Abraham's seed by faith, shall be so multiplied, that they will at length exceed the wicked in numbers; and that being considered by God as Abraham's seed, they shall receive all the blessings, which, in the covenant, were promised to Abraham's seed, See p. 20.

It remains to speak of the purpose for which God constituted Abraham the father of all believers, and of the advantages which they derive from that appointment.-According to the apostle Paul, Abraham was constituted the father of all believers, from the beginning to the end of the world, for the purpose of receiving on their behalf, and in their name, the promises of those blessings which God, of his great goodness, intends to bestow on them, Rom. iv. 11. He received the mark of circumcision, as a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had in uncircumcision, or, as an evidence that the faith which he exercised in un. circumcision, was counted to him for righteousness, in order to his being the father of all who believe in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be counted even to them: 12. And the father of the circumcision, that righteousness might be counted to those who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision. In thus constituting Abraham the father of all believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, for the purpose of receiving on their behalf the promises in the covenant, God accommodated himself to the ideas of mankind, who consider what is promised in a covenant, as more binding than a simple declaration of one's intention. Accordingly, by making these promises to believers of all nations, in a covenant with Abraham as their father, God both published his gracious intentions, and gave to the heirs of promise, a stronger assurance of his resolution to fulfil these promises to them, than if he had only declared his purpose to do so. With the same design, after Abraham had laid Isaac on the altar, God confirmed all his promises to him, and to his seed with an oath; that, as St. Paul tells us, the heirs of promise might have strong consolation under the afflictions of life, through the complete assurance which the oath of God hath given them of an after life of happiness in heaven: Heb. vi. 13. When God made promise to Abraham, seeing he could swear by no one greater, he sware by himself, 14. Saying, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.-16. For men verily swear by the greater ; and an oath for confirmation, is to them an end of all contradiction.-17. For which cause, God willing more abun3

VOL. III.

dantly to shew to the heirs of promise, (believers of all nations,) the immutability of his purpose, confirmed the promise with an oath-18. That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled away to lay hold on the hope set before us in the promises in the covenant with Abraham. Farther, Abraham was constituted the father of all believers, that his justification might be the pattern of the justification of the rest of mankind. But of this more, in Ess. vi. Sect. 2. Remark 3.

God having, by a covenant conferred on Abraham, the great honour of being the representative of believers, may we not conjecture, that he was commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac, for this among other reasons, that having an opportunity of shewing, by his ready obedience, what an high degree of faith and piety he possessed, the world might be convinced, that of all mankind, he best deserved to be made the representative of believers of all nations, that in their name, he might receive the promises of those blessings, which the infinite goodness of God disposeth him to bestow on all who are capable of enjoying them.

I have only to add, that by constituting Abraham the father of all pious and virtuous men, an honour was done to this chief of believers, greater, than if, in the place of Adam, he had been made the father of the whole human race.

SECTION III.

Of the third Promise in the Covenant with Abraham.

The third promise, is that which God made to Abraham, immediately on his arrival in Canaan, Gen. xii. 7. The Lord appeared to Abraham, and said, Unto thy seed vill I give this land.Gen. xv. 1. Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.—7. And he said to him, I am the Lord who brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.-18. Unto thy seed have I given this land, &c.-Gen. xvii. 8. I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan ; for an everlasting possession. Gen. xxii. 17. Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.

Concerning the first or literal meaning of this promise, there can be no doubt: as little can there be any doubt concerning its fulfilment to Abraham's natural seed, according to that meaning. After they had sojourned in Canaan and Egypt, God put

Abraham's natural seed in possession of the promised country by great miracles, and maintained them in the possession of it during many ages.

But, like all the other promises in the covenant, this had a second and higher meaning, which Abraham and his immediate descendants well understood; namely, that under the image of the possession of Canaan, the possession of a better country, even an heavenly, was promised to them; as the following arguments I think sufficiently prove.

1. Although, when God said to Abraham, Gen. xii. 1. Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee, he might think of some country on earth only, yet when God afterwards said to him, Gen. xvii. 1. I am the Almighty God, walk before me, and be thou perfect.-8. And I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God; he would naturally conclude that some better country than any country on earth was promised to him, as the reward of his walking before God in a perfect manner. For the translation of his ancestor Enoch, from this earth in the body, after walking with God, must have convinced him, that neither the possession of Canaan, nor of any country on earth in its present state, is the proper reward of a perfect virtue. Besides, the whole earth being cursed for Adam's transgression, no part of it, as Abraham well knew, could be an everlasting habitation to him. In short, Abraham must have seen, that if the possession of Canaan, during the whole of his life, was all that God promised to him as the reward of his walking before him in a perfect manner, he would not be rewarded more than other men; many of whom, notwithstanding they were great sinners, he observed, were enjoying the felicity of earthly countries in the greatest perfection.

2. The possession of Canaan, promised in the covenant, being termed an everlasting possession, if nothing was meant thereby, but the everlasting possession of the earthly country so called, Abraham, to whom it was promised, must have expected to live in that country for ever. The same expectation, Isaac and Jacob, his immediate descendants, must have entertained, to whom, as well as to him, the everlasting possession of Canaan was promised. But if Abraham and all his posterity were to live in the earthly Canaan without dying, he would soon be sensible that it was a country too strait for containing all his seed.-Again, if

that circumstance led him to interpret the promise concerning the everlasting possession of Canaan, of its being possessed for a long series of years, by the successive generations of his posterity, yet when he considered that the possession of Canaan was promised to all his seed, to his seed by faith as well as to his natural seed, he would soon relinquish that interpretation; because it could not enter into his mind, to think that believers of all nations, who were on the earth in any one age, could live with his natural seed in so narrow a country as Canaan. Or if such a thing had been possible, he must have known, that to be transported into Canaan, would have been no advantage, but rather a loss to many of them; since the countries in which they were living, were better in every respect than Canaan. These reasons, I think, must have convinced Abraham, that a better and greater country than Canaan was promised in the covenant to him and to his seed, even an heavenly country, which was capable of containing all his seed, and of which the earthly country promised to his natural seed, was only the emblem and pledge.

3. Supposing that Abraham thought Canaan was the only country promised to him and to his seed, if any of them died without receiving that country, he must have expected either that God would raise them from the dead to enjoy it, or that he would give them in the other world, a country equal to, or better than Canaan. For a person of Abraham's exalted faith and piety, never could think God capable of breaking his promise. Accordingly, our Lord, in reasoning with the Sadducees, affirmed, that the promise to give to Abraham and to his immediate descendants the everlasting possession of Canaan, was virtually a promise to raise them from the dead. Luke xx. 37. Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he called the Lord, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; for he is not a God of the dead, but of the living. When Moses at the bush, called the Lord, the God of Abraham and of his immediate descendants, he brought to the remembrance of the Israelites, the memorable words with which the promise, to give their fathers personally, the everlasting possession of the land of Canaan, was concluded, namely, And I will be their God, Gen. xvii. 8. From these words our Lord reasoned against the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection of the dead, in the following manner: Seeing the Lord, when he promised to give to Abraham and to his seed, the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, added, And I will be their God,

if Abraham and his immediate descendants died without receiv-, ing Canaan, and are not to be raised from the dead to possess it, the Lord, who promised it to them, could not with truth call himself their God, so many years after they were dead. Or, as the apostle insinuates, Heb. xi. 16, he might have been ashamed to call himself their God.-Besides, in the preceding part of his discourse, our Lord termed the promised country, That world, in contradistinction to This world; and declared, that to enjoy that world, Abraham and his seed must be raised from the dead. Luke xx. 34. The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage. But they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. 35. Neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. Wherefore, our Lord himself hath authorized us to believe, that in the promise to give to Abraham and to his seed, the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, a new world, and a resurrection from the dead, in order to their enjoying that world, was really promised to them; for which reason he charged the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, with ignorance of the scriptures. Matth. xxii. 29. Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures.

4. St. Paul expressly affirms, that Abraham and his immediate descendants, knew that in the promise to give to him and to them, the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, a better country, even an heavenly country, was promised to them. For he tells us, these men, to shew that they expected a city whose builder and ruler is God, never built any house or fixed habitation in Canaan, but always dwelled there in tents. Heb. xi. 9. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as belonging to others, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the joint heirs of the same promise. 10. For he expected a city having foundations, of which city the builder and ruler is God.-Farther, the same apostle informs us, that Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, though they never obtained the possession of Canaan, all died in the firm persuasion of obtaining it. Heb. xi. 13. All these died in faith, though they did not receive the things promised. For seeing them afar off, and being persuaded of them, and embracing them, they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14. Now they who speak such things, plainly declare, that they earnestly seek, waτpida, a native country, not Chaldea. 15. For if they had remembered that from which they came out, they might