AN CHURCH.

PERIOD 1.

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precious numattor inue man from

gave to the me

B the future entire deliverance of the One to the church, by Elijah, One instance God

of corruption.

faith might be in God; until

as a death and ascend a triumphant estion and the life."

JEAPTER HI

the Antediluvians. Preservation of Their great wickedness. God's

Was Initas de Sonanue the mhabitants of the old world

Enoch was taken to hea

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not knowing, die sewer al ad have supposed that but a moment's consideration

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Laving as they did, tovag

must have been very

ace the duration of the suzening man to remain an opportunity to act out 4 de verse the ma

res e antediluvians We Can destroyed his

brother, they had grea. multy so that he was fearful to go forth, lest any one that wet

The first generations lived through serers' scccessore periods, until the mass of men had accumulated to EUS

Among this vast population we beeld de Church, small but distinct. Indeed it was the only thing of any worth in the sight of God-the only thing deserving sacred record. He has suffered every thing else mighty kingioms, fouristing cities, vast achievements, powerful warriors, and renowned statesmen—all livion; and has told us ocly of the holy seed, the

to pe

righteous, who maintained religion, and who, noch to Noah, were doubtless hated of all men. s their record:

The enemies of the Church were mighty Cain was a hardened wretch. He despised the sacrifice which prefigured the atonement, and attempted to please God by his own devices. Angry with Jehovah for exposing the hollowness of his heart, he wreaked his vengeance on his brother Abel. God called him to account, and inquired for Abel; but, in hardened impudence, he said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The Lord pronounced him cursed, and drove him out, a fugitive and vagabond on the earth. At hearing his sentence, remorse seized his soul; and he exclaimed, "My punishment is greater than I can bear!"? What a picture of impenitent misery! God determined he should live, a monument of the divine abhorrence of his crime; and he set a mark upon him, lest any finding him should kill him. Cain went forth and forsook the presence and ordinances of God-intrenched himself in a city, and became a miserable worldling. His posterity greatly increased and walked in his steps. Of some we read, who were ingenious artificers, but of none who sought the Lord. Lamech took to himself two wives, and introduced to the world the dreadful sin of polygamy.

Not long did the descendants of Cain flourish in the earth, without exercising a baneful influence upon the children of God. These, beholding their beautiful women, contracted marriages with them. Their progeny were giants in wickedness. Says

the inspired historian, "there were giants in those days; when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them; the same became men of renown ;"no doubt the men of whom Enoch prophesied the Lord would be avenged for all their ungodly deeds which they had ungodly committed, and all their hard speeches which they had spoken against him." And now the flood-gates of wickedness being open, and the torrents of iniquity overflowing the earth, the Lord sware in his wrath," My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh," is corrupt, depraved, has prostituted all his noble powers, before the most debased appetites and passions. The Spirit of God being withdrawn, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience had a full triumph. Generation succeeded generation, practising the most open, daring, atrocious wickedness. Violence, murder, war, rapine and vile idolatry filled the earth. Terrible were the enemies of vital godliness.

But amidst the moral desolations of the old world, the Church stood. It was the cause of Jehovah. In the little families of Methusaleh, and Lamech and Noah it lived; and in the last of these holy men, God designed to carry it through the most awful judgment ever inflicted upon our globe. Upon a view of the horrid impiety which filled the earth," it repented the Lord that he had made man upon the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." Not only had he an extreme abhorrence of the crimes of men and their desperate wickedness, but his soul loathed them." And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and every creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them."

men.

Easily indeed, might he have sent forth his Spirit, and converted the hearts of that ungodly generation to himself, and fitted them all for the happiness of heaven; and not less impious men of later ages have had the hardihood to contemn God, because, when it lay in his power, he did not save them and all But it pleases Jehovah sometimes to manifest his justice and his wrath, as well as his grace. He would have been righteous in destroying them without warning. But to exhibit furthe.. 1 patience and long suffering, he warned them by the Noah, for the space of 120 years. In that holy Spirit of Christ; he was full of the Holy Ghost. , says Peter," he went and preached unto the spi," (the spirits confined in the time when Peter wrote

in the prison of hell, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,) "which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God, waited in the days of Noah."

For the preservation of this holy man and his family, God directed Noah to prepare an ark. It was a strange commission. It was making provision against a calamity which, to the eye of sense and reason, seemed impossible. But Noah believed the word of the Lord. He did not expostulate against the judg ment; nor did he decline a labour almost too great for man, and which would expose him to the most cutting ridicule and reproach. But "moved with fear," reverencing Jehovah, he com menced his work; and by his works, warned every beholder to repent of his sins and flee from impending destruction. The world beheld, ridiculed, and mocked; went on eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. No heart relented. No sinner, fearful of the truth, inquired, Where is God my maker? But the purpose of God was fixed; and he moved on to its accomplishment, glorious in holiness.

At the appointed time, the ark was completed; and Noah and his wife, and his sons and their wives, the LITTLE CHURCH OF GOD, and two of every flying fowl and creeping thing, for their continuance upon the earth were gathered in. Solemn moment! The door was shut; and the rain descended, the windows of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and God had no pity, and man could find no refuge; the tallest trees, the highest mountains were alike covered, and paleness, and horror, and death, seized the vast family of man.

To this great and awful judgment of God upon the enemies of the Church, we have evidently some allusion in early writings and the religious rites of Heathen nations; and there are numerous appearances in the earth which clearly indicate that it was once overwhelmed by a deluge of water. Trees, bones of animals, sea shells, petrified fishes deeply imbedded in the earth, yea in the hardest strata and on the tops of the highest mountains, are memorials of this dread event. But we believe it chiefly, because God declares it in his holy word. We do not ask how it could be, we enter into no philosophical discussion, we seek for the intervention of no comet; sufficient for us is it to know that the winds and the waves and the seas obey the Almighty. We learn from it that God abhors the workers of iniquity and will not let the wicked go unpunished; and we lift up our hearts to God in the heavens and say, Lord, give us