Here I might observe several things.
Obs. 1. That in extremity God will be seen.
S78 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SeR. LIII.
All was as good as dead, and yet lie receives him again, when the knife was just at his throat : Gen. xxii. 10, 'And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son/ When he had lifted up his hand, just as the knife was at his throat, then the Lord speaks to him and saith, Offer not Isaac. So Paul, 2 Cor. i. 9, when he had the sentence of death, was ready to be torn in pieces, then God useth such a dispensation. When Christ was brought to the very brow of the hill, and they thought to throw him down, then he escaped, Luke iv. 29. 30. And when tiiere was but a hair's breadth betweeij the Jews and ruin in Esther's time, then posts were sent to stop execution. Thus the Lord casts his people into great extremities to try their trust. When the case is desperate, and in human sense we are gone, then God appears : Ps. cxviii. 18, ' The Lord hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death.'
Ohs. 2. The success of believing. Believe and have ; he counted God would raise him from the dead, and then he received him again. God's power, when glorified by an actual faith, will turn to a good account. When we trust God, we lose nothing by it. Trust among men is engaging. If another man trust you, in ingenuity you will not disappoint and fail him. Sure, then, God will not fail a trusting soul : John xi. 40, 'Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe thou shouldst see the glory of God ? ' We shall not see the power of God, nor the beauty of his providence, if we do not trust him. It is said in the Gospel, ' Christ could do no mighty works, because of their unbelief,' Mark xiii. 58, compared with Mark vi. 5. He could not, because he would not. Where his power is not glorified, there it shall not be exercised : 2 Chron. xvi. 8, ' Because thou didst rely on the Lord, therefore he hath delivered them into thine hand.' God is mightily pleased and honoured by it ; and a waiting and trusting soul shall never be disappointed. Abraham counted God was able, and then he hath his Isaac again.
Ohs. 3. Faith doth succeed always, though not in the way that we imagine and fore-conceive.
Abraham looked for Isaac out of the ashes of the sacrifice, but God gave him in another manner. The Lord doth not love that we should always see his way and work ; for he will not only glorify his power in the eyes of tliem that believe, but he will glorify his wisdom, and will accomplish deliverance in a way they thought not of : Isa. xlv. 15, ' Verily thou art a God thatliide.st thyself, 0 God of Israel, the Saviour.' God loves to be a saviour under a veil ; to hide himself, that we shall not see the way of his working ; so Isa. xlviii. 7, ' They are created now, and not from the beginning, even before the day when thou heardest them not ; lest thou shouldst say, Behold I knew them.' God will not have a creature look to the end of his work ; and therefore let us not limit the Holy One of Israel, nor confine him to our means, but leave God to his own way and work. God will do that he hath promised, though we cannot imagine how. There are hidden depths of God's dispensations ; he often carries himself very closely and covertly.
Ohs. 4. Though things do not succeed in a way we forecast and imagine, yet they shall succeed in a better way.
VeR. 19.] SEKMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 379
It was better to have Isaac saved ia this manner than to have him slain, and burnt to ashes, and then restored again. So God's way still is the best way, our way is not so good a way as God will find out for us ; therefore do not confine him to a model of your own framing, but leave God to his own way.
Obs. 5. We receive our comforts anew and our relations anew from God every time when they are rescued out of imminent danger.
It is said he received him. How ? Abraham twice received him ; first in his birth by the grant of God — he was born when Abraham was aged ; and now Isaac hath a new life, he received him again. Therefore when God gives in a relation to you out of a hazardous case, as wife, children, or husband, after a dangerous sickness, receive them as new pledges of God's love, take them as mercies newly bestowed. They seem to have a new life that are preserved in an imminent danger.
Use. If we would do as Abraham did, we must —
1. Acknowledge the supremacy and sovereignty of God, that he hath an absolute power over his creatures to do with them as he pleaseth, either as to life or death. This relieved Abraham as to the lawfulness of the fact, and this will be a great help to us in all our submission to God : 1 Chron. xxix. 11, 12, ' Thine, 0 Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the gloiy, and the victory, and the majesty ; for all that is in the heaven, and in the earth is thine ; thine is the kingdom, 0 Lord, and thou art exalted, as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee and thou reignest over all, and in thine hand is power and might, and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.' He hath power to command us and ours, and what he commandeth we must yield unto. All cometh of him, and we hold all from him and for him. All is at his dispose, he hath power to take away from us, will we, nill we, only he dealeth with us as rational creatures, leaveth us to our choice. Willingly to yield to him is an act of grace, but to be discontented with his dealings showeth we would withhold from him what we could.