love of God to loft man, that he has laid help for him upon one that is mighty, Pfal. lxxxix. 19.

4. I recommend to you to be much in ftudying the love of the eternal Son of God, in marrying the human nature unto a perfonal union with the divine, that he might act the part of a Kinsman Redeemer. Oh! think what he has done in order to get a bride for himself in Adam's family, for one love kindles another, and "we love him because he first loved us,” 1 John iv. 19.

5. Be much in viewing the glorious fulness and faitablenefs of the Bridegroom through the lattices of the word read and preached; " For all-we beholding as in a glass the gloty of the Lord, are changed into the fame image, from glory to glory," &c. 2 Cor. iii. laft.

6. Oh! cry and plead much for the purchafed and promifed Spirit, that he may glorify Christ, and testify of him to your fouls, according to the promise of the Bridegroom, before he left this world, John xvi. 14. " He fhall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and fhew it unto you."

7. In matching with the Bridegroom, difband all other lovers, faying with Ephraim, Hof. xiv. 8. "What have I any more to do with idols." If. xxvi. 13. " O Lord my God; other lords befides thee have had dominion over me, but henceforth by thee only will I make mention of thy name." If you be for me (fays Chrift), let these foul-murdering lufts go; let go your luft of covetoufnefs, your luft of uncleanness, your luft of pride, malice, revenge, your luft of drunkenness and gluttony; for as no man can serve two masters, Matth. vi. 24. fo can no man be married unto Chrift and these lufts at once; Chrift fays, Destroy thefe, crucify them, "Mortify the deeds of the body," Rom. viii. 13. " Fornication, evil concupifcence, and covetoufnefs, which is idolatry," Col. iii. 8. I came to deftroy these works of the devil, John iii. 8. And therefore give a bill of divorce to them, if you would follow me.

I shut up this discourse with a word of counsel and advice to believers, who, through the power of grace, have been determined to go forth and meet the Bridegroom.

Oh! blefs the Lord that ever gave you counsel to do so, for this was never effected by the power of nature, but only by the power of victorious grace, Pfal. cx. 3. "Thy people fhall be willing in the day of thy power." Thou waft dead in fin, Eph. ii. 1. but he " paffed by thee, and said unto thee, Live," Ezek. xvi. 6. Thou waft full of enmity against God and his anointed, Pfal. ii. 2. but he captivated thy heart with P p

VOL. III.

his

his own love, and lovelinefs. Who made thee to differ from others that are left behind," in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity?" Why, it was the bleffed Bridegroom that drew thee to him with the cords of his own love; and therefore let the high praifes of the Bridegroom, and of his eternal Father, be continually in thy mouth, Pfal. cxlix. 16. John vi. 44. "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath fent me draw him." Let the bride, the Lamb's wife, put much confidence in the Bridegroom; and well may fhe do it, for he is "the confidence of all the ends of the earth, his name is FAITHFUL and TRUE," Rev. xix. 1I.

THE NEW TESTAMENT ARK OPENED AGAINST THE DELUGE OF DIVINE WRATH.

Heb. xi. 7.By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not feen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the faving of bis boufe.

THE FIRST SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

N

the

the apofle, in the clofe of it, had exhorted the believing Hebrews to perfevere in the faith; and to enforce the exhortation, he demonftrates, in this chapter, the excellency of the grace of faith, and that, firft, Abflractly in itself confidered, ver. 1-3.; fecondly, By laying before them the example of their believing ancestors, both before and after the flood.

This verfe which I have read contains the example of the faith of Noah, who was the laft patriarch of the old world, and the first of the new world; I mean the laft before, and the firft, after the flood. More particularly in the words you have these things.

ft, An alarm founded, (warning is given by God of things not feen as yet.) The party that gives the warning is God. And when God fpeaks or warns, well doth it become all the inhabitants of the earth to liften, Pfal. 1. 1. "The mighty

God

God the Lord hath fpoken, and called the earth, from the rifing of the fun unto the going down thereof." When the lion roars, the beafts of the field tremble. The fubject matter of the warning is about things not feen as yet; that is, the approach of the general deluge, or deftruction of the whole world by water, of which there was not the least visible appearance, when the warning was given of God. Sirs, the word of God deals moftly about things that are not seen, things invifible and eternal, which as yet lie behind the curtain; bence faith, that believes the word of God, is called, ver. 1. of this chapter, " the evidence of things not seen ;" a fetting to the feal to what God fays, though not obvious unto fenfe.

2dly, In the words we have the perfon, and the only perfon, that took the alarm in all the old world, viz. Noah, whofe character we have, Gen. vi. 9. "a juft man, and perfect in his generation." He was a juft man, being juftified by faith, in the promised feed of the woman; and he was a holy man, whofe walk and converfation juftified his faith, in the view of the ungodly inhabitants of the old world. And being fuch a perfon as lived near God, God takes him upon his fecrets, and imparts that unto him, which was hid from all the world befides. "The fecret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and unto them will he fhew his covenant." Yea, fometimes he not only imparts to them the fecrets of his covenant, and the myfleries of his kingdom; but also the secrets of his providence, what he is about to do in the world: fo did he unto Noah; and fo did he unto Abraham, when he was about to destroy Sodom: "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do?" The Lord will do nothing, but he will reveal it unto his fervants the prophets. It is dangerous to pry curiously into the fecrets of God's purpose or providence, but when he is pleased to reveal them, they are welcome.

3lly, We have the way how the warning was taken by Noah. It was by faith; that is, he believed the word of God, that the flood would come: and the ground of his believing was the faithfulnefs and power of God; his faithfulnefs, for it is impoffible for God to lie;" and his power, that was able to give being to his word of threatening, as well as his word of promise.

66

4thly, We have the affe&ion of Noah's foul, that was ftirred or exercifed by this awful warning of the approaching deluge; he was moved with fear. When faith fees a fmiling and reconciled God in Chrift, it moves the foul with joy and gladness, yea, a “joy unspeakable, and full of glory." But

when

when faith fees a frowning or a threatening God, then it be gets fear, not a flavish, but a filial fear; like a dutiful child, that falls a trembling when he fees the rod in his Father's hand, and anger in his countenance. Such was the fear of Noah; and God declares, that he has a particular regard unto the foul that thus fears him, If. lxvi. 2." To this man will I look, who is poor, and of a contrite fpirit, and who trembleth at my word."

5thly, We have the wife improvement that Noah made of God's warning concerning the deluge: why, his faith and fear excited him to prepare an ark: "The wife man (saith Solomon) forefeeth the evil, and hideth himself." True faith of God's operation is a fagacious grace; it takes up things not as yet feen, dangers that are out of the view of the reft of a blind world, and provides for fafety against approaching dangers. So here, Noah's faith engages him to prepare an ark against the deluge. Noah had not the ark to build when the deluge came; no, it was ready for ufe, when the windows of heaven, and the fountains of the great deep, were opened; and the fruit and effect of his faith and fear, and diligence in preparing of the ark, was the faving of himself

and his houfe.

Now, I do not ftand fo much upon the literal, as the myftical and fpiritual intendment of all this. The history and mystery of the Old Teftament is opened and unvailed in the New Teftament. It is granted by all, that the deluge of water, whereby God deftroyed the old world, was a typical reprefentation of the wrath of God that is revealed from heaven against all the wickedness and ungodliness of the children of men, which will infallibly fweep away the wicked, and all the nations that forget God, into hell: and that Noah's ark was a type of Chrift, and of that falvation that believers have in him, from the wrath of God, and the curse of the broken law; for "whofoever believeth in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life." The apoftle Peter gives us an hint, and that not an obfcure one, of what I am faying, concerning this typical defign of the deluge and ark, 1 Pet. iii. 19.-21." By which alfo he went and preached to the fpirits in prifon which fometime were difobedient, when once the long-fuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is eight fouls, were faved by water. The like figure whereunto, even baptifm, doth alfo now fave us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good confcience towards God), by the refurrection of Jefus Chrift." Where, by the

Spirits

fpirits in prifon, we are to understand the fouls of the inhabitants of the old world, who, in the days of Peter, were imprifoned in hell, but in the days of Noah, they were alive in their bodies. Noah, by the direction of the fpirit of Chrift, went and preached to them, and warned them of the approaching deluge; but they never regarded him, but went on in their finning trade, until the water came, and carried them away, except eight fouls that were faved in the ark. Now, there is the type, and then follows the anti-type, ver. 21. "The like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth also now fave us," &c.

The main doctrine that I have in view from the words, is as follows.

DOCT." That Chrift is the great New Testament Ark into which finners muft enter, if they would be faved from the deluge of divine wrath."

The method, through divine affiftance, fhall be as follows. I. I would speak a little of the wrath of God, with allufron unto the univerfal deluge.

II. Of the warnings God has given, and is ftill giving, of the deluge of his wrath.

III. I would speak of Christ as the only ark wherein safety is to be found.

IV. Speak of the accefs that finners have to this New Teftament Ark.

V. How it is that a finner enters into this ark, so as to be faved from the deluge.

VI. Deduce fome inferences, and make fome application of the whole.

I. The first thing is, to fpeak a little of the wrath of God, with allufion unto the univertal deluge in the days of Noah.

ift, then, The fin and wickedness of the old world was the procuring caufe of the deluge, Gen. vi. 5-7. "And God faw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and 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 faid, I will deftroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beaft, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."

Now, I fay, as the fin of man procured a deluge of water, fo doth it procure the deluge of the wrath of God, that is or

has