make sure of doing this at all, you must do it immediately.

Perhaps you will say, we hope it is done already : for the text assures us, all believers have done it. But observe at that time almost all professed believers were real ones; for they had no temptation to make a false profession: and in general, speculative believers were practical ones; else they would never have suffered what they did. But in our times, the case is much altered. And in all times, the true method of arguing is, not, we are Christ's, and therefore we have crucified our affections and lusts: but, we have crucified our affections and lusts, and therefore we are Christ's. Our faith must be proved from our works: not our works from our faith. By their fruits ye shall know them, is the rule *; and by those we must know our own state, as well as that of others. But supposing we have cause to believe it good, have we not greater cause to be sensible it is not perfect? 'And should we not be striving continually to make it more so? They that are Christ's, the Apostle tells us, have crucified the flesh. But he doth not tell us, they have done it so effectually and so completely, as they ought. On the contrary he tells us, that he himself had not yet attained, but was still pressing on towards the mark t. And surely we should be doing it without ceasing. Unless we are careful to advance, we shall be driven back; unless we pursue our enemy to destruction, though put to flight, he will return : though wounded as it were to death, his deadly wound will be healed: and gradually, if not suddenly, his empire may become more absolute, and our condition more deplorable than ever. At least he will be perpetually annoying us, disturbing our peace, taking Matth. vii. 20. † Phil. iii. 12, 13, 14. + Rev. xiii. 3.

away our comfort, darkening our prospects. Nor shall we be losers in this life only, by neglect of going on to perfection: but in the next also, the less complete the victory is, the smaller will be the reward: and they who have sown sparingly, shall reap also sparingly. Let us therefore sow plentifully the seeds of every virtue; and extirpate with such diligence every root of bitterness, that there may be the freest room and the fullest nourishment for every grace of the Christian life to flourish, and be fruitful. Of ourselves indeed we can do nothing †. But this is far from being a just plea for stopping where we are since God is able to make all grace abound towards us; that we having always all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. Provided then we apply to him, by the means he hath appointed, and engaged to bless, humble faith, earnest prayer, strict vigilance, and constant use of his holy ordinances, we shall not fail to experience the truth of his promise: They, that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings,

as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint §.

瘿 2 Cor. ix. 6. † John xv. 5. 2 Cor. ix. 8. § Is. xl. 31.

SERMON XXXIV.

HEB. XI. 17.

By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he, that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son.

THE character of Abraham in general is represented throughout the word of God, as highly respectable. But his obedience to the divine command, in devoting to death and sacrificing, so far as the act of the mind was concerned, his beloved son, the only heir of his family, and of all the gracious predictions made to him, is peculiarly celebrated for its transcendant piety; first in the Old Testament, by an angel from Heaven, speaking in the name of God; then in the New, by the Apostle St. James, as well as the writer of this epistle. But as they, who look at the sun too intently, dazzle their eyes, till all around them, and even the light itself, appears dark: so men have strained their thoughts, in comparing and measuring the weakness of their own faith and resolution against the strength of Abraham's, till they have been quite confounded with it. And hence some have imagined this direction to be such a one as could not possibly come from God: whilst others have thought it was a trial, rather of his discernment, than of his dutifulness; and that though he meant well, he might have reasoned better. The former opinion is

designed to contradict and discredit Scripture: noris the latter, though intended to remove an objection against it, by any means consistent with it. For we should never have found there such lofty encomiums of his proceeding so far, through mistake, towards an action, which would have been extremely unnatural and barbarous, if the injunction to do it, had not altered the quality of it: but whatever kind acknowledgment had been made of his good purpose, there would certainly have been a reproof of his wrong judgment; at least an admonition, that it was wrong: whereas we find nothing but unmixed commendation of his behaviour. For the sake therefore, both of such as incline to either of these notions, and of many humbler and devouter minds; who yet feel, (as perhaps we have now and then most of us done) great reluctance in their affections against this article of sacred history, and some difficulties in point of reason also; I shall endeavour to shew distinctly,

I. The possibility of God's giving such an order. II. The evidence, which Abraham had, and we may have now, of his actually giving it.

III. The improbability, that the obedience paid to it should have any bad effect in after times.

IV. The good ends, that might be, and were promoted by it.

I. The possibility of God's giving such an order. Indeed, were we but nearly so modest as we ought to be, we should be very backward to question, whether a Being of unsearchable wisdom can do what there is any competent proof he hath done: and should carry a strong sense of our own short-sightedness and incapacity along with us, to check all petulance of arguing on such points. But happily a moderate submission of our poor understandings

to the divine, will be sufficient on the occasion before us.

That the God of the spirits of all flesh*, in whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind †, may take away at his pleasure what he hath given only during his pleasure ‡, cannot possibly be doubted. We experience, that in the daily course of his providence he takes away the most innocent, the most deserving, the most useful persons, very unexpectedly, and, to our thinking, very unseasonably; for causes not to be known till the day of the revelation of his righteous judgment §. And, shocking as this may often seem, or afflicting as it may feel, it is yet no more than removing his subjects, (in whom he hath absolute property, and over whom he hath unlimited authority) from one part of his dominions to another, still to remain under the same gracious government, and only to serve in a different and better station.

Now what he so continually doth by various diseases, and what we call accidents, (many of them attended with long and dreadful sufferings) why might he not, if on any occasion he saw it proper, do by a shorter and easier method, by the hands of another human creature? Magistrates appoint their officers to execute those, whom they have condemned. Kings and generals appoint their armies to destroy multitudes, that are guiltless themselves, though possibly involved in the guilt of others. Killing would be murder in both these cases, if a lawful command did not alter the nature of them. But that supersedes and overrules the obligations to the contrary, which else would arise from the common relation of man to