OF ISAAC SACRIFICED.

BUT all these are but easy tasks of faith: all ages have stood amazed at the next; not knowing whether they should more wonder at God's command, or Abraham's obedience. Many years had that good patriarch waited for his Isaac; now at last he hath joyfully received him, and that with this gracious acclamation; In Isaac shall thy seed be called, and all nations blessed. Behold, the son of his age, the son of his love, the son of his expectation, he that might not endure a mock from his brother, must now endure the knife of his father: Take thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee to the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering.

Never any gold was tried in so hot a fire. Who but Abraham would not have expostulated with God? "What! doth the God of mercies now begin to delight in blood? Is it possible that murder should become piety? or, if thou wilt needs take pleasure in a human sacrifice, is there none but Isaac fit for thine altar; none but Abraham to offer him? Shall these hands destroy the fruits of mine own loins? Can I not be faithful unless I be unnatural; or, if I must needs be the monster of all parents, will not Ishmael be acyet cepted? O God, where is thy mercy; where is thy justice? Hast thou given me but one only son, and must I now slay him? Why did I wait so long for him? Why didst thou give him me? Why didst thou promise me a blessing in him? What will the heathen say, when they shall hear of this infamous massacre? How can thy name and my profession escape a perpetual blasphemy? With what face shall I look upon my wife Sarah, whose son I have murdered? How shall she entertain the executioner of Isaac ? or who will believe that I did this from thee? How shall not all the world spit at this holy cruelty, and say, There goes the man that cut the throat of his own son?' Yet if he were an ungracious or rebellious child, his deserts might give some colour to this violence; but to lay hands on so dear, so dutiful, so hopeful a son, is incapable of all pretences. But grant that thou, which art the God of nature, mayest either alter or neglect it: what shall I say to the truth of thy promises? Can thy justice admit contradictions? Can thy decrees be changeable? Canst thou promise and disappoint? Can these two stand together, Isaac shall live to be the father of nations;" and Isaac shall now die by the hand of his father? When Isaac is once gone, where is my seed, where is my blessing? O God, if thy commands and purposes be capable of alteration, alter this bloody sentence, and let thy first word stand."

These would have been the thoughts of a weak heart: but God knew that he spake to an Abraham, and Abraham knew that he had to do with a God: faith had taught him not to argue, but obey. In a holy wilfulness he either forgets nature, or despises her;

he is sure that what God commands, is good; that what he promises, is infallible; and therefore is careless of the means, and trusts to the end.

In matters of God, whosoever consults with flesh and blood shall never offer up his Isaac to God: there needs no counsellor when we know God is the commander: here is neither grudging, nor deliberating, nor delaying: his faith would not suffer him so much as to be sorry for that he must do. Sarah herself may not know of God's charge, and her husband's purpose, lest her affection should have overcome her faith; lest her weakness, now grown importunate, should have said, "Disobey God and die." That which he must do, he will do; he, that hath learned not to regard the life of his son, had learned not to regard the sorrow of his wife. It is too much tenderness to respect the censures and constructions of others, when we have a direct word from God.

The good patriarch rises early, and addresses himself to his sad Journey. And now must he travel three whole days to this execution; and still must Isaac be in his eye, whom all this while he seems to see bleeding upon the pile of wood which he carries : there is nothing so miserable as to dwell under the expectation of a great evil; that misery which must be, is mitigated with speed, and aggravated with delay. All this while, if Abraham had repented him, he had leisure to return.

There is no small trial even in the very time of trial. Now, when they are come within sight of the chosen mountain, the servants are dismissed; what a devotion is this that will abide no witnesses! He will not suffer two of his own vassals to see him do that, which soon after all the world must know he hath done; yet is not Abraham afraid of that piety, which the beholders could not see without horror, without resistance; which no ear could hear of without abomination. What stranger could have endured to see the father carry the knife and fire, instruments of that death, which he would rather suffer than inflict?-The son securely carrying that burden which must carry him?

But if Abrahain's heart could have known how to relent, that question of his dear, innocent, and religious son had melted it into compassion; My father, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the sacrifice? I know not whether that word, My father, did not strike Abraham as deep as the knife of Abraham could strike his son: yet doth he not so much as think, "O miserable man, that may not at once be a son to such a God, and a father to such a son;" still he persists, and conceals, and, where he meant not, prophesies; My son, God shall provide a lamb for the burnt offering.

The heavy tidings were loath to come forth: it was a death to Abraham to say what he must do: he knows his own faith to act this, he knows not Isaac's to endure it. But now when Isaac hath helped to build the altar, whereon he must be consumed, he hears, not without astonishment, the strange command of God, the final will of his father: "My son, thou art the lamb which God hath provided for this burnt-offering: if my blood would have excused

thee, how many thousand times would I rather to give thee mine own life than take thine! Alas, I am full of days, and now of long lived not but in thee; thou mightest have preserved the life of thy father, and have comforted his death, but the God of us both hath chosen thee: he, that gave thee unto me miraculously, bids me by an unusual means return thee unto him. I need not tell thee, that I sacrifice all my worldly joys, yea and myself, in thee; but God must be obeyed; neither art thou too dear for him that calls thee: come on, my son, restore the life that God hath given thee by me: offer thyself willingly to these flames; send up thy soul cheerfully unto thy glory; and know that God loves thee above others, since he requires thee alone to be consecrated in sacrifice to himself.".

Who cannot imagine with what perplexed mixtures of passions, with what changes of countenance, what doubts, what fears, what amazement, good Isaac received this sudden message from the mouth of his father, how he questioned, how he pleaded? But when he had somewhat digested his thoughts, and considered that the author was God, the actor Abraham, the action a sacrifice, he now approves himself the son of Abraham; now he encourages the trembling hand of his father, with whom he strives in this praise of forwardness and obedience; now he offers his hands and feet to the cords, his throat to the knife, his body to the altar; and growing ambitious of the sword and fire, intreats his father to do that which he would have done though he had dissuaded him. O holy emulation of faith! O blessed agreement of the sacrificer and oblation! Abraham is as ready to take, as Isaac to give; he binds those dear hands, which are more straitly bound with the cords of duty and resolution: he lays his sacrifice upon the wood, which now before-hand burnt inwardly with the heavenly fire of zeal and devotion.

And now, having kissed him his last, not without mutual tears, he lifts up his hand to fetch the stroke of death at once, not so much as thinking, "perhaps God will relent after the first wound." Now, the stay of Abraham, the hope of the Church, lies about to bleed under the hand of a father: what bowels can choose but yearn at this spectacle? which of the savagest heathens that had been now upon the hill of Moriah, and had seen, through the bushes, the sword of a father hanging over the throat of such a son, would not have been more perplexed in his thoughts, than that unexpected sacrifice was in those briars? yet he whom it nearest concerned is least touched; faith hath wrought the same in him which cruelty would in others, not to be moved. He contemns all fears, and overlooks all impossibilities; his heart tells him that the same hand, which raised Isaac from the dead womb of Sarah, can raise him again from the ashes of his sacrifice: with this confidence was the hand of Abraham now falling upon the throat of Isaac, who had given himself for dead, and rejoiced in the change; when suddenly the angel of God interrupts him, forbids him, commends him. The voice of God was never so welcome, never so sweet, never

so seasonable as now: it was the trial, that God intended, not the fact; Isaac is sacrificed, and is yet alive: and now both of them are more happy in that they would have done, than they could have been distressed if they had done it. God's charges are oft-times harsh in the beginnings and proceeding, but in the conclusion always comfortable: true spiritual comforts are commonly late and sudden God defers on purpose that our trials may be perfect, our deliverance welcome, our recompence glorious; Isaac had never been so precious to his father, if he had not been recovered from death; if he had not been as miraculously restored as given: Abraham had never been so blessed in his seed, if he had not neglected Isaac for God. The only way to find comfort in any earthly ching, is to surrender it, in a faithful carelessness, into the hands of God. Abraham came to sacrifice, he may not go away with dry hands: God cannot abide that good purposes should be frustrated. Lest either he should not do that for which he came, or should want means of speedy thanksgiving for so gracious a disappointment; behold a ram stands ready for the sacrifice, and, as it were, proffers himself to this happy exchange. He, that made that beast, brings him thither, fastens him there even in small things there is a great providence. What mysteries there are in every act of God! the only Son of God, upon this very hill is laid upon the altar of the Cross; and so becomes a true sacrifice for the world, that yet he is raised without impeachment, and exempted from the power of death: the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world, is here really offered and accepted: one Saviour in two figures; in the one dying; restored in the other. So Abraham, while he exercises his faith, confirms it; and rejoices more to foresee the true Isaac in that place offered to death for his sins, than to see the carnal Isaac preserved from death for the reward of his faith.

Whatsoever is dearest to us upon earth is our Isaac; happy are we if we can sacrifice it to God: those shall never rest with Abraham, that cannot sacrifice with Abraham. Gen. xxii.

OF LOT AND SODOM.

BEFORE Abraham and Lot grew rich, they dwelt together; now their wealth separates them: their society was a greater good than their riches; many a one is a loser by his wealth: who would account those things good which make us worse?

It had been the duty of young Lot to offer rather than to choose; to yield rather than contend: who would not here think Abraham the nephew, and Lot the uncle? It is no disparagement for greater persons to begin treaties of peace. Better doth it beseem every son of Abraham to win with love, than to sway with power. Abraham yields over this right of his choice; Lot takes it. And behold, Lot is crossed in that which he chose, Abraham is blessed in that which was left him; God never suffers any man to lose, by an humble remission of his right in a desire of peace.

Wealth had made Lot not only undutiful, but covetous; he sees the good plains of Jordan, the richness of the soil, the commodity of the rivers, the situation of the cities, and now, not once inquiring into the conditions of the inhabitants, he is in love with Sodom: outward appearances are deceitful guides to our judgment, or affections: they are worthy to be deceived that value things as they seem: it is not long after, that Lot pays dear for his rashness. He fled for quietness with his uncle, and finds war with strangers: now is he carried prisoner with all his substance, by great enemies; Abraham must rescue him, of whom he was forsaken. That wealth, which was the cause of his former quarrels, is made a prey to merciless heathens: that place, which his eye covetously chose, betrays his life and goods. How many Christians, while they have looked at gain, have lost themselves!

Yet this ill success hath neither driven out Lot, nor amended Sodom; he still loves his commodity, and the Sodomites their sins: wicked men grow worse with afflictions, as water grows more cold after a heat; and as they leave not sinning, so God leaves not plaguing them, but still follows them with succession of judgments. In how few years hath Sodom forgot she was spoiled, and led captive! If that wicked city had been warned by the sword, it had escaped the fire; but now this visitation hath not made ten good men, in those five cities: how fit was this heap for the fire, which was all chaff! Only Lot vexed his righteous soul with the sight of their uncleanness; he vexed his own soul, for who bade him stay there? yet because he was vexed, he is delivered. He escapeth their judgment from whose sins he escaped. Though he would be a guest of Sodom, yet because he would not entertain their sins, he becomes a host to the angels: even the good angels are the executioners of God's judgment: there cannot be a better or more noble act, than to do justice upon obstinate malefactors.

Who can be ashamed of that which did not mis-beseem the very angels of God? Where should the angels lodge but with Lot? the houses of holy men are full of these heavenly spirits, when they know not; they pitch their tents in ours, and visit us, when we see not; and when we feel not, protect us. It is the honour of God's saints to be attended by angels. The filthy Sodomites now flock together, stirred up with the fury of envy and lust; and dare require to do that in troops, which to act single, had been too abominable; to imagine, unnatural: continuance and society in evil, makes wicked men outrageous and impudent: it is not enough for Lot to be the witness, but he must be the bawd also. Bring forth these men, that we may know them. Behold! even the Sodomites speak modestly; though their acts and intents be villanous. What a shame is it for those which profess purity of heart, to speak filthily!

The good man craves and pleads the laws of hospitality; and