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shall come forth ou heir: but still the was to be his heir b which, for the farth proper to conceal. ing no longer hope as impatient for a cl such a child as she ten by her husban importunity, not so her desire. And th made choice of a sl rather than a free w namely, that the cl

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to bear, might, impɩ whereas one conceiv properly belong to t Whether polygam innocent or no, is the pens of the lear of the church mair our latter divines ca a practice which t ordinarily engaged continued an intima God; a practice whi when he sharply repr themselves never sho repentance, should Our blessed Saviour primitive institution criminal; but wheth dispensation, is not suppose it only toler triarchs, we shall soc Abraham's complyin is, namely, the passic which, in those days, valent that we find 1 their riches, their families reckoning t placing the chief o them; 3For childre heritage and gift that in the hand of a gia is the man that has a ashamed when he spe

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sion, there was certainly a sumptuous entertainment | in the world were so numerous, that a person who had made for their guests, suitable to the character of the no flocks or herds might, in the wilderness and unculti master of the feast, who was a prince as well as a pro- vated grounds (as Ishmael we find became an archer) phet, and answerable to the end and design of it, which find game enough of all sorts whereby to maintain himwas to commemorate the highest divine blessing that self and his dependants, without doing any injury, or could be given, not to one family only, but to all the being molested for so doing. generations of the world.

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On this festival occasion, it was very probable, that Sarah perceived Ishmael treating her son with contempt and derision. The initiation of Isaac, and his father's declaration concerning him, which Ishmael, who thought he had a prior right, was not able to bear, was enough to exasperate his rough nature to commit such rudeness, as could not but break the merriment of the feast, and thereupon provoke Sarah to exert her authority, by showing the difference between the son of a bond-woman, and the heir apparent of the family. I say, to exert her authority;' for as Hagar was Sarah's dotal maid-servant, she was entirely at her disposal. Abraham had no cognisance of her; from his jurisdiction she was exempt, and by marriage-articles (as we call it) reserved to her mistress in property; and therefore we find God interposing in the affair, and advising Abraham, in all that Sarah should say unto him, to hearken to her voice.' The expulsion of Hagar and her son is represented indeed, by our translation, under circumstances somewhat dolorous; but if we inquire into particulars, we shall find them not near so full of distress as this representation seems to make them. Abraham is said to have sent them away early in the morning; but this might be done on purpose to prevent what might pass between them, at so sorrowful a parting, from being observed by too many eyes. He is said to have given them bread and a bottle of water;' but as bread and water include eatables and drinkables of all kinds; so there is no doubt to be made but that Ishmael was able enough to carry a handsome competency of provision for a few days, or that his mother might very well carry a large bottle of water, or other liquid, to support them for a week or so, while they were travelling through the wilderness. Their whole misfortune was, in mistaking their way, and wandering about in the desert until their water was consumed; but this was a mere accident, wherein Abraham had not the least concern.

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Ishmael indeed is, in several places, called a child, and from thence we may suppose, that he was a burden and incumbrance to his mother: but if we look into his age, we shall find that when Isaac was born, he was fourteen; and therefore, allowing two years between Isaac's birth and his weaning, he could not be less than sixteen when Abraham sent him and his mother away, and was consequently a youth capable of being a support and assistance to her. For the circumstances of the world we may observe, at this time, were such, that it was an easy matter for any person to find a sufficient and comfortable livelihood in it. Mankind were so few, that there was in every country ground to spare; so that any one who had flocks or a family might be permitted to settle any where to feed and maintain them, and so grow, and increase, and become wealthy; or creatures

'Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. 1. Occasional Annotations, 32. See also the note at the end of the Objection, c. iii. of this book. * Gen. xxi. 12. 3 Shuckford's Connection, vol. 2. b. 7.

Ishmael indeed had for sixteen years continued in Abraham's family, and at first perhaps it might be disputed, whether he or his brother Isaac should succeed to their father's inheritance: but after that this point was determined, and God himself had declared in the favour of Isaac, he must of course have become Isaac's bondman or servant, had he continued in Abraham's family. So that it was both kindly and prudently done of his father, to take occasion, from Sarah's disgust against him, to emancipate and set him free, by sending him abroad to acquire an independent settlement, which was all the provision that parents in those days could make for their younger children. It was the same provision that his father Abraham made for the sons which he afterwards had by his wife Keturah; for so we are told, that

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he gave all that he had unto Isaac, but unto the sons of his concubines he gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, eastward, unto the east country.' Nay, it was the same provision which Isaac made for his son Jacob, though he was the heir of the blessing. When he went from his father's house to Padan-Aram, we read of no servants or equipage attending him, nor any accommodations prepared for his journey. He was sent (as we call it now-a-days) to seek his fortune, only instructed to seek it among his kinsfolk and relations, and he went to seek it upon so uncertain a foundation, that we find him most earnestly praying to God to be with him in the way he was to go, not to suffer him to want the necessaries of life, but to give him bread to eat, and raiment to put on;' and yet we see, that by becoming an hired servant to Laban, he both married his daughters, and in a few years became master of a very considerable substance.

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It is our mistake, in the customs of the times therefore, that makes us imagine that Hagar and Ishmael had any hard usage in their ejectment. Whatever the nature of their offence might be, or whatever grounds Sarah might have for her indignation against them, there is no reason to accuse Abraham's conduct in this affair, since what he did was pursuant to a divine direction, which he durst not disobey; was agreeable to the practice of the times wherein he lived; and no more than what all other fathers, in those days, imposed upon their younger sons: since the hardships they suffered were accidental, but the benefits which accrued to them were designed: since Abraham, by this means, rescued them from a state of servitude for ever; and, according to the divine prediction, was persuaded that this would be the only expedient to make of Ishmael a flourishing nation.

Abraham's great readiness to sacrifice his son, upon the first signification of the divine pleasure, is an instance of duty and obedience, not to be equalled in all the records of history. Sanchoniatho indeed, (as he is quoted by Eusebius) tells us of one Chronus, king of Phoenicia, who, in a time of great distress, and extreme $ Gen. xviii. Gen. xxx. 43. Præp. Evan. b. 1. c. 10.

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Gen. xxv. 6,

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How he could certainly know that such a command came from God will best appear, by inquiring a little into the several ways wherein we find God revealing himself to this beloved patriarch. And to this purpose we must observe, that at first he left his own country and kindred by the express command of God, and went into a strange land which God had promised to give his posterity. We are not told, indeed, in what manner God appeared to him, when he gave him this command; but we can hardly think that a person of his gravity and years would incline to seek unnecessary adventures; nor can we imagine why his aged father should accompany him in them, unless there was a manifest conviction that the call was from God.

peril of war, took his son Jeud (which, according to the | his earnest desire to testify his obedience to God in all, Phoenician language, means only-begotten,) and with even his most arduous commands. his own hand, sacrificed him on an altar of his own erecting. But as a this action was certainly subsequent to the times we are now speaking of, there are good reasons to believe, that the whole account of it is no more than a relation of Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac, bating some additions and mistakes. For whereas it is said of this Chronus, that he was the son of a father who had three children; that himself had one son only by his wife, but more by other women; that he circumcised himself and his family; and that he sacrificed his only son with his own hands; all these circumstances concur in the case of Abraham: the chief difference is, that Chronus is by the Phoenicians called Israel, which was properly the name of Abraham's grandson; but this is a small mistake, considering that most of the heathen writers had a general notion, that Israel was the name of some one famous ancestor of the Israelites, but were not exact in fixing it upon the right person.

After he had been for some time settled in Haran, long enough to have his family and fortune increased in it, and probably long enough to like it, and be contented with it, God commands him thence into another strange country, in all appearance no better than that where he then was, and consequently none of his own option; and there he appeared to him the second time, and renewed his former promise of giving him the land whereunto he had thus conducted him.3

After this, when he was driven by famine into Egypt, God sufficiently manifested his signal protection of him,

2 The only instance which seems any way to come near the case before us, is that of Agamemnon's consenting that his daughter Iphigenia should be sacrificed; but the disparity soon appears, if we consider that Agamemnon, in all probability, had other children, and a queen neither barren nor old, and yet, sore against his will, did he comply, and perhaps for fear of provoking his subjects in arms; nor could he bear the sight of his daughter's last minutes, though he attained thereby his end, namely, the gratification of his ambitious views in the war wherein he was embarked. Whereas Abraham had no other, nor could expect any other children by his wife, but this son, who was a pledge from heaven of all the glorious bless-revelation, saw things, and heard voices, as plainly, to all imaings that God had promised him; and yet, upon this harsh command, we find him in no uneasiness or confusion, but perfectly composed and easy, fixed and resolved to put it in execution, and waving the weapon in his own arm, stretched out to take away his own child's life; though he could not but foresee, that by such an inhuman act, he would not only exasperate his own family against him, but expose himself likewise to the hatred and indig-and, 3dly, They were either attended with the voices of God, or

nation of all the nations round about him.

2 Revelation Examined, vol. 2. Dissertation 8. The usual ways recorded in the Old Testament, of God's revealing himself to his servants, were by dreams, by voices, and by apparitions. 1. Dreams are, in some places, called visions, and visions of the night; because persons, under this form of gination, as if they had been awake: but what sort of ideas and images affected their minds at such a time, and how they distinguished divine dreams from such as were purely natural, we are nowhere told; only, if we may be allowed to conjecture, 1st, Such dreams as were divine had none of those confused and idle phantoms which are found in other dreams, but distinctly represented to their minds whatever things or beings God was pleased to send, without any mixture of foreign images or words: 2dly, They were more lively than any other dreams; their images were strong and vigorous, and fixed deeply in the soul;

The truth is, several examples there have been, especially of persons of a public character, who have sacrificed themselves, or their nearest relations: but what has it been to? even to desperation, or the apprehension of human force and power; to a wicked and superstitious custom; to pride and vainglory; or to the hopes of preventing or stopping some dreadful and public cala-place where no human creature was, (as in the instance before,) mity; but the case of Abraham is so singularly circumstantiated, that none of all these can be imputed to it: the only motive we can possibly imagine, must have been

1 Shuckford's Connection, vol. 2. b. 6. Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. 1. Occas. Annot. 28.

a A learned author, in his 'Connection of Sacred and Profane History,' having by two different ways of computation, proved that Abraham was older than Chronus, subjoins these words: "And thus, by both these accounts, Chronus cannot be more ancient than Abraham, rather Abraham appears to be more ancient than he: and this must be allowed to be more evidently true, if we consider that it was not Chronus the son of Ouranus, who made this sacrifice of his only son, but rather Chronus who was called Israel, and was the son of Chronus called Illus; and therefore still later by one generation."-Vol. 2. b. 6.

angels speaking distinctly to them, or had some particular instinct always accompanying them. 2. Voices were frequently heard, without any appearance or representation, and proceeded sometimes from the clouds, from out of the fire, out of the whirlwind, &c., in which cases, to judge of the veracity of a revelation, it was generally thought that when the voice was greater than any human voice, (as it was on the top of the mountain when God delivered the law,) or proceeded from a that it came either from God himself, or from some messenger sent from heaven. 3. At other times, a figure, or resemblance has appeared to persons awake, talked with them, and done several things in their company, as if it had been a human creature; and yet the event has shown, that it was either God himself, or an angel concealed in human shape. And in this case, the way of discerning them seems to have been, either by the air and majesty of their looks, (as in the angel that appeared to Manoah's wife,) or by some miraculous actions that were above the power of human performance (as in that which appeared to Gideon.) In any of these methods of revelation, where these several circumstances concurred, it was always persumed, that the dream, or voice, or vision, was from God; since it is not to be supposed that He, who sees and hears all things, and himself is a lover of truth, would ever suffer those that love and fear him, to be imposed upon by evil spirits, or even per plexed by the fantastical operations of nature itself. See my Body of Divinity, part 2. c. 3.-ED.

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by plaguing Pharaoh and his house upon his account. |
Upon his return to Canaan, he renewed his assurance of
giving him the promised land; and then it is said, that
'the word of the Lord came to him in a vision,' wherein
the promise of an heir, and a numerous posterity, is
added to that of Canaan; and as Abraham requested a
sign in confirmation of all this, so God was pleased to
comply with his request; and accordingly again he
appears to him in a vision, repeats again the promise to
him, supports the promise by a miracle, and confirms a
covenant by fire from heaven, to consume the sacrifice
which he had commanded him to offer.

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Again, when Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him; and that his appearance was in some visible form or figure, is sufficiently clear from the text; which tells us, that Abraham fell upon his face while God conversed with him.' Here Isaac is promised, and circumcision instituted, a painful, hazardous rite, which the patriarch would never have complied with, but from a full conviction of a divine command.

After this he appeared unto him under the tree of Mamre, in the shape of a pilgrim; and by his whole conversation with him, concerning the fate and iniquity of Sodom, discovered himself to be God, or (to speak more properly) the Messias in human shape. Soon after this he appeared to Abimelech in Abraham's behalf, and inflicted a distemper upon his whole house, which was removed upon Abraham's prayer; and, soon after this, God's promise of an heir was fulfilled, in the birth of a son from a barren woman, which was a proof equivalent to a thousand miracles.

Once more, God commanded Abraham to comply with his wife's request, in casting out Hagar and her son, though the text implies that he loved them both very tenderly. This was a command so seemingly cruel and severe, that nothing but a full conviction of its coming from God could have exacted Abraham's submission to it: and now, after all these manifestations of himself to the patriarch, God commands him to offer up his son Isaac; and will any one say that Abraham, by this time, had not sufficient evidence that this command was of the same original with the rest? God had, some way or other, appeared and manifested himself to him nine times before this command. Twice in vision, twice in miracle, twice under some sensible appearance, thrice in some manner not explained. He had given him three preceding commands, which no man in his senses could obey, without full assurance that they were enjoined from above. He had often before this time called to him, spoken to him, conversed with him, and, on one occasion, very familiarly and long; and, as we may reasonably suppose, that he always spoke with the same voice, there is no doubt to be made, but that he certainly knew that it was God who spake to him upon this occasion. For why should Abraham suspect that God Almighty would suffer an evil spirit to delude him into the greatest and most irretrievable calamity, acting in the honesty and sincerity of his heart, and from a principle of the most exalted obedience to the divine will? In so long a succession of miracles, discourses, and appearances, he must have acquired as certain and perfect a knowledge of the Deity, whenever he vouchsafed to reveal himself to him, as another man has of his friend, when he

hears his voice, and converses in his presence. And if Abraham was fully satisfied in this, his obedience could not fail of being built upon a good foundation.

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It is allowed, indeed, that there is something shocking, at first sight, in the idea of a parent's taking away the life of his own child; but then an express command from a competent authority alters the case, and makes that, which otherwise would be a sin, become a duty. It may justly be said, that he is a barbarous parent, who commands his children to be beat to death with rods before his eyes.-This position is undoubtedly true in the general; but does it follow, from hence, that the first Brutus was either a bad man or a bad parent, for commanding his sons to be served in this manner, when the duty he owed to his country required it? And did Abraham owe less duty to God than Brutus owed to his country? A captain, who would command his valiant and victorious son to be put to death, for exerting his prowess upon the enemies of his country, must surely be a monster among men. This position, laid down without any limitation, is undeniably true: but will it therefore follow, that Manlius was a monster, though he put his son to death for killing Geminius, general of the Latins, contrary to the discipline of the war? And yet it would badly become us to say, that the discipline of war is a stronger obligation than an express, positive, unerring command, from the great Ruler of the world, the sovereign Arbiter of life and death.

So good a man as Abraham is represented could not but antecedently be satisfied, that a Being of infinite wisdom and goodness could give no command that would ultimately terminate in calamity upon innocence and obedience; and, therefore, when a command of an intricate and mysterious nature was given him, what had he to do but to obey? He knew this son whom God now demanded was given him in an extraordinary manner, and why might he not be taken away in a manner as extraordinary? And when he was taken away, he very well knew that God could again restore him in a manner yet more extraordinary; and that raising him from the grave had no more difficulty with infinite power than raising him from the womb of a woman barren at first, and now, by the course of nature, long past the power of conception; which makes St Paul's reflection a lively comment upon the principles of Abraham's obedience on this occasion: By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.'

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And this, by the bye, suggests a reason why the holy patriarch, who, in other cases, was charitable enough to intercede for the wicked, does not so much as offer up one petition for the life of his innocent son. He had that true sense of the power and veracity of God, that he was fully persuaded, that the fate of his child, and the tenor of God's promises, would, one way or other, be made consistent; and, therefore, he left it upon his infinite wisdom to find out the means of unravelling this intricate affair, without ever once murmuring, or making the least remonstrance. But, supposing that Abrahanı 1 Heb. xi. 17, &c.

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had taken upon him to expostulate with God upon this hard injunction; yet1 what could he have urged, but that the person whom he ordered him to slay was his son, his only son, his son whom he tenderly loved, and that he could not, without the greatest force upon paternal affection, lay violent hands upon him. But now, all pleas of this kind were fully anticipated by the divine command, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of; that is, "notwithstanding he is thy son, thine only son, and a son thou hast set thine heart upon, yet must thou sacrifice him unto me."

juncture; but to make him more perfect by suffering, and his example more conspicuous, that the trial of his faith,' as the apostle words it, 'being much more precious than of gold, that perisheth, (though it be tried by fire,) might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory;' and that all future generations, reading the history of his patience and perseverance, his courage and constancy, his faith and hope, and magnanimity, might glorify God in him, and look upon his example as a shining light, which the hand of Providence has set up in the firmament of his church, to guide succeeding saints in the intricate and arduous paths of their duty.

Those who would gladly find any flaw in our patriarch's character, are apt to suggest, that his desiring of God a sign concerning the land of Canaan, which had been so lately promised to him, (3 whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?') proceeded from a defect of faith, for which, as some pretend, he was so renowned. But without straining any point to get over this difficulty, we may fairly own, that Abraham is here doing no more than what many worthies of old are known to have done after him, when they were put upon any difficult services; namely, requesting of God some outward token or representation, to strengthen and confirm his faith concerning the divine promises, which is an argument of modesty,

In the case of Sodom, Almighty God is represented as deliberating and undetermined; and there Abraham's humanity and the rectitude of his mind were at liberty, nay, were engaged to interpose; but in the case of his own son, God appeared fixed and determined, and there his humility, and the deference due to his God, forbade him to expostulate. Not to say, that if he erred in the first case, he knew it was the error of an upright, a humane, and a generous spirit ; but an error in the latter would be the effect of partiality and self-interest; and Abraham's heart was too honest, and too enlarged, to allow him in a conduct that could any way fall under the suspicion of such mean and sordid principles. This seems to vindi-not of any diffidence in the divine veracity; and therecate the conduct of Abraham in paying a ready obedience to the divine command; but then, what shall we say to the goodness and justice of God in imposing it? God indeed governs himself by the eternal rules of reason; and can give no command in contradiction to them; but then common sense tells us, that these are rules not of human reason, but divine; and consequently such rules as must result from the relation which the whole universe, and all the parts thereof, have to one another; an immense compass and variety of things, which nothing but infinite wisdom can comprehend! And therefore we take quite wrong measures, when we estimate the nature and perfections of God from what we find in ourselves; for ' as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts higher than our thoughts.'

Upon the supposition, however, that God really intended that Abraham should have taken away his son's life, there could have been no injustice in the injunction; since God, who is the author and giver of life, has an undoubted right to resume it, when, and in what manner he thinks fit; and his infinite wisdom and goodness secure us from all suspicion of his taking it away arbitrarily or unlawfully so that had the command been actually executed, we must have supposed it to have been wise, just, and good; because a divine command necessarily implies wisdom, and justice, and goodness, in the highest degree, though the reason of that command should not not appear to such limited, short-sighted creatures

as we are.

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But this was not the case. God never intended that this command should be put in execution. His only purpose was, to make a trial of Abraham's obedience, not to inform himself, in any thing, who was omniscient, and knew beforehand, both what was in Abraham's heart, and how he would acquit himself in this important 'Revelation Examined, vol. 2. Dissertation 8.

fore the words are very properly paraphrased by St Chrysostom: " I firmly believe, that what thou hast promised shall come to pass; and therefore I ask no questions out of distrust; but I shall be glad to be favoured with some such token or anticipation of it, as may strongly affect my senses, and raise my poor weak ideas and imaginations about it."

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Those that are disposed to find faults are always provided with an handle; otherwise one would wonder that Abraham's making groves the constant place of divine worship, should be ever brought as an accusation against him, merely because, in after ages, they came to be perverted into scenes of the grossest superstition and idolatry: or that, because his intention to offer up his son gave umbrage to human sacrifices afterwards, he should be thought chargeable with the event. The groves of Moreh and Mamre, which were the principal ones that he planted, were* (as we hinted before) certain oratories or sanctuaries, exposed to the open air, but planted with trees for the benefit of their shade, and for the more solemn composure of the mind, and recollection of the thoughts for heavenly contemplation. Before the institution of more commodious receptacles for divine worship, these, and such like places, were usually frequented for that purpose; and therefore they had sometimes the name given of the houses of God,'' the courts of God,' and their trees were called 'the trees of God.' In these places it was that Abraham offered up his morning and evening sacrifice with acceptance; and if, in after ages, they came to be applied to abominable purposes, he is no more to be blamed for that abuse, than Moses was for setting up a brazen serpent in the wilderness, which was afterwards perverted to idolatry, though in its primary intendment, it was sanative and medicinal. And in like manner, if the custom of sacrificing chil1 Pet. i. 7. 3 Gen. xv. 8. See p. 143, in the notes. > Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. 1. Occasional Annotations, 20.

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