name of multitude; but as denoting ONE, by whom, as defcending from Abraham, the bleffing should be conveyed. Thus the promise seems to have been under+ ftood by Abraham himself. How elfe fhall we explain that addrefs of our Lord to the Jews, * "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and faw it, and was glad?" It was in the lively exercise of faith and hope, as grounded on the "feed" promised in my text, that he was filled with holy joy, while he looked for ward to the time, when this glorious Saviour would appear in the world to be a bleffing to it. And this fame promised "feed" was ultimately the ground of the univerfal expectation there was among the Jews, particularly about the time of our Saviour's manifeftation in human flesh, that a "deliverer would come out of Zion," as proceeding from Abraham.They entertain'd, 'tis true, wrong notions of this deliverer, and of the falvation he would effect: But they rightly conftrued the promise fo far as they were led, in virtue of it, to expect, that some extraordinary perfon would, in God's time, come into the world under the character of a mighty Redeemer. To be fure, this is the construction the new-teftament

*John VIII. 56.

22

tament-writers put upon the word," feed," in the promise toAbraham. The apostle Paul, while treating upon this matter ex profeffo, has thus explained the term in Gal. 3. 16. His words are, "He faith not," that is, God, in the promises he made to Abraham, faith not, and to feeds, as of many ; but as of one, to thy feed; which feed (as he goes on to affure us) is Chrift." He accordingly, in the following 19th v. ufes the word, feed, in this perfonal sense, For, fpeaking there of the law that was given by Mofes, he fays, "it was added becaufe of tranfgreffions, till the feed fhould come," that is, till the appearing of Christ, the feed it was promised should come. In agreement with this interpretation, Chrift is reprefented † as having "took on him the feed of Abraham." And his birth into the world is fpoken of

as the mercy promised in the cover nant, the oath which God fware to Abraham," that is, the promise he folemnly made to him, and confirmed by his oath, in the words of my text. The short of the matter is, the feed here promised to Abraham is the fame feed that was promised to Adam foon after his fall; meaning Christ, the Saviour it pleased the all-merciful God early to provide for a perishing world,

J

world, thro' whom alone any of the race of men could be delivered from fin and wrath, and obtain falvation with eternal glory. And 'tis accordingly the truth of fact, that Chrift is the glorious perfon, to whofe mediatory undertaking, in our nature, it is every where afcribed, in the infpired writings of the new-teftament, "that the ferpent's head has been bruifed;" or, what means precisely the fame thing, that "the nations of the earth" have been, and "fhall be blessed."

THUS the "feed," promifed in my text, means a fingle perfon, one only, even Jefus Chrift, the alone conftituted faviour of men; and fo I gone on, as was nextly proposed,

To afcertain the fenfe in which we are to understand the blessing that is promised

thro' him.

AND it means, without all doubt, the fame thing with gofpel-falvation. Abraham entertained this thought of it. I don't fay, that he had fo full and distinct an idea of the falvation by Christ as we have, whofe lot it is to live in the world fince the incarnation of the son of God,

and

and the clear difcovery he has made of the counfels of heaven with reference to the great affair of man's redemption, as grounded on the merit of his life and death: But he was led, in confequence of this promife, into an expectation of good things far more excellent than temporal ones, and as defigned for other nations befides the Jewish, who could boast of having him for their head and father according to the flesh. Hence our Saviour fpeaks of him as having by faith, "feen his day," the day of his appearing, the gofpel day. And hence the author of the epiftle to the Hebrews declares, that 'Abraham" looked for a city which hath foundations, whofe builder and maker is God." The fame city is here meant which the apostle John calls "the new Jerufalem," and faw in his vifions, "coming down from God out of heaven." Nor could Abraham have looked for fuch a city as this in any way but that of faith, taking rife from the promife God had now made to him.

'AND 'tis abundantly evident, that the new-teftament writings do every where understand this BLESSING, which was to be conveyed thro' the feed of Abraham,

John VIII. 56.

Heb. IX. 10.

in

Hence

in the above fpiritual fenfe. Zacharias, in his prophetic fong, makes "God's granting to us to ferve him in holinefs and righteoufnefs" one thing ineluded in "the mercy promifed in the Covenant with Abraham.' Hence the

apostle Peter tells the Jews, that the miffion of Chrift to blefs them by turning them from their iniquities," was compre hended in those words of God to Abraham of old, "in thy feed fhall all the kindreds of the earth be bleffed." Hence the

apostle Paul declares, that "the gofpel

was preached to Abraham," when it was faid to him, "in thee fhall all nations be blessed;" and again, that" the inheri tance, the incorruptible, undefiled and eternal inheritance, as it is fometimes called, was "given to Abraham by promise," that is, the promise in my text. Hence the author of the epiftle to the Hebrews Speaks of God as "not ashamed to be called their God," the God of Abraham, of Ifaac, and of Jacob, "because he hath prepared for them a city," the fame city of which he had before faid, "whofe builder and maker is God." In fine, it was because this, and the fimilar promifes, looked beyond the prefent world, engaging * Luke I. 69th to the 75th. Acts III. 25, 26. Gal. III. 8. v. 18. Heb. IX. 16. * V. 10.

*