Those _conventional_ terms which _expediency_ alone has invented are, to say the least, arbitrary; and as all men have an equal right to form a _specification_ of their subject-matter, I shall, without disconcerting the _order_ of the above _division_, endeavour only to rescue the points to which I refer from immersion in the _first_ class;[258] or--if allowed the latitude of _parliamentary_ elocution--to take them out from the condemnation of _Schedule A_. To begin, then, with the following text, viz. “_The sons of God_ saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose.”[259] What do you understand by the expression “sons of God”? His peculiar people, you reply; such, for instance, as _called upon His name_;[260] or, perhaps, Seth’s descendants in opposition to those of Cain, the unrighteous. 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]