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now read, as the foundation of another Lec- | with Sarai's beauty, had made his court to ture on the history of Abram, is just and her, on the presumption of her being a single striking. "He that believeth shall not make woman, by the usual modes of attention, and haste." Faith neither lags behind, nor strives presents numerous and costly, suitable to his to outrun the word of God. "Thus saith the rank and the manners of the times: "sheep, Lord," is its rule and measure; it endures, oxen, he-asses, men-servants, maid-servants, waits, proceeds, acts, refrains, as "seeing him she-asses, and camels." Of the female serwho is invisible." But in the most composed, vants probably bestowed upon that occasion, firmest, and faithfullest of believers, we find one is now brought particularly into view, the frailties and infirmities of the man fre- and occupies a conspicuous place henceforquently predominant; and a slighter tempta- ward in this history. The deception attempttion sometimes prevailing, after more severe ed by Abram, in making his wife pass for a and difficult trials have been withstood and sister, is very little to his credit; and his overcome. Nothing can exceed the solem- accepting presents from Pharaoh, circumnity with which God ratified his covenant stanced as he was, and knowing what he did, with Abram, as recorded in the fifteenth chap- was far from being an honourable proceeding; ter of Genesis. Under the sanction of the indeed, no good could be expected to come most awful forms and ceremonies, a son is of it; and though God did not, at the time, promised, the future father of a numerous reproach him for his conduct by a verbal reoffspring; and an inheritance is allotted to proof, he is now preparing, by his righteous that chosen seed, by him who has all things providence, to make him feel that he had in heaven and in earth at his disposal. Abram acted wrong. Thus, the monuments of our takes the word of God as a full security; faults become the instruments of our punishbelieves and rejoices. He had now dwelt tenment. Sarai proposes to her husband to asyears in Canaan: and notwithstanding his sume this Egyptian handmaid, Hagar, as a advanced period of life, we find him discover-secondary, or inferior wife: in hope of building nothing like eagerness or impatience; he "believed" and therefore did "not make haste." But though he was not the first to devise an undue and intemperate method of arriving at the accomplishment of the promise, we find him ready enough to adopt one of this nature when it was suggested to

him.

ing up a family by her, and thus of making the promise to take effect. Unnatural as this may appear, it is far from being without a parallel. The truth is, it is very natural, and very common, to try to get rid of a present pressure, though with the hazard of subjecting ourselves to a heavier burthen. Every thing was wrong here. A shameful distrust of God; an attempt to introduce a foreign and perhaps an idolatrous mother into the family of Abram: a most unwise and incon

It was now put beyond a doubt that Abram should become a father, but it has not yet been declared explicitly that Sarai shall be a mother. With the anxiety natural to wo-siderate tampering with her husband's affecmen in her circumstances, however, we may suppose her to hope till she could hope no longer. At length, her feelings as a wife gave way to her concern about her husband's glory and happiness; and she consents to Abram's having children by another, rather than that he should not have children at all. Projects formed and executed in haste, are generally repented of at leisure; and when we fly in the face either of nature or of religion, we shall speedily and infallibly find both the one and the other much too powerful for us. Sarai's was a lot to be envied by most women; beautiful and beloved even to old age; mistress of an ample fortune, and a numerous train of domestics: the wife of a prince, and, what is much more, of an amiable and excellent man. But the glory and joy of all these flattering circumstances were marred and diminished by one perverse accident, "she bare Abram no children." Not blindly and capriciously, but in wisdom and in righteousness, the great God apportions to the sons of men good and evil in this life; that none may be exalted above measure, and that none may sink into dejection and despair. During Abram's sojourn in Egypt, Pharaoh, smitten

tion; a foundation laid of probable, if not of certain domestic jealousies and quarrels ; evil done in vain expectation that good may come of it. Abram complies with the suggestion of his wife, and Hagar conceives. It requires not the gift of prophecy to foresee the consequence. Hagar becomes vain and insolent, and Sarai is thoroughly mortified. The handmaid now considers herself as her mistress's equal, if not her superior; she views Abram's vast possessions, and vaster prospects, as entailed on her posterity. Little and wicked minds are soon elevated, and as easily depressed. The whole of Sarai's behaviour, is that of a peevish, unreasonable, disappointed woman. The wise scheme was of her own contriving; and now that she feels the effect of her impetuosity and rashness, she turns the edge of her resentment against her innocent husband; "And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the Lord judge between me and thee."* How weak, wicked, and absurd is all this! Had the good man

* Gen. xvi. 5.

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formed a deliberate design of injuring and insulting her, she could not have employed harsher language; and yet whatever evil has been committed, was her own devising. But the language of passion is ever contradictory and inconsistent. "My wrong be upon thee." Why should it? My folly recoils upon myself," would have been the language of truth and justice. She dares not, even in her rage, accuse Abram of incontinency, but reluctantly discerns and acknowledges her own rashness: "I have given my maid into thy bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes." The tide of anger says not, it is enough, knows not where to stop: "The Lord judge between me and thee." Who would not conclude, from an appeal so solemn, that she has the better cause? And yet, she is appealing to God in a case where she was clearly, consciously in the wrong. I like not hasty references to Heaven. A truly serious spirit will reflect twice before it interposes the name of God on any occasion, and shudder at the thought of employing it upon a false or frivolous one; an angry spirit sticks at nothing. For this reason, I will sooner believe a plain, unprofessing man, on his simple word, than ten thousand common swearers, under the sanction of as many oaths.

for "when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face." In what deep and accumulated wo, I say, may one inconsiderate step involve the children of men! And if good and well-intentioned people suffer thus severely from one act of rashness and imprudence, who but must tremble to think of the fearful consequence of deliberate wickedness? A thousand volumes written against polygamy, could not lead to a clearer, fuller conclusion against that practice, than the story under review.

Mark now, how seasonably and suitably God interposes to rectify all this disorder.When we have wearied ourselves with our own devices, and snared ourselves in the works of our own hands, Providence takes up the case, subdues it to its own wise and gracious purposes, and turns evil into good. Hagar flies from the face of her unkind mistress, but happily for her, she cannot flee from God. The interest which Abram now has in her, gives her an interest in the peculiar care and protection of the Almighty.

This is the first time we read in scripture of the appearance of an angel; and it was to reprove, exhort, and succour an helpless afflicted woman: and thus is mercy ever more ready to come at the call of misery, than justice to pursue the footsteps of guilt. From the whole tenor of the history, we are led to See into what disorder one ill-advised mea- conclude, that this heavenly vision was the sure has thrown a happy, well-regulated fa- uncreated angel, God in the form, and permily. Abram's ill-judged compliance with forming the office of a "ministering spirit;" the precipitate advice of his wife, has em- for this angel assumes the names and attribroiled him in contention with herself; it butes of God, speaks of Hagar's present conconstrains him to connive at her cruel treat-dition, and future prospects, with the knowment of an unhappy woman, who is at least ledge peculiar to Deity; and describes the to be pitied as much as blamed; and renders extraordinary future greatness of the male the prospect of the promised seed a heavy child, with which she was pregnant, as his affliction instead of a blessing. Sarai is be- own work. The event demonstrates whose trayed by the eagerness of her spirit, first the prediction was: and Hagar evidently into an absurdity: then into unkindness and considered the person who spake with her undutifulness towards her lord; then into in this light; for she ascribes to him the inprofanity and impiety towards God; then by communicable name Jehovah, and adores an easy transition, into barbarity towards a him as the omniscient, omnipresent God.— wretched slave, who was entirely at her" And the angel of the Lord said unto her, mercy, who had been brought, without any I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it high degree of criminality, into a condition shall not be numbered for multitude. And which claims compassion and attention from the angel of the Lord said unto her, Beall; brought into it by herself too: and this hold thou art with child, and shalt bear a to the endangering, for ought she knew, of son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; beall the hopes of her husband's family, and the cause the Lord hath heard thy affliction.greater interests of the human race. Hagar, And he will be a wild man; his hand will hapless wretch! an object of commiseration be against every man, and every man's hand throughout; led, perhaps reluctantly, to her against him, and he shall dwell in the premaster's bed, elevated to a transient gleam sence of all his brethren. And she called the of hope, exulting in the prosperity of a no-name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou ment, hurried instantly back, by all the severities which jealousy can inflict, into the horrors of slavery, and driven from visionary prospects of bliss, into scenes of real distress; ready to perish with the innocent unborn fruit of her womb, in the wilderness, by famine, or the jaws of some ravenous beast!

God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me.'

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A great number of striking circumstances press upon us in the careful perusal of these words. Does God condescend to exercise all this care and tenderness about a person so * Gen. xvi. 10-13,

marks of external complaisance, at least with secret and silent satisfaction. And Abram, always wise, and gentle, and good, would now necessarily rejoice in the restored peace of his family; in this fresh demonstration of the divine tenderness towards himself and all who belonged to him; in the farther enlargement and extent of the blessing promised; and in the prospect of the final and full accomplishment of all that the Lord had spoken. According to the word of the angel, Ha

obscure, helpless, and unbefriended as Ha- | must surely have humbled the spirit and molgar; then who is beneath his notice, or un-lified the heart of Sarai, and disposed her to important in his sight? Are the secondary receive the returning fugitive, if not with and subordinate designs of his providence of such extensive and permanent consequence to the world? Then, of what infinite and eternal weight, is his first, great leading object? If an Ishmael be introduced into the world with so much pomp and solemnity, what must the birth of an Isaac be? And what must it be, when God bringeth his own first-begotten upon the scene, whom all the angels are commanded to worship? How astonishingly awful is that foreknowledge, which discovered, before he was born, Ish-gar in due time bears a son to Abram, in the mael's character; and that power which pre- eighty-sixth year of his age, and the eleventh determined and affected the character and after his departure from Ur of the Chaldees. state of his posterity to the latest ages, while To preserve forever the memory of the divine as yet their progenitor was in his mother's interposition, the name given to the child by womb? How are all the designs of the Most the angel in the wilderness, is put upon him High, in the course of his adorable provi- by his pious father, to whom, no doubt, Hadence, and the execution of them, rendered gar had carefully related the whole transsubservient to one glorious purpose, which action, Ishmael, "God shall hear," because rises superior to, and absorbs all the rest- God heard, pitied, and relieved her affliction. the plan of salvation by a Redeemer! How And such was the origin of the father and wisely are the children both of the bond wo-founder of the Arabian nation; a people, man and of the free, reminded of the lowness and helplessness of their original! "A Syrian ready to perish was my father," says the one; "an Egyptian bondmaid ready to perish was my mother," says the other.

who, in their character and manners, through every period of their history, evince from what root they sprung, and verify the prediction concerning their progenitor, "he will be a wild man, his hand will be against What a happy circumstance it was for every man, and every man's hand against Hagar to have lived so long in Abram's house! him." And history illustrates the expression Liberty in Egypt had not proved a blessing of the angel, "and he shall dwell in the preso great, as slavery in Canaan. To be ex- sence of all his brethren." For whereas the alted to the dignity of a mother to princes! slavery and subjection of all other nations To be introduced to the knowledge of the make a considerable part of their history, living and true God! How different are the that of the Arabs is entirely composed of a appearances of Providence, considered at the relation of their conquests, or their independmoment, and viewed through the medium of ence. They are at present, and have conreflection and experience! Under the im- tinued through the remotest ages, during the pulse of sorrow or of joy, we cry out, "all various and successive victorious expeditions these things are against me," or "it is good of Greeks, Romans, and Tartars, a separate, for me to be here," but when the account a free, an independent, and an invincible nacomes to be arranged, after the transport is tion; a mighty band of illustrious robbers, over, we find ourselves necessitated to trans-united among themselves, and formidable to fer many articles to the opposite pages, and to state that as favourable, which once we called adverse; and that a misfortune which once we accounted a blessing.

The history informs us of Hagar's flight, but leaves us to draw our own conclusions respecting her return. Indeed, we may now suppose all parties to have been brought a little to themselves. The solitude and dangers of the wilderness, and the apparition of the angel, awful, though in mercy, have of course, greatly diminished in Hagar's mind the rigour of her mistress's treatment, and she is glad to return to her former habitation. The sudden disappearing of her maid; the just apprehension of the evil which might have befallen a desperate woman in her delicate situation; time, serious reflection, and remorse for her cruel and unjust behaviour,

all the world; inhabiting a vast country of one thousand three hundred miles in length, and one thousand two hundred in breadthone region of which, from the purity and salubrity of its air, and the fertility of its soil, is deservedly denominated the happy; it produces the finest fruits, spices, and perfumes in the world, and is remarkable for breeding the most beautiful and useful animals of their kind, horses, camels, and dromedaries.

We hasten to conclude this Lecture, by adding to the reflections already made, this farther one, that we are not to judge of the greatness and importance of the designs of Providence, by any worldly marks of distinction and pre-eminence. The posterity of Ishmael was much earlier, and has been much longer established, and existed in a much higher degree of national dignity and

age, which is Hagar; for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to," or is in the same rank with, "Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not: break forth and cry, thou that travailest not, for the desolate hath more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise: but as then, he that was born after the flesh, persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. 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. So then, brethren, we are children not of the bond woman, but of the free."*

consequence, than the posterity of Isaac. But in the line of Isaac, not that of Ishmael, run the promises of life and salvation. To Isaac and not to his elder brother, pertained "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises," and of him "as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God, blessed forever." The things which are highly esteemed among men, are often of no price in the sight of Him, who "hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, weak things to confound the mighty, base things of the world, and things which are despised, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things which are, that no flesh should glory in his presence." With Ishmael we have nothing to do, nor with his posterity; they are to us only a wild man and a wild people, inhabiting such a region of the globe. But in Isaac and the fortunes of his family we are deeply in-parated, supported, distinguished from the terested indeed, as the apostle Paul, writing to the Galatians, clearly evinceth: and his words shall be the evangelical illustration of the subject. "Abram had two sons; the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman, but he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise; which things are an allegory," (that is, one thing is expressed, and another hinted at or signified,) "for these are the two covenants: the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bond

Behold the two prime branches of Abram's family from their birth down to this day, se

rest of mankind, and from each other, a standing proof of the power and providence of God, and a demonstration of the authenticity of that revelation which we acknowledge as divine, and on which we will build all our faith and hope. "Behold, the counsel of the Lord shall stand forever, and the purpose of his heart to a thousand generations." God grant us wisdom to understand and do his will, to the glory of his great name, and our own eternal salvation. Amen. Gal. iv. 22-31.

HISTORY OF ABRAM.

LECTURE XV.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.-HEB. xiii. 2.

WHEN men are disappointed in their expectations, it is natural for them to become negligent about the performance of their duties. Irritated or grieved at one thing, they grow careless in every thing; and because another has failed in affection or respect to us, we suffer ourselves to behave unkindly and disrespectfully to others. The effect which mortification, disappointment, or injuries, have upon truly good minds, is, however, the reverse of this; the vexation or distress they themselves have endured, is the strongest of incentives to prevent, as far as they are able, similar occasion of affliction to their brethren of mankind.

Men stand continually in need of each other, and therefore every man is bound to give his countenance, to show kindness, and to grant support to every man. We cannot move a single step through the world, without being brought into connexion with strangers, and of course, without having opportunities afforded us of doing or receiving some instance of hospitality. To be careless or unkind in this respect, then, is to be at once unwise, inhuman, and unjust. Christianity has taken into its service every valuable and worthy principle of our nature, and calls the whole catalogue of human virtues its own. As we are continually reminded,

in the course of providence, of our being | title is premature; but faith considers that pilgrims and strangers upon earth, so we are as done which is promised. Observe Abrastrictly and repeatedly enjoined by the laws ham's posture while God talks with him; of the gospel, to be attentive and kind to "he fell on his face."* The presence of the strangers. "Be given to hospitality," says Almighty is the loudest call to humility, and Paul. "Use hospitality one to another with- the more any one knows of God, the more he out grudgings," says Peter; and in the words must fear before him. Behold Abraham I have read, the Apostle recommends the fallen to the ground, and angels covering same duty of humanity, "be not forgetful to their faces with their wings, and tremble entertain strangers," which he enforces by a thou, O man, before him! motive which every heart must feel. "for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. It is of this motive, and of the history to which it refers, that we are now to discourse.

After a delay of ten years, the promise of a son is made good to Abram. But as he consulted not God in the means of obtaining that blessing, so God consults not his views and expectations in the character and destination of the son given to him. For it is one thing to be blessed and to prosper in the gifts of Providence, and another to be blessed in the course of the promise, and according to the tenor of the covenant. The seed which the Most High sware that he would raise up, was to prove an universal benefit to mankind; but the son whom Hagar bear, was to be "a wild man; whose hand should be against every man, and every man's hand against him:" Abram therefore is apparently as far as ever from his favourite object; and as a farther trial of his faith, perhaps to punish him for deviating from the strict line of his duty, though with an honest intention, thirteen years more are permitted to elapse, and yet no symptom of the expected mercy

appears.

But the trial of Abraham's faith and obedience is not yet over. God has appeared, not to fulfil the promises under the first covenant, but to enter into a second: and, instead of receiving the long expected son, he is commanded to perform an unpleasant and painful operation upon his own body, and upon all the males of his family. To qualify, however, the bitterness of this prescription, the promise becomes more express, and brings the darling object closer to the eye; it is now declared that Sarai, whose name too was changed, as a witness and token of the event, should bear a son, and that next year should at length crown all his wishes, and evince the truth and faithfulness of God. Abraham acquiesces with gratitude and joy. He had believed and trusted God, when the event was more obscure and remote, and now that it is more distinctly seen, and brought to the very eve of accomplishment, his heart exults with purer and more sensible delight. This the scripture expresses, by saying, he fell on his face and laughed; a circumstance which Providence instantly lays hold of, and perpetuates to every future generation the memory of Abraham's faith on this occasion-the son that should be born, shall by his name, Isaac, he shall laugh, express that emotion, which his pious, believing father felt, when the will of God was revealed to him. Abraham laughed in faith, and is rewarded every time he beholds his son, or hears his name pronounced, by the approbation of God and his own conscience: Sarah afterwards laughed in incredulity, and was as often reproved for her unbelief.

At that period, while the improbability, in the course of nature, was daily increasing, Abram is again visited with the visions of the Almighty. Our attendance upon God must be constant and assiduous, and it is equally our interest and our duty to wait upon him; but if he makes himself known to us at all, at whatever season, in whatever manner, it is infinite grace and condescension. Jehovah's appointed time is now at length come to enter on the performance of his own work in his own way. The very first word that proceeds from his lips removes every difficulty, though natural obstacles might seem increased: "I am the Almighty God," or God all-sufficient; fear therefore no failure of the covenant on my part, for what truth hath spoken, that shall omnipotence bring to pass; and see that there be no unfaithfulness on thine, "walk before me, and be thou perfect." The former declarations concerning a numerous offspring are renew-ham should persevere in this practice, ed, and an alteration is made in the patriarch's name, importing his relation to a multitude of princes and nations who should spring from him. To the eye of nature the

• Gen. xvii. 1.

We hear not Abraham inquiring into the reasons or meaning of God's covenant of circumcision; and we will imitate his pious reserve and submission. It was sufficient to him, and be it so to us, that thus God would have it to be. That the great Jehovah should have distinguished the descendants of that family from all the families of the earth, by this token, and continue to the present hour thus to distinguish them, after almost every other badge of difference is obliterated and lost; that the posterity of Abra

through a period so extended, and that no other nation should ever have adopted it as an established rite of their religion, is one of those apparently unimportant circumstances

* Gen. xvii. 7.

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