ledged of God, and is exalted above all created authority, whether human or angelic. His blood, therefore, is fully adequate to purge the conscience from guilt and pollution, and to bless with undoubting confidence in the presence of God.

The establishment of the covenant of God with Noah was confirmed, then, by a special sign: "With thee," says God, "will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark." And the salvation of him and his family there, according to the promise of Heaven, would serve to confirm his faith in the promise of a far greater deliverance. There is an evident fitness in the appointment of a sign so strikingly expressive of the salvation of the gospel, at the time when a far more fearful display was afforded of the judgment of God against sin, than had ever before been exhibited. And the covenant established with him, and with all flesh after the flood, would direct him forward to that blessed covenant, which, in the fulness of time, should be fully established through the promised seed of the woman. To the former covenant God directed the attention of his people, when he said, "Thus saith the Lord, if ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season,-then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, my ministers," Jer. xxxiii. 20, 21. As surely as the promise to Noah, that, while the earth remaineth, day and night shall not cease, Gen. viii. 22,-so surely shall the promise to David,

that in the Messiah who is to descend from his loins, his kingdom should be perpetuated; and also the promise, that an everlasting priest should be raised up, as the antitype of the house of Levi, be faithfully fulfilled.

Speaking of the throne of Christ, God says, "It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in Heaven," Psalm lxxxix. 37. This last expression refers to the rainbow, as a faithful witness in Heaven of the immutable truth of the divine word, and of the infallible accomplishment of the promises of mercy to a guilty world. The same emblem which is the pledge of Heaven that the flood shall never be repeated, is exhibited as a pledge that the promise of God to perpetuate the kingdom of David in the throne of his Son and his Lord, shall be assuredly fulfilled.

The glorious personage who announced to John, that the judgment of Antichrist was at hand, was "clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was, as it were, the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire," Rev. x. 1. Now, the ruin of Antichrist, like the destruction of Jerusalem, is used as an emblem of the final ruin of the wicked. Each of them is considered as a day of judgment in miniature; and hence, the same language is often applied to them that is applied to the tremendous scenes of the last day; and hence, too, there are the most abrupt transitions made from the one to the other. In the last great day when Christ shall come in the clouds of Heaven, a rainbow, as it were, shall be upon his head, as the token of peace

and of covenant mercy to his people. Amid all the evils which shall then come upon the wicked, his redeemed shall be safe. When fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him, then shall he call to the heavens and to the earth, that he may judge his people. And then shall he gather together all who have solemnized his covenant by sacrifice, and bless them with eternal life. Psalm 1. 3-5. And when "the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place," then, even then, shall they who have built their hope on the foundation which was laid in Zion, feel perfectly tranquil, and shall even triumph in a sense of complete security, Isaiah xxviii. 16, 17.

It is evident that the covenant established with Noah consisted of free promises, and was by no means of the nature of a contract, or a covenant of mutual stipulation; and as it was designed to illustrate the nature of the everlasting covenant, the latter must correspond with it. There was connected, however, with the promises, a particular system of appointments, in the observance of which the blessings promised were to be enjoyed. We have already seen this in the history of our first parents, and in that of Abel's offering. It appears, too, in what is said of Enoch, when we are told that he pleased, or walked with God; for to walk with, or before God, includes a life of holy fellowship with him, in the observance of his instituted ordinances, in the enjoyment of his gracious favour, and in habitual obedience to all his commandments, Gen.

xlviii. 15; 1 Kings iii. 6-14; v. 12, and viii. 23. Now, we are told that, before the flood, "Noah walked with God," Gen. vi. 9; and if before the flood he thus pleased God, so after it he must have been called to worship him in a way adapted to his new circumstances, though substantially the same with that which from the beginning had been the appointed medium of fellowship with Heaven.

As Noah was to be the founder of a new world, the covenant, of course, embraced his seed, as well as himself. Among them, however, there was to be a distinction, as is intimated in the prophetic language of the patriarch, in Gen. ix. 26, 27, which some render thus: "Blessed of Jehovah, my God, shall Shem be; yea, among the tents of Shem shall he dwell; and to Shem shall Canaan be a servant. God shall greatly enlarge Japheth, and to him, also, shall Canaan be a servant." God accordingly dwelt in the tents of Shem, when he took up his abode, first in the tabernacle, and then in the temple of the Israelites. But now, the God of the whole earth is he called, Isaiah liv. 5. God hath been manifested in the flesh, and the blessing of Shem has come upon Japheth, and even on the descendants of Ham; for the Saviour dwells in all the churches of the saints, and in him there is neither Jew nor Greek, and neither bond nor free, Gal. iii. 28; Isaiah xix. 23-25. The chief reason why the circumstances that preceded this prophecy were recorded, was to show in what way the primeval promise of the seed of the woman should be continued and fulfilled, and to give a brief view of the.

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history of mankind so far as it bore on the accomplishment of the promise. Immediate ends were no doubt answered in relation to Noah and his sons, -for it is the manner of God to accomplish many ends by the same means, but the principal object was to develope more clearly the original revelation of mercy. And on this the mind of Noah delighted to dwell. While he felt himself corrected as a parent, it must have gladdened his heart to be told more clearly of the character of the Saviour. The first promise of mercy relates chiefly to the human nature, and the sufferings of the great Deliverer of man; but the prophetic language of Noah chiefly respects his divine nature and glory.

SECTION IV.

OF THE COVENANT ESTABLISHED WITH ABRAHAM.

WE have already seen that the covenant established with Abraham consisted of free promises. Twice had the inefficacy of the means hitherto employed to preserve the knowledge of Divine revelation been signally manifested: it had been so in the antediluvian world, in which the spirit of impiety was soon widely diffused; and it was again so in the postdiluvian world. Then a different plan was adopted.

When, notwithstanding the solemn warning against sin afforded by the flood, the knowledge of God was a second time in a great measure lost, it seemed