food required for one year, is compared with the ca pacity of the Ark, we should be led to conclude, with the learned Bishop, that of the two it is more difficult to assign a number and bulk of necessary things to an swer the capacity of the Ark, than to find sufficient room for the several species of animals and food already known to have been there. But there is no doubt there was more than sufficient room, which conduced to health by a free circulation of air through the several apartments of the Ark. The most expert mathematicians of the day, and the Bishop was one of the first in Europe, could not assign the proportion of a vessel better accommodated to the purpose than is here done.

The capacity of the Ark, which has been made an objection against Scripture, ought to be esteemed a confirmation of its divine authority. Since in those rude ages, men being less versed in arts and philosophy, were more abnoxious to vulgar prejudices than now; so that had the Ark been contrived by human invention, it would have been made according to the will and apprehensions which arise from a confused and general view of things, and is probable would have been made as much too big as it has been represented too little.

Having now passed through my views of the signs of the times which went before the flood, I shall next attempt an exhibition of the signs of the times preceding the advent of the Messiah, with which will be found many strong intimations of the Millennium to come in the latter days..

I conceive that this field of research is more abundantly supplied with prophecies, forerunners and signs than the other; and therefore, shall only notice some of the most obvious, relating to my purpose: All the prophecies of the Messiah, and all the supernutural appearances of angels, previous to his coming in the flesh, should be considered as the signs of the times, denoting that he was making haste and would not tarry.

Our first instance of the appearance of Christ in the likeness of the human form, is that of his sociable. conversation with Abraham, in company with two of his angels, under the oak trees of Abraham's grove at Mamre. "And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day."

But Abraham knew not that it was the second person in the Trinity, for he was in the likeness of a man ; therefore, as soon as he saw the approach of these strangers, arose and made them welcome to his lowly tent. Therefore, he said to the men, "Let a little water I pray you be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree."-Gen. xviii.4. But they had not been long there before he found that his guests were from heaven, and that one of them was the very same who had appeared to him before. See Gen. xvii. 1. “And when Abraham was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham, and said, I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect.' 3d. verse.—“ And Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him."

It is very likely he discovered him first in the affair

F*

of Sarah, when he asked him "Where is Sarah, thy wife?" and added, "I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and lo! Sarah thy wife shall have a son." ." Then he knew it was the Lord, for he had talked with him upon the same subject before, when he fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old, in whom all the families of the earth shall be blessed ?""*

Here, then, is a remarkable forerunner of the Messiah who should come of the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; which to the Jews, in after ages, was a sure sign, that king Messiah was to arise out of their nation. And to a Christian, his appearance to Abraham may be an early token that his delight was with the sons of men, who at that time, in the human form, stood on the plains of Mamre, as in after ages on the hill of Calvary.

The Patriarch Jacob also saw him and wrestled with him all night; and Jacob called the place Peniel, or the face of God; for he said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."

"In whom all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Would it be putting a forced meaning upon the above promise, if we consider it as relating, finally, to the universal knowledge and effects of the Gospel on the earth, in the days of the Millennium? If it does not, why then is the blessedness of the promise put in the future? We know very well, that Jesus Christ is the true light, that lighteth every man who is born into the world, and that this light had gone into effect long before that promise to Abraham, and in this sense, not only all the families of the earth are blessed, but all individuals also. It would seem, therefore, to extend with a peculiar reference to the time, when all the families, then on the earth, shall be blessed, at one and the same time, with a definite knowledge of Christ, which was never yet the fact.

ap

And Moses, at Mount Horeb, saw him; for their peared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai the angel of the Lord, in a flame of fire, in a bush; and when Moses saw it he drew near, and the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, "I am the God of thy fathers." This was he who was with the Church in the wilderness, who was called a rock, and St. Paul says that rock was Christ. See I. Cor. x. 4.

At another time, Moses, with many of the elders of Israel, went up into the mount and saw the God of Israel; "and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were, the body of heaven in his clearness."

Let no one stumble at this, although it is written in the Scriptures, that no man ever saw God and lived; for it is not possible for mortal eyes to behold him, and perhaps it is to be doubted whether even angels ever saw him as he is, and was from eternity: but they have seen him only through some medium which he has assumed, and thus descended to be seen of angels, as he has descended still lower in the form of man to be seen of men.

Joshua, the successor of Moses, saw him when he was by the river Jericho. "And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold there stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand; and Joshua went unto him: Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said nay, but as Captain of the host of the Lord am I come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship, and said unto him, what saith my Lord unto his servant."

This was the Captain of the armies of Israel, whe was with them for their salvation; and is it not written of Christ that he is the Captain of our salvation, the good shepherd of the sheep, and head of all principality and power?

Again he appeared the same mysterious angel, who is again and again called Jehovah, and sat under an oak in Ophra, and appeared to Gideon and said, " The Lord is with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man; and the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, have I not sent thee?”

Some years after, he again appeared to the wife of Manoah, the mother of Sampson, and promised her a son; but Manoah not being present at the time, prayed that he would come again. God heard his prayer, and the angel again visited them, at which time Manoah asked his name, not knowing that he was an angel, but probably thinking him a prophet; but the answer was, Why askest thou after my name, seeing it is a secret;" as if he fain would say, I am not yet called Jesus the Christ. But Manoah being directed to offer a sacrifice to God upon the rock which was at hand, at which it is written, the angel did wonderously, and ascended in the flame of the burnt sacrifice, for it was the angel Jehovah.

66

Many wonderful manifestations had David, Solomon and Elijah, especially the latter, in the cave of the mountain, when the Lord passed by in an earthquake, and in a strong and mighty wind, which brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord, and in a fire, and next a still small voice, at the sound of which Elijah cover