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CHAPTER VIII.

This chapter gives us an eminent instance of the truth of that sweet word, I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made. Isa. lvii. 16. We have God, in the former chapter, contending; contending in wrath with a world of sinners; but did he contend for ever? Was he always wroth? No: this chapter gives us an account how those contendings ceased, and how, at length, an end was put to that anger.

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ND God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.

2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.

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Hitherto justice had played its part for a hundred and fifty days together; but at length justice gives way, and mercy takes its place. This was seen in the abating of the waters from the earth. When they had done their work,-when they had destroyed all flesh, except those that were in the ark, they were called back again; for it is God's usual way, when he hath accomplished his whole work by afflictions, then, and not till then, to remove them. As they shall come no sooner, so they shall stay no longer, than need is. 1 Pet. i. 6. Though weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning. Psa. Xxx. 5. So it was here. The world we live in is a world of changes. Sometimes there is a change from better to worse. Such a change there was when the flood came; and it was a sad change: a beautiful world was turned into ruins, for the iniquity of them that dwelt therein. Psa. cvii. 34. Sometimes there Such a change there was when the flood went away; and it was a comfortable change, and a large account we have of it in this chapter.

is a change from worse to better.

1. This blessed change came from the same fountain from which all other blessed changes flow,-even the free mercy and goodness of God: God remembered Noah. Noah might begin to think that God had forgotten him, and that when he shut him up in

the ark, he shut him out of his care. When he considered how long God had kept him prisoner, it was no wonder if unbelief was at work,-if he was disposed to say with the psalmist, How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? Psa. xiii. 1. Though God may sometimes keep his people long in trouble, yet he will at last remember them. Though Zion may sometimes say, and think she has cause to say, the Lord hath forsaken me; my Lord hath forgotten me; yet it will appear otherwise at last. Isa. xlix. 14, 15, 16. The people of God, though in trouble, being never out of his sight, are never out of his mind. It is therefore their wisdom to tarry the Lord's leisure. Never was any one yet a loser by waiting upon God.

His time is the best time. The Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. Isa. xxx. 18.

And every living thing. God remembered not man only, but the cattle also; for his care extends to all creatures. He that brought them into the ark, remembered them now they were in the ark.

2. This change was effected by a wind which God made to pass over the earth. As the justice of God had water enough ready to drown the earth,— for he holdeth the waters in the hollow of his hand, Isa. xl. 12,- —so the mercy of God hath a wind ready to dry the earth; for he hath gathered the wind in

his fists. Prov. xxx. 4. Wind and water,-two most unruly elements,- -are at the disposal of the God of heaven, and he causes them to come as pleases him. This wind did not come by chance, but by the will and appointment of God, who brought it, as he doth all the winds, out of his treasuries. Ps. cxxxv. 7. He could have dried the earth without a wind; but he chooses to work by his providence,— by means and second causes, to manifest their constant subordinancy to, and total dependance upon, himself, the great first cause.

3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually; and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

Continually; Heb. going and returning; which notes their gradual departure. They were not removed all at once, but by degrees. The waters assuaged, they were abated, they decreased, and at last were dried up. As the flood came by degrees, so it went by degrees. The earth was neither drowned in a day, nor dried in a day. This is God's usual way in working deliverances for his people; he doth it gradually; not per saltum; not suddenly. Deut. vii. 22. We are to take notice of God's motions of

mercy towards us, and to meet him with thankfulness; and not to despise the day of small things; Zech. iv. 10; but to hope, and wait, and pray, for the day of great things. Thus it is with the work of grace in the heart. The waters of corruption with which the soul is overwhelmed, are carried off by degrees: now one lust is mortified by this ordinance; then another corruption is weakened by that providence; till at last the ark of the soul is brought to rest upon the mountains of holiness in the kingdom of glory. Prov. iv. 18.

4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

The effect of the abating of the waters was the resting of the ark, which was, no doubt, matter of rejoicing to Noah. This was upon the seventeenth day of the seventh month; not the seventh month from the beginning of the flood, but the seventh month of the year,—just five months from the beginning of the flood, or a hundred and fifty days, allowing thirty days to each month. But Dr. Lightfoot thinks that by the seventh month is meant, the seventh month of the flood.

The place where the ark rested was the mountains of Ararat. These mountains are generally sup

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