he world, and of man; the deplorable fall of man, from his
first state of excellence and bliss, to the distressed condition in
which we see all his descendants continue: The sentence of death
pronounced on Adam and on all his race; with the reviving promise of
that deliverance, which has since been wrought for us by our blessed
Saviour: The account of the early state of the world; of the universal
deluge: The division of mankind into different nations and languages:
The story of Abraham, the founder of the Jewish people, whose unshaken
faith and obedience, under the severest trial human nature could
sustain, obtained such favour in the sight of God, that he vouchsafed to
stile him his friend, and promised to make of his posterity a great
nation; and that in his seed--that is, in one of his descendants--all
the kingdoms of the earth should be blessed. This, you will easily see,
refers to the Messiah, who was to be the blessing and deliverance of all
nations.

11. It is amazing that the Jews, possessing this prophecy among many
others, should have been so blinded by prejudice, as to have expected
from, this great personage, only a temporal deliverance of their own
nation from the subjection to which they were reduced under the Romans:
It is equally amazing, that some Christians should, even now, confine
the blessed effects of his appearance upon earth, to this or that
particular sect or profession, when he is so clearly and emphatically
described as the Saviour of the whole world.

12. The story of Abraham's proceeding to sacrifice his only son, at the
command of God, is affecting in the highest degree, and sets forth a
pattern of unlimited resignation, that every one ought to imitate in
those trials of obedience under temptation, or of acquiescence under
afflicting dispensations, which fall to their lot: of this we may be
assured, that our trials will be always proportioned to the powers
afforded us. If we have not Abraham's strength of mind, neither shall we
be called upon to lift the bloody knife against the bosom of an only
child; but, if the almighty arm should be lifted up against him, we must
be ready to resign him, and all we hold dear, to the divine will.

13. This action of Abraham has been censured by some who do not attend
to the distinction between obedience to a specified command, and the
detestably cruel sacrifices of the heathens, who sometimes voluntarily,
and without any divine injunctions, offered up