wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."* Both of them fully and perfectly answer the end of their institution. The ark was at once a place of shelter from the storm; contained all necessary accommodation and provision; furnished opportunity and means of the most delightful communion and fellowship; and constituted the dearest bond of union and love. Who does not see in this, that wonderful person of whom prophesy thus speaks, "A man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." In whom "it has pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell;" of whom "the whole family in heaven and earth is named ;" who thus declares in his own person, "those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost," who enjoins them to "love one another," and prays for them, that "they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in

us."

:

The attractive influence of the gospel, and its blessed tendency to tame and subdue the high thoughts, and savage dispositions of the human heart, were beautifully prefigured by the instinctive call of Providence to the brute creation to seek shelter in the ark, and by the placability and gentleness of their dispositions towards each other while they continued in it. The words of Isaiah are literally a history of the deluge, and they contain a prediction equally beautiful and striking, of the peaceableness and concord of Christ's kingdom; "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Under the influence of Christ's spirit, the fierce and the proud, the cruel and the resentful, the envious and the passionate, "put on as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering ;" and learn to "forbear one another, to forgive one another."

like manner, the plan of redemption, which was formed of old, even from everlasting, God was at length manifested in the flesh to execute, and in it he laboured and persevered, till bowing his head, "it is finished." What shall we say? The very waters of the flood have a figurative prospect of gospel times and gospel ideas. The deluge was a purifier of the old world, corrupted and defiled by sin; and "a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water;" the antitype of which remarkable event, we are informed by the apostle Peter, is our salvation by baptism; The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ."* When we behold the same element destructive to one and salutary to another, are we not led to think of that doctrine which is "unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved and in them that perish? to the one it is a savour of death unto death, and to the other, a savour of life unto life;" and of that other under which the Baptist represents the power and coming of the Son of God? "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner: but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."†

The wind or spirit which passed over the earth, and assuaged the waters, points out to us not obscurely, the power of that Divine Spirit, who in the beginning "moved upon the face of the deep," and reduced chaos into order and beauty; and who, through the whole course of Providence "sitteth upon the flood;" even "the Lord on high, who is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." Is it not sweetly figurative of that dawn of hope, that proclamation of mercy, before which the tide of wrath begins to ebb and to subside?

The figure of the dove declares its own meaning and import. In the natural purity and innocence of that sweet bird; in her going and returning; in the expressive speca of her first excursion; in the expressive symbol she bore in her mouth at her second return, the olive-leaf; in the clear and explicit information conveyed by her not returning again the third time, it is impossible not to observe a prefiguration of the purity and innocence of the Holy Jesus, the Media tor between God and man. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, Again; the figure shifting from the ark, that bringeth good tidings of good, that pubto him who built and constructed it, accord-lisheth salvation !" Lo, the winter is past, ing to the pattern given him of God, Noah the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear himself becomes the type and Jesus the per- on the earth, the time of the singing of birds son typified. The plan or design of the ark is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard was of God; the execution was Noah's; m in our land." As the state of the world was Matth 12

* 1 Cor. 1. 21. Isaiah xxxii. 2. Isaiau xi. 6–9

• Peter ini. 21.

66

66

gradually unfolded to Noah by the different | his name] and thy Redeemer the Holy One appearances and conduct of his dove; so was of israel; the God of the whole earth shall he

“ he is our Lord and we will worship him;" for "surely this is the Son of God."

And here closes the first great period of the world. There next ensues a very considerable space of time, fruitful indeed in names, but barren in events. Providence has thought fit to draw a veil over it for this obvious reason, that however amusing or in

to us, as citizens of this world, having no special relation to the history of redemption, it cannot be very deeply interesting to us as Christians. And the design of the Bible is not so much to convey to us natural and political knowledge, as the knowledge of "the only true God, and of Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, whom to know is life eternal." The sacred historian accordingly hastens on to the times of Abraham, when the promises and predictions of the Messiah become more clear and express, and that Saviour was explicitly announced, "in whom all the families of the earth" should at length be blessed.

every man who cometh into the world ;" and | thus many of the objects which we are incapable of contemplating, by the direct and immediate illumination of the glorious "Father of Lights," are tempered to our perception, use, and delight, by reflection from other orbs. "No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him."structive the detail of that period might be Thus have we endeavoured to point out those particulars in the person, character, and life of Noah, which seem more obviously typical of Christ the Lord; but I cannot conclude the parallel, without directing your thoughts to one article of resemblance more. The old world having undergone the purgation of a flood, was delivered in its renewed state to Noah and his natural posterity for a possession: and from the world that is, when purified by fire, "We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." "He that sitteth upon the throne saith, Behold I make all things new! for the former things are passed away." And he that is before the throne saith, "In my father's house are many mansions! if it were not so I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know."" the sun shining in his strength." The Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."

When we have marked the progress of the dawn, and observed the first rays of this rising sun, through the medium of type, figure, and prediction; when we have considered the tokens of approaching glory in the east; let us look up together, and behold the splendour of the full-blown day; let us contemplate the glory spread around us, by

scattered glimmerings of light,-a terrestrial paradise, the first promise of deliverance by the seed of the woman, Abel's sacrifice, Enoch's translation, Noah's ark, and all that followed during so many ages, were at length Let me now exhort you in the words of collected and lost in that one great luminary, Christ, "Search the scriptures, for in them which is the light of the Christian world. ye think ye have eternal life, and they tes- But alas! "this is the condemnation, that tify of Him, who is Alpha and Omega, the light is come into the world, and men loved first and the last, the beginning and the end;" darkness rather than light, because their and as you read and meditate, the light will deeds were evil. For every one that doeth break in upon you, and the Saviour of the evil hateth the light; neither cometh to the world will stand confessed in every page, in light, lest his deeds should be reproved."* every line; so that ye may say one to another, Let us endeavour to approve ourselves, in the words of Andrew to Simon his brother," children of the light, and of the day," and "We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ." And when you see all that is venerable in respect of antiquity, all that is sacred in office, all that is dignified in royalty, bringing their glory and honour to him, lay yourselves at his feet, and say,

observe and follow Him, who thus speaks concerning himself, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

• John iii. 19, 20.

HISTORY OF ABRAM.

LECTURE X.

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee.-GENESIS xii. 1.

plan of redemption. Dropping the mighty founders of Nineveh and Babylon in that oblivion wherein Providence has plunged them never to emerge, let us accompany the father of the faithful from Ur of the Chaldees to the place of his destination, and observe the increasing splendour of the day of grace, and adore the wisdom, truth, and faithfulness of Him who promised, and who "hath done as he had said.”

It may be proper to observe, in the entrance of the history of this great patriarch, that one life, that of Noah, almost connects Adam with Abram. For Noah was born only one hundred and twenty-six years after the death of Adam, and lived till within two

fore, the father and founder of the Jewish nation is very little more than the third from the first man. So readily, immediately, and uninterruptedly, might the knowledge of important truth, particularly the promises of salvation, be communicated through so long a tract of time. It is farther observable, that

It would yield neither amusement nor instruction, to lay before you in detail, the genealogical succession of the sons of Noah, from the flood to the calling of Abram.Scripture presents us with a very general view of that period. It shows us mankind engaged in pursuits common to men in every age. It exhibits the usual and natural operations, and the effects of pride, and ambition, and avarice: plans of empire formed; imperial cities founded; new discoveries made, and settlements established. For a considerable time the recent horrors of the deluge must have laid fast hold of the minds of men as the awful monuments of it were every where before their eyes. This would naturally, for a while, confine them to the moun-years of Abram's birth. In one sense, theretainous regions of Armenia, where the ark first rested. But as their fears diminished, and their numbers increased, we find them, allured by the beauty and fertility of the plains, which were washed by the Tygres and the Euphrates, descending gradually from the heights, and spreading along the vast and fruitful valleys of Shinar or Chal-as from Adam to Noah there are ten generadea. And he who had seen the whole human race cut off for their wickedness, his own family consisting of eight persons excepted, lived to see the descendants of that family almost as numerous and as profligate as the generation of men which had been destroyed by the flood. He had the mortifi-, cation, in particular, of seeing his posterity engaged in an enterprise equally absurd, vain, and impious; that of building "a city and a tower whose top should reach unto heaven," to transmit their names with renown to posterity, to be the great seat of empire, and thereby the means of preserving them in one grand system of political union, and of securing them from discord and dispersion.

The sacred volume informs us, that the very means which they had vainly devised to keep themselves together, in the wisdom of God, separated and scattered them. But the history of that event falls not within the design of these exercises. Leaving Nimrod and his vain-glorious companions to erect the monument of their own folly, and to feel the consequences of their impiety, let us attend the sacred historian in tracing, not the rise and progress of empire, but the formation, the unfolding, and the execution of the

tions, so likewise from Noah to Abram there are ten generations; but the latter succeeded each other much faster than the former. The first ten occupy a period of one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years; the last is shrunk down to three hundred and fiftyseven. We are henceforward, therefore, to be conversant with lives reduced nearer to our own standard. While extreme longevity was necessary to carry on the designs of Providence, men lived to the age of many centuries. When God saw it was meet to substitute a written and permanent revelation, in the place of oral tradition from father to son, the life of man was shortened.

The history of Abram's life commences at a period of it, long before which that of most men is concluded; namely, at the seventyfifth year of his age. It is never either too early or late to serve and follow God. But the folly and presumption of youth is but too apt to defer matters of the greatest moment to the last hour; and this fatal waste of the seed time cf life, is the sure foundation of dishonour, remorse, and despair, in old age. But though our patriarch had arrived at a period of life so advanced, before the sacred historian introduces him upon the stage, the obscurity which lies upon his earlier years

samply compensated by the rich, instruc- | setting out, with difficulties seemingly untive, and entertaining materials, furnished surmountable. The promises made to him from the divine stores, for the history of the latter part of his life.