of this life or from the toil of our hands, is partly a leffening of that affliction, by granting a more profperous and happy state of things, partly the delighting the foul with an inward relish of divine goodness, whereby it is enabled to bear all those toils, with which God is pleafed to exercise his people, willingly and with cheerfulness, from a sense of the love of God. Comfort, as to the ground, which God hath curfed, confifts in the beginnings. and preludes of the heavenly glory, which the elect are even here favoured with; but chiefly, in a freedom from the body of death, and the tranflation of the foul into a better state and manfion. Lamech breathed after these bleffings, defired them and hoped for them: and was willing to have a monument of this defire and hope in the name of his fon.

VI. But whom did he point to, as the author of this great bleffing, when he faid to his fon, when he was born, this fame shall comfort us? Some think, that being mistaken in the person, he flattered himself that Noah was the Meffiah. And indeed, as the believers of that age, with the greatest and moft affured hope, preffed earnestly, after the accomplishment of the promise made in paradife, and prepoffeffed it in their longings, but not having any certainty about the time when it was to be fulfilled, it is not so very improbable, that, in the warmth of defire, they promised to themselves the expected feed in the perfons of the fons, which were born to them. But what we lately observed concerning the expectation of our mother Eve, are objections to this. It seems therefore fafer to believe, that, on occafion of this fon, he comforted himself with the hope of the speedy coming of the Meffiah, and confidered him as a forerunner and type, and an extraordinary herald of the Meffiah. Finely speaks Martyr to this purpose: "I would rather imagine, they acknowledged their fons to be fhadows or types of Christ, and therefore diftinguished them by such names. But Noah was not only a fhadow of Chrift, &c. Though a genuine and real confolation proceeds alone from the Meffiah and his Spirit, yet Lamech truly prophefied of Noah, that he also would be a comfort to wretched mortals. And he was fo, ift, By preaching, with an extraordinary zeal, the righteousness of faith; of which prefently. 2dly, By obtaining a refpite of the imminent destruction by means of his prayers, and exemplary holiness of life, till the ark fhould be completed: for, Ezekiel classes him, with Daniel and Job, as one, who was very prevalent by his deprecations, Ezek. xiv. 14, 20. 3dly, By preferving the remains of the perishing world in the ark, which he had built at God's command, and performing very many things, in which we might fee him, as a type of the Meffiah,

and

and of the spiritual and heavenly benefits to be obtained by him, Of which we are to speak more fully hereafter.

VII. We have just now faid, that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. This we learn from Peter, who calls him xngxa The dinugσurns a preacher of righteousness, 2 Pet. ii. 5. But righteousness fignifies not only that virtue of man, which confifts in rectitude and conformity to the rule; but also that obedience of the Meffiah, whereby the ungodly is juftified; "the righteousness which is of God," and oppofed to "our own righteoufnefs," Rom. x. 3. Noah was a preacher of both these, He not only pathetically exhorted the men of his time to a holy life, and to the practice of religion, in order to escape the wrath of God, that was hanging over them, but also preached that righteousness of the Meffiah; which, as it is the fame with refpect to its efficacy, yesterday, to day and for ever, fo it is alfo" witneffed by the law and the prophets," Rom. iii, 21. and of which himfelf was heir, as Paul affirms, Heb. xi, 7. For, feeing he was not ignorant of fo great a benefit; nay and even enjoyed it; it is quite inconfiftent with the piety of the man, and the zeal, with which he was animated for the glory of God, and for the falvation of his brethren, to fuppofe he would conceal it from them.

VIII. Here we are to explain another paffage of Peter, I Pet. iii. 19, 20. Where he thus fpeaks of Chrift, who was quickened by the Spirit: Εν ὦ (πνευματι) Καὶ τοῖς ἐν φυλακή πνέυμασε Togeubris & xńgužu, authoari molé, " by which" (Spirit) "alfo he went and preached unto the fpirits in prifon; which fometime were disobedient, when once the long fuffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing." It is to no purpose to fay, how variously this paffage has been treated by interpreters; though if it be well confidered, the meaning will appear easy and plain. The Lord Chrift, fays he, who was raised from the dead by the infinite power of his Spirit, formerly went, came out of heaven, not indeed in the flesh affumed, and perfonally united to himself, but in the demonf tration of his Spirit, by which he formed the prophets, and a mong them alfo Noah. By the miniftry of these prophets, who were stirred up by his Spirit, he himself preached. For, not so much the prophets, as the "Spirit of Chrift, which was in them, fpake, i Pet. i. 11. By that preaching, he invited the fpirits to faith and repentance, that is, thofe fouls of men, which are now feparated from the body, and fuch are usually dalled fpirits, Heb. xii. 23. and now are in prifon, in br, according to the Syriac interpreter, in hell; compare Rev. xx. 7.3 because they were disobedient, and rejected the preaching

1

of

of Chrift by Noah, when the divine goodness and long-fuffering called them to repentance. Peter therefore declares, that Chrift formerly, and especially in the days of Noah, preached by his Spirit, by the prophets; and what else did he preach, but himfelf, and faith and repentance, whereby they might come to him? In this fenfe alfo Peter writes chap. iv. 6. that the "gofpel was preached to them that are dead;" namely, when they were formerly alive. Thus to the fame purpose, Naomi faid to her daughters-in-law, Ruth i. 8. " as ye have dealt with the dead and with me.'

IX. Neither improperly, nor without authority does Peter refer the preaching of the prophets, and especially of Noah, to Chrift. For Chrift, who calls himfelf Jehovah the redeemer, exprefsly proclaims, " I have not spoken in fecret from the beginning," Ifa. xlviii. 16, 17. And what else can the meaning be, but that I have publicly preached, from the very beginning? Nor is it altogether improbable, that Peter had a view to Gen. vi. 3. "and the Lord faid, my Spirit fhall not always strive with man," that is, "I will not always contend against their wickedness by fruitlefs exhortations and rebukes, made by my prophets, actuated by my Spirit; but for the determined space of a hundred and twenty years, will invite them to repentance by my long-fuffering and forbearance of wrath; but when that term is once expired, I will deftroy them all by a deluge." From this it appears, that, in the time of Noah, Jehovah contended with men by the preaching of his Spirit. That Spirit, by whofe inspiration, the word of life was declared, is by Peter justly called the Spirit of Chrift: not only because he is the Spirit of the Son no less than of the Father; but also because it is owing to the furetiship of Chrift, that the word of grace is propofed to finful man. The Spirit therefore, preaching that word, may by a peculiar appropriation be pointed out as the Spirit of Chrift the furety. All this is to inform us, that the fame doctrine of falvation concerning the fame Chrift, and through him, was, by means of the prophets, preached from the remoteft antiquity,

He

X. I cannot here but take notice, how strangely Grotius perverts and corrupts this eminent teftimony of Peter. feems to envy us, and refufe, that we can find Chrift and his works in the ancient ages of the world: and therefore he applies what Chrift is faid to have performed in the time of Noah, to what was done by the apoftles, and to the preaching of the gofpel to the Gentiles. By the fpirits in prifon he understands the fouls of men in the body, as in a fheath. But how does he prove it think you? Peter, fays he, borrows a fimilitude from

the

נדנה

the times of Noah. Then God faid, □8 1977 197 x5, that is, if we regard the propriety of the words, my spirit fhall not be fo detained in man as in a fheath, that is, the foul, which I gave him (Wifd. xii. 1.) fhall not be ufelefs, as a fword in its fheath, which by no means answers the end it was made for. Let us proceed. A prifon is ufually called vann; but the heath is, as it were, the prifon of the fword, the Chaldees calling a fheath The fame name they give to the body of a man, as Dan. vii. 15. and the Talmudifts often. But on the words who were difobedient, &c. he obferves. They were fuch as the "fouls, who did not obey formerly in the times of Noah; he speaks as if they had been the fame: and they were the fame spirits or fouls, not numerically, as Ariftotle speaks, but generically; that is, fouls equally useless to God; namely as those, who did not obey the preaching of Noah. Men altogether alienated from God, did not believe Noah, did not believe Chrift." If I rightly take the meaning of the intricate difcourse of this otherwise illuftrious perfon, the fum of his opinion comes to this. Chrift, by the Spirit, put into the apostles, preached the gofpel to the Gentiles, whofe fouls were fhut up in the body, as in a prifon and fheath, and who are juftly accounted the fame with the disobedient men, who lived in the days of Noah, the fame, I do not fay numerically, but by imitation of their wickedness. I tremble at the reading fuch things, and imagine, I fee in them a fpirit, which will not have the Holy Ghost to have faid, what he actually has, and which fhamefully misapplies its learning: let us now make this appear.

XI. 1ft, The explication of the words of God, Gen. vi. 3. though countenanced by fome Jewish and Christian doctors, is abfurd. Among others fee Buxtorf in Vindic. Verit. Hebrace. p. 639. For, the foul of man is no where in scripture, called the Spirit of God. It is, indeed formed in man by God, Zech. xii. 1. yet not called the Spirit of God, but " the spirit of man," Ecclef. iii. 21. and " the spirit of man which is in him," 1 Cor. ii. 11. In vain are alledged to the contrary, Ezek. xxxvii. 14. and Pfal. civ. 30.; for, there the Spirit of God does not denote the foul, or life of the creatures, but the author of that life. Nor does the grammatical analogy admit the deriving

Fadon from, for, in that cafe, the points ought to be altered the letter daleth ought to have a dagefch forte, because nun is excluded, and under jod, a Chirek. Not to mention,

that neither in the Talmudifts nor Chaldee, nor books of the Old Teftament, is there any word derived from, which fignifies to be detained in a fheath: fo that this explication is rafhly urged, without either reafon or authority. 2dly, The

application

application of those words to the words of Peter is still more abfurd, as if hence we could understand, what is meant by the fpirits in prifon. For, certainly the Spirit of God is one thing, the fpirits of difobedient men another. And fhould we grant,

which yet we do not, that there is in Hebrew a verb derived from, a fheath; this m, a fheath is certainly not the thing which the Septuagint render Kosov, 1 Chron. xxi. 27. and Quλaxn another, which, according to the venerable Beza's obfervation, when it does not fignify the fourth part of the night, always denotes a prifon. To conclude, what method of commenting is it? That the words of Peter, namely the fpirits in prison, fhall be explained from Gen. vi. 3. ; and moreover explained from ; and again a denotes a prifon, because a fheath is the prifon of the fword; and then the body be the prifon of the foul and therefore the spirits in prifon in Peter, fhall denote the fouls contained in the body, as in a fheath. How far fetched, uncertain and trifling is all this? 3dly, It is moft abfurd of all, to make the Gentiles, to whom the apoftles preached, the fame with the disobedient, who lived in Noah's days, who were not only men of another age, but, by an interval of many ages, men of another world. Indeed, Grotius refers us to his book de jure B. and P. Lib. 3. c. 9. Sect. 3. where he proves, that a people is accounted to be the fame at this day, which they were a hundred years back, as long as that community fubfifts, which conftitutes a people, and binds them together by mutual ties. Though this be true, it is nothing to the purpose: for, the Gentiles, to whom the apostles preached, were knit by no tie of mutual union to the fame society with the cotemporaries of Noah. They who were disobedient, when the ark was a preparing, were all of them entirely destroyed by the deluge, nor from any of them did any of the Gentiles derive their origin; fo that it is inconceivable, how they could coalefce into one people with the Gentiles. And Peter is fo far from making the unbelievers of his time to be one body with thofe, who lived in the time of Noah, that, on the contrary, he calls the old world "the world of the ungodly," 2 Pet. ii. 5. and chap. iii. 6, 7. opposes "the world that then was, to the world which is now." A fimilitude of manners is not enough to make them the fame people. Who, that trembles at the word of God, can afcribe fuch a weak and foolish speech to the divine apostle, as to think he could fay; that when the apostles preached to the men of their time, they preached to those who were disobedient in the time of Noah? Be it far from us thus to trifle with facred writ. The reader

may