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PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY

PRESENTED BY

N , Murray BS 1235 .W56 1834 Winning, William Balfour. Essays on the antediluvian age

ESSAYS

ANTEDILUVIAN AGE,

IN WHICH ARE POINTED OUT ITS

RELATIVE POSITION AND CLOSE CONNEXION

WITH THE

GENERAL SCHEME OF PROVIDENCE.

BY THE

REV. W. B. WINNING, M.A

VICAR OF KEYSOE, BEDFORDSHIRE.

To him that overcoineth will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. — Rev. ii. 7-

LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.

1834.

LONDON : GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,

ST. John's square.

PREFACE.

This attempt to illustrate the very brief notices which the Bible affords concerning the period from the Fall to the Deluge, is founded on the following principles : that mankind, from the beginning, have been actuated by the same mo- tives ; and that the Almighty has followed out one uniform plan of moral government.

The inspired narrative of Moses presents to our view the institution of the primeval Church ; the entrance of infidelity which gradually increased until it became an overwhelming apostasy ; and the judgment of God upon a totally corrupt Church in the destruction of a world. This is our direct evidence towards a history of the Ante- diluvian Church. Some indirect evidence comes reflected to us from our more intimate acquaint-

a2

IV PREFACE.

ance with the Jewish Church. In the Old Testa- ment, we have a full account of its institution, its wayward course, and continual declining from the truth ; and in the New, we see the judgment of God denounced upon this licentious and apostate Church in the utter subversion of its polity and the dispersion of its members. But w^e not only have a more particular histor}^ of the Jewish Church ; we have the farther advantage of inspired commentators to explain the Mosaic dispensation ; the Apostles continually speak of God's covenant with Abraham in the language and with the enlarged views of Christianity. Their object, indeed, was to unfold to their Jewish brethren the nature and object of the Gospel scheme by means of analogies taken from their own economy ; but in so doing, they have enabled us to see more clearly the nature and object of Judaism ; and we are hereby authorised in apply- ing analogies taken from the Christian and Jewish dispensations to the illustration of the antediluvian period. The apostles, following the example of our Saviour, have done so in part themselves ; but they have only pointed out, in a general w^ay,

PREFACE.

the path which we must ourselves explore to come to a knowledge of particulars.

In this investigation, we may also derive great assistance from the nature of prophecy (vid. Essay III.), which having different fulfilments of the same prediction (each fulfilment being more clear than the preceding) we are enabled not only to look forward with more distinct views to the final completion, but also backward with a better understanding of the circumstances which first gave rise to it. The most important instance of this method is to be found in the prophecy of Enoch. There can be no doubt that it was addressed to the Antediluvians to warn them of God's intended judgment at the flood ; but it is also applied by St. Jude to that judgment on the Jews which is foretold by our Saviour in his pro- phecy concerning the subversion of the Jewish polity (Matt, xxiv.) If, then, from the nature of prophecy, the prediction of Enoch may be applied to the subversion of the Jewish polity ; conversely, the prophecy of our Lord may be applied to the destruction of mankind at the flood : "As the days of Noah were (at the coming of the Lord

VI PREFACE.

foretold by Enoch), so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be (at the end of the Jewish age.)" Vid. Essays VI. and VII. Various analogies and applications of prophecy will be found throughout this work, but it is the retro- spective application of our Lord's prophecy which has thrown most light upon the early history ; and it was Jude's application of Enoch's prophecy to the last days of the Jewish age, that suggested this mode of treating the subject.

As Enoch's prophecy is the only prediction of that kind remaining to us from those early ages, we must consider it merely as the representative of the antediluvian prophecies ; for, doubtless, there were many others of a kindred nature. Thus John the Baptist's prophecy (Matt. iii. 12.) may be looked on as the representative of the numerous and varied prophecies that ushered in the end of the Jewish dispensation : "He that cometh after me is mightier than I ; his fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner ; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." If this prediction of the Baptist's were the only

PREFACE. Vll

one preserved from the Christian Scriptures to the subjects of a more glorious dispensation, they would form a very erroneous judgment if they supposed this prediction to have been the only warning to the contemporaries of John. For my own part, I suppose that Jude has quoted only the concluding sentence of some one of Enoch's pro- phecies, as the above text is the conclusion of one of the many exhortations of John which he delivered during his '' preaching in the wilder- ness of Judea." I therefore infer that the later generations of the antediluvians had advantages of a similar kind to those which the Jews possessed afterwards ; and, I suppose, as the result was the same in both cases, that the winding up of the early religious history would disclose events very similar to those which occurred before the de- struction of Jerusalem.

Of the importance of my subject I need to speak but very briefly. The scheme of man's redemption has come down to us unfolded in three distinct, but closely connected dispensations. The foundation of the Church was laid at the commencement of the first period ; so that, be-

VI 11 PREFACE.

sides the natural curiosity which would lead us to the beginning of things, an adequate know- ledge of the opening dispensation would seem necessary to a thorough understanding of those which follow. The Book of Genesis relates the triumph of the serpent over the woman : the Book of Revelations sets forth the defeat of the serpent by the seed of the woman. In the begin- ning of the Bible, we read of man's forfeiture of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden ; at the close, we see his right thereto restored: " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God," Rev. ii. 7. "I use the Scripture," says the Christian philosopher Boyle, ''not as an arsenal to be resorted to only for arms and weapons to defend this party, or defeat its enemies ; but as a matchless temple where I delight to be, to con- template the beauty, the symmetry, and the mag- nificence of the structure, and to increase my awe, and excite my devotion to the Deity there preached and adored." Like this pious author, every Chris- tian must contemplate, with an awful delight, the beauty and magnificence of this structure ; but

1

PREFACE. IX

he cannot perceive aright the symmetry of all its parts, until he have a clear understanding of the relative bearing and use of those more obscure portions that were raised in the remotest ages. A correct knowledge of the Antediluvian period is necessary to a full understanding of the whole scheme of Providence.

Several of these Essays, such as the first and last, which form in themselves a complete subject, have already appeared in the British Magazine ; they are now arranged, with some alterations, and combined into one whole.

CONTENTS.

ESSAY I.

PAGE

General Remarks on the Book of Genesis 1

ESSAY II.

The Patriarchal Sabbath 9

ESSAY III.

The Nature and Object of Prophecy 21

ESSAY IV.

The Garden of Eden 35

ESSAY V. On Sacrifice ^'^

ESSAY M.

The Translation and Prophecy of Enoch -^7

ESSAY VII.

On the Expectation of the Lord's Coming 70

Xll CONTENTS.

PAGE

ESSAY VIII.

Antichrist Past and To Come 81

ESSAY IX.

Enoch, Elias, and John the Baptist 91

ESSAY X.

The Fallen Angels and the Spirits in Prison 103

ESSAY XI. The Primeval Church 115

ESSAY XII. The Rainbow a Prophetic Sign 128

Notes 145

ESSAYS

THE ANTEDILUVIAN AGE,

ESSAY I.

GENERAL REMARKS ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

A HISTORY of past events can never be received as credentials of a commission from God. We might altogether question the truth of the account; and, even if we did not, there could be no cer- tainty as to the extent of human means within the author's reach. If Levi, the publican, (Luke v. 27.) on leaving the receipt of custom, had offered to the world a history of the period from Malachi to his ow^n times in evidence of his being sent by God, he would certainly have wrought no con- viction ; but when once he had established, on proper grounds, his claim to be an apostle, his history would have been immediately received as a true account. Neither would its authenticity be at all affected by the question, wiiether it was

2 GENERAL REMARKS ON

written under a direct revelation, or in the ordi- nary way of recording past events. In any wise it would be esteemed a true and authentic history, as coming from St. Matthew, the apostle of the Lord. In the case of St. Matthew, this is a mere supposition ; but it is a true representation with respect to Moses ; and these remarks have been made entirely with a view to illustrate that part of his writings which gives a summary of the events previous to his own time.

The Book of Genesis could never afford to the Israelites a proof that the God of their fathers had indeed appeared unto the writer of it ; but when Moses by miracles established his claim to a divine commission, they readily received it as a true history. Hence it appears that the credentials of Moses, as an ambassador from God, are quite independent of the Book of Genesis ; on the contrary, the Book of Genesis depends entirely for its authenticity on the previously established character of Moses ; and whether it were written under a direct revelation, or in the use of ordinary means, we are equally sure that it is a true his- tory, as proceeding from Moses, under the direc- tion of God. Without, therefore, in the least degree affecting either the character of Moses, or that of Genesis, by the result arrived at, we are at full liberty to consider the extent of the mere human resources which Moses might command

THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 3

for such a work. It is generally (a) supposed that he had the means of writing it without a direct revelation ; although, as acting under a divine commission, he must have been under the constant guidance of inspiration, as to the choice of materials and security from error.

If ordinary sources of information were open to Moses, these results would immediately follow : —

(1.) We should have good grounds for believing that there has ever been extant, in some nation or family, a series of traditions by which a know- ledge of the promise was uninterruptedly pre- served, and consolation afforded to the righteous in every age.

(2.) We could explain the origin of other ac- counts not given by him, but preserved by tradi- tion down to the apostles' times ; such as the fallen angels, the prophecy of Enoch, &c. Most of these had degenerated into such idle tales, and gave rise to such unmeaning disputations among the Rabbis, that St. Paul strictly forbade the be- lieving Jewish teachers to give any heed to their *' endless fabulous traditions," (1 Tim. i. 4.)

(3.) We could satisfactorily account for the similarity observable in the earliest traditions of all nations, however distant and unconnected, not only the Phenicians, Egyptians, Greeks, and

(a) For these notes see the end. B 2

4 GENERAL REMARKS ON

Romans, but the Goths, Hmdoos, Chinese, and Americans ; creation, paradise, the fall, and the deluge, are clearly discernible. Vid. Faber's Horse Mosaicse.

I shall now endeavour to show the probability that such information was open to him, and to point out the sources from which it might be derived.

It is only natural to suppose that the Israelites, in the time of Moses, were not unacquainted with their origin, and had not to learn from him their national genealogy ; but we have better authority to rest on than mere supposition, that some ac- counts of their early history were already current amongst them. When the Lord appeared unto Moses in Horeb, he said unto him, " Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you," (Exod. iii. 15.) A mode of address which clearly implies in the persons spoken to, a familiar acquaintance with the history of those patriarchs. And when, without farther explana- tion, God intimated unto Moses his design through him, " to bring them up out of that land, unto a good land, and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey," (iii. 8. xxxii. 13.) he doubt- less understood at once that it was in fulfilment of the covenant which God had made with Abraham,

THE BOOK OF GENESIS. O

with Isaac, and with Jacob. We have, therefore, no reason to think that Moses was the first to compose '^ the generations of Terah, the father of Abram," (Gen. xi. 27.) " the generations of Isaac," (xxv, 19.) *' the generations of Jacob," (xxxvii. 2.) ; on the contrary, there is every rea- son to suppose that he took the substance of them from some authentic source. It was by natural means that he wrote " the generations of Aaron and Moses," (Numb. iii. 1.) and no one, I beheve, ever conceived that St. Matthew learnt by inspira- tion '' the book of the generations of Jesus Christ," with which he opens his Gospel, (i. 1 — 17.) when he had within his reach such ample means of information in the ordinary way. Now all the passages of this kind are headed by one and the same title, and I cannot but suspect that they are of the same nature throughout the Bible ; when- ever, therefore, in the earlier parts of Genesis, I meet with a passage introduced by, what in our translation is rendered, " these are the gene- rations," I should consider it as taken by Moses from some authentic account, either oral or writ- ten, (b)

It could not be matter of surprise to us if we should discover, in any of these primitive tradi- tions, an artificial structure of sentences, as we know that the earliest records of other nations were reduced to some kind of measure to fix them

6 GENERAL REMARKS ON

more deeply in the memory. The passage, *^ these are the generations of Noah," (Gen. vi. 9.) when correctly translated and broken into its proper lines, is as follows : —

" This is the record of Noah : Noah was a just man, Perfect was he in his ways ; With God walked Noah."

This was, indeed, to let his light shine before men ! What brighter character was it possible to leave than that, in the midst of that violent and corrupt generation which the flood cut oflP, he had been strictly observant of all his duties towards God, his neighbour, and himself. In strange discordance with this memorial of holi- ness, is the reckless declaration of impunity by the sensual and presumptuous Lamech. His speech (iv. 23.) so naturally falls into the mea- sured lines of Hebrew parallelism, that our authorized version readily admits of the poetical arrangement, (c) " And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah : —

" Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, Hearken unto my speech : For I have slain a man to my wounding,

And a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Truly, Lamech, seventy and sevenfoldc"

THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 7

It is more than probable that this speech was taken by Moses from some of the ancient '^ gene- rations," or other primitive traditions ; there is certainly no necessity for supposing him to have learnt it by inspiration, rather than by the ordi- nary way in wdiich knowledge is acquired. To us it indirectly affords a proof, that accurate in- formation concerning the primeval times not only might be, but actually was, preserved among the ante-diluvians ; for we incidentally learn from it, that the murder of Abel was well known in the days of Lamech, who lived in tlie fifth generation from Cain. Now, in all, there were but ten generations before the flood ; if, then, Lamech, in the seventh generation, was well acquainted with Cain's guilt, we can hardly suppose that the history of Adam was unknown to Noah in the tenth.

Amidst a great variety of feature, there is yet such a family resemblance in the earliest tradi- tions of all nations, however distant and uncon- nected, as to leave no doubt of their having sprung from this common parentage. The chil- dren of Ham soon fell into idolatry ; and, toge- ther with the religion, they corrupted the true accounts which they had received from Noah. The descendants of Shem, taking a deeper interest in the doctrine of the atonement as shadowed out to them in the ordinance of sacrifice, were more

8 GENERAL REMARKS, &C.

careful in preserving all the traditions relating to the promised seed. But even among them, the light became obscured as the distance increased, and man's life was shortened ; and although the lamp, at various times, was trimmed at the hand of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, yet was it in danger of expiring in the darkness of Egyptian bondage. But God, in his goodness, provided otherwise ; he chose Moses his servant, and guided him to select and commit to an imperish- able record so much of the early history of the world as related to the scheme of redemption generally, or more immediately to the origin of his chosen people, '^ of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came."

The conclusion of the whole is this— that the protracted length of life in the first ages was sufficient to preserve, by tradition, the original revelation to Adam, and the most important of the events to which time gave birth ; that certain accounts, memorials of the most remote antiquity, were sources of information open to Moses ; that he incorporated into his narrative only such of these as were suitable and necessary to a parti- cular design ; and that, in the use of them, he followed the practice of all writers, sometimes directly quoting, but more generally expressing, the substance of them in his own words.

ESSAY IL

THE PATRIARCHAL SABBATH.

The Book of Genesis contains the history of the six days of creation, and the sanctifying of the seventh day to rest. These particulars concerning the creation were revealed, not merely to gratify a laudable curiosity, but to produce a specific moral effect on the heart. God foresaw, and we may learn from the records of our race, that crude conceptions concerning the creative power give rise to absurdity of worship and shamelessness of living. In the words of Scripture, which attri- bute natural effects to the immediate agency of God, — '' Men worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator ; for this cause ^ God gave them up to vile affections," (Rom. i. 25.) It was therefore worthy of the moral Governor of the world to reveal himself distinctly as the Almighty Creator, and to institute a memorial of the order and process of creation. Reason, then, yields a ready assent to the announcement of revelation, that God, in the beginning, did appoint a solemn ordinance for a continual remembrance of his

10 THE PATRIARCHAL SABBATH.

power and goodness : '^ God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Days, months, and years, are visibly marked out by the Creator as natural divisions of time for our physical wants ; a week is no such natural division, but a positive ordinance of the Lord for the moral well-being of man. Let us now see what traces we can discover of this weekly division under the patriarchal dispensation.

Concerning Noah we read, " Come thou and all thy house into the ark ... for yet seven days and I will cause it to rain, &c. ; and it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth." Again : ^' Noah sent forth a dove . . . And he staid yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark . . . And he staid yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove which returned not again unto him any more." With this transaction I would compare another in the New Testament, accompanied with the remarks of Paley — " ' The same day at even- ing, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assem- bled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst of them,' (John xx. 19.) This, for any thing that appears in the account, might, as to the day, have been accidental ; but, in the 26th verse of the same chapter, we read, that * after eight

THE PATRIARCHAL SABBATH. H

days, (that is, on the first day of the week follow- ing) again, the disciples were within,' which second meeting upon the same day of the w^eek looks like an appointment and design to meet on that particular day."— (Mor. Phil. Book V. ch. 7.) This inference of Paley's, no one, I think, will feel inclined to controvert ; but his reasoning appears to be equally, if not more, applicable to the case of Noah. Both incidents prove the existence of weeks, and render probable a re- ligious observance of the respective days. In- deed, it has been thought that all the principal divine communications were made to the patri- archs during their religious services on the seventh day ; and Noah, in the case of the dove, seems to have expected a particular blessing on that day.

We come now to the time of Abraham. Cir- cumcision, as the sign of God's covenant with him, was appointed in these words — '^ He that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you;" that is, when a man-child is born, he shall be circumcised that day week. This inference is sufficiently probable in itself, but it rises into certainty when it is viewed in connexion with the Levitical rites, which were added to the original command : — '' If a woman have born a man-child, then she shall be unclean seven days, and in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be cir-

7

12 THE Pi\TRIARCHAL SABBATH.

cumcised ; but if she bear a maid-child, then she shall be unclean two weeks," (Lev. xii. 2. ; see also xxii. 27.) Afterwards, when the aged patri- arch sent the eldest servant of his house to take a wife of his own kindred for his son Isaac, and God prospered the commission, ^' the servant rose up in the morning, and he said. Send me away unto my master ; and Rebekah's mother and brother said. Let the damsel abide with us a week or ten days, after that she shall go," (Gen. xxiv. 55.) When Jacob had fraudulently ob- tained his brother's blessing, his mother's advice was — " Arise, flee thou to Laban, my brother, to Haran, and tarry with him a week, until thy brother's fury turn away," (xxvii. 43.) '^ And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him as a single se'nnight, for the love he had to her;" or the week of years ap- peared unto him as a week of days, (xxix. 20.) And afterwards, when he was imposed upon by the substitution of Leah, Laban said unto him, " Fulfil her week," which was the customary period of a marriage feast, as appears from the instance of Samson, (Judges xiv. 12.) I add the case of a death in a family — ** Joseph made a mourning for his father seven days," (Gen. 1. 10.) " And they mourned for Saul seven days," (1 Sam. xxxi. 13.) In both instances, the weekly division of time determined the length of the

THE PATRIARCHAL SABBATH. 13

mourning, as may be inferred from the common custom mentioned in Ecclus. xxii. 12. " Seven days do men mourn for him that is dead ; but for a fool and an ungodly man, all the days of his life." (a)

The passover was instituted during the de- parture of the Israelites from Egypt — " Ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever ; seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread/' (Exod. xii. 15.) If a Jew were asked, at the present day, how long that feast was observed, he would probably answer, that it was meant to continue a week ; and yet the passover was appointed before the institution of the Jewish Sabbath. Subse- quently, when the whole congregation murmured in the wilderness for want of bread, '^ The Lord said unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day ; and it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily," (Exod. xvi. 4.) Paley considers " the transaction in the wilderness here recited as the first actual institution of the Sabbath," and consequently as the origin of the weekly division of time ; on the contrary, the double provision on the sixth day seems to me to have been made in reference to the already existing division into weeks, and con-

14 THE PATRIARCHAL SABBATH.

sequently to prove some previous distinction of the seventh day.

This author, and the class of writers who take the same view of the subject, dwell much upon the circumstance that the Sabbath is called a sign between God and the chosen people; and they consider it as conclusive evidence against the observance of a Sabbath among the patriarchs. "The children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath: it is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever," (Exod. xxxi. 16.) "I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them," (Ezek. XX. 12.) " Now it does not seem easy (says Paley) to understand how the Sabbath could be a sign between God and the people of Israel, unless the observance of it was peculiar to that people, and designed to beso." — (Mor. Phil. Book V. ch. 7.) A few remarks on the rite of circumcision will perhaps render this conception more easy. Cir- cumcision was the sign of God's covenant with Abraham, that his seed, among other privileges, should possess the land in which he was then a stranger, (Gen. xvii. 8.) ; and, accordingly, before his descendants were allowed to enter upon their inheritance, God gave an express command to Joshua to circumcise the children of Israel, for '' all the people that were born in the wilderness, by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised," (Josh. v. 5.) Now

THE PATRIARCHAL SABBATH. 15

this rite was observed by several nations, the de- scendants of Abraham, as well as by the Jews ; and yet it was peculiarly a sign to the Jews alone. This consideration removes the preliminary diffi- cidty of a rite or ordinance being a sign to a par- ticular people without being peculiar to them ; but, in fact, the Sabbath was a sign to the Jews of a miraculous nature, and of a distinctive cha- racter, which clearly proved that Jehovah was their God, and they his people ; and the writers who raise the objection do not seem to have un- derstood in what the force of the sign consisted. When the Almighty determined, by means of the Israelites, to make known among the nations his name JEHOVAH (Z>), he took the chosen people from under the common course of nature,, and instituted a series of Sabbatical ordinances, the observance of which required the constant operation of an extraordinary providence. The double provision of manna on the sixth day was truly a Sabbatic sign to the generation in the wilderness ; and the same kind of sign, itself also appointed at the same time with the Sabbath day, was continued to them after their settlement in Canaan, in the threefold harvest before every sabbatic year.

It is farther objected that the distinction of the Sabbath is, in its nature a positive ceremonial institution ; but so also is sacrifice, with its dis-

16 THE PATRIARCHAL SABBATH.

tinction of clean and unclean animals, (Gen. viii. 20.) which was confessedly practised by the patri- archs. All previously existing ordinances under- went a change in their adoption into the Jewish ritual. Thus when Moses enacted laws concern- ing the property of heiresses, (Numb, xxxvi.) and the giving of a bill of divorce, (Deut. xxiv.) he was not instituting marriage for the first time ; he only modified the original existing law (Gen. ii. 24.) to suit the condition and state of his na- tion. And when he commanded them from God to keep the Sabbath holy, and to light no fires therein, he was not instituting the Sabbath ; but enjoined that special observance of an universal ordinance (Gen. ii. 3.) which was permitted by the nature of the country they were about to occupy. Yet, in neither case, was it so from the beginning ; and Christ, the more perfect Law- giver, brought back both institutions to the more pure and simple form of the patriarchal dispen- sation. The patriarchs sanctified the seventh day by a religious observance of it, but did not abstain from all manner of work, even the slightest and most necessary, under the penalty of death : they did not sabbatize, as the Christian Fathers rightly say of them. This distinction is readily inferred from the different treatment of those that violated the Sabbatic rest at the period when the Sabbatic sign was first given, and of those who

THE PATRIARCHAL SABBATH. 17

transgressed after that sign with its severe penalty had been fuU}^ established. The Israelites, who went out to gather manna on the first seventh day after that miraculous provision, received only a verbal reproof; but death was inflicted on the man that gathered sticks (Numb. xv. 33.) on the Sabbath, after it had been solemnly promulgated. Work was equally done in both cases ; but the former transgressed no established law of sabba- tizing on the seventh day, whilst the latter vio- lated an express provision of the Jewish Sabbath, " Whosoever doeth any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death," (Exod. xxxi. 15.)

It is allowed that nine commandments of the Decalogue are of moral and universal obligation ; but it is denied by some that the fourth com- mandment is so, on the oTound that it belonos solely to the ceremonial law, which had its pecu- liar sanctions and promises. But this reasoning- appears to apply with greater force to the fifth commandment, which openly professes a tem- poral and local sanction, than to the fourth which assigns a reason that concerns all mankind. I consider the ten commandments to be of universal obligation, as well because they are so in their nature, as because I observe a marked distinction in the manner in which the precepts are enforced

c

18 THE PATRIARCHAL SABBATH.

in the Two Tables and the exclusively Jewish ritual. In the Decalogue we read — ^' Honour thy father and thy mother," — ^'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." These general duties are made strictly Levitical by these pecu- liar enactments — ^' He that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death,'' (Exod. xxi. 17.) " Whosoever doeth any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death,'' (Exod. xxxi. 15.) The obligation to honour parents and to observe a Sabbath does not rest on the authority of the Mosaic Law ; only, under it, the obligation was more strongly enforced by the penalty of death. When that Law was abrogated, the Jews were relieved from the penalty, but not mankind from the duties themselves. These re- mained in the Christian code ; the former was taken direct from the second Table with the tem- poral promise annexed (Ephes. vi. 2.), and the observance of a seventh day is binding on us from the practice of the Apostles and the sanction of Christ. It is not merely a ceremonial, but a na- tural duty, to honour our heavenly Father and our earthly parents ; and the two are thus joined in Lev. xix. 3. — "Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father, and keep my sabbaths : I am the Lord your God." That the obligation to sanctify the seventh day and to honour parents

THE PATRIARCHAL SABBATH. 19

was not unknown to Noah, we may infer from the history of the dove in the ark, and from the punishment of the undutiful Ham.

To escape the difficulties, that were supposed to encumber the belief of a Patriarchal Sabbath, some writers have put aside the plain and obvious meaning of Gen. ii. 3, and given the forced con- struction that Moses used a prolepsis, and that the order of connexion and not of time intro- duced the mention of the Sabbath in the history of the subject which it was ordained to comme- morate. But this is only a supposition, and one which entails the unreasonable notion that God rested on the first seventh day, but blessed and sanctified it, not at that time, but for that reason, about 2,500 years after. To this merely human gloss I oppose the authority of the Son of God : "the Sabbath was made for man," not for the chosen people solely, but for all mankind. The world was made for man in six days, and the Sabbath on the seventh, namely, on that seventh day, when he could first use it. The contrary opinion may have derived some support from an inattention to the improper division of the chapter. The first chapter of Genesis, I conceive, should have been extended beyond the six days of crea- tion, so as to contain the sanctifying of tlie se- venth day to rest, and perhaps to end with the full close :

c 2

20 THE PATRIARCHAL SABBATH.

" This is the account of the heavens and the earth at their

creation, In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens."

The expression, ^^ at their creation," will hardly allow us to suppose that any part of the history is proleptical ; the whole account of the seven days is one continued narrative of succes- sive events. Thus the Lord of the Sabbath and the lawgiver of the Jewish Sabbath unite in giving testimony to its divine institution at the creation. The whole passage, " This is the account of," &c. Gen. ii. 4 — 6. is considered at length in Essay XII.

ESSAY III.

THE NATURE AND OBJECT OF PROPHECY.

The first voice of prophecy connects the begin- ning of the world with the end, and unfolds the whole scheme of Providence with respect to man. Sin and death were introduced through Satan, and are to be abolished by Christ. The first inti- mation of man's recovery was obscurely given to Adam : addressing the serpent, God says, " I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between tliy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," (Gen. iii. 15.) The same merciful design was plainly revealed under the Christian dispensation : ''As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order ; Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the king- dom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy

22 THE NATURE AND

that shall be destroyed is death," (1 Cor. xv. 22.)

The final deliverance of believers from the power of Satan by means of a Redeemer, and the coming of that Redeemer in the last days to ex- ecute judgment on Satan and the ungodly, con- stitute the sole great object of Prophecy, " for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy," Rev. xix. 10. In other words, it is the nature and object of prophecy to testify of a Redeemer; and so much is she occupied with this her grand object, that when a temporal deliverance is to be promised to the Church, or a temporal judgment to be denounced on the adversary, she seems less engaged in performing her immediate commis- sion than in proclaiming the triumphal advent of her Lord to put all enemies under his feet. And when, in consequence of this ardent anticipation, >coffers hastily objected, " Where is the promise of his coming," St. Peter instructs believers as to the cause of this apparent delay : " Beloved, be not imiorant of this one thins;, that one dav is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thou- sand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slack- ness ; but is long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," 2nd Epist. iii. 8. The Almighty indeed, has sufficient cause to hasten on the final

OBJECT OF PROPHECY. 23

catastrophe ; but he awaits the fulness of his mer- ciful scheme, and sends occasional, judgments as tokens and warnings of the final punishment of obdurate sinners.

That such is the systematic language of Pro- phecy may be fully proved by examples taken from her own sacred oracles ; and it seems to be expressly pointed out by one of her own inspired servants : ^' Not any prophecy of Scripture is of individual fulfilment," 2 Pet. i. 20. Such prophe- cies refer equally to the several occasions of God's delivering his Church or punishing its enemies ; and all point onward to the great victory of Christ over the powers of darkness. ^' Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man" to gratify individual curiosity on any urgent occa- sion ; '' but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," in order to support the faith of believers generally, and to afford a convincing proof of a superintending Providence. The value of every heathen oracle passed away with the immediate occasion of it ; but not any prophecy of the Scripture does so become a dead letter : it continues in force and remains an effi- cient calendar of God's times and seasons.

Hence the Christian may still read concerning the deliverance of Christ's Church from her mys- tic enemies, Assyria and Edom, in the same page which formerly comforted the Jew with the assur-

24 THE NATURE AND

ance of a temporal deliverance from those perse- cuting kingdoms. Indeed, these adversaries of the Jews are spoken of in such august terms, as show in themselves that the language has but a very subordinate reference to a Sennacherib, &c. We at once behold a greater power than an As- syrian king in the following apostrophe : ^' Thou shalt pronounce this parable upon the king of Ba- bylon, and say :

«(

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the

morning ! Art cut down to the earth, thou that didst subdue the

nations ! Yet thou didst say in thine heart, I will ascend the heavens ; Above the stars of God I will exalt my throne. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds ; I will be like

the Most High ; But thou shalt be brought down to the grave, to the sides of

the pit." — Isaiah xiv. Bp. Lowth's Version.

The enemies of the children of Israel are also represented as objects of such universal concern, as prove that they cannot relate to the seed of Abraham confined to a particular nation ; but that a time is referred to, when the Church of God shall embrace all the nations of the earth.

((

Draw near, O ye nations, and hearken.

And attend unto me, O ye peoples !

Let the earth hear, and the fulness thereof ;

OBJECT OF PROPHECY. 25

The world, and all that spring from it.

For the wrath of Jehovah is kindled against all the nations,

And his anger against all the orders thereof :

He hath devoted them ; he hath given them up to slaughter."

And yet the small kingdom of Edom is the par- ticular object of vengeance pointed out by the prophet :

*' For my sword is made bare in the heavens ; Behold on Edom it shall descend ; And on the people justly by me devoted to destruction."

Although it is very clear that the whole world is deeply concerned in this day of the Lord's vengeance on behalf of his Church : (a)

" For it is the day of vengeance to Jehovah ;

The year of recompense to the advocate of Sion."

Isaiah xxxiv.

*' Remember, O Jehovah, against the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem, when they said, Down with it, down with it, even to the founda- tion thereof. O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee, as thou hast served us," (Psalm cxxxvii. 7, 8.)

When Sennacherib railed and blasphemed against the Most High in his attack upon Jeru- salem (2 Kings xix.), the sentence passed upon him

26 THE NATURE AND

was, " Behold, I will send a blast upon him, &c. And it came to pass that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred, fourscore, and five thousand." Isaiah, prophetically describing this supernatural de- struction of the Assyrian, says of Christ (xi. 4.)

" He shall smite the earth with the blast of his mouth,

And with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked one."

And again, (xiv. 24.) :

" Surely as I have devised, so shall it be : And as I have purposed, it shall stand ; To crush the Assyrian in my land. And to trample him on my mountains."

Isaiah makes farther mention of this Assyrian (xxx. 31.) :

" By the voice of Jehovah the Assyrian shall be beaten down : And with fierce battles shall he fight against them. For Tophet is ordained of old : Even the same for the king is prepared ; He hath made it deep ; he hath made it large ; A fiery pyre, and abundance of fuel ;

And the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of sulphur shall kindle it."

Of the first passage (xi. 4.) St. Paul has made an application to the Man of Sin, (2 Thess. ii. 8.)

OBJECT OF PROPHECY. 27

and thus identified this Assyrian (6) with the Babylon of Rev. xviii. The fate of Sennacherib's army leads us to suppose that the Man of Sin also will meet with a supernatural destruction in the Holy Land, near to Jerusalem. But this pro- phecy against the Assyrian has a still farther re- ference to Gog and Magog : " Behold, I am against thee, O Gog ; thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel ; and I will send a fire on Magog." Ezek. xxxix. compared with Rev. xx. 7. where the same judgment is denounced on Goj>' and Magog, and their leader Satan : " They compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city ; and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them."

Isaiah (xiii. 19.) thus foretold the destruction of Babylon : —

•' Babylon shall become, she that was the beauty of kingdoms, The glory of the pride of the Chaldeans,

As the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah by the hand ot God."

This overthrow of the literal Babylon began about two hundred years after, and became as complete as that of Sodom, yet not by the same means (c). But the prophecy looks forward to the destruction of another Babylon, which is thus described in the Christian Scriptures : " Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen : She shall be utterly burnt with

7

28 THE NATURE AND

fire : The kings of the earth shall lament, when they shall see the smoke of her burning." (Rev. xxviii.)

The restoration of the Jews from the Bab}^- lonian captivity was effected through the instru- mentality of Cyrus, who took Babylon by drying up the channel of the Euphrates, as had been foretold by the Spirit of God : —

" He saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited ; And to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built ; And her desolated places I will restore. Who saith to the deep, Be thou wasted, And I will make dry thy rivers. "Who saith to Cyrus, Thou art my shepherd ! And he shall fulfil all my pleasure. Who saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built : And to the Temple, Thy foundations shall be laid."

Isaiah xliv. 26.

The second restoration of the Jews is connected in prophecy with a similar drying up of the Euphrates : —

" And it shall come to pass in that day,

Jehovah shall again the second time put forth his hand

To recover the remnant of his people.

That remaineth from Assyria, &c.

And he shall lift up a signal to the nations ;

And he shall gather the outcasts of Israel,

And the dispersed of Judah shall he collect,

From the four extremities of the earth.

And the jealousy of Ephraim shall cease,

OBJECT OF PROPHECY. 29

And the enmity of Judah shall be no more ;

Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,

And Judah shall not be at enmity with Ephraim.

And Jehovah shall smite with a drought the tongue of the Egyptian sea ; {d)

And he shall shake his hand over the river with his vehe- ment wind ;

And he shall strike it into seven streams,

And make them pass over it dryshod.

And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people,

Which shall remain from Assyria ; as it was unto Israel,

In the day when he came up from the land of Egypt."

Isaiah xi. 11.

See also Rev. xvi. 12. " And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared."

But farther : The return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity is represented as tak- ing place under the immediate guidance of Jehovah : —

** A voice crieth :

In the wilderness prepare ye the way of Jehovah ! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God !"

Isaiah xl. 3.

^' It may be useful," says Bishop Lowth, "to consider carefully the images under which the pro- phet displays his subject. He hears a crier giving orders, by solemn proclamation, to prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness ; to remove all

30 THE NATURE AND

obstructions before Jehovah marching through the desert. The deliverance of God's people from the Babylonian captivity is considered by him as parallel to the former deliverance of them from the Egyptian bondage. God was then repre- sented as their king leading them in person through the vast deserts, which lay in their way to the promised land of Canaan. It is not merely for Jehovah himself, that in both cases the way was to be prepared, and all obstructions to be removed ; but for Jehovah marching in person at the head of his people.

'^ Yet obvious and plain as I think this literal sense is, nevertheless we have the irrefragable authority of John the Baptist, and of our blessed Saviour himself, for applying this exordium of the prophecy to the opening of the Gospel by the preaching of John, and to the introduction of Messiah's kingdom ; who was to effect a much greater deliverance of the people of God, Gentiles as well as Jews, from the captivity of sin, and the dominion of death.

^' The Jewish Church, to which John was sent to announce the coming of Messiah, was at that time in a barren and desert condition, unfit without reformation for the reception of her king ... It was in this desert country, destitute at that time of all religious cultivation, in true piety and good works unfruitful, that John was sent to prepare the way

OBJECT OF PROPHECY. 31

of the Lord by preaching repentance." Bishop Lowth's Notes on Isaiah, ch. xl.

If the Jews required an extraordinary provi- dence to bring them back from the Babylonian cap- tivity, much more do they stand in need of super- natural aid to collect them from their present wide and lasting dispersion. And if the Jewish Church was in a barren and desert condition, when John was sent to announce the approach of ^' the kingdom of heaven ;" is that wilderness now fitted, without a similar preparation, to receive the thorough establishment of Messiah's kingdom ! There remaineth then another fulfilment of this prophecy, which will take place at the same time with the literal accomplishment of these words of Malachi :—

" Behold, I will send unto you Elijah the prophet, Before the great and terrible day of the Lord come, That he may convert the heart of the fathers together with the children," &c. — ch. iv. 5.

*' I will surely gather, O Jacob, all of thee ; I will surely assemble the residue of Israel. He that forceth a passage is come up before them ; They have forced a passage and have passed through the

gate: They are gone forth by it, and their king passeth before them ; Even Jehovah at the head of them."— Micah ii. 12.

The Jews look upon this king as their Messiah,

32 THE NATURE AND

and the personage that forceth a passage before them, as his forerunner Elijah. (Vid. Essay IX.)

At the appointed time the Lord will come to bruise the serpent's head, and put all enemies under his feet. This event will be literally ful- filled by a personal coming of the Lord in judg- ment ; but also, and in reference to this event, any judgment on the enemies of the Church, or on any apostate branch of that Church, is called '' the coming of the Lord." Thus in the case of the Church at Sardis, our Saviour says : '^ Re- member how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent ; if therefore thou shalt not w^atch, I ^\\\\ come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know w^hat hour I wall come upon thee," (Rev. iii. 3.) There are, however, besides the end of the world, three particular periods in W'hich more especially the Lord is said to come. He came in judgment on the apostate Ante- diluvian Church, and on the unbelieving Jewish Church ; he will come, in like manner, on an idolatrous Christian Church at the end of the times of the Gentiles. For this reason, the prophecy of Enoch, w^hich was fulfilled at the flood, is applied by St. Jude to his own times ; and is still equally applicable to the end of the present age, and to the consummation of all things.

The prophecy of our Lord, (Matt, xxiv.) con-

OBJECT OF iniOPlIECY. 33

cerning the introduction of Christianity at the subversion of the Jewish polity, is even more applicable to the complete establishment of Mes- siah's kingdom at the end of the times of the Gentiles. Its primary fulfilment in the destruc- tion of Jerusalem presented a fiery ordeal to the men of that generation, but its fuller completion in the utter destruction of the fourth, or Roman empire, will prove a furnace seven times more heated, to try the faith of another generation. Almost every particular that is mentioned by our Lord among the signs of his former coming, will be repeated in a new cycle during the coming of his great and terrible day : nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom ; because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold ; there shall arise false Christs and false prophets ; Jerusalem shall again be com- passed with armies of the Roman empire ; in the holy place shall be seen a still greater abomina- tion of desolation, even the idolatrous ensigns of a nominally Christian Church ; the Gospel must first be published among all nations ; and as a snare shall that day come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Many of these particulars will again be repeated in the day that Satan shall lead Gog and Magog to compass the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are

D

34 THE NATURE AND OBJECT OF PROPHECY.

in the four quarters of the earth to gather them together to battle, (Rev. xx. 7.)

These instances sufficiently show the real mean- ing of St. Peter's cautionary remark, '* knowing this first," &c. ; and exemplify the principle, that not any prophecy of Scripture does receive an individual fulfilment, and then die (as it were) in giving birth to a fact : it continues prophesying to all generations, for it looks forward to the great winding up of the whole scheme of Providence. The previous judgments, under the name of the Lord's coming, are so many tokens and har- bingers of the event itself; and prove, however the spirit of Antichrist may vaunt itself, that we are under the moral government of God, and that ^* He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained."

We may now see the impropriety of the phrase, *' The double sense of prophecy." In the bad acceptation of these words, Scripture is laid open to the sneer of the scoffer ; and even in the in- tended sense, the words are of too limited a mean- ing to convey any correct notion of the actual extent of the subject. I therefore suggest that a more proper, because a more general designation, would be some such phrase, as ** The progressive nature of prophecy."

ESSAY IV.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

In the New Jerusalem described by St. John, (Rev. xxi. and xxii.) in which was the tree of life, and there was no more curse, ^^he saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb are the temple of it;" neither do we read of any temple in the Garden of Eden, but of a free and open converse between Adam and his Maker.

Immediately on the fall, however, a thick veil was drawn down between corrupt human nature and the spiritual world. Man no longer witnessed the brightness of God's glory, but from that time saw him only as in a glass darkly, through the me- dium of external ordinances; and he who had lately filled the Garden of Eden with his glorious ma- jesty, did now darkly manifest himself in a mate- rial fabric to receive the worship of repentant sinners, who faithfully sought the way to the tree of life. The woful change is thus recorded in the sacred history: — "So God drove out the man ; and He placed in a tabernacle, before the

D 2

36 THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

Garden of Eden, the Cherubim and the sword- like lambent flame, to keep the way to the tree of life," (Gen. iii. 24.) The Jews were pro- bably acquainted with these Cherubim by tradi- tion ; but even if they were not, brief and ob- scure as the account may appear to us, to them it was sufficiently clear by means of the fiery manifestation between the Cherubim in their own sacred tabernacle. It appears, then, that the front of the Garden of Eden was the place in the an- tediluvian world which the Lord did choose out of all the earth to put his name there. It is a higher principle than curiosity that would lead us to trace out the history of this highly favoured land.

The first mention of it occurs in these words: ^' But the Lord God had first planted a Garden in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed;" from which we infer that God care- fully planted out, as a choice garden, a certain portion of the country of Eden. The situation of the country itself may be determined by this farther description of it : — *' A river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison ; that is it which com- passeth the whole land of Havilah. The name of the second river is Gihon ; the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Cush. The name

THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 37

of the third river is Hiddekel ; that is it which goeth toward the east of Asshur. And the fourth river is Euphrates." The geographical details must now inevitably be involved in great obscurity, but I would explain them in general terms thus : — The source of the river was in the north of Eden, from which it passed in one stream through the garden, and then divided into four rivers; the easternmost of these was the Euphrates, whilst the Gihon took the most westerly course towards the African Gush. The land of Eden, then, reached on one side to the river Euphrates, and extended on the other to the African Gush, in the neighbourhood of the Nile.

Let me now draw attention to the terms of God's covenant wdth Abraham : — '^ In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates," (Gen. xv. 18.) Solomon, indeed, once derived tribute from all this tract of country, but Abraham's posterity have never yet occupied it ; this promise, therefore, remains among those which are still to be made good to the chosen people of God at their restoration.

But not only was this country promised to Abra- ham four hundred years before his seed entered upon any part of their possession ; it was even marked out for him from the time that the waters

38 THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

of the flood were dried up from off the earth. In the song of Moses, shortly before his death, we find these remarkable words, (Deut. xxxii. 7.)

" Remember thou the days of old, Consider the years of many generations ; Ask thy father, and he will show thee, Thy elders, and they will tell thee {that) When the Most High portioned out the nations, When he separated the children of Adam, He settled the boundaries of the peoples By the number of the children of Israel ; For the portion of Jehovah is his people : Jacob, the measure of his inheritance."

It would seem, then, that in the time of Moses, there was current a tradition, handed down through many generations, that the original divi- sion of the nations was made, not only by Divine appointment, but with a particular reference to a sufficient provision, or measured inheritance, for a chosen people of the Lord. And this mea- sured inheritance was the place in the post-dilu- vian world which the Lord God did choose out of all the earth to put his name there, (a)

This interesting country has long been little better than a desert, and quite undistinguished by any marks of the Divine favour ; yet prophecy ever recurs with delight to the happy period when once more it shall become the glory of all lands

7

THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 39

for its fertility, and still more for the open mani- festation of the Divine presence.

" Look unto Abraham your father, And unto Sarah who bore you ; For I called him being a single person, And I blessed him, and T multiplied him. Thus then shall Jehovah console Sion, He shall console all her desolations ; And he shall make her wilderness like Eden, And her desert like the Garden of the Lord : Joy and gladness shall be found in her, Thanksgiving and the voice of melody." — Isaiah li. 2.

" The sun shall be no more thy light by day, Nor by night shall the moon enlighten thee ; But Jehovah shall be to thee an everlasting light, And thy God shall be thy glory." — Isaiah Ix. 19.

And as this country is reserved for the return of the brightness of the Lord's glory, so is it also destined to be the stage of God's triumph over the temporal and spiritual foes of his Church. '^Thou shalt pronounce this parable upon the king of Babylon, and say : —

" How hath the oppressor ceased, &c.

Jehovah God of Hosts hath sworn, saying,

Surely as I have devised, so shall it be,

And as I have purposed, it shall stand,

To crush the Assyrian in my land.

And to trample him on my mountains." — Isaiah xiv.

40 THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

The Assyrian primarily meant here is Sennache- rib, whose army was destroyed near Jerusalem, (2 Kings xix.) ; but he only shadows out a far more dreadful enemy to the people of God ; to himself will apply hardly any of the grand ex- pressions of the prophet. Ezekiel (xxxi.) will as- sist us in discovering the nature of this enemy : '' Behold the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon ; not any tree in the Garden of God was like unto him in his beauty ; so that all the trees of Eden that were in the Garden of God, envied him." This is the picture of a true Church, which after- wards corrupted itself. The angel in Rev. xviii. describes her greatness and her fall : — " Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen : no man buyeth her merchandise any more : gold, silver, precious stones, purple, vessels of ivory, brass, &c., and souls of men." We meet with her again in Ezek. xxvii. 13, under the character of Tyrus: "Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants ; they traded the souls of men and vessels of brass in thy market." The crushing of this Assyrian is thus described, in Rev. xix. 20, " The Beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he de- ceived them that had received the mark of the Beast, and them that worshipped his image; these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." — Vid. Essay III.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 41

But Christ has not yet put all enemies under his feet ; there still remain eth the spiritual As- syrian, the great Apostate, the old Serpent. The clearest representation of him, is as king of Tyrus : '^ Son of Man take up a lamentation upon the king

of Tyrus Thou sealest up the sum, full of

wisdom, and perfect in beauty ; thou hast been in Eden the Garden of God. Thou art the anointed covering Cherub, and I have set thee so ; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee .... Therefore, I will cast thee, as profane, out of the mountain of God ; and I will destroy thee, O covering Cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up, because of thy beauty ; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by rea- son of thy brightness : I will cast thee to the ground." (Ezek. xxviii.) The zealous angel of ligh^ became an ambitious fallen spirit, and his end is utter destruction. Of this same Assyrian speaketh Isaiah (ch. xiv.) in his more appropriate character of king of Babylon : '' Thou shalt pro- nounce this parable on the king of Babylon, and say : —

" How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! Art cut down to the earth, thou that didst subd le the nations !

42 THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

Yet thou didst say in thy heart, I will ascend the heavens,

Above the stars of God I will exalt my throne ;

And I will sit upon the mount of presence, on the sides of the

north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like

the Most High ;

But thou shalt be brought down to the grave, to the sides of the pit.

Jehovah, God of Hosts, hath sworn, saying :

Surely as I have devised, so shall it be.

And as I have purposed, it shall stand.

To crush the Assyrian in my land.

And to trample him on my mountains."

The crushing of this Assyrian in God's land is thus described in Rev. xx. " When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle ; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city ; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the Beast and the False Prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." Thus in the place where the Serpent deceived man to his fall, and where he bruised the heel of the promised seed,

THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 43

there also shall that seed of the woman bruise thy head, O Satan, and restore thy deluded victim to his original intercourse with God. Then shall death be utterly destroyed, and the veil removed that obscures man's noblest faculties.

" On this mountain shall Jehovah destroy the covering, That covered the face of all the peoples : And the veil that was spread over all the nations. He shall utterly destroy death for ever ; And the Lord Jehovah shall wipe the tear from all faces, And remove the reproach of his people from the whole earth ; For Jehovah hath spoken it." — Isaiah xxv.

In the beginning, through the wiles of the Ser- pent, man did lose the Garden of Eden, in which was the tree of life, and there was no curse; at the end, through the victory of the Lamb, man shall be again admitted into the happy place, where is the tree of life, and there shall be no more curse. (Rev. xxi. and xxii.) Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and enter in. The King shall say unto them, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (b).

Human reason cannot account for the existence of evil under the moral government of a good and holy God ; but it is enough for the humble Christian to know what the sure word of prophecy

44 THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

discloses to him ; that the eventful periods of this world's history, like the acts of a drama, have been all methodically arranged and carefully provided for by the Almighty disposer of events ; and, though the contest may appear in itself both long and perilous, yet certain victory is held up in the distance to the view of the believer ; the eye of faith sees, as in a glass, the Son of God going forth conquering and to conquer.

ESSAY V.

ON SACRIFICE.

The design and economy of a Church, as the means of communication between the creature and the Creator, arose out of the necessities of man and the mercies of his Maker. Its ordi- nances, therefore, have ever been founded on an express revelation of the Divine will. Imme- diately upon the fall, we meet with the funda- mental article of faith in a Redeemer, the ordi- nance of Sacrifice, expressive of that belief, and a stated time for religious observances. Articles of faith, stated modes and periods of worship, embrace all the essentials of a Church ; and these had existence in the world from the time of Adam.

Having already considered the question of the Patriarchal Sabbath, I proceed now with that of Sacrifice.

St. Paul informs us, that '' hy faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain;" hence we cannot but infer that Abel complied with a positive ordinance of the Lord; and, con-

46 ON SACRIFICE.

sequently, that sacrifice was a Divine institution. When the Apostle states that '^ hy faith Abraham went out from his own country, not knowing whither he went," he explains the nature of this faith by adding, '^ when he was called by God to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, he obeyed.'' Thus Abel, having the promise of the seed of the woman whereon to ground his faith, and believing in the all-efficient sacrifice that was after to be made, complied with the Divine ordinance, and brought of the firstlings of his flock an offering unto the Lord. '' And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering." Yet, '' without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him;" but this diligence in seeking would be worse than lost labour, unless it were employed in the use of in- stituted means, and according to an express reve- lation of the Divine will.

There is nothing in the narrative which would lead us to suppose that the institution was first given when Abel offered up that sacrifice to God ; it rather appears that he was only practising a custom already established ; but we may be very sure that the occurrence here recorded concerning Cain, was the first instance of fallen man's pre- senting himself before the Lord without a sin-

ON SACRIFICE. 47

offering. It was, therefore, naturally to be ex- pected, that God should show some signal mark of his displeasure at this rebellious conduct in his sinful creature. We are not to suppose that ever^^ previous sacrifice had met with an evident proof of its being accepted ; so full an account of this parti- cular instance, in so brief a narrative, shows that it was attended with some unusual circumstances. In fact, a brand is here set upon the first infidel : the occasion and circumstances of the first apos- tasy are recorded for our instruction in righteous- ness. These considerations lead us to look farther back for the origin of sacrifice ; and we shall soon see the probability that it was instituted by God immediately after the fall, and before the expul- sion of Adam from Paradise.

This supposition receives confirmation from the circumstance, that God made coats of skins for our first parents, before he sent them forth from the Garden of Eden. The food of man, previously to the Fall, consisted of the fruit of the trees of Paradise; how then are we to account for the death of those animals, whose skins, by the Divine gift, afforded a covering to our first parents. In their innocent state, they had no need of any covering ; and when, by sin, they were made sensible to their shame. Nature's device was to twist leafy twigs together for girdles ; their in- ward guilt she could not hide. The Almiditv,

48 ON SACRIFICE.

however, ordained sacrifice as the instituted means of removing their moral guilt, and ap- pointed the skins as a more effectual covering to their natural shame ; and this provision did he make, lest in either case " they should walk naked and see their shame."

Adam was not dispossessed of Paradise in anger : he left not that blessed abode, till he had heard from his Maker '' the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Unto the serpent, God said, " I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." The terms of this promise are, indeed, extremely concise and obscure ; yet thus much must surely have been concluded from them by our first parents : that one of their posterity should destroy the enemy who had undone them, and should liberate mankind from the penalties of their transgression, and restore them to the state in which they had been before the fall. That Adam did so understand it, may be fairly inferred from the name of Eve, which he gave to his wife, in consequence of the expected defeat of the ser- pent by the woman's seed. He previously knew that the penalty of disobedience was death : ^' In the day, that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." If, therefore, the promised seed was to counteract the malicious plot of the serpent, it

ON SAtRIFICi:. 49

must be by his procuring life for mankind. Those that should be thus delivered, and obtain life, Adam calls the living; and because he ob- served, from what God had said, that deliverance and life should be derived from the seed of the woman, he changed her name to Eve (life) saying, " Because she is the mother of all livinp-

It is not at all impossible that, before leaving Paradise, Adam might ask, and God might grant, some sign of this deliverance. Raised at once from the depths of despair, how ardenth^ would he look forward to the promised Deliverer ! We can easily suppose him, like Abraham, to have longed to see the day of this seed of the woman. " Abraham longed to see my day, (says Christ) and he saw it, and was glad," (John viii. ^Q.) Bishop Warburton (Divine Legation, Book VI. sect. 5.) has given the best explanation of this passage concerning Abraham ; and the consi- deration of it will throw some light on the cir- cumstances of Adam. There are many points of similarity in the situation of these two patriarchs ; but I shall only notice that the promise of the Deliverer was first made to Adam ; and, after a long period of abeyance, was again solemnly renewed to Abraham — " In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." The Bishop states, that when God says to Abraham, Take

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50 ON SACRIFICE.

now thy son, thine only son. Isaac, and offer him for a burnt-offering, &c. (Gen. xxii.) ^^ the com- mand is merely an information by action, instead of words, of the great sacrifice of Christ for the redemption of mankind, given at the earnest request of Abraham, who longed impatiently to see Christ's day ; and is that passage of sacred history referred to by our Lord in John viii. 56. . . , The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, speak- ing of this very command, says. By faith, Abra- ham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, ac- counting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure, w 7rapa(5o\y, in a parable : a mode of information either by words or actions, which consists in putting one thing for another. . . . Though Abraham did not indeed receive Isaac restored to life after a real dissolution, yet the son being in this action to represent Christ suf- fering death for the sins of the world, when the father brought him safe from Mount Moriah, after three days (during which the son was in a state of condemnation to death), the father plainly received him, under the character of Christ's representative, as restored from the dead. For, as his being brought to the Mount, there bound and laid upon the altar, figured the death and sufferings of Christ, so his being taken from thence alive, as properly figured Christ's resur-

ON SACRIFICE. 51

rection from the dead. With the highest pro- priety, therefore, and elegance of speech, might Abraham be said to receive Isaac from the dead in a parable, or in representation." — Now it seems to me almost as monstrous to suppose, either that Adam, who had not yet left Paradise, or that righteous Abel would take upon himself to imbrue his hands in the blood of an innocent animal with the view of expiating his sin against a holy God, as to think that Abraham would offer up Isaac without an express injunction from the Almighty. A Divine command must have been given in both cases ; and, as I suppose, in consequence of their earnest request to see Christ's day. Abra- ham saw Christ's day tv 7rapa/3oXr?, in the para- bolical representation of the sacrifice of Isaac ; Adam saw that same day bwr22, in a similar but darker representation, under the parable of the first animal slain in sacrifice ; and I farther suppose that Adam, on this occasion, became in some degree acquainted with the very manner of the promised redemption : namely, that the seed of the w^oman should die to atone for the sins of mankind.

To clear up the history of Cain and Abel, I shall first consider some exactly parallel circum- stances in the hfe of Esau and Jacob. In the former age, Abel (afterwards Seth) represented the holy seed, as Cain did that of the serpent;

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52 ON SACRIFICE.

in the succeeding age, Israel typified the Church of God, and Edom all its enemies.

Esau is declared to be a profane person, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, (Heb. xii. 16.) His faith in a Redeemer to come may be estimated by the lightness with which he resigned the high privilege, that the promised seed should spring from his family ; and his worldly, impure life, may be inferred from his taking wives from among the idolatrous Hittites, " which was a grief of mind unto Isaac and Rebekah." When Esau found that, with his birthright, he had also lost the temporal part of the blessing, " he hated Jacob, and said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand ; then will I slay my brother Jacob."

This is an exact counterpart to the history of Cain and Abel. That Cain was a profane per- son before the murder of Abel, we learn from St. John, (1 Epistle iii. 12.) — " Wherefore slew he him ? because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." He also, like Esau, despised his birthright ; he slighted the promise of a Redeemer, which had been made to Adam, and might probably have been continued in his line. At the solemnities of their public worship, probably before the tabernacle, and on the Sab- bath day, Abel offered an expiatory sacrifice, believing that God would restore him to the

7

ON SACRIFICE. 53

state of holiness from which his race had fallen ; but Cain merely brought an eucharistic offering, and did thus signify his acquiescence in his pre- sent corrupt condition. By omitting the piacular sacrifice, which was typical of a Redeemer, he re- jected, "■ him that should come," even the seed of the woman, that was to bruise the serpent's head. Yet, however much Cain despised his birthright, he could not bear to see its advantages transferred to another, as seemed to be intimated in God's acceptance, probably by fire (a), of Abel's sacrifice, and the rejection of his own offering ; so Cain was very wroth, and hated Abel. " And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen ? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? And if thou doest not well, a sin offering lieth at the door (to make expiation) ; and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him :" thou shalt still retain the privilege of thy birthright. But Cain was self-sufficient, and harboured re- sentment against his brother ; then was brought to light the first overt act of that enmity, which has ever since existed between the holy seed and the seed of the serpent. Like Esau, he coldly premeditated murder in his heart: for "Cain said unto Abel his brother, Let us go forth into the field ; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his bro-

54 ON SACRIFICE.

ther, and slew him." (b) Upon Abel's death, the birthright did not revert to Cain, as perhaps his blind jealousy had led him to expect; but it was transferred to Seth, and probably by God's own appointment, ''for God (^said Eve) hath ap- pointed me another seed instead of Abel."

Cain was now brought under a curse ; his life indeed was assured to him, but he was shut out of communion with the Church, and no more saw " the presence (or glory) of the Lord" that dwelt between the cherubim, to reveal his will and ac- cept the sacrifices of his faithful people. The Almighty having thus openly rejected Cain, and having as clearly selected the family of Seth in the land of Eden as the depository of his word and ordinances, it was soon after thought suitable to assume a distinctive appellation as God's people. '' And to Seth, to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos ; then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord." The appellation was most probably that which after- wards occurs without explanation, " The sons of God." In like manner, when the Gentiles were admitted into the Church of Christ, it is re- marked, " the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch," (Acts xi. 26.)

When Cain said unto the Lord, " Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid," it was

ON SACRIFICE. 55

out of regret for two things : first, his fugitive and comfortless state on leaving the land of his birth ; secondly, his exposure to human vengeance, as one rejected of the Lord and deprived of the common benefits of religion. Impenitent, he sought not forgiveness ; regardless of a future world, he confined his attention to security and comfort in this. Cain could not have been driven out from the face of the globe, but only from some particular region ; and we find that, under sentence of banishment direct from God, *' he went out from (the country of Eden in which, between the cherubim, was manifested) the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden."

In this land, where the darkness of Satan was unbroken by any ray of divine light, did this seed of the serpent recover from his fears. His dread of punishment from the favoured race was soon converted (we may suppose) into hatred and persecution of them ; and his descendants would become the Edom and Assyria of the former world. We know that, in the latter days, the ante-diluvian Church sunk into a deep and fatal apostasy ; and it is probable that, on any appear- ance of a declining spirit, the Almighty did make the infidel Cainites an instrument in his hand to punish and reclaim his forgetful children.

56 ON SACRIFICE.

" Ho ! to the Assyrian, the rod of mine anger : In whose hand is the staff of mine indignation ! Against a dissembling nation will I send him, And against the people of my wrath will I charge him, To gather the spoil and to bear away the prey, And to trample them as mire in the street. But he doth not so purpose, And his heart doth not so intend ; But to destroy is in his heart. And to cut off nations not a few. But it shall be,

When Jehovah hath ended his whole work Upon Mount Sion and upon Jerusalem, *

I will punish the proud heart of the king of Assyria, And the triumphant look of his haughty eyes." — Isaiah x.

ESSAY VI.

THE TRANSLATION AND PROPHECY OF ENOCH.

The sacred narrative now passes on at once from the second to the seventh generation, but it then presents us with such a remarkable occurrence as enables us to judge of the fortunes of the Church in the intermediate period. The Patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations do each afford but a single instance of mortal man being removed from the earth to another state of existence without passing through the gates of death ; and it is reasonable to suppose that in both cases, very urgent and similar reasons led to this extraordinary mani- festation of Divine power. With the view of throwing some light on the history of Enoch, I shall briefly consider the character of the period in which Elijah lived.

The first thing that strikes us with respect to Elijah is, that his lot was cast in pre-eminently wicked times. " Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him." Through several of the previous reigns, the state of Israel had been troubled by scenes of

58 THE TRANSLATION AND

violence and apostasy ; but in the long reign of Ahab, idolatry reached a height unknown before that period: ''Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him," (1 Kings xvi.) An idol now engrossed the worship due unto Jehovah ; Baal was God in Israel under the auspices of a Sidonian queen. A backsliding people would too easily be seduced by the example of an idolatrous court ; but God, who knows how to proportion means to occasions, assigned to this corruptest age the most eminent prophet that had appeared since the days of Moses.

After the expulsion of Cain, the Church en- joyed a period of peace and happiness in its reli- gious privileges ; but worldly prosperity seems soon to have produced its usual effects of relaxa- tion in discipline and laxity in opinion ; and the enmity of Cain would occasionally be left unre- strained by Providence, that the wrath of man might work the righteousness of God in rousing his slumbering Church. These corrections, how- ever, seem to have had only a partial or tempo- rary result ; and the appearance of an Enoch authorizes us to suppose that by this time ''the sons of God" had sunk into a state unw^orthy of their name. A sensual and presumptuous infidel was now at the head of the nations without the pale of the Church, which probably had been for

PROPHECY OF ENOCH. 59

some time reduced under his authority ; and either through terror, or hy liberal compliances, had yielded to the general torrent of iniquity. Lamech, the son of Methusael, is the first on record that violated the original institution of marriage between one man and one woman ; and as Ahab was rebuked by Elijah, so I suppose that Enoch raised his voice against this powerful sinner for his sensuality and violence. " Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and I will take away thy posterity," is the prophet's awful denunciation against Israel's king ; and Enoch may have pro- nounced a similar fate upon the self-willed patri- arch. It is remarkable that the history makes no mention of Lamech's grandchildren, though the genealogy of Seth is carried down two genera- tions lower to the flood (a) ; and I suppose that some such denunciation as this gave occasion to Lamech's obscure speech to his wives (b).

There is an ancient tradition, mentioned by Jerom and Chrysostom, that God preserved Cain's life for seven generations. Now because from Cain to this Lamech's children there are just seven generations inclusively, and because the word ''Tubal" may be derived from T}b2 to be worn out hy length of time ; I therefore conceive that Lamech gave to one of his sons the name of Tubal Cain as a memorial of Cain's dying a natural death about that time in a good old age,

60 THE TRANSLATION AND

in spite of the murder of Abel ; and that, in de- fiance of Enoch's denunciation, he uttered the presumptuous thought that himself should like- wise escape the judgment of the Lord, and all the evil consequences of his own wicked life. He feared not God, neither regarded man, and consi- dered himself sufficient for his own defence. This is his arrogant language in the bosom of his family :

" Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, Hearken unto my speech ; For man I slay on wounding me,

And boy on hurting me. If sevenfold had been avenged Cain, Truly, Lamech, seventy and sevenfold."

He defies evil at the hand of young or old ; and vaunts that if Cain, who had to face the difficulties of a first settler, died in a good old age with a numerous posterity, there was little fear for Lamech under circumstances so much more favourable. But if his posterity was indeed taken from him, this Tubal Cain would have proved a sign of "the wearing out of Cain," in the chief line, to Lamech's utter confusion ; and would have been a signal anticipation of the Lord's coming to execute judgment on the ungodly for all their hard speeches against him.

This remark naturally leads me to the consi-

PROPHECY OF ENOCH. 61

deration of the prophecy itself: "Behold, the Lord Cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him," (Jude 14.)

Although the complete and final accomplish- ment of Enoch's prophecy is yet in futurity, it received a partial and typical fulfilment at the flood, and is represented by St. Jude as bearing a similar application to his own times. We are, therefore, led to expect some analogy between the character and fate of the respective gene- rations at the close of the ante-diluvian and Jewish ages. In fact, both sets of men were licentious infidels, and drew down upon them- selves a direct judgment from the Almighty : a judgment in mercy long foretold, and executed only against the continued impenitence of un- belief. It is my object to illustrate the earlier and more obscure of these events by means of the fuller information we have of the second.

I begin with considering the prevalence of un- belief, and the judgment it drew on, in the last days of the Jewish age. The destruction of Jeru- salem is represented by our Lord as a judgment upon the unbelieving Jews, and their consequent loss of civil power as a great deliverance to their

62 THE TRANSLATION AND

believing brethren. ^' When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another, for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come," (Mat. X.) ** But before all these things they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you .... And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, for your redemption draweth nigh," (Luke xxi.) " Shall not God avenge his own elect ? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily ; nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ?" (Luke xviii.) (c). The prophetic intimations of the New Testament are so framed as not to receive their full completion in the direful close of the Jewish dispensation ; yet there can be no doubt that its warnings and descriptions refer to the men of that generation, and that the strongest expressions in the Epistles did personally concern those to whom they were directly addressed. Let us see what information they afford us concerning the infide- lity and licentiousness of the last times of the Jewish age. St. John, writing at the close of that dispensation, a. d. 69, says : — '' Little children, it is the last time ; and as ye have heard that anti- christ shall come, even now are there many anti- christs, whereby we know that it is the last time," (1 John ii. 18.) St. Jude, who wrote nearly at the same time, states the same fact : — '^ There are

PROPHECY OF ENOCH. 63

certain men crept in unawares, wlio were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ , . . But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts." The references here made by John and Jude to previous Apos- tolic notices concerning the unbelievers of the last time, are to be found in the Epistles of Peter and Paul, who wrote somewhat earlier. '' This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come ; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, &c. fro7n such turn (thou) away.'' (2 Tim. iii.) The con- cluding admonition plainl}^ shows that the indivi- dual addressed was to be personally concerned with these lawless characters of the last days. '* There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. But chiefly them that w^alk after the flesh in the lust of un- cleanness, and despise government : presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities." (2 Pet. ii.) These passages from Scripture are prophetic descriptions of the

64 THE TRANSLATION AND

men whose character is thus summaril}^ recorded in history. *' Whilst they trampled under foot every human law, they ridiculed religion, and scoffed at the oracles of the prophets, as the fictions of impostors." (Josephus, Jewish War, iv. 6.) ** Had the Romans delayed to come against these execrable persons, I believe either the earth would have swallowed up, or a deluge would have swept away their city, or fire from heaven would have consumed it, as it did Sodom ; for it brought forth a generation of men far more wicked than they who suffered such things." (Ibid. lib. v. 13.) The men of that generation both heard these prophecies, and saw their primary fulfilment ; but the men who shall live in the last days of another age, shall see a more full and terrible completion.

These remarks will serve to illustrate the last days of the antediluvian age, and to show the character of that generation which brought on such a grievous judgment as the coming of the Son of Man at the flood. I shall begin with the notices in the New Testament ; and then point out how far these agree with, and throw light upon, the brief history of those times, as recorded by Moses.

St. Peter distinctly characterizes the men of that age as unbelievers: ^'who formerly disbe- lieved when once the long-suffering of God waited

PROPHECY OF ENOCH. Q6

in the days of Noah, while the ark was a prepar- ing." And our Saviour marks it as a sensual age : ^' In the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah en- tered the ark." It is from St. Jude, however, that we learn with the greatest clearness the nature of the reigning vices. He is illustrating the conduct of the infidels of his own day from similar characters before the flood, but his remarks reflect light on the antediluvian times. He lived to see the rise of "ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master, God and Lord ;" and he asserts that Enoch's prophecy concerning the Lord's coming in judgment on the unbelievers at the end of the antediluvian age, points out a sure destruction to the mockers whom he saw around him. ''And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying : Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly com- mitted, and of all their hard speeches which un- godly sinners have spoken against him" that should come, o ^p^ofuvoq, (John xi. 27.) We might fill up this bold outline of infidelity, drawn by Enoch, with minuter lineaments borrowed from

66 THE TRANSLATION AND

Peter and Paul ; but the prophecy itself points out with sufficient clearness the licentious prac- tices and blasphemous scoffings of the infidels that were to appear in the last times of the ante- diluvian age, before the coming of the Lord in judgment at the flood. The Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian prophecies concerning the Lord's coming, do all refer, ultimately, to the same awful event ; but they were more immediately connected with the interests of the particular dis- pensation under which they were delivered. The Patriarchs gave timely warning of the impending destruction at the end of the antediluvian age, and the Apostles afforded sufficient intimation of the impending wrath in the last days of the Jewish age. " Behold, the Lord cometh," says Enoch: ''The Lord is at hand," says St. Paul, (Phil. iv. 5.) St. James v. 8. repeats, '' The coming of the Lord draweth nigh."

It is only natural to suppose that Enoch's pro- phetic office was not completed in the delivery of a few sentences. There, doubtless, were other intimations from the Spirit ; and among these might be placed, with some show of probability, the name which he gave to his son Methuselah, which signifies ^^ his death shall send;'' at any rate, it is a remarkable coincidence that the flood immediately followed upon his decease. From some such intimation which determined the time,

PROPIIKCY OF ENOCH. 67

we may suppose that Lamech gave to his son the name of Noah, either in the hope that he might be the very seed of the woman, or as a sign ex- pressive of his belief that the curse, which had been brought upon the ground through the ser- pent, should be taken off by the coming of the promised deliverer in that generation. "He called his name Noah, saying, This same shall give us rest from our labour, And from the burthen of our hands from the ground. Which the Lord hath cursed." But man must first find rest from the labour and burthen of his soul through the true Noah, before he can be rendered fit for the new heavens and the new earth '^ wherein is the tree of life, and where there shall be no more curse," (Rev. xxii.) (d).

" Come unto me, all ye who labour and are burthened, And I will give you rest ;

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, For I am meek and lowly in heart, And ye shall find rest unto your souls ; For my yoke is easy, and my burthen light."

Matthew xi. 28.

That generation of the former world, which was of such extraordinary wickedness as to bring on the destruction of their whole race, could not fail to hold a conspicuous place in the tradition-

f2

68 THE TRANSLATION AND

ary history of the replenished world. Accord- ingly, Moses speaks of them as well known cha- racters, in these terms: ^' There were turbulent men (e) in the earth in those days ; but also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and children were born unto them, these were the ancient lawless ones,

those noted men Every imagination of the

thoughts of their heart was only evil continually, and the earth was filled with violence because of them," (Gen. vi.) The author of Ecclesiasticus, who has many references to ancient traditions, intimates, (xvi. 7.) that the flood was brought on by the licentiousness of unbelief. Infidelity en- tered into the world in the person of Cain. By refusing to offer up an expiatory sacrifice to the Lord, he avowed his disbelief in the atonement of a Redeemer. His principles extended so widely with his posterity, that, in the seventh generation, God saw good to raise up a conspicuous witness to the truth. In this time of wickedness, the translation of Enoch aflbrded new assurance to the faithful, and his prophecy spoke in tones of authority to call the infidel to repentance. Yet, for all this, they sinned more and more. There were licentious unbelievers in those days ; in the ninth generation these did so prevail, as uni- versally to seduce the worshippers of God into

PROPHECY OF ENOCH. 69

family alliances, the offspring of which was a race that outdid all former generations in the licen- tious excesses of infidelity. But their punish- ment was commensurate with their guilt : ^^ the flood came and took them all away."

ESSAY VII.

ON THE EXPECTATION OF THE LORD'S COMING.

The previous Essay sufficiently shows the real meaning of the Lord's coming foretold by Enoch ; it is the object of the present one to explain what the Antediluvians actually understood by that coming, and to point out the probable effects which followed upon their sense of the matter.

Although Enoch's prophecy may have been addressed immediately to the Church of God, we cannot but suppose that the whole world received sufficient warning and a timely call to repentance, before the Lord brought a Hood of waters to de- stroy all flesh. Indeed, this seems to be implied in the expression, " My Spirit shall not always strive with man." All flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth; and, it would seem, all had resisted the striving of God's Spirit, speaking in their consciences and by means of his prophets. Towards the end of the Jewish age, our Saviour declares that " this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come," (Matt.

ON THE EXPECTATION OF THE LORD's COMING. 71

xxiv. 14.) ; and St. Paul incidentally mentions to the Colossians, (i. 6. 23) that tlie Gospel was come, not to them only, but to all the world, and was preached to every creature under heaven (a). Now there was, at least, an equal necessity that the coming of the Lord to bring an universal de- struction on mankind should be preached to every creature before this end came; and I suppose that the object was attained in both cases by the same means. As w-as formerly observed, there is a constant enmity between the holy seed and the seed of the serpent ; and I conceive that the idolatrous descendants of Cain in the land of Nod became, at various times, the appointed instru- ments of God to chasten and carry captive any fruitless branches of his Church ; so that, besides the Church resident in Eden at the time of the deluge, there were also Churches of the disper- sion. And it is probable, that it was by means of the various prophets who were raised up, and sent to his own people among the heathen, that the Lord proclaimed his controversy with the na- tions, and did plead with all flesh.

Perhaps from the first, the idolatrous nations turned a deaf ear to the solemn warning that the Lord should come ; but true believers, such as the father of Noah, seem to have thought that the time was now arrived for the fulfilment of all God's gracious promises; that the long expected

72 ON THE EXPECTATION

seed of the woman was at length to appear ; and that, by bruising the serpent's head, he should take off the curse from the ground, and restore fallen man to his innocent and holy estate in the garden of the Lord. At least, something like this seems implied in the name which he gave to his son Noah, saying, " This same shall give us rest from our labour. And from the burthen of our hands from the ground. Which the Lord hath cursed." But such as entertained these spiritual thoughts and holy aspirations, were but as a little flock among ravening wolves ; and, with very few exceptions, seem to have totally dis- appeared with the last surviving members of the ninth Generation. The tenth and last race of the antediluvians were the exact type of those worldly and ambitious Jews, who lived in the last days of the Jewish age, and drew from their Lord that severe rebuke, ^' Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers !" But as these formed the great body of the Church during the preaching of Noah, they require a corresponding share of our attention.

It is probable that the first intimation of the promised seed was followed up, at suitable inter- vek, with clearer promises of redemption ; and that the more frequently repeated voice of pro- phecy in the latter days had excited, just before the flood, a general expectation of some approach-

OF THE lord's coming. 73

ing change by a great deliverer ; as we know was the case for about a century before the destruction of Jerusalem. The Jews expected, under the reign of their Messiah, a triumphal deliverance from all their temporal enemies, and the realiza- tion of a golden age with peace, plenty, and length of days ; according to the literal acceptation of the words of their prophet, (Isa. Ixv.)

" Ye shall rejoice and exult in the age to come, which I create ; For lo ! I create Jerusalem a subject of joy ; and her people,

of gladness. And there shall not be heard any more therein The voice of weeping, and the voice of a distressful cry. No more shall be there an infant short lived. Nor an old man who hath not fulfilled his days ; For he that dieth at an hundred years shall die a boy, And the sinner that dieth at a hundred years shall be ac- cursed.

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together. And the lion shall eat straw like the ox ; But as for the serpent, dust shall be his food. They shall not hurt, neither shall they destroy, In all my holy mountain, saith Jehovah."

That similar hopes were entertained in the an- tediluvian Church is evident from the case of the Sethite Lamech, who at the very least expected the removal of the curse from the ground ; and we may easily conceive how such an expectation

74 ON THE EXPECTATION

would become debased among the totally worldly members of the Church. It was the disappoint- ment of their selfish and ill-founded imaginations, as to the effects which were to be wrought by our great spiritual Deliverer, that hastened on the catastrophe of both dispensations ; and probably, these nominal disciples of their Lord, proceeded by the very same steps in their downward course to infidelity. Some, who were supported against actual persecution by a heated imagination con- cerning the happiness of Paradise, laboured under mental delusion to the very last ; whilst others, not brooking the slightest delay to their pleasures, first became less disposed to bear up against any persecution which their nominal profession might bring upon them, and then openly apostatized from the faith ; these anticipated by violence those sensual gratifications, the enjoyment of which in the Paradisaical Church was their only ground of attachment to her.

From Enoch to the flood, the same motives and passions seem to have been at work, as actuated the Jews from the preaching of the Baptist to the destruction of Jerusalem. This latter period is accurately described in the prophecy of our Lord, (Matt, xxiv.) ; and almost all the particulars of it are so applicable in principle to the former period, that it may serve as an answer to the inquiry,

OF THE LORD S COMING. 75

^' When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of the Lord's coming, and of the end of the antediluvian age ?"

The first in order of the signs is this : " Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ ; and shall deceive many." History informs us, that in con- sequence of the general expectation of '^ Him that should come," there appeared among the Jews many pretenders to that character. Such was Dositheus, who said he was the Christ fore- told by Moses ; and Simon Magus, (Acts viii. 9.) who, according to Origen, '' appeared among the Jews as the Son of God." I have endeavoured to render it probable that there was a general ex- pectation of some great deliverer towards the end of the antediluvian age ; and if the pious Lamech could say in religious hope concerning his son, *' This same shall give us rest," &c. we may be very certain that others would take advantage of this state of public opinion, and give themselves out as the promised seed of the woman.

Again : "Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars ; see that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass ; but the end is not yet. All these are the beginning of sorrows," (says our Saviour) ; and Moses thus describes the state of the antediluvian world, " the earth was filled with violence through them."

76 ON THE EXPECTATION

"■ Many false prophets shall rise and deceive many." Josephus mentions an Egyptian magi- cian, who said he was a prophet, and deceived many ; as also one Theudas, who persuaded a great multitude with their best eflfects to follow him to the river Jordan, for he said he was a prophet, and promised to divide the river for their passage. In short, wherever God has raised up true prophets, Satan has set up false ; so that we may rest assured that Enoch and his holy company were met by a band of a very different character. Even when the Jewish temple was in flames, a false prophet made public proclama- tion that God commanded them to get up upon the temple, and that there they should receive miraculous signs of their deliverance ; to whom about six thousand gave heed, aud paid the forfeit of their lives. In like manner, even after the flood was upon the earth, and the waters were now rapidly gaining ground on the highest mountains, there may have arisen some audacious fanatic, who led his deluded followers to some particular eminence with promises of help from God.

" Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." Many Jews did apostatize from the faith because of the abounding injustice and persecution of those times ; and we learn from Moses, that in the days when there were

OF THE lord's coming. 77

violent men in the earth, " the sons of God" began to be conformed to the world, and at length altogether broke down the antiquated and illiberal distinction by forming connexions with the infidel families in marriage.

** Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken ; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven ; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." This holds precisely the same place in the prophecy of our Lord, as the only preserved part does in the prophecy of Enoch : " Behold, the Lord Cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment," &c.

We come now to a distinctly connecting link between the two periods which I have been com- paring. " As the days of Noah were (at the Lord's coming foretold by Enoch), so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,

78 ON THE EXPECTATION

until the day tliat Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away ; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be (at the end of the Jewish age). Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." But because, in either case, they did not immediately see a sign from heaven, neither did witness the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven with ten thousand of his saints to effectuate the glorious change they were expecting, they fell away from the faith ; they were disappointed of their worldly expectations ; and, therefore, became sensual and turbulent infi- dels. They walked after their own lusts, saying, ** Where is the promise of his coming ? for, since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." Those evil servants had thought in their heart, '' My Lord delayeth his coming," and they began to smite their fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken. That such was the case with the apostate Jews, before the destruction of Jerusa- lem, is clearly recorded in history; and with respect to the antediluvians, we learn from our Saviour that '' they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah en- tered the ark ;" and Moses informs us, that they intermarried with the infidel Cainites, and that ^' the earth was filled with violence through them."

OF THE LORD S COMING. 79

Yet '' the Lord of that evil servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." This denunciation was fully accomplished, when, on the one hand, the flood came and took them all away ; and, on the other, when the Roman armies nearly extirpated the nation at the subver- sion of the Jewish polity.

'^ Who then is that faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his house- hold, to give them meat in due season ? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily, I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods." The servant who continued constant in the faith, under all the persecutions and abounding iniqui- ties of those times, were the Christians, whose faith was rewarded by their escape to Pella, where they found safety. At the time of the flood, Noah alone was that faithful servant ; he found safety in the ark, and received a literal fulfilment of the promise, " Verily, I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods (6)."

What a scene of wickedness did our world present ! God looked upon the earth, and, be- hold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted

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80 ON THE EXPECTATION OF THE LORD's COMING.

his way upon the earth. Yet, peradventure, there may be fifty righteous in the earth, and the Lord will spare it for their sakes ; but, no ! not ten can be found in a whole world. Noah, however, found grace in the eyes of the Lord ; and for what reason ? Not sweeter to the Lord was the savour of his sacrifice (Gen. viii. 2L) than the odour which still breathes fragrant from the undying memorial of this holy man :

'* This is the record of Noah : Noah was a just man, Perfect was he in his ways ; ^Yith God walked Noah."

Therefore, the Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

ESSAY VIII.

ANTICHRIST PAST AND TO COME.

The history of our world is briefl}^ summed up in the original curse on the serpent : '^ I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and be- tween thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise th}' head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This is the contest that is continually carrying on between Jesus (the Saviour), and Satan (the Adversary) ; between the believer in Christ and the follower of Antichrist ; but the issue of the warfare is autho- ritatively determined beforehand. A period of darkness (a) was necessary to the fulness of the Divine plans, as well in the moral as the natural world, — *' thou shalt bruise his heel ;" but the victory is Christ's in the battle of that great day of God Almighty, — " He shall bruise thy head."

There is ever, then, in the earth a seed of the serpent, who are at enmity with Christ, and love the things of the world ; and it appears that the heir of the world was the first-born of the Devil. St. John informs us that " Cain was of that wicked one, that old serpent, which is called the Devil

G

82 ANTICHRIST PAST AND TO COME.

and Satan," for he rejected a Redeemer in despising sacrifice ; and all those who have since been actuated by the same sentiments, are said to walk ^'in the way of Cain." According to St. Jude, such characters began to increase in the time of Enoch, who (he asserts) prophesied against such as w^ere ^' ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying Jesus Christ our only Master, God, and Lord." Enoch announced the day of the Lord : ^' Behold, the Lord cometh ;" but that day did not come, until there came a falling away first in the Church of God : '^ the sons of God went in unto the daugh- ters of men," having been seduced into the licen- tious practices of infidelity. The first act of faith was exercised by Adam, when he called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living — of all that live in Christ ; the spirit of Antichrist was first manifested in the offering of Cain, but it continued silently at work and gra- dually leavened the whole w^orld. In the last days, when Antichrist was so strongly developed as to leave no place for repentance, the Almighty, whose Spirit will not always strive with man, no longer delayed the punishment he had threatened by his prophet Enoch : and that age closed with the coming of the Son of Man to vindicate his name, and execute judgment on the unbeliever : — ^' the flood came and took them all away."

ANTICHRIST PAST AND TO COME. 83

The children of Israel did often rebel against the Angel of the Lord that led them, and thereby- tempted Christ ; but the spirit of Antichrist was more openly displayed — the seed of the serpent had acquired greater power in the last days of the Jewish dispensation. When John the Baptist warned his hearers that the axe was already laid unto the root of the trees, he reproved them as *^a generation of vipers." Our Saviour more plainly declared concerning the Antichristian Jews, *' Ye are of your father the Devil," that old Serpent, and addressed them, '^ Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers." Immediately before the subversion of the Jewish polity in Church and State, A.D. 69, St. John writes : " Little children, it is the last time ; and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time." (1 John ii. 18.) Which declaration maybe thus explained from St. Jude : — "there are certain men crept in unawares, ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying Jesus Christ our only Master, God, and Lord." The Apostles had frequently announced that the day of the Lord was at hand, yet here also (in a subordinate sense) that day did not come, until there came a falling away first in the Church of Christ. "Even now are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last

G 2

84 ANTICHRIST PAST AND TO COME,

time ; they went out from us, but they were not of us." '' There are certain men crept in (to the Church) unawares . . . denying Jesus Christ." '* There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them .... If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning." (2 Pet. ii.) When the Jews continued obstinately to shut their eyes upon the things that belonged unto their peace, the Al- mighty no longer delayed the threatened punish- ment ; and that age closed with the coming of the Son of Man to vindicate his name, and execute judgment on the unbeliever : ''the Romans came, and took away their place and nation."

If the disciples were concerned to know, '* What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age," so also are w^e ; for '' these things were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come." We are at present living towards the close of another age, '' the times of the Gentiles ;" the last days of which will also be marked by an open manifestation of the spirit of Antichrist, and by a direct judgment from God. In his Dissertation on the Prophecies (1793), David Levi infers from Isaiah alone that there

ANTICHRIST PAST AND TO COME. 85

will be a general restoration of Israel, particularly of the ten tribes ; and that the appointed time of redemption will not be prevented by the great number of sinners amongst the Jews, who will then be cut off, &c. (Vol. ii. p. 92.) There is reason for believing that a great body of the Jews will be brought back to Palestine in their uncon- verted state by some powerful antichristian nation for its own political purposes (b). At that period, all the splendid promises will be fulfilled to the ancient people of God , but such of them as remain obdurate, will, together with the anti- christian nation, be cut off in their infidel state by some manifest judgment from the Almighty ; and this age also will close with the coming of the Son of Man to vindicate his name and exe- cute judgment on the unbeliever: "The Lord my God shall come and all his saints with him." (Zech. xiv. 5. Abp. Newcome.) But as the event is still future, time alone can reveal the particulars of the judgment, which this coming of the Son of Man portends.

In that day, the spirit of Antichrist will not be confined to the Jews alone ; it will pervade the nominally Christian nations, who will then find it convenient, from political considerations, to take the part of the unconverted Jews. In this manner Antichrist would identify itself with the Jewish people. The coming of the Son of Man,

86 ANTICHRIST PAST AND TO COME.

at the destruction of Jerusalem, was to punish the spirit of infidelity among the Jews ; therefore, Antichrist was in that case a Jew, and was put down in Palestine. The coming of the Son of Man again, will be to put down the spirit of infi- delity among the Jews, after their return to the Holy Land under the protection of the infidel nations. In this sense, then, the approaching Antichrist may be said to be a Jew, and to come to his end in Palestine. And, probably, this is the true meaning of the ancient tradition of the Fathers, that "Antichrist should be a Jew, that he should descend from the tribe of Dan, that he should come from Babylon, should fix his resi- dence in Jerusalem, and perish there." (Jerome.) "When Jacob blessed his sons, he spoke such things concerning Dan, that it has been thought that Antichrist would spring from that tribe." (Augustine. Vid. Bp. Newton, Dissertation 14.) When Jacob foretold his sons w^hat should befal them in the last days, (Gen. xlix.) he said of Dan, " Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horseheels, so that his rider shall fall backward. I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord." This prophecy was viewed in connexion with Jer. viii. 16. " The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan ; the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing

ANTICHRIST PAST AND TO COME. 87

of his strong ones ; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it : the city, and those that dwell therein. For, behold, I will send seryents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord." Now both these prophecies make express mention of the serpent, which is the emblem of Satan and the mark of Antichrist ; and it is not at all impossible that the Danites may take a leading part in that '^ generation of vipers," which shall hold the principles of infidelity in the last days. Thus Antichrist may be a Jew, and of the tribe of Dan ; that he shall come from Babylon, perhaps intimates no more than that he shall appear at the return of the ten tribes from the East; or it may have some reference to the spiritual Babylon, the church of Rome (c).

At the close of the thousand years, when Satan shall be loosed for a little while, a generation of vipers, the seed of the serpent, will immediately appear (Rev. xx. 7.) ; and this age also will close with the coming of the Son of Man to vindicate his name, and execute judgment, not only on the unbeliever, but upon the great Author of unbelief.

Thus the ends of the ages are marked (as has been shown) by the punishment of licentious infi- delity ; yet the judgment falls not on guilty man, until timely warning, sufficient for repentance, has been given and despised.

88 ANTICHRIST PAST AND TO COME.

Before the end of the Jewish age, John the Baptist came preaching and saying, '* Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Even now the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. He that Cometh after me is mightier than I ; whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Towards the close of the antediluvian age came the prophet Enoch with a similar burden : " Be- hold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment on the ungodly."

He gave to his son the name of Methuselah, which signifies his death shall send ; and the flood immediately followed upon his decease. Now if we consider this name as prophetical of the time when the Lord should come, we may compare it with the warning of John, that the judgment was at hand, even now the axe, &c. ; or with the more explicit declaration of our Saviour, that the Son of Man should come in that generation.

Again : At the first announcement, the nature of the Lord's coming was equally misunderstood in both cases. When Lamech called his son's name Noah, saying, " This same shall give us rest from our labour, and from the burthen of our hands from the ground, which the Lord hath cursed," he evidently expected a temporal de- liverance. Under a similar misapprehension, the

ANTICHRIST PAST AND TO COME. 89

two sons of Zebedee requested of the Messiah to sit, the one on his right hand and the other on the left, when he came in his kingdom ; and when the Lord said concerning the Apostle St. John, '' If I will that he tarry till I come," there went this saying abroad among the brethren, *' That that disciple should not die."

A little before the destruction of Jerusalem, the solemn warning was urgently repeated by the Apostles, particularly by St. James, who was Bishop of Jerusalem, and witnessed the licentious infidelity of the devoted city. His Epistle was written about ten years before the dreadful con- summation, and the last chapter is full of strong denunciations and exhortations : ^' Weep and howl, for your miseries that shall come upon you : ye have heaped treasure together for the last days : ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord : stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh : Behold, the Judge standeth before the door." One hundred and twenty years before the deluge, which space corresponds with ten years of man's present life, came Noah and repeated the solemn warning : " Behold, the Lord doth bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, and every thing that is in the earth shall die."

Hence it is evident that the respective genera-

90 ANTICHRIST PAST AND TO COME.

tions, which lived at the close of the antediluvian and Jewish ages, were sufficiently advertised of the approaching judgment. Enoch was sent before the great and terrible day of the Lord at the flood ; and John the Baptist came before the impending wrath at the subversion of the Jewish polity. Neither yet hath the Lord forgotten to be gracious ; for, according to a prophecy not yet fully accomplished, he will give timely warning before the coming judgment at the close of ^^ the times of the Gentiles," when the Jews will be converted, and acknowledge him whom they have pierced. '' Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord come, that he may convert the heart of the fathers together with the children," &c. (Mai. iv. 5.) But this interesting prophecy shall form the subject of a separate Essay.

ESSAY IX.

ENOCH, ELIAS, AND JOHN THE BAPTIST.

The general expectation entertained by the Jews of our Saviour's time, as to the approach of him that should redeem Israel, shows how effectually the word of prophecy had answered its purposed end. But the care of the Almighty went a step farther ; he sent a harbinger to prepare the way before the Messiah, and to make ready men's minds to receive the Gospel of his kingdom. This preparatory preacher, too, had a place assigned him in the page of prophecy. He is first alluded to by the evangelical prophet, as ''The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." He is sub- sequently marked out more clearly by the prophet Malachi : ''Behold, I wdll send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple." Another coming of the Son of Man is largely spoken of by the company of prophets, and is principally mentioned under the name of " that great and terrible day of the Lord." This

7*

92 ENOCH, ELIAS, AND JOHN THE BAPTIST.

epoch is in like manner to be announced by a forerunner, who will be endued with a larger portion of the spirit, and attended with a greater demonstration of power : " Behold, I will send unto you Elijah the prophet, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come, that he may con- vert the heart of the fathers together with the children, and the heart of the children together with their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse." — (Abp. Newcome's translation.) These two forerunners are sufficiently distinguished by the time of their appearance and the object of their mission. '^ The messenger" was to appear during the existence of the temple, to proclaim the approach of the kingdom of heaven ; '' Elijah the prophet" will not be sent till the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord, and is then to be God's chief instrument in the general con- version of the Jews.

From the anticipation of prophecy let us now turn to the record of history. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, and his wife was of the daugh- ters of Aaron ; and they were both righteous before God, and they had no child, being now well stricken in years. To this righteous pair did God promise a son in their old age by the mouth of the angel Gabriel, who at the same time did thus declare his high destiny : " Many

ENOCH, ELTAS, AND JOHN THE BAPTIST. 93

of the children of Israel shall he convert to the Lord their God ; and he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to convert the heart of the fathers with the children." But the spirit and power of Elijah had been already clearly defined by Malachi ; and John was partially to effect, at the introduction of the Gospel dispen- sation, what Elijah was gloriously to complete at the thorough establishment of Messiah's kingdom. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel. When that time arrived, and John came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, '^ Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," the appearance of such a remarkable character, at a time when all men were musing in their hearts concerning the approaching change, could not fail to draw general attention. Accord- ingly we find that private persons of every des- cription immediately crowded to his baptism ; and we soon after hear that the Sanhedrim sent a deputation of priests from Jerusalem, ^^to ask him, Who art thou ? And he confessed, and denied not ; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him. What then ? Art thou Elias ? And he saith, T am not. Art thou that prophet ? And he answered. No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou ? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself ?

94 ENOCH, ELIAS, AND JOHN THE BAPTIST.

He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way ot the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias." (John i. 19.) In this passage, John the Baptist clearly asserts himself to be a preparatory preacher, distinct from the prophet Elijah ; and I think this view of the subject will throw a clear light on some passages of the Gospels, which cannot as yet be said to have received a straightforward and satisfactory explanation (a).

In the discourse recorded by St. Matthew, xi. 7. our Saviour quotes both the predictions of Malachi, but with a marked distinction in their application. Without any qualifying expressions whatever, he states in the plainest manner concerning John the Baptist : " This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee." How different and guarded are his words when asserting that the same John was Elias ! '^ If ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come ; he that hath ears to hear, let him hear." This difference of manner plainly shows that John was not so clearly and literally Elias, as he was the messenger there spoken of; and suggests to us the idea that Christ in the latter instance was using tlie figurative language of prophecy, which constantly applies to the type the name and qualities of the antitype. It certainly cannot be thought more strange to

ENOCH, ELIAS, AND JOHN THE BAPTIST. 95

find the Lord referring to John the Baptist under the title of Elijah, than to see his servant Peter (Acts ii. 20.) applying to the destruction of Jeru- salem the accompanying expression, " the great and terrible day of the Lord." '' Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord."

The great error of the interpretative theology among the Jews arose from allowing their judg- ment to be biassed by their passions. They would not hear of a suffering Messiah ; and ap- plied to the first coming of the Son of Man the prophecies which belonged to the second, when the sons of Jacob were to have dominion over the Gentiles, and Jerusalem was to become the me- tropolis of the world. This radical error led them into a corresponding mistake concerning the fore- runner that was to appear in their times ; and consistently enough with their ideas, they were expecting the return of Elijah the Tishbite, to prepare the way for the Lord of glory. The Apostles, too, had fallen into the common error of the day in supposing that Christ was then going to assume his great power and glory to restore the kingdom to Israel; and were confirmed in that belief by the appearance of Elias at the trans- figuration. They could not, therefore, understand our Saviour's declaration that the Son of Man should rise from the dead ; but questioned one with

96 ENOCH, ELIAS, AND JOHN THE BAPTIST.

anothei' what the rising from the dead, as it re- ferred to the Son of Man, should mean. To gain farther information, they proposed their doubts under the name of the authorized teach- ers of the nation, and asked him, " Why say the Scribes that Elias must first come ?" In reply, our Saviour did not tell them that they had been misled by their teachers, or that the opinion itself was unreasonable ; on the contrary, he seemed rather to acknowledge the justness of that expecta- tion, by saying, '^ Elias truly shall first come," before the thorough establishment of Messiah's kingdom ; although he set them right as to their immediate expectations, by telling them that the Elijah, adapted to the opening of the Gospel scheme, was already come : '^ I say unto you, that Elias is come already." The general propriety of the mode of interpretation here offered, will be more clearly seen by comparing this passage with another, in which two distinct advents of the Son of Man are mentioned together.

Matt. xvi. 27. The Son of Matt. xvii. 11. Jesus an-

Man shall come in the glory of swered and said unto them,

his Father with his angels ; and Elias truly shall first come and

then he shall reward every man restore all things, according to his works.

28. Verily I say unto you, 12. But I say unto you,

There be some standing here Elias is come already^ and

which shall not taste of death they knew him not, but have

ENOCH, ELI AS, AND JOHN THE BAPTIST. [)7

till they see the Son of Man done unto him whatsoever they coming in his kingdom. listed.

The subject will receive farther illustration by a similar comparison of the Evangelist with the Prophet.

Matt.xvii.il. Jesus an- Mai. iv. 5. Behold I will

swered and said unto them, send you Elijah the prophet

Elias truly shall first come before the coming of the great

and restore all things. and terrible day of the Lord.

12. But I say unto you, iii. 1. Behold I will send

Elias is come already, and my messenger, and he shall

they knew him not, but have prepare the M^ay before me, and

done unto him whatsoever the Lord whom ye seek shall

they listed. suddenly come to his temple.

According to St. Mark i. 1. " The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ," took place in the fulfilment of the two prophecies concerning the "voice"' and the "messenger;" the prediction concerning Elias respects not the beginning, but the perfect establishment of Messiah's kingdom, which was an event remotely distant in the Evan- gelist's days, and to ourselves is still future.

I shall now endeavour to illustrate a passage of St. Markix. 12., which at present labours under some confusion, both with respect to grammatical accuracy and historical truth : — (b)

" And he said unto them :

Elias shall first come and restore all things, H

98 ENOCH, ELIAS, AND JOHN THE BAPTIST.

As it is written [of the Son of Man,] That he may suffer many things and be set at nought; But I say unto you : That indeed Elias is come, And they did to him what they listed, As it is written [of him.]"

By transposing the clauses between the brackets, we should bring the passage to such close agree- ment with the Old Testament account, that I cannot help suspecting some inaccuracy of tran- scribers here. Thus : '^ Elias shall first come and restore all things, as it is written of him." Now it is expressly written of Elias, that he shall first come and restore all things ; and it is not written of the Baptist, but of the Son of Man, that the JeWs should do to him what they listed. Besides the clearness and consistency arising from this amendment, the arrangement is brought to a nearer coincidence with St. Matthew, who places the reference to the Son of Man last :

" But I say unto you :

Elias is already come, and they knew him not, But they have done to him what they listed ; Thus also shall the Son of Man suffer of them."

But, even as the words now lie, they must neces- sarily refer to some future suffering of a distinct Elias, for John the Baptist was already dead. Therefore, as Malachi had informed us that

ENOCH, ELIAS, AND JOHN THE BAPTIST. 99

Elijah the prophet was to come before a particular period for a particular purpose ; so, in addition to this, we seem to learn from our Saviour, that Elijah, at his coming, will meet with persecution in the fulfilment of his appointed office.

There is an ancient tradition handed down by the Fathers, which was very generally held by divines before the Reformation, and is still main- tained by Romanists ; namely, that Enoch and Elias are yet to come, and by their martyrdom extinguish Antichrist (c). Protestant commenta- tors pass it over in silence, or reject it with con- tempt ; but surely its general prevalence among the early Christians should command respect ; and it is not impossible but that it may have been derived from the same source, and preserved by the same means as the prophecy of Enoch, which has been authenticated by St. Jude. But this part of my subject is so clearly treated by an anonymous author, that I gladly avail myself of his statement.

*' If no part of Israel was in a state to receive the preaching of the kingdom which is to come, until restored to unity and integrity of doctrine by the preparatory mission of John the Baptist, how is the world now fitted to receive, without some such preparation, the actual establishment of that kingdom? Christendom is divided into innumerable sects, some holding the vainest and

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100 ENOCH, ELIAS, AND JOHN THE BAPTIST.

most heathenish traditions of a dark age, and others asserting the mere humanity of the Lord, while the higher ranks of society and the men of letters are, to a vast extent, estranged from every form and modification of religions belief. Mysti- cism, in one great nation of Europe, almost threatens us with a revival of Paganism, i. e. of the worship of the world, the elements, the sun, and the host of heaven. Paganism, in its undis- guised state, divides Asia and Africa with the monstrous heresy of the Saracens. And in Jewry, the palpable darkness of the Talmudists has suc- ceeded to the false lights of the Scribes and Rabbins, while their fond superstitious hopes openly invite the greatest and most blasphemous of all impostures that can be practised. Where- fore, it seems very needful that some person in the spirit and power of John, should prepare and make ready for the Lord, the three general divi- sions of those who acknowledge the God of Abra- ham, viz. the Christians, Mahometans, and Jews, and their manifold subdivisions, before his coming in power at his great day and acceptable year ; and also, that some such person should, with like authority, call back the mere Gentiles from their more ancient error of worshipping the creature instead of the Creator, and from the atheism of the heathen mysteries to the faith of the Patri- archs. Two eminent saints and prophets, the

ENOCH, ELIAS, AND JOHN THE BAPTIST. 101

one belonging to the Patriarchs of old, and the other to the Israelites, have to this day been kept in store by God, and these remarks may point our views to the great ends for which they have been preserved as a living testimony. Whatever they may yet have to perform, there can be no doubt as to that which they have to undergo ;

Semotique prius tarda necessitas Lethi corripiet gradum.

This is a most assured truth, that the grave hath never said, it is enoiigh^ and that in Adam all die. The Book of Revelations (xi. 3 — 12.) contains this prediction : ' I will give power unto my two witnesses,' &c.

^'That passage has been subjected by some Protestants to allegorical interpretations, which are perfectly incomprehensible. But the Fathers and the Divines anterior to the Reformation, with a general consent, used to see in this pas- sage an account of the mission, and testimony, and death, and resurrection, of Enoch and Elias. The Anglo-Saxon author on ' The Times of Antichrist,' actually quotes the words ^ when they shall have finished their testimony' in this manner : ' Loca ! hwonne thara Godes thegna Enoch and Elias tima cumen bith, that heora bodung ge-endod bith;' a mode of quoting which nothing can justify, but which shows how entirely that construction of the passage was taken for

102 ENOCH, ELIAS, AND JOHN THE BAPTIST.

granted. To me it certainly appears a very plain and legitimate one, and the only one that has been offered with the slightest respect to reason or probability.

'' Upon the whole, I think, that ere Christ come to give laws to the perfect kingdom, Enoch and Elias must first come, in much power, to restore all things; and that as Christ came before with a limited display of power, and none of glory, to lay the immoveable foundation of his Church and kingdom, so John then went before him in humble guise, but so far in the spirit and power of Elias, that he had knowledge and au- thority to restore the lost truth in Israel ; — in the spirit of Elias, and not of Enoch, because his mission was only to the sons of Jacob, and not to those of Adam. The world must look for the coming of the Patriarchs who are in Paradise ; but not with impatience, and vain calculations of that which cannot be solved beforehand, however clearly it may be recognized afterwards, but is a volume sealed until the time of the end." (British Magazine, vol. I. p. 345.)

ESSAY X.

THE FALLEN ANGELS AND THE SPIRITS IN PRISON.

Hades, or as it is translated in our Bible, Hell, is the general receptacle of departed souls. Ac- cording to the popular opinion of the Jews, it was divided into two distinct parts : the abode of the righteous after death, they called Para- dise, or Abraham's bosom ; the place where the wicked are shut up, they named Tartarus, or the bottomless pit. To one of these two compart- ments of Hades it was supposed that every hu- man soul is consigned during the interval between death and judgment; at which awful day they are removed, according to their sentence, either to the heaven of the New Jerusalem where is the tree of life, or to Gehenna which is the true Hell and the second death," (Rev. xx. 14.)

But Tartarus, which is the prison of Hades, was not tenantless before the death of the first wicked men. Scripture informs us that sinful spirits of a higher order were already there, de- tained in darkness and reserved for judgment. " God spared not the angels that sinned, but with

104 THE FALLEN ANGELS

chains of darkness confining them in Tartarus, delivered them over to be kept for judgment," (2 Pet. ii. 4, Macknight.) "The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habi- tation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day," Jude 6. From this it follows, that the an- gels who fell are not, at present, suffering the punishment due to their sin ; but, like malefac- tors, they are kept in durance till the time come when they are to be punished with the wicked of our own race.

For reasons beyond our understanding, some of these unclean spirits have been allowed to roam the earth ; and their chief captain, our great *' adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Pet. V. 8.) This was conspicuously the case in the time of our Saviour, whose great power and au- thority were shown in rebuking them. In that remarkable instance, where a man was possessed with a legion of demons, " they besought Jesus that he would not command them to go out into the bottomless pit." (Luke viii. 31.) St. Matthew informs us that they felt their own hopeless destiny, and acknowledged the superior power of Jesus, by crying out, " What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God ? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? * (viii. 29.)

AND THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. 105

The bottomless pit is also mentioned as the place of confinement for Satan himself: — '' I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and set a seal upon him." (Rev. XX. 1.)

The few passages of the New Testament, that speak of the angels which sinned, are by no means so worded as if to convey a direct revelation con- cerning them ; but they are introduced by way of illustration, which shows that a knowledge of the fact was common in the days of the Apostles. The information was derived by tradition from times of the most remote antiquity, and we meet with undoubted allusions to it in that very ancient composition, the Book of Job ; — '^ Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants ; and his angels he chargeth with folly." (iv. 18.) '^ Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints ; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight." (xv. 15.) There seems to be sufficient reason (says Bishop Blomfield) for supposing that several facts, relating both to the original formation of man himself, and of the universe in which he was placed, and to the reli- gious habits and opinions of mankind before the flood, were current amongst the descendants of

106 THE FALLEN ANGELS

Abraham, having been derived, through the medium of Noah, from the faithful posterity of Seth ; which particulars, nevertheless, Moses might not have been prompted to insert in his brief and compendious narrative . . . There were, undoubtedly, some traditions, relative to the ope- rations and counsels of the Deity, which survived, although not in the Mosaic records, even to the age of the Apostles. In the fourth and fifteenth chapters of the Book of Job, there are plain allu- sions to the antediluvian notion of the fallen angels, which is stated in more express terms by two of the Apostles, St. Peter and St. Jude. That this tradition was of very ancient date, we might conclude from the place which it occupies in Pagan mythology (a) ; that it is true, we infer from the use which the Apostles have made of it. Yet it is not recorded, nor even alluded to, in the only history which gives an authentic account of the creation ; and therefore we suppose it to have been derived from Adam, and at a later period from Noah ; by some of whose descendants it was corrupted and disfigured ; while by the family of Shem it was preserved, either memorially or in writings down to the time of the Apostles. (Tra- dition of the Promise, p. 22.)

This representation of the matter may induce us to believe that Adam had clearer notions of his malignant enemy than the mere words of the

7

AND THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. 107

narrative would lead us to suppose ; and that he had some insight into the spiritual meaning of the promise in the curse upon the serpent. Of the actual enmity between the holy seed and the seed of the serpent, he soon had woeful and practical experience in the murder of Abel ; but, no doubt, he was also aware of the continuing aggressions of that powerful evil spirit, which had originally wrought his ruin. The terms of the sentence show that the enmity was to be hereditary and mortal, and the attacks incessant ; in short, that the great adversary would be ever on the alert, *'as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." In very early times we find the fact of Satan's roaming the earth expressly stated : ^^ Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou ? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." (Job i. 6 ; 1 Chron. xxi. 1.) What- ever may be the date of the Book of Job, the existence of Satan and his malicious efforts against mankind were well known at that period ; and the knowledge of it seems to have been derived by tradition from still more ancient times. In- deed, it appears an extremely reasonable suppo- sition that Jehovah, during his frequent inter-

108 THE FALLEN ANGELS

course with Adam in Paradise, should reveal to him so important an event as the apostasy and punishment of the fallen angels ; especially as such knowledge would serve as a warning '' lest being lifted up with pride he should fall into the condemnation of the devil" (1 Tim. iii. 6.) ; and I suppose that it was in consequence of Satan's acting through a creature inferior to herself, that put Eve off her guard against the rebel angel, and betrayed her to her ruin.

I proceed now with the case of the departed spirits of wicked men. St. Peter having informed us that '^God delivered the angels that sinned into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judg- ment," 2nd Epist. ii. 4. adds in the 9th verse : ^'The Lord knoweth how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." An instance of this reserving unto judgment we have in the account of the different condition of the rich man and Lazarus after death. Luke xvi. 19. They were both in Hades ; but the rich man was in torments in a place securely separated from the abode of Lazarus, who was in Abraham's bosom. It is not expressly declared that Dives was in confinement, or bound in chains like the fallen angels ; but the whole narrative proceeds on that supposition. If at liberty, he would certainly have escaped bodily from the flame which tor- mented him, and not have been satisfied with the

AND THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. 109

mere cooling of his tongue ; but lie was encircled with a great gulf, and was in as close confine- ment as the three holy Jews in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. Farther, he seems to have been fully conscious that even a short release from his con- finement was impossible ; else he would not have prayed father Abraham to send Lazarus to testify unto his hve brethren : such a commission en- trusted to himself w^ould have afforded a temporary relief from the tormenting flame, and might be expected to produce in his brethren a more sure and speedy repentance than the arguments of an alien could effect (^).

There is another passage in Scripture, relating immediately to the antediluvian period, in which departed spirits are represented as being reserved in the prison of Hades unto the day of judgment. " Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being- put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit ; by which also he w^ent and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were dis- obedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah." (1 Pet. iii. 18.) If any spirits of men are confined in the darkness of the bottomless pit, and reserved there unto the judgment of the great day, it may with safety be declared of those that brought on the flood, and were so desperately wicked as to cause the Al-

110 THE FALLEN ANGELS

mighty to repent that he had made man. There can then be no doubt as to the persons here alluded to ; they are those noted unbelievers that filled the earth with violence in the days of Noah, but who now are spirits confined in the prison of Hades against the judgment of the great day. In a previous passage of this Epistle, St. Peter had prepared us for understanding the expression : ^' By the Spirit, Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison." In the 1st chapter and 10th verse, he speaks of the prophets as ''searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified before hand," &c. It was therefore the Spirit of Christ in Enoch, which testified of his coming in judgment at the flood : " Behold, the Lord Cometh," &c. It was the Spirit of Christ in Noah, which testified beforehand : " My Spirit shall not always strive with man," &c. Thus Christ, by the Spirit, went (c) and preached to the generation of vipers which rejected him in the days of Noah, and who now are shut up under darkness unto the judgment of the great day ; as afterwards, in the body, he went and preached to that generation of vipers which crucified him in these latter days.

By the Spirit, as afterwards in the body, we may suppose him to have thus preached to the lawless infidels before the flood: " Ye serpents.

AND THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. Ill

ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell ! Behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes ; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify ; and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and perse- cute them from city to city : that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto [the end of the age.] Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation." Matt, xxiii. 33. (d).

The belief of the separate existence of the soul is proved by the abuse of that opinion in the pre- tended arts of witchcraft and necromancy, which prevailed in the earliest ages. The story of the Witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii. 7.) clearly shows that this doctrine was an article of popular belief, and that it was thought possible by certain secret arts, to maintain an intercourse with departed spirits. From some expressions of Isaiah it would appear that ventriloquism was the means by which the deception was carried on (e).

*' They seek unto the necromancers, and the wizards, To them that speak inwardly, and that mutter ; Should not a people seek unto their God ? Should they seek, instead of the living, unto the dead ?"

viii. 19. " Thou shalt be brought low ; thou shalt speak as from be- neath the earth ; And from out of the dust thou shalt utter a feeble speech ;

112 THE FALLEN ANGELS

And thy voice shall come out of the ground like that of a

necromancer : And thy words from out of the dust shall give a small shrill

sound." — xxix. 4.

The art of necromancy must have been in full practice at the time of Moses, for he has made enactments against it: — "There shall not be found among you ... a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necro- mancer." (Heb. One that seeketh unto the dead. Deut. xviii. 10.) This pretension to an inter- course with the dead must necessarily have been founded on the belief of the separate existence of the soul ; and therefore that doctrine must have obtained before God's new revelation in the Law, and consequently have existed under the Patri- archal dispensation.

Our Saviour's argument with the Sadducees, taken from Exod. iii. 6. in evidence of a resurrec- tion, proves, a fortiori, the separate existence of the soul.

'' And Jesus answering said unto them :

" Do ye not hence err, Because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God ?

For when they shall have risen from the dead, They neither marry nor are given in marriage. But are as the angels which are in heaven.

And as touching: the dead that thev are raised,

AND THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. 113

Have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the

bush God spake unto him, Saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of

Isaac, and the God of Jacob ?

He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living ; Ye therefore do greatly err."

St. Paul has drawn out this argument more clearly, (Heb. xi. 16.) " These patriarchs died in faith, desiring a better country, that is, an heavenly ; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a cit3^ They are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, and to the general assembly and church of the first-born." (xii. 22.) But the same reasoning applies equally to the case of Isaac, as it did to Moses ; for to Isaac also ^' The Lord appeared, and said unto him, I am the God of Abraham, thy father." (Gen. xxvi. 24.) Now Abraham was already dead ; therefore Isaac might have inferred, that Abraham's soul was not annihilated ; a fact which he, no doubt, knew well enough before.

The belief of the soul's existence after death is so very ancient, that we cannot refer its origin to any time subsequently to that of Adam. Of Abel, Enoch, Noah, St. Paul hath said, '^ These all died in faith, not having received the promises ;

I

114 THE FALLEN ANGELS, &C.

but, having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth ; now they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country." (Heb. xi. 13.) So that it is probable, at least, that the infidels who heard and scoffed at the denunciation *^ Behold, the Lord Cometh to execute judgment on the ungod- ly," might also know and mock at the prison of Hades, in which were said to be confined the rebellious angels and the wicked of their own race.

ESSAY XL

THE PRIMEVAL CHURCH.

The Church of God, as at present constituted, was founded m Paradise. It has since received great accessions of spiritual knowledge, and un- dergone some alterations in its religious ordi- nances ; but, as established immediately after the Fall, and before man's expulsion from the Garden of the Lord, it contained all the fundamental articles which are common and necessary to the Universal Church of all ages down from Adam to the present time.

I shall now state what are these fundamental articles of belief, and consider them in the follow- ing order :

(1.) The acknowledgment of God as the Creator and Moral Governor of the world.

(2.) The life and judgment to come.

(3.) Forgiveness of sins upon repentance by means of a Saviour.

(4.) The assurance of God's Spirit to help our infirmities and assist our sincere endeavours after holiness.

i2

116 THE PRIMEVAL CHURCH.

(1.) Adam certainly knew that the Lord, with whom he conversed in the Garden, was the Creator of all the wonders he saw around him. In the case of Eve, we are expressly told that he was acquainted with the mode of her formation ; for " Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh : she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." But that lasting memorial of the order and process of creation, the institution of a Sabbath, " because that in it God rested from all his work which he had created and made," precludes all farther question on the subject.

Adam also well knew that obedience and wor- ship were due unto that good, and wise, and powerful Being who had created him. The very conditions of his existence imply this allegiance : ^' In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Here God plainly declares that he has respect unto the good and evil actions of his creatures ; and Adam manifested an involuntary consciousness of this attribute, when, after the transgression, he would have hidden himself from the presence of his Governor and Judge. The Almighty displa3^ed this attribute, when he had respect unto Abel and to his oflering, but unto Cain and to his oflering he had not respect. Cain confessed it, when he declared, My punish- ment is greater than 1 can bear. And Enoch

TIIH PIUMEVAL CHURCH. 117

broiigljt it feart'iilly to mind, wlien he proclaimed, " Behold, the Lord cometli with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment on the ungodly."

The present direction of an overruling Provi- dence is assured to man through prophecy, which shows that events are under the controul of a powerful and gracious Being. Now, from the first, there existed the prophecy that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head ; and this was practically represented by sacrifice. Hence, the ordinance of sacrifice and the observ- ance of a sabbath, in the Antediluvian Church, was a continual practical acknowledgment of God as the Creator and Moral Governor of the world.

(2.) Man, by his original constitution, was made capable of immortalit3\ This is plainly implied in the very tenure by which he held his existence : "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." The death, threatened upon disobedience, might have been total anni- hilation ; but we find, from the terms of the sen- tence passed on him by God, that it was limited to the dissolution of the body : "In the sw^eat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; for out of it wast thou taken ; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou re- turn." The return of this material body to its kindred dust is the whole extent of the punish-

118 THE PRIMEVAL CHURCH.

ment here denounced ; the annihilation of that breath of life, the destruction of that reasonable soul, with which God had quickened this bodily frame, is not so much as hinted. Adam, there- fore, would quickly perceive that he was in the hands of a merciful Judge ; and that eternal death was not to be his doom. He saw that even the present life was, for a space, to be continued to him ; and he was supported against despair by the consoling prospect, that one should arise from his posterity who was to defeat the malicious plot of the serpent, and eventually restore his race to their original purity and bliss.

The circumstances that accompanied death upon its first entrance into our world, afforded to the faithful a lively evidence of another and better life. The righteous Abel, openly accepted of God in the solemnities of public worship, yet cut off in the spring time of life ; the murderer Cain, rejected of God, yet permitted to live, and blessed with a flourishing offspring ! The voice of Abel's blood yet crieth from the ground : he, though dead, yet speaketh of the life and judgment to come.

From the first, I might have asserted that the promise of restoration to a being who had just forfeited an immortal life in the body, could not but imply an assurance of eternal life in that body, in which, under other circumstances, he

THE PRIMEVAL CHURCH. 1 19

would have continued to enjoy it ; but the trans- lation of Enoch, presented as a fact to the bodily eye, what the mind had hitherto admitted only as matter of belief: namely, that in our Father's house are many mansions, into which he will receive the righteous, both body and soul, after death.

The belief of a life to come, under the govern- ment of an Almighty Being, who now takes cognizance of the good and evil actions of his creatures, necessarily implies that future life to be a state of retribution, in which every man will be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body ; but the prophecy of Enoch would lead us to suppose that the Antediluvians had some idea of a personal coming of the Lord in judgment. His prophecy received a primary fulfilment at the awful catastrophe of the flood ; yet that was only a token and earnest of the great and terrible day, '^ in the which God will judge the world in right- eousness by that man whom he hath ordained."

(3.) Forgiveness of sins has no necessary con- nexion with repentance ; it is rather contrary to that analogy, which experience presents to us. Do we not daily observe that an unguarded or wilful departure from the path of duty is followed by disease, poverty, or disgrace, which no contri- tion can remove or lessen ? If it is otherwise in spiritual concerns, it is only God's free mercy

120 THE PRIMEVAL CHURCH.

that makes it so ; it is his word that assures it to us. The revelation of forgiveness on repentance must have been made as the very first step to- wards instituting a Church ; for the purpose of a Church is to keep up a communication between the creature and the Creator ; and forgiveness of sins on repentance, is the only common tie that can exist between sinful man and a holy God.

When Adam first heard the voice of his Maker after the transgression, he endeavoured, in the fruitless agony of remorse, to hide himself amongst the trees of the Garden ; and upon being ques- tioned, he answered with the hard-hearted reck- lessness of despair : '' The woman, whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." Hov/ different was his conduct upon the declaration of this all-important doctrine, which is included in the promise of a Redeemer ; repentance led him to faith ; which he imme- diately exhibited by changing his wife's name to Eve (life), because she was the mother of all living by means of the promised seed. Adam was clearly in a slate of penitence upon his ad- mission into the covenant of grace ; but, if for- giveness and repentance had not previously been connected in the Divine counsels, his repentance would have availed nothing ; on the other hand, there could have been no such transaction as the covenant of grace by a Redeemer, if Adam had

THE PRIMEVAL CHURCH. 1'21

remained in the same impenitent state as Cain did afterwards.

The atonement of Christ is the efficient cause that connects repentance with forgiveness ; but as this their mutual dependence arises solely from the good pleasure of God, the real efficacy is quite independent of man's accurate knowledge of the cause itself. The doctrine, therefore, may be clearly revealed and become available to man, whilst the reason of God's forgiveness remains more or less obscure. Since the Apostle says, ^^ By faith Abel offered," &c. it is evident that Adam and Abel had that knowledge of a Re- deemer to come, wdiich sufficed to draw forth a due exhibition of Christian faith to the saving of their soul ; but it is equally clear that they had not a perfect conception of the heart-stirring par- ticulars (a) because their complete development was reserved for the Gospel of Christ, which con- tains the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began. (Rom. xvi. 25.)

(4.) The assistance of God's Spirit to help our infirmities is implied in the very institution of a Church. After freely bestowing such great mer- cies, the Almighty would surely view with favour his creature's feeble, but sincere efforts after obe- dience and holiness ; he would not allow all this glorious scheme of redemption to prove abortive

1*22 THE PRIMEVAL CHURCH.

from want of farther assistance. A consideration of the circumstances would lead us to this infe- rence ; but an open representation of the Spirit's calling a sinner to repentance is afforded us in an early period of the world's history ; and we wit- ness the fearful effects of resisting it in the case of Cain, who was the first reprobate. Upon the manifestation of his worldly and infidel spirit in the matter of his offering, the Almighty pleaded strongly with him to bring him to repentance ; but Cain hardened his heart against the Lord, anfl would none of his reproof; therefore, as he would not retain God in his knowledge, God gave him over to a reprobate mind, the first workings of which was the murder of a brother in cold blood. The serpent that had deluded his father to disobey the commandment of God, instigated Cain to the murder of Abel ; and after- wards ''Satan filled his heart to He to the Holy Ghost" in denying all knowledge of his brother : '* I know not ; am I my brother's keeper?"

The Spirit continued its holy work of confirm- ing the faithful, and calling the sinner to repent- ance. When the Lord failed to draw men to him by the persuasive accents of love, he spoke in the louder tone of threatening and punishment, and Enoch did prophesy of coming judgment. Yet, for all this, they sinned more and more. Even then, Noah, " a preacher of righteousness," was 7

THE PRIMEVAL CHURCH. 123

raised up to reclaim them, and threaten them, unless they repented, with a flood of waters to destroy all flesh. But they repented not : they hardened their heart, and resisted the Holy Ghost. What more, then, could be done for his apostate Church, which the Lord had not done? The time of acceptance passed away, and they were still in their sins. Therefore God said, '^ My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh ;" he is altogether carnally- minded. They were given over to a reprobate mind, and forfeited both '' the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

In times past, as well as in these latter days, the Spirit more especially addressed itself to the soul of man in the use of appointed ordinances ; and the Antediluvian Church had its spiritual strength continually refreshed by the observance of the Sabbath, the rite of Sacrifice, and medita- tion on God's Word. The distinction, also, of clean and unclean animals relative to sacrifice, (Gen. viii. 20.) was enforced upon them in order to inculcate inward purity ; and this analogy between the ceremonial law of the primeval Church, and the ritual of the chosen people, is farther carried on in the appointment of a parti- cular place to bring the sacrifice as an offering to the Lord. It is not said that Abel made an oflfer- ing from the firstlings of his flock, but that he

124 TOE put:ueval church.

brought it. Now, as we are acquaintedwith the sacred tabernacle and cherubim in front of the Garden of Eden, and with the religious uses of the tabernacle and cherubim under the Jewish dispensation, we cannot doubt that Abel brought his sacrifice to this holy place, which had been chosen by the Lord out of all the earth to put his name there, and was consecrated by the manifest- ation of the Divine presence.

Under the original dispensation, as under the other two, it is probable that man's faith was systematically quickened by an occasional exhibi- tion of miracles. The respect, which the Lord had unto Abel's offering above that of Cain, was visibly manifested, and perhaps by miraculous fire. When the Lord showed a sign unto Cain, in token that no man should kill him, it is thouo'ht that he worked some miracle to convince him. (Z>) But we have one instance of an un- doubted miracle in the translation of Enoch ; and analogy would lead us to suppose that he was empowered to work miracles to establish his claim to a divine commission and authenticate his prophetic communications to the Church. His only compeer, Elijah, did close a very wonderful sojourn upon earth by supernaturally ascending from it in the body ; and is it not probable that Enoch also, who, against nature, hath not yet returned unto his dust, did, whilst upon earth.

THE PRIMEVAL CHURCH. 125

work marvels in his Israel, and hold nature and her elements under his controul,

After such an exposition of the doctrines of the primeval Church, it is altogether needless to investigate its moral law ; but it may be interest- ing to observe that the great threefold division of duties, namely, toward God, our neighbour, and ourself, seems to have been not unknown in those early times, as may be inferred from the memorial of Noah :

** This is the record of Noah ; Noah was a just man, Perfect was he in his ways ; With God walked Noah."

The observance of a Sabbath, and the institu- tion of marriage between one man and one wo- man, sufficiently indicate the state of society at that period. These ordinances would long pre- sent a firm barrier against the encroachments of worldly-mindedness and licentiousness ; and to their subversion the spirit of Antichrist would then, as it has since done, strenuously exert its baleful energies. To some it would suggest that they rested merely on human authority; to others, that they were the device of priestcraft in order to keep men in bondage ; until in the end it was agreed that however well adapted they might be to the ignorance of primitive times, they were

126 THE PRIMEVAL CHURCH.

totally unsuited to the liberal principles and ge- neral enlightenment of the latter days. Thus, through the teaching of the serpent, the eyes of a wicked generation were opened, but alas ! as in a former case, to the experience of evil ; they brought upon themselves a judgment from God in the present life, and are now spirits in prison reserved under darkness against the judgment of the great day.

This original device the serpent is again to practise, and shall prosper, in the latter days of the present age ; but woe unto those who, walk- ing amidst the brightness of heavenly wisdom, shall wilfully shut their eyes to the truth and have them opened at the tree of knowledge. — *^ Assuredly, if ever, if any how, if any where, man was without excuse for spiritual ignorance, it is in these latter days, under this prodigality of revelation, and in this Church of Christ. Let us not, therefore, O brethren and partners in the revelation of Christ Jesus, neglect so great salva- tion. In refusing it, think ye that we shall have refused once only, which is a sin sufficiently great, or twice only, which is a sin more fearful still ? O no ! we shall have refused thrice, and what shall save us then, what further means shall re- new us to repentance then ? For thrice hath God, by his merciful intervention with fallen man, delivered his revelation upon earth. Once

THE PRIMEVAL CHURCH. 127

ill Paradise, again from Mount Sinai, and lastly from Mount Calvary. Happy the forgetful Heathen, happy the rejecting Jew, compared with the heedless Christian. With fear and trembling, then, at our responsibility ; with joy and gratitude for the gift ; with faith and hope in his promises, let us accept in heart and mind his blessed word ; reckoning the knowledge of this the only wisdom, — the practice of its doc- trines the only virtue, — the delight of acquiring the graces thence derived the only joy, — ^ the calm and serenity which it inspires the only peace, — the affections which it moulds and creates the only love, — the reward which it offers the only prize, — the way which it points out the only road to everlasting life. So help us, Almighty God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Evans' Sermons on the Church of God.)

ESSAY XII.

THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN.

Miracles and prophecy are the usual means by which God has condescended to authenticate his communications with man. By miracles he af- forded an immediate and visible assurance of some future event declared by prophecy. Among the chosen people, the dealings of Providence were laid more plainly open to observation ; and the appointed instruments of the Almighty, for bring- ing: about his ordained course of events, had their own faith strengthened, and their credit with others established, by some manifest sign from the finger of God. This was a wise and merciful adaptation to the feelings of human nature ; in- deed, it is impossible for us to conceive any other way that would so effectually obviate distrust on the one hand, and incredulity on the other.

After the four hundred years of affliction, at the time prefixed, (Gen. xv. 13.) when the children of Israel were to be brought up out of Egypt, and that unpromising charge was laid upon Moses, how natural was the expression of his feelings !

THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN. 129

*' But, behold, they will not believe me, for they will say. The Lord hath not appeared nnto thee." (Exod. iv. 1.) Upon which he was immediately furnished with the miraculous signs of the serpent- rod and the leprous hand, in token to himself and the Israelites of their approaching deliverance. Similar feelings and similar condescension were exhibited in the case of Gideon when commis- sioned to save Israel from the hands of the Midian- ites : " Wherewith shall I save Israel ? . . . If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me." (Judg. vi. 15.) Then the angel of the Lord put forth his staff and touched the flesh, and there rose up fire out of the rock and consumed it. And when, for wise purposes, God determined to raise up Hezekiah, and add fifteen years to his life, that king said unto Isaiah, ''What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me ?" (2 Kings xx. 8.) And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken ; and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward by which it had gone down on the dial.

Such instances are numberless in the Bible, and the point to be attended to is that the sign was always something new or miraculous. This method of giving a present sign, as an authen- ticating token of a future benefit, was observed by God from the earliest times. It was so done in

K

130 THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN.

the person of Cain ; the Lord showed a sign unto Cain, in token that no man finding him should kill him. (Gen. iv. 15.) This sign was certainly of a miraculous nature, and not an ordinary phe- nomenon ; otherwise it would not have afforded him any more lively satisfaction than God's bare promise. If God had said unto him, I do set my sun in the heavens, and it shall be for a token that no man shall kill thee, what degree of assu- rance would such a sign have afforded to his desponding mind ? Yet of the same comfortless nature would have been the token of the rainbow to Noah, that the waters should no more become a flood to destroy all flesh, if that phenomenon had been familiar to the Antediluvians. If the course of nature was violated to assure Hezekiah of the continuance of his life, is it an improbable supposition that God should do some new thing to convince Noah of his safety in a restored world. It is the remoteness of the transaction, and our slight interest in it, that reconciles us to the notion that God, at that time, merely appointed the bow as a token of his covenant. But God's dealings are constant, and a thousand years are only as one day in his sight ; whilst man's judg- ment is powerfully influenced by the recentness of events, and their importance to himself. If Christ had appointed the bow as a token of the resurrection of the body, and as a sign of the

THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN. 131

covenant between himself and mankind, that he would make their peace with God, could we, in this case, bring ourselves to acquiesce in the sufficiency of such a pledge ? But Christ knew better what was in man, and what the earnest longings of our nature required. When, there- fore, he was asked, '' What sign shewest thou, seeing that thou doest these things ? Jesus an- swered. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He spake of the temple of his body." (John ii. 18. Matt. xii. 39.) It is not likely, then, that the awful occasion of the deluge, wherein comfort and support were so much needed, should constitute the solitary exception to God's usual dealings. Because rain is com- mon and necessary now, we are apt to suppose that it has always been so ; except for this bias, I think that no one could consider the bow as a familiar appearance on reading the account of it in Gen. ix. 12 — 15. '^ And God said. This is the authenticating token, which I exhibit, of the covenant between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual genera- tions ; (13) My bow I exhibit in the cloud, and it shall be for the authenticating token of the cove- nant between me and the earth. (14) And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud; (15) And I will remember my covenant, which

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132 THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN.

is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh ; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh." In verse 14, Noah is specially advertised when and where he was to expect its appearance, as concerning some new thing ; which notice that there should be rain, but not to the overflowing of a flood, will appear far from needless, when we consider the terror that must have seized on this remnant of a de- stroyed world, on a repetition of those wondrous and fearful waterdrops, and what unspeakable comfort God's predicted sign in the cloud would afford them: ''The bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature."

St. Paul classes Noah among those eminent persons who had exhibited extraordinary instances of faith : "By faith, Noah being warned by God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, pre- pared an ark to the saving of his house." (Heb. xi. 7.) We know that, at present, heavy rains will sometimes produce floods, so as to inundate whole districts, and cause great loss of life ; now if rains and floods were things not seen as yet, it adds greatly to his faith in building the ark, and in bearing the scoffs of that violent generation. Although the fountains of the great deep were broken up, yet rain seems to have been a promi-

THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN. 133

nent agent of destruction, as God forewarned Noah : " yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth," (vii. 4.) Now, if Noah were commissioned, unless they repented, to threaten that wicked race with the unheard of punishment of a flood from heaven, he would little disturb their godless revelry which they kept up, "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark." Matt. xxiv. 38.

Kindred spirits of the present day scoft' at Moses for asserting that God then set his bow in the cloud. The same causes, say they, must ever have produced the same effects ; and the rainbow must often have been seen during the sixteen centuries before the flood. Such reasoning is correct enough ; but, were the premises to be questioned, they would be rather at a loss to prove the existence of rain in those times so little analoo-ous to our own. We should never have believed, if we had not learned in the sacred history, that the Antediluvians ate no flesh, or that they lived so long ; and yet, such a state of the atmosphere, as did not admit of the condensa- tion of vapour into drops of rain, is not more im- possible to conceive than sucli a constitution ot the human frame, as did not require flesh for its

134 THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN.

support, and could stand the wear of a thousand years. If God has asserted that he did, at that time, exhibit his bow in ratification of his cove- nant, can unbelievers expect that we should give less heed to his sure word than to their unproved assertions ? "■ Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar;" and as long as the Bible is not in- consistent with itself, the difficulty of reconciling it with the objections of its enemies need not cause us any great uneasiness.

The only passage in the narrative that bears in the least upon the subject is contained in Gen. ii. 4 — 6 ; but as the present version of it is very obscure, I shall here offer a new translation and arrangement (a) : —

** Such is the account of the heavens and the earth at their creation, In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

Now before any shrub of the field was in the earth And before any plant of the field sprung up, Although the Lord God rained not on the earth And there was not a man to dress the ground, There went up a mist from the earth And watered the whole face of the ground."

The first chapter, I conceive, should have been extended beyond the six days of creation, so as to contain the sanctifying of the seventh day to rest, and perhaps to end with the full close, " Sucli is the account of," &c. The second chapter would

THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN. 135

then return to and amplify certain passages worthy of a particular account, but which would have interrupted the simple narrative of the creation : such are the place of Adam's abode, the naming of the creatures, the different formation of Eve, 8cc. The meaning of the six lines, *' Now before any shrub," &c. appears to be simply this : Pre- viously to the existence of any vegetation, although .there was neither rain from heaven nor irrigation from man, yet God had provided the necessary supply of moisture by means of the atmosphere affording dew.

The argument from analogy, as already stated, seems to prove that the rainbow was a phenome- non unknown to the Antediluvians ; and the general argument, now to be brought forward, does not appear to be at variance with the suppo- sition that there was no rain before the flood*

A literal application of the words of Scripture to support a system of natural philosophy, and a total disregard to them concerning a physical fact, are extremes equally faulty ; and those over zeal- ous persons who convicted Galileo of heresy for teaching the annual and diurnal revolution of the earth, did certainly not betray any greater degree of ignorance or weakness of intellect than the scep- tical Voltaire, who asserted that a general inun- dation of our globe is a physical impossibility (b). Although a Divine revelation is given entirely for 7

136 THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGX.

moral and religious purposes, yet we may be sure that it contains no untruths on the subjects of natural philosophy ; wherever, therefore, the Bible affords any intimation of a physical fact with a moral purpose, (for instance, that God brought a flood of waters, and, after it, did exhibit his bow in the cloud,) we are bound to give it a full and serious consideration. I firmly believe in the occurrence of these two facts in the manner there recorded, and am instructed by the moral lessons they were intended to convey ; and though I look not to my Bible for an explanation of the physical causes, yet am I fully persuaded, that the facts themselves will not be found inconsistent with the deductions of reason. Geology asserts, " that numberless phenomena have been already ascertained, w^hich, without the admission of an universal deluge, it seems not easy, nay, utterly impossible to explain ;" and the time and purpose of such a catastrophe, it finds recorded in the sacred history. According to the same authority, ^'the occurrence of bones in caves, under such circumstances as those at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, is decisive in establishing the fact, that the ele- phant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and hyaena, animals which are at present exclusively confined to hot climates, were the Antediluvian inhabitants, not only of England, but of the polar regions of the north." (Buckland's Reliquiae Diluvianae.)

THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN. 137

Geology hence infers a change of temperature in these countries ; and revelation informs us tliat not till after the deluge, did God exhibit his bow in the cloud : a fact clearly inconsistent with the existence of rain before the flood, and which neces- sarily supposes a difference of climate in the two worlds.

In the old world, it is extremely probable that the atmosphere was so uniformly temperate, as never to be subject to storms and rains, or to be rent by collisions of the electric fluid ; at any rate, it is quite certain that the climate, from whatever cause, was better adapted to the perfection of the animal part of man, as his life approached upon a thousand years. The curtailing of man's exist- ence down to its present dwindled span, dates its commencement from the deteriorating effects of the deluge. Vegetation also suffering from the change, would afford a less kindly aliment for his support ; hence flesh- for food, and perhaps wine, were now first given as actually necessary to withstand the eff^ects of a vitiated atmosphere ; although these powerful, yet harsh stimulants, might themselves contribute to shorten life. But whatever were the channels throuo;h which the sinister influence acted upon the Postdiluvians, we can have no doubt of the result produced, that the days of the years of their life attained not

138 THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN.

unto the days of the years of their Antediluvian forefathers.

The atmosphere even now contains such a mass of water in solution, that were it all preci- pitated, it might probably be sufficient (as Bishop Watson observes, in his '' Chemical Essays,'') to cover the surface of the whole earth to the depth of above thirty feet. But astronomers and geolo- gists, though drawing their conclusions from very different phenomena, do both agree in the opinion that the temperature of the earth is greatly dimi- nished from what it once was. Therefore, before the flood, it is not impossible that the air, by containing more caloric, was permanently endued with a stronger solvent power ; and that, by hold- ing a larger quantity of water in solution, it afforded more copious dews in the place of rain. On this supposition, also, the heavenly reservoirs would supply ampler means for deluging the world at the general breaking up of the course of nature at that time.

If the general temperature at the time of the flood was much lowered, the solvent power of the air, and the equilibrium of the electric fluid, might undergo a change conducive to the forma- tion of rain, and unfavourable to tlie duration of human life (c). That this awful event was accom- panied, at least, with a great and sudden change

THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN. 139

of temperature, is capable of demonstration, as the deluge has erected to itself a lasting monument, which is a faithful witness on this point. *^In northern countries, it arrested and encased in ice the carcasses of large quadrupeds, which have been preserved down to the present time with their skin, their hair, and their flesh. If they had not been frozen as soon as killed, putrefaction would have decomposed them ; yet this enduring frost did not previously exist there, for they are animals which could not have existed in such a temperature ; the same instant that they were bereft of life, the country which they inhabited became frozen." (Cuvier, on the Re- volutions of the Surface of the Globe.) *' At present, I am concerned only to establish two important facts ; 1st. That there has been a re- cent and general inundation of the globe ; and, 2d. That the animals whose remains are found interred in the wreck of that inundation, were natives of high north latitudes, and not drifted to their present place from equatorial regions, by the waters that caused their destruction. One thing, however, is nearly certain, namely, that if any change of climate has taken place, it took place suddenly ; for how otherwise could the ele- phant's carcase, found entire in ice at the mouth of the Lena, have been preserved from putrefac-

140 THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN.

tion till it was frozen up with the waters of the then existing ocean ? Nor is it less probable that this supposed change was contemporaneous with, and produced by, the same cause which brought on the inundation. What this cause was, whether a change in the inclination of the earth's axis, or the near approach of a comet, or any other cause, or combination of causes, purely astronomical, is a question, the discussion of which is foreign to the object of the present memoir." (Buckland's Reliq. Diluv.) We are here told of a sudden change of temperature, produced at the same time, and by the same cause, as the deluge ; and are not these the very circumstances we should expect to accompany the sudden appearance of rain for the first time at the flood ? By pointing out this biblical genealogy of rain, and showing its relation to geological discoveries, I would drive out the scorn er from the possession of the rainbow, as he has already yielded up all claim upon the deluge ; and would add one more to the accumulated proofs, which establish the authen- ticity of the Book of Genesis from its own internal evidence (d).

On such a subject as the present, verbal criti- cism may fairly be applied, not indeed in proof, but in confirmation of the argument ; and I can- not but bring forward, with this view, the passage

THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN. 141

of Genesis already quoted. On the first day of creation, at the fiat of the Almighty, light, the . subtlest of the elements, sprung into existence. On the second, was formed the expanse of air, which, by its solvent power, drew up a mass of vapour, constituting the waters above the firma- ment. In this manner, the atmosphere both helped to drain the earth of some of its super- abundant waters, and was ready to afford a supply of dew to vegetation against its creation on the third day.

" Now, before any shrub of the field was in the earth, And before any plant of the field sprung up, Although the Lord God rained not on the earth And there was not a man to dress the ground, There went up a mist from the earth And watered the whole face of the ground,"

This passage seems to point out the commence- ment of a period, during which there was no rain, and in which vegetation was supported by means of dew alone. A different dispensation of Provi- dence, at a particular time, is declared to us ; and we should hardly be justified in saying, that it was impossible for that state of things to have continued down to the great atmospherical changes which undoubtedly took place at the flood.

I have now endeavoured to show — (1.) That to

142 THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN.

maintain the consistency observable in the deal- ings of Providence, as revealed to us in the Bible, the bow must necessarily have been seen, for the first time, after Noah's leaving the ark ; and (2.) That physiological reasonings, as far as they extend, do not oppose themselves to the hypothesis, that there was no rain before the flood.

The heavenly wisdom of the Hebrews led them to attribute every natural phenomenon to the immediate agency of the Creator; but the pro- gress of human knowledge enabling us to trace them to their second causes, our minds are too apt to rest there with a weak and blameable indif- ference. Yet, thunder and the rainbow might well teach us this lesson of raising our thoughts above the creature to the great Creator ; surely, these are so far above us and beyond us, as to usher in at once the present Deity. The one is fearfully adapted to raise in us feelings of asto- nishment and awe towards the powerful and offended Jehovah :

" Jehovah thundered out of heaven, The Most High uttered his voice. The voice of Jehovah is full of power, The voice of Jehovah is full of majesty."

Psalm xviii. 13 ; xxix, 4.

The other should fill us with sentiments of admi-

THE RAINBOW A PROPHETIC SIGN. J 43

ration and love towards a reconciled and cove- nanted God :

'* Look upon the bow, and praise him that made it ; Very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof : It compasseth the heaven with a glorious circle, And the hands of the Most High have bended it."

Ecclus. xliii. 11.

NOTES

ESSAY I.

(a) It is generally supposed^ Some of the grounds afforded by Scripture for believing that, in the time of Moses, there existed a traditional knowledge of the most important points in the primitive history of mankind, may be seen in Bishop Blomfield's " Dissertation on the Tra- dition of the Promise."

(h) TJiese are the generations'] There are two words of very different meanings m'pin and nn, the y^v^aig and 7£V£a of the Septuagint and Greek Testament, which by our translators, both in the Old and New Testaments, are almost invariably rendered by the same term "genera- tion." The first (that which occurs above) means an account, tradition, or genealogy ; the second, a generation of contemporary men, or the manner of life in that gene- ration. In some passages it is of consequence to attend to this last distinction. Isa. liii. 8. Luke xvi. 8. " The children of this world are in their manner of life," &c. (Gen. vi. 9.) In the passage 1 Tim. i. 4. translated above " endless fabulous traditions," I have no doubt that yzviokoyia also is the representative of m^in ; Castalio renders it, " Fabulas et antiquitates infinitas."

146 NOTES.

(c) Hehreio parallelism~\ As mention is here made of Hebrew parallelism, and many instances of it occur in the sequel, it may not be amiss to say a few words on the subject.

The distinguishing characteristic of Hebrew poetry is parallelism, or a certain relationship between the members of each period; so that, in one or more lines or members of the same period, things shall answer to things, and words to words, as if fitted to each other by a kind of rule or measure. (Bishop Lowth, Prselect. 19.) An attention to this peculiarity in the composition of Scripture is accompanied with many advantages ; it greatly assists in determining the sense of doubtful passages; in removing grammatical difficulties and intricacies of construction ; and in bringing into notice the less obvious beauties of style and argument in the sacred volume. Several other benefits might be mentioned ; but I have confined myself to these, as it is my purpose to bring an example of each from the New Testament

(1.) The passage of St. Mark xii. 24 — 27. quoted in Essay X. labours under no difficulty requiring explana- tion; yet it is drawn up with a fitness of arrangement, and a closeness of reasoning far beyond what is observable at a first view, and such as the common prosaic form of it would hardly lead us to suspect.

"And Jesus answering said unto them : —

" Do ye not hence err, Because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God ?

For when they shall have risen from the dead, They neither marry nor are given in marriage. But are as the angels which are in heaven.

NOTES, 147

And as touching the dead that they are raised,

Have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God

spake unto him, Saying, T am the God of Abraham, and tlie God of Isaac, and

the God of Jacob ?

He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living ; Ye therefore do greatly err."

According to a common method with our Saviour in teaching, the subject is laid down in the first line — the error of the Sadducees. It is then enlarged upon in the next line, and their error traced to a twofold source, — an ignorance of the Scriptures, and of the power of God. These two charges are then taken up and proved in the following triplets. In the first is exposed their ignorance of the power of God ; if God, having created man out of the dust, has determined to raise him again from the dust after death, the same power that created will surely be able to revive man, notwithstanding any difficulties which may occur to your w^orldly minds. His purpose is to raise the dead in a glorified body, free from all animal propen- sities ; " they neither marry nor are given in marriage," but are spiritually-minded, and engaged in the same heavenly services as the ministering angels. In the other triplet is pointed out their ignorance of the spirit of Scrip- ture ; and as they had drawn their objection from the law of Moses, our Saviour very pointedly refutes them from the same authority, " I am the God of Abraham ;" not, I was. This inference he shows them in the next line that they might have made for themselves from this pas- sage, if they had read it with the understanding. And, lastly, closing as he had begun, he brings against them the original charge; but now, after clear proof, he asserts

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148 NOTES.

it with redoubled force, " Ye therefore do greatly err." This illustration is in the manner of Bishop Jebb, who was the first to place the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles on the sanie footing with those of the ancient Prophets.

(2.) In Matt. XV. 3 — 6. the arrangement by parallelisms affords a key to the due connexion of the clauses, and to the clearing up of the grammatical construction. But before the proposed translation can be fully understood, it is necessary to premise this critical remark. In condi- tional sentences, where the second member depends on the first, the Hebrews said, " If so and so, and so and so," where we should say then, or omit the particle altogether, thus — " If it be a son aJid ye shall kill him, but if it be a daughter and she shall live." Exod. i. 16. In this pecu- liarity the Hebrew original is often literally followed by the Septuagint version, which, in its turn, is sometimes imitated in the Greek Testament. For example, 1 Sam. xii. 15. lav fir] aKovar^re, if ye will not obey, kul ecrrai then (and) shall the hand of the Lord be against you ; and 1 Chron. xix. 12. lav /cparrjar) virsp fie, if the Syrian be too strong for me, Kat Icnj fioi dg (T(i)Tr}piav then (and) shalt thou help me. The same idiom obtains in this place of St. Matthew : lav uiry, if a man say, Kat ov fxr] Tijuiriaij, then (and) he shall not honour. The passage, then, cor- rectly translated and arranged, is as follows :

" And he answered and said unto them :

" Why do yourselves also break the commandment of God through your tradition ?

For God commanded : Saying, Honour thy father and thy mother, And he that revileth father or mother shall surely die;

NOTES. 149

Whereas ye say: If one declare to father or mother, An offering be thy due relief, Then he shall not honour his father or his mother ;

Truly ye have done away the commandment of God through your tradition."

Here, the clause " Honour thy father" is clearly opposed to " He shall not honour his father ;" and the reviling mentioned generally in the fourth line is exemplified in the next line by a particular instance, " An offering be thy due relief;" which is as if the undutiful son should say to his parents, " May mischief befal me, if ever I help you in the least."

(3.) The arrangement by parallelisms fixes at once the meaning of the doubtful word, " For of such,'' in Mark x. 14. " Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of God." This example is of some conse- quence, as doctrine and practice are affected by it. A common interpretation of the words is, that a man cannot enter heaven without the purity and simplicity of a little child; but a slight consideration of the parallelism points out a very different meaning. I must previously observe, however, that the original words, rwv yap roiourwv Itrrf, can be translated in no other manner than " For to such belongs ;" and this is the way in which the same idiom is rendered in Matt. v. 8. " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven :" not. Of them is, but. To them belongs, the kingdom of heaven.

" And he spake unto them : Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid t'lem not, For to such belongs the kingdom of God.

Verily, I say unto you : Unless a man receive the kingdom of God as a liitle child, He shall not enter therein."

150 NOTES.

Little children form the entire subject of the first part of this speech, and adults that of the remainder. Each line, too, contrasts with its corresponding line : " To such (little children) belongs the kingdom of God," is evidently opposed to " He (that adult) shall not enter therein." The idea is briefly and beautifully expressed by a Christian poet : —

" Children and childlike souls are there."

Keble's Christian Year.

If I am right in understanding the phrase, " kingdom of God or of heaven," in the sense of the Gospel dispen- sation or the Church of Christ, which is its usual meaning in the Gospels (Matt. iii. 2 ; xiii. 47.), we learn from this passage that little children have the privilege of being admitted into Christ's Church. In this view of it, the passage comes nearer to a direct precept for baptizing little children than any which the Scriptures afford.

Should these remarks on Hebrew Poetry succeed in raising a desire for farther information on the subject, that wish may be amply gratified by a perusal of Bishop Jebb's " Sacred Literature." His work has shed an entirely new light on the beauties and difficulties of the Christian Scriptures; and is alike distinguished for its tone of piety, its scriptural skill, and general learning.

N O T E S

ESSAY II.

(a) A loeek.'] Besides ^2\:^, the Hebrews used the word ^'D* (days) in the sense of a week. It certainly means a definite period : either that of a year, as in the common expression from year to year, Exod. xiii. 10. : or that of a week, as in the above passages from Genesis and elsewhere. Both senses occur in Num. ix. 22. " Whether it were a week, or a month, or a yearT Compare Dan. viii. 27. ("I, Daniel, fainted and was sick [certain] days, i.e. a week, and I was astonished at the vision,") with Ezek. iii. 15. (" The hand of the Lord w^as strong upon me, and I came to them of the captivity, and remained there aston- ished seven days.") "In those days I, Daniel, was mourn- ing three full weeks," x. 2, and Nehem. i. 4. In the sin- gular number inx CDV is one day, but in the plural of both it is one week ; similarly "one word" in the plural of both signifies "one language," Gen.xi. 1. The same idiom prevails in Latin : una littera, one letter of the al- phabet; in the plural, unce litterce, one epistle.

(b) His name JEHOVAH.'] The Mosaic dispensation had two great objects in view : the one, more remote, but more interesting to Christians, was the preparation for Messiah's kingdom : the other, more immediately neces- sary and accomplished at once, was to aiford a proof of

152 NOTES.

the unity of God, and his direct superintendence over the affairs of the whole world, in contradistinction to the many local gods of the heathen, whether as independent deities, or intermediate agents of some supreme, but remote being. This latter object is clearly pointed out in Exod. vi. 3., which may be considered the key to all that part of the history ; but it is unfortunately greatly obscured in our translation ; — "I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them." The marked opposition in this sentence would lead us to ex- pect a decided difference between the tw^o names, but there is no such difference between God Almighty and Jehovah. Again, it is not correct to say that the name Jehovah was unknown to the Patriarchs, for that title is of much more frequent occurrence in the original than the name of God Almighty (Shaddai,) w^hich, on the contrary, is but very seldom mentioned. I would, therefore, trans- late the passage thus : — " I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, in the character of a bountiful or providential God; but my name JEHOVAH did I not signalize, or make proof of, to them." The history fully proves the truth of this distinction ; not that Abraham was ignorant of the full extent of God's attributes, but it was not God's design in his different revelations to the Patriarchs, to give experience of and to signalize (^rjXwaai LXX) his name Jehovah by means of miracles, which was the more immediate object of his revelation to Moses- Abraham's idea of God may be collected from the follow- ing passages : — " Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand to Jehovah the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth," Gen. xiv. 22. " And Abraham said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with

NOTES. 153

the wicked, that be far from thee : Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?" xviii. 25. " And Abraham called there on the name of Jehovah, the everlasting God," xxi. 33. God's dispensation towards the Patriarchs was en- tirely personal; Jehovah exercised a visible providence over those that obeyed him. St. Paul has well described their faith, and the character under which they viewed their God : — " He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." " The word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying. Fear not Abraham: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward," xv. 1. " Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, for I know him that he'will command his children," &c. xviii. 19. " I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father, because that he obeyed my voice," &c. xxvi. 5. These revelations from the Almighty were not made in order to prove himself a great God above all the idols of the heathen, but to show himself as a bountiful God, and the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. On the other hand, the object of his revelations to Moses was expressly to signalize his name Jehovah : to give proof not only of his providence, but also of his unity and supremacy " Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart' that Jehovah he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath : there is none else," Deut. iv. 39. '' I will multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah," Exod. vii. 3. " And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up (Pharaoh), for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth," ix. 16., xii. P2. What very limited powers the heathen ascribed to the local deities of the nations, may l)e seen

154 NOTES.

from Num. xiv. 15. — " And Moses said unto the Lord, If thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness." See also 1 Kings xx. 23, " And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him. Their gods are gods of the hills, therefore they were stronger than we ; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they."

NOTES

ESSAY III.

(a) Day of the Lord^s vengeance.~\ " Throughout the whole of prophetical Scripture, a time of retribution and of vengeance on God's enemies is announced. It is called ' the day of the Lord,' ' the day of wrath and slaughter: of the Lord's anger, visitation, and judgment;' ' the great day, and the last day.' At the same time, it is to be observed, that this kind of description, and the same expressions, which are used to represent this great day, are also employed by the prophets to describe the fall and punishment of particular states and empires ; of Babylon, by Isaiah xiii ; of Egypt, by Ezekiel xxx. 2 — 4, and xxxii. 7 ; of Jerusalem, by Jeremiah, Joel, and by our Lord, Matt. xxiv. : and in many of these prophecies, the description of the calamity, which is to fall on any particular state or nation, is so blended and intermixed Avith that general destruction, which, in the final days of vengeance, will invade all the inhabitants of the earth, that the industry and skill of our ablest interpreters have been scarcely equal to separate and assort them. Hence it has been concluded, by judicious divines, that these par- tial prophecies and particular instances of the Divine ven- geance, whose accomplishment we know to have taken place, are presented to us as types, certain tokens and

156 NOTES.

forerunners, of some greater events which are also dis- closed in them. To the dreadful time of univ^ersal ven- geance, they all appear to look forward, beyond their first and more immediate object. Little, indeed, can we doubt that such is to be considered the use and application of these prophecies, since we see them thus applied by our Lord and his Apostles." Woodhouse on the Apocalypse, p. 172.

(b) This Assyrian luith Babylon.'] " The Assyrians and Babylonians are the same people, Herod. L 199, 200. Babylon is reckoned the principal city in Assyria : ibid. 178. Strabo says the same thing, lib. xvi. sub init" Bishop Lowth's note on Isai. xiv. 25. " In the year B. C. 623., Nabopolassar destroyed the Assyrian and founded the Chaldse- Babylonian empire, which also is sometimes called the Assyrian in the Bible, and frequently by the Greek writers." Jahn's Hebrew Commonwealth, Book v. Sect. 42.

(c) The overthroiv of Babylon.~\ " Babylon is so utterly annihilated, that even the place where this wonder of the world stood, cannot now be determined with any cer- tainty." Bishop Lowth's note.

(d) The tongue of the Egyjitian sea.] " The tongue of the Egyptian sea is that bay of the Red Sea, over which the Israelites passed." Vitringa. The river is the great river Euphrates.

NOTES

ESSAY IV.

(a). To put his name there] In Ecclesiasticus xxiv. we meet with a similar idea ; the chapter is entitled " the praise of wisdom," and presents us with a favourable specimen of the uninspired poetry of the Hebrews, Wisdom, having stated her heavenly origin, and her wanderings over the earth in search of a settlement, pro- ceeds thus : —

" Among all these I sought a resting place, But in whose inheritance shall I dwell? Then directed me the Creator of all, And my Maker fixed my tabernacle — And said :

' In Jacob pitch thy tabernacle, And in Israel receive thy portion.' Before the former age he created me, And unto the age I shall not fail. In the holy tabernacle before him I served, And thus was I established in Sion ; In the beloved city also he fixed me. And in Jerusalem was my power ; And I took root in a glorious people, In the Lord's portion of his inheritance.

He maketh wisdom run over as Pison, And as Tigris in the time of new fruits ; He fiUeth up understanding as Euphrates, And as Jordan in the time of harvest ; He cleareth up instruction as light. As Gihon in the time of vintage ;

158 NOTES.

Not perfectly did the first man know her,

Neither so shall the last trace her out ;

For her thoughts are more deep than the sea,

And her counsels than the great abyss.

And I, as a canal from a river,

And as a water-course, entered Paradise.

I said :

I will water my garden.

And will saturate my plat ;

When, lo !

My canal became a river,

And my river became a sea."

The four rivers of Eden are here mentioned together with Jordan, as having some quality in common between them ; and what can this be, but the circumstance that God had chosen the countries of Jordan and the Pison for the earthly dwelling-place of Divine wisdom. Canaan, the country of the Jordan, and Eden, the land of the four rivers, were respectively chosen as the place which the Lord did choose to put his name there.

" He cleareth up instruction as light." Since this light is mentioned together with the four rivers of Eden, I suppose this learned Jew refers to the Zohar or Eight, which Noah was commanded to make for the ark. (Gen. vi. 16.) In our version it is rendered window, which is the proper meaning of the very different word Khalun, viii. 6. ; but the Jewish Doctors understood Zohar (splendour) in a very different way. Onkelos renders the text, " A light thou shalt make," as he had before spoken of God's making two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, &c. R. Levi in Rabboth says. During the whole twelve months that Noah was shut up in the ark, he needed neither the light of the sun by day, nor the light of the moon by night; for there was a jewel belonging to him

NOTES. 159

vvliicli he hung' up in the ark ; and as that waxed dim, he knew that it was day, but as the lustre of it was more intense, he knew that it was night. In accordance with this opinion, Ben Uzziel paraphrases the passage thus : Go thou to Pison, and take thence a precious stone ; and place it in the ark, that it may give thee light. The ancients in general agree that there was in the ark some manifestation of the glory of the Lord, or of the Divine Shechinah, before which Noah daily offered up prayers and intercessions, morning and evening. See the Anno- tation on the Zohar of the Ark in Bibliotheca Biblica. V'ol. i. p. 202 and 239.

(b) The tree of life'] The opinion that there was only a single tree of life, as there was but one tree of know- ledge, is so generally received, that I have retained that expression, and reserved for a note the reasons that have brought me to a different conclusion.

Kennicott supposes with much probability that all the trees, by whose fruit Adam was supported, were equally trees of life ; and maintains this view by arguments drawn from the difficulties attending the existence of a single tree of life. See his Dissertation on the subject. Immor- tality was the condition of man's creation : it was not the natural effect of eating of this tree, as distinguished from the other trees. It depended entirely on his innocence ; death entered by sin ; and the tree could be no tree of life, but by preserving him from disobedience, which it did not do. As long as Adam was innocent, he was at full liberty to eat of the tree of life ; and even if he had not availed himself of it, we may be sure that the serpent would have reminded Eve of it, as a security against the threatened evil of disobedience. If, the tempter might have said — " If, when ye have tasted this tree of know-

160 NOTES.

ledge, and are become equal to God, ye imagine death will be the consequence, ye have at hand a tree of life : repair to that, and ye shall then be equal to God both in knowledge and immortality." Neither is the opinion, that the tree was of a sacramental nature, more free from diffi- culties ; for it seems that it would have secured immortality to Adam after the fall — " lest he put forth his hand (after the transgression) and eat and live for ever;" but this is inconsistent with the very nature of a sacrament, which is efficacious not through the opus operatum, but from the faith of the receiver.

To Kennicott's argument on this point, I would add that the tree could not be of a sacramental nature, for it is spoken of at the consummation of all things not as the means, but the end : not the sign, but the very thing sig- nified ; " Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life." ( Rev. xxii. 14.) "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." (ii. 7.) Now, to him that hath overcome, there is no need of any sacraments, for he hath received the end of his faith — even the salvation of his soul and immortal life. Kennicott may have omitted this argument wittingly; for (strange to say) he denies that the tree of life in Revela- tions and Ezekiel has any reference to the garden of Eden. He thus uselessly throws away the principal argument, which has induced me to adopt his opinion concerning the trees of life. The great advantage of his view is, that it makes the Book of Genesis more consistent with the Revelations of St. John, and preserves the unity of the scheme of Providence, which it is the object of this work to point out. The restoration of fallen man, by means of a Redeemer, to immortal life in the Paradise of God, is

NOTES. 161

the burden of the Bible. When Kennieott, however, asserted that the tree of life In Revelations had no refer- ence to the garden of Eden, I cannot but think that the text (ii. 7.) escaped him : " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."

St. John most plainly speaks of trees of life: — " On either side of the river, were there the trees of life ; and the leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations." xxii. 2. " At the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other .... By the river, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat ; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine." (Ezek. xlvii. 7. 12.) No efforts of criticism can reduce these passages to afford only a single tree ; bnt the passages in Genesis may signify either one or many trees. The noun i^^ (tree) like the word sheep in English is doubtful ; it is necessarily translated trees in Gen. iii. 2. " We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden," &c. ; and iii. 8. " They hid themselves amongst the trees of the garden." The " same ambiguity, through the medium of the Septuagint, attaches to the Greek word ^uXov, in Revelations.

As man was created immortal, the fruit of the trees of life, for such a being, must have been very different from any thing w^e now witness. When he forfeited immorta- lity by sin, such sustenance became wholly unsuitable to his new state ; he w^as therefore driven out from Paradise, lest he should put forth his hand and eat and live for ever ; and was condemned to live upon the coarser pro- ductions of a soil, that was now brought under a curse. But the Antediluvians never lost sight of this divine fruit ; and the entrance to Paradise remained visible for the pur-

162 NOTES.

pose of keeping up their hopes of readmission through the coming of the promised seed ; just as their restoration to the Holy Land is now connected by the Jews with the coming of the Messiah. Lamech gave to his son the name of Noah, saying, " This same shall give us rest from our labour. And from the burthen of our hands from the ground. Which the Lord hath cursed." He, therefore, clearly expected that the seed of the woman should give them rest by the recovery of Paradise, as the Jews now expect that the Son of David shall give them rest by a restoration to Canaan. We, Christians, look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein is the tree of life, and there shall be no more curse ; and who, on reading the reason of Noah's name, can doubt that the faithful among the Antediluvians did also look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein was the tree of life, and there should be no more curse ; surely, they expected a restoration to the innocence and immortality of Paradise. (Vid. Essay VH.) There ever remaineth, then, a rest to the people of God ; let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of us should seem to come short of it : that true rest, of which Paradise and Canaan have always been to true believers as comforting pledges indeed, yet only faint types and earthly shadowings.

It is now generally understood that the Tree of know- ledge was appointed as a test of good and evil : the tree, by which God would try his creatures, and by which it should appear, whether they would be good or evil : whether or no they would own the sovereignty of their Maker, and obey or disobey his commands. Li modern phraseology, it would be called the Tree of Probation.

NOTES

TO

ESSAY V.

(a) Probably by fire] From the analogy of God's deal- ings, commentators agree in saying that tlie respect, which the Lord had unto Abel and to his offering, was shown by means of supernatural fire. " Which way came Cain to know, that God had accepted his brother's offer- ings and rejected his? Certainly Theodotion's version best explains this : — ' And the Lord sent down flame to Abel and his sacrifice, which he did not do to Cain and his.' That it was usual with God thus to declare his acceptance, we learn from what passed in Solomon's dedi- cation of the temple, 2 Chron. vii. L, and Elias' sacrifice upon mount Carmel, 1 Kings xviii. 38. If thou dost well, or offerest right, shall not thy sin be done away; or (as Theodotion) shall not thy oblation be as acceptable as thy brother's ?" (S. Hieron. Quaest. Heb. Vid. Bibliotheca Biblica in loco.)

The acceptance of Abel's sacrifice by means of fire is generally admitted by commentators ; but I have not seen it remarked, that the text is cajjablc of that translation. « Shalt thou not be accepted?" (Gen. iv. 7.) The verbal noun r\'iW is derived from KsDI, one of whose meanings is to consume ivithfire : " De igne dicitur, qui sua natura in sublime fertur; item de elevatione fumi, et significat

m2

164 NOTES.

urere, adurere, comhurere. 2 Sam. v. 21." (Leigh's Cri- tica Sacra.) I would add, that the passage of Samuel, " David burned the images," is in the parallel passage, 1 Chron. xiv. 12. " He burned them with fire." In Judges XX. 40. nJ^ii^D, signifies a flame, as also in Isa. xxx. 27. " His wrath burneth, and the flame rageth violently." (Bishop Lowth and note.)

The text of Gen. iv. 7. conveys to myself the following meaning : — " If thine offering (Mincha) were right, should it not be consumed by fire ? And if it be not right, does not a proper sin-offering lie at hand ? Then his desire should be unto thee, and thou shouldst rule over him." And to this implied loss of birthright, Cain's aggravating answer afterwards seems to allude : — "Am I my brother's keeper ?"

[h) Let us go forth into the fleld^ This clause, though lost from the Hebrew, is still preserved in the Samaritan text and Greek version. Cranmer's version is: — And Cain spake unto Abell his brother, Let us go forth ; and it fortuned, when they were in the felde, &c. And so Wickliffe : — And Cain seide to Abel his brother. Go we out ; when they weren in the feld, &c.

NOTES

ESSAY VI.

(a) The genealogy of Seth] The two genealogies are

as follow : —

1. Adam

2. Seth

3. Enos

4. Cainan

5. Mahalaleel

6. Jared

7. Enoch

8. Methuselah

9. Lamech 10. Noah

1. Adam

2. Cain

3. Enoch

4. Irad

5. Mehujael

6. Methusael

7. Lamech

8. Tubal-cain

(b) LamecNs speech to his loives'] In this very obscure passage, I cannot do better than lay before the reader the principal expositions of it that have been offered.

(1.) Bishop Lowth, following Houbigant, translates: — " I have slain a man on account of my wound," that is, in self-defence against some one who had violently assaulted him. A homicide of this nature he opposes to the volun- tary and inexcusable fratricide of Cain. (Prailect. p. 52.)

(2.) Jacobus Capellus, in his Historia Sacra et Exotica, fancies that Lamech, being in a vapoury humour, was boasting of his courage, and what he would do if there was occasion : " I would or will kill a man, if he wounds me ;

166 NOTES.

and a young man, if he hurts me." Jenning's Jewish Antiq. p. 5.

(3.) The Targimis of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uz- ziel, together with the Arabic version, read the passage interrogatively or negatively : Have I slain a man ? that is, I have not slain a man, that I should be punished for it. Dr. Shuckford, adopting this translation, endeavours to explain it by supposing that Lameeh was reasoning his wives and family out of their fear of having the death of Abel revenged upon them, who were of the posterity of Cain. As if he had said : — What have we done, that we should be afraid ? We have not killed a man, nor offered any injury to our brethren of any other family ; and if God would not allow Cain to be killed, who had murdered his brother, but threatened to take sevenfold vengeance on any that should kill him ; doubtless they must expect much greater punishment, who should presume to kill any of us. Therefore we may surely look upon ourselves as safe under the protection of the law, and of the providence of God. (Shuckford's Connect, vol. I.) But even if this translation be preferred, I conceive that Enoch, and not Abel, is the subject of the speech. " Have I slain a man to my wounding, or a young man to my hurt ?" Enoch was removed from the earth at the early age of 365 years, and was contemporary with this Lameeh in the seventh generation. John the Baptist boldly reproved Herod for marrying his brother Philip's wife, by which he gained the ill-will of Herodias : " therefore Herodias had a quar- rel against him and would have killed him, but she could not." (Mark vi. 19.) The tragical history is well known. Thus Enoch may have reproved Lameeh for his poly- gamy, and in like manner have brought down a severe persecution on himself. But his supernatural disappear-

NOTES. 167

ance afterwards, in connexion with his appalling prophecy, may have produced some transient consternation in the family of Lamech ; as Herod, having heard of the fame of Jesus, said in evident dismay, " It is John whom I beheaded ; he is risen from the dead."

(4.) The Rev. W. Vansittart, in a Dissertation on Cain and Lamech, has given an explanation very different from any of the foregoing.

" And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, hear my voice ; Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech ; For I have slain a man for my wound, Even a child for my stripes."

He states, first, that this speech is a prophecy, or a coun- terpart of the history of Cain slaying Abel, and uttered by Lamech of the seed of Cain, and is prefigurative of the rejected Church, who put the Messiah to death: and, secondly, that the words wounds and stripes, as they include the double signification both of the punishment of sin and of the healing of sin, so I understand them in the one signification, as if they were expressive of all those cala- mities which the Jews have endured as fugitives and vaga- bonds in the earth : and in the other signification, when repentance shall have happened to the Jewish Church, or to any of its members at whatever time, they may be paraphrased in this manner : " I have slain a man who shall bear those wounds which must otherwise be inflicted on me ; even a child of sacrifice, who shall take on himself those stripes by which we are healed ;" — the same child whose birth Isaiah afterwards declared (ix. 5.); who was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and whose stripes wrought the chastisement of our peace.

168 NOTES.

(liii. 5.) The almost identity of the prophetic expressions in use both with Lamech and Isaiah, will lead us to con- jecture that both the one and the other, though Lamech as the most ancient, so the most mysteriously, uttered tlieir voices respecting the same suiFering Holy Child that should be born in due time, p. 21.

What is meant by Cain being avenged seven times? I reply, that his life was sealed, that it was so protected that no man should take it in punishment for the shedding of Abel's blood ; but that he and his descendants were to remain with their lives guaranteed to them from the stroke of justice, fugitives and vagabonds in the earth, to be signs to the people of God of his having slain Abel, the accepted one of God in the antediluvian world.

What is meant by Lamech's being avenged seventy times and seven-fold ? I reply, that the Jews (whom he prefigured) who slew the Messiah, were to have their lives sealed to them by a much greater degree of protec- tion than was granted to Cain, according to the greater value of their victim over Abel ; that no arm should strike them judicially ; that although their lives were forfeited to justice, yet they should not be extirpated, for the slay- ing of the Holy One of God, according to the righteous sentence, that blood must be shed for blood ; but that the Lord God would interfere with justice to preserve them in existence to be signs, for the benefit of his people, of their having slain the Messiah : they would be preserved alive, in a banishment from the presence of God, like as Cain went out in unbelief from the face of God. Disser- tation, p 37.

(c) Your redemption draweth nigK] Another and a prin- cipal reason of St. James writing his Epistle to the Jewish Christians at this time (a.d. 6L) was, to prevent their

NOTES. 169

being impatient under their present persecutions or dark prospects ; and to support and comfort tliem, by assuring them that " the coming of the Lord was at hand." It is evident from the Acts of the Apostles, and many of the Epistles, that most of the persecutions which befel the Christians arose from the unbelieving Jews. Now, as their destruction was approaching swiftly, the evils, which the Christians suffered from them, were as swiftly drawing to an end. And it was highly proper for St. James to put them in mind of these things ; for the prospect of a speedy deliverance is one of the greatest motives to pa- tience under any calamity. Home's Introduction to the Scriptures, vol. iv.

{d) I will give you resf\ The Hebrew verb here trans- lated '^ he shall give us rest," is rendered in the Septua- gint by the same word that is found in Matt. xi. 28. " I will give you rest;" a similar meaning occurs in the authorized version at Isai. i. 24, " I will ease me of mine adversaries." Bp. Jebb has given the following beautiful illustration of the passage of St. Matthew :

" Come unto me, all ye who labour, and are burthened ; And I will give you rest :

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; For I am meek, and lowly in heart ; And ye shall find rest unto your souls ; For my yoke is easy, and my burthen light."

The parallelisms here marked, will, it is presumed, appear both unquestionable and intentional, when the related lines are brought into contact with each other.

Come unto me all ye who labour and are burthened ; For my yoke is easy, and my burthen light.

170 NOTES.

The expressions " to labour and to be burtbened," com- prehend, in their literal sense, all the modes in which working animals are commonly employed. They either draw or carry. In the former case, they wear a yoke — in the latter case, they bear a burthen ; which two ideas are accordingly repeated, each with an appropriate softening, in the latter of these lines : an " easy yoke," a " light burthen." The moral meaning of this figurative lan- guage is abundantly clear. To labour, is to pursue the work of sin and the world, as an operative agent ; it in- cludes all the activities of evil. To be hurthened, is to endure the inflictions imposed by sin and the world, as a passive recipient ; it comprehends all the pains and penal- ties of evil. To this miserable course of action and en- durance, are opposed the blessed activities, and not less blessed sufferings, of the Christian life. " My yoke is easy ;" it is a service of perfect freedom. " My burthen is light ;" for, though the Christian has his sorrows, his sorrow is sweeter than this world's joy.

The happy result implied in this cheerful contrast, is emphatically promised in the second line, and the promise not less emphatically repeated in the fifth line ; here, for the sake of clearness, brought together :

And I will give you rest ;

And ye shall find rest unto your souls :

Rest : rest unto the soul ; rest external, and rest internal. Rest from a laborious course of evil action — rest from an oppressive weight of mental suffering. The former given on coming to Christ, that is, taking him for our Master instead of the world ; the latter found by perseverance in the course recommended in the central couplet. This, as

NOTES.

171

it occupies the midmost place, so it is tlie mainspring of the whole encouragement and exhortation :

that is,

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, For I am meek, and lowly in heart :

Take my yoke upon you, for I am meek ; And learn of me, for I am lowly in heart.

1. Engage actively in my service, and you will find me an easy master, for I am meek ; I will impose no galling yoke, and instead of the toilsome servitude of sin, you shall be employed only in labours of love.

2. Follow my example in passive fortitude, and you shall be exempt from all oppressive burthens, for I am lowly in heart ; and lowliness of heart is the grand specific for converting pains into pleasures and sorrow into joy.

In order, however, to feel properly the beauty of this passage, we must advert to another of a very opposite description :

" For they bind burthens heavy and hard to be borne, And impose them on the shoulders of men ; But with a finger of their own they will not move them." — Matt, xxiii. 4.

Our Lord is here speaking of the Scribes and Pharisees, and the contrast is very remarkable. They bind together several grievous and insupportable burthens; our Lord's burthen is but one, is easy, and is light. They impose their burthens by force ; our Lord graciously invites his followers to take up his burthen at their own election. They will not so much as touch their burthens with a single finger ; He bare our infirmities, and carried our griefs. — Sacred Literature, Sect. XL

(e) There were turbulent men.] Some of our earlier ver-

172 NOTES.

sions, with Luther, call them " tyrants." The Hebrew verb ^D3 signifies to fall, fall upon, fall away ; so that the noun may mean either an assaulter or apostate. In the present passage it has both senses : they were licentious unbelievers, whose lawlessness sprang from infidelity. The notion of giants seems to have arisen from following the version of the LXX. without attending to their peculiar use of the word ytyag, which yet they have sufficiently explained in Gen. x. 8, " And Cush begat Nimrod : the same began to be a giant in the earth ; he was a giant of a hunter before the Lord." Men of extraordinary stature are called virEpfx-qKug, Num. xiii. 32.

NOTES

TO

ESSAY VII.

(a) Preached in all the world.'] Before the Mosaic dis- pensation was finally brought to a close, Jehovah had pro- vided the means of offering the Gospel to all the Jews ; and as these were scattered throughout every portion of the civilized world, we may discern in that dispersion the rea- son of our Lord's declaration, — " This Gospel of the king- dom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end (of the Jewish age) come." An anonymous author in the British Magazine, by an ingenious criticism concerning the Magi, (Matt, ii.) has rendered this view more complete.

" The mission of Christ was not an open and general one ; it was addressed unto the Hebrew nation first, that the chosen children of Abraham might receive it, and be the vehicle for imparting its blessings to the Gentiles. Seeing, therefore, that Israel abode at a distance in the kingdoms of the East, and that Israel was as fully entitled to the refusal of Jesus, as the men of Judah to whom he was immediately sent, and that before God could ' turn to the Gentiles,' it was ' necessary that he should first have spoken to them,' we are bound to suppose that He provided some adequate means of making to the banished seed of Abraham a legal tender of their covenanted rights. But we cannot collect that any offer of the Gospel revela- tion, previous to its publication to the Gentiles, was made to any people other than the Jews, except the Magi. The

174 NOTES.

Israelites had been removed into ' the cities of the Medes,' and their situation was to the east of Palestine, which renders the words ' from the sun rising/ as apt to them, as they are absurd when applied to Tartessus and Sheba.

" The religion of the Magi, worshippers of Oromazdes, Mithras, and Arimanes, prevailed under various slight modifications from Cappadocia and the Mount Taurus, eastward, to Bactriana and the Indus. There is every probability that the tribes of Samaria, who " feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the heathen," at the time of their captivity, and had been more than seven hundred years in exile, had long since been Magians- when our Lord was born. Prudentius does not hesitate to affirm that so it was in his days, and is an author who deserves the credit of not having spoken at random.

" There would be a most revolting incongruity in holding that some one nation, out of the herd of Gentiles, was in- vited to a premature knowledge of truths, which were to be gradually, by apostolical preaching, diffused among the different peoples of the earth. But the supposition that men of authority were summoned from the tribes of Israel, to see the infant Messiah, and announce him to their peo- ple under the sanction of their miraculous voyage and return, and went home to their dwellings crying in the wilderness of the east, ' Prepare ye the way of the Lord,' is congruous and perfect in itself, while it makes perfect the inviolable word of Divine promise. They came not in the guise of Persians, Bactrians, or other heathens, ask- inof, ' AVhere is he that shall enlio^hten the nations,' or ' save the world ;' but with the purely national interroga- tion, ' where is he that is born Ki?i(/ of the Jews f That attribute of the Messiah was not only the least interesting to the nations of all that could be ascribed to him ; it even

NOTES. 175

excited their jealousy, and does even to our days, in which all who regard it as more than a vague allegory, are looked upon with an unfavourable eye. But it was the very ques- tion of all others which the men of Israel, if invited at the end of the weeks to salute Messiah their Prince, would ask." British Magazine, vol. iii. p. 163.

(b) The 2)rophecy of our Lord.'] As I have made such ample use of this prophecy in illustrating the close of the Antediluvian age, it seems only proper to add a few remarks concerning its fulfilment in the last days of the Jewish age.

Upon the approach of the kingdom of heaven, and of the new age under the reign of Messiah, holy men were commissioned to announce it. John the Baptist came preaching and saying, " Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The Apostles were similarly commis- sioned by Christ : " As ye go, preach, saying, The king- dom of heaven is at hand Verily I say unto you,

Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come," Matt. x. Our Saviour him- self says (Matt. xvi. 28.) "There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom;" or according to Mark ix. 1, " till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." Thus the disciples were taught to connect the commencement of the kingdom of heaven and the end of the Jewish age with the coming of the Son of Man.

The Apostles, desirous of obtaining farther information concerning the destruction of the Temple which their Lord had announced, said unto him, "Tell us (1) When shall these things be ? and (2) What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age ?" Matt. xxiv. This inquiry respects (1) the time when these things should

176 NOTES.

happen ; and (2) the signs which should precede the com- ing of the Son of Man at the end of the Jewish age.

I shall here confine myself to those signs which have not been sufficiently explained above, or w^hich refer ex- clusively to the end of the Mosaic dispensation.

Ye shall hear of wars, &c., but the end (of the former age) is not yet;" these things are only " the beginning of sorrows" which lead to that end.

"This Gospel of the kingdom (these good tidings of the new age) shall be preached in all the world, and then shall the end (of the former age) come." St. Paul inci- dentally mentions to the Colossians (ch. 1. vv. 6 and 23) that the Gospel was come not only to them, but to all the world, and was preached to every creature under hea- ven. He had, therefore, good reason for saying in another place, " The Lord is at hand," Phil. iv. 5. ; and St. Peter, " The end of all is at hand," 1st Epist.iv. 7.

"When ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place." The desolating abomination of the Roman ar- mies was seen standing within the holy precincts, when Cestius, A. D. QQ, assaulted Jerusalem, and penetrated into the two northern quarters of the city. Here, indeed, was an unequivocal sign that " the coming of the Lord draweth nigh;" James v. 8. "but the end is not yet:" there still want four years to the completion of the age.

" Then let them which be in Judea flee into the moun- tains ; but pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, for at that time (a. d.66.) shall be great tribulation, &c. and except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." We are told by Josephus that had Cestius vigorously followed up his first success, he might

NOTES. 177

have taken the city in a short time and put an end to the war ; but Tyrannius Priscus and other officers, bribed by Florus, who wished to prolong the war, withhekl him from this design ; and having lost the favourable opportunity, he was soon beaten off and retreated hastily. The disci- ples, mindful of their Lord*s warning, now quitted Jeru- salem and fled to Pella, in Persea, a mountainous country, and other places under the government of king Agrippa, where they found safety. In this providential manner was the fate of Jerusalem prolonged a few years, that the Christians might escape before the dreadful consummation ; and thus the tribulation caused by Cestius was, for the elect's sake, shortened by his unexpected retreat.

" Immediately after the tribulation of those days (viz. by Cestius, A.D. 66., for there is no other tribulation we can refer to) the sun shall be darkened," &c. The zealots were so elated by their success against Cestius, that they threw off all restraint and subordination ; they imme- diately massacred the royal princes, nobles and high priests, and took the whole command into their own hands. Thus, by this political anarchy, was the sun of the Jewish state darkened, &c. ; indeed, Josephus dates the fate of the city from this period. (Jewish War, iv. 18.)

St. Luke defines the time thus : — " When ye shall see these things a fulfilling (or put into a course of fulfil- ment), know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand; Verily I say unto you. This generation shall not pass away, i\\\ dW he fulfilled'' (chap, xxi.)

The same Evangelist adds this important circumstance : <« They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations ; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gen- tiles be fulfilled." When our Lord speaks thus in a

N

178 NOTES. _^

prophecy, concerning' which he says, " This generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled," I can understand it only by supposing that Jerusalem should be trodden down and her inhabitants led away captive in that genera- tion, but that they should remain captive and the city continue to be trodden under foot till the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled.

The way in which the disciples afterwards understood the coming of the Lord at the end of the Jewish age, and the danger which attended the public avowal of that belief, are both well illustrated in the case of St. Stephen. " They set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law ; for we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered to us .... And they cast him out of the city and stoned him." (Acts vi. 13.)

My conclusion is that the whole of this prophecy re- ceived a distinct fulfilment in that marked generation; but it is my belief that, when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, it will receive a much more signal accom- plishment, and probably occupy the same portion of time as before, whilst a second time all these things are a ful- filling. (Vid. Essay III.)

NOTES

ESSAY VIII.

(a) A period of darkness'] " I am the Lord, and there is none else : I form the light and create darkness : I make peace and create evil : I the Lord do all these things." (Isa. xlv. 7.) " This is your hour and the power of dark- ness." (Luke xxii. 53.)

(b) By some powerful antichristian nation'] Vid. Faber on the Prophecies passim. The possibility of such an event may be judged of from the proceedings of the un- christian Emperor of the French.

" The late Ruler of France, amidst his various extensive plans of strengthening his power and extending his domi- nion, turned his regard to this nation, so long despised, forsaken, and oppressed; he called together the most distinguished Jews in France and Italy; and Paris beheld the extraordinary spectacle of a representative assembly of a part of the Hebrew nation, convened by the com- mand of a powerful European state. (Vid. Transactions of the Parisian Sanhedrim, convoked May 30, 1806; translated by F. D. Kirwan, Esq. Lond. 1807.) It is true that, as might be naturally expected from the cha- racter of that despotic government which convened this assembly, it enjoyed little freedom or dignity. Its de- bates were controlled, and its resolutions dictated by the

N 2

180 NOTES.

power which convoked it; and the grand object of its formation ultimately appeared to be, to facilitate the levying of conscripts ; to subject their religious establish- ment to the controul of the state ; and to place their popu- lation and their property more immediately within the cognizance of the government. Perhaps, also, in the questions proposed to them, and in the allurements held out to engage them in agriculture and arms, and lead them to adopt France for their country, something of the spirit of opposition to the supposed tenor of the prophetic writings may have lurked." (Graves on the Pentateuch, Lect. Ult.)

(c) Dan shall jud^e his people. Gew. xlix.] Hippolytus declares it his opinion, from the following verse, " Dan shall be a serpent by the way," &c. that Antichrist was to come of this tribe ; alleging, for his hypothesis, Jer. viii. 16. " The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan," &c. Prosper closes herewith, Promiss. et Prsedict. p. 165. And to the same eifect St. Ambrose, Benedict. Patriarch, c. vii. and in Psalm xl. sect. 25. So also Irenseus, lib. v. c. 80. p. 448. and St. August. Qusest. in Jos. n. 22. And so Theodoret. Qusest. in Genes, n. 110. urging those words, " As one of the tribes of Israel," which, it seems, he conceived to intimate, that as our Saviour and Judge, descending of the tribe of Judah, was to save the world ; so an insidious and dangerous Serpent, of the tribe of Dan, was to hurt and destroy. Whence such agreement among the Fathers in their opinion, that the tribe of Dan was to produce Antichrist, is hard to determine. (Bib- liotheca Biblica in loco.)

N O T E S

ESSAY IX.

(a) A preparatory preacher distinct from Elijah.'} If John were the very Elias spoken of by the prophet Mala- chi, he certainly would not have denied it to the priests that asked him ; but if he was not, his conduct on that occasion is a strong evidence to the truth of his mission, for the assumption of Elijah's character, to meet the ex- pectations of the Jews of that age, could be the only pos- sible inducement for imposture.

(Z>) With respect to grammatical accuracy^ In the clause " As it is written of the Son of Man," I have adopted the various reading, icaOujg, instead of Kai ttwcj for that line, like the last one of all, is a complete sentence in itself. Farther, the expression, yEyQairTat Iva iraOtj, in the sense of " it is written that he must suffer" is inconsistent with the Greek idiom ; that meaning is usually expressed in other parts of Scripture by yay^aTrrai otl ^h TraOtiv ; the construction here is kXevaiTai iva iraOy.

(c) A tradition haiided down hy the Fathers'] Trypho Judseus apud Justin, in dial. Tertul. lib. de Anima, cap. '28. Ambros in I Cor. 4. August, de Gen. ad lit. lib. 9. cap. 7. Gregor. in moral, lib. 14. cap. 12. Gibbens, in his Questions on Genesis, says : " They that expect Henoch and Eliah to come personallie to reprove the

182 NOTES.

world of sin and to be slain of Antichrist, as they would prove by Scripture (Rev. xi. 3.), rather then some other faithfull servants and ministers of the Gospel, whom the Lord either hath or will raise up according to the Scrip- ture, may happen to find the ashes and sinders of the world, before they be partakers of their expectation." Yet he allows that there is hardly a Romanist, or teacher in the schools, who has not maintained that expectation. Ariosto is sufficient testimony to the opinion of his own times :

Quivi fu assunto, e trovo compagnia ; Che prima Enoch il patriarca v'era, Eravi insieme il gran profeta Elia, Che non han visto ancor I'ultima sera ; E fuor dell'aria pestilente e ria Si goderan I'eterna primavera, Fin che dian segno le angeliche tube, Che torni Cristo in sulla bianca nube.

Orlando Furioso, 34. 59.

NOTES

ESSAY X.

(a) Its place in pagan mythology] " That the mytho- logical history of the Titanomachia is a corruption of this tradition, can hardly be disputed. The Egyptians learned it from the Israelites, and the Greeks from the Egyp- tians."

(Z>) To send Lazarus to testify'] The anonymous author whom I have already cited, supposes that Lazarus actually fulfilled this commission, when " Jesus cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth ; and he that was dead came forth."

The author says: — " Certain circumstances strongly lead us to the persuasion that he was the brother of Mary and Martha. If one Lazarus was the person in whose history the secrets of the prison-house are partly revealed to us, and another was the person who actually returned from the mansions of death, to tell those secrets, the coin- cidence would be wonderful. But there is also another. Dives was of the Pharisees, by this token, that his brothers had Moses and the prophets, that is to say, believed in them, although they did not profit by their precepts ; but the Sadducees had only Moses. He prayed Abraham to send Lazarus from the elysium of death, to his father's house, to admonish his brethren ; and Abraham (whose power to do this was probably assumed without reason by

8

184 NOTES.

the Pharisee) replied, ' If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.' Lazarus was sent back from the grave, and lived again among his former acquaintance, and the Pharisees were not persuaded, though one had risen out of the corruption of the charnel-house, and they ' consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death;' and the words of father Abraham were made good. Is it not manifest, that we are reading of one man and one transaction, and that the account given by John explains that which is given by Luke ? I think he must be a little credulous or much prejudiced, who will suppose one Lazarus, whose unavailing resurrection was talked of, and another Lazarus whose resurrection actually occurred. The following is the only difficulty I have ever felt. Lazarus was a beggar (Trrwxoe)? and at one time lay at the rich man's gate, yet Mary and Martha were in no great poverty, and were also fond of their brother. But I do not think it a serious one. The sisters were, probably, of humble condition ; and the brother, being, by a grievous disease, entirely prevented from maintaining himself, was a pauper (which would, perhaps, be a better word than beggar), and was permitted, by the usages of his country to seek some assuagement of his necessities from the wealthy, especially those to whom he was known, as the Lazarus of Abraham was to the family of Dives, instead of throwing the entire burthen of his maintenance upon his poor relations." (British Magazine, vol. iii. p. 48.)

(c) Went and preached^ Similarly St. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says of Christ, '' He came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh." (ii. 17.) This preaching was not in person, but by the Spirit of Christ in the Apostles.

NOTES. 185

(b) From the blood of righteous Abel unto the end of the aye'] Such, I conceive, was our Saviour's meaning in this address to the Jews. The Zacharias, son of Barachias, here spoken of is, indeed, generally supposed to be the Zachariah, son of Jehoiada, mentioned in 2 Chron. xxiv. 20. on the groimd that his father's name might be Bara- chiah as well as Jehoiada, since it was not unusual among the Jews to have two names. But even allowing this supposition to be very probable, we have yet to account for that generation being chargeable with the blood which had been shed from the death of Abel to that of Jehoiada's son, B.C. 840, more particularly than for those who had been slain from that period up to the time when our Saviour spoke. It would seem reasonable to expect that they should at least be responsible for the blood they had themselves already shed, and were yet to shed, before the approaching judgment overtook them. Were they to be reputed guiltless of the blood of our Lord himself, of Stephen, James, and others of his righteous followers ? " Shall not God avenge his own elect ? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." Isaiah, prophetically describing the close of the Jewish age, or more probably the end of the times of the Gentiles, expresses the very idea that I should expect here :

** I will requite into their bosom their iniquities, And the iniquities of their fathers together, saith Jehovah."

Ixv. 7- Bishop Lowth.

The very form of speech would lead us to suppose that our Saviour was speaking of the period between the be- ginning of the world and the end of the Jewish age, which took place about that time. From the words, " O Jeru- salem, Jerusalem ! behold, your house is left unto you

186 NOTES.

desolate," it is obvious that he is alluding to the abroga- tion of the Mosaic Law at the destruction of the Temple. I therefore feel inclined to consider the phrase, whom ye slew, as the language of prophecy, which speaks of future events as already past, in order to indicate the certainty of them ; and to look, not to the early records of the Jews, but to the history of the national downfall, for an explanation of the transaction here described. The fol- lowing event is related by Josephus :

" When the zealots were now (a.d. 68.) quite weary of mere slaughter, they tried to give a zest to their cruelty by establishing a mock tribunal. The victim of this cruel refinement was Zacharias, vlog Bapa^ou, son of Barach or Barachas, one that hated evil and lamented the anarchy of his country ; his riches too testified loudly against him. In consequence, seventy of the most influential of the populace were constituted his judges, and he was accused before them of a design to betray the city to the Romans. His innocence, of course, was plain enough ; but his judges, which was not a matter of course, had the moral courage to acquit him. Immediately, two of the leading zealots fell upon Zacharias in the middle of the temple, and slew him ; and as he fell down dead, they bantered him and said, ' Th on hast also our verdict, and this will prove a more sure acquittal to thee than the other.' They then struck the judges with the back of their swords, and thrust them out of the temple ; and only spared their lives, that they might publish to the people what slaves they were." — Jewish War, 4, 5.

If it be objected that St. Luke, in the parallel passage xi. 50, speaks of " the blood of all the prophets" and that this Zacharias was not a prophet, it may be replied that Abel also was not a prophet, at least as far as we can learn

NOTES. 187

from Scripture. There is, however, this general simila- rity between their characters : Josephus calls Zacharias fjLKToirovripog, a hater of evil, and St. John thus contrasts Cain and Abel: " Wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous," (1st Epist. iii. 12.) that is, Abel was disinclined to evil.

(e) Ventriloquism loas the means'] That the souls of the dead uttered a feeble stridulous sound, very different from the natural human voice, was a popular notion among the heathens as well as among the Jews. This appears from several passages of their poets: Homer, Virgil, Horace. The pretenders to the art of necromancy, who were chiefly w^omen, had an art of speaking with a feigned voice; so as to deceive those who applied to them, by making them believe that it was the voice of the ghost. They had a way of uttering sounds, as if they were formed, not by the organs of speech, but deep in the chest, or in the belly; and were thence called " ventriloqui ;" they could make the voice seem to come from beneath the ground, from a distant part, in another direction, and not from themselves; the better to impose upon those who con- sulted them : " These people studiously acquire, and affect on purpose, this sort of obscure sound ; that by the uncertainty of the voice they may the better escape being detected in the cheat." (Psellus de Dsemonibus, apud Bochart, i. p. 731.) From these arts af the necromancers the popular notion seems to have arisen, that the ghost's voice was a weak, stridulous, almost inarticulate sort of sound, very different from the speech of the living. — Bp. Lowth's Note on Isai. xxix. 4.

NOTES

ESSAY XL

(a) Heart-stirring particulars'] These particulars are kept constantly under our view by the excellent Liturgy of our Church. A passage of it, whose special object in such a detailed enumeration, is not perhaps generally understood, is thus illustrated by a truly Christian author : —

" According to certain writers on moral philosophy, the motive which obliges the Christian, is the simple one of a certain expectation of future reward or punishment. They suppose only two persons, man and God; the Gospel interposes a third, the Son of God ; and this of course immediately gives a new complexion to the whole ques- tion. It is evident that, as to motive, the Christian cannot, dare not, look at everlasting happiness, without combining in the same view the cross of Christ. As con- sistently may he expunge from his creed every article intervening between God the Father Almighty, and the life everlasting. No ! that life he looks forward to, through along and permanent chain of objects, every link of which has been designed to move both his heart and understanding ; through his holy incarnation, through his holy nativity and circumcision, through his baptism, fast-

NOTES. 189

ing-, and temptation, through his agony and bloody sweat, through his cross and passion, through his precious death and burial, through his glorious resurrection and ascension, and through the coming of the Holy Ghost. This is his perspective, down this long alley of glorious and heart- stirring facts, he contemplates the life to come ; and through this only, as a Christian that hopes for salvation, dares he look forward to everlasting happiness. On a basis so widely different from that proposed by the moral philosopher, rest the duties of the Christian, even where the former has borrowed the grand doctrine of eternal life ! " — R. W. Evans' Sermons on the Church of God, Sermon XIV.

(b) Worked some miracle'] (Gen. iv. 15.) should be rendered " And the Lord gave Cain a sign, (that is, worked some miracle to convince him) that whosoever found him should not kill him." — Parkhurst.

Under the head of miracles, I might have placed the congregating of the animals for admission into the ark ; for, though Geologists infer that the different tribes of the whole animal kingdom promiscuously inhabited every region in the antediluvian world, yet their assembling together for a particular purpose was evidently by means of supernatural agency; the Rabbis call in the assistance of angels, as if they had read " Two of every sort shall be made to come, or brought, unto thee."

Immediately before the destruction of Sodom, we know that the angel in person put forth his hand and pulled Lot into the house, and shut to the door against the violent and wicked men of the city ; and the same per- sonal care seems to have been shown in the preservation of Noah from the insulting violence of that corrupt gene- ration, for it is said " The Lord shut him in ;" that is,

190 NOTES.

God the Son, says Tertullian. advers. Praxeam. c. 16. All the appearances of God, or of the Angel of the Lord, to the patriarchs of the Hebrew nation were referred by the Jews to the Word of God or the Messiah ; the appearances of God in the old world to Adam, Cain, Noah, may be referred by analogy to the seed of the woman.

NOTES

TO

ESSAY XII.

(a) Noio before any sliruh'] Two not uncommon idioms are here combined in an unusual manner, and on this account seem hitherto to have escaped observation : (1.) DnD before, as in Josh. ii. 8. "Now, before they had lain down, she went up mito them on the roof." (•2.) Vd every, in a negative sentence, means any, as in Exod. XX. 4. "Thou shalt not make to thyself any likeness." (Gen. iv. 15.) " That not any finding him should kill him." The same idiom ov nag derived from the Septuagint, obtains also in the Greek Testament : " Not any flesh shall be saved." (Mark xiii. 20.) " Not any one that saith unto me Lord, Lord." (Matt. vii. 21.) Non intrabit quisquam qui dicat. (iCor. i. 29; Heb. xii. 11, &c.)

(b) The sceptical Voltaire^ Y a-t-il eu un temps ou le globe a ete entierement inonde? Cela est physiquement impossible.— Voltaire, Diet. Phil. Art. Inondation. As an example of the other extreme, take the following state- ment : Newtonus, in hoc libro, telluris mot^e hypothesin assumit ; Autoris propositiones aliter explicari non pote- rant, nisi eadem quoque facta hypothesi. Hinc alienam coacti sumus gerere personam; c^terum latis a summis Pontificibus contra telluris motum decretis nos obsequi profitemur.— Jesuit's Preface to Newton's Principia, vol. 3.

192 NOTES.

(c) The electric fluid might undergo a change'] Perhaps some reference to tliis change is contained in the tradition preserved by Horace I. Od. iii. 27, that man's life began to be shortened by consumption and fever, when fire was first brought down from heaven in the days of Japet : —

Audax Japeti genus Ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit :

Post ignem setheria domo

Subductum, macies et nova febrium

Terris incubuit cohors ;

Semotique prius tarda necessitas

Leti corripuit gradum.

The variation in the weight of the atmosphere, and the changes which take place in its electrical state, contribute greatly to the formation of rain. " When he uttereth his voice (thunder), there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, ... he maketh lightnings with rain." (Jer.x. 13.) I should therefore suspect that lightning, as well as the rainbow, was a natural phenomenon unknown to the antediluvians.

[d) Geological discoveries] That the works of creation speak the same language as the revealed word of the Creator, is a moral certainty ; it is equally certain that any apparent discrepancy between them arises from the in- capacity of the interpreter in either case. Human know- ledge is constantly varying and gradually improving; it is therefore rash to make the physical researches of any age the test of Scriptural truth ; as it is, on the other hand, to make the scriptural skill of any age the test of the accuracy of physical investigations. Our present astronomical opinions are not injurious to Christianity, though they were once pronounced heretical and subver-

NOTES. lij.j

sive of the faith ; and a certain geological theory, respect- ing the length of time necessary to convert different layers of lava into vegetable mould, was brought forward with the view of invalidating the Mosaic chronology, but its futility has since been shown and admitted. — See Bp. Watson's Apology in reply to Gibbon, p. 151.

Some respectable works have lately appeared, whose avowed object it is to confine geological investigations within scriptural limits ; the attempt is undoubtedly well intended, but it is injurious to the cause both of scripture and of science. I^et science declare her discoveries in moderate and sober language : Scripture need not fear the result. Physical truths will in the end be found to cor- roborate the word of God : error will in due time fall to the ground and be forgotten. That great discovery of modern astronomy, namely, the stability of our system by the self-correction of its disturbing forces, affords a noble confirmation of such texts as Ps. xciii. 2. — "He hath made the world so sure that it cannot be moved ;" al- though, during the progress to this magnificent result, astronomy fell into many real errors, and seemed opposed to the above passage of Scripture in asserting the annual and diurnal revolution of the earth. Thus geology also, when its errors shall have been all forgotten, will eventually prove the willing handmaid of Revelation ; but in the mean time she must be left to her own efforts, and not be tied down by the letter of Scripture, which it would be mere arrogance to assert that we infallibly understand even on these points.

The difficulty which geology encounters in the days of creation, bears some analogy to that which the days of prophecy offer with respect to their length. In Scrip- ture, events are foretold as about to happen at the expira-

o

194 NOTES.

tion of a certain number of days ; and when historical consistency does not admit of a literal application of the words, commentators, without incurring any blame, sub- stitute some longer period than one revolution of the earth on its axis. In the days of creation, physical facts lead scientific men to conclude that a longer time elapsed than twenty-four hours, and on the same principle they contend that the days indicate greater periods ; not that the Almighty was unable to complete all his work in six days or in a moment, any more than that he cannot bring to pass the events of prophecy within the specified number of days ; but that he has not willed it. There is certainly great discordance in the opinions of geologists, but so also is there in those of commentators. Thus in Dan. viii. 14, the two thousand three hundred days are by some supposed to be literal days ; by others, prophetical years and those of various lengths, whether 365 days, or 360, or 354 ; and by Bp. Horsley, in particular, each pro- phetical day is considered equal to a period of seventy natural days. — See a posthumous paper in British Maga- zine, vol. iv p. 717.

But it is said that the days of creation are so clearly defined by their natural division of evening and morning, as to leave no doubt of their literal meaning : " the even- ing and the morning were the first day." Now the very same remark applies to the prophetical days in the above passage of Daniel, of which the literal translation is " Unto two thousand and three hundred evening-morn- ings" vv\Or]iuiepai. I am not here expressing a geological opinion, but am merely stating a point of scriptural criti- cism : namely, that a prophetical day, defined by an evening and a morning, is extended by commentators beyond a revolution of the earth on its axis. Many

NOTES. 195

errors are daily perpetrated both in geology and prophecy, and I have no wish to add to the accnmulation ; but I would advocate the principle that a fair field be left open in both cases, and that an insuperable obstacle be Jiot placed, in limine, to a moderate and Christian-like dis- cussion of physical discoveries.

A second characteristic of the scriptural geology is the doctrine of the present submersion of the antediluvian continents. " The destruction of the primitive earth is a fact rooted in the very substance of the sacred Scrij)- tures, and spreading its roots from the text of Moses to that of St. Peter."— (Penn's Comparative Estimate.) " The Mosaic record informs us of the intention of the Almighty to destroy the antediluvian dry lands as well as their inhabitants. That great and awful judgment must have been occasioned by the gradual interchange of level between the former seas and lands ; and we are, conse- quentl)^, now inhabiting the bed of the antediluvian ocean." (Fairholme's Geology of Scripture.) In defence of this position, the Scriptural Geology proceeds at the very outset to the A'ery unscriptural act of cutting out four verses from the sacred text, namely, Gen. ii. 1 1 — 14. It is said that the descriptive part in the account of the Garden of Eden may have been originally annexed as an explanatory note, which was subsequently incorporated into the body of the work by the ignorance of some transcriber. Mr. Penn brings forward some probable reasons for supposing that John v. 4., concerning the angel that troubled the water, was such an incorporated gloss; and he would, therefore, strike out Gen. ii. 11 — 14. from the text, which, in his opinion, it evidently encum- bers. But this is opening too wide a door to scriptural emendation, and one which it would be very difficult to

o2

196 NOTES.

shut against the aggression of the adversary. For my own part, I consider those four verses not as a human gloss, but as an integral part of Scripture ; for I can dis- cover in them the moral purpose of enabling us to identify the land of Eden with the promised Canaan, and to con- template the most awful of all the instances of a Divine retribution : there is reason for supposing that in the place where the serpent deceived man to his fall, and where he bruised the heel of the promised seed, there also shall that seed of the woman bruise the serpent's head, and restore deluded man to his orioinal intercourse with

o

God. As long as the four verses in question shall con- tinue to form part of the sacred text, the inference of science on this point cannot be said to be at variance with the statement of the Bible.

Mr. Fairholme is strongly opposed to the opinion of geologists, that a change of temperature took place at the deluge : " We must here pause one moment in our perusal of Cuvier's argument, to consider what effect would have been produced by this sudden formation of an icy bed, on the woods and jungles through which this shaggy monster must naturally have been wandering, when embraced and sealed up by so sudden a disaster. The same element which had so preservative an effect upon his unwieldy carcase, must have entirely decomposed or evaporated the vegetable productions on which he fed ; as they are no where to be found in any part of the frozen regions, even preserved in ice" (p. 320) ; and he accounts for the presence of these elephants in the polar regions by means of the strong currents that prevailed at the deluge. At page 250, he gives instances of floating bodies carried by the currents from tropical regions to the north, par- ticulavlv of tlie mast of a British ship-of-war and a log of

NOTES. 197'

mahogany, and then proceeds : " Havino; now fonnd an agent by which floating bodies are naturally carried from a southern to a northern latitude, let us follow the course of any animal body, such as that of an elephant, when deprived of life in a southern latitude, and left to the influence of the natural currents of the ocean." But to make the case complete, let us suppose some of the ante- diluvian forest scenery matted together to accompany him; for (p. 233.) "we must feel satisfied, that, at the period of the deluge, the whole forest scenery of the globe, wdth the roots, branches, and foliage entire, must have been floated off" upon the waters, matted together in groups," &c. In this case, the same element which had so preservative an eff'ect upon his unwieldy carcase, must have entirely decomposed or evaporated the vegetable productions that accompanied him ; as they are no where to be found in any part of the frozen regions, even pre- served in ice. Mr. Fairholme has started a real difficulty ; but it attaches quite as much to his own theory, as to that of Cuvier and Buckland.

I am so far from fearing the discoveries of geology, that I rather see in it the hand of Providence for the confirma- tion of our fiiith. No one will now^ dispute that the best comment on the scriptural account of the flood is to be found in the records of this science ; and I think that the warmer climate and more humid atmosphere before the deluge, as pointed out by geologists, have a strong bearing on the length of human life, and the absence of the rain- bow among the Antediluvians. The gradual fulfilment of prophecy keeps up a continuing series of evidence to the truth of our religion; but, farther, I conceive that man's discoveries are so ordered as to develop new sources of evidence at the most fitting times. Thus geology,

198 NOTES.

which is but a science of yesterday, is available in estab- lishing the truth of the deluge : in confirming the fact of the Antediluvian length of life, by pointing out the pro- bable secondary causes: and in throwing light on the subject of the rainbow. So, again, the peopling of the present world from one family resident in the East, is greatly confirmed by the researches of philology, which has only lately been treated in a rational manner*

" The Sanscrit language is of a wonderful structure : more perfect than the Greek, mor^ copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bear- ing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident ; so strong, indeed., that no philologer could examine them all three, without be- lieving them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists. There is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic, though blended with a very diff'erent idiom, had the same origin with the Sans- crit : the old Persian may be added to the same family." Sir W. Jones' Dissertation on the Hindoos.

" Our chief concern at present is with the Indo- European tribes. That term was designed to include a class of nations, whose dialects are more or less nearly related to the ancient language of India. This discovery was originally made by comparing the Sanskrit with the Greek and Latin. A very considerable number of words were found to be common to these languages, and a still more striking affinity was proved to exist between the grammatical forms respectively belonging to them. It is difficult to determine which idiom, the Latin or the Greek, approaches most nearly to the Sanskrit, but they

NOTES. 199

are all evidently branches of one stem. It was easily proved, that the Teutonic as well as the Sclavonian dialects, and the Lettish, or Lithuanian, which are in some respects intermediate between the former, stand nearly in the same relation to the ancient language of India. Several intermediate languages, as the Zend and other Persian dialects, the Armenian and the Ossete, which is one of the various idioms spoken by the nations of Caucasus, have been supposed by writers who have examined their structure and etymology to belong to the same stock. Thus a near relation was proved to subsist between a considerable number of dialects spoken by nations who are spread over a great part of Europe and Asia. It may be remarked, that the more accurate the examination of these languages has been, the more extensive and deeply- rooted their affinity has been discovered to be." Pritch- ard's Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations.

Was it by chance, or was it not rather for wise purposes, that such a language, after lying buried for so many ages, was brought to light in these latter times ? By it the European nations have been enabled to discover their common origin, although they had ceased to know or acknowledge their affinity at a period beyond the reach of history ! The population of Europe is now generally divided into four races — the Celtic, Teutonic, Pelasgic, and Sclavonic ; and their languages are shown to have a close connexion with the Sanscrit. Thus all the Eu- ropean nations are proved indubitably to have a common origin, and to have migrated from the East ; a fact which is in accordance with the inspired narrative, and is totally at variance with the natural idea of numerous distinct original races of mankind. This natural idea was univer- sally entertained by the ancients ; whilst the contrary

200 NOTES.

opinion of a common parentage has prevailed among the moderns, and principally (it would seem) on the authority of the Sacred History.

The ancient prophecies concerning the latter days, which are now fulfilling, confirm our faith in that Being, who knows the end from the beginning ; and the modern discoveries of man, by illustrating the early annals of the world, afford a new means of authenticating the history of the Holy Record.

THE END.

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Gilbert & Uivington, Printers, St. John's Square.London.

Princeton

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