of death was slow in its approach, yet it was sure. If Man could live to a thousand years, yet he must die; and if he die in sin, he will be accursed.

6. Though many of the names in this genealogy are passed over without any thing being said of their piety, yet we are not from hence to infer that they were impious. Many might be included among them who called upon the name of the Lord, and who are denominated the sons of God, though nothing is personally related of them.

7. Two of them are distinguished for eminent godliness; or, as it is here called, walking with God; namely, Enoch and Noah. Both these holy men are enrolled in the list of worthies in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Let us look a little intensely at the life of the first of these wor thies, the shortest of all the lives, but surely the sweetest: Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah, three hundred years. He walked with God, and was not; for God took him. This was one of those brief, impressive descriptions of true religion with which the scriptures abound. Its holy and progressive nature is here most admirably marked. Enoch walked with God—He must then have been in a state of reconciliation with God; for two cannot walk together except they be agreed. He was what Paul infers from another consideration, a believer. case, whatever may be his outward conduct, the sinner walks contrary to God, and God to him. What an idea does it convey also, of his setting God always before him, seeking to glorify him in every duty, and studying to show himself approved of him, whatever might be thought of his conduct by sinful men. Finally: What an idea does it convey of the communion which he habitually enjoyed with God! His conversation was in heaven, while dwelling on the earth. God dwelt in him, and he in God!

Where this is not the

Re

Enoch walked with God, after he begat Methuselah, three hundred years, and perhaps sometime before that event. ligion with him, then, was not a transient feeling, but an habitual and abiding principle. In reviewing such a character,

what Christian can forbear exclaiming, in the words of our Chris

tian poet :*

"O for a closer walk with God,

A calm and heavenly frame;

A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!"

Just so much as we have of this, so much we possess of true religion, and no more.

Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him; that is, as Paul explains it, He was translated that he should not see death. This singular favour conferred on Enoch, like the resurrection of Christ, might be designed to afford a sensible proof of a blessed immortality, which for the want of a written revelation, might then be peculiarly necessary. He had warned the wicked of his day, that the Lord would come with ten thousand of his holy ones, to execute judgment: and now, however offensive his doctrine might have been to them, God, by exempting him from the common lot of men, will bear testimony that he hath pleased him, not only to the mind of Enoch, but to the world. It is possible also, that the translation of this holy man might be conferred in order to show what should have been common to all, had man persisted in his obedience-a translation from the earthly to the heavenly paradise.

With respect to Noah, we shall have an account of his righteous life in the following chapters: at present, we are only told of the ciscumstances of his birth. (ver. 28-32.) His father Lamech speaks on this occasion, like a good man and a prophet. He called his son Noah, which signifies rest; for this same, saith he, shall comfort us concerning our work, and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. Noah, by building the ark, saved a remnant from the flood; and by offering an acceptable sacrifice, obtained the promises that the ground should no more be cursed for man's sake. (Chap. viii. 21.) As Lamech could have

*Cowper.

known this only by revelation, we may infer from thence, the sweet rest which divine truth affords to the believing mind from the toils and troubles of the present life; and if the birth of this child afforded comfort in that he would save the world, and remove the curse: how much more His who would be a greater Saviour, and remove a greater curse, by being HIMSELF an ark of salvation, and by offering HIMSELF a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour !

DISCOURSE X.

THE CAUSE OF THE DELUGE.

Gen. vi. 1-7.

VER. 1-3. When we read of men beginning to call upon the name of the Lord, we entertained a hope of good times, and of com. fort, as Lamech said, after toil and sorrow; but alas, what a sad reverse! A general corruption overspreads the earth, and brings on a tremendous deluge, that sweeps them all, one family excepted, into oblivion.

First: We may remark the occasion of this general corruption, which was the increase of population. When men began to multiply, they became more and more depraved: yet an increase of population is considered as a blessing to a country, and such it is in itself; but through man's depravity it often proves a curse. When men are collected in great numbers they whet one another to evil, which is the reason why sin commonly grows rankest in populous places. We were made to be helpers; but by sin we are become tempters of one another, drawing and being drawn into innumerable evils.

Secondly: Observe the first step towards degeneracy, which was, the uniting of the world and the church by mixed marriages :-The sons of God and the daughters of men; the descendants of Seth and those of Cain; the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent. The great end of marriage, in a good man, should not be to gratify his fancy, nor to indulge his natural inclinations, but to obtain a helper; and the same in a woman. We need to be helped on in our way to heaven, instead of being hindered and corrupted Hence it wasthat, in the law, marriages with idolaterswere forbid