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SERMON XIV.

THE OFFERING OF ISAAC.

GENESIS Xxii. 10-12.

And Abraham stretched forth took the knife to slay his son.

his hand, and And the angel

of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, 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 from me.

THE contemplation of God's dealings with the sons of men, drew from the Psalmist this sublime acknowledgment of his greatness and his majesty: "Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in the deep waters, and thy footsteps are not known." A confession this, expressive not only of the awful sublimity of God's character, but implying the full conviction of his truth and faithfulness. For though the ways of God elude

human sagacity, and transcend human comprehension; though we are compelled to confess that clouds and darkness are round about him, we are still so far enlightened by the many beams of majesty and love which meet our sight, that we can repose with confidence in the assurance, that righteousness and truth are the habitation of his throne. The ways of God are not as our ways; and this results not more from the perfection of his holiness, than from the perfection of his knowledge. To his all-seeing eye, one glance conveys the most remote consequences, as well as the more immediate development of every dispensation. In the scenes of our prosperity, while we are anxious only for enjoyment, his ever-watchful care foresees the dangers into which our own folly and rashness may lead us, and mercifully adapts the aid of his grace to our necessities. In our afflictions, he administers the correction needful for our souls; and though we may repine under the rod that smites us, yet in his mercy he chastens us, that he may teach us to keep his law. Under all circumstances, and under all dispensations, these reflections ought to temper our joys, or to console our sorrows; these views of God's dealings ought to bear up our hearts under all our trials, so that resigning ourselves to his will, and submitting to his gracious purposes, we may learn, in patient

continuance in well-doing, to wait for his salvation.

The history of Abraham appears to illustrate the correctness of these views of the dealings of God. It is likewise an almost unbroken exhibition of the influence of faith in the soul, and its effects upon the conduct. It is to the influence of this divine principle that the apostle ascribes the conduct of the patriarch, more especially in those particular passages of his life, which he records, while describing the efficacy of faith, in the epistle to the Hebrews. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out to a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called; accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure."

We shall endeavour to consider this transaction, first, with respect to the patriarch himself; and, secondly, as it bears a typical reference to

the great seed of Abraham, the Saviour of the world.

Let us then first consider the transaction with respect to the patriarch himself.

It was intended as a trial of his faith and obedience. Fifty years had now elapsed, since first the Almighty had specially revealed himself to Abram, and had called him to leave his country and his kindred. In obedience to this command, and trusting to the fulfilment of that promise with which it was accompanied, he had left the tabernacles of his fathers, he had resigned all the connexions of his house, and had gone forth into the wide world, a wanderer indeed, but yet a pilgrim of hope. Without a place on which to rest the sole of his foot, in that land which God had promised him for an inheritance, still his faith in that promise failed not; and though he hoped not himself to see its fulfilment, yet for the tents of Haran he had ceased to languish, and from the distant home of his birth, he had turned in confident expectation of this fairer land. The gradual development of God's designs revealed to him the mighty privilege, which was reserved for him; and it was declared, that, out of the chosen family of Noah's offspring from which Messiah should arise, he was himself selected as the great ancestor of this restorer of man. The promise had gone forth from the lips of Jehovah, "In thy seed shall all the families of the

earth be blessed." The son, who had been foretold as the immediate inheritor of these promises, was at length born; and to him that was already an hundred years old, and to Sarah's hopeless barrenness, was this blessing given, the earnest and the pledge of God's eternal truth. To rejoice in this fulness of God's bountiful mercy; to dwell with rapture on the future scenes of glory and of power, that should arise upon his posterity; to cast forward his thoughts to loftier themes of spiritual triumph, and to contemplate the universality of that blessing which his seed should dispense-- these were perhaps the occupations of his mind, and while he was impressed with the magnificence of the prospect, he doubtless felt all the reality of those covenanted blessings, which were assured to him by the word of Jehovah : "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham;" he proved or made trial of his constancy and his obedience. With inimitable simplicity and feeling this trial is described: "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burntoffering upon one of the mountains that I will tell thee of." Where now the promise of Isaac's seed? Where now the hope of blessing and of glory? Where now the accomplishment of the great purposes of a God of grace? God of grace? Thus might

he have reasoned, had his faith and confidence