of God his Father and being satisfied with this blessed sight, as his last breath departed from him, and his soul ascended, he closed his own eyes, and disposed his hands and body into such a posture as required not the least alteration by those who came to shroud him." He died on the 31st of March, 1631.

THE ARK.

THE building of the ark was a most extraordinary undertaking, not only on account of its novelty and the amazing difficulties and discouragements encountered in its construction and in its completion, but it was a work of far greater magnitude than any would venture to imagine who had only read the Mosaic statement in a cursory manner. In this, as in the argument concerning the deluge, the scale of things is lost sight of, and wrong deductions are the certain consequence. Many infidel writers have raised objections to the sacred narrative on the supposition that Noah's ark was inadequate for the accommodation required. But how opposite was the conclusion to which the learned Bishop Wilkins was brought, after faithful calculation, who observes: "Upon the whole, of the two, it appears more difficult to assign a number and bulk of necessary things to answer the capacity of the ark, than to find sufficient room for the several species of animals supposed to have been there."

As much of our representation and argument depends upon our idea of the actual size of the ark, it may be well to have its dimensions strongly fixed in our imagination. The measurement is exactly stated by Moses in the following words:"The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits." The cubit was a measure used by all the most ancient nations. The Hebrews called it mother, as being the mother or first of measures. Its length was the distance from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger, which was about the fourth part of a well-proportioned man's stature. The Hebrew cubit ordinarily employed in measurement, according to Bishop Cumberland and M. Pelletier, is twenty-one

inches. No examination of archæological records or monuments can determine precisely this measure of Scripture; but the average length of the human arm, and careful calculations founded upon the Egyptian pyramids and other measured structures which have escaped the ravages of time, sufficiently prove, that for all purposes of Biblical criticism and measurement, the received length of twenty-one inches may be safely admitted. The multiplication of three hundred cubits long (of twenty-one inches) by fifty wide and thirty high, gives a cubical content of 2,411,718 feet; and, reckoning forty-two cubic feet for every ton, the whole capacity of the ark would be 57,421 tons' burden. We have here a magnitude of which we can form but a very imperfect idea without some sensible contrast with other magnitudes with which we are familiar. Let it be considered, that the space or accommodation here mentioned is equal to fifty-seven East India ships of one thousand tons' burden. Any one who has examined a vessel of one thousand tons' burden is well aware of the vast accommodation it would afford for animals and food. Let this be multiplied by fifty-seven, and it will give a vessel of such amazing bulk, that we need not feel surprised at the conelusion of Bishop Wilkins before alluded to. Refer, if possible, to some building five hundred and twenty-five feet long, eighty-seven and a half feet wide, and fifty-two and a half feet high, and you may form a tolerably correct idea of the size of the ark. Each floor, according to the above standard, must have furnished an area of five thousand one hundred and four square yards, or above a statute acre of ground; therefore, a building which covers one superficial acre, having three stories of nearly equal extent, rising to an elevation of above fifty feet, gives a fair illustration of the bulk and accommodation of this stupendous vessel. Or, imagine yourself in a street thirty yards wide, with houses on each side five stories high, and take a length of one hundred and seventyfive yards, which you must suppose covered with a roof level with the tops of the houses,-such would be the interior capacity of the ark.

We may now very fairly meet the objection raised against the Mosaic record, from the supposed impossibility of all the

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creatures specified being accommodated and preserved within the ark. Without entering into the question whether the universal terms here employed must be taken in the most literal sense, it will be more than sufficient for our purpose to prove that the ark was of such a magnitude as to receive pairs of all the unclean, and septules of all the clean, animals with which we are now acquainted. More than this cannot be required, since it is asserted by many that the calculators have placed their numbers" almost incredibly below the truth," and show astonishing ignorance of every branch of natural history.” To meet this grave accusation, we will take the mode of enumeration adopted by these very objectors. Their system of zoology gives the following catalogue :-" Of existing mammalia, (animals which nourish their young by breasts,) considerably more than one thousand species are known." Of birds, though amounting to five thousand species,-of reptiles, insects, and animalcules, it is quite unnecessary to speak, since, if it can be proved that one floor or story of the ark affords room enough for all the animals, (mammalia,) it will not be doubted, even by the objectors, that the rest of the ark (the middle and upper stories) would be amply sufficient for all the food required, and for all the remaining birds, reptiles, and insects, they being so exceedingly small in size when compared with the animals generally. Now, as the number of animals of these one thousand different species that are larger than the horse are very few indeed, (perhaps not ten,) it may safely be granted that the whole bulk of pairs of the entire world of brute animals would not be greater than the bulk of five hundred horses; and as a ship of one thousand tons' burden would easily accommodate one hundred horses, with the requisite provisions, it is plain that the ark, being fifty-seven times as large, would, at the rate above stated, have room in one story for above five thousand horses. Surely, then, with all our astonishing ignorance of zoology, it is demonstrative that, instead of being unable to find room, we seem rather, as Bishop Wilkins thought, at a loss to fill up the space of this monstrous vessel.

By a just conception of the size of the ark, our opinions of the other particulars will be regulated and determined. It

will lead us to reject as absurd the notions of such a structure being made of any thing but timber of the best quality and largest dimensions. The "gopher-wood" mentioned by Moses, is rendered by the LXX. "square pieces of wood." The opinion of Bochart, that "gopher-wood" is the cypress, or a kind of cedar, seems perfectly satisfactory-that kind of timber being well adapted for the purpose, and most abundant in that locality where the ark was built-if we take for granted that in Armenia, or any country in the Caucasian range of mountains, was the antediluvian residence of Noah, and that the trees before the flood were similar to those indigenous to the spot afterwards. The direction for the use of "pitch" indicates clearly a divine revelation.

As to the form of the ark. Though its dimensions were not laid down from the principles of mathematics, or the practice of navigation, but were expressly given by the Almighty himself, we must believe that it was the best adapted for its use, in every way; and, while we seem to have a fair conception of its proportions and its elevation of three-storied apartments, and a roof of sufficient slope to carry off the water, we may warrantably expect that Noah was guided by inspiration in the construction of the vessel, as much as in its magnitude, accommodation, and use.

The time occupied in its construction must, of necessity, have been considerable. An ordinary ship of war requires years for its building. It is not conceivable that the stupendous fabric could have been raised and completed without the co-operation of a great assortment of artificers, of whom there would be an ample supply, not only in number, but (among the workmen instructed by Tubal Cain, who was at this time living) of such as were eminently qualified for the undertaking. The term usually assigned to the building of the ark is one hundred and twenty years, founded upon Gen. vi. 3, wherein God declares that the life of man shall be curtailed to the term of one hundred and twenty years. It seems probable that this interval of one hundred and twenty years was intended as a prediction when the deluge should take place; and was occupied by Noah in preaching repentance and righteousness to the spirits in prison, (that is,

the prison of sin and thraldom of iniquity,) by whom he was surrounded; but it is scarcely to be admitted that the whole time was also occupied in the building of the ark, because it appears from Gen. vi. 18, that when he received his building commission his three sons were married. At the epoch of the flood, Noah was six hundred years old, and at the birth of his eldest son five hundred; so that a considerable portion of that century would have elapsed before he received God's command to build, which occurred after the marriage of his youngest son. Besides, in an interval of one hundred and twenty years, the materials would have decayed in the course of the work. As, therefore, we have no positive data in the record, and much would depend upon the number of workmen and the simplicity of the construction, we must leave the term without definite statement.-Dr. Burton's "Lectures on the Deluge, and the World after the Flood."

WESLEYAN CHRONOLOGICAL NOTICES.

No. XXXVI.

1780. JULY. Mr. Wesley spends several days at Bath, endeavouring to repress the spirit of animosity and dispute which had for some time seriously agitated the society and congregation: the appointment of a Clergyman to the continuous occupation of the pulpit on the Sabbath evenings having been the exciting cause.

Tuesday, August 1st. The thirty-seventh Wesleyan Conference commences its sittings in Bristol. The " Large Minutes,”—a re-publication of the general rules and regulations of the Body,-are carefully revised, and confirmed. A resolution is also passed to allow, in future, nine or ten days for the business of each Conference, that " everything relative to the carrying on the work of God may be maturely considered."

1781. Mr. Wesley publishes, in four volumes, 12mo., "A concise Ecclesiastical History, from the Birth of Christ to the beginning of the present Century;" being principally an abridgment, though much altered to the style, of Dr. Mosheim's larger work on the subject.

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