to them be understood literally, which God here renews and confirms, it is a direct proof of this latter truth, inasmuch as so only could it be fulfilled to them: and thus the resurrection of the dead is an integral part and more, the very basis-of the Abrahamic Covenant. [Appendix H.] With which, the belief of the Jews, it were easy to show (did time permit) the concurrence of the ancient Christian interpreters; of which one instance must here suffice,-the comment on the very promise in question (for which reason it is selected) of Irenæus, who, on the words in Genesis, " To thy seed will I give this land," says, "Thus hath God promised to him the inheritance of the earth: which, however, as he did not receive it in all his inhabiting of it, it behoves him to receive with his seed, that is, those who fear God and believe in Him, at the resurrection of the just." And again, in another place, le mort de ces Patriarches. Or Dieu ne peut être le Dieu des morts. Il faut donc que les hommes soient vivans dans un autre monde. Les ames ne meurent donc pas avec le corps. Quant a la resurrection des morts, que nioient les Saducéens, on ne peut pas la tirer si directement du raisonnement de Jesus Christ: mais seulement par consequence. Car s'il est vrai que les morts subsistent quant a l'ame, il est nullement impossible que leurs corps retournent en vie et que leurs ames s'y réunissent." But the words by which our Lord introduces His argument are, "Now that the dead are raised even Moses showed at the bush:" and if it were only the bare possibility of it that He proved, it is difficult to understand how the Sadducees were silenced by Him, or why, as we read, "when the multitude heard this they were astonished at His doctrine" (or teaching). -"God promises again the inheritance of the earth to Abraham and his seed; and neither Abraham nor his seed, that is, those who are justified by faith, now receive inheritance in it: but they shall receive it at the resurrection of the just. For God is true and faithful: and on this account has He pronounced 'the meek' to be blessed,' because they shall inherit the earth." [Appendix I.] In conclusion,-The review of the Covenant with Abraham in both its parts, which has now engaged our attention, plainly shows what was the 66 day of Christ" which Abraham "saw" afar off, and seeing, "rejoiced," that it was "THE DAY OF HIS POWER:" and that, like the prophecies that went before, this promise to him, though in part fulfilled at the First Advent of the Saviour, looks beyond it to the Second for its complete accomplishment. And here is the application of it, as of them, to ourselves. We have been considering the hope of Abraham, and we have seen that it is also ours: that "if we be Christ's, then are we Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise," that same promise made to him and to the patriarchs, and of the same inheritance: in the faith of which, we are moreover told, "they died, not having received it; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect."-(Heb. xi. last). Is ours then also the character which that hope formed in him and those who were partakers of his calling? Of them it is written that "they sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country," so "declar ing plainly" to all that in it was not yet their rest, and "confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." No possession in it would they then accept, but (as before observed) a "possession of a burying-place," by which they testified their faith in the promise and their hope of a resurrection; where now they rest waiting for "the redemption of the body," and, with it, "the redemption of the purchased possession," at His coming who appeared once to effect the ransom of man and his forfeited inheritance, and will appear again to recover all to which He then established His title, in the day of perfected salvation. [Appendix K.] May we be followers of them in this their "walk by faith!" In life bear the same testimony,-in death rest in their hope,-and finally be partakers of their resurrection at "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." Amen. |