Let the character of each promise be now compared with the character of the accomplishment assigned to it. Isaac's was the covenant of the legitimate, Ishmael's, of the spurious, seed the one was the covenant of the Spirit; the other the covenant of the flesh: the former tended to liberty; the latter to bondage. Such, as Saint Paul has explained them, were the opposite characters and conditions of the original covenants themselves *; and the whole analogy of their enlarged fulfilments, through Christ and Mahomet, is according to the tenor of this

contrast.

Christ sent the sword of the Spirit throughout the world: Mahomet, that of the flesh. Christianity was characteristically the religion of peace: Mahometanism, the religion of war. Under the rule of the Gospel, enslaved nations became freemen; under that of the Koran, free nations were made slaves: and the spirit of freedom in the one system, and the spirit of bondage in the other, were equally characteristic of them, in their temporal and in their spiritual relations with mankind. The Gospel, in fine, by its peaceful influences, diffused the blessing

et adversus eosdem peculiarem immanitatem ex omni latere declaraturum.” Gualtperius, ap. Crit. Sacr. in loc.

* See Gal, iv. 22-31.

promised to Isaac, and accomplished in Christ, through all the kindreds of the earth; and the Koran, in virtue of its subjugating sway, set the inheritance of Ishmael, every where, over against that blessing.

But to do any justice to the analogy which here obtains between the two systems, it will be right to dispose the leading facts of the respective accomplishments in a connected order; and to lay Mahometanism side by side with Judaism as well as with Christianity; since it is properly a spurious compound of both revelations, and can be correctly judged of, only by keeping in constant view the admixture.

The original covenant with Abraham comprised, as has been already mentioned, two promises perfectly distinct from each other, and marked accordingly by separate characters: 1. "I will make of thee a great nation ;" and, 2. "In thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed."

The latter promise could not rationally be received in the sense in which the Jews pretend to understand it, as denoting a universal dominion over the earth, for the posterity of Isaac: for, as a distinguished writer on prophecy unanswerably observes, "this had been a strange blessing to all nations, that they should fall from

their natural liberty, and become subject to the dominion of one people. None but a Jew can see the happiness of such a state; the nations of the earth, if left to their choice, would all refuse this great blessing." * This promise, therefore, by the very terms of its announcement, denoted a mysterious fulfilment: and so, accordingly, it was fulfilled in the posterity of Isaac, by the advent of the Messiah; and by the universal diffusion, through Christianity, of His spiritual dominion.

But the former promise," I will make of thee a great nation," was palpably a temporal one; and a state of temporal prosperity for his descendants forming unquestionably one part of the covenant with Isaac, it will be right to inquire, how far this prophetic character, of “a great nation," is applicable to the Jews.

Now, prior to the erection of their kingly government, the Israelites had no settled state or character, as a nation. Nor, under the monarchy, did they attain to the enjoyment, for any long time together, of such a condition of established power and prosperity, as seems essential to the idea of "a great nation." In the earlier and favoured reigns of David and Solomon, the kingdom of Israel was, indeed,

* Bishop Sherlock, p. 115.

both prosperous and powerful to an eminent degree. But its ascendency among the nations of Asia passed rapidly away, before the distractions of a divided monarchy, and the encroachments of the neighbouring and colossal empires of Assyria and Babylon. From this period, the national resources were expended in a long and exhausting struggle, not for empire, but for existence. The effort proved, at length, unavailing, and the national independence was lost. The Jewish monarchy, then, may with propriety be described as a powerful state; but it cannot be justly characterised as " a great nation." The unity, the durability, and the relative ascendency, which in strictness belong to the prophetic definition, are all wanting. In the posterity of Isaac, therefore, this part of Abraham's covenant seems never to have been realized; and we remark, accordingly, that it is not specifically applied to them in Scripture, since it does not recur in any one of the separate promises in behalf of Isaac.

Let us try the application of it in the case of Ishmael. *Here we find the specific promise, "I will make of thee a great nation," appropriated

* "The posterity of Ishmael was established in power much sooner, and were as great and successful for many ages as the Jews, and much larger empires have sprung from them."- Bishop Sherlock on Prophecy, p. 124.

formally and solemnly to Ishmael and his descendants, on two several occasions; first granted in his favour to Abraham *, and then renewed, on his behalf, to Hagar. †

But how stands that sure test of prophecy, the historical fulfilment? The twelve tribes of Ishmael in their primitive state, as described by Moses, formed in Arabia not one great, but as many insulated and independent nations. In process of time, as appears both from sacred and profane history, several of these tribes rose to a considerable rank as states; and attained a relative ascendency over the mixed hordes which peopled the Arabian peninsula. But, at no period in their contemporary annals, will the temporal power and prosperity of the Ishmaelitish Arabs bear comparison, for a moment, with the concentrated and consolidated strength of the Jewish monarchy, in its better days and fortunes. So far as we can now glean from history, the rival nations would seem to have gone pretty much together into decline; at least, Arabia makes no distinguished figure beyond its own frontier, in the records of the Greek and Roman empires; and from the coming of our Lord to the age of Mahomet inclusive, the subdivided, though still unsubdued

* Gen. xvii. 20.

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+ Gen, xxi. 18.