to be unaccountable § 9. The State and Condition of Man thus fallen is 〈◊〉 to be enquired into and that was midst miserable and dreadful for having after this maâ—â—ier broken Covenant with God by a wicked and wilful Transgression of his holy Law 1. He thereby utterly forfeited and lost all Covenant-Interest in God he could no more claim a Right in or hope for that Reward which was promised on Condition of his perfect Obedience to the Law of that Covenant which God had made with him but immediately fell under Guilt being by the Sentence of his own Conscience bound over to punishment under the just Wrath of the Almighty and therefore he dreaded nothing more then the Approach of God to him Gen. 3. 8 9 10. 2. He did not only forfeit his Right and present Relation to God by this Sin but moreover he was thereby rendred uncapable of true Happiness inasmuch as he was now apostatized from a Covenant of Friendship to a State of Enmity against God and Alienation from him which is the necessary Adjunct of Wickedness He fell under the Dominion of Sin and that Image of God wherein he was created was in a manner wholly defaced he sinned and fell short of the Glory of God Rom. 3. 23. And now instead of that original Righteousness wherewith he was at first beautifyed there was nothing to be found in him but abominable Filthiness and horrid Deformity his Mind was covered over yea possest with hellish Darkness Hatred of God reigned in his Heart and his Affections were no longer subject to right Reason but became vile and rebellious and in this State it is evident he must be utterly uncapable of Communion with God and of the Fruition of him wherein alone the true Happiness of a reasonable Creature doth consist 3. The Curse of the Law in its utmost Rigour and prime Intendment was immediately and only due to him and no less then the utmost Execution thereof was every Moment to be expected by him and that was Death even the worst of Deaths eternal Death which is An everlasting Punishment of Soul and Body under the wrathful Vengeance of a provoked Deity Now that this was the prime Intendment of the Threatning might be evinced by many Reasons but at present I shall content my self with the mention of two only 1. This Punishment will be inflicted on many of the ungodly Posterity of Adam who have been guilty of no other Transgression but that of the Light and Law of Nature such were those wicked Heathens that Paul speaks of Rom. 1. 20. c. and Chap. 2. 6 16. who tho' they never had the Law written or knew of any repeated Promulgation thereof and therefore we may conclude them much more unlikely to be acquainted with the new-Covenant and its Terms yet being a Law to themselves were for the Transgression of this Law lyable to this Punishment Now this Punishment must be the Fruit of that Curse which is the Sanction of that Law which they were under and which was transgressed by them which was the Law of Creation even the same Law that Adam was made under and if the Law be the same the same Penalty was incurred by the Transgression thereof and if they are liable to eternal Death for the Transgression of this Law there is no rational doubt but Adam was so 2. If the just Demerit and Wages of Sin was contained in the threatning as no doubt it was it could be no less than an eternal Punishment that was threatned for if that be not the Desert of every Sin it cannot be due to any Sin for the Reason why the Punishment of any Sin is eternal is that the Penalty inflicted on the Sinner may be adequate to the Offence the Punishment hath an Infinity in its Eternity because the Fault is infinitely aggravated and that can only be in regard of its Object there is nothing that can be an infinite Aggravation of Sin but its being committed against a God of infinite Greatness Glory and Goodness and this Aggravation attends every Sin as it is Sin against God and tho' other Circumstances may increase the Provocation and so intend the Degree of the Sinners Pain yet none but this can reach Infinity The Punishment therefore due to Adam for Sin against God could be no other or no less then eternal Death which is that intended in the Sanction of the Law given to him Fourthly The whole Creation of this visible World became lyable to Destruction with fallen Man as an Inheritance forfeited by his Treason against the Supream Majesty By the Sin of Man the Frame of Earth and the Heavens made for his Service and Delight was loosed and their Foundations so shaken as would have issued in an utter Ruin had not Christ interposed and upheld the Pillars thereof Psal 75. 3. with Heb. 1. 3. and if the Curse had been immediately executed in its Rigor with these Desolations following thereupon there had been an Hell ready prepared for Man for suppose I pray you all the Lights of Heaven to be put out the whole Order Symmetry and Beauty of the Creation to be destroyed and all reduced to a Chaos of Confusion and horrid Darkness about Man and the burning Wrath of God kindled upon him now cast into the Jaws of eternal Despair and tormented by a Worm that never dyes think I say of this and you will hardly be able to conceive of a state more dreadful and dismal than this that Man stood at the very Brink of Fifthly In this Condition Man was altogether helpless and without Strength being utterly disabled to stand before God upon Terms of a Covenant of Works and as uncapable to bring himself upon other Terms with God for he was not able to move one step towards a Reconciliation with God or the ransoming of himself out of these Miseries The Door of Repentance was not opened to him by the Covenant of Creation or if it had there was in him now neither Power nor Will to enter in thereat He was utterly disabled from obeying God acceptably upon any Terms until made a new Creature And therefore it was impossible not only that this Covenant now broken should be renewed with him or any of his Posterity for the same Ends and in the same manner as it was at first made with upright Man but moreover that ever any Covenant should be immediately stricken with him or them wherein fallen Man should have been the first and immediate Covenanter with God for himself as Adam was in his State of Integrity § 10. Thus miserable yea more than we have expressed or can express was the State of fallen Man Let us now see how the boundless Mercy of God was revealed unto him when he was thus lost and miserably ruined by his own Sin And for the better understanding of what is to follow I shall premise two things which are necessary to be kept in our Eye 1. That the infinitely Wise
of the Gospel The ignorance of this that was in them is apparently the reason of the Blindness and miserable Mistakes of the wisest Heathen Philosophers in a thousand other things of the greatest Importance if a Man miss the right account of this he is certainly bewildred in all after search for that Truth which it most concerns him to know and therefore it behoves us with all diligence to observe what the Holy Ghost hath left upon Record for our Instruction in this matter The Discourse of which may be reeferred to these three Heads 1. The Condition of Adam before he sinned 2. His Sin and the immediate Consequents thereof And 3. How God dealt with him in his fallen State of each I shall discourse but very briefly And first § 2. Concerning the Condition of Man before his Fall we may observe these things 1. That God made him a reasonable Creature and indued him with original Righteousness which was a Perfection necessary for the enabling of him to answer the End of his Creation and eminently in this respect he is said to be created in the Image of God Gen. 1. 26 27. and to be made upright Eccle. 7. 29. which Vprightness or Rectitude of Nature did consist in the perfect Harmony of his Soul with that Law of God which he was made under and subjected to which was 1. An eternal Law and invariable Rule of Righteousness whereby those things that are agreeable to the Holiness and Rectitude of the Divine Nature were required and whatsoever is contrary thereto was prohibited which Law was to Adam internal and subjective only being communicated to him with his reasonable Nature * Jus naturale est dictamen recte rationis judicans actui alicus ex ejus convenientiâ vel disconvenientiâ cum ipsâ naturâ rationali inesse moralem turpitudinem aut necessitatem moralem con 〈…〉 ab Authore Naturae ipso Deo talem accum aut Vetâ—â— aut 〈◊〉 Grot. This 〈…〉 Philosopher 〈…〉 eth it was Nota Artificis operi suo impressa And of some Dictates of the Law of Nature as I remember Cicero saith that with respect to them facti non docti imbuti non instructi 〈◊〉 and written in his heart so as that he needed no external Revelation to perfect his Knowledg of it And therefore in the History of his Creation there is no other account given of it but what is 〈…〉 which 〈…〉 have 〈…〉 that he was made in the Image of God which as the Apostle reacheth us doth consist in Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4. 24. The Sum of this Law was afterwards given in ten Words upon Mount Sinai and yet more briefly by Christ who reduceth it unto two great Commands respecting our Duty both to God and our Neighbour Mal. 22. 37-40 And this as a Law and Rule of Righteousness is in its own Nature immutable and invariable as is the Nature and will of God himself whose Holiness is stampt thereon and represented thereby 2. It pleased the 〈…〉 Majesty of Heaven to add into the eternal Law a 〈…〉 wherein it charged Man not to 〈◊〉 of the Fruit of one Tree in the midst of the Garden of Eden which Tree was called The Tree of the Knowledge of 〈◊〉 and Evil Gen. 2. 16 17. chap. 3. 3. The 〈◊〉 of this Fruit was not a thing evil in it self but 〈◊〉 was made so by divine Prohibition and therefore it was necessary that the Will of God concerning this should be expresly signified and declared unto Man who otherwise by the Light of Nature had been no more directed to 〈◊〉 from the Fruit of this Tree then of any other in the Garden nor indeed had he been under any Bond of Duty thereunto But the Command being once given forth this positive Law had its Foundations 〈◊〉 laid in the Law of Nature it being an 〈…〉 That it is a most righteous and reasonable thing that Man should obey God and that the Will of the Creature should ever be subject to the Will of the Creator And therefore the Heart of an upright Man could not but naturally close with and submit to the Will of God by any means made known unto him and there can be no Transgression of a positive Precept without the Violation of that eternal Law that is written in his Heart Secondly This Law was guarded by a Sanction in the threatning of Death to the Transgression thereof Gen. 2. 17. which Commination is delivered in Terms denoting the utmost Misery that can befall a reasonable Creature and the highest certainty of its befalling him in case of his Transgression In the day thou eatest thereof saith the Lord in dying thou shalt dye And this Sanction belonged not only to the positive Precept unto which it was expresly annexed but also to the Law of Nature the Demerit of the Transgression of which Law is known to man by the same Light as the Law it self is known to him and this is made good by the experience of Mankind even in their fallen State who do not only find some remaining Notions in themselves of the difference of Good and Evil and some sense of their Duty to embrace the one and eschew the other but also have a Conscience of Punishment due to the Transgression of these Dictates of their Reason And these Notions are connatural to them and therefore to be observed as well in those that have not as in those that have the Light of a written Law to guide them Rom. 1. 32. chap. 2. 15. And if it be thus with fallen Man then much more as the Law it self so also the Sanction thereof was perfectly and distinctly known unto Adam in his upright State whose Conscience was pure and his Mind irradiated with a clear Light as being perfectly free from those dark Fumes of sensual Lust wherewith the Reason and Judgment of his lapsed Offspring is darkned and perverted Thirdly Adam was not only under a Commination of Death in case of Disobedience but had also the Promise of an eternal Reward on condition of his perfect Obedience to these Laws which Condition if he had fulfilled the Reward had been due to him by vertue of this Compact that it pleased God to condescend unto for the incouraging of Man's Obedience and the manifestation of his own Bounty and Goodness § 3. Now that such a Promise of Reward was given to Adam and indeed implyed in the Commination of Death in case of Disobedience may be concluded 1. From the State and Capacity in which God set him which was a state of Tryal in a way to eternal Happiness under a Law of Works and exercise of Obedience which we cannot conceive of but as in order to some Reward and highest End proposed to him and in this way attainable by him 2. From the natural 〈◊〉 of Men to expect the Reward of 〈◊〉 Blessedness for their Obedience to the Law of God and to stand before him upon 〈◊〉 of a Covenant
and Gracious God who from Eternity foresaw the Fall of Man had also from Eternity a gracious Purpose in himself according to the Counsel of his own Will to redeem 2 Tim. 1. 9 10. Tit. 1. 1 2. and save a Remnant of lost Mankind from their lapsed and fallen State and by his All-powerful Grace thro' the Merits of Christ to recover them from Misery to the Inheritance of a Kingdom and Glory far greater than that set before Adam in his Integrity And these eternal Counsels that were hid with himself were transacted in a way of Covenant between the Father and the Son even in a Covenant of Redemption now revealed in the Scriptures of Truth And to this Covenant belong all the Promises of the Father to the Mediator and the restipulatory Engagements of the Redeemer about the Salvation of Sinners and the way and method of its Accomplishment And with respect to these Counsels the Son of God is said to be the Father's Delights and himself also to have his Delights in the habitable World when the Head of the Dust thereof was formed Prov. 8. 22 31. In which Context the mutual Acquiescence both of the Father and the Son in this admirable Contrivance of infinite Grace and Wisdom is not obscurely set forth 2. In pursuance of this Covenant of Redemption and the Suretiship of Christ taken therein upon the Fall of Man the Government of the World was actually put into the hands of the Son of God the designed Mediator who interposed himself for the Prevention of its present and utter Ruin And by him were all future Transactions managed for the Good of Man and all Discoveries of Grace and Mercy were made to the Children of Men in him and by him And all things in Heaven and Earth were brought into an order subservient to the Ends of the new Creation and the Redemption of lost Man to be accomplished in the fulness of time by the Son of God incarnate Fallen Man could have no more to do with God nor God with him in a way of Kindness but in a Mediator § 11. And from this Design of Love and Mercy it was that when the Lord God came unto fallen Man in the Garden in the cool of the Day and found him filled with Horror and Shame in the Conscience of his own Guilt he did not execute the Rigor of the Law upon him but held a Treaty with him which issued in a Discovery of Grace whereby a Door of Hope was opened to him in the laying of a new Foundation for his acceptance with God and walking unto well pleasing before him For 1. In the Sentence passed upon the Serpent which principally concerned the Devil whose Instrument he had been in tempting Man and who probably was made to abide in his Possession of the Serpent till he had received this Doom Gen. 3. 5. there was couched a blessed Promise of Redemption and Salvation unto Man which was to be wrought out by the Son of God made of a Woman and so her Seed which Salvation thus promised Man was to receive by Faith and to hope in it for in this implyed Promise was laid the first Foundation of the Church after the Fall of Man which was to be raised up out of the Ruines of the Devil's Kingdom by the Destruction of his Work by Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 3. 8. 2. In this Commination of the Serpent there is not only implyed a Promise of raising up a Saviour of the Seed of the Woman and sending him into the World for the breaking of the Serpents Head that is the perfect Conquest of Satan and the utter ruining of his Kingdom but also of propagating and preserving a Church in the World that should be Heirs of that Salvation and should maintain a spiritual War with Satan and his Kingdom which on their part should end in perfect Conquest and Victory The God of Peace bruising Satan under their Feet while he is nibling at their Heel and making them to be more than Conquerors thro' him that loved them for the Seed of the Woman is to be understood collectively of Christ and his members as the Seed of the Serpent includes all wicked Men tho' it hath a principal respect to Christ personal who alone hath obtained the Victory over the infernal Power and destroyed the Works of the Devil But altho' this was done by himself alone yet was it not for himself only but for his Body the Church of which every true Believer is a Member and shall certainly obtain Victory thro' the Faith of his Name And against this Church the Gates of Hell can never prevail but a Church there ever shall be in the World so long as the World continues and ever was since the first Promise tho' maligned and persecuted by the Devil and wicked Men as early appears in that Instance of Cain and Abel Gen. 4. compared with 1 Joh. 3. 12. And something of this nature is intimated in the Name of Seth and the Reason given by Eve of her imposing that Name Gen. 4. 25. 3. Hereupon there was a present Restraint and Modification of the Curse in the Sentence pronounced upon Adam and Eve Gen. 3. 16 19. whereby altho' they and their Offspring were necessarily subjected to many Evils and Miseries while they lived and Dissolution by a temporal Death at last yet they were not immediately laid under a Sentence of eternal Death which was the Punishment they had deserved And concerning this Sentence we may farther observe 1. That the Promise of breaking the Serpents Head which was revealed to our first Parents did not give them a Deliverance from all Misery but only an Exemption from eternal Death But notwithstanding this Promise and all that Christ hath now done for the full Accomplishment thereof it is the Will of God that all Men even Believers as well as others shall in this World be exercised with Miseries and remain subject to temporal Death or Dissolution of the Body into Dust 2. The Corruptibility of Man all the Miseries he is subject to while he lives and temporal Death at last are the Fruits of Sin and of the Curse due to it as they are natural Evils or Punishments but yet they are not the Fruit or Result of the Curse only nor the full Wages of Sin As they are evil they flow from the Curse but as temporal only the Evil of them is limited and thus modified by Mercy or compassionate Goodness at least The Position of temporal Death concludes indeed that Sin is in the World but this Limitation of Death doth also prove that there is Mercy reserved for some and that such as obtain not Mercy must be brought to an after reckoning inasmuch as the Fruit of their Doings hath not fully been repaid to them in this World And hence 3. There are none of these Evils but are capable of a Change as to their penal Nature together with the Change of that Man's State upon
whom they come for tho' they fall as so many Drops of Wrath that bode a dreadful Storm coming upon the wicked yet are they * De primâ igitur Corporis Morte aâ—ci potest quod bonis bona sit malis mala secunda vero sine dubio sicut nullorum bonorum est it a nulli bona Aug. De Civit. Dei Lib. 13. Cap. 2. all sanctifyed unto a Believer and turned into real Blessings which change the utmost Execution of the Curse is not capable of for eternal Punishment can never be turned into a Blessing upon any Yea supposing as there is Reason to do that God did not only promise a Redeemer to Adam before he pronounced this Sentence but also gave him Faith in the Promise it came immediately upon him as a fatherly Chastisment and not as a Fruit of unpacified Anger It is also true on the other side that the Godness and Forbearance of God is thro' the Wickedness of Man turned into a Judgment upon the Ungodly and Impenitent who abuse the day of his Patience unto the treasuring up of Wrath against the day of Wrath and Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God Rom. 2. 5. So that both temporal Mercies and temporal Evils are wholly subservient to the Design of God's Glory in the future and eternal State of Man and we may conclude there had been no such thing as temporal Death if there had not been a day of Patience 4. It is more than probable that at the same time or immediately after God did institute those bloody Sacrifices that were offered unto him from thenceforth and accepted by him when offered in Faith for the further Instruction of Man in the general Notion of the way of his Redemption by the promised Seed and for the Help and Confirmation of his Faith in the Promise Yea even the Coats of Skins which the Lord made and wherewith he cloathed Adam and Eve then confounded with the shame of their own Nakedness seem to be designed of God not only for a natural but also a mystical Vse were for their Instruction concerning that imputed Righteousness wherein they must now stand before him and without which they could find no acceptance with him Especially if these Coats were made of the Skins of those Beasts that Adam was then directed to offer in Sacrifice to God as some conjecture they were we can hardly imagine less to be intended thereby for no doubt with the Institution of Sacrifices something of the Vse and End of them was revealed unto Adam 5. This also must be noted That altho' the Covenant of Grace was thus far revealed unto Adam as we have heard yet we see in all this there was no formal and express Covenant-Transaction with him much less was the Covenant of Grace established with him as a publick Person or Representative in any kind but as he obtained Interest for himself alone in the Grace of God thus revealed by his own Faith so must those of his Posterity that are saved thereby And therefore altho' the Corruption of fallen Adam and the Guilt of his Fall be from him derived to all his Offspring because they were in him as a publick Person and foederal Root when he fell yet can they not derive from him any Interest in his renewed State or in the Grace or Holiness thereof seeing with respect thereunto God dealt with him only as a private Person and the Good of the Promise now given out was no more intrusted with him then with his Posterity or any of them in particular § 12. The State and Condition that the World of Adam's Posterity are now in is as followeth 1. They are all born in original Sin in the Image of the first Adam fallen and so under a broken Covenant being by Nature Children of Wrath unholy and without Strength 2. Yet are they necessarily under the Obligation of a Law to obey worship and serve their Creator tho' they have no Covenant-Interest in him for it is impossible and implies a Contradiction that reasonable Creatures should be brought forth into the World and not be subject to the Law of their Creator or that eternal Death should not be due to the Breach of that Law by them The Law of Creation binds when the Covenant of Creation is broken tho' the Transgression of Man hath forfeited his Interest in the one yet it cannot dissolve the Obligation of the other But yet 3. The World is set under a general Reprieve and the full Execution of the deserved Curse is delayed until the day of Judgment until which time the Children of Men are under a Dispensation of Goodness and sparing Mercy and so in a remote Capacity or Possibility of obtaining Salvation by Christ where it pleaseth God to send the Gospel the Dispensation of which is made effectual for the Salvation of all the Elect who are thereby gathered into the Kingdom of Christ 4. The Lord Christ hath undertaken in the close of his Mediatorial Kingdom when all his Sheep are brought into his Fold for whose sake alone the day of his Patience is lengthened out to the World to raise all Mankind again in an incorruptible State prepared for that eternal Duration unto which they were designed in their first Creation And then will he glorifie all those with himself for whom he hath satisfyed the Justice of God born the Curse of the Law and wrought out everlasting Righteousness who have been also called by his Grace to a Participation of these Benefits thro' Faith and others he will deliver up by a righteous Sentence unto the full Execution of that Curse upon them in its utmost Rigor which till then for the Ends aforesaid was suspended Of God's Covenant with Noah CHAP. III. The Children of God stated in a new Relation and their Obedience upon a new Foundation from the first Promise § 1. The Word of God the Rule of their Faith and Obedience how revealed to them § 2. Enoch's Translation the Instruction and Benefit the whole Church had thereby His Prophecy how written in the Old Testament § 3. The ordinary Propagation of the Church in those times Mixt Marriages one cause of the general Defection of Mankind Noah finds Grace in the Sight of God § 4. The Ark its typical Respect the general nature of such a Type illustrated by conference of some other like extraordinary Works of Providence The form of the Ark its mystical Vse how Baptism answers to the Ark Noah not altogether ignorant of the mystical Signification of the Ark How he became Heir of the Righteousness of Faith by building it § 5. The Covenant of God with Noah the establishing thereof at his entring into the Ark the Benefit of the Church thereby § 6. The farther management of God's foederal Transaction with Noah when he came out of the Ark the Promises obtained in the Interest of his Sacrifice what signified thereby The reason of his Name the particular Benefits of this
Covenant the spiritual Extent thereof § 7. The curse of Cham opens the way to Shem's Blessing Circumcision a warning to Israel not to imitate Canaans Wickedness Special regard to the Messiah in Shem's Blessing This the cause of Japhet's Blessing also The extent thereof § 8. The building of Babel and confusion of Tongues § 9. The Evils involved in this confusion of Language how removed by the gift of Tongues at Jerusalem The days of Man shortned § 10. § 1. THE first Dawning of the blessed Light of God's Grace unto poor Sinners being broken up in that Promise intimated Gen. 3. 15. the Redeemed of the Lord were from that time brought into a new-Relation to God in and by Christ the promised Seed thro' Faith in him as revealed in that Promise and hereupon their Obedience and religious Service was stated and accepted of by God upon a new Foundation viz. that of pardoning Mercy and Forgiveness thro' the Redeemer Psal 130. 4. They were no longer upon Terms of personal and perfect Obedience or doing of a Law but upon Terms of Faith or believing a gratuitous Promise which wholly changed the order of their Acceptation with God For by the Covenant of Creation the Work of Obedience was to maintain the Relation and secure the Acceptance of the Person with God but by the Covenant of Grace and Redemption the Relation and previous Acceptance of the Person in Christ was the reason of the good Acceptance of all their sincere tho' imperfect Obedience which did now spring from Faith And hence it is said Heb. 11. 4. God had respect to Abel and his Offfering first to the Person and then to his Work And this order and way of Salvation as to the general Nature thereof ever was and must be the same and invariable in all Ages and under all different Dispensations of God towards his Church § 2. And as holy Men then lived by Faith so consequently they had the Object of Faith with them viz. The Revelation if God's Counsel by his Word Tho' the Word was not written till Moses's time yet was the Church never without God's Oracles which in those days were made known to it by those ways and means that the infinite Wisdom and Goodness of God made choice of This we have seen in the first Promise and in the Institution of Sacrifices which could not have been offered in Faith as Abel's was if God had not commanded and appointed them yea it appears also that God had given them some particular Directions what Beasts they might offer in Sacrifice and what not for in Noah's time the distinction of Beasts clean and unclean is mentioned as a thing well known before See Gen. 7. 2 3. chap. 8. 20. Unto this we may add that at least diverse of the Names of Seth's Line were imposed by a Spirit of Prophecy Enoch was a Prophet and Noah a Preacher of Righteousness all which do infer a Revelation of the Mind of God and of his Counsels then made unto the Church distinct from the Light and Law of Nature and transcending all the Dictates thereof altho' it must be granted This Light did not shine upon them with the same Clearness as it did upon after Ages § 3. Moreover The extraordinary Dispensation of God's Providence towards Enoch who by Faith walked with God and then was translated to the heavenly Inheritance without being made subject to the common Lot of Mankind in Dissolution by temporal Death was not only a singular favour to himself but also an eminent Discovery to the rest of the Believers of that Age that the right of Adoption and claim of an Inheritance in Light by Faith was restored to them in the promised Seed and therefore did greatly tend to encourage their Faith and Hope in the Expectation of a glorious State for Soul and Body to be injoyed in a blessed Immortality and eternal Life hereafter an Earnest of which they had in the present Injoyment of one Member of that Body to which they were all united Conf. Gen. 4. 24. Heb. 11. 5. And the very time wherein this was done doth cast some farther Light upon the mystical Import thereof Enoch was the seventh from Adam and this Septenary Number is famous in Scripture for its mystical Signification of that perfect Rest or Sabbatism that Christ should bring his Church unto And therefore by Matthew the Genealogy of Christ is counted by septenary Generations Again The Translation of Enoch happened soon after the Death of Adam the first whose natural Death is mentioned in Scripture Enoch in the seventh Generation was translated that he should not see Death As they had seen the Fruit of the Curse exemplified in Adam's Death so they saw that Life which the Promise gives exemplified in Enoch's Translation who before he was translated walked with God or as the Apostle gives it had this Testimony That he pleased God and indeed the Hebrew Phrase used Gen. 5. 22. doth not only signifie Integrity and eminent Holiness in a private Capacity but also as the learned Ainsworth notes upon the place is often used for a pleasing Administration of Office before God in which respect he was a special Figure of Christ and his Translation of Christ's entring into Heaven as a Forerunner for us Three hundred Years the Church had injoyed his Ministry and seven Patriarchs were left alive as Witnesses of his Translation so that the whole number of the Sons of God had the Benefit and Comfort of Instruction thereby He prophesied of the Destruction of wicked Men and summed up his Prophecy in the Name he gave to his Son Methuselach which may be interpreted They die by a Dart or He dyeth and then is the Dart i. e. the Dart of Divine Vengeance in Punishing the ungodly or he dyeth and then it is sent This was almost 1000 years before the Flood but was exactly fulfilled in the issue For Methuselach dyed but about the space of one Month before the Flood came This Prophecy is more fully set down by Jude v. 15. which may be taken as a divine Paraphrase upon this Prophetick Name like Daniel's Interpretation of the Writing upon the Wall and applyed analogically to the Sinners of his time for as this first Judgment was a Type of future Judgments upon wicked Men especially of the Destruction of the Jewish State by the Fire of God's Wrath for their rejecting of Christ and each of these was a Praeludium of the general Judgment of the World so the threatning of this first Judgment to the ungodly then living was a denouncing of Judgment against all ungodly Sinners in future times also § 4. In these Ages of the Church it was generally propagated in that Line thro' which the Blood of the promised Seed did run Yet do we not find any such Partition-Wall set up between one Family and another but any that would might freely associate themselves and joyn with the true Worshippers of God * Potuit fieri