Reflexions upon the books of the Holy Scriptures to establish the truth of the Christian religion. Volume I in two volumes.

CHAP. XII.

That Noah was fully perswaded of the Creation of the World, and the Promise of the Messiah.

IF we find that the Children of Adam, and their Posterity, could be exactly informed of the Creation and the Promise of the Messiah, and that indeed they were so, it will follow that Noah could not be unacquainted with the same Truths.

Noah was six hundred Years old when the De∣luge came: He had Conversed with Lamech his Father, who had seen Adam and his Children, as being fifty six years of Age when Adam died; he had Conversed with Methusalem his Grandfather, who died that very year the Flood came, and who being three hundred and forty three years old when Adam died, had without doubt instructed Noah, during so vast an interval of time, in like manner as himself had been instructed by Adam for many Ages.

And as Methusalem had lived a long time with Seth, who died in the year of the World 1042, so it is evident, that Noah who was born in the year 1056, had not only seen Lamech and Methusalem, but many also of their Ancestors, whose Discour∣ses he heard, examin'd their Traditions, and imi∣tated their way of Worship.

Moreover, Noah saw that there were no men in his time, who did not deduce their Genealogy

from Adam. All his Contemporaries could con∣vince him of it. Every one of them having as ex∣act a knowledge of their Ancestors as he could have of his.

Now, that this was a matter which they might be easily assur'd of, appears on these two accounts: the one is the long life which the men of that Age enjoyed; and the other, the short interval of time which was between the Creation and the Deluge, the whole amounting only to 1656 years. Adam died in the year 930, and the Deluge happened in the 600 year of Noah's Life. Adam died 126 years before the Birth of Noah, so as Adam must have been seen and known by Methusalem, Lamech, and thousands of others who were Contemporarys with Noah.

To these we may add a third Remark, and that is the Jealousie and Hatred which was between the two Families of Cain and Seth: Cain's Posterity were altogether corrupted, and the greatest part of Seth's also: Noah being of the Posterity of Seth, had no reason to call those Matters in question, which he saw generally own'd and received of those to whom their Wickedness and Crimes suggested Objections against them. And I do not know, whether I might not suppose that Noah had before his eyes Paradise, with the Cherubims who guarded the entrance thereof, and made it inaccessible, which if so, was an authentick proof of the Truths in question: That Garden, as far as we can judge, being not destroy'd, nor the Guardian Angel discharged till the time of the Flood.

Be it as it will, yet Noah being a Man fearing

God, was honoured with an extraordinary Call to exhort Men to Repentance, he was command∣ed to build an Ark; he saw the Deluge happen∣ing, according to what God had foretold, he saw the Beasts, of their own accord, gather themselves together, to enter into the Ark, in like manner as he had been told that they came to Adam. He saw the Deluge cease according to the Divine Declaration, he saw fire from Heaven con∣suming the Sacrifice he offer'd in acknowledg∣ment to God, in like manner, as the words of Moses seem to imply, that it happened at the Sa∣crifice of Abel. He saw himself chosen in a pecu∣liar manner, to be the Depositary of the Promise which Adam had left to his Posterity, tho he never had the satisfaction of seeing it fulfilled himself, God having reserved the Accomplishment of it for another time, and to one of his Posterity at a great distance.

It is very evident, that all these Particulars could not but conduce to preserve the Memory of these first most important Matters of Fact of the Creation and the Promise of the Messiah, and therefore, that Noah must of necessity be convin∣ced of the certainty and truth of them. Let us now see whether Noah's Offspring had the same perswasion concerning these things.