Why should a brother, à sister fall by it! That furious look is a dagger; that unkind word has made the blood, the heart's blood to follow it. Daughter of

*Matt. v. 22-24.

But the history, also, in its connexion, inspires holy joy and confidence in God, by representing the constant, seasonable, and suitable interpositions of his providence, according to the various exigencies of mankind. Devils and wicked men are continually aiming at defacing his image, at marring his work; but they cannot prevail. The purposes of the divine wisdom and mercy are not to be defeated by the united efforts of earth and hell. Abel dies, but Seth starts up in his room. Jesus expires on the cross, but “through death destroys him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Surely, O Lord, the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain."

HISTORY OF ENOCH.

LECTURE VI.

And Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.-GENESIS v. 24.

THE regular and uniform dominion of the laws of nature, or the occasional suspension and alteration of them, are equally a proof of the being and providence of God. Whether the sun, with uninterrupted speed, continues to perform his daily and annual course; or whether he "stands still in Gibeon," or "goes back on the dial of Ahaz;" the interposition of the Most High is equally apparent, and equally to be adored. And why may not He, who has "appointed unto all men, once to die," in order to make his power known, and his goodness felt, exhibit here and there an illustrious exemption from the power of the grave, and thereby vindicate his sovereign rights as the great arbiter and disposer of life and death.

To fallen Adam it was denounced, "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return;" by

one man "sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" But, behold, the mortal sentence is remitted in favour of Enoch, the seventh from Adam; behold the order of nature is altered, the decree of Heaven is dispensed with; he is "translated without tasting of death." When an event, so entirely out of course, takes place, it is natural, and not unprofitable, to inquire into the causes of it; for when the issue is singular and uncommon, we justly conclude that the circumstances which led to it, were likewise singular and uncommon. The holy scriptures afford us, but sparingly, materials for a life which concluded so very differently from that of other men; but what they have furnished, is striking and instructive.

The venerable father of the human race

had now himself paid the debt of nature. | teaches disrespect to the secular destinations The curse of the broken law had been seen of providence, or the relative obligations and and felt in the unnatural and premature death connexions of life. No, it is the religion of of Abel; and was at length inflicted, in the Satan, which would represent as impure, departure of Adam, at the mature age of nine what God declares pure, and permits to all, hundred and thirty years. The events which enjoins upon all; it is "a seducing spirit, and had hitherto taken place from the fall, were a doctrine of devils," which forbids to marry, So many successive demonstrations of the "which God hath created to be received justice of God; under the weight of which, with thanksgiving of them who believe and men were, one after another, sinking into the know the truth." What, is a wretched soligrave. All that mercy had as yet done, was tary monk in his cell holier than Enoch, the to grant a reprieve of forfeited life: and death, father of a numerous family, who pleased though delayed to the thousandth year, is God, so as to be rewarded with exemption still bitterness in the end. We may reason- from death, and with immediate admission ably suppose the faithful themselves to have into the kingdom of heaven? He who lives been overwhelmed at the sight of so many unconnected, wilfully contracts his sphere vials of wrath, poured out from time to time of being useful, and of doing good; he wickon their guilty race: and that they were in- edly hides his talent in the ground; he robs capable of discovering the promises of favour God, his country, and his kindred, of services and triumph, of life and immortality, through which they have a just right to expect from the obscure veil of that promise, "the seed him. of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent." The sacrifice of Abel indeed discovered a faith in God, which raised the spirit above the fear and the stroke of death; and good men like him, would be led in their dying moments, with holy confidence and joy, to commit their departing souls to God, as unto a faithful Creator; but the body evidently returned to its dust, suffered corruption, and was dissolved. Religion accordingly furnished, as yet, but imperfectly, one of the most powerful motives which it proposes to bring men unto God, as "the rewarder of all them that diligently seek him." But at length he vouchsafes to unveil the invisible world; and shows it to be possible "for flesh and blood to inherit the kingdom of God." Within fifty-seven years from the time that Adam was laid in the dust, Enoch, without undergoing that change, passes immediately into the presence and paradise of God. And thus there was placed before the eyes of the church, and of the world, in that early period, an anticipated view and example of the final victory which the Messiah was at last to obtain over death, and all the other enemies of man's salvation.

Again, this holy man deserves our notice, as one of the great ancestors of the human race; as a link in the mighty chain of providence, which was gradually bringing on that eventful period, that fulness of time, when "the first-born among many brethren,” last in order of succession, but first in dignity, should come for our salvation. Enoch was born in the year of the world six hundred and twenty-two. Adam died fifty-seven years before his translation. Of consequence they were contemporaries, or lived together, for no less a period than three hundred and eight years. Adam's whole stock of natural and divine knowledge might accordingly have been, and most probably was, communicated, by word of mouth, to Enoch, in so long a course of years: and much did he profit by a communication so important. And this, by the way, instructs us in one final cause of the longevity of the patriarchs in the antediluvian world. As there was then no written word, no transferable record of divine truth, all religious knowledge must have been greatly marred and impaired, if not entirely lost, in the rapid lapse of generations, reduced to the present short standard of half Enoch, however illustrious and distinguish- a century. But God graciously lengthened ed in his latter end, as well as by the supe-out life then to many centuries; whereby rior sanctity of his life, came into the world in the usual manner, and fulfilled the duties of the ordinary relations of human life, while he continued in it. One great branch of holy walking with God, is useful walking among men. Having, to the proper period, lived in the obedience and subjection of a son, he in due time becomes the master of a family and a father; for Methuselah was born to him in the sixty-fifth year of his age, a Enoch was an illustrious person, not only period earlier than that at which any of the in the church, but among the heathen.patriarchs, according to the record, became Eusebius, the famous ecclesiastical historian, a parent, except his grandfather Mahalaleel. who flourished and wrote in the fourth cenIt is not the religion of God, which with-tury of the christian era, quotes Eupolemus, draws or excludes men from society; and a heathen author of credit, as affirming, that

the father was enabled to instruct his pos terity of the seventh or eighth generation, in the things which he himself had received immediately from the fountain of all truth and knowledge. Thus are the dispensations of Providence suited to the necessities of mankind; thus can God remedy every inconveniency, and make up every defect, in a way peculiar to himself. But to proceed,

of "faith, and love, and of a sound mind." Not like Balaam, who saw in prophetic vi sion, the star of Jacob arising, but in unbelief shut his eyes against its light; who descried things to come by the inspiration of the living God; but sottishly yielded homage to them who are no gods; who lived a prophet, but died an idolater; not like Caiaphas, who, following the impulse of his own passions, and governed by the prejudice of a blinded mind, uttered a truth which he was not aware of; stumbled on a prediction which he was unknowingly, undesignedly, helping to fulfil: But Enoch, impressed with the solemn truth which he preached to others, daily improved by it himself. How apt are men to err in this respect! They earnestly covet the gifts, which are dispensed but to a few, and are not always sanctified to the possessor; while they are careless about the graces which God is ever ready to bestow upon all, and which always accompany salvation. Let me possess, O God, an humble and a charitable spirit, though with the simplicity of a child, rather than "speak with the tongue of men or of angels," and be destitute of it.

This leads us to the interesting, important, and instructive part of Enoch's history, namely, his moral and religious character, expressed in these few but comprehensive words, "Enoch walked with God." Every thing else is transitory and fading. Youthful vigour and beauty are but the short-lived flowers of the

the Babylonians consider Enoch as the author of their astrology; and allege, that he is the same who is called Atlas by the Greeks, who, from his profound skill in natural objects, and particularly from his discoveries in astronomy, was hyperbolically said to sustain the heavens on his shoulders. The expression, "Enoch walked with God," is, in conformity to this opinion, interpreted of his close and intense application to the study of nature, and of the great additions to the public stock of acquired knowledge, which he made, in consequence of it. That this may warrantably be supposed to constitute one branch of "walking with God" we are not disposed to deny. The study of nature is honourable, pleasing, and improving, and "the invisible things of God" may be clearly traced in "the things that are made." But had Enoch been merely a great naturalist, a sagacious astronomer, or a profound soothsayer, he had not been transmitted to future generations by a distinction so honourable and so uncommon; nor had his history merited so much of your attention as has already been bestowed upon it. Whether he was an adept in the science of nature or not, we know, upon the best authority, that he was a great "prophet;" for Jude the servant of Jesus Christ, in his general epistle, quotes him in that quality, in these words: "Enoch also the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judg-spring, which die as soon as they are born; ment upon all, and to convince all, that are ungodly among them, of their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."* Now it is no business of mine to inquire in what record Jude found this prophecy of Enoch; it is sufficient for my purpose that an Apostle of the Lord delivers it as such. Our purpose, is not to answer the objections, and refute the cavils of unbelievers, but, humbly to attempt to illustrate, enforce, and apply scripture truth, to those who receive the Bible as the word of God; as the guide of their faith, the source of their hope, and the rule of their life. From the prophecy itself, it is of importance to observe how early, and how powerfully the doctrine of a judgment to come was taught to the world. How clearly do those men discern, whose eyes are opened by the Spirit of the living God! How vast and how profound must that intelligence be, which can communicate, even to man, the foreknowledge of events the nost remote; which revealed to Enoch, in the very infancy of the world, the awful day of its dissolution!

In this holy man it is apparent, that the grace of God's Spirit accompanied his gifts; the spirit of prophecy blended with the spirit

* Jude, verses 14, 15.

the honourable distinctions of this world are bubbles of empty air, which burst in a moment, and disappear for ever; scientific researches and discoveries, are only the amusements of children, who know but in part, and see as "in a glass darkly;" but holy walking with God is the honourable employment of a man; it is a permanent and perennial source of satisfaction: it is the essence of life; the cure of pain; the conqueror of death; the gate of immortality; it is heaven upon earth. And wherein does it consist? "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" No. Walking with God must therefore commence in reconciliation to God: and scripture knows, acknowledges, teaches no other way of reconciliation but one. And the sacred commentator on the passage and character under review, lays down this great leading principle of religion, as the foundation of Enoch's holy conversation, and of the honours which he of consequence attained-" 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. But 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 him."* Now, in every age of

* Hebrews xi. 5, 6.