Chapter IV (continued, part 3)
hand, and takes care they shall not be such that he should be everlastingly wroth with us; He knows our frame, as Ps. ciii., and considers it to be
merciful to us, and nevertheless goes on to establish this covenant with us.
This for the stability of his covenant.
74 OF ELECTION. [BOOK I.
8. A third parallel is, that God hath made and confirmed his covenant of
grace sure and stable, and in and through the sacrifice of Christ the Mediator.
Covenants, we know, were wont to be made with sacrifice, Ps. 1. 5. Now
God s covenant on his part was to be ratified, Heb. ix. 18-20. And when
God s covenant is in this 9th verse styled the covenant of his peace, it
imports as much as, not of grace simply, but of peace ; as of God being
pacified by an atonement of a mediator. And the aspect this word peace
may seem to have here unto what in the chapter afore had foregone, where
the sacrifice of Christ being prophesied of, it is said, He was bruised for
our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peacewas upon him ; through
which, God being pacified towards us, makes a covenant of peace with us. Now as Christ is styled our peace, Eph. ii., and so it being made by him,
through the appointment of the Father, it is called by God the covenant of
< It pleaseth the Father, that Christ, having made
: Col. i. 20,
his peace
peace by the blood of his cross, to reconcile to himself, &c. And in this
respect the parallels fall most fitly between that covenant, Gen. ix., made
with Noah, a figure of God s with us. It is worth our comparing the one
with the other ; for not only, de facto, it is found to have been so, that ere God established his covenant with Noah, when come forth of the ark, he
offered burntofferings on the altar to God, and that God was well pleased therewith : Gen. viii. 20, 21, The Lord smelled a sweet savour, a savour
of rest, as in the Hebrew, that is, of peace ; and said in his heart, &c., he
would curse the earth no more, and thereupon established that covenant
that follows. And that Noah, the father of that new world to come, was
herein a type of Christ, and that this sacrifice of his was the type of Christ s
sacrifice, we all acknowledge from the warrant of that allusion, and same
ness of language the apostle useth of Christ s sacrifice that had been uttered
of this of Noah : Eph. v. 2, Christ gave himself for us an offering, a
sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savour, which I insisted upon afore. But it may further be noticed, how that he makes the parallel yet more con
spicuous, and as setly designed, by comparing the order and coherences of
this 54th chapter of Isaiah with the foregone chapter, the 53d. That that
chapter treats of Christ s sacrifice, and then this 54th chapter, and also the 55th and 56th chapters, do treat of the covenant of grace, the covenant fol
lowing thereupon. And they succeed each other in the very same imme
diate coherence that Noah his sacrifice and covenant did one the other in
those two fore-mentioned chapters in Genesis. For look, as in the latter
part of that 8th chapter he relates the story of Noah s sacrifice, that then in the 9th chapter he records that covenant thereupon, just answerably in
Isaiah, after he had in the foregoing 53d chapter foretold Christ s great sacrifice of himself: Bearing our sins and sorrows, making his soul an
offering for sin, with promise that many should be justified thereof ; and he should see his seed, &c. Immediately after this he subjoins, how upon this sacrifice God covenants to rear up a new Christian church (of which the next branch is to treat), and establisheth this covenant therewith under this
very figure of the waters of Noah. And as no prophecy speaks more fully and clearly of Christ s sacrifice than that 53d chapter of Isaiah, so nor none more perspicuously and evangelically of the gospel covenant than the 54th
chapter, and the two other that follow. And in the 55th chapter, the 5th
verse, this covenant is called the sure mercies of David, that is, of Christ, having purchased them for us by his death, and by rising again having applied them to us.
* As Mr Gataker, English Axmot., rather My covenant of peace, Ezek. xxxiv. 26 and xxxvii. 26, that is, of reconcilement to thee.
CHAP. IV.] OP ELECTION. 75
4. The fourth parallel is, the tenderness of God s mercies to his elect, whom he takes into his covenant, in all these distresses and extremities. This is by the parallel of Noah s story set forth to us ; for what can be sup posed more sympathising with his people, or argues a deeper sense and
sounding of bowels, than to hear God, in the midst of their afflictions and
temptations, cry out on the sudden, and with the greatest vehemency, thou afflicted, and tossed with tempests, and not comforted ! There is no
speech or passage which we find our God to utter in Scripture more pathetic or passionate than this ; and yet you see (as before I touched) it is repre sented under a perfect allusion to and compassionate remembrance that God s heart still had retained of Noah whilst in the ark, floating in those waves and horrible tempests, which coming in immediately with coherence with the remembrance of Noah s waters, This is the waters of Noah, &c., in verse 9, as a remembrance of his covenant with his people, could not have been more probably carried over to any other similitude or allusion in Scrip ture whatsoever, suppose this coherence had not been; but for the pertinency of it, I shewed before what remembrance God had of Noah whilst in the ark, Gen. viii. 1. And if Noah s instance had not been alluded to, I appeal to
any what exemplification they can find to set out to the life the sympathis-
ings of a condoling heart of another in misery like unto it, nor could the
movings of God s bowels have been more elegantly uttered. Methinks it is
as if the dearest friend, or most loving husband or father, having his dearest
relations of wife, and children, and friends in a ship at sea, and viewing them
to sit within the rage of wild waves and winds, which he, standing himself
safe on the immediate shore, sees and beholds with his own eyes, and at
every bending of the ship near to a suppression under those waves, his heart
beats, and he lamentably cries out at every toss and motion, and thinks with
himself, how must their hearts be afflicted, and not comforted in the midst
of all, that are shiftless and helpless in this storm, and know not what to do ! Like to such an one doth God express his affection here.
5. As touching the eminent subject of this new covenant, and of election
of grace, that is, the persons to be saved, or that church this covenant is
established withal, our comparing together what is prophesied thereof in this 54th chapter of Isaiah, and the prefigurations thereof in Noah s ark and
story, and his own prophecies given out about it, will afford another (if I may not call it a parallel, yet) concordant harmony, yea, identity, to be the same in both.
Who and what that church should be, is lively set forth in Noah s story, under a double notion or consideration of them.
(1.) Of their persons, whom that church should specially be made up of.
(2.) In respect of their condition, viz. all sorts of sinners.
(1.) For the first, this 54th chapter of Isaiah informs us, that the church which God applies all these promises unto, and intends all these his com
forts to, was the Christian church of the new testament, which was to rise
up soon after Christ s death (which many other prophecies had foretold), and
in a special manner the coherence of the 53d chapter, and this 54th chapter, shews ; this also (as it served afore for the former purpose, so now for this) you have in chapter liii., the most renowned of all other records in the Old
Testament, prophesying of Christ s death, and therein a promise as his pur chase and reward : ver. 10,
* Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin ; he
shall see his seed, &c. And as in the event it proved, that soon after Christ s death a new Christian church began to be reared, so in order follows next
in the prophet a prophecy of that church; for immediately upon it, in chapter
liv., from the first verse and so on, succeeds this church, as therefrom exist-
76 OF ELECTION. [BOOK I.
ing, which was to be both his seed and spouse, Thy Maker is thy hus
band, and children to be brought forth to him. See the first verse:
Sing, barren, [that didst not] bear; and cry aloud, thou that didst not
travail with child : for more are the children of the desolate, than the
children of the married wife. Here is a former wife-mother spoken of, and
here is a new wife (that formerly had been barren and desolate), and a new
seed, or children more numerous than those by the former wife, and these
are manifestly discriminated, the one from the other ; and it is to this new
spouse that God applies this his oath of Noah s covenant and waters, which
is nowhere else to any such purpose at all mentioned in all the Old Testa
ment. Well, but who is this barren woman, this anew received spouse ?
Let us hear the apostle s interpretation of it, who those are whom he applies
it unto: Gal. iv. 25, Jerusalem that now is. He speaks of that Judaical
church under the name of the mother city, which then was existing, and as
not yet destroyed, when he wrote this epistle. And this church, the old wife
would needs hold up in opposition to that new church and wife ; that frame
and form of worship of the old testament, though she kept thereby herself and
her children still in bondage, as it is there ; but there is (says he) another
Jerusalem, which is above, and is free, the mother of us all; which new
Jerusalem was now, under the new testament, declared to be the mother of
us all, the venter of a new generation. To prove which, he citeth this very
place, Isa. liv. 1, as a prophecy thereof: Rejoice, barren, &c. So,
then, here is a new church this chapter of Isaiah concerns, and an old one which it is severed from. And it will not be a block in the way of the application of this scripture, which I shall drive at (which is, that the new church out of the Gentiles is
principally aimed at), whether the Christians of the Jewish nation, and the churches at Jerusalem and Judea be understood, and taken in to have made
up, during those gospel times, part of this new church. Although there
is this against that in that very chapter, that the church he now foretells he would anew assume, the wife he had cast off, [he] would cast off no more after he had received her, whereas he hath cast off the Jewish nation from having children by her, or out of her, for these fourteen hundred years. She was
in a manner cut off in Paul s time, whereas out of the Gentiles he hath con tinued a numerous church to this day. It matters not, I say ; for the chil dren out of the Jewish nation then (though the first gospel fruits), were but a few in comparison to those the Gentiles have brought forth to God, and soon became barren again. And yet it will not be enough for the full completing my drift, that this new wife, the church under the new, is that which is prophesied of here by Isaiah, unless in the next place I also shew that this was either typified or
prophesied of Noah s story, that we may say of it, This is the waters of Noah, &c.
[1.] In the general, the allusion from thence will hold, that Noah and his sons were ordained by God to be the founders and beginners of a new world ; as we use to say, they began the world anew. Thus in the letter they were, which Peter s phrase insinuates, whilst he calls that afore Noah s times the world that then was. And answerably thereunto, the times of Christ and his apostles are styled, in the current language of the New Testament, stilo now, to have begun a new world. Thus Christ speaks, the kingdom of heaven is at hand ; and as a new sera or account, the gospel times are called the last days ; so the apostles ; and the world to come, saith Paul, Heb. ii., which did then begin ; for it is set in opposition to the time of the law given by the angels, ver. 2; and so of the Jewish state. The analogy holds thus
CHAP. IV.] OF ELECTION. 77
between them, that look as when in the old world, all flesh had corrupted their way, as Gen. vi. 11, 12, and among the Jews, religion being afore so
* God having suffered in times past all
corrupted, and among the Gentiles,
nations to walk in their own ways, Acts xvii. 16, After dumb idols as they were led, 1 Cor. xii. 1, that then God raised up this new gospel church as
* the time of the reformation, or
a new world (the time of which is called
change of the old, Heb. ix.), the saints and churches you read of in the
epistles superscribed unto them, to the Eoraans, Corinthians, Galatians,
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and the Hebrews. Thus in general for
the type, but,
[2.] Furthermore, when Noah came forth of the ark to begin this new
world, he falls a-prophesying, and prophesies after that second covenant made with him of this same new church: Gen. ix. 27, God shall enlarge Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem, which was when the Gentiles were
converted. And now let us return again to Isaiah, and see whether he doth now also prophesy in a language conform to this of Noah s, as if he had re newed but Noah s old prophecy, as intended of this new church. Read on
: Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations : spare not, lengthen thy
the next two verses of that chapter
cords, strengthen thy stakes, for thou shalt break forth on the right hand, and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate
cities to be inhabited ; which repeats but the punctual fulfilling of that pro phecy of Noah in Japhet s seed, under the same language of enlarging Japhet
there, and enlarge thy tents here, and of dwelling in the tents of Shem there,
through the efficacious persuasion of the word that went out of Sion and from Jerusalem in the apostles ministry. For after this Moses, the relator of
these things, setting down who were the sons of Japhet in chapter x. verses
2-4, in the 5th verse he shews what parts of the world their allotment was : By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. Now, we may know that those isles of the Gentiles are those of Europe, the Grecians, Germans, Britains, &c. ; and so called by a special denomination, Europe abounding with islands more than Asia or Africa by far. And we find among the heathen records that they styled themselves Japeti genus, the seed of Japhet. You, brethren, even you, are a portion of that seed,
Japetians all ; and whose forefathers have been persuaded to dwell in the
tents of Shem, and the gospel is amongst you to this day; you are, with
other nations, the church in all these prophecies pointed at, and children of
this covenant, which hath taken hold of many of you. And we have heard with our ears, and our eyes have seen it, the fulfilling of that which follows
in that 13th verse of this chapter: Your seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
This as to the persons, or what generation of men, simply considered.
(2.) For the condition of the persons this new church was to consist of, it had a representation made for it to prefigure that, namely, they should be
sinners of all sorts that the worst of nations in the world brought forth,
according to the several kinds of their degeneratings and profaneness. I must now again retrieve that objection which I before have made, namely, that there were all sorts of beasts, and fowls, and creeping things in the ark, which were saved from the waters, in a corporeal salvation, as well as Noah and his sons ; yea, and with whom, after Noah and they came forth of the
ark, that second covenant was made. And the objection is, that therefore
this covenant cannot be drawn into a figure of the gospel covenant with the
church, his elect.
78 OF ELECTION. [BOOK I.
Besides those answers then given, I then made a reservation of one for
this place and I have now on purpose proposed the objection anew, to
usher in this new parallel that is now to follow, from what the very beasts
prefigured We read, Acts x. 11, 12, how in the first beginning of the
gospel or of this new Christian church (as Peter speaks of it, Acts xv.),
there was a vessel let down from heaven in a vision to Peter, wherein were
all manner of four-footed beasts in the earth : wild beasts, and creeping
things, and fowls of the air. And the interpretation of this to Peter was,
that the catholic church under the new testament should consist as of men
from out of all nations of Noah s seed, whether clean or unclean, Jew or
Gentile who should now be converted to the faith of Christ ; and that this
was signified unto Peter by all these sorts of creatures. Now, bring this to
Noah s ark and covenant, Genesis 7th and 9th chapters, the ancients (as
Austin*) readily understood the coming in of all nations under the gospel
into the church to have been prefigured thereby. And how usual it is
Scripture to set out the several sorts of wicked men under the similitude of
beasts as Herod by a fox, Nero by a lion, the circumcision by dogs needs
not be enlarged upon. I may therefore apply what God doth in Ezekiel
touching his people, whom he had represented under the figure of sheep
throughout chapter xxxiv. He in the last verse, by way of exposition of
that parable, The flock of my pasture are men, says he ; so, on the con
trary, I may say, these beasts are men, the wickedest of men, and all kind
of sinners of them. And truly when I consider how much that one alone
in the Acts answers to the other in Genesis, and find in comparing both
places the very same enumeration as to the kinds of these in both places, to
be these generals, fowls of the air, beasts, and creeping things, and how
some of every sort of these, are in both places pointed at, I could not
reject this as a mere phantasm of man s imagination, it having so far the name of a scripture for its warrant, as by this comparing these scriptures
together doth appear.
Obj. And whereas it may again be objected, that the covenant, Gen. ix., is made with Noah and his sons and their seed distinctly, and apart from that
of the beasts and all living things ; and so the figure of these beasts cannot
be brought into this account.
Ans. The answer is, that what some part of a type doth not serve to reach,
that another shall ; types are but imperfect shadows, and therefore are so
formed as one to represent one piece of the substance to be shadowed out
under one resemblance, and another piece, or limb under another, whereof
multitudes of instances might be given. So, then, although the church of
his elect, whom God made his covenant with, and for, were to be men, as
for their persons, of Noah s seed and posterity, and in that respect the cove
nant is by name made with them ; yet their condition, as sinners, was in the
several variety of their bestialities as sinners, set forth under the figure of
those several sorts of living things, to the taking in of the most venomous of
sinners, serpents, and creeping things. And so by both the representations the figure is made the more complete, which under one alone would have been too imperfect. It is then but putting this double consideration respec
tively upon either, and the objection is solved, and the full mind of the figure appears to the life.
6. Lastly, that very rainbow, which is said to have been and then served
to be but an outward providential remembrance to God, no more to drown the earth by waters, hath yet in the new testament another rainbow, whereof
* Sicut cuncta genera animalmm in area clauduntur, sic omnes gentes ecclesia con-
tinet. August, contra Manichceum, lib. xi. c. 14.
CHAP. IV.] OF ELECTION. 79
that in Genesis was but the rb paivopsvov. You may behold its appearance when you will, twice in the Revelation. The first time, set and constant ; the second, occasionally; and both set up for the comfort of this new
Christian church (which we have shewn was the subject of the covenant), as
that in Genesis had been for the confirmation and establishment of Noah s
world.
The first appearance of this rainbow you may behold Rev. iv. 3, where
it is placed for a constancy, to endure and continue unto the end of
the transactions of that book, at which chapter beginneth the general pro phecy of the fates of this universal Christian church, gathered (as was ob
served) out of all nations, tongues, and kindreds, as where you also read,
chap. v. 9. And in that 4th chapter, at the first entrance to the prophecy, and by way of prologue to the whole, is God presented as sitting on his
throne, ordering and governing all occurrences that should befall this
church, having a representative of that whole church in all ages, even as a
parliamentary assembly before their prince and king, standing afore him and
his throne. And there appears a rainbow round about that throne of God, ver. 3, which is in a perfect allusion to this of Noah ; for the fate of the church of the new testament was all along throughout all ages more afflicted, tossed with tempests, than ever the Jewish church had been ; for, ver. 5, Out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings (which always accompany tempests), of the breaking forth of which you may frequently read in that book. Now for their support, and constant comfort, against those
dreadful dispensations of God s, doth this rainbow appear.
To signify to us that memorial which God himself hath of his everlasting kindness to his church in the midst of all thundering dispensations whatever, as a sign and symbol unto his church of the light of his countenance shining on them in their thickest and darkest clouds ; for a rainbow only appears where and when the sun also shineth.
And this new testament rainbow excels (as the substance always doth the
figure) that other, take it but as it was in the figure.
(1.) In that it is constant and fixed for all times, whereas that of Noah s covenant appears but occasionally.
(2.) The old was but as a half-moon rainbow, a semi-circle, whereas this is round about the throne, and encompasseth it ; it is a whole circle. And his church are encamped likewise in a round, and he in the midst of them. So
let God turn himself in various dispensations, and look which way he
pleaseth, yet still he doth, and must necessarily, view his church through his
rainbow, putting him in mind of mercy. Yea, and all those lightnings and
thunderings, though never so fiery, he shoots, must pass through his rain
bow, and so proceed out of mercy, and pass through loving-kindness unto
them, shewing withal that in the midst of his fiercest anger he still remem
* all his ways are mercy and truth unto them ; ever
bers mercy, and that
fulfilling that in Psalm in., The Lord is gracious and merciful, and will
ever be mindful of his covenant. To shew both that all his ways are
mercy and truth, for even all those thunderbolts and lightnings do come
through that rainbow, which doth blunt the force and draw out the venomous
vapour that is in them, as they come forth and are directed to his people ; as also that himself is ever mindful of his covenant, Ps. iii. The second appearance of this rainbow is occasional, and for a special purpose. There is, upon many forbodes, and seeming more than probabili
ties, out of the Revelation, one great fate to come upon the churches of
Christ, the last killing of the witnesses, that hath been so long forewarned
of by many witnesses. How long first, or how soon, none but God knows ;
80 OF ELECTION. [BOOK I.
it may perhaps lie at the door, which, when it comes, will prove the most
violent of all the foregone; even as that of Dioclesian (the last of the ten
persecutions upon the primitive saints) was the greatest of all forewent it.
And so this heing to be the last, from antichrist and his followers, may
likewise prove to be of all persecutions the sorest, and m which shall be
accomplished, and so ended, the scattering of the power of the holy people, Dan xii And indeed, so great is it like to be, as it occasioneth Christ him
self (the same angel that appeared in the 12th of Daniel) to come down from
heaven on purpose, in an extraordinary appearance, to support the saints in
a special manner against that trial. And this angel is no other than Christ
himself, as appears by one speech of his in the llth chapter, ver. 3; for
the narrative in the forepart of that chapter is uttered by the same angel,
<I
will give power to my two witnesses, saith he. And to call them his wit
nesses, none but Christ must be allowed to speak, no mere created angel
might do it.
f . Now, see what an appearance he comes down withal, when he cometh
with this sad message, which we find in chap. xi. His appearance in
chap. x. 1, is, that his body was clothed with a cloud, his face shining as
the sun, and a rainbow upon his head, and all of these significant unto the
purpose specified.
(1.) There being so violent and huge a storm a-coming immediately upon
his church, and that should come upon his whole church, that is, his body ;
his body is therefore said to be clothed with a cloud all over, for his head
and feet are otherwise there particularly described, and therefore it is
intended it was his body was that of him which the cloud environed. Other
slaughters of his members have been at various times particular, upon several
parts of his body apart ; but this last is to be universal, to the whole that
remain in the streets or jurisdiction of the great city. Even as the waters
of Noah was the only universal flood, though particular floods have been
before and since.
(2.) Yet, secondly, his face shone as the sun, to shew that his everlasting
grace and kindness was not only inwardly within himself, and in reality in
this sad hour still the same that ever it had been to his people in their
utmost prosperous times ; and that his heart had nothing but graciousness of intents, thoughts of peace towards them ; but that outwardly his face
(which is the index of his heart) should shine upon their souls, in lifting up the light of his countenance thereon, whilst their outward man was under
those sore persecutions.
(3.) And the sunshine of his face and favour, causeth a rainbow to shine on the cloud about his head, for a memorial and assurance to his church,
that this flood shall not destroy them. Though it may afflict and toss them
* it shall come to pass, that when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be in the cloud ; and I will remember my covenant. And truly I conclude, let Christ come with what clouds he pleaseth, and cover us his body all over with them, so
sore, even as in Gen. ix. 14 (in the figure), it is said,
as his face shine as the sun, and he lift up the light of his countenance upon us ; and set up his rainbow, the symbol of his everlasting kindness and
mercy, and we shall have sufficient to support us.
CHAP. IV.J OF ELECTION. 81
SECTION V. How the story of Noah was a type of the Mediator of the covenant of grace,
Christ which was the ark.
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison ; which sometime
were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were
saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save
us (not the putting away the Jilth of the flesh, but the answer of a good con
science towards God), by the resurrection of Jes-us Christ. 1 PET. III. 19-21.
That which Peter holds forth concerning this our salvation, is reducible
to two heads, which, drawn forth and set out, will give us a full exposition of the apostle s scope therein.
I. Noah was then a preacher of the gospel, and of salvation by Christ, even as we the apostles now ; that is Peter s scope. 1. We read in the second epistle of our Peter ii. 5, that this Noah was then a preacher of righteousness. What righteousness ? That of the
law. That is, of the righteousness of a rigid repentance only ? No ; it is said, Heb. xi. 7, By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house ; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of righteousness which is by faith. Noah himself was taught of God from that figure, being saved by the ark (which Peter here applies to the salvation of the soul by Christ) ; he being thus instructed by God to have his recourse unto the righteousness of the Messiah by faith, he became, says the text,. Heb. xi. 7,
* the heir of the righteousness of faith ; that is, of the same righteousness that we Christians do now believe in. There was a new and clearer illustration then, and thereby added and revealed to Noah s faith, besides that had been afore
through the promise of that seed to Adam. And Noah s faith being thus more fully and explicitly enlightened in that point, than any or all before
him, it is said, he thereupon became the heir of the righteousness of faith anew ; and because he was with a fresh light and clearer discovery brought to embrace that righteousness of the Messiah, which had been but darkly and obscurely, in comparison, before revealed, thereupon out of his own
personal faith and experience, he became a preacher of the same righteous ness unto the world, for their eternal salvation also ; for as he believed, so he spake. And further, he is declared to be a free-grace man in his faith
as to God s acceptation of him, he wholly relying on the sole favour of God
for salvation ; wherefore God says, Gen. vi. 8, But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and not upon the account of works. And so in like manner for the Messiah, he understood that his ark, he was forewarned to
prepare, was the figure of him ; even as of Abraham it is said, in the same Heb. xi. ver. 19, that he understood and received his son Isaac, in a figure of the resurrection, namely, of Christ, and so of us, himself and all in Christ unto eternal life ; and still, I say, as he believed, so he preached this
gospel, the same with ours, that is for the substance of it.
2. The gospel being thus preached by Noah,, it is further said by Peter, that Christ in his divine nature was he that preached in Noah s ministry, as really as now he doth in the apostles (when gone to heaven), he is said to do : Eph. ii., He came and preached peace to you which were afar off, &c. Thus afore flesh assumed, as well as now since, for it was he who
being o Xoyog, the word, that still spake in all those dispensations to the fathers ; and so Peter here, In which Spirit he went and preached, &c.
VOJL. IX. F
82 OF ELECTION. [BoOK I.
3. Only there was but one Noah, that is in that latter part or age of that
world, who (some way or other) preached to the whole world to condemn it, as Heb. xi. 17, thereby making way for their destruction and damnation
that followed thereupon, as upon disobedience to the gospel it now also doth ; but now under the gospel, great is (and was in Peter s days) the com
1 as the psalmist speaks. 4. Peter, to admonish the present world of that great sin of neglecting the
pany of preachers,
great salvation, tells them,
(1.) That as then, so now, few are saved by this gospel preached. Few, that is, eight persons then; and now, take times and means, the whole world lies in wickedness, comparatively to these, few are saved.
(2.) That look, as then the event was, that the souls of them that dis
obeyed went to hell ; he preached to the souls in prison, says Peter, and by prison, hell is there meant (as Christ s speech imports) ; he shall be cast into prison, and pay the utmost farthing ; so it will foil out inevitably now, and with a greater damnation, as the means are greater.
(8.) Their sin was cleaving to their lusts, and pleasures in wives, and
eating and drinking, that they would not be persuaded to embrace Christ ; which is here termed
* disobedience ; so now. And that we may further clear this to have been Peter s scope to institute this parallel, those correspondent allusions which Peter useth (speaking here of those of the old world), unto what in the very story we find in Genesis recorded of them, doth evidence this, and are very remarkable in three par ticulars. Whereas,
(1.) Peter says that Christ in his Spirit went and preached to them ; answerably in Gen. vi. 3, Christ thus speaks, My Spirit shall not always strive, that is, in the ministry of my servants, as hitherto it hath done of Enoch s, and others, and particularly in that of my servant Noah.
(2.) Whereas Peter says that the long-suffering of God waited for their repentance upon Noah s preaching, in like manner Christ there in Genesis in the same verse says, Yet man s days shall be a hundred and twenty years, as a space to repent in, after and upon Noah s preaching and warning so long before.
(3.) That clause inserted by Peter, that they were the spirits of those men that were now in prison, that is, in hell, who were then preached to by Noah, holds an affinity unto that known tradition and language among the Jews, that of all mankind afore or after, those men Noah preached unto, of
all others, had been notified and famed to have gone to hell ; insomuch that hell itself (this prison) had its name from their company and inhabitation there. They were made a proverb of all in the Old Testament all along ; to go down to the company of giants, was all one to go to hell ; thus in the Proverbs* again and again, as Mr Mede hath observed. Those giants were the ringleaders of the ungodly, as Peter speaks of the whole of that world who perished, and generally went to hell, and so being the firstborn of hell, as it were the first inhabitants of that place, hence hell had that denomination, as on the contrary of saints to Abraham s bosom. As if we should say to malefactors, you shall go amongst your companions of thieves and cut-purses, to Newgate, so designing forth that prison from the com pany there.
II. That our being saved by Christ now, was signified by Noah s being saved then in the ark, through or in the midst of the waters.
For whereas he says, baptism now saves us, the meaning is, Christ now signified in baptism saves us, who was prefigured then by the ark in * See Prov. ii. 18 ; xxi. 16. ED.
CHAP. IV.] OF ELECTION. 88
the waters, for it is Christ that is signified and sealed up in this ordinance
* That rock was Christ, 1 Cor. x. 4, so
of baptism. And as it is said,
this baptism is Christ, and signifies him, and his saving of us.
And look as Noah preached this salvation by Christ to the old world
verbally and in sermons, so that very action of his, in building and enter
ing into the ark, and God s transaction with him, and his preservation
therein, was the figure of Christ s saving us, signified to us in our baptism.
And though the ordinance of baptism itself, as now instituted, was not understood by Noah then as prefigured, yet Christ and the salvation itself
signified thereby was.
I was long kept from the right understanding of this place, by my ordinary and cursory reading of it, by our translation ; and so perhaps many others. They translate it,
* saved by waters, so ascribing their salvation to the waters, as the means of Noah and their salvation ; and so I still understood the
allusion here had been, that the outward element of our baptism being water, and that Noah having been saved upon the waters, that therefore the parallel had been that they were saved by water, as the instrument, and as signifying and typifying forth the blood of Christ washing us, and saving us, as those waters had done them.
H But when I came upon this occasion narrowly to examine this matter,
1. I considered that the salvation by waters in the flood held not at all a
correspondency with our salvation, through our being washed in Christ s
blood, as in baptism is signified; whereas here the apostle affirms, that
there is a like figure answering each other, which, to be sure, holds not in
this. For the persons of those in the ark were not washed by the water of the flood at all, as we are washed in baptism by Christ s blood ; but it was
the ark only which was washed with those waters.
2. I found that the salvation of Noah is said to have been in and by the
ark. So expressly in the text, wherein (speaking of the ark) eight per sons were saved as the means of their salvation ; and as for the waters
saving them, that was but an accidental effect, for otherwise the waters
overflowing tended to destroy them.
* by the water, is more properly, both to the sense and phrase, rendered
3. I found that dia vbarog, translated here
* through the water, and so the sense
is ; in the ark they were saved from the flood, being carried in it through all its waves, and still kept safe from all danger from them ; as in the Acts,
chap. iv. 22, it is through many tribulations we enter into glory (it is the same particle). So these were saved through these waters, which otherwise
of themselves, directly and indeed, did threaten and hazard their salvation.
Again I found dia uSarog is rendered in this very epistle, in the water, or the midst of the water, by this very apostle, that kept to his own dialect : 2 Epist. iii. 5,* The earth that now stands in the water, or, in the midst
of the water. Just thus here, they were saved in the ark, floating in or
through the midst of the waters.
4. So as those words, the like figure whereunto, refer not, 1, to the word
water, but unto the word ark, as wherein it is said, they were saved ;
2, or else, unto the matter of that whole foregoing sentence ; and so the coherence runs thus, that the substance of our salvation by baptism, or
Christian baptism, answereth in similitude unto that salvation of those eight persons in the ark then, and is a like figure thereunto.
So then the summary result of all is, that Christ our ark, and our salva
tion in him, now signified in baptism, was the thing lively forefigured in that
salvation of theirs in the ark, bearing them up in and through the waters.
* See Mr Mede in his paraphrase upon that chapter.
"wa> H
g4 OF ELECTION.