God renews his promise.

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Having enumerated so many opinions, that of William Alabaster, in his Apparatus to the Revelation, should not be passed by. He most wisely says that ab-ram or ab-rom signifies father of the Romans, and consequently the pope; therefore Abraham was pope the first! This is just as likely as some of the preceding etymologies.

From all these learned as well as puerile conjectures we may see the extreme difficulty of ascertaining the true meaning of the word, though the concordance makers, and proper name explainers find no difficulty at all in the case; and pronounce on it as readily and authoritatively as if they had been in the Divine council when it was first imposed.

multitude.

Hottinger, in his Smegma Orientale, supposes the word to be derived from the Arabic root rahama, which signifies to be very numerous. Hence ab raham would signify a copious father or father of a This makes a very good sense, and agrees well with the context. Either this etymology or that which supposes the inserted he to be an abbreviation of the word in hamon, multitude, is the most likely to be the true one. But this last would require the word to be written, when full, in ab-ram-hamon. The same difficulty occurs, verse 15, on the word Sarai, which signifies my prince or princess, and Sarah, where the whole change is made by the substitution of an he for a yod. This latter might be translated princess in general; and while the former seems to point out her government in her own family alone, the latter appears to indicate her government over the nations of which her husband is termed the father or lord; and hence the promise states that she shall be a mother of nations, and that kings of people should spring from her. See ver. 15, 16.

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Now as the only change in each name is made by the insertion of a single letter, and that letter the same in both names, I cannot help concluding that some mystery was designed by its insertion; and therefore the opinion of Clarius and some others is not to be disregarded, which supposes that God shows he had conferred a peculiar dignity on both, by adding to their names one of the letters of his own; a name by which his eternal power and Godhead are peculiarly pointed out.

Psa. cv. 9, 11. t Heb. of thy sojournings.- "Chap. xxiii. 4; xxviii. 4. - Exod. vi. 7; Lev. xxvi. 12; Deut. iv. 37; xiv. 2; xxvi. 18; xxix. 13.- -w Acts vii. 8.

From the difficulty of settling the etymology of these two names, on which so much stress seems to be laid in the text, the reader will see with what caution he should receive the lists of explanations of the proper names in the Old and New Testaments, which he so frequently meets with, and which I can pronounce to be in general false or absurd.

Verse 7. An everlasting covenant] hy 'n berith olam. See on chap. xiii. 15. Here the word olam is taken in its own proper meaning, as the words immediately following prove-to be a God unto thee, and thy seed after thee; for as the soul is to endure for ever, so it shall eternally stand in need of the supporting power and energy of God; and as the reign of the Gospel dispensation shall be as long as sun and mooi. endure, and its consequences eternal, so must the covenant be on which these are founded.

Verse 8. Everlasting possession] Here by olam appears to be used in its accommodated meaning, and signifies the completion of the Divine counsel in referAnd it is ence to a particular period or dispensation. literally true that the Israelites possessed the land of Canaan till the Mosaic dispensation was terminated in the complete introduction of that of the Gospel. But as the spiritual and temporal covenants are both blended together, and the former was pointed out and typified by the latter, hence the word even here may be taken in its own proper meaning, that of ever-during, or eternal; because the spiritual blessings pointed out by And hence the temporal covenant shall have no end. it is immediately added, I will be their God, not for a See the notes time, certainly, but for ever and ever. on chap. xxi. 33.

Verse 10. Every man-child-shall be circumcised.] Those who wish to invalidate the evidence of the Divine origin of the Mosaic law, roundly assert that the Israelites received the rite of circumcision from the Egyptians. Their apostle in this business is Herodotus, who, lib. ii., p. 116, Edit. Steph. 1592, says: "The Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians, are the only nations in the world who have used circumcision an' apxns, from the remotest period; and the Phoenicians and Syrians who inhabit Palestine acknowledge they received this from the Egyptians." Herodotus cannot mean Jews by Phoenicians and Syrians; if he does he is incorrect, for no Jew ever did or ever could

God commands all the

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you.

12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man-child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

14 And the uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that

Acts vii. 8; Rom. iv. 11.-y Heb. a son of eight days. Lev. xii. 3; Luke ii. 21; John vii. 22; Phil. iii. 5.- Exod. iv. 24. That is, princess.

acknowledge this, with the history of Abraham in his hand. If Herodotus had written before the days of Abraham, or at least before the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt, and informed us that circumcision had been practised among them an' apxns, from the beginning, there would then exist a possibility that the Israelites while sojourning among them had learned and adopted this rite. But when we know that Herodotus flourished only 484 years before the Christian era, and that Jacob and his family sojourned in Egypt more than 1800 years before Christ, and that all the descendants of Abraham most conscientiously observed circumcision, and do so to this day, then the presumption is that the Egyptians received it from the Israelites, but that it was impossible the latter could have received it from the former, as they had practised it so long before their ancestors had sojourned in Egypt.

Verse 11. And it shall be a token] n leoth, for a sign of spiritual things; for the circumcision made in the flesh was designed to signify the purification of the heart from all unrighteousness, as God particularly showed in the law itself. See Deut. x. 16; see also Rom. ii. 25-29; Col. ii. 11. And it was a seal of that righteousness or justification that comes by faith, Rom. iv. 11. That some of the Jews had a just notion of its spiritual intention, is plain from many passages in the Chaldee paraphrases and in the Jewish writers. I borrow one passage from the book Zohar, quoted by Ainsworth: "At what time a man is sealed with this holy seal, (of circumcision,) thenceforth he seeth the holy blessed God properly, and the holy soul is united to him. If he be not worthy, and keepeth not this sign, what is written? By the breath of God they perish, (Job iv. 9,) because this seal of the holy blessed God was not kept. But if he be worthy, and keep it, the Holy Ghost is not separated from him."

Verse 12. He that is eight days old] Because previously to this they were considered unclean, Lev. xii. 2, 3, and circumcision was ever understood as a consecration of the person to God. Neither calf, lamb, VOL. I. ( 9 )

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15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

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16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and a she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, fand laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

e

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Chap. xviii. 10.- d Heb. she shall become nations. Le Ch. xxxv. 11; Gal. iv. 31; 1 Pet. iii. 6. Chap. xviii. 12;

xxi. 6.

nor kid, was offered to God till it was eight days old for the same reason, Lev. xxii. 27.

Verse 13. He that is born in thy house] The son of a servant; he that is bought with thy money-a slave on his coming into the family. According to the Jewish writers the father was to circumcise his son; and the master, the servant born in his house, or the slave bought with money. If the father or master neglected to do this, then the magistrates were obliged to see it performed; if the neglect of this ordinance was unknown to the magistrates, then the person himself, when he came of age, was obliged to do it.

Verse 14. The uncircumcised-shall be cut off from his people] By being cut off some have imagined that a sudden temporal death was implied; but the simple meaning seems to be that such should have no right to nor share in the blessings of the covenant, which we have already seen were both of a temporal and spiritual kind; and if so, then eternal death was implied, for it was impossible for a person who had not received the spiritual purification to enter into eternal glory. The spirit of this law extends to all ages, dispensations, and people; he whose heart is not purified from sin cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Reader, on what is thy hope of heaven founded?

Verse 15. Thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah] See on ver. 5.

Verse 16. I will bless her, &c.] Sarah certainly stands at the head of all the women of the Old Testament, on account of her extraordinary privileges. I am quite of Calmet's opinion that Sarah was a type of the blessed Virgin. St. Paul considers her a type of the New Testament and heavenly Jerusalem; and as all true believers are considered as the children of Abraham, so all faithful holy women are considered the daughters of Sarah, Gal. iv. 22, 24, 26. See also 1 Pet. iii. 6.

Verse 17. Then Abraham-laughed] I am astonished to find learned and pious men considering this as a token of Abraham's weakness of faith or unbelief, when they have the most positive assurance from

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See ver. 1, 17; Rom. iv. 19.

to it. A rite so painful, so repugnant to every feeling of delicacy, and every way revolting to nature, could never have sprung up in the imagination of man. To this day the Jews practise it as a Divine ordinance; and all the Arabians do the same. As a distinction between them and other people it never could have been designed, because it was a sign that was never to appear. The individual alone knew that he bore in his flesh this sign of the covenant, and he bore it by the order of God, and he knew it was a sign and seal of spiritual blessings, and not the blessings themselves, though a proof that these blessings were promised, and that he had a right to them. Those who did not consider it in this spiritual reference are by the apostle denominated the concision, Phil. iii. 2, i. e., persons whose flesh was cut, but whose hearts were not purified.

THE Contents of this chapter may be summed up in a few propositions :

1. God, in renewing his covenant with Abram, makes an important change in his and Sarai's name; a change which should ever act as a help to their faith, that the promises by which God had bound himself should be punctually fulfilled. However difficult it may be for us to ascertain the precise import of the change then made, we may rest assured that it was perfectly understood by both; and that, as they had received this name from God, they considered it as placing them in a new relation both to their Maker and to their posterity. From what we have already seen, the change made in Abram's name is inscrutable to us; there is something like this in Rev. ii. 17: To him that overcometh will I give a white stone, and a NEW NAME which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. The full import of the change made in a soul that enters into covenant with God through Christ, is only known to itself; a stranger intermeddleth not with its joy. Hence, even men of learning and the world at large have considered experimental religion as enthusiasm, merely because they have not understood its nature, and have permitted themselves to be carried away by prejudices which they have imbibed perhaps at first through the means of ignorant or hypocritical pretenders to deep piety; but while they have the sacred writings before them, their prejudices and opposition to that without which they cannot be saved are as unprincipled as they are

2. God gives Abraham a precept, which should be observed, not only by himself, but by all his posterity; for this was to be a permanent sign of that covenant which was to endure for ever. Though the sign is now changed from circumcision to baptism, each of them equally significant, yet the covenant is not changed

circumcised on the same day.

in any part of its essential meaning. Faith in God through the great sacrifice, remission of sins, and sanctification of the heart, are required by the new covenant as well as by the old.

3. The rite of circumcision was painful and humi liating, to denote that repentance, self-denial, &c., are absolutely necessary to all who wish for redemption in the blood of the covenant; and the putting away this filth of the flesh showed the necessity of a pure heart and a holy life.

4. As eternal life is the free gift of God, he has a right to give it in what way he pleases, and on what terms. He says to Abraham and his seed, Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and he that doth not so shall be cut off from his people. He says also to sinners in general, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; Repent, and believe the Gospel; and, Except ye repent, ye shall perish. These are the terms on which he will bestow the blessings of the old and new covenants. And let it be remembered that stretching out the hand to receive an alms can never be considered as meriting the bounty received, neither can repentance or faith merit salvation, although they are the conditions on which it is bestowed.

5. The precepts given under both covenants were accompanied with a promise of the Messiah. God well knows that no religious rite can be properly observed, and no precept obeyed, unless he impart strength from on high; and he teaches us that that strength must ever come through the promised seed. with the utmost propriety, we ask every blessing through him, in whom God is well pleased.

Hence,

6. The precept, the promise, and the rile, were pre faced with, "I am God all-sufficient; walk before me, and be thou perfect." God, who is the sole object of religious worship, has the sole authority to prescribe that worship, and the rites and ceremonies which shall be used in it; hence he prescribed circumcision and sacrifices under the old law, and baptism and the eucharist under the Gospel; and to render both effectual to the end of their institution, faith in God was indispensably necessary..

7. Those who profess to believe in him must not live as they list, but as he pleases. Though redeemed from the curse of the law, and from the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish Church, they are under the law to Christ, and must walk before him-be in all things obedient to that moral law which is an emanation from the righteousness of God, and of eternal obligation; and let it ever be remembered that Christ is "the author of eternal salvation to all that obey him." Without faith and obedience there can be no holiness, and without holiness none can see the Lord. Be all that