respecting the object of this visit; and assuming his proper character of Jehovah, subjoins à direct promise, that within the course of a year from that day, Abra-ham should have a son by her. Sarah, whom curiosity had drawn towards the door of the tent to listen, overhears this conversation, and not knowing the promise or the power of God, treats it as a thing impossible, and laughs, not in joy, but in derision. She is observed, detected, and reproved of Him who is at once faithful, good, and merciful; holy, just, and severe. But why is Abraham called to answer for the infirmity of his wife? Was it to render the reproof more pointed to Sarah? As, indeed, what can be so galling to an ingenuous mind, as to hear an innocent person called in question for our fault? The criminal now stands discovered; she is dragged from her lurking place, and stands abashed and confounded, to make her defence. Ah how dangerous it is to have deviated once from the path of rectitude! How one false step leads to another, and another, and another, till conviction and shame close the scene. The first wrong step here was the indulgence of an idle curiosity, a dangerous if not a sinful principle. People who listen generally hope or fear to hear something about themselves, and it seldom happens that they are entirely gratified with what they hear. The next error was her secret disbelief of a promise so frequently and so solemnly repeated: this is followed by the weakness of thinking to escape the notice of one who beheld her, though unseen, and could read her heart, though her person was not in view; and finally, deliberate falsehood attempts to conceal her preceding faults.

God neither overlooks nor forgets the errors of those towards whom he has thoughts of love; and happily the purposes of his grace are not to be defeated by the forwardness and folly of men. Sarah, in spite of her incredulity, shall become the joyful mother of a son, and that son shall be the source of blessings innumera

ble, unspeakable, to mankind. God in his holiness hath sworn it, and is any thing too hard for the Lord?" The business of this important visit being settled, the strangers rise, to depart, and look as if they would go towards Sodom; and Abraham, not satisfied with having performed one instance of hospitality, follows it up to the last with kindness and attention," he went with them to bring them on the way.' Two of the three, it would seem, now disappeared, and Abraham is left alone with the third, and from the conversation that ensues, we have no room left to doubt that he was the Son of God, come down to execute the vengeance of Heaven upon the sinful cities of the plain. "And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know 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 judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord," Gen. xviii. 17...22. The same person descends to bless Abraham, and to destroy Sodom: thus the saine gospel is "a savor of life unto life, and of death unto death, in them that believe, and in them that perish;" and thus shall the same divine person be revealed in the end of the world, in "flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel,' and "to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe," 2 Thess. i. 8, 10..

Abraham having obtained mercy himself, becomes an intercessor for his sinfu! neighbors. The judgments of God are very awful to a serious mind; fools only make a mock at sin, and its fearful consequences. But the whole scene is too interesting and instructive to be brought forward in the close of a Lecture, especially as it is necessary, before dismissing you, to make some reflections of a practical tendency from what has been spoken.

....You see, my friends, of what moment the salvation of a lost world is in the sight of God. At how many times, in how many different manners, did God speak of this subject unto the fathers? How many embassies of angels; how many appearances of the mighty Angel of the covenant himself? As if the great God had been carrying on no design from the beginning, but one, a design of love to guilty fallen men: that one, which of all others guilty fallen men treat with the greatest slight and contempt. What! shall that purpose and plan which occupied the eternal mind from everlasting; to mature and execute which the world was created; which has been declared to man by so many signs in heaven above, and on earth beneath, by the tongues of so many prophets, by so many oracles; to announce which angels and archangels have descended from their thrones; and to accomplish which, God was made manifest in the flesh, tabernacled among men, and proclaimed the great salvation... shall it be announced, unfolded, executed in vain? And will thoughtless, inconsiderate creatures, continue to treat it as a thing of nought? O when shall we cordially enter into the views of God our Maker and Redeemer, and earnestly pursue the same object with him, the salvation of ourselves and others!

God is not sensibly present with us as he was with Abraham, but he is as really so, as if the eye beheld him, and as if we conversed with him face to face. O man, God is in thy heart and conscience; God is in this

place; in this book: and he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The visions of the Almighty to Abraham are visits of mercy to you. How easily could he draw aside the veil which conceals him from your eyes, and where we see nothing but empty space, discover to us a martial host of "chariots and horse

men of fire." But he is to be now discerned only by the eye of faith, and we must be satisfied to "see in a glass darkly." The awful period approaches when the veil shall drop, and we ourselves, disembodied spirits, shall see, and feel, and converse with the Father of spirits. Let, "thou God seest me," O man! be the leading, commanding idea of thy life, in-the city and in the field, in society and in solitude, by night and by day, and when you come to die, you will find you have not far to go; to be "absent from the body" is to be present with the Lord." Is it so pleasant and improving to contemplate the detached fragments of the plan of providence and redemption, which is all we can attain in this state? What will it be in yonder world of bliss, to be endowed with a capacity of comprehending the whole vast design, and to have the harmony, connection, and dependance of the several parts revealed to us by Him who is both the author and finisher of it. Eagerly hungering after the fruit of this tree of life, "which grows in the midst of the paradise of God," this tree of knowledge of good but not of evil, let us be humbly and modestly, but carefully and constantly searching the scriptures, in which alone the way of eternal life is declared, and that life is in the Son' of God. And may God give us understanding in all things; and to his name be praise. Amen.

History of Abraham.

LECTURE XVI.

And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abrahami believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the friend of God.... JAMES ii. 23.

OF

Fall the temporal blessings which God in his exuberant goodness hath bestowed upon mankind, one of the greatest, if not the chief, is a sincere and virtuous friend. Into the composition of this character enter all the amiable and excellent qualities which our nature possesses; and in a commerce of virtuous friendship, we find the exertion of the noblest principles, and a display of the worthiest actions. The person who is approved and esteemed of wise and good men, must himself be wise and good. To what a pitch of dignity then is the patriarch Abraham raised? Venerable in possessing the esteem of men; infinitely more venerable, as distinguished by the approbation and friendship of God. Volumes written in his praise, and containing a particular enumeration of his virtues, could not say more than the few words of the apostle which have now been read. All that is necessary, in order to explain them, is to have recourse to his history, to mark his character, to observe his conduct; and on the other hand to trace the dispensations of the Divine Providence towards him, and to attend to the manner in which it pleased God to treat him, in order to learn how this sacred friendship was constituted, and in what it consisted. And, on the part of Abraham, we shall