By comparing the preceding dates with the occurrences in his life which are given, it appears that when he was born, Adam was six hundred and twenty-two years old, and Seth four hundred and ninety-two. It likewise, from the same comparison, appears that Adam died when Enoch was two hundred and eight, and that Enoch survived ninety-eight years. When Enoch was removed, Seth was eight hundred and fifty-seven years old; and therefore Seth survived that event fifty-five years. What, however, were the localities, respectively, of the residence of these fathers of the human race, or what their opportunities of mutual communication, we are not told. Nor does the history give any statement as to the character of society. St. Jude, indeed, mentions an important circumstance. The history only tells us that "Enoch walked with God." The inspired Apostle, referring to seasons of singular wickedness, tells us,-"And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

When this is combined with two facts, and the well-known laws of human nature are recollected, and applied—as we are warranted to apply them --some important inferences will be unavoidable. Noah was born four hundred and thirty years after the birth of Enoch, and sixty-nine after his removal from earth. Now, in the days of Noah, mankind had become fearfully corrupt; and such corruption does not become complete all at once. There must have been a progress, and a progress which must have existed, and been advancing, in the days of Enoch. And then it is said, when the great catastrophe of the old world is coming forward as an event of history,-said, too, at the commencement of what may be termed the paragraph relating to it," When men began to multiply on the face of the earth,"-began to multiply, higher up, therefore, in the history of man than the age of Noah,- and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." It is thus plain, that at comparatively an early period this mixture of the races of Cain and Seth-these marriages between the daughters of men, and the sons of God-began to take place and as the fact is mentioned in this exceedingly brief narra

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tive, in immediate connexion with the corruption of man that had now overspread the earth, it was evidently one of its causes, weakening the restraints on the sinfulness of man's nature, and increasing its power by stimulating it. The two races were not widely separated as to residence. The descendants of Seth had the opportunity of easily forming intimate acquaintances among the descendants of Cain. A man like Enoch, therefore, would be able to perceive the moral conditions of the world in both its great divisions. He would dwell among the children of Seth; he would not be so far removed from the children of Cain as to be ignorant of their character. What the means and methods of intercommunion between different portions of society then were, we know not; nor do we, for any practical purpose, need to know. There can be no doubt that the times of Enoch were times of great depravity on the one side, and great declension and frequent apostasy on the other. This might have been conjectured if we had only possessed the inspired statement of Jude; but when the few, and brief, but very decisive notices of the actual history are considered, and considered, first, in reference to the explicit declarations of Scripture respecting human sinfulness, secondly, in reference to the

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well known, scripturally recognised laws according to which the principles of human nature, intellectual and moral, operate,-and, thirdly, in reference to Jude's statement respecting Enoch, and its relation to the times which he portrays, -what would have been warrantable and probable conjecture, becomes all but absolute matter of fact. It may be taken, therefore, as a melancholy truth, that the period marked by Enoch's residence on earth, was, as to its moral aspects, exceedingly gloomy and threatening.

But, while the two circumstances already mentioned are, religiously speaking, the principal facts on record between the expulsion of fallen man from Paradise, and the destruction of the old world for its wickedness, by the flood, others are adverted to, tending to show both the present character of man, his obligations and duties, and the progress of what may be termed social life in the same period.

The history of Cain and Abel is exceedingly instructive. It shows us that with the earliest worship of man, regarded as being no longer possessed of original righteousness, sacrifices were connected. It is not in so many words, indeed, said that these were divinely instituted; but when their early existence is considered, and their

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reference to the great Atonement, to be made in the fulness of time by the offering of the body of our Lord Jesus once for all,-together with the fact, that Abel in faith offered what was afterwards, under the law, declared to be a sacrifice of propitiation,-it is scarcely possible to avoid the conclusion that they were so; and that thus, they constituted one important part of those early revelations, by which the nature of the service that would be accepted from sinful man, and rendered available to his salvation, was made known. Abel we see one who fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before him, and who thus became a partaker of the righteousness which is by faith. In Cain we see a self-righteous and self-sufficient sinner, rejecting the religion of revelation, and contenting himself with the religion of nature; and manifesting, that as the carnal mind is enmity against God, so, likewise, that he that is born of the flesh, persecutes him that is born of the Spirit. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And at all times, the self-righteous formalist, and the self-sufficient infidel, have proved themselves to be the followers of persecuting Cain. Submission to divine teaching, and genuine spirituality of mind, they always feel to condemn them, and whenever they have the