po VBRS.2I. An Expo/itton, with Notes heart. So alfo Sen.eia, Incefta ejf & fineJluproqu.eftup~~m cu– pit; the purpofe maketh guilty,though the aa be refirained: God tool< notice of the King ofBaby/on's purpofes and intentions; Ifa. 10. 7· 'Ti& irt his heart to deftroy) and cut offNatiom not ;~few: Morions and inclinatio-ns lhould be watched over. 3· It lheweth Gods readinefs to receive retorning finners; he met his fon while he was yei •t great way off, Luk.: I '5. As foon as the Will layeth down the weapons of defiance, and movetl'l towards God, the Lord runneth to embrace and fall upon the neck of foch apoor Soul, , that he may fatisfie it with ~fome early comforts: So Ifai. 6'). 24. Before they call, I will anfwer, and while they areyet jpeakjng, I Vvill hear. Atl:s of grace do anticipate and often prevent acts of. duty: Turn me, faith Ephr~r.im) and then a dear and pleafant fon, J erem. 3 I .1 8. with 20. verf. As'foon as you fee your faces towards God,he runneth towards you. 4· It lheweth how we lhould en– tertain the purpofes and promifes of God ; look upon them in the promife with fuch a certainty, as if they were aCtually accomplifh– ed : Rev. I 4· 8. lJabylon isfalfet.t, isfallen. God can read dury in the purpofe; we have much more caufe to read ·llccomplijbment in the promife: Hath he faid,and foal/ he not do it ? bath hefpok.£H, tmdjba/1 he not makf it good? NLJmb.23.19. His Will is not changeable as ours, neither is his Power refirained. r.r · 4• From that [ Ott'ered Ifa.Jc upon the Altar·? J He bringeth 0vjCYV,4 , JJ' f f this as the great Argument o the ttuth o Abrahams faith: •y is not for faith to produce every ~Bion, unlefs it producefuch aairms as Abrahams. Such as will engage you to felf-denyal, are crou– blefom to the fldh ; David fcorned fuch fervice as cofi nothing : There where we mufi deny our own reafon, affections, interdt, that's an aCl:ion fie to try a·Beleever. Let us fee what's obfervable in this aCl:ion of Abraham,that we may go and do likewife. I .Ob– ff, rve thegreatnefs of the temptation; 'twas to offer his own fon, the fon of his love, his only fon, a fon longed for, and obtained when his body was dead, and Sarahs 'Womb dead; nay, thefon of the promije; had he been to contend only with natural affection, it had been much; defcenfive love is always vehement,but for love l to Jfaac tht>re were fpecial endearing.reafons and argaments: but Abrahttmwas not only ro conflict with nMural affe[iion, but rea· [on; not only with reafon, bntf.zith: He was as it were toexe· cute all his hopes; and all this w~s to be done by himfelf, with his ' own
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