CONSIDERATIONS, &c. 1. His Name. No sooner was there a son born to Lamech, but he gave him the name of Noah, a word involving in it the ideas of rest and consolation, at the same time assigning the reason in a prophecy relating to himThis same shall comfort us concerning our work, and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed *. The great object of the wishes and hopes of the faithful in the ancient Church ever was the removal of that curse brought by sin upon the earth, the destruction and dissolution of which it effected in the days of Noah. He was ordained to be the restorer of mankind, the head and father of the new world, when it should arise out of the ruins of the old. And this seems to have been the accomplishment of Lamech's prediction, viz. the removal of that dreadful effect of the curse upon the ground, and the restoration of the human race, but more especially of the * Gen. v. 29. holy line, from whence was to spring, in the fulness of time, the desire of all nations *, and the hope of all the ends of the earth †. Vain, without him, were all merely human comforts and comforters, because they could not reach to the saving of the soul. This great salvation, exclusive of which every other was but a temporary reprieve, the date of which must expire, and the original sentence take place, they could only prefigure and shadow forth, until the seed should come, to whom the promise was made †, and in whom alone it could be fulfilled. Of the * Hag. ii. 7. + Ps. lxv. 5. Gal. iii. 19. blessed Jesus may it be said emphatically, and in every sense of the words;-This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands. And thus he declares himself the accomplisher of this and all other the like prophecies, to as many as would receive, and acknowledge him, and follow his directionsCome unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you, and give you rest*: rest from sin, by forgiving it; rest from sorrow, by the joy consequent thereupon; rest from toil and trouble, by a holy and happy death; blessed, saith the Spirit, from henceforth are * Matt. xi. 28. the dead which die in the Lord; for they rest from their labours *: their bodies repose in peace, and their souls are entered into that rest which remaineth for the people of God †. However the curse might be partially and for a time removed by the subsiding of the flood, it shall not be finally taken off, until the overflowings of ungodliness are chased away for ever, and the new heavens and new earth arise, Phenix like, from the ashes of the old. There righteousness shall establish her everlasting throne; and as there will be no more sin, so St. John assures us, there will be no more curset. What *Rev. xiv. 13. + Heb. iv. 9. + Rev. xxii. 3. G |