life.

The righteousness he preached was doubtless the same that he himself possessed and practised, that is to say, the righteousness of faith working by love unto obedience. Thus the executions of judgement are preceded by the messengers of mercy; and the words of the wise are employed as sharp goadsTM, to awaken the world from that insensibility which, unless removed, is to the soul what a lethargy is to the body, the sure symptom and forerunner of death. Christian ministers, who live in these latter days, which answer to those of Noah, have in him a noble pattern of what they ought to be and to do, viz. to work righteousness themselves, and preach it to all the world. They may not, perhaps, have better success than he had. They may be despised, and they may be forgotten by men. But they will be honoured and had in remembrance in His sight, who hath promised not to forget their work and labour of love. Their memorial is in heaven, whither their works do follow them, and their reward is with the Most High, to be given them in the day of eternal recompense, when the Christian shall be the character marked out for preferment, and the faithful priest shall be acknowledged by the King of kings.

11. Builds the Ark.

Besides the sermons delivered from time to time by Noah to those around him, he preached one of a very extraordinary nature to all the inhabitants of the earth; for such we may properly call the ark built by

m Eccles. xii. 11.

him, the report of which, considering the number of years it was in building, went forth, doubtless, into all lands, and was every where the subject of conversation, long before the flood came. By faith, says the apostle, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith". The assertion in this passage, that Noah by building the ark condemned the world, implies that the world were acquainted with that transaction, which, being a public and notorious testimony of his faith, will at the last day arise up in the judgement against their infidelity, and prevent their putting in the plea of ignorance. The strength of Noah's faith in the warning given him by God upon this occasion appears from the powerful opposition it had to encounter and overcome. To one of a philosophic turn of mind, the difficulty of procuring a sufficient number of oceans for the purpose of deluging the earth would immediately occur. The seeming impossibility of constructing a vessel, within the given dimensions, which should be capable of containing the creatures destined for the preservation of their respective species, together with the various provisions necessary for their support, would be a formidable objection in the mechanical way. The care, the labour, the time, and the expense requisite to go through with a work of that kind, would afford no very agreeable prospect: and then the circumstance of being shut up in such a

n Heb. xi. 7.

place with such company could not but be terrify. ing. But, above all, it must have been a very severe trial, and much steadiness and resolution it must have required, to withstand the incessant scoff's and insults of the antediluvian free-thinkers, who, without all doubt, would be frequently assembling to see how the work went on, expressing, perhaps, how very ambitious they were of having the honour to be present when the lions and tigers should be hunted into the ark, and minutely inquisitive as to the precise method in which it was proposed to navigate the vessel, thus filled, over the mountains. In some such manner as this, it is highly probable, that modern test and touchstone of all truth, RIDICULE, was applied to Noah and his undertaking. The conduct of the patriarch, upon this occasion, shows us what ours ought to be in like circumstances.-According to all. that God commanded him, so did he'. Being once well assured, upon good and sufficient evidence, what the will of God is, we should suffer no appearances of things, or opinions of men, to discourage and prevent us from accomplishing it, to the utmost of our ability. The only question to be asked is-Hath God spoken it. This being resolved in the affirmative, the soul is to rest on his word and promise, as an anchor sure and stedfast, from which she should never suffer herself to be parted by all the doubts, difficulties, and objections in the world. In simplicity and godly sincerity let her do what she is commanded to do, waiting with patience the appointed.

• Gen. vi, 22.

7

time, and in the end, God will be found true, though all men are liars. Upon this principle Noah proceeded. By FAITH he built the ark, according to the divine directions, of a proper and durable wood, and of the dimensions prescribed, with apartments for his own family, and for all the creatures it was designed to contain, as also for the provisions that would be requisite; a door was placed in the side for ingress and egress, and a window to transmit the light of heaven to all within the whole being covered over within and without, with an oily bituminous substance, to fence it against the waters. And thus the holy Jesus, the comforter of his chosen, the deliverer and restorer of the human race from sin and death, builds the ark of his church of the incorruptible and immortal souls of the righteous, fitted and prepared for the purpose by salutary discipline, and joined together by love in the unity of the Spirit. In it are many mansions suited to the different degrees and orders appointed, and provisions for all the possible wants of Christians during the voyage of human life. There is admission for all who will come in; while the long-suffering of God waits as once it did in the days of Noah; and, on all who do come in, the light of divine truth and saving knowledge shines from above, through the ministration of the word; while the watchful providence and all-shadowing protection of a merciful God are as a wall of defence, to the preserving evermore their souls and bodies from all evil, and from all sin, from the repeated assaults of their spiritual enemy, and from the horrors and torments of everlasting death. By this great work,

the building the ark of the Christian church, Christ and his apostles condemned the infidelity of the Jews, who were soon after swept away by the Roman armies, the Christians then in Jerusalem being first called forth, and preserved in the little city of Pella. The same testimony ever hath been, and to the end of time ever will be borne against the infidelity of the world, by faithful ministers raised up in their several generations, for the edification of the church of God; who, unmoved by the arguments of sensualists, and the scoffs of atheists, steadily and uniformly carry on the great work they have taken in hand, through faith in the revelations of God concerning the destruction of the world and the salvation of the church. every clergyman consider whether he is bearing this testimony, and every layman whether he is giving

heed to it.

12. The Creatures come to the Ark.

Let

All things being now prepared, and Noah having finished his testimony, a new and strange set of witnesses appear to condemn the infidelity of the antediluvian word. The birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, not only the tractable and domestic, but the most wild and savage species of them, as if sensible of the impending calamity, and warned to flee from the wrath to come, assemble by pairs and sevens round the ark, as the only place of refuge; and, a way being prepared for them, they enter in and dwell there, in perfect obedience to Noah, and in as perfect peace and harmony with each other. In that happy day when Adam, the first formed father of the world,