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12. "And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight, because of the lad, and because of thy bond-woman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice: for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

13. "And also of the son of the bond-woman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed."

Moses has shown that Noah was perfect in his generations, and from Noah's approved son, Shem, Abraham's descent is carefully given; his promised son, Isaac, therefore, by a free-woman, must, according to all that has been shown, from both the Old Testament and the New, be considered as one of the sons of God: but Ishmael his brother, although he received a blessing from God, is clearly marked as of an inferior nature to Isaac, even in the Old Testament,-First, by his descent on his mother's side; secondly, by his own marriage with an Egyptian, which still keeps his posterity in the line of Ham; and, thirdly, by the declaration of Sarah, that he should not inherit with her son; which declaration must be looked upon as pro

phetical in respect to his posterity, because it is immediately approved of by the Lord; and the subject resumed with confirmation in the New Testament more than a thousand years afterwards.

Galatians, chap. iv. 22. "For it is written, that Abraham had two sons; the one by a bond-maid, the other by a free-woman.

23. But he who was of the bond-woman, was born after the flesh: but he of the free-woman was by promise.

28. "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now."

At the twenty-third verse, all that has been conjectured concerning a radical difference of origin seems confirmed, and Ishmael is declared to be born after the flesh, while the Jews, the sons of God, are recognized as the children of the promise.

Verse 30. "Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bond-woman and her son: for the

son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman."

If Sarah's declaration that Ishmael should not inherit with Isaac had only appeared in the Old Testament, it might have passed as an instance of the selfishness of a mother; but when it is thus resumed in the New Testament, it assumes a more serious aspect, and demands our attention; for what was in the Old Testament called the word of Sarah, is here stated to be the word of Scripture; and the posterity of the two brothers being distinct in the world at this day, the fulfilment of Sarah's prophetic declaration concerning them may also be distinctly judged of. The Jews being still, notwithstanding their degradation, in full possession of the covenant of their forefathers, while Ishmael's posterity, the Arabians, are more devoid of the power to inherit with them than ever, by their adoption of the Mahometan religion. And thus are Sarah's prophetic words completed, and the son of the bond-woman is not heir with the son of the free-woman.

And that these two predicted nations should have

been so long kept distinct from other nations, the one under dispersion and the other by continuing undiminished in its primordial station, must have been for the purpose of finally manifesting the foreknowledge of Scripture by their fulfilments of the prophecies therein related of them.

JACOB AND ESAU..

BUT quitting for the present the course of Ishmael's posterity seated in Arabia, we must follow that of Isaac in the two branches of Esau and Jacob.

Genesis, chap. xxv. 19. " And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham begat Isaac.

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20. "And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan-aram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.

21. “And Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

22. "And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? and she went to inquire of the Lord.

23. "And the Lord said unto her, Two nations

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