120 



•Ihat they were revealed to Adam, It is remarkable that, when the 

 offended Deity thought it neces<5ary to exterminate by the de- 

 luge the degenerate race of mankind, the rainbow was first dis- 

 played in the heavens — 



Distended * as the brow of God appeased — 

 a fleeting token that justice was satisfied by a punisliment which 

 purified the earth from vice. When, therefore, the deeper taint 

 of original sin infected the very nature of man, and demanded from 

 infinite justice a radical cure, and God found it in his infinite mercy, 

 he promised, as an atonement, an amply sufficient sacrifice from liim- 

 I self, and recorded the glorious promise, not in transient colours, but 



; in indehble characters of eternal light ; the fulfilment of which was 



I manifested by the extraordinary appearance of a " star in the east." 



: ! I cannot then think it to be a forced construction upon that pas- 



sage in Genesis, -f- wherein we are told that the stars were " for 

 jM " signs and for seasons," to suppose, that the first use of those 



signs was to serve as the emblems— the hieroglyphical record — of a 

 I promise J, which was certainly given, and the remembrance of which 



was as much more important than any thing else to the happi- 

 ' iiess of mankind, as eternity surpassed seasons ? 



It would be criminal here to pass unnoticed the observations of 

 Volney, unfortunately celebrated as an antichristian philosopher, 

 and not to shew how his very objections afford arguments; and that, 



» Milton's Paradise lost. 11. 8S0. 



f C. 1. \i. Doctor Barrett quotes innumerable authorities to shew, that the opinion has 

 very generally prevailed, that the heavens contained a hieroglyphic of futurity —It was the 

 doctrine of a vast number of the Rabbins, of some of the Fathers, and of many modern wri- 

 ters : Traditions among the Hindoos and other nations serve to confirm it. See Barrett Orig. 

 of the Constel. p. 85, &c. Antiq. Dev. 124, &c. 



% It is not unworthy of remark, at least as a curious fact, that the significations of the names 

 of Adam, Seth, and their descendants, in order, to Noah, contain a sketch of the fall of man, 

 and of his redemption. See St. Jerome's inteipretations of each word. 



