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DISCOURSE IV.

WE have seen the beginning of prophecy, and its

firft entrance into the world, and what measure of light and hope it brought with it. The next inquiry is, to examine by what degrees this promife was opened and unfolded in the fucceeding ages of the world; and to trace the methods of divine providence in preparing all things for its accomplishment.

If we confider the firft prophecy as the foundation of those hopes, in which all the fons of Adam have an intereft; in which the ages yet to come, as well as the prefent, and those already paft, are concerned; we shall not wonder to find that the adminiftrations of Providence have had in all ages relation to this prophecy, and fhall have, till the end of all things brings with it the appointed time for the full accomplishment.

One thing, I prefume, will be eafily granted, because it cannot be easily denied; that if the ancient prophecies, which concern the general state and condition of man with regard either to this world or the next, are indeed divine oracles, there must be a confiftency in the whole; and how dark or obfcure foever some part of them might be at the first delivery, and for generations afterwards, yet must they

in the event confpire and centre in that great end which was always in the view of Providence: Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world, Acts xv. 18.

Taking then this prophecy to contain the purpose of God with respect to mankind; the adminiftrations of providence, together with such further declarations as God has thought fit to make, must needs be the best comment to help us to its meaning.

The account we have of the antediluvian world is very short, and conveys but little knowledge to us of the religion of those times, or of the hopes and expectations then entertained: yet something there is to fhew, that the curfe of the fall was remembered and felt during that period; and that those who preferved a sense of religion had an expectation of being delivered from the curfe; which could be grounded, as far as appears, upon nothing but the prophecy already mentioned.

Noah was born in the eleventh century after the fall, and, at the time of his birth, his father Lamech, by the spirit of prophecy, declared, This fame fhall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath curfed, Gen. v. 19.

This paffage is a very material one; and, confidered in all its views, will give fome light to the state and condition of the world during this period. We may, I think, from hence fairly collect, 1. That the curfe upon the ground fubfifted in all its rigour to the days of Lamech; and that the work and toil neceffary to raise from the ground a fufficient fupport for life, was a grievous and irkfome burden. There is

no reafon to imagine but that Lamech had as good a fhare of the things of the world as any other in his time; and yet he speaks of the labour and toil of life, much more like a man reporting what he had felt, than what he had only feen. 2. That there was an expectation in his time, at least among those who had not quite forgot God, of a deliverance from the curse of the fall. Lamech's prophecy does not introduce this expectation, but is grounded upon it: he seems to speak to fuch as had the fame common hope with himself of a deliverance to come; and points out to them the child then born as the inftrument defigned by Providence to ease them of their burden. THIS SAME fhall comfort us: i. e. this is the feed of the woman, the heir of the promise, the effect of which fhall be seen in his time. 3. That the ancient expectation, founded on the prophecy given at the fall, was not of an immediate and fudden deliverance. Above a thousand years were paffed from the curfe to the birth of Noah, and yet the expectation of deliverance continued; whereas, had the notion been, that the prophecy was to be immediately fulfilled, the delay had been long enough to tire out their patience and their hopes. 4. That the ancient expectation was not that the world fhould be delivered all at once from the whole curfe of the fall. Lamech, who fo well remembered the Lord's curfe upon the ground, cannot be fuppofed to forget the greater curfe upon man: Duft thou art, and to duft thou shalt return. And And yet from this part of the curfe he gives no hopes of deliverance; Noah was not the feed who fhould bring life and immortality to light; of him he only foretels, that he fhould

fave them from the labour and toil of their hands; and leaves the hopes of deliverance from the greater curfe to ftand as they did, upon the faith of the first prophecy. This notion of a gradual deliverance from the old curfe is agreeable to all that has happened fince, and to the prefent ftate of things under the Gospel it is frequently to be met with in the infpired writers, particularly in St. Paul, who tells us, THE LAST enemy that shall be deftroyed is death.

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In confequence of this expofition of the prediction of Lamech, it must be maintained, that the prophecy has been verified in the event: that the earth has been reftored from the curfe laid on it at the fall, and now enjoys the effect of the bleffing beftowed on Noah. There will arife many prejudices, I am fenfible, against this notion now advanced. In the first place, the prophecy which was given at the fall has been usually appropriated to Chrift Jefus, and to the deliverance we expect from him by the reftoration of life and immortality; and it may be thought perhaps no good fervice to give any other perfon a fhare in this prophecy.

In answer to this, I have some few observations to offer: 1. That the curfe of the fall manifeftly confifts of several parts: man was doomed to a life of labour and forrow here, the ground curfed for his fake, and he condemned to feek his food in the sweat of his brow; and after this life ended, he was fentenced to return to the duft from whence he was taken. 2. The prophecy, given as a fupport to man under this curfe, mentions no kind of deliverance particularly, but conveys a general hope; which is limited to no one circumftance of the curfe more than another; and is

therefore naturally understood to relate to the whole. 3. Should there appear reafon fufficient to induce us to think that this prophecy has already, in part, had its completion, and that the one part of the curfe has been already removed; it will be fo far from weakening, that it will mightily fupport and ftrengthen our hopes of feeing the whole removed in God's own time. 4. It ought to be no objection, that this prophecy is fuppofed to point out more events, or more persons than one. This is according to the analogy of the ancient prophecies. And why may not this prophecy mean Noah and Christ, as well as many others mean David and Chrift, Solomon and Chrift, &c.?

Another prejudice will arife from the common notion of the present and past state of the earth. Inftead of seeing any alteration for the better, according to the prophecy of Lamech, men think they fee an alteration for the worse in every age: nature feems to them to be almost spent and worn out, and less able to provide for her children now than formerly. These are the fentiments of the prefent age, and they were so of those past. We meet with many reflections of this kind in grave and serious authors: St. Cyprian, I remember, complains that things were fenfibly grown worse even in the compass of his own time; that the seasons of the year were not fo pleafant, nor the fruits of the earth fo delightful and refreshing as he remembered them. I wonder not at his judgment, for I find myself every day growing into the fame opinion. The beft and the choiceft fruits, served up at the tables of the great, have no fuch relish as those which they once provided for themselves when they were young: and many there are

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