SERM.faith. Did we believe the commands of GOD in LVI. the gospel, and his promifes and threatnings, as firmly as Abraham believed GOD in this cafe; what should we not be ready to do, or fuffer, in obedience to him? If our faith were but as ftrong and vigorous as his was, the effects of it would be as great and confpicuous. Were we verily perfuaded, that all the precepts of our religion are the exprefs laws of GOD, and that all the promises and threatnings of the gospel will one day be verified and made good; "what manner of perfons fhould we be in all holy "converfation and godliness?" How would the lively thoughts of another world, raise us above the vanities of this prefent life; and fet us out of the reach of the most powerful temptations that this world can affault us withal; and make us to do all things with regard to eternity, and to that folemn and dreadful account which we must one day make to God the judge of all ? It is nothing but the want of a firm and steady belief of these things that makes our devotion fo dead and heartless, and our refolutions of doing better fo weak and inconftant. This it is that makes us so easy a prey to every temptation; and the things of this world to look so much bigger than they are, the enjoyments of it more tempting, and the evils of it more terrible than in truth they are; and in all disputes betwixt our confcience and our intereft, this makes us hold the balance fo unequally, and to put our foot upon the lighter fcale, that it may feem to weigh down the other. LVI. In a word, in proportion to the ftrength or SE RM. weakness of our faith, our obedience to GoD will be more or less conftant, uniform, and perfect; becaufe faith is the great fource and spring of all the virtues of a good life. Fifthly, we have great reafon to fubmit to the ordinary strokes of God's providence upon our felves, or near relations, or any thing that is dear to us. Most of these are easy, compared with Abraham's cafe; it requires a prodigious ftrength of faith to perform fo miraculous an act of obedience. Sixthly, and lastly, we are utterly inexcufable, if we disobey the eafy precepts of the gospel. "The "yoke of CHRIST is eafy, and his burden light," in comparison of God's former difpenfations. This was a grievous commandment which God gave to Abraham, to facrifice his only fon : "it was a hard "faying indeed; and which of us could have been able to bear it?" But if GOD think fit to call us to the more difficult duties of felf-denial, and fuffering for his truth and righteousness fake, we muft, after the example of faithful Abraham, not think much to deny, or part with any thing for him, no not life it felf. But even this, which is the hardest part of religion, is eafier than what God put upon Abraham. . For it doth not offer near the violence to na- that LVI. SER M. that are exprefly promised to our obedience and felf-denial in fuch a cafe; encouragement enough to make a very difficult duty easy. And whilft I am perfuading you and my felf to refolution and conftancy in our holy religion, notwithstanding all hazards and hardships that may attend it, I have a just sense of the frailty of humane nature, and of humane refolution: but withal, a moft firm perfuafion of the goodness of GoD, that he will not fuffer those who fincerely love him and his truth, "to be tempted above what they 66 are able." I will add but one confideration more, to fhew the difference betwixt Abraham's cafe and ours. GOD commanded him to do the hardest thing in the world, to facrifice his only fon; but he hath given us an eafy commandment; and that he might effectually oblige us to our duty, he hath done that for us which he required Abraham to do for him; he hath not spared his own fon, his only fon; "but hath given him up to death for us all: and hereby we know, that he loveth us, that he hath given his fon for us." What God required of Abraham, he did not intend fhould be executed; but one great defign of it was to be a type and figure of that immenfe love and kindness which he intended to all mankind in the facrifice of his fon, as a propitiation for the fins of the whole world. And as the moft clear and exprefs promise of the MESSIAS was made to Abraham; fo the moft express and lively type of the MESSIAS that we meet. with in all the old teftament, was Abraham's of- s ER M. fering up his fon. And as St. Hierom tells us LVI. (from an ancient and conftant tradition of the Jews) the mountain in Moriah, where Abraham was commanded to facrifice Ifaac, was mount Calvary, where our LORD alfo was crucified and offered up, "that by this one facrifice of himself once offered, he might perfect for ever them that are fanctified, " and obtain eternal redemption for us." "Now to him that fitteth upon the throne, and "to the lamb that was flain; to God even our "father, and to our LORD JESUS CHRIST, the first "begotten from the dead; to the prince of the kings of the earth; to him that loved us, and "washed us from our fins in his own blood; to "him be glory and honour, thanksgiving and power, now and for ever, Amen.” 66 SERMON LVII. Mofes's choice of afflicted piety, rather than a kingdom. SERM. HE B. xi. 24, 25. By faith Mofes when he was come to years, refufed to be called the fon of Pharaoh's daughter; choofing rather to fuffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of fin for a feafon. T HE text fets before us a great pattern of felf-denial for our better understanding whereof I will give a brief account of the hall, 1687. hiftory of Mofes, to which our apostle in this pafbefore the fage doth refer. Preached at White princefs Anne. When Mofes was born, his parents (for fear of the cruel law which Pharaoh had made," that all "the male children of the Hebrews, fo foon as "they were born, should be put to death") after they had hid him three months, did at last expose him in an ark of bulrushes, upon the river Nile, and committed him to the providence of God, whom they despaired to conceal any longer by their own care. Pharaoh's daughter, coming by the river fide, efpied him, and had compaflion on him; and guef |