De politia judaica, tam civili quam ecclesiastica, jam inde a suis primordiis, hoc est ab orbe condito, repetita

even while addressing Eve herself.

The office of Adam, or the prefect of the governing of the Church, seems to have been twofold: one of Prophecy, the other of Priesthood.

Adam therefore, by his right, which the Lord himself even confirmed and increased, frequently repeated and expounded the rebuke and the promise made to him, as well as to his children, and taught them the genuine worship of God; and thus he acted as a prophet, as indeed he was.

Gen. 2.23

There is no doubt that he functioned as a priest, both in receiving and offering sacrifices, and also in declaring—that is, in declaring his own guilt and that of other men and the penalty, which were so designated by the sacrifices themselves that even that principal sacrifice of the coming Seed was shadowed forth to them.

Some of the ancient Hebrew interpreters conclude, not at all ineptly, from what is said in the 3rd and 4th verses of Genesis 4, that Cain and Abel brought their sacrifices (for the Hebrew word properly sounds thus) to their father Adam, so that he might offer them to the Lord, specifically at that place which Adam had destined for that purpose by God’s prescription.

For there is no doubt that there was a certain place

an indication of that matter is that they returned to that place where men had first been created, and where they were cast out after the fall, and where they afterwards offered sacrifices. Regarding this place, or the place of the sacrifices, it seems to have been that Cherubim and flaming sword which guarded the way to the tree of life.

And hence it appears that this first polity, whether Ecclesiastical or civil, was constituted in the family of Adam.

It must be observed that this first form of Priesthood was not universal, but only in the firstborn, or in the father of the family, who sacrificed for the whole family.