B.C. 3017.

LAMECHENOCH.

5

strength, should build cities, and provide the arts which defend and adorn them,—is a proof that there is a certain maturity of man's social state, which is to be brought about through human agency. This Lamech beheld in the labours of his children, and to it probably he referred when he compared the security of himself, the seventh from Adam, with that of the first founder of city-life. He had heard of God's sentence on Cain; but he derided it, when he thought of the strength and ingenuity of his family, and of the safety which society conferred. "If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, surely Lamech seventy and sevenfold."7

Far different was the confidence which, in the same generation, was displayed by the descendant of Seth. The dispositions of men already indicated that the advancement of civil society would be attended by a neglect of its real end. But in this very generation did God raise up a testimony to the reality of His moral government, and to the vanity of all attempts at improvement in which He was forgotten. "Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied concerning these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."8 "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him."9

Thus early were the principles of human society and the hallowed rule of heavenly communion brought into opposition with one another. Both arise from those natural relations with which God has formed mankind, and from those powers and

7 Gen. iv. 24.

s Jude 14, 15.

9 Gen. v. 24.

endowments which He has given. But they speedily took their leave of one another. Yet the happiness of man's life depends upon their moving together with an equal pace; and the complete establishment of Christ's kingdom implies their perfect combination. And the great object of history is to shew how these powers diverged from one another, and how they have again been brought to unite: their times of meeting are the grand epochs in the annals of mankind.

Before the flood these powers of the world and the Church were altogether divided. In one family God was worshipped; and Adam's life of nine hundred and thirty-one years enabled him to testify God's works to eight generations of his children. Methuselah, his descendant in the eighth generation, lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years, so that he could talk with Noah his grandson, and with the children of Noah, and tell them what the first man had declared to him. But out of this household God was forgotten: "All flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."10 Even the worldly purposes of human society were destroyed. It did not yield present security. "The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." "

10 Gen. vi. 12.

11 Gen. vi. 11, 13, 8.

Jupiter Pluvius, or the god of rain, according to the ancients, from the Column of Antoninus. His army was delivered, when surrounded by the Quadri, by a wonderful rain, which was attributed by the heathen to the intervention of their gods, but by the Church to the prayers of his Christian soldiers.

THE flood is the first great epoch in history; for by it God destroyed the worldly race, and the chosen family became the representatives of mankind. God saved them" in the ark from perishing by water," while He brought in "the flood upon the world of the ungodly;"' just as "the ark of Christ's Church" has since been appointed as the only sure means of preservation. This flood, and the means of man's deliverance from it, were long remembered among the different tribes of mankind; and an ancient historian tells us, that in his days there were 66 some remains of the ark to be seen among the mountains of Armenia, and that the pitch procured from it was employed as a charm." For when the waters subsided, it was in this country, in the heart of Asia, that the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, together with their wives, 1 2 Pet. ii. 5. 2 Baptismal Service.

3 Berosus, ap. Joseph. i. 4.

"3

B.C. 2348.

NOAH'S PROPHECY.

9

and the animals which they had kept alive in the ark, issued forth to occupy the empty world.

For some time Noah's family lived together; and before they separated, a prediction was uttered by the aged patriarch, which has been wonderfully accomplished in the general arrangement of the world. Taking occasion from the want of reverence shewn to him by Ham, and from the filial duty of Shem and Japheth, Noah declared what would be the general fortune of their future descendants. To the children of Shem he promised that they should be the especial objects of some spiritual blessing, while Japheth's descendants should bear the leading part in the appropriation of this world's possessions. To Ham he gave no promise; and one of Ham's sons, who perhaps had taken part in his father's crime, he sentenced to be a servant to the children of his brother: "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant."4 Finally, he foretold a combination between the worldly power of the sons of Japheth and the spiritual seed of Shem; and this consummation he predicted when those who possessed earthly might should take up their rest with the heirs of the divine blessing. "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant." "15

The general fulfilment of this prophecy will be seen in the subsequent history. So early did God mark out what should be the general aspect of the world. But the first appearance of things promised otherwise. Nimrod, the first who rose to worldly eminence, was Ham's descendant, and with his followers the empire of the East for a while continued. Ham's other descendants, independently of Canaan, extended themselves over the continent of Africa, 4 Gen. ix. 26. 5 Ver. 27.