I go on to another fruit and consequent of Noah's faith — ' By which he condemned the world.' By the world is meant all mankind, except the family of Noah, But how did Noah condemn the world? It may be conceived in two ways : by his preaching, by his obedience. Let us see which will most suit this place.
1. By his preaching. That Noah was a preacher, it is clear from 2 Peter ii. 5, where he is called 'a preacher of righteousness.' All the while the ark was preparing he warned the wicked of their approaching danger, and admonished them to repent in time and turn to God, seeking the forgiveness of their sins through faith in the promised ilessiah, or else they should perish : which is there meant by ' a ])reacher of righteousness.' Thus he might be said to condemn the world that admonisheth them by pronouncing the sentence of God upon the wicked world in case they did not repent. From hence I might observe —
Doct. That men receive their first sentence in the ministry of the word. There they are condemned first : John iii. 18, ' He that be- lieveth not is condemned already ;' that is, he that after warning and sufficient light stands out against the gospel, he can expect no other sentence from God. So John xx. 23, ' Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted : and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.' The sentence is first pronounced on earth, and then ratified in heaven. When we go to work according to the doctrine of faith and repent- ance, clave noil errante, God will verify and make good that sentence. So Eom. ii. 16, ' In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel ;' according as it is declared in the gospel, so will the ])rocess of that day be. Mat. xii. 32, it is there said concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost, ' It shall never be forgiven in this world' — by the ministry of the word — 'nor in the world to come'- — by Christ at the last day, when the pardon of the elect shall be pronounced and ratified before all the world out of Christ's own mouth ; therefore we have need to regard the jiresent voice of the gospel. The church is the seminary of heaven. In the angel's song the word was, ' Peace upon earth,' Luke ii. 14. According as you
208 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SeR. XXXVIII.
make your peace with God upon earth, so it will be with you for evei". Those that obstinately stand out against the word, and ])ut it away from them, they condemn themselves by theii- own fact ; they pass a sentence upon their own souls, 'and judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life,' Acts xiii. 46. It is not we that condemn you, but you yourselves ; jou condemn yourselves interpretatively when you do such actions as will end in certain ruin ; and tlie ministers of God condemn declaratively when they declare the mind of Ciirist ; and Christ will do it authoritatively in the great and terrible day.
2. He condemned the world by his obedience. This sense is most proper : the words ' by which ' are to be referred to his preparing the ark, not to his faith, which is a more remote antecedent. A man is said to condemn another when he doth by his own actions and obedience declare what they should do, which they not doing are left inexcusable, and liable to the greater blame. So it is said, Mat. xii. 41, 42, ' The men of Is ineveh shall rise in judgment against tliis generation, and condemn it : because they repented at the preaching of Jonas ; and behold a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it ; for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solomon is here.' The pains and diligence of others in a good course, unless it be imitated, serves but to aggravate men's sins to a greater judgment ; and therefore it is said, the men of Nineveh and the queen of the south shall condemn that generation. So Noah condemned the world ; that is, by his care, and pains, and cost, in pre- paring the ark ; it was a means to aggravate their carelessness and security, and to leave them liable unto a greater judgment. Noah was a preacher of righteousness ; but if he had spoken nothing, there had been sermon enough in his very building the ark to convince, condemn, and leave them without excuse. I shall prosecute this sense : the point is this —
Doct. That the carelessness and the secm'ity of the wicked is aggravated and condemned by the faith and obedience of God's servants. The pains which they take in their lives to escape wrath will be an argument by Avhich your carelessness will be upbraided in the day of judgment. Indeed God condemned the world ; but divine justice taketh notice of this argument whereby to make the process against sinners the more righteous, and by consequence the more dreadful.