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Olympas. Whom did these two covenants respect?

Thomas. That concerning Christ respects the whole world; that respecting circumcision respected the seed of Abraham only or his natural offspring.

Olympas. What is the date of the covenant of circumcision, William ?

William. It was made in the hundredth year of Abraham, four hundred and five years before giving the law.

Olympas. And what was the date of "the covenant concerning Christ?"

William. It was made in the year of Abraham 75, or four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the law; and respected spiritual blessings only through Christ.

Olympas. There are, then, two covenants with Abraham- -one concerning flesh; another concerning spirit-his natural offspring and Christ; the one represented by Hagar and Ishmael-the other by Sarah and Isaac. Gal. iv. So that we have two at least with Abraham. Indeed, some reckon three -one concerning the Messiah, Gen. xii. ; one concerning Canaan, Gen. xv.; one concerning his fleshly seed, Gen. xvii. But the two last being engrossed, Gen. xvii., make but one covenant concerning his fleshly seed, and that leaves the other for his spiritual or believing children wherever they may be found. We may then count a covenant with Adam, one with Noah, two with Abraham, one with the whole nation Sinai, one with Aaron, and one with David, in all seven. The great covenantees are Adam and his heirs, Noah and his Deirs, Abraham and his heirs natural, Abraham

and his heirs spiritual, the Jews and their heirs, Aaron and his heirs, David and his heirs. Now, to understand these seven covenants, is to understand the Old Testament well, and that is the best preparation for the New. But as I wish frequently to touch upon these covenants till you all comprehend their meaning, I will dismiss them for the present with one observation, viz.— You are all interested directly in the first twopassively, indeed, as were all the fowls of heaven and the cattle in the Noahic covenant, of which we now treat. You were born under the dominion of two; but none of you by virtue of mere natural birth can inherit the blessings of the covenant concerning Christ. You must become the children of the Christian covenant by faith in the Messiah. Then, indeed, if you be Christ's, you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

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CONVERSATION X.

Olympas. BEFORE reading the tenth chapter of Genesis this morning, I ask the family by what authority it is said that Noah was a hundred and twenty years in building the ark?

William. The Lord said man's days should be a hundred and twenty years when he repented that he had made him, and immediately gave orders for building the ark. Now we presume that Noah was obedient to the heavenly precept, and soon commenced.

Olympas. But a gentleman who heard our conversation on Gen. vi., has observed that the birth of Shem, Ham, and Japheth was announced before the order to build the ark. And as Shem was only ninety-eight years old when the flood commenced, the ark could not have been a hundred and twenty years in building. How do you dispose of this difficulty?

William. I never thought of that before.

Olympas. How do you dispose of it, Reuben? Reuben. It does not lie in my way: for I have had my doubts about the time the ark was a-building. I think that in one hundred and twenty years some parts of it would have been worm eaten, and consequently unsafe.

Olympas. What, Thomas, do you say to this difficulty?

Thomas. The fact that the sons of Noah are mentioned before the order to build the ark, does

not prove that they were born before that order. Historians sometimes anticipate themselves. Thus Moses gives an account of the generation of the heavens and the earth, and afterwards the formation of the earth. But the reason why I have supposed that the ark was a hundred and twenty years in building, is from the words of Peter. In his first epistle he says the longsuffering of God waited while the ark was preparing. Now as he measures the long-suffering by the time of building the ark, or the building of the ark by the long-suffering, we are authorized to say, that as the long-suffering is affirmed to have been a hundred and twenty years, the ark was that time in being builded. Besides, I see all our chronologists date the order for building the ark with the promise of one hundred and twenty years forbearance.

Olympas. So I reason. It is probable, however, that Noah consumed several years in the preparations for that stupendous superstructure. It is not unreasonable to suppose that half the time was spent in getting out and seasoning the materials, &c.

Thomas. There are some points in the ninth chapter which were deferred, not yet attended to -Noah's drunkenness and the irreverence of Ham, with the curse on Canaan.

Olympas. True, these points were not considered in our last lesson. Well, then, what think you, James, was the employment of Noah? You remember Adam was a gardener, Cain a farmer, and Abel a shepherd. How did the new world begin?

James. Noah began to be a husbandman, or farmer, and planted a vineyard.

Olympas. This was a new pursuit. The cultivation of the vine is, however, sanctioned by authority very ancient and very high. But was it not a snare to Noah, Eliza?

Eliza. Noah drank to excess, and was drunken. Olympas. You must not judge too hastily about this affair. Noah in all probability was ignorant of the power of the juice of the grape. And no one can lawfully infer that this ever occurred before or after in the life of this good and excellent man, the father and saviour of the present world. The innocence of Noah in this accident is fully proved from the fact that he was gifted with the spirit of prophecy immediately on awaking from this sleep of wine. He foresaw in a glance of his eye the future destinies of his sons. Who of the three sons dishonoured his father, William?

William. Ham, the father of Canaan. Why Canaan was cursed for this deed of his father I cannot say; but it would seem as if the curse fell on him.

Olympas. It fell not upon him specially, but upon his descendants. Still, as in the family of Adam and Abraham, the behaviour of the father yet affects the offspring, the curse upon Canaan (probably a participant with his father) has descended to many generations.-Children are temporally involved in all the fortunes of their parents. If eternally, it is because of something of their own superadded. The curse on Canaan, or on this branch of Noah's family, is that of servitude in this world. It reaches no farther. But the

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