Lord," Pf. lxxx. 17. and "the man his fellow," Zech. xiii. 7, She also makes profeffion of the divinity of the Meffiah, when fhe calls him JEHOVAH ; and fignifies, that both natures fhould be united in one perfon, by joining these two, Paul calls him, "God manifeft in the flesh," 1 Tim. iii. 16.

I

XXXIV. To this explication three things are principally objected. 1ft, If Eve intended this, fhe would have faid doubling the fign of the accufative cafe: as in the following verfe, Tov apo d'UTY TOY Aßt. 2dly, as often fignifies the fame as by, with; therefore fignifies with Jehovah, as ry with God. In this fenfe, Jonathan is faid to have wrought boy, with God, 1 Sam. xiv. 45. that is, under the conduct and direction, or by the affiftance and help, of God. 3dly, Filial refpect prompts us to entertain right fentiments concerning the faith of our mother Eve; namely, that the knew and believed, the Meffiah was not only to be God-man, but also the feed of the woman, that is, the fon of a virgin; for, without this her faith had been a mistaken, not a true faith, nor yielded her any comfort. She could not therefore think, fhe got in Cain the Meffiah; as fhe was perfectly well affured, that Cain was not the fon of a virgin.

עם

XXXV. We answer, to the first: that the repetition of that particle, is indeed frequent, but yet not univerfal: for we have initances of the contrary, 1 Kings xi. 23.If. viii. 2. Ezek.iv. 1.1 Sam. xv. 4. Where the fign of the accufative cafe is placed between two nouns, without a repetition. To the fecond: we deny not, that n is often equivalent to by but there is no inftance to prove, that what the Greeks fay, cv Otw, the Hebrews exprefs in their language by p or : as it is well known, they usually exprefs it by or . What is adduced from 1 Sam. xiv. 45. is not to the purpose. For, there we have but not n For, tho' thefe particles, are fometimes equivalent, yet they ought not to be confounded. And then, with God, does not so much fignify with God's affiftance as God difapproving. Compare, Isa. xxxvi. 10. With greater fhew of reafon might be urged Mic. iii. 8. I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, that is by the help of that fpirit; and Hab. iii. 13. Thou wenteft forth for the falvation of thy people, even for falvation with thy Meffiah, that is, falvation to be procured by his means. But the former paffage is very properly rendered, I am full of power with the Spirit of Jehovah; full of power no lefs than full of the fpirit. And the latter fhould feem to be thus pointed, that God may be faid to go forth with Chrift for falvation. To the third it might be answered, that there would be no abfurdity to fuppofe, that Eye was not fo well acquainted with every thing, regarding the condition of the Meffiah.

Who

Who can affert, she knew, the Meffiah was to be born of a virgin, when the blessed virgin herself did not know it, when fhe heard it from the mouth of an angel, as appears from her words; "how fhall this be, feeing I know not a man," Luke i. 34. We deny not; that the Meffiah is eminently called the feed of the woman, because he was to be born of a virgin: which the the Holy Ghoft afterwards more clearly foretold. But it is no crime to doubt, whether our mother Eve could have gathered this from thofe words; fince, in the facred language, even they are faid to be born of a woman, who are conceived in matrimony, as we fhewed fection XVII. One may affert this, and not tranfgrefs against that refpect due to our common mother; as it is certain, God gradually brought his people to the knowldge of the Meffiah: nor does it overturn the faith of Eve, which might have been genuine and faving, though it was under this imperfection, ignorance and mistake; as Peter had a true faith concerning Christ, that is a faving, and not a hypocritical, though he ima gined through mistake, that Chrift could be the Saviour of his people, without fufferings, Mat. xvi. 22. But we are under no neceffity to be obliged to fay any of these things, for we do not affert, our mother Eve received Cain, for the very Meffiah: but only we are of opinion, that, in the birth of Cain, the obferved a fign or token of God's performing the promise, and fomething to fupport her faith, which the was willing to declare and preserve the memory of, by giving him that name : and confequently that argument does not affect us.

XXXVI. And we are not to pafs over in filence, that when fhe afterwards brought forth another fon, fhe called his name "Seth, no because God (w) hath appointed me another feed inftead of Abel, whom Cain flew," Gen. iv. 25. A fentence. full of spiritual affurance and of prophecy. She calls him feed, having a view to the promife, and foretelling, that he would not only carry on the enmity with the ferpent, but also that from him, that eminent feed would come forth, by whofe power the ferpent's head was to be bruifed. The feed the proclaimed was given by God; as a fon not of nature only, but alfo of grace and promife, and accounted by God himself for a feed: nor only given, but also appointed of God, that is, established and fecured by the council of God that he should not be flain, but be the foundation of the future church, to be propagated in an uninterrupted fucceffion in his pofterity, and preferved down to Chrift. For the word to appoint, denotes a determination and steadiness, as John xv. 16. "I have

chofen

chofen you, and ordained (appointed) you, that ye fhould go and bring forth fruit. She therefore acknowledges Seth for the chofen feed, and the parent of him, in whom all the elect are chofen.

XXXVII. This doctrine of falvation flourished both in the mouths and in the hearts of blievers, who began ov, that is, as Aquila tranflates it, Καλῖεςθαι ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίκ to be called by the name of the Lord, Gen. iv. 26. and they were called the fons of God, as diftinguished from the fons of man. Above all, the prophecy of Enoch is very remarkable, which the apostle Jude relates in his epiftle, not from any apocryphal book, nor from the mere authority of any unwritten tradition, nor by a fagacious conjecture from the history of Mofes, but by the inspiration of that fame Spirt, who prompted Enoch to prophefy, v. 14. 15. in thefe words: " and Enoch alfo, the seventh from Adam, prophefied of thefe, faying, behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his faints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them," &ca That Lord, of whom Enoch fpeaks, is the Meffiah, in unity of effence the fame Jehovah with the Father and the Holy Spirit; to whom alfo all power is given in heaven and in earth, and whofe peculiar property the elect are on a fpecial account. He foretels his coming by a verb of the preterperfect tenfe, to exprefs the undoubted certainty of the thing, and the full affurance of his own faith, he prophefies, that the Meffiah, at that coming, will be attended with myriads of angels. Which happened, when he came down upon mount Sinai to give the law, Deut. xxxiii. 2. and when he came in the flesh, to visit his people: for, then a multitude of the heavenly hoft, declaring his nativity, was feen and heard in the country of Bethlehem, Luke iii. 13. but this will be the cafe in a moft illuftrious manner when "he fhall come in the clouds of heaven, and all the holy angels with him," Mat. xxv. 31. The end of this coming will be " to execute judgment upon all: for, the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son," John v. 22. and to convince all that are ungodly, by inflicting the punishments due to their impiety. These things Enoch preached to the people in his days, who, giving a loose to their lufts, impiously denied the future coming of the Lord. And feeing that prophecy contains an univerfal truth, it is applicable to all, who walk according to their lufts. And these are the things, which the fcripture teftifies, were delivered concerning the doctrine of falvation, in the first age of the world.

CHAP.

I.

As

CHA P. II.

Of the Doctrine of Grace under Noah.

S Noah was the patriarch of the new world, we are now to explain, what was handed down to us in his time, concerning the doctrine of falvation; as soon as he was born, his father Lamech called him Noach, faying, "this fame fhall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground, which the Lord hath curfed," Gen.

V. 29.

s

II. And here, in the first place, we are to take notice of the name given to the child, both with refpect to its etymology, and the reafon affigned by the pious parent for that name. The name is Noah, which if we follow the rules of grammar, is derived from the root to reft or be quiet; to which word, both as to letters and fignification, he comforted, is near of kin, which Lamech ufed in affigning the reafon of the etymology. They who keep close to grammatical niceties, endeavour to correct the words of the text, and, instead of or would have us read as the Septuagint, in order to come nearer to the etymology of the word, and to the name nahave alfo rendered it, uros avaraσu nuas this fame fhall refresh us. But seeing the Hebrew copies, the Chaldee paraphraft, Jerome, &c. conftantly read it otherwife we dare not rely only on our own judgment, or be willing to have any thing altered. In proper names, derived from a verb, commonly fome letter or other is either added, taken away, or tranfpofed, and the accuracy of grammatical etymology not conftantly observed: which the celebrated Buxtorf has fhewn, by feveral examples, in his Vindiciis veritatis Hebraica, p. 267. Whence the Hebrew doctors generally incline to derive, from by cutting away the laft letter. But Mercer's opinion appears more probable, who affirms, here only is a refemblance of words, but not a reafon taken from etymology; because the verb both in found and fignification, comes near to the noun, which fignifies reft and comfort: And as Aben Ezra learnedly fays, "comfort alfo is reft from grief of heart." And then the Hebrews ufually have a greater regard to the fenfe than to the founds of words. As therefore the reafon of the name is thus expreffed, he fhall comfort us, it is altogether the fame as if he had faid, he ball make us to reft; because to the fame purpose, whoever comforts, caufes reft from trouble. But these are VOL. II. rather

R

rather niceties, tho' not to be overlooked, in order to preferve the integrity of the Hebrew copies inviolable. This one thing is evident, that Lamech, in the name of his fon, intended a standing monument of his own wifhes and hopes.

III. Let us therefore fee, what he intended by this name. "This fame," fays he, " fhall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, becaufe of the ground which the Lord hath curfed." Three things are contained in this fentence: Ift, The evil, under which, with other pious people, he groaned. 2dly, The good opposed to that evil, which he had the hopeful profpect of. 3dly, The author of that good.

IV. He makes the evil, he complains of, to confift in our work, in the tail of our hands, and in the ground which God hatb curfed. The carnal Jews generally reftrict this to that fatigue of body, which men are forced to bear, in the culture of the earth, occafioned by the curfe of God, and that these words only contain a prophecy concerning an eafier method of agriculture, which Noah would discover. But his pious parents were not fo delicate, and fo much taken up with the conveniencies of this life, as to place the greatest part of their mifery in those fatigues of the body. These things have a higher view. By on, our work, are principally to be understood thofe evil works, which bring grief and forrow to the foul. For, these are our works, oppofed to the work of God in us. These produce an unfpeakable trouble and fatigue to the godly, "as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for them," Pf. xxxviii. 4. These were at that time vifible every where, men being arrived at the utmost pitch of wickednefs. Whence Peter, 2 Pet. ii. 5. calls, the men of that generation, the world of the ungodly. But to those evil works was added the toil of their hands. To this I refer all the labour, mifery and calamity of this life, which were to be undergone in the fweat of our brow. This is accompained with dwelling on the earth which is cursed; fo that while man lives there, he cannot poffibly enjoy a full state of holiness and tranquillity of foul, and fee the light of God's face in glory. For, "whilft we are at home in the body, we are abfent from the Lord," 2 Cor. v. 6.

V. The good oppofed to this evil, which he defired, and was in expectation of, he calls confolation or comfort. This confifts in the applying fome effectual remedy againft, and in the very removal of thofe evils. The comfort against our vicious works confits in the expiation and remiffion of them, in the intimation of that gracious fentence, by which they are pardoned on the account of the Meffiah; and finally, in the purging them away by the Spirit of fanctification. Comfort from the miferiesTM

of