all his true and fincere Worshippers (tho' that Reward be A.D.63.. future and at a distance) is the first and most neceflary Principle of all true 7 By faith Noah being warned of God of things not feen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the faving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and Religion. 7. Upon this it was, that Noah prepared the Ark, faved himself from the Destruction of this World, and while the reft of Mankind were juftobtained the Happinefs of the next; ly left to perifh in their unreasonable Infidelity. became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. * 8 By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9 By faith he fojourned in the land 8 & 9. By this, Abraham left his native Country, went and dwelt as a Stranger, in a mean and obfcure Manner, in a foreign Land; even before he knew what the Land was, or was acquainted with the Promife, that his Pofterity fhould fully poffefs and enjoy it, Gen. xii. 1. with Gen. xxvi. 3.-xxviii. 13. of promife, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Ifaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the fame promise. 10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. on the certain and 11 Through faith alfo Sarah herself received ftrength to conceive feed, and was delivered of a child when he was paft age, 10. It was fufficient to that reafonable and good Man, that God had promised him, in general, To be his Shield and exceeding great reward, Gen. xv. 1. And his Eye was upunchangeable State of future Happiness. 11 & 12. In Reward of the fame Faith in the repeated Promise of God, Sarah was enabled to conceive and Hufband were naturally incapable of bear a Son, when both fhe and her fuch a thing, through their great be Age: Ver. 8. Abraham when he was called, Οι ὁ καλεμέν A. D. 63. because fhe judged him faithful who had pro *See Mat. xxii. 32. mised. Age: And from them came an innumerable Pofterity, which, without an extraordinary Act of Divine Power, could no more have been expected from two fuch Superanuated People, than if they had been actually Dead*. fand which is by the fea fhore innumerable. 13 These all died. in faith, not having received the promifes, but having feen them afar off, and were perfwaded of them and embraced them, and confeffed that they were ftrangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For they that fay 15 And truly if 13 & 14. All these forementioned Worthies died in this noble Principle; full of the Hopes, and poffefs'd with the Profpect of Future and Eternal Felicities. Upon thefe Diftant Joys they acted; for Thefe they gave up all Worldly Enjoyments, and looked upon the prefent Life as nothing but a Paflage into a better State. fuch things, declare plainly that they feek 15 & 16. For it is very clear, it could not be Temporal Hopes, these great Souls were acted by; because Abraham, for Inftance, had a much more fat and natural Profpect of That Kind, in his own Native Country, than he could be fuppofed to have in a Foreign Land, among a barbarous and uncultivated People. Nor could it amount to much, for God to ftile Himself Their God*, i. e. in an Eminent Senfe, their Great Protector and Rewarder; if he had nothing * Ver. 12. Even of one, aq, from that fingle Perfon, and from Him in a manner dead. So the Word is used Galat. iii. 20, and in many other Paffages. + Ver. 14. That they feek a Country. A very flat Tranflation! It is largida, A Country of their Father's, their native and propen Home: So Heaven is the proper Country or Habitation of Good Men, the Place where (God) their Father dwells. nothing to bestow on them but a few Temporal Bleffings; A.D.63. and those too, mix'd up with many Troubles and Afflictions common to Human Life. All their Proceedings, therefore, befpeak their main and ultimate Hopes to have been, in the Future and invifible Glories of another World; even the very fame that the Gospel now more explicitly proposes to us Chriftians. 17 By faith Abraham when he was tried, offered up Ifaac: and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten Son : 18 Of whom it was faid, that in Ifaac fhall thy feed be called. 19 Accounting that 19. Moft dutifully and rationally God was able to raise confidering, that the fame Divine him up, even from the Power, that caused Ifaac to be Condead from whence ceived and Born, in a Manner as alfo he received him in a figure. wonderful as that of raising the Dead to Life again, could either restore him to him again, or elfe fulfil the Promise in some other Way, that would be as good and happy for Him. And accordingly, as the Birth of Ifaac from the dead Womb of Sarah was a Gift of new and miraculous Life; fo the Rescue of Ifaac, by the Voice of an Angel, was the fame Thing to Abraham as if he had been actually flain, and then reftored to Life. 17 & 18. To proceed therefore: This ferious Perfwafion of the Divine Truth and Providence, made Abraham, at the Inftance of the Divine Command, ready, with his own Hands, to Sacrifice the very Son, in whom alone he expected to fee the Great Promife fulfilled to him. : 20 By faith Ifaac bleffed Jacob and Efau concerning things to come. 20 & 21. With this firm Affurance, That God would make good all his Benedictions (tho' perhaps he knew not precisely When) did Ifaac, in a Prophetical Way, and with Religious Reverence, pronounce the Bleffings on his Sons Jacob and Efau ; as Jacob did afterwards upon Ephraim and Manaffes \\. T 22 So 30. * Ver. 21. Leaning upon the Top of his Staff. In the Hebrew it is, Ifrael bowed himself upon his Beds Head. The Word O, by the change of one Point, fignifying either a Bed, or a Staff, Gen. xlvii. 23 By faith Mofes they were not afraid 24 By faith Mofes years, refused to be 22. So did Jofeph, just before his Death, foretel the Deliverance of the Ifraelites out of Egypt, and ordered his own Bones to be carry'd with them into Canaan, as a Teftimony how fully he affured himself of their Arrival there, according to the Divine Promise. 23. Thus Mofes's Parents, in Defiance of that barbarous Edict of Pharaoh, refolved not to deliver up fo lovely and beautiful a Child, but hid him Three Months by the Side of the River Nile, in hopes, that God would providentially provide for his Escape. 24, 25 & 26. Thus Mofes, when he came at Age, refused the great Privilege of being adopted into the Royal Family of the Egyptian Monarchs, owned himself to be a Hebrew born, and not Pharaoh's Grandchild; chufing rather to fhare in all the Difficulties the Ifraelites, whom he knew to be God's true Church and People, were to undergo; than to enjoy the Vicious and Temporary Pleafures of the Egyptian Court. And, With a Staff, the LXX read it in the latter Senfe: And it was that Verfion the Writers of the New Testament generally made use of. Of their Method of quoting the Old Tefiament Paffages, though not abfolutely Verbatim, yet ever fo as to make no Alteration in the Senfe and Pupfe they are quoted for. The Learned Reader may confult Glaffius Philog. Sac. pag. 1472, &c. Edit. Francof. 1653 Lut indeed the more true Rendering fhould be Worshipping upon the Top of his Staff. See Mr. Hallet's Spplement to Mr. Pierce an the Hebrews, in loc. *The Reproach of Chrift: 78 Xpis; Of the Anointed (People) i. e. the Ifraelites, Pfal. cv. Or rather thus, of Chrift, i. e. fuch Reproaches as Chriftians now fuffer for the Sake of Chrift and his Religion or fuch Reproaches as Chrift himself fuffered while he was upon Earth; or, laftly, the Reproach Mofes was likely to suffer for this acting from a Principle of Faith in the Messiah to come. greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect un to the reward. With what View was this? Not of A.D.63. any Worldly Advantage or present Happiness: For Mofes refufed the highest of Thefe, by lighting the Glories of Egypt. And as for the Land of Canaan, he faw it at a Distance, but never enjoyed it. His Aim therefore was at Heaven, Then, as that of all good Chriftians is Now. 27 By faith he forfook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, as feeing him who is invifible 28 Through faith he kept the paffover, and the fprinkling of blood, left he that deftroyed the firfthorn, fhould touch them. 27, 28 & 29. With this Religious Faith in the Revelations of the invifible | God, He led the Ifraelites || See Ver.1. out of Egypt; dreaded not the powerful Army that purfued him; kept the Paflover, ordered the Blood to be fprinkled on the Door-Pofts of each Houfe, as a fure Token of their Exemption from the Plague that raged around them; had the RedSea miraculously divided for his Paffage; and the Return of the Waters deftroy his Pursuers. 29 By faith they paffed through the to red-fea, as by dry land, were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compaffed about feven days. which the Egyptians affayirg to do, 30 & 31. God, in Reward of the Ifraelites Faith in the Divine PromiJes, made the Walls of Jericho fall (Joh. vi. 5.) And by owning the true God, upon fufficient Testimonies given her, the very Harlot Rahab faved her Life. 31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. 32 And what fhall I more fay for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Sampfon, and of Jephthah, of David alfo and Samuel, and of the Prophets. 33 Who 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 & 38. In fine, it would be endless for me to of the like Kind, recorded in the go through the numberless Inftances Old Teftament. The Miraculcus Victories obtained by fome, the Marvelous Deliverances of others, and the Wonderful and Divine Cou T 2 rage |