Noah and Christ

It remains for us to examine under what character Noah pre-figures Christ: on what principle, and in what way, Christ is, according to the Word, pre-figured by Noah.
Though there is no doctrine the authority of which rests upon nothing but a type, nevertheless, it is well to remark that a symbol recognized by God, in the Word, as a type, has more authority than a symbol which, though in itself a description of things to come, has not had the name of "a type" given to it by the Spirit of God. As a child of God, I dare not deny that Adam is a type of Christ, because the Spirit of God says so positively (Rom. 5:14). I can then say, on the authority of
God's word, there is instruction for me about Christ in the history of Adam. But i dare not say it with the same boldness as to Noah; because the Spirit of God has not (that I know) said that Noah is the type of Christ. Nevertheless, by examining both the histories (viz., that of Noah and that of Christ), such a resemblance is found between them, as to leave a full persuasion that the Spirit of God has so arranged as to give details of Noah after the pattern of what He saw was to come in certain details as to Christ.
For example.-The destruction of the world where Noah was, is given to us by the Holy Spirit as bearing witness to the state of the world that now is (2 Peter 3:5-7).
Noah and his family being saved out of the deluge, are given to us as a symbol of salvation through faith in Christ. 1 Peter 3:18-21.-" Christ has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God; put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the 'Spirit: by which [Spirit] also He went, and preached to the spirits [now] in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing wherein few, that is, eight persons were saved by water. The like figure* whereunto baptism Both also now save us: not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ; who is gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God.
(The word translated "figure" is αντιτυπος (in Greek) and not the word (tupos) type. But we see that in the mind of Peter there was a correspondence, which he would have us to observe, between the salvation of which Noah and his family were the objects and the salvation which is ours. The expression, a like figure whereunto, may have been used to show, that there is a correspondence in the salvation by grace.)
Noah and his family were hidden in the ark as we are in Christ. The danger and the fear of judgment cause us to hide in Christ, as the very same kept Noah and his family in the ark until the judgment was passed. The same judgment which destroyed the wicked saved this blessed family, and so it is with us.
The ark was of God; it was He who commanded it to be built; He protected it, and He caused it to rest upon Mount Ararat before the door was opened. In like manner, Christ came forth from God: we believe on Christ because God has commanded us to do so. It is He who is our Savior, and it is He who has revealed to us Christ upon His throne, and we dare not come out from our place of refuge before he tells us. It would be easy to multiply points of resemblance.*
(* The judgment upon Israel, as a nation, in the end, presents in full development, and that in connection with Christ, what the present redemption, according to Peter, does in moral principle. See Isa. 54:9.)
When Noah came out of the ark, the sword of judgment was placed in his hands, for the restraining of evil in a world where God had declared His intention of manifesting His gracious providence.
During the millennium, Christ is, as to the earth, the Prince who will reign in justice; but the extent of His power is wide indeed. When He leaves the Father's throne He will take possession of the heavenly places, and He will drive Satan and his angels out of them (Rev. 12) How long will be his stay in the heavenly places we are not told, but there He will receive His bride and there the nuptials will take place (Rev. 19:1-10). From thence He will come down to the earth as King of kings and Lord of lords, always in the same thought of putting down the enemies of God and establishing righteousness. The Beast and the false prophet, the chiefs in rebellion, will be judged. He will remember Israel, and His heart will not be satisfied without blessing also the nations. He, who is, at one and the same time, called the Dragon (that is to say, he who has the power of the usurper amongst the nations) the Old Serpent (that is, the deceiver by means of subtleties and wiles), the Devil (or accuser), and Satan (the adversary), is taken and thrown into prison for a thousand years. There is an attempt also made by some of the nations before His power is acknowledged (according to Ezek. 38), and perhaps also by treacherous ones (as in Psa. 18:44, the strangers have yielded me feigned obedience or lied to me), but His reign is established notwithstanding over all the earth. This is the last of the dispensations, and will include, both in the heavens and on the earth, the principles of all those that have preceded it.
It is a subject for consideration, under what name Jesus will execute the judgments that are coming; whether it is the same as He will bear when Head over the whole earth during the millennium, or not.
The description of the conqueror sent forth by God, in Rev. 19:11-17, does not give us the glory of Jesus in His character of second Adam, nor, as it seems to me, of Noah, nor of Melchizedek. It rather recalls to us the position of Abram (Gen. 14).
The millennium is but a dispensation. It is not the eternal state. It is certainly the most important of all the dispensations; but still it is but a dispensation. It consists of two parts-- of which one is in the heavenly places, the other in the earthlies. The two portions; though closely united together, are still each of them distinct.
Above, there will be the Father's house, and the glorious courts of the divine government. In the Father's house, the Father and His only-begotten Son, with the adopted family (full in that day of the Spirit of God), will have their rest and enjoyment in affections perfectly heavenly, because they are perfectly divine* In the glorious courts where God will be revealed with the Lamb in the midst of the Church, which (filled with the Holy Ghost) will become the Tabernacle prepared by God for His habitation, and will be also the seat of His government, and of the glory which belongs to the presence of the Divine Majesty. There Jesus, the Son of Man will appear as the Lamb, and likewise as the Son of God, now Heir of all things, on account of His Service to God in His work of redemption.
(* The presence of the person of Jesus, the God-Man, and that presence alone-can give us any just idea of the blessedness which awaits us. In Eden, man was set at a distance from God infinitely great; because the Creator is infinite, and His creature is finite. In Jesus, while, on one hand, we see in Him all the glory both of His Father and God; on the other, we see in Him, as Son of Man, a perfect enjoyment of all that which is in God and His Father. The new and divine nature which He communicates to us through means of His Spirit, is capable of tasting all that of which He tastes, and of enjoying all that which is to Him a subject of enjoyment.)
On earth below will Jesus likewise be manifested and glorified; but it will not be exactly with the same glories as those displayed on High.
On the earth He will be manifested-As Jehovah (Psa. 110:1 and 5, etc.); As God (Psa. 45:7, etc.);
As Jehovah, the God of Israel (Ezek. 44:2, Psa. 118:26, Matt. 23:39, etc.).
He will exercise all His offices likewise-
As Son of Man (Dan. 7.13-18, 27, etc.);
As Son of Abraham, or Head over the Household of Faith (Gal. 3:16-18, Rom. 11:26,32);
As Son of David or King of Israel (Psa. 132:11, 1 Kings, 8:25).
Jesus will exercise likewise all the offices* which are necessary, whether for the bringing in of that dispensation, or for the regulating and sustaining it; or for the deliverance, at its close, of the vast body of believers which will be found in the midst of an unreal profession. In Him, likewise, will be manifested, and fully sustained by Him, all the responsibilities which God has entrusted to the hands of man from the creation up tp the moment of the commencement of the millennium. From the beginning man has lost everything, and up to the end man will lose everything, by reason of his spirit of independence. Christ regains everything, and keeps all in his hands, because of His spirit of obedience and dependence.
(* God, the Creator, has put man, His creature, to the proof in the most gracious way, by bestowing on him free gifts. He has bestowed on him a series of them; but man has shown himself incapable of profiting by them, for by a want of obedience, most criminal on the part of a creature, to the wise and good prohibition of his Creator, sin entered in at almost the first. First, God put into the hands of Man the garden of Eden; a scene filled with blessedness for man in a state of innocency; then, when sin had entered, God held forth a promise of One that was to come. He drove out from His presence the family of Cain, who became the founder of a world morally at enmity with God; but sin continued to increase on the earth. A little further on in the history, having saved Noah and his family by the deluge, He gave them a new earth in possession, even that which now is. A covenant was made with them in Providence, and the sword of judgment was put into their hands. The fall of Noah as an individual in these, his privileges, is found in the same chapter. He was drunk in his tent. Very soon after, the impious attempt to build the Tower of Babel showed the state of ruin in principle of this earth.
Then God gave the call to Abraham-a call which brings in the principles of the heavens; but if Abraham at the call of God left his country and idolatry, he did not leave behind him his kindred; he took with him Terah and Lot, and, alas! he failed in obedience, for, doing his own will-he went down into Egypt. Terah died, and Lot, ceasing to walk like a believer, is left behind; and Abraham alone becomes the depositary of the promises both of the heaven and the earth by means of the promised seed. Father of the household of faith, both Jew and Gentile, and the nations outside, are to be blessed upon -earth through this seed, and the heavens also are to be filled with blessing by means of the same. The promises and the covenants given to Abraham, are renewed to Isaac and Jacob; but in the case of each we see that the creature is utterly incapable of retaining the blessing. After this, God essayed to bless Egypt as well as the countries around it, through its means, by introducing there the Jewish people, who have been (since He divided the nations) the central object of His providential care upon earth. The result we only know too well.
In the case of each of the three patriarchs, it is the call of the individual as such, and the individuality is always kept up, because the hope of the promise is of one only seed. Nevertheless, the family of the individual is likewise always found-that is to say, the husband and his wife. In the case of Israel in Egypt, it is a company of families. Joseph went down into Egypt alone; he found there a family-a wife and children; and the families of his brethren were joined to him there. When they left Egypt, they were a great nation. And this nation God set in Canaan head over all the people of the earth; because God was to be their king. In giving them ordinances for their own blessing, God gave them a mediator,* priests and prophets, a most suitable manner of worship for God as God of an earthly people-the Law, etc. But the nation was rebellious, and preferred the golden calf to God, and despised His ordinances. God, after having shown forth His long-suffering towards Israel, removed them from their place in judgment, and the supreme power in the earth was given into the hands of the image in Daniel. The heart of the Beast was given to this image, and it lent its power to the Jews for the murder of the Messiah-the Desire of nations. God made use of this image, and of Satan, who is the spirit working in it, for the chastening and the punishing of Israel; but whilst the sin of Israel and of the nations was coming to perfection, God gave a new thing to another witness, even to all who believe.
(* The thought of a mediator, of a high-priest, of a prophet, etc., is not received from Moses; though these truths may be for the first time clearly presented to us under that dispensation. The need in man, which called for the offices, the services of such an one, existed from the very first. The first filaments of these truths are found when man is first found as a sinner in the presence of God.
If the revelations given by God are examined in the order in which they follow one another, it would seem to me, that in each succeeding stop, there is more of God and less of what is human, in the place in which God would set man. Adam, after his fall, is left much more to himself, and with much less light than Noah; and under Moses, the details of the relationship of man towards God are much more multiplied and various. As now, it is evident that all is of pure grace, by means of pure grace, as the end is characterized by being pure grace.
The good word of the grace of God, the Father of Jesus, in the heavenly places-having for its foundation His resurrection and taking up into heaven; who on earth was put to death on the cross-this has been given to all who believe. For it is in the cross-the perfect expression of man's hatred against God-that God has found the victim of propitiation for sin-the Lamb, who has been slain, risen, glorified; and from Him flows to all who believe, the gift of His Holy Spirit, But where is this witness? What has become of this Church? The heart of man has not known how to divide between things which differ; it has not judged the flesh and the world which have crept in secretly into the house of the living God: Satan has entered in, and has taken possession of it; and the Church, which calls herself such, has willingly sheltered itself under the skirts of the image of Daniel, or under the protection of the four beasts. It is also her desire that the Law should be the root of all blessing. The kingdom established in mystery has failed in the hands of man; and all, as we see in the Revelation, is very soon to be judged; must be judged, in order to give place to Him, who alone has been faithful to God. And Jesus will very soon bring in that which will be the perfect antitype of ail that has gone before it. The paradise 'of God will be safe in His blessed keeping. The distinction between the family of God upon the earth and those who are driven out from his presence will be sustained. He will maintain the rights of God upon the earth. He will bless the heathen through the means of Israel; will be king, mediator, and high-priest for Israel upon earth, while at the same time He will appear in the heavenly places with a heavenly church.
And since all is of grace-all in order to show forth the grace of God, and the glory which belongs to Him as Redeemer, so He will not be alone in whatsoever way He is pleased to manifest Himself. Having saved by faith and His Spirit a remnant out of each dispensation, He will cause them to appear with Him in His glory--blessed happy witnesses of grace towards a lost race.))
The audacity and the folly of independence of God, and the beauty and value of dependence are thus manifested.
As to these two principles, it must be added to the creature's shame (in his spirit of independence) that obedience was but duty on his part to his Creator, and it is even, the creature's own glory: but to the praise of Jesus can it be said, He was voluntarily obedient in the position of the humbled servant, and even took it of His own free will, in order to glorify God and His Father, and to show how blessed a thing dependance is, by the salvation of poor sinners.
Two other important truths remain to be noticed:-first, that all that He will do on earth during the millennium He will do not only as being of one mind with God in his counsels, but also in His character of servant of a God not seen to be present. Secondly, that the millennium brings before us (on this same earth where sin has abounded) not only the contrast between His conduct as God's faithful servant, and the conduct of man, faithless to all the trusts which God has committed to Him, but also (alas! to our shame) that dispensation will give us another specimen of what man is.
The sin of man will be shown in its true light, and the root of sin will also be shown, and man as a sinner will be without excuse. When Christ was upon earth the world had nothing by which to take hold of Him, and Satan had no power against Him. And why? Because He was God's perfect servant. His will was, to be always in subjection to God's, and God's only. The answer will be made to me, Yes: and because His flesh was not wicked as ours is. True! but how is it that our flesh has become wicked? Ah! it is because Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (whose flesh was innocent and pure) renounced their position of dependance. They thought and chose for themselves. But this is not all. God in His grace has presented us with a testimony as to the work of His Son as the Savior. God does not now demand from me obedience as He once exacted it in the garden of Eden, but He addresses Himself to me as a poor sinner. What He desires is, that we, poor sinners, just as we are, should take the position of dependance. He desires that Jesus should be honored as the Savior. What can we do for the glory of God? We are only poor ruined sinners. This is true. But if it is God's good pleasure that His Son should be glorified by the salvation of poor sinners, to refuse to believe is not only to refuse to be blessed, but it is refusing to glorify the Son of God in that which I can glorify Him (for I am a poor sinner), it is persisting (to my own proper ruin) in the spirit of independence of God. God be praised that we have found to our own blessedness the value of dependance! For, by believing in Jesus, and in the grace of God through Him, we have found that neither Satan, nor the world, nor the flesh, can do anything against us. The strength which faith in Jesus gives to a poor sinner, is beyond the strength of the flesh, of the world, and of? Satan. It is the will which holds fast man in his enmity against God. Man would in everything be God, but God will not give His glory to another. That which now passes every day upon this earth in its state of estrangement from God, will likewise take place on this same earth in the very light of the Divine presence in the millennium, and thus the real root of sin will then be uncovered.
In the dispensation to come-all that which now acts upon the flesh to strengthen it against God will be removed, and everything that could teach it the value of obedience will be present. A fresh trial will be given to man; and it will be seen that nothing is wanting but the opportunity to spew it, that, if left to himself, he would prefer to be the companion of Satan (if only he can do his own will) rather than be blessed by renouncing his own will for that of God. After terrible judgments, Satan will be bound (Rev. 20:1, 2). The world whose god he is (2 Cor. 4:4), and prince (John 14:30), will be delivered from his tyranny. All creation will rejoice, instead of being, as it is now, subject to vanity (Rom. 8:19-21); but not only is the absence of evil promised, but also the presence of all that is good. Jesus will have it in possession, and what must be the state of this world when made ready for Him, and when ordered and ruled by Him! The earth will be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14); Israel, and Egypt, and Assyria, will in a special manner be blessed (Isa. 19:24,25).* But Israel, nevertheless, will have a glory distinguished from all the rest, and Jerusalem will be the center of all its blessings (Ezek. 42:48). This is where the glory of the heavens and the glory of the earth will be united (John 1:51; Isa. 4:4-6).
(* This is the extent of the land promised to Abraham.)
In that day man will see what are the fruits of the obedience of Jesus shed abroad (to the joy of the Savior's heart) amongst the poor. Man will rejoice in it; he will feel the blessedness of it; but all this experience cannot alter his flesh, nor make a lasting impression on him. Satan comes out of his prison, and all the ends of the earth follow in his train in open rebellion against God and His Christ. This is what the flesh is, yours and mine, dear reader, in itself.
1. Noah, as has been already remarked, was, so to speak, the man belonging to both worlds. Thus, in the millennium, we see that Christ will be both in the heavenly and the earthly places, and in each of these, his spheres of glory, there will be that which belongs to both the old and the new system. In the heavens, the new things, in themselves perfect, will be manifested in the old heavens still unchanged. On the other hand, on earth the old things will be set directly under the order and power of the new things. Though upon the earth men will not be in glorified bodies, and man there will not necessarily be renewed in soul and in spirit. But the general state will not be as up to that time-viz., a state of darkness with some rays of light, brilliant in themselves, but in appearance weak by reason of the contrast with the thick darkness which reigns. Light will be shed abroad everywhere, and the darkness will be hidden. Christ will be there, and the fullness which is in Him will shed itself abroad through everything in blessing, in holy blessing, and blessing all around it, but in a world which is, not changed. This must be particularly observed. Within the city in the heavens all will be perfect. There will be no sin there; God himself will be there and the Lamb. For those who shall be found in this city, there will be no fall at the end of the dispensation. All within the city will be perfect. But it is not the same with that which is without the city, though it be found in the heavenly places. All that is there is not perfect. The heavens have not been changed; and if righteousness which remaineth forever will be manifested within the holy city, it is not necessarily the same throughout the heavenly places. Glory can in itself be perfect without the circumstances of its manifestation being so likewise, as was perfectly the case with the Lord Jesus in the transfiguration. On earth redemption will display itself during the millennium as being still in development. There its manifestation will be not only displayed in connection with a dispensation, for sin will be still upon earth, and redemption will be there seen still developing itself. In heaven another thing is seen as to its blessedness. God does not come into the earth except in His relationship with Jesus the Savior. Sin is found there. Even at Jerusalem (Isa. 65:20) and perhaps close to the temple (Ezek. 44:22,25) there will be judgments which will show this; but where sin is, there redemption is not fully accomplished.
2. If the dispensations be examined in succession, it will be seen that there are intervals between them; intervals in which the one just passed is judged, and the one to come is in principle established. It is very difficult to understand these intervals. In the first place, in appearance they partake of the principles, the nature, and the character, both of that which precedes and of that which follows them; but they are not exactly either of one or of the other; a certain action of God is displayed in them, and God is beyond all dispensation. Who can comprehend what passed in the time that Jesus was upon earth? One of these intervals is found between the dispensation that we are in and that which- is to come. And if the retrospect of the last of these intervals makes us feel our ignorance, the difficulty is not less when we look at that which is to come. On the contrary it is increased; first, because it is the future with which we have to do; and secondly, because the ripening of sin in the present dispensation, and the glory of the dispensation to come, are both much greater than the sin of the past dispensation and the glory of the present one; and thirdly, because the manifestation of the Divine presence will be greater, for in the last interval Christ, contrariwise, rather sought to hide His glory.
The heavenly places are now in the possession of wicked spirits (Eph. 6:11,12), and the earth is under a power not of God. Evil is coming to perfection in the Jewish nation, among the Gentiles, and in that which the Church boasts itself to be, and is so called. Very soon the cup of their iniquity will be full. Deliverance and judgment are at the door. When and how will the next of these intervals commence? Between the moment that the Lord leaves the throne of God, His Father, and the establishment of His kingdom down here upon earth, all that passes is within, it seems to me, the coming interval -the overlapping of the two economies. The forming of a new witness to the Jews and to the Gentiles--the manifestation of grace for a remnant out of both of these -the judgment of Babylon, of the Beast, and of the false prophet-the judgments upon the earth-Satan bound, etc.-would all seem to me to be during the interval; and I do not otherwise understand the purifying of the earth (Rev. 19:11 to 20:3, and Dan. 7:9-12). But the purifying of the heavenly places (Rev. 22) and the rapture of the saints, are these within the coming interval or not?* Perhaps the fifteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, as evidently containing in principle all that takes place between the first corning of Jesus and the establishment of the new heavens and the new earth (for ver. 28 is after the Millennium), might aid us.
(* The question is of interest, because, as it seems to me, it involves two important matters, viz., 1st. Are these two things wrought by God for Christ, He being still hidden in God on the throne, or are they the first expressions of the service of the Son of man coming out in service from the throne 1 and 2ndly, Are these two things connected primarily with the mystery, or with the kingdom? I add that what seems to me to constitute the great difficulty in connection with the subject is our want of light upon the kingdom set up in mystery.)
The difference in the experience of Enoch and Noah, both believers, has been well remarked upon. The first was taken at once into the glory of God in heaven, without having either seen the judgments or tasted of death; and this is the calling of the Church. The second was saved out of the midst of the divine judgments pronounced against His evil generation, and against an earth which had corrupted itself, and at length is found upon earth. This is what awaits Israel. The first was the man for the heavens; the second the man for the earth.
I would add, that the second, namely he who was saved out of the midst of the judgments, took no part in the execution of the judgments. His history as to the earth, which was given into his hand, begins at the conclusion of the judgments.
It is a subject for consideration, under what name Jesus will execute the judgments that are coming, whether it is the same as He will bear when King over the whole earth during the Millennium.
The description of the conqueror sent forth by God in Rev. 19:11-17 does not give us the glory of Jesus in His character of second Adam, or of Noah, or of Melchizedek. It rather recalls to us the position of Abram (Gen. 14).
Even before Noah came forth from the ark grace in God had shown itself, for God remembered him, and made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters were assuaged; they decreased and were abated; the ark rested as soon as possible on Mount Ararat. God sent to him, in the mouth of the dove which he had sent forth, an olive leaf plucked off. God invites him to come out of the ark, and gives him the earth in possession.
" Bring forth with thee every living thing,.... that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth."
" And Noah builded an altar, and offered burnt offerings upon the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in His heart, 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" (Gen. 8:21,22).
" And God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth" (Gen. 9:1).
If Christ begins to manifest Himself in the character of Noah, before the judgments are poured out, and that the bringing in of grace is before His entering into possession of the earth, then the connection that there is between the name of Noah* (Rest) and Jesus as the Peace will easily be seen (Isa. 42:1-8, Mal. 1:11).
(* it was Lamech who called his son Noah, saying, " This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.")
3. Sin was not in the place where God set Adam, so there will be no sin in the place which is the antitype of Eden-the paradise not on earth, but the paradise of God Himself in the heavens. There was sin in the place into which God brought Noah, as there will be in like manner on the earth during the Millennium.
4. The appearing of Christ upon earth the same as in the case of Noah, is followed by a declaration of judgment to be exercised. The sword, or the right of putting to death, which God placed in the hands of Noah, recognized that sin was there. It was the order of God's government for the restraining of evil, but still ever for the good of man. Government there will be, in one sense, in heaven, where there will be no sin; for God is the Author of order. But the sword supposes sin, and that the power of God is there in order to restrain it.
This is what Christ will do. He will maintain (even through the means of judgments) peace and righteousness. He will reign in God's name for the sake of man, as He once suffered, because He would glorify God and save man.
Instead of becoming drunk like Noah in his tent, where he discovered to his own children his nakedness and shame, the joy of Christ, the true Nazarene, will be divine; and the more this joy will be disclosed, the more, at the same time, will Christ be revealed as the only refuge, the only robe of righteousness, the only One that is worthy.
5. Neither will the sign of the rainbow, that token of the covenant and of Divine Providence, be wanting to Him. But instead of being an accidental thing, which the light of the sun and the memorial of judgment produces from time to time, it will be the ornament of the person of Him who sustains all, and will sustain all in His reign in blessing, ever turning away the wrath of God by the righteousness of His reign.
He will reign amongst the nations-the despised Nazarene will reign; and He will bless, according to the desire of His own heart, all those who seek the glory of' God. He will not allow of the tower of Babel, that expression of the confederacy of the flesh against the judgments of God. He will have the extent of the conquests of Nimrod under His scepter, and all the habitable world will acknowledge Him.*
(* In a Jewish map which I have seen, the kingdom of Nimrod is traced out as containing all that which God promised to Abraham; and this kingdom will be under Jesus, as Son of Abraham. But that which will be His right, according to what God gave to Noah, will be the whole habitable earth.)
The wife of Adam had a name proper to herself, that is to say, "Eve," (The Mother of) All Living. In the counsels of the grace of God, Jerusalem from above is recognized as such, and we shall reign with Him; but the wife of Noah is not recognized as such, she has no name.
The closing scene will be according to the Divine purpose beforehand. For, after having shown that this expression of His divine grace and condescension, in a way quite new both in heaven and earth, has not had the effect it ought to have had upon man, the Lord will close up the whole by allowing Satan to come out from his prison, in order that His own power to keep His own, and the true character of man when left to himself may be fully recognized.
To sum up all in few words. It would seem to me, that the contrast between Adam and Noah will be again found in Christ, in the two spheres of His glory during the millennium. In the heavens He will be in principle the second Adam during the millennium, I say in principle, because I acknowledge that that which is shown forth to us in the heavens during the millennium is to have its full unfolding after the millennium. Upon earth Christ will be ruler for God.
That which follows the millennium is of all interest, but it is not my subject now. The character of Christ's reign, and the manifestation of His grace in a way quite new within it, are also of more than interest, but 1 dare not touch upon it now. I shall be thankful if these feeble remarks should be the means of directing the attention of any one more competent than myself, to skew the connection that there is between the first position in which the different members of Noah's family were set and their position at the end. Their position at the time of the Lord's appearing it is easy to trace up to a-certain point, and is of the highest interest in studying the word of prophecy.