that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."

Now, I say, as the sin of man procured a deluge of water, so does it procure the deluge of the wrath of God, that is or has been revealed against all the wickedness and ungodliness of the children of men. Before sin entered into the world, God and man lived in perfect amity and friendship. Man was the darling of heaven, God's viceroy; and he gave him a sovereignty over all the works of his hands, Gen. i. 28. But no sooner had man sinned, but a dismal cloud of wrath began to hover over man's head, which had dissolved in a shower of snares, fire, and brimstone, to the destruction of all mankind, had it not been for the interposition of a second Adam, the eternal Son of God, who undertook to take away the sin of the world. For his sake, and upon the account of his satisfaction to justice, a stop is put to the execution of divine vengeance. But that same flood of wrath will run with the greatest violence against all unbelievers, who reject him, and his great salvation, Heb. ii. 3, and x. 28, &c.

2dly, God did not take the inhabitants of the old world in a surprise; but gave them warning before the flood came and destroyed them: he dealt with them by the ministry of Noah for the space of one hundred and twenty years, (Gen. v. 32, compared with vi. 11,) in order to reclaim them, but all in vain.

Just so, God is long-suffering, and slow to wrath, towards the children of men. He does not speedily execute judg ment, like man, in a fury and rage: no; but he waits to be gracious; he warns of the wrath to come, and beseeches and entreats them to turn from their evil ways. Forty years was his Spirit grieved with that generation of Israel in the wilderness, until at length he sware in his wrath that they should never enter into his rest; but many a time he turned away his wrath, Psal. lxviii. 38, before it came to that.

3dly, When the appointed time for the execution of the threatening against the old world came, God made the heavens and the earth to combine for their destruction; for both the fountains of the great deep from below were broken up, and the windows of heaven above were opened upon them, Gen. vii. 11.

Just so, God, who is "the Lord of hosts," and "doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the in

habitants of the earth,” Dan. iv. 35, can and will arm the whole creation against impenitent sinners: he can command the earth to open its mouth, and swallow up its inhabitants, as it did Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Numb. xvi. 31, 32; and he can call for hosts of angels, and celestial luminaries, to avenge his quarrel upon rebellious sinners, as he did in the case of Sennacherib, 2 Kings xix. 35, and the inhabitants of Canaan, Exod. xxxiii. 2.

4thly, The waters of the flood were irresistible. All the inhabitants of the old world, with their united force, though many of them were giants, men of huge stature and strength, Gen. vi. 4, yet they were not capable of stopping the current of the flood.

Sirs, the wrath of God, when it breaks out upon Christdespisers, cannot be stopped by all the power of angels or men: “Who hath hardened himself against God, and hath prospered ?" Job ix. 4: “Who would set the briers and thorns in battle against him? He would go through them, he would consume them together,” Is. xxvii

. 4: "The stouthearted are spoiled, and none of the men of might have found their bands. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep," &c. Psal. Ixxvi. 5.

5thly, The waters of the deluge overflowed all the refuges that the inhabitants of the old world fled to for shelter. We may easily imagine, that they would fly to the highest rocks and mountains to save themselves from the waters; but the waters swelled and rose, until it covered all the high hills and mountains on the face of the earth, under the whole heaven, Gen. vii. 18—20; there was no shelter left them.

Just so is it in the case before us. Sinners, when they hear of the wrath and vengeance of God pursuing them on account of sin, fly to the hills and mountains of their own making. Some fly to the mountain of general mercy: but God sweeps away that; for “he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favour," Is. xxvii. 11. Some fly to the refuge of an outward profession of religion, and think to find shelter there; but the water of God's wrath pursues them there, as it did the foolish virgins with their empty lamps, Matth. xxv. 6. Others fly to the mountain of the works of the law; but the deluge pursues them there," for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified,” Gal. ii. 16. Thus, God makes “ the hail to sweep away the refuge of lies,” Is. xxviii. 17.

6thly, The flood was universal; it spared none but those that were in the ark. In like manner, the flood of God's wrath will destroy all that are out of Christ; “for there is none

other name given under heaven among men, whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus,” Acts iv. 12.

II. The second thing was, to speak of the warnings that God gives of the deluge of everlasting wrath that is to come upon all Godless and Christless sinners; for as God warned the old world of the deluge of water, 1 Pet. iji. 20, so does he warn the inhabitants of this world, particularly of the visible church, of the wrath to come.

I shall not stay upon this, having lately had an occasion, from Job ix. 4, to present before you a great many beacons of divine wrath, that he has set up in the scriptures of truth, to warn sinners, that they split not on the same rocks on which others dashed their souls into a hell of eternal wrath and misery. No man can read his Bible, or hear the gospel preached, but he must hear of a “wrath to come ” from God upon impenitent sinners: " Except ye repent,” says Christ, “ye shall all likewise perish,” Luke xiii. 3. God "shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses,” Psal. Ixviii. 21: 6. The wicked shall be turned into hell with all the nations that forget God," Psal. ix. 17. And, of all sorts of sinners, the wrath of God will burn hottest against gospel and Christ. despisers: “ It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for such,” Matth. x. 15. A notable word to this purpose you have, Heb. X. 28: “If they that despised Moses' law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses, of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall be be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace.”

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THE NEW TESTAMENT ARK OPENED AGAINST THE

DELUGE OF DIVINE WRATH.

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with

fear, prepared an ark, to the saving of his house.—HER. XI. 7.

THE SECOND SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

Having spoken to the first two heads of the method, I now

go on to

,

III. The third thing proposed, which was, to speak a little of Christ, as the great New Testament Ark, that God has provided for saving sinners from the deluge of his wrath.

1st, The ark was a mean of God's preparing for the salvation of Noah and his family. It is true, Noah built the ark; but it was entirely at God's order and direction. It would never have entered into Noah's head or heart to build the ark, if God had not given him the plan of it.

Just so, Christ is a Saviour of God's providing and appointment. The plan of man's redemption by Christ was laid in the heart of God; it is “the wisdom of God in a mystery." Men and angels would have been at an eternal stand, if it had been put to them, how man should be saved from the wrath of God, and the curse of the law, in a consistency with the justice, holiness, truth, and faithfulness of God. The whole creation cried, Your help is not in us. Well, but God devises a way; the Son of God shall be incarnate, and be substituted in the room of sinners; and, by his obedience to death, justice shall be satisfied, and the honour of the law repaired, and “ whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life,” John iii. 16. Psal. cxviii. 23: “ This is the Lord'Ś DOING, it is wondrous in our eyes.” We find God glorying in it as the chief of his ways, Psal. Ixxxix. 19, 20: “ I have laid help upon one that is mighty, I have found · David my servant,” &c.

2dly, The ark was very large and capacious, as is clear from the account that we have of it, Gen. vi. 14–19. And it was necessary it should be so, considering that it was the common receptacle, not only of Noah and his family, but of all sorts of beasts, birds, and living creatures, that were upon earth, and necessary provision for their subsistence, for the space of about a whole year.

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all one.

But, sirs, the New Testament Ark is far more large and capacious than Noah's ark; for he is none other than the infinite and incomprehensible God, in the person of the eternal Son, who made all things, John i. 3, compared with Heb. i. 3: “and upholds them by the word of his power.” As there were room and provision in the ark for all the living creatures of every kind that entered into the ark; so here is room in Christ for all that will come, be they Jew or Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, male or female, it is

Yc'are welcome to enter into the New Testament Ark, John iii. 16, and x. 9.

3dly, All that entered into the ark were saved, but all that did not enter in perished, Gen. vii. 21–23. Just so is it here, Mark xvi. 16: «He that believeth in Christ shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned."

4thly, Noah's ark was a piece of grand folly to the wits of the world: no doubt they would flout him and mock him as a fool, while he was “ preparing the ark, to the saving of his house.” Just so Christ, and the way of salvation through his death, " is to the Greeks foolishness, and to the Jews a stumbling-block," 1 Cor. i. 23.

5thly, Hence it came that sew, only eight souls, entered into the ark, and were saved, Gen. vii. 18. Just so is it here; Christ “is despised and rejected of men,” Is. liii. 3; and therefore few come to him. Matth. xxii. 14: “ Many are called, but few are chosen.” Chap. vii. 14: “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

6thly, Although there were but few saved in the ark, yet it was a great evidence of God's love and kindness to man, that

any of them were spared, when they all deserved to die, Gen. vi. 5, 11, 12. Just so here, although there are but few that are saved, yet his providing a Saviour, and saving a remnant of mankind by Christ, is a wonderful instance of his love and kindness to mankind. 1 John iv. 9: “In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” See Johỏi iii. 16: “God so loved the world, that he gave bis only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

7thly, The ark, after it had been tossed upon the waters for about seven months, at length rested upon the mountains of Ararat, Gen. viii. 4. So Christ, our New Testament Ark, after he had been tossed in this world, and torn in his name, person, miracles, and ministry, rested from his work and warfare, in his resurrection and ascension; after he had suffered,