However, after saving and reserving to ourselves the benefit of all those arguments, which have been hitherto brought to support the history of the COMMAND; I beg leave to say, that the source of all the difficulty is the very wrong idea men have been taught to entertain of it, while it was considered as given for a TRIAL ONLY of Abraham's faith; and consequently as a Revelation unsought by him, and unrelated to any of those before vouchsafed unto him: Whereas, in truth, it was a Revelation ARDENTLY DESIRED, had the CLOSEST CONNEXION with, and was, indeed, the COMPLETION OF ALL THE FOREGOING; which were all directed to one end; as the gradual view of the orderly parts of one intire Dispensation required: consequently, the principal purpose of the COMMAND was not to try Abraham's faith, although its nature was such, that in the very giving of it, God did, indeed, tempt or try Abraham*.

In plain terms, the Action was enjoined as the conveyance of information to the Actor, of something he had requested to know: This mode of information by Signs instead of Words being, as we have shewn, of common practice in those early Ages: And as the force of the following reasoning is founded on that ancient custom, I must request the Reader carefully to review what hath been said in an early part of the Fourth Volume, Book IV. Sect. 4. concerning the origin, progress, and various modes of personal converse; where it is seen, how the conveying information, and giving directions, to Another, by Signs and Actions, instead of Words, came to be of general practice in the first rude Ages; and how, in compliance therewith, GoD was pleased frequently

66

TURE; the greatest virtue to be the most villanous action, and "the most virtuous thoughts to be the most criminal: He can in a quarter of an hour, make ABRAHAM willing to kill his Sen, "which however is the most abominable thought a man can have.” Count Zinzendorf's Serm. in Rimius, p. 53.

• Gen. xxii. 1.

OFFER UP HIS SON; for to this History, I shall prove, the words refer; and by their aid I shall be enabled to justify a revolting circumstance in it, which has been long the stumbling-block of Infidelity.

In the sense in which the History of the COMMAND hath been hitherto understood, the best apology for Abraham's behaviour (and it is hard we should be obliged, at this time of day, to make apologies for an action, which, we are told, had the greatest merit in the sight of God) seems to be this, that having had much intercourse with the GoD of Heaven, whose Revelations (not to say, his voice of Nature) spoke him a good and just Being, Abraham concluded that this command to sacrifice his son, conveyed to him like the rest, by the same strong and clear impression on the Sensory, came also from the same GOD. How rational soever this solution be, the Deist, perhaps, would be apt to tell us it was little better than Electra's answer to Orestes, who, staggering in his purpose to kill his Mother by the command of Apollo, says: But if, after all, this should be an evil Demon, who, bent upon mischief, hath assumed the form of a God? She replies, What, an evil Demon possess the sacred Tripod! It is not to be supposed*.

But the idea hitherto conceived of this important History has subjected it even to a worse abuse than that of Infidelity: Fanatics, carnally as well as spiritually licentious, have employed it to countenance and support the most abominable of their Doctrines and Practices. Rimius in his Candid Narrative hath given us a strange passage from the writings of the Moravian Brethren, which the reader, from a note of his,. will find transcribed here below †.

frequently to converse with the holy Patriarchs and Prophets in that very manner.

Laying down therefore what hath been said on this subject, in the place referred to, as a Postulatum ; I undertake to prove the following Proposition:

I.

THAT WHEN GOD SAYS TO ABRAHAM, TAKE NOW THY SON, THINE ONLY SON ISAAC, &c.* THE

COMMAND IS MERELY AN INFORMATION BY ACTION, İNSTEAD OF WORDS, OF THE GREAT SACRIFICE OF CHRIST FOR THE REDEMPTION OF MANKIND, GIVEN AT THE EARNEST REQUEST OF ABRAHAM, WHO LONGED IMPATIENTLY TO SEE CHRIST'S DAY; and is, in its nature, exactly the same as those informations to the Prophets, where to this Man, God says, Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them on thy neck; to another -Go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms ‡, &c. and to a third-Prepare thee stuff for removing §, &c. that is, AN INFORMATION OF HIS PURPOSE BY ACTION INSTEAD OF WORDS; in the first case, foretelling the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar over Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon; in the second, declaring his abhorrence of the idolatries of the House of Israel; and in the third, the approaching Captivity of Zedekiah.

The foundation of my Thesis I lay in that scripture of St. John, where JESUS says to the unbelieving Jews, YOUR FATHER ABRAHAM REJOICED TO SEE MY DAY; AND HE SAW IT, AND WAS GLAD ||.

1. If we consider Abraham's personal character, together with the choice made of him for head and origin of that People which God would separate and make holy to himself; from whence was to arise the REDEEMER of Mankind, the ultimate end of that separation; we cannot but conclude it probable, that the knowledge

* Gen. xxii. 2. § Ezek. xii. 3.

+ Jerem. xxvii. 2.
Chap. viii. ver. 56.

1 Hosea i. 2.

of

of this Redeemer would be revealed to him. Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do*? says Gon, in a matter that much less concerned the Father of the Faithful. And here, in the words of JESUS, we have this probable truth arising from the nature of the thing, made certain and put out of all reasonable questionAbraham rejoiced, says JESUS, to see my DAY †, The пμíрα TV μv. Now when the figurative word day is used, not to express in general the period of any one's existence, but to denote his peculiar office and employment, it must needs signify that very circumstance in his life, which is characteristic of such office and employment. But JESUS is here speaking of his peculiar office and employment, as appears from the occasion of the debate, which was his saying, If any man keep my commandments, he shall never taste of death, intimating thereby the virtue of his office of Redeemer. Therefore, by the word DAY must needs be meant that characteristic circumstance of his life; But that circumstance was the laying down his life for the Redemption of Mankind. Consequently, by the word DAY is meant the great sacrifice of CHRIST. Hence we may discover the real or affected ignorance of the Socinian Comment upon this place; which would have day only to signify in general the life of CHRIST, or the period of his abode here on earth.

To reconcile the learned Reader to the propriety and elegance as well as to the truth of this sense of the word, Day, he may observe, that as Jesus entitles his great Work, in his state of humiliation, the Redemption of Mankind, by the name of HIS DAY; so is he pleased to give the same appellation to his other great Work, in his triumphant state, the Judgment of Mankind. "For as the lightning "(says he) that lightneth out of the one part under "heaven,-so shall also the Son of man be in HIS DAY§.” But this figure is indeed

*Gen. xviii. 17.

See Note [A] at the end of this Book.
B 4

as usual in Scrip

+ John viii. 56. § Luke xvii. 34.

ture