Turn, sir, to the beginning of the first and second chapters of Job, and read what you are there informed of.
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.” And, “Again, there was a day, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.”
Well, what is your answer now? or will it not be different from what it was before? Can you seriously imagine that it was any race of ordinary human beings that was thus denominated? And are you not compelled to associate the idea with some one of the other superior productions of omnipotent agency?
I will make you, sir, if you have candour in your constitution, acknowledge the fact. Listen—“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding: when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”[261]
Here allusion is made to a period antecedent to the existence of either Cain or Seth. The myriads of revolving ages suggested by the interrogatory set even fancy at defiance; nor are their limits demarked by the vague and indefinite exordium of even the talented and otherwise highly-favoured legislator, Moses himself.[262] And yet, in this incomprehensible inane of time, do we see the sons of God shouting for joy, before the species of man—at least in his degenerate sinfulness—had appeared upon this surface!
It is manifest, therefore, that some emanation of the Godhead, distinct from mere humanity, is couched under the phrase of “the sons of God”; and accordingly we perceive that, when they “went in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them,” it is emphatically noticed, as an occurrence of unusual impress, that “the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown.”[263]
At the commencement of the verse, whence the last extract has been taken, you will find the name of giant mentioned; and instantly after, as if in juxtaposition, nay, as if synonymous with it in meaning, is repeated “the sons of God”: thereby identifying both in nature and in character, and proving their sameness by their convertibility.
The Hebrew word from which giant has been translated, signifies to fall: and what, do you suppose, constituted this apostasy? In sooth, nothing else than that carnal intercourse, which they could not resist indulging with the “daughters of men,” when their senses told them they were lovely.[264] Thus do both names corroborate my truth; while both reciprocally illustrate each other.
“It may seem strange,” says Wilford, “that the posterity of Cain should be so much noticed in the Puranas, whilst that of the pious and benevolent Ruchi is in a great measure neglected. But little is said of the posterity of Seth, whilst the inspired penman takes particular notice of the ingenuity of the descendants of Cain, and to what a high degree of perfection they carried the arts of civil life. The charms and accomplishments of the women are particularly mentioned. ‘The same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown.’”
And again,—“We have been taught to consider the descendants of Cain as a most profligate and abominable race. This opinion, however, is not countenanced, either by sacred or profane history. That they were not entrusted with the sacred deposit of religious truths, to transmit to future ages, is sufficiently certain. They might, in consequence of this, have deviated gradually from the original belief, and at last fallen into a superstitious system of religion, which seems, also, a natural consequence of the fearful disposition of Cain, and the horrors he must have felt, when he recollected the atrocious murder of his brother Abel.”