1. That for God to be any one's God, doth fignify fome very extraordinary blessing and happiness to thofe perfons of whom this is faid.

2. If we confider the eminent faith and obedience of the perfons to whom this promife is made.

3. Their condition in this world.

4. The general importance of this promise, abstracting from the perfons particularly fpecified and named in it, Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob.

1. If we confider, that for God to be any one's God, doth fignify fome very extraordinary bleffing and happinefs to those perfons of whom this is faid. It is a big word for God to declare himself to be any one's God: and the leaft we can imagine to be meant by it is, that God will in an extraordinary manner employ his power and wisdom to do him good; that he will concern himfelf more for the happiness of those whofe God he declares himself to be, than for others.

2. If we consider the eminent faith and obedience of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob. Abraham left his country in obedience to God, not knowing whither he was to go. And, which was one of the most unparallelled and ftrange inftances of faith and obedience that can almost be imagined, he was willing to have facrificed his only fon at the command of God. Ifaac and Jacob were alfo very good men, and devout worshippers of the true God, when almost the whole world was funk into idolatry and all manner of impiety. Now, what can we imagine, but that the good God did defign fome extraordinary reward to fuch faithful fervants of his? efpecially if we confider, that he intended this gracious declaration of his concerning them, for a standing encouragement to all those who in after ages fhould follow the faith, and tread in the steps of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob.

3. If we confider the condition of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob in this world. The fcripture tells us, that they were pilgrims and ftrangers upon the earth; had no fixed and fettled habitation, but were forced to wander from one kingdom and country to another; that they were expofed to many hazards and difficulties, to great troubles and afflictions in this world; fo that there was no fuch peculiar happiness befel them in this life above the

common

But

common rate of men, as may feem to fill up the big words of this promife, That God would be their God. For, so far as the scripture-history informs us, and further we cannot know of this matter, Efau was as profperous as Jacob; and Jacob had a great many more troubles and afflictions in this life than Efau had. furely, when God calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this fignifies, that God intended fome very peculiar bleffing and advantage to them above others which feeing they did not enjoy in this world, it is very reasonable to believe, that one time or other this gracious declaration and promise of God was made good to

them.

;

And therefore the Apostle to the Hebrews, chap. xi. from this very expreffion of God's being faid to be the God of Abraham, and others, argues, that fome extraordinary happiness was referved for them in another world; and that upon this very ground I am now fpeaking of, namely, becaufe the condition of Abraham, and fome others, was not fuch in this world as might feem to answer the fulnefs of this promife: All thefe, fays he, died in the faith, not having received the promises, but having feen them afar off, and were perfuaded of them, and embraced them, and con-felfed that they were ftrangers and pilgrims upon the earth. From whence he reafons very strongly, that these good men might reasonably expect fomething better than any thing that had befallen them in this world: For they, fays he, that Jay fuch things, declare plainly that they feek a country; which, at y 16. he calls a better country, that is, a heavenly. They that fay fuch things; that is, they who acknowledge themselves to be ftrangers and pilgrims in the earth, and yet pretend that God had promifed to be their God, declare plainly that they expect fome reward beyond this life. From all which he concludes: Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he hath prepared for them a city; intimating, that, if no happiness had remained for thefe good men in another world, this promife, of God's being their God, would fhamefully have fallen fhort of what it seemed to import, viz. fome extraordinary reward and bleffing worthy of God to bestow; fomething more certain and lafting than any of the enjoyments of this world; which,

fince God hath abundantly performed to them in the happinefs of another life, his promise to them was made good to the full; and he needed not be ashamed to be called their God. But, if nothing beyond this life had been referved for them, that faying of old Jacob, towards the conclufion of his life, Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, would have been an eternal reflexion upon the truth and faithfulness of him who had fo often called himself the God of Jacob.

But now, becaufe to all this it may be faid, that this promife feems to have been made good to Abraham, I faac, and Jacob, in this world: for was not God the God of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, when he took fuch a particular and extraordinary care of them, and protected them from the manifold dangers they were expofed to by fuch a special and immediate providence, fuffering no one to do them harm, but rebuking even kings for their fakes? was not he Abraham's God, when he bleffed him fo miraculously with a fon in his old age, and with fo confiderable an eftate to leave to him? was not that faying of Jacob a great acknowledgment of the gracious providence of God towards him, With my staff paffed I over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands? and though it must needs be a very cutting affliction to him to lofe his fon Jofeph, as he thought he had done; yet that was more than recompenfed to him in Jofeph's frange advancement in Egypt, whereby God put into his hands the opportunity of faving his father and his whole family alive and was not God the God of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, in making them fathers of fo numerous an offspring, as afterwards became a great nation? and in giving them a fruitful land? and bringing them to the quiet poffeffion of it by fuch a series of wonderful miracles? what need then is there of extending this promise to another world? doth it not seem abundantly made good in those great bleffings which God bestowed upon them whilft they lived, and afterwards upon their pofterity in this world? and does not this agree well enough with the first and most obvious sense of these words, I am the God of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob? that is, I am he that was their God while they were alive, and am fill the God of their pofterity for their

fakes a

:

fakes I fay, because the three former confiderations are liable to this objection, which feems wholly to take off the force of this argument; therefore, for the full clearing of this matter, I will add one confideration more.

4. then, We will confider the general importance of this promife, abstracting from the particular perfons fpecified and named in it, viz. Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob; and that is, that God will make a wide and plain difference between good and bad men. He will be fo the God of good men, as he is not of the wicked; and fome time or other put every good man into a better and happier condition than any wicked man. So that the general importance of this promife is finally refolved into the equity and juftice of the divine providence.

And, unlefs we fuppofe another life after this, it will certainly be very hard, and I think impossible, to reconcile the hiftory of the Old Teftament, and the common appearances of things in this world, with the juftice and goodness of God's providence.

It cannot be denied, but that Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, and several good men in the Old Teftament, had many fignal teftimonies of the divine favour vouchfafed to them in this world; but we read likewife of feveral wicked men that had as large a fhare of temporal blesfings. It is very true, that Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, had great estates, and were petty princes: but Pharaoh was a mighty prince in comparifon of them. And the kingdom of Egypt, which probably was the firft and chief feat of idolatry, was at the fame time one of the most potent and flourishing kingdoms in the world; and was bleffed with a prodigious plenty, whereby they were furnished with store of corn, when good Jacob and his family had like to have perished by famine. It is true, Jofeph was advanced to great power in Egypt, and thereby had the opportunity of faving his father's house, by fettling them and feeding them in Egypt. But then it is to be confidered, again, that this cost them very dear ; and their coming thither was the occafion of a long and cruel bondage to Jacob's pofterity: fo that we fee that thefe good men had no fuch bleffings, but what were common with them to many others that were wicked. And the bleffings which God bestowed upon them, had

great

great abatements by the intermixture of many and fore afflictions.

It seems then, upon the whole matter, to be very plain, that the providences of God in this world towards good men are fo contrived, that it may fufficiently appear, to those who wifely confider the works of God, that they are not neglected by him; and yet that these outward blessings are fo promifcuously difpenfed, that no man can certainly be concluded to be a good man from any happiness he enjoys in this life. And the profperity of good men is ufually on purpofe fo fhadowed and mixed with afflictions, as may juftly raise their hopes to the expectation of a more perfect happiness and better reward than any they meet with in this world.

And, if fo, then the general importance of this promife, that God will be the God of good men, muft neceffarily fignify fomething beyond this world; because, in this world, there is not that clear difference univerfally made between good and bad men which the juftice of the divine providence 'doth require, and which feems to be intended in the general fenfe of this promife. For if this promife, though perfonally made to Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, be intended, as the fcripture tells us it was, for a standing encouragement to good men in all ages, then it must contain in it this general truth, That God will fome time or other plentifully reward every good man; that is, he will do fomething far better for him than for any wicked man. But, if there be no life after this, it is impoffible to reconcile this fense of it with the courfe of God's providence, and with the history of the Bible.

And, to make this out fully, and at once, I will only produce that fingle inftance of Abel and Cain. Abel offered to God a more excellent facrifice than Cain; and he had this testimony, that he pleafed God; which was in effect to declare, that God was the God of Abel, and not of Cain: fo that, by virtue of the general importance of this promife, it might juftly be expected, that Abel's condition fhould have been much better than Cain's. But, if there be no happine's after this life, Abel's was evidently much worfe. For, upon this very account, that he pleafed God better, he was killed by