A View of Universal History, from the Creation to the Present Time

N authentic account of the creation of the world, and of the primitive state of man, is only to be found in the facred records. There we are informed by Mofes, the most ancient of all hiftorians, that after the earth, by the immediate operation of the fupreme Being, was gradually fitted, in the fpace of fix days, for the habitation of man, Adam and Eve, the progenitors of the human race, were then created, and placed by their divine Maker, in a garden or paradife,

fituated in the Land of Eden.

This great event of the formation of the world, before which there was neither matter nor form of any thing, is placed according to the beft chronologers, in the year before Chrift 4004; and in 710th year of what is called the Julian period, which hath been adopted by fome chronologers and hiftorians, but is of little real fervice. The facred records have fully determined the queftion, that the world was not eternal, and alfo afcertained the time of its creation with great precision. VOL. I.

Our

Our firft parents had two fons, whofe names were Cain and Abel. When they were grown up, they betook themfelves to different employments. The former became a husbandman, and the latter a fhepherd. Their tempers were as different as their occupations. Cain was wicked and avaricious, whilft Abel was juft and virtuous.

It was ufual in the infancy of the world to present oblations to the fupreme Being, the giver of every good gift, and, when the brothers brought their offerings, the facrifice of Abel, on account of his piety and goodness, was more acceptable to God, than the offering of Cain. In what vifible manner he declared his acceptance, is not expreffed by Mofes; but it is the general opinion, that it was by fire or lightning from heaven, which confumed the facrifice, as there are many examples in fcripture of fuch a manifeftation of favour*.

The preference fhewn to the facrifice of Abel excited the envy of his brother, which he could not help discovering on all occafions. At length his malice and refentment became fo violent, that, one day, when they were together in the field, he rofe up against his brother and killed him. This was the first act of violence committed in the world. Many actions of the fame nature have proceeded from a fimilar principle. A fpirit of emulation, when not duly managed, and made a fpur to virtue, often takes an unhappy turn, and degenerates into vice.

The defcendants of Seth, who was born to Adam after the murder of Abel, proved virtuous, thofe of Cain vicious.

Enoch, the fifth in defcent from Seth, about a thousand years after the creation of the world, was a person of fingular piety; and, as a reward for his exemplary behaviour, in fo corrupt an age, was taken up into heaven, without tafting death. His fon Methufelah died a natural death, after he had lived 969 years.

Before the tranflation of Enoch, Adam departed this life in the 930th year of his age; having, according to tradition, a little before his death, ordered his fon Seth, and other branches of his family, to have no intercourse with the pofterity of the murderer Cain.

The pofterity of Seth, according to Jofephus lived feparate from the reft of the defcendants of Adam, removing

* Univerfal History.

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A View of Universal History, from the Creation to the Present Time ..., Volume 1