*

which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." This prophecy was partly verified at the time of the deluge, partly in the overthrow of the Jewish state, but will have its full completion in the latter days. Adam had died, at the age of nine hundred and thirty years, not long before the translation of Enoch; but all the other intermediate patriarchs, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, and Jared, were alive when that miraculous event took place: and his son Methusalah, as if to compensate for the brief abiding of his father upon earth, survived him for the unusually long period of six hundred and sixty-nine years, being nine hundred and sixty-nine years of age when he died, which is the longest duration of life recorded in the Bible, and farther remarkable in that, in consequence of it, he outlived by five years his own son Lamech. Lamech, the father of Noah, was born before the death of Adam; so that these three patriarchs form a connecting link between the creation and the flood which took place in the days of Noah, and which two periods were divided by an interval of one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years, according to the shortest computation. When Noah was born to Lamech, his father gave him the name he bears, signifying "comfort or rest," because he said, "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." It may be that in thus expressing himself, he manifested his expectation of the promised Seed, whose victory over Satan would be followed by a remission of the curse which then afflicted the earth: or else, that being gifted by the Holy Spirit with a knowledge of future events, he foresaw that the arts of agriculture would not perish altogether in the deluge which overwhelmed its works, but would be preserved and

• Gen. v. 27.

+ Ver. 29.

augmented by Noah, from whom they have been handed down to his posterity, that is, to all the nations of the earth. In proportion as these arts are improved, mankind is fed more abundantly, and at a less expense of manual labour; and being thus set free to turn their attention to procuring the other necessaries and comforts of life, they rise to the habitual enjoyment of such temporal good things as God has vouchsafed to place within the reach of his creatures, as the rewards of ingenuity and perseverance; and thus even out of the very curse imposed upon the earth are derived materials for a blessing. And worldly gain will become spiritual also to us, if we never forget to honour the Lord with our substance, and with the first-fruits of all our increase ;* if godliness and contentment be the principles on which we act. Following the examples of Abel and of Enoch, let what we do be done in faith, in reliance the fulfilled proupon mise of a Saviour, in reference to the declared approval of our Father in heaven. And if the days of God's faithful servants are sometimes shortened here, if they are early called away from this world and its cares, let them reflect that thus it was also with those two righteous men, who received the most decisive testimony that they pleased God, however much it seemed good to him to diminish the time of their sojourning on earth; being assured that length of days alone is no proof of God's favour; and that better is a wise child, brought up in the way that he should go, than an old and foolish man, who will no more be admonished.

* Prov. iii. 9.

AS

CHAP. V.

THE DELUGE.

S God, for the relief and comfort of his creatures, has mercifully ordained that good, both temporal and spiritual, should be capable of being derived out of temporal evil, so likewise, with a view to their warning and humiliation, has he made it manifest, that even the choicest of his worldly gifts may be abused and misapplied, becoming thereby abundant sources of misfortune and of misery. Adam had cause to acknowledge this latter truth, when he found that the wife of his bosom, the woman whom God had given to be with him as a helpmate and beloved companion, became the occasion of his fall and when we proceed to the history of his descendants who were overwhelmed by a flood, we shall perceive that a great portion of their calamity may be traced to a similar origin. "When men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, it came to pass that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all that they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.' It was this ill-advised union between the hitherto separate races of Seth and Cain, expressed by the titles, the sons of God and the daughters of men, that (to speak according to the language of human infirmity) seems to have wearied out the patience of the Almighty. It had seemed good to those who called themselves his sons

* Gen. vi. 1-3.

to join together that which he had put asunder, and the result speedily was, that the yielding to one temptation laid them open to the inroads of every other that the spirit became subdued to the flesh, and carnal parents begat carnal children, whose might was abused to lawless violence, whose renown was in corruption, whose glory was in their shame. Let us not then think, that being the sons of God in name will be enough for us, unless we are in heart his children. Observe how they so called in the old time fell into the snare of fleshly seductions, and pray that the Spirit of God may not have to strive with you as it had with them, or that striving it may subdue you, and bring your vain and wandering imaginations into the obedience of faith and love. In the midst of that deeply-rooted and wide-spreading wickedness which then prevailed in the world, you will find one object of imitation, one heart which was right with God. Noah, the son of Lamech, was a just man, and perfect in his generations and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord."* The worship and fear of God became at length contracted within the limits of his single family and that family alone, consisting of seven persons, his wife, his three sons and their wives, were destined to be preserved from that terrible destruction which the Lord prepared to bring upon the earth. The fatal blow was not, however, struck without due warning given of the Lord's purpose to his rebellicus creatures. An hundred and twenty years before it happened did God reveal the coming of the flood to Noah, and during all that time did his long-suffering wait, while the patriarch vainly preached† righteousness to the obstinate and unbelieving generation with whom he had to do. The

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righteousness which he preached was that of which, according to the apostle to the Hebrews, he himself was an inheritor ;* it was the righteousness that is by faith. The revelation received by him from God was twofold-it assured him, first, that a general destruction was impending over the whole race of mankind; and, secondly, that amid the ruin a small remnant of such believers would be left as should by faith embrace the promise of a Messiah to come, and live after a manner conformable to that pious expectation. That such was the character of Noah's preaching we may conclude from that which St. Peter, in his first Epistle, has said concerning it; † he tells us that it was not so much Noah as Christ himself who preached by his Spirit to the disobedient of that day, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by passing through the water: the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us. From this passage we may perceive the propriety of the expressions used in our ministration of baptism, where we pray that the child being delivered from God's wrath, may be received into the ark of Christ's church; and being steadfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity, may so pass the waves of this troublesome world, that he may finally come to the land of everlasting life. We may learn also from it not to limit the preaching of Christ to that which he actually uttered with his own lips while upon earth, but to extend it to the declarations of his prophets in the Old Testament, as well as of his apostles in the New. For "holy men of God spake in the old time as they were moved by the Holy Ghost "+ "and that spirit which was in them was the Spirit of Christ." When Noah, thus inspired and directed,