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their last refuge: but by the end of the forty days, these also were covered; the waters rising above seven yards higher than the highest of them. Thus every creature was swept away, and buried in one watery grave, Noah and his family only excepted.

The waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days; that is above five months, before they began to abate. This might seem to us unnecessary, seeing every living creature would be drowned within the first six weeks; but it would serve to exercise the faith and patience of Noah, and to impress his posterity with the greatness of the divine displeasure against man's sin. As the land of Israel should have its sabbaths during the captivity; so the whole earth, for a time, shall be relieved from its load, and fully purified, as it were, from its uncleanness.

DISCOURSE XIII.

THE FLOOD (CONTINUED.)

Gen. vii.

THE close of the last chapter brought us to the crisis of the flood, or to the period in which it had arrived at its greatest height: from hence it began to abate. Observe the form in which it is expressed God remembered Noah, and those that were with him in the ark. A common historian would only have narrated the event but the sacred writers ascribe every thing to God, and sometimes to the omission of the second causes. The term is figurative; for, strictly speaking, God never forgot them but it is one of those modes of speaking which convey a great fullness of meaning. It is expressive of tender mercy, of covenant mercy, and of mercy after a strong expression of displeasure. These are things which frequently occur in the divine proceedings. From hence, a wind passes over the earth, and the waters begin to assuage.

Ver. 2-4. The causes of the deluge being removed, the effects gradually subside; and the waters having performed their work, return into their wonted channels. The ark, which had hitherto floated on the waters, now finds land, and rests upon the top of one of the Armenian mountains; and this just five months after the entrance into it. For a ship in the sea to have struck upon a rock or land, would have been extremely dangerous; but at this stage of the flood we may suppose the heavens were clear and calm, and the waters still. Noah did not steer the ark; it was therefore God's doing, and was in mercy to him and his companions. Their voyage was now at an end. They put in as at the first possible port. The rest which they enjoy is a prelude to a more

perfect one approaching. Thus God places believers upon high ground, on which they are already safe, and may anticipate a better country, even an heavenly one.

Ver. 5-13. The first objects that greet them, after having been nearly eight months aboard, are the tops of the mountains. They had felt one of them before; but now the waters are sufficiently abated to see several of them. If we had been a long and dangerous voyage at sea, we should be better able to conceive of the joy which this sight must have occasioned, than we possibly can be without it. Often has a ship's company been called on deck to see a distant object, which promised to be land. Often too have Christians in their voyage been cheered by the signs of approaching blessedness, and the happy foretastes bestowed upon them. After the lapse of forty days more, the window of the ark was opened, and a raven sent forth for the purpose of experiment, that they might see whether it could subsist of itself, or not; and the event was, that it could subsist, for it returned no more. This was encouraging. Seven days after this, Noah tries a more delicate bird, the dove, which could not live unless the ground was at least in some places dry: but she from necessity returned. A proof this, that the waters as yet were on the face of the whole earth. Tarrying yet other seven days, Noah sends out a second time his faithful messenger, the dove, which again returned to him in the evening; but lo, a sign is in her mouth which gladdens all their hearts. It is an olive-leaf plucked off! An olive-leaf might have floated upon the surface of the waters; but it was observable of this that the dove had plucked it off the tree: a proof that the tops of the trees, in some places, were out of water. Perhaps it is from this event that the olive-branch has ever since been considered as the emblem of peace. After seven days more, Noah sends forth the dove again; which returning no more, he knew the earth must in some places be dry. The repeated mention of seven days seems to imply, that, from the beginning, time had been divided into weeks; which can no otherwise be accounted for, that I know of, than by admitting that, from the beginning, those who feared God remembered the Sabbath day to keep it holy. About a month after this, the waters are dried up from off the

earth, and the covering of the ark is removed. Now they have the pleasure to look around them, and to see the dry land in every direction; but still it is not habitable. And as Noah came into the ark by God's command, so he must wait his time ere he attempts to go out, which will be nearly two months longer.

Ver. 14-19. At length, the set time to favour this little company is come. On the 27th day of the second month, that is, just a year and ten days after their entrance into the ark, they are commanded to go forth of it, with all that pertained to them, and to begin, not the world, as we should say, again, but a new world. Obedient to the heavenly vision, they take leave of the friendly vessel which through many a storm had preserved them, and landed them in safety.

Ver. 20-22. The first object of attention with a worldly man, might have been a day of rejoicing, or the beginning to build a house: but Noah begins by building an altar to Jehovah, on which he offered burnt-offerings of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl. I think this is the first time we read of a burnt-offering. It was so called, as Moses says, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning. It was a substitutional sacrifice, for the purpose of atonement. The process is described in Lev. i. 2-9. The sinner confessed his sin upon its head; the animal was killed, or treated as if it were the transgressor, and as if the sin had been actually transferred to it; the blood of the creature being shed, was sprinkled round about upon the altar; and to show the divine acceptance of it on behalf of the offerer, to make atonement for him, it was consumed by fire, either descending immediately from heaven, as was the case on some occasions, or kindled by the priest from the sacred fire kept for the purpose ;* finally The sacrifice being sprinkled with salt, and perhaps with odours, ascended up in a sweet savour, and God was propitious to the offerer.

The burnt-offerings of Noah, according to this, must have been designed for an atonement in behalf of the remnant that was left; and, as Hezekiah said after the carrying away of the ten tribes,

* Lev. ix. 24. Psa. xx. 4. margin.

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