assent io Such vfild and iftonstrous deviations from reason and 

 colrinion sense ? 



By an attentive consideration, I think I have discovered 

 a circumstance long attendant on Adam's family, but whoie 

 final cessation chiefly contributed to the introduction of 

 polytheism. 



'th6 circumstance I aillude to is that supernatural appear- 

 ance: by which the presence of God was rendered sensible 

 to Adam immediately after his creation. It is supposed to 

 have been an extraordinary splendor or blight cloud called 

 the face df Gddj Exod. xxxiii. 14, and by the Jews 

 Schechinahi with which the Divinity, or rather his represen- 

 tative, was shrouded. From this^ God frequently spoke to 

 Adaiti arid his family, Gen. ii. iii. and iv. It probably 

 reposed permanently near the habitation of Adam, as we 

 find, that Caiuj when condemned to banishment from that 

 habitation, complained that he should also be banished from 

 that symbol of the divine presence. Gen. iv. 14. and in effect 

 he was banished from it, v. 16. 



Again, 120 years before the uliiversal deluge, God 

 acquainted Noah with his resolution to exterminate all 

 mankind, with the exception of him, his wife, three of his 

 sons, and their wiveis, Gen. vi. I say three of bis sons, for 

 it is not reasonable to think that he had none, before he had 

 attained the age of 500 years : afterwards he had those three 

 who survived the flood, Japhet, Sem, and Cham : his former 

 sons, being probably guilty of those excesses which entailed 



the 



