God's dear Son. Canaan was to Abram a figure and type of the heavenly inheritance.

The Lord to encourage Abram, does, secondly, most graciously engage to make of him a great nation, to bless him, to make his name great, and to make him a blessing. Thus it pleases Jehovah to open his heart and make known the good pleasure of his will concerning him. He had chosen Abram out as an object of his electing love, whom he would distinguish in a very peculiar way, by making him one of hight renown; the greatest patriarch next to Noah. The original promise of a Savior, which was the foundation of all that faith and hope in God, which had been found in the church of the living God, from the fall, down to the deluge, and which was professed by Noah when he came forth out of the ark, and Shem, who had Jehovah for his God, was also a partaker of, was now again repeated, and as the highest blessing and dignity which could be conferred, it is promised to, and limited unto Abraham and his descendants. Thus God himself preaches the gospel unto Abram, saying, "In thee shall all nations be blessed." Gal. iii. 8. Abram was to enter into Canaan, which was to be the seat in which the church was to be for a season. From him, through successive generations, the Messiah was to proceed For this end his posterity were to be a peculiar people, distinct from all the world

·

beside, and were blessed with peculiar laws and ordinances, respecting their civil and ecclesiastical state, which served to point out and keep up the faith of believers in the incarnation of Christ. What the Lord revealed concerning Christ, and promised Abram, most certainly belongs to all believers, with this distinction, only that to him many temporal promises were also given, such as personal blessings, a nume rous posterity who were to descend from him, and especially a peculiar seed, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed. The Lord says to him, by way of encouraging him to forsake his own country, kindred, and father's house, and come into the land of Canaan, "And I will make of thee a great nation;" which was most fully accomplished by the numerous tribes of Ishmaelites and Edomites, and also by the sons he had by Keturah, together with the posterity of Jacob, the chosen line, and all this Jehovah declared, when as yet he had no child; and he was now seventy-five years old, which fully proves the truth of Paul's assertion, that God "calleth the things which be not, as though they were." Rom. iv. 17. The Lord adds to this, by saying, “And I will bless thee." The blessing of Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, lies at the foundation of all, and extends to every thing which God can bestow on his people in time or eternity. Under this term is included

and comprehended all the Lord God is by cove nant relation to his church and people, and all which it is the good pleasure of his will to bestow on them in earth or heaven. And in this blessing all the people of God are personally and equally interested. The Lord God in these

words opens his good treasure, and gives his servant a vast view of his everlasting love, and of those transcendent blessings which flowed from it, and would continue to flow from it world without end. The Lord further adds, " And I will make thy name great ;" which has been eminently fulfilled. His name is great throughout the whole scripture. He is stiled the friend of God, the father of all that believe. His name was great as the patriarch of the people of the jews; as the great and only one, to whom the promise of the Messiah that he should descend from him, was given; and he had also a great name among the heathen nations, kings, and princes, who were cotemporary with him. To all which the Lord adds, " and thou shalt be a blessing:" which he was, as by him the true knowledge of Christ Jesus, was conveyed to his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob, and down to the twelve patriarchs of the jewish nation: whose greatest glory was, that of them, as concerning the flesh, Christ was to come, who is over all, God blessed for ever, Amen." These were most divine excitements and encouragements indeed.

And, thirdly, the Lord adds to all this, by way of encouragement, "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee."

God's blessing includes all good, as God's curse includes all evil. This seems to be spoken to encourage him, to expect all necessary good from such as he might sojourn among, and to arm him against all fear of evil from those who might be his enemies. And thus the Lord undertakes to guard, keep, bless, and defend him, and gives observers to see that he was the blessed of the Lord. This was very necessary, seeing he was to be a pilgrim and wanderer, consequently he must be subject to the good and ill will of such as he should converse with.

And, fourthly, the Lord God unfolds to him, the everlasting gospel, saying, "And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.". Thus the great Mediator, and Almighty Jesus, who had been revealed and promised immediately upon the fall, as the seed of the woman, the serpent bruiser, and whose death had been shadowed forth in Abel's oblation, and also in Noah's, who the object and foundation of Shem's faith, and also of Eber's, is here afresh proclaimed and revealed to Abram, as the fountain and spring of all spiritual and temporal blessings; to shew, that with Christ, the Father freely gives all things; and also to suggest, that all the Holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity can bestow, and

was

convey to the elect, is treasured up in the person and fulness of the God-man, and flows down upon them most freely, and abundantly, through the incarnation, salvation, and mediation, of our most precious Lord. The apostle Paul quotes these words, and thus explains and applies them. “And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all the nations be blessed." Gal. iii. 8. Thus Christ, and the gospel, is expressed in this comprehensive word blessing. And all the blessings of the eternal Three which will be bestowed on the church and people of God is contained in Christ. It is in him all the families of the earth, that is, all that know the Lord, shall be blessed. Their blessedness is in Christ; and they are blessed in him beyond description and conception: being saved in him from all evil, and entitled in him to all good. They are heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ to all spiritual and eternal blessings.

Thus the original revelation of Christ receives, as it were, a new edition; and Abram has such a view of it set before him as could not fail of enlightening his mind, gladdening his heart, and drawing his whole soul after Christ, and fixing all his affections supremely on Jesus, the blesser of his people and heritage. Thus the original promise, or declaration, that the woman should have a seed which should bruise