16 The Excellency ofAbraham's Faith and Obedience. Vol. I- feeins to hiìn to be the great Difficulty, and here he makes ufe of Reafon, to re- concile the feeming Contradiftionofthis Commandof God, to his formerPromife." So the Text tells us, that he offered up bis only begotten Son, of whom it mar faid, that in Ifaac (hall thy Seed be called; Reafoning that God was able to raife him up from the Dead. Sd that tho' /Plc were put to Death, yet he faw how the Promife of God might Hill be made good by his being raifed from the Dead, and living afterwards to have a numerous Pofterity. There had then indeed been no Inftance, or Example of any fuch thing in the World, as the Refurreftioti of one from the Dead, which makes Abraham's Faith the more wonderful : But he confirmed himfelf in this Belief, by an Ex- ample as near the Cafe as might be ; He Reafoned, that God was able to raife him from the Dead, from whence alfo he had received him in a Figure. This I know is by Interpreters generally underftood of Ifaac's being de- livered from the Jaws of Death, when he was laid upon the Altar, and readyto be Slain. But the Text feems not to fpeak of what happened after ; but of fome- thing that had paffed before, by which Abraham confirmed himfelf in this per- fwafion, that if he were Slain, God, would raife him up again. And fo the Words i&sv ixope ew ro ought to be rendred, in the paft time, from whence elfo he had receivedhim in a Figure. So that this Expreffion plainly refers to the miraculous Birth of Ifaac, when his Parents were paft the Age of having Children ; which was little lefs than a Refurreftion from the Dead. And fo the Scripture fpeaks of it. Rom. 4. 17. Abraham believedGod, who quickened the ,Dead, and calleth the things which are not, as if they sacre and not being weak in Faith, he confidered not bis own Body which was Dead; and a little before the Text, fpeaking of the miraculous Birth. of Ifaac) and therefore fprang there of one, and him as goodas dead, as many as the Starr of Heavers. From whence (as the Apoffle tells us) Abraham reafoned thus ; That God, d'ho gave him Ifaac at firft in fo miraculous a manner, was able by another Mi- racle to reftore him to Life again, after he was Dead, and to make him the Fa- ther of manyNations. He Reafoned, that Godwas able to raife him up from the Dead, fromwhence alfa he had received bim in a Figure. Thus, you fee the reafonablenefs of Abraham's Faith ; he pitched upon the main difficulty in the Cafe, and he anfwered it, as well as was poffible : And in his reafoning about this matter he gives the utmoft weight to every thing that might tend to vindicate the truth and faithfulnefs ofGod's Promife, and to make. the Revelations of God cotìfiftent with one another ; and this tho' he had a great Intereff and a very tender Concernment ofhis own, to have biaffed him. For he might have argued with great appearance and probability the other way : But as every pious and good Man fhould do, he reafoned on God's fide, and favoured that Part. Rather than difobey a Command of God, or believe that his Promife fhould be fruffrate, he will believe any thing that is credible and poffible, how improbable foever. Thus far Faith will go; but no farther. From the believing of plain Contradiftions and Impoffibilities, it always defires to be excufed. Thus much for explication of the Words ; 'which I hope hath not been al- together unprofitable, becaufe it tends to clear a point which hath fomething of difficulty and obfcurity in it, and to vindicate the Holy Scripture, and the Divine Revelation therein contained, from, one of the molt fpecious Objeftions of Infidelity. But I had a farther defign in this Text ; and that is to make force Obferva tions and Inferences from it, that may beof ufe to us. As, Firfl, That Humane Nature is capable of clear and full fatisfaftion,', concern- ing a Divine Revelation. For if Abraham had not been fully and paft all doubt affured, that this was a Command fromGod, he would certainly have fpared his Son. And nothing is more reafonable, than tobelieve that thofe, to whom God
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