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§4. "She received strength;" (λaße) she received it; she had it in a way of free gift; (duvausv) strength, power, and ability. I believe that this was not a mere miraculous generation, but that she received a general restoration of her nature for its primitive operations, which was before decayed; as Abraham afterwards, who, after his body was in a manner dead, received strength to have many children by Keturah; (Es nalaßoλyv oñεpμalos) to conceive seed, a child, in a natural way and manner; she conceived and accordingly bore a son, Gen. xxii, 2.

That which is eminent herein, manifesting that it was a mere effect of faith, is, that it was thus with her (wapa naipov naixias) after the season of age was past. So the apostle expounds that passage in Moses, "Sarah was old and well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with her after the manner of women," Gen. xviii, 11, 12. She was ninety years old at that time, Gen. xvii, 17; and this at first shook her faith, for want of a due consideration of the omnipotency of God; "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Gen. xviii, 14. She considered not, that where divine veracity was engaged by promise, infinite power would be also engaged to make it good.

$5. "Because she judged him faithful who had promised; (ETE, quoniam) because; signifying the reason of what was before asserted; (nynalo) she judged; she reckoned, esteemed, reputed him to be so. And herein the nature of true faith in general doth consist, viz. in "the mind's judging and determining upon the evidence proposed;" when she recollected herself, and took off her mind from the thing promised to the special object of her faith; (TO εTayyɛλλoμɛvov) the promiser, who was God himself, faith prevailed; she then came to this resolution-whatever difficulties or oppositions lie in

the way of accomplishing the promise, he who made it is able to remove them all; and she farther concluded, on the surest grounds, that he would make good his word wherein he had caused her to put her trust; "because she judged him who had promised (TOY) faithful." Is any thing too hard for the Lord?

§6. (I.) From this account of Sarah's faith observe; 1. Faith may be sorely shaken and tossed with difficulties, at their appearance, lying in the way of the promise, which yet at last it shall overcome; sometimes the weakness of faith ariseth to a distrust of the event of promises, or their accomplishment, because of the difficulties that lie in the way, Luke i, 18-20. So was it with Sarah on this occasion, for which she was reproved; and this at times is found in us all. It is therefore our duty to watch that our faith be not surprised, or shaken by the appearance of difficulties and opposition; and not to despond utterly on account of any partial failure, for it is in its very nature, by the use of means, to recover its vigor and efficacy.

2. It is no defect in faith not to expect events and blessings absolutely above the use of means, unless we have a particular warranty for it; as Sarah had in this

case.

3. The duty and use of faith about temporal mercies are to be regulated by the general rules of the word where no special providence makes the application of a promise.

4. The mercy here spoken of concerning a son to Abraham by Sarah his wife was absolutely decreed, and absolutely promised; yet God indispensably requires faith in them for the fulfilling of that decree and the accomplishment of that promise.

5. That the formal object of faith in the divine promises is not the things promised in the first place,

but God himself in his essential excellencies of truth or faithfulness and power. To fix our minds on the things themselves promised, to have an expectation or supposition of the enjoyment of them, (suppose mercy, grace, pardon, glory,) without a previous acquiescency of mind in the truth and faithfulness of God, or on God himself, as faithful and able to accomplish them, is but a deceiving imagination.

6. Every promise of God hath this consideration tacitly annexed to it, "Is any thing too hard for the Lord?" There is no divine promise, when it comes to the trial, as to our closing with it, but we apprehend as great a difficulty and improbability of its accomplishment to us, as Sarah did of this. Poor, humbled, broken souls, burdened with sins, and entangled in their own darkness, find insuperable difficulties, as they apprehend, in the way of accomplishing the promises. But "is any thing too hard for the Lord?"

7. Although the veracity and faithfulness of God be in a peculiar manner the immediate object of our faith, yet it takes in the consideration of all other divine excellencies for its encouragement and corroboration; and all of them together are that name of God, whereon a believing soul stays itself in all extremities, Isa. i, 10. And,

8. This is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; that is, the righteousness of Christ as tendered in the promise, is made known and communicated from the faith of God therein to the faith of them by whom it is believed.

VERSE 12.

Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore, innumerable.

§1. Connexion. $2, 3. (I.) Exposition. The fruit of Abraham's faith. 4. His numerous posterity. §5. (II.) Observations.

§1. In this verse we have an illustration of the fruit of faith by an eminent consequent of it, the innumerable posterity of Abraham; and, indeed, this may be called the gratuitous remuneration of faith,, although it be not added particularly, that it was by "faith." For it was expressly contained in the promise to Abraham, which he "received by faith." Wherefore the belief thereof belonged to that faith of Abraham for which he is commended; and it had its peculiar difficulties also, that rendered it both acceptable and commendable. For whereas he himself had but one son by virtue of the promise, it was not easy for him to apprehend how he should have such an innumerable posterity. And it may be observed, that the first testimony given to the justification of Abraham by faith, was upon his belief of this part of the promise, that "his seed should be as the stars of heaven, that cannot be numbered;" for it is immediately added, that "he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness," Gen. xv, 5, 6. For although this promise concerned things temporal, yet it belonged to the way of redemption by Christ, the promised seed; so that justifying faith may act itself, and be an evidence of our justification, when we believe promises even about temporal mercies, as they belong to the covenant; whereof we have innumerable examples under the Old Testament.

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§2. (I.) "Therefore sprang," &c. The note of inference (10) therefore, respects not a consequence in the way of reasoning, but the introduction of another matter; also the particle (na) and, in the original is not conjunctive, but emphatical only. The blessing here declared as a fruit of faith is a numerous posterity; not only had Abraham and Sarah one son upon their believing, but by him a numerous, yea, an innumerable posterity.

But it may be inquired, whence this should be such a blessing, as to be celebrated amongst the most eminent fruits of faith, and as the subject of a solemn di vine promise? I answer, because the whole church of God, the true worshippers of him under the Old Tes-> tament, was confined to the posterity of Abraham; therefore was their multiplication a singular blessing, which all the faithful prayed for, and rejoiced in. So is it stated by Moses, Deut. i, 10, 11, "The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and behold you are this day: as the stars of heaven for multitude. The Lord God' of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you as he hath promised you."

§3. "Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead." The root of this numerous posterity} is but one-Abraham. Unto him alone was the great promise of the blessing seed now confined, and yet he was heir of all the promises. Of him as good as dead, Rom. iv, 19, (coμa ndn vevexpwpevov) "his body beingǝ now dead," brought towards death, made impotent by> age, being about an hundred years old.

§4. "So many as the stars of the sky in number;" (Ta aclepa тy xpavy) the stars of heaven. This expression was first used by God himself, who commanded Abraham to go out, or brought him forth abroad, and

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