did much enhance his righteousness. The world's wickedness was a foil to Noah's godliness, which did thereby, like a diamond set in jet, appear the more illustrious. And this he got by it, that he that was good when all the world was bad, was saved when all the world was drowned. Note. Those that keep themselves pure in times of common iniquity, God will keep safe in times of common calamity. Those that will not partake with others in their sins, shall not partake with them in their plagues. Singular piety shall be rewarded with singular salvation.

2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

As in the creation, though man was the chief, the head of it, yet other creatures also were, by the same Almighty hand, fearfully and wonderfully made; so in this great preservation, though it was the preservation of mankind that was principally aimed at, yet other creatures were not neglected. Noah has special directions to secure them in the ark, and

did secure them accordingly. Doth God take care for oxen? saith the apostle, 1 Cor. ix. 9. Yes, he doth. But in that law, the main end was not the advantage of the oxen. For our sakes, no doubt, this is written. ver. 10. Yet certainly God doth take care for all creatures, for he preserveth man and beast; Psa. xxxvi. 6; and in this history we have a special evidence of that care.

Some

'Tis doubted how one kind of beasts came to be clean and another kind to be unclean, considering that when the creation was finished, all were very good; and we do not find the law concerning the distinction till Levit. xi. 1, &c., which was promulgated many hundreds of years after this. think that the distinction was made by the law of nature. Others think this is spoken by anticipation; that clean and unclean mean those that were afterwards so differenced, when the ceremonial law was given. But then how could Noah distinguish betwixt them, or know which was which,-the law of that distinction not having then been given? Others think that by clean beasts are meant those that were of use for man. And others by clean beasts understand those beasts which were to be offered in sacrifice to God; and by unclean, those that were not to be so offered. And, though we find no written law of directions in this matter, yet, 'tis very probable

that, together with the law about worshipping God by sacrifices, which was then transmitted by oral tradition,-directions as to what beasts were to be offered in sacrifice, and what were not to be offered, were transmitted likewise. The clean beasts were more than double in number to the unclean. It is a mercy that those creatures which are useful and serviceable to man, do more abound than those that are hurtful and prejudicial. There are not herds of lions, as there are of oxen; nor flocks of tigers, as there are of sheep; and 'tis well there are not.

None of the fishes were taken into the ark, because they were not to be destroyed in the waters of the flood. As to the birds and beasts, the learned do not agree in the number of the several kinds and sorts of them. Some reckon thirty kinds of creeping things, a hundred and thirty of four-footed beasts, and a hundred and fifty of fowls; of each sort of which there were to be two, and of some, seven; and meat for them all for a year, in the ark. Now to those that seek for occasion to cavil at the Scriptures as not divinely inspired, this is a stone of stumbling. They suppose that there would not be room enough in the ark for all these creatures, and provision for them; but these cavils are sufficiently answered by the learned.

The end of securing the creatures was to keep

seed alive. If all these had been destroyed in the flood, and not a creature left alive, the same Almighty hand that made the creatures at first, could, if Infinite Wisdom had so pleased, as easily have made new ones. But seeing the work of creation was then finished when God rested the seventh day, he chose rather to order their preservation to be in a natural way; for miracles were never multiplied without need. And the reason why God made man the immediate author and instrument of their preservation, might perhaps be this: That the sovereignty and dominion which was at first given, and was after the flood renewed, to man over the rest of the creatures, might seem the more just and reasonable. 'Twas but fit that they should serve man, seeing he had been a means to preserve them. 'Tis not only the prince's honour to rule and govern, but the prince's duty to protect and defend, his subjects. Magistrates are therefore ealled the shields of the earth. Psa. xlvii. 9.

4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

After the hundred and twenty years were expired,

they had a reprieve of seven days longer; and we have reason to believe that if any of them had repented and turned to God in these seven days, they had certainly been saved, as Noah was: for though late repentance be seldom true, yet true repentance is never too late. But 'twas all in vain. These seven days were trifled away after all the rest :-divine warnings slighted, divine calls still despised. Were they not without excuse, that would not be led to repentance, no, not by the patience of God? During these seven days, 'tis likely Noah was settling himself in the ark, bringing in his provisions, disposing of the several creatures, and doing what else was needful; all which was a visible sermon to his carnal neighbours. 'Twas strange that none were wrought upon; not one secure sinner startled out of his security, not one sleeping soul awakened. When God spoke of a hundred and twenty years, they might have some pretence to delay; but when they were told how near the judgment was,-that they had but seven days to turn them in,-that if they would repent, it must be now or never,-one would think they would have begun to look about them, and consider their ways. But, alas! their hearts were hardened through the deceitfulness of sin; Heb. iii. 13; and in that hardness they continued, until the waters of the flood came.