x64 AN T I EN T METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



ivere, of old, men of renotvn. And the paffage is rightly tranflated 

 according to the Septuagint, and alfo according to the Hebrew, if 

 we can truft to the tranflation by Calmet, publiflied at Venice in 

 1754. Now thefe /cnj 0/ GoJ, as they are called, who copulated 

 with the daughters of men, muft have been Daemons, that is an or- 

 der of beings above men, but embodied as men are; and if io, it 

 was very natural that the children fhould be much fuperior to other 

 men, and fuch as the Greek heroes, or 'Ki/^ihav yivoi 'av^^m, as 

 Homer calls them ; being a mixture of women with a fuperior race 

 of beings. 



From the commentary of the translator above mentioned, it is 

 evident that this was the opinion of the elder fathers of the church, 

 fuch as Laaantius, Origen, Juftin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, 

 Cvprian and Ambrofms. At the fame time he informs us, that the 

 later fathers were of opinion, that, by \hefons of God here, were meant 

 the children of Seth, and that the daughters of men were the children 

 of Cain. And the reafon they gave for their opinion was, that thefe 

 /ons of God were angels, or fpirits entirely feparaied from body, fo 

 that they could not mix with women. But this is plainly begging 

 the queftion ; and fuppofing that they were not Dsfnons, that is fpi- 

 rits embodied, but pure immateiial fubftances. Neither, do 1 think, 

 can any good reafon be given, nor indeed any reafon at all, why 

 the daughters of Cain fliould have been fo much handfomer than 

 the daughters of Seth ; fo that the fons of Seth fhould have fal- 

 len in love with them rather than with the daughters of their own 

 family and tribe. 



And thus, I think, it is proved that Dremons, fuch as the Egyptian, 

 exi[\ed in other nations, in very antient times. 



As thefe Daemons had been Kings of the country, and had intro- 

 duced civifuy and invented arts> it was very natural that they fhould 



be 



