The very idea and contemplation of these things may well lead us, with all sincerity and fervour, to implore the grace of God, while it is so freely offered, and to “seek Him while He may be found;” and O that it may lead us gladly and unfeignedly to embrace the covenant of safety, which is graciously propounded to us in the gospel; and to “give all diligence” to fulfil every condition which that covenant contains. We shall not, if we value our eternal welfare, think it sufficient not to “deny the Lord that bought us,” not to despise the means which He has provided for our preservation and deliverance; we shall turn to Him with all our heart, grateful for the means of salvation, and anxious to employ them all. “Lord what wilt Thou have me to do?” { 50a} “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth;” { 50b} this is the language that befits a sinner, who has no hope but in God’s covenanted mercy.
“Our time is in the Lord’s hands;” we know not, if little or much remain: Arise, defer not a day. His spirit is now striving within us; to purify our affections, to change our corrupt nature, to form the christian principle and temper in our souls; let us then, without doubt or delay, humbly and thankfully concur with His holy operations, and strive with Him, while we may: not lingering and loitering about the ark with thoughtless indifference, as if our minds were not made up, whether it be worth while to enter; but, in the full and perfect and abiding persuasion, that it is the only refuge for man, let us secure, as far as it is possible, our rest and habitation there; and then we need not fear the overwhelming of the waters, come they ever so suddenly or ever so soon; we shall be raised above them all, unhurt and undismayed; we shall ride safely and triumphantly over the foaming billows; and settle at last upon the heavenly Ararat, the “mountain of the Lord of Hosts,” the everlasting abode of tranquillity and bliss.
But of this happy termination we shall have occasion to speak more at large, in another discourse; when we come to treat of the character of Noah, and the circumstances of his wonderful preservation. In the mean time, let us observe, that the deluge is a subject of most awful consideration; not merely in itself, as sweeping away into perdition almost all the human race, and changing the very form and structure of the globe; but also as being a resemblance and emblem of other visitations of an offended and avenging God:—in the first place, of the overthrow of Jerusalem, and the miserable and general destruction of its rebellious people. “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be;” { 53a} so unlooked for, so amazing, so disastrous to His enemies.