once Recommended in Scripture as the great Pattern and Exemplar of the Faith which Justifies and that the Great Commendation of it lies in the Influence it had upon the Holiness and Obedience of his Life And then if we have not the same kind of Faith that is a Faith which makes us Obedient to the Will of God we have not that true and genuine Faith which Justifies And therefore if we Believe but do not obey the Truth we must needs fall as short of the Favour of God as we do of the Faith of Abraham For to speak freely I cannot understand what Use there is of Faith but to quicken us to do the Will of God in order to our obtaining his Favour And if this be the proper and only good Use of Faith it follows that if we separate Faith from Holiness and Obedience it loses all the Virtue which it hath to Justify us And then if we are never so Orthodox in Points of Faith what does it Profit my Brethren Can that Faith save us which cannot procure our accptance with God Have not all Wicked Men that Believe the Truths of Christianity the same Jam. 2.19 Nay the Devils as St. James observes Tremble under as good a Faith as this 'T is strange therefore that any Man of Competent Reason should think that a Dry and Barren Faith a Volatil notion in the Head that never Reaches the Heart and Life should put him into the happiest state that he can possibly attain to in this Life Or that which makes him never the better Man should yet make him the Favourite of God That a Dead and Useless Faith should do him the greatest Kindness in the World and Intitle him to Life Eternal Now if Justifying Faith be more than an Assent to Truth if besides this it be a Vital Principle of Vertue and Holiness we see what a perfect Dream the Antinomian Doctrine of Justification from Eternity is For surely no Man was Justifyed by Faith so long ago as from Eternity And if we were justifyed from Eternity our Faith comes too late to justify us and then there can be no such thing as justifying Faith And this the Patrons of this Opinion do not dissemble in their Descriptions of Faith in which they represent it as a means only of Manifesting and Applying to themselves their Personal justification from Eternity And is not this a fair step to the laying aside of the whole Gospel For let any Impartial Man judge what effect the Great Precepts and Motives of the Gospel are like to have upon those Men that conceive they have but one thing to do to satisfy themselves that they are in a justified state and that is to Believe Roundly that they were so from Eternity 2. We are taught by this Tryal not to stagger or Repine at any sharp or Mysterious Providences but to look upon them as the Wise Methods of God to prove our Sincerity and to exercise our Faith in him Of all the Excellent Men in Scripture there is none that was honoured with more Eminent Tokens of Divine Favour and Acceptance than Abraham was He was styled the Friend of God the Father of the Faithful Seed and the Heir of the World Rom. 4.13 He was Familiarly Visited by Angels from Heaven and Dignify'd with many special Revelations and glorious Promises He was the Keeper of Gods Secrets Gen. 18.17 one whom he declared his Confidence in Yea was so Highly in his Favour that God engaged himself by a Covenant with him to preserve true Religion in his Family in all future Ages and gave him a Prospect of the Day of Christ Joh. 8.56 at almost two thousand Years Distance from it And besides this Instance it has been no Unusual thing with God to single out the Best men for the sharpest Tryals and to propose them as examples of Faith and Patience to their own and all succeeding Generations as appears by the rest of the Worthies of this Chapter and the best Histories of all Ages Now shall we call this an Errour of Providence and conclude that all these Excellent Men were cast out of Gods Favour and Protection because he call'd them to such Noble Tryals for the Honour and Vindication of their Faith If not we can infer nothing either against our selves while we study to please God or against the Equity and goodness of his Providence from the Troubles and Perplexities of this present Life how extraordinary soever they may be for the Nature or Circumstances of them We should consider rather that good Men are the fittest to serve the Great ends of Providence and to teach the World Submission to the Appointments of it by their Afflictions and Tryals And this clears at once the Wisdom and goodness of God in thus training them up for those excessive Heights of Glory which are prepared in Heaven for them 3. The Carriage of Abraham in this Tryal may serve to convince the World that there is such a thing as Living by Faith that is serving God without Respect to Worldly Advantages nay in view of the greatest Losses and disappointments that can be sustained by it The looser part of Mankind has been always very apt to charge the sincere with pretending Religion for secular ends Being willing to ease themselves of the shame of their wicked and Impious Lives they would faign have the World believe that there is no such thing as true Faith and Piety That 't is nothing but Hypocrisie that gives some men the Reputation of being better than others And that the Best love the World at their Hearts as dearly as those that Proclaim their Passion for it and professedly make their Court to it And the truth is it has cost the Servants of God very dear in their several Ages to Undeceive the World in this matter and to Vindicate the Honour of Religion against the Scoffs and Infidelity of Men. For I doubt not but one special end of the Tryals and Sufferings of Good Men is to convince the World that Religion is a Reality and that there are those that chearfully serve God upon the Faith and Hope of a Better Life yea tho' it cost them their very dearest Delights and Comforts in this The Example in the Text is a Demonstration of this beyond all possibility of Evasion or Answer And since Abrahams Children have the same Kind of Faith which he himself was so Renowned for I mean a Faith which carries them through the service of God in Pursuit of a Heavenly Country and a Kingdom which hath Foundations this vindicates all True Believers to the end of Time from the Foul charge of Hypocrisie and doing their Works to be feen of Men. 'T is the Character of their Family That they Believe him that is Invisible That they live by Faith and not by Sense and are all of them Men and Women of the same Spirit and Ingenuity tho' not in the same Perfection that Abraham was
And that there is and always will be such a Family in the Earth is as evident as the Covenant which God made with Abraham when the Church was impaled in his little Family and ten Promise of our Saviour to His That the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And therefore they that are and know that they are sincere have no reason to value the Censures of Men. 'T is enough that they seek to please God and that he Knows their Integrity for God is infinitely and if we are sincere he cannot Judge otherwise of us and then we are safe our Reward is sure and will be great in Heaven We need not ask leave of Men to be what we are or stand to their Courtesy to bring us into Favour with him that Judgeth Righteously 'T is enough in all reason That God and our Consciences are Ready to Acquit us 4. Lastly The success of this Tryal should Inspire us with Zeal and Resolution to serve and please God in all instances of Obedience to him There is no Duty too hard for a vigorous and Lively Faith There is none but what the Servants of God have discharged before us And when we reflect upon what our great Examples have done and consider how nobly they have acquitted themselves in the same Race that is set before us why should we not aspire to be as brave and Resolute as they were and to break through the Discouragements which could not hinder them from Running and finishing their Course with Joy Did they Climb over the highest Difficulties And may not we be ashamed to couch under the ordinary hardships in Religion Did they depend upon God when nothing but Miracles could Relieve their hopes in him And shall we distrust his goodness and Protection while we actually enjoy them and he is pleas'd to continue so many Visible Tokens of his Favour and Concernment for us Did they leave their Country at God's Command And shall we think it too much but to leave the Vices of ours which have long threatned to turn us out of Possession of it Again did they stick at nothing to please God not so much as at the Offering of an Only Son And shall we that have Better Promises than they had Refuse him so Reasonable a Service as to offer up our Souls and Bodies in holy Flames of Devotion and Love which is the perfect and indisputable Will of God and therefore must be extreamly acceptable to him 'T is ture That without Faith it is Impossible to please God But sure it is not Impossible to Believe and so by vertue of our Faith to obey and please him For this is the Argument of the whole Discourse in this Chapter which out of the Sacred Annals of the Primitive Church presents us with a Catalogue of many Eminent Believers who became the favourites of God by their Faith and Obedience to him And what is the Natural consequence of this But that we who have the same and in some Respects much greater Advantages than they had should endeavour to shew the same greatness of Mind and Invincible Resolution in Gods Service To Conclude we have an Incomparable Pattern of Faith and Piety in the Text Abraham the Friend of God laying himself at his Foot and his Son upon his Altar in Obedience to his Soveraign Will and Pleasure How much more should we at Gods Command Sacrifice our Darling Lusts that would destroy our Souls since one of the two must dye And this is a Sacrifice much cheaper and no less Acceptable to God than Abrahams Oblation was Micah 6.7 8. More grateful to him than thouthousands of Rams or ten thousand Rivers of Oyl Than if thou gavest thy First-born for thy Transgression the Fruit of thy Body for the sin of thy Soul Offer this as the First fruits of thy Faith without which thy very Prayers will be turned into sin Then shalt thou have favour in the sight of God through the meritorious Sacrifice of his only Son and by walking before him as Abraham did may'st assuredly hope after a short Tryal of thy Faith and Patience in this World to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Faithful in the Kingdom of God Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant we may all do through the Merits and Mediation of his Son Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be Ascribed all Honour and Glory Dominion and Power now and for ever Amen Sermon II. ON The Danger of a Mis-inform'd Conscience or mistaken Principles in Religion Acts 26.9 I verily thought with my self That I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth THESE Words are part of the Confession of an Eminent Convert to the Christian Religion A man of Learning and Zeal and Conscience that had the Benefits of a Religious Education and of great natural Endowments and that made a more than an ordinary figure both in the Jewish and Christian Church In the former he was a Ring-leader of the Sect of the Pharisees A Sect which perhaps till the Days of Ignatius Loyola never had its equal in the World And as the Pharisees of any party among the Jews were known to be the keenest against the Christians so he owns himself to have been as errant a Pharisee as hearty and as eager a Persecutor as any of his Order ver 10.11 He was the Man by his own Confession that shut up many of the Saints in Prison and when they were put to Death for their Religion he gave his Voice against them Others he Punisht often in the Synagogues and compell'd them to Blaspheme i.e. to Renounce their Faith in Christ Plin. Ep. Tra. de Christian and to Curse him Using the same Cruelty towards them which the Heathen Governours afterwards did and those that refused this horrid Treachery to their Lord he Persecuted into strange that is Heathen Cities These things were contracy in deed and one would think should be always so esteem'd to the Name of Jesus But there is one thing in St. Pauls Confession which appears to be stranger than all this And that is that it was his Judgment and Conscience that made him thus severe to the Christians and his Zeal to God and Religion that rais'd the Persecution against them It was it seems the prevailing sense of his Mind a Case he had determined within himself that he ought to run down the Religion of Jesus So he tells the King and Court in these Words I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth A hearty Champion you see he had been against the Christian Religion But how came he to fall into an Opinion and to Espouse a Principle that the worst Religion might well be ashamed of The true account of it is St. Paul had been a Right-bred Pharisee Acts 23.6 having suckt in the Principles of that Superstitious
are said to have dyed in Faith being perswaded of the Promises and having embraced them many Ages before the time was come for the accomplishment of them Then for the Power and Efficacy of this Grace the Apostle tells us what Transcendent things it has done in Ancient times and that by vertue of it the Elders obtained a good Report ver 2. by which he means That the Great and Famous Actions Recorded of the Patriarchs and other Worthies in the Old Testament were all owing to their Faith by Faith they pleased God bore up against the Malice of the World subdued Kingdoms and wrought Righteousness in despight of the greatest Difficulties and the highest Discouragements Many Instances he gives us of these Noble Flights of Faith amongst which there is none in all respects more remarkable than the Example in the Text By Faith Abraham when he was tryed Offered up Isaac and he that Received the Promises offered up his only begotten Son Of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy Seed be called Two things are observable in these Words 1. The Hardness of the Tryal which God made of Abraham when he commanded him to offer up Isaac to Him 2. The Issue of this Tryal or the Victory of Abraham's Faith over all the Hardships and Discouragements which he met with in it Both these were extraordinary and being written for our Instruction will surely afford us very useful Reflections in reference to our Faith and Practice I begin with the First viz. 1. The Hardness of the Tryal which God put Abraham upon for the Discovery of his Faith and affiance in him The Text calls it a Tryal which implies that God commanded Abraham to offer up his Son for had it been a Free-will Offering without any Order or Direction from God such as the Heathen Oblations were when they Sacrificed their Children to their Idols it had been a plain and horrid Act of Murther Nor was it necessary as some have Fancied to clear the Righteousness of God and Abraham in this matter that God should dispence with the Sixth Commandment when he obliged the Patriarch to kill his Son because it had been Murther to kill him without his Command For that Commandment as is plain by the case before us Forbids only to Kill without Gods Authority which Abraham never went about to do and therefore needed no Dispensation for it He had an Express Commission from God who is absolute Lord of Life and Death and never barrs his Prerogative by his Laws and may therefore use his Power as he pleases and take away the Life of the most Innocent Person as well by the Hand of a Father and the Fire upon the Altar as by an Infection in the Air by Lightning or Tempest or any other Messenger of Death And thus Moses tells us that God Tempted Abraham and bid him go and offer his Son upon a certain Mountain in Moriah for a Burnt Offering Gen. 22.1 2. And herein lay the sharpness of Abrahams Tryal that either he must contend with God and Dispute his Authority or do the strangest thing that ever was done in the World to please him That we may the better understand the Case let us consider what it was that God demanded of Abraham as a Test of his sincerity towards Him and what plausible Arguments a Person in his Circumstances might be supposed to frame against it 1. First then God commands him to Sacrifice his Son than which nothing could be more surprizing or unwelcome to him Who ever heard of such an Act of Piety before of so hard a Precept or so Unlikely a way of pleasing God as this What would an ordinary Faith have done how would natural Reason have Pleaded in this case Might not Abraham himself be supposed to reason thus Must I then lay aside all Humanity and imbrue my Hands in the Blood of my Own Son Must I forget that I am a Father and Destroy the Life which I gave Does not Nature teach us to be Kind and Dutiful towards the Off-spring of our own Bowels And are not the Laws of Nature Engraven upon our Minds by the Finger of God himself Has not the Reason which God has given me hither to condemned the Action which he now Commands And tho' I know he is always Just and Good and would do always that which I know would Please him yet how can I hope to Please him by Destroying his Image in my own Child What will the World say of me who profess to Worship God in the purest manner should I Pollute his Altars with my Sons Blood and do that strange and unaccountable thing which must needs be a Scandal to his Holy Religion So harsh a command as this was enough to put not Nature only but Faith it self upon the stretch and being perfectly New and Arbitrary to fright Men from the Worship of God which this Holy Man had been the Best Example and the greatest Promoter of 2. But then God did not only command Abraham to Sacrifice his Son but his Beloved and Only Son Isaac i. e. his only Son by Sarah the Free-Woman and true Mother of the Family which was to convey an Universal Blessing to Mankind Take now thy Son saith God thine only Son Isaac Gen. 22.2 whom thou lovest and get thee into the Land of Moriah and offer him there for a Burnt Offering And this greatly increases the difficulty of Abrahams Obedience that it should please God to demand not one out of many but his Only Son his Isaac whom he intirely loved the only Joy of his Mother and the only hope of the Family which was to make the best figure of any other in the World And now might not Abraham have said Lord must I bereave my self of the Child which nothing but a Miracle of thine could raise out of my Aged Loins Must I take away a Life for which I would gladly Exchange my own Will not all my Flocks and Herds afford an Acceptable Sacrifice to thee All these I would freely offer instead of that Innocent Lamb in which all my Earthly Treasure and Comfort lies Let not the Lord be angry and I will speak this once Is not the Life of Sarah bound up in the Life of the Child How shall I answer the Death of Isaac to her Or must I be the Instrument of two such Deaths at once and when I have slain the Son carry the Killing Tidings to the Unhappy Mother Oh how great a streight was this Good Man driven into when he must either have forfeited the Favour of God or bereaved himself of all that was Dear to him in this World by the strangest act of Obedience that was ever heard of in it 3. Another grand Discouragement to Abrahams Obedience was that his Beloved Isaac was a Son of very great and glorious Promises which his untimely Death must without a Miracle frustrate the completion of For God had promised to make him the Father
of a numerous Off-spring and that in him should all the Nations of the Earth be Blessed And 't is certain That Gods Command to Abraham to offer up his Son was not more express than his Promise concerning that very Son of whom it was said That in Isaac shall thy Seed be called And this starts a new Difficulty For now the Question seems to be whether Abraham was more obliged to obey Gods Injunction than to Believe his Promises which would naturally suggest such thoughts to him as these God has given me a Son and in him a Promise of a blessed Seed and a numerous Posterity If I execute his command what will his promise signify Shall Isaac become a Father when I have made him a Sacrifice when I have taken away his Life in Obedience to God will he send him back to me Surely if he designed to do this He that has been so gratious as to reveal himself upon several occasions to me would not hide so great and joyful a Secret from me 'T is true God has an unquestionable Right to my Obedience but then he is pleased to give me a Right in his Promise And since He is not a Man that he should Repent and since his promise was antecedent to his Command may I not Interpret his Command by his Promise And infer from hence that whatever Tryal he is pleased to put me upon yet having Promised to bless Isaac and all Nations in his Seed he does not really chuse that I should violate his Precious Life and so stop the current of his future and choisest Favours to Mankind But besides these perplexities 4 Abraham had this disadvantage more that Gods command required a speedy Execution So that he had little or no time to settle his thoughts about it and to suppress those Reasonings which we must allow to be very Natural in his Case Take now thy Son saith God thine only Son Isaac A short warning for a man to part with an Only Son especially one so endeared by Divine Favours and Promises as Isaac was and in that severe manner that Abraham was obliged to do A small time for a Tender-hearted Father to overcome the struggle between Faith and Nature which it is hard to think the Father of the Faithful could be on this Occasion exempted from And this makes the case much harder on Abrahams side that he had but very little time to recollect himself to quiet his Paternal Affections and to settle his mind upon a Subject so every way Entangled with Difficulties and that required so much fineness and strength of Thoughts to clear his way through and to come to a perfect Resolution with himself about it So that on all accounts this Tryal of Abraham appears to be one of the sorest and hardest Tryals which God ever Imposed upon any of his Faithful Servants I come now to the Second thing observable in these words viz. II. The Issue of this Tryal or the Victory of Abraham's Faith over all the Hardships and Discouragements he met with in it And here I shall distinctly consider these two Partioulars First The Compleatness of this Victory and Secondly The Power or Principle by which it was wronght By Faith saith the Apostle Abraham when he was tryed Offered up Isaac I. For the first of these the compleatness of the Victory we must remember that it lay in Abrahams Fulfilling the Command of God with an Undaunted Resolution in despight of the Difficulties he was surrounded with to which he proceeded by these following steps 1. He immediately applyed himself to the Performance of Gods Command When God had once declared his pleasure to him 't is said he Rose up early in the Morning and having made all things ready for a Sacrifice Gen. 22.3 began his Journey to Moriah which shews that he had a very quick and lively sense of his Duty to God in all Cases And that what ever Tryal it might please God to make of him he was provided for it before hand and was not to be surprized by the most dashing or severe Injunction And in this he was an admirable Pattern to the Servants of God in all Ages of the greatest perfection which in this life they are capable of I mean a Constant Readiness and disposition to resign up themselves entirely to him and to part freely with the very Choicest Blessings he is pleased to enrich them with 2. He uses all the Prudence and caution which the Tenderness of the Case did require He keeps the matter to himself least by taking Air and coming to the knowledge of his Wife or Son it should awaken those Passions in them which might tempt him to forego his Resolution He gets up early in the Morning Gen. 22.3.5 8. takes Isaac his Son and two of his Servants with him Them he leaves at a convenient Distance least they should obstruct his Design and Him he leads on to the Place of Worship telling him that God would provide himself a Lamb the only thing which seem'd to be wanting for a Burnt-Offering Thus he carries the matter with all immaginable advantage towards the Execution of his purpose He keeps the secret from her that lay in the same Bosom with it he makes no complaints of the Hardships he was put upon Fastens no parting Kiss upon his Dying Isaac nor betrays his Sad Intention or any Reluctancy within himself so much as by a single Sigh or Tear And what more could the most Affectionate Father do to save the Life of a beloved and only Son than Abraham out of pure Obedience to Gods Command did to compass the Death of his But more than this 3. He carried on his Obedience to the utmost point of Perfection The Fatal Knife was in his Hand his Son lay panting upon the Altar and he was just giving the deadly stroke when the Angel called to him out of Heaven to stay his Hand Gen. 22 9 10 11. which if he had not done he had certainly in a few moments sent Isaac thither So that there was nothing wanting in Abrahams complyance with God in all that he required of him He perfectly Resigned up his Will to him He weaned himself from every thing that was dear to him in this World He offered up his very Isaac so far that there was but a moment between him and Death and by that wonderful Act gave such a demonstration of his Piety and entire Dependance upon God as procured this Glorious Testimony from him Now know I that thou fearest me v. 12. since thou hast not witheld thy Son thine Only Son from me To all which may be added 4. That this good Man never demurred or faultered all the while he was upon his Tryal One would think it was impossible for him to go through so severe a Task without repining at some or other of the Diffioulties imposed upon him One of us would be very apt to Fancy that every time he cast his Eye
these Advantages they were so little the better for that He upbraided them for their Unparallel'd Infidelity and hardness of Heart representing them as more obstinate than the very Heathens about them More averse to their own Hppiness than their Neighbours of Tyre and Sidon who had nothing but the weak Light of Nature to guide them to it These Gentiles had no Prophets or Scriptures to Instruct them no Miracles to open their Eyes no promises of Pardon or Eternal Life to encourage their Repentance And yet our Saviour tells us they were in a better disposition to receive the Gospel and would much sooner have repented at the sight of his mighty Works than the Galileant that had all the proper means to dispose and Encline them to it And this was the great aggravation of the sin of these impenitent Jews and the ground of the Threatning here Denounc't against them Wo unto thee Chorazin Wo unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty Works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they had Repented c. Tho' there seems to be no great Difficulty in the meaning of these Words yet what ever be the Reason of it there is a great Dispute amongst Interpreters about it viz Whether our Saviour means that the effect of his Miracles upon Tyre and Sidon would have been the Real Conversion of those Cities or whether by their Repenting in Sackcloth and Ashes we are to understand no more than a meer External or Counterfeit Repentance That the former of these is in several respects the more Natural Sense as will sufficiently appear if we Consider 1. The Scope and Tenour of our Saviour's Discourse in this place In the Verse before the Text the Evangelist tells us that he then began to Upbraid the Cities where most of his mighty Works were done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because they Repented not i. e. Truly and Heartily As is clear by the Current Usage of the Original Word in Scripture and the most proper and Genuine Importance of it Besides this was the only Repentance which Christ came to Convince the World of the absolute necessity of and this his Doctrine and Miracles were apt to produce in all that rightly weighed and observed them and therefore if Christ Reproved the Jews for want of any Repentance it must be for want of this And from hence it follows that when He Upbraids them with the Repentance of Tyre and Sidon in Sackcloth and Ashes his meaning must be that theirs would have proved a True Solemn and Unfeigned Repentance For where is otherwise the Upbraiding which the Evangelist speaks of If the Tyrians had continued Impenitent under the Preaching of the Gospel and in View of the mighty Works of our Saviour they would have done just as the Jews did and if they had made a shew of Repenting when they did not Put Sackcloth upon their Loins and Ashes upon their Heads when their Hearts were as hard and their Lusts were as Rampant as ever we may be sure Christ would never have call'd this Repentance which is all over Hypocrisie Nor could this be any Reproach to the Jews to hear that other Nations had they been in their Circumstances would have proved as Wicked or worse than they No man thinks it any shame to him to be told that others are every whit as Bad and Vicious as Himself This is not to Aggravate and Upbraid but rather to stroak and Extenuate his Crimes by shewing the Commonness of them and the great Aptitude of Humane Nature to fall into them Briefly our Saviour's saying to the Men of Galilee That it would be more Tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the Day of Judgment than for them plainly Refers to the good disposition of those Cities to Repent of their Lewdness and Idolatry and Embrace the Gospel To which may be added 2. That the Conversion of these very Nations began suddenly after the Death of our Saviour as appears by the Visits St. Paul made to the Disciples of Tyre and Sidon Acts 21.3 4 5.27.3 Shall we question now whether these were true Penitents and Disciples or not If not why should we think that Christ's own Preaching and Miracles might not have wrought the same Blessed effects upon them which his Apostles did Or what Reason have we to doubt the Truth of their Repentance at any time when the Gospel had been tender'd with the same advantage to them Especially since Christ himself tells us that they would have Repented long ago in Sackcloth and Ashes Than which it is not easy to find a more Proper Expression to signifie at once a very Solemn and Serious Repentance From the words thus explained we may observe 1st Obser That God is pleased to afford better means of Grace and Salvation to some Persons and Nations than to others 2d Obser That the same Means which are unprofitable to some Men would surely have been effectual to the Reformation of others if they had enjoyed them 3d. Obser That the Final Condition of those that Reject the Gospel and continue Impenitent under the ministration of it will be more grievous and intolerable than theirs that were never called to Repentance by it I begin with the first of these viz. 1. That God is pleased to afford better Means of Grace and Salvation to some Persons and Nations than to oothers In speaking to this Truth I shall 1. Clear it by some Undeniable Instances And 2. Endeavour to vindicate the Equity of Divine Providence in reference to this Particular Dispensation of it 1. For the First That God affords better Means of Grace and Salvation to some Persons and Nations than to others is clear to all that understand any thing of the state of Religion in the World When God began to distinguish his own People from the rest of Mankind he gave them better Means to improve and secure his Favour than the rest enjoyed He did not leave them mearly to the guidance of Natural Light as he left the greatest part of Mankind but revealed himself to them by the ministry of Angels and Prophets by Visions and Voices from Heaven He wrote down the Great Rules of their Obedience to him with his own Hand and encouraged them to the practice of them by special and ample Promises When God chose the Posterity of Abraham at first for his Peculiar People he made an Express Covenant with him to distinguish his Seed by Spiritual Blessings from all the Kindreds of the Earth While all the World about him lived in Ignorance and Idolatry worshipping the Gods which their own Fears and Phancies had made Abraham had the Priviledge to Converse with God and to behold the day of Christ afar off Gen. 18.19 He was taught the way of the Lord and taught his Children to walk in the same Paths to do Justice and Judgment that God might bring upon Abraham the great things which he had spoken of him And accordingly he did so He gave