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been pious and virtuous in proportion to their knowledge and belief.

Though we ought to be careful not to dive too deeply into the counsels of God, nor to be wise above what is written, yet it may certainly be affirmed, that our blessed Redeemer was in existence when God made this gracious promise to man; and that his thus foretold coming on earth, was in consequence of his own voluntary offer. For with respect to the first of these points, Christ tells us himself, Before Abraham was I am*; and again, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee, before the world wast. And as to the second, our Lord says explicitly, I lay down my life-No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. And so St. Paul says, that he gave himself for our sins §; and

* John viii. 59. Compare this mode of expression with God's annunciation of his name to Moses, Exod.iii. 14.

John xvii. 5.

John x. 17, 18.

Gal. i. 4.

that

that Christ Jesus gave himself a ransom for all*.

So far therefore we know ; but it is useless in the present bounded state of our faculties, and perhaps presumptuous too, to enquire why it pleased God to effect our redemption in that particular manner; why his beloved Son, who did no sin, should suffer for our sins, the just for the unjust. It is enough for us that it has pleased God in his goodness and unerring wisdom thus to act. We are assured, that it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead†, but the reason of it we can never know till we arrive at that celestial abode, where the souls of just men shall be made perfect, where we shall know, even as we also are known, where Faith will be lost in certainty, and Hope absorbed in possession.

What effect this gracious promise of

God had on our first Parents, or how far

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they might understand it, cannot be now

* 1 Tim. 2. 6.

Luke xxiv. 46. Ede, it was fit, proper, necessary

it should be so.

that

ascertained.

ascertained. However, as a dark and distant hope of a future blessing so immediately connected with the sentence of their own punishment, it may reasonably be presumed, that they delivered it down to their descendants, with the most careful and minute exactness. And tradition, in those early ages, when men lived eight or nine hundred years, and written records were not, was far from being so uncertain as it afterwards became. For Adam, who lived 930 years*, did not die till his great great grandson Mahalaleel was 135 years of age; and Mahalaleel survived till his descendant of the fifth generation, Noah, was 28 years old. So that the important narrative which Adam would probably tell Mahalaleel, Mahalaleel himself might relate to Noah. And to Noah was a new revelation made. For previous to that event, wickedness had so encreased in the earth that it was filled with corruption and

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In this, and for the most part in other places, the Hebrew computation is followed, from which the Septuagint varies; but the difference is not material to the present argument.

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violence, and God determined to destroy all flesh. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord; and when God acquainted him with his intention of bringing a flood of waters upon the earth, he added, but with thee will I establish my covenant. That is, the covenant or agreement, which God had made with Adam after his fall, when he promised him that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, he now renewed to Noah.

It is observable that the original promise made to Adam, did not refer to any one particular branch of his descendants, unless it be supposed, as some think, to devolve of course upon Seth his third son, in consequence of the murder of Abel, and the crime of Cain, his two eldest children. Indeed all the posterity of Cain perished in the Deluge, and the renewal of the promise to Noah limited it to his family, of whom, after the flood, was the whole earth overspread. But before that time God is supposed to have notified his intentions. of limiting the promise to the descendants of Noah by the prophetic speech of his father

father Lamech when he gave him that name, which means rest*, alluding to God's gracious intention of giving man rest after their work and toil, by one of his family.

Very soon after Noah and his family came out of the ark, all living creatures began again to encrease, and the race of men to multiply with great rapidity. After the erection of the Tower of Babel, and the confusion of languages which succeeded it, those who used the same language naturally associated together; and thus men made settlements which soon became so many states and kingdoms. They lost by degrees the simple and primitive religion of their ancestors Adam and Noah, and corrupted the traditionary knowledge which yet remained of the

* Gen. v. 29. But many commentators of great note do not consider the name of Noah as having any reference to the rest offered to men through Christ; but only to the improvements in agriculture and other arts, through the introduction of mechanical instruments, by which so much manual labour was spared, and which were then beginning to be used. See Bishop Patrick on the place.

important

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