[1] The occasion — ' When he was tried.' irecpa^ofievo'; — whea he was tempted, and that by God: Gen. xxii. 1, 'God did tempt Abraham,' See. But now God tempts no man : James i. 13, ' Let no» man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God ; for God caunoS be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he auy man ; ' that is, by inward suggestion and solicitation, but only by presenting the outward occasion, or by some extraordinary command. By presenting an outward occa- sion : Exod. xvi. 2, ' I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out, and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no.' Or else, by an extraordinary command, as God here tried Abraham, or as Christ tried the young man : Mat. xix. 21, • Go and sell that thou hast, ami give to the poor.' There is no injustice in these extraordinary commands ; the lawgiver may make what exception to his own laws he pleaseth. We are bound to the law, but the lawgiver himself is not bound. But why should God try Abraham ? Austin saith, Non ut ipse hominem inveniat, sed ut homo se inveniat — Not that he might know Abraham, but that Abraham might know himself. God knows already what we are ; but he tries us that we may be manifest to our- selves, and to others for their example. It is true, he saith, Gen. xxiL 12, ' Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld} thy son, thy only son from me.' But that is humanitus dictum ; Gn^ci .•speaketh as a man that knoweth not till after trial, as if he should say. Now there is a sufficient proof of thy sincerity. I have caused it to be known, and will accept of it as a good and sufficient proof
[2.] The greatness of the trial, or the occasion amplified from th<? person oftering. the person oflered, and the work itself; and in ah shese respects it will appear that the trial was very great.
(1.) The person ofi'eriug, Abraham, who is looked upon here as a father, and as one that had received the promises — 6 tci<: iirayr-^e^ia'i: dvaSe^dfieio^ — which noteth not only the revelation of the promises concerning a numerous issue, and the Messiah to come of his loins, but his entertaming of them, and cordial assent to them ; he received them not only as a private believer, but as a feoffee in trust for the use
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354 SERMONS UFON HEBREWS XI. [Si-:!;. Lf.
of the church. In the first ages of the world, God had some eminent persons who received a revelation of Grod's will in the name of all the rest. This was Abraham's case ; he is here considered as a father, a loving father, and as one that hath received the promises as a public person, and father of the faithful — the person whom God had chosen in whom to deposit the promises.
(2.) The pei'son offered — Isaac, not bullocks, or goats, or rams, or lambs, but Isaac — a son, and a son whom he loved : Gen. xxii. 2, ' 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 burnt-offering upon one of the mountains, which I shall tell thee of He was the son of Sarah, his legitimate wife, the heir of the lawful bed. Ishmael was cast out of doors, and Isaac's posterity was only to be reckoned to Abraham, as the blessed seed, among whom God would have his church. He was given to Abraham, after he had long gone childless, and when Sarah's womb was dead, and therefore he had never hopes of more children. But all this was nothing to what follows — ' Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called ; ' a child upon whom the accomplish- ment of the promises depended. Nature and grace concurred to incline Abraham's heart to favour Isaac. Nature ; for love is descend- ing, and the children of age are most loved : Abraham's age, when almost expired, was wonderfully renewed in the birth of Isaac, and an only son in whom he might hope to survive. Grace concurred also, the promises pitched on him ; there was no possibility in nature, or promise above nature, that he should have any more children by Sarah ; and Isaac himself was without children, and there was a plain affirma- tion, that the people wiiich should be accounted his seed should spring from Isaac ; not only natural affection, but faith was against it — to kill Isaac was to cut off all his hopes. There is sometimes a quarrel between lust and lust, but here between grace and gi'ace, between faith and obedience ; Isaac being lost, all hopes of the promise seemed to be lost, which was confii-med to him by God's own mouth — the same mouth that gave him the promise, gave him the command to slay the son of the promise. Abraham was now to put all the promises to slaughter ; to cut off Isaac was in effect to cut off all hope of eternal life by Christ, who was to descend of him. Christ was included in in I.saac, and in Christ all the hopes of the church. If the conflict had only been with natural affection, it had been no such great matter ; but the command and promise seemed to clash ; if he had disobeyed the command, he had not been faithful Abraham ; and if he had disbelieved the promise, still he had not been faithful Abraham.