396 On the Mosaic account of the 'Creation. 



which by his disobedience he has brought upon himself, 

 are to be remitted only through faith in Him who took our na- 

 ture upon Himself and died that He might purchase and 

 redeem us with His own bloody from the wrath to come. And 

 assuredly to this blessed Redeemer, and not to the visitation 

 of the deluge, the inspired exclamation of Lainech of the 

 birth of Noah, had reference ; for as yet no threat of destruc- 

 tion had been launched against the earth and its inhabitants, 

 nor was it pronounced until five hundred years afterwards, 

 for we read in Genesis, that Noah was six hundred years 

 old when the Flood was upon the earth, and we know that 

 the warning threat was given about one hundred and twenty 

 years before the deluge actually began; consequently Noah 

 was born nearly five hundred years before the warning threat 

 was given. 



Thus it would appear that the exclamation of Lamech 

 pointed out that through Noah and his posterity a Saviour 

 would arise to redeem and ' e comfort us concerning our work 

 and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord 

 hath cursed." The words " hath cursed" distinctly prove 

 that the exclamation pointed to that curse which man had 

 entailed upon the earth and himself by his first transgression, 

 and not to the curse of the deluge, for as yet that threat had 

 not been pronounced. Now the deluge was the fulfilment, 

 not of the curse, but of the threat. It was therefore afresh 

 outpouring of the wrath of God upon the earth, and its 

 inhabitants, both human and animal, caused by the increased 

 depravity and crimes of mankind ; and although the historian 

 does not term the threat a curse, yet we see by its con- 

 sequences that it was such, and all doubt upon the subject is 

 set at rest by the Almighty's promise to Noah after the flood, 

 " I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake ; 

 for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth ; 

 neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I 

 have done. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, 



