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Nobferving by the Way, that altho' its Virtue and Power to Salvation co-extended with the whole Race of Adam, (for as the Judg ment paffed upon All because of Sin, fo did the free Gift unto Juftification, in the Offer of it) yet its Manifestation as to the Flesh, was continued on in one Line, down from Adam till the Word became incorporate in the Humanity of Christ, the Genealogy of which is given us by St. Luke, and may properly be called the Line of the manifefted Covenant. St. Matthew traces it back no farther than to Abraham, as the fecond remarkable Period of its Manifeftation, it being renewed with him and revealed to him with peculiar Diftinction, on which Account he was dignified with the honourable Appellation of Father of the Faithful: And as the Character of this Man of Renown is fo intimately connected with the Hiftory of this Covenant, and fo explanative of it, it juftly challenges our particular Attention.

The Excellency of Abraham's Faith is the Glory of his Character, and this is too ftrongly supported by well known Divine Testimony to need either Argument or Quotation from Scripture to evince it. It

may

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may fuffice therefore to obferve, that his SERMON Faith was more than a Belief of Affent to Chrift's diftant Incarnation, for the mercenary Balaam did forefee and prophecy of that; but it was in Abraham the Substance of Things hoped for, an Energy of the Divine Spirit, or what St. Paul calls "The Coloff. ii. "Faith of the Operation of God," by12. which very Christ was manifefted in his very Soul: He beheld with his inward Eye the Brightness of his Glory: Abraham faw my Day and was glad-is the Teftimony of our Lord to the Jews concerning him; and had no more been meant by these Words than a remote View of his Humiliation and Sufferings, the Explanation of his Affertion in answer to their Query had not been pertinent Before Abraham Before Abraham was I am. That Abraham's Faith therefore was as truly a Gospel, juftifying Faith, under the Seal of Circumcifion, as ours can be under that of Baptifm, will admit of no Doubt. It was counted to him for Righteoufnefs, as much as if it had been his own, for thro' his Union with Him who is the true Righteousness, by Faith, Chrift was made fuch unto him, and being a Branch grafted into the good Olive Tree, he beT 3

came

SERMON Came Partaker of its Root and Fatness. In
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the Power of this Divine Faith, as its proper Principle, we fee the Foundation of Abraham's exemplary Obedience: He stag gered not thro' Unbelief under the most trying Exercise of it, but "was strong in "Faith giving Glory to God." Had he confulted the fallacious Oracle of his Reafon, it would much fooner have taught him to difbelieve the Truth of the Command than to obey it. What Arguments would it have fupplied from the Pleadings of Nature and the Soundings of Bowels? What wife Distinctions, what fubtle Subterfuges, what artful Evafions would it have fuggefted in favour of Difobedience! What, fhed the Blood, the Blood of my Son, my Son Ifaac! Can the God of Mercy and Goodness enjoin an A&t of Cruelty? Can the God of Truth give a Promife, and confirm it by the Birth of a miraculous Child, and then command me, the Father of that Child, to defeat the Defign of the Promife, by fheathing my Knife in his Bowels? Can the God of Faithfulness eftablish his Covenant with Ifaac, and his Seed after him, and compel me to flay that Ifaac, and fo cut off all Poffibility of Iffue from

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him? It cannot be-Reafon pronounces it SERMON abfurd, impoffible-Nature loudly exclaims against the horrid Act-All God's Attributes oppose the Execution -The Command therefore must have a figurative MeaningI will fubftitute a Ram for a Sacrifice, and it fhall be called Ifaac. Thus ingenious is Reafon to elude the Force of the Divine Commands when they crofs the Bent of our Nature and Inclinations. What Salvo's! What Shiftings! What Compofition! What Commutation! will this crafty Cafuift invent to bring us off, when some ruling Paffion, fome darling Ifaac ftands in the Way of our Obedience! We all know it; we have all experienced it. But when it pleafes God to reveal his Son in us as He - did in Abraham and Paul, we no longer Gal. i. 16. confer with Flesh and Blood, for Faith then becomes fufficient for Evidence, and fufficient for Obedience; it puts to Silence the Cavils and Objections of our vain Reafonings, diffipates our Doubts and Fears, animates our Hope, invigorates our Love, and overcomes the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. Thus thro' Chrift ftrengthening us we can do all Things. In Him we are Conquerors, yea more than Conquerors, Ꭲ 4

for

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SERMON for he addeth Triumph to Victory-Evermore, Lord, give us this Faith!

In this eminent Example of Abraham we fee how Faith is the beft Support and Security of good Works, and that these, in a Gospel Senfe, are not to be estimated from the Matter of them, but from the Principle whence they flow: Accordingly the Wifdom of our Church has rightly declared them to be the Effect and not the Caufe of our Juftification; as likewife, that a true faving Faith is founded in Grace, for that Man of his own natural Strength cannot prepare himself thereto : which well agrees with the Apostle's Doctrine,where, fpeaking of the promised Inheritance, he faith, "it Rom. iv. " is of Faith, that it might be by Grace." Were a faving Faith nothing more than a bare Affent of the natural Understanding to outwardly revealed Truths, it would be difficult to diftinguish it from a common Exercife of the rational Faculties, and confequently difficult to juftify St. Paul's Affertion, that we are faved, not of our "felves," &c. But when we deduce Faith, with the fame Apoftle, from a Divine Operation in the Souls of them to whom it is given to believe, and fo own it to be the Gift

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of