of God: and St. Paul tells us, that "to them pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises :" Yet " he had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart on account of them;" which he would not have had, if he had thought that the possession of those outward privileges was sufficient. But he accounts for his feelings by saying, that " all are not Israel, who are of Israel"." And he elsewhere assures us, in still stronger terms, that it is not any outward privilege or profession that constitutes us Christians, but an inward change of heart, which approves itself to the all-seeing Godx. Let us not then deceive ourselves, or imagine that we must of necessity be saved because we have been baptized : for there was an " accursed Ham " in the ark, as well as a right- eous Noah : but let us inquire into the dispositions and habits of our minds : let us examine whether we have given up our- selves unreservedly to God; and whether we are striving to "glorify him with our bodies and our spirits, which are his?"]
2. We do not see that we are in any danger —
[This was the case with the antediluvian world. They saw no appearance of any deluge : they could not persuade themselves that God would ever inflict such a tremendous judgment on the earth : and they imputed the anxiety of Noah to superstition, credulity, and folly. But did their un- belief make void the truth of God? Yea rather, did it not harden them to their own destruction ? What security then will our unbelief afford us? We see not any symptoms of that wrath which is threatened against an ungodly world : but will it therefore never come ? Will the word of God fail of its accomplishment? Is it safe for us to set up our opi- nions against the positive declarations of Heaven, and to found all our hopes of salvation upon the presumption that " God will lie?" Seen, or unseen, our danger is the same: and if all perished at the deluge who took not refuge in the ark, so will all perish at the day of judgment who have not " fled for refuge to the hope set before them."]
3. We shall become singular —
[This is an objection which we cannot but allow ; and it is with pain and grief that we confess its force. We acknow- ledge that, if we will seek in earnest the salvation of our souls, we must be singular. But whose fault is this ? It was not Noah's fault that he was singular in the old world : it was the
« Rom. ix. 3—6. * Rom. ii. 28, 29.
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