with much appearance of truth, as a young and son on this occasion, striking and paman of singular accomplishments, both of thetic indeed, but far inferior to the beautifu body and of mind. The trial was, without simplicity of Moses. Having built an aldoubt, greatly increased to Abraham by the tar, having laid the wood in order upon it, delay, and the distance of the place of sacri- and made all other necessary preparation. fice. Had the oracle demanded an instant the unhappy father is thus represented as offering, the immediate impression of the communicating to the devoted victim the heavenly vision would account for the sud- will of the Most High: "O my son, begged denness and despatch of the execution. But of God in a thousand prayers, and at length leisure is afforded for reflection; parental unexpectedly obtained; ever since you were affection has time to strengthen itself; the born, with what tenderness and solicitude powerful pleadings of nature must in their have I brought you up! proposing to myself turn be heard; the oppression of grief, of no higher felicity than to see you become a fatigue, of old age; the sight, the society, man, and to leave you the heir of my possesthe conversation of Isaac, combine their sions. But the God who bestowed you upon operation to make him relent, and return. me, demands you again. Prepare then to But though nature knows faith, such as Abra- yield the sacrifice with alacrity. I give you ham's knows not what it is to relent. With up to Him, who at all seasons, and in all steady steps, and unshaken resolution, he ad- situations, has pursued us with loving kindvances to the fatal spot, now first distinguish- ness and tender mercy. You came into the ed by the choice of God, for the scene of this world under the necessity of dying; and the wonderful sacrifice; distinguished in the se- manner of your death is to be singular and quel, as the seat of empire and of religion illustrious, presented in sacrifice by your among Abraham's chosen race; and finally, own father to the great Father of all: who, distinguished most of all by a sacrifice infi- we may presume, considers it as unfit and nitely more valuable and important, and of unbecoming, that you should depart out of which this of Isaac was but a shadow. this life by disease, in war, or by any other Being arrived at the foot of the mountain, of the usual calamities to which human nawhich was pointed out by some sensible to- ture is subject: but who waits to receive ken, the servants are left behind, and Abra- your spirit, as it leaves the body, amidst the ham, armed with the fire and the knife, and prayers and vows of your affectionate parent, Isaac bearing the wood destined to comsume that he may place it in perfect blessedness the victim, ascend together. And now, had with himself. There, you shall still be the his faith been capable of failing, could his consolation and support of my old age, not inpurpose have changed, the question which deed by your presence and conversation, but Isaac, in the simplicity of his heart, proposed, bequeathing me, when you depart, the premust have triumphed over his resolution, sence and the blessing of the Almighty." and decreed the victory to flesh and blood. Isaac, the worthy offspring of such a father, "And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, cheerfully complies, and piously answersand said, My father: and he said, Here am "I should be unworthy of life, were I capaI, my son and he said, Behold the fire and ble of showing reluctance to obey the will the wood: but where is the Lamb for a burnt of my father and my God. It were enough offering? And Abraham said, My son, God for me that my earthly parent alone called will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offer-me to the altar, how much more when my ing: so they went both of them together."* The heart that feels not this is lost to sensibility. Every endeavour to illustrate or enforce it, were idle as an attempt to perfume the rose, to paint the tulip into richer tints, or to burnish the sun into a brighter lustre. At length with weary steps they arrive at the place which God had told him of. The mighty secret, which had hitherto laboured in the anxious paternal breast, must at last be disclosed, and "the lamb for the burnt offering" must be produced. It is not the sacrifice of a bullock or a sheep, which are able to make no resistance; nor of a child unconscious of its situation; but of a man, whose consent must be obtained; and who, either by entreaty, by argument, by speed, or by force, might have delivered himself. The Jewish historian presents us with the dialogue which passed between the father * Gen. xxii. 7, 8.

heavenly Father redemands his own."

He accordingly submits to be bound, and to be laid as a victim upon the wood. And now behold a sight from which nature shrinks back, and stands confounded;-a father lifting up his hand armed with a deadly weapon, to slay his only son, he is already made the sacrifice; for with God, intentions are acts; and he receives his Isaac a second time from the hand that gave him at first. The voice of God is again heard. It is ever welcome to the ear of faith: welcome when it announces heavy tidings, welcome when it demands an Isaac ; and O, how welcome when it brings glad tidings of great joy; when it says, "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, fron me.*

Gen. xxii. 12.

Abraham prophesied without being con- | scious of it, when he said, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt of fering:" for lo, behind "him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.' "We know but in part, and we prophesy in part, but God sees the end from the beginning; he is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he."t

With what different feelings does the patriarch descend from the mountain! His Isaac lives, and yet his sacrifice is offered. He came to yield his dearest earthly delight at the call of God, and he goes away enriched with new blessings and fresh promises. Who ever sacrificed to God and was a loser? "Who ever hardened himself against God and prospered?"

with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lora hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."> From the tendered sacrifice of Isaac arose new prospects and new promises to his family; from the death of Christ sprung up the hope of "an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away," to all them that believe. The substituted sacrifice was of God's appointment, providing an acceptance, both in the figurative and the real his tory, and by both we are instructed, that when men have the wisdom to submit to, and follow God their Maker, they may safely com→ mit the issue of all to him.

To view the history of Abraham in detached parts, is to involve ourselves in difficulty and distress,-to read patiently to the end, is the road to light, and peace, and joy. The prejudiced Jew, and the self-conceited Greek, look at the cross and pronounce it foolishness, or fall over it as a stumbling

issue, who look to the end, "Jesus Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” Presumptuous men will take upon them to judge of a plan which is not yet executed, and will apply to the narrow and erroneous scale of their own reason and understanding, the infinite and eternal designs of the only wise God. When the fabric of creation was completed, God pronounced all to be very good, and then "the morning stars sang to gether, and all the sons of God shouted for joy;" when the plan of redemption is executed, then, and not till then, let men or angels presume to judge of the fitness or unfitness of it. Determine nothing before the time. The Lord, and the day of the Lord, is at hand.

It is impossible that any one can be so inattentive as not to observe, through the whole of this wonderful history, the mystery of re-block; but to them that believe, who wait the demption shadowed forth? Is the divine conduct, in this trial of Abraham, dark and inexplicable to human reason? Angels desire to look into the plan of gospel salvation, and are unable to comprehend it. Was Abraham ready at God's command to offer up his only son for a burnt offering? "God himself so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God had pity upon an afflicted, earthly father, and a devoted child, and sent his angel to deliver him: but God "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." Isaac was ready to be slain, Jesus was actually put to death. Isaac cheerfully submitted to the will of Heaven, and offered his throat to the sacrificing knife; and of Jesus it is written in the sacred volume, "Lo, I come, I delight to do thy will, O God, thy law is within my heart;" "he gave himself for us, a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour unto God."

Isaac having first typified the Saviour, passes into a type of the elect sinner, bound and stretched upon the altar, in trembling apprehension of the fatal blow. He is reprieved by a voice from heaven; and thus, when there was no eye to pity, nor hand to save our sinful devoted race, a voice is heard from the most excellent glory, "deliver from going down to the pit, I have found out a ransom.' "I have laid help on one who is mighty to save." Behold the ram caught in the thicket, conducted and detained of Providence, and substituted as a sacrifice in the room of Isaac, and think of him of whom it is written, "he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our eace was upon him; and

Gen. xxii. 13. † Deut. xxxii. 4. ↑ John iii. 16. § Rom. viii. 32. | Psalm xl. 6, 8.

In meditating on this history, may it not be asked-Who among you is with Abrahain sacrificing, I do not say, his lawful joys, but his sinful lusts? Who among you is rising up early, and, with a resolute hand, slaying his sloth, his pride, his avarice, his lust, his malignity, before the altar of God? Who among you is rising betimes to "offer unto God thanksgiving:" to contemplate the glories of nature; to adore and admire the wonders of Providence; to look into the mystery of redemption, and to meditate with new and increasing delight on that love of Christ which passeth knowledge?

The little good which we do, we wish to be seen of all men; not like Abraham, who would have his devotion neither witnessed nor interrupted by any one. But glory pursues true goodness, notwithstanding its own mo desty and humility. Why should I suffer myself to be teazed and vexed with the cavils of an unbeliever? Let him start ten thou sand objections, if he will, to the frame of naIsaiah liii. 5, 6.

ture, the conduct of Providence, or the method of salvation. I will thus simply reply; Do you comprehend the whole? Are you of the privy council of heaven? Can you account for any thing you behold? Do you know to what all these things tend, and in what they are to issue?

Rest, Christians, in general, obvious, useful, practical truth; and know that devotedness to God is the essence of religion, and the sum of human happiness. Look forward to that day when light shall arise out of obscurity, when all mysteries shall be unveiled; when the faculties of the human mind shall be strengthened and increased, and the ob

jects contemplated shall be brought nearer the eye, placed in a fairer point of view, and irradiated with a fuller glory; when God shall in the most complete and satisfactory manner vindicate his ways to men.

The next Lecture will conclude the History of Abraham, and the proposed course for this season. If to your former attendance and kind attention, you will indulge me with one audience more, it will increase the affec tionate regard of a grateful heart, and afford an opportunity of expressing that gratitude at greater length. May God bless all the means of knowledge, of piety, and of improvement. Amen.

HISTORY OF ABRAHAM.

LECTURE XVIII.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises; but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned: but now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.-HEBREWS xi. 13-16.

WHAT is the amount of human life? Vanity | desire; and he is now as eager to bury her and vexation of spirit. All our wanderings out of his sight, as he formerly was to retain tend towards the grave. The anxieties and the possession of her wholly to himself. Let solicitude, the hopes and fears, the disappoint- the beautiful and the vain, the gay, the adments and successes which alternately oc- mired, and the flattered, think of this and be cupy and agitate the mind, at length come humbled. The latter end of her life, howto one issue, and all-conquering death settles ever, is better than the beginning. Torthe account. The tine is at length come mented with the unaccomplished desire of that Sarah must pay the debt of nature. That having children, subjected to all the hardbeauty which conjugal affection doated on, ships of a pilgrimage state, and stung with and which princes coveted, becomes deformed the keen pangs of jealousy, almost up to her with wrinkles; the cold hand of death chills ninetieth year, life at length subsides into the fond maternal heart, and even the delight a delightful calm of thirty-seven years more, of an Isaac is enjoyed no more. The Jewish cheered and cherished by the unabated afRabbins, fruitful in legends, affirm, that grief fection of her beloved lord, and blessed with for the sacrifice of Isaac shortened her life. the progress and accomplishments of the son For that the devil, who had exulted in the of her womb, Isaac, the favourite of God and prospect of seeing Isaac perish by the knife man. But she must finally make one remove of his father, to revenge himself for the dis- more; not to that country from which she appointment which he felt upon his deliver- came out, but to that land "from whose ance by the angel, conveyed intelligence to bourne no traveller returns." A partaker as Sarah that the sacrifice was actually per- of the fortunes, so of the faith of Abraham, formed; which news speedily proved fatal to she sees the promises afar off, is persuaded of her. As if the oppressive weight of one them and embraces them; desires and looks hundred and twenty-seven years did not suf- for another country, that is, an heavenly. ficiently account for the death of a frail woman, without the necessity of a preternatural interposition.

Affecting change! The eyes of Abraham himself cannot now endure to look upon her, whom once he shuddered to think that the eyes of another should behold with too much

God had promised to Abraham and his seed the possession of Canaan, and lo. it commences in the purchase, at their full value, of a little field and a cave, for a burying place. He had been threatened with a severe stroke in the demanded sacrifice of Isaac, he is made to feel one in the loss of Sarah.

A

one kind of goods for anotner, is derived from that which signifies a lamb ;* the verb which is translated to sell, comes from the noun, which translated signifies a colt or young horse;† the Greek word, which in our language is to buy, comes from that which signifies an ass: the term that denotes rent or revenue, and that which signifies a sheep, are of kindred composition and import. criminal, according to the magnitude of his guilt, was condemned to pay a fine of four, twelve, or an hundred oxen. A wealthy person is called a man of many lambs.¶ Two rival brothers are represented in Hesiod, as fighting with each other about the sheep of their father; that is, contending who should be his heir. But even so early as the time of Abraham, we find silver employed as a more commodious mean of traffic; and the concurrence of all civilized and commercial

The mellowed friendship of so many years, and union cemented at last by so dear a pledge, could not be dissolved without pain. Abraham is sensible of his loss, and bewails it. His religion is not of that sort which values itself on doing violence to nature; he knows nothing of that vain philosophy which affects to deny what it feels: neither has an old age of one hundred and thirty-seven years extinguished in the heart those tender emotions, which the deprivation of an object, once fair, and ever dear, naturally excites. He who does not weep on such an occasion as this, is something more or less than a man. But to persevere in bewailing the dead, to the neglect of our duty to the living, is both folly and impiety. Abraham's sorrow encroaches upon none of the valuable principles of a good mind. His whole conduct in the purchase of the field of Ephron the Hittite, and the cave of Machpelah, ex-nations to this day, in employing the precious hibits a soul replete with the most amiable and respectable virtues. Tender and affectionate, he is desirous of honouring in death the remains of what he prized in life. Noble-minded, generous, and independent, he refuses to show respect to the memory of Sarah with that which cost him nothing. Civil and polite, he repays the courtesy of his neighbours with affability and condescension. Scrupulously just and honest, he will give nothing less than the full price, and in full tale, weight, and purity, for what was frankly tendered him as a gift. The dialogue of the twenty-third chapter is a masterly picture of the beautiful simplicity of ancient manners, and exhibits a strife of unaffected kindness, good-nature, and civility, which at once pleases and instructs. Let me beseech you to peruse it carefully when opportunity offers. Would to God such contentions were more frequent in the world. The purchase is made, the price is paid, possession is made sure, and then was Sarah buried. And thus, first, Abraham became seized of the land of promise. So differently does Providence shape events from our preconception of them.

metals for this purpose, is a proof how early men learned the wisdom of this world; and discovers to us, how readily they invent, how accurately they reason, and how prudently they act, in matters that are conducive to their temporal interest and advantage. But to return

By the death of Sarah, the care and anxiety about the dear object of their common affection becomes naturally much increased to the surviving parent. Isaac was now arrived at man's estate, and it is fit that the heir of the promise should be established in a family of his own. For how are the promises of God brought into effect, but by the intervention of the means which nature and Providence have appointed? Abraham, with the solicitude of a good father, is desirous of matching his son, rather prudently and piously, than nobly or wealthily. In these days of simplicity and nature, the partner for life was sought after, not for the largeness of her possessions; but gold, and silver, and jewels, were employed to court beauty and virtue to their proper sphere of importance and usefulness in life. Abraham judges it unwise to marry his son into a Hittite family, because they had deviated from the worship of the true God. He could esteem their hospitality, kindness, and civility, as they deserved, without falling in love with their religion. And he who cannot make this distinction must either be unfaithful to God or unfriendly to man. Affecting view of the corruption and degeneracy of human nature! that Isaac, the son of faithful Abraham, should be deemed in greater danger of being perverted by an idolatrous wife, than that a woman of Canaan should be converted to the worship of the living and true God, by a believing husband.

It is worthy of observation, that this is the first money transaction which we read of in the world. Till then, and long after, both among the posterity of Abraham and other nations, wealth was estimated by the number and quality of cattle; and cattle were the principal instruments of commerce.Thus we read in many places of Homer, of a coat of mail worth an hundred oxen; a caldron worth twenty sheep; a cup or goblet worth twelve lambs; and the like. The words belonging to commerce or exchange of commodities, in the Greek language, are mostly derived from the names of certain animals, by means of which that exchange was originally carried on. Thus the word itself which signifies to truck or commute boion, doodeka boion, ekatomboion. Poluarnos.

⚫arnusthai-arnos. † poolein-poolos. Iooneisthai onos. & Probmasis-Probaton. Timeema tessara

Isaac, it would appear, devoted to retire- whom he dignified by the title of his friend, ment and contemplation, little attached him- only by such things as are the common gifts self to the concerns of this life; the manage- of his providence to all, and which are often ment of his affairs and his settlement in the bestowed on the vilest and most worthless of world, he leaves to the wisdom of his father, mankind? If the grave were to terminate and the fidelity of an ancient domestic. The the existence of man, such questions would journey of that servant into Mesopotamia, be indeed of difficult solution. But the diffiand the success of it, belong more properly to the history of Isaac. As far as Abraham is concerned in it, we behold a holy man acknowledging God in all his ways, and making the ordinary concerns of life a religious service: and we see God, in return, directing every step to a happy issue.

culty of them scatters and disperses before one word of God, spoken three hundred and thirty years after the patriarch's death, even to Moses at the bush in Horeb. I am the God of Abraham. His relation to God was as entire three centuries after his body was consumed in dust in Machpelah, as when he was entertaining angels in Mamre, or sacrificing upon Mount Moriah. "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." To Him, and for Him, and with Him, now live the faithful of all past ages; and precious is their very dust in his sight. Judge nothing then before the time, till the day come which shall unfold the purpose of Heaven, which shall clear up the mystery of Providence, and fully vindicate the ways of God to man.

Having seen his beloved son settled entirely to his satisfaction, he enters again himself into the honourable state of marriage, and is blessed in it by a progeny of six sons and ten grandchildren born in his life time. In order to prevent strife after his death, as far as human sagacity and foresight could do it, and knowing that property is the great source of contention among men, he settles his worldly affairs, bequeathing the great bulk of his fortune to Isaac, the son of his It appears that some intercourse between first and principal wife; following in this the Ishmael and his father's family had been destination of Providence, and fulfilling the kept up; for we find him apprized of Abracondition of the covenant under which Re-ham's death, and assisting at his funeral. He bekah was induced to become Isaac's wife. must be a wild man indeed, not to have He makes a suitable provision for the young- been tamed, at least into a temporary sorrow, er branches of his family, and sends them, by such an event, and melted into forgetfulby dint of his paternal authority, into a dis-ness of all past resentments, by the death of tant part of the country, where he yet lived, a father. Providence wisely produces this that the quiet and peaceable temper of Isaac might not be exposed to disturbance and trouble, from the neighbourhood of ambitious, violent, or avaricious brothers, after his death.

That fatal period at length overtakes him also, and he comes to the grave, "like as a shock of corn cometh in his season," in a good old age, “an old man, and full of years," at the age of one hundred three score and fifteen. A life shorter by far than any we have hitherto studied, but much fuller of incidents and events. A life chequered with uncommon trials, and blessings as extraordinary. A life distinguished by the most brilliant virtues which adorn human nature, but not wholly exempted from its frailties and infirmities. Abraham purchased a grave for Sarah. Alas! he was only providing a habitation for himself! How short, how unimportant the distance between the funeral rites which we prepare, and those which are prepared for us!

But can this be all that God intended to bestow upon our patriarch by promises so lofty, conveyed in language so solemn? Was it for this he was called to leave his country and his father's house? Did vision upon vision, covenant upon covenant, promise upon promise, conduct only to a little cave in Hebron? Was the favour of the Almighty, the all bountiful Jehovah, expressed to the man

good effect, by the common calamities wherewith families are visited; they tend to reconcile the alienated, they extinguish bitterness and strife, they rekindle the dying embers of filial duty and brotherly love. Isaac and Ishmael, men of different natures, of opposite interests, rivals from the womb, forget all animosity, and mingle tears over a father's tomb.

It remains, in conformity to our plan, that we point out in a few particulars, the resemblance betwixt Abraham and Christ, that we may see wherein the former typified the latter.

Abraham, at God's command, leaving his country, and his father's house, points to us obviously, Jesus, at the fulness of time, leaving heaven's glory and the bosom of the Father, and coming into our world and living a pilgrim and a stranger in it. Abraham, in a land which was his own by the gift and promise of God, nevertheless obtained no fixed residence in it, but wandered about from place to place; Jesus, in a world which he made and upholds, which is his by the most undeniable title, was without a place where to lay his head. Abraham was called the friend of God, and to him God communicated his purposes of mercy and of judgment; Je sus, the only begotten Son, who is in the bo som of the Father, and knows intimately the mind of the Lord, he hath declared him *