Work upon the ark. Meditations upon the ark as a type of the church

OBSERVATION. XV

There are but Few that shall be Saved. Says the Apostle here, In the Ark, Few, That is, Eight Souls were saved. He that ponders the Longevity of the Antediluvian Patriarchs, will not wonder at them, who affirm it probable. That more people perished in the Flood, than are now alive in the world. For let us make a Computation with as much Disadvantage to our own Assertion, as can Reasonably be desired. We'll abate two or three of the first Centuries, by which time the world might be supplied with people not a few; and we'll suppose a man to have Children at sixty, and in the Next Forty years, to have Twenty Children. Now single out the shortest Liver of any mentioned (except Enoch) before the Flood; and from that one Stock of seven hundred years, multiplying still by Twenty, we shall find the product to be more than One Thousand, Three Hundred, and Forty seven Millions; thus ⟨p. 51⟩that One Family would long before the Flood have afforded, it may be as many people as are now Living on the Earth. Moreover, if we consider that within a very few Centuries of years after the Flood, Histories tell us of one Army, in which were, Thirteen Hundred Thousand Foot, Five Hundred Thousand Horse, One Hundred Thousand Chariots, and as many Camels; and this Army Encountered by a greater Force; it may facilitate our Belief of the wonderful populosity which might be before. But what became of all that Mighty People? Truly, all were Drowned but Eight Souls! And though it be not for us to Censure too far upon the Eternal Condition of that miserable people: it being possible that more ▪ than we know of might be Happy for ever, notwithstanding their Drowning here; yet the Scripture speaks very sadly about the Generality of them, whom the Waters did exterminate. We read in Job 22.15, 16, 17. That they were wicked men. Compare Mat▪ 24.38, 39. And we are told in 1 Pet. 3:19, 20