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his duty to God, and his affection to his child; so that every step of this unwelcome and wearifome journey, he did, as it were, lay violent hands upon bimfelf.

He was to offer up his fon but once; but he facrificed himself, and his own will, every moment for three days together; and when he came thither, and all things were ready, the altar, the wood, and the fire, and the knife, it must needs be a stabbing question, and wound him to the heart, which his innocent fon fo innocently asked him, Where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?

It must be a ftrong faith indeed, and a mighty refolution, that could make him to hold out three days against the violent affaults of his own nature, and the charming presence of his fon, enough to melt his heart, as often as he caft his eyes upon him: and yet nothing of all this made him to ftagger in his duty, but, being Strong in faith, he gave glory to God, by one of the most miraculous acts of obedience that ever was exacted from any of the fons of men.

III. In the third and laft place, I come to confider the reasonableness of his faith, in that he was able to give fatisfaction to himself in so intricate and perplexed a cafe. The conftancy of Abraham's faith was not an obftinate and ftubborn perfuafion, but the refult of the wifeft reasoning and foberest consideration.

So the text fays, that he counted (the word is G, he reafoned with himself) that God was able to raife him up from the dead; fo that he debated the matter with himfelf, and gave himself fatisfaction concerning the objections and difficulties in the cafe; and being fully fatisfied that it was a divine command, he refolved to obey it.

As for the objections I have mentioned :

1. The horrid appearance of the thing, that a father fhould flay his innocent fon. Why fhould Abraham fcruple the doing this, at the command of God, who being the author of life, hath power over it, and may refume what he hath given, and take away the life of any of his creatures when he will, and make whom he pleaseth inftruments in the execution of his command?

It was indeed a hard cafe, confidering natural affection; and therefore God did not permit it to be executed.

But the question of God's right over the lives of men, and of his authority to command any man to be the inftrument of his pleasure in fuch a cafe, admits of no difpute.

And though God hath planted ftrong affections in parents towards their children; yet he hath written no law in any man's heart to the prejudice of his own fovereign right. This is a cafe always excepted, and this takes away the objection of injuftice.

2. As to the fcandal of it; that could be no great objection in thofe times, when the abfolute power of parents over their children was in its full force, and they might put them to death without being accountable for it. So that then it was no fuch startling matter to hear of a father putting his child to death. Nay, in much later times we find, that in the most ancient laws of the Romans, (I mean thofe of the twelve tables), children are abfolutely put in the power of their parents; to whom is given jus vitæ & necis, a power of life ❝ and death over them;" and likewise to sell them for flaves.

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And though amongst the Jews this paternal power was limited by the law of Mofes; and the judgment of life and death was taken out of the father's hands, except in cafe of contumacy and rebellion; (and even in that cafe the process was to be before the elders of the city): yet it is certain, that in elder times the paternal power was more abfolute and unaccountable; which takes off much from the horror and scandal of the thing, as it appears now to us who have no fuch power.

And therefore we do not find in the history, that this objection did much stick with Abraham; it being then no unufual thing for a father to put his child to death upon a juft account.

And the command of God, who hath abfolute dominion over the lives of his creatures, is certainly a just reason; and no man can reasonably fcruple the doing of that, upon the command of God, which he might have done by his own authority, without being accountable for the action to any but God only.

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3. As to the objection from the horrible confequence of the thing commanded, that the flaying of Ifaac feemed to overthrow the promife which God had made before to Abraham, That in Ifaac his feed fhould be called; this feems to him to be the great difficulty; and here he makes ufe of reafon, to reconcile the feeming contradiction of this command of God to his former promise. So the text tells us, that he offered up his only begotten Jon of whom it was faid, That in Ifaac fhall thy feed be called: reafoning that God was able to raife him up from the dead. So that, though Ifaac were put to death, yet he faw how the promise of God might ftill be made good by his being raised from the dead, and living afterwards to have a numerous pofterity.

There had then indeed been no inftance or example of any fuch thing in the world, as the refurrection of one from the dead; which makes Abraham's faith the more wonderful. But he confirmed himself in this be lief, by an example as near the cafe as might be: He reafoned, that God was able to raise him from the dead; from whence alfo he had received him in a figure.

This, I know, is by interpreters generally understood of laac's being delivered from the jaws of death, when he was laid upon the altar, and ready to be flain. But the text feems not to speak of what happened after; but of fomething that had paffed before, by which Abraham confirmed himself in this perfuafion, that if he were flain, God would raise him up again.

And fo the words bev exquioare ought to be rendered in the paft time, from whence alfo he had received him in a figure. So that this expreffion plainly refers to the miraculous birth of Ifaac, when his parents were past the age of having children; which was little lefs than a refurrection from the dead.

And fo the fcripture fpeaks of it, Rom. iv. 17. Abraham believed God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth the things which are not, as if they were: and not being weak in faith, he confidered not his own body which was dead. And a little before the text, fpeaking of the miraculous birth of Ifaac, And therefore fprang there of one, and him as good as dead, as many as the stars of heaven.

From whence (as the Apostle tells us) Abraham reafoned

foned thus: That God who gave him Ifaac at first in so miraculous a manner, was able by another miracle to reftore him to life again after he was dead, and to make him the father of many nations: He reafoned, that God was able to raife him up from the dead; from whence alfo he had received him in a figure.

Thus you fee the reasonablenefs of Abraham's faith. He pitched upon the main difficulty in the cafe, and he anfwered it as well as was poffible. And, in his reafoning about this matter, he gives the utmost weight to every thing that might tend to vindicate the truth and faithfulness of God's promife, and to make the revelations of God confiftent with one another: and this, though he had a great interest and a very tender concernment of his own to have biaffed him.

For he might have argued with great appearance and probability the other way. But as every pious and good man fhould do, he reasoned on God's fide, and favoured that part. Rather than difobey a command of God, or believe that his promife fhould be fruftrate, he will believe any thing that is credible and poffible, how improbable foever. Thus far faith will go; but no farther. From the believing of plain contradictions and impoffibilities, it always defires to be excufed.

Thus much for explication of the words; which I hope hath not been altogether unprofitable; because it tends to clear a point which hath fomething of difficulty and obfcurity in it; and to vindicate the holy fcripture, and the divine revelation therein contained, from one of the moft fpecious objections of infidelity.

But I had a farther defign in this text; and that is, to make fome obfervations and inferences from it that may be of ufe to us. As,

First, That human nature is capable of clear and full fatisfaction concerning a divine revelation. For if Abraham had not been fully and past all doubt affured, that this was a command from God, he would certainly have fpared his fon. And nothing is more reafonable, than to believe, that thofe to whom God is pleafed to make immediate revelations of his will, are fome way or other affured that they are divine; otherwise they would be in vain, and to no purpose.

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But

But how men are affured concerning divine revelations made to them, is not so easy to make out to others. Only these two things we are fure of.

1. That God can work in the mind of man a firm perfuafion of the truth of what he reveals, and that such a revelation is from him. This no man can doubt of, that confiders the great power and influence which God, who made us, and perfectly knows our frame, must needs have upon our minds and understandings.

2. That God never offers any thing to any man's belief that plainly contradicts the natural and effential notions of his mind; because this would be for God to destroy his own workmanship, and to impofe that upon the understanding of man, which, whilst it remains what it is, it cannot poffibly admit.

For inftance, we cannot imagine, that God should reveal to any man any thing that plainly contradicts the effential perfections of the divine nature: for fuch a revelation can no more be fuppofed to be from God, than a revelation from God that there is no God; which is a downright contradiction.

Now, to apply this to the revelation which God made to Abraham concerning the facrificing of his fon; this was made to him by an audible voice, and he was fully fatiffied by the evidence which it carried along with it, that it was from God.

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For this was not the first of many revelations that had been made to him; fo that he knew the manner of them, and had found, by manifold experience, that he was not deceived; and upon this experience was grown to a great confidence in the truth and goodness of God. And it is very probable, the first time God appeared to Abraham, because it was a new thing, that, to make way for the credit of future revelations, God did fhew himself to him in fo glorious a manner as was abundantly to his conviction.

And this St. Stephen does feem to intimate, Acts vii. 2. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mefopotamia. Now, by this glorious appearance of God to him at firft, he was fo prepared for the entertainment of after revelations, that he was not ftaggered even at this, concerning the facrificing of his

fon;

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