this belief was more ftrong at the beginning of the world, the idea of the promise being more fresh and lively in the minds of men, as a thing at no great diftance from those times; and that we find in the holy family in general, manifold inftances of this fpirit of jealousy, and burning defire of a pofterity.

We find alfo, much about the fame time, another Lamech, the father of Noah (m), declaring by the name he gave his fon, the hopes he had that he might probably be the perfon who was to comfort mankind concerning all the mifery fin had brought into the world.

Thus it appears clearly, that for above fixteen ages, from the creation of the world to the deluge, we find in all the actions of the children of Adam a strong impreffion of the belief of the creation of the world, and the promife of the Meffiah; and till this time we find not the leaft inftance which might feem to convince the relation of Mofes of the leaft abfurdity. We fee men acting from the perfuafion of these two matters of fact, we must conclude therefore, that they were diftintly informed of them: yea, we fee all men in general acting according to this perfuafion; it is evident therefore they were known to all; and the weekly cbfervance of the fabbath-day continually representing the truths to the eyes and minds of all, takes away all poffibility of forgery in these

matters.

Let us now inquire whether after the deluge thefe ideas were effaced; or, whether they have not exerted the fame efficacy in the spirit of Noah, and the actions of all his pofterity.

CHA P. XII.

That NOAH was fully perfuaded of the Creation of the World, and the Promife of the MESSIAH.

I

we find that the children of Adam, and their pofterity, could be exactly informed of the creation, and the promife of the Meffiah, and that indeed they were fo, it will follow, that Noah could not be unacquainted with the fame truths.

Noah was fix hundred years old when the deluge came: he had converfed with Lamech his father, who had feen Adam and his children, as being fifty-fix years of age when Adam died; he had converfed with Methufalem his grandfather, who died that very year the flood came, and who, being three hundred and forty-three years old when Adam died, had without doubt inftructed Noah during fo vaft an interval of time, in like manner as himself had been inftructed by Adam for many ages. And as Methufalem had lived a long time with Seth, who died in the year of the world 1042, fo it is evident that Noah, who was born in the year

(m) Gen. v. 29.

year 1056, had not only feen Lamech and Methufalem, but many alfo of their ancestors, whofe difcourfes he heard, examined their traditions, and imitated their way of worship.

Moreover, Noah faw that there were no men in his time who did not deduce their genealogy from Adam: all his contemporaries could convince him of it, every one of them having as exact a knowledge of their ancestors as he could have of his.

Now, that this was a matter which they might be eafily affured of, appears on these two accounts: the one is, the long life which the men of that age enjoyed; and the other, the short interval of time which was between the creation and the deluge, the whole amounting only to 1656 years. Adam died in the year 930, and the deluge happened in the 600 year of Noab's life. Adam, died 126 years before the birth of Noah; so as Adam must have been seen and known by Methufalem, Lameck, and thousands of others who were contemporaries with Noah.

To these we may add a third remark, and that is, the jealousy and hatred which was between the two families of Cain and Seth: Cain's pofterity were altogether corrupted, and the greatest part of Seth's also. Noah, being of the pofterity of Seth, had no reafon to call thofe matters in queftion, which he faw generally owned and received of thofe to whom their wickednefs and crimes fuggefted objections against them. And I do not know, whether I might not fuppofe that Noah had before his eyes Paradife, with the cherubims who guarded the entrance thereof, and made i it inacceffible; which, if fo, was an authentic proof of the truths in queftion; that garden, as far as we can judge, being not deftroyed, nor the guardian angel difcharged, till the time of the flood.

Be it as it will, yet Noah, being a man fearing God, was honoured with an extraordinary call to exhort men to repentance; he was commanded to build an ark; he faw the deluge happening, according to what God had foretold; he faw the beafts, of their own accord, gather themfelves together, to enter into the ark, in like manner as he had been told that they came to Adam; he faw the deluge ceafe, according to the Divine declaration; he faw fire from heaven confuming the facrifice he offered in acknowledgment to God, in like manner as the words of Mofes feem to imply that it happened at the facrifice of Abel; he faw himfelf chofen in a peculiar manner to be the depofitary of the promise which Adam had left to his pofterity, though he never had the fatisfaction of feeing it fulfilled himfelf, God having referved the accomplishment of it for another time, and to one of his pofterity at a great distance.

It is very evident that all thefe particulars could not but conduce to preferve the memory of thefe first most important matters of fact of the creation and the promife of the Meffiah; and therefore, that Noah mutt of neceffity be convinced of the certainty and truth of them. Let us now fee whether Noah's offspring had the fame perfuafion concerning thefe things.

CHAP. XIII.

CHA P. XIII.

That the Children of NOAH were convinced of the Truth of thefe Matters,

HE children of Nonb were an hundred years old when the deluge

Thappened, and confequently had converfed a long space of time with Methufalem, and many other of their ancestors and relations of the old world, and had frequented the religious aflemblies, obferved every fabbath-day in the family of Seth, whence they were defcended, and had been inftructed there by thofe who had feen Adam and his pofterity: it is evident therefore, beyond all conteft, that they could not be ignorant of the creation, and promife of the Meffiah.

Now, that they had a diftinct knowledge of thofe matters, we may evidently conclude, not only because they had feen God, when he bleffed them, and a fecond time faid to them, as after a new creation, Increase and multiply (n); nor only upon the account of his giving them a pofitive law, forbidding them to eat the blood of living creatures (), whofe flesh they were permitted to feed on, as he had forbid Adam to eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, when he left the rest to their free ufe: not only for that he had given the rainbow, as a new fign of his covenant with mankind; nor only because they had practifed thofe acts of religion to which they had been educated by their parents and ancestors before the deluge: but because the fame may be inferred from that action which drew upon Cham his father's curfe.

What is the meaning of Cham's deriding the nakednefs of his father, and of his father's taking occafion from thence to curfe him fo folemnly, and that in the perfon of Canaan his first-born? If it were only a piece of irreverence in the father, what reafon had Noah to curfe the fon on that account? Or was it (as fome have fuppofed) that Canaan had given occafion first to his father's irreverence, by acquainting him with the diforder in which he had found his grandfather Noah? Without doubt, there is fomething more than ordinary in this hiftory. Sure it is, that the account given us of Cham reprefents him as a profane person, and deeply tinctured with the maxims of Cain and his pofterity, and feems to hint to us, that he fuppofing the promife of the Metab either fruftrated by the death of Abel, or altogether falfe, he made his father's nakedness the fubject of his mockery; who feemed to be incapable of begetting any more children, and therefore incapable of contributing to the accomplishment of the promife of the Meffiah, in hopes of which he accounted himfelf fo happy that he had efcaped the deluge.

What means it alfo, that Noah pronounced fo terrible a curfe against the pofterity of Cham by Canaan, who were fo far from giving an accomplishment to that promife, that they were in a manner wholly exterminated by Joshua, when God put the pofterity of Shem by Abraham in poffeffion of the land of Canaan? It is very natural for us to conceive,

that

that Noah confidered his fon Cham's deriding of him, not only as contrary to the respect which was due to him as his father, but alfo as the effect of a horrid impiety, which attacked God himself, as making that promife, The feed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head, a fubject of raillery.

This reflexion upon the action of Cham, and the curfe of Noah confequent to it, does appear very natural, if we confider that Noab could not but reflect upon the name his father had given him, and the special favour fhewed to him, in being alone preferved of all the pofterity of Adam, and confequently the only perfon in the world by whom this promife was to be fulfilled. At least, it cannot be denied, but that this reflexion is as natural as it would have been juft, in reference to the fact of cruel Aftyages (p), if, when he had (as he thought) fufficiently eluded his dream, which prefaged the glory of the fon of Mandane his daughter, he had found her indecently uncovered, and had taken thence occafion deridingly to reflect, with his other children, upon a dream which feemed to promife to the fon of Mandane the throne of all Afia, and threaten the ruin of his own.

It is a thing worth our noting, that in the time of Ezra (9) the Samaritans had fo fresh a memory of Cham's fin, which they fuppofed to be generally preferved amongst other nations, that in their letter to king Artaxerxes againft the Jews who rebuilt Jerufalem, they declare, they would not difcover the king's nakednefs; implying, that they could not confent to the injury he might receive from the Jews in fuffering Jerufalem to be rebuilt. It is not needful to repeat thofe other arguments which prove that the chidren of Noah had reafon to be, and were actually as much convinced of the creation and first promife as their anceftors were; for, feeing that thefe arguments were the very fame which their fathers had to perfuade themselves of the truth of these things, we had better proceed to the inquiry, whether their pofterity that followed them, had the fame perfuafion they had? which may eafily be proved, in making fome reflexions on the following ages, and upon thofe who defcended from Noah and his children.

That the Pofterity of NOAH's Children were perfuaded of the Truth of the Creation, and first Promise.

I

F Noah faw Methufalem, who had feen Adam and his pofterity before the deluge; Abraham faw Shem and his children, who were unquestionable witneffes of what had paffed before and fince the flood.

(p) Hored, lib. 1. Justin Hift. lib. 1. Valer. Max. lib. 1.

(q) Ezra iv. 14.

Noah dying 350 years after the deluge, it appears that his death happened in the year of the world 2006; fo that Noah died only two years before the birth of Abraham, he being born in the year 2008.

Abraham lived 150 years with Shem, who died in the year 2158, and 88 years with Arphaxad the fon of Shem, who died in the year 2096; he lived 118 years with Selah fon of Arphaxad, who died in the year 2126, and 179 years with Heber the fon of Selah, who died in the year 2187.

Ifaac being born in the year 2108, might fee Shem, Selah, and Heber, who for fome hundreds of years had converfed with Noah and his other children; I fay, we may fuppofe him to have converfed with thofe patriarchs, or at leaft with those who, being their contemporaries, difcourfed of Noah as a man but of yesterday, and from his relation and his children's were informed of the creation of Adam, his fall, the promise of the holy feed, the death of Abel, the miracle of Paradife, the preaching of Noah, the deluge, &c. and who, in obedience to the law of God, obferved by their ancestors, did meet together fifty-two times every year, to celebrate the memorial of thefe wonders, and to teach them to their pofterity.

We may take notice of three things here which conduce much-to the prefervation of a diftinct knowledge of thefe matters.

The first is, That the ark itfelf might be feen by all the world, as a certain monument of the deluge, and the faving of Noah and his fons (r). This monument continued very many ages after Abraham, and was a means to preserve the memory of the deluge amongst the Pagans, as Lucian, to name no more, acquaints us.

The fecond is, That it was as eafy for any of Abraham's contemporaries, as for Abraham, to deduce his genealogy from Noah and his children.

And this was the more eafy, becaufe the first divifion of the world among the three fons of Noah, was followed by another partition amongst their pofterity, in the year of the world 1758; a divifion which gave them a juft title of poffeffion to that part of the earth where they werer feated; in defence of which, it feems probable that the war of Chedalamer (mentioned the xiiith of Genefis) was undertaken, the family of Cham having invaded the land of Canaan, which was part of the inheritance of Shem, as we fhall make appear elsewhere.

The third and laft thing is, That it was not eafy to impofe a forgery upon thofe times, because their lives were yet of a great extent, though inferior to thofe who lived before the flood.

To thefe we may add this further confideration, that as the jealousy which was between the family of Seth and Cain was a great means to preferve inviolably the important truths of the creation and first promife; a like jealoufy now being rifen amongst the fons of Neah, Cham being accurfed of his own father in the perfon of Canaan, and the fame being propagated to their pofterity, it could not but effectually contribute to refcue these important truths from oblivion, and particularly the promise of the Meffiab, conceived in thefe words, The feed of the woman shall bruife the ferpent's head.

(r) De Dea Syra, p. 1060.

In