failed. But he obeyed the command; he rose up early in the morning, and set out upon the trying journey. Three days he pursued the path which God had marked out for him; and though accompanied by this son of his love, and tended by all the filial affection of an only child, unconscious of the destiny that awaited him, his purpose remained unchanged, his resolution unabated, his faith unbroken, his obedience unaltered. "And they came to the place which God had told him of: and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood; and Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son."

Here then let us pause, and ask whether the purpose of the Almighty in proving Abraham was not accomplished. No ordinary confidence in God had he exhibited, when he left his native country in obedience to his command, and under all his difficulties, and amid all his wanderings, that confidence had remained unshaken. But never did he so fully exemplify the influence of this principle of faith, as when he yielded up to the will of God the object of his dearest hopes and affections. Isaac was not only bound to his father by the common ties of parental and filial tenderness, but he was the child of promise and the child of faith, the heir of Canaan's land and of Jehovah's favour, the hope of the nations, and

the blessing of the world; in whom centered all the promises of future dignity, and all the brightest prospects of spiritual triumph. If Isaac then was to perish, how were these hopes and promises to be fulfilled? His faith in God, however, remained firm. That almighty power which had quickened his own body that seemed as dead, and had made the barren woman to be a joyful mother; that same power could doubtless, by the exertion of a similar miraculous influence, again restore the promised seed, could again raise from the ashes of the altar, that same Isaac who should bleed and suffer in obedience to his will. Thus "by faith did Abraham offer up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac should thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whom also he received him in a figure." With this unshaken confidence, that, although by a method unknown, or not revealed to himself, the purposes of God as touching the promised seed should be fulfilled, he sought only to comply with the will of the Almighty in its most strict and literal meaning. Of the reality of this command he had no room to doubt; the same almighty Being, whose voice had at first called him from his father's house; whose presence had supported him in his wanderings through a strange country; the voice that had cheered his solitary tent upon the plain, or spoken in accents of mercy

amid the secret communings of his soul; the voice that had promised the son so wonderfully given, and the land, and the blessing, and the glory for which he yet hoped a voice well known by frequent repetition, and accredited by the conviction of its truth, had uttered the command. Being thus convinced of the duty of obedience, he wavered not in unbelief; he undertook the fulfilment of the will of the Almighty, and with unshaken confidence and unfailing faith, he proceeded to accomplish the injunctions of his God.

Return we then to the narrative of the text. Abraham's faith and obedience were fully proved. He had stretched forth his hand and taken the knife to slay his son; and, that he intended fully to execute the command of God, this his uplifted hand is an undoubted proof. The purpose of his trial being thus fulfilled, the message of mercy went forth, and the approval of him that had appointed the trial crowned his obedience. 66 Lay not thine hand upon the lad, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me." Jehovah, therefore, upon this his obedience, again solemnly ratified his covenant with the patriarch: for after the sacrifice of that ram which God had provided, and which Abraham offered in the stead of his son, "the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven the second

time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, that because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice." The promises already made had been assured unto Abraham by a covenant; they were now confirmed by an oath. "Because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself;" and this oath still remains inviolable to the heirs of promise, those children of faith who are blessed with faithful Abraham. "For," to use the language of the apostle, "God has confirmed by an oath to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, that we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to the hope set before us in the gospel." By thus marking, with so decided approbation, the result of this last great trial of the patriarch's faith and obedience, God declared that he was worthy of that honour which had been reserved for him, that he should be the father of many nations and of great people, the father of the faithful, and the friend of God.

We proceed then to consider this transaction, secondly, as it bears a reference to the great Seed of promise, the Saviour of the world.

One of the distinguishing marks of that family

of Noah's descendants which retained the knowledge of the true God, was the connexion of this knowledge with the traditional promise of a future Messiah. God had revealed to Abraham, that out of his own descendants this Messiah should arise; but we know not what precise degree of knowledge he had thus attained. Christ indeed said to the Jews, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad." Perhaps the intention of the Almighty by this transaction might be to afford the patriarch some insight into this mystery of godliness; to show him that the promised seed was to become a sacrifice, and thus a blessing to the earth; and the substitution of the ram in the place of Isaac, might typify the acceptance of the ordinances of the Mosaic ritual, as they bore an especial reference to the atonement of Christ. But whatever may be the value of these conjectures, we at least can undoubtedly see such a resemblance between the type and the antitype, as may convince us, that the death of Christ, with all its circumstances and consequences, was long before contemplated in the divine counsels. Was Isaac the beloved and affectionate son of his father? Christ is the only begotten, the eternal Son of God. Did Isaac toil up the steep of one of Moriah's mountains, laden with the wood of his sacrifice; and did he give himself up a willing victim at his Father's command? Christ bore