time of Naamah.* If this be the case, the impenitent were perhaps hardened in sin from the prolongation of the life of Adam. He still survived, and “because sentence against his evil work was not speedily executed, their hearts were fully set in them to do evil." [Eccl. viii. 11.] They laughed at the threatened judgments of God, derided the promise of the Redeemer who was to come, uttered their profane scoffs against the pious, and plunged into every excess of guilt.t Who can conceive what Adam must have felt at the view of this general reign of that sin which he had introduced into the world! The patience and long-suffering of God were strikingly displayed towards this impious people. Instead of immediately punishing them, he sent his prophets to warn and instruct them, and his Spirit to strive with them; he granted them the means of grace, and abundant time for repentance. Among these prophets was Enoch, whose history is related by Moses in a single verse; but how expressive is this vere!" Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him." He "walked with God:"-Reconciled to the Lord through faith in the promised Seed, he lived under a sense of his presence, obeyed his commands, and enjoyed a sacred peace and delicious communion with him he boldly declared the great truths of religion, and in the most fearless manner, as we may judge from the precious fragment of his preaching preserved by Jude, he pointed a careless world to that aw *This is rendered probable : 1. Because the genealogy of the line of Cain ceases at her father Lamech, as though the two lines were hereafter confounded together; 2. From her name лy which signifies fair. From the connexion of the 4th and 6th chapters, it is not improbable that she is thus pointed out as one of the most beautiful of those whose charms led to this alliance. See the prophecy of Enoch in Jude. ful day, "when the Lord shall come with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all." [Jude 14, 15.] Having finished his testimony, “he was not, for God took him." "He was translated, that he should not see death." [Heb. xi. 5.] Without feeling the pangs of dissolution, he passed from this world to heaven, in the same manner as man would have done had he remained innocent, as Elijah did under the law, and as those believers shall who shall be living at the second coming of the Redeemer. Thus God put his seal to the ministry of Enoch, testified his approbation of the conduct and doctrine of this holy man, and the reality of that future world which he preached, in which both body and soul should be rewarded or punished. Thus a new reproof was given to the impenitent, and stronger consolations vouchsafed to the pious.My brethren, let us imitate the conduct of this patriarch, and we shall partake of his felicity. God will take us likewise, though not in the same manner; we also shall obtain a triumph over death. "The page of history," says a good man,* "records the splendid actions of the great and illustrious; the report of the day proclaims the wealth which others have accumulated and left behind them, and of which they are gone to render an account; the monuments of the dead are often inscribed with pompous titles and flattering commendations; but may it with truth be engraven on my tomb-stone, or whispered in the obscurest corner, "He walked with God, and was not; for God took him ;" and so far from envying their distinctions, not even Enoch's privilege shall be anxiously desired by me; but * Scott, in loc. "I'll hail the sharpest pangs of death Doddridge. Before his translation, Enoch gave to the men of the world a prophetic warning, which would remain with them after his departure, of the punishment which God was about to inflict on them. This he did by conferring the name Methuselah upon his son; a name which signifies that when he who is so called is dead, there shall follow an inundation of waters.* So perfectly did this correspond with the event, that the very year in which Methuselah died the deluge took place. But neither did this warning, nor the faithful preaching of Enoch, nor the miraculous attestation of God to his ministry, in delivering him from death, reclaim the vicious, and lead them to repentance. To prove beyond dispute, that the Lord is "slow to anger, and of great kindness;" that "he willeth not the death of sinners, but that they turn and live;" he still graciously bore with them for eight hundred years; and by his providence, his prophets, and his spirit, called them to return to him. So hard is the heart of man, that they remained unaffected. At the expiration of this period, iniquity, instead of being checked, had greatly progressed. It had before been a mighty river, impetuously rushing forward, and sweeping away in its course, the monuments of piety and virtue.-It is now a boundless ocean that almost covers the whole earth. the Lord delays to strike. He fixes one hundred and twenty years as the bounds of his patience, and as "the season of their visitation;" at the expiration of which time, if they continued impenitent, his spirit should cease to strive with them, they should be abandoned as incorrigible, and swept by the divine VOL. I. *b illo mortuo emissio aquarum. Still judgments from the earth which was burdened and polluted by their iniquities. "And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." The greater part of this time having elapsed, and men "still filling up the measure of their iniquities," and preparing themselves for destruction, the Lord resolves to execute upon them a signal and speedy vengeance. He therefore commands Noah to prepare an ark, in which he and his family, with a sufficient number of animals to restock the earth, might be saved. The parents of this patriarch appear, even at his birth, to have considered him as an extraordinary personage, destined to perform eminent services. His father, probably inspired by the prophetic spirit, gave him the name of Noah ; i. e. Rest or Comfort ; foreseeing that he would bring comfort to his parents, and be a blessing to the world, and would be a type of that Redeemer who alone gives true rest to the soul! The subsequent life of this patriarch did not, as in the case of Cain, disappoint these parental expectations. In the midst of a corrupted age, he was not ashamed or afraid to avow his attachment to piety. Walking with God," and "seeking that honour which cometh from him only," he despised the scoffs of the impious. He did not blush at a holy singularity, when those by whom he was surrounded renounced the principles and disregarded the practices of religion. Inspired with an ardent zeal, he was "a preacher of righteousness," [2 Pet. ii. 5.] and faithfully rebuked and warned the ungodly. Though for this he incurred their opposition and contempt, yet "he found grace in the eyes of the Lord." My brethren, you admire this character-would you have 66 ་ imitated it had you then lived? Ah! when I see so much cowardice among Christians-when I behold so many, who, instead of reproving, with Noah, vices, though sanctioned by custom and general practice, conniving at them by a criminal silence, or basely making compliances against which their conscience remonstrates-when I behold so few who are willing to stand alone, "rather than be conformed to the world," I am filled with fear that the greater part of us, had we then been upon the earth, would have partaken of the general destruction, rather than have come out from the ungodly and been separate." 66 The faithful discharge of the duties of religion is attended by the consolations of grace. No wonder then that Noah often communed with God; enjoyed the tokens of his special favour, and by the manifestations of his love was abundantly compensated for the unkindness of men. God revealed to him his intention to bring the flood upon the world; pointed out to him the method of deliverance; and gave him the most minute directions for the construction of the ark. Noah was not daunted at the obstacles and labour he would have to encounter-at the contumelies and reproach he would have to endure.-God had spoken-he knows that this God can sustain him -he believes the divine declarations-and hastens to obey. Behold him then commencing the ark, amidst the scoffs and derisions of the multitude. They accuse him of folly, of enthusiasm, of madness. The steady purpose of his soul, and his firm faith in God, are unshaken, and he perseveres. Every step of its progress, every stroke of the hammer, call them to repentance, warn them to avoid the gathering storm. But they are unconcerned-they cast upon the building a scornful glance, and return with their |