his wise and gracious disposal, is a conduct agreeable not only to reason, gratitude, and duty; but even to self-love.

Such a conduct, however, when blessed, rewarded, and applauded by God himself in our sight, acquires the force of a command. What he so highly approves of in one man, he must, we are sure, approve of in another, the circumstances being alike. But not to imitate that to the uttermost of our power, which God is so well pleased with, argues a stupid indifference to his will and pleasure.

As however this sort of stupidity, although of the grossest nature, is by no means uncommon, the Holy Spirit knowing that the most shining examples do not always strike our eyes in proportion to their brightness, hath not only set such examples before us, but frequently pointed them at us, and by his precepts called us to the imitation of them. The example of Abraham in particular he hath directly recommended to us; for immediately after saying, his faith was imputed to him for righteousness,' he adds, 'now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.' We are therefore to walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham,' who is the father of all them that believe, that righteousness may be imputed to us also.' We ought to know, that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham, and that the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel to Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed, so that they which be of faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham.'

Thus you see, our faith must be the same in substance with that of Abraham, our precedent and father in believing. Its qualities must be also the same. It must be firm and lively. It must have the dominion over all our passions, affections, and interests, as it had over his. It must regulate our thoughts, prompt our words, and prescribe our resolutions, and actions, as it did those of Abraham.

His offering up his only Son was not more intended for a type of the great sacrifice offered by the heavenly Father

in his only Son Jesus Christ, than his faith, in all its parts and effects, was intended for a type and pattern of ours.

If he, through a firm persuasion that God best knows what every man ought to do, and hath an absolute right to determine what he shall do, subdued all his passions and affections to the will of God; we, through a like persuasion, must subdue ours also to the divine will, must deny ourselves,' and, if we are called to it, must take up our cross, and follow Christ.' If he thus stifled the affections of his own heart, with a view, founded on the promises of God, to greater joys than the gratification of those affections could give him, and with an eye to his Redeemer, so we likewise, ' denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ.'

If Abraham strengthened by his faith, and submitting to the will of God, renounced his country, kindred, and the lands he was actually possessed of, in a place corrupted with idolatry and wickedness, and travelled to a distant land, a land merely of promise; we, in like manner, actuated by our faith, and renouncing the things of this present sinful world, ought to fix our eyes on the future happiness hoped for, and be ready, as often as God requires it, to 'leave our houses, our brethren, our sisters, our fathers, our mothers, our wives, our children, our lands, for Christ's sake, and for the gospel's,' in hopes of receiving'an hundred fold, now in this present time,' as Abraham did, if such shall be the will of God, and with a certainty of eternal life in the world to come. You see how parallel our faith and duty are to those of Abraham, particularly in the resignation of our children, insomuch that every Christian, having, with Abraham, received the promises, ought, as he did, to offer up his onlybegotten' son, in case God should require him at his hands; 'for he that loveth son or daughter more than Christ, is not worthy of him,' nor of his Father, who surrendered him to death an offering for our sins. And as Abraham must have believed, against all human probability in the resurrection of the dead (for how otherwise could he have relied on the promises made to him in the posterity of that childless son he was going to kill?) so it is necessary we likewise should

believe, not only in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, that the righteousness which is by faith may be imputed to us also,' but in the same doctrine of a resurrection, already past in regard to Christ, and yet to come in regard to ourselves, be this doctrine as mysterious as it will. As Abraham reasoned on the necessity of a resurrection in order to the hope of posterity by his son, before any instance of an actual resurrection had been given, or any promise (for ought appears) had yet encouraged that reasoning, so, now that both an instance and a promise are recorded, as assurances, that we shall rise again from the dead, our faith in an event so absolutely necessary to our entering into eternal life, hath every argument to support it, which the nature of that event will admit, and therefore is absolutely required. Our faith (no more than that of Abraham) is not to stagger at any degree of mysteriousness or improbability in the revelations or promises of God, for otherwise we cannot be the children of Abraham, nor believe as he did, nor be blessed with him.

Faith, you see, underwent no trial in Abraham, which it may not, one time or other, undergo in any believer. Nay, the faith of every believer is at all times tried, as that of Abraham was, though not always so severely. The promises of God are, or ought to be, always before our eyes, and in order to obtain the great things promised, there is always something amazing and unaccountable by reason to be believed, that the pride of our understandings may be humbled; there is ever something to be denied or subdued in ourselves that our rebellious passions may be mortified; something to be guarded against, or contended with, in the world; something too pleasing, that God hath forbidden, to be avoided; or something hated by a corrupt nature, that he hath commanded to be performed; some houses, lands, or kindreds to be left; some journey to an unknown place of promise to be undertaken; some darling Isaac to be offered up, whom in gratitude we ought to offer, since God hath offered his Isaac, or only Son, for us. And any one of these may require all the vigour of a lively faith in him who is so circumstanced. Hence we may see that the faith of a Christian never wants exercise, never wants opportunities of offering up sacrifices to God, of offering up on some occasions, such sacrifices as

require an equal degree of trust in God, and resignation to his will, with those of Abraham, when he laid his only son on the altar. The things we are to sacrifice are often as dear to us as Isaac was to him, and require the cord, the knife, and a stern and unrelenting heart like his, to make them proper victims for the altar of God. Now nothing but a lively faith, and a steady expectation of the glory promised to us in Christ Jesus, can give us such a heart; and no other faith but this, will be counted to us for righteousness.' That faith which can produce no effects like these, 'is dead,' for it is without works,' and may tremble,' with 'the faith of devils,' but it cannot hope, with that of Christians.

Thus ought we to reason and act under the single supposition of believing that the Scriptures are really the word of God, although we could not see either the fitness or benefit of injunctions so rigorous and hard to be obeyed, because it ought to be presumed, that there is sufficient fitness and benefit in every thing enjoined by God. But as in most cases the reasonableness of this obedience is, or may be, apparent to any considering mind, the heart that proves refractory is left without excuse. The severest precepts of the gospel are as far from being tyrannical, as the most indulgent. Their only tendency is to purify our corrupt affections, to raise them above the world, and to knit them eternally to God. Even reason and experience may teach us, that, without the benefit of such a discipline, we must for ever remain in our original impurity, and consequently incapacity of a union with the source of happiness. It is therefore only in a heart uninfluenced by right reason, that any opposition is given to the duty of imitating Abraham, either in faith or practice.

The Christian faith would be universally embraced, did every man find it as pleasant to perform its duties, as it is easy to believe in its evidences. But even among those who do profess it, and for such only this discourse is intended, the resistance given by a corrupt and refractory heart, saps its foundations in the understanding, and enfeebles it in its operations. Hence come all the disputes about its most necessary and evident principles, with all the doubts and cavils about its mysteries. One man finds it very difficult