Gen. iv. 26. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
OF the various institutions of religion, some were clearly founded on an express appointment from
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God himself; others appear to have arisen, in the first instance, from the suggestions of holy men, and to have been afterwards authorized and established by divine authority. It is manifest that baptism was practised by the Jews long before it was appointed by Christ as the rite whereby his followers were to be consecrated to his service: but when it was first introduced, or whether by any express command of God, we know not. The change of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first was sanctioned by the practice of the Apostles : but whether they re- ceived any particular direction respecting it, we are not informed. The presumption indeed is, that all the observances which God has sanctioned, origi- nated from him ; and that men began to practise them in consequence of some intimations from him : but as this is not declared in Scripture, we must be contented to leave the matter undecided. We are not any where told that God commanded men to meet together for the purposes of public worship. If we take the text in the precise sense that it bears in our translation, it should seem that public assemblies of worship were rather the offspring of necessity ; and that they arose out of an increase of population, and a growing neglect of personal and family religion.
The text indeed is, in the margin of our Bibles, rendered differently : " Then began men to call them- selves by the name of the Lord:" Nor are commen- tators agreed to which of the versions we should give the preference. We shall therefore include both; and take occasion from the words to shew,
I. In what manner we should confess God —
The descendants of Cain, who had become " a fu- gitive and a vagabond in the earth," soon cast off all regard for God, and addicted themselves to open and shameless impiety. Lamech broke through the re- straints which the Creator had imposed in relation to marriage, and " took unto him two wives;" leaving thereby an example, which in process of time effaced the very remembrance of God's original institution.