This denomination began about the middle of the sixteenth century. Their principal tenet is that there must have been men before Adam. One proof of this they bring from Rom.5:12, 13, 14. The apostle says, "Sin was in the world till the law;" meaning the law given to Adam. But sin, it is evident, was not imputed, though it might have been committed, till the time of the pretended first man. "For sin is not imputed when there is no law."

The election of the Jews, they say, is a consequence of the same system. It began at Adam, who is called their father or founder. God is also their Father, having espoused the Judaical church. The Gentiles are only adopted children, as being Pre-Adamites. Men (or Gentiles) are said to be made by the word of God. (Gen.1:26, 27.) Adam, the founder of the Jewish nation, whose history alone Moses wrote, is introduced in the second chapter, as the workmanship of God's own hands, and as created apart from other men.

They argue thus: -- Cain, having killed his brother Abel, was afraid of being killed himself. By whom? He married -- yet Adam had then no daughter. What wife could he get? He built a town -- what architects, masons, carpenters, and workmen, did he employ? The answer to all these questions is in one word -- Pre-Adamites.

This reasoning is opposed by sundry texts of Scripture, (See Gen.1:26; 2:7; 3:20. Mark 10:6. I Cor.15:45, 47.)