Although Jehovah hath set his _bow_ in the clouds, as the significant symbol of that covenant, which he made with Noah, for the security of the earth from another general inundation, and of a better covenant established through Christ, whereby the salvation of his people from a deluge of divine wrath is ascertained; yet, if we examine the subsequent dispensations of Jehovah, they will evince, that post-diluvian wickedness has received marks of divine displeasure, in a constant succession of desolating judgments. Of this let the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah be a standing proof; whose inhabitants, for their unnatural lust, were visited with a judgment which served as a prelude and a pledge of that “vengeance of eternal fire,” Jude 7, which they were to “suffer” as the reward of their crimes; while all the cities of the plain, converted into a fetid lake, or _dead sea_, whose foul exhalations spread barrenness and death all around it, exhibit, as long as the earth itself lasteth, an awful memorandum of the effects of sin, and the judgments of a sin-avenging God. Or, if the truth require further illustration, let us visit Egypt, and see what “signs Jehovah wrought there, and what wonders in the field of Zoan,” Psal. lxxviii. where he “smote all their first-born and the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham;” where a succession of plagues, desolating their country, and depopulating its inhabitants, terminated at last in the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. What a scene must that land exhibit, wherein the nutritive parts of creation were impregnated with poison and death! the most innocent creatures became a dreadful annoyance! the most useful animals were visited with sickness! the very dust of the ground converted into loathsome insects! the light of heaven changed into “darkness that might be felt!” the first-born of man and beast cut off in a night! the survivors trembling for themselves, and shrieking for the dead! while every element was armed with vengeance, and conspired to complete the desolation. Yet such was the scene, when God sent tokens and wonders into thee, O thou land of Egypt!