500. chap. v. 32. And therefore that paragraph, ver. 17, &c. wherein mention is made of Noah's fons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and their wives, muft have been spoken after the ark was finished.

When the ark was finished, and Noah and his family, the animals and their food, fafe lodged in it, about the 6th of November, in the year of the world 1656, by the mighty power of God, the fountains of the great deeps were broken up, chap. vii. II. the fea overflowed, being prodigiously raised by the violent eruption of the subterraneous waters; and rain came down from the fkie, not in drops, but in ftreams and spouts, the windows of heaven were opened; and both together eafily prevailed over the earth, and put it out of the power of the wifeft and strongest of men to relieve either themselves or their friends.

And now, how were the careless and impenitent unbelievers surprized! Conceive them fecurely going on in the ufual way of life, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, Mat. xxiv. 37; feafting and reveling, thinking of nothing but sensual enjoyments, in contempt of every serious admonition. When all on a fudden the most terrible rains and inundations threatened their inevitable deftruction. How would they be terrified! How would they condemn their own unbelief, and be forced to own there was a just and righteous God, who will execute vengeance on all the incurable workers of iniquity! This is a fpecimen of the final_destruction of the ungodly at the laft day, which Ĝod hath revealed. Let us not harden our hearts, but believe and prepare.

Chap. vi. 17. And behold I, even I, by my own immediate operation, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to deftroy all fleft. The word

in its primary fenfe, doth not include the idea of a food; it comes from which, with relation to plants and animals, originally fignifies, to be fo exhaufted of natural moisture and fpirits, in which their life confifts, as to be withered, or dead. And it is applied peculiarly to the deluge, and to nothing but that, under the notion of extinction of life; and fo the phrafe may be tranflated, an extinction of life by waters. It is only used in Gen. chapters the 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th; and in Pfal. xxix. 10. The Lord fiteth [ fat, or did fit] upon, or at, the flood, the extinction of life at the deluge. He then fat upon the feat of judgment executing vengeance upon that wicked generation; yea, the Lord fiteth King for ever. AINSWORTH upon Pfal.

xxix. 10.

This difpenfation, as all the rest, had relation to the morals of mankind: and the evident defign of it was to leffen the quantity of vice and profaneness, and to preserve and advance religion and virtue in the earth, the great end for which the earth, and man in it, were created. This end it was well adapted to obtain in the then present state of things, and in all future generations. In the prefent ftate of things, it prevented a total corruption. For if the whole tainted part had not been cut off, a fingle family would foon have been drawn in, or destroyed, and then the whole globe must have been ruined, and the schemes and purposes of God from the begining of the world, had been defeated. But by referving a felect

family for the continuation of the human species, the fyftem of the Divine Counsels was preferved intire, and the most proper method was devised for the establishment of religion and virtue in the new world; as the family of Noah enjoyed much greater advantages for this end, than the family of Adam at the begining of things.

Noah was not, like Adam, a new, unexperienced being, ignorant of every thing, but what he received from revelation. Noah, befides the benefit of revelation, and intercourfe with heaven, had the whole compafs of ancient antediluvian knowledge from the creation, in his own poffeffion. He was a man of the most eminent abilities, and the most teady integrity. Adam was eafily feduced; but in the midft of an univerfal degeneracy, Noah firmly adhered to truth and religion; and when he was warned of God to prepare the ark, even 120 years before the deluge, or any appearances of it, fo ftrong was his faith, or perfuafion of the Divine Power, Juftice, and Veracity, that he applied himself to the work, and compleated it, furrounded as he was with the infidelity and contempt of all the world. A man of so much understanding, and of fuch a fpirit, would not fail to communicate all he knew to his pofterity, nor to inculcate it ftrongly upon their hearts.

But his family, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, with their wives, were eyewitneffes of the dreadful inundation, and had the most affecting proof of their own deliverance. They refided full twelve months in the ark, from the begining of the deluge, to the end of it. And it is easy to conceive how they would be affected in fuch a moving fituation. They knew this shocking catastrophe was not an unfortunate accident, but occafioned by the wickedness of the world; therefore all the terrors of the deluge must give them the moft fenfible perception of the malignant nature of wickedness, that it is infinitely odious to God, and dreadfully pernicious to finners. They must be convinced of the uncontro lable power and dominion of the Moft High, the impoffibility of efcaping his vengeance, what a fearful thing it is to fall into his hands, and how much they were obliged, both in intereft and duty, to reverence and obey him.

On the other hand, their preservation from fo terrible a calamity, in the midft of the ruins of all the world befides, must be a very striking demonftration of God's favor and compaffion to themselves; which was naturally adapted to make the deepest impreffions of gratitude, love, and duty. Efpecially as they could not but be fenfible, that such a great and miraculous deliverance was particularly owing to the eminent piety of their father, Gen. vii. 1. Thus they would be well prepared and disposed -to acknowledge and admit the excellency of those principles and prac tices which had been, through Divine Goodness, their fecurity in the general defolation.

And when they left the ark, all the difmal appearances of the defolate world, the ruins of palaces, towns, and cities, the fadly changed iface of countries, which they had feen in a cultivated, flourishing ftate, the bones of men and other animals, ftrewed over all the face of the earth, would have a natural tendency to fix upon their minds the good impreffions they had received in the ark, and render them folicitous.to inculcate the principles of religion upon their children, Add to all

this, that Noah, who lived 349 years after the flood, and whose pious admonitions would be of much greater weight and authority, than when he was an unsuccessful preacher of righteousness to the antediluvians, was the inftructor, and, for fome time at least, the governor of the new world.

From all this it will appear, that this was a very juft and proper difpenfation for reforming mankind, and restoring religion in the earth; well adapted to that thoughtless age, (when they seem not to have attained to any confiderable degree of reafoning, and therefore not difpofed to be wrought upon by argument) and to the state of things in it, when no regular civil governments and laws were formed for the adminiftration of justice, and the restraint of injury and wrong. And it appears to have had the intended effect, by fuppreffing violence and rapine, which never any more univerfally prevailed in the world; and by fixing a fenfe of religion upon the minds of men, which afterwards was indeed perverted, but not quite extinguifhed. And as it ftands recorded in facred writ, it is a warning to the remoteft generations. In which view it is refered to 2 Pet. ii. 5. And [God] fpared not the old world, but faved Noah, the eighth perfon, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into afbes - making them an example unto those that afterwards should live ungodly.

CHA P. XIX.

Of NOAH's Sacrifice, and the Divine Intercourfe on that Occafion.

Gen. viii. to the End of the ix. Chapter.

OAH, being reftored to the poffeffion of the earth, entered

N upon it with a folemn act of Divine Worship, according to the xx original inftitution, Gen. viii. 20. He builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, i. e. of fuch beafts and fowls as God hath ordained for Sacrifices, and offered Burnt•Offerings upon the Altar. Which as they were intended to denote, fo they were in Noah accompanied with, faith in the mercy of God, thank'fulness for the late miraculous deliverance, and the dedication of himfelf, and of all his, to the honor and obedience of God, through the promifed Redeemer; of whom Noah and the Patriarchs, we may well fuppofe, had a general knowledge and expectation. The Acceptableness of this act of devotion to God, is fignified by his fmelling a fweet favour, ver. 21. This one may call Hieroglyphic language. Hiero-glyphics, which by bodily fenfations, or external representations, denoted

abstract

abstract notions, or the fentiments of the mind, were the literature of the first ages of the world. So here, the approbation of the judgment, or what is pleafing to the mind, is fignified by an odor or fragrance grateful to the smell. Or the taste and relish of the body is transferred to the taste and relish of the mind. This language is frequently used in the Levitical law. As in Lev. i. 9, 13, 17. ii. 2, 9. iii. 5, c. meaning the acceptableness of the Sacrifice or Offering. So the fragrance of burnt-incense represents the acceptablenefs of finceré prayer, Pfal. cxli. 2. Luke i. 10. Rev. viii. 3, 4.

It is alfo applied, in the fame fenfe, to the offering and facrifice of our Lord, Ephef. v. 2. And walk in love, as Chrift alfo bath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an Offering and Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling favour. God, who is a fpirit, can relifh, or be pleased with, only that which is morally, or fpiritually good, the love and obedience of the heart. This is the only favour that is grateful to him. And therefore, the Sacrifice of our Lord must have been an actual exhibition of obedience and love; and the Sacrifices of Noah, and of the Ifraelites, must have been hieroglyphic reprefentations of, or inftructions in, the like moral difpofitions, in order to exprefs, or produce them in the hearts of the worshippers. Smelling a fweet favour is plainly hieroglyphic, or fi gurative language; and therefore the Sacrifice, or Offering, the object of fuch fmelling, muft alfo be figurative, representing thofe good difpofitions, which were, or ought to have been, in the worshiper's heart, and which were in the highest and most perfect degree in our Lord. The Sacrifice of a clean beaft or fowl figuratively_reprefented what the worshiper was, or ought to be and do; and our Lord really was, and perfectly did what the Sacrifice reprefented. Hence Sacrifice is applied to beneficent actions, or actions morally good, and pleafing to God, Pfal. iv. 5. 1. 14, 23. Phil. iv. 18. Heb. xiii. 15, 16. And in the Book of Wisdom is applied to the whole of a virtuous life, as gold in the furnace bath he tried them, [afflicted good men,] and received them as a BurntOffering.

The fmell, or favour, of a person, or thing, is the quality of it, good or evil, which occafions the approbation or diflike of thofe that pass a judgment upon it. Exod. v. 21. You have made our favour, that in us which is the object of Pharaoh's judgment, to be abhorred, to ftink, in the eyes, the opinion, of Pharaoh. So Gen. xxxiv. 30. Jer. xlviii. 11. Moab hath been at eafe from his youth, and he hath fettled on his lees, -therefore his tafte, his relish remaineth in him, and his fcent, his favour, his bad qualities, is not changed. 2 Cor. ii. 14, 15, 16. Now thanks be unto God, who always caufeth us to triumph in Chrift, aud maketh manifeft, difplays, the favour, any on the excellent qualities, of his knowledge, the knowledge of Chrift, by us in every place. For we are to ·God, vwdiar, the fweet smelling favour of Christ, [i. e. my miniftry is to God a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling favour, which I offer unto him on the behalf of Chrift. See Rom. xv. 16.] both in regard of them that are faved, and alfo of them that perish. [For in both cafes the counfels and fchemes of Divine Wisdom are accomplished.] Though to the one we are, oun, the favour of death unto death; and to the other we are the favour

4

of

of life unto life. i. e. to the minds of the one my preaching is offenfive; and rejecting it, they are advancing towards eternal death; to the minds of the other it is grateful and pleafing; and embracing it they are advancing towards life eternal.] And who is fufficient for these things of lo great confequence? Note-A favour of death unto death, is a favour which occafions their advancing towards eternal death.

From his

Upon the folemn occafion of Noah's Sacrifice, the Lord faid in his heart, i. e. determined, or refolved, that he would not again curfe the ground any more for man's fake; (chap. viii. 21.) for [ though] the imagination of man's heart is [fhould be] evil from his youth. youth, denotes a corruption of manners of long continuance. See Ifai. xlvii. 12, 15. Fer. iii. 25. Ezek. xxiii. 8. See alfo Job xxxi. 18. The Lord was also pleased to repeat to Noah and his fons the fame bleffing upon the propagation of the human fpecies, and the fame marks of diftinction upon our nature, as he had given Adam at his creation, with an additional grant of animal food, (chap. ix. 3, 4.) with this reftriction, that they fhould not eat the flesh of an animal in the life thereof, the blood thereof; or that they should not eat any flesh cut off from any animal while it is alive. At the fame time God made a covenant with Noah, and with every living creature, or he made a free and absolute grant, or promife to them, that all fiefh fhould not any more be cut off with the waters of a flood. Of which more hereafter.

What is here particularly to be obferved is, the inftitution of magif tracy, and the punishment of murder. ver. 6. Whofo fheds man's blood, by man fhall his blood be shed. ver. 5. And furely your blood of your lives will I require, at the hand of every beaft will I require it; and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man. The beaft that killed, or the man that murdered a man, is here commanded to be put to death by man, i. e. by the magiftrate, or judge. by the magiftrate, or judge. Here courts of judicature are authorized, not only for the punishment of murder, but, by parity of reafon, of any other great offences, which may affect life nearly as much as murder.

This feems to be the original inftitution of magiftracy, of which we have not hitherto the least intimation in the facred hiftory. On the contrary, it appears from the cafe of Cain, (Gen. iv. 15.) and of Lamech, (Gen. iv. 23, 24.) that murder, the greateft of crimes, was left to be punifhed, as God in his providence fhould fee fit. And if murder, much more every leffer inftance of injury. It feems probable, there were no feparate states, nor regular governments, among the antediluvians; but that as they spread over the face of the earth, they removed further from the place of public worship, loft a sense of God, and lived in a disorderly manner, exercifing violence and outrage, as they had power; and were inftigated by luft, avarice and revenge, till the earth was filled with violence. Which, I apprehend, could not have been the cafe, under laws and governors, armed with power to restrain outrage and injuftice. For though governors themselves, and their creatures, may be tyrannical and oppreffive, yet, for their own fecurity, they will not fuffer their fubjects to break out into anarchy and licentious invafion of life and pro perty, because this is open rebellion against governors. The ftate of VOL. I.

F

the