190 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XXXVI,
that vast frame, that it was one hundred and twenty years a preparing, as appears by that of the apostle, 1 Peter iii. 20, ' The long-suffering of God Avaited all the while that the ark was a preparing.' Certainly a work of so great receipt must needs be of vast expense and charge, and take up a great deal of time to fit the matter, and to gather to- gether all the species and kinds of living creatures. And it was a work that was like to meet with many mocks and scoffs in the world. Noah seemed to them, as one of our chronicles tells us, of one that out of a dread of a great flood built a house upon a high hill ; so the wicked of that age, they looked upon Noah as a vain person, mocked and laughed at the design every day ; he had a thousand discouragements, yet, being moved with fear, he prepared an ark. Now these things being so remote from sense, and only certain in God's word, it shows the great force and virtue of his faith, to be persuaded of the world's ruin, and his own preservation.
Doct. That it is the property of faith to be moved by such things as are not liable to sense.
The reasons are these —
1. Because when things are seen and known, there is no room for faith : Eom. viii. 24, ' Hope that is seen is not hope/ Hope there is put for the object — things hoped for ; they are no more objects of hope when seen. Faith givetli over its work when we once come to fruition and view. When the sun is up, we feel the warm influences of it ; we cannot be said so properly to believe it, as to feel it and know it. If we were in a dungeon we might believe one that tells us the sun shines, but when we see the glittering light it is otherwise. The elect, after the resurrection, cannot properly be said to believe the articles of faith, because faitli and hope then ceaseth, and love only remains. Faith and sense are opposed, 2 Cor. v. 7, ' We walk by faith, not by sight' Here things that are propounded to us, the glory of God in heaven and the reigning of the saints, they are not matters of sight and pre- sent sense and apprehension. In heaven it is quite contrary ; there we have sight, but no faith ; but here we walk by faith, and not by sight. 2. There is no trial in things that are seen, for all objects of sense force an impression upon us ; we cannot choose but fear ; when sense feels wu-ath, it is a judicial impression. There is none fears more than wicked men when wrath comes ; they fear not wrath in the word, and wrath in the threatening, but wrath in the providence makes them to tremble: Isa. xxxiii. 14, 'The sinners in Sion are afraid ; fearfulness surpriseth the hypocrite.' It is no exercise of faith, but a judicial im- ])ression. So the apostle saith — ' The devils believe and tremble,' James ii. 19 ; because they are under their actual punishment, they cannot do otherwise. This is the difference between the godly and the wicked ; the one trembles at the judgment, the other trembles at the threatenings — ' He trembles at the w'ord,' Isa. Ixvi. 2. Wicked men do not consider the threatening, till, by all circumstances of providence, it is ready to be accomplished. The wicked tremble in hell, or at the hour of death ; but the godly tremble in the church at the word of God. So did those in Noah's time, when they ran from the bottom of houses to the top, from thence to trees, from trees to mountains, but Noah trembled when God did but speak of these things. Feeling is left for the next life.
YeU. 7.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 191
SEEMON XXXVII.
£y faith Noah, being learned of God of things not seen as yet. —
Heb. xi. 7.
The use of the foregoing doctrine is — to check the security of the world, both in respect of particular and general judgments.
First, In particular judgments, the prophet saith, Hosea vii. 9, ' Epli- raim hath gray hairs here and there upon him, and he knows it not.' Many times a nation is full of gray hairs. As gray hairs are the fore- runners of death and the decay of nature, so many nations have gi'ay hairs — sad intimations of ruin and destruction ; and they do not tremble at it, especially if it be afar otf, and if there be no visible pre- paration : if God be not upon his march, they do not tremble. When the world was given up to pleasure, when they were marrying and giving in marriage, who would believe that within a few years the rain and waters should cover the whole earth ? Many would be ready to say, as that nobleman, 2 Kings vii. 2, ' If the Lord should make win- dows in heaven, could this be ? ' Oh, consider all things are liable to change ; and when your mountain seems to stand strong, yet if there be such sins as are certain prognostics of ruin, there may be a change, notwithstancUng the greatest flourish of outward prosperity ; for the gray hairs of a nation are not only the beginnings of misery and declensions of their glory, but their guilt, these are the saddest gray hairs : then you are liable to great ruin. See what the apostle speaks to the despisers of the gospel : Acts xiii. 41, ' Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish : for I work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.' The iiorrible devastation of Judea by the Chaldeans, who would believe it, that the city and temple should be so destroyed ? and yet it came to pass. It a man should but tell you what God" is about to do, you would think he were mad to mention such things,