CH. XVII. Methuselah lived 243 years with Adam. In the fame way of computation you may find how long any of the junior Patriarchs lived with Adam as in table IV.

If to the year of Enos's life, when Cainan was born, and to the year of Lamech's life, when Noah was born, you add all the intermediate years, you will find they are 821, which is the age of Enos when Noah was born: but Enos lived 905 years; from which fubtract 821, and the remainder is 84. the number of years in which old Enos and young Noah were cotemporaries. And in the fame way you may find how long any of the fenior, preceding Patriarchs, lived with Noah, as in table V.

So likewife if you add together the years from the birth of Methuselah to the flood, you will find them to be 969; which is juft the time that Methuselah lived, as in table III. Hence we may conclude, that Methufelah died juft before the flood came; and Noah being then 600 years old he had lived juft fo long with Methuselah.

So again, if you add the years from the birth of Lamech to the flood, you will find them to be 782 years; and whereas Lamech lived but 777 years, it follows, that Lamech died five years before the flood came. Therefore, all the Patriarchs, except Noah, were dead, when Noah entered into the ark.

From the above account it appears, that Methuselah lived with Adam 243 years, and doubtlefs converfed with him the greatest part of that time; and fo, had opportunity abundantly fufficient to receive from Adam an account of what he knew concerning the creation, and all the tranfactions and events contained in the first four chapters of Genefis. And as Noah lived 600 years with Methuselah, he had time fufficient to learn the fame account from him, and may well be fuppofed to have carried it with him intire into the ark. And this may be one reafon of the longevity of the antediluvians; which must be refolved into the fole will of God, and can be accounted for no other way. They lived fo long, in order to preferve, and hand down to pofterity, religious knowledge, in that period of time when it could not be committed to writing; and when it would have been either totally loft, or miferably depraved, had men lived no longer than 70 or 80 years. Befides, their longevity contributed to the more fpeedy peopling of the world, and to the bringing of neceflary arts, in tillage, building and clothing, to a greater perfection.

"Ver. 1. Das mabin pony This is the book of the generations of Adam, that is to fay, this is the pedigree, or the genealogy of the defcendants of Adam. So Mat. i. 1. The book of the generation, is the genealogy of Jefus Chrift.

Ver. 3. As we know that Adam had both Cain and Abel before Seth was born, fo both he, and the other Patriarchs, might have feveral other children before those that are named in this lift; it being, probably, the defign of Mofes to fet down only thofe perfons, by whom the line of Noah was drawn from Seth, by their true ancestors, whether they were the eldest of the family, or not.

Ver. 21.-and begat Methuselah. It is the ingenious conjecture of Ainsworth,

ושלח

Ainsworth, that nwn is a word compounded of he dieth, and n for hum and an emission; as much as to fay, when he dieth, there fhall be an emiffion, or inundation, of waters. Thus Enoch may be supposed to have predicted the deluge in the name, which he gave his fon Methuselah, with this particular circumftance, that the deluge should happen in the year, in which his fon fhould die; as it certaiuly did. However we have the authority of an Apostle, that Enoch was a Prophet, and did forefee, and foretel the deluge to that generation of men. Jude ver. 14, 15. And Enoch alfo, the feventh from Adam, prophefied of these, or of fuch men as thefe, faying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints, or with myriads of his holy Angels, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly commited, and of all their hard, unreasonable, contumacious, blafphemous fpeeches, which ungodly finners have spoken against him. This, I apprehend, in its primary intention, is a prediction of the deluge, by which God would punish that impious race, which then inhabited the earth. But as their deftruction by the deluge is made an example of the vengeance which God will execute upon all impenitently wicked at the laft day, (2 Pet. ii. 5.) fo Enoch's Prophecy will fuit the wicked of all ages, who fhall certainly meet with a like reward of their deeds.

D’obno ne qun qba And Enoch walked diligently

Ver. 22. with, or unto, God, and in a manner agreeable and pleafing to God. And fo did Noah, chap. vi. 9. In this construction (with)

is used but once more, I Sam. xxv, 15; and there it implies friendship and benevolence on the part of those they converfed with. Therefore the Apoftle rightly inferts the idea of pleafing God in the account he gives of Enoch's tranflation, Heb. xi. 5, 6; and argues well, that Enoch's pleafing God, was the effect of his faith in God, and in a future re ward. For without faith it is impoffible to please God, or to walk with, or to come unto him, as Enoch did. For he that cometh unto God, musft, in the very nature of the thing, believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently feek him. [Observe —pleafing God, coming unto God, and diligently feeking him, are fynonymous, and all included in the fenfe of walking with God.] By faith Enoch lead a very religious and heavenly life. His thoughts and affections were removed from things below, and fixed upon things above. He had a deep fenfe of God and his perfections, delighted in his ways, behaved as always in his fight, and constantly studied to please him, and promote his glory. Being of a character fo excellent, and withal a perfon of eminent note, and great induftry in oppofing the growing wickednefs of the world, God was pleafed to reward his piety, and give the reft of mankind a demonftration of a future ftate of glory, the inheritance of the holy and virtuous, by tranflating him alive, without feeing death, into heaven. It is not improbable, that he was tranflated in fome vifible manner as Elijah was afterwards, by a glorious appearance of the Shechinah, from whence fome heavenly minifters might be detached to convey him to a better

world.

CH. XVIII. world. This happened 57 years after Adam's death, in the year of the world 987, and 669 years before the deluge.

Ver. 29. And Lamech called his fon's name Noah, [reft or refreshment, from to reft, to take repofe,] faying, This fame shall comfort us concerning our work, and toil of our hands, because of the ground, which the Lord hath curfed. Lamech might give his fon this name when he found he had an extraordinary genius for agriculture, and was likely by his ufeful inventions, to diminish the very great toil, which had hitherto attended the tillage of the earth. See chap. ix. 20, 21.

CHA P. XVIII.

OF THE DELUGE.

Gen. Chapters VI. and VII.

EN. iv. 26.-then it was begun to call by the name of the Lord. GOr then, in the days of Enos, the family of Seth, which adhered xx to God and his worship, began to give themselves a denomination expreffive of their relation and regards to God; that is to fay, to affume the title of the Sons, or Children of God, as in chap. vi. 2. in order to distinguish and separate themselves from the irreligious family of Cain. Which title was alfo ufed after the flood. Job i. 6.

ii. I.

But (chap. vi. 1. which is in connection with chap. iv. 26, the intermediate chapter being a genealogical parenthefis) [But when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, &c.] The families of Seth and Cain, increafing and fpreading upon the earth, at length met and unhappily mixed together. For the fons of God, by the inftigation of fenfual appetite, without regard to reafon or religion, joined themselves in affinity to Cain's impious pofterity, by marrying their beautiful women. The confequence of which was, that they were foon corrupted by the prophane converfation of their new relations. The virtuous and godly in marrying both themselves, and children, fhould be careful to keep within the limits of religion. A wife is the foundation of many other relations, and commonly has a great influence upon a man and his family. But it is a relation we can chufe for ourfelves. And in a case of so great importance, we fhould neither follow the luft of covetoufness, nor of carnal defires, but the rules of religion, and the fear of God.

Thus, notwithstanding the Divine Manifeftations, and the preaching of Enoch and Noah, and, probably, of other good men, the contagion of wickedness by degrees infected the whole earth, and turned it into a

fcene

fcene of impiety, lewdness, and injuftice. The iffue, of the aforefaid diforderly marriages, joined the worst part; and growing up without any fenfe of religion and virtue, became wholly ingaged in fenfual ambitious purfuits, and joining, or imitating a lewd and impious race of giants, which were then in the earth, they affected to be men of renown for great and valorous exploits, by all methods of oppreffion and violence, fubjecting all others to their wills and lufts; and every where extinguishing a sense of God, both by their wicked, ungodly deeds, and their hard, contumacious, blafphemous fpeeches against him, and his holy laws, (Jude 15.) defpifing his goodness, and difdaining the reftraints of his government; till all the earth was corrupt before God, and filled with violence, ver. 13. every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts being only evil continually, ver. 5; which cut off all hopes of their amendment, their minds being wholly intent upon gratifying their ambition and luft.

In relation to this fad condition of the world, the first thing that God declared, probably, from the Shechinah in the thin aflembly of his worshippers, was this, (ver. 3.) My Spirit fhall not always strive with man, &c. This is the fpirit (1 Pet. iii. 19, 20.) by which our Lord went and preached [not in perfon, but by fuch preachers as Enoch and Noah, 2 Pet. ii. 5.] unto the fpirits [which are now, i. e. at the time of the Apostle's writing] in prifon, [confined in the state of the dead, and referved in fafe cuftody to the day of judgment,] which fometimes were dif obedient in the days of Noah, while the ark was in preparing. My Spirit fhall not always ftrive, or debate, with man, for his reformation,

eo quod profecto ille caro, feeing that really he is [nothing but] flesh, altogether fleshly, void of all virtuous principles, and therefore uncapable of being reformed by any means proper to be applied to a rational nature. Violence, or coaction cannot make him good, and he will not attend to any methods of perfuafion. But where the reformation of moral agents cannot be effected, it is fit and reafonable that they fhould. be destroyed; for it is to no purpose to continue in being a race of creatures, who live in direct oppofition to the perfections of God, and all the wife and good ends of their creation; and who therefore night as well never have been made at all; because rendered utterly incapable of honouring God their Maker, of injoying themselves, or being useful to others. It must be inconfiftent with the Divine Perfections, and all the good and wife ends of his government, to make that life the object of his providential care and liberality, which is thus miferably perverted. On the contrary, fuch are the nuifance, corruption, diforder, and plague of the creation; and for that reafon it is agreable, not only to juftice, but to goodness, and beneficence that fuch fhould be removed out of the creation. Hence it is, that God fpeaking-by DN after the manner of men, is faid to repent, and to be grieved, that he had made man on the earth, and was refolved to destroy them. Ver.

6, COROLLARY. I. Religion and virtue are the foul and support of the

univerfe; which being totally taken away, no reason can be given why any worlds or agents fhould exift. COROLLARY II.

COROLLARY II. The holy Scriptures, which affure us the wages of fin is death, and conftantly affirm, that the impenitent workers of iniquity fhall be deftroyed, do give us infallibly a juft and true account of things, which demands the whole attention of our minds.

It was determined, because it was fit, that the world fo vicious should be destroyed. And the great God might deftroy them in what way he fhould judge moft proper, without any injuftice on his part, or on the part of any agents which he might employ. He might have destroyed them by fire from heaven, as Sodom, &c. Or by peftilence, or by deftroying angels, 1 Chron. xxi. 12, 27. 2 Chron. xxxii. 21. Or he might have given a commiffion to any one more righteous nation among them, had there been any fuch, to deftroy all the reft by the sword, and a right to enter upon all their poffeffions, as in the cafe of the wicked Canaanites, Deut. vii. 2. ix. 5. Lev. xviii. 26, &c. For the property of life, and of all poffeffions, belongs originally and abfolutely to God alone. But he chose to deftroy them by a deluge, or general inundation.

Not that the Divine Wifdom intended to extirpate the human race; the defign was not to extirpate, but to reform; and therefore the Lord was graciously pleased to respite the judgment, the impious world had deferved, for 120 years, ver. 3. This was to fhew that he had no pleafure in their deftruction, and to give them space for repentance, that their ruin, if poffible, might be prevented. Thus the long-fuffering of God waited for the converfion of the difobedient in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, 1 Pet. iii. 20. Noah was an excellent perfon, a just man and perfect, who, like Enoch, walked with God, ver. 9. Him and his family God was pleafed graciously to preferve; that from fo good a stock the human race might be again propagated, and religion reftored in the world. With him God purpofed to establish his covenant, or grant of bleffings, ver. 18. The grace of God to mankind, especially the grand fcheme of redemption, was not to fail, or to be suspended; therefore the Lord directed Noah to build a veffel in shape like a large cheft, every way convenient for floting upon the waters, and for containing all the creatures, which it was to receive, verfe 30. *[See PIERCE on Heb. xi. 7.] Noah without delay expreffed his humble and entire faith in the Divine Warning; and in obedience to it, applied himself to the building of the ark, for the faving of himself and family, (Heb. xi. 7.) by the which he condemned the unbelieving and impenitent world, and be came heir of the righteousness, [or became intitled to the falvation] which is by faith.

Note-Noah is commonly, and I think, justly supposed to have been 120 years in building the ark, for that was the time the long-fuffering of God waited; which time of long-fuffering was, while the ark was in preparing, as in 1 Pet. iii. 20. At the begining of this time, Noah's three fons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, were not born; for Noah was now but 480 years old, and none of his forefaid fons were born till he was 500%

• The length of the ark 300 equal to 450 equal to 150 at least.