have been violated if he had smitten | bring a flood, for the imaginations twice. There are truths far more striking to be examined under the second question. We propose to seek an answer to the enquiry, WHETHER LONG SUFFERING CAN PRODUCE THE SAME RESULTS AS PUNISHING. And this, after all, is the question most forcibly presented in our text. Whether GOD smites, or whether he spares, we know he must have the same objects in view the promotion of his own glory and the well being of the universe. If, then, we find him at one time determining to smite, and at another, when the amount of provocation is the same, determining to spare, we cannot but admit that the ends which were in the first instance promoted by punishing, in the second instance were promoted equally by long suffering. If we hear GOD saying, "I will curse the ground, for the imaginations of men are evil," and then, “I will not again curse the ground, for the imaginations of men are evil" are we to suppose that GOD has altered his purposes; or that, like one of ourselves, he gives up one plan as ineffectual, and then resolves to make trial of another? We are certain that such a supposition would be altogether erroneous. If God had been nothing more than an earthly sovereign, he might have tried punishment, and then, when he found the evil undiminished, resolved to try sparing; but we cannot ascribe to GOD the making an experiment for the sake of ascertaining a result. He knows the end from the beginning; and he did not therefore try sparing because smiting was ineffectual. When he smote he knew it would not be advantageous to spare, and when he smote he equally knew it would not be advantageous to smite. So that when GoD said, "I will of men are evil," he must have seen that this evil would be best opposed by the deluge; and when he said, “I will not bring a flood, for the imaginations of men are evil," he must have seen that this evil would be best opposed by his binding up the waters, But how comes it, then, to pass that it was best at one time to smite, and at another time to spare? We have given a reason for one deluge, which could not be given for a second. The lesson of the deluge was to be spread over the whole surface of time; and thus the one act of punishment was to have its effect throughout the season of long suffering. Had GoD not smitten once, man might have abused his long suffering, construing it into a proof that he concerned not himself with what was done upon the earth; but when once he had interfered, he demonstrated to the men of every generation that he is a GoD that will take vengeance; and then he might go on to exercise long suffering, and yet leave mankind inexcusable if they presumed on it for liberty to transgress with impunity. Thus it might not have been well to have spared the first, since men might have been encouraged in false hope; but when once the lesson against evil had been given, we may easily understand that ever after it might be best to spare, seeing that men might be led by long suffering to repentance. So that there is nothing unintelligible in the fact, that GOD should resolve to spare on the very account on which he had resolved to punish. Punishment was a necessary preliminary to long suffering, to prevent the abuse of long suffering. GOD is only taking consecutive steps in one and the same design; and if we are right in saying that punishment was necessarily preliminary to long suffering, then even a child can perceive that GOD was only acting out the same arrangement when he said, "I will not spare," and when he said, "I will spare, for the imagination of man's heart is evil." But was it, then, by long suffering that GOD intended from the first to withstand, and ultimately to win the mastery over evil? We all know that with the earliest moment of human apostacy had come into force the work of the atonement. It was only because our Creator, beholding the things that were not as though they were, saw a curse arise on the earth as soon as fallen angels had seduced man, that he prolonged the race; and you may readily perceive from the expression of the text, that in determining not again to curse, but to exercise long suffering, GOD had respect to the propitiation of the Mediator. The Lord saying in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground," is represented as a consequence of the Lord's smelling a sweet savour; and if Noah's offering was acceptable because typical of Christ, it equally shows that long suffering was exercised only because the Mediator had covenanted to die. And who is there of you that can question, seeing that the determination not to curse was thus based on the appointment that Christ Jesus should atone,-who will question that GOD was taking the most effectual method of opposing evil when he was resolved to exercise long suffering? "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." It is as though he said, "I might send flood after flood, and leave again only an insignificant fraction of the population; but the evil lies deep in the heart, and would not be swept away by the immensity of waters. I might deal with succeeding generations as I have with this very one; and as soon as the earth sent up new harvests of wickedness, I might come forth, and put in the scythe of my vengeance; but after all there would be no renovation, and evil would still be predominant in this section of the creation. There fore I will be long suffering; nothing but long suffering can effect my purpose, for nothing but an atonement can reconcile the fallen; and long suffering is nothing but the atonement anticipated. I will not, then, again curse the ground, for man's imaginations are evil. I will not curse-the evil will not be grappled with by the curse-the evil would not go away before the curse. If the evil were not in the very heart, it might be eradicated by judgment; if it were not engraven into the very bone and sinew and spirit, it might be washed out by the torrent; and I would again curse. But it is an evil for which there must be expiation; it is an evil which can only be done away by sacrifice, it is an evil which can only be exterminated by the entering in of Deity into that nature." And this was presupposing, while at the same time it rendered possible, the exercise of long suffering. Therefore I shall be long suffering on account of the greatness of the evil :" in other words, "I will not again any more curse the ground for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." 66 It is thus, that, so far as we can judge, without overstraining the passage, the corruption of human nature will furnish a reason why there was no repetition of the deluge. God's object was not to destroy, but to reconcile the world: and the reconciliation could not be effected by judgments; the machinery must be made up of mercies. Judgments he marshals the elements, and directs the artillery of his wrath against the bold ones who defy him. But if, with all the apparatus of vengeance at his disposal, ready to crush into powder all who scorn his commands, he should abstain from interference, and entreat instead of destroying, wooing to blessedness instead of consigning to despair-oh, this it is which most outruns all human calculation: and though I might well understand the appointment of a dispensation under which every action should be immediately recompensed, I am confounded by the unaccountable fact, that blasphemy may be uttered, and the ground not cleave asunder, and Jehovah be insulted, and no lightning punish the impiety. might make way for mercies, but they could not do the work of mercies. Punishment was preliminary to sparing, but punishment continued would not have effected the object of the Almighty. So that long suffering was the only engine by which the machinery could be mastered. The whole of Christ's work was gathered, so to speak, into long suffering; GOD could bear with men only because Jesus had covenanted to bear their sins and if you could easily understand such a saying as this-"I will give my Son to die for men, because their imaginations are evil;" if you could simply have received it as an announcement, that the exigencies were so great, that nothing but the sacrifice of God's Son will suffice, and that God's mercy is so great that not even this amazing gift should be withheld; then you would understand the statement of the text for when GOD, smelling a sweet savour, declared he would be long suffering, he was virtually declaring that Christ should be sacrificed, and that the sacrifice should be acceptable: and when he gave this reason, he did but say that nothing short of the atonement had overpowered evil; he did but say, "My Son shall die," when he said, "I will not again curse the ground any more; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." Now, we suppose it to be unnecessary to prove what we have assumed, that to be long suffering is perhaps the greatest outputting of the energies of the Almighty. Gop shows himself wonderful and tremendous when, with the thunderbolt in his grasp, and with the scythe of the pestilence on his chariot wheels, he rides the circuits of his shrieking creation. It is quite true that he is awfully great when And if you examine with any carefulness, you must perceive, that longsuffering on the part of GOD pre-supposes arrangement for the pardon of the guilty. It may well be an incomprehensible thing that God should bear long with the rebellious, seeing that, unless there were an after surety for man, we cannot suppose such long suffering possible. But there could have been no room for repentance, and therefore no place for long suffering, had not the second person in the Trinity undertaken the suretiship; and if the work of mediation be that stupendous exploit which shall employ, and yet baffle, the noble powers with which the children of the resurrection shall be endowed-shall it not be confessed that the long suffering which takes for granted this work overpasses immeasurably all our present conceptions, so that in sparing GOD is infinitely more amazing, infinitely further removed from the comprehension of the creature, than when he bears his arm, or breathes in the blast, or loosens the torrent? What then was GOD doing doubt not that long suffering had been exercised from the first; those who perished by the flood had been its subjects, and it was not till after a lengthened sparing that they were given over to destruction. So that, although, as we have explained, punishment was inflicted in order that long suffering might not be abused, the world before the flood had the same advantages as the world after the flood; and there was nothing in this alteration of dealing which can at all give countenance to the idea, that there is respect of persons with GOD. but declaring that he would bring the mightiest engines of all as an antagonist to human corruption, when he declared that he would exercise long suffering, and not again curse the ground for man's sake, seeing that punishment had not mastered his corruption? A flood had rolled on the earth, but the imaginations of men's hearts were as evil as before; and therefore the evil was too great for wrath. It required still a stronger and more athletic opponent; it required long suffering, every heave of which must be wrung out by a Mediator's anguish, and every breath drawn out by a Mediator's endurance. And if GOD resolved to oppose the evil by long suffering as well as by punishment, might he not give the greatness of the evil as a reason for employing such an instrument, and therefore declare-though at first it sound strange that he should smite and spare upon the same principle—the same reason for not cursing as he declare, "I will not again curse the ground; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth?" Now we would hope that these remarks have all gone to the proving, that, in substituting long suffering for punishing, GOD was carrying on the same purpose; so that with perfect correctness, he may assign the same reason for sparing as for punishing. He sent not one flood because the imaginations of man's heart were evil, and he wished to oppose and overcome that evil: why did he not send a second flood? Because the imaginations of man's heart were evil, and the repetition of the deluge was not the best means of opposing that evil. Is it not then clear that he might give the corruption of man as the cause of cursing, and the cause of not cursing, and yet the reason for both be that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth? We It has thus been our endeavour to illustrate a passage which has always seemed to us difficult and obscure. We are sure that, if you look into the point, you will henceforward consider it worthy of attention-there being much which is startling in the fact, that GOD should give exactly had given before for cursing: and if you carry away any hints that may assist you in examining this matter, we shall be satisfied of the propriety of making it the subject of discourse, and think nothing of the labour connected with the present address. But who can give himself to an inquiry which has to do with the cause or reason of the deluge, and not feel his attention drawn to the typical character of that tremendous event? The history of the world before the flood is nothing but the epitome of the history of the world up to that grand consummation, the second coming of the Lord. And if we wanted additional reasons why one deluge should be sent and not a second, we might find it in the fact that all the affairs of time shall be wound up by a single visitation. The antediluvian world had been dealt with by the machinery of the most exten sive loving kindness: the Almighty | But as the time of the end draws had long borne with the wickedness near, the warning will grow louder, of the earth; and it was not till every and the entreaty more urgent, that overture had been despised that he all men put away their wickedness, allowed himself to strike. Noah was and prepare themselves for meeting preacher of righteousness, and their Judge. Alas! we know that through many years did he lift up his the scoffers will be asking, "Where voice; and while he laboured at the is the promise of his coming?" They ark there was not a blow of his ham- will be arguing from the apparent mer which served not as a sermon, fixedness of nature, the impossibility and which spoke not in the language of divine interference. And it shall of entreaty and warning to the reck- come to pass, as with the world before less and desperate, But all availed the flood, that men shall at last be nothing—none turned to the Lord; taken by surprise; and whilst the when the ark was completed, infidelity sun walks his usual path in the firmaand impiety were at their height; ment, and the grass is springing up and just as though there had been no in our fields, and merchants are notice of the imminent danger, the in- crowding the exchange, and politihabitants of this earth ate and drank, cians jostling for place, and the they married and were given in mar- voluptuous killing time, and the avariage; and the flood broke in while ricious counting gold, the signs of they revelled at the banquet and led the coming of the Son of Man shall in the dance; and the multitude who be seen in the heavens, and ten thouhad derided the work, and who had sand voices heard calling to judgment. perhaps tauntingly asked whether that fair blue sky was charged with cataracts, heard the roar and the rush of the torrent of waters; and the shrieking, marrying and giving in marriage, took the place of the song; and every sound was lost in the splashing of the torrent, save now and then the bubbling cry of an athletic swimmer, as he struggled in the agonies of death. Hear what Jesus himself declares: "For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drink and until the day that Noah 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." Oh, sirs, that ye were wise, Shall it not be thus with the world that ye would consider these things! of the unrighteous? Wonderful has GOD wisheth not to curse, he will not been the long suffering of the Al- again curse the ground: he wishes mighty and as there has gone on the to bless every one of you. The door building of the ark-as the church of of the ark stands open: Christ is that Christ has been gathered and ce- door: who will enter? will you? or mented and enlarged, the voice and you? or you? Are there no droppings entreaties of ministers and mission- which seem to forebode the storm aries, have circulated through Chris- time? Hear you nothing of that deep tianity; and the despiser has been rustling of the trees which tells the continually told, sternly, and re- gathering of the tempest? And when proachfully, and affectionately, that you see the ark door closed, what, a day will yet burst upon the creation think you, would you give for adwhen all who are not included in the mission-you, the man who shut himark, shall be tossed on the surges and self out for a few hundred Consolsburied in the depths of a fiery sea. | you, the youth who would not enter |