renders the original verb,* imports that these assurances given to Noah, and afterwards repeated to Abraham, &c, were renewed revelations of what had before existed. This is confirmed by the sacrifice which accompanied the renewal, since that rite originated in the covenant of redemption, and cannot be separated from it, Christ the surety of that covenant being, as we shall presently see, the invariable antitypical object of every sacrific act. Moreover, as the faith of Noah and his seed in the assurance given them that there should never again occur a deluge of waters to destroy all flesh, was founded on the Divine promise, so that promise itself must have had its origin in some provision made for the forgiveness of sin, and the hope of everlasting salvation; for God must be just in all his dispensations of mercy,—and indeed, the deliverance of the world from destruction could be no further an act of mercy than as it was connected with the redemption and final salvation of the spiritual seed of Noah, for whose sake (as before for the sake of the woman's mystic seed) the promise was unconditionally made. The eternal salvation of that seed, of Christ and his church,-is the object of Divine wisdom and goodness in the long preservation of the world from that ruin to

*

Opp Hiph. to cause to stand, to confirm; so St. Paul, Gal. iii. 17.

† Gen. xv. 18. xvii. 7, &c.

which it is finally destined for the sin of man.* When that object is attained, when the spiritual temple is finished, and the last stone brought in with shoutings, "Grace, Grace unto it," then the scaffolding will be removed as no longer necessary or valuable. This view of the covenant for temporal security revealed to Noah and his seed, is confirmed by the manner in which it is referred to by the evangelical prophet, which I shall have occasion to mention more particularly in my next letter.

It must be evident, I think, that the comprehension of the irrational creatures in this covenant has, exclusively of any ulterior benefit to themselves, a primary relation to man. Their sufferings would have been lessened by repeated deluges; for, whether in a wild or domesticated state, they suffer through the penalty attached to the sin of man, or his own cruelty to them, more than could have been felt in the pang of dying, which, indeed, they must, in one way or other, have endured. To them, under the present circumstances of the world, suffering is unavoidable. But to the church of Christ their continued existence was necessary for food, for clothing, and for sacrifice till the great antitype of animal victims was offered on the cross. They are therefore included in the post-diluvian charter.

The reference which is made in the gracious declaration of Jehovah, (chap. viii. 21.) to the natural corruption of the human heart, greatly strengthens the view which I have taken of the covenant as revealed to Noah, and which I have considered as having had its basis in a previously existing and a previously revealed plan of spiritual and eternal salvation. The historian, after he had stated that "the Lord smelled a sweet savour" from Noah's typical sacrifice, adds that the Lord said in his heart, "I will not again any more curse the ground for man's sake," namely, by bringing another deluge of waters over all the earth; "for" (or rather, although*) "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth."+

*The particle often requires the sense of although, as may be seen in Noldius, who, among a great number of proofs, produces this verse of Genesis as one. See also Glassii Phil. Sacr. p. 606.

Onkelos has paraphrased the gracious declaration referred to consistently with the interpretation I have given of it. "When the Lord smelled the grateful odour, he said in his heart, I will not again desolate the ground on man's account, although the heart is evil from his youth."

†The extent to which the term youth is to be carried back, may be inferred from parallel passages which speak of the doctrine of original sin. Comp. Ps. li. 5. lviii. 3. Isa. xlviii. 8. The expression goes back to the earliest infancy of human nature. In this interpretation the Hebrew Rabbis concur, and it is confirmed by St. Paul when he says that "death hath passed upon all men, even on them who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression; or, on those who were incapable of actual transgression. Figmentum malum

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The total corruption of human nature had been previously assigned as the reason of the destruction to be effected by the deluge. Chap. vi. 5, &c. It seems to have been necessary that such a demonstration of the universality of that corruption, and of God's hatred of sin, should have been once given; but that demonstration having been made, God, in consideration of his covenant of redemption, and of the satisfaction to Divine justice which it provided by the vicarious atonement of the seed of the woman, promised that it should not be repeated during the progressive formation of his church, although the demerit of original sin and its desert of punishment would continue the same to the end, and always justify God in the destruction of his creatures.

In this declaration of Omniscience the doctrine of original sin is most clearly asserted. The term youth is to be extended to the earliest infancy of man, and the corruption which is natural to him affects the earliest motions of his

dicitur dominium in hominem exserere now a tempore formationis. Gemar. Sanhedr. Cap. xi. Fol. 91. Col. 2.-" It meaneth not only man's age, but infancy or child's age, as the word whence youth here is derived, is spoken of Moses when he was a babe, Exod. ii. 6. And we all are transgressors from the womb, Isa. xlviii. 8. Ps. li. 5. and Iviii. 3. In Bereshith Rabbah (an Hebrew Commentary on this place) a Rabbine is said to be asked, When is the evil imagination put into man? And he answered, From the hour that he is formed." Ainsworth on Genesis.

See

mind its contagion is universal and perpetual

the imagination, nay thoughts of his heart

tinually." Chap. vi. 5.

66

is

every imagination of the only evil, and that conIf words can be found

that describe totality and perpetuity more strongly, let them be produced.*

I shall now request your attention to the sacrifices which Noah offered when he came out of the ark. This event took place in the 601st year of his life, on the 27th day of the 2d month, which has been computed to be the 18th of December, in the year of the world 1656. His abode in the ark had continued a year and ten days.

His first act was, as might be expected, a solemn recognition of the covenant of mercy, by virtue of which his own life and the lives of his family had been preserved, and on which his personal hopes and those of the future church were founded. He commemorated the promise of the expected Redeemer, and made profession of his faith in Him, by the instituted rites of sacrificature. He built an altar, and offered on it the appointed types of the great sacrifice which was "foreordained before the foundation of the world."

See the IXth Article and the Homilies of the Church of England, and especially that on the misery of man, passim. + The O Epxouevos of prophecy. Ps. cxviii. 26. Habakuk ii. 3. Comp. Matt. xi. 3.