"Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he" (Genesis 6:22).
CONCERNING these words, I would observe three things:
I. What it was that God commanded Noah, to which these words refer. It was
the building of an ark according to the particular direction of God, against
the time when the flood of waters should come; and the laying up of food
for himself, his family, and the other animals, which were to be preserved
in the ark. We have the particular commands which God gave him respecting
this affair, from the 14th verse, "Make thee an ark of gopher wood,"
&c
2. We may observe the special design of the work which God had enjoined
upon Noah: it was to save himself and his family, when the rest of the world
should be drowned. See ver. 17, 18.
We may observe Noah's obedience. He obeyed God: thus did Noah. And his obedience
was thorough and universal: according to all that God commanded him, so
did he. He not only began, but he went through his work, which God had commanded
him to undertake for his salvation from the flood. To this obedience the
apostle refers in Heb. xi. 7, "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.
DOCTRINE.
We should be willing to engage in and go through great undertakings, in
order to our own salvation.
The building of the ark, which was enjoined upon Noah, that he and his family
might be saved, was a great undertaking: the ark was a building of vast
size; the length of it being three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty
cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A cubit, till of late, was by
learned men reckoned to be equal to a foot and a half of our measure. But
lately some learned men of our nation have travelled into Egypt, and other
ancient countries, and have measured some ancient buildings there, which
are of several thousand years standing, and of which ancient histories give
us the dimensions in cubits; particularly the pyramids of Egypt, which are
standing entire at this day. By measuring these, and by comparing the measure
in feet with the ancient accounts of their measure in cubits, a cubit is
found to be almost two and twenty inches. Therefore learned men more lately
reckon a cubit much larger than they did formerly. So that the ark, reckoned
so much larger every way, will appear to be almost of double the bulk which
was formerly ascribed to it According to this computation of the cubit,
it was more than five hundred and fifty feet long, about ninety feet broad,
and about fifty feet in height.
To build such a structure, with all those apartments and divisions in it
which were necessary, and in such a manner as to be fit to float upon the
water for so long a time, was then a great undertaking. It took Noah, with
all the workmen he employed, a hundred and twenty years, or thereabouts,
to build it For so long it was, that the Spirit of God strove, and the long-suffering
God waited on the old world, as you may see in Gen. vi. 3: "My Spirit
shall I not always strive with man; yet his days shall be a hundred and
twenty years." All this while the ark was a preparing, as appears by
1 Pet. iii. 20: "When once the long-suffering of God waited in the
days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing." It was a long time that
Noah constantly employed himself in this business. Men would esteem that
undertaking very great, which should keep them constantly employed even
for one half of that time. Noah must have had a great and constant care
upon his mind for these one hundred and twenty years, in superintending
this work, and in seeing that all was done exactly according to the directions
which God had given him.
Not only was Noah himself continually employed, but it required a great
number of workmen to be constantly employed, during all that time, in procuring,
and collecting, and fitting the materials, and in putting them together
in due form. How great a thing was it for Noah to undertake such a work!
For beside the continual care and labor, it was a work of vast expense.
It is not probable that any of that wicked generation would put to a finger
to help forward such a work, which doubtless they believed was merely the
fruit of Noah's folly, without full wages. Noah must needs have been very
rich, to be able to bear the expense of such a work, and to pay so many
workmen for so long a time. It would have been a very great expense for
a prince; and doubtless Noah was very rich, as Abraham and Job were afterwards.
But it is probable that Noah spent all his worldly substance in this work,
thus manifesting his faith in the word of God, by selling all he had, as
believing there would surely come a flood, which would destroy all; so that
if he should keep what he had, it would be of no service to him. Herein
he has set us an example, showing us how we ought to sell all for our salvation.
Noah's undertaking was of great difficulty, as it exposed him to the continual
reproaches of all his neighbors, for that whole one hundred and twenty years.
None of them believed what he told them of a flood which was about to drown
the world. For a man to undertake such a vast piece of work, under notion
that it should be the means of saving him when the world should be destroyed,
it made him the continual laughing-stock of the world. When he was about
to hire workmen, doubtless all laughed at him, and we may suppose, that
though the workmen consented to work for wages, yet they laughed at the
folly of him who employed them. When the ark was begun, we may suppose that
every one that passed by and saw such a huge bulk stand there, laughed at,
it, calling it Noah's folly.
In these days, men are with difficulty brought to do or submit to that which
makes them the objects of the reproach of all their neighbors. Indeed if
while some reproach them, others stand by them and honor them, this will
support them. But it is very difficult for a man to go on in a way wherein
he makes himself the laughing stock of the whole world, and wherein he can
find none who do not despise him. Where is the man that can stand the shock
of such a trial for twenty years?
But in such an undertaking as this, Noah at the divine direction, engaged
and went through it, that himself and his family might be saved from the
common destruction which was shortly about to come on the world. He began,
and also made an end: "According to all that God commanded him, so
did he." Length of time did not weary him: he did not grow weary of
his vast expense. He stood the shock of the derision of all his neighbors;
and of all the world year after year: he did not grow weary of being their
laughing-stock, so as to give over his enterprise; but persevered in it
till the ark was finished. After this, he was at the trouble and charge
of procuring stores for the maintenance of his family, and of all the various
kinds of creatures, for so long a time. Such an undertaking he engaged in
and went through in order to a temporal salvation. How great an undertaking
then should men be willing to engage in and go through in order to their
eternal salvation! A salvation from an eternal deluge; from being overwhelmed
with the billows of God's wrath of which Noah's flood was but a shadow.
I shall particularly handle this doctrine under the three following propositions.
I. There is a work or business which must be undertaken and accomplished
by men, if they would be saved.
II. This business is a great undertaking.
III. Men should be willing to enter upon and go through this undertaking
though it be great, seeing it is for their own salvation.
Proposition. There is a work or business which men must enter upon and accomplish,
in order to their salvation.-Men have no reason to expect to be saved in
idleness, or to go to heaven in a way of doing nothing. No; in order to
it, there is a great work, which must be not only begun, but finished-I
shall speak upon this proposition, in answer to two inquiries.
I. What is this work or business which must be undertaken and accomplished
in order to the salvation of men?
Answer. It is the work of seeking salvation in a way of constant observance
of all the duty to which God directs its in his word. If we would be saved,
we must seek salvation. For although men do not obtain heaven of themselves;
they do not go thither accidentally, or without any intention or endeavors
of their own. God, in his word, hath directed men to seek their salvation
as they would hope to obtain it. There is a race that is set before them,
which they must run, and in that race come off victors, in order to their
winning the prize.
The Scriptures have told us what particular duties must be performed by
us in order to our salvation. It is not sufficient that men seek their salvation
on in the observance of some of those duties; but they must be observed
universally. The work we have to do is not an obedience only to some, but
to all the commands of God; a compliance with every institution of worship;
a diligent use of all the appointed means of grace; a doing of all duty
towards God and towards man.-It is not sufficient that men have some respect
to all the commands of God, and that they may be said to seek their salvation
in some sort of observance of all the commands; but they must be devoted
to it.
They must not make this a business by the by, or a thing in which they are
negligent and careless, or which they do with a slack hand; but it must
be their great business, being attended to as their great concern. They
must not only seek, but strive; they must do what their hand findeth to
do with their might, as men thoroughly engaged in their minds, and influenced
and set forward by great desire and strong resolution. They must act as
those that see so much of the importance of religion above all other things,
that every thing else must be as an occasional affair, and nothing must
stand in competition with its duties. This must be the one thing they do;
Phil. iii. 13, "This one thing I do."-It must be the business
to which they make all other affairs give place, and to which they are ready
to make other things a sacrifice. They must be ready to part with pleasures
and honor, estate and life, and to sell all, that they may successfully
accomplish this business.
It is required of every man, that he not only do something in this business,
but that he should devote himself to it; which implies that he should give
up himself to it, all his affairs, and all his temporal enjoyments. This
is the import of taking up the cross, of taking Christ's yoke upon us, and
of denying ourselves to follow Christ. The rich young man, who came kneeling
to Christ to know what he should do to he saved, Mark x. 17, in some sense
sought salvation but did not obtain it. In some sense he kept all the commands
from his youth up; but was not cordially devoted to this business. He had
not made a sacrifice to it of all his enjoyments, as appeared when Christ
came to try him; he would not part with his estate for him.
It is not only necessary that men should seem to he very much engaged, and
appear as if they were devoted to their duty for a little while; but there
must be a constant devotedness, in a persevering way, as Noah was to the
business of the building the ark, going on with that great, difficult, and
expensive affair, till it was finished, and till the flood came. Men must
not only be diligent in the use of the means of grace, and be anxiously
engaged to escape eternal ruin, till they obtain hope and comfort; but afterwards
they must persevere in the duties of religion, till the flood come, the
flood of death. Not only must the faculties, strength, and possessions of
men be devoted to this work, but also their time and their lives; they must
give up their whole lives to it, even to the very day when God causes the
storms and floods to come. This is the work or business which men have to
do in order to their salvation.
Inquiry 2. Why is it needful that men should undertake to go through such
a work in order to their salvation?
Answer 1. Not to merit salvation, or to recommend them to the saving mercy
of God. Men are not saved on the account of any work of theirs, and yet
they are not saved without works. If we merely consider what it is for which,
or on the account of which, men are saved, no work at all in men is necessary
to their salvation. In this respect they are saved wholly without any work
of theirs: Tit. iii. 5, "Not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost." We must indeed be saved on the account
of works; but not our own. It is on account of the works which Christ hath
done for us. Works are the fixed price of eternal life; it is fixed by an
eternal, unalterable rule of righteousness. But since the fall there is
no hope of our doing these works, without salvation offered freely without
money and without price. But,
2. Though it be not needful that we do any thing to merit salvation, which
Christ hath fully merited for all who believe in him; yet God, for wise
and holy ends, hath appointed, that we should come to final salvation in
no other way, but that of good works done by us.
God did not save Noah on account of the labor and expense he was at in building
the ark. Noah's salvation from the flood was an instance of the free and
distinguishing mercy of God. Nor did God stand in need of Noah's care, or
cost, or labor, to build an ark. The same power which created the world,
and which brought the flood of waters upon the earth, could have made the
ark in an instant, without any care or cost to Noah, or any of the labor
of those workmen who were employed for so long a time. Yet God was pleased
to appoint, that Noah should be saved in this way. So God hath appointed
that man should not be saved without his undertaking and doing this work
of which I have been speaking; and therefore we are commanded "to work
out our own salvation with fear and trembling," Philip. ii. 12.
There are many wise ends to be answered by the establishment of such a work
as prerequisite to salvation. The glory of God requires it. For although
God stand in no need of any thing that men do to recommend them to his saving
mercy, yet it would reflect much on the glory of God's wisdom and holiness,
to bestow salvation on men in such a way as tends to encourage them in sloth
and wickedness; or in any other way than that which tends to promote diligence
and holiness. Man was made capable of action, with many powers of both body
and mind fitting him for it. He was made for business and not idleness and
the main business for which he was made, was that of religion. Therefore
it becomes the wisdom of God to bestow salvation and happiness on man in
such a way as tends most to promote his end in this respect, and, to stir
him up to a diligent use of his faculties and talents.
It becomes the wisdom of God so to order it, that things of great value
and importance should not be obtained without great labor and diligence.
Much human learning and great moral accomplishments are not to be obtained
without care and labor. It is wisely so ordered, in order to maintain in
man a due sense of the value of those things which are excellent. If great
things were in common easily obtained, it would have a tendency to cause
men to slight and undervalue them. Men commonly despise those things which
are cheap, and which are obtained without difficulty.
Although the work of obedience performed by men, be not necessary in order
to merit salvation; yet it is necessary in order to their being prepared
for it. Men cannot be prepared for salvation without seeking it in such
a way as hath been described. This is necessary in order that they have
a proper sense of their own necessities, and unworthiness; and in order
that they be prepared and disposed to prize salvation when bestowed, and
be properly thankful to God for it. The requisition of so great a work in
order to our salvation is no way inconsistent with the freedom of the offer
of salvation; as after all it is both offered and bestowed without any respect
to our work, as the price or meritorious cause of our salvation, as I have
already explained. Besides, salvation bestowed in this way is better for
us, more for our advantage and happiness both in this and the future world,
than if it were given without this requisition.
II. Proposition. This work or business, which must be done in order to the
salvation of men, is a great undertaking. It often appears so to men upon
whom it is urged. Utterly to break off from all their sins, and to give
up themselves forever to the business of religion, without making a reserve
of any one lust, submitting to and complying with every command of God,
in all cases, and persevering therein, appears to many so great a thing,
that they are in vain urged to undertake it. In so doing it seems to them,
that they should give up themselves to a perpetual bondage. The greater
part of men therefore choose to put it off, and keep it at as great a distance
as they can. They cannot bear to think of entering immediately on such a
hard service, and rather than do it, they will run the risk of eternal damnation,
by putting it off to an uncertain future opportunity.
Although the business of religion is far from really being as it appears
to such men, or the devil will be sure, if he can, to represent it in false
colors to sinners, and make it appear as black and as terrible as he can;
yet it is indeed a great business, a great undertaking, and it is fit that
all who are urged to it should count the cost beforehand, and be sensible
of the difficulty attending it. For though the devil discourages many from
this undertaking, by representing it to be more difficult than it really
is; yet with others he takes a contrary course and flatters them it is a
very easy thing, a trivial business, which may be done at any time when
they please, and so emboldens them to defer it from that consideration.
But let none conceive any other notion of that business of religion, which
is absolutely necessary to their salvation, than that it is a great undertaking.
It is so on the following accounts.
1. It is a business of great labor and care. There are many commands to
be obeyed, many duties to be done, duties to God, duties to our neighbor,
and duties, to ourselves. There is much opposition in the way of these duties
from without. There is a subtle and powerful adversary laying all manner
of blocks in the way. There are innumerable temptations of Satan to be resisted
and repelled. There is great opposition from the world, innumerable snares
laid, on every side, many rocks and mountains to be passed over, many streams
to be passed through, and many flatteries and enticements from a vain world
to be resisted. There is a great opposition from within; a dull and sluggish
heart, which is exceedingly averse from that activity in religion which
is necessary; a carnal heart, which is averse from religion and spiritual
exercises, and continually drawing the contrary way; and a proud and a deceitful
heart, in which corruption will be exerting itself in all manner of ways.
So that nothing can be done to any effect without a most strict and careful
watch, great labor and strife.
2. It is a constant in business.-In that business which requires great labor,
men love now and then to have a space of relaxation, that they may rest
from their extraordinary labor. But this is a business which must be followed
every day. Luke ix. 23, " If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me." We must never
give ourselves any relaxation from this business; it must be continually
prosecuted day after day. If sometimes we make a great stir and bustle concerning
religion, but then lay all aside to take our ease, and do so from time to
time, it will be of no good effect; we had even as good do nothing at all.
The business of religion so followed is never like to come to any good issue,
nor is the work ever like to be accomplished to any good purpose.
3. It is a great undertaking, as it is an undertaking of great expense.-We
must, therein sell all: we must follow this business at the expense of all
our unlawful pleasures and delights, at the expense of our carnal ease,
often at the expense of our substance, of our credit among men, the good
will of our neighbors, at the expense of all our earthly friends, and even
at the expense of life itself. Herein it is like Noah's undertaking to build
the ark, which, as hath been shown was a costly undertaking: it was expensive
to his reputation among men, exposing him to be the continual laughing-stock
of all his neighbors and of the whole world: and it was expensive to his
estate, and probably cost him all that he had.
4. Sometimes the fear, trouble, and exercise of mind, which are undergone
respecting this business, and the salvation of the soul, are great and long
continued, before any comfort is obtained. Sometimes persons in this situation
labor long in the dark, and sometimes, as it were, in the very fire, they
having great distress of conscience, great fears, and many perplexing temptations,
before they obtain light and comfort to make their care and labor more easy
to them. They sometimes earnestly, and for a long time, seek comfort, but
find it not, because they seek it not in a right manner, nor in the right
objects. God therefore hides his face. They cry, but God doth not answer
their prayers. They strive, but all seems in vain. They seem to themselves
not at all to get forward, or nearer to a deliverance from sin: but to go
backward, rather than forward. They see no glimmerings of light: things
rather appear darker and darker. Insomuch that they are often ready to be
discouraged, and to sink under the weight of their present distress, and
under the prospect of future misery. In this situation, and under these
views, some are almost driven to despair.
Many, after they have obtained some saving comfort, are again involved in
darkness and trouble. It is with them as it was with the Christian Hebrews,
Heb. x. 32, "After ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of
afflictions. Some through a melancholy habit and distemper of body, together
with Satan's temptations, spend a great part of their lives in distress
and darkness, even after they have had some saving comfort.
5. It is a business which, by reason of the many difficulties, snares, and
dangers that attend it, requires much instruction, consideration, and counsel.
There is no business wherein men stand in need of counsel more than in this.
It is a difficult undertaking, a hard matter to proceed aright in it. There
are ten thousand wrong ways, which men may take; there are many labyrinths
wherein many poor souls are entangled and never find the way out ; there
are many rocks on which thousands of souls have suffered shipwreck, for
want of, having steered aright.
Men of themselves know not how to proceed in this business, any more than
the children of Israel in the wilderness knew where to go without the guidance,
of the pillar of cloud and fire. There is great need that they search the
Scriptures, and give diligent heed to the instructions and directions contained
in them, as to a light shining in a dark place and that they ask counsel
of those skilled in these matters. And there is no business in which men
have so much need of seeking to God by prayer, for his counsel, and that
he would lead them in the right way, and show them the strait gate. "
For strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and
few there be that find it;" yea, there are none that find it without
direction from heaven.
The building of the ark was a work of great difficulty on this account,
that Noah's wisdom was not sufficient to direct him how to make such a building
as should be a sufficient security against such a flood, and which should
be a convenient dwelling-place for himself, his family, and all the various
kinds of beasts and birds, and creeping things. Nor could he ever have known
how to construct this building, had not God directed him.
6. This business never ends till life ends. They that undertake this laborious,
careful, expensive, self-denying business, must not expect to rest from
their labors, till death shall have put an end to them. The long continuance
of the work which Noah undertook was what especially made it a great undertaking.
This also was what made the travel of the children of Israel through the
wilderness appear so great to them, that it was continued for so long a
time. Their spirits failed, they were discouraged, and had not a heart to
go through with so great an undertaking.
But such is this business that it runs parallel with life, whether it be
longer or shorter. Although we should live to a great age, our race and
warfare will not be finished till death shall come. We must not expect that
an end will be put to our labor, and care, and strife, by any hope of a
good estate which we may obtain. Past attainments and past success will
not excuse us from what remains for the future, nor will they make future
constant labor and care unnecessary to our salvation.
III. Men should be willing to engage in and go through this business, however
great and difficult it may seem to them, seeing it is for their own salvation.
Because,
1. A deluge of wrath will surely come. The inhabitants of the old world
would not believe that there would come such a flood of waters upon the
earth as that of which Noah told them, though he told them often; neither
would they take any care to avoid the destruction. Yet such a deluge did
come; nothing of all those things of which Noah had forewarned them, failed.
So there will surely come a more dreadful deluge of divine wrath on this
wicked world. We are often forewarned of it in the Scriptures, and the world,
as then, doth not believe any such thing. Yet the threatening will as certainly
be accomplished, as the threatening denounced against the old world. A day
of wrath is coming; it will come at its appointed season; it will not tarry,
it
shall not be delayed one moment beyond its appointed time.
2. All such as do not seasonably undertake and go through the great work
mentioned will surely be swallowed up in this deluge. When the floods of
wrath shall come, they will universally overwhelm the wicked world: all
such as shall not have taken care to prepare an ark, will surely be swallowed
up in it; they will find no other way of escape. In vain shall salvation
be expected from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains; for the
flood shall be above the tops of all the mountains. Or if they shall hide
themselves in the caves and dens of the mountains, there the waters of the
flood will find them out, and there shall they miserably perish.
As those of the old world who were not in the ark perished, Gen. vii. 21,
23, so all who shall not have secured to themselves a place in the spiritual
ark of the gospel, shall perish much more miserably than the old world.
Doubtless the inhabitants of the old world had many contrivances to save
themselves. Some, we may suppose, ascended to the tops of their houses,
being driven out of one story to another, till at last they perished. Others
climbed to the tops of high towers; who yet were washed thence by the boisterous
waves of the rising flood. Some climbed to the tops of trees; others to
the tops of mountains, and especially of the highest mountains. But all
was in vain; the flood sooner or later swallowed them all up; only Noah
and his family, who had taken care to prepare an ark, remained alive.
So it will doubtless be at the end of the world, when Christ shall dome
to judge the world in righteousness. Some, when they shall look up and see
him coming in the clouds of heaven, shall hide themselves in closets, and
secret places in their houses. Others flying to the caves and dens of the
earth, shall attempt to hide themselves there. Others shall call upon the
rocks and mountains to fall on them, and cover them from the face of him
that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.-So it will be
after the sentence is pronounced, and wicked men see that terrible fire
coming, which is to burn this world forever, and which will be a deluge
of fire, and will burn the earth even to the bottoms of the mountains, and
to its very centre. Deut. xxxii. 22, "For a fire is kindled in mine
anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with
her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains." I
say, when the wicked shall, after the sentence, see this great fire beginning
to kindle, and to take hold of this earth; there will be many contrivances
devised by them to escape, some flying to caves and holes in the earth,
some hiding themselves in one place, and some in another. But let them hide
themselves where they will, or let them do what they will, it will be utterly
in vain. Every cave shall burn as an oven, the rocks and mountains shall
melt with fervent heat, and if they could creep down to the very centre
of the earth, still the heat would follow them, and rage with as much vehemence
there, as on the very surface.
So when wicked men, who neglect their great work in their lifetime, who
are not willing to go through the difficulty and labor of this work, draw
near to death, they sometimes do many things to escape death, and put forth
many endeavors to lengthen out their lives at least a little longer. For
this end, they send for physicians, and perhaps many are consulted, and
their prescriptions are punctually observed. They also use many endeavors
to save their souls from hell. They cry to God;. they confess their past
sins; they promise future reformation; and, Oh what would they not give
for some small addition to their lives, or some hope of future happiness!
But all proves in vain: God hath numbered their days and finished them;
and as they have sinned away the day of grace, they must even bear the consequence,
and forever lie down in sorrow.
3. The destruction, when it shall come, will be infinitely terrible. The
destruction of the old world by the flood was terrible; but that eternal
destruction which is coming on the wicked is infinitely more so. That flood
of waters was but an image of this awful flood of divine vengeance. When
the waters poured down, more like spouts or cataracts, or the fall of a
great river, than like rain; what an awful appearance was there of the wrath
of God! This however but an image of that terrible outpouring of the wrath
of God which shall be forever, yea forever and ever, on wicked men. And
when the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the waters burst
forth out of the ground though they had issued out of the womb (Job xxxviii.
8), this was an image of the mighty breakings forth of God's wrath, which
shall be, when the flood gates of wrath shall be drawn up. How may we suppose
that the wicked of the old world repented that they had not hearkened to
the warnings which Noah had given them, when they saw these dreadful things,
and saw that they must perish! How much more will you repent your refusing
to hearken to the gracious warnings of the gospel, when you shall see the
fire of God's wrath against you, pouring down from heaven, and bursting
on all sides out of bowels of the earth!
4. Though the work which is necessary in order to man's salvation be a great
work, yet it is not impossible. What was required of Noah, doubtless appeared
a very great and difficult undertaking. Yet he undertook it with resolution,
and he was carried through it. So if we undertake this work with the same
good will and resolution, we shall undoubtedly be successful. However difficult
it be, yet multitudes have gone through it, and have obtained salvation
by the means. It is not a work beyond the faculties of our nature, nor beyond
the opportunities which God giveth us. If men will but take warning, and
hearken to counsel, if they will but be sincere and in good earnest, be
seasonable in their work, take their opportunities, use their advantages
be steadfast, and not wavering; they shall not fail.
APPLICATION.
The use I would make of this doctrine, is to exhort all to undertake and
go through this great work, which they have to do in order to their salvation,
and this let the work seem ever so great and difficult. If your nature be
averse to it, and there seems to be very frightful things in the way, so
that your heart is ready to fail at the prospect; yet seriously consider
what has been said, and act a wise part. Seeing it is for yourselves, for
your own salvation; seeing it is for so great a salvation, for your deliverance
from eternal destruction; and seeing it is of such absolute necessity in
order to your salvation, that the deluge of divine wrath will come, and
there will be no escaping it without preparing an ark; is it not best for
you to undertake the work, engage in it with your might, and go through
it, though this cannot be done without great labor, care, and difficulty,
and expense?
I would by no means flatter you concerning this work, or go about to make
you believe, that you shall find an easy light business of it: no, I would
not have you expect any such thing. I would have you sit down and count
the cost; and if you cannot find it in your hearts to engage in a great,
hard, laborious, and expensive undertaking, and to persevere in it to the
end of life, pretend not to be religious. Indulge yourselves in your ease;
follow your pleasures; eat, drink, and be merry; even conclude to go to
hell in that way, and never make any more pretenses of seeking your salvation.
Here consider several things in particular.
1. How often you have been warned of the approaching flood of God's wrath.
How frequently you have been told of hell, heard the threatenings of the
word of God set before you, and been warned to flee from the wrath to come.
It is with you as it was with the inhabitants of the old world. Noah warned
them abundantly of the approaching flood, and counseled them to take care
for their safety, 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20. Noah warned them in words; and he
preached to them. He warned them also in his actions. His building the ark,
which took him so long a time, and in which he employed so many hands, was
a standing warning to them. All the blows of the hammer and axe, during
the progress of that building, were so many calls and warnings to the old
world, to take care for their preservation from the approaching destruction.
Every knock of the workmen was a knock of Jesus Christ at the door of their
hearts: but they would not hearken. All these warnings, though repeated
every day, and continued for so long a time, availed nothing.
Now, is it not much so with you, as it was with them? How often have you
been warned! How have you heard the warning knocks of the gospel, Sabbath
after Sabbath, for these many years! Yet how have some of you no more regarded
them than the inhabitants of the old world regarded the noise of the workmen's
tools in Noah's ark!
Objection. But here possibly it may be objected by some, that though it
be true they have often been told of hell, yet they never saw any thing
of it, and therefore they cannot realize it that there is any such place.
They have often heard of hell, and are told that wicked men, when they die,
go to a most dreadful place of torment; that hereafter there will be a day
of judgment, and that the world will be consumed by fire. But how do they
know that it is really so? How do they know what becomes of those wicked
men that die? None of them come back to tell them. They have nothing to
depend on but the word which they hear. And how do they know that all is
not a cunningly-devised fable?
Answer. The sinners of the old world had the very same objection against
what Noah told them of a flood about to drown the world. Yet the bare word
of God proved to be sufficient evidence that such a thing was coming. What
was the reason that none of the many millions then upon earth believed what
Noah said, but this, that it was a strange thing, that no such thing had
ever before been known? And what a strange story must that of Noah have
appeared to them, wherein he told them of a deluge of waters above the tops
of the mountains! Therefore it. is said, Heb. xi. 7, that "Noah was
warned of God of things not seen as yet." It is probable, none could
conceive how it could be that the whole world should be drowned in a flood
of waters; and all were ready to ask, where there was water enough for it;
and by what means it should be brought upon the earth. Noah did not tell
them how it should be brought to pass; he only told them that God had said
that it should be: and that proved to be enough. The event showed their
folly in not depending on the mere word of God, who was able, who knew how
to bring it to pass, and who could not lie.
In like manner the word of God will prove true, in threatening a flood of
eternal wrath to overwhelm all the wicked. You will believe it when the
event shall prove it, when it shall be too late to profit by the belief.
The word of God will never fail; nothing is so sure as that: heaven and
earth shall pass away, but the word of God shall not pass away. It is firmer
than mountains of brass. At the end, the vision will speak and not lie.
The decree shall bring forth, and all wicked men shall know that God is
the Lord, that he is a God of truth, and that they are fools who will not
depend on his word. The wicked of the old world counted Noah a fool for
depending so much on the word of God, as to put himself to all the fatigue
and expense of building the ark; but the event showed that they themselves
were the fools, and that he was wise.
2. Consider that the Spirit of God will not always strive with you; nor
will his long suffering always wait upon you. So God said concerning the
inhabitants of the old world, Gen. vi. 3 "My Spirit shall not always
strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be a hundred
and twenty years." All this while God was striving with them. It was
a day of grace with them, and God's long-suffering all this while waited
upon them: 1 Peter iii. 20, "Which sometime were disobedient, when
once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark
was a preparing." All this while they had an opportunity to escape,
if they would but hearken and believe God.
Even after the ark was finished, which seems to have been but little before
the flood came, still there was an opportunity; the door of the ark stood
open for some time. There was some time during which Noah was employed in
laying up stores in the ark. Even then it was not too late; the door of
the ark yet stood open.-About a week before the flood came, Noah was commanded
to begin to gather in the beasts and birds. During this last week still
the door of the ark stood open. But on the very day that the flood began
to come, while the rain was yet withheld, Noah and his wife, his three sons,
and their wives, went into the ark; and we are told, Gen. vii. 16, that
"God shut him in. Then the day of God's patience was past; the door
of the ark was shut; God himself, who shuts and no man opens, shut the door.
Then all hope of their escaping the flood was past; it was too late to repent
that they had not hearkened to Noah's warnings, and had not entered into
the ark while the door stood open.
After Noah and his family had entered into the ark, and God had shut them
in, after the windows of heaven were opened, and they saw how the waters
were poured down out of heaven, we may suppose that many of those who were
near came running to the door of the ark, knocking, and crying most piteously
for entrance. But it was too late; God himself had shut the door, and Noah
had no license, and probably no power, to open it. We may suppose, they
stood knocking and calling, Open to us, open to us; O let us in; we beg
that we may be let in. And probably some of them pleaded old acquaintance
with Noah; that they had always been his neighbors, and had even helped
him to build the ark. But all was in vain. There they stood till the waters
of the flood came, and without mercy swept them away from the door of the
ark.
So it will be with you, if you continue to refuse to hearken to the warnings
which are given you. Now God is striving with you; now he is warning you
of the approaching flood, and calling upon you Sabbath after Sabbath. Now
the door of the ark stands open. But God's Spirit will not always strive
with you; his long-suffering will not always wait upon you. There is an
appointed day of God's patience, which is as certainly limited as it was
to the old world.
God hath set your bounds, which you cannot pass. Though now warnings are
continued in plenty, yet there will be last knocks and last calls, the last
that ever you shall hear. When the appointed time shall be elapsed, God
will shut the door, and you shall never see it open again; for God shutteth,
and no man openeth.-If you improve not your opportunity before that time,
you will cry in vain, "Lord, Lord, open to us," Matt. xxv. 11,
and Luke xiii. 25, &c. While you shall stand at the door with your piteous
cries, the flood of God's wrath will come upon you, overwhelm you, and you
shall not escape. The tempest shall carry you away without mercy, and you
shall be forever swallowed up and lost.
3. Consider how mighty the billows of divine wrath will be when they shall
come. The waters of Noah's flood were very great. The deluge was vast; it
was very deep; the billows reached fifteen cubits above the highest mountains;
and it was an ocean which had no shore; signifying the greatness of that
wrath which is coming on wicked men in another world, which will be like
a mighty flood of waters overwhelming them, and rising vastly high over
their heads, with billows reaching to the very heavens. Those billows will
be higher and heavier than mountains on their poor souls. The wrath of God
will be an ocean without shores, as Noah's flood was: it will be misery
that will have no end.
The misery of the damned in hell can be better represented by nothing, than
by a deluge of misery, a mighty deluge of wrath, which will be ten thousand
times worse than a deluge of waters; for it will be a deluge of liquid fire,
as in the Scriptures it is called a lake of fire and brimstone.-At the end
of the world all the wicked shall be swallowed up in a vast deluge of fire,
which shall be as great and as mighty as Noah's deluge of water. See 2 Pet.
iii. 5, 6, 7. After that the wicked will have mighty billows of fire and
brimstone eternally rolling over their poor souls, and their miserable tormented
bodies. Those billows may be called vast liquid mountains of fire and brimstone.
And when one billow shall have gone over their heads, another shall follow,
without intermission, giving them no rest day nor night to all eternity.
4. This flood of wrath will probably come upon you suddenly, when you all
think little of it, and it shall seem far from you. So the flood came upon
the old world. See Matt. xxiv. 36, &c. Probably many of them were surprised
in the night by the waters bursting suddenly in at their doors, or under
the foundations of their houses, coming in upon them in their beds. For
when the fountains of the great deep were broken up, the waters, as observed
before, burst forth in mighty torrents. To such a sudden surprise of the
wicked of the old world in the night, probably that alludes in Job xxvii.
20, "Terrors take hold on him as waters; a tempest stealeth him away
in the night."
So destruction is wont to come on wicked men, who hear many warnings of
approaching destruction, and yet will not be influenced by them. For "he
that is often reproved, and hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed,
and that without remedy," Prov. xxix. 1. And "when they shall
say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail
upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape," 1 Thess. v. 3.
5. If you will not hearken to the many warnings which are given you of approaching
destruction, you will be guilty of more than brutish madness. The ox knoweth
his owner, and the ass his master's crib." They know upon whom they
are dependent, and whom they must obey, and act accordingly. But you, so
long as you neglect your own salvation, act as if you knew not God, your
Creator and Proprietor, nor your dependence upon him. The very
beasts, when they see signs of an approaching storm, will betake themselves
to their dens for shelter. Yet you, when abundantly warned of the approaching
storm of divine vengeance, will not fly to the hiding-place from the storm,
and the covert from the tempest. The sparrow, the swallow, and other birds,
when they are forewarned of approaching winter, will betake themselves to
a safer climate. Yet you who have been often forewarned of the piercing
blasts of divine wrath, will not, in order to escape them, enter into the
New Jerusalem, of most mild and salubrious air, though the gate stands wide
open to receive you. The very ants will be diligent in summer to lay up
for winter: yet you will do nothing to lay up in store a good foundation
against the time to come. Balaam's ass would not run upon a drawn sword,
though his master, for the sake of gain, would expose himself to the sword
of God's wrath; and so God made the dumb ass, both in words and actions,
to rebuke the madness of the prophet, 1 Pet. ii. 16. In like manner, you,
although you have been oft warned that the sword of God's wrath is drawn
against you, and will certainly be thrust through you, if you proceed in
your present course, still proceed, regardless of the consequence.
So God made the very beasts and birds of the old world to rebuke the madness
of the men of that day: for they, even all sorts of them, fled to the ark
while the door was yet open: which the men of that day refused to do; God
hereby, thus signifying, that their folly was greater than that of the very
brute creatures.-Such folly and madness are you guilty of; who refuse to
hearken to the warnings that are given you of the approaching flood of the
wrath of God.
You have been once more warned to-day, while the door of the ark yet stands
open. You have, as it were, once again heard the knocks of the hammer and
axe in the building of the ark, to put you in mind that a flood is approaching.
Take heed therefore that you do not still stop your ears, treat these warnings
with a regardless heart, and still neglect the great work which you have
to do lest the flood of wrath suddenly come upon you, sweep you away, and
there be no remedy.
Please visit our other web sites: The
Torments of Hell, The
Narrow Way, The Glory
of Heaven, The Terrors
of Hell, Suicide:
Gateway to Peace? and The
Pilgrim's Progress Primer. To read an account of several modern examples
of conversion similar to those described by Jonathan Edwards in A Faithful Narrative,
please see Great
Awakening Style Conversions.
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