fignal, and to chaftife their difobedience by temporal calamities fo fevere, as might be fuited to preferve this people faithful to their Divine Benefactor, to reclaim them when they should revolt from him, and to convince the inhabitants of furrounding countries that He was the only God,

Accordingly the Supreme Being, nearly two thousand years before the Chriftian era, appeared to Abram, the son of Terah, an inhabitant of Ur in Mefopotamia, and faid to him: "Get thee out of thy country, "and from thy kindred, and from thy "father's house, unto a land that I will "fhew thee. And I will make of thee a "great nation: and I will blefs thee, and "make thy name great; and thou shalt be “ a bleffing: and I will blefs them that "bless thee, and curfe him that curfeth "thee." To these glorious promises, which were to be the confequences of Abram's obedience, the Deity added another infinitely more glorious; that from him fhould defcend the Redeemer of mankind:

" and

"and in thee fhall all families of the earth "be bleffed (c)." Abram, at the time when this divine communication was made to him, was very probably an idolater. The country of the Chaldees, which he inhabited, appears to have been distinguished from the earliest annals of Pagan antiquity for magic and fuperftition. And Joshua (d) seems nearly to remove the poffibility of doubt on the point under confideration by the following addrefs to the Ifraelites, which proves the idolatry of Abram's family: "Thus faith the Lord God of Ifrael: "Your fathers dwelt on the other fide of "the flood," (the river Euphrates, so denominated from its extraordinary magnitude,) "in old time, even Terah the father of "Abraham, and the father of Nachor, "and they ferved other gods." Abram, however, convinced of the reality of the Divine command, and of the truth of the Divine promifes, immediately prepared to depart. After the death of his father Terah, who accompanied him on his jour

(c) Gen. xii. 1-3.

D 2

(d) Joshua, xxiv. 2.

ney

ney towards the promised country, but died by the way at Haran, Abram proceeded, with his nephew Lot, and their families, into the land of Canaan: and on his arrival there, God appeared to him again; and faid, "Unto thy feed will I give this "land (e)." Abram had at this time no child and the expectation of an offspring was for a very long period a continual and decifive trial of his faith. Some years after the time when the promife was originally given, it was twice renewed to him in terms which foretold an innumerable multitude of defcendents: and "Abram "believed in the Lord; and He counted "it to him for righteoufnefs (f)." At length about eleven years after his arrival in Canaan he was rejoiced by the birth of his fon Ifhmael. Four Four years afterwards Abram was informed that the son indicated by the Divine promife was yet to be born to him: and at the fame time his own name was changed to Abraham, and that of his wife to Sarah; an alteration which, accord

(e) Gen. xii. 7. (f) Gen. xiii. 14, &c, and xv. 4-6.

ing to Hebrew etymology, alluded to the incalculable number of their pofterity. But it was not until about fourteen years after the birth of Ishmael, when the age of Abraham and Sarah precluded, according to the common courfe of nature, all profpect of a child being born to them, that they were bleffed with Ifaac, the long-expected fon, who was to inherit the promises made to his father, particularly that of being the anceftor of the Meffiah.

The Almighty in the mean time imparted to Abraham several prophetic intimations of the future fortunes of his defcendents. He had informed him that one branch of his pofterity should dwell as ftrangers in a land that was not theirs, (namely, in the land of Canaan, while it was as yet in other hands, and afterwards in Egypt,) during a period of four hundred years; but should then be brought forth in great triumph and profperity from the scene of their diftrefs (g). And concerning Ishmael God declared that,

though he should be a wild man, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him; he fhould be the father of twelve princes and of a great nation, and fhould dwell in the prefence of all his brethren (). In this cafe, as in the cafe already noticed of Canaan, and conformably to the general import of fcriptural prophecies in fimilar inftances; the prediction delivered refpecting the individual was defigned to be defcriptive of the characteristic events, which were to distinguish the fate of his pofterity. Succeeding generations were witneffes, as we ourselves are in this our day, of the accurate fulfilment of this prophecy in the lot of the Arabians, the defcendents of Ifhmael. The twelve tribes of the Arabians are specified in Pagan history. Dwelling, like their progenitor, in the deferts; wild men, their hand against every man, and every man's hand against them; engaged in perpetual hoftility with each

(b) Gen. xvi. 12.- xvii. 20.-and xxv. 16. See Bishop Newton's Differtation on the Prophecies, vol. i. P. 37-63. 3d edition, 8vo.

other,