Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 15, PLA-RAM

Prophecy
ii
The curfe
removed
from the
ground.
» Ufa and
Intent cf.
Prophecy.
11
A future
life not
then expli
citly re¬
vealed.
PRO
had no certain help for finners
with her innocence. It was therefore neceflary either
to dehroy the offenders, or to raife them to a capacity
of falvation, by giving them fuch hopes as might ena¬
ble them to exercife a reafonable religion. So far the
light of this prophecy extended. By what means God
intended to work their falvation, he did not exprefsly
declare : and who has a right to complain that he did
not, or to preferibe to him rules in difpenhng his mercy
to the children of men ?
Upon the hopes of mercy which this prophecy gives
in very general terms, mankind refted till the birth of
Noah. At that period a new prophecy was delivered
by Lamech, who foretels that his fon fhould comfort
them concerning the work and toil of their hands,
“ becaufe of the earth auh'ich the L,ord had curfed.>' \V e
are to remember that the curie pronounced upon the
earth was part of the fentence paffed upon our firft pa¬
rents ; and when that part was remitted, if it ever was
remitted, mankind would acquire new and more lively
hopes that in God’s good time they fhould be freed from
the whole. But it has been drown by bifhop Sherlock*,
that this declaration of Lamech’s was a predi&ion, that
during the life of his fon the curfe {horrid be taken off
from the earth : and the fame prelate has proved with
great perfpicuity, and in the moft fatisfattory manner,
that this happy revolution addually took place after
the flood. The limits preferibed to an article of this
kind will not permit us even to abridge his arguments.
We {hall only obferve, that the truth of his conclufion
is manifeil from the very words of feripture ; for when
God informs Noah of his delign to dellroy the world,
he adds, “ But with thee will I eftablifh my covenant:”
and as foon as the deluge was over, he declared that he
“ would not again curfe the ground any more for man s
fake ; but that while the earth fhould remain, feed-time
and harveft, and cold and heat, and fummer and winter,
and day and night, fhould not ceafe.” From this laft
declaration it is apparent that a curfe had been on the
earth, and that feed-time and harveft had often failed ;
that the curfe was now taken off; and that in confe-
quence of this covenant, as it is called, with Noah and
his feed and with every living creature, mankind fliould
not henceforth be fubjefted to toil fo fevere and fo gene¬
rally fruitlefs.
It may feem furprifing perhaps to fome, that after fo
great a revolution in the world as the deluge made,
God fhould fay nothing to the remnant of mankind of
the pumfhments and rewards of another life, but fhoind
make a new covenant with them relating merely to li int-
ful feafons and the bleffings of the earth.. But m the
feriptures we fee plainly a gradual working of provi¬
dence towards the redemption of the world from the
curfe of the fall ; that the temporal blefiings were hi it
reflored as an earnefl and pledge of better things to
follow; and that the covenant given to Noah had,
ftri£tly fpeaking, nothing to do with the hopes of futuri¬
ty, which were referved to be the matter of another
covenant, in another age, and to be revealed by him,
whofe province it was to “ bring life and immortality
to light through the gofpel.” But if Noah and his
forefathers expedled deliverance from the whole curfe of
the fall, the adfual deliverance from ona part of it was
a very good pledge of a further deliverance to be ex-
pedled in time. Man himfelf was curfed as well as the
ground; he was doomed to daft: and fruitful feafons
1 .597 1 PRO
her rights were loft are but a fmall relief, compared to the greatnefs of his Prophecy,
lofs. But when fruitful feafons came, and one part of v—
the curfe was evidently abated, it gave great aflurance
that the other fliould not laft for ever, but that by
fome means, ftill unknown to them, they fliould be
freed from the whole, and finally bruife the ferpent’s
head, who, at the deluge, had fo feverely bruifed man’s
heel.
Upon this aflurance mankind refted for fome genera¬
tions, and pra&ifed, as we have every reafon to believe,
a rational worfhip to the one God of the umverfe. At
laft, however, idolatry was by fome means or other in¬
troduced (fee Polytheism), and fpread fo univerfally
through the world, that true religion would in all pro¬
bability have entirely failed, had not God viflbly inter-
pofed to preferve fuch a fenfe of it as wras neceflary for
the accomplifliment of his great defign to reftore man- , 3
kind. This he did by calling Abraham from amidft Promife te>
his idolatrous kindred, and renewing to him the w-ord of Abraham,
prophecy : “ Get thee out of thy country (faid he),
and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s houfe,
unto a land that I will lhew thee. And I will make of
thee a great nation, and I wall blefs thee and make thy
name great; and thou {halt be a blefiing. And I w ill
blefs them that blefs thee, and curfe him that curfcth
thee ; and in thee {hall all the families of the earth be
blefl'ed.” Thefe magnificent promifes are feveral times
repeated to the father of the faithful with additional cir-
cumltances of great importance, fuch as, “ that he fliould
be multiplied exceedingly ; that he fhould be a father ,
of many nations ; that kings fliould come out of him
and above all, that God would eftablifli an everlajling co¬
venant with him and his feed, to give him and them all
the land of Cannan for an everlajiing pojj'ffton, and to be
their God”
Upon fuch of thefe promifes as relate to tempo¬
ral blefiings we need not dwell. They are much
of the fame nature with thofe which had been given
before to Lamech, Noah, Shem, and Japheth ; and all
the world knows how amply and literally they have
been fulfilled. There was however fo little probability
in nature of their accomplifliment at the time when they
were made, that we find the patriarch alking “ Where¬
by he fliould knout that he fliauld inherit fuch an ex-1 ^onc^9
tent of country And as. the promifes that he fhouldxv* 8<
inherit it w ere meant to be a foundation for religion
and confidence in God, a miraculous fign was given him
that they came indeed from the fpirit of truth. This
removed from his mind every doubt, and made him give
the fulleft credit, not only to them, but alfo to that
oilier promife, “ that in his feed ftiould all the nations
of the earth be blefled.”
What diftimft notion he had of this hlefiing, or in
what manner he hoped it ftiould be effefted, we cannot'
pretend to fay. “ But that he underftood it to be a
promife of reftoring mankind, and delivering them from-
the remaining curfe of the fall, there can be no doubt.
He knew that death had entered by fin ; he knew that
God had promifed viftory and redemption to the feed
of the woman. Upon the hopes of this reftoration the.
religion of his anceftors was founded; and when God,
from whom this blefling on all men was expe&ed, did
exprefsly promife a blefling on all men, and in this pro¬
mife founded his everlafting covenant—what could Abra^
ham elfe expett but the completion in his feed of that
ancient promife and prophecy concerning the vnftory
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