benedictions God pronounced on Noah and his posterity, which were
blessings of eternal life; which, if he had maintained his integrity through his trial, would have been pronounced upon him afterwards; when God, as his Judge, should have given him his reward. God might indeed, if he had pleased, immediately have deprived him of life, and of all temporal blessings, given him before. But those blessings pronounced on him beforehand, were not the things, for the obtaining of which his trial was appointed. These were reserved, till the issue of his trial should be seen, and then to be pronounced, in the blessed sentence, which would have been passed upon him by his Judge, when God came to decree to him his reward for his approved fidelity. The pronouncing these latter blessings on a degenerate race, that had fallen under the threatening denounced, would indeed (without a redemption) have been inconsistent with the constitution which had been established. But the giving them the former kind of blessings, which were not the things suspended on the trial, or dependent on his fidelity (and these to be continued for a season) was not at all inconsistent therewith.
2. 'Tis no more an evidence of Adam's posterity's being not included in the threatening, denounced for his eating the forbidden fruit, that they still have the temporal blessings of fruitfulness and a dominion over the creatures continued to them, than it is an evidence of Adam's being not included in that threatening himself, that he had these blessings continued to him, was fruitful, and had dominion over the creatures after his fall, equally with his posterity.
3. There is good evidence, that there were blessings implied in the benedictions God pronounced on Noah and his posterity, which were granted on a new foundation: on the foot of a dispensation diverse from any grant, promise, or revelation, which God gave to Adam, antecedently to his fall; even on the foundation of the Covenant of Grace, established in Christ Jesus; a dispensation, the design of
which is to deliver men from the curse, that came upon them by Adam's sin, and to bring them to greater blessings than ever he had. These blessings were pronounced on Noah and his seed, on the same foundation, whereon afterwards the blessing was pronounced on Abraham and his seed, which included both spiritual and temporal benefits. Noah had his name prophetically given him by his father Lamech, because by him and his seed deliverance should be obtained from the curse, which came by Adam's fall. (Gen. 5:29), "And he called his name Noah (i.e. rest), saying, this same shall comfort us concerning our work, and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." Pursuant to the scope and intent of this prophecy (which indeed seems to respect the same thing with the prophecy in Gen. 3:15) are the blessings pronounced on Noah after the flood. There is this evidence of these blessings being conveyed through the channel of the Covenant of Grace, and by the redemption through Jesus Christ, that they were obtained by sacrifice; or were bestowed as the effect of God's favor to mankind, which was in consequence of God's smelling a sweet savor in the sacrifice which Noah offered. And 'tis very evident by the epistle to the Hebrews, that the ancient sacrifices never obtained the favor of God, but only by virtue of the relation they had to the sacrifice of Christ. That now Noah and his family had been so wonderfully saved from the wrath of God, which had destroyed the rest of the world, and that the world was as it were restored from a ruined state, this was a proper occasion to point to the great salvation to come by Christ: as it was a common thing, for God, on occasion of some great temporal salvation of his people, or restoration from a low and miserable state, to renew the intimations of the great spiritual restoration of the world by Christ's redemption. God deals with the generality of mankind, in their present state, far differently, on occasion of the redemption by Jesus Christ, from what he otherwise would do: for, being capable subjects of saving mercy, they have a
day of patience and grace, and innumerable temporal blessings bestowed on them; which, as the Apostle signifies (Acts 14:17), are testimonies of God's reconcilableness to sinful men, to put 'em upon seeking after God.
But besides the sense in which the posterity of Noah in general partake of these blessings of dominion over the creatures etc., Noah himself, and all such of his posterity as have obtained like precious faith with that exercised by him in offering his sacrifice, which made it a sweet savor, and by which it procured these blessings, have dominion over the creatures, through Christ, in a more excellent sense than Adam in innocency; as they are made kings and priests unto God and reign with Christ, and all things are theirs, by a Covenant of Grace. They partake with Christ in that dominion over the beasts of the earth, the fowls of the air, and fishes of the sea, spoken of in the 8th Psalm; which is by the Apostle interpreted of Christ's dominion over the world (1 Cor. 15:27 and Heb. 2:7). And the time is coming, when the greater part of the posterity of Noah and each of his sons, shall partake of this more honorable and excellent dominion over the creatures, through him in whom all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Neither is there any need of supposing, that these blessings must have their most complete accomplishment until many ages after they were granted, any more than the blessing on Japhet, expressed in those words, "God shall enlarge Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem."
But that Noah's posterity have such blessings given them through the great Redeemer, who suspends and removes the curse which came through Adam's sin, surely is no argument, that they originally, and as they be in their natural state are not under the curse. That men have blessings through grace, is no evidence of their being not justly exposed to the curse by nature; but it rather argues the contrary: for