world is shut out; to be able to say to all its cares, as said Nehemiah to those who vainly endeavoured to interrupt him, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease while I leave it, and come down to you?" *

* Nehemiah vi. 3.

HAPPY CONDITION OF OUR FIRST PARENTS.

GOD created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female, created he them. GENESIS i. 27.

THUS dignified and happy, our first parents were placed in the garden of Eden, with supreme dominion over all the joyous creatures by whom they were surrounded. One only rule was prescribed to these highly favoured beings as a perpetual evidence of their subordination; one only object was reserved and prohibited out of the universal grant; and this, though trivial in itself, was amply sufficient for the designed end. It was intended to prove, whether the beings who were thus bounteously endowed, acted with a due sense of their subjection, or whether they could ever be unmindful of their divine Benefactor. That slight and solitary privation was imposed upon the declared principle of retribution: "He who is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much." Under the easy trial, man failed, he was found unfaithful in a small matter, and was, therefore, driven out of that blissful land, which perfect obedience would have preserved to him: he fell, and with him fell the fair and beautiful creation, by which he was surrounded.

Sixteen hundred and fifty-six years passed away, and the principle of disobedience which our first parents introduced, gradually ripened into the fulness of crime, and spread its destructive influence through all classes of society, with the exception of one family. Till at length, the Most High, saw" that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

"And the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord; and God said unto him, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth." Genesis v. 5, 7, 8, 13.

Very remarkable is the testimony of St. Peter, who, adverting in his second epistle to the catastrophe of the deluge, expressly affirms, "that the world which then was, being overflowed with water, perished." iii. 6, 7. To the world which then was, he opposes the world that now is; and he proceeds to declare that the present earth is reserved unto fire, as the past one, "being overflowed with water, perished." He thus enables us to judge the extent of the former destruction, by affirming the destruction of both to be equal, and, therefore, rendering them rules for mutually explaining one the other.

We have also another, and still more ancient testimony to the same fact, in the book of Job; that exquisite book, concerning which, Bishop Patrick remarks, that its grandeur is as far superior to all other poetry, as thunder is louder than a whisper.

"Hast thou marked the old way, which wicked men

have trod, who were cut down, out of time, whose foundation was overthrown with a flood." Job xxii. 16.

The Greek interpreters, in varying the import of this remarkable passage, increase its force, for thus they render it :

"Their foundations are become an overwhelming flood." The author of the book of Job, therefore, affirms, that the waters of the flood destroyed not only the wicked race, but also the foundation of the dwelling on which they had existed. The same ancient record adverts pointedly, in another place, to the two vast operations, by which the Most High first made dry the earth, and then submerged it. Speaking of the irresistible power of the Almighty, he appeals to facts :

"Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up, also, he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth." Job xii. 15.

But if that portion of the earth on which Cain and Abel, Methuselah, and Lamech, with the successive generations from Adam to Noah, passed the time of their probation perished, indeed, according to the menace of the Lord, what was that second earth, upon which the ark rested by his providence, and on which the race of men have subsisted till the present day? From whence did it acquire its origin ?

We have reason to believe that a violent disruption of the solid surface, produced at first a bed, into which the waters were drained off, while the remainder of the earth was as suddenly clothed with vegetation, and peopled with innumerable living creatures. That portion, which was then so clothed and peopled, was now in its turn, to sink and disappear. The same commanding word which caused the first disruption, now depressed that portion below the

level of the first sea bason, and thus the waters flowing into a still lower level, left their bed exposed and dry, and caused it to become an habitable earth. Philosophy enjoins us to refer similar effects to similar causes; and since the sacred record, contains nothing that is opposed to the application of this principle in the present instance, we must believe that the production of a second earth was effected by means exactly corresponding to those which had given origin to the first earth.

Vast causes were put in action, and vast effects produced, the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, phrases which plainly imply the inroad of the sea upon the land, and the descent of heavy rains.

By the continual action of these tremendous agents thus employed by the Most High, his awful purpose was at length fully effected. Every living thing was swept away, excepting the very few that were saved in the ark. Meanwhile that ark and its inhabitants were safely upheld amid the warring elements, and rested at length upon the mountains, which after the waters had subsided, were denominated Ararat, in the regions of Armenia.

Many months had elapsed since Noah and his family went into the ark, attended by all the living creatures whom the Lord inclined to follow them; since he left a mocking and rejoicing world, and looked out upon an earth, that exhibited no trace of man.

"And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: "And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

"Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;