Page images
PDF
EPUB

lay a ftumbling-block before him, he thall die: because thou haft not given him warning, he fhall die in his fin, and his righteoufnefs which he hath done fhall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the righteous man that the righteous fin not, and he doth not fin, he fhall furely live, because he is warned; also thou haft delivered thy foul *.”

Is

PART II.

GEN. ix. 117.

SHALL purfue the fame method in this as in the preceding Part: And,

FIRST, I fhall confider the PARTIES in this Covenant: And the account which the facred hiftorian affords of them is rather more copious than in the foregoing tranfaction.

1. THE author and principal party of the Covenant is the fame divine perfon as in the preceding one; even the Son of God: The very fame person who was authorised to declare the Father unto men; for no man hath feen God at any time, but the only begotten Son,

Ezek. iii. 17-21.

who

who is in the bofom of the Father, he hath declared him.

2. On the other part were Noah and his Sons, as well as every living creature.- -The Son of God covenanted with Noah and his Sons: Said he, " And behold- I establish my covenant with You." Not with THEE, to intimate that this covenant was made with them in a focial capacity. Though Noah and his Sons were severally, or perfonally, interested in this tranfaction; yet he spake unto them jointly, as all made up one domeftic church. Nor was it any way inconfiftent with the fincerity of God to admit Ham as a covenanter; for God does not deal with perfons, in the vifible Church, by external administrations, according to what they are in the eye of his omniscience; but according to what they appear in the eye of his Church. He could cafily make the church, vifible and invifible, of the fame extent; but he has feen meet to admit many into the former who have no place in the latter. Nor will the feparation be perfect till the harveft of the end of the world.This covenant was made with Noah and his Sons, not only for themfelves, but alfo for their feed: Said God, "I establish my covenant with you, and with your SEED after you.' That is, the generation then prefent covenanted for the fucceeding one, it being a part of themselves. The divine promises then made refpected the ages to

come.

come. It was a matter of great comfort to be thus fecured of a feed, especially as their falvation depended on the SEED of the woman, which was now included in their own SEED. The feed chiefly intended in the promife, being the extraordinary feed of the woman; and both a natural and fpiritual feed, as neceffary for bringing him forth in the fulness of time. This fpecification of their feed taught them likeways, to inftruct their children in the knowledge of this covenant, both in respect of the privileges and duties of it.This covenant extended alfo to the brute creation. Because every living creature is mentioned, two conclufions have been deduced, which are equally falfe Firft, They infer, that this tranfaction is not ftrictly foederal; but a decree, or naked promife. But thefe men fhould have obferved, that there may be a proper covenant, though it can only be faid to be made with fome of the parties fpecified, in an improper fenfe. This covenant was primarily, and properly, made with Noah and his Sons: It was only by confequence that it was made with the brute creation. It was made with the beasts of the earth, not abfolutely for their fakes, but as they were defigned for the benefit of man. So they were originally made for man's ufe, and deftroyed by the flood for man's abuse of them; fo their prefervation for the future was intended as a benefit to man, both as they were to be used in facrifices, and in fupplying

the

the neceffaries of life. Secondly, Others acknowledge the tranfaction to be foederal, but deny that it refpected fpiritual privileges and duties; because made with the irrational as well as rational creation. But the feeming force of this argument is, in part, obviated by what is juft now fuggefted: And the spiritualnature of this tranfaction will beft appear from,

SECONDLY, The PARTS of it: And it confifts in divine grants, on God's part; and reftipulations, on the part of Noah and his Sons. -In furveying the promises, I shall attendUnto the matter of thent.-Enquire what reference they bear unto former grants.-How far they are for our confolation and direction.

Moses is explicit in registrating these promifes, both as revealed to Noah, and as conceived in the divine mind. In the latter view, fays the inspired hiftorian, " And Jehovah faid in his heart, I will not again curfe the ground any more for man's fake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth: Neither will I again finite any more every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, feed-time and harveft, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, fhall not cease." In the former view, "And I will eftablish my covenant with you: Neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a deluge; Neither fhall there any more be a

M

flood

flood to deftroy the earth." Both thefe fecurities were probably granted at the same time; as they both refer unto the fane privileges, the former being revealed, by the fpirit of prophecy, to Noah, as a prophet; and the latter by an articulate voice from the perfonal Word, who frequently appeared to, and converfed with the patriarchs: We shall, therefore, confider them together.

1. WE fhall attend, in the first place, unto the Matter of these promifes:

1. GOD promifeth not to curfe the ground any more for man's fake. Expofitors feem rather to have darkened this paffage than elucidated it Dr Gill imagines it contains a promife to remove the curfe denounced on the ground immediately after the fall. He infinuates, that the world was rather the better of the flood; and that the antediluvian world was a barren, and an accurfed world, compared with the postdiluvian one. But the very reverfe is certainly the truth in this cafe: For the earth brings forth briars and thorns as copioufly fince the flood, as it could do before; and, as to many places at leaft, the flood muft have rendered the earth lefs fertile, by washing off its foil, inftead of improving it. words of the Holy Ghoft, when strictly rendered, are, "I will NOT "I will NOT ADD TO CURSE the ground any more for man's fake." The flood

The

was

« PreviousContinue »