And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor ; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth: neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done.

While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.

AS sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so the sentence of death passed upon all men in the first man, in whom all have sinned; so the Holy Ghost is pleased to set before us the fruits and most awful effects of it.

He tells us, Gen. v. 3. that " Adam lived an hundred years; and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image,.. and called his name Seth." Sinful Adam could convey no other image than his-own; " That which is born of the flesh is flesh," altogether carnal and corrupt; so that we see from hence, that the fountain from which all mankind were to derive their nature being corrupt, and this being conveyed through the channel of generation, by which every one was to receive his own distinct personality, they all must, as the consequence of it, be perfectly and totally corrupted and defiled with all the guilt of original sin; and also have inherently in their nature conveyed to them, a privationn of all good, and a positive inclination to all evil; so that there is none righteous, no not one." As Christ, the seed of the woman, was the foundation of the church, and the object, of faith and hope, from the first revelation of him in the garden of Eden ; and as the supernatural exhibition of the cherubim and flaming sword was the antediluvian gospel and place of worship, so the Holy Ghost is pleased to give us an account of ten generations from the creation to the flood, and of ten antediluvian patriarchs, who were believers on the Son of God ; to whom his person, name, future incarnation and salvation; were precious. Two of these persons divided the whole of that space of time which ran out from the creation to the destruction of the world by the flood, viz.

Adam and Methuselah; the one the first man, the other the oldest man that ever was in the world. The former lived to see Lamech, the ninth generation, and died aged nine hundred and thirty years : be was the first of all the patriarchs who was removed to heaven. Methuselah lived to the very month in which the-flood began, and died nine hundred and sixty-nine years old. Between the death of Adam and Methuselah, it pleased the Lord to translate Enoch to glory without his seeing or tasting death. This was next after Adam's death, when he had lived on earth as many years as there are days in the year, and finished his course like a sun on earth; seven patriarchs remaining to be witnesses of it and as Adam's death preached mortality, so Enoch's translation taught immortality. The names of these patriarchs were vastly significant. Adam, was the common name of the first man and woman, and of their posterity given by the Lord himself, see Gen. v. 2. to shew that he bath made of one blood all men, and all nations of men. Seth, born in original sin, was regenerated and made an holy man by the eternal Spirit of God, and his name signifies, put or placed for a foundation, to point out the necessity of building on Christ for salvation.

Enos, in whose days religion was corrupted by idolatry, which, as it began at his birth, his name signifies sorrowful ; to point it out as matter of sorrow to the godly in that age.

Cainan, signifies mourner; he and others mourned for the corruption of the times.

Mahalaleel, signifies a praiser of the Lord.

Jared, which signifies descending, implies that the world was descending from bad to worse.

Enoch, signifies dedicated to God. He was the seventh generation from Adam; and he prophesied, says Dr. Lightfoot, of the wickedness that Lamech, the seventh, from Adam in Cain's line, had brought, in, and the judgments of God, which would be brought on the world for it and other crimes.

Methuselah, signifies, they die by a dart; or, he dieth, and then is the dart ; or, he dieth, and then it is sent.

Lamech, signifies a man smitten with grief, on account of the corruption of all flesh, and the future punishment which would most certainly come upon them for it.

Noah, signifies a comforter, or rest.

The translation of Enoch, in the year of the world from the creation, 1042, was a pledge to the faithful in that age, of their resurrection from the grave of death to life eternal ; and a most comfortable evidence and assurance to them of a glorious and blessed immortality. The space of time from the creation to the flood was one thou sand, six hundred, and fifty-six years.

The subject which I have before me concerning the dissolution of the old world, and its reformation, which includes with, and in it, the favor shewn to Noah, and the blessing pronounced on him after he came forth out of the ark, in which his descendants were interested, as well as himself, must, for the clear statement of it, be subdivided; and when this is properly arranged and digested into distinct particulars, a way will be opened to give an account of his sacrifice, offered at his coming out of the ark, and proof will be given that it was a memorial of the sacrifice of Jesus.

That my text may not be forgotten, I will here recite it:

And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor ; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth ; neither will I again smite any more every living thing as f have done; while the earth remaineth, seed, time. and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer. and ,.winter, and day and night, shall not cease."

As an introduction to my text, I will consider, in a brief manner, the dissolution of the old world by the waters of a flood, and give some general account of the moral and physical causes thereof, and likewise of its renovation, This I will set before you in distinct sections, as the Lord shall be pleased to enable me.

I will then proceed to set forth the distinguishing blessing shewn to Noah and his sons, with his grateful sense of it, and the way in which he expressed it. This will bring me to my text, in which we shall see the new world beginning with a solemn exhibition of Christ's death, as the sacrifice of atonement, and Jehovah bearing a divine testimony of its being remembered by him with unspeakable delight; " the Lord smelled a sweet savor." I will cast this also into sections, that it may be more clearly understood : and may the Lord shine upon and add his blessing to the whole. Even so, blessed Jesus, Amen.

Let me first, by way of introduction to the following sections, observe, that the fifth chapter of Genesis gives us the exact chronology from the creation down to the flood, and that all the antediluvian patriarchs there recorded, belonged to the high and holy line of election. They were the woman's seed, from Seth down to Noah, and are mentioned in. the genealogy of our Lord and Savior, given us in the third chapter of Luke's gospel. Adam and Methuselah lived about two hundred and forty years together. Enoch almost suggested the very year when the deluge would take place. He lived nearly a thousand years before it, and gave his son a name which pointed out when it would be. He also prophesied of the second coming of Christ to judge all flesh, see Jude 14, 15.

Noah seems to be called the eighth front Enos, in 2 Peter ii. 5. in whose time the world began to be corrupt.

When each of the patriarchs' ages are summed up, it is added, that he died ; to shew, not only that their long lives were borne down by death, but also that they came to their graves in peace, and were not taken away with, the ungodly. Lamech, the father of Noah, gave, him a name which pointed him out as a figure and type of Christ; he was as the savior of the world, in building the ark, by which he and his family were saved from perishing-by water; also as the restorer of the new  world; and in offering a sacrifice in which the Lord smelled a sweet savor. Lamech said on naming him " This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our bands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." He was born in the year of the world, 1056. He begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, Shem was not his first-born, though he is placed first; because he was preferred of God before his brethren. Japhet was the eldest, and was born when his father was five hundred years old. Shem was next, and was born when Noah was five hundred and two years of age: and Ham was the youngest. The flood was in the six hundredth year of Noth's life, and in the year of the world, 1656, the tenth generation from Adam.

The last verse of the fourth chapter of this book, speaks of the profanation of Cain's seed, and how it began to be introduced very awfully in the days of Enos. The beginning of the sixth chapter speaks of this corruption as crept into the family of Seth, the very church itself; and this by their following the cursed example of Lamech, who was the first polygamist in the world. The church of God, the members of the church, the descendants of the patriarchs in the line of Seth, married carelessly and promiscuously with the daughters of men, the descendants of Cain, the first murderer. Hence they also became loose in their manners, and evil and corrupt in their lives and conversations. They became a giant-like race, and as they multiplied on the face of the earth, they filled it with lust, rapine; and violence. This was the case before God denounced the destruction of the world: and so great was the apostasy of the human race, and so far were they from being reclaimed from their horrible crimes, that they went on after the denunciation and warning given by Enoch, Methuselah, and even Lamech and Noah, in the same acts of open rebellion and defiance of Jehovah. This made way for the Lord to give them another solemn warning by the ministry of Noah, saying, " My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh," wholly carnal, notwithstanding all my warnings; yet I will now fix and pronounce the exact space of time, from this my last warning to its execution, it shall be one hundred and twenty years.

The justice of God in his procedure with sinful man, was expressed by the particular notice be took of men.

By the eye of his omniscience and omnipresence, he looked upon the earth, and saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." The Holy Ghost adds, " And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart:" which words fully imply that there were none on the earth, whom the Lord. respected, (Noah, and. his family only excepted) So that it was only on account of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, in whom Noah believed, or he would have consumed the earth wholly, so as not to renew it after the 'deluge, as he has done. Jehovah being immutable, may will a change, but he cannot change to will ; therefore repentance cannot properly be attributed to God : and the best explication of these words, is to consider them as expressive of the indignation of God against sin, and sinners out of Christ : he hates sin with a perfect hatred, and will damn the sinner who dies in his sins, eternally for it.

Having given these general hints, by way of introduction, I proceed to consider in section the first, the dissolution of the world, by the waters of the flood ; but it may be necessary to observe the situation and circumstances of the globe, and also of its inhabitants prior to that event.

I quote the following, which I conceive as very just, and conveying very clear ideas to the mind concerning this subject, from a French author, translated into English, under the title of Spectacle de la Nature; or, Nature Displayed.

"Although the earth before the deluge, as well as now, consisted of several strata of matter, laying one upon another; of mountains, valleys, plains, great collection of waters or seas, and all other parts essentially necessary to the constitution of an habitable globe ; yet notwithstanding, its form then, was probably different from what it is at present; and its atmosphere, or firmament, not exactly the same as now. And this cannot be denied, seeing that God who wrought a change in the life of man, might as easily effect the same in the structure or form of his dwelling. And St. Peter seems plainly to authorize such a supposition, when he says, the ancient world perished by water ; the heavens and the earth, which now are, being reserved unto the fire of the last day, 2 Peter iii. 6, 7. Let us suppose now, that the former earth described its annual orbit, or elipsis, round the sun, having its axis perpendicular to the plane of its orbit, that is, without having a greater inclination to one part of it than another. Let us suppose also, that as this earth was designed to be the habitation of a very long lived race of men, who were to multiply exceedingly; the surface of the land-was much greater than that of the sea, which, the better to accommodate mankind with room, was partly open, and partly concealed under the earth ; so that there were on all sides large magazines of water, or different seas, which held a communication with each other under ground, by means of one common receptacle or rendezvous of water ; and the scriptures seem to countenance such a disposition or distribution of waters, by calling, this vast bed or storehouse by the name of the profound abyss, and the different gathering of the waters, by the name of seas, as being many. From these two different suppositions, which are neither repugnant to scripture nor philosophy, naturally flow all those particulars which we find in scripture, in the traditions of the ancients, and in the present state of the world. Now the axis of the earth not being inclined to the plane of the eliptic, the plane. of the earth's equator coincided with the plane of its natural orbit, and consequently intersected the body of the sun, or, in other words, the earth's equator was always opposite to the sun. From such a situation, it necessarily follows, that all the climates of the earth, except the middle of the torrid zone, enjoyed a constant and pleasant temperature of weather ; day and night were equally divided to all places alike, consisting each of twelve hours ; the air was always pure and serene, and there was a perpetual spring all over the globe ; the sun and moon regulated the course of the year, not by diversities of seasons, but by the change of places; the earth in its annual revolution in its orbit round the sun, passing under the twelve constellations of the zodiac, so that when it was under Libra, the sun appeared to be under Aries ; and when the earth passed under the sign Scorpio, the sun seemed to be in Taurus. The revolution which the sun seemed to perform in one year, the moon did really perform every month, renewing its phases then perpendicularly, as it does now. Thus did these two lights, which presided one over the day, and the other over the night, serve as two regulators to mankind, whereby to fix the length of the year, and to measure the several portions of time.

" By a natural consequence of this uniform temperature, which presided every where, and at all times, the trees perpetually retained their verdure, and brought forth fruit, blossomed and budded at the same time; the present crop was but an earnest of what was to succeed, and uninterrupted plenty exalted her full horn in every place.

The clemency and temperature of the air could not fail of having a beneficial influence on the bodies of men, and causing longevity."

These seem to have been precisely the circumstances of the old world.

Section 2. The inhabitants of the old world, having enjoyed, according to what has been suggested, a perpetual spring, and a state of health and strength agreeable therewith, could not conceive that they were in any danger from the waters of a flood. Hence, though Noah preached to them, and the Spirit of Christ in his ministry, testified that God's wrath would break out fully upon them at the fixed season; yet they lived in a total neglect of the Lord and his worship, and continued in their unbelief.

In consequence of their exceeding sinfulness, the Lord said, " I will destroy man whom I have created; from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls bf the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them." Though all were thus corrupt, yet there was a root of election which secured the church, and its preservation in the ark." " But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord;" and the holy Ghost describes him as a just, or justified man, and perfect in.-his generation, and as one .who walked with God. He was a believer in Christ; he worshipped the Lord in the belief of what was revealed in the word of promise, concerning the woman's seed, and presented himself at the place of divine worship, before the cherubim's which Jehovah inhabited at the east of the .garden of Eden, in the belief of the incarnation, sacrifice, obedience, and death of our most blessed and precious Immanuel; and walked with God in the same faith that Enoch did. The Lord singled him out, and commanded him to, build an ark, chest, or coffin, to keep men and living things from the water. The form, dimension's, partitions, length, breadth, and height of it, with its one window and door, are all expressly given him. It was in shape like a coffin for a man's body; six times as long as it was broad, and ten times as long as it was high ; the top of it was like the ridge of a coin ; it was to be made of gopher wood, which, it may be, was a kind of cedar tree; and it was to be pitched within and without with pitch : all which Noah performed according to the command of Jehovah. The apostle says, " By faith Noah being' warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to. the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith," Heb. x. 7.

Section 3. The Lord God informs Noah of his great design upon the world of the ungodly, saying, " I, even 1, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven ; and every thing that is in the earth shall die." To accomplish this, was a most wonderful event, and Jehovah speaks of it as such. The author quoted so largely in the first section, gives the following account as a conjecture concerning the physical cause of it. " The Lord God took the axis of the earth, and inclined it some few degrees. towards the northern stars, and behold, this little deviation produced a thorough change in the order and economy of the natural system of the world, and seemed to give birth to a new heaven and a new earth. By this inclination of the axis, the equator of necessity became depressed below the sun, and that bright luminary immediately darted its scorching rays on one hemisphere, whilst the sharpest frost and cold exerted their utmost severity on the other. Hence proceeded condensations and rarefactions in the air, causing violent commotions in the atmosphere, whilst warring winds and tempests raged with embattled fury through the middle regions of the. sky; the windows of heaven were opened, and the superior waters being condensed by the violence of the shock, poured down torrents upon the face of the earth ; the earth felt the universal concussion and shaking, from its very foundations, broke in pieces under the feet of its wicked inhabitants, and plunged into the subterraneous waters ; by the disruption of the crust the fountains of the great deep were broken, and spouted forth their treasures over the disjointed mass. In a word, from the concourse of the superior and inferior waters, was produced ail universal deluge, which drowned the world."

Before this, the Lord God gave another warning: he commanded Noah to enter the ark, and al his house, saying, "For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." He then give a command, concerning clean beasts, and clean fowls, and adds, " For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain forty days and forty nights ; and every living substance that I have made, will I destroy from off the face of the earth." Noah obeyed the divine command, he and his family, with every beast after his kind, and all the cattle, after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort, went unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh where in is the breath of life ; and being entered, the Lord shut Noah in: and the flood came and destroyed all out of the ark : so we read, "And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven ; and they were destroyed from the earth; and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." Some calculate the number of the inhabitants of the old world, that were destroyed, to be twelve, if not eighteen thousand millions.

Noah's entering the ark, must have been an act of faith. God will save Noah and his family from death, by the ark. He enters it in obedience to the Lord's command, who declares he will establish his covenant with him, which was, doubtless, a shadow of the covenant of grace. The ark may be considered as a figure of Christ and his church ; Christ is a security against the storms of Jehovah's wrath : such as are interested in his person, blood, and righteousness, and take bold of him, and who enter into him by faith, are saved, and that with an ever lasting salvation. It was fitted for swiming, and for resisting the winds, and thus is a fit figure to be a symbol of the sufferings, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It was pitched within and without with pitch, which, says the. learned Ainsworth, " figured the atonement made for the church, by Christ; wherewith we being covered and plastered, the wrath of God cannot fall on us."

Noah and his family, when shut up in the ark, represented a burial : they seemed, as it were, to be buried in it. When the great deep was broken up, and the windows of heaven opened, they were surrounded and covered with water; so Christ, the head and substitute, represented his whole church; they were all in him, when he made atonement, and the overwhelming wrath of God fell on him, and surrounded him on all sides. The apostle Peter considers it as a figure of baptism, which is a memorial of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ: his words are, " By which also, he went and preached to the spirits in prison ; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure, whereunto even baptism Both also now save us (not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God) by the, resurrection of Jesus Christ," 1 Peter iii. 19 to 21. The Lord Christ, by his spirit in Noah's ministry, preached to sinners who were disobedient; who dying in their sins, their spirits are, says the apostle, now in hell. He then takes notice of the long-suffering of God, in that dispensation towards them, and of the goodness of God, in saving Noah and his family in 'the ark, which was a figure of baptism. As those only in the ark were saved 'by water, so those only who are in Christ, and baptized into Christ, and his death, are saved by baptism. The window in the ark, may be considered as typical of Christ, the light of everlasting life. The one door, was also expressive of Christ, who saith of himself, " I am the door, if any man enter in, he shall be saved," John x. 9.

Section 4. Beasts, fowls, and creeping things, being by the special providence of God, collected together, and being admitted into the ark, Noah entered it the seventeenth day of the second month, i. e. Tizry, which answers to part of our September and October; and the night which followed, the cataracts of heaven being opened, showered down abundance of rain. The cloud were created full of water, on the first day of the creation, even in the very same instant with the heavens; and which are also comprehended under the term heavens, Gen. i. 1. The great deep was also let loose from below, as well as those rains from above, and so the earth came presently into its first situation covered with water. These violent rains, such as never were before, or since, nor ever shall be, clouded the world in universal darkness, in which the wicked were enclosed, before they were enclosed in outer darkness. The rains continued forty days and. forty nights, so that the flood increased to fifteen cubits, or nine yards and a quarter above the highest mountains, which were all covered and when the forty days rain had brought it to that pitch, it so continued one hundred and fifty days more. Those two sums are to be reckoned distinct, and not as included in each other; for, when the one hundred and fifty days were ended, there were six months and ten days of the flood past: so says Dr. Lightfoot; and he adds, "Those who conceive the year of the flood began in March, suppose one miracle more than either scripture or reason giveth ground for, that the waters should increase, and be at their height all the heat of summer, and abate and decrease all the cold of winter. In distinction to this, the beginning the year of the flood from Tizry, or September, brings the rains to fall in the beginning of winter, namely, from about the beginning of our November, to the middle of December, or to about the winter solstice ; and from thence the flood to be at high water, fifteen cubits above the mountains, for five months together, viz. to the middle of May; and from thence in the heat of the summer to be drying up." Thus the ungodly inhabitants of the old world, perished by the flood, and their souls were consigned to everlasting perdition, as Peter says, 1

Peter iii. 9. and our Lord points them out as dying in carnal security, Luke xvii. 26, 27. and the Holy Ghost also notices their destruction to the same effect in the book of Job, where Eliphaz asks him, " Bast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden; which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was over-flown with a flood ? which said to the Almighty, depart from us," &c. Job xxii. 15 to 17.

From the beginning of the flood, to the end of seven months, the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. As the waters began to abate, and the tops of the mountains were seen, Noah sent out first a dove, and then a raven, to observe how it was ; but the dove returned. After seven days he sent her out again, and she returned in the evening, and lo! in her mouth, a olive leaf plucked off: "So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth." He tarried another seven days, and sent forth the dove again, which returned no more. And in the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, which was the year of the world 1657, on the first clay of the month, the earth was dried; and on the twenty-seventh day of the same month Tizry, Noah removed the covering of the ark, and -behold the face of the earth was dry." He was in the ark one whole year, the most tremendous one that ever was. Judgment had been passed on all flesh. The Lord had accomplished his holy' will and pleasure on the globe, and its inhabitants ; and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water, perished. It underwent a strange alteration; the course of nature had been changed, and day and night, summer and winter, had not kept their course. What a most blessed knowledge must Noah have had of the covenant of the eternal Three, that in the faith of it, he entered the ark! What views must he have had of the everlasting efficacy of Christ's sacrifice, and his almighty power to save, that though all flesh, save those with him in the ark, were cut off; yet he rested on the Lord simply for salvation. He had before learnt to know God, the persons in God, the offices of the divine co-equal and co-eternal Three, in the incomprehensible essence, from the hieroglyphics set up at the east of the garden of Eden. He had been well instructed into the nature of the fall. He had viewed the promised Messiah in the in stituted sacrifices, and had been made acquainted with him, by typical persons and representations. He clearly understood, that one in the Godhead was to take man's nature, and be cut off as the purifier; by whose sacrifice and atonement, sin was to be put away, and an everlasting righteousness brought in. The ark, and his salvation in it, served to increase his spiritual light, and improve his faith, Ainsworth observes, that Noah escaped the waters of God's wrath, wherein the world perished; as Israel after this passed safe through the waters of the Red Sea, wherein the Egyptians were drowned." Noah was baptized into Christ's death, and buried in the ark with him into his death ; but raised up again with him also, God giving him victory through faith in Christ; and consequently he had views of his election in Christ, of his union to him, of his oneness with him, and interest in his life, death, burial, and resurrection ; and of his being a partaker of all the fruits and benefits thereof, and was comforted therewith.

We have here before us, full proofs of the pre-existence of Jesus Christ, and of his self-existence ; and also the essential deity of the eternal Spirit. The Psalmist addressing Christ, says, "Thy years are throughout all generations," Psalm cii. 24. He was in Noah's time, long before his incarnation. Peter expressly says, that Christ, by his. Spirit, preached to the inhabitants of the old world, in Noah's ministry, 1 Peter iii. 19., yea, " he is before all things, and by him all things consist;" and the Psalmist declares in the fore cited Psalm, " Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands:" and the essential divinity of the Holy Ghost is very plainly evidenced and declared, in the prophecy given out by him, concerning the deluge, for almost a thousand years before it came to pass ; and also in his withdrawing his influence, and ceasing to breathe in at the nostrils the breath of lives or life ; it is most expressly said, that " All in whose nostrils was the breath of life or lives died." This proves the Holy Ghost to be the breath of life ; for be it was who breathed it into Adam's nostrils, and he became a living soul. The eternal Spirit is the Spirit of life ; all live, and move, and have their being in him, and from him: it was the breath, or inspiration of the Spirit of lives that communicated natural existence to all the creatures at the beginning, Gen. vii. 22. and when that breath is taken away, they die and return again to their dust, Psalm civ. 29. This most surely is an irrefutable proof of his eternal power and Godhead ; because in him, all creatures live, and move, and are sustained; and when he withdraws his power they die. As we consider the ark as a type of Christ, and the dove returning to it, with an olive leaf, as a proof that the waters were abated ; they put us in remembrance, how the Holy Ghost descended on our most adorable Jesus, when he was baptized by John, in Jordan, under the symbol of a dove, consecrating and sealing him as the Christ of God.

Having set forth the dissolution of the old world, by the waters of the flood, with the moral and physical causes thereof, I come, in this second part of my discourse, to speak of its renovation.

The truly great and learned Mr. Jones, gives the following account of the reformation of the earth, after the deluge. " When the purpose of providence was brought to pass, a reformation of the earth took place, similar to its first formation: the solid matter settled into ordinary strata -the waters descended, as before, into the like. apertures of the earth-the subterraneous air was restored to the atmosphere the earth was parted into seas, continents, and islands and its surface was dried by a mighty wind, which passed over it for that purpose." The renovation of the earth, out of the chaotic state, to which it was reduced by the flood, was as great an act of omnipotent power, as its first formation.

Moses begins his first chapter of Genesis with an account of the creation, and the steps the essential Three took, in forming and establishing this earthly system: and he gives as full and accurate an account of its being destroyed by the deluge. He informs us, the windows of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up: by this means the shell of the earth being broken, and universally cracked, the waters issuing out of the bowels of the earth, with the water spouts falling down from heaven, must have been amazingly terrible; and the consternation of the perishing world, must surpass all description ; surrounded with a darkened sky, and the elements in confusion. It was a day of judgment to sinners, who then existed on the globe.

This sacred writer also gives a circumstantial account of its renovation after the flood. It was effected by Jehovah's causing  a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters were assuaged. The same agent in nature, spirit, or wind, is employed as at the first formation, which brought all things to order again, as it did then. The fountains of the deep, and the windows of heaven, were stopped. The waters returned from off the earth continually, into the great abyss ; and behold, the face of the earth was dry; and the air, by its expanding and consolidatory force, hardened and compressed it, so as to fit it again to be dwelt upon ; and it was so reformed as to render diligence requisite, in a more laborious cultivation.

We have with the scripture account of the deluge, most clear and natural proofs of it, to this very day. The wrecks of that universal devastation, have been seen by, and convinced many, such as trees, plants, shells, sea fish, bones of animals, some included in stones, others in distant places, deep fissures, or on high mountains. In fact, all our petrefactions are and will continue to the end of time to be standing memorials of it.

I now proceed to set forth the distinguishing favor and blessing shewn to Noah and his family, in preserving them from perishing by the flood, with his grateful sense of it, and the way in which he expressed it.

Section 1. It was indeed a most singular and distinguishing blessing shewn to Noah, out of the riches of Jehovah's grace, not only to preserve him and his, but also in giving evidence of his remembrance of then), by giving command for their coming forth out of the ark, when the ground was dry, and fit to receive them. Noah came out of the ark about the beginning of November, and became the common parent of mankind, as Adam was. From this era mankind took a new beginning, and in some respects a new condition. In the revealed account given us of Noah's way of making his acknowledgments to God, for the singular grace and blessing shewn him, and the Lord's way with him on that great occasion, we have the state. of mankind set before us, and of what it hath been ever since. It is a very just observation of an excellent writer, that when Noah was directed to make the ark, he was commanded to take of every clean beast and fowl by sevens, and only the male and female of the rest: and at his coming out, we are told that he took of every clean beast and fowl, and offered them as whole burnt-offerings on the altar, which he had reared for that purpose. It is obvious from this account, that this distinction between clean and unclean, had not its first rise in what is called the ceremonial law, given by Moses, but that it had been established from the time that sacrifices were ordained a part of worship. Men, it appears, were not left at liberty to offer what they pleased, but what they were directed of God, any more than they might devise for themselves the terms of pardon and acceptance With him. This brings me to my text, which reads thus; " And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor ; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again Curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." In which we see the new world begun, with a solemn exhibition of Christ's death, as the sacrifice of atonement, and Jehovah bearing a divine testimony of its being remembered by him with unspeakable delight: "the Lord smelled a sweet savor."

Section 2. Noah's sense of the goodness of Jehovah, when he came out of the ark, must exceed, without all doubt, the Utmost of our conception. He knew Christ; had been favored with vast views of him, and much free and divine communion with him before, and also during his continuance in the ark. He had both heard, pronounced, seen, and executed, the sentence of` God on all flesh A deep apprehensive of of all which had sunk into his mind. In order to testify his faith, and express his gratitude to the, eternal Three for the mercies he had received, and expected further to receive, he built an altar, and offered sacrifices thereon, which the Lord accepted, and promised to curse the earth no more.

The cherubic emblems at the east of the garden of Eden, the word of promise, and the instituted sacrifices, were the gospel and means of grace to all the antediluvian patriarchs. Noah had been fully instructed into them by his believing cotemporaries, and enlightened into the sublime mysteries expressed. and shadowed- forth by them, through the light and unction of the Holy Ghost. The way of God's worship being settled, he was at no loss how to set about the performance of it: therefore he built an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt-offerings thereon. In our text we have Noah's sacrifice, Jehovah's acceptance of it, and his promise that he will curse the earth no more, but will preserve the orderly course of it through all ages, unto the end of it, under which the perpetuity of the covenant of the Trinity, ratified by the blood and sacrifice of Jesus, is included: see Jer. xxxiii. 20, 21. " And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar, Every part of sacrificial worship, as instituted by the Lord, had in it that which was very expressive of what Christ was to be, to do, and to suffer. Though the original of it began in paradise, and was immediately upon the fall commanded, and was performed before the faces of Jehovah, or the cherubic hieroglyphic, yet the first express mention made of it in so many words is in the fourth chapter of this book, We are there informed, that Abel offered unto Jehovah; his offering was a lamb, a type of Christ, the 'Lamb of God. He offered it at the appointed place of worship, which was at the east of the garden of Eden, where Jehovah inhabited the cherubim; and the Lord testified his approbation of it. It is declared, " The Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering," ver. 4.

As sacrifices were typical of Christ, the real sacrifice for sin, so they were on particular occasions consumed by fire from heaven, as marks of God's acceptance of them, and of his wrath being satisfied; and doubtless this was the case, though it is not expressly mentioned, when Abel offered his.

As Noah was a believer, and a prophet also; he well knew God's institution, and his will and command concerning them ; and his first act recorded, on his coming out of the ark, was his offering a burnt-offering, in faith of the great propitiatory sacrifice of Immanuel, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

He was himself the priest: he built an altar to offer on it. His offering was of every clean beast and bird. It was a burnt-offering; and was offered on the altar.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the substance and antitype of all this. He is the priest, altar, sacrifice, and peace-maker, and the prince of peace, to bestow on his church-and people all the blessings of the everlasting covenant.

The altar built by Noah, was probably of earth, a law being afterwards given in Exod. xx. 24. " An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me." As the altar signified Christ, so his human nature was signified by it as made of earth.. He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, Rom. i. 3. His humanity being in union with his divinity, which sanctified the offering of it. He offered his whole person, God and man united in one Christ. The altar was, as it were, an holy place, as it sanctified the gift put on it. The altar was a sacrificatory or slaying place, as on or near it, the sacrifices were slain. It Was a figure, of Christ by whom we offer up the sacrifices of praise to God. The Jews say, Noah built it in the same place where Abel had offered, stud where Abraham afterwards built an altar to offer Isaac.. As the altar was a memorial of Christ who was to become incarnate, and be God and man in one person, so the sacrifices slain upon or near it, pointed out the blood and death of Christ shed on purpose to cleanse and make atonement for sin : The clean beasts and fowls offered, suggested the immaculate purity of our Lord's person, life, and oblation ; and also prove that the worshippers were not left to offer what they pleased, but that the whole was of divine appointment. Noah's sacrifice, being a burnt offering, shews that it was wholly consumed by fire. And it pointed out how the fire of divine wrath would fall on Christ our sacrifice. As it was -wholly reduced to ashes, it shewed the complete abolition of sin out of the sight of God by Immanuel's oblation, by which means his church and people were to be delivered from the wrath to come.

And thus Noah began the new world with a solemn exhibition of Christ's death, and expressed his faith in it, as the sacrifice of atonement, as all-sufficient to complete eternal salvation.

Section 3. This representation and memorial of Christ's sacrifice, was highly acceptable to Jehovah the Father- "The Lord smelled a sweet savor;" or, a savor of rest. The Chaldee translated it, The Lord accepted with favor his oblation. The apostle Paul takes notice of it, and says, "Christ also bath loved us, and given him self for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savor." Eph. v. 2.

Jehovah, the Father, reviewing the all-sufficiency of his co-equal Son, on whom he laid his help, and the infinite perfection, virtue, and efficacy of his one obedience and sacrifice, expresses his delight in Noah's sacrifice, which brought it, as it were, to remembrance, and presented it before him. It was to him a sweet savor, an odor and perfume; yea, a savor of rest and refreshment; as the Messiah's death was to be the accomplishment of it. The person, undertakings, incarnation, life, obedience, blood-shedding, sacrifice, and death of the God-man, are the very centre of all Jehovah's thoughts, decrees, designs, and purposes; and on this occasion he was pleased to unfold himself, open his heart, and give fresh evidences of it to Noah: and in the one Lord Jesus Christ, the head, foundation, and Savior of his church and people, Jehovah expresses himself thus; " I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done: while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease."

Section 4. The Lord said in his heart, or unto his heart, as most heartily minding and purposing what is expressed concerning Christ, his church, the world, the seat of it, and the continuation of the earth and the creatures on it, until all his purposes were fully and finally accomplished. Thus Jehovah proclaims the ever lasting virtue and prevalency of his Son's mediation and death, it being the foundation of support to his church, and to the world for the sake of his church. The incarnation and life of Christ, would contain greater value than could be conceived or expressed. His obedience, which was the obedience of God in our nature, would honor the law more than it could be dishonored by the transgressions of men. His sacrifice of, himself would bring more glory to the holiness and justice of the Father, than could have been done by all creatures. Yea, the good contained in it, would for ever exceed the evil contained in sin. It would bring more glory to all the perfections of the Deity, than if sin had never entered into our nature and world.

Therefore the Lord shews forth the honor of his name, declaring that the earth should remain, the seasons be continued, the ordinances of heaven keep their constant course, until day and night come to an end; and that man should be continued in a time state, until Christ became incarnate, and had offered himself, and seen the travail of his soul, and been fully satisfied with seeing his seed all brought to the saving knowledge of himself, and into a state of real communion with him. Yea, the Lord adds, that the sin and sinfulness of man's heart should not frustrate this. Though he fully knew that " the imagination of his heart was evil from his youth," yet, be it so, God will continue man on earth, execute his great plan, accomplish all his purposes concerning Christ and his church; and the world, mankind, and the creatures, are kept in being entirely for this end: because the church of Christ is to be perfected by completing, age after age, the number of God's elect in effectual calling.

Thus the everlasting covenant was opened afresh. The ordinances of heaven and earth were given as pledges to the faith of Noah, and all believers, that the Lord will fulfill his word.

And Jehovah, to confirm all, binds himself by the obligation of an oath, that his church and people shall never fail, nor his promise to them cease. " This is as the waters of Noah unto me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." Isa, liv. 9, 10.

And the covenant made with Noah concerning the continuance of the ordinances of heaven, the sun and moon, and day and night, are mentioned by Jehovah to his people in Jer. xxxi. 35, 36. to assure them of the immutability of his covenant of grace with them; which proves, that under Noah's covenant the everlasting covenant of grace was hidden and contained. Noah had also the rainbow given him as a memorial of the covenant, to remind him that the earth should no more be deluged with water. He lived after the flood three hundred years, pronounced a prophecy concerning his three sons, which has had its accomplishment in their posterity. He was born in the year of the world 1557, and died in the year of the world 2006. He lived to see Terah, the father of Abram, the tenth generation after him before his death.

What is here set before you, may the Lord bless to your increase in the knowledge of his holy word. Amen.