but from all sorrow and suffering, and from all the other effects of sin, intellectually and spiritually, morally and bodily in the world to come. In short, thus we are impressively taught, that it is only by being in Christ through faith that we can be in a state of security or safety; that He is the Refuge from that storm, and the Covert from that tempest of wrath to which we are all exposed as "children of disobedience; " that He is the Rock to which we may flee, and the High Tower to which we may resort, and at once be secure against all danger and become inconceivably happy. Thus, too, we are unequivocally taught that not in the life to come, but only in that which now is, can we expect to hear Christ preach the Gospel of salvation; and that in no prison or purgatory of man's devising can we hope to be purified, or made fit for heaven, any more than to hear addressed to us the message of reconciliation.

Noah, indeed, was not, any more than any other type of Christ, perfect; yet, upon the whole, he was "upright in his generation." Jesus Christ, however, the Divine man, was absolutely perfect, and that, not merely in the sight of men, but of the Omniscient One. While Noah, also, was "a preacher of righteousness" in his day, Jesus Christ was, in the highest sense, the Prince of Preachers, as well as of Peace, when He tabernacled upon earth-His enemies themselves being constrained to confess, never man spake like this man.' Just, likewise, as Noah, during the building of the Ark, was no doubt the object of reproach and scoffing, so, Jesus Christ, during His Public Ministry, was the object of ridicule and contempt; and, in a sense infinitely higher than any other, He could say, "the reproaches of them that reproached Thee have fallen upon me." As all, too, that Noah did was according to Divine appointment,

66

with a view “to the saving of his house," so Jesus Christ, in order to be the Saviour of His "Body" the Church, acted in all things as the Father commanded-never doing His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him; fulfilling every precept of the law in His life, and enduring its utmost penalty in His death. In like manner, just as Noah could not have saved himself or his family unless he had, in all things, obeyed the Divine will as revealed to him, so, unless Jesus had in all things fulfilled the will of the Father, He could not have saved any of the human racenot to speak of Himself who was absolutely sinless.

True as all this is, it is no less undeniable, that, in the destruction, bodily and temporal, of the antediluvians who disbelieved Noah, and rejected the Ark as the means of preservation, we have a type, as striking, of the spiritual and eternal misery which shall assuredly overtake all who now reject Christ, and the means of salvation provided through Him. Plain and express declarations of Scripture to this effect, almost countless, might be adduced. Thus, in the Old Testament, while Christ, as the Wisdom of God, is represented as "crying in the chief place cf concourse, in the openings of the gates, and in the streets," and saying, "Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out My Spirit upon you, I will make known My words to you," He adds, "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you: then shall they

call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but not find Me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of My counsel; they despised all My reproof: therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own ways, and be filled with their own devices." Again, in the New Testament, while we read that" whosoever believeth on the Son shall not perish, but have everlasting life," we are assured that "he who believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him ;" and, also, that "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ;" and that all such shall be" punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. 994

Simple, then, as the words are in reference to the Ark, "wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water," how significant are they antitypically?—and especially, when we remember that, although in some ages, few are saved, the redeemed shall yet constitute a multitude which no man can number." At all times, indeed, not few but many may be saved through the sovereign grace of God; but, like the antediluvians who would not believe Noah, or what he preached concerning the Literal Ark, as a place of security from the impending Deluge, too many act similarly in regard to Christ our Spiritual Ark, and the means of Divine appointment by which they may escape "the wrath to come." But, blessed be God, that, while the command to all of us still is, "repent and believe the Gospel," He is willing and ready to work in us, by the Spirit of His Son, "all the good

* Prov. i. 23-31; John iii. 16-36; 2nd Thess. i. 7-9.

pleasure of His goodness, especially the work of faith with power;" and, likewise, that while He has "set before us an open door," we may all enter through Christ, and find, in His Father's House, room enough, and bread enough, and to spare.

SECTION IV.

Objections to the preceding interpretation of "Christ put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit," stated and refuted.

Not to embarrass or encumber the Scriptural Exposition of the different clauses of the passage now considered, but to render it as simple and as easily understood as possible, we have introduced into the preceding pages only such critical remarks as could not be avoided. Now, however, we shall look more critically and closely into the meaning and application of the more difficult terms and disputed expressions employed in the Original; and while supporting the interpretation of the same already advanced, and refuting such objections as may be urged against it, we shall endeavour to expose the unscriptural and erroneous nature of other interpretations which have been given of the different parts of the subject. In other words-and yet we do not mean to write offensively towards any, far less towards a beloved Christian Brother -the subject under consideration has hitherto been treated, so far as possible, in such a manner as to form at once "milk for babes," and a little "strong meat for those who are of full age; "-and this, as with "the manna" of old in a literal sense, is ever characteristic, more or less, of all Scripture, and of all true exposition of Scripture, even when set forth in a monosyllabic mode, as in the beginning of the Gospel according to John. Now, however, passing, in a sense, from "the milk" and from those for whom such nutriment only is adapted, we shall, more particularly, deal with "the meat," so far as a little Biblical Criticism is concerned, and with those who, in too many instances,