not father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, in comparison of Christ, cannot be his disciple. We may not be called upon to part with them; but our minds must be made up to do so, if they stand between us and Christ. (4.) The implicit faith which a compliance with it would call for. Abram was to leave all and to go.... he knew not whither.... unto a land that God would show him. If he had been told it was a land flowing with milk and honey, and that he should be put in possession of it, there had been some food for sense to feed upon but to go out, not knowing whither he went, must have been not a little trying to flesh and blood. Nor was this all that which was promised was not only in general terms, but very distant. God did not tell him he would give him the land, but merely show him it. Nor did he in his life-time obtain the possession of it: he was only a sojourner in it, without so much as a place to set his foot upon. He obtained a spot, it is true, to lay his bones in ; but that was all. In this manner were things ordered, on purpose to try his faith; and his obedience to God under such circumstances was among the things which rendered him an example to future generations, even the father of all them that believe.

Ver. 2. The promise had reference to things which could be but of small account to an eye of sense; but faith would find enough in it to satisfy the most enlarged desires. The objects, though distant, were worth waiting for. He should be the father of a great nation; and what was of greater account, and which was doubtless understood, that nation should be the Lord's. God himself would bless him: and this would be more than the whole world without it. God would also make his name great; not in the records of worldly fame, but in the history of the church and being himself full of the blessing of the Lord, it should be his to impart blessedness to the world: I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing. The great names among the heathen would very commonly arise from their being curses and plagues to mankind; but he should have the honour and happiness of being great in goodness, great in communicating light and life to his species.

:

This promise has been fulfilling ever since. All the true blessedness which the world is now, or shall hereafter be possessed of, is owing to Abram and his posterity. Through them we have a Bible, a Saviour, and a gospel. They are the stock on which the Christian church is grafted. Their very dispersions and punishments have proved the riches of the world. What then shall be their recovery, but life from the dead! It would seem as if the conversion of the Jews, whenever it shall take place, will be a kind of resurrection to mankind. Such was the hope of this calling. And what could the friends of God and man desire more? Yet, as if all this were not enough, it is added—

Ver. 3. I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. This is language never used but of an object of special favour. It is declaring that he should not only be blessed himself, but that all others should be blessed or cursed as they respected or injured him. Of this, the histories of Abimelech, Laban, Potiphar, both the Pharaohs, Balak, and Balaam, furnish examples.

Finally Lest what had been said of his being made a blessing should not be sufficiently explicit, it is added, And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. This was saying that a blessing was in reseve for all nations, and that it should be bestowed through him and his posterity, as the medium. Paul applies this to Christ, and the believing Gentiles being blessed in him: he calls it, The gospel which was preached before unto Abraham. Peter also makes use of it in his address to those who had killed the Prince of life, to induce them to repent and believe in him. Ye are the children of the prophets, says he, and of the covenants which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Unto you FIRST, God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. As if he had said, 'You are descended from one whose posterity were to be blessed above all nations, and made a blessing. And the time to favour the nations being now at hand, God sent his Son first to you, to bless you, and to prepare you for blessing them; as though it were yours to be a nation of ministers, or missionaries to the world,

But how, if instead of blessing others, you should continue accursed yourselves? You must first be blessed, ere you can, as the true seed of Abraham, bless the kindreds of the earth, and that by every one of you being turned from his iniquities.'

Ver. 4. The faith of Abram operated in a way of prompt and implicit obedience. First it induced him to leave Ur of the Chaldees, and now he must leave Haran. Haran was become the place of his father's sepulchre; yet he must not stop there, but press forwards, to the land which the Lord would show him. On this occasion, young Lot, his nephew, seems to have felt a cleaving to him, like that of Ruth to Naomi, and must needs go with him; encouraged no doubt by his uncle in some such manner as Moses afterwards encouraged Hobab: Go with me, and I will do thee good; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Abram.'

Ver. 5. We now see Abram, being seventy-five years old, and Sarai, and Lot, with all they are and have, taking a long farewell of Haran, as they had done before of Ur. The souls that they had gotten in Haran, could not refer to children, but perhaps to some godly servants who cast in their lot with them. Abram had a religious household, who were under his government, as we afterwards read; one of whom went to seek a wife for Isaac. We also read of one Eliezer of Damascus, who seems to have been not only his household steward, but the only man he could think of, if he died childless, to be his heir. With these he set off for the land of Canaan, which by this time he knew to be the country that the Lord would show him; and to the land of Canaan he came.

DISCOURSE XIX.

ABRAM DWELLING IN CANAAN, AND REMOVING TO EGYPT ON ACCOUNT OF THE FAMINE.

Gen. xii, 6-20.

VER. 6. ABRAM and his company having entered the country, at its north-eastern quarter, penetrate as far southward as Sichem; where, meeting with a spacious plain, the plain of Moreh, they pitched their tents. This place was afterwards much accounted of. Jacob came thither on his return from Haran, and bought of the Shechemites a parcel of a field. It might be the same spot where Abram dwelt, and perhaps on that account. After this it seems to have been taken from him by the Amorites, the descendants of Hamor, of whom he had bought it; and he was obliged to recover it by the sword and by the bow. This was the portion which he gave to his son Joseph. There seems to be something in the history of this place very much resembling that of the country in general. In the grand division of the earth, this whole land was assigned to the posterity of Shem: but the Canaanites had seized on it, and as is here noticed, dwelt in the land. As soon therefore as the rightful owners are in a capacity to make use of the sword and the bow, they must be dispossessed of it.*

Ver. 7. Abram having pitched his tent at Sichem, the Lord renews to him the promise of the whole land, or rather to his seed after him; for with respect to himself, he was never given to expect any higher character than that of a sojourner. But considering the great ends to be answered by his seed possessing it, he is

well satisfied, and rears an altar to Jehovah.

One sees here the

difference between the conduct of the men of this world, and that of the Lord's servants. The former no sooner find a fruitful plain, than they fall to building a city and a tower, to perpetuate their fame. The first concern of the latter is to raise an altar to God. It was thus that the new world was consecrated by Noah, and now the land of promise by Abram. The rearing of an altar in the land was like taking possession of it, in right, for Jehovah.

Ver. 8, 9. The patriarchs seldom continued long at a place, for they were sojourners. Abram removes from the plain of Moreh, to a mountain on the east of what was afterwards called Bethel ; and here he built an altar, and called upon the name of the Lord. This place was also much accounted of, in after times. It was not far from hence that Jacob slept and dreamed, and anointed the pillar. We may on various occasions change places, provided we carry the true religion with us: in this we must never change.

Ver. 10-20. Abram was under the necessity of removing again, and that on account of a grievous famine in the land. He must now leave Canaan for awhile, and journey into Egypt; where corn, it seems, was generally plentiful, even when it was scarce in other countries, because that country was watered, not so much by rain as by the waters of the Nile. Hither therefore the patriarch repaired with his little company. als for his faith. Observe,

And here we see new tri

1 The famine itself being in the land of promise must be a trial to him. Had he been of the spirit of the unbelieving spies, in the times of Moses, he would have said, Would God we had stayed at Haran, if not at Ur! Surely this is a land that eateth up the inhabitants.' But thus far Abram sinned not.

2. The beauty of Sarai was another trial to him; and here he fell into the sin of dissimulation, or at least of equivocation. She was half-sister to him, it seems ;* but not in such a sense as he meant to convey. This was one of the first faults we read of in Abram's life; and the worst of it is, it was repeated, as we shall see hereafter. It is remarkable, that there is only one faultless

* See on Gen. xi. 27-29. pp. 111, 112.