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A. M. 1042. A. C. 2962; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 1070. A. C. 4341. GEN. CH. 5. AND 6. TO VER. 13. and have no manner of intercourse with the impious | their father's will) removed from the plain where they family of the murderer Cain.

son,

had lived, to the mountains over against paradise, where Adam is said to have been buried; and for some time lived there in the fear of God, and in the strictest rules of piety and virtue. But as the family of Cain, daily increased, they came at length to spread themselves

fines of the hill-country, where he had fixed his abode, and there they lived in all kind of riot, luxury, and licentiousness.

In this period of time, Noah, the great-grandson of Enoch, and a person of equal virtue and piety, was born: and as it was discovered to Enoch at the birth of Methuselah, that soon after that child's death, the whole race of mankind should be destroyed for their wicked-over all the plain which Seth had left, even to the conness; so was it revealed to Lamech, at the birth of his 1that he and his family should be preserved from the common destruction, and so become the father of the new world; and for this reason " he called him Noah, which signifies a comforter: though others imagine, that the name was therefore given him, because his father, by the spirit of prophecy, foreknew, that God, in his days, would remove the curse of barrenness from off the face of the earth, and, after the time of the deluge, restore it to its original fertility.

The noise of their revellings might possibly reach the holy mountain where the Sethites dwelt; whereupon some of them might be tempted to go down, merely to gratify their curiosity perhaps at first, but being taken with their deluding pleasures, and intoxicated with the charms of their women, (who were extremely beautiful,) they forgot the charge which their forefathers had given

After the death of Adam, the family of Seth (to fulfil them, and so took to themselves wives of the daughters

1 Bedford's Scripture Chronology.

a The substance of Lamech's prophecy, according to our translation, is this:-'He called his son Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us, concerning the work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed;' and the sense of learned men upon it hath been very different. Some are of opinion, that there is nothing prophetical in this declaration of Lamech's, and that the only cause of his rejoicing was, to see a son born, who might in time be assisting to him in the toil of cultivating the ground. But in this there is nothing particular: in this sense Lamech's words may be applied by every father at the birth of every son; nor can we conceive why a peculiar name should be given Noah, if there was no particular reason for it. The Jewish interpreters generally expound it thus: 'He shall make our labour in tilling the ground more easy to us,' in that he shall be the inventor of several proper tools and instruments of husbandry, to abate the toil and labour of tillage; and some will tell us, that he therefore received his name, because he first invented the art of making wine, a liquor that cheers the heart, and makes man forget sorrow and trouble. But the invention of fit tools for tillage, after that Tubal-Cain had become so great an artificer in brass and silver, seems to belong to one of his descendants, rather than Noah; and as Noah was not the first husbandman in the world, so neither can it be concluded from his having planted a vineyard, that he was the first vine-dresser. Another opinion, not altogether unlike this, is, that Lamech, being probably informed by God, that his son Noah should obtain a grant of the creatures for food, Gen. ix. 5. and knowing the labour and inconveniences they were under, rejoiced in foreseeing what ease and comfort they should have, when they obtained a large supply of food from the creatures, besides what they could produce from the ground by tillage. The restoration of mankind by Noah, and his sons surviving the flood, is thought by many to answer the comfort which Lamech promised himself and his posterity: but the learned Heidegger, after an examination of all these, and some other opinions, supposeth that Lamech, having in mind the promise of God, expected that his son should prove the blessed seed, the Saviour of the world, who was to bruise the serpent's head, and, by his atonement, expiate our sins, which are the works of our own hands, and remove the curse which lay upon sinners. But this, in my opinion, is too forced an exposition. Lamech, it is certain, in virtue of God's promise, expected a deliverance from the curse of the earth, and foresaw that that deliverance would come through his son: but how came it through his son, unless it came in his son's days? And in what instance could it appear, unless it were something subsequent to the flood? And what could that possibly be, unless the removal of the sterility of the earth, and restoring it to its original fruitfulness? For which reason we find God, after the flood, declaring, that he will not curse the earth for man's sake;' and solemnly promising, that while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest shall not cease,' Gen. viii. 22. See Heidegger's History of the Patriarchs; Patrick and Le Clerc's Commentary; Poole's Annotations; Shuckford's Connection; and Bishop Sherlock's Use and Intent of Prophecy, Dissertation 4.

of Cain; from which criminal mixture were born men of vast gigantic stature, who for some time infested the earth: and, in a few generations after, the whole family of Seth (very probably after the death of their pious ancestor) followed the like example, and, forgetting their obligations to the contrary, entered into society with the Cainites, and made intermarriages with them; from whence arose another race of men, no less remarkable for their daring wickedness than for their bold undertakings and adventurous actions.

Evil communications naturally corrupt good manners; and so the example of the wicked family prevailed, and, by degrees, eat out all remains of religion in the posterity of Seth. Noah indeed, who was a good and pious man, endeavoured what he could, 2 both by his counsel and authority, to bring them to a reformation of their manners, and to restore the true religion among them;

Josephus's Antiquities, b. 1. c. 4.

of their manner of living.
Some of the oriental writers have given us a large account
"As to the posterity of Cain," say
they, "the men did violently burn in lust towards the women,
and, in like manner, the women, without any shame, committed
fornication with the men; so that they were guilty of all manner
of filthy crimes with one another, and, meeting together in pub-
lic places for this purpose, two or three men were concerned
with the same woman, the ancient women, if possible, being
promiscuously with their daughters, and the young men with
more lustful and brutish than the young. Nay, fathers lived
their mothers; so that neither the children could distinguish their
testable were the deeds of the Cainites, who spent their days in
own parents, nor the parents know their own children. So de-
lust and wantonness, in singing and dancing, and all kinds of
music, until some of the sons of Seth, hearing the noise of their
music and riotous mirth, agreed to go down to them from the
holy mountain, and, upon their arrival, were so captivated with
the beauty of their women, (who were naked) that they imme-
diately defiled themselves with them, and so were undone. For
when they offered to return again to their former abodes, the
pass no farther."-Eutych. Annals, p. 27.
stones of the mountain became like fire, and permitted them to

c Our excellent Milton describes the manner of their being captivated with the daughters of Cain in these words:

-They on the plain
Long had not walk'd, when from their tents, behold,
A bevy of fair women, richly gay,

In gems, and wanton dress: to th' harp they sung
Soft amorous ditties, and in dance came on.
The men, though grave, eyed them; and let their eyes
Rove without rein; till in the amorous net
First caught, they lik'd, and each his liking chose.

|

A. M. 1536. A. C. 2468; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2136. A. C. 3275. GEN. CH. 5. AND 6. TO VER. 13. "but all he could do was to no purpose. The bent of their thoughts had taken another turn; and all their study and contrivance was, how to gratify their lusts and inordinate passions. In one word, the whole race of mankind was become, so very wicked, that one would have really thought they had been confederated together against Heaven, to violate God's law, to profane his worship, and spurn at his authority; so that his patience and long-suffering came at length to be wearied out and though he is not a man that he should repent, or the son of man, that he should grieve at any thing, yet his concern for the general corruption is represented under that notion, the better to accommodate it to our capacity, and to express his fixed resolution of destroying all mankind for their iniquity, and with them all other creatures made for their use, as if he had repented that ever he made them.

space of 120 years, (which was the term limited for their reprival,) they should forsake their evil ways, repent, and reform, his mercy should be at liberty to interpose, and reverse their doom. All which he communicated to his servant Noah, who, for his justice and singular piety in that corrupt and degenerate age, had found favour in his sight; and for whose sake his family, which consisted of eight persons in all, was to be exempted from the general destruction.

Before he resolved upon their destruction, however, we find him in great struggle and conflict with himself; his justice calling for vengeance, and his mercy pleading for forbearance; till at length his justice prevailed, and denounced the sentence of condemnation upon the wicked world: but still with this reserve-That if, within the

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a Josephus tells us, that Noah, for a long while, opposed the growing impiety of the age; but that at last, finding himself and family in manifest danger of some mortal violence for his goodwill, he departed out of the land himself, and all his people; -Antiq. b. 1. c. 4; and (as the tradition is,) he settled in a country called Cyparisson, which had its name from the great quantity of cypress-trees which grew there, and whereof (as we shall observe hereafter) in all probability he built the ark.

CHAP. II.-Difficulties obviated, and Objections

answered.

1

THAT God of his infinite wisdom might, for very good reasons, think proper to create man at first, and in all the full perfection of his nature, notwithstanding he could not but foresee, that he would sadly degenerate, and turn rebel to his will, is a question we have already endeavoured to resolve, 1 when we treated of the fall of Adam; and by what means his posterity, in the succession of so few generations, as passed from the creation to the flood, became so very corrupt, as to lay God under a necessity to destroy them, may in a great measure be imputed to the length of their lives, and the strength and vigour of their constitutions. For, supposing all mankind, since the original defection, to be born in a state of depraved nature, with their understandings impaired, their wills perverted, and their passions inflamed; we can scarce imagine any restraint consistent with human freedom, sufficient to check their unruly appetites in that height of vigour, and confidence of long life. For if we, who rarely, and with no small difficulty, stretch out the span of seventy years, are hardly withheld from violence and villany by all the dictates of reason and terrors of religion, what can we conceive sufficient to have kept them back, in their strength and security in sin from a continued series of eight or nine hundred years? No interposition of Providence can be supposed available to the reformation of mankind under these circumstances, unless it were such as would either change their nature, or destroy their freedom; and therefore we have reason to believe, that in the space of about 1800 years from the creation, God found them degenerated to such a degree, as if they had lost all sense of their humanity; for this some have made the import of the text, 'my Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh,' that is, it is in vain to use any farther methods of mercy, or monitions of providence with man, who is now entirely given up

As languages were at first invented by such persons as were neither philosophers nor divines, we cannot at all wonder, that we meet with many improprieties in speech, and such actions imputed to God, as no ways comport with the dignity of his nature. Thus, when the Holy Scriptures speak of God, they ascribe hands, and eyes, and feet to him; not that he has any of these members, according to the literal signification; but the meaning is, that he has a power to execute all those acts, to the eflecting of which, these parts in us are instrumental, that is, he En converse with men, as well as if he had a tongue or mouth; can discern all that we do or say, as perfectly as if he had eyes and ears; and can reach us, as well as if he had hands or feet, &c. In like manner, the Scripture frequently represents him, as affected with such passions as we perceive in ourselves, namely, as angry and pleased, loving and hating, repenting and grieving, &c.; and yet, upon reflection, we cannot suppose, that any of these passions can literally affect the divine nature; and therefore the meaning is, that he will as certainly punish the wicked, as if he were inflamed with the passion of anger against them; as infallibly reward the good, as we will those for whom we have a particular affection; and that when he finds any alteration in his creatures, either for the better or the worse, he will as surely change his dispensations towards them, as if he really repented, or changed his mind. It is by way of analogy and comparison, therefore, that the nature and passions of men are ascribed to God: so that when he is said to repent or grieve, the meaning must be, not that he perceived any thing that he was ignorant of before, to give him any uneasiness, (for 'known unto Revelation Examined, vol. 1. him are all his ways from the beginning,') but only that he altered with ch. vii. 11., we shall find, that between this time and the his conduct with regard to men, as they varied in their behav- flood, there were but 100 years. How then did God perform iour towards him, just as we are wont to do when we are moved his promise? Now, in answer to this, it may be said, that the by any of those passions and changes of affections, we, who increasing wickedness of mankind might justly hasten their dwell in houses of clay, and whose foundations are in the dust:' ruin, and forfeit the benefit of this indulgence: but what I take for the very heathens can tell us, that "to alter what hath been to be the true solution is this:-This promise (though menaccomplished is a lessening of majesty, and a confession of error, tioned after what we read in ch. v. 32.) seems nevertheless to for of necessity the same thing must always satisfy him whom have been made 20 years before it: for that verse is added there nothing but the best can please." Seneca in Præf. Nat. Quest. out of its proper place, only to complete the genealogy: and -See Le Clerc's Commentary; Bishop King on Predestina-therefore, after this narrative of the wickedness of the world it ton; and Ainsworth's Annotations.

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This was the term allowed mankind for their repentance, and prevention of their ruin and yet, if we compare ch. v. 32.

1 See

P.

30.

is repeated here in its due order, in the 10th verse: nor are such transpositions uncommon in Scripture, without any diminution to its authority.-Poole's Annotations.

A. M. 1536. A. C. 2468; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2136. A. C. 3275. GEN. CH. 5. AND 6. TO VER. 13.

to fleshly appetites, and by that means sunk down into | preacher of righteousness,' as the apostle styles him, to the lowest condition of brutality.

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By what gradations man arrived at his height of corruption, is not so evident from Scripture: but there are two passages, the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence;' which seem to point out some particular vices: for by violence' is plainly meant cruelty, and outrage, and injustice of every kind; and by corruption, the Jews always understand, either idolatry, or unlawful mixtures and pollutions; the latter of which seems to be denoted here because of the subsequent explication of the words, 'for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.'

exhort that wicked race to forsake their sins, and return unto him; to warn them of their impending doom, if they persisted in their provocations; to give them notice, that 120 years was the stated time of their reprieve, and that, at the end of that period, his fixed determination was to destroy them utterly, unless their amendment averted the judgment. Since these and many more methods of mercy were all along employed by God (and especially in the days that his long-suffering waited, while the ark was preparing) for the recovery of mankind, before the deluge came upon them, they are sufficient to vindicate the ways of God with man, and to justify his severity in bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, which neither his restraints nor rewards, nor all the monitions and exhortations of his prophets, added to his own declarations, institutions, inflictions, and denunciations of vengeance, could reclaim, in the course of so many centuries.3

Now, if we look into the history, we shall find, that the first act of violence was committed by Cain upon his brother Abel; the first act of incontinence by Lamech, in the matter of his polygamy; and that as one of his sons invented the instruments of luxury, so the other invented the instruments of violence and war. As luxury therefore naturally begets a disposition to injure others in their property, and such a disposition, armed with offensive weapons, in the hands of men of a gigantic stature and strength, (as many of the antediluvians very probably were,) tends to beget all manner of insolence and outrage to our fellow-creatures; so these two car-measure, been made instrumental to man's wickedness, dinal vices might naturally enough introduce that train of corruption which drew God's judgments upon the

inhabitants of the earth.

Other living creatures, it is true, were not culpable in this manner: they all answered the ends of their production, and man was the only rebel against his Maker. But as, in an universal deluge, it was impossible to preserve them alive without a miracle; so, having, in some

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unrelenting severity, that thereby he might deter future ages from the like provocations. And this is the inference which the apostle draws from all his judgments of old: If God spared not the angels,' says he, that sinned, but cast them down to hell; if he spared not the old world, but brought in a flood upon the ungodly; if he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes, and condemned them with an overthrow; these are an ensample unto those, that after shall live ungodly;' for (however they may escape in this life) ‘he hath reserved the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.'

innocent though they were, they were all to be destroyed, in order to evince the malignity of sin, and God's abhorrence of it. For the great end of his providence, in Had God indeed given them no intimations of this his sending the deluge was not so much to ease himself of design, no calls to repentance, no means and opportun-his adversaries, as to leave a perpetual monument of his ities of becoming better, before he determined their destruction, something might then be said in opposition to the righteousness of this procedure; but 2 since, from the very beginning, he was pleased, in the sentence he passed upon the serpent, to give them a remarkable promise, that the seed of the woman should destroy the power of that evil spirit which brought sin into the world, and consequently, that all parents were obliged to train up their children in the ways of virtue and religion, without which it was impossible for any of them to be the promised seed, which was to restore mankind to their original perfections; since he himself instituted sacrifices, as a means admirably well fitted to inspire mankind with an horror of guilt, and be, at the same time, a perpetual memorial of the divine mercy from generation to generation; since, in his expulsion of Cain from his presence, and exaltation of Enoch into heaven, he made an open declaration to all future ages, that his vengeance should at all times pursue sin, but his bounty had always in store an ample reward for the righteous; since at this time he exhibited himself to mankind in a more sensible manner than he does now, causing them to hear voices, and to dream dreams, and, by sundry extraordinary❘rived. means, convincing them of their duty, and giving them directions for the conduct of their lives; since, at this time, they had the principles of religion (which were but very few) conveyed to them by an easy tradition, which, by Methuselah's living 248 years with Adam, and dying but a little before the flood, in the compass of 1600 years and more, had but two hands to pass through: and, lastly, since God appointed Noah in particular to be ‘a

1 Gen. vi. 11. Shuckford's Connection, vol. 1. b. 1 3 Revelation Examined, vol. 1.

The Scripture indeed seems to impute all this iniquity to the marriages between the sons of God and the daughters of men; but the misfortune is, that several interpreters, being led away by the authority of the LXX, who (according to Philo) did anciently render what we style the sons of God, by ävysños tov Osoù, have supposed, that wicked and apostate angels assumed, at this time, human bodies, and, having had carnal communication with women, begat of them a race of giants; and from this original, the notion of incubi, or devils conversing with women in the like manner, has ever since been deSt Austin, among many others, is very positive

4

a

2 Pet. ii. 5. stanced in almost all the fathers of the four first centuries, who a Dr Whitby, in his Writings of the Fathers, page 5, has inwere of this opinion; such as Justin Martyr, Irenæus, Athenagoras, Clemens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, St Cyprian, Lactantius, Eusebius, &c., and supposes that this notion took its rise from the vain traditions of the Jews; because we find not only Philo reading the word "yys, or angels, in the Septuagint version, but Josephus likewise asserting, "that the angels of God mixing with women, begat an insolent race (not much unlike that of the giants in the Greek fables) overbearing right with power."-Antiquities, b. 1. c. 4.

Le Clerc's Commentary. 2 Pet. ii. 4, &c.

A. M. 1536. A. C. 2468; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2136. A. C. 3275. GEN. CH. 5. AND 6. TO VER. 13.

in this opinion. "Several people have had the trial," | continued for some time, were so called, and that says he, "and several have heard it from those who daughters of men were the progeny of wicked Cain. And knew it to be true, that the silvani and fauni, commonly why the intermarriages of these two families (even though called incubi, have been often fatal to women, and have there was no express prohibition from God) came to be defiled their bed. It is likewise affirmed with so much so provoking to him, and in the end so destructive to confidence, that certain demons (called durii among the themselves, is the next point of our inquiry. Gauls) have not only attempted, but likewise perpetrated these kinds of impure actions, that it would be foolish to make any question of it." But besides the incompatibleness of the notion of a spirit, and the nature of an incubus, the sons of God are here represented under circumstances quite different to what we may suppose of any demons assuming human shape.

* An incubus (if any such there be) can desire commerce with a woman, for no other reason, but only to draw her into the gulf of perdition. Any carnal gratification of his own cannot be his motive, because pleasure, in an assumed body, if it is pretended to, must be fictitions: but here the sons of God are said to be enamoured with the daughters of men, and (to satisfy their Justs) to take to themselves wives of all that they chose,' which denoting a settled marriage and cohabitation with them, can hardly be imagined in the case before us. From those marriages we may farther observe, that a generation of living men, called in Scripture men of renown, did ensue; but it is impious to think, that God would ever concur with the devil, violating the laws of generation which he had established, and prostituting the dignity of human nature, by stamping his own image upon, or infusing an human soul into whatever matter a fiend should think fit to ingenerate.

In prejudice taken to this opinion, therefore, several interpreters have made choice of another, which, though somewhat more reasonable, is nevertheless subject to exceptions. It supposes, that, by the sons of God in this place, are meant the princes, great men, and magistrates in those times, who, instead of using their authority to punish and discountenance vice, were themselves the greatest examples and promoters of lewdness and debauchery; taking the daughters of men, or of the inferior and meaner sort of the people, and debauching them by force. But besides the harshness of the construction, which (contrary to Scripture-phrase) makes all great and powerful sons to be called the sons of God, and all mean and plebeian women the daughters of men, there is this error in the supposition, that the great men we are now speaking of, did not offer any force or violence to these inferior women; they saw that they were fair, and made choice of them for wives.' They did not take them merely to lie with them, and so dismiss them; but voluntarily entered into a state of matrimony and cohabitation with them. And this being all the matter, wherein is the heinousness of the offence, if men of a superior rank marry with their inferiors, especially when an excess of beauty apologizes for their choice? Or, why should a few unequal matches be reckoned among some of the chief causes which brought upon the world an universal destruction?

The most common, therefore, and indeed the only probable opinion is, that the sons of God were the descendants of Seth, who, for the great piety wherein they

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It has been a question among the learned, whether or no, in the ages before the flood, idolatry was practised? but there seems to be no great foundation for our doubting it, though some have endeavoured to establish it upon incompetent texts. The only expression in Scripture that bears a proper aspect this way is in Gen. vi. 5. where we are told, That God saw, that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.' The words seem parallel to that passage of the apostle, they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened ;'-whereupon it follows, 'that they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image, made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.' Since therefore Moses makes use of the like expression concerning the age soon after the flood, men fell into idolatry, until the true worship of God was again established in Abraham's family, it seems very probable that he intended us an intimation hereof in the manner of his expressing himself. Nor can we imagine but that, when St Peter compares the false teachers of his age with the people of the antediluvian world, in the nature of their punishment, he means to inform us, that they resembled them likewise in the nature of their crime, in their bringing in damnable heresies,' and abetting such doctrines, as even denied the Lord that bought them;' or that, when St Jude expresses his indignation against certain ungodly men in his days, who denied the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,' in such words as these, Woe unto them, for they are gone in the way of Cain;' he leaves us to infer, that Cain and his posterity were the first that threw off the sense of a God, and, instead of the Creator, began to worship the creature.

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Now if the Cainites were, at this time, not only profligate in their manners, but abettors of infidelity, and promoters of idolatry; for the family of Seth, who professed the true worship of God, to enter into communion, or any matrimonial compacts with them, could not but prove of fatal consequence. 'Tis a solemn injunction which God gives the Israelites, against all idolatrous nations, Thou shalt not make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.' And, that this is no special but a general prohibition, extensive to all nations that profess the true worship of God, is evident from the reason that is annexed to it; for they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods.' This was what Balaam knew full well, and therefore, perceiving that he could injure the children of Israel no other way, he advised the Moabites to commence a familiarity with them; whereupon it soon came to pass, that "The people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods, and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.'

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A. M. 1536. A. C. 2468; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2136. A. C. 3275. GEN. CH. 5. AND 6. TO VER. 13.

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"Twas the danger of seduction into a state of idolatry | lences they committed rather than the height or largethat made Abraham, before the law, so very anxious and ness of their stature. But to hinder this from passing uneasy, lest his son Isaac should marry a Canaanitish for a truth, we have the histories of all ages, both sacred woman; and though we, under the gospel, know,' very and profane, and several other remains and monuments, well, that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there to evince the being of such prodigious creatures in is none other God but one,' yet we are admonished by almost every country. the same apostle, who teaches us this, 'Not to be un- 7 That there were multitudes of giants in the land of equally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fel- promise, before the Israelites took possession of it, such lowship,' says he, has righteousness with unrighteous-as Og king of Basan, and the Anakims, whom the ness, what communion hath light with darkness, or what Moabites called Enims, that is, terrible men, and the part hath he that believeth with an infidel?' From all Ammonites, Zamzummims. that is, the inventors of all which it seems to follow, that the sin was very heinous wickedness, whose posterity were in being in the days of in the family of Seth, to mix with the wicked seed of David, and whose bones were to be seen at Hebron, the Cain, when they could not but foresee, that the conse-chief place of their abode, is manifest from the sacred quence would be their seduction from the true worship of God; and that the heinousness of their sin seems still to be enhanced, if, what some oriental writers tell us be true, namely, that God gave them this prohibition by the mouth of their great forefather Adam, and that their custom was, at certain times, to swear by the blood of Abel' (which was their solemn oath) that they would never leave the mountainous country where they inhabited, nor have any communion with the descendants of Cain.

How the commixture of the two different families came to produce a set of giants is not so easy a matter to determine. Those who pretend to reduce it to natural causes, or the eager lust and impetus of their parents, are vastly mistaken, 3 because giants there were among the Cainites, before this conjunction, and we read of several in other nations many ages after the flood. The more probable opinion therefore is, that God permitted it in vengeance to their parents' crimes, and that the children begotten by such unlawful mixtures might, (some of them at least,) be accounted monstrous in their kind, (for thus the word Nephilim a certainly signifies,) and so become the abhorrence of all future generations.

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It must be acknowledged, indeed, that translators have not agreed in their notions of this word. Aquila, instead of gigantes, renders it 'men who attack, or fall with impetuosity upon their enemies; and Symmachus will have it mean violent and cruel men, the only rule of whose actions is their strength and force of arms: and from hence some have imagined, that the giants spoken of in Scripture were famous for the crimes and vio

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1 Cor. viii. 4. * 2 Cor. vi. 14, &c. 2 3 Gen. vi. 4. See Heidegger's Lives of the Patriarchs, and Patrick's Commentary.

5 Επιπίστοντες.

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records. 10 All the people,' say the spies who were sent to take a survey of the land, are men of stature ; and there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which came of the giants,' so unmeasurably large, that we were but like grasshoppers' in comparison of them. And therefore we need less wonder, that we find " Josephus, upon the same occasion, telling us, "That the race of giants was not then extinct, who, on account of their largeness and shapes (not at all to be likened to those of other men) were amazing to see, and terrible to hear of." Homer 12 speaks of the giants Otus and Ephialtes, who, at the age of nine years, were nine cubits about, and six and thirty in height; he likewise describes 13 the bigness of the Cyclops Polyphemus, who was of such prodigious strength, that he could, with the greatest facility, take up a stone which two and twenty four-wheeled chariots would scarce be able to move. This we allow to be, in some measure, romantic, but still it confirms the tradition, that several persons of old were of a gigantic stature.

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"That the Cyclopes and Læstrigones," says Bochart, were once in Sicily, we have the account, not only in the poets, Homer, Hesiod, and Euripides, Virgil, Ovid, and Silius, but in the historians and geographers (I mean Thucydides and Strabo) who were Grecians, and in Trogus, Mela, Pliny and others, who were Romans ; and that there was something of truth in the fables concerning them, we are assured by those bones of giants, which were dug out of the earth in the memory of our fathers." c

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40 cubits at least, and many times above.

? Ver. 21. Odyss, b. 11.

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b Mr Whiston, in his Original Records, has a supplement cona There were giants in the earth, or nephilim, from naphal, cerning the old giants, wherein, according to the apocryphal "he fell." Those who had apostatized, or fallen from the true book of Enoch, he divides the giants into three kinds, and in this religion. The Septuagint translated the original word by yyavess, division thinks himself countenanced by the works of Moses, which literally signifies earth-born, and which we, following them, Gen. vi. 2, &c.; the first and lowest kind of which are called term giants, without having any reference to the meaning of the eliudim, and are of stature from 4 cubits to 15; the second are word, which we generally conceive to signify persons of enor-nephilim, from 15 to 40 cubits; and the third, or great giants, mous stature. But the word when properly understood makes a very just distinction between the sons of men and the sons of God; those were the nephilim, the fallen, earth-born men, with the animal and devilish mind. These were the sons of God, who were born from above; children of the kingdom, because children of God. It may be necessary to remark here, that our translators have rendered seven different Hebrew words by the one term giants, namely, nephilim, gibborim, enachim, rephaim, emim and zamzummim; by which appellatives are probably meant in general, persons of great knowledge, piety, courage, wickedness, &c., and not of men of enormous stature as is generally conjectured.-Dr A. Clarke, on Gen. vi. 4.

c Fazellus relates, and out of him Cluverius, that, A. D. 1547, near Panormum in Sicily, the body of a giant was dug up, about 18 cubits or 27 feet tall. The same authors relate, that, A. D. 1516, was dug up, near Mazarene in Sicily, the body of a giant, 20 cubits or 30 feet tall. The same authors relate, that, A. D. 1548, near Syracuse, was dug up another body of the same dimension. They inform us, that, A. D. 1550, near Entella in Sicily, was dug up a body of about 22 cubits or 33 feet high, whose skull was about 10 feet in circumference; and they describe the corpse of a giant of portentous magnitude, found standing in a vast cave, near Drepanum in Sicily, A. D. 1342,

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