of their fellow-creatures; but those only who have the Christian's faith can be depended upon, in seasons of great temptation, for performing their promises or vows made to God in secret. The temptation must have been great to Abraham, to have thus easily augmented his possessions; but his faith was greater, and prevailed.

On another occasion, when the Lord had declared to him, that, notwithstanding the barrenness of Sarah, his seed should be countless as the stars, the sacred historian records, "he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness" (Gen. xv. 6): that is, his faith was accounted for righteousness. But the Christian believer is justified, or accounted righte ous, by faith (Rom. v. 1): therefore Abraham's and the Christian's faith are identical.

Again: "This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every manchild among you shall be circumcised " (Gen. xvii. 10). Here was a covenant; and not to break a covenant is a fruit of Christian faith (Rom. i. 31). Did Abraham, then, observe this covenant? "And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised them in the self-same day, as God had said unto him" (Gen. xvii. 23). 66 'And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him" (Gen. xxi. 4). This was an act of obedience to the command of God, and a rigid observance of a covenant, both of which are pure fruits of the Christian's faith.

We come now to one of the most extraordinary narrations contained in the sacred volume. In the sketch of Abraham's history at the commencement of this paper, allusion was made to his interview with the three mysterious strangers who came to announce the destruction of the cities of the Plain, on account of their enormous iniquities. With all the intensity of kindly feelings for his fellow-creatures, which, when found in any high degree, are the sole results of far purer principles than man, uninfluenced by the Spirit of God, ever possesses, Abraham expostulates with the Almighty, in the hope of averting the threatened doom. The concluding part of the dialogue affords a characteristic specimen of the whole: "And he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will yet speak this once: peradventure ten (righteous persons) shall be found there. And he (the Lord) said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake" (Gen. xviii. 32). The whole scene, from beginning to end, is one of awful grandeur. But our concern is to ascertain that particular character which could qualify any mere man for becoming an interlocutor in a dialogue with the Almighty. Was not faith, in the Christian application of the word, the foundation of Abraham's apparently bold addresses on this occassion? If Abraham had not believed God to be merciful, and a hearer of the believer's prayer, where would have been the propriety of his extraordinary conduct? The prayer, too, was strictly urgent and intercessory; exhibiting the most unquestionable proofs of a mind firmly convinced of the power and love of the Being thus applied to for a great boon. The centurion in the Gospel did not discover a principle of faith more satisfactorily, when he said to Jesus Christ, "Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed" (Matt. viii. 8); nor the leper, who said, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Christ says of faith in general, "All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive" (Matt. xxi. 22). This principle is eternal in its nature. We know that Abraham did possess it (Gen. xv. 6; Heb. xiii. 17); and we are satisfied that the part he acted in this extrordinary scene was the highest possible proof of it. This proof may be confirmed by referring to the introduction of this page of his history: "And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do? For I know CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 378.

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him, that he will command his children and his household after him; and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and mercy" (Gen. xviii. 17-19).

It is an inference too obvious to be questioned, that if he himself had not believed in "the way of the Lord," he would not have "commanded" his children to "keep it." Faith, then, was the moving spring of Abraham in this transaction.

The history goes on to record, that Abimelech took Sarah, to add her to the number of his wives; for which God plagued him and his house, as he had before, on the same account, plagued the Egyptians. The story of this affair is thus wound up: "So Abraham prayed unto God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife, and his maid-servants, and they bare children" (Gen. xx. 17). It was the prayer of Abraham which induced God (if I might venture to use such an expression) to heal them; the prayer of faith. The Spirit of God, which indited the New-Testament records, "The prayer of faith shall save the sick" (James v. 15). We have shewn that Abraham did possess faith: therefore we conclude in certainty, that he obtained the blessing for Abimelech and his house in his character of faithful."

Sarah wished to expel Ishmael, Abraham's son by his handmaid Hagar, from her house; "And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight, because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of the bond-woman: in all that Sarah said unto thee hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away; and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba." Evidently Abraham was affectionately attached to Ishmael, and probably would have firmly resisted his wife's decree of banishment; yet, at God's command or entreaty, he unhesitatingly dismissed his child and the mother, though with every kind and considerate attention. This was an unquestionable act of elevated faith.

Perhaps, however, all things considered, the most important evidence of this principle which occurs in the Patriarch's history, is in the following account. "And it came to pass after these things, God did tempt (try, put to the test) Abraham" (Gen. xxii. 1). The trial was this: "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 that I will tell thee of." In a narrative most deeply interesting, and bearing, even independently of the evidence of its Divine origin, every mark of truth, we are told all the circumstances of the journey, and the preparations for the sacrifice. "And Abraham built an altar, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood; and Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son; and the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me." No reasoning is required to demonstrate the existence and mighty power of the principle in question in this narrative. The best account which can be given of the chief actor in this affecting scene is contained in the New Testament: "By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it is said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called; accounting that God was able to raise him up from the dead" (Heb. xi. 17—19). "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered up his son Isaac upon the altar? Seest

thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect; and the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God" (James ii. 21-23). The Spirit of God, in noticing for a particular purpose this act of Abraham's life, attributes it entirely to the principle of faith; and if other events of his history, which we have traced back to the same source, had been introduced into the New Testament by the unerring Judge of human actions, we cannot doubt that they would have been referred to it, there being no other spring from which true obedience can possibly flow.

To this may be added, as a further proof that a principle of faith was the source of Abraham's consenting to the bitter trial which has just been noticed, his own summing up of it: "And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, The Lord will see;" or, according to Houbigant, and some others, who consider the words as spoken under a Divine impulse, The Lord will be seen." Either version-and more especially that which the English translation gives of the word in verse 8 of this chapter, namely," provide"-plainly discovers in the patriarch a recognition that the spirit of faithful obedience under which he had gone to the awful trial had fully verified the inexpressibly valuable principle of uninquiring, unhesitating, fervent faith in the Divine directions, as a settled source of action; and also, that his own conviction of the truth and faithfulness of God was now greatly strengthened. This is the commonly received explanation. May not, however, the name thus given to the place have been for an especial purpose taken entirely from the conversation related in the 8th verse of this chapter? Isaac had naturally asked for the burntoffering, for which all the usual preparations had been made. ham replied, "The Lord will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." This was spoken in faith in the wisdom and certainty of the Divine arrangements, however dark and intricate to human ken; and when it was fulfilled to the letter by the actual appearance of such a victim, Abraham, in the gratitude of his heart, found an appropriate name for the place in the words of a former conviction, in which the actual result had been predicted. This name, therefore, may be considered as a public and permanent monument, commemorative alike of the mercy of God, and of the existence in the patriarch's own mind of a principle of true faith, such as God requires and will reward.

Abra

The declaration, too, of the "Angel of the Lord," beginning, "By myself I have sworn" (chap. xxii. 15—18), is an equally clear confirmation of the point which we have been endeavouring to establish.

We have thus run through the leading events of Abraham's life, as they occur in the order of the inspired history, and have seen that they are all reducible to the principle of faith. (I.) In his departure from the place of his abode at the simple unexplained command of God. (II.) In his rigid obedience to a vow made to God, notwithstanding covetousness might have tempted him to break it. (III.) In his crediting the promise of God concerning his numerous posterity, notwithstanding every human appearance of its utter impossibility. (IV.) In his minute obedience to the covenant of the painful rite of circumcision. (V.) In his intercessory prayer for the devoted cities of the plain. (VI.) In the prayer by which he obtained the recovery of Abimelech and his house. (VII.) In his repressing all his paternal and conjugal feelings at the simple bidding of God, in regard to Ishmael and his mother. (VIII.) In the still more painful trial respecting his beloved Isaac.

Now the fruits of the Christian's faith are precisely of this kind. Wherein, then, can the two principles differ? We know that Abraham

referred to Christ, for Christ himself affirms it: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad" (John viii. 56). Surely, then, the faith of Abraham and the faith of the Christian are identical.

Having thus shewn that Jesus Christ was the object of Abraham's faith, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, in the same sense as he is the object of the Christian's faith; and that the fruits of Abraham's faith being the same as those of the Christian's is a still further proof that they are identical; it remains briefly to shew in what manner Abraham was blessed, according to the language of St. Paul before quoted, "They that be of faith shall be blessed with him. Abraham's faith obtained for him

the high appellation of "the friend of God." Without entering minutely into the import of this designation, it is evident that it must ensure to him who rightly claims it the possession of every real temporal good; and, far beyond this, the sure and certain hope of a joyful resurrection and everlasting felicity when the dark, star-less night of the grave shall be over. 'And I say unto you," says our Lord, "that many shall come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." This, then, shall be the portion of them that are "of faith." They shall be called the friends of God, in a higher or lower degree of proximity, according as their attainments in the grace of faith approach nearer to, or recede further from, those of Abraham. And, finally, when the conflicts of this life are over with the Christian, as they are with Abraham; when the Christian believer has done with offering up his Isaacs, with banishing into a waterless wilderness at the command of God, his Ishmaels, with struggling against temptations to break his covenants with God; when death shall have placed him, as it has long ago placed Abraham, where the "iron" of affliction and grief and anguish shall no more enter his soul;" he shall sit down with the faithful patriarch in the kingdom of heaven for ever and ever. "So then"-therefore-as a consequence of what has been said "they which be of faith shall be blessed with faithful Abraham."

ON WORKS DONE BEFORE JUSTIFICATION.

For the Christian Observer.

G.

A FEW months since a correspondent in the Christian Observer noticed some scenes which occurred in one of the Wesleyan Methodist circuits, which indicated, I think, a want of Christian sobriety; and which, though common in the earlier days of Methodism, I had hoped were now considerably checked, as I doubt not they are, by the good sense and prudence of the general body of that community, as likely to lead to delusive excitement. Permit me to make another inquiry, relative to a point of doctrine of the highest importance; and respecting which I shall rejoice to learn this body of Christians have also improved upon the days of their venerable founder.

After Mr. Wesley had preached for more than thirty years, he found, as he tells us, the direful heresy of Antinomianism springing up among his people; with a laudable view to eradicate which, several resolutions were passed in Conference, and among them the following: "We have received as a maxim that a man is to do nothing in order to justification. Nothing can be more false: whoever desires to find favour with God should cease from evil and learn to do well: so God himself teacheth by the prophet Isaiah. Whoever repents, should do works meet for repentance; and if this is not in order to find favour, what does he do them for ?”

I need not, I trust, pause to shew the unscriptural character and dangerous tendency of the statement, that men are to do works meet for

repentance "in order to justification," and "to find favour with God." Such a statement is inconsistent with that fundamental doctrine of religion, the free justification of mankind by virtue of the Saviour's obedience unto death, without any human works or deservings. "To him that worketh," with a view to justification, "is the reward reckoned, not of grace, but of debt;"—a doctrine which the followers of Mr. Wesley would, I doubt not, be among the first to reprobate. Good works, it is well remarked in one of our excellent Homilies, are good declarations and testimonies of our justification:" but to make them its precursors, and to perform them, not as the offspring of faith and prompted by love, but " in order to find favour,” is to put them most delusively out of their right place in the system of human salvation. The statement above transcribed asserts that " nothing can be more false" than to say that "man is to do nothing in order to justification:" yet this is the doctrine of all orthodox Protestant Confessions, grounded on the declarations of Scripture, and strongly expressed in the Articles of the Church of England, the theological sentiments of which the Methodists do not, I believe, profess to dissent from. That Church remarks, in her Tenth Article, that "the condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God: wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will."

Every Christian reader will see how important is the doctrine involved in the question, Can a man 'prepare himself" for justification, or not? It is not a dispute respecting words, but it goes to the very foundation of the doctrines of grace. I cannot believe that the Wesleyan body, while contradicting one error, the error of Antinomianism, intended to assert another, the error of man's ability to prepare himself for the reception of gratuitous mercy. It may be that I have mistaken the purport of the passage alluded to, though I do not see how I can have done so. But even if such a passage remains still unrescinded on the books of the Conference, it is to be hoped it has been outgrown in practice, and that every Methodist preacher is careful to mark out that broad line of distinction between works done before and after justification, to which the Church of England, in common with Holy Scripture, attaches much serious importance. If such is their practice, no candid member of any other communion will wish to dwell upon an obsolete resolution of their representatives in a former day : but it is of consequence, in this event, that it should be publicly known that they do not hold the unscriptural sentiment above pointed out.

G.

INQUIRY RESPECTING THE TRACTS OF THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

BEING aware that the list of the Books and Tracts of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge had recently undergone considerable alteration in its arrangements, I have turned with some anxiety to the Supplemental Catalogue under the sanction of the Society, to ascertain whether Gilpin's Lives of the Reformers have been replaced. In the Report for 1821 they stand thus:

Gilpin's (Rev. W.) Lives of the Reformers, 2 vols.
Cranmer

Latimer, ditto.

Bernard Gilpin, ditto.

6s. 9d.

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