tself and putteth itself
forth in its several conditions, agreeably to, the faith of Abraham,
that man that followeth the footsteps of the faith of Abraham, let him
be esteemed a faithful man, let him be reckoned for a true believer.

You that are gentlemen and tradesmen, I appeal to your souls whether
the Lord and His cause is not the loser this way? Doth not prayer pay
for it? Doth not the Word pay for it? Are not the ordinances always
losers when anything of your own cometh in competition? Is it not
evident, then, that you are not under the command of the Word? How do
you tremble at the wrath and threatenings of a mortal man? and yet,
when you hear the Lord thunder judgments out of His Word, who is
humbled? When He calls for fasting, and weeping, and mourning, who
regards it? Abraham, my brethren, did not thus: these were none of his
steps; no, no: he went a hundred miles off this course. The Lord no
sooner said to him, "Forsake thy country and thy kindred, and thy
father's house," but he forsook all, neither friend nor father
prevailed to detain him from obedience, but he stooped willingly to
God's command.

There are a sort that come short of being the sons of Abraham, and
they are the close-hearted hypocrites. These are a generation that are
of a more refined kind than the last, but howsoever they carry the
matter very covertly, yea, and are exceeding cunning; yet the truth
will make them known. Many a hypocrite may come thus far, to be
content to part with anything, and outwardly to suffer for the cause
of God, to part with divers pleasures and lusts, and to perform many
holy services. But here is the difference between Abraham and these
men: Abraham forsook his goods and all, but your close-hearted
hypocrites have always some god or other that they do homage to--their
ease, or their wealth, or some secret lust, something or other they
have set up as an idol within them--and so long as they may have and
enjoy that, they will part with anything else. But thou must know
that, if thou be one of Abraham's children, thou must come away from
thy gods--the god of pride, of self-love, of vainglory--and leave
worshiping of these, and be content to be alone by God and His truth.
This shall suffice for the first use; I can not proceed further in the
pressing thereof, because I would shut up all with the time.

The second use is a word of instruction, and it shall be but a word or
two; that if all the saints of God must w