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shall shew thee.

xiii.

Abraham was brought from an idolatrous country to Canaan. 573 into the land which I has been the seat of thy family, into a pleasant SECT. and excellent land which I will shew thee, and to which, by my extraordinary interposition, I Acts will guide thee; though thou at present dost VII. 3. not know either its situation or its product. 4 Then came he Then Abraham, strange as this command might 4 Chaldeans, and dwelt seem, with all submission readily obeyed it; and in Charran: and from departing from Ur in the land of the Chaldeans, thence, when his Fa- he dwelt for several years in Charran, having ther was dead, he re- been led by divine conduct thither, and not imland where ye now mediately receiving a signal to proceed any far

out of the land of the

moved him into this

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And 5

ther: But, by another call from God, he was
directed to depart from Charran, and accord-
ingly from thence, after his father died, he,
(that is, God,) by the singular interposition of his
providence, caused him to remove his habitation
into this land in which you now dwell.
yet upon his coming into Canaan, he gave him
no present inheritance in it, not so much as the
dimensions of his foot, or a piece of land which
he might cover with the sole of it; for the lit-
tle portion of it that he could call his own, he
held by purchase, and not as by any claim of
divine donation: Nevertheless he promised to
give it for a lasting possession to him, even to his
seed after him, when [as yet] by the way, he

d. After his father died.] Many passages in Stephen's speech have been objected to, as contradictory to the account given of the same facts in the Old Testament. I can by no means acquiesce in the answer which some have given, that Luke's inspiration, only secured to us an exact account of what Stephen said: for it seems very unreasonable to suppose, that on so extraordinary an occasion the Spirit so expressly promised in such circumstances, (even to the seventy as well as to the aposiles, should leave him to frequent and palpable slips of memory, into which it is not probable any intelligent Christian minister would now fall in a like circumstance. It seems therefore much more honourable to Christianily to suppose, that, if there are any passages here which cannot be reconciled with the passages of the Old Testament to which they refer, (which most that have been objected to certainly may,) it is owing to some error of transcribers, from which, as it is plain from various readings, even the copies of the sacred books have not always been secure, as without a continued miracle it it impossible they should.-But as for what is here urged, as if it were inconsistent with Gen. xi. 26, 32. xii. 4. from whence it is argued, that,

had

as Terah was but 70 years old when Abra-
ham was born, and Abraham but 75 when
he departed from Haran, these make no
more than 145 years; but Terah lived to
be 205, and so must have lived 60 years
after Abraham left Haran, whereas Ste-
phen affirms, that Abraham went not
from thence till after his father died: In
answer to this, it is well observed by Mr.
Biscoe, (chap. xviii. p. 595-600,) that
this objection is built upon an unproved
supposition, that Abraham was Terah's
eldest son, or that he was born in his 70th
year; not to insist on the solution which
is offered to this difficulty by Le Clerc,
Knatchbull, Cappellus, and others, that,
according to the Samaritan copy, Terah
lived but 145 years-Cladenius's solu-
tion, built on the distinction between
naloxuty, sojourning, and pelanur, fixing his
abode there by the purchase of a sepulchre,
seems too mean a subterfuge to be particu-
larly discussed.

e Even to his seed.] The particle was so
often signifies even, that I think it much
more natural to render it thus, and to con-
sider this clause as explaining the former, its
order to avoid that express contradiction,
which seems to arise from trauslating it
as we do.
4 C 2

Four

574

xiii.

He was accepted of God before his circumcision. SECT. had no child, and humanly speaking it was not likely he ever should have one: but the faith of our pious ancestor triumphed over all these VII. 5. seeming difficulties, and joyfully embraced the divine revelation and promise.

Acts

6

6 And God spake

into bondage, and en

And the nation to whom they shall be in

this place.

And when God had brought Abraham into on this wise, that his this country, he did not keep him and his pos- seed should sojourn in terity here till the time they were to enter upon a strange land, and that the possession of it, in consequence of this di- they should bring them vine grant, but, on the contrary, God spake [to treat them evil four him] thus in a vision, (Gen. xv. 13, 14.) " that hundred years. his seed should sojourn and be strangers in a foreign land, and they among whom they sojourn shall enslave and abuse them; and these events, with the circumstances preparatory to them, shall extend themselves to the full period of four Thundred years. And the nation to which they shall be enslaved, said God in the same oracle, bondage, will I judge, I will assuredly judge, and punish with a righte- said God: and after ous and tremendous severity: And afterwards that shall they come they shall come out of that land, and serve me in forth, and serve me in this place; inhabiting this land in which thou now dwellest, and erecting a temple for the per8 formance of my worship here." This was God's promise to him while he was yet uncircumcised, and in confirmation of it he gave him, as you well know, the covenant of circumcision, a sacred and circumcised him the eighth day: and rite, which far from blaspheming, I revere as Isaac begat Jacob, and the solemn seal of this contract between God Jacob begat the twelve and Abraham And so being circumcised him- patriarchs. self, as soon as God required it, (Gen. xvii. 23, 24.) he quickly after begat Isaac, and circumcised him also on the eighth day, according to the divine appointment; and Isaac [begat] Jacob, and Jacob [begat] the twelve patriarchs, who were the respective heads of our twelve tribes of Israel.

f Four hundred years.] Many good critics suppose, that this is mentioned here, as well as in the text from which it is quoted, (Gen. xv. 13.) as a round sum, without taking notice of the broken number, the exact time being four hundred and thirty years, as Moses determines it, Exod. xii. 40. with whom the apostle Paul agrees, Gal. iii. 17. For Abraham was 75 years old, when he came into Canaan, (Gen. xii. 4.) which being considered as the beginning of the period, from thence to the birth of Isaac was 25 years; and Isaac was sixty years old when he begat Jacob, who went to Egypt at 130; which

And

8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and SO

Abraham begat Isaac,

numbers added together make 215 years;

and from thence to the time of Israel's departure from Egypt was 215 years more. (See Joseph. Antiq. lib. ii. cap. 15, [al. 6.] § 2.) But Moses, in the text quoted from Exodus, refers to the whole period of the sojourning of Abraham and his family in Canaan and Egypt, as strangers in those lands; whereas this promise being made but a little before Isaac's birth, and the prediction taking place from that event, must include only 405 years, which might in a round sum be yet more easily and properly called four hundred. See Bp. Patrick on Gen. xv. 13. and Dr. Whitby in loc.

g Being

Joseph is sold by his brethren, but God advances him.

9 And the patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him.

xii.

Acts

575 And in those days the providence of God SECT. began to work for the accomplishment of that surprising prediction, which I mentioned but now: For the rest of the patriarchs, though VII. 9. their relation to such holy ancestors might have tanght them a much better lesson, being moved with envys at the superior regard which Jacob shewed to his favourite son, most inhumanly sold Joseph their brother into Egypt, where he became a slave, and went through a great variety of calamities: Nevertheless God was with him there, though no longer in the promised land, and made that country a scene of very glorious providence towards him. And he there de- 10 livered him out of all his afflictions, which his infavour and wisdom in tegrity and piety had brought upon him, and the sight of Pharaoh gave him favour and high veneration, on acking of Egypt: and he count of that distinguished wisdom which apmade him governor peared to be in him, in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he constituted him ruler over the land of Egypt, and in particular over all his royal house, committing all things in the palace as well as elsewhere, to his direction and management, even to the management of this despised Joseph, whom his brethren (then the whole house of Israel) had most outrageously insulted and abused, and even sold for a slave.

10 And delivered

him out of all his affic

tions, and gave him

over Egypt, and all his

house.

11 Now there came

a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great af. fiction; and our fa

thers found no suste

nance.

And according to the predictions of Joseph, 11 which bad awakened so great an attention, when seven years of plenty were past, a famine came upon all the land of Egypt, and extended itself over Canaan too; and this calamity reduced them to such great affliction and distress, that they knew not how to subsist, and even in this fruitful land our fathers did not find sufficient sustenance to support themselves and their fami12 But when Jacob lies. But Jacob hearing that there was corn in 12 Egypt, ordered his sons to go and fetch them a supply from thence, and sent our fathers, the ten patriarchs thither first, keeping Benjamin 13 And at the se- with him at home. And the second time that 13

heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.

cond

g Being moved with envy.] From what Stephen mentions of the story of Joseph, it was obvious to infer, (as many good writers have observed,) that the greatest favourites of heaven might suffer by the envy of those who were called the Israel of God, and might be exalted by him after having been rejected by them: A thought worthy of their consideration with respect

they

to Jesus; but it would not have been pro-
per directly to insert such a reference in the
paraphrase, as prudence would not allow
Stephen in the beginning of this finely
adjusted defeuce, to say expressly what
they could not have borne to hear, as ap-
pears by the manner in which they re-
sented his application of these premises when
he was drawing towards a conclusion.

h Amounting

576

xiii.

Acts

Reflections on the remarkable facts mentioned by Stephen.

brethren; and Joseph's

was made

SECT. they went, when sorely against his good father's cond time Joseph wa will Benjamin accompanied them, Joseph was made known to his made known to his brethren; and as the matter kindred VII. 15. was immediately made public, the family and known unto Pharaoh. descent of Joseph was discovered to Pharaoh, of which he had not been particularly informed before.

14

14 Then sent Jo

And upon this, with the full consent of that generous prince, Joseph sent and invited his aged seph, and called his father Jacob to him, father Jacob, and all his kindred to him into and all his kindred, Egypt; who accordingly went down thither in threescore and fiftcen a company, amounting in the whole, together souls. with their wives, to seventy-five souls, without reckoning Jacob himself, and Joseph's family already there. And thus their sojourning in that land began, during which they were still under the care of divine Providence, till the time of their return to Canaan approached, of which I shall presently speak.

Acts

IMPROVEMENT.

THUS loud may the clamour of malice and falsehood rise against vi. 13 14 innocence and truth. Incessant blasphemy is charged on one of the most pious of men; and we wonder at it the less, since it was charged upon Jesus himself; and, if they called the master of the Acts house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household? (Mat. x. 25.) His disciple learns of him not to render evil for evil, but an

vii. 2

seems to be this.

hAmounting to seventy-five souls.] Of the various solutions which learned men have given of the seeming inconsistency between this account, and that given by Moses, (Gen. xlvi. 27. Exod. i. 5. and Deut. x. 22.) which makes them but seventy, (with which also Josephus agrees, Antiq. lib. ii. cap. 7, [al. 4,] § 4,) the most probable Moses expressly leaves out all the wives, (Gen. xlvi. 26,) whom he had said before the sons of Israel carried with them, (ver. 5.) and only speaks of those that came out of Jacob's loins, inserting in the catalogue that he gives of his children, two grand-children of Judah, (to supply the place of Er and Onan, who had died in Canaan Hezron and Hamul, though it is probable they were not born till after Jacob's arrival in Egypt; and, having first computed them at sixsy sir, he then adds Joseph and his two sons that were before in Egypt, and, reckoning Jacob with them, makes the whole number to amount to seventy. But Stephen speaks of all that went down with him, and so excludes Jacob himself, and the two afterwards born, and

swers

Joseph and his children, which reduces the number thus: The eleven brethren with Dinah their sister, and fifty-two that had descended from them, amount to sixty-four ; to which adding eleven wives, (some of the patriarchs having probably buried theirs, and but few of their children being yet married,) they amount in all to seventyfive. See Pool's Synopsis, and Whitby in lor. and Biscoe, at Boyle's Lec. chap. xviii. p. 602-606. -Could the reading of πανίες οι παγίως instead of πολε, (which Beza mentions as a conjecture,) be supported by proper authorities, so that it might be rendered all amounting to seventy souls, it would make the whole matter quite easy. Grotius also supposes, that the original reading here was seventy, and that the Septuagint copy was altered to its present form, to suit with the mistaken reading of seventy-five; for, in the two first texts referred to in the beginning of this note, the Septuagint read seventy-five, while in Deut. x. 22 they agree with the Hebrew, and read seventy, which is somewhat strange.

Reflections on the remarkable facts mentioned by Stephen.

577

swers in the language of calm reason, and of meek though power- SECT. ful conviction.

xiii.

2-5

White Stephen leads back our contemplation to so many re- Ver. markable facts of the Old Testament, let us reflect upon them with those devout affections which become the Israel of God. Let us adore the God of glory that appeared to Abraham, and called him forth to be so bright an example of faith and piety, in leaving his country and kindred, to follow the leadings of providence, when he knew not in what settlement they should end. Let us, in imitation of him, whose children, if true believers, we also are sit loose to every thing in this world, that we may be ready to leave it when God shall, by one providence or another, give the signal for our remove. If the next step of duty lies plain before us, let us trust our leader to mark out all that follow, in such an order, and to such an end, as he shall think fit; secure of this, that, while we follow infinite Wisdom, we cannot wander out of the way to true happiness, and that all the divine promises shall certainly be accomplished, whatever cross event may seem to interpose and obstruct.

8

When God appointed that the seed of Abraham should sojourn, 6, 7 and suffer in a strange land, the pious patriarch acquiesced in it: nor let us be over anxious about the difficulties into which our posterity may be led. Let us adore the divine goodness, that he has established his covenant with us, and with our seed after us ; and while we, in imitation of Abraham, bring our infant offspring to receive the solemn seal of that covenant, let us remember our engagements to instruct them, as they grow up, in the tenor of it, and labour to the utmost to engage their own personal con- 11, 12 sent to it; and then they will be truly rich and free, though in the penury of a famished land, or under the rod of an Egyptian tyrant.

The mysterious conduct of divine Providence with regard to the pious Joseph, who became a slave, that he might be made a 9, 10 prince, and who was trained up for the golden chain in the discipline of iron fetters, may surely be sufficient to teach us to judge nothing before the time, and to wait the end of the Lord, before we arraign the seeming severity of a part of his conduct towards those, whom we might imagine the most proper objects of his regard. And surely it will appear none of the least considerable 13, 14 of those rewards, which Providence bestowed on the approved and distinguished virtue of Joseph, that he had an opportunity of nourishing his pious father in his declining days, of spreading a mild and pleasant ray over the evening of a life, which had been so often beclouded with storms, and of sheltering (as it were) under his princely robe, that hoary head, which had once been turned into a fountain of tears over the bloody fragments of the many coloured coat.

SECT.

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