Stipulation.

Various

XI. The STIPULATION, contains chiefly three precepts. ift, THAT OF LEAVING HIS COUNTRY, his kindred and father's houfe; though he knew not, whither God was to bring him, Gen. 12. 1. This imports a denial of himself, and of thofe things,.. which are ufually moft dear and defireable and in fine, an univerfal furrender of himself to God. Compare Pf. 45. 11, and Luke 9. 59, 60, 61, 62, and Mat. 10. 37. 2dly, OF NOT FEARING, Gen. 15. 1. By this, faith fecurely acquiefes in God, was enjoined upon him. For, fear is oppofite to faith, Merk 5, 36 and Mark 4, 40. 3dly, OF WALKING BEFORE GOD, and being upright, Gen. 17. 1. This is the precept of holiness, which extends not only to the external actions, but alfo to the inward motions of the foul, believing, that all must be done as in the prefence, and under the all-feeing eye of God. In thofe few words, the infinitely wife God has comprehended all the duties. incumbent on a religious perfon towards the Deity. I

XII. The PROMISES, annexed to the ftipulation, promites, are of various kinds: fome are fpiritual, others cor poral. The fpiritual, are either general and common to all believers, or special and peculiar to Abra-·· bam.

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General. XIII. The general promifes are thefe, Gen. 15, 1, I am thy fhield and thy exceeding great reward, and Gen. 17. 1, 7, I, who am EL-SHADDAI, God all-fuffi cient, will be a God unto thee, and to thy feed after thee. In thefe words God promifes, ft, Protection against every evil, while he calls himfelf a fhield. 2dly, A most eminent reward and of infinite value, feeing he makes over to him, not only his benefits, in which he is most affluent, but also himself, the fountain of every bleffing. In like manner, as Eliphaz fays, to Job, the Almighty will be thy most choice gold, mayin, and filver of strength will be to thee: yn is from y he was weary: it therefore fignifies eminently an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor.4.17; which we could not bear, unless,

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we were endowed with new powers. 3dly, The' communion and fruition of this all-fufficient God, in grace and glory, in foul and in body. See what we faid of the word, Shaddai, Book III. chap. 1. fect. 2, and of the expreffion, to be the God of any one, ibid. chap. 2 fect. 5. 4thly, The continuance of that fa

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XIV. More especially, God promifed, firft, that Special. Abraham fhould be the head, and honorary father of 1. To be all believers, who in him as the type of the bleffing, the father were to obtain the bleffing. For, fo the words run, ers, and a Gen. 12. 2, 3, 1 will make of thee a great nation, and type of I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou the bleffbalt be a bleffing and in thee fhall all families of the fing. earth be bleffed. He not only makes the most ample promises of every kind, as well earthly as heavenly," but he likewife promifes a new and a great name, that he fhould be the father of all believers, Rom. 4. 11. than which fcarce a greater can be granted to any mere man. Nay, he declares, that he should not only be bleffed, but bleffing itfelf; fo that all the bleffing of God might be feen accumulated on him, and to refide in him, as the fountain and fource, but a fecondary and lefs principal; and be the type and exemplar of every bleffing. For, it is added, and in thee fball all the families of the earth be bieffed. In thee may be fimply explained, with thee; as it is faid, Gal. 39, they which be of faith, are blessed with faithful Abrabam. For, 2 of the Hebrews is fometimes the fame thing as with: as Exod. 8. 5, Stretch forth thine hand TODD WITH thy rod, and Exod. 15. 19, the horfe of Pharoah went in a WITH his chariots and his horfemen into the fea. But in thee, feems to denote fomething more: for, in Abrabam all the nations of the earth are bleffed. ift, Becaufe the Meffiah was in his loins, in whom every bleffing is contained. 2dly, Becaufe he was the head and prince of God's covenant, and the pattern

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of faith and bleffing to thofe who were to come after
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Gal. 3. 6, XV, Paul has given a notable commentary on this place, Gal. 3, 6, 7, 8, even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to bim for righteousness, Know ye iberefore, that they which are of faith, the fame are the children of Abraham. And the fcripture forefeeing, that God would justify the heathen through faith, Preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, faying, in thee ball all nations be blessed. The Apostle there fuppofes, as a thing well known among Chriftians, that Abraham was the honorary father of all the bleffed feed, and confequently, that there was no other mean of obtaining the bleffing, that is juftification and the favour of God, than that by which Abraham obtained it: but he obtained it by faith. Moreover, feeing it is foretold, that in him all the families of the earth are to be bleffed, they muft needs be united to him, and be accounted to him, as their spiritual parent. But, in order to that union, it is not fufficient, that there be even an affociation with his natural defcendants by a communion of ceremonies, or of political laws; but a communion in the fame faith is requifite. And feeing this promife extended to all the families of the earth, and confequently even to the Gentiles; the Apoftle has justly concluded, that the Gentiles alfo are to be joined to Abraham, by the imitation of his faith, and, by the fame faith, become partakers of the fame blefling with

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XVI. Secondly, God efpecially, promifed him a SEED: which does not fignify promifcuously, any one who was to defcend from Abraham according to the flesh. For even Ifmael was his feed, Gen. 21. 13. And therefore great, but carnal promifes were alfo made to him, Gen. 16. 10, and Gen. 17. 20. But by feed we are to understand. ift, ISAAC, who fprung from a father almoft dead, and of a mother barren and paft bearing. For, in Ifaacall thy feed be called

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Gen. 21, 12. Moreover, Ifaac was not only the ftock, but also the type of the Meffiah, who was afterwards to be born, and that of a virgin, who was certainly not more, if not lefs, capable than Sarah to bring forth a feed. And therefore, zdly, the feed denotes alfo CHRIST, + that feed which was formerly promised in paradife, he faith not, and to feeds, as of many; but to thy feed, which is Christ, Gal. 3. 16. Beides, as Ifaac was born, not by the virtue or power of the flesh, but of the promife, he is alfo a type of all BELIEVERS, who are endebted to the word of the promife of the Gospel for their fpiritual birth. And 3dly, Believers are alfo denoted by the feed; they which are the children of the flefo, thefe are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are accounted for the Jeed, Rom. 9.8.

XVII. Here we have a difficulty to be refolved Gal. 3.16. which, it feems, cannot well be omitted. Seeingexplained. the word feed fometimes denotes not only, but allo chiefly a multitude of men; and especially, as it was promifed to Abraham, that his feed fhould be as the duft of the earth, and fince it has just been fhewn, that, by the promised feed of Abraham, both Ifaac and all believers are to be understood; how then could the Apoftle infift on the fingular number, in order from thence to make out, that by the feed we are to understand Chrift? and which feems to be the lefs cogent, because the facred writers of the Old Teftament, when treating of men, never ufe the word in the plural number. This difficulty appeared fo great to Jerome, that not knowing how to untye the knot, he ventured, tho' not with fufficient

This is more explicite and particular than the first promife, in the garden, concerning the feed of the woman; for this determines the family, as well as the race, or kind; that he fould not only be in our nature, but defcend from fuch a ftock, even from Abrabam, who was not only the father of the jewish nation, but of all the faithful

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piety, to cut it afunder. He obferves, that Paul only made ufe of this argument with the dull and ftupid Galatians, which he knew would not, in other refpects, be approved by the prudent and the learned, and therefore forewarned the prudent reader of this, when he faid brethren, I speak after the manner of men. Jerome's words are as follows: whence it is evident, that the Apostle performed what he had promifed, and did not make use of abtrufe meanings, but fuch as daily occur and are common, and which (bad he not premised after the manner of men) might difplease the prudent. But this is giving up the caufe to thofe, who defpife and ridicule the fcripture. The Apostle certainly, by the expreffion mentioned by Jerome, was far from intimating, that, by abufing the ftupidity of the Galatians, he would argue leis accurately and folidly. This is highly unworthy the gravity of an Apoftle, and the unfearchable wifdom of the Spirit of God, by whofe infpiration he wrote these things. Nor was this epiftle written only for the dull and stupid Galatians, if we may call them fo, but alfo for the whole church, to be a + directory of faith. He intimated only this, that, he was to draw a fimilitude, from human things in order to explain things divine, and thus compare great things with fmall.

XVIII. And, indeed, as all other things, fo these alfo, appear to me to have been moft wifely obferved by the Apoftle. It is certain, that the term feed, often fignifies a multitude, but it is a multitude collectively taken and united in one at least with regard to the first stock or origin. When he speaks of the feed of Abraham, as the feed of the promile hyena, which he had promifed, to which the fame bleffings are to flow from the fame fountain, it must

+ The author's words are, in fidei cynofuram, in which he refers to Cynafura, which was the leffer bear-ftar, by which the mariners of Tyre and Sidon, steered their course.

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