YeK. 7.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 175
mine enemies that would not tliat I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me,' — Christ will see execution done himself in his own person ; but it shall be done in the sight of the godlj'. The wicked are first punished in the sight of the godly, before the godly are taken into glory : Mat. xxv, 46, ' These shall go away into everlasting punish- ment,' and then 'the righteous into life eternal.' You shall first see the wicked have their doom, then you shall receive your privilege. Thus you see it was a pledge of God's general dispensations both to the godly and the wicked.
[2.] It was a type, too ; for all things happened to the fathers by way of type and symbol, and so did this.
(1.) There is a great similitude between the day of judgment and tlie drowning of the world in several cases. It is good, I know, to be wary in allegories, yet we find in scripture tbe flood is mystically applied. There is a resemblance between the destruction of the old world , and the day of judgment when Christ shall come in glory. And that is the reason why tlie days of Xoah and the day of the general judgment are often compared together; the flood was to them as the general judgment is to us: 2 Peter iii. 6, 'Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished ; ' so Mat. xxiv. 37-39, ' As in the days of Noah they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away. So shall also the coming of the Son of man be; ' and in Luke xvii. 26, 27, the like comparison is made. The comparison holds true in several cases. Those that lived in Noah's time a little before the flood, were extremely secure ; their ears were sealed up with their bellies, they nourished their heart with pleasure ; they ate and they drank, they married, they gave in marriage ; as if they had said. Come let us eat, drink, and enjoy the pleasures of the flesh while we may ; if this scrupulous fellow's words be true, we shall surely die; they looked upon him as an old doting man that dreamed of destruction. Just such kind of men shall there be at the last day, men of a secure luxury, that shall scoff at the ministers of the gospel when they press strictness and holiness, and propound the threatenings of God. It is said of the men in Noah's time: Mat. xxiv. 39, ' They knew not till the flood came, and took them all away.' They knew it well enough ; Noah gave them warning ; but they took no notice of any such threatenings ; they behaved themselves as if they had known no such matter, though they knew there was such a thing threatened. The scripture measures our thoughts by our practice. So carnal men, the day of the Lord comes upon them, and they know not till the judgment takes them away ; they do not believe in the great day of accounts, for they live as if there were no such day when they securely give themselves up to secular business, and neglect their poor souls. And look, as it was with sinners at the coming of the flood, so will it be with those carnal wretches at the judgment day; when the great deep had opened its mouth, and all the world was like a deep river swiftly flowing, the waters prevailed and increased greatly. They that did not fear before, how did they run to and fro — from the lower rooms to the higher, from the floors to the tops of the houses, from the houses to the trees, from the valleys to the hills, and yet still the waters increased upon them. Some possibly might swim towards
176 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SeR. XXXV.
the ark, and desire that refuge which before they despised ; but still the waters prevailed over them, and so they were drowned. Such will be the consternation of the wicked in the great day. The hypo- crites in Zion shall be afraid, and they shall cry. Who shall hide us? and. Where shall we go from the wrath of the Lamb : Kev. vi. 15-17, 'And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb ; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand ? ' Then they shall cry out, Oh, that I had accepted Christ, and that I had gotten into the ark! All the wolves shall tremble then at the presence of the glorious Lamb, when he shall come in majesty and power.
(2.) In the preservation of Noah and his family there was a type. Noah and those that ^7ere of liis household were under the oath and covenant that they should be safe: Gen. vi. 18, '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.' God had passed his word. God made two covenants with Noah ; one when he went into the ark, that he should be safe ; and another, when he came out of the ark, that the waters should no more return : Gen. viii. 21, ' I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake,' &c. This may be spiritually applied of God's oath to believers as soon as they close with Christ. See how the Spirit of the Lord applies it : Isa. liv. 9, ' As I have sworn tiiat the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth ; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee ; ' it is an allusion to the later covenant. God invites us by his promise and covenant to come to Christ, and we shall have security there ; then he plighteth his oath that a deluge of wrath shall never return more ; they shall be safe for the present, and happy here- after. Again, as there was no safety but in the ark, the only means of salvation was the ark, and then the ark must not only be looked upon, but entered into ; so there is no safety but in Jesus Christ ; and it is not enough to know Christ, and to have a naked contemplation of his sufficiency to save sinners, but our safety by Christ is by virtue of our union with him : Rom. viii. 1, ' There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' As they that were in the ark were safe, so those that are in Christ, united to him, are secured. Again, look upon the ark as an instituted means, which preserved them in the midst of the deluge. God, by his absolute power, could have preserved Noah upon the waters or in the waters as well as in the ark, as he saved the fishes in the water ; yet he is pleased to prescribe some probable and likely means of safety, and the means prescribed must be used. So if we would be saved, we must use the means of salvation, however derided, as baptism and the word. For the word : 1 Cor. i. 21, ' It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.' Though the world opposeth and despiseth it, yet this is the way and means. So also for baptism, for so the apostle applies it, 1 Peter iii. 20, 21, ' AVhich sometimes were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing.