admitting that the moral powers were, in every view, equal, it is natural to expect that the multiplication of the species, would be followed by a correspondent multiplication of temptations and desires. Oppositions of interests, and all the discordances incidental to the social intercourse, when the passions and propensities of numerous individuals were unrestrained either by reason, by a refined perception of social interests, or by the dictates of religion, must have given occasion to divers irregularities, immoral and destructive.

The second crime upon record is the murder of a brother; and this took place at a very early period. The crime we are informed, was perpetrated through envy; a vice which could not easily be propagated by the first parents in their Paradisaical state. This envy was excited by the tokens of respect paid unto Abel and his offering; "but unto Cain and his offering the Lord had not respect. And Cain was very wrath, and his countenance fell." The acceptance of the one, and the rejection of the other, manifestly arose from some moral cause, for it is added, "If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at thy door."

We are further told, that the third son of

Adam was named Seth; that the son of Seth was named Enos; "then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." This remarkable expression naturally conveys to us the idea, that impiety was prevalent even at so early a period, and a distinction between the pious and the im pious was commencing. In process of time, when "men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose." As mention is here made of the sons of God, in distinction from the daughters of men, and as it is said in the preceding passage, that men began to call upon the name of the Lord, these are intimations that the human race was divided into two separate moral characters; that large numbers of the inhabitants of the earth were totally destitute of true religion, or that they were gross idolaters; that a few were reserved, who for some time retained the principles of genuine piety; but that these finally became corrupted, in consequence of the seductive alliances which were formed with the profligate and irreligious. The human race at length became totally depraved. "And 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." And, according to the strong metaphorical language of Scripture," it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth."

The representation given us of the state of morals before the deluge, and of the punishment which followed, justifies and illustrates our as sertion, that when human depravity is arrived to a certain height, the mind will not make the necessary efforts for its recovery. Hence it appears that either the destruction of whole generations, not to be reclaimed by the influence of the usual Dispensations of Providence, or the exertion of a miraculous power, renovating the heart of man, by an immediate impulse upon every individual, were the only alternatives. To have followed the latter mode, would have been to repeal the important edict of man's free agency: The former afforded a solemn and salutary warning to succeeding generations. The destruction of every individual of the human species, that was not to be reclaimed by any natural process in moral discipline, appeared to the Divine wisdom the only effective method to clear the world of this moral pestilence. One family, which had

distinguished itself by its faith and piety, was saved from the general wreck; and this was constituted the medium of recovering the human race, by introducing a new era in the divine government of the world..

After the Deluge, a distinction of moral character in the sons of Noah, soon became manifest in the conduct of Ham, towards their aged father, surprised into ebriety, contrasted with that of his brethren Shem and Japheth. These distinctions of character were also conspicuous in their posterity. Canaan, and the other descendants of Ham, being abandoned to idolatrous practices, much earlier than those either of Shem or Japheth.

SECT. II.

THE SELECTION OF A PARTICULAR FAMILY IN ORDER TO PREVENT AN UNIVERSAL APOSTASY FROM MONOTHEISM, OR THE PRINCIPLES OF TRUE RELIGION; AND THE SUBSEQUENT DELIVERANCE OF THIS FAMILY FROM

A STATE OF BONDAGE.

FROM the line of Shem was Abraham descended, whom the Governor of the Universe

selected to commence the grand process, în favour of future generations. We are told that he and his family were settled in Chaldea; but by divine appointment they removed into the land inhabited by the Canaanites, under the promise that they should "become a great nation, and that unto his seed should the land be given." It is obvious that one cause of their -residence in this country, was on account of its being nearer to the land of Egypt, by which the subsequent removal of their descendants into Egypt was facilitated; an event productive of the most important purposes.

Isaac, the son of Abraham, was also destined to be an instrument of carrying forward the plans of Providence. That he might not be contaminated, by the manners of the inhabitants among whom he dwelt, a wife was chosen for him out of the house of his ancestors, whose conduct was more exemplary. Isaac used a similar precaution respecting his son Jacob; commanding that he should not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan, whose characters were so profligate that Esau, his elder son, in his first marriages, "was a grief of mind unto Isaac and Rebekah," by taking the daughters of Hittites; and afterwards "seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father,