2. Faith solves all doubts and riddles, whenever we are in a puzzle ; for Abraham was divided — What ! shall I offer Isaac, and put the promises to slaughter, or must I disobey God on the other side ? Now faith doth silence this riddle — ' He accounted that God was able to raise him from the dead.' Faith by a resolute dependence saith, Let Isaac go, God will provide for the promise well enough. Faith believes the accomplishment of the promise, whatever reason and sense say to the contrary ; and if the command of killing his son contradict the whole gospel of the promised seed, yet, because both comes from God, faith leaveth it to God to solve his own riddle ; it cuts the knot asunder by a resolute dependence upon the power of God. I must kill Isaac, and yet God's power is sufficient to make good his promise. Faith recon- ciles the greatest contradictions, and so settles doubtful thoughts : Job xiii. 15, 'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him;' though he
3()6 SKllMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SeR. LII.
make breach upon breach, yet faith can reconcile the hand of God, though most heav}', with the heart of God ; it can reconcile death with life; nothing with all things; anger with favour. And so for the commands of God. Unsanclified reason is an unfit judge of divine commands ; but with faith God's authority prevails, whatever our private reason may allege to the contrary. Men take their measures amiss when they make human reason the supreme judge of all things in religion ; no, faith is an absolute submission to the authority of God : 2 Cor. X. 5, ' Casting down imnginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into cap- tivity every thought to the obedience of Ciirist.' If anything appear to be a divine revelation, as the doctrine of the trinity, and the resurrec- tion, l)uman reason must not be heard against it ; neither must we question the truth of any divine promise for the improbability and difficulty of the fulfilling of it.
3. Faith looketh for the restitution of our comforts again, in kind or in value, when they seem to be most lost. Faith knows it is a saving bargain to lose things for God's sake. The way to save is to lose ; he can and will, beyond comparison, recompense whatever is lost for him: Mark x. 29, 30, ' Whoever forsakes father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, shall have an hundredfold,' &c. ; that is, shall have his parents, relations, and comforts in kind ; or else he shall have it abundantly made up to him. Carnal sense knows not what to make of these promises, and therefore Julian the Apostate scoffed at this promise, as if it were a very great absurdity, that Christ should say. He that loseth father, or mother, shall receive an hundred- fold. What ! Shall they have a hundred fathers and a hundred mothers ? — No; but we shall have them in value. Abraham knew he should receive Isaac here one way or other, though he could not see which way — ' He received him in a figure,' as is said in the next verse. The king of Israel, when the Lord bade him to dismiss the army that he had hired, was mightily troubled ; saith he, 2 Chron. xxv. 9, ' What shall we do for the hundi-ed talents whicli I have given to the army of Israel ? And the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.' All trouble ariseth from this, when sense can- not tell how our comforts shall be made up. What recompense shall we have for those things we part with for God's sake ? for when a thing appears not, we think it quite gone. Faith saith, God is able to give thee more than this. When a man is made a beggar for God's sake ; when he is exposed to the frowns of the world, to poverty and contempt, for God's sake, sense says, How shall we live ? how shall our family and children be provided for ? God is able to give thee more ; these things shall be supplied, the comforts we lose shall be made up again ; for a man can be no loser by God.
4. Faith is a grace that looks to things, and then the harshest trials seem nothing. Sense looks to things present ; then it is bitter, harsh, and troublesome to deny ourselves upon thejustest reasons of religion; but faith looks to things to come, and then afflictions are light : 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18, ' For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding, and eternal weight of glory. While we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are not seen ;
Vers. 17-19.] sermons upon Hebrews xi. 367
for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal.' Give me a man that hath a sight of eternity, and then turn him loose to the frowns of the world — to the favours of the world, to temptations and trials, they are nothing, he goes through them merrily, because his heart is taken up with higher and better things. When he hath the perspective of faith, and looks into the other world, and hath had a ravishing affective sight of the glorious in- lieritance, he can easily part with the world when God calls for it There is nothing great to him that knows the greatness of eternity; it is nothing to be judged of man's judgment, to be exposed to man's wrath ; they are acquainted with eternity, and the things of another world. Faith looks within the veil, and so hath a mighty influence on the support of the soul in times of trial.