and grievous perversity of the men of that age, Jehovah declared, "my Spirit shall not always strive with man," He also added, "yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." On this

account, we are warranted to conclude that the number of years thus named was at once the length of the respite granted to the antediluvians, and also of the period during which the Ark was a building. This twofold conclusion we are fully authorized to draw, because in immediate connection with the corruption which Jehovah beheld on the earth, and which led Him to adopt the language now quoted, we find at once the command addressed to Noah," make thee an Ark of gopherwood," and also the curse threatened, "behold, I will destroy all flesh with the earth."

If, then, this was the case-and we have no ground for concluding otherwise-that period was not a short one. No doubt it was short, in comparison with the protracted lives which men in general then lived-the shortest, in the Scripture Record, being that of Enoch, who lived three hundred and sixty-five years, and the longest that of Methuselah, nine hundred and sixty-nine; and the average upwards of six hundred years. Still, one hundred and twenty years was a season of long respite even to the worst, and a season of long forbearance on the part of Jehovah. For now, what would the worst of sinners, or criminals, not give for a respite of one hundred and twenty days, were sentence of death passed against them, and suspended over their heads? What, in such circumstances, would they not cheerfully give for a respite the half of that duration; and that, in a literal prison the most dismal and loathsome? But, nothing less than one hundred and twenty yearsa period of four generations according to the present average of human life-did Jehovah kindly grant

to the co-temporaries of Noah. During this time, likewise, all of them would undoubtedly hear of the building of the Ark, according to the Divine plan and the Divine appointment, if they did not personally behold it gradually advancing towards completion, and, in one way or other, render assistance for this purpose.

However, notwithstanding all that the antediluvians heard and saw, in connection with the construction of the Ark; notwithstanding, also, all that Noah, as "a Preacher of righteousness," declared, in the name of Jehovah, in accents of admonition and warning, kindness and love, no less than in terms of entreaty and importunity, threatening and denunciation, still, all of them continued disobedient and disbelieving; still, they turned a deaf ear to the words of kindness which he uttered, and rejected the message of mercy which he proclaimed. So it appears to have been with them all, without exception, from the first to the last day of the one hundred and twenty years. Hence we read, that, with the exception of those who were with Noah in the Ark, "all flesh died all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, every

man.

d;

Such, generally and particularly, being the period, in the history of the world and of the Church, during which "the long-suffering of God once waited," we are warranted to assert-altogether independently of the explanation already given of "the spirits in prison, who were sometime disobedient"-that the language of the passage before us cannot be extended to persons living at any other time or in any other circumstances, under the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, or the Christian Dispensations. On the contrary, it must be restricted to persons who lived in the time of Noah while

* Gen. vii. 22.

E

the Ark was a building; and not merely so, but ultimately to the very small number shut up with the Patriarch in the Ark, and therefore not in a disembodied but in an embodied state.

6.-The persons preserved in the Ark; their number and the description here given of them.

Of the persons preserved in the Ark it is predicated, "wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved." These words are so plain and simple that they require little or no explanation. To the same effect, we read in the Old Testament, that "Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the Ark." However, between these two statements there exists this grand difference-that, while the one in Genesis, looked at by itself, is general, and may justly be regarded as referring to everything in the Ark which possessed life, the other in Peter is particular, and indisputably refers only to "Noah and his sons, to his wife and his sons' wives;" eight in all.

This express Divine declaration strictly harmonizes with what we have just stated; namely, that not all the antediluvians who lived while the Ark was a constructing, but only some of their .number, must ultimately be intended by those here characterized as "sometime disobedient," or disbelieving; and, also, that these same once "disobedient " persons were "the spirits in prison,' or under protection in the Ark. In short, "the spirits in prison " and "souls in the Ark"-seven of them at least-are not only analogous but epexegetical expressions; the latter being explanatory of the former. Consequently, as in the latter the term "souls" is, beyond all contradiction, applied to the persons referred to, it is surpassingly strange, that not a single Interpreter, either remotely or recently, has, so far as we are aware,

ever beheld in these two clauses the solution of this crucial passage ;-the term "souls," significant of persons, corresponding to the term 'spirits;" and the term "Ark" at once the counterpart and explanation of the term "Prison."

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More particularly, here it is to be noticed, that these eight persons are called "souls;" a term which, we have seen, is often used in Scripture to designate persons, not in a disembodied but in an embodied state; not spiritually out of the body, but spiritually in the body; and therefore denoting, as we have already shewn, "the spirits in prison;" the persons to whom Christ preached by the instrumentality of Noah, no less than by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; and who, although sometime disobedient," or disbelieving, became, as this language obviously implies, obedient, as well as believing, through the preaching which they there and then enjoyed.

Besides these eight, that any other of the antediluvians, even the last "strong swimmer in his agony" became, with his dying breath, believing and obedient, we have no Divine authority for concluding. At the same time, neither them nor any others, after having departed this life, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, heathen or civilized, favoured or not favoured with the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, would we presume to judge in regard to their eternal condition. So far from that, we would ever, in charity as well as in duty bound, leave all implicitly in the hands of Him who is the Judge of the whole earth, and who will not, and cannot do but what is right, and yet, who always tempers justice with mercy. The more readily, also, would we ever refrain from judging any, because we are assured that "God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance;" and because those who pos

only the light of reason shall be " a law unto themselves;" by which law, also, they shall be judged according to their diversified circumstances.

7.—The few in the Ark were "saved by water.”

But again, the "eight souls," or persons, “in the Ark are here represented as having been "saved by water." That is to say, the 66 water," which was the means of the bodily destruction of others, was, in connection with the Ark, the means of their bodily preservation. That same water, however, which proved destructive to so many, might, along with the Ark, have become the means of preserving all such, no less than the few who were temporally confined within its "wooden walls." Or, rather we may say, had they all repented and turned from their wickedness to Jehovah, neither the water would have been poured out as it was, nor the Ark employed for the purpose for which it was constructed, and for which, contrary to Jehovah's wishes, it was brought into use. However, just because all, with the exception of those immediately related to Noah, disbelieved, as well as disobeyed, the divinely commissioned "Preacher of righteousness," all of them perished-bodily and temporally at least, not to speak of them spiritually and eternally.

In Noah, then, who was a Preacher of Divine providing, and in the Ark which was a place of protection of Divine planning, and in which he and all his family were preserved bodily, justly may we be said to have a striking type of Jesus Christ, through whom, and of the means of grace by which, all of us may be saved spiritually;-saved not from a deluge of water, but from the lake of fire and brimstone; saved not from bodily and temporal death, but from spiritual and eternal death; saved not from sorrow and suffering in this world,