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

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

and

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

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

VIII. Here we are to explain another passage of Peter, I Pet. iii. 19, 20. Where he thus speaks of Christ, who was quickened by the Spirit: Εκ & (πνευμαλι) Καὶ τοῖς ἐν φυλακή πνέυμασι πορευθεὶς ὁ κήρυξεν, ἀπειθήσασι πολέ, " by which" (Spirit) " also he went and preached unto the spirits in prifon; which fometime were disobedient, when once the long fuffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing." It is to no purpose to say, how variously this passage has been treated by interpreters; though if it be well confidered, the meaning will appear easy and plain. The Lord Christ, says he, who was raised from the dead by the infinite power of his Spirit, formerly went, came out of heaven, not indeed in the flesh affumed, and personally united to himself, but in the demonftration of his Spirit, by which he formed the prophets, and a mong them alfo Noah. By the ministry of these prophets, who were stirred up by his Spirit, he himself preached. For, not so much the prophets, as the " Spirit of Christ, which was in them, spake, I Pet. i. 11. By that preaching, he invited the spirits to faith and repentance, that is, those souls of men, which are now separated from the body, and fuch are usually dalled spirits, Heb. xii. 23. and now are in prison, in שיל, according to the Syriac interpreter, in hell; compare Rev. xx. 7.; because they were disobedient, and rejected the preaching of

!

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

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

X. I cannot here but take notice, how strangely Grotius perverts and corrupts this eminent teftimony of Peter. He seems to envy us, and refuse, that we can find Chrift and his works in the ancient ages of the world: and therefore he applies what Chrift is said to have performed in the time of Noah, to what was done by the apostles, and to the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles. By the spirits in prison he understands the fouls of men in the body, as in a sheath. But how does he prove it think you? Peter, says he, borrows a fimilitude from

the

the times of Noah. Then God said, לא ידון רוחי כאדם, that is, if we regard the propriety of the words, my spirit shall not be fo detained in man as in a sheath, that is, the soul, which I gave him (Wisd. xii. 1.) shall not be useless, as a sword in its sheath, which by no means answers the end it was made for. Let us proceed. A prison is usually called φυλακή; but the sheath is, as it were, the prison of the fword, the Chaldees calling a sheath

נדנה

The fame name they give to the body of a man, as Dan. vii. 15. and the Talmudists often. But on the words who were disobedient, &c. he observes. They were such as the " fouls, who did not obey formerly in the times of Noah; he speaks as if they had been the same: and they were the same spirits or fouls, not numerically, as Aristotle speaks, but generically; that is, souls equally useless to God; namely as those, who did not obey the preaching of Noah. Men altogether alienated from God, did not believe Noah, did not believe Christ." . If I rightly take the meaning of the intricate discourse of this otherwise illustrious person, the sum of his opinion comes to this. Chrift, by the Spirit, put into the apostles, preached the gospel to the Gentiles, whose souls were shut up in the body, as in a prifon and sheath, and who are justly accounted the same with the disobedient men, who lived in the days of Noah, the fame, I do not say numerically, but by imitation of their wickedness. I tremble at the reading such things, and imagine, I see in them a spirit, which will not have the Holy Ghost to have faid, what he actually has, and which shamefully misapplies its learning: let us now make this appear.

XI. Ist, The explication of the words of God, Gen. vi. 3. though countenanced by some Jewish and Christian doctors, is absurd. Among others see Buxtorf in Vindic. Verit. Hebrace. p. 639. For, the foul of man is no where in scripture, called the Spirit of God. It is, indeed formed in man by God, Zech. xii. 1. yet not called the Spirit of God, but " the spirit of man," Ecclef. iii. 21. and " the spirit of man which is in him," 1 Cor. ii. II. In vain are alledged to the contrary, Ezek. xxxvii. 14. and Pfal. civ. 30.; for, there the Spirit of God does not denote the foul, or life of the creatures, but the author of that life. Nor does the grammatical analogy admit the deriving ידון Jadon from נדנה, for, in that cafe, the points ought to be altered: the letter daleth ought to have a dagefch forte, because nun is excluded, and under jod, a Chirek. Not to mention, that neither in the Talmudists nor Chaldee, nor books of the Old Testament, is there any word derived from נדנה, which signifies to be detained in a sheath: so that this explication is rashly urged, without either reason or authority. 2dly, The application

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

may