what it was, or what were the reasons ment put our souls in his soul's stead, of it. Our obedience ever derives its principal value in the sight of heaven from the ready, implicit, and unquestioning spirit in which it is rendered. and realize to ourselves the spontaneous train of thought and feeling which must have passed through his mind. Take now thy son; and for what?-To in2. Take now thy son, thine only son vest him with all the honors of the proHeb. yahid, only. Gr. ayanтov mise, to put him in possession of the beloved. As an only son is usually destined inheritance? Alas no!-To the object of a very intense affec-seek for him a fitting companion to share tion, the epithets only and beloved came with him the blessings and comforts to be used interchangeably. Thus Prov. that might be expected to flow from the 4. 3, For I was my father's son, ten- covenant favor of his own and his fader and only (beloved) in the sight of ther's God? Neither is this the end of my mother;' where the original Heb. the command. Take now thy son only is also rendered by the Sept. thine only son-Isaac-whom thou lovayanwμɛvos beloved. The term povoyε- est, and--offer him up upon one of the vns only begotten, applied to Christ in the mountains, which I will tell thee of!' New Testament, is of equivalent import. Was ever message like this addressed In accordance with the Heb. there- to a father?-each word more piercing fore, Paul calls him, Heb. 11. 17, his to parental ears than the keenest dagger only begotten son.' Isaac was the to the heart!-every clause awakening only son of Sarah, the free woman, and a new and sharper pang of anguish! he only, in contradistinction from Ish- Who but Abraham could have forborne mael, who was now expelled, was to be remonstrance on such a heart-rending reckoned the seed of Abraham and the occasion? Who but he could have reheir of the promises. In this sense frained from saying, 'Lord, shall I lose Abraham would naturally understand my child?-lose him almost as soon as it; and thus understood, it could not but I have received him? Didst thou give go to enhance beyond expression the him only to tantalize thy servant? Reanguish of a father's heart in view of member the long years through which the command now given him. Indeed, his birth was expected, and the transthe language in which this severe man- ports of joy with which at length it was date is conveyed, appears to be pur- hailed, and which was commemorated posely so constructed as to aggravate in the name of thine own appointment. to the utmost the wound it was calcu- Remember the promises which can be lated to inflict. Every word seems fulfilled only on the condition of his life chosen with a view to awaken some being prolonged.-If sin lie at the door, painful feeling, and to increase the diffi- let me expiate the guilt. Let thousands culty of compliance. To a person of of rams, let every bullock in my stalls. humane and benevolent disposition, like bleed at thine altar. These are nothing Abraham, the idea of a human sacrifice compared with my child.-Or if nothing would naturally be in the highest de- will appease thine indignation but hugree revolting, had the meanest slave man blood, let my death be the sacrifice. of his household been demanded, and I am old and grey-headed. The best had the choice of the victim been left of my days are past, and the best of my to himself. What then must have been services performed. My life is of little his emotions as the true object of the value. Let me die, but let him live.command unfolded itself, and he found Yet if the decree cannot be reversed, if his own beloved son demanded as a the offering must come from my own sacrificial offering! Let us for a mo-family, if it must be the fruit of my own any spicuous land. Chal. 'To the land of reverence or worship;' the variation from the Hebrew being owing to the Targum's referring the word to the root yara, to fear, to reverence, instead of deriving it from raah, to see. The Gr. evidently refers the term to the right root, but interprets it solely of the high, commanding, conspicuous character of the locality in question. The probability is, that the name is here used proleptically, it having been given from the event, in reference to the remarkable vision or body, O that Ishmael-yet how shall I speak it ?--my heart bleeds at the thought!—but as for Isaac, the son of Sarah, the son of my old age, the crown of all my hopes, the very solace of my soul; how shall I survive such a loss? The blow that goes to his heart, must be fatal to us both.' Such we may conceive to have been the plea which fond nature would have prompted in other father than the father of the faithful; and if his prayer availed not to avert the doom of death, he would have besought that it might be mitigat- manifestation of the Most High which ed; that he might expire by a natural was there made, and to which allusion dissolution; that some disease might is had in the expression Jehovah-jireh, v. gently loose the cords of life, and that 14. Indeed, this seems to be intimated his sorrowing but submissive parents in the very form of the word itself, might have the melancholy consolation which Fuller (Misc. Sac.) suggests is a of soothing his dying pangs, and of clos- contraction or compound of ing his eyes when he had ceased to moreh-jah, Jehovah manifested, by a prolive. At any rate he would sue to be cess of formation which is fully given by exempted from the pain of witnessing Rosenmuller in loc. That the land of the sad catastrophe. If the son of his Moriah included the site of Jerusalem, love must be bound hand and foot for where was a well-known mountain the slaughter; if he must receive the called by the same name, is a point steel into his bosom, and welter in his universally admitted; but upon which own blood, how fervently would he ask one of the several hills included in the to be spared the anguish of beholding compass of the city the commanded such a scene. Such, we say, would be sacrifice was to be offered up, it is imthe native promptings of the paternal possible to determine. From the conheart. Yet in the case of Abraham all gruities of the case, we should naturalthese aggravations clustered round the ly suppose that the spot would be secommand that was given him, and as lected on which the antitypical sacrino alleviation was hinted to him, so none fice was to be made in the fulness of does he seem to have sought. He who time, and this is perhaps the general before staggered not at the promise, opinion of commentators. But this is staggers not now at the precept. Deaf made less certain by the now admitted alike to the arguings of carnal reason, and fact that Calvary was not properly a the yearnings of fatherly affection, he mountain; and that, although the place consults not with flesh and blood, but of the crucifixion is often popularly enters with the utmost promptitude up-called 'Mount Calvary,' yet the Scripon the work before him; and the sequel tures nowhere authorise this mode of informs us that it was carried out as it expression. There was doubtless a was commenced, in the full triumph of an unwavering faith.- - The land of Moriah. Heb. 2 x x el eretz hammoriyah; by interpretation the land of vision. Gr. Eis тny ynv thu vựnλny to the high land; i. e. the visible, the con gentle swell or rocky protuberance in the ground, resembling in form a human skull, from which the name was derived; but as the present locality has no appearance of a mountain, or even a hill of any size, so we have no reason A ND it came to pass after these | Abraham, and said unto him, Abrathings, that God did tempt ham: and he said, Behold, here I a 56. in which the Lord says to the unbe- Abraham must have rejoiced to see, and lieving Jews, 'Your father Abraham re-seeing which he was glad. But there joiced to see my day; and he saw it is nothing recorded of Abraham in the and was glad.' It is evident, from the Old Testament, from which it could be reply made by the Jews to this asser- inferred that he saw Christ's day in tion, that they understood the expression this sense, if he did not see and feel it in to see in its most literal sense; while it the command to sacrifice his only son. is equally evident, that when they ob- In this transaction therefore, he would jected to the possibility of a man, not have a lively figure of the offering up of yet fifty years old; having seen Abra- the Son of God for the sins of the ham, our Lord did not correct them in world; and not only so, but the interthe notion which they had formed as mediate system of typical sacrifices unto seeing. It was not, however, himself der the Mosaic economy was reprepersonally, whom our Saviour asserted sented by the prescribed oblation of the that Abraham rejoiced to see, but his ram instead of Isaac. day; by which cannot be meant the On the whole, we regard this as a veperiod of his sojourn upon earth, but the ry rational and plausible hypothesis, and circumstance in his life which was of one that derives no little support from the highest importance, and mainly the place where the scene of the transcharacteristic of his office as the Re-action was laid. If the design of the deemer. That the term will admit of command had been simply a trial of this interpretation is indubitable, from Abraham's faith, it is not easy to see the frequent use made, in a similar sense, of the word hour. Thus, when our Lord repeatedly says, My hour is not yet come''the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners;' when he prayed that 'if it were possible the hour might pass from him' where it is said, that no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come;' and again, 'that the hour was come when the Son of Man should be glorified,'-in all these instances it is evident that the word does not signify a mere portion of time, from which no one can be saved by its passing from him; but some particular circumstance or circumstances in his life, which were peculiar to him as the Redeemer. The peculiar circumstance, however, which constituted Jesus the Redeemer of the world, was the laying down of his life; and this it was which why he should have been required to go to such a distance to perform an act that might as well have been performed anywhere else. But when we find him directed to go to the site of Jerusalem, and to rear his altar, and offer up his sacrifice, on or near the very spot where the Saviour was afterwards actually crucified, we cannot well avoid seeing in the incident a designed typical and prophetical character. But a fuller view of the event in its various bearings will be gained from the explanations that follow. 1. And it came to pass after these things. Heb. After these words. That is, we suppose, not merely after the things recorded in the preceding chapter, but after all the previous trials which Abraham had been called to pass through. Notwithstanding he may have hoped for a period of tranquil rest in the de b 2 And he said, Take now thy | land of Moriah; and offer him there son, thine only son Isaac, whom for a burnt-offering upon one of the thou lovest, and get thee into the mountains which I will tell thee of. a Heb. 11. 17. b2 Chron. 3. 1. cline of life, after the various trials and of their hearts. In this sense of trying, conflicts, the dangers and deliverances putting to the proof, bringing to the test. through which he had passed; yet he is the original term in many other instances once more reminded that he is still in the is used in reference to the Most High flesh, that the days of his warfare are and always in such a way as to leave not yet accomplished, and that he must his attributes unimpeached. Thus arm himself for a far more fiery trial than Deut. 13. 3, 'For the Lord your God any he has yet endured. We cannot ( nissah) proveih you, to know but feel for the venerable patriarch thus (i. e. to make known) whether ye love suddenly awakened from his state of the Lord your God with all your heart repose, and summoned to a new and and all your soul.' 2 Chron. 32. 31, 'In unparalleled conflict; but the event the business of the ambassadors God left teaches us that a believer's trials are him (77701 lenassotho) to try him, that not confined to the commencement of he might know all the evil that was in his course; that the longest period of his heart.' Indeed, in some cases we rest and peace may be succeeded by a find this kind of trial made a subject of sore temptation; and the severest con- petition on the part of good men, as if flict be reserved for the last.- -1 God they regarded it as a special favor. Ps. did tempt Abraham. Heb. o nis- 26. 2, 'Examine me, O Lord, and ( sah, tried, proved. Gr. Eπεipnoε, id. This nassani) prove me; try my reins and my literal rendering of the term, which is heart.' And so with a different word, actually given in the old Geneva ver- but to the same effect, Ps. 139. 23, 24, sion, 'God did prove Abraham,' goes at 'Search me, O God, and know my once to correct the erroneous impression heart: try me, and know my thoughts, that might possibly be received from and see if there be any wicked way in our English word 'tempt,' which usually me, and lead me in the way everlasting. has the sense of exciting to sin. But And we find Paul, 2 Cor. 13 5, employ in this sense we are expressly assured ing the corresponding Gr. term, wher by James 1. 13, that God is not tempted enjoining as a duty to be performed by of evil, neither tempteth he any man;' Christians towards themselves, the very he neither deceives any man's judgment probation, which is indicated by the Heb nor perverts his will, nor seduces his word; •Examine (Tεipagerε try) your affections, nor does any thing else that selves, whether ye be in the faith; can subject him to the blame of men's prove your own selves.'—¶ Behold, sins. Temptation in this bad sense al- here I am. Heb. hinnini, beways proceeds from the malice of Sa- hold me. Arab. What is thy pleatan working on the corruptions of our sure?' The patriarch's prompt obown hearts. God may, however, con- sequiousness to the slightest call of sistently with all his perfections, by his God is strikingly set forth in this reply. providence, bring his creatures into cir- It exhibits him as presenting himself in cumstances of special probation, not for the divine presence, ready at a mothe purpose of giving him information, ment's warning to enter upon any ser but in order to manifest to themselves vice that might be enjoined upon him, and to others the prevailing dispositions without first waiting to know distinctly Take now thy son what it was, or what were the reasons ment put our souls in his soul's stead, of it. Our obedience ever derives and realize to ourselves the spontaneous its principal value in the sight of hea- train of thought and feeling which must ven from the ready, implicit, and unques- have passed through his mind. Take tioning spirit in which it is rendered. now thy son; and for what?-To in2. Take now thy son, thine only son vest him with all the honors of the proHeb.yahid, only. Gr. ayаяптоν mise, to put him in possession of the beloved. As an only son is usually destined inheritance? Alas no!-To the object of a very intense affec-seek for him a fitting companion to share tion, the epithets only and beloved came with him the blessings and comforts to be used interchangeably. Thus Prov. that might be expected to flow from the 4. 3, 'For I was my father's son, ten- covenant favor of his own and his fader and only (beloved) in the sight of ther's God ? Neither is this the end of my mother;' where the original Heb. the command. only is also rendered by the Sept. thine only son-Isaac-whom thou lovayanwμɛvos beloved. The term povoyε- est, and-offer him up upon one of the vns only begotten, applied to Christ in the mountains, which I will tell thee of!' New Testament, is of equivalent import. Was ever message like this addressed In accordance with the Heb. there- to a father?-each word more piercing fore, Paul calls him, Heb. 11. 17, his to parental ears than the keenest dagger only begotten son.' Isaac was the to the heart!-every clause awakening only son of Sarah, the free woman, and a new and sharper pang of anguish! he only, in contradistinction from Ish- Who but Abraham could have forborne mael, who was now expelled, was to be remonstrance on such a heart-rending reckoned the seed of Abraham and the occasion? Who but he could have reheir of the promises. In this sense frained from saying, 'Lord, shall I lose Abraham would naturally understand my child?-lose him almost as soon as it; and thus understood, it could not but I have received him? Didst thou give go to enhance beyond expression the him only to tantalize thy servant? Reanguish of a father's heart in view of member the long years through which the command now given him. Indeed, his birth was expected, and the transthe language in which this severe man- ports of joy with which at length it was date is conveyed, appears to be pur- hailed, and which was commemorated posely so constructed as to aggravate in the name of thine own appointment. to the utmost the wound it was calcu-emember the promises which can be lated to inflict. Every word seems fulfilled only on the condition of his life chosen with a view to awaken some painful feeling, and to increase the difficulty of compliance. To a person of humane and benevolent disposition, like Abraham, the idea of a human sacrifice would naturally be in the highest degree revolting, had the meanest slave of his household been demanded, and had the choice of the victim been left to himself. What then must have been his emotions as the true object of the command unfolded itself, and he found his own beloved son demanded as a sacrificial offering! Let us for a mo being prolonged.-If sin lie at the door, let me expiate the guilt. Let thousands of rams, let every bullock in my stalls. bleed at thine altar. These are nothing compared with my child.-Or if nothing will appease thine indignation but human blood, let my death be the sacrifice. I am old and grey-headed. The best of my days are past, and the best of my services performed. My life is of little value. Let me die, but let him live.Yet if the decree cannot be reversed, if the offering must come from my own family, if it must be the fruit of my own |