ging bleffednefs in fome future one, that our Saviour argues therefrom in proof of the refurrection from the dead. His words are, *" that the dead fhall be raifed, even Mofes fhewed at the bush, when he called the Lord, the God of Abraham, and the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living." "Tis certain, from these paffages, if we may rely on the authority of the new-teftament writers, that the bleffing promised through the feed of Abraham was virtually, feminally and implicitly, that fame falvation which has fince, as the apostle Paul speaks, †“ been made known,according to the commandment of the everlasting God, to all nations for the obedience of faith.

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BUT befides this falvation, wherein the bleffing promised principally confifts, the way and means of its beftowment are, included alfo; fuch as the manifestation of Jesus Christ in our flesh, as proceeding from Abraham; his fufferings and death; his refurrection from the dead; afcention to heaven, and exaltation at the right hand of God; and that fettlement of God's vifible kingdom, in confequence hereof, which now takes place in the world, with

C

* Luke XX. 37. † Rom. XVI. 26.

him

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ALL NATIONS BLESSED

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him at it's head. Not that Abraham, or any of his pofterity in former ages, were led, by these general words," in thy feed fhall all nations be bleffed," into a particular knowledge of these things. "Tis probable, neither he, nor they, understood any more by them than this, that fome glorious perfonage, fpringing from him, fhould, in God's time, in ways untho't of by them, be the inftrument in fpiritually bleffing all nations of the earth." But, ftill, the whole work of Christ, asSaviour of the world, was virtually contained in this promife, that is to fay, all that he was to be, to do, and to fuffer, while on earth; and, all that he was afterwards to tranfact in heaven, in order to his bringing into effect the defign of his mediatory undertaking for finners. The infpired writers certainly teach uís to conceive thus of the matter. Hence they fpeak of the incarnation of Chrift, which was an effential preparative in the plan of God in order to the falvation of men, as an accomplishment, in part, of this bleffing promifed in the covenant with Abraham. Thus Mary, the mother of our Lord, is introduced in her prophetic fong, as "rejoicing in God" up on his birth into the world, and for this fpe

*

Luke I. 54, 55.

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cial reafon, "because he had helped his fervant Ifrael, in remembrance of his mercy, as he fpake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his feed forever. And Zecharias, upon this fame occafion, being "filled with the Holy Ghoft " is brought in opening his lips in thofe words of praife, +"bleffed be the Lord God of Ifrael, for he hath vifited and redeemed his people, and raised up an horn of falvation for us, in the houfe of his fervant David,-to perform the mercy promifed to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he fwear to our father Abraham." And as the incarnation of Chrift, fo his obedience in our nature even to the death of the crofs, which ought always to be efteemed the true and only moral ground of the bestowment of fpiritual and heavenly bleffings, is particularly and exprefsly reprefented as that by which alfo the promife to Abraham was in part fulfilled. Hence that passage in the apostle Paul's epiftle to the Galations, "Chrift hath redeemed us from the curfe of the law, being made a curfe for us, that the bleffing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles thro' Jefus Chrift." In like manner, the refurrection of our Lord, the firft ftep to his exalted ftate

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+ Luke I. 68, 72, 73.

* Gal. III. 13, 14.

ftate in heaven, and fometimes put in fcripture for the whole of it, is directly mentioned as effected to make good the promife to Abraham. Hence those words in Paul's fpeech to the Jews at Antioch, † "We declare unto you glad tidings,how that the promise, which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the fame unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jefus again. In fine, that advantageous state of things, under the gofpel-difpenfation, which was fet up by Jefus Chrift, and has him for its fupreme director and Lord, was likewife included in this promife: So tho't the great apostle of the Gentiles; for one of the main things he had in view, efpecially in his epiftles to the Romans, Galatians, and Ephefians, was to illustrate and prove point.

this

THE fum of the matter is, by the bleffing promifed thro' the feed of Abraham, we are to understand spiritual and eternal falvation, together with the way and means of its communication; Chrift's becoming a partaker of flesh and blood in the fulness of time, thro' the loins of Abraham; his dying to make reconciliation for iniquity; his rifing from the dead, and

+ A&ts XIII. 32, 33.

and going up to heaven to fit there at the right hand of God's power; and in confequence of this, his erecting a kingdom, wifely and mercifully furnished with all defirable means, motives, and advantages, in order to deliver the nations from the power of fin and Satan, and to form them to a meetness in this world for the glory, honor and immortality of the co ming better world.

WE go on, in the last place, to confider the OBJECT of the promife; which is nobly extenfive,taking in" all nations," yea "all families of the earth," as it is elsewhere expressed. Not that " all nations and families, " viewed either as collective bodies, or individuals, fhall be bleffed in Chrift, whether they are believers in him or not. Such an interpre tation would be contrary to the truth of fact, as well as fcripture: But the meaning is, that in Chrift, the promised feed, there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, between one nation and another; but,in every nation under the whole heaven, whofoever believeth in the only begotten Son of God, is an " heir of the promife, and fhall be favingly" blessed with faithful Abraham.

THE