lish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto 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." (Gen. xvii. 2—8.) And at the same time, after having appointed the rite of circumcision, the Almighty proceeded to promise, in the clearest and most explicit manner, that Abraham should have another son, who should be the heir of this special covenant. "God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. And Abraham. said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee." (Gen. xvii. 15-21.)

:

Language can scarcely be more comprehensive or precise than this. Every kind of misconception is guarded against, every doubt removed; and the promises which had been so amply and particularly given to Abraham are here, with equal certainty, limited to Isaac, and were subsequently communicated directly unto him. After the death of his father, Isaac went to Gerar; " and the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will

give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." (Gen. xxvi. 2-4.)

These covenant-promises were afterward given to Jacob and his descendants. Before his birth, Rebekah was divinely informed, that from the twins in her womb two nations should descend; that the one people should be stronger than the other; and that the elder should serve the younger. This language appears to intimate, although in rather obscure terms, that the younger of these children should inherit the promise. But this fact is clearly stated in the revelations made to Jacob at Bethel, when on his journey to Padan-aram. On that occasion Jehovah said unto him, "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." (Gen. xxviii. 13-15.) The same promise was repeated after the return of Jacob to Canaan. Then "God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; and the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land." (Gen. xxxv. 11, 12.)

And,

At the hazard of being thought tedious, the above collection of promises and predictions has been placed before the reader, as exhibiting at one view the plan and purpose of God. These are not fragments culled from the history of the men or of the nation. They are declarations of the divine will, avowals of the predetermined purposes of God to make Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and, after them, the Jewish nation and polity, auxiliary to the advent of Messiah, and preliminary to the establishment of his universal kingdom of

grace. These portions of Scripture do not, therefore, exhibit any of the ordinary divine interpositions in the affairs, fortunes, and destinies of nations; they do this in a certain sense, but the object of which they speak is infinitely greater it is the introduction of a new element into God's government of the world,-the selection of a family destined to be the human progenitors of the Messiah, and the appointment of a nation which, constantly guided by a special providence, and made the depositary of revealed truth, should prepare the way for the developement of the great scheme of redemption.

It is important to insist on this view before any reference is made to the character and conduct of the patriarchs; because nothing is more frequent than to find sceptics and infidels of every grade confounding the design of God with the policy of man, and stultifying the divine plan, because some of the persons who have been brought within its range have acted unworthily. This is unreasonable and unjust. The texts which have been quoted show, in outline, the divine intention: this was wise and merciful, the result of infinite wisdom and boundless love, the plan best adapted to magnify the mercy of God, and to effect the salvation of man.

Here to pause and defend the justice or the propriety of this course cannot be necessary. The Almighty Governor saw at his feet a rebellious and ruined world. He selected one faithful man, gave unto him special promises, and raised from his seed a nation, which he called into special covenant with himself, made them the recipients of revealed truth, and appointed the Messiah to be born, and his universal kingdom to be first set up, among this people. This course was taken as the best adapted for the maintenance of his truth, and the manifestation of his grace. In a manner the most demonstrative it has in all ages been attested as the work and wisdom of God. If, with this fact, written imperishably on all the records of ancient history, engraven in everlasting characters on the rocks of Palestine, shown forth by a multitude of miracles and fulfilled predictions, and still

living in the remnant of the Jewish race,―if, in the face of such evidence, men can be found prepared to deny the justice or suitability of a plan, which God has thus inwrought into his government of the world during thousands of years, then it may be fairly concluded that argument on such minds will be unavailing; they must be left to their own views.

It is the peculiar character of this proceeding, that, in outline at least, the end is seen from the beginning. While yet only Abraham and Sarah, an old and childless couple, are before us, we are informed not merely that they shall have a son, but that their descendants shall become a great nation; we are told of the particular countries which they shall inhabit, and the period when they shall take possession of them. These facts are announced in close connexion with the covenant relation which was to subsist between this people and Jehovah, and accompanied by intimations of the blessings which should flow through them to all mankind.

In tracing the developement of this divine purpose in the family history of Isaac, Jacob, and of his sons, until their children became a numerous tribe, it will only be necessary to observe, in respect of Isaac, that he was so specially named as heir to the promises made to his father, that, on the death of the distinguished patriarch, he at once stands before us in this character.

We have already adverted to the peculiar circumstances which preceded the birth of Esau and Jacob. The former possessed the birth-right; while to the latter pertained, according to the decree of the divine oracle, the pre-eminence over his elder brother. Meanwhile, the boys grew and approached manhood, when Esau became celebrated as a hunter, while Jacob was a plain man, remaining chiefly at home.

It might be observed here, that whatever difficulty may appear in the relative position of these young men, it was beyond their control, and to be cleared up only by providential interposition: thus they ought to have regarded it. For,

throughout the whole plan, God had predetermined which of them was to succeed to the covenant-promise; even before they had "done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand;" (Rom. ix. 11;) and their descendants, throughout all their history, have a standing proof that they did not earn their elevated privileges and power by their piety or prowess, but received all as the free gift of God.

A short time, however, sufficed to transfer the birth-right from Esau to Jacob. The Mosaic narrative states that "Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field," and that on one occasion, having returned from his hunting, weary, hungry, and faint, he found his brother with some delicious pottage,* of which he earnestly desired to partake; and on preferring his request, Jacob demanded his birth-right in return; a condition which Esau, either in thoughtless haste, or in contempt of his privilege, accepted; for the inspired writer closes his account of this transaction with this significant remark, "Thus Esau despised his birth-right."+ (Gen. xxv. 27-34.)

The conduct of Jacob in this instance must not be confounded with the divine purpose to invest his family with power, privilege, and dignity, beyond that of his brother. All this would have been effected, if Jacob had acted with the utmost kindness and liberality towards Esau; effected, too, in a manner honourable to all the instruments employed, and worthy of the goodness and wisdom which dictated the arrangement. But when Jacob-informed as he doubtless had been, by his fond mother, of the declaration of the oracle-laboured, with indecent haste and ungenerous temper, to take advantage of his brother's weakness, and thus to wrest from him a privilege which he too lightly esteemed; although Divine Providence did not interfere to prevent the accomplishment of the purpose by these means, it allowed the natural results to follow; and Jacob for many years bitterly felt the consequences of his misconduct.

* See note B, p. 56.

+ See note C, p. 57.