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That this wicked race of men had been lòng striven with by the good Spirit of God in their hearts, in order to reclaim them from their excess of folly and iniquity, we may collect from the declaration of the Lord: "My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh;" a determination which ought to be had in remembrance by all men, in all ages, that they may not provoke the Most High until he take his Holy Spirit from them. The reason assigned for his withdrawing it from the antediluvians, is founded on the infinite disparity between a man, and his Maker. Shall dust and ashes contend with Him, before whom even the Seraphs hide their faces?

That the long suffering of God had waited for the repentance of this adulterous generation, all the time that the ark was preparing, appears from the testimony of the Apostle Peter; and this is supposed to be not less than 120 years.

Having been thus reproved, warned, and long borne with, but in vain; at length the day arrived, when the decree went forth: "The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold I will destroy them with the earth." They had wearied the Most High with their iniquities, and they were made an example to all generations of what

the wise king of Israel expresses:

"He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." Here let us pause, and ask ourselves the question: Doth not the Judge of the whole earth do that which is right?

Shall a Being of infinite holiness, justice, and purity, suffer the creature which he hath made, to trampie with impunity upon all his mercy, to set at nought all his counsels, and despise his reproof? That would be to relinquish the perfection of the divine nature, and to resign to man the moral government of the world. Had he not on an occasion so urgent, given some proof of his Omnipotence, so general and awful as to carry along with it, to all ages, the conviction that his power was irresistible; succeeding generations would spurn at his injunctions, and bid defiance to his authority. His justice was not more demonstrated than his wisdom, in making the deluge universal, that it might leave behind it, in all countries, some traces of the dreadfulness of the calamity. Taking to him his great power, and displaying for once the amplitude of it, rendered it unnecessary again to have recourse to means so terrible. But this revolution did not merely serve the purpose of inflicting a just judgment; it exhibited marvellous interposition, for the de

liverance of those who trusted in the arm of Omnipotence. No evil shall befal those who make the Lord their refuge, and the Most High their habitation, neither shall any plague come nigh their dwelling. They need not fear the wreck of matter, nor the crush of vorlds.

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CHAPTER VII.

OF THE ARK AND THE GENERAL DELUGE.

WHEN the order for building the ark was given, Noah's three sons were all married, as we learn from the following passage: "But with thee will I establish my covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee."

Noah's attention was not to be diverted from the construction of the ark, either by the magnitude of the undertaking, or by the length of time it required; neither did the opposition of an unbelieving generation, discourage him from prosecuting a design, planned by infinite wisdom, and recommended by divine. mercy.

Some calculators have made the burthen of the ark, considerably more than that of forty ships. What a vast unwieldy fabric, entrusted without mast, sail, rudder, or compass, to the

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