to whom the Apostles preached, the fame with the difobedient, 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. 2, 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 subsists, which conftitutes a people, and binds them together by mutual ties. Tho' this be true, it is nothing to the purpose: for, the Gentiles, to whom the Apostles preacher, were knit by no tie of mutual union to the fame fociety with the cotemporaries of Noah. They who were difobedient, when the ark was a preparing, were all of them entirely deftroyed by the deluge, nor from any of them did any of the Gentiles derive their origin; fo that it is inconceivabl, 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 Noab, that, on the contrary, he calls the old world the world of the ungodly, 2 Pet. 2. 5. and chap. 3. 64.7, oppofes 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 thofe, who were difobedient in the time of Noah? Be it far from us thus to trifle with facred writ. The reader may be pleased to fee a very folid defence of this paffage in Difputat. Placei, Difput 15. XII: Memorable alfo is that bleffing, with which Shem's Noah bleffed his pious fons, containing many doc- bleffing! trines of the true religion, Gen. 9. 26, 27, bleed be explained. Jehovah the God of Shem, and Canaan fhall be his fervant God fhall enlarge (or allure) Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Skem. When he calls Jehovah, the the God of Shem, he gives an intimation of that covenant, which was to fubfift between the fupreme being and the pofterity of Shem, above other men. For, Abraham and all Ifrael were defcended from Shem. Thefe God had chofen to himfelf for a peculiar people. Whence, with a remarkable compellation, Shem is called the father of all the children of Heber, Gen. 10. 21. that is, of the Hebrews. He alio publithes the piety of Shem, who was constantly to adhere to the worship of the true God, and to oppose, to the utmoit, the spreading of idolatry, teaching, both by chis doctrine and example, that he acknowledged none to be God but Jehovah. Generally interpreters also obferve, that these words fet forth, that the Mediah fhould defcend from the pofterity of Shem, fince he does not celebrate fo much Shem himself, on the account of his piety, as he transfers the whole praife to God, faying, bleed be Jehovah, he fhews, that God is the author of every good inclination of the foul, and pious action of the life, to whom therefore all the glory of them is due. He had denounced a curfe on the guilty in his own perfon, on account of the crime he had committed; because the fuel and fource of evil is in man himself. But being pleased with the piety of Shem, he was willing rather to blefs God; that he might not feem to afcribe too much to his fon, or to facrifice to his own net, and attribute any thing to his good education. He gives thanks to God, who had heard his vows, and had rabundantly bleffed the pains he had taken in forming the morals of his fon. Nor is it without a mystery, : that tho' Japheth was the first born of his three fons, yet Noah fhould, by the fpirit of prophefy, prefer Shem before him; to teach us, that, in election, God has no refpect to age, and that the order of grace is not the fame with the order of nature. He was therefore juftly called w, that is, famous and of a great name, because he was eminent for fo many and fo great privileges above his brethren; and efpecially because שם יהוה את שמו becaufe with him and his pofterity す。 Jehovah put his name, as it is, Deut. 12. 5. Noab whether XIII: What is faid to Japheth is varioufly explained. Japhet, The verb nn, from whence Japheth is derived, as fo called alfo the term Japht, which Noah here ufes by an from enelegant paronomafia, or allufion, fignifies in Chaldee larging or to enlarge. Hence in the Chaldee paraphrafe, Pf. alluring. 104. 25, DN, is the wide Sea; and 1 Kings 4. 29, N nn, Largenefs of heart. But in Hebrew, the fame verb fignifies in kal to be allured, in piel to allure, and is generally taken in a bad fenfe, to denote an alluring or feducing into error; tho' fometimes in a good fenfe, as. Jer. 20. 7. perfuaded me, and I was perfuaded, and Hos. 2. 14, or according to another divifion, v. 16. N'лED DIN MIA, bebold, I will allure her or perfuade ber. Both fignifications are applied by great men to this paffage. thou baft פתיתני ואפת XIV. They who contend, that the fignification is Arguto enlarge, inlift on the following arguments. First, ments for that Noah makes ufe of the conjugation biphil, which mer opiis never used to fign fy alluring; nor does it elfe where nion. occur in biphil but in the Chalde, where no fignifies to enlarge. Secondly, that лn is a verb of a common fignification, nevertheless it is almoft always taken Reafons nion. in a bad fenfe, excepting in one or two places. The Greeks generally render it aravar, by a manifeft allufion, but which rightly expreffes the force of the word. Thirdly, that no, when t fignifies to allure, always governs an accufative: but here it is joined to the dative, for lamed, prefixed to Japheth is the fign of the dative. Seeing therefore it cannot be said, God fhall allure to Japheth, we muft render it, God Shall enlarge to Japheth, place or habitation being to be understood. For, thus the Hebrews fpeak: as Gen. 26. 22, 15 nmann, the Lord hath made room for us, and to the fame purpose generally eliewhere. Moreover this explication is very confonant to the event. For, in the divifion of the earth, the largest portion fell to be inhabited by Japheth. For, befides Europe in all its extent, Afia the lefs belongs to the portion of Japheth; and Media and a part of Armenia, and Iberia and Albania, and those vast regions towards the north, which the Scythians formerly occupied, and the Tartars poffefs at this day to say nothing about the new world, to which, it is not improbable, that the Scythians formerly paffed over by the ftraits of Anian, as Fuller in his Mifcellans Sacr. lib. 2. c 4, has fhewn at large. ༼1 XV. But others, who contend for the fignification for the lat- to allure, can make use of these reasons. ft. That ter opi- Noah did not fpeak in Chaldee, but in Hebrew in which language n has fcarce, if at all, any other fignification, but to allure. 2dly. That not without reafon he used the conjugation hiphil, tho' occuring no where else in fcripture; namely to render the paronomafia or allufion the more elegant, which in piel cannot come fo near to the name Japheth. And that a change of conjugation does not neceffarily infer a change of fignification. 3dly. That from the inftances above alledged, it appears, is alfo taken in a good fenfe; and that it is not to the purpofe, whether more rarely or more frequently fo. And indeed, the word, w, ufed by the Apoftle 2 Cor. 1 επαταω. Cor. 5. 11, when he fpeaks of the doctrine of the Gofpel has a greater affinity with D, than the verb aπaraw. 4thly Buxtorf fhews, by many examples, that the change of the dative, for the accufative, with active verbs is frequent, Thefaur Grammat. lib. 2. C. I 2. And more, efpec ally, that tho' verbs of commanding are indeed oftner conftrued with the accufative, yet alfo fometimes with the dative, as Numb. 9. 8, my, Ifa. 38. 1, 75. As is alfo N, to feduce, conftrued fometimes with the acculative, Jer. 49. 16; at other times with the dative, Jer. 4. 10. And why not the fame thing hold in nn? 5thly; That, neither did the event difagree with this explication: feeing upon rejecting the Jews, the Gofpel, by which they are allured to the communion of God in Chrift, was more than to all others revealed to the pofterity of Japheth, and that in their own language. And as this was a far greater bleffing than the poffeffion of the whole earth, why not rather think, that by those words was predicted what they may moft conveniently fignify? of Shem. XVI. Now what follows, and let him dwell, or be How God fball dwell in the tents of Shem, may be applied either dwelled in to God, or to Japheth. They who apply it to God, the tents as among the ancients Theodoret, in Gen. quæft. 58; among the moderns, Fuller in Mifcellan. Sacr. lib 2. c. 4, Mufculus in commentar and others, have a regard to the word ", whence, Shekinah onhvwors; by which words, the inhabitation of the divine majefty, is generally fignified. The Shechinah was in the tabernacle of the Ifraelites, in mount Sion, and in the temple built there; of which God faid, that he would dwell in the thick durkness, that is, in an amazing cloud, the sign of the divine glory, which filled the houfe, 1 Kings, 8. 11, 12. And the city, where either the tabernacle or temple ftood, was called the place, which the Lord chofe to place his name there; Deut. 14. 23. But above all the Shechinah is in Christ, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the God bead |