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Noah's family leave the ark.

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14 And in the second month, on 19 Every beast, every creeping the seven and twentieth day of the thing, and every fowl, and whatmonth, was the earth dried. soever creepeth upon the earth, after their P kinds, went forth out of the ark.

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15 And God spake unto Noah, saying, 16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. 17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

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18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and from his youth; neither will I again smite his wife, and his sons' wives with him: any more every thing living, as I have done.

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Chap. vii. 13.- Chap. vii. 15.- Chap. i. 22.-P Heb. 17. Or, though.- - Chap. vi. 5; Job xiv. 4; xv. 14; Psa. families. - Lev. xi. Lev. i. 9; Ezek. xx. 41; 2 Cor. ii. li. 5; Jer. xvii. 9; Matt. xv. 19; Rom. i. 21; iii. 23.w Chap. 15; Eph. v. 2. Heb. a savour of rest.- Chap. iii. 17; vi. ix. 11, 15.

worshipping the Divine Being, is the invention or institution of God himself; and sacrifice, in the act and design, is the essence of religion. Without sacrifice, actually offered or implied, there never was, there never can be, any religion. Even in the heavens, a lamb is represented before the throne of God as newly

two-fold: the slaying and burning of the victim point out, 1st, that the life of the sinner is forfeited to Divine justice; 2dly, that his soul deserves the fire of perdition.

The Jews have a tradition that the place where Noah built, his altar was the same in which the altar stood which was built by Adam, and used by Cain and Abel, and the same spot on which Abraham afterwards offered up his son Isaac.

nations. At the end of the other seven days the dove, being sent out the third time, returned no more, from which Noah conjectured that the earth was now sufficiently drained, and therefore removed the covering of the ark, which probably gave liberty to many of the fowls to fly off, which circumstance would afford him the greater facility in making arrangements for disem-slain, Rev. v. 6, 12, 13. The design of sacrificing is barking the beasts and reptiles, and heavy-bodied domestic fowls, which might yet remain. See verse 17. Verse 14. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day] From this it appears that Noah was in the ark a complete solar year, or three hundred and sixty-five days; for he entered the ark the 17th day of the second month, in the six hundredth year of his life, chap. vii. 11, 13, and continued in it till the 27th day of the second month, in the six hundredth and first year of his life, as we see above. The months of the ancient Hebrews were lunar; the first six consisted of thirty days each, the latter six of twentynine; the whole twelve months making three hundred and fifty-four days: add to this eleven days, (for though he entered the ark the preceding year on the seventeenth day of the second month, he did not come out till the twenty-seventh of the same month in the following year,) which make exactly three hundred and Burnt-offerings] See the meaning of every kind sixty five days, the period of a complete solar revolu- of offering and sacrifice largely explained on Lev. vii. tion; the odd hours and minutes, as being fractions of Verse 21. The Lord smelled a sweet savour] That time, noncomputed, though very likely all included in is, he was well pleased with this religious act, perthe account. This year, according to the Hebrew formed in obedience to his own appointment, and in computation, was the one thousand six hundred and faith of the promised Saviour. That this sacrifice prefifty-seventh year from the creation; but according to figured that which was offered by our blessed Redeemer the reckoning of the Septuagint it was the two thou-in behalf of the world, is sufficiently evident from the sand two hundred and forty-second, and according to Dr. Hales, the two thousand two hundred and fiftysixth. See on chap. xi. 12.

Verse 20. Noah builded an altar] As we have already seen that Adam, Cain, and Abel, offered sacrifices, there can be no doubt that they had altars on which they offered them; but this, builded by Noah, is certainly the first on record. It is worthy of remark that, as the old world began with sacrifice, so also did the new. Religion, or the proper mode of

The word na mizbach, which we render altar, signifies properly a place for sacrifice, as the root zabach signifies simply to slay. Altar comes from the Latin altus, high or elevated, because places for sacrifice were generally either raised very high or built on the tops of hills and mountains; hence they are called high places in the Scriptures; but such were chiefly used for idolatrous purposes.

words of St. Paul, Eph. v. 2: Christ hath loved us, and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to-God for a sWEET-SMELLING SAVOUR; where the words ooμnv evadias of the apostle are the very words used by the Septuagint in this place.

I will not again curse the ground] N↳ lo osiph, I will not add to curse the ground—there shall not be another deluge to destroy the whole earth; for the imagination of man's heart, ' ki, ALTHOUGH the imagination of man's heart should be evil, i. e. should they

The promise respecting the

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22 While the earth remaineth, heat, and summer and winter, and A. M. 1657. seed-time and harvest, and cold and day and night, shall not cease.

*Isa. liv. 8.- -y Heb. as yet all the days of the earth. become afterwards as evil as they have been before, I will not destroy the earth by a FLOOD. God has other means of destruction; and the next time he visits by a general judgment, FIRE is to be the agent. 2 Pet. iii. 7.

Verse 22. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, &c.] There is something very expressive in the original, Dyod col yemey haarets, until all the DAYS of the earth; for God does not reckon its duration by centuries, and the words themselves afford a strong presumption that the earth shall not have an endless duration.

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Jer. xxxiii. 20, 25.

has the destruction of the world by water given of the Divine justice, such convincing testimony of the truth of the sacred writings, that not only every part of the earth gives testimony of this extraordinary revolution, but also every nation of the universe has preserved records or traditions of this awful display of the justice of God.

A multitude of testimonies, collected from the most authentic sources in the heathen world, I had intended for insertion in this place, but want of room obliges me to lay them aside. But the state of the earth itself is a sufficient proof. Every part of it bears unequivocal evidence of disruption and violence. From the hand of the God of order it never could have proceeded in its present state. In every part we see marks of the crimes of men, and of the justice of God. And shall not the living lay this to heart? Surely God is not mocked; that which a man soweth he shall reap. He who soweth to the flesh shall of it reap destruction; and though the plague of water shall no more destroy the earth, yet an equal if not sorer punishment awaits the world of the ungodly, in the threatened de struction by fire.

Seed-time and harvest.—It is very probable that the seasons, which were distinctly marked immediately after the deluge, are mentioned in this place; but it is difficult to ascertain them. Most European nations divide the year into four distinct parts, called quarters or seasons; but there are six divisions in the text, and probably all intended to describe the seasons in one of these postdiluvian years, particularly in that part of the globe, Armenia, where Noah was when God gave him, and mankind through him, this gracious promise. From the Targum of Jonathan on this verse we learn that in Palestine their seed-time was in September, at the autumnal equinox; their harvest in March, at the vernal equinox; that their winter began in December, at the solstice; and their summer at the solstice in June. The Copts begin their autumn on the 15th of September, and extend it to the 15th of December. Their winter on the 15th of December, and extend it to the 15th of March. Their spring on the 15th of March, and extend it to the 15th of June. Their summer on the 15th of June, and extend it to the 15th of Septem-tunity of hearing the Gospel, refuse to accept of the ber, assigning to each season three complete months. Calmet.

There are certainly regions of the earth to which neither this nor our own mode of division can apply there are some where summer and winter appear to divide the whole year, and others where, besides sum- | mer, winter, autumn, and spring, there are distinct seasons that may be denominated the hot season, the cold season, the rainy season, &c., &c.

This is a very merciful promise to the inhabitants of the earth. There may be a variety in the seasons, but no season essentially necessary to vegetation shall utterly fail. The times which are of greatest consequence to the preservation of man are distinctly noted; there shall be both seed-time and harvest―a proper time to deposit the different grain in the earth, and a proper time to reap the produce of this seed. Thus ends the account of the general deluge, its cause, circumstances, and consequences. An account that seems to say to us, Behold the goodness and severity of God! Both his justice and long-suffering are particularly marked in this astonishing event. His justice, in the punishment of the incorrigibly wicked; and his mercy, in giving them so fair and full a warning, and in waiting so long to extend his grace to all who might seek him. Such a convincing proof

In ancient times almost every thing was typical and no doubt the ark among the rest; but of what and in what way farther than revelation guides, it is both difficult and unsafe to say. It has been considered a type of our blessed Lord; and hence it has been observed, that "as all those who were out of the ark perished by the flood, so those who take not refuge in the meritorious atonement of Christ Jesus must perish everlastingly." Of all those who, having the oppor

sacrifice it offers them, this saying is true; but the parallel is not good. Myriads of those who perished during the flood probably repented, implored mercy, and found forgiveness; for God ever delights to save, and Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And though, generally, the people continued in carnal security and sensual gratifications till the flood came, there is much reason to believe that those who during the forty days' rain would naturally flee to the high lands and tops of the highest mountains, would earnestly implore that mercy which has never been denied, even to the most profligate, when under deep humiliation of heart they have returned to God. And who can say that this was not done by multitudes while they beheld the increasing flood; or that God, in this last extremity, had rendered it impossible?

St. Peter, 1st Epist. iii. 21, makes the ark a figure of baptism, and intimates that we are saved by this, as the eight souls were saved by the ark. But let us not mistake the apostle by supposing that the mere ceremony itself saves any person; he tells us that the salvation conveyed through this sacred rite is not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God; i. e. remission of sins and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, which are signi

God blesses Noah and his sons.

CHAP. IX.

fied by this baptism A good conscience never existed where remission of sins had not taken place; and every person knows that it is God's prerogative to for

Eating of blood forbidden.

give sins, and that no ordinance can confer it, though ordinances may be the means to convey it when piously and believingly used.

CHAPTER IX.

The first grant

God blesses Noah and his sons, 1. The brute creation to be subject to them through fear, 2. of animal food, 3. Eating of blood forbidden, 4. Cruelty to animals forbidden, 5. A man-slayer to forfeil his life, 6. The covenant of God established between him and Noah and the whole brute creation, 8-11. The rainbow given as the sign and pledge of this covenant, 12–17. The three sons of Noah people the whole earth, 18, 19. Noah plants a vineyard, drinks of the wine, is intoxicated, and lies exposed in his tent, 20, 21. The reprehensible conduct of Ham, 22. The laudable carriage of Shem and Japheth, Noah prophetically declares the servitude of the posterity of Ham, 24, 25; and the dignity and increase of Shem and Japheth, 26, 27. The age and death of Noah, 28, 29.

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NOTES ON CHAP. IX. Verse 1. God blessed Noah] Even the increase of families, which appears to depend on merely natural means, and sometimes fortuitous circumstances, is all of God. It is by his power and wisdom that the human being is formed, and it is by his providence alone that man is supported and preserved.

Verse 2. The fear of you and the dread, &c.] Prior to the fall, man ruled the inferior animals by love and kindness, for then gentleness and docility were their principal characteristics. After the fall, untractableness, with savage ferocity, prevailed among almost all orders of the brute creation; enmity to man seems particularly to prevail; and had not God in his mercy impressed their minds with the fear and terror of man, so that some submit to his will while others flee from his residence, the human race would long ere this have been totally destroyed by the beasts of the field. Did the horse know his own strength, and the weakness of the miserable wretch who unmercifully rides, drives, whips, goads, and oppresses him, would he not with one stroke of his hoof destroy his tyrant possessor? But while God hides these things from him he impresses his mind with the fear of his owner, so that either by cheerful or sullen submission he is trained up for, and employed in, the most useful and important purposes; and even willingly submits, when tortured for the sport and amusement of his more bruitish oppressor. Tigers, wolves, lions, and hyenas, the determinate foes of man, incapable of being tamed or domesticated, flee, through the principle of terror, from the dwelling of man, and thus he is providentially safe. Hence, by fear and by dread man rules every beast of the earth, every fowl of the air, and every fish of

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the sea. How wise and gracious is this order of the Divine providence! and with what thankfulness should it be considered by every human being!

Verse 3. Every moving thing-shall be meat] There is no positive evidence that animal food was ever used before the flood. Noah had the first grant of this kind,

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and it has been continued to all his posterity ever since. It is not likely that this grant would have been now made if some extraordinary alteration had not taken place in the vegetable world, so as to render its productions less nutritive than they were before; and probably such a change in the constitution of man as to render a grosser and higher diet necessary. may therefore safely infer that the earth was less productive after the flood than it was before, and that the human constitution was greatly impaired by the alterations which had taken place through the whole economy of nature. Morbid debility, induced by an often unfriendly state of the atmosphere, with sore and longcontinued labour, would necessarily require a higher nutriment than vegetables could supply. That this was the case appears sufficiently clear from the grant of animal food, which, had it not been indispensably necessary, had not been made. That the constitution of man was then much altered appears in the greatly contracted lives of the postdiluvians; yet from the deluge to the days of Abraham the lives of several of the patriarchs amounted to some hundreds of years, but this was the effect of a peculiar providence, that the new world might be the more speedily repeopled.

Verse 4. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood] Though animal food was granted, yet the blood was most solemnly forbidden, because it was the life of the beast, and this life was to be offered to God

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8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his there any more be a flood to destroy the sons with him, saying,

Exod. xxi. 28. h Chap. iv. 9, 10; Psa. ix. 12.- -i Acts xvii. 26.- Exod. xxi. 12, 14; Lev. xxiv. 17; Matt. xxvi. 52;

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m Ver. 1, 19; chap. i. 28. -P Psa. cxlv. 9.- Isa. liv.9

son;" this makes a very good sense, and equally forbids cruelty either to men or brutes.

Verse 6. Whoso sheddetk man's blood, by man shall his blood] Hence it appears that whoever kills a man, unless unwittingly, as the Scripture expresses it, shall forfeit his own life.

A man is accused of the crime of murder; of this crime he is guilty or he is not if he be guilty of murder he should die; if not, let him be punished according to the demerit of his crime; but for no offence but murder should he lose his life. Taking away the

Rev. xiii. 10.- Chap. i. 27."Chap. vi. 18.- Isa. liv. 9.as an atonement for sin. Hence the blood was ever cock-fighters shall be obliged to give an account to God held sacred, because it was the grand instrument of for every creature they have wantonly destroyed. Inexpiation, and because it was typical of that blood by stead of 'n chaiyah, "beast," the Samaritan reads which we enter into the holiest. 1. Before the deluge chai, "living," any "living creature or perit was not eaten, because animal food was not in use. 2. After the deluge it was prohibited, as we find above; and, being one of the seven Noahic precepts, it was not eaten previously to the publication of the Mosaic law. 3. At the giving of the law, and at several times during the ministry of Moses, the prohibition was most solemnly, and with awful penalties renewed. Hence we may rest assured that no blood was eaten previously to the Christian era, nor indeed ever since by the Jewish people. 4. That the prohibition has been renewed under the Christian dispensation, can admit of little doubt by any man who dispassionately life of another is the highest offence that can be comreads Acts xv. 20, 29; xxi. 25, where even the Gen-mitted against the individual, and against society; and tile converts are charged to abstain from it on the au- the highest punishment that a man can suffer for such thority, not only of the apostles, but of the Holy Ghost, a crime is the loss of his own life. As punishment who gave them there and then especial direction con- should be ever proportioned to crimes, so the highest cerning this point; see Acts xv. 28; not for fear of punishment due to the highest crime should not be instumbling the converted Jews, the gloss of theolo- flicted for a minor offence. The law of God and the gians, but because it was one тWV ƐжаνaуKƐÇ TOUTOV, eternal dictates of reason say, that if a man kill of those necessary points, from the burden (Bapoç) of another, the loss of his own life is at once the highest obedience to which they could not be excused. 5. This penalty he can pay, and an equivalent for his offence command is still scrupulously obeyed by the oriental as far as civil society is concerned. If the death of Christians, and by the whole Greek Church; and why? the murderer be the highest penalty he can pay for the because the reasons still subsist. No blood was eaten murder he has committed, then the infliction of this under the law, because it pointed out the blood that punishment for any minor offence is injustice and was to be shed for the sin of the world; and under the cruelty; and serves only to confound the claims of Gospel it should not be eaten, because it should ever be justice, the different degrees of moral turpitude and considered as representing the blood which has been shed vice, and to render the profligate desperate: hence the for the remission of sins. If the eaters of blood in gene- adage so frequent among almost every order of delinral knew that it affords a very crude, almost indigestible, quents, "It is as good to be hanged for a sheep as a and unwholesome aliment, they certainly would not on lamb;" which at once marks their desperation, and the these physical reasons, leaving moral considerations out injustice of those penal laws which inflict the highest of the question, be so much attached to the consumption punishment for almost every species of crime. When of that from which they could expect no wholesome nu- shall a wise and judicious legislature see the absurdity triment, and which, to render it even pleasing to the palate, and injustice of inflicting the punishment of death for requires all the skill of the cook. See Lev. xvii. 2. stealing a sheep or a horse, forging a twenty shillings' Verse 5. Surely your blood—will I require; at the note, and MURDERING A MAN; when the latter, in its hand of every beast] This is very obscure, but if taken moral turpitude and ruinous consequences, infinitely literally it seems to be an awful warning against cru- exceeds the others ?* elty to the brute creation; and from it we may conclude that horse-racers, hare-hunters, bull-baiters, and

this paragraph was written.-PUBLISHERS.
*On this head the doctor's pious wish has been realized since

The rainbow is given as a sign

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CHAP. IX.

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of God's covenant with Noah. 12 And God said, This is the | ture of all flesh; and the waters A. M. 1657 token of the covenant which I make shall no more, become a flood to between me and you and every living creature destroy all flesh. that is with you, for perpetual generations:

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16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

u Exod. xxviii. 12; Lev. xxvi. 42, 45; Ezek. xvi. 60. Chap. xvii. 13, 19.

but that what was formerly created, or rather that which was the necessary effect, in certain cases, of the creation of the sun and atmosphere, should now be considered by them as an unfailing token of their continual preservation from the waters of a deluge; therefore the text speaks of what had already been done, and not of what was now done, 'n 'nop kashti nathatti, "My bow I have given, or put in the cloud;" as if he said: As surely as the rainbow is a necessary To effect of sunshine in rain, and must continue such as long as the sun and atmosphere endure, so surely shall this earth be preserved from destruction by water; and its preservation shall be as necessary an effect of my promise as the rainbow is of the shining of the sun during a shower of rain.

Verse 13. I do set my bow in the cloud] On the origin and nature of the rainbow there had been a great variety of conjectures, till Anthony de Dominis, bishop of Spalatro, in a treatise of his published by Bartholus in 1611, partly suggested the true cause of this phenomenon, which was afterwards fully explained and demonstrated by Sir Isaac Newton. To enter into this subject here in detail would be improper; and therefore the less informed reader must have recourse to treatises on Optics for its full explanation. readers in general it may be sufficient to say that the rainbow is a mere natural effect of a natural cause: 1. It is never seen but in showery weather. 2. Nor then unless the sun shines. 3. It never appears in any part of the heavens but in that opposite to the sun. 4. It never appears greater than a semicircle, but often much less. 5. It is always double, there being what is called the superior and inferior, or primary and secondary rainbow. 6. These bows exhibit the seven prismatic colours, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. 7. The whole of this phenomenon depends on the rays of the sun falling on spherical drops of water, and being in their passage through them, refracted and reflected.

Verse 17. This is the token] Noth, The Divine sign or portent: The bow shall be in the cloud. For the reasons above specified it must be there, when the circumstances already mentioned occur; if therefore it cannot fail because of the reasons before assigned, no more shall my promise; and the bow shall be the proof of its perpetuity.

Both the Greeks and Latins, as well as the Hebrews, have ever considered the rainbow as a Divine token or The formation of the primary and secondary rain-portent; and both of these nations have even deified bow depends on the two following propositions; 1. it, and made it a messenger of the gods. When the sun shines on the drops of rain as they are Homer, Il. xi., ver. 27, speaking of the figures on 'falling, the rays that come from those drops to the eye Agamemnon's breastplate, says there were three of the spectator, after ONE reflection and Two refrac-dragons, whose colours were tions, produce the primary rainbow. 2. When the sun shines on the drops of rain as they are falling, the rays that come from those drops to the eye of the spectator, after Two reflections and Two refractions, produce the secondary rainbow. The illustration of these propositions must be sought in treatises on Optics, assisted by plates.

From the well-known cause of this phenomenon it cannot be rationally supposed that there was no rainbow in the heavens before the time mentioned in the text, for as the rainbow is the natural effect of the sun's rays falling on drops of water, and of their being refracted and reflected by them, it must have appeared at different times from the creation of the sun and the atmosphere. Nor does the text intimate that the bow was now created for a sign to Noah and his posterity;

-ιρισσιν εοικότες, άς τε Κρονων.

Εν νεφεϊ στηριξε, τερας μερόπων ανθρώπων. "like to the rainbow which the son of Saturn has placed in the cloud as a SIGN to mankind," or to men of various languages, for so the μεрожшv avОрwпwv of the poet has been understood. Some have thought that the ancient Greek writers give this epithet to man from some tradition of the confusion and multiplication of tongues at Babel; hence in this place the words may be understood as implying mankind at large, the whole human race; God having given the rainbow for a sign to all the descendants of Noah, by whom the whole earth was peopled after the flood. Thus the celestial bow speaks a universal language, understood by all the sons and daughters of Adam. Virgil, from

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