who have been their Devourers before, do come to a general Deftruction.

Thus it was, that Noah was the Perfon fixed upon to escape the otherwise universal Overthrow of Mankind, with his Wife, and the three Sons he begat by her after he was five hundred Years old. * The others that Noah be gat, come not within Mofes's Account, from which too it may be naturally imagined, that they were drawn into the Current of Vice with the rest of the World. But Shem, Ham, and Japhet, who were born unto him after he was 500 Years old, we may observe, that they in their juvenile Years hearkened to their Father's Inftructions, and to what he no doubt foretold them wou'd be the End of the rest of Mankind, that embraced or continued their Degeneracy and Infidelity, and which he alfo forewarn'd the reft of the World of, as far as his Preaching might be heard, 120 Years before the Flood came upon them: But as this Fore-warning had no Influence upon any of his former Children, any more than upon the reft of the then World, or perhaps upon fome other Children he might have after them, fo no more even of his own Family, (which we may suppose were very numerous in 600 Years,) than himself, his Wife, thefe three Sons, and

their

* This proves the Reasonableness of my former Hypothefis, Chap. i. Sect. 3. of this Difcourfe, that the Antediluvians might eafily be allow'd to have Children to the Age of 520.

their Wives, (for the Sake of their Righteoufnefs) were receiv'd into that particular Favour to escape the general Overthrow that he had foretold wou'd come upon the Irreclaimable.

§. 8. Now the religious Worthip that was practifed by the Antediluvian Patriarchs, we may obferve, confifted in the Sacrifices and Oblations of their Cattle and Fruits, from the Account we have of Abel's and Cain's Offerings. But the Acceptableness of these Offerings and Sacrifices, confifted in the Sincerity of their Hearts in their Purposes of offering them; for where there was not offered therewith an humble and contrite Heart, or an Heart full of Love, Mercy, and Meeknefs, with Gratitude and Submiffion to God; thefe Sacrifices or Oblations became no Ways acceptable; just as our Prayers now, without thefe Qualifications, are only an Abomination, and return Bitterness instead of Peace and Satisfaction into our own Bofoms.

And that this Practice of the Rites and Ceremonies of Sacrifices and Oblations, was the religious Worship of the Antediluvian Pa triarchs, to typify the full and fufficient Sacrifice that the Redeemer of the World fhou'd make for the Sins thereof, may be farther obferved, from the first Act of Worship performed by Noah after the Deluge, as in Ch. viii. V. 20. "And Noah builded an Altar "unto the LORD, and took of every clean "Beaft, and every clean Fowl, and offered "Burnt-offerings on the Altar.

This is alfo confirmed by the Law which: Mofes gave to the Children of Ifrael, after, their Deliverance from Egyptian Bondage, by which they had been deprived of this Way of Worship. Which he very often repeated to Pharaoh, Let my People go that they may ferve me; which when Pharaoh at laft confented to, but wou'd have had them left their Cattle, Mofes utterly refufes to comply with that; for, fays he, Ch. x. Ver. 25, and 26. "Thou "must give us alfo Sacrifices and Burntofferings, that we may facrifice unto the "LORD OUR GOD. Our Cattle alfo hall << go with us, there fhall not an Hoof there"of be left behind, for thereof muft we take to ferve the LORD OUR GOD, and we "know not with what we muft ferve the LORD "until we come thither."

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So that it appears, that the Worship of the Antediluvian Patriarchs, was the fame that Mofes refter'd after it had been loft during the Bondage of the Children of Ifrael in Egypt.

§. 9, It is farther obfervable, that righteous Lamech, the Father of Noah, died 118 Years younger than any of the Patriarchs of this Line, as may be feen by the foregoing Table, and that his Death was only five Years before the Flood; from which we may naturally conjecture, that the Wickedness of the World might give him fuch Concern and Uneafiness of Mind, that their Obftinacy and Irreclaima bleness brought upon him a Decay of Nature, contrary to the then general Courie, and that

2

he

he was thereby removed from the World before that difmal Overthrow, fince if he had lived, and been preferved therefrom along with his Son Noah, &c. it must have caufed a great deal of Unealinefs and Reluctancy to him in his old Age, to have feen fuch a numerous Progeny of his own, &c. to have fuffer'd; it must therefore be wifely order'd by Providence, even by this natural Caufe, to remove him from the beholding of fuch a Calamity inflicted upon them, which the younger Years of Noah, not being much decay'd, cou'd better bear. And that notwithftanding his Father Methuselah lived the longeft of any of these Patriarchs, yet as it cou'd be of no Service to the Post-diluvian World for him to furvive the Deluge, he was alfo taken away by Death, in the very Year of the Deluge; and as he is faid to die in that Year, he muft therefore die a common Death, and not be deftroy'd by the Deluge..

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And tho' his Son Lamech died five Years before him, they were both taken away from the Evil to come, and only Noah and threeof his Sons, whom he begat after he was 500 Years old, with his and their Wives, were preferv'd to people the World again.

§. 10. It may alfo be obferved from the 3d Verfe of the 6th Chapter of Genefis, that' Noah had a particular Revelation of God's Purpose to deftroy the World by a Deluge, 20 Years before his having his three Sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet; wherein we are told,

"And

"And the LORD faid, my Spirit fhall not always ftrive with Man, for that he alfo "is Flesh: yet his Days fhall be an hundred " and twenty Years.

So that Noah had an hundred and twenty Years Warning particularly given him of this fatal Overthrow, to confirm the former Relations which his Fore-fathers had given of it, but who, perhaps, had never any Account of the fatal Period before.

In which 120 Years, Noah had timely No.. tice to preach Repentance to the Antediluvian World, and alfo to make Provifion, as directed by God, for his own Safety, and fuch of his own Family as wou'd hearken to his prophetic Declarations and Inftructions.

But the irreclaimable Wickednefs of the Antediluvian World, which brought this Judgment upon them, I fhall confider in my next Chapter, from the Account we have of it in the 6th Chapter of Genefis.

§. 1.

IN

CHA P. VI

the 6th Chapter of Genefis, Mofes gives us an Account of the Greatnefs of the Wickedness that prevailed upon the Earth 120 Years before the Flood, upon which God determin'd to put a Stop thereto, by an univerfal Overthrow of them, and only to preferve Noah, his three Sons, and their Wives, who had kept themselves from enga