beforc the Law, as abſtinence from the cating of Blood, Gen. 9. 4, and among orher things, Sacrifices, as learned men have ſuificicnt- iy proved; and conſequently the diſtinCtion. of Beaſts to be facrifi- ce:, was then, in ſome meatare, underitood, which afterwards was expretied,Lovir. 1, &c. Nor is this a good Argument, This was not written before ; therefore 1T was not commanded and praclited be- fore,eſpecially concerning a tune when no comman.ys of God were writren, but only delivered by tradition. þ Either 1. Seven tingle, as moſt think. Or 1ather 2. Seven couples, as may be gathered, :- From the duplication of the word in Hebrew. It it be 1aid jeven ſwen, lignities only ſeven of every kind, then it would have teen ſaid concerning the unclean Beaits, iwo two, (7. e. ) rwo of each ſort : Whereas now there 1s an apparent differcnce there It 1s faid only oy two, but here, by ſevens, or ſeven ſeven, which difference of the phraſe ſuggeſts a difference in the things, 2. By the following words.Themale and his female,which being invificrently applied to the clean and unclean, plainly thews that none of them cnrred into the Ark ſingle, and therefore there Was NO odd ſeventh among them, but all went in by couples, which was molt convenient 1 all for the propagation of their kind, and in the clean for other uſes allo; as for Sacrifices to God, if not for the ſuſtenration of Men in the Ark, ani after they came out of it. Which gives us the reaſon why God wou'ld have more of theclean than ofthe unclean pur intothe Ark, becauſe they vere more ſerviceable both to (od and Men.
2 Of towls 3 alſo of the air by fevens &,the male and
'T Ia. 13: the female, to keep * ſeed / alive upon the face. of all
the earth, = i ( 5: e: ) Of clean Fowls; which he leaves to be underſtood out of the foregoing verſe. k And of the unclean by two ; as before of the Beaſts*TT 7#: e: ) The ſue, or breed of them. : : 4 For yet ſeven days #9, and I wiilcauſc it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights: and every living ſubſtance = thac | have made, will I F deftroy
from off the face of the earth.
mm Or, After ſeven days, the Hebrew Lamed being put for after, as it is Exod. 16: 1. Pſal. 19: 3. Jer. 41. 4 Or, within jeven days, which time God allowed to the World as a turther jpace of Repentance, whereof, therefore it is probable, Noah gave th:m norice ; and it is not unlikely that many of them who ſlighred the chreatning, when it was at 120 years diſtance,now hearing a ſecond threatning, and conlidering the nearnels of their danger,might ve more affected and brought totrue Repentance : Who though deitroyed in their Bodies by rhe }lood for their former and Jong impenitency, which God would not-ſo far pardon, yet might be ſaved in their Spirits. See 1 Pet. 4. 6. And as.ſome preſcrved@&n the Ark were damned, ſo others drown-d in the deluge might be eternally ſaved. n= All that hath in it the breath of Lite, as was faid ch. 6. 7.
© And Noah did according uuto ail that the LORD
commanded him o. ;
o Which was ſaid chap. 6. 22.. and 1s here repeated, becauſe this was an eminent inſtance of his Faith ans Obedience.
6 And Noah was Þ tix hundred years old, when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
> And Noah wens in, and his ſons andhis wife, and his ſons wives .with him into the ark, becauſe of p the waters of the ilood. | |
p Or, For fear of : For fear is aſcribed to,and commended in Noah, Heb. 11. 7. Or, From the face of. |
8 Of clean beaits, and of beaſts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth. i
9 There went in q two and two r unto Noah into the ark, the mule and the female,as God had command- ed Noah |
q iy the ſecret impullſe of their great Creator ard Governour. Sce Gen. 2. 19. and 6. 20. r Of which ice above verſe 29.
$0 And it came to pals Þ after teven days, that the waters ofthe flood were upon the earth.
1: In the ſix hundredth year of Noahs life s, in the ſecond monrh #, the ſevenceenth day of the month, the ſame day were all the fountains of che great deep and the *. windows of heaven were opened y.
s Either compleat : Or rather current or begun ; otherwiſe he hed lived three. hundred fifty one years after the Þlood, not three hundred fifty only, as it 1s written, Ger: 9./9/. t Either 1. Of that year of Noah's life. Or 2. Of the year. Now as the year among the Bebrews was two-fold ; the one ſacred, for the celebration of Feaſts, beginning in March, of which ſee Exod. 12.2. The other civil, for the berter ordering of Men's political or civil Affurs, which began in September. Accordingly this ſecond month is thought by ſome, to be part of April, and part of May, the molt pleatanr part of the year, when the Flood was leait expc&ted or feared : By ethers part of Otober, and part of November, a little after Noah had gathered the fruits of the Earth, and laid them up in the Ark. So the Flood came in with the Winter, and was by degrees dried up by the heat of the following Summer : And this Opinion ſeems the more probable, becauſe the moſt ancient and firſt beginning of the year was in September ; and the other beginning of the year in March, was but a later Inſtitution among the Jews with reſpect to
their Feaſts and ſacred Affairsonly, which are nor ar all concerned . here. « (7: e: ) Of the Sea, called the deep, 50b 38: 16, 30: and -41:%
31: Pſal: 106: 9: and alſo of that great Abyfſs,or Sea of Warers, which 15 contained in the Bowels of the earth. For that there are vaſt quantities of Waters there, is implied both here and in other Scri- ptures, 4 P/al: 33: 7: 2 Pet: 3:5: and is affiimed' by Plaro in his Phearus, and by Seneca in his Natural Queſtions, 3, 19. and is evi- dent from Springs and Rivers which have their riſe from thence,and ſome of them have no other place into which they iſſue themſelves, as appears from the Caſpian Sea, into which divers Rivers do empty theraſelves,and eipecially thar great River Yolgs, inſuch abundance,
Anrti-Scripturiits in this. « The Fountvins ore ſaid to be brekenup
Citap. VIL that it would certainly drown all thoſe parts of the Farth, if there were not a, vent for them under ground ; for other venr above