Meanwhile with another son SETH (_substituted_), who had been given to Adam in place of Abel, commenced a line distinct in its social and religious tendencies from that of Cain. The heads of this family are enumerated to the tenth generation under the names of Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. While the descendants of Cain advanced indeed in civilization, but were addicted to luxury and violence, the descendants of Seth were distinguished for pastoral simplicity. They _called upon the name of the Lord_ (Gen. iv. 26); they were the chosen repositories of the Promise of Redemption, and the witnesses for a God of Righteousness in the midst of a generation which already began to become corrupt, and in the seen to forget the unseen. An eminent type of the characteristic virtues of this line was ENOCH, the son of Jared, _the seventh from Adam_ (Jude 14). All his life long he walked in closest communion with the Most High and the spiritual world. Faith (Heb. xi. 5), implicit trust in a Righteous Ruler of the Universe, was the principle of his life, and the secret spring of his holiness. One day he vanished from the society of his fellowmen. _He was not_, for the God whom he served _took him_ to Himself, and translated him to the unseen world, without undergoing the penalty of death (Gen. v. 21–24). A peculiar feature of this period was the great length to which human life was prolonged. Adam attained to the age of 930 years, Methuselah to that of 969, the others nearly as long. From this accrued many advantages to the race. It tended to promote its speedy increase, it preserved uninterrupted such knowledge as men were able to acquire, and pre-eminently the original revelation respecting the one true God, the remembrance of Paradise, and the hope of ultimate Redemption. But the great longevity of the men of this period did not tend to hinder their increasing alienation from the paths of righteousness, and obedience to the Supreme. Amidst the extreme brevity of the sacred narrative it is clear that the wickedness of men reached a desperate pitch, _the earth was filled with violence_, and _all men corrupted their way_ upon it. At length this alienation from God reached its culminating point in a catastrophe, to which the Sacred Record attaches a peculiar and mysterious importance. _When men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all that they chose._ Whatever be the true meaning of the expression _sons of God_, whether it refers to the Angels, as some have thought, or the descendants of Seth, certain it is that a superhuman spirit of wickedness broke out at this period. From these mixed marriages sprang men remarkable for strength and power, for violence and arrogant wickedness, through whom both races speedily became hopelessly corrupt.